Chapter 8: Mayfly That Flew Into Flames

“I’m really sorry about today. It was basically our first time meeting, and I ended up going into your house and interfering. I think I was being way too nosy.”

“…It’s okay.”

Her smiling face was so dazzling, I couldn’t make eye contact.

“Thank you.”

For the first time—

Perhaps for the first time in my life, I said words of gratitude.

“You don’t need to apologize. Thanks to you, Yujin, I got to clean, and I was treated to a delicious meal.”

Showing my hand,

“You treated my wounds, too. I was happy.”

And then—

“…The cookies, too. Thank you.”

I didn’t know what to say, so the words just came out randomly.

The pain in my heart began to melt.

“Let’s meet often, okay? I won’t be so pushy like today.”

She said that while holding my hand tightly.

With a smile so bright.

“So,”

Then she said—

“Will you tell me your name?”

Just like the first time, she took a step deeper into me.

So easily, she came in.

A name, huh.

I lost my original name.

I can’t tell her I’m Sanguine Obsidia.

A name is the very way one defines existence.

So while I am Sanguine Obsidia, nothing more or less,

To her, I could become someone new.

My name… what should it be?

The only one that comes to mind is my dead younger sister’s.

But I can’t stain that name with a killer’s identity.

Let’s go with something simple.

A name I give myself, something forgettable.

Something that wouldn’t matter even if it’s lost.

“Lee Seoa.”

Ahn Yujin smiled even more brightly.

“My name is Lee Seoa now.”

From now on, my name is Lee Seoa.

Not Sanguine Obsidia, but just a normal person.

“That’s a beautiful name! Let me introduce myself again. I’m Ahn Yujin. We’re friends now, right?”

Friends, she says.

I don’t quite understand Ahn Yujin’s sense of closeness.

“Friends…”

They say there are kind-hearted people in the world who extend goodwill without expecting anything in return.

And somehow, one of those people approached me.

Is it really okay for me to accept this kindness?

That question stayed in my head all day.

In the end, I’m just being dragged along by her because I can’t take initiative over anything.

The hand she reached out to me.

That hand, the broom, the spoon—

What if they were all coated in poison?

A poison that would one day kill me.

A poison named affection.

“Is that… not okay?”

Please don’t look at me with those sorrowful eyes.

In the end, I can’t escape.

Once you taste it, you’re hooked forever.

Peanut, macadamia, chocolate chips, walnuts, cashews, sugar.

In this era of shortages, she had gone out of her way to make luxurious cookies.

The sweet taste of the cookie she handed me.

It tasted just like the small snacks my mother gave me when I was a child—faint memories from long ago.

A moth that’s learned the warmth of flame

Can never return to the darkness of night.

I placed my bandaged right hand atop hers.

“…You can drop the formal speech. We’re friends, right?”

And so, without even realizing it, I was drawn to that light,

I stepped one step closer to its warmth.

But again, a sense of dread crept in.

If she rejects me—then I…

“Wow!”

I accepted her embrace as she joyfully hugged me and rubbed her cheek against mine.

Soft.

Warm.

Her fragrant hair tickled my ears,

Her breathing brushed against me, sending a ticklish sensation through me.

I wrapped my arms around her back.

I swallowed at the strange, melting sensation spreading through my body.

Eeeeeek—

The sound of the rusty hinge on the front door.

The buzzing whine of the old fluorescent light.

It’s been a while since I turned on the living room light.

I had always lived in the dim light seeping through thick curtains,

Drowning in the faint glow of the TV’s meaningless noise.

A room now clean of ashes and garbage.

Unfamiliar, bare—but without a doubt, still my home.

Not a prison anymore, but a home.

All I did was spend a few hours at Ahn Yujin’s place,

But it feels like I’ve returned after an eternity.

My consciousness, which had been drifting in the void of a meaningless life,

Was pulled down to earth by the hand of one person—Ahn Yujin.

That’s why it feels unfamiliar.

I’m afraid of being abandoned on a whim.

I’m afraid of hurting her.

The faces of the ones I killed flash through my mind, and guilt wraps around me.

“Ah…”

A warm sadness drips—one drop, then another.

It trails down my cheek.

I don’t know.

I don’t know if I’m happy, sad, or afraid—what I’m even thinking.

The tears won’t stop flowing.

Spooky, say something.

Tell me.

Even if it’s nonsense, I won’t get mad.

Instead of the ghost’s voice, a ringing buzz fills my ears.

A crushing pain in my chest.

The urge boiling up.

It’s already nighttime.

I need to kill someone.

No matter how I try to spend my day,

This disgusting mass always leads every day to the same end.

But I don’t want to hurt her.

Even as something in my head keeps telling me to kill,

To offer someone’s pain, life, and soul

To the cursed altar—

The compulsion rings out in my mind.

Every night, the thought that killing someone is natural seeps deep into my brain.

As it always has.

I wish I could just go mad.

To go insane, hear voices, see visions, and commit slaughter without a second thought—like a monster.

To become something that can’t even feel human warmth.

