episode_0007

Kim Jiwoo-ssi had me sit on a large rock that seemed like it would be found somewhere in any mountain.

She soon plunked down next to me and opened her backpack, starting to pull out various items and set them up: bottled water, snacks, wet wipes.

While thinking about how thorough her preparations were, I couldn’t help but feel a little awkward, wondering if we had come on a picnic.

Contrary to my thoughts, Kim Jiwoo-ssi, as if quite accustomed to this process, opened a bottle of water and chugged it down her throat.

Phew, she closed her eyes tightly and then opened them, looking refreshed. Only then did she turn to me.

“How is it? Manageable?”

And that was her first question.

I frowned, dumbfounded.

“…You’re asking that, when you went ahead and took care of everything before I even had a chance to do anything?”

“Ahaha! That’s true too.”

Kim Jiwoo-ssi, bursting into laughter at something, then explained to me.

She explained that usually, up to the entrance, the guide actively handles monsters to ease the students’ tension, and then it’s better to let them slowly gain experience from that point on.

It was a reasonably logical explanation, so I was nodding my head with a ‘hmm’ sound.

“…Well, even so, it’s all advice I heard from my guild seniors, you know.”

“Huh?”

“Actually, this is my first time guiding students from Cheongsong Academy.”

Kim Jiwoo-ssi instantly made my admiration meaningless.

As I narrowed my brow, wearing an inscrutable expression, she started chuckling again. She really is someone who laughs a lot.

“Hyunjin, Hyunjin.”

“Yes.”

“What’s your characteristic?”

Even putting aside the fact that my designation had changed from ‘Hyunjin student’ to ‘Hyunjin’ without me noticing, the sudden question was quite awkward to answer.

I scratched my cheek with an embarrassed expression and bowed my head slightly.

“I apologize. It’s just that my characteristic isn’t something I can easily tell others.”

It was a refusal that, depending on the situation, could be interpreted as ‘I don’t trust you.’ So I was a little cautious, but she, on the contrary, waved her hand and gave an awkward laugh.

“No, no. There are quite a few characteristics like that, so I don’t really mind.”

Even as she said that, Kim Jiwoo-ssi let out a ‘hmm’ sound. She glanced back at me with a slightly troubled expression.

“The reason I brought this up in the first place was just that I wanted to tell you about my characteristic beforehand.”

“Huh?”

“After all, we’ll have to be moving together for two days, won’t we?”

Why was she suddenly bringing this up? As I blinked in bewilderment and waited, she soon began to take a deep breath.

She clearly seemed to be steeling herself, so I could only awkwardly keep my mouth shut. What on earth was she trying to say?

“…About my characteristic.”

Kim Jiwoo-ssi then properly turned her body and looked me straight in the face.

And as if very nervous, she bit her lip agitatedly, then–.

“…My characteristic, well. It’s that…”

She just closed her eyes tightly and blurted it out, as if saying, ‘Oh, whatever, I don’t care.’

“I, I can read other people’s minds.”

“?”

I couldn’t help but have a question mark pop up. I had just heard something completely unexpected.

She had suddenly dragged out her words, making me wonder what she was going to say, and then what? Read minds?

“O-Of course, it’s not absolute. I can only read even fragments of thoughts if the other person is thinking them very intensely, but…”

“…”

“Ugh, w-what I’m trying to say is, I really won’t feel bad no matter what you think, and if you say you don’t like it, I’ll just brainwash myself into forgetting whatever I heard. So…!”

Her words were rambling.

Her posture was flustered.

I listened quietly as Kim Jiwoo-ssi rambled on, my expression so ambiguous that it was difficult to put into words.

…In other words, to summarize, it’s as follows:

1. She is an awakened person who possesses a characteristic that allows her to read other people’s minds to some extent, meaning it has the nature of telepathy. 2. Because she possessed such a characteristic, she had suffered many hardships until now. 3. Therefore, this time, to prevent such incidents in advance, she informed me of everything about her characteristic beforehand…

‘…Is it something like this?’

I tore open a biscuit from the snacks Kim Jiwoo-ssi had set out on the rock and put it in my mouth, organizing my thoughts.

Seeing her pacing anxiously right now, fretting as if worried about my next reaction, I think I understand what the problem is.

In other words, she’s likely worried that I might find her unpleasant, or at the very least, feel uneasy and keep my distance.

Her reaction seems to suggest that similar incidents have happened quite a few times until now.

Of course, with someone who can read your mind right in front of you, it would be stranger if you *didn’t* feel uncomfortable inside, but…

‘What a peculiar ability, truly.’

