Rurin And The Song (1)

Rurin woke up with a blank stare.

A bed less comfortable than the one in her lair makes waking up happen faster.

Not that it matters—it was already 2 PM.

Normally, El would’ve woken her up around noon, but he wasn’t here now.

Unaware of that, Rurin drowsily looked around before suddenly sitting up.

It was completely different from her usual lazy mornings—because something that should be there wasn’t.

“You! Where’d you goooo?!”

Shouting around the house didn’t get her any response.

“Oh right! There’s an easier way.”

Rurin calmed herself and grabbed her phone.

This world had a way to contact El directly. She really liked that part.

She tapped the smartphone. A text message was waiting.

[Call me when you wake up.]

Short and to the point.

“I was going to call anyway! You’re so mean, seriously!”

Grumbling, Rurin tapped at the phone.

It started calling El immediately.

Ring ring…

Dial tone.

Rurin didn’t really like this tone.

She thought it was called a “waiting tone”, but if you call, shouldn’t they just pick up right away?

She would! She always picks up immediately!

After the third ring, the call connected.

“You!”

Rurin shouted first thing.

“Where are you?!”

“Rurin, just woke up? Honestly, my sleepy wife never gets up even if I try. I came out alone. You know that couple? The one that barely got together? Still had some work left.”

“Huh?”

Rurin barely heard the second half.

She was going to scold him, but the moment he said “my wife” in that soft voice, her brain went blank.

Just hearing his voice actually made her feel more ticklish than usual.

That thought snapped her out of it.

She realized she had been smiling without even knowing it.

“Ah—no, wait!”

“What’s not?”

Of course El asked when she suddenly contradicted herself.

Rurin denied that too.

“Nothing. Anyway, where are you? I’m coming now.”

“Alright. Remember what I told you? In this world, couples pick a place to meet and go on dates. We’re married, not dating, but let’s do it that way for the feel. I’ll give you the location. Can you come here?”

“Date? I’ve heard of that. You dress up a lot and go hang out with the one you love, right?”

“Yup. That’s it.”

“Of course I can do it! What kind of dragon do you take me for?”

“Okay? Then leave the house and…”

Nod nod.

Nod nod nod.

Still seated on the bed, Rurin nodded several times with the phone to her ear, then hung up.

And first, she let out a huge yawn.

Then she headed to the fridge for some water.

It’s a date…outside!

As the cold water slid down her throat, Rurin savored its refreshment and reflected. She was always stuck to El, so meeting up somewhere else was a rare thing.

So right now, Rurin was feeling oddly fired up.

She had secretly paid close attention to that neighbor guy’s story about how he deepened his love with surprise dates.

Determined to show off, Rurin marched straight to the bathroom.

Let’s see… Was it like this? Not used to modern one-touch showers, Rurin fiddled with the showerhead.

“Ah, this one.”

Then she turned it on.

SHHHHHHHHH!

Since it was set to “strong”, a torrent of water blasted through the showerhead.

“UWAAAAAAH! IT’S COLD!”

Ack! Ahh! Wahh!

Rurin flailed and fled from the stream. She meant to wash up, but ended up fighting cold water instead, and finally managed to turn it off.

“Whatever. That counts as a wash.”

So declared Rurin as she started drying off. She was about to skip everything else but ended up grabbing her toothbrush.

Because suddenly, she remembered El’s firm declaration: no kiss without brushing.

She wasn’t afraid of ultimatums or anything…but kissing was good. So with that logic, Rurin started brushing.

Ptuehh!

She spat the rinse water out and looked into the mirror. For Rurin, appearance was about one thing: looking pretty for El. So she actually cared more about it than most things.

Of course, no matter how often she checked, Rurin’s beauty was constant. Her flawless skin in any condition proved she was a dragon.

Skin like porcelain—clear and luminous, even without makeup.

“Hehe, was it this one?”

Still, it was a date, so Rurin smacked some lotion into her palms and slapped it onto her face.

“Hmm…not sure. But whatever, I still look the same.”

After admiring her reflection, she skipped back into her room. Time to dry her hair with magic. Who needs a blow dryer when you’ve got spells?

FWOOOOOOOSH!

“UWAAAH? Maybe too strong?!”

Her hair flew in every direction, so Rurin immediately canceled the spell.

Her long black hair, despite such abuse, remained smooth and silky—shining like silk.

Thanks to her dragon superiority, Rurin needed almost no maintenance—unlike humans. She returned to the mirror again.

Normally El did everything, so doing this all by herself was a rare event.

“This’ll do. I can totally do this myself! But having him do it is better… So is it better if I can’t do it? Huh? What’s better then? Should I pretend I can’t?”

Rurin fell into a short existential dilemma, pressing her fingers to her forehead and furrowing her brows.

Then she made her decision: screw it.

Rurin stepped back from the mirror and started picking out clothes. She preferred dresses, of course, and grabbed one in a color she liked.

El had bought her a ton of clothes since they started living in this world. She could just pick and wear whatever she wanted.

