Chapter 37 – Between Reason and Instinct

After things were settled…

Yoo Hayeon was off to train, and as I was about to head back to the dorm, she said to me,

“Anyway, you and I are dating from today on. It’s fine to tell other people we’re dating, right?”

“You’re going to tell others?”

“Why, you don’t like it?”

“Um…”

What effects would come about from revealing our relationship to the people around us?

I briefly thought about it.

“Hey, apparently they’re dating.”

“What? Really? It’s a bit of a waste from the girl’s side…”

“Even if the guy is handsome, doesn’t he have no abilities?”

Memories from the past.

The memories of my middle school days, where I used to get compared to Hayeon a lot, resurfaced.

I decided that it would be better not to divulge our relationship.

It was a fake one anyway.

“Wouldn’t it be better if they didn’t find out? It’s practice anyway.”

“…Practice. Right. It’s practice.”

Hayeon repeated with a disappointed look.

She took a moment to think, then it seemed as though she, too, deemed it wouldn’t be good to tell everyone.

“Then, can I tell my close friends?”

“If they’re close to you, well…it should be okay?”

Wouldn’t it be fine if she told friends who could keep a secret?

I believed it wouldn’t be bad if they were close friends with her.

Hayeon was also using this practice relationship to avoid other people’s attention. And if they’re close, rumors shouldn’t spread.

I decided that it would be fine if she let a small number of people know at least that much. 

“
It’s not like anything major will happen.”

It was just a relationship between a boy and a girl dating in school.

It was practically a secret romantic relationship on top of that.

I was certain that nothing major would happen if they knew up to that much.

If she told everyone, I won’t be able to extend my lifespan.

Who would think of approaching a man who was taken?

Maybe someone with no moral sense of knowledge like Ban Hana would, who knows?

Even if this was a fake relationship, if they knew I was dating someone, I would not be able to court them.

The truth of this matter being widely known was not good for me.

“I could’ve told others I had dibs…”

“Come again?”

“N-Nothing…!”

What did she mean by nothing?

I missed the words Hayeon had muttered.

Meanwhile…

Even though we were in a fake relationship, we were walking no differently as we usually did.

“You were bored because I was gone, weren’t you?”

“No. I was plenty fine by myself. Idiot.”

“…I don’t think so.”

We teased each other as we always did.

As we walked together, we talked a lot.

Such as her school days without me present.

And how the students placed a white chrysanthemum on my desk assuming I was dead.

Trivial stuff like that.

“Those bastards, seriously… I even considered killing them, you know? I mean, how can they label you as dead just based off of your kidnapping? I truly can’t comprehend their brain structure.”

“Well, they were always the ones who never liked me.”

“But, the ones whose misunderstanding had been cleared up wanted to apologize. What was his name… Ahn… Ahn…”

“Ahn Jiho.”

He was the one who was in the same group as me during the group assignment, and had a decent tanking ability.

Ahn Jiho had let Hayeon know that he wanted to apologize for jumping into conclusion and misunderstanding my situation.

“The one who should apologize is me though..”

“Huh, why? Did you do something wrong?”

“Something wrong… That I did…”

While I was in a dire state, I decleared that I would steal his girlfriend.

It was clearly my fault, so I felt like I should be the one to apologize.

Like, I didn’t actually mean I would steal her from him.

Even amidst the chaos as I was being kidnapped, I couldn’t forget how Jiho looked when I declared I would steal his girlfriend.

We murmured and chatted about such things, and before we knew it, our walk had made us arrive at our destination.

“…We’re here.”

“Yeah, it was faster than I thought.”

I didn’t pay much attention to the time since we were talking, but it didn’t take that long to return.

I said my goodbyes to Hayeon.

 “Then, I’m heading inside. See you next time.”

It was the same usual goodbye.

But today, I heard Hayeon’s voice behind me.

“W-Wait! Hold it right there! Idiot!”

Who’s an idiot?

I turned around, about to say that to her…

Smooch.

But upon  feeling the sensation on my cheek…

I couldn’t speak.

“You… You… What are you…”

“…Couples say goodbye like this, you know? You don’t even know that, do you? Dating dummy, pervert.”  

Her sweet action and the spicy words which countered against that.

Hayeon whipped her black hair back, then escaped far away from me. 

“Hey, where are you going?!”

 “I-I’m…off to train!”

She quickly vanished from my line of sight after her unexpected action.

Just what was that?

What she did was beyond my comprehension, but the faint touch of Hayeon’s lips lingered on my cheek.

Her moist and soft lips.

I was momentarily struck by curiosity.

 “…How would her lips taste? No. What am I saying… Hayeon is family…”

Ah.

I didn’t have taste buds anyway.

The curiosity soon disappeared from my mind.

But the sensation on my cheek and the indescribable emotion did not go away easily.

“She did this to me before, but why does it seem so different…?”

Is Hayeon not family, but a woman…?

A seed of doubt, which I did not want to admit, sprouted.

Through my fortitude stat, I organized my emotions.

“The fact that Yoo Hayeon is a woman, somehow, is frustrating.”

Hayeon, who always said severe things to me, is a woman?

That was the act which shattered my illusion.

It wasn’t that sweet.

–Human. Pushover. Reproductive organs. Existence? Frustrating.

