Childhood Friend on a Sunny Day
Hmm… No response at all.
No matter how many times I rang the doorbell, only silence answered.
I’d steadied my heart several times on the way over, yet things were already blocked from the very first step.
I pulled out my phone and reread the text messages.
The ones I’d exchanged with Yuri’s mother.
Yuri’s Mother: Yuri is really sick right now, Noah. If you come over, you both might end up hurting each other.
Noah: It’s okay, Yuri’s mom. I finally came back from the States, so I want to greet Yuri—I’ve missed her so much.
Yuri’s Mother: …I understand. Still, meeting you—the friend she was so close to as a child—might make things a little different for her.
Noah: The address is still the same, right? Tomorrow’s the weekend, so I’ll drop by after lunch.
Yuri’s Mother: All right. Just so you know, I’m away on a business trip… I’m leaving you in charge of keeping Yuri company instead of this pathetic mother who can’t even be there with her.
Noah: Leave it to me. If anything happens I’ll contact you right away!
Yuri’s Mother: Thank you. Oh, by any chance, do you know what the weather in Seoul will be like tomorrow?
Noah: Uh… I remember it was supposed to be clear.
Yuri’s Mother: That’s a relief. It should be a little easier to handle, then.
At first I hadn’t understood what that “clear” meant.
But soon, the words Yuri’s mother had said before my regression came back to me.
The personality changes depending on the weather.
On sunny days, she’d told me, Yuri’s bright and cheerful personality would appear.
If this were a game, it would be easy difficulty.
Except I couldn’t even get through the starting gate right now.
I let out a sigh and was about to press the doorbell one more time when—
Creeeeak.
“Who… are you?”
Disheveled long blonde hair and lifeless red eyes.
This wasn’t the Yuri I remembered.
The Yuri in my memory had black hair and black eyes.
Yet the person who stepped out of my childhood friend’s house was a woman with a completely different appearance.
Did her mom send me the wrong address?
“Sorry. Looks like I came to the wrong place. I was looking for my childhood friend, Seo Yuri. My mistake.”
I gave a quick apology and turned to leave.
“Wait!”
She suddenly grabbed my wrist.
I tried to pull away, but she only gripped tighter.
“Don’t tell me… Han Noah? Is it really you? I only have one childhood friend, after all.”
At those words I turned back to look at her.
The red eyes that had been cloudy only moments ago slowly began to regain their spark.
Exactly like the weather shifting from overcast to clear.
“Um… if I say yes, will you believe me?”
The moment the words left my mouth, she pounced.
It was such a sudden move that I toppled backward. When I opened my eyes again—
“It really is Noah!! It’s me! Yuri!”
Yuri was straddling me, shoving her face inches from mine.
Ten centimeters between us.
Honestly, I was flustered.
The image I’d carried in my head was of Yuri huddled in a dark corner, arms wrapped around her knees.
Instead, the girl I hadn’t seen in years had her face buried in my neck, breathing in my scent like it was the most intoxicating thing in the world.
“Haa… haa… Noah’s smell. The scent of my childhood friend I’ve missed for three whole years…”
She was completely lost in it.
I’d only washed up at home before coming, yet she looked utterly enchanted.
“Hwaaaaa…”
This was getting awkward. Now her whole body was trembling.
If anyone saw us they’d think we’d just finished a round outside.
We weren’t even in high school anymore; this kind of development since our middle-school days was a little much.
“Hey… Yuri?”
“Yeah! What is it, Noah?”
She looked up at me with a bright, puppy-like smile.
Nothing like the guarded atmosphere she’d given off at first.
So this is the sunny-day personality?
Bright, cheerful, and so straightforward it was almost unpredictable.
The type that expressed every emotion and impulse without any filter.
“Could you get off me first? We’re outside. People might misunderstand.”
“Tch, I don’t care.”
Poke.
She tapped my nose with her finger and puffed out her cheeks in a pout.
Her cheeks swelled like a hamster’s; anyone could see she’d throw a fit if I didn’t soothe her.
“Why are you speaking so formally? We’re the same age. And childhood friends.”
“…It’s been so long since we last met. It feels awkward.”
It was the truth. For her it had been three years, but counting my pre-regression life it had been ten.
“That’s so mean. Even after we lost touch, I kept hoping we’d meet again.”
“Sorry. For showing up so late.”
“So late, huh.”
Her face grew gloomy again.
Clouds were already drifting across the sunlight.
“I thought I’d never see you again in my whole life. When I asked Mom, she said you’d be finishing your degree in America at least until high school. So I slowly stopped reaching out too.”
“Yuri…”
No matter how easy texting had become, physical distance couldn’t be ignored.
When you’re far apart, the only conversations left are shallow ones—what you did today, what you’ll do tomorrow.
Eventually the things to talk about dwindle, replies slow down, and one day the contact simply stops.
Unfortunately I had followed that same path with Yuri, and the result had been…
Don’t think about that. I came here to prevent the bad ending.
I pushed myself up. Still lying on the floor, I wrapped one arm around her waist and lifted us until our eyes were level.
“Wait, Noah? This is too close…”
“You were the one who jumped on me first. It’s not that different, is it?”
