The White Tiger Clan’s Baby Cotton Ball - Chapter 198

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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 21

In truth, Ga Hyeon still didn’t quite understand.

He had finished copying the ancient texts containing the words of sages as punishment from Father, but even so, he still didn’t think what he had done was wrong.

However, listening to Soya’s gentle, soft voice, he somehow felt a little persuaded.

“Peep…?”

At that moment, Chirpy, who had been sleeping soundly, opened her eyes.

Half-awake from sleep, Chirpy looked around and immediately spotted Soya.

“Chirp! Chirp chirp!”

Chirpy chirped toward Soya.

“Chirpy!”

Soya smiled brightly and extended her hand toward Chirpy.

The baby bird began walking toward her with unsteady, waddling steps. But then,

Thud!

She fell over.

“Peep…”

A pitiful cry flowed from between Chirpy’s small beak.

Seeing this, Ga Hyeon was about to get up in surprise.

“It’s okay, Chirpy. You can get up.”

Unlike Ga Hyeon, who reflexively tried to help Chirpy up, Soya calmly waved her outstretched hand from where she sat and smiled gently.

“Come on, come this way!”

“Peep!”

Encouraged by Soya’s cheering, Chirpy got up again and flapped her wings toward her.

And at that moment.

Chirpy unknowingly hopped and flew, landing on Soya’s palm.

“Peep?!”

Surprised Chirpy’s eyes widened round.

“Wow, Chirpy…!”

An excited exclamation flowed from Soya’s mouth as well.

“Did you see that, Elder Brother? Chirpy just flew! Until yesterday, I had to help her from the side. But just now, Chirpy did it all by herself…!”

Soya chattered excitedly, even more thrilled than Chirpy.

“You’re really amazing, Chirpy.”

“Peep, peep!”

Pleased by Soya’s praise, Chirpy narrowed her eyes and chirped.

“…”

A gentle smile slowly bloomed on Ga Hyeon’s face as he watched the scene in a daze.

“That’s right. Really amazing.”

Both Chirpy, and Soya too.

Suddenly, Ga Hyeon felt he vaguely understood what the ‘righteous world’ Soya had spoken of earlier might be.

He still couldn’t fully agree with Father’s words that what he had done to the Silver Tiger Family was excessive…

‘Soya smiles most beautifully in the righteous world Father spoke of.’

That one fact, he couldn’t help but agree with.

‘If Father gives you such a world.’

Ga Hyeon unconsciously clenched his fist inside his sleeve as he thought.

‘Then I want to give you the safest world as a gift. So that you can always smile there, so that nothing can hurt you…’

So that nothing dirty and impure in this world can harm you.

So that you can grow up righteous and upright like now.

‘I will give you the safest world in existence.’

Because that was the world he could give to his precious sister, unable to gift a righteous world like Father.

Ga Hyeon smiled gently, watching Soya and the baby birds with softer eyes than ever before.

4. Soya, age fourteen summer. Gaya’s story

The day when the long war ended and the Baek Tiger Family finally gathered in one place.

“Please don’t be too upset, Father. In my eyes, Father is the most wonderful tiger in the world.”

That one statement from Soya at the dinner table brought great turmoil to the White Tiger Palace.

“That can’t be true.”

Baek Gayul. A fifteen-year-old adolescent tiger.

He had believed he was the most wonderful tiger in the world for a full fifteen years.

Gayul looked at Soya with an expression of complete disbelief.

“You’re lying, right, Somsom?”

Baek Gaya. A twenty-year-old adult tiger who thinks he’s the most wonderful even when crying ‘wah wah.’

Gaya chuckled and asked with the expression of someone who had heard the most amusing lie in the world.

“Soya, it’s good to comfort Father, but you don’t need to make up stories that aren’t true.”

Baek Gahyeon. The most normal tiger among Soya’s three elder brothers.

Ga Hyeon scolded with what seemed like the calmest expression among the three.

However, his slightly raised corners of his mouth and trembling eyes showed that his state was far from calm.

“Oh come on, saying it’s not true. In my eyes, Father is always the most wonderful.”

Soya replied with a smile, unaware of the ripple effect her statement would cause.

“…!”

“…!”

“…!”

At those words, the elder brothers’ expressions all crumbled at once, but Soya just thought it was the exaggerated reaction of her brothers who had become a bit more childish than usual because Mother had returned.

‘Really, my elder brothers. They’re all so funny.’

But before long, Soya realized that it was by no means an exaggerated reaction.

