I PICKED UP A CHILD IN A DUMPSTER

Chapter 182 182: Trust me... (and wow... I'm jinxing it...)

Aeloria was already in the middle of the rooftop.

She looked different from the first loop— not in appearance, but in movement. Faster. More precise. Her ice formations came out already shaped for where they needa to go rather than being corrected mid air, her mana usage tighter, less wasted on formations that wouldn't land. Three loops of muscle memory, even without conscious recollection.

Si Hon watched her send a spear of ice clean into the junction between two of the dragon's scale plates and thought— (third loop, makes sense, her body knows even if her head doesn't.) He thought.

Seong moved along the far edge of the rooftop in short bursts, threads running from her hands to two of Aeloria's teammates who had drifted too close to the dragon's wingspan, pulling them back before the next wing could sweep them off the edge entirely.

Sharp. Efficient. Like she'd done it before, which technically she had…

And in the corner nearest the rooftop door, pressed against the wall with both hands over her ears and her knees slightly bent and her whole body radiating the energy of someone who had been making peace with their own death for the past several minutes—

Mihu.

She saw Si Hon the exact moment he came through the door.

The hands came off her ears. Her eyes went wide. And then she was across the rooftop in a dead sprint, green hair absolutely everywhere from the wind, and she hit him at speed with both arms wrapping around him and her face pressing into his shoulder while she cried with the particular relief of someone whose body had been running on pure adrenaline and had just found somewhere to put it down.

Si Hon absorbed the impact.

Stood there for a moment with Suha tucked under one arm and Han pressed against his side and Mihu attached to his front and Jisoo standing two steps behind him with her arms crossed watching all of this with an expression that suggested she was filing it under things about this person that don't add up but I'll get to eventually.

(Right,) Si Hon thought, looking at darkened clouds above them while the dragon roared somewhere overhead. (First loop it was Suha and Han running at me. Now it's Mihu. The order changed but the shape of it is the same. Deja Vu… aha… why am I talking like this… I somehow miss some particular naked goddess.)

He patted Mihu's back twice. "Okay," he said. "We're going to handle this. Take Han and Suha, find cover behind one of the ventilation units, and stay there."

Mihu pulled back enough to look at him. Eyes red. Nose running slightly. Still crying. "What about—"

"We're handling it," he said again. "Trust me."

Mihu looked at him for one more second. Then she nodded, wiped her face with her sleeve, she reached for Han first.

Which was the wrong move, as it turned out, because Han immediately became a different person entirely. Both arms locked tighter around Si Hon's side the moment Mihu's hands touched his shoulders, his whole body going rigid with the specific stubbornness of a child who had made a structural decision and was not open to renegotiation.

"Wahhhh!!!!!!! NO!!!!" Han's voice came out muffled against Si Hon's shirt. "Don't take me from dad!!! I don't wanna go I wanna stay HERE!!!!!"

"Han—" Mihu tried.

"NO. I'm STAYING." Another tighten. "Dad needs me here. I don't know why or how, BUT It's IMPORTANT."

Mihu looked at Si Hon with the expression of someone who needed backup immediately.

Suha, meanwhile, had been watching this entire situation from under Si Hon's other arm with her head tilted and her expression doing something thoughtful. She tapped her chin twice. Then she looked at Han with the particular calm of someone who had arrived at a conclusion.

"(,,ԾwԾ,,)..." she said quietly. "Why is Han acting like a baby..."

"I AM NOT A BABY—"

"Han is being a baby. (,,ԾwԾ,,)"

"SUHA, ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ…" Han said.

Si Hon reached up and put his hand on Han's head.

That was all he did. Just— placed it there, palm resting against Han's hair, steady and still. Han went quiet almost immediately, the argument dissolving mid breath, his grip on Si Hon's shirt loosening fraction by fraction without fully letting go yet.

"Nothing's going to happen," Si Hon said. Quiet. Even. The tone that didn't leave much room for argument because it wasn't asking for agreement, just stating a fact it had already decided on. "I promise. Okay?"

(And wow… I sound like I'm jinxing it.) He thought to himself.

Han stayed still for a moment.

Then, very slowly, his arms came loose.

He stepped back one step. His eyes were still red and slightly puffy and his bottom lip was doing something complicated, but he looked up at Si Hon and nodded once— small and serious, like a soldier accepting an order he didn't fully like but trusted the source of.

"Okay," Han said. Very quietly.

Suha immediately took his hand.

"Suha will protect Han. (≧▽≦)" she announced, with complete confidence in this plan.

Han looked at her.

"Sure… okay," he said again, slightly less quietly this time.

Mihu exhaled with the relief of someone who had just survived a negotiation she hadn't been prepared for, and steered them both firmly toward the nearest ventilation unit before anyone could change their mind.

Si Hon watched them go— Han glancing back once, Suha already explaining something to him with great enthusiasm using her free hand— and stayed watching until they disappeared behind the concrete structure.

Then he turned to Jisoo..

She was already looking at him. Arms still crossed. Head tilted very slightly.

"Okay," she said. "I know. Dragon. Kill it." A pause. "How did you actually kill it the first time? I'm… getting even more suspicious…"

"Weak point is behind the neck," Si Hon said.

Jisoo stared at him.

A full second of silence during which her left eye did something that was almost a twitch.

"Behind the neck," she repeated.

"Yeah."

"You're telling me…" she gestured broadly at the enormous black-scaled dragon currently making the rooftop structurally questionable— "that thing weak point. you knew about. Before any of this started…?"

"Correct."

"And you said you're from another world." Her voice was impressively level. "So how do you know the weak point of a dragon that exists in THIS world."

Si Hon looked at the dragon.

Then at Jisoo.

"I'll answer later," he said.

Jisoo's jaw shifted.

"You say that," she said, "every single time."

"And I always mean it," Si Hon said, and started walking toward the fight.