Chapter 158: The dishwashing is set

Actually, like Koharu, I was quite confident in my swimming.

To be precise, I had reasons to be good at it.

In that world, water was always an unpredictable variable. Sometimes reacting wildly, sometimes incredibly heavily.

Whether crossing a river or hiding, it often became the boundary between life and death.

There wasn’t a separate skill called “combat swimming.”

But there were definitely a few times when I had to swim forward with my bow on my back, holding my breath and cutting through the water.

And, that child.

The water spirit always summoned me into the water when it wanted to have a serious conversation. Actually, the way to build affinity with each spirit was slightly different.

Anyway, thanks to that, staying quietly and for long periods in the water became natural.

My body remembered it on its own. Breath, balance, the flow of resistance. Whether for combat or conversation, water had become a familiar environment for me.

Of course, I had rarely moved with the sole purpose of being “fast” like now… but still.

If a body familiar with the sensation of water also possessed this much strength, that combination gave me the confidence that I could easily cover this distance.

“Ready… Go!”

At the same time as Koharu’s voice timing me, I threw myself into the water.

---

The moment Leah’s toes left the tile, her body slipped into the water.

‘Huh…?’

Koharu followed her with her eyes. The entry was smooth, and there were almost no ripples.

Immediately after, no disturbance remained where her body had passed. It was as if the water had anticipated Leah’s movement and moved aside in advance.

‘Dolphin kick…? No, it’s similar, but it seems a little different.’

It was a technique usually used right after the start, to quickly cut through the water by undulating the entire body like a wave.

Leah’s movement certainly resembled it. But there was something even more remarkable about it.

Leah’s arms barely moved. Both arms remained extended forward, and her entire body glided like a single streamlined curve.

If mermaids existed, they would probably look like that.

“Huh…”

Beside her, Karen unconsciously inhaled.

In that short breath, Leah’s body had already turned halfway and entered the return leg.

‘Already? No, does that make sense? It’s the same distance as me.’

The returning Leah still didn’t surface.

Below the surface, in the water that became transparent like glass under the light, her silhouette was rapidly approaching.

“What in the world…?”

Sara’s murmur was heard.

And—

Her hand touched the end of the pool.

Startled, Koharu instinctively pressed the stopwatch.

The numbers displayed clearly on the screen: 11.54 seconds.

The moment she saw it, her mind went blank.

‘Seriously? This was possible?’

Koharu’s mouth opened, but no words of admiration came out. This was a very rare reaction for her.

“Wait, just now… was that really in the 11-second range?”

Karen spoke first, her voice trembling slightly.

She seemed surprised, but more than that, her eyes were trying to gauge something.

With her head tilted slightly, she watched Leah climb out of the water.

“The water splashing earlier was foreshadowing. Leah is actually made of motors…”

Even while throwing out a silly joke, her expression remained one of pure astonishment.

Sara let out a dry laugh and spoke to Koharu.

“Yoona. Didn’t you say even an Olympic athlete couldn’t do it?”

“Eh…?”

Koharu, looking dazed, blinked.

“You just said it. No matter how good an Olympic athlete is, they can’t break 11 seconds. Don’t you remember?”

“I remember…”

Koharu nodded, and only then did she look at the screen again.

11.54.

The numbers remained stubbornly fixed.

“…Then you were mistaken.”

Sara sighed and shook her head.

“I knew it when you were bragging about learning to swim a bit. You don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

“No… No… This really doesn’t make sense…”

Koharu muttered, staring blankly at the screen.

“So you’re saying if Leah went to the Olympics, she’d win a gold medal?”

“That’s…”

Her words trailed off.

Koharu couldn’t answer. Her mouth opened again, but no words came to mind.

Karen muttered dejectedly beside her.

“Who knows. There’s no 20-meter event in the Olympics…”

At those words, all three of them turned their gazes simultaneously.

It was Leah.

Shaking water from her hair as she approached, she naturally came to Koharu’s side and glanced at the screen.

“With this, the dishwashing duty is decided.”

At Leah’s words, all three pairs of eyes moved in unison.

Their heads turned at the same speed, as if they were machines.

