Breeding Season - Chapter 42
“I was thinking.”
“…….”
“Calling you ‘Siren’ feels too impersonal for us. What do you think about choosing pet names for each other?”
All of a sudden?
Yasamin set her down onto a rocking chair, his handsome face alight with mischief.
It seemed he had been under quite a bit of stress from the Southern meeting.
“…Alright.”
If it was something he wanted, she wanted to grant it.
“But instead of just choosing one for me, let’s pick one for you too.”
This was her little bit of mischief.
A playful complaint disguised as a request—since he was the one who brought it up first.
How strange. She never thought she’d be able to smile, talk, and banter with someone like this.
“Sure, let’s do that.”
As expected, Yasamin agreed without much thought.
“I want to call you ‘Sei.’ What do you think?”
“I like it.”
“Then what about mine?”
“I think… ‘Min’ would suit you.”
Now that they had set pet names for each other, they almost felt like a real married couple rather than a fake one.
Pet names are something only lovers use. Or family. Yasamin and I may not be lovers, but… could we become family?
Such expectations were dangerous.
Expectations only existed to be shattered.
Having lived a life of constant betrayal and disappointment, she couldn’t bring herself to believe in it easily.
In Yasamin—the one whose name meant fortune.
To her, he still felt like someone who would simply pass through her life.
“…But was there really something that happened at the Southern meeting?”
She asked cautiously, and the man, who had been staring at her as if trapping her in place, curled his lips into a twisted smile.
“It was annoying. I had to act according to my role, and I couldn’t just brush everything aside.”
“Ah.”
“But if I abandon the role… I forget who I am. And eventually, I’d go completely mad.”
Yasamin never revealed himself completely.
He had never told her everything from the start.
What he gave her were merely puzzle pieces.
And Siren took them, trying to piece them together one by one.
Then, perhaps, she would come to understand the man named Yasamin.
“…Are you afraid that you’ll lose yourself?”
“Yes.”
“So you pretend to be someone else and live their life?”
“Yes.”
“And in doing so, you start to lose track of who you were… or whether you were ever that person to begin with?”
This time, there was no answer. He only gazed at her with those fathomless eyes.
The face that had seemed so young just moments ago turned utterly unreadable in an instant.
Like someone who had lived for a thousand years, his expression was devoid of emotion, as if he were not even alive.
He gave off the aura of an artifact, something that could crumble at any moment.
Why had he shown her that underground space?
Perhaps… it was his way of saying that he, too, was just another relic among them.
Siren reached out toward Yasamin.
Wrapping her arms around his back, which seemed unusually weary today, she patted him gently.
He quietly leaned into her embrace.
How old he truly was, or what kind of existence he might be—what did it matter?
If he acknowledged her, she would acknowledge him in return.
That was all there was to it.
“Raksha isn’t something you can see just because you try.”
After a brief silence, Yasamin suddenly changed the subject.
“I’ll open your meridians. Stay still. Then, you’ll be able to see Raksha.”
“Alright.”
“This is something you have to be born with talent for. Even if I open someone’s meridians, an ordinary person still wouldn’t be able to see Raksha.”
Yasamin raised his index finger and lightly tapped the center of her forehead.
A moment later, a cool sensation flowed into her.
It felt like a stream of water, like the wind. Like pebbles tumbling, yet also like a sprout pushing through the soil.
Difficult to describe, yet unmistakably a feeling of something blooming.
Before she knew it, her eyelids fluttered closed.
The energy flowed down her throat, settled in her chest, then continued downward to her abdomen, spreading all the way to her toes.
Her fingers stretched out. Her waist, hips, and thighs felt as if they were lengthening, expanding.
And then, the energy began to rise again.
Higher. Higher.
“Haaah!”
The moment it reached her mouth, she gasped, exhaling something she couldn’t even name, inhaling sharply again.
And as her eyes flew open—
“……!”
Siren saw an entirely new world.
“Congratulations. You’ve gained sight into the world beyond.”
At some point, Yasamin had moved behind her, whispering softly as he wrapped his arms around her from behind.
