Chapter 109
Recently, Suryeon has been completely absorbed in one thing. She holds it while eating, while resting, and even when going to the bathroom.
'Did I buy it for her too hastily?'
The A-pad.
The A-pad I bought with great consideration.
Suryeon is completely immersed in that pad. To get her attention, I sat next to Suryeon on the sofa and spoke to her.
"Suryeon. What are you doing?"
Glance-
Suryeon glanced at me and said, focusing on the screen.
"Watching a video."
"What kind of video?"
"Animation."
"You're watching anime, Suryeon...?"
"Am I not allowed to?"
"No, that's not it..."
To think Suryeon is already watching anime. This doesn't seem like a good situation.
'Suryeon has chuunibyou, so she probably shouldn't watch anime.'
I have a bad feeling about this. I leaned in towards the pad to see what anime Suryeon was watching.
Suryeon frowned and said.
"What are you doing, Dad? You're in the way."
"Dad needs to know what kind of anime his daughter is watching!"
Let's see.
What on earth was she watching? I focused on the A-pad screen to check what anime it was.
"Hmm?"
"What's the problem, Dad?"
"Suryeon, this isn't for all ages."
I remember seeing it briefly a long time ago. It's an anime where a huge dragon eats humans, and humans fight against it. It looked quite bloody and not good for children's emotions.
'How is she watching this? Wait, looking closely, this is an illegal site.'
Has she already figured out how to access illegal sites? I looked at Suryeon with worried eyes.
"Hmm... This isn't right..."
Suryeon answered coldly, as if she had nothing to be ashamed of.
"What, is there a problem?"
"This seems a bit too mature for young Suryeon to watch."
"I'm not young!"
Shout-!
Suryeon yelled loudly in protest.
"And age restrictions are just rules made by humans. Do you know how profound the themes in this are? It's quite interesting for something made by humans."
"It just looks like dragons and humans fighting."
"That's not it! This includes reflections on war between nations and human contemplation within that-"
Blah blah-
Suryeon explained to me how amazing this anime is. It was the first time I'd seen Suryeon talk so much.
'She's explaining to me how amazing it is... but I don't really get it...'
Hmm. There's no choice.
I can't let her keep watching something inappropriate for her age and bad for her emotions. I took the A-pad from Suryeon's hands.
"That's mine, Dad. Give it back quickly."
"If I give it back, you'll just watch that again. I need to set up parental controls, so wait."
"Give it back."
Huff-
Suryeon lunged at me to take the A-pad from my hands. I quickly got up from my seat and created distance, but Suryeon kept jumping and reaching for the A-pad.
"Give it back. That's a gift Santa gave me. It's mine."
"Wait a little. The settings are almost done."
Suryeon couldn't reach it, but she kept jumping earnestly. Her eyes seemed to have a slight wetness to them.
'...Am I being too forceful?'
But there's no choice.
As a parent, I felt it was too much for Suryeon to watch alone.
After finishing all the settings, I handed the A-pad back to Suryeon, who had been standing on her tiptoes.
"Here, take it. Lee Suryeon."
"..."
"Don't watch things like that. Play games instead if you must. Understand?"
"..."
Suryeon silently fiddled with the A-pad. Then, as if confirming she couldn't access the illegal site,
"..."
She looked at me with resentful eyes without saying anything, and then,
"Dad, I hate you."
Holding back tears, biting her lip hard, she jumped into bed and wrapped herself tightly in the blanket.
Seeing this, Hwaryeon, who had been punching the sandbag, came over and asked.
"What's up, Dad? Why is Lee Suryeon like that? She seems to be crying."
"..."
Was I too harsh? Seeing Suryeon cry makes my heart soften.
I decided to sit on the sofa for a moment to organize my thoughts.
"I can't let her keep watching that... Is this the hardship of being a parent...?"
Hwaryeon, playing well alone punching the sandbag. Choryeon, playing well rolling around with Mangmung. But Suryeon likes to swim in the vast sea of knowledge called the internet.
In that sea, there are tropical fish and lots of seaweed.
But there are also deep seas with depths, and many deep-sea creatures.
"Lee Suryeon. She's as difficult to raise as her personality."
***
After thinking enough, I approached the bundle of blankets to comfort Suryeon. And to wake Suryeon sealed in the blanket, I poked her with my finger.
"Suryeon."
"..."
"Are you still very upset?"
Thump-!
The bundle of blankets convulsed once at that question. It seems I had made a mistake.
"Okay, Suryeon. Are you still very angry?"
"..."
