Even the Gentle Me Got Angry!
The direct answer hit like a slap.
It was refreshing that she didn’t spin it like those romance memes on the internet—“No, not at all. I’m just a little hurt.” Or “Do I look angry to you? I’m just trying to talk.” She came right out and said it.
Still, the fact that she was angry at all left me slightly dizzy.
Was it just my imagination that I kept seeing the cloudy personality overlapping with Yuri? Of course, since she was one of the personalities split off from the main body, it wasn’t exactly strange.
Yuri had sunk deep into her own feelings. At this rate, no matter how many messages I sent, they probably wouldn’t reach her.
Then I had no choice but to try a different method.
Voice message? No. The chat was already flooded. Anything I sent would get buried. In that case…
I tapped the feature every messenger app naturally supports.
♩ ♪ ♫
Target linked successfully.
The phone screen changed at once, showing our two profiles pressed together—her default profile and the photo of me taken back in the States.
Thank goodness. At least she picked up.
The real Yuri usually rejected even regular voice calls, let alone video, so I’d honestly expected her to ignore it. Maybe this time she was scared I’d leave if she didn’t answer.
That would never happen, though.
Her microphone was, of course, muted. But it wasn’t complete silence. It meant she could still hear me.
On the other side of the phone, she was nervously waiting for whatever I might say. I straightened my posture and brought the phone closer, then spoke to her in the gentlest voice I could manage.
A short silence followed. Her mic stayed muted.
Then her reply arrived.
…Ah, cute.
I liked that she noticed every little thing, even though part of me wondered why. It felt strangely good to sense that she didn’t want to lose me even when I was being a pain.
So I answered gladly, my voice warm with laughter.
And so an odd conversation continued—one side speaking through the phone, the other replying by text. Anyone watching would have wondered what the hell we were doing, but we didn’t feel awkward at all.
No matter the medium, what mattered was that our feelings reached each other. That single fact was enough.
Hmm. Before the regression my height had stopped at 178 cm. Even though I’d stayed up until dawn on my phone all through middle and high school and still reached that, if I actually slept properly I might be able to aim for 180.
Did she still have something left to say? We’d already talked for hours today alone.
That was when it happened.
For the briefest moment, a soft green light glowed around the edge of Yuri’s profile. She had unmuted.
And then her voice—not text, but actual sound—tickled my ear directly.
“Yu…”
Ding!
The call ended mischievously right after those words.
“She beats me up one-sidedly and then ends it like that…”
I bet if I switched to selfie mode right now I’d see a boy grinning like an idiot. I felt genuine regret that I hadn’t recorded her voice, then flopped onto the bed still hugging the phone.
I typed and deleted the same message several times before finally sending the simplest version.
With that, I turned off the phone and pulled the blanket over myself.
“I’m definitely sleeping through all the morning classes tomorrow.”
Still, compared to getting to hear my childhood friend’s voice, it was an incredibly cheap price, wasn’t it?
Someone tapped my shoulder, shaking me gently yet firmly.
“…No… Noah…!”
“…Ara?”
Forcing my eyelids open, I saw my deskmate Ara looking at me. Because I’d been sleeping with my head on my arms at the desk, her face was closer than I expected.
“How can you sleep through the entire first period? Midterms are in just two weeks!”
As class president, she was probably worried that the new transfer student was already dozing off on his second day.
“I fell asleep at three in the morning. Sorry. I’ll just catch up on sleep during the morning classes.”
“What if you fall behind in the lessons?”
“Don’t worry. I’m confident I can crack the top ten in the whole grade even if I take the test right now. Yawn…”
“That sounds like completely baseless confidence.”
Ara gave me a doubtful look, but I brushed it off lightly. There was no need to explain.
One of a regressor’s countless privileges is going through the exact same curriculum twice. I even had experience tutoring middle and high schoolers through academy part-time jobs and private lessons. The day before I regressed I’d been tutoring a high school student, so it wasn’t as if I’d lived without studying. I was confident I could scribble my way to perfect scores on middle-school material.
“You’ll see when the test comes. What’s next period?”
“Math. Class B.”
“Ugh, yesterday I saw the teacher throwing chalk at sleeping students.”
“Exactly, so you definitely can’t fall asleep, right? At least go wash your face!”
I yawned once more and stood up. Like Ara said, I should splash some water on my face to wake up.
Jeong Ha-rin is surprisingly quiet.
After she came on so strong yesterday, I’d expected some kind of retaliation at school today. Maybe I’d watched too many bully stories.
I glanced at the seats where Jeong Ha-rin and her friend Yoo Ye-eun—who had come with her yesterday—were sitting.
Ah, eye contact.
Unfortunately our gazes met. Jeong Ha-rin was glaring with overtly venomous eyes. It reminded me of a viper that supposedly lived in Trinity. I wanted to grab a chair and give her an etiquette lesson, but I held back.
Positive thoughts. It would be better if she lost interest in me anyway.
I opened the classroom door and stepped into the hallway.
Lunch arrived after the morning classes ended. I was sitting in a corner of the classroom, blankly exchanging messages with Yuri. Chair tilted back, legs stretched out, phone in hand, tapping away.
What else was a transfer student who only knew his deskmate supposed to do? Besides, I was a latecomer who had shown up a full month—forty-five days, to be exact—after the semester started. The kids who got along had already formed their groups. Forcing my way in now would just get me bounced right back out.
It might have been too difficult a concept for the ever-bright clear personality. But Yuri was the one who had called me an outcast first. I’d sent a message saying I was bored and immediately got countered, which led to this long explanation.
Right then, a photo arrived.
It was Yuri jogging. Leggings and a crop top on her twenty-three-year-old (mental age) body was far too stimulating. I quickly straightened my chair and lowered the screen brightness in case anyone was watching, then secretly raised it again with a quiet chuckle.
“Ah, I need to reply.”
I hurriedly deleted the low-quality line I’d almost sent about falling in love at first sight and asking for another look at her navel.
My instincts had nearly given reason a standing ovation and caused an accident without me realizing.
In the anime with alchemists and giants, didn’t all the mothers with that hairstyle end up dying early? Since I wanted to keep flirting with Yuri for a long time, I firmly refused that one.
She was still such a cheerful kid. Thanks to her, I found the courage to endure the pedantic afternoon classes. After suffering through a few whippings, a carrot cake called “spending time with Yuri after school” would be waiting.
Feeling good, I slipped my phone away and looked up.
“Huh?”
Someone was standing in front of me, grinning unpleasantly.
“Now you’re finally looking over here?”
I never imagined I would hear that line in this place.