Ch.136Chapter 22. Hope (6)

I stood there, realizing that technically flying through the sky without permission like this was probably illegal, even in this version of South Korea that wasn’t exactly unified.

Wait, was it the same in other countries too? I wasn’t just a drone but an actual person flying. Well, as long as I didn’t go higher than the buildings, I wouldn’t collide with any aircraft.

The gentle breeze carried the scent of flowers as it brushed against my face.

I couldn’t tell if it was the fragrance of Hayun’s shampoo or if she’d absorbed a floral scent from all her magical girl activities, but I found myself unconsciously focusing on that aroma.

“Are you cold?” I whispered near Hayun’s ear, worried my voice might get lost in the wind.

Hayun shook her head.

Strangely enough, despite soaring through the sky, her gaze remained fixed not on the scenery around us but on my face.

Hmm. Honestly, even between close friends, being stared at so intently was a bit embarrassing. My outfit was already somewhat revealing. While I didn’t really care what strangers thought, having someone I knew staring so intensely made me feel shy.

Where should we go?

Since we were flying, it wouldn’t take long to reach anywhere in Seoul. We could literally go “anywhere.”

After seriously considering landing on a building rooftop, I decided to descend partway through our flight.

Jihye landed behind us after we touched down.

“Um, Hayun,” I said, noticing she was still clinging to my neck despite having landed.

“Would you mind letting go?”

There were quite a few people around.

We hadn’t come down here to show everyone how close we were.

Seeing my genuine discomfort, Hayun finally released her grip on my neck.

“Hmph.”

Jihye’s snort from beside us was a bit intimidating, but I tried my best not to show my embarrassment.

I didn’t bother undoing my transformation. We might need to fly again soon anyway. And while my outfit was revealing, there wasn’t much point in hiding anymore. The media had already exposed us nationwide.

Besides, we’d been wearing pajamas before transforming. I’m not sure exactly how the magic works, but when the transformation ends, we return to whatever we were wearing before. If we undid our transformations now, we’d be standing in the middle of Hangang Park in our pajamas.

Jihye seemed to understand this too and didn’t undo her transformation. As for Hayun, either she hadn’t been planning to sleep yet or was too upset to think about changing clothes, because she was still in the same outfit I’d last seen her in.

Come to think of it, I might be the only one in an embarrassing outfit here. At least Jihye’s costume didn’t reveal as much skin as mine.

Feeling self-conscious about that thought, I quickly decided to get to the point.

“Wait here.”

We had landed in a park along the Han River. Even as a Seoul resident, I wasn’t knowledgeable enough about local landmarks to pinpoint exactly which Hangang Park this was, but it was definitely one of the parks near the massive river flowing through the center of Seoul.

Not that I’d ever visited before.

In my past life, I never really had a hobby of going places, and in this life, even though I thought I’d been to various places with Hayun and Jihye, I realized I didn’t even know where we were when we came out without thinking. Judging by the golden building in the distance, we were probably somewhere near Yeouido.

“Jihye, just a moment—”

“No.”

Jihye responded sulkily before I could even finish.

She didn’t seem terribly angry, so I wasn’t scared, but the issue was the attention from people around us.

This was a park by the Han River. Even at this hour, there were quite a few people. If a photo of me kissing another magical girl made headlines, imagine what would happen if they saw us actually fighting.

If the Federation was behind taking Hayun’s circuit, they must be quite conscious of us magical girls. Cherry had even suggested making us a third faction.

While I had no intention of taking political action, appearing to be at odds with each other didn’t seem like a good idea.

“Hayun?”

When I looked toward Hayun, she was hugging herself. Thinking about it, she was wearing short sleeves. Having come out without a jacket, she must be cold.

Jihye and I were protected by magic, so…

Before I could tell her to wait again, Hayun quickly approached and clung to my arm.

Seeing this, Jihye narrowed her eyes, then came to my other side and stuck to me like glue. Of course, she grabbed my arm too.

I closed my eyes briefly, let out a deep sigh, and said, “Fine, let’s all go together…”

I had planned to buy some ice cream from a convenience store.

Well, it’s probably better to let them choose what they want anyway.

*

Considering the chilly weather, the three of us bought warm coffee instead of ice cream.

Then we sat side by side on a nearby empty bench.

People didn’t crowd around us. Perhaps they understood that surrounding us would only make the situation awkward.

Or maybe they knew I was someone who smashed kaijin heads with my hammer. They probably didn’t want their own heads smashed.

Slurp.

The warm coffee traveled down my throat, heating my body.

I wasn’t particularly cold, but I didn’t mind the warmth of the coffee.

Speaking of warmth, I was more conscious of Jihye and Hayun clinging to either side of me. Since my outfit exposed my arms, I could feel the skin of Hayun in her short-sleeved shirt and Jihye in her sleeveless outfit.

