Mr. No || NCT || Completed

52 - Where Renjun races his grandmother

"Aren't you an odd creature."

Chaewon and grandmother Huang stared at each other in mutual fascination. Chaewon must have sensed the strength of the snow leopard beneath the old woman's frail surface, and Renjun's grandmother must have seen the same every doubler noticed in Chaewon's presence.

Renjun was very annoyed that, other than faint awareness of her no being a normal human, he couldn't sense it.

Grandmother ushered them in and closed the door before taking them to the sitting corner of the quiet library. Once they all were seated on the uncomfortable yet fancy couches, she started staring at Chaewon again.

"I've never seen anything quite like this before." She had switched to Korean. "Very odd, indeed."

Chaewon leaned forward. "I'm sorry but what is odd?" she asked softly. "Do you know what I am?"

"Since when have you been like this?" grandmother asked, ignoring her question.
"Uh, like what?"
Grandmother sighed and glanced at Renjun. "Jun-Jun, didn't you say that she makes bad things happen to people around her? When did that start?"

Chaewon flinched, as if her words were like an electric shock. "You told her about it?" She turned to look at Renjun as well, disappointment in her eyes.

Renjun cleared his throat. "I'm not sure what it is yet, grandmother. I didn't - it's not..."

"Stop stammering", grandmother snapped. "When did it start?"

"If you mean my odd abilities, then I've always been like this, ma'am", Chaewon answered. Her gaze hardened. "But I don't think that I cause bad luck."

"Of course you don't", grandmother mumbled. She had taken out a notebook and started jotting down something. "So, you've been like this since you were born?"
"Yes." Chaewon nodded. "And my paternal grandmother was the same as I am, though she's dead now."

Grandmother's pen halted for a second. Then she looked up, stared at Chaewon for a moment and then went back to writing.
"That's peculiar."

"What is?" Chaewon tried to peek at her notebook but since she was writing in Chinese, it didn't give anything away.

"I'm not as well-versed when it comes to mythical beings as Jun-Jun's uncle was but I met bad omen once, over 15 years ago, when I was helping out Wenyin with his research." Grandmother looked down at the half-filled page in front of her. "Wū yā is what we call them, and the one we met was a man with a very sad story. He was filled with anger and bitter memories of the world that rejected him without even knowing what he was."

Chaewon swallowed.

Renjun could barely fight the urge to hold her hand.

Grandmother lifted her gaze. "But he was the only of his kind in his family. We searched his family tree extensively, trying to understand where his power to bring chaos originated from and came out empty-handed. Jun-Jun's uncle hypothesized that perhaps it was a curse of some kind since there were no other mythical indicators in his entire family."

"Does that mean that I can't be a bad omen?" Chaewon asked and hope lit the stars in her eyes.

"It's difficult to say with so little information." Grandmother Huang shrugged. "Since I met only that one bad omen, I can't say if they all are the same."

Renjun saw how Chaewon's fingers were fidgeting. He changed his position on the couch so that his knee brushed against hers. "When you see Chaewon, do you see anything similar compared to when you met the bad omen? You said that she seems odd and everyone in my pack has been surprised by her energy as well."