Interview

Interview

 

Han A-rin shook her head quickly, flustered by Chae-a’s words asking her to take good care of Ha-eun.

“Are, are you okay with never seeing Ha-eun again then?”

“It’s not okay…”

“Then shouldn’t we catch her?”

Chae-a seemed to gain courage from those words and nodded, shouting.

“You can’t go!”

“That’s right! … No, wait. Like you said, we can’t catch her, right? So that means she shouldn’t wander around at night?”

Listening to this conversation, I giggled, remembering the hairpin Grandma Lecia had given me.

In fact, thanks to the hairpin, it was harder to get kidnapped even if I wanted to…

‘Still, you never know what might happen in life.’

I thought it was best to listen to Han A-rin.

As I nodded, thinking that adult advice seems right after all, even though I’m not sure if it’s because I’m an adult now.

Yuna, who was next to me, patted my head and said.

“You know? From now on, you won’t do it.”

“…?”

I was pouting a little, feeling somewhat wronged.

Han A-rin, who had been gently nagging in front of us, seemed to remember something and raised her fingers, bringing up a new topic.

“By the way, Ha-eun, remember that mana circulation method I told you about before? I think it’s almost complete. When it’s done, I’ll tell you first, so look forward to it.”

I was quite surprised to hear that the research might be finished sooner than expected.

After all, as far as I knew, research was an incredibly difficult task that required experiments, verification, and writing papers.

However, it’s surprising to hear that all of this was resolved in less than a month.

‘Is it possible thanks to magic?’

Thinking that they might have used time acceleration magic or created a virtual environment with magic to progress quickly, I thought Han A-rin was amazing.

While I was still in awe, Han A-rin looked at me and said one thing.

“When the research is completed, your name, Ha-eun, will be listed as a co-developer. So prepare for interviews in advance, okay?”

Judging by the playful expression on her face.

I knew she wasn’t being serious, but I couldn’t help feeling nervous anyway.

I felt my body freeze as I blinked.

‘Interview…’

I felt overwhelmed with nervousness as I had never done an interview in my life.

While I was fidgeting with my fingers, thinking about what to say or what tone to use during an interview,

Han A-rin continued her teasing as she looked at me.

“Reporters will swarm around you, Ha-eun, asking things like, ‘How did you make this?’ ‘Are you a genius, Ha-eun?’ ‘Why are you so cute?’ Have you thought about how you’ll answer?”

“I, I don’t know.”

“Then shall we think about it together? What would be good to say during the interview?”

That would be fortunate.

I nodded quickly, thinking that while it might be impossible to solve on my own, it might be possible if several people worked together.

Han A-rin smiled with a very satisfied expression and suggested that we practice interviews for the day.

* * *

“Since it’s interview practice, I stole… borrowed a microphone from the nearby auditorium.”

I received a microphone as big as my face while listening to Seo-rin’s somewhat uneasy words.

In the past, I didn’t realize it, but maybe because it’s made of metal, I thought it was quite heavy as I held it with both hands, trembling.

Chae-a stared at it intently and then giggled as she said to me.

“It looks like an ashukrim!”

“Ashu…?”

“Ice cream!”

Hearing that, I looked at the microphone and indeed, it did resemble an ice cream in shape.

The top was round, and the bottom was pointed like a cone.

As I was looking at it, finding Chae-a’s imagination cute and smiling along, Yuna carefully covered my lips with her palm and spoke in a worried voice.

“You shouldn’t eat it. You know that, right?”

It seems she thought I might try to eat the microphone and was giving me a preemptive warning.

Hearing Yuna’s words, I felt a bit mischievous, so I opened my mouth as wide as possible and pretended to bite the microphone, going “nom nom nom” as if I was nibbling on it.

The moment I bit the microphone, Yuna’s tail and ears stood straight up, strongly expressing ‘I’m surprised!’

Finding Yuna’s reaction amusing, I continued to pretend to bite the microphone.

Yuna, flustered and restless, eventually hugged me tightly and said.

“You shouldn’t bite that. If you must bite something, bite Yuna’s tail instead.”

Then she held out her tail, clearly showing her embarrassment.

Of course, there was little change in her facial expression, so to a third party, it might just look like she was comforting me.

But as someone who could read Yuna’s emotional expressions, I could strongly feel how flustered she was.

‘Revenge for all this time!’

Thinking of it as a small prank in return for being treated like a baby, I continued to pretend to bite the microphone, going “nom nom nom”.

Ha-eun seemed to think it was time to stop, so she quickly ran to Chae-a and explained the situation.

“Ha-eun ate something strange.”

“?!”

Upon hearing Yuna’s words, Chae-a looked very surprised and quickly glanced at me.

She waddled towards me like a penguin running and shouted loudly.

