Chick 207
by Cristae207
That night.
After a hearty dinner, Groo lay beside Joorim, who was sound asleep, her eyes wide open and sharp.
She was determined to see with her own eyes whether it was an animal or a ghost, and thus prove that her kindergarten teacher’s teachings were not wrong.
To a kindergartener, the words of a kindergarten teacher were an absolute truth, as certain as the sun rising in the east.
And that wasn’t all.
Groo glanced at the sleeping face of Joorim.
She planned to pretend to be asleep, then catch her dad if he tried to sneak out, and sternly ask him where he was going.
Yes, that was the plan!
How much time had passed since she made up her mind? A faint, colorless, and scentless aroma began to seep into Groo’s room.
……
……
……
“Bip! Bii-bip!”
Groo groggily woke to the loud, shrill sound near her ear.
Mephisto was nudging Groo’s cheek with both wings, trying to wake her.
“Ss.”
Groo swallowed the drool from the corner of her mouth.
Huh? She only meant to pretend to sleep for a moment!
She hurried to check the time.
11 PM.
Her father was nowhere to be seen, and the world outside the window was already sunless and dark.
‘I failed!’
Was it because she’d shaken the tambourine a little too enthusiastically for the first time in a while?
She had asked Bailach and Mephisto to wake her, but as she was only waking now…
“Mephi, did you fall asleep too?”
“Biiing.”
Mephisto drooped his head and, folding his two wings, rocked his body side to side.
It meant he was ashamed.
Groo glanced at Bailach, who was snoring away with his belly fully exposed, and comforted Mephi.
“It’s okay. Daddy might not be back yet.”
“Bii—”
Mephisto nodded, then fluttered up and perched himself atop Groo’s head. Groo took a fork out of her inventory.
“Let’s go.”
“Bip!”
“Operation launch. Peep Ghost Hunters!”
With fork and feathers brandished toward the sky,
“Humph!”
“Bip!”
With a snort, Groo gripped the fork tightly in both hands and crept stealthily toward the vegetable garden.
On tiptoe, one careful step after another.
Groo and Mephisto’s eyes grew wide as they neared the garden.
“…!”
A figure with long hair was moving about at the front of the garden.
Groo’s lips trembled.
“M-Mephi. Go over there and check who it is.”
But Mephisto was just as frightened, if not more.
“Bip bip…”
Shaking his head, Mephisto clung tightly to Groo’s head.
“Mephi, you coward.”
“Bip bip bip.”
[Groo, you coward!]
Mephisto’s retort appeared in a translated popup window.
Groo puffed her cheeks in indignation. Wasn’t it Mephi who’d been showering her with hearts earlier? Now he called her a coward. Rotten two servings.
The quietly accusing Groo and Mephisto both clamped their mouths shut and called an unspoken truce.
“On three, we’ll go.”
“Bip.”
Groo took a deep breath and whispered the count.
One, two, three—!
At once, the fork charged toward the stranger.
But as the child’s quick footsteps tapped across the ground, the stranger spun around and snatched at the fork.
“Gotcha—!”
“Huaaang~!”
“Huh?”
“Um?”
Romi, who had caught Groo’s fork, and Groo, who had screamed in alarm, both blinked in confusion.
“…Groo? Why aren’t you sleeping? What are you doing here?”
Romi unni? She’s not a ghost?
Groo’s eyes welled with relieved tears, and she sniffled.
“Gh…guuhoost… sniff!”
“Ghost?”
Nod, nod.
“I… I came to catch the ghost, sniff!”
“Ah, the frost ghost?”
Romi nodded, recalling what the staff had been discussing.
“You couldn’t sleep because of that? Poor thing, you must have been so scared. Did you get frightened? I’m sorry, honey.”
“Heeung…”
As Romi patted her back, Groo buried herself into Romi’s arms, sniffling and whimpering.
Sniffle, snort—still nestled in those warm arms, Groo was comforted when suddenly—
Grrrrrgle—
“My baby, are you hungry?”
Groo shook her head.
“Grumble, that’s not Groo.”
“Huh? Then…”
Suddenly, all color drained from Romi’s face, and realizing what that meant, Groo’s eyes darted in alarm as well.
“Who…who’s there?”
Romi’s voice trembled.
Someone besides them was here.
Romi quickly pulled Groo behind her, and Groo tightened her grip on the fork once more.
“I’m calling the others. Come out right now.”
For a moment, silence.
Rustle—
A sound of leaves brushing in the grass, and then—
A figure with long hair, shoulders hunched as if under accusation, stepped out with guilty hesitation.
Grrrrrrrrgle—
From her stomach echoed another thunderous growl.
“…I’m sorry.”
Chuen bowed her head in embarrassment.
Groo stared with wide eyes.
A face as pale as a ghost, jet-black hair and eyes.
No matter how she looked, this was someone familiar.
“Jeju-do unni?”