Side Story - Why am I a Pet!! (2)

"Samcheon, which gate are we?"

"J8."

"J8, huh." Bo-ram left Louis behind as he was unloading the luggage from the car. She first went into the airport, then looked at the map to look for their current location and the J8 gate. "Found it. We have to go up two floors from here."

Bo-ram, who found the location of the gate on the map, hopped out of the airport. "Samcheon! I found it."

"Really? Then Bo-ram can you show me the way?"

"Yeah, yeah! Ah, samcheon, before that, you brought the pa.s.sports and plane tickets along, right?"

"Of course. Now then, here you go, Bo-ram. You should take your own pa.s.sport and ticket."

"Okayy!!" Before getting out of the car, Bo-ram put her pa.s.sport and plane ticket in a rabbit-shaped crossbody bag that Louis took out of the carrier. Then, she took the lead and walked towards the J8 gate.

While Louis followed behind Bo-ram, carrying the carriers, the two of them arrived in front of the J8 gate. Instead of going through the departure procedures, they showed the plane tickets to the airport staff, who then opened up the path that he blocked on the side. "Please enter this way," he greeted them politely.

Louis and Bo-ram thanked the staff and pa.s.sed through the gate, walking along the path that the staff opened up. They did not have to go through any departure procedures.

-Check-in for J8 Gate has ended. Please proceed on the runway now. VVIP guests have got off from the runway and are about to enter.

The two people, who received the ticket, entered the gate without any problems. Louis" secretary was waiting at the entrance of the plane.

"Welcome, Louis-nim, Bo-ram-nim." Louis" secretary, Reina, bowed and greeted them politely. She had brown, straight, short-bobbed hair that came down to her ears, along with powdered fair skin and brown eyes. She also had a tall and slender figure that matched up to Louis.

She was only a secretary in name, but actually had an appearance more beautiful than the average supermodel. Even the female flight attendants a.s.signed to open the plane"s gate were mesmerized, staring at her.

Discovering Reina, Bo-ram ran over and rejoiced, "Aunt Reina! Make it as comfortable as when we were at home together, please. Hmm? Auntieeee~"

"B-Bo-ram-nim, if you act like this..."

Seeing that the fl.u.s.tered Reina was stuttering, Louis helped put in a word for Bo-ram, "Yes, Reina. Be at ease. I prefer that too, you know? Just like when we were at home together."

"Louis-nim, that was a setting based on the situation. Bo-ram-nim, let"s go to your seat quickly. Ahem ahem." Reina fixed her fl.u.s.tered expression. With a straight face, she detached herself from Bo-ram, who was hanging from her waist. Bo-ram"s expression turned a little sullen, which made Reina feel sorry. However, it couldn"t be helped; there was a strict hierarchy between them.

Reina let the two of them onto the plane first. Then, after she greeted the airline"s crew members, the airplane doors were closed. Louis and Bo-ram were quietly waiting for her in their seats as she came inside the plane after finishing up the procedures for departure.

Staring at the two of them, Reina walked to the front part of the plane and stood there. She then asked them about the brief journey. She did not go to the captain to instruct him to depart, nor did the captain come out to greet them. In fact, she was acting as if there was no captain, which was true.

The interior of the plane that the trio had boarded was similar to that of a regular plane, but there were two distinct differences. The first was that there was no pilot c.o.c.kpit, which had been replaced by a snack bar. Perhaps because it was an airplane imbued with magic, there was no need for a c.o.c.kpit, and that s.p.a.ce could be used for other purposes. The second was the internal structure. Instead of a chair, a long sofa was placed along the plane"s window. There was then Louis" private s.p.a.ce, also known as his office, at the tail-end of the plane.

After a brief Q&A session, Reina sat on the sofa after taking a look at her watch. Then, the plane began to move, thanks to the flight magic that was imbued on the plane. She informed them, "It will take about 30 minutes to reach Washington, D.C. We will not land at the Washington, D.C. airport, but directly at NASA."

"That"s much better." Louis nodded at Reina"s words, but he then thought of something else. He asked, "Ah, my car..."