“What’s he going off about again…”

I listened to Fenrille’s incomprehensible words and returned to my dorm room.

The room was located at the end of the second floor.

No one should be there, right?

As I was walking by, I thought how lucky I was that I didn’t come across any other students.

I opened the door that had been tightly shut.

Creak…

I opened the dorm room, took off my shoes, but then I was suddenly overcome with a strange sensation.

I could’ve sworn I turned the lights off before I left?

For some reason, the lights in my dorm room were on.

Inside that room…

There was a sign of human presence at the corner.

“Humm~ Hummmm~”

Someone was humming.

I don’t know what got her in a good mood, but she was humming.

It was a familiar sound.

There was only one person who could hum a song so bubbly like this.

“…What’re you doing?”

“Huh? S-Sijoon, you’re…here?” 

Ban Hana’s pink hair was the very first thing I saw upon entering the dorm room.

How did she enter my room?

That was obviously because she used her ability.

But Hana breaking into my room wasn’t what was important.

What was more relevant was the wall that Hana was standing in front of.

“Hana.”

“Hm?”

“Explain that. Why is there a hole in the wall?”

“…”

There was a hole which one person could pass through; it wasn’t a physical hole, but it appeared to be a hole formed from Hana’s spatial ability.

Hana stood still, pretending to deliberate, then spoke up.

“T-There…seems to be a mistake…!”

Mistake my ass, isn’t this too obvious?

It did not look like a mistake whatsoever.

 ***  

Whether Hana knew she was in the wrong, she immediately dropped on her knees and raised her arms.

Look at her not explaining.

“Explanation.”

“…”

“Explanation. Answer me.”

“A-About…that.”

Hana kept stealing glances at me with her head down.

 It didn’t seem like she wanted to explain the purpose of that hole.

“Tsk.”

So you want to do things this way?

In that case, I also don’t have a choice then.

I decided to show her through my action instead.

“N-No! Sijoon! You can’t enter!”

“Just what exactly is it that I can’t enter? It’s just making me more curious, you know?”

I assumed if Hana secretly installed a dimensional gap, that it wouldn’t be too dangerous.

So I ducked my head as I entered the hole which was the size of Ban Hana.

Bzz…

There was a strange sensation as I moved through the space.

As I passed through, there was only stillness in my vision.

“…What is this?”

Inside the quiet and empty room…

It looked like my dormitory, but there were some structural differences. 

A room without a swarm of people.

 As I looked around that room, Hana’s head popped out of the spatial hole.

”Uwah…” 

Ban Hana stared at me making an expression that read, “I’m caught.”

Now that we’ve come this far, she would tell me.

I demanded an explanation from her.

”What is this, Hana? How come you made a hole connecting all the way to my room? Oppa is so curious?”

“A-About…that…” 

I gradually approached Hana, and demanded an answer from her.

Having no more corner to escape to, she ultimately revealed her purpose.

“I-It’s scary, being alone… It’s my first time outside… T-That’s why. I came over to play in your room, Sijoon…and created it… I tried to cover it with a mirror so I won’t get caught… W-Why did you come back so quickly…?!”

She was explaining it well, when all of a sudden she screamed at the end.

Going off her explanation, this was the female dormitory and the room she received after enrolling in the academy.

And my room had been connected to Hana’s room.

 Still, this wasn’t it.

”Hana. Do you think this is the right thing to…”

“Dunno! I hate Sijoon! 

The moment I was about to lecture her, she shoved me away and yelled.

”You brought me here! You don’t take responsibility! I thought you were a prince! You’re a traitor! A villain!”

”Ah…” 

She seemed to have a lot of pent up anger against me, she fumed as she screamed.

I was certainly the one who brought her over to this world.

And when I thought about her like that, sleeping in this room all by herself, I should’ve considered what it must’ve felt like.

This is my fault.

I was too insensitive, and I might have neglected her too much.

It was me who brought her out of the den of evil.

If I don’t pay attention to her again, Ban Hana would become a loner again.

I hugged Hana in my arms who was trying hard to hold back her tears.

”…Sorry. It’s my fault. 

“ …I’m a good girl. So I’ll forgive you right away. Sijoon.”

She was slightly sulking right now, but seeing her immediately loosen up surprised me.

How could this kind-hearted child commit something like that in the future?

No matter how much I thought about it, her actions contradict her future self.

A being who drove a city to its extinction.

I couldn’t grasp how someone as soft as her could do that.

But…

”What are you doing, Hana?”

”Hm..?!”

Hana kept tiptoeing, trying to get closer to me.

She was poking out her pink lips to me.

I was well aware of what she wanted by that action, but I couldn’t understand why she wanted it.

When I asked her, “…Wait, do you want a kiss?” she nodded her head strongly.

“How come?”

Hana’s thought process made no sense at all.

In a situation like this, she shouted as if a kiss was only natural.

“Sijoon. Isn’t it only natural for the prince who saved the princess to kiss her…?”

So this was why parents paid attention to their kids when they watched dramas.

Most of Hana’s education came from fairy tale books, so her common sense fell out of the norm.

“H-Hurry…up and do it. Sijoon.”

Her face reddened, as she tiptoed and stuck out her lips.

This is driving me crazy…

The touch of Hayeon’s lips resurfaced in my mind as I stared at the approaching Hana and her pink glistening lips.

The small glossy lips.