“No…!”

Because her voice was louder than expected, even Seo-rin and Han A-rin nearby noticed it.

I quickly lowered the microphone, fearing I might really be perceived as a baby doing childish things, but.

“You can’t eat that…! It hurts!”

Chae-a, not understanding my intentions, kept shouting loudly that I shouldn’t eat it.

‘I made a mistake.’

If I was going to play a prank, I should have done it quickly and moved on.

Yuna’s reaction was so funny that I ended up doing it for too long.

As I was briefly reflecting and about to say it was a joke, Han A-rin picked me up first and started examining the inside of my mouth.

“Are you okay? You didn’t eat any metal pieces, did you?”

The microphone was covered with something like soft cloth, so there was no chance of eating any metal pieces.

But Han A-rin didn’t seem to care about such trivial truths(?) and after examining my mouth, she said to those around in a serious voice.

“Ha-eun’s teeth are cute like tiny pebbles…”

“…?”

Aren’t you supposed to be checking for something in my mouth?

I was a bit suspicious, so I looked at Han A-rin with a pouty expression.

Han A-rin seemed to come to her senses then and hurriedly put me down while saying.

“It seems fine.”

I slightly pouted my lips, feeling like there was too little trust in me even though I had done something strange.

Normally I would have held it in, but my dissatisfaction with being treated like a baby all this time combined with my frustration about this situation, so I was showing that I was angry.

“Ha-euni shouldn’t be hurt… Yuna will cry a lot.”

Very slightly, but Yuna’s eyes turned red as she hugged me and started whimpering.

I opened my eyes wide, as it was the first time Yuna, who rarely expresses emotions, showed this much feeling.

I quickly comforted Yuna, declaring ‘I won’t do it again!’ and hugged her tightly.

“I know.”

Yuna, happy that I made a promise, wagged her drooping tail again, showing her joy.

While I was patting Yuna and trying my best to comfort her so she wouldn’t be depressed,

Chae-a watched us and said with a triumphant smile,

“It’s okay…! Chae-a will protect you! You know?”

It seemed Chae-a didn’t really understand what had happened.

But since we were whimpering, she proudly said she would protect us.

Han A-rin, looking at Chae-a,

“Didn’t you just ask to raise Ha-eun well earlier?”

She played a bit of a mischievous trick, but

Chae-a, as if she had quickly forgotten such a trivial thing, spoke very confidently.

“Yeah, that’s right!”

Han A-rin, trying to hold back her laughter at Chae-a’s confident answer, took a deep breath and spoke.

“Then shall we start practicing the interview? Since the microphone is dangerous, let’s replace it with candy, okay?”

Thinking that the evaluation had gone too far, I grabbed a lollipop.

Realizing it was much lighter than a microphone and could be held with one hand without difficulty, I climbed onto the sofa.

Han A-rin looked at me and spoke to Seo-rin, Chae-a, and Yuna who were sitting down.

“Let’s have each person ask one question. Then, shall I go first, unnie?”

Han A-rin, the most skilled at interviews among us, seemed to want to show an example of how it should be done.

Saying she would go first, she began to ask me a question.

“Ha-eun. How did you come up with the mana circulation method?”

As the question was more serious than I expected, I stuttered and told the truth.

“It, it wasn’t me, but Somteol who thought of it. Somteol told me how to do it.”

Even though we’re only doing this among people we know, I’m extremely nervous.

While I was thinking that my tongue felt stiff and I wasn’t sure what I was saying, my face turning bright red,

Han A-rin patted my head vigorously and gave me various compliments.

“You’re doing amazingly well for your first time. Ha-eun, you have talent.”

“Th-thank you.”

“Then, next is Seo-rin?”

Seo-rin, as if she had been waiting for this moment, stood up and asked me a perplexing question.

“What do you eat to be so cute?”

“…?”

“Answer quickly!”

“Ah, I’m not cute.”

Seo-rin couldn’t hold back her laughter and kept laughing for a while, finding it amusing to tease me.

Soon after, she took a deep breath, said it was a joke, gestured with her hand, and sat down.

“Now it’s Chae-a’s turn.”

“Okay, I got it!”

Chae-a confidently stood up and, fidgeting with her fingers, spoke to me.

“Ha-eun, do you like ants? Chae-a likes ants. They’re so cute when they do this, and they’re super strong…! That’s why I really like them. Oh, and the other day, Chae-a saw an ant brother this big. The ant brother was carrying a snack as big as his body, going ‘heave-ho, heave-ho’!”

It started as a question but ended up being a story about how cute ants are.

Thinking it was a very Chae-a-like question, I was giggling when.

Suddenly, I noticed Yuna’s expression next to me, looking as if she had realized something after listening to Chae-a’s words.