Chapter 47: Open Your Heart To Me

Chu.

I woke to a soft touch on my lips.

A familiar face was before my eyes.

Long black hair, dark eyes, and the once-expressionless face now replaced with a shy look—it was Lee Seoa.

I had grown accustomed to sleeping beside her in my bed.

“Sorry… I thought you weren’t waking up, so I just…”

My brain, sluggish from the dizzying low blood pressure of the early morning, struggled to recall the events of yesterday.

A blood-red sunset that felt like dying, a confession of love.

I had imagined this outcome many times, and riding the wave of the moment, I had accepted her confession and even kissed her.

But looking back after a night’s sleep, it felt a little bewildering.

‘To think I kissed her first, it’s as if I’m being completely swayed by my feelings for her.’

Moreover, since then, Seoa had been constantly asking for kisses.

She would slightly lower her gaze, touch her own lips hesitantly.

And when I held her chin or wrapped an arm around her waist and moved closer, she would close her eyes and purse her lips slightly.

It was adorable, like a baby bird begging for food.

“Thank you, I love you.”

I returned the kiss and got out of bed before Seoa could react.

‘I need to shower and clear my thoughts.’

As I stood under the warm water, facing my reflection in the wiped-clean mirror, all sorts of thoughts raced through my mind.

Brown hair, brown eyes, a lovely impression.

It was a look I truly liked, one that easily earned favor from anyone, especially older people.

My usual expression when I was alone was a frozen, emotionless one, just like Lee Seoa’s when we first met.

Expressing emotions was a means to induce and manipulate the emotional expressions of others, so there were no expressions to waste on myself.

But as I grew closer to Lee Seoa, and now that we were finally a couple, a smile would form before I could even think about what the appropriate emotional expression should be, just by looking at her.

It was a world away from when we first met, when I would ponder what expression to make and what action to take to make her dependent on me.

‘A lover, a lover, you say.’

I had never experienced a romantic relationship before, and I thought I never would.

To think my first relationship would be with someone of the same s*x.

At first, I had approached her to get rid of her quickly, thinking a neighbor would be a nuisance.

Instead, I was the one who fell head over heels for Lee Seoa. Her miserable spirit was just too captivating.
‘Well, she’s lovely, so it doesn’t matter.’

Even if one tries to seize and dominate another person’s life, one cannot overcome the hormones and instincts that govern one’s own life.

The thought that I didn’t want to see the girl named Lee Seoa sad in the slightest contradicted the principles of the self-proclaimed artist, Ahn Yujin.

A voice screamed at me to snatch away the small life she had managed to grasp, to fill it only with my name, with the existence of Ahn Yujin.

It told me not to harbor any true feelings, just as I had always done, and to completely dominate Lee Seoa’s life to perfect her as a work of art.

The voice of instinctive love was trying to block it.

However, in the end, the temporarily boiling instinctive emotions are bound to dry up once the hormones and chemical substances are depleted.

What remains for a long time are only the reason and principles engraved deep in the brain.

With each drop of tap water, I washed away a drop of emotion.

‘The love I have is not the ordinary love that common people talk about.’

‘In a way, you could say it’s close to platonic love.’

‘Though it’s completely different from the commonly understood platonic love.’

As I have done countless times before, I approach those who have fallen into a life of deficiency and hardship.

I give them what they perceive as love, becoming their friend, neighbour, family, and everything.

It is truly a platonic, or perhaps agape, love.

With each drop of water pouring from the showerhead, I washed and wiped away a drop of the lover’s affection I felt for Lee Seoa.

I was almost certain of her identity, lacking only the evidence, but that was no longer a matter for consideration.

She couldn’t possibly harm me.

The revolver I had acquired for emergencies would remain in the drawer for the time being.

A confession of love or a confession of identity. She had made one of the two, and having already been dependent on me, she would now have no choice but to depend on me completely, body and soul.

As long as I don’t suddenly announce a breakup.