As expected. If you ask an upset child if they're upset, they get angry. When I said she was angry, Suryeon showed no reaction.
Seeing this, I recalled the thoughts I had been pondering until just now.
'It's right to block inappropriate videos that don't match her age. But forcibly blocking them like this would make Suryeon feel bad too.'
So. I came up with a very good method. That is.
"Suryeon, I'll remove the restrictions I put on the A-pad."
"...!"
Suryeon reacted immediately. I decided to continue speaking.
"But there's one condition. You can only watch videos that aren't age-appropriate when you're with me. How's that? Is it okay?"
"..."
Rustle-
At those words, Suryeon poked her face out of the blanket bundle.
Judging by her reddened and swollen eyes, it seems she had been crying inside the blanket. Suryeon looked at me with moist eyes and said.
"Really? You'll give it back?"
"Yes, I thought I might have been too harsh."
I'm a first-time dad too, so I make these mistakes sometimes.
I was able to unseal Suryeon from the blanket on the condition that it's okay if we watch together.
So I finally sat on the sofa with Suryeon who had popped out of the blanket, and we watched the animation together.
"Dad, hold the pad. It's heavy for me."
"Okay, okay."
I held the pad and Suryeon sat demurely on my lap to watch the video. After that day, whenever Suryeon wanted to watch a video, she would bring the pad and ask me.
"Dad, did you see that scene just now? That direction where the protagonist was eaten by the dragon, but realized he's half-human half-dragon-"
"Suryeon, I get it, so stop explaining..."
Although Suryeon would pour out crazy TMI at those times,
I was glad to see that Suryeon, who used to always fiddle with the pad expressionlessly by herself, seemed to have become more lively. It's more fun to watch together than alone, after all.
"Dad, watch the next episode with me too."
"Okay. I'll watch it with you."
"Yeah, thanks, Dad."
A faint smile was mixed into Suryeon's expressionless face.
***
Dragons.
Their existence is not properly known to the world.
But they hide in the human world, imitating humans and enjoying amusement. And there are also several humans who fanatically follow dragons.
‘The problem is that the president of the most important Hero Association is a follower.’
Thwack-!
I hit my forehead as if cracking an egg. Because what the Association President was saying made no sense.
“Could you please send me photos of the dragons you follow? I just ordered a frame for my house. I'd really like to decorate it.”
"You're completely insane."
Sigh-
How did such an important position come to be occupied by a crazy person like the Association President? Is the association running well because he separates public and private matters?
I sighed and spoke harshly to the Association President.
"Thanks for the information you sent last time. But I won't send you photos."
"Then allow me to send you photos of the Yellow Dragon I follow-"
"I don't want photos of that lung-class masochistic dragon!"
"Tut-tut, watch your mouth. It's just their preference."
What preference? That's a thoroughly crazy dragon. I think to the extent that I hope my daughter doesn't grow up like that dragon.
"So, Association President. Why did you contact me? Enough about dragons. Get to the point."
"For me, talking about dragons is the point. But if that's how you feel, it's a shame."
Tsk-
The Association President clicked his tongue as if disappointed and got to the point.
"Currently, the Association highly values your potential. Not just me who knows your identity, but other staff and heroes also think highly of your door-opening ability."
"Your introduction is long. So?"
"There's been talk about your promotion."
Hero rank promotion.
You can enjoy better benefits, and the money you get for solving cases changes. And you become popular, so you might film commercials, and the probability of pretty women contacting you through DMs also increases.
'Ah, is it time to start again? My romance business.'
For some reason, I feel a stirring down below.
I answered the Association President's words enthusiastically.
"Of course I want a promotion! So what's the test?"
"It's a very simple test where you just need to close one dimensional gate."
"A dimensional gate? That's easy for me."
"It might be difficult."
Swish-
The Association President said this and showed me a pad screen. On that screen was an overview of this dimensional gate.
I read about the dimensional gate slowly and could understand why he said that.
"This is..."
"It's the A-class dimensional gate in Incheon that's been difficult to close for years. The surrounding area is already damaged by the gate's erosion. If you close this gate together with other heroes, we'll promote you to B-class hero."
B-class hero. Hearing those words, I immediately nodded.
I had no reason to refuse.
"Ha, I'll absolutely do this."
If I succeed in this test, I can pay off the remaining half of my debt and move to a better place after the kids graduate from kindergarten.
It's a bit dangerous, but it was something I had to do.
'With the power of dragons, what could go wrong?'
***
With those thoughts, I accepted the Association President's test. Not knowing in my wildest dreams what would happen in this operation.
"Dad! Where is this?"
"Ah."