As a dragon lady who didn’t bother much with makeup, Rurin’s date prep was moving along quite simply.

“Is this enough?”

With her rings and earrings in place, Rurin stood before the mirror for one final check.

Her porcelain skin was flawless as always. Her brows were slightly lifted with excitement at the word “date.” Maybe after her coming-of-age and marriage, her dragon hormones had become more active—because her beauty somehow kept blooming. Not that she really noticed, but she nodded to herself and stepped out the door.

If it weren’t for El, Rurin wouldn’t even look at a mirror. It didn’t matter otherwise.

“No, wait!”

And normally, she would never come back inside like this after already heading out.

‘El liked it when I flipped my hair this way, right? He always brushed it like that without thinking!’

Suddenly bothered by such a tiny thought, Rurin dashed back to the mirror.

“Was it like this? Hm… No, that doesn’t feel right. What did El like again?!”

And that’s when the word “simple” flew out the window from her date prep.

Rurin spent quite a while fixing her hair in front of the mirror. To others, the differences were minuscule.

But for Rurin, she liked the style El always brushed her hair into. Because she believed that’s the style El liked best.

“Uugh, which version is it?!”

Her struggle continued.

Rurin stepped out into the city. The tall buildings and overcast sky didn’t sit well with her.

And those noisy honking cars roaming around—those either.

She had teleportation—why would anyone ride those? Well, okay, mana was limited in this world, so sometimes you had to save it.

But still, they were just evolved carriages, really.

Compared to Greek City, the sheer number of humans here was another thing Rurin didn’t like.

She couldn’t just kill everyone who bumped into her. But Rurin hated being touched by strangers. As a dragon, only El was allowed to touch her—she couldn’t tolerate anything else.

So Rurin reluctantly made a compromise with the world. If she killed everyone who bumped her, El would absolutely lose it.

Which meant she had no choice but to walk carefully and avoid others herself.

In Greek City—or the other world—none of this was a problem. The population density was completely different.

But in this world, walking without bumping into people required constant attention—especially in the middle of a bustling district at this hour.

“Ughh.”

Tch.

She dodged to the side. Then forward.

While weaving around people, Rurin was tempted to just fly overhead—but that meant undoing her polymorph. No chance.

She hated everything about this, but in the end, she had to keep walking.

In this world, dates meant meeting at a pre-set location. Rurin was pushing through the annoyance purely on the thrill of that promise.

To be fair, the meeting spot wasn’t far—just a short walk down from the hill where their house was, right by the train station.

Since they came here often, El had figured it was a perfect and easy-to-reach location.

But to Rurin, it felt like a massive quest.

A quest where she had to walk carefully because she wasn’t allowed to kill anyone. If someone bumps into me, I’ll HAVE to kill them! That was Rurin’s internal monologue.

“Oh, here it is.”

Rurin finally spotted the familiar location near the station.

“So he said we’d meet here, right?”

She ran up to the spot and looked around.

In front of one of the station’s pillars—this spot stuck with her because it’s where they’d kissed on the fourth day.

Rurin never forgot places like that.

That’s why she’d come here so confidently. Now she began looking for El.

“Ughhh, why isn’t he here?”

When she didn’t see him, her expression began to harden.

It had been a very long time since they last agreed to meet separately like this.

The memory suddenly came back to her.

Back when she lived in her mother’s lair—El had said he’d wait for her at the lakeshore beneath it.

That promise to meet there popped into her mind out of nowhere.

She’d made El wait endlessly that day.

Thinking about it now, she felt like an idiot back then. Scratching her head, Rurin decided to be patient…for now.

🎵 “Hello~ The moment I saw you, I forgot everything~” 🎵

So she started humming a song she liked lately, trying to distract herself from the rising irritation—when her phone rang.

“What is it—You! Where the heck are you?!”

“Hmm, where could I be?”

“WHAAAT?!”

Where could he be?! Her pent-up irritation exploded as Rurin yelled.

But as she shouted, she realized something—she could hear his voice in stereo.

“Huh?”

“‘Huh?’ What do you mean, ‘huh?’”

“Kyaa!?”

Rurin let out an uncharacteristic squeal—someone had hugged her from behind.

The arms were too familiar for her to react violently.

Her face lit up instantly. She spun around and looked up at El’s face.

“You!”

“Yeah, you found it.”

“‘Found it’? You’re late!”

“Sorry, sorry!”

“Hmph.”

Rurin looked at him for a moment—then suddenly ran a few steps back.

“Rurin?”

El called her name, but she extended her arm to motion “stay put”.

“Stay right there, you. Mmm… Hehehe.”

“What’s going on?”

“Now that I see you here… You’re stylish from head to toe! Why are you so cool, huh?!”

“What now?”

Rurin nodded to herself, muttering,

“Ugh… this is why I can’t stay mad.”

“Hehehe.”

Then she broke into a bright smile—so bright that El couldn’t help but smile back. It was the kind of joy that was contagious.