"Lu the God, Lu the Loserman, S-rank Dragon Slayer"—those would be the titles for a boy named Lu Mingfei someday. But right now he was just a middle-schooler, a middle-schooler who hadn't experienced much yet.
A kid who hadn't become a loser yet, and a kid meant infinite possibilities!
"Me! Have I, Yu Jin, never had a dream?!"
"That dream is to rewrite the things I think should never have happened, and to do what I think is right!"
"To hell with romance novels! I want my overpowered-protagonist power fantasy!"
"One-fourth? I'm going all-in!"
"Kevin, you tell me—am I right or not? Say it loud: what's your dream?!"
Xing, Kevin, and Doctor watched the stranger standing under the stars, hugging a dog and yelling his declaration at the sky. Cold sweat slid down all three of their foreheads.
They really didn't want to admit that this was the guy who came here with them.
"Did we buy alcohol?" Kevin asked quietly.
"I only grabbed one bottle to taste," Xing said, holding up her fingers. "He drank, like… one tiny cup."
Doctor picked up a plastic cup. There was still a quarter left.
Kevin fell silent. What kind of two-dimensional world were they living in? Who gets drunk from a sip?
And if you can't drink—don't drink!
"Kevin, why aren't you answering me?" Yu Jin patted Kevin's shoulder.
Yu Jin felt something was off. Kevin hadn't said a word since earlier.
Was he drunk too?
Pathetic.
"Wait, Kevin… why are you so fluffy?" Yu Jin squinted at his chat buddy. Then, the next second—
"Holy crap, Kevin, why did you turn into a dog?!"
Kevin: "…"
You'd rather believe I turned into a dog than admit you've been holding a dog and yelling my name for an entire day?
How selfish can you be!
Spit.
"I should go drag him back," Kevin thought, standing up.
If the dog bites him, that's another vaccine bill.
Right then, two hands landed on Kevin's shoulders and pressed him back down.
Xing: "Something's up!"
Doctor: "Wait."
"Hahaha! You're hilarious!" A figure appeared before Yu Jin, smiling brightly. Her eyes curved into crescents, her grin dazzling. "How could a person turn into a dog? You're wasted, aren't you?"
Yu Jin looked up—and met a pair of radiant eyes. A girl's eyes, bright and crescent-shaped, like they could talk.
He tilted his head, then looked at the puppy in his arms.
"Ohhhh. So Kevin, you're a dog."
Kevin: "...Should we just leave him here? I'm kinda tired."
Xing and Doctor ignored Kevin. They even picked up some food and started eating as they watched the show.
"I'm telling you, people can't turn into dogs!" The girl crouched down, bringing her gaze level with Yu Jin's blurry, drunken eyes. Patient, like she was coaxing a little kid.
Yu Jin blinked. He stared at her for a full two seconds; his brain seemed to finish a long reboot.
"Who are you?"
The girl kept her sweet smile, tilting her head innocently. "Maybe… the owner of the dog you're holding?" She pointed gently at the little guy. "Oh right, his name is Da Bai. Can you give my Da Bai back to me?"
"Da Bai?" Yu Jin curled his lip. "That's a really lame name."
Her smile stiffened for a beat, then she puffed her cheeks, mildly offended. "How is 'Da Bai' lame? It's cute and simple!"
Yu Jin shook his head. "Feels worse than 'Kevin.'"
Kevin: "...Can you stop dragging me into this?"
"Here, take your Da Bai." Yu Jin held the dog out with both hands.
The girl accepted the small white pup. In her arms it went quiet and obedient.
Yu Jin pinched the bridge of his nose and stood up. The drunken haze had faded a little.
He looked at the girl still standing there and said again, "These days, you should go out less at night."
"These days?" A flicker of confusion flashed through her eyes—so fast it was hard to catch. Still hugging the dog, she put on a curious-kid face. "Is there some special meaning to that?"
Yu Jin took two steps, swaying a bit.
"What meaning could there be? It's not safe. These days there aren't even many cameras around. A pretty girl like you should stay in at night. Better for you."
"Thanks for the compliment." Her smile deepened, clearly pleased. She stood up with Da Bai in her arms. "Then I won't bother you anymore. I'm heading home." She turned, light on her feet, her figure quickly melting into the shadow down the stairs—like she'd only come to retrieve a lost dog.
Only when Yu Jin, Kevin, Xing, and Doctor hoisted the drunken idiot by hands and feet and carried him toward home—
did the girl with the white dog drift out of the shadows again, ghost-quiet.
Moonlight fell over her. The bright smile was gone. She stood still, eyes deep, fixed on the direction the four had left.
"'These days'… why did he say 'these days'?"
"And his aura is wrong."
"Is he a hybrid?"
"Or something else?"
She was curious. What had these intruders done in the Nibelungen that made Odin leave nothing behind and dissolve it outright?
"Normal contact won't give me answers... I'll have to try something more violent."
As she planned her next move, something furry nudged her ankle with a soft whine.
She looked down. The white puppy called Da Bai was rubbing its wet nose against her pant leg, staring up at her pitifully.
She crouched and scratched under its chin.
"Alright. You can go now," she said flatly.
The pup seemed to understand. It whined, pawing at her shoe.
"I'm not raising you." She sounded a little helpless. "Don't get attached."
The puppy kept circling her, whining stubbornly.
She stared at the little thing for a long time, then sighed.
She glanced around, picked up a clean plastic bag nearby, and—neither gentle nor rough—dropped the puppy inside, tied the top, and lifted it like a bag of vegetables.
Yes. The dog wasn't hers at all. She'd just seen that man hugging a random dog and babbling, and used it as an excuse to get close.
Next morning.
"An unfamiliar ceiling…" Yu Jin stared at the ceiling he'd never seen before and muttered the classic line.
He propped himself up, sore all over, and looked around. He was sprawled on a cold living-room floor, a thin blanket tossed over him—no idea whose.
"Why am I sleeping in the living room?" He rubbed his stiff neck, voice hoarse with a hangover.
"Maybe because you got drunk last night and crawled down here yourself?" Kevin answered, brushing his teeth.
A lie.
Last night the drunk lunatic went feral, so they let go and left him to creep around the living room like a basement goblin.
At that moment, Doctor shuffled out of his room, dark circles under his eyes.
Yu Jin looked at him and tilted his head. "You didn't sleep last night?"
"Who do you think caused that?" Doctor glared at him.
The guy had been crawling in the dark and knocking on Doctor's door like a ghost. No one could sleep through that.
A door upstairs creaked open. Xing leaned on the railing, bleary-eyed, hair a bird's nest, waving lazily. "Morn…ing…" Her voice was thick with sleep.
"Morning…" the three downstairs answered weakly.
Yu Jin clambered up, rubbing the back of his head. "Why does my head hurt so much?"
That made Xing wake up a bit, eyes sliding guiltily to the ceiling. "Uh… probably because you sleep-crawled last night and bonked the table corner?"
Also a lie.
She'd let go first when they got home, so his head hit the floor first.
Yu Jin felt something was off, but he had important business today. None of that mattered.
The three watched him shower in a hurry and get ready to go out. Kevin couldn't help asking, "Where are you going?"
Yu Jin turned back slowly, a grin creeping onto his face.
"To keep a boy's blood from going cold too soon."
-------
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