A/N: Here's the next chapter! :D

With Kyuhyun finally agreeing to go to the dragon realm (for the wrong reason of wanting to disprove Yesung, which annoyed the dragon to no end), preparations for their trip began.

The first and foremost matter to be addressed was Kyuhyun’s education. Kyuhyun couldn’t immediately leave because the upcoming week was his exam week.

“But I thought that you will ‘file a leave of absence’? What does it matter then if you miss your exams? Surely, those will be excused if you ‘file that leave’.” Kyuhyun had explained to Yesung the concept of a leave of absence from the university, so Yesung could not understand why Kyuhyun would not immediately travel with him if Kyuhyun was filing for a leave. With an official leave of absence, why would Kyuhyun need to stay for the exams?

“It’s not about the officiality or possible consequences of missing exams,” Kyuhyun rolled his eyes. “It’s just that I can’t miss those exams! I like taking exams! Exams are my chance to get perfect scores and show to my classmates that I’m smarter than all of them! So, I’ll start my leave of absence after exam week and my perfect grades are out.”

“… How do your classmates even stand being in your presence with your huge ego?” Yesung had not known his rider for very long, yet he was already suffocating from Kyuhyun’s ego. He wondered how Kyuhyun’s classmates survived being around Kyuhyun and his ego every day.

And Yesung was mainly wondering because he wanted tips on how to survive Kyuhyun and his ego. As Kyuhyun’s dragon, Yesung was also facing the task of having to be around Kyuhyun and his ego every single day.

“YAH!” Kyuhyun shouted, offended.

Then, there was Kyuhyun’s gaming. 

The gamer double checked and triple checked that all of his gaming progresses were saved and secured. Then, for the games where he played in online teams, he made sure to give clear and specific instructions to his “stupid, idiotic teammates who couldn’t do anything in the game without him” so that their team wouldn’t be annihilated while Kyuhyun was away.

“How did your teammates take it when you informed them that you would be gone and would not be able to play with them for a while?” Yesung asked curiously.

“Oh, they cried,” Kyuhyun said airily. “Sobbed and begged me not go. You know, since I’m the most important member of the team and all that. But when they realized that I would be leaving whether they like it or not, they just practically begged me on their knees to return as soon as possible.”

Yesung stared at him. “Are you sure that they were not celebrating the prospect of your absence?”

During Kyuhyun’s preparation time, Yesung was staying in Kyuhyun’s apartment. Once Kyuhyun had agreed to go to the dragon realm, he had asked Yesung where he had been staying while in this world and following Kyuhyun around. Yesung had shrugged carelessly and had replied that when not waiting outside Kyuhyun’s apartment or following Kyuhyun at the university, he had just been walking around the streets. Even though Yesung had said that it was not a big deal for a dragon, Kyuhyun had felt bad for Yesung (though he would never, ever admit it!) and had let Yesung stay in his apartment until they leave for the dragon realm.

And while staying with Kyuhyun, Yesung had seen and observed how Kyuhyun would play his games. The gamer would constantly yell instructions to his teammates (Kyuhyun had explained to the dragon that his “headset” let him talk to other people from far away). And Kyuhyun would also berate them when they didn’t follow what he said, and their team would be in danger, and Kyuhyun would have to save them all. Given all these things, Yesung would have assumed that Kyuhyun’s teammates would be glad of the chance to be free from this bossy gamer.

“They really were crying when they found out that they would have to play without me!” Kyuhyun insisted angrily.

“Maybe they were crying with happiness?” Over his many centuries being alive, Yesung had observed that humans would also cry when they were happy or filled with strong, positive emotions. How strange.

Kyuhyun growled at him. “They want me back playing with them as soon as possible! They like having me on the team! Because I guarantee our team’s victory!”

Yesung then thought that Kyuhyun’s teammates, like Kyuhyun’s classmates, must have a lot of patience to deal with Kyuhyun and his ego on a constant basis.

Then, Kyuhyun had to inform his relatives and acquaintances about his upcoming absence. So that they wouldn’t worry.

And more importantly, so that they wouldn’t report him as a missing person to the police.

Just like with the excuse that he gave when filing his leave of absence at the university, he told his family (sending a brief email to his parents) and acquaintances that he would going on a “cultural immersion trip” to a remote location (which wasn’t that far off from the truth, though Kyuhyun made sure to not mention anything about dragons and dragon riders so that his family and acquaintances wouldn’t think of him as insane) and that he would be out of touch for a while, stating that the location lacked cellphone and Internet signals.

When not attending his classes and taking exams or addressing his games, Kyuhyun was busy packing the things that he would need for the trip.

“Just pack the essentials,” Yesung instructed him.

“Essentials?”

“Yes. Things that you would need while we travel to the entrance to the dragon realm. And personal items that would need for your stay there. You will be provided with food and lodgings when we get to the dragon realm.”

Kyuhyun frowned at Yesung at the mention of the entrance. “Where is the dragon realm, anyway?” Then, he quickly added, “You know, in the hypothetical situation that it exists. Which it totally doesn’t.”

Yesung inwardly rolled his eyes at his rider’s stubborn refusal to believe in the existence of dragons, but otherwise, he just mostly ignored the last part from Kyuhyun. He just replied, “A very remote location. The entrance to the dragon realm is at the very peak of a high mountain. It is inaccessible to humans without a dragon’s power of flight.”

“Humans have airplanes and other flying machines that can reach high places,” Kyuhyun pointed out.

“Yes, but the strong winds around the mountain range are treacherous. Also, even on the impossible scenario that they reach the peak, normal humans cannot enter into the dragon realm. The only human beings that can physically enter are riders. Because of the magic of the place and of dragons.”

“How far away is the entrance?”

“Once we get to the outskirts of the city, about a few days’ time of travelling in the wilderness to the mountain range. Then, a day’s travel to the particular mountain itself. The travel would not be that long. So, like I had said, just take the essentials with you.”

Kyuhyun nodded.

However, “packing the essentials” did not go exactly as Yesung had anticipated. It soon became clear to the dragon that he and Kyuhyun had very different definitions of the word “essential.”

Kyuhyun took Yesung to the mall to buy equipment for the trip. And Yesung, being a dragon, at the mall was quite an interesting sight to see