This World Is Truly Too Harsh on Beauties
"Hi there?"
"Ah—ah—ah, th-ah, h-hello…."
I'd only spoken to her, and already she was stuttering like her brain had hit a loading screen.
Was she that stunned by how pretty I am? Should I have approached a little more slowly so I wouldn't startle her?
From now on, I'd have to be careful approaching people, accounting for the possibility that they might be fragile.
If someone saw my face—more beautiful than any flower—and their heart stopped, that would be a real problem.
Which suddenly made me wonder: if someone looked at my face, went into shock, and died of a heart attack… would that be my fault?
And if it were my fault… then I would almost certainly be the most dangerous criminal in the history of the planet.
Having to watch myself just walking outside because my face is too pretty….
As expected, this world is truly too harsh on beauties.
"W-why did you call me?"
"Huh? Do I need a reason to say hello?"
Kim Yeeun shrank into herself, trembling all over. The dagger hanging at her waist rattled along with her.
Ah. Just looking at that dagger gave me a weird full-body chill.
Was it because I'd cut my wrist so deep back then?
I'd heard later from the school nurse that if it had gone even a little deeper, it could have been dangerous. There had been quite a lot of blood.
I was smacking my lips, thinking about that moment, when Kim Yeeun dipped her head a little.
She was so small, and her head was so round, that even that tiny gesture felt incredibly cute. It was like looking at Dodori, the hamster I'd kept when I was little.
For the record, Dodori had escaped from his cage and never been found. He was probably dead….
Remembering Dodori made my mood plummet all of a sudden.
Ah. I think I'm going to cry.
When I sniffled, Kim Yeeun jolted and looked up at me.
See? When you talk to someone, you're supposed to look them properly in the eyes.
Some timid people couldn't manage it, and my class just happened to be full of unusually timid kids. Everyone walked around staring at the floor….
Luna at least met my eyes—but she was almost always asleep. Cecilia couldn't see in the first place.
Still, that made Kim Yeeun the second friend in our class who had looked me straight in the eyes.
The moment her gaze met mine—mine, with a tear that had already slipped free—Kim Yeeun flinched, her face coloring faintly, and tried to turn her head away again.
But that was something I could not allow!
Grab!
"Ugh…?!"
I stretched out both hands, caught her cheeks, and turned her face back so our eyes met.
Her startled pupils darted every which way, and the soft, springy feel of her cheeks was wonderful.
I liked this. I wanted to keep touching them…. And the more I squished and kneaded, the redder they got.
No—more precisely, Kim Yeeun's entire face was turning scarlet.
"Uuuu…."
I was still playing with the cheeks of a trembling, completely unmoored Kim Yeeun when someone approached from the side and spoke up.
"She doesn't seem to like it. How about letting go?"
"Hm?"
I turned toward the voice and found a girl with yellow hair tied back, glaring at me with sharp eyes.
Her body was trembling a little too, just like Kim Yeeun's. Was she cold?
More importantly—we'd made eye contact…! I'd just gained a third friend.
Come to think of it, this was one of the girls I always watched with interest during sparring. She always carried a sword and channeled her lightning ability into the blade.
I'd watched her wrap electricity around her sword, swing it, then lay down a carpet of lightning across the floor, and out of pure respect I'd started calling her the Electric Flyswatter.
The Electric Flyswatter opened her mouth in a slightly shaky voice.
"That girl… I said let her go. She clearly doesn't like it."
"Huh?"
I looked at Kim Yeeun in surprise and found her face had gone bright red.
"Ah… did you not like it? I was just… because you're cute…."
"N-no… i-it's fine."
Startled, I pulled my hands off her cheeks. Kim Yeeun stood there blankly for a second, said it was okay, then bolted off somewhere.
"……."
I watched her back vanish out of the classroom in an instant, and the Electric Flyswatter started to turn away as well.
But this was my hard-won third friend! I couldn't just let her go that easily.
Gotcha!