“That was then, this is now! Wait… you’re using casual speech now?”
Her expression brightened again.
Though her current appearance was unfamiliar, the smile carried the same warmth I remembered.
For now, let’s get closer to this dog-like sunny personality.
One step at a time. If I gathered the pieces little by little, I could still reach the true ending.
I pulled her closer with the arm around her waist until our faces were nearly touching.
Close enough for our eyes to clearly reflect each other.
“Yuri. If I told you I came back from America just to see you, would you believe me?”
The distance between us now: five centimeters.
After seven years, stepping into my childhood friend’s house.
And the first impression of the opposite-sex childhood friend’s room was…
“It’s neat. Maybe I was thinking in too many clichés?”
The room had a minimalist style.
A small space containing only a bed, a desk, and a bookshelf.
No decorations on the walls, nothing on the desk except neatly arranged stationery.
If not for the few dolls on the bed, it would have been hard to believe a middle-school girl lived here.
“Huh? This is the doll I won for her back in elementary school.”
I picked up the teddy bear sitting on the bed in chibi form.
The memory of spending 500 won every day at the stationery store trying to win prizes.
I’d been aiming for the first-place BB gun, but the best I ever got was this third-place teddy bear.
“It’s a gift. I won it for you, Yuri.”
Elementary-school me had thought dolls were only for girls, so I’d handed it to her right away saying it was a present.
Yuri had been so happy she teared up over a single doll and hugged both the bear and me at the same time.
“I’ll treasure it forever! I really mean it.”
Seeing the worn, tattered teddy bear still sitting on the bed now, I finally understood why.
“Yuri really never forgot me.”
Maybe it had been my own misunderstanding to think the contact had simply faded naturally.
Perhaps she had only wanted to keep any kind of connection with me, no matter how trivial the conversation.
“…It’s ironic.”
Creeeak.
“Noah! Sorry. It’s been forever since we had a guest, so I ran to the convenience store real quick, hehe.”
Yuri opened the door holding drinks and snacks.
My favorite Dr Pepper and a can of Pringles.
It had taken a while, so I’d wondered what she was doing—she must have slipped out.
Does the sunny personality have no problem going to the convenience store?
“Thanks, Yuri. I’ll enjoy them.”
“Yeah! But first!”
She grabbed my hand and pointed at the door.
“Go wash your hands! Scrub them squeaky clean for at least thirty seconds!”
“You’re treating me like a little kid.”
“Hee. For us, time stopped back in elementary school.”
“…You’re right. I’ll be back, Yuri.”
“I’ll be waiting~ Forever!”
Forever.
That single word dug into my chest for some reason.
Especially when paired with her bright, sunny smile.
“Okay. I’ll be quick.”
I might have opened the door a little too fast, almost like I was fleeing.
The distance between us now: ten meters.
While washing my hands in the lemon-scented bathroom, one thing suddenly struck me.
“There’s no mirror. At least this part is exactly like the cliché.”
The square mirror that should have been above the sink was nowhere to be seen.
Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t spotted a single mirror in the hallway or living room on the way up to her second-floor room either.
The reason was obvious, of course.
Yuri, who suffered from dissociative identity disorder, wouldn’t be able to accept the person she saw reflected in a mirror.
That obvious reason somehow made my chest feel even heavier.
I unconsciously reached for my phone to check my face in selfie mode, but stopped.
“Better not.”
Even the brief act of turning on the screen felt like it would disturb the air in this house.
Who am I? Am I really me?
Living with multiple personalities might mean spending every single day drowning in those questions.
That was why there were no mirrors in this house.
To avoid facing themselves.
Or out of fear that when they did, a stranger’s personality would be staring back.
Yuri had lived that kind of life for three years.
If I’d come any later, it really might have been too late.
Right now the sky was clear.
Luckily, the bright and cheerful personality had welcomed me.
But I knew.
Other versions of Yuri were breathing inside her.
She stood on a precarious boundary where personalities she couldn’t control switched on and off like a flip of a switch, all dictated by the weather.
I rinsed my hands and lifted my head.
Above the sink was nothing but a bare wall.
Nothing reflected me.
“Let’s do this. Until the only Yuri reflected in my eyes is one single person.”
I turned off the faucet and shook the water from my hands.
“Yuri, sorry to keep you waiting. I washed up nice and clean just like you said.”
I opened the door, ready to have a proper conversation with the puppy-like girl, but—
“You’re back? That was close. If you’d been any later I might have started hurting myself.”
The atmosphere had completely changed.
The girl who spoke was sitting by the window.
She twirled a lock of black hair around her finger and stared at me with piercing red eyes.
That gaze was nothing like the bright, cheerful Yuri from before.
It belonged to someone who had given up,
or someone who loathed herself.
“No way…”
I hurriedly glanced outside the window.
The sky that had been dazzlingly clear only moments ago was now completely covered in dark clouds.
The weather changed. And Yuri’s personality changed at the same time? In such a short time?
I swallowed my shock and asked the new personality.
“So you’re the cloudy-day personality?”
“Correct. The pessimistic, gloomy one who self-harms at the drop of a hat.”
She smiled faintly as she sipped her drink.
“Already sick of me, Noah?”
