Chapter 36 : Cola Cider [Part 2]

“…So why me?” 

I wasn’t really asking out of curiosity. 

I was just caught off guard by how suddenly she had switched from a mysterious atmosphere to talking about food. 

But she answered as if it were the most natural thing in the world. 

“Just because. I thought you’d buy me food.” 

I stifled a laugh and rubbed my forehead. 

…What kind of person is this? 

I sighed quietly and, in the end, took her to a restaurant. 

The restaurant was quiet. I moved to a corner out of habit. 

While she was looking through the menu, she suddenly spoke up. 

“I lost my wallet, so I was in a bit of a tight spot.” 

“Oh, I see.” 

Then she fidgeted with her fingers and added, 

“And it’s a bit awkward eating alone. It’s my first time eating by myself.” 

“If it’s your first time, it might be awkward. But isn’t it even more awkward eating with a stranger?” 

Instead of answering, she stared at me intently. 

“Are we strangers?” 

“We just met.” 

“You seem oddly familiar.” 

I had no idea what she was talking about. 

One thing was clear: she wasn’t exactly in her right mind. 

It would be best if I just fed her and parted ways. 

“Are you used to eating alone?” 

She asked seriously, staring at the menu. 

She asked while half-closing her eyes in what looked like fatigue, and then slowly opened them. 

“Yeah? …It’s comfortable. I’m used to it.” 

Then she quietly smiled. 

“Do you know the difference between being used to something and being comfortable with it?” 

I was momentarily at a loss for words. 

“You should definitely figure out that difference.” 

“…What’s the difference?” 

She slowly looked up and stared at me. 

She smiled softly and said, 

“Well, don’t you think it’d be boring if I just told you everything?” 

“Is that so?” 

“What’s certain is that you’re not someone who feels comfortable being alone.” 

Her words, though casually thrown, strangely struck at the heart of things. 

Above all, what bothered me the most was that her words weren’t wrong. 

“You talk like you know me well.” 

“I know more than you think.” 

“I’ve never…” 

At that moment, I fell silent. 

Her index finger pressed against my lips. 

She was smiling at me. 

“Shh. That’s a secret.” 

As I wondered how to respond, she smiled lightly again. 

“How was it? Was it okay?” 

“Was what okay?” 

“Did I seem like Lumina? You know, the character who talks in these weird riddles.”

 I looked at her again. 

At the intersection of light and shadow, she stood in a place that felt oddly between reality and unreality. 

Mysterious, yet becoming too ordinary. 

And even in her simple, playful words, she pierced right into my heart. 

I felt like a fool for having seriously thought about it. 

“Yeah, exactly like her.” 

“Glad to hear that.” 

She casually turned her head and said, 

“I’ll have a cheeseburger set. What about you?” 

“I’m fine with just a drink.” 

“Oh? What drink should I get? Cola? Cider?” 

“Anything’s fine.” 

“Then I’ll go with a barley drink.” 

After ordering, the simple burger and fries were placed on the table. 

She picked up the burger and took a light bite. 

For a moment, the crisp sound echoed clearly in the quiet restaurant. 

I watched, feeling an odd sensation. 

Her lips, which had just been talking about fate and wandering, were now chewing on fries with ketchup so nonchalantly. 

The mysterious face shaded by sunlight seemed, in that moment, no different from any ordinary person. 

She picked up a fry and offered it to me. 

“Want one?” 

She was shameless. 

Acting like an old friend while asking a stranger to feed her. 

“No thanks.” 

The barley drink slid down my throat through the straw.

I’m not sure why this taste is always so delicious.

But it’s a drink that reminds me of someone.

“You should definitely make a choice. Otherwise, you’ll regret it, you know?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m saying you should decide whether you want cola or cider. There will come a moment when you’ll regret not choosing. 

There’s no guarantee that a good option like this will come again.”

The cosplay girl grinned, lifting the corners of her mouth, and said meaningfully,

“A journey without a destination is just wandering.”

“That’s a famous line.”

