episode_0529

.

[Seol Da-bin]

– Of course, as expected, my parents said it’s fine. – …So when are you coming?

After spending an entire enjoyable day with Seol Da-bin, the next day arrived.

Today, for once, I lazed around in bed until late morning when I received a message from her.

The content wasn’t anything special. To summarize, I had officially gained the right to freely enter and leave her home.

I had already made a decent first impression on her parents before, so I figured it was only a matter of time.

After all, throughout my life, I’ve been treated like a god by all sorts of people, especially the elderly.

I replied, “I’ll let you know by tomorrow at the latest.”

It wasn’t that I couldn’t find a suitable time—I just wanted to put on an act of coordinating schedules with Seol Da-bin and her parents.

Someone who can meet anytime is less valuable than someone who squeezes in time between a tight schedule.

And the person being treated that way by me would feel a little more important too. In a way, it’s oddly similar to lip service.

Of course, other healers besides me are probably so busy that 24 hours a day isn’t enough for them, each with their own reasons…

Anyway, tomorrow evening seemed like a good time for the meeting.

Not too long of a wait, but not too rushed either.

And it was a day when Baek Ji-ho was still resting at home.

Since I already told her I’d let her know by tomorrow at the latest, if a better idea came up later, I could always change it.

Now that Seol Da-bin’s matter was roughly settled, was there anything else I needed to do?

Wearing nothing but pitch-black boxers, I got out of bed and naturally headed toward the kitchen.

Codename: Reaper.

After that bitch messed me up and sent me back ten years, I quit smoking and drinking, but I still couldn’t kick this damn caffeine addiction.

“……Hmm.”

Right. Reaper.

Even now, thinking back, what happened back then was strange.

Codename: Reaper.

A Variant-type. Base: Snake. Primary weapon: Scythe.

Her gloomy aura from head to toe wasn’t exactly my type,

but the curves forced into view by her outfit were dripping with sticky estrogen.

Even so, she wasn’t a Magic-type—just a Variant—so she shouldn’t have had any ability to send me back to the past.

Even among Magic-types, there’s never been a single reported case of someone who could directly manipulate time…

It was too vivid to be a dream, and too much time had passed, so it definitely wasn’t that.

The best guess I’ve come up with so far is that it might’ve been one of the yet-to-be-fully-understood abilities of a Healer—but honestly, that’s just a wild assumption.

It’s easy to fit the process to the outcome since it already happened, but with no way to prove it, no matter what hypothesis I come up with, the unease remains.

Besides, if every dead Healer regressed years like I did, wouldn’t someone have mentioned it by now?

“Hey, everyone. Wait, what year is it?”

Something like that.

…Well, whatever.

In that case, maybe I should go look for Reaper now while I have free time.

I tore open two coffee sticks and poured them into a mug, recalling Reaper’s information along with the beep of the electric kettle.

As I said earlier, she wasn’t my type because of her gloomy vibe, but she was a famous hero in terms of both skill and looks, so I knew the general details.

Among them, the things I still clearly remember are her face and figure…

Unfortunately, there was no girl at the academy who resembled Reaper.

Just pretty, or just gloomy. That’s it.

Of course, Miren Academy doesn’t have a monopoly on hero training, so it’s possible she’s studying somewhere else in Seoul, another region, or even abroad…

“…….”

At this point, it’s just annoying.

How the hell am I supposed to remember where Reaper is from?

It’s not like I was ever interested in her.

Besides, she could still be a high schooler who hasn’t even enrolled yet, right?

“…Dunno. Maybe I’m just alive because I’m a Healer…”

Let’s end the annoyance here.

I’d be better off finding something else to do.

For example… Oh, right.

By now, the water had boiled, so I poured it into the mug and headed toward the charger where my phone was plugged in.

Nothing major—just that one thing came to mind that would be good to take care of now.

“Hello?”

– Hellooo…? Huh…? Why are you calling me first…?

“I have a reason.”

The person on the other end was none other than Yozora.

After taking a sip of coffee, I checked the time on my phone.

Judging by her groggy voice, she must’ve just woken up to the ringtone.

It’s almost past lunchtime—what the hell has she been doing alone all this time…?

“Wait, did you just wake up? It’s almost 2 PM.”

– Ehhh… I woke up early todaaay…

“You say you woke up early, but why does your voice sound so sluggish?”

– Sluggish…? Dunno…? Maybe ‘cause I was finishing the leftover alcohol from drinking with you yesterday…?

“Not yesterday—the day before. An extra day passed.”

– …Ueehh… No, I mean literally yesterday… After Soo-chan and Seo-yeon left…

“…Sigh. So you mean you drank alone since yesterday.”

– Hehehe… Bingo…… Oh, maybe it’d be more fun if I said the three of us were rubbing pussies together while you were gone……? Shouldn’t have said we went home…

“If it were just you and Soo-ah, maybe, but there’s no way Baek Seo-yeon would do something like that.”

