I PICKED UP A CHILD IN A DUMPSTER

Chapter 184 184: HAN... YOU CAN DO IT!

Then Jisoo glanced sideways.

Directly at him.

And smirked.

Cocky. Smug. Extremely punchable. With the specific expression of someone who knew exactly how impressive that was and had zero intention of being humble about it.

The kind of smirk that said. (yes, I saw your reaction. yes, I enjoyed it.)

(ಠ⁠益⁠ಠ… this bi—) Si Hon scoffed immediately and looked away before she got even more insufferable about it. (I'll ask next time.)

Which was when he noticed Mihu.

More specifically—

Where they were hiding.

Behind one of the ventilation units near the rooftop wall, Mihu was peeking around the edge watching him instead of the dragon fight, and the expression on her face was devastatingly specific.

Disappointment…

The particular disappointment of a person who had genuinely believed something cool was about to happen and had been let down by the reality of the situation.

Han had his hand over his mouth. Shoulders moving slightly. Trying very hard not to laugh and losing. Which is nice now.

Meanwhile… Suha was not trying at all. She was watching the fight with both hands raised slightly and her whole face lit up like she was at a festival, cheering silently for everyone involved including the dragon.

"(≧▽≦) WAHHH!! ICE!!!"

Something snapped into place in Si Hon's chest.

Not anger exactly. More like— refusal. The specific feeling of a person who has been looked at with that expression and has decided they are not going to accept it as the final word on the matter.

He walked over.

Stopped in front of the ventilation unit and crouched down until he was eye level with Han specifically, which made Han's barely suppressed laughter become significantly more suppressed.

"Han," Si Hon said. "Can you use magic."

Han paused and blinked. "I— what?"

"Your rune. Can you use it."

Han's expression shifted from surprised to confused to something that was trying to locate a memory that didn't feel fully formed yet. "I... think? I've only done it once, it was hard and I didn't really understand what happened—"

"The library," Si Hon said. "Before any of this started. We went to the library and everyone picked a book. Do you remember what I gave you?"

Han went quiet. His eyes moved slightly to the side the way they did when he was actually trying to retrieve something rather than just responding. "The one with the runes? The one that was really fun to read? well yea I finished it, it's actually easy but I don't think I can do it for some reason." he said somehow slightly shaking now.

"You can do it, remember, you practiced with it after. You used it on sand." Si Hon held his gaze. "And the sand turned into a book."

Something clicked behind Han's eyes.

"yeah," he said slowly. "Yeah, I remember that."

Si Hon stood up. His eyes swept the rooftop quickly— past the ongoing fight, past Jisoo still holding the dragon, past the scattered debris— and landed on a metal pole lying against the far edge of the ventilation structure, part of a collapsed railing from the earlier impact damage.

He crossed to it, picked it up, tested the weight briefly, and brought it back.

He held it out to Han.

"Make it sharp," Si Hon said.

Han looked at the pole.

Then at Si Hon.

Then back at the pole again.

He didn't take it immediately. His fingers js hovered near the metal without touching it, uncertainty written all over his face while the rooftop trembled due to some random explosion somewhere.

Around them the fight continued— ice shattering, Seong's threads snapping through the air, Jisoo holding the dragon locked in that distorted slowed state— but Han stayed frozen where he stood, staring at the pole in Si Hon's hands like he was afraid of what would happen if he actually tried.

"Dad..." Han's voice came out small. "What if I can't do it?"

Si Hon crouched down properly in front of him then, lowering the pole slightly.

"You can," he said simply.

"But what if it becomes weird ?" Han frowned harder. "What if I accidentally explode something...?"

"Then we'll deal with it." Si Hon's tone stayed calm, steady in that way that made it hard to panic around him even when the entire rooftop was collapsing into chaos. "You already did it once, so you can do it again.

Han blinked.

Si Hon nodded once and held the pole out again.

"Trust yourself."

Han stared at him for another second.

Then finally—

Very slowly—

He reached out and took the pole with both hands.

The moment his fingers wrapped around the metal, his shoulders tensed slightly, like he almost wanted to give it back immediately. But Si Hon stayed there in front of him, expression calm, completely serious, waiting without rushing him.

And somehow that seemed to matter more than the words.

Han swallowed once.

Closed his eyes.

Then his lips started moving.

"ᚠᚤᚱ... ᚱᛟᚲ... ᛋᛈᛁᚲ."

The words came out hesitant at first, uneven around the edges like he was feeling for the shape of them while speaking. His brow pulled together tighter with every rune, the effort visible in the small tension building across his face, but little by little the rhythm steadied.

And the air around the pole shifted.

A faint pressure rolled outward across the rooftop, subtle enough that it was felt before it was seen, like the atmosphere itself had leaned slightly closer to listen. Thin lines of heat shimmered across the metal surface while Han's voice settled deeper into the cadence of the rune.

The pole began to change.

At first, it failed immediately.

The metal bent sideways with a horrible screeching sound like something inside the structure had softened unevenly instead of sharpening. One side warped outward while the other folded inward, the entire thing twisting into something ugly and unusable that looked less like a weapon and more like a piece of industrial trauma.

Han flinched hard.

***

And cliffhanger... Alr back to rewriting ch 1-15