That sensation was far more distracting than their body heat.

Both of them were blushing but still stubbornly clinging to me, which was quite something.

Slurp.

Well, sitting like this was actually helping me calm down too.

Starting from when Hayun invaded my tent, I’d consistently had someone clinging to me every time I slept.

Whether it was Hayun, Ju-a, or Jihye.

Before that, even when sharing a room with Jihye, we’d never slept so close together.

Thinking about it, I should have felt more comfortable returning to the proper number of people per room, but strangely, I couldn’t adjust.

Was it because barely a day had passed?

“Hayun.”

After thinking for a while, I called out to her.

“Yes?” she answered, as if she’d been waiting for me to speak.

“…If you want, should we run away again?”

Whoosh.

Jihye’s face turned toward me with frightening speed. For a brief moment, her eyes seemed to bulge.

“W-wait, Jihye. Calm down and listen.”

As I turned my head toward Jihye, I could feel Hayun’s gaze burning into my left cheek.

“What I mean is, I’m not saying I’ll go live alone with Hayun.”

“Not saying you’ll live with her?”

Her voice was so menacing, as if my fate depended on my next words, that I answered with a slight sweat.

“I’m saying we should hide Hayun.”

“…At our orphanage?”

“Um… yes?”

I answered with confusion at her clearly dissatisfied tone.

Jihye’s eyes narrowed.

“After we just parted this afternoon? After we agreed to return to our respective places?”

“…”

I had no response to that.

I wasn’t sure how to answer.

To be honest, I just felt sorry for Hayun.

This feeling was similar to when I’d grab Hayun’s wrist and pull her away to somewhere private when she was dejected for various reasons.

I wanted to help her ignore those judgmental stares.

Deep down, I had been jealous of her and wanted to surpass her, but at the same time, she was someone I’d naturally been with since we were very young.

I knew Hayun’s vulnerabilities that others didn’t.

“Still,” I said, turning toward Hayun, then flinched at her expression.

Her face had changed. It was markedly different from moments before.

Should I call it shock?

No, it seemed a bit different.

I’m not sure how to describe her expression as she stared up at me with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth.

Her face was flushed red, and her eyes sparkled brightly. Usually, the word “shock” carries negative emotions, but Hayun’s expression was closer to one of being moved.

Did she like my suggestion?

“See, Hayun is looking at you like you’re some prince on a white horse, even though your outfit is flesh-colored like no princess would wear.”

“It’s white!?” I exclaimed in horror.

Jihye, still looking quite displeased, retorted, “Your skin might be quite fair, but there’s still a lot of flesh color showing.”

“No matter what, the fabric covers more! What do you think my outfit is?”

I lowered my voice as I heard laughter from around us.

Maybe we should have gone somewhere more private?

Wait, did people also hear my suggestion about “running away” earlier? Only then did my face start to flush. Seeing this, Jihye shook her head in disbelief.

She seemed to have reverted from her scared hamster-like demeanor to her original personality, or perhaps even beyond. Had becoming a magical girl boosted her confidence?

“Anyway,” Jihye said with a pout.

“If you bring home a cat, you have to take care of it yourself. That’s the rule, right?”

“I never said I’d pick up a cat, and pets aren’t allowed at the orphanage anyway.”

“Who exactly are you calling a cat?”

Ignoring my response completely, Hayun interjected.

Hayun, who had been by my side, was now clinging to my arm again, pressed tightly against me. Earlier, we’d been sitting shoulder to shoulder, so I only felt her arm, but now she had turned her upper body toward me, which felt awkward in various ways.

She even rested her chin slightly on my chest, as if deliberately looking away from the other side.

“No one said you were a cat,” Jihye replied.

“Wouldn’t saying ‘who’ be a bit strange if we were talking about cats? Why? Is something bothering you? Well, cat or not, whoever brings someone in should naturally take responsibility.”

Her voice had a sharp edge to it.

And please, Jihye, don’t rest your chin on my chest too. If I were wearing a school uniform it wouldn’t matter, but my current outfit is problematic.

Even though the magical outfit never gets disheveled no matter how much I move, if the body underneath changes shape embarrassingly, the outfit’s shape changes embarrassingly too.

“Hmm, so if Jieun brings something in, she has to take ‘responsibility’?” Hayun said in a voice I rarely heard from her.

It wasn’t overtly angry, but somehow it was chilling.

“Responsibility comes in different forms,” Jihye said.

“For example, providing a separate home. But I don’t think there are any rooms left, right?”

“She can stay in Jieun’s room. There’s plenty of space.”

“But that would cause various problems. A few days of protection might be fine, but things like food costs and various supplies require money.”

“…”

Feeling that the conversation would only get more intense if I kept listening, I lowered my hands and pulled both Jihye and Hayun closer by their waists.