It would be perfect if she would just confess her identity with her own lips.

The deepest secret that can never be revealed.

For her to reveal to me the identity she tried to hide even while revealing the pain and scars of her childhood would mean that she has been truly perfected.

A thought I’ve mulled over countless times, but now, there’s really only one step left until completion.

I looked in the mirror, touching my face here and there.

“Good.”

A more natural and lovely smile than usual formed.

“Yujin. Um…”

Before leaving the house, Seoa fiddled with her hands and averted her gaze, looking embarrassed.

“I know. Here.”

And a light kiss.

The short vacation ended, the date changed, and we returned to our daily lives, and our routine began to move again.

From Seoa’s perspective, as lovers.

***

As we arrived at the centre and I was about to get out of the car, Seoa linked her arm with mine.

She clung to me, pressing her chest and face against me, yet her gaze was turned to the side in embarrassment, which looked unbalanced and cute.

Was she copying the old, cheap romance movie that aired to fill the TV schedule we watched last night?

I felt a sense of cuteness and loveliness from the bottom of my heart, but my emotions remained unmoved.

‘Good.’

“Ngh.”

When I gave her another short kiss, this time her face flushed red and she quickly pulled her arm away.

How many times had it been already?

Since waking up, even in the car, whenever we stopped at a signal, she would look at me with an expectant expression, and I couldn’t help but kiss her.

‘Since it’s a first for both of us, getting excited is unavoidable.’

‘Perhaps, does she not know anything beyond kissing? Interesting.’

“Seoa, outside…”

“Yeah. I know.”

There was no reason to engage in romantic antics where others could see.

Though it was an era of everyone for themselves, there was no reason to attract attention at a time when I needed to start thinking about Seoa’s relationships with other people.

Come to think of it, she hasn’t smoked at all these past few days.

I don’t know where she got them, but she had a whole stack in the cupboard.

It’s good that there’s one less thing to worry about.

Is it because she’s worried I’d hate the smell, or can hugs and kisses replace cigarettes?

“Hello~”

As I entered with my usual greeting, a few people were not at their desks.

“Those two took a vacation too.

Said they were scared of the monsters and wanted to stay home for a few days, but I think they’re overreacting.

That guy used to come to work just fine when it was much more dangerous.

I know work is slow these days, but at a time like this…”

I dodged the endless stream of complaints and gossip with some appropriate responses and went inside.

On the TV turned on in the corner of the office, news was flowing that over 20 demons had been caught in the metropolitan area in just one day.

‘If the monsters and magical girls are active for a long time, won’t there be more chances for them to clash with Lee Seoa?’

‘Like that one time before.’

‘It wouldn’t be bad if her identity as a magical girl was explicitly revealed that way, but if things are suppressed smoothly like this, it’ll be no fun.’

‘Well, if the monsters rampage, other works might be in danger of dying, so it can’t be helped.’

I decided to wish the Magical Girl Association good luck and, grabbing the hand of Seoa who was standing foolishly with her eyes fixed on me, not paying any attention to the TV, I led her away.

***

“…Let’s go back.”

“Huh?”

As I was driving to the house of today’s second piece of work, Seoa started acting strangely.

“Turn the car around, let’s take a long way around. It’s dangerous up ahead. That is, um…”

Her eyes darted around as her words trailed off.

‘I see, if we go straight, there must be a monster, or a magical girl who came to deal with it. As a civilian, I can’t feel anything, though.’

‘And if we run into them, you’ll be in trouble.’

“Yujin, please. It’s dangerous, okay?”

“Alright. It’ll make us a little late, but… I’ll turn around and go up.”

The awkward atmosphere of avoiding the reason we were turning the car around, namely any mention of magical girls or magic.

Her desperate expression seemed to genuinely warn me that my body was in danger, so I turned the car around, but for some reason, it felt frustrating.

I was getting impatient. Knowing that completion was near, I wanted to peel off the persona of Lee Seoa and quickly see the true entity underneath with my own eyes.

