Seoul Dragon

Yein couldn’t help but scoff at the rumors she’d been hearing lately.
What? Yoon Seohyun became a mutant?
Changed from a man to a woman?
A dragon?
They’re just spouting nonsense.
What? The junior students say she’s the senior they most want to meet at the opening assembly?
What ridiculous nonsense.
That Yoon Seohyun?
That brutal thug?
Just as Seohyun harbored ill feelings toward Yein, Yein also held animosity toward Seohyun.
Just as she had ruined Seohyun’s university life, her own university life had been ruined by Seohyun.
Of course, that happened because she had started everything in the first place, but that wasn’t particularly important to Yein.
What mattered was the fact that she had been harmed by Seohyun.
She disliked him from the first time she saw Seohyun, pretending to be noble.
At first, being gathered by seniors was quite a terrible experience, but Yein resolved the situation differently.
After all, it was just a matter of pleasing those in power.
That’s right.
She noticed that a senior she had impressed during orientation was influential in the department, so she attached herself to him.
And after that, Yein’s university life blossomed. There were certainly female seniors who disliked her, but they weren’t influential enough to affect the mainstream.
In other words, there was no one who could touch Yein anymore.
It was an incredibly childish mindset, but such thinking did help in real life.
Yein was always excluded from being gathered, and those she disliked were singled out by the seniors.
Notably, Han Taehoon and Yoon Seohyun.
Why did she dislike them so much? Just because their behavior and way of speaking displeased her.
Other classmates cowered before her. But not those two. They were born rebels.
They opposed her whenever she suggested something. Why? Because things rolled too conveniently for Yein alone.
Yein hated that.
Whether preparing freshman events, going on MT, or preparing for festivals, Yein believed she should always be in a comfortable position.
It wasn’t strange that she was immersed in a petty sense of entitlement.
They say even a small amount of power can make people strange, and the minuscule power Yein had tasted did just that.
So she picked on Han Taehoon to make seniors harass him, and badmouthed Yoon Seohyun behind his back, inciting seniors that he was a terrible person.
And then…
Suddenly, Yoon Seohyun knocked down the godlike seniors.
Yein recalled the situation at that time.
‘You fucking bastard.’
‘Hey, Seohyun, hold back!’
‘Let go, Taehoon. Senior? Seniors should act like seniors to be treated as such, these bastards aren’t even worth that. Do you want to be gathered under such guys? I don’t. Today I’m going to uproot the foundation of hazing in the Korean Literature department. You just watch.’
After turning all the seniors into a mess, Seohyun glared at Yein and said:
‘It’s you, right? An Yein.’
‘…W-What?’
‘It’s obvious. You’re the one who stuck with the seniors to get classmates you don’t like in trouble, you fucking bitch.’
‘What did I do!?’
‘You should really be thankful for your gender. If you weren’t a girl, I would have put you in the hospital for 12 weeks, but I’m holding back because that would make my life difficult. Don’t appear before my eyes again. If you get caught doing this kind of crap just one more time, I’ll put you in a similar state as these guys even if it ruins my life, so keep that in mind.’
‘It wasn’t me!’
‘Bullshit. Everyone in the department knows, so don’t try to deny it. Your level of acting out, trusting these guys, is really pathetic. How did you even get into this university?’
At that time, Yein didn’t want to admit that she felt fear toward Seohyun.
An Yein being afraid of Yoon Seohyun? Just the thought of such rumors circulating was humiliating to her.

So she wanted to socially bury Seohyun completely, and actually tried to frame him as a sexual assailant but failed.
Because of that, her relationship with Teacher Shin Jeongmin was also awkward. Just when she thought she was almost there, all her efforts turned to nothing thanks to Teacher Shin Jeongmin’s help.
That’s why, even more so, Yein hated that Seohyun was getting attention like this.
Just looking at Seohyun’s photos circulating around the university showed how much her life had bloomed.
Looks that would make even celebrities pale in comparison. Plus the tremendous buzz of being a dragon-type mutant.
Separate from the wariness toward mutants, Seohyun was bound to be the hottest topic at Hanguk University now. Like a social media influencer.
That fact twisted Yein’s mood.
It’s not even funny.
Having an inferiority complex toward someone who was once a man.
But still… she was furious.
The realization that someone she had looked down on was actually above her was hard to accept for someone like Yein.
A twisted inferiority complex dyed her heart, to the extent that normal thinking became impossible.
And… now, Seohyun appeared before Yein’s eyes.
The jet-black horns on her head. And those golden eyes that seemed to draw you in.
A captivating appearance that would enchant anyone who saw it.
It felt as if all of it was mocking Yein.
She wanted to pick a fight, but she couldn’t even do that.
Unlike the former Yoon Seohyun, confronting the current Yoon Seohyun would definitely not leave her body intact.
While the world reacts sensitively to a man hitting a woman, they don’t react as sensitively to a woman hitting another woman.
In other words, if she picked a fight carelessly, she might suffer injuries requiring more than 12 weeks of treatment, as he had warned four years ago.
So she tried to ignore Seohyun despite seeing her.
But… that was only if Seohyun hadn’t seen her.
The moment Seohyun saw her, the option of peacefully escaping this situation disappeared for her.