Then maybe I wouldn’t hurt anymore.

But I’m too weak.

Too weak to let myself go.

Because I’m terrified of losing that foolish, empty wish—

The wish to become human.

I can’t kill her.

But I can’t hold back either.

If I lose control of myself again, I know I’ll end up killing her.

Tears wouldn’t stop falling.

***

“Disband the Magical Girl Association! Disband it!”

“Arrest the President of the Magical Girl Association! Reveal the truth! Arrest her! Arrest her!”

The perfectly synchronized chanting of dozens of people was loud enough to be heard even inside the office on the fifth floor.

What was even more surprising was that the three chanting groups were all from different factions.

The ones demanding the disbandment of the Magical Girl Association were lunatics claiming that both monster outbreaks and magical girls were part of an Illuminati conspiracy.

The ones demanding an apology from the Association were a group of people who had been directly or indirectly harmed by magical girl activity—including bereaved families.

At least that group had some reason behind their arguments.

You could actually talk to them.

The ones shouting for the arrest of the President were part of a new crazy faction claiming that the Korean Magical Girl Association’s President, Yo Ji-hye, was working with Sanguine Obsidia and conducting human experiments and massacres behind the scenes.

Frankly, they were basically the same as the first group.

Sure, the Association didn’t have a squeaky-clean history, but where were these conspiracy theories even coming from?

“Haa…”

Ever since accepting the damn position of Magical Girl Association President, Yo Ji-hye hadn’t had a single day without sighing.

You’d think things would get a little better with time, but the lunatics just kept multiplying.

Be they humans, monsters, or the government—it didn’t matter.

“Sigh…“

Yo Ji-hye rubbed her forehead and let out another long sigh.

She was already busy trying to hunt down and punish Sanguine Obsidia, but there were just too many problems piling up.

Monster appearances had increased.

The situation was a mess.

Ever since the day Sanguine Obsidia killed Magical Girl Grau Room and the police, protest activity had suddenly surged.

Thankfully, they recently managed to negotiate with the protesters to restrict locations, schedules, and participant numbers.

Otherwise, they would’ve stormed the Association building by now.

“No smoking in the office.”

Flinch.

Yo Ji-hye’s hand, which had unconsciously opened the drawer, froze.

Hovering in midair was her mascot—a strange figure that looked like overlapping pyramids forming an octahedron, with a single eye floating in the center, like something out of an Illuminati fever dream.

Her mascot, Gazer Lambda.

A stickler for no-smoking zones.

“Do you even realize you’re part of the reason those protests are happening?”

“I fail to comprehend.”

A floating pyramid with a single eye.

Like the back of a dollar bill drifting in the air.

Mascots of association presidents have their information made public, and when conspiracy theorists saw that design?

Triangles.

Pyramids.

Eyeballs.

It’s like catnip to those people.

“Gazer, have you considered changing your appearance?”

“The appearance of a mascot reflects the essence of the spirit. It cannot be altered. Yoo Jihae, this is the 100th time you’ve asked this question this year.”

“You little—”

“Regretfully noted.”

Her gaze drifted to the desk plaque engraved with “President Yo Ji-hye, Korean Magical Girl Association.”

Its solid triangular shape looked like it would deliver good impact when swung.

Spirits probably feel pain if you hit them, right?

This time, Yo Ji-hye seriously considered taking a swing.

And Gazer Lambda smoothly dodged.

“Haa…”

Another sigh, who knows the count.

“This is such a headache…”

Ignoring her throbbing temple, Yo Ji-hye turned on her computer screen.

The video playing was footage of Sanguine Obsidia.

Specifically, a video of her committing murder.

Who even filmed this?

The resolution was poor, which only made it harder to censor and allowed it to spread like wildfire.

That’s why she’d been dragged to a meeting earlier to listen to some committee geezer’s pointless lecture.

Usually, they’d delete this kind of footage instantly.

But the comments were filled with conspiracy theorists and corrupt magical girl fanatics spewing nonsense.

These people really had nothing better to do.

“Alright!”

Slamming the desk, Yu Ji-hye stood up and left the room.

Today, screw work.

She was clocking out.

She is the President—who’s going to stop her?

Gazer’s grumbling voice was cheerfully ignored.

“Glacial Wall!”

A wall of ice appeared, tall and solid enough to block a three-story building.

Then a huge red scissor came crashing into it with a loud boom, shattering the ice.

“Great job, Miss Alisa!”

“Thank you, Glacia unnie!”

Beaming at Glacia Azure’s praise, Rosa Alisa smiled brightly.

Yo Ji-hye, on her way out, had caught sight of the two training in the outdoor training grounds.

Even though Rosa’s body had been healed instantly with Vistour Blanc’s magic,

She had worried that Rosa might be struggling mentally—but as expected of a magical girl, she had bounced back fast.

The Association building had a small attached clinic, and beside it both indoor and outdoor training grounds.

What a weird layout for a facility, Yoo Jihae thought as she paused to watch their training.

Between the two of them, maybe one could take the President’s job someday.

That was the thought that crossed her mind.