Ch.241IF Side Story: From the Beginning (9)

I feel a bit awkward saying this, but honestly, I think I’m starting to understand Seo-hee’s feelings now.

In my past life, I wasn’t particularly fond of exercise, but after running, throwing punches, and moving around to win, I realized how refreshing physical activity can be.

I get out of breath, feel pain, and my body creaks.

But beyond that, when everything is over, a sense of satisfaction wells up. The difficulty means I gave it my all.

According to Seo-hee, footwork is quite important in boxing.

Of course, as a beginner, I couldn’t perfectly follow those steps or smoothly incorporate feints, but it’s better than nothing. Anyway, my body receives magical enhancement.

Hayun told me that Dalia is right-handed.

While a wand might seem like it doesn’t need aiming since it’s a tool for magic, she said it’s better to point the tip at your target to help focus your mind. Like counting while pointing with your finger.

So, I ran hard toward Dalia’s left side. To slow down her turning motion toward me, even if just a little.

In a normal situation, that wouldn’t have been particularly effective.

After all, why would a trained person be slow to turn their body?

But conversely, I could increase my own speed to some extent. That was my own application of magic I’d learned.

Plus, having observed multiple times, I knew Dalia’s pattern for casting magic at me.

The closer I got, the smaller and more scattered her magic became. Perhaps “dispersing magic over a wide area” itself was the issue. She needed to focus properly by keeping me in her sight, which wasn’t easy against a fast-moving opponent.

“…Kuh!”

Small magical pellets like shotgun spray barely grazed my shoulder. But it was just a partial hit. It stung a bit, but at least I didn’t fall this time.

I moved further behind Dalia.

“Ah…!?”

Dalia hurriedly tried to turn around, but turning 90 degrees and turning completely in the opposite direction are different matters. Besides, once people panic, they often make irrational decisions for their next move.

If she had turned more than 180 degrees, it might have been better to turn her body in the opposite direction. That would be closer. Or she could have just turned her head and wand.

But perhaps thinking she needed to keep me in her sight, Dalia’s eyes kept following me. As her movements continued that way, Dalia naturally spun her body around as if pulled by inertia.

This was my opportunity.

I’ve never tried attacking with magic. At most, I’ve surrounded my fist with magical energy for a punch. But now I was running past Dalia’s side, which would make that difficult.

Hmm.

Well, I’ll grab her first.

I’ve never done judo, but—

I grabbed Dalia’s arm, ignoring her scream, and placed my other foot behind her foot. Then I pulled her arm with all my might and slammed her to the ground.

Right, I may not have done judo before, but I’ve at least done ssireum (Korean wrestling) during school sports festivals.

Those memories might be quite old, but anyway, reviving those memories to slam Dalia resulted in—

Thud.

Dalia hit the ground hard.

Ah.

I felt a bit guilty. With Seo-hee, I didn’t feel bad about hitting her since she openly threw punches at me.

But thinking about it again, wasn’t Dalia essentially firing a shotgun at me? So I guess I don’t feel bad after all.

“Haah.”

I exhaled deeply.

Dalia, who had fallen with quite a loud noise and momentarily showed an expression of pain, seemed to be contemplating what had just happened as she blinked her eyes.

After thinking for a while, Dalia spoke.

“I lost today.”

I extended my hand to Dalia as she said this. She sighed deeply, then took my hand and stood up.

“That was impressive, really.”

“I put my heart into studying it.”

For some reason, Dalia’s face reddened at my words.

I turned around with a satisfied smile, only to meet eyes with Hayun, who was watching me with puffed cheeks.

Um…

Why is she angry?

But before I could say anything, Hayun came to my side and linked her arm with mine.

“Does it hurt?”

“Well… not that much—”

“Come on, let’s go apply some medicine.”

I don’t think I need it.

But there was a strange force in Hayun’s words, so I ended up being led by her hand to the treatment room.

When I looked back, Dalia was watching Hayun and me intently with her hand on her chin.

Her mouth was smiling.

Somehow, I feel like tomorrow Dalia will be the one challenging me to a match.

Well, I’ll gladly accept.

I just need to win as many times as necessary.

*

“You seem to be enjoying yourself lately.”

Hayun said as we were alone in the hallway.

“Yeah, I guess so?”

When you have a clear goal in life and a path to achieve it, how can you not be happy?

Plus, I like being able to be alone with Hayun like this without anyone interrupting. At school, there are always people trying to talk to us.

Some even try to drive a wedge between us. Of course, Hayun never believes what others say about me. After all, we’re always together, so she knows I don’t have many friends at school.

Strangely, when I said I was enjoying myself, Hayun pouted. She seems upset.

“Why?”

“Nothing. It’s nothing.”

…

Well, isn’t that what they say girlfriends usually say when they’re angry?

Hayun isn’t my girlfriend, so why is she saying this? Ah, of course I like Hayun. She’s pretty, kind, and my childhood friend.

But the reason she’s acting like this…

Could it be that she’s upset because I’ve been hanging out with other people lately, even though we’re close friends?

I hope that’s it.

As I grinned at that thought, Hayun’s eyes narrowed.

She started poking my side repeatedly.

“Ah, oof!? Hayun, wait!?”

I shouted and quickened my pace to escape. Hayun chased after me openly, continuing her attack.

In the end, after sprinting at full speed for quite some time, we got caught by Cherry and were scolded.

*

I’ve become friends with two other magical girls this way.

I’m not naturally an outgoing person. Basically, I don’t try to befriend people who are completely incompatible with me. In my past life, I never went near the popular crowd, and in this life, I barely made friends with my schoolmates.

But what’s the use of making so many friends?

The number of friends isn’t that important. Well, having many isn’t bad, but even just one close friend means you’ll have someone to eat with.

In that sense, I never intended to become best friends with all the magical girls. I did plan to maintain at least minimal friendships.

It wasn’t intentional. It’s just… somehow these magical girls seemed strangely happy when I challenged them to fight.

Even Seo-hee and Yeon-woo, who weren’t particularly close, started talking to each other with me in between.

…

Wait, wasn’t this supposed to be Hayun’s role?

Well, I thought it wouldn’t matter. If Hayun had bad relationships with the others, it would be different, but she was friendly with the other girls, not much different from me.

However, in this situation, there was one person who concerned me.

It was Delphinium.

Even when the four of us occupied a corner of the lounge talking about various things, Delphinium sat a bit far away, silently reading a book.

She seemed to be training in her own way, but it didn’t appear to intersect much with our methods.

Seo-hee and Yeon-woo didn’t seem to care much about leaving Delphinium alone since they didn’t pay much attention to each other originally, but somehow it felt like we were excluding just Delphinium, which didn’t sit well with me.

“Hmm.”

“Hm? What is it?”

“Oh, nothing. It’s nothing important.”

I’m not naturally an “insider.” That means I’m not the type to deliberately approach a loner in the corner of the classroom to strike up a conversation.

But somehow, looking at Delphinium reminds me of when I first met Hayun.

Delphinium’s vibe is different, though. Hayun was dejected, but Delphinium was confidently alone.

…Still.

“…”

Hayun was staring at me as I looked at Delphinium.

No, so why?

Somehow, Hayun’s gaze has been bothering me lately.