“How was it? Was it okay this time too?”

“Except for the ketchup on your lips.”

I wiped the ketchup off my lips and then asked,

“Do you know Schrödinger’s cat?”

“I’ve heard of it. Not in detail, but it’s mentioned briefly in ‘Pro Cutie,’ right?”

“Until it’s observed, it doesn’t exist.”

She quietly closed one eye.

Her eyes half-closed lazily. 

Her strange, leisurely attitude made it feel as though she had stepped out of the world’s time, like she was standing just outside of it.

And her golden eyes turned toward me.

She stared at me for a while, as if lost in thought, before opening her mouth.

“You might be like that too.”

Her words flowed out lightly, but I couldn’t help but feel uneasy.

“Me?”

“Something that isn’t observed doesn’t exist.”

She picked up another fry and, seemingly indifferent, continued,

“When you’re alone, who can prove that you really exist?”

“Well, of course…”

I trailed off.

Is it really so obvious?

Do I really exist when I’m alone?

She squinted her eyes mischievously and smiled.

“You can’t even be sure that you exist, can you?”

“…?”

“But if someone looks at you, talks to you, or is with you…”

She lightly tapped the table.

As she spoke, she kept tapping something with her fingertips.

“At that moment, you’re definitely ‘existing.’”

I quietly looked at her.

“Like right now?”

She smiled softly.

“Yeah, like right now.”

I unconsciously touched my wrist.

The moment Lee Jian had held my hand under the sunlight earlier came to mind.

When she held me, I was clearly there.

But when that touch left, and I stepped into the shade,

I felt faint, blurry, and like I was fading away.

Even in the shade, do I still exist?

“In the end, what matters is what choice you make.”

She continued nonchalantly.

“If you want to exist, you need to create a reason to exist. Whether it’s a person, work, or something you love.”

She popped the last fry in her mouth and added carelessly,

“If you just stay quietly in a box, your existence will eventually go unnoticed and end.”

I quietly mulled over her words.

To exist, you need a reason to exist.

Where am I right now?

And where do I need to go?

She took the last sip of her drink and sighed contentedly.

“Alright, now that I’m full, shall we go?”

I nodded silently, still wrapped in her words.

She tidied up the table, stood up, and then playfully said,

“Next time, you’re buying me food.”

“Huh?”

I almost nodded absentmindedly.

She was more shameless than I thought.

“I bought it today.”

“Yeah, so next time, you buy.”

What kind of person is this?

I stared at her silently.

She continued talking, not caring about my gaze.

“Come to think of it, I still have a lot of coupons left.”

“Coupons? What coupons? Then you could just use them to buy food.”

“They seem to have an expiration date. If you don’t use them at the right time, they’ll just disappear without being used.”

“Huh?”

She looked at me and smiled slightly.

“I don’t know when I earned them, but I still have a lot of coupons. Isn’t that weird?”

She muttered, gazing at the sky with a somewhat sad expression.

“I wonder when they piled up so much… even though they’ve piled up this much…”

“What are you even saying…”

She squinted at me for a long time, as though thinking deeply.

Does she have a habit of closing her eyes when lost in thought?

It was a strange habit.

She grinned mischievously and said,

“The kid who used to follow me around, holding onto my clothes, is now trying to find his own way?”

For a moment, my throat went dry.

…What does that mean?

It felt strangely familiar.

“This line is pretty famous too.”

“…Right.”

But this familiarity felt different.

“Oh, it’s late! Well, I’m off!”

Her exit was as sudden as her entrance.

She hurried away, but strangely, I couldn’t hear her footsteps.

I stared at her, wondering if she was a ghost, but I could clearly see her feet moving.

“What on earth is she doing?”

Grumbling, I headed back home.

But after talking to her, it felt like I had gotten some kind of answer.

It was like when I didn’t know the answer to something, and my older sister would explain it to me.

Older sister?

That couldn’t be right.

I never had an older sister.

I rubbed my forehead.

“Maybe I’m just overheated.”