Since it had never been clearly revealed before, the urge to quickly prove my guess was perfectly correct arose.

‘Instead of waiting for her to tell me, it might be good to create an opportunity this time.’

‘Reveal your true nature to me, the nature of a heinous, fallen magical girl, a criminal.’

‘Ask for forgiveness, beg for mercy, kiss my feet and cry, begging me not to abandon you.’

‘Then, and only then, will I know you are complete, and be able to give you true love.’

***

“Wow!”

“Thank you, unni.”

Alisa happily received a mint-chocolate-flavored candy, and Materia, though speaking politely, had her eyes shining.

The candy I gave Materia was, of course, a normal orange-flavored one.

“You both worked hard.”

Watching the defeated monster disintegrate into particles of black magic and disappear, Glacia patted the two girls’ heads.

It had long been Glacia’s routine to give Alisa and Materia one of their favorite candies whenever they defeated a monster or did something praiseworthy.

“Starting tomorrow, you should be able to hunt monsters on your own, don’t you think?”

Although there was some risk, both of them originally hunted monsters alone, and now they had accumulated enough experience and skill to be called veterans, so they should be able to easily defeat a summoned monster.

Considering that magical girls of the past were assigned their own districts or went out into the night alleys alone after learning only the bare minimum of knowledge and experience, one could say Glacia was being almost overprotective.

“Then, unni, what should we do with this?”

“S-S-Save me! Pwease save me!”

What was begging in a slurred voice, unable to pronounce properly, was a round demon that looked like a gym ball.

One large eye, a wide, torn mouth, and pale white skin.

Furthermore, its short limbs were bound in ice, and its torso was wrapped in tree roots grown by Materia and nailed to a wooden board—a truly miserable sight.

Even though anything with limbs that could speak human language was classified as a demon, it was disappointing.

“What on earth are demons?”

Due to their rarity and the cunning and viciousness that came with their high intelligence, Glacia had an image of demons as villainous gunslingers from old westerns.

But now that she knew they were actually worse than neighborhood thugs, she couldn’t help but sigh.

“The monster it was commanding was pretty strong though…”

Alisa seemed to have a similar impression.

“Since we succeeded in capturing it alive, let’s transport it to headquarters. I’ll buy you snacks after we’re done.”

“Wow! Unni, you’re the best!”

When Association Head Yu Ji-hye and Coral Echoes tracked the monsters’ activities and gave orders, the magical girls would be dispatched, follow the magic traces on site, and eliminate them before any civilian casualties occurred.

Since the two of them had also experienced tracking a demon’s trail once, they would be able to easily defeat monsters for a few days until the job was done, gaining experience and growing stronger.

As Glacia thought that she hoped they would grow strong enough not to be easily defeated by Sanguine Obsidia, and was about to lift the captured demon into the air to move it,

Whoooosh-

Suddenly, a pitch-black magic bullet flew in with a roar, completely destroying the moaning and screaming demon’s body without a trace.

And someone fell from above.

A girl with sky-blue hair, wearing a dress with pink frills that now dragged below her feet.

“The magical girl of wrath and love, flying from the other side of the world, Soda Pop☆Ritalin appears!”

“Frostbite!”

Without waiting for Soda Pop☆Ritalin to finish her entrance line in a bizarre pose with her arms crossed after a stylish landing, Glacia activated her magic.

A spell that scattered ice in the space around the target, freezing the moisture and sealing their movements for a moment.

The moment she saw her face, Glacia remembered she was one of the duo who had terrorized the association headquarters before.

She intended to tie her down first and immediately follow up with the next move, but,

“Hey! It’s common courtesy to wait for the entrance line and transformation scene!”

As she lightly swung her staff, Glacia’s magic was nullified by the black energy surrounding her body.

“Not knowing your manners means you’re not a magical girl. So.”

Magic converged at the tip of the pitch-black, star-shaped staff.

“Die!”

A black beam pierced Glacia’s shoulder.