Reflection
-Whoosh! The next moment, Mun Hee-jeong, who'd greeted me with an awkward face, yanked my arm with brute force. Like she didn't want anyone seeing her embarrassed look, her movements were lightning-quick. I didn't even have time to react before she dragged me inside.
"Eek."
The instant I stepped into the room, threads burst from the hedgehog doll in my hand like living things, slamming the door shut roughly.
-Thud. Me and Mun Hee-jeong tumbled to the floor in a tangle from the momentum, rolling over.
-Squeeze. Was she channeling Spirit Descent or something? The grip on my wrist was insanely strong—way beyond what her slender arms suggested.
"What the—"
I tried to ask, but the words died when I saw her eyes, all teary and wet, as she straddled me.
"Hic... sob..."
"...What happened?"
Mun Hee-jeong didn't answer. She just kept crying, face flushed red.
-Plop. A warm teardrop hit my cheek. I pried her hands off by force and sat up.
<Boobzilla's really crying here. You gonna ignore her or what, dummy?>
I was planning to anyway.
"What happened? Skipping school and all. And that outfit—"
As I grabbed her shoulders and asked, my eyes kept drifting down below her neck.
"Eek..."
Unable to bear my wandering gaze, she shyly covered her chest and lower body with her arms. The latex suit clung to her like a vacuum-sealed bag. I chopped down the imaginary tree sprouting in my head, fought the gravitational pull on my eyes, and met her gaze. Her face, looking at me with sad eyes like she'd committed some grave sin, was as pitiful as a rain-soaked puppy.
"Sorry, Taeyang. I messed up."
With her apologizing out of nowhere, I racked my brain for how to respond. What the hell had she messed up?
A few possibilities popped into my head. For a Shangju, the big no-nos were pretty much just two: filial impiety. Or breaking a Genealogy Oath. She looked fine, so not some massive screw-up. Had to be the latter. Especially since Mun Ik-jeom's oath penalty was the annihilation of clothing. That latex she was wearing? Definitely a loophole to dodge it. His wrath only worked on stuff he saw as "people clothes."
"Hee-jeong."
"Yeah...?"
Mun Ik-jeom's oath condition was simple: don't harm the innocent. Breaking that meant she'd done something shady I didn't know about.
"You been doing anything bad to other people lately?"
"......"
Like the day we met, she stared at me with startled doe eyes, then nodded faintly in admission.
"Even if it's weird for me to barge in and ask like this, thinking you're hurt or whatever—my lips are sealed. You can tell me straight."
She'd apologized the second she saw me, but no matter how I thought about it, she hadn't wronged me. Probably just panic making her blurt out atonement to ease her guilt.
"Can't say... How do I even..."
<Tch.> Genevieve snorted like she couldn't believe it.
"What? You got an idea?"
<...Nah.>
Her face was icy, but her eyes held worry as they fixed on Mun Hee-jeong.
"I won't tell a soul. Spilling it honestly will make you feel better."
I wiped the tears pooling at her eyes with the handkerchief I'd gotten back from Seol Romi today. She didn't resist.
"Haa..."
She let out a sigh like the ground might cave in, hugged her knees timidly, and finally opened her heavy mouth.
"Last night, I choked Sua."
"What?!"
Her unexpected answer short-circuited my brain. Shin Sua's intruder from last night was Mun Hee-jeong?! But how?
She'd just used threads to shut the door. That was a new form of Spirit Lord Transformation from mid-Chapter 2 of —not something she'd mastered yet. Even so, breaching Goryeo Group's mansion security? No way.
"Not directly. Gently. With... gloves."
Her absurd follow-up had me rubbing my forehead.
"Goddamn."
The glove packaging torn open at night? She'd remotely manipulated the cotton fibers to form gloves. But why Shin Sua of all people? She couldn't have known I was crashing there.
I'd learned my gifted gloves were used in the crime, but oddly, I wasn't mad. Confusion over the ridiculousness while I slept, sure—but I couldn't picture the usually meek Mun Hee-jeong doing this for no reason.
Yeah. I trusted her.
"Did Shin Sua secretly bully you or something?"
"No."
She hesitated a while, then shook her head.
"Then why?"
"......"
No answer. Rage boiled at the incomprehensible mess.
"Tell me."
-Thump.
"Eek...!"
I shoved her shoulders, pinning her to the wall. She looked up with terrified eyes, face like a kid on the verge of bawling—regressed to infancy or something. But I wasn't letting this slide easy.