"I"ve sent it to the main house, so please confirm it after takeoff. And..." Reina took out a luxuriously designed key out of her pockets. "You can use the Recall spell when you need it."

"Thanks, Reina. No, I mean, just like what Bo-ram wants. Thanks, honey."

"Louis-nim." Reina"s face was flushed red, stiffening at the same time.

"That was just a setting."

"But I like it though."

"Me too!" Bo-ram piped in just then.

"I think it"ll be good to keep using nicknames like this, honey."

"Louis-nim... Please stop with the jokes when you get to NASA..."

"I"m not kidding, I mean it. Why do you think it"s a joke? Honey?" As he felt the plane taking flight, Louis got up from the sofa and approached Reina. He embraced her waist with both arms. Reina was embarra.s.sed and tried to back off, but he never let go and held her in place. While Reina"s face was reddening again, Louis" face was full of smiles. He looked at Reina with overwhelming feelings of love.

"Lou-Louis-nim!"

"Reina, nickname."

"Bu-But..."

"Reina." Louis was frowning slightly, while Reina had a troubled look on her face. She knew that she could not easily change the t.i.tle she called Louis by.

The t.i.tle that Louis and Bo-ram wanted to hear was actually a t.i.tle initially used as a setting when Reina looked after Bo-ram in Korea. It was set-up that way because the ordinary populace would have found it weird for Bo-ram to be left all alone. Hence, Louis, Bo-ram"s biological samcheon as well as her mother"s older brother, went and looked after Bo-ram. At that time, Louis thought it better to have two people care for Bo-ram, so his secretary, Reina, got strung along to act as his wife and as Bo-ram"s "aunt". The wizards did not seem to be very pleased about it, but they adhered to it. After all, they weren"t in a position to ignore Louis" opinion.

As a result, Reina had to call Louis "Honey" with a stiff voice and expression, along with an immense awkwardness and pressure in the beginning. The reason for Reina"s behavior was the fact that she was born with the blood of an indirect family.

Powerful magical lineage was artificially created by the power of the Great Wizards, who protect the Earth, and it allowed the lineage to be inherited through blood. That eventually became the social cla.s.s. The greater the household, the more excellent the wizards produced, and their status progressed in equal measure. They would belong to the upper cla.s.s of the World of Magic, in other words, the ruling cla.s.s. However, it was difficult for the ordinary wizards to form a household, so they were subjected to the upper cla.s.s" rule. Therefore, there was a strict distinction in hierarchy.

The marriage between two different social cla.s.ses was much more difficult than a marriage between a commoner and a wizard. For example, Blake, the eldest son of the Elliseo Household, which was one of the Five Great Households in the World of Magic, wanted to marry a regular wizard who did not belong to a household. However, people around him warned him to marry a commoner instead.

Even if Reina, who was born and raised in this world, was dating Louis, it was an unavoidable fact that she would have great difficulty in changing the t.i.tle she called Louis by. In addition, the household that Louis belonged to, the Emris Household, was the most prominent among the Five Great Households. Hence, that was why she felt much more cautious.

The smile slowly disappeared from Louis" face as he stared at Reina. Then, Reina called him in a hurry, "Lou-Louis..."

"Call me by my name even after we go to NASA."

"But..."

"You don"t have to worry about it." Louis brought his forehead close to Reina"s. He then loosened the arms around her waist. "Reina, would you like to watch the video I recorded of Bo-ram today with me? She was really cute." He grabbed Reina by her hand, walking into the office.

Reina shot alternate glances toward Bo-ram and Louis, muttering, "Uck, Bo-ram… Bo-ram… Are we leaving Bo-ram alone?"

"Have a good time!"

"Wha-What do you mean "a good time", that"s..." Reina followed Louis into the office with a flushed face.

Looking over at them, Bo-ram shrugged. "The two of them are always happily playing together by themselves. By the way, what do they do together? Samcheon always sleeps a lot, because he"s tired after dragging Aunt Reina in like that." Bo-ram shook her head and got up from her seat. She walked towards the snack bar, taking a snack and returning to her seat.

