Ch.191Second Year (5)

Throughout both my past and present lives, I’ve had many experiences that gave me goosebumps so intense I couldn’t even scream.

In my past life, it was things like turning on the lights when I got home only to have a cockroach fly right at my face, or my parents using my computer, and so on.

In this life, it was showing Marie a drawing of a steam locomotive due to my own clumsy mistake. Fortunately, I drew it like a child would, so I wasn’t found out.

Well, at this point those things don’t really matter much anymore. But I distinctly remember how my face changed color in real time.

“Author Xenon?”

And now, back in the present, I once again felt that sinking feeling in my heart. All because of the pink-haired student in front of me, Cherry.

I don’t know why she’s preciously keeping my hair, but regardless, this is definitely a crisis. As I’ve always mentioned, red hair is extremely rare.

How rare? It’s more scarce than diamond, harder to find than even mythril. There’s even a folk belief that it was the symbol of a fallen royal family, but that’s not my concern.

“Xenon? Why did that name suddenly come up?”

“W-well…”

Right now, deflecting is the most important thing. If it were just Cherry and me alone, that would be one thing, but Elena is right beside us, and students who’ve finished their lectures are walking around in the hallway.

I answered Elena’s question with extreme tension while looking at Cherry. She still had her head tilted with those lifeless eyes.

Didn’t she mention earlier that hair came out in a letter? Since I’ve been diligently replying to her fan letters, a strand of my hair might have accidentally gotten in.

But keeping that hair in a glass bottle… that’s definitely not normal. I feel bad saying this about her, but she clearly has some mental issues.

After swallowing hard, I kindly asked Cherry, who was still holding onto my hair.

“Cherry? May I ask why you called me Author Xenon?”

“Red.”

When I asked, Cherry briefly answered while showing me the hair in the glass bottle up close. It was only a single strand, but it had a vivid red color.

Though her answer was short, I think I understand what she means by “red.” The hair in the letter and my hair color must be identical.

However, there’s one thing she hasn’t noticed. After pretending to think for a moment, I asked Cherry:

“You said this hair came out of a letter earlier, right?”

Nod- nod-

“So you concluded I’m Xenon because my hair color and this hair color are exactly the same?”

Nod- nod-

Cherry nodded to my consecutive questions. Yet she still held my hair tightly, not letting go.

I stared at Cherry’s expression, which seemed somewhat expectant, then pointed to the hair she was holding and spoke.

“But Cherry, as you can see, my hair is long, right? This is a short strand of hair.”

“…Ah?”

That’s right. When I replied to Cherry’s letters, it was before Mora played a prank on me, when my hair was a normal length.

But now my hair has grown down to my waist. Even women need at least a few months to grow hair that reaches their waist, let alone men.

Cherry seemed to realize this belatedly, as she slowly blinked her eyes and compared the length of my hair with the hair in the bottle.

“And there are many people with red hair in the world besides me. Isn’t it too hasty to conclude I’m Author Xenon just because the colors match?”

“…”

When I pointed this out in a gentle voice, Cherry’s grip on my hair gradually loosened. Her already lifeless eyes grew even darker.

Just as I was starting to feel uneasy at her reaction, Cherry lowered her head and muttered in a doubtful voice:

“Is it not…?”

“…”

“Red is… so rare…”

Can a person be this eerie? Hearing Cherry’s muttering, I felt my mouth go completely dry.

If I weren’t actually Xenon, it might be different, but since I am, I can’t easily dismiss this. I need to somehow distance myself from Cherry, but that’s not easy.

Fortunately, someone stepped in to end this situation:

“Cherry? Don’t you have another class? Shouldn’t you be attending orientation at least?”

It was Elena, who had been observing the situation from the side. She pushed up her glasses and spoke to Cherry in her characteristically businesslike tone.

Her words essentially meant: stop bothering innocent people and go to class. At that, Cherry slowly raised her head that had been lowered.

After exchanging glances with Elena for a while, she finally opened her mouth with her characteristically gloomy voice.

“…Where is it?”

“Huh?”

“Office…”

She must mean my research office. It seems she hasn’t given up her suspicions and plans to come find me.

Elena pondered the question for a while, then looked at me with an expression asking what I wanted to do. It was extremely awkward, but refusing didn’t seem right.

I had a strong feeling that this Cherry girl would follow me even if I refused. She might even skip her next class to tail me.

I let out a long sigh at the increasingly complicated situation and spoke with mixed feelings.

“…I’ll draw you a map, so come there. It’s in a building called the History Hall.”

“Thank you…”

Cherry thanked me and took out a notebook and magic pen that she always carries. I wonder when she’s planning to let go of my hair.

While I was thinking about that and drawing the map in the notebook, I felt an intense gaze from in front of me. It must be Cherry, but it’s too strong.

As soon as I slightly raised my head, I couldn’t help but flinch.

Her eyes were still dull like a fish’s, but somehow she was smiling eerily. Her gaze was directed precisely at my hand.

“I knew it…”

“W-what?”

She muttered and pointed her index finger not at the page with the map, but at the back part of the notebook. Wondering what she meant, I flipped the notebook.

