Ch.242IF Side Story: From the Beginning (10)

I decided to be more cautious about approaching Delphinium.

While I’ve had friends in both my past life and this one, I’ve always been closer to being an outsider than an insider in either life.

And because of that, I understand their behavior well. I know how it feels when someone you’re not close with suddenly approaches you.

“…”

Wait, thinking about it this way makes me seem like an insider trying to talk to an outsider for no reason.

Not that I’m a bully. If I picked a fight with Delphinium, I’d probably get beaten up in a different way than with Seo-hee or Yeon-woo.

Still, for some reason, I don’t want to just leave her alone.

Looking at her reminds me of the class representative who kept talking to me in college. He wasn’t a woman, of course, but he would drag me to department gatherings whenever I sat alone in a corner. We never contacted each other during breaks, but considering he did this at every department event, maybe he just didn’t like the feeling of “excluding someone.”

Well, I suppose most people would feel that way unless they had a truly strange personality. I was in my twenties, not teens, so I was old enough to care about relationships.

“Jieun.”

Hayun called me, probably noticing that my gaze kept drifting toward Delphinium.

When I looked at Hayun, it felt like I was staring at a blazing sun.

I mean… Hayun’s smile had always been as bright as the sun. Sometimes it dimmed a little, sometimes it faltered slightly, but the smile she showed me was always like that.

It’s still sun-like now.

But how should I put it? It’s more like the scorching midday sun of midsummer. Or like the sun that rises right after the rainy season, feeling unusually sticky.

Anyway, it was a bit different from usual.

And judging from the context, that smile seemed to be because I kept paying attention to Delphinium.

“Oh, yes?”

It took me a moment to grasp the situation, so my response came out a bit late.

“Want to go somewhere fun today?”

“Fun?”

It’s not often that Hayun brings this up first. Usually, I’m the one taking her places.

Not that she only does what I tell her to do. She’s just a kid who doesn’t have strong desires to go places, and there are things she needs to be careful about because of her parents.

Of course, I skipped the part about her parents and just took her around. Why should Hayun have to live under such oppression?

It seems a bit better now. Maybe because becoming a magical girl means she has connections to the Federation?

“…”

But I don’t think Hayun brought this up just because she’s feeling more comfortable.

“Sure.”

I answered.

I have been working pretty hard lately. I always put in decent effort, but this might be the first time I’ve been this passionate about something.

Seeing my response, the temperature of Hayun’s smile dropped a bit. Oh, I don’t mean she became cold. I mean her incredibly hot and humid smile returned to a normal sunny level.

“We don’t have any more sparring scheduled today anyway.”

After beating Seo-hee and Yeon-woo once each, we started getting along better, so I didn’t need to go pick fights with them every day. We just clashed fists whenever we felt like it.

We didn’t go all out either. Once you get a feel for it, it’s actually more educational to fight at a more relaxed pace and properly assess the situation.

So today was a day off. I was just hanging around because it was fun to be out here.

I should probably spend more time at the orphanage soon, as Jihye seems like she might get upset.

When I stood up, Hayun got up with a bright smile.

Then she came around the table and linked her arm with mine.

“Where should we go?”

Hmm.

There’s not much to see around here. If there were at least a lot of corporate office buildings, it might be different, but this place feels like it was forcibly built halfway up a mountain, so there’s not much entertainment nearby.

“Should we go to a bookstore? It’s been a while.”

“Yes, and let’s go to a karaoke place too.”

Karaoke, huh.

A coin karaoke would be good for having fun without taking too much time.

When I nodded, Hayun smiled brightly.

*

Going to the bookstore was fun.

Even if there wasn’t anything special to buy, we enjoyed looking at new books and wondering about their contents, laughing at photos of magical girls in magazines, and as always, browsing through music albums.

After halfheartedly examining a few pens in the stationery section, we went out and had some drinks at a nearby café.

Then we went to the karaoke place—

“Oh?!”

For some reason, we ran into Seo-hee.

…Huh?

Seo-hee was even alone. Well, it’s a coin karaoke, so that’s possible. I had a friend who went alone every day to practice singing.

“What, you guys came to sing too?”

As Seo-hee approached with a smile, Hayun somehow stuck close to my side.

Has she seen me getting beaten up by Seo-hee too often?

“Well, it is a karaoke place.”

“That’s great!”

Seo-hee said with a bright smile. Seems like she’s carrying around a sun on her face too. But at least it wasn’t the terrifying kind of smile Hayun had earlier.

“Since we’ve met like this, why don’t the three of us sing together? How about it?”

“Um…”

I looked at Hayun, who already had a smile on her face.

At least it wasn’t that incredibly hot and humid smile from before.

“…Well, I don’t mind.”

But I still wasn’t confident about Hayun’s smile. Somehow, it was a bit different from the smiles I’d seen from her over the years.

Still, Hayun seemed to have fun during the singing. It was a bit cramped for three people, though.

Later, we even headbanged while singing fast dance songs.

…

Wait, what’s this?

I usually wasn’t like this in front of other people. Of course, Hayun didn’t fall into that “other people” category.

…I wondered if I’d gotten too friendly with Seo-hee.

*

“Since it’s dinner time anyway, let’s eat before heading back.”

We followed Seo-hee’s suggestion.

There aren’t many meal options for three students. There’s no law saying middle school girls can’t eat soup with rice, but I don’t think I ever went for that even when I was a middle school boy in my past life.

Seo-hee suggested pasta. It didn’t seem like a bad choice, so Hayun and I nodded.

Hayun, whose mood had improved a lot after the karaoke, responded positively to Seo-hee’s suggestion.

I’m not sure why she was so angry before and why she’s calmed down now, but anyway.

And, surprisingly, we ran into Yeon-woo on our way there.

“Oh, what, are you guys going to get dinner too?”

Yeon-woo said with a smile.

Her attitude was incomparably softer than when we first met.

When I nodded, Yeon-woo shrugged and said:

“Want to eat together then? I just finished some business nearby and was wondering what to do.”

I looked at Hayun, who seemed to have an expression of resignation this time.

“Sure, why not.”

But it would be awkward to refuse at this point.

…It’s a bit much to reject when your friend asks what you want to do.

So we ended up having dinner together.

*

“Hey, Jieun.”

During dinner, Hayun called me.

“Yes?”

“Is that a circuit inside your sleeve?”

“Huh? Oh, you’re right.”

I replied casually.

Even if we don’t spar, we still do light training. Of course, as magical girl training, we need circuits.

I must have just kept wearing it after using it.

That’s not a problem. The circuits are meant to be carried around anyway. Wearing them on the wrist is even recommended.

After learning this fact, Seo-hee and Yeon-woo strangely avoided my eyes.

“Jieun, have you read the circuit manual?”

“Um… once, I think?”

“Then you know about the location sharing function, right?”

“Yeah? But that’s not a big problem, is it? Only Cherry and us can see it anyway.”

For some reason, Seo-hee and Yeon-woo’s shoulders twitched at my words.

Hayun let out a light sigh.

Her previously tense expression had changed to a bitter smile.

“Still, it’s better to keep it in your bag. Location information is personal information too. The function locks itself once you take it off your wrist.”

Is that so?

Well, that’s true, but… smartphones these days have location tracking features turned on by default. Isn’t that all personal information that companies can access if they want to?

But Hayun didn’t seem like she would accept any objections, so I decided to just eat my food quietly.

…What a strange day.