"30 minutes huh... There"s still a long way to go. What should I do? Ah, I should watch a s.p.a.ce travel movie that"s trending nowadays." Bo-ram raised one hand and swung in the air. Then, the inside of the plane became dark and a search panel appeared in the air. She searched for the s.p.a.ce movie she wanted to watch, paid for it, and pressed the play b.u.t.ton.

"A movie has to be watched with snacks." Once the movie began playing, Bo-ram mustered strength in her hands and ripped open the bag of snacks. The movie started and Bo-ram watched the movie, mesmerizingly. The plane was flying towards NASA.

During the movie, as the villain who looked like a pitch-black luxury sedan was caught by the main character"s party, the door to Louis" office opened. Louis and Reina then walked out side-by-side. "Huh? Are we already at NASA?" Bo-ram asked, pausing the movie.

"Yes... I mean, no. Okay, erm, Bo-ram uhh-nim..." Reina"s words were twisted as she attached the word "nim"[1] out of habit. She was still in the process of trying to change the t.i.tle she called Bo-ram by.

"Pfft, auntie, kyahahahahaha!" Bo-ram burst into hearty laughter and Reina blushed shyly.

Then, Louis sent a message with a satisfied look on his face. "Eun-ha will come and meet us. The research lab is located 700 meters behind NASA."

"700 meters? If it was the headquarters, and if it was a far distance, then so be it. But what"s with this vague distance?"

"Ask Eun-ha directly when you meet her. We"re almost there anyway."

"Alright!" As soon as Bo-ram finished answering, the plane descended and soon stopped. Then, Reina got up and opened the plane door. Bo-ram finally arrived at the workplace of her sister, whom she had wanted to meet so badly.

"Bo-ram!"

"Unnie!" Bo-ram got down from the plane and ran towards a girl, who was also running towards her. The pair hugged tightly.

The girl was about 165 centimeters tall and had fair skin. She also had brown eyes and hair, just like Bo-ram. She generally had a youthful appearance, looking like a middle school student. She called out, "Our Bo-ram is already an elementary school student, huh!"

"Unnie, I missed you!"

"Yes yes, unnie missed you too."

The two had been hugging each other for quite some time, and NASA"s employees began showing up in quick succession. They had heard rumors that Eun-ha"s younger sister had come.

"Very cute!"

"And so lovely!"

"Wow... She really looks like Eun-ha."[2]

Due to commotion, Bo-ram and Eun-ha let go of each other. They looked around, noticing the surrounding people of various nationalities were conversing amongst themselves.

"Wow, this kid is Chairman Jamonde"s niece? She"s totally cute though?"

"Eun-ha, please introduce her to us. What was it in Korean again?"

"Annyeonghaseyo? I am Kang Bo-ram. It"s nice to meet you," Bo-ram spoke skilfully, which caused the researchers to widen their eyes in surprise.

"Oooh? Isn"t this kid pretty good at English?"

"Bo-ram, this is Chris. And this is Evan, Jeremy, Natasha, Khan."

"Ahh, you"re unnie"s colleagues in the picture that unnie sent me! Everyone looks much better in person!"

Sharing a conversation in a friendly atmosphere, the group began walking. Then, Bo-ram asked, "But why are you all here? The NASA building is over there, though?"

"The meteorite... Well, it"s because of the Dragon Stone. Since we can"t teleport..." Chris shook his head and placed a hand on his forehead. The other team members let out an unexpectedly synchronized sigh.

"Dragon Stone?"

"Hmm... Louis-nim?" Chris turned his head and looked at Louis. He hoped Louis could offer Bo-ram an answer, while keeping the details confidential.

"She is also a wizard of the Supreme Magic Tower," Louis said simply.

"Well, then it"s fine. Follow me please." Under Chris" lead, the team members dispersed and began to move in their vehicles. They did not enter NASA"s headquarters. Instead, they headed for the large forest that was behind it.

1. For those of you that have yet to realize it, nim is a suffix added to someone"s name and it is used to greet an older person or a person of higher stature.

2. The following texts were actually spoken in English in the Raws, so I italicized it. There will be a few more in this chapter, so it will all be italicized.