"What did Shin Sua do to you?"
Choking a sleeping classmate? Was she insane? The Hee-jeong I knew wouldn't.
"Sniff. It's all... because of you, sniff. See...?"
But seeing her wipe tears pitifully while blaming me, I realized I'd badly misread things.
"My fault...?"
Yeah. I'd been wrong. The crying girl before me wasn't data—she was a living human. My pride in long playtime on this action RPG had bred stupid arrogance. Thinking I knew every character and the whole world. I'd sworn to ditch that nonsense confidence.
In this situation, one choice: step into the unknown.
"Can you tell me more?"
"Please."
"......"
She'd been staring straight into my eyes, crying, but now dropped her gaze.
"...Idiot."
"What?"
"I like you! I like Kim Taeyang so much it's driving me crazy every day!"
She squeezed her eyes shut and yelled through sobs. Then gasped like she'd expelled all her air.
"Haa... haa..."
Each breath made her chest heave, the bulging latex suit scattering smooth glossy reflections.
<......>
I glanced at Genevieve for help in my panic, but got a cold glare ordering me to comfort the crying girl.
"I'm sorry to Sua. Really. I misunderstood—thought something was up between you two."
Mun Hee-jeong swept back her sweat-and-tear-matted bangs and continued.
"But this all happened because I like you so much. Seeing you with Sua made me jealous."
She liked me? The unforeseen confession blanked my mind.
"......"
Looking back, hints were everywhere. Her brighter personality than in the game, pulling all-nighters to make me gloves. Unknowingly, I'd impacted her life big-time.
So how should I handle her eyes, brimming with shame, anxiety, and faint hope?
"Sorry."
First, skip blame—calm her down before she hyperventilated into oblivion.
"Didn't realize."
I took her trembling hands from the floor. Fingers shaking like aspen leaves, but I overlaid mine gently instead of squeezing.
"Thanks. For liking a nobody like me."
"...You're accepting?"
I shook my head; she dropped her gaze weakly.
"We haven't known each other long. What you're feeling might not be 'like'—could be obsession."
"I obsess 'cause I like you..."
"That's not mature."
"Do I need to be mature to like you? I'm only seventeen."
Innocent face like a kid whining for toys at the mart. I want you, so I'll have you. Child logic.
But I had no right to deny it. After sleeping with Genevieve to blow off first-murder stress, rejecting her immature crush would be hypocrisy.
"Not like that."
Words slipped out before thought finished.
"Who'd say no to a girl like you saying she likes them?"
Cheesy line that flushed my own face. But my tongue, slick as a seventeen-year-old delinquent's grease, kept going smooth.
"Hee-jeong. You're pretty. I feel it rationally. Intensely. But—"
"But?"
I lowered my voice, peering into her hopeful eyes.
"We like each other, sure—but our relationship isn't set. How'd you feel if I messed with some 'random' friend of yours?"
Meant to say bullying's wrong, but half my soul wouldn't let me.
"Hwaaang..."
-Sniff.
She burst into pitiful tears again at my words.
"I did wrong, Taeyang..."
"Apologize to Shin Sua, not me."
"Hic, sob... Can't. How do I even..."
She clung to my arm, sobbing nonstop. I got it— if she confessed, Sua wouldn't let it slide. Best case, expulsion. Not what I wanted either.
"I'll reflect. Never again. Punish me if you want—I'll take it sweet. Just don't tell Sua."
Her body heat seeped through the springy latex with her piteous sobs.
"If I get kicked out, I can't see you. I hate that... I'd rather die..."
"......"
I gently stroked her sobbing back. Let her cry it out. With good coaxing, we could talk calmly.
That naive thought shattered at her next words.
"Right, yeah. I can punish myself, right?"
Her eyes asked: Can I self-harm?
"Might ease this guilt a bit."
Instead of answering, I rolled up my left sleeve.
"Taeyang, that's..."
Before the two souls merged, the scars Kim Taeyang carved into himself during hard times appeared.
She was panicking, regressing infantile. Shock therapy time. All means fair.
"Tried it. Doesn't help much."
I smiled as I said it. Truth—backed by Taeyang's engraved memories and faded emotional Post-its stuck all over.
"Punishing yourself doesn't bring relief. Take it from experience."
"Hic..."
Still unsteady, she bit her lower lip hard.
<Delinquent.> Genevieve nodded at her with rare thief-girl kindness beaming down.
"...I'm going crazy."
A weak sob leaked from Mun Hee-jeong's lips.