“……”

Everyone stared intently at Leah’s face.

Even feeling their gazes, Leah tilted her head with a composed expression.

“Why? Sara unni and I combined are 53.65.”

And then she added calmly.

“Koharu and Karen were 53.85.”

Koharu, having regained some of her energy, shouted.

“Beep! Foul! Leah unni loses by foul!”

“What foul did I commit?”

Leah asked, sounding dumbfounded, but Koharu continued to shriek.

“Your very existence is a foul!”

---

After everyone showered, they gathered again for dinner.

Grilling the meat was my responsibility. I didn’t particularly dislike it. Just the right amount of heat and time, and a few flips. It was a simpler task than I expected.

Memories of grilling hunted game in the other world surfaced faintly, but this meat was vacuum-packed, aged Korean beef.

Dinner was prepared at an outdoor table.

The swimming pool was visible from the table, and lights were sparsely scattered over the water. The light sparkled as it broke on the ripples.

On the humid summer night, a lukewarm breeze flowed slowly over skin cooled by showers.

Sara was in charge of cooking. She prepared gambas and butter-grilled scallops.

Karen and Koharu moved between Sara and me, taking care of small tasks. Koharu brought an ice bucket and put ice in the glasses, while Karen placed the skewered and plated scallops and checked the photo angles.

…Karen might have seemed like she was playing around, but she was actually carefully selecting photos to upload on behalf of everyone.

Since all the 3rd gen members had come to play together, there was no reason not to upload a few photos for the fans.

And so, the food preparation was finished. Drinks were mainly highballs and cocktails.

“Is this meat good? Or did Leah grill it well?”

“Both, I guess.”

Karen praised the meat.

“You kept saying let’s all drink together, and Yoona finally got her wish, huh?”

“Yes! I love it!”

“She’s a lightweight but loves alcohol, it’s a problem.”

The number of shared glasses also increased.

“Taking song requests! What should we play?”

“How about playing Leah’s song?”

“Why would we play that?”

Music flowed from the high-performance speaker Koharu had brought.

The dishes were half-empty, and the glasses held flat, leftover drinks.

The speaker had been turned off at some point, and the conversation at the table had quieted down accordingly.

In the atmosphere that was slowly winding down, Karen suddenly blurted out.

“But about Leah earlier.”

Sara immediately followed up.

“Swimming? What was that, really? Honestly, it was a little scary.”

“Right, right! That was seriously amazing!”

“If Unni had starred in a live-action Little Mermaid movie, it would have been a massive hit!”

Exaggerated words flowed out, but within them, there was a clear sense of both admiration and unease.

Karen put down her glass and said.

“But that… is it really possible? That speed earlier. Did you genuinely swim that fast?”

“You saw it with your own eyes.”

I answered briefly.

Karen looked at my face for a moment, then quietly continued.

“No, I mean… I’m genuinely curious. If Leah… ‘intentionally showed us that,’ I wonder why.”

A brief silence fell. Sara gestured for Koharu, who was about to open her mouth as if to liven up the mood, to stop.

Actually, I had thought about it too.

Why exactly did I show them that much?

I just wanted to win—that wasn’t it.

It wasn’t like the day I chased the person taking secret photos, where there was an immediate threat.

And yet, in that moment, I clearly judged that it was okay to go all out.

Perhaps it started from that time.

The day I jumped down an entire floor of the department store, I realized I couldn’t completely hide what I had from these three.

And today, in the middle of the swimming pool, I felt like, ‘If it’s that much, there’s nothing more to hide.’

There was no big decision, no dramatic resolve.

Just the thought that when I was with them, it was okay to show a little.

In that moment, it just naturally followed.

“I just… didn’t think it was worth hiding.”

Silence flowed.

Koharu’s eyes widened as she said.

“What were you hiding? That Unni is a cyborg from the future?”

Sara played along.

“Or a real former athlete? Some kind of secret agent?”

“Wow, Bomi unni, your sense of humor is truly hopeless. Why would someone like that be a Vtuber?”

“Cyborg, shut up.”

I watched them and chuckled softly.

“…No. I am.”