Given the situation where she voluntarily revealed her characteristic like this, I didn’t particularly feel any displeasure or rejection. In fact, perhaps the opposite?

I just thought, ‘She must have had a hard time.’

Even if she had kept it hidden from me until the end, there would have been no problem, but she deliberately revealed it… I also thought, this person really has a personality that increases her own life’s difficulty.

This is the world we live in, anyway. With all sorts of uniquely strange characteristics, what’s there to be uneasy about?

‘If you just look at me, for example, without going far.’

Ahem.

Mind reading is nothing much. Compared to some ‘ability to steal an opponent’s power by having sexual intercourse with the opposite sex,’ it’s nothing.

Haha. I wonder what kind of jerk has such a ridiculous characteristic.

“…”

It was around the time I closed my eyes for a moment, feeling a deep sense of doubt about my own characteristic.

Suddenly, I felt a trembling hand very carefully grasp the hem of my clothes.

“P-Please don’t be upset…”

There was Kim Jiwoo-ssi, her eyes shimmering pitifully with tears.

Somehow, a hollow laugh escaped me reflexively.

I reached out and carefully placed my hand over the back of her hand, which was holding my collar.

I could feel her slightly flinching.

So that her uneasiness wouldn’t last long, I immediately met her eyes and replied.

“I’m not upset. There’s no need to worry about something like that.”

Then she widened her eyes and opened her mouth in an astonished gap.

“…Huh? Huh?”

“I said I’m not upset. It doesn’t really matter to me.”

I firmly repeated my words to her, who was still asking blankly. Kim Jiwoo-ssi immediately jolted, her pupils dilating in shock.

I let out a small laugh and continued speaking.

“First, thank you for telling me beforehand. Honestly, I won’t deny that it can be an unsettling characteristic.”

And at those words, Kim Jiwoo-ssi flinched again, about to burst into tears.

The brave demeanor she had shown just a moment ago, sweeping away monsters, had completely vanished without a trace.

That huge gap somehow felt cute, so I lightly patted her shoulder.

“There’s no particular problem. To begin with, it’s just a matter of not thinking awkward thoughts if you get caught… And to push someone away because of such a characteristic, well, my own characteristic is quite unusual as well.”

So, I wouldn’t mind it. Even if mind-reading couldn’t be controlled by will, I wouldn’t feel bad about it, so she should just relax.

That’s how I reassured Kim Jiwoo-ssi.

And just as I thought that was enough, I casually started to gently remove my hand, which I had placed over hers.

“Hmph.”

Suddenly, a gush! Kim Jiwoo-ssi’s tear ducts burst open. I flinched, startled by the stream of tears pouring down uncontrollably.

And before I could even say anything, she suddenly hugged me tight.

“Uwaaaah! Thank youuuu…! I had a hunch, but Hyunjin, you’re such a kind kid! How can you speak so beautifully?! Hiccup!”

“U-Uh, just a moment. Jiwoo-ssi? Please let go of this. Gasp.”

“Actually, I’ve had a really hard time because of this characteristic. I’m always treated like a difficult boss, and my relationships always end badly! Everyone avoids me, you know?!”

And the strength of her hug was incredible. As a mage, I started to feel a heavy pressure around my waist that was difficult to endure.

More than anything, the biggest problem was that, according to her sudden declaration, her chest, with a circumference of a whopping 82cm, was pressing against my lower body.

I reflexively straightened my back and swallowed hard. And I tried my best to control the thoughts in my head, but…

“Do you think I’d be aroused?”

“…”

Flinch.

“It’s okay! Even if Hyunjin thinks about my chest like a typical teenage boy right now, I’m fine with it! Just don’t feel bad that I read your thoughts!”

“No, wait…!”

“Mm-hmm, it’s fine, it’s fine! It’s perfectly natural! This noona, you see, has met plenty of perverted guys who glance at her on the street and think they want to screw her like a dog!”

It was meaningless. After all, how easy is it to control the thoughts that pop into your head?

Once I started to be conscious of it, there was no end to it, and in the midst of it, Jiwoo-ssi, as if she had lost her reason, started blabbering anything.

…As such, it was inevitable that it would take a very long time to calm down the rampaging Jiwoo-ssi. I let out a sigh, utterly exhausted.

The incident, which gained me nothing but left me with plenty of losses, filled solely with my own shame, thus passed.

Now that I think about it, indeed, that characteristic of being able to read other people’s thoughts really does seem quite unsettling after all…