I smiled. I thought it was an unlucky day, but looking at it another way, isn’t it a lucky day?
I now have enough power to punish that damn woman.
The issue of mutant perception? I can just talk to a reporter about that later.
About how before I mutated, that woman tried to frame me as a sexual assailant.
Knowing that reporters are cautious around me, if I request a connection from my side, would that reporter write something unfavorable about me, or something favorable?
Of course, I should limit it to an appropriate level of punishment.
Too severe, and it becomes a problem in its own way.
After talking about mutant perception and whatnot, it wouldn’t be right to do something that would tarnish the perception of mutants.
Just creating a situation where that woman can’t hold her head up for the foreseeable future would be enough.
I approached An Yein. It’s been a while, that face.
Apart from being pretty, her slightly neurotic impression seemed to represent her personality.
I smiled. In contrast, An Yein’s expression gradually soured as she looked at me.
Wow, this is fun.
“Hello? It’s been a while?”
“Who are you?”
I could see her deliberately playing dumb. But I wasn’t going to back down there.
Claiming she doesn’t know me now is ridiculous.
Especially for An Yein. Someone who would be more sensitive to news about me than anyone else says she doesn’t know me?
Even lies should have limits.
And if you’re going to lie, at least hide your expression.
It’s obviously the face of someone who encountered someone they hate; her expression management is poor.
“Who, you ask? There shouldn’t be anyone at the university who doesn’t know me now. With my name, department, and student number circulating in rumors… especially you can’t possibly not know me, An Yein. You’re really walking around the university with that shameless face? I thought you would have dropped out from embarrassment, but I guess you didn’t want to give up that Hanguk University badge?”
“…What do you want, Yoon Seohyun?”
“Just seeing a familiar face after a long time. It seems you’ve forgotten what I told you back then.”
I erased the smile from my lips.

“What are you talking about…?”
“Didn’t I tell you not to appear before my eyes?”
“…You, you. If you harm me here, people won’t stay silent, you know?”
“Do you think I’m stupid enough not to know that?”
“Then what exactly…”
“It’s just that you tried to socially bury me, but looking at you now, it seems you didn’t take on as much risk. So I came to personally let you feel how I felt back then.”
“What?”
“Being socially buried feels really awful, you know. The way other classmates looked at me before the not-guilty verdict is still unforgettable. I was a first-year university student then, you know?”
“So, what exactly are you trying to do!”
As I kept prodding, she exploded.
“Just this.”
I can’t use too much force.
In my heart, I want to do as I told Hangyeol — make her unable to stand on two legs for life, burn all her skin, or burn all her hair.
But if I did something like that, it would definitely become a problem.
Of course, even if I did that, living on my own wouldn’t be a problem at all.
But having the life I cherish get disrupted because of it… doesn’t really appeal to me.
So, this should be sufficient.
You know, in fantasy, there’s always that thing.
The intimidation exuded by the existence of a dragon.
They call it dragon fear, don’t they?
Just like when I became aware of other abilities, this time too, I naturally learned how to use fear.
I looked into her eyes.
That was enough.
I could see her lips, her entire body trembling.
Because of that, her pants gradually started turning yellow.
Oh my, wearing white pants on a day like this. Bad luck.
What was most satisfying was that many people were watching this scene.
It’ll be hard for her to hold her head up for a while.
Of course, she probably won’t even have the mental capacity for that.
She probably wants to lose consciousness from the intimidation emanating from me.
But I didn’t even allow her to lose consciousness.
Controlling the intimidation was also possible according to my will.
I looked into An Yein’s eyes.
I could clearly see fear imprinted in her eyes.
No matter what she does from now on, she’ll feel like I’m watching her, which is only natural.
When she sleeps, when she dreams, when she walks down the street, when she attends class, when she works… in all such situations, I will flicker in her retina.
In other words, fear of me has been engraved into her entire daily life.
She doesn’t know when I might appear before her.
She doesn’t know when I might grab her neck and twist it.
I imprinted such thoughts into her.
With just that, An Yein will probably be unable to live a normal life from now on.
It’s quite a satisfying method.
Instead of inflicting physical harm, inflicting mental harm ensures the pain lasts longer.
She might commit suicide someday due to the influence of fear… but that’s not my concern.
In my first year of university, if I had been stigmatized as a sexual assailant, I would have wanted to do the same.
This is the deserved consequence she must pay.
If you point a knife at others, you must also accept when that knife points back at you.
Finally, I left her with one last word.
“Final warning. Don’t appear before my eyes again. If you appear before my eyes next time… it won’t end with just this. Well, you probably won’t even feel like doing so anyway.”
After finishing those words, I smiled.
At that moment, the light disappeared from her pupils.
Oh dear, she’s broken.