The White Tiger Clan’s Baby Cotton Ball - Chapter 182

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Side Story Episode 5

Saeon approached the child and crouched down in front of him.

“Let me see. This very sulky handsome baby tiger here looks like our family’s baby tiger.”

“….”

“Why is our family’s baby tiger sulking?”

“….”

Seeing his tightly pressed lips twitching, it seemed he wanted to say why he was sulking but couldn’t easily open his mouth due to his pride.

Reading Gayul’s cute inner thoughts, Saeon held back his laughter and spoke in a deliberately sad voice.

“Oh my. Our family’s baby tiger won’t even look at Papa’s face when he sees him… I guess he doesn’t like Papa anymore.”

Flinch.

At those words, Gayul’s body trembled slightly.

“Papa is so sad he’s going to cry. Wah wah.”

“N-no!”

At Saeon’s fake ‘wah wah’ crying sounds, Gayul jumped up in surprise.

“Why would I hate Father! It’s not like that, so don’t be sad!”

Then he stomped his feet and checked Father’s face this way and that as he hung his head low.

Was Father really crying?

He couldn’t see well because his head was down.

Cool tigers shouldn’t cry over something like this… What if our Father gets disqualified from being a cool tiger?

“D-don’t cry! Cool tigers don’t cry over things like this! Stop the tears!”

Worried Gayul patted Father’s shoulder and spoke, just like Elder Brother had done for him when he cried that one time.

It was when he felt restless as if he had made Father cry.

“Really?”

“Yes, really! I like Father so much!”

At Saeon’s question, Gayul quickly shouted and looked at Saeon with an anxious heart.

Father didn’t respond.

Had he stopped crying now?

Just as Gayul held his breath and examined Father’s expression.

“Papa too.”

Saeon slowly lifted his head and grinned…

“Papa loves our youngest tiger so much too.”

He swooped up Gayul’s body.

“Wh-whaa?”

Suddenly lifted into the air, surprised Gayul clung to Saeon’s neck, then soon realized that Father had been pretending to cry.

“Father is a liar! Pretending to cry!”

Gayul grumbled and shouted at the fact that he’d been fooled.

“Haha!”

Saeon’s laughter rang out loudly.

“It’s not a lie. Papa was so sad because baby tiger wouldn’t look at Papa’s face.”

“I won’t fall for it anymore…!”

Gayul, who was about to shout that he wouldn’t fall for it, burst into giggles at Saeon’s hand tickling his side.

“Ah, aha, ahahaha, ah, Father, it tickles, stop, ahahaha!”

Gayul twisted his body in Father’s arms and laughed for a long while.

“So.”

Looking at Gayul’s face that had brightened cheerfully as if he’d never been sulking, Saeon asked.

“Why were you sulking, baby tiger?”

Only then did Gayul remember that he had been extremely sulky until just moments ago.

“Well…”

But he couldn’t very well start sulking again now, so he glanced at Saeon and mumbled as he opened his mouth.

“All my brothers have younger siblings, but it’s unfair that only I don’t have a younger sibling.”

“Unfair?”

A pleased light appeared in Saeon’s eyes as he looked at his youngest son using quite a difficult word.

“I’m really confident I’d do well if I had a younger sibling!”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes! I’d share delicious food, play ball and hide-and-seek together, and stay by their side when they’re sick…”

Gayul folded his fingers one by one as he counted the things he’d do if he had a younger sibling.

“And I’d teach them well how to hide their claws. No, I’d step forward to protect them from all the bad things in the world so they’d never have to extend their claws!”

“Wow. Our baby tiger is really amazing.”

“Yes, yes! I’m different from my brothers! I can really do well!”

Gayul, who had been chattering excitedly at Saeon’s encouragement, suddenly remembered once again the fact that only he didn’t have a younger sibling.

“The stork is mean. It only brings younger siblings to my brothers. It won’t give me a younger sibling. I’m a cool tiger too.”

“Baby tiger. Do you want a younger sibling that much?”

Saeon asked, glancing at Gayul’s protruding lip shape.

“Yes! A younger sibling this small and cute!”

Gayul pulled out a crumpled piece of paper and showed it to Saeon, as if he’d been waiting for someone to ask.

“…?”

Saeon blinked at the drawing on the unfolded paper.

“What’s this?”

“My younger sibling!”

Gayul answered with a giggle.

The crumpled paper was none other than a picture he had torn from a guidebook not long ago.

“Isn’t it super cute? I’m going to ask the stork for a small and soft younger sibling like this, not a fierce and mean tiger like Arang.”

The animal in the picture was indeed very small and cute, just as Gayul said.

There was one small problem: the animal in the picture wasn’t a tiger but a bird.

“Yes. It’s very cute.”

Instead of saying it was impossible, Saeon chuckled and answered.

“Then shall we go write a letter?”

“A letter?”

“Yes. A letter. Spring is coming soon. Baby tiger should make a wish too.”

The young beastmen of Taehwa Kingdom had a custom of writing wishes on tree leaves and floating them down the river before spring came.

This was because of the belief that the Dragon God would grant their wishes if they did so.

“But…”

However, Gayul hesitated at Father’s suggestion and spoke in a dejected voice.

“Little Elder Brother said so. He said that’s superstition. He said only foolish tigers believe in such things.”

“What?”

Saeon asked back with a momentarily flustered face, but soon replied calmly.

“It’s okay. We’re going to make a wish to the stork, not the Dragon God.”

“To the stork…?”

“Baby tiger. Who did you say brings younger siblings?”

Saeon asked in a deliberately solemn voice.

Instantly, Gayul’s eyes sparkled.

“The stork! I, I want to write a letter to the stork!”

Gayul, who quickly regained his energy, shouted spiritedly.

“Then Yul, shall we go pick tree leaves together with Papa?”

“Yes! I want to pick a really, really big tree leaf! I have so much to say to the stork.”

That day, Saeon and Gayul climbed Horim Mountain and picked the widest leaf.

It was a tree leaf so big that there would be plenty left over even if the baby tiger sat on it with his tiny bottom.

【Hello, Stork. I’m Gayul. Baek Gayul.</p】

I live in White Tiger Palace. I’m the most magnificent tiger in White Tiger Palace.

But I have one wish. It’s nothing else, but could you bring me a younger sibling?

My younger sibling looks like this…

Gayul looked at the completed tree leaf letter with a pleased expression.

The handwriting written with Father’s help was somewhat crooked, but it looked quite decent.

Gayul was grinning as he examined it when he suddenly realized one very important fact.

“But Father, I don’t know where storks live. What should I do?”

“Since birds live in the southern lands, let’s float the letter down the river that flows south. How about that?”

“…!”

Gayul’s face brightened at the solution Saeon proposed.

“Father is a genius!”

Gayul burst into a cheerful laugh and leaped toward Saeon’s embrace.

Thump!

The small baby tiger wagged his tail in his father’s arms, laughing with delight.

* * *

Southern continent.

In a mountain ravine where clear water flowed, a small girl with snow-white hair was walking briskly while holding her elder brother’s hand.

“Elder Brother Sanyu, look over there! There’s a stream over there!”

The girl calling out in an excited voice was Soya, the precious youngest daughter of the Suzaku Family.

In Soya’s hand as she hopped toward the stream like a rabbit, a single tree leaf dangled back and forth.

It was the wish letter that Soya was sending to the Dragon God.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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