Having been away from the White Tiger Palace and staying at the Imperial Palace for a while, Soya had fallen behind in her studies and was sitting at her desk doing homework.

Suddenly, she noticed pure white hair sticking out from the doorway.

“Yul Elder Brother?”

“Cotton Ball!”

It was none other than Gayul.

He had been peeking around Soya’s door, and when their eyes met, he hopped into the room.

“Look at this. I brought it to eat together with you.”

Gayul showed Soya the sweet confections on a large tray with a proud expression.

“But this is what Elder Brother likes, isn’t it?”

“No. I don’t really like this. I decided not to like it starting today. So you eat it all!”

“Huh?”

Before Soya could ask anything more, Gayul gently placed a sweet confection into her small mouth.

Then, with the most satisfied face as if he had accomplished the greatest thing in the world, he asked Soya.

“How is it, Cotton Ball. Delicious, right? This elder brother really is the best, right?”

“Yes, Elder Brother is the best.”

Though it was a sudden question, Soya answered while chewing the confection in her mouth.

“More than Father?”

“Suddenly Father?”

Soya blinked her eyes while swallowing the confection.

“Yeah yeah, Cotton Ball. I’m a more wonderful tiger than Father, right?”

Gayul looked at Soya with sparkling eyes full of expectation and asked again.

‘Ah…!’

Only then did Soya realize Gayul’s intention.

‘This is about last time at dinner, that…!’

Suddenly, a mischievous feeling arose.

“Eh, but Father is still the best.”

“What, that’s too much, Cotton Ball! I even gave you all my sweet confections!”

Gayul protested with an aggrieved voice.

Gayul didn’t know that reacting like that only made her want to tease him more.

‘Yul Elder Brother is really cute when he’s sulking.’

She’d thought so since first arriving at the White Tiger Palace, but sulking Gayul was just as adorable now as he was back then as a baby tiger, puffing up both cheeks and turning away.

Soya giggled as she watched Gayul’s retreating figure, his lips pouting as he left.

After Gayul left, this time Ga Hyeon came to visit Soya.

“Soya, would you like to climb Horim Mountain with Elder Brother? The summer flowers are in full bloom. Let’s make flower crowns together as a gift for Mother.”

At those words, Soya felt her interest piqued.

‘Mother,’ ‘Horim Mountain,’ and ‘flower crowns’ were all things Soya loved.

“But I still have a lot of homework to do…”

“Don’t worry, Soya. Elder Brother will help you. Then we can finish quickly.”

Ga Hyeon said as he brought over a chair and sat beside Soya.

“Thank you, Elder Brother.”

Soya nodded with a bright smile.

It was when Soya was concentrating hard, thinking she needed to finish her homework quickly.

Ga Hyeon glanced at Soya’s face and opened his mouth.

“Soya. Elder Brother is… Um.”

“Elder Brother…?”

Soya looked at Ga Hyeon with a puzzled expression, as he was unusually unable to say what he wanted to say right away.

“Um, so… I’m the only Elder Brother who takes care of Soya like this, right?”

“Yes…?”

Ga Hyeon felt a bit embarrassed saying it with his own mouth.

It was because he recognized how childish he was being.

Soon Soya also caught on to Ga Hyeon’s intention and answered with giggles.

“That’s right, you’re the only one who takes care of me like this. After Father, that is.”

“Father is…!”

Ga Hyeon momentarily flared up and raised his voice, then immediately shut his mouth tight.

At that sight, Soya’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Hyeoni Elder Brother, could it be…”

Soya asked with a ‘No way, surely not’ feeling, yet with a hint of curiosity.

“Are you sulking?”

“…That can’t be, Soya. I’m not Yul, so why would I sulk over something like this? How childish. It’s a misunderstanding.”

Ga Hyeon instantly changed his expression and voice to answer.

‘Wow, Hyeoni Elder Brother sulking…! I want to show this to Mother too!’

At that rare sight, Soya couldn’t hide her amazement.

“I’m telling you it’s really not.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

Soya replied with soft chuckles.

Meanwhile, across from the window of Soya’s room.

A young man with a somewhat cold impression sat crookedly on a tree, watching the scene.

‘Both of them are so childish.’

He snorted at his younger brothers’ childish behavior, seeing right through them.

‘Trying to win Little Sister’s favor with such trivial actions.’

Gaya shook his head disapprovingly.

This is why young tigers who haven’t even completed their Second Growth Stage are hopeless.

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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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