“Eep!?”

“Kyaa!?”

Both of them were startled by my sudden action.

Perhaps they had been so focused on their conversation that they didn’t expect it. Though it was becoming less of a conversation and more of a derailment.

“Let’s fly again. If we stay here, more people will gather.”

The number of people pretending not to be interested but hovering around us was increasing.

It was probably time for another photo to be uploaded to the internet. If these two kept fighting, rumors might spread that we weren’t getting along.

…In truth, I had simply forgotten my original purpose.

I stood up abruptly, taking both of them with me.

Fortunately, we had all finished our coffee. We quickly disposed of the cans in a nearby trash bin, and I embraced both of them as we took off into the sky.

“Can’t Jihye fly on her own?”

“Oh.”

In our haste to leave, I had forgotten.

But despite Hayun’s comment, Jihye didn’t seem inclined to let go.

“You’ve been holding her the whole time. I’m just helping because you must be getting tired.”

“…”

Hayun seemed unable to counter that argument.

Thanks to magic, I wasn’t particularly tired, but feeling that intervening would only make things worse for me, I simply continued flying while firmly holding both their waists.

…There’s still plenty of time before Hayun’s parents go to sleep, right?

We’ll need to keep flying for a few more hours.

…Where should we go now?

*

We managed to pass the time one way or another.

Fortunately, the verbal sparring between Hayun and Jihye didn’t cross any lines.

Perhaps they had some kind of gentlemen’s agreement, or maybe they were restraining themselves in front of me.

After I asked, “Have you two always fought like this when I wasn’t around?” neither of them spoke for a while, which gave me some breathing room.

Just after 10 PM, the three of us returned through the window into Hayun’s room at the mansion.

Come to think of it, I wondered if there were CCTVs. Well, we hadn’t been caught so far, so probably not. Maybe they were only at the main gate. Or perhaps no one was monitoring them right now.

After carefully closing the window in Hayun’s room, we waited leisurely for about another hour.

Knowing that making noise could get us caught, both Jihye and Hayun were quite quiet in the room.

“…Alright.”

After checking the time, I muttered, and Hayun nodded.

We turned off the lights in the room. Then we carefully walked to Hayun’s door.

We gently opened the door and looked outside.

The living room was quiet.

Before coming here, I’d heard that this house had only one household staff—a housekeeper. And even she didn’t stay overnight; she came in the morning and left in the evening.

There was no separate security staff; instead, they used a security company.

So if Hayun’s parents were asleep, naturally there would be no one moving around in the house except us.

“Do you know where they hid it?”

“…Father’s study. There’s a safe there.”

A safe.

A fitting fixture for such a wealthy home.

“What’s the password?”

“…My birthday.”

At those words, I was momentarily speechless. Even Jihye seemed to empathize with Hayun in this moment and kept her mouth shut.

We silently tiptoed through the corridor and down the stairs.

Fortunately, there were no creaky spots, so we made it to the study without any issues.

…This feels familiar somehow.

Right, I had a similar experience when I was a Combatant. Though I ended up getting caught then.

Hayun put her finger to her lips, then opened the study door.

Fortunately, the door itself wasn’t locked.

Hayun carefully opened the door to check inside, then gestured to us again.

Jihye and I followed Hayun cautiously into the study.

The safe was in plain sight. It was as if they were confident no one would come this far.

Even though their own daughter had come to steal something.

I guess they never imagined it. Hayun was the “perfect” daughter, after all.

That thought made my blood boil. When I just saw her as a character, it didn’t matter. Her parents were barely background characters who didn’t play significant roles in the main story.

But in this world, Hayun wasn’t just a character but a real person. Moreover, she was my precious friend.

Thinking about what her parents had done to Hayun, I couldn’t help but feel angry.

I turned on the portable humidifier we’d bought on our way back. Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any laser security.

Still moving as carefully as possible, we approached the safe right behind the study desk.

Hayun reached for the safe and pressed its buttons—

And immediately we covered our ears.

An ear-splitting alarm went off.

As if they knew Hayun would come here, some device had been installed in the safe.

We heard someone running outside the door, and then it burst open.

This was my first encounter with Hayun’s parents.

“…You. It was you.”

I was taken aback by the middle-aged man who spoke as if he knew me.

He probably judged me based on what he’d seen in the news or newspapers.

He likely thought I was the one who had led his daughter astray.

“Hayun—”

The person who appeared to be Hayun’s mother spoke, and Hayun, who had been crouching, slowly stood up.

“…Mom.”

“Hayun, why did you do this, why…”

She spoke as if this situation was heartbreakingly painful.

Seeing Hayun’s shoulders shrink, something snapped in my mind.

I grabbed Hayun’s shoulders and turned her toward me.

“Huh?”

As Hayun looked up at me, I roughly pressed my lips against hers.