Suffering from the Librarian – Part 2

“Listening to you, it doesn’t sound like it was even a ‘some’ relationship.”

Kim Sung-ah stated definitively every time he recounted the details of his ‘some’ relationships.

“It wasn’t a ‘some’?”

Kang In-ho, shocked and wide-eyed, looked at his housemate with a triumphant expression.

“Of course. It wasn’t anything at all.”

His face clearly showed disappointment. Kang In-ho tilted his head.

“Why wasn’t it a ‘some’?”

“What, are you disappointed, Mister?”

Kim Sung-ah narrowed her eyes at his prodding.

“No, it’s not about being disappointed, but I thought it was a ‘some’ in my own way.”

“Alright. Then I’ll explain it one by one.”

She crossed her arms and raised her head. She even seemed somewhat resolute.

She looked like a noble fighter resisting foreign forces.

“A work superior. We watched movies together and held hands.”

Kang In-ho mentioned the first case.

“W-Well, close male friends can do that too?! If more time had passed, you could say it was a ‘some’… but that stage…”

“That stage?”

He picked up on her vaguely trailing words.

“A stage of getting to know each other slowly?”

“Isn’t that a ‘some’?”

“It’s not. It’s clearly different. It’s like the difference between an ant and an anteater.”

“Is that so… Then next. A fitness trainer.”

“That’s just an employment relationship. From what I heard, the fitness trainer was contacting you persistently. Aren’t you mistaken?”

‘Persistent contact, indeed…’

Kang In-ho stroked his chin. The prickly feel of his stubble spread across his palm.

“I-Is that so…”

“That’s how it is.”

Kim Sung-ah shrugged. And inwardly, she cheered for the second time.

Each time she denied one of his ‘some’ relationships, she felt vitality returning to her body.

“Hmm… What else was there? A housekeeper?”

“Similar to the fitness trainer. It’s an employment relationship. Of course, she’d be nice to you. Many men mistake on-the-job kindness for affection. Be careful, Mister.”

“I’ve heard that said before.”

He recalled a list of troublesome customers he’d heard somewhere.

“A tutor…”

“Yep~ Employment relationship.”

She waved her hand dismissively, as if there was nothing more to hear.

“…Same class in high school.”

“What, did you go to a co-ed high school?”

“You could say that.”

In his original world, it was an all-boys school. He swallowed the addendum.

“How far did it go?”

She gulped.

“Nothing much. We went to cafes. And karaoke.”

At his continued answer, she seemed deflated and leaned back against the chair with all her might.

“What… that’s just something friends do. You didn’t confess, did you? You would have been humiliated if you had.”

Kim Sung-ah contorted her face as much as possible, cutting off any possibility.

“Anything else?”

She looked at him with a gaze that seemed to express a desperate desire for it to be over.

“No, there’s still more.”

He paid no attention to her signals.

“There’s more? How many are left?”

Kim Sung-ah raised her voice.

“Two for now?”

“That’s a lot.”

Kim Sung-ah muttered, sounding dissatisfied.

He slowly searched his memory, recalling his memories with the two people.

After listening to him for a long time, Kim Sung-ah slowly opened her mouth with a stiff expression.

“Neither of them are ‘some’ relationships.”

“All of them aren’t ‘some’, huh.”

“Okay, I’ll concede a hundred times. That Master person, let’s say she’s a ‘some’. But the nun isn’t.”

“Why?”

“She’s a nun!”

Kim Sung-ah jumped up and huffed. Then she turned and headed for the second floor.

Her footsteps thudded loudly as she climbed the stairs.

“Hey, where are you going~”

At his call, grabbing the back of her neck, Kim Sung-ah turned her head.

Her eyes, now with a venomous look, glared at him.

“I’m going to study!”

Her sharp voice struck his face.

Only after hearing the fading footsteps and the sound of the door being opened and closed violently did he realize his mistake.

“Ah… she said she was interested in me.”

I got heated up for no reason and told her everything. He scratched his head and got up from his seat.

He put on his apron again and headed to the sink.

He even hummed a little tune as he did the familiar housework.

“What is it, why do I feel so good?”

Even as he put detergent on the dishes and washed them, he couldn’t find the reason.

Whether she really studied or not, Kim Sung-ah, who had returned to her room, was as quiet as a mouse.

He wondered if she was lying down and watching YouTube again, so he stood quietly in front of her room and listened, but he didn’t hear any sounds of her doing anything else.

“Come to think of it, she seemed a bit under the weather. Should I make her something nourishing?”

He recalled her awkward gait.

“Let’s see what ingredients…”

He returned to the refrigerator and estimated the remaining ingredients, then decided it wouldn’t be enough and prepared to go out.

Kang In-ho, taking the card and cell phone he had received back from Kim Sung-ah, headed to the mart.

On the way back from shopping at the mart, he looked around.

He felt a strange gaze.

“What is it.”

He took out his cell phone and looked at the news.

There didn’t seem to be any particular anomalies. He confirmed that yesterday’s commotion and his identity had all been erased with magic.

Nevertheless, he had an unpleasant premonition that someone was watching him from somewhere.

“There shouldn’t be any witnesses.”

He had confirmed the destruction of both Four Heavenly Kings.

He closed his eyes and expanded his senses. He tried to identify the origin of this unpleasant gaze.

“…!!”

As if it had noticed him expanding his senses, the watching gaze disappeared in an instant.

“It’s unsettling.”

It was too obvious a gaze to dismiss as a delusion.

He deliberately took a winding route, confusing his movements, and then returned home.

After passing through several alleys and secretly climbing over several walls, he wiped the beads of sweat that had formed and placed the groceries on the table.

‘I need to take a day and search the area.’

From the moment he declared that he would take over the work of the Magical Girl, he had no intention of doing it half-heartedly.

Now that it had come to this, he intended to see it through to the end.

“By the way, is she still studying?”

He felt strangely proud that she seemed to be studying with a determined mind.

“I’ll have her eat some snacks for lunch, and I’ll make spicy braised chicken for dinner.”

He took the snacks he had bought from the mart and headed to the second floor.

-Knock knock

“Eat some snacks and then do it.”

He knocked lightly on the door, but he didn’t hear any response from inside.

“Seong-a.”

When he opened the door, he saw workbooks scattered messily on the desk.

It was clearly a sign of studying.

But Kim Sung-ah wasn’t at the desk.

“She must have been sleepy.”

He saw her sleeping in bed again, not at her desk.

Then he was surprised and looked around.

‘I’ve changed a bit too.’

He smiled self-deprecatingly as he recalled the work he used to do at the company.

He walked over to the bed, gently placed his hand on her body, and shook her.

“Eat some snacks. Aren’t you hungry?”

“Umm….”

Kim Sung-ah responded immediately, as if she hadn’t fallen into a deep sleep.

With disheveled hair and half-open eyes, Kim Sung-ah stared intently at Kang In-ho’s face, who was now in front of her.

“What… did you say?”

Her voice was drowsy, as if she had been half-submerged in sleep.

“I said eat some snacks. You must have been tired from studying.”

“…I was a little sleepy.”

“I fall asleep quickly when I get angry.”

When he reminded her of how she had shouted and gone up to the second floor, Kim Sung-ah frowned even as she fought off sleep, conveying her feelings.

“Let’s eat snacks. Come to the kitchen.”

He conveyed that and was about to leave the room.

“Mister.”

She grabbed him.

“Yeah?”

Kim Sung-ah slowly spread her arms.

“Help me up.”