– …Ah, right, alcohol… Isn’t it really bad for babies…?

“You drank yesterday, but you’re still drunk?”

– Mmm~ A little~…?

Anyway, yeah.

Back then, it was supposedly a Christmas party, so there was quite a lot of alcohol.

But if there was leftover, she could’ve just stored it somewhere—was there really a need to drink it all?

Then again, that’s such a Yozora-like way to handle it.

After I told her I’d prefer if she cut back on drinking, she had held back for a long time.

So in the end, I let it slide and got to the point.

“You said you finished the leftover alcohol, so I’ll ask—what about the wine Baek Seo-yeon and Soo-ah brought? The expensive ones, not the cheap stuff. Did you drink all of that too?”

The reason was simple.

When I visit Seol Da-bin’s house tomorrow, expensive alcohol would make a good gift.

Plus, her parents think I’m weak to alcohol, so even if I pretend to be drunk after a few sips, they wouldn’t suspect a thing.

When I asked, Yozora replied in her still-groggy voice:

– The opened ones are obviously gone… Probably two bottles left…? Conte… Conte something… Ugh… Why are wine names so hard…?

“Glad there’s some left.”

– Why? Need it for something…?

“Yeah. I was planning to take one. If you’d finished it all, I would’ve just bought some myself.”

On top of that, it’d help reduce the amount of alcohol Yozora had—killing two birds with one stone.

There was absolutely no reason not to take it, so I was about to say, “I’ll drop by your place later,” when—

– Hmm. I can give it to you, but… I won’t just hand it over for free~?

“What, you want something in return?”

– Of course I do~… This is a chance to get what I want using alcohol as leverage!

“If the price is too high, I’ll just go buy it myself.”

– I-It’s not expensive! You know I have plenty of money too, right?

“Then is it something annoying?”

– ……It might be a little annoying… Ugh…

“So what is it? I’ll hear you out and think about it.”

– Well, the thing is…

Yozora carefully explained what she wanted, and even after hearing it, it didn’t seem like a big deal.

Letting out a light sigh, I told her I’d come over soon and ended the call with the drunkard.

“So all I have to do is this?”

“Yep! Plus, starting January, I’ll be doing hero intern stuff? Anyway, because of that~ I’ll be getting busier soon.”

“You could just skip it if you don’t want to. Not that any sane student would.”

“Might as well try~ Soo-chan and I are at the same place too. Might be fun if I run into someone I know.”

Yozora’s house, which I visited again after about two days, was unexpectedly clean from the entrance all the way inside.

It’s not that her house was always dirty when I saw it as a villain, but there were usually three or four delivery boxes neatly stacked in the corner of the living room or a tangled hairdryer rolling on the floor.

Now, even those were gone.

Similarly, Yozora’s trademark empty liquor bottles were nowhere to be seen.

But if I had to pick the biggest change among all these…

It’d undoubtedly be…

“Here, you wear this mask too…”

“I’ll put it on when we go outside.”

“At least hook it over your ear for now. If you forget and leave without it, you’ll have to come back home or stop by a convenience store—annoying, right?”

“Who forgets something they’re holding? It’s not like I’m putting it down somewhere.”

“Huh? …Am I the only one…?”

Yozora.

The girl who used to show up at the hideout in just a shabby hoodie even in the middle of winter,

now diligently brushes her long hair to keep it from flying around like stray dog fur

and wears cute clothes I’ve never seen in ten years.

That’s the biggest change.

“Also, you sounded completely drunk on the phone earlier, but now you’re pretty sober?”

“Well, I scrubbed myself like crazy when you said you were coming. Brushed my teeth a ton too so I wouldn’t smell like alcohol—you can’t tell, right?”

“How would I know? That kind of thing.”

“Here, sniff. It’s just toothpaste, right?”

“Hey, wait…”

As if confident, Yozora tightly gripped my coat, stood on her tiptoes, and opened her mouth toward me.

Though she must’ve been too embarrassed to open it wide—just enough for two fingers to fit.

It did smell nice, but smelling someone else’s breath felt weird, so I steered the conversation back on track.

“…So, where are you planning to go?”

“First, a movie! I just booked tickets in a hurry. Then… food! Anywhere you like is fine, right? Probably?”

“Earlier, you said you wanted to go on a date alone with me. Is that all?”

“The location doesn’t matter much… The important thing is…”

A secret date no one else knows about.

As I hooked the mask Yozora gave me over my ear—part of her condition—she, wearing the same mask, beamed and said:

“Couple masks!”

“…….”

“…Ahem. Anyway, today, I can do anything I want with you, right?”

“Within common sense.”

“……Okay. Common sense…”

Even on Christmas.

And before that.

After having so much fun.

What am I, to her?

Like an excited little kid.