On the back of the notebook were not records related to the Biography of Xenon, but simple notes. Things like today’s to-do list or important appointments.

It might be hard to notice immediately just from this, but I couldn’t help but realize after hearing Cherry’s next words.

“Handwriting…”

“…”

“Same as… the letter…”

Just as everyone has a different personality, handwriting also differs. Even if you deliberately try to forge someone’s writing, it takes tremendous effort.

And my handwriting is elegant enough to be praised even by my mother. It’s the result of my efforts to write beautifully while writing novels by hand.

But to be caught because of my handwriting—it’s absolutely ridiculous. It might be because we’ve been exchanging letters, but contrary to appearances, she seems to have very keen observation skills.

Riiip-

Without answering Cherry’s confirmation, I tore out the map and handed it to her. When I gave her the map, she preciously held it with both hands as if receiving a treasure.

Her expression had also clearly changed from before—the corners of her mouth slightly turned up and her cheeks faintly blushed. But her dead eyes remained unchanged.

It gave me goosebumps, like watching a doll smile, but I tried my best not to show it.

“Come here. I’ll be there until at least 6 o’clock, so finish all your classes before coming. Understand?”

“Yes…”

“I don’t know what misunderstanding you have, but I’ll deny it for now. I’m not that person.”

I didn’t forget to deny it until the end, just in case. It seems I’ve been half-exposed already, but I have no choice but to deny it as much as possible.

But Cherry seemed to take my strong denial as confirmation instead, as she just smiled gloomily. She has a pretty appearance and a figure no less impressive than Cecilly’s, but those eyes ruin it all.

Just as I was about to turn around and walk away with an uneasy feeling:

Grab-

Cherry suddenly grabbed my right hand, stopping me. It’s better than grabbing my hair, but it still makes me nervous.

Finally, I slightly frowned and looked at her as if asking what was wrong, when I felt a strange sensation on my right hand.

The callus in the middle part of my right middle finger. She was touching the pen callus I’ve had consistently since long ago.

“Pen callus…”

“…”

“I… have one too…”

Cherry said this while showing me her right hand. Her long, slender fingers were noticeable, but the most remarkable point was her middle finger.

Like me, she had a pen callus in the middle part of her middle finger. Does she write often, as I saw in the letters?

But more concerning than that was Cherry’s expression. She was trying to smile, but the corners of her mouth were trembling, suggesting she was afraid of something.

I don’t know what she wants or what trauma she carries, but I had a feeling that saying cold words would be absolutely wrong.

I can’t be harsh to someone who already seems mentally unstable. I smiled and spoke in a kind voice:

“Seeing that Cherry also has a pen callus, you must have worked hard.”

“Ah…”

“I don’t know what efforts you’re making, but if you keep working hard, you’ll see results.”

I’m not sure if my words provided warm comfort, but:

“So please don’t give up. Okay?”

A little light returned to Cherry’s eyes.

*****

“Huff… huff… haah…”

After Issac and Elena left, Cherry didn’t attend her next class and instead rushed somewhere urgently.

Her pink hair fluttered in the wind, and running was difficult because of her unnecessarily large chest, but she still moved her legs steadily.

Passersby looked at her strangely but turned their gaze away and went about their business. Eventually, Cherry arrived at the female student dormitory.

“Haah… haah…”

After entering the dormitory she was assigned on the day of the entrance ceremony, she firmly closed the door and regulated her breathing. Her ample chest rose and fell repeatedly, and her pink hair stuck to her skin from sweat.

Once she had calmed down somewhat, Cherry raised her head calmly. With eyes that seemed brighter than before, she hurriedly looked around the room.

Reflecting her unstable mental state, nothing was organized, and even the clothes she wore when entering the academy were scattered everywhere.

The same went for the bag containing her casual clothes rather than uniforms. She swallowed hard and walked toward the bag.

Rustle- rustle-

After frantically searching through the bag, what emerged was a large amount of paper. But its condition was very strange.

It looked as if someone had “torn it to shreds” and then put it back together with adhesive. There were even marks of it being roughly trampled on.

The damage was severe even from the outside. It’s amazing that it was pieced back together at all.

“…”

Cherry stared at the paper for a while, breathing heavily. The paper wasn’t just ordinary paper, but manuscript paper suitable for writing novels.

And on that manuscript was written a story. Although it’s difficult to read properly due to the severe damage, one can tell that it contains someone’s painstaking effort and affection.

And also that someone had ruthlessly torn apart that effort and affection.

[Instead of writing such garbage, you should read another philosophy book.]

As she looked at the manuscript, a man’s voice echoed in her head. Her small body began to tremble at that voice.

“Sob… sob…”

As she recalled that day when effort, affection, and heart were all cruelly torn apart, tears began to fall from Cherry’s eyes drop by drop.

As if releasing all the emotions she had bottled up inside, the droplets formed distinct streams and gathered on her chin.

“Please…”

She muttered, almost pleadingly.

“Tell me… tell me it’s true…”

She wept sorrowfully like someone standing at the edge of a cliff.