I caught her wrist, and her whole body gave a sharp jolt. Then, with a creaking, grinding motion, she slowly turned her head back toward me.
No—more precisely, she wasn't meeting my eyes. She was staring at my feet.
Had my shoelaces come undone? I checked just in case, but the ribbon I'd tied that morning was still perfectly in place.
"W-what?"
She was so flustered she was stumbling over her words. I glanced at her chest and saw the name engraved there: Cheon Sia.
"Cheon Sia."
"Y-yeah?"
When I carefully said her name, her body gave another big lurch.
These kids kept trembling—did we seriously need to turn the heat on in here?
Still staring at my feet, Cheon Sia. I gently stroked one of her cheeks.
Soft. Smooth. Squishy.
Keeping my hand there, I lightly brushed her cheek upward and lifted her face. Our eyes met naturally.
"When you're talking to me, you should look me in the eyes…."
We're talking, and you're looking somewhere else. That makes me jealous, you know? Doesn't it?
"Uu…."
For reasons I didn't understand, Cheon Sia's breathing was growing rougher.
Ah—was it because a pretty face was too close?
Cheon Sia was pretty herself, so without realizing it I'd drawn my face in close and was studying hers carefully.
I watched my own reflection in her pupils—wearing a captivating smile—and stroked her cheek again, gently.
Every time my fingers touched her, her body twitched, and her cheeks slowly flushed red.
"From now on… you'll look at me properly, right?"
"……."
"Otherwise… I'll be a little sad."
At my words, Cheon Sia slowly nodded her agreement.
Just then, a single tear I'd shed earlier while thinking of Dodori—still clinging to the tip of my chin—went plip and fell at my feet.
The fallen tear froze with a crystalline crackle and became a small crystal flower.
I carefully picked up that blue crystal flower.
"This is a gift."
I pinned it in her hair and whispered by her ear.
"With this, we're friends now, right?"
Apparently her ears were as weak as mine—hearing my whisper, Cheon Sia went completely rigid.
She seemed like the shy type, and she didn't look ready to answer right now, so I decided to give her some space.
I gave her head—about the same height as mine—one smooth pat, then turned and walked out of the classroom.
On a good day like this, when two friends appear out of nowhere, you have to eat Koko-chi.
And of course, since I'd made two whole friends, that meant two skewers!
Wasn't today the happiest day ever?
The completion bonus for the request to clean out one of Bind's bases had been pretty substantial, so I could buy as much Koko-chi as I wanted.
No—maybe I should just save up hard and buy the whole Koko-chi shop?
Hire the owner lady and have her make Koko-chi just for me, for the rest of my life.
"That's so romantic…."
A relationship that exists only for each other… that would definitely be a hit if I wrote it as a novel.
Inside the classroom, which had gone ice-cold.
Rattle.
A woman with ash-gray hair trudged in. She looked this way and that as if searching for someone, then called out to whoever happened to be standing nearby.
"You there."
"Y-yes, ma'am!"
The unlucky boy standing near her answered at full volume, completely stiff with terror.
But Luna brushed past that like it was nothing new and asked what she'd wanted to ask.
"Do you know where Elysia went?"
"…I-I don't know, ma'am!"
"Tsk."
The moment he heard Luna click her tongue, the boy trembled with pure fear.
But surprisingly, she said nothing more—just turned and strolled leisurely out of the classroom.
"Pwah…."
The sound of students who'd been holding their breath finally exhaling filled the room.
"Haa…."
Cheon Sia slid straight down where she stood and collapsed into a sitting heap.
With a trembling hand, she picked up the crystal flower Elysia had pinned in her hair.
It was thin as a real flower, yet strangely hard—and for all that, it barely had any weight at all.
"…Friends?"
A small murmur slipped from Cheon Sia's lips.
Friends. Right. Elysia had definitely said they were friends.
What on earth was that supposed to mean?
Every single word that girl spoke felt suspicious. Felt frightening.
And of course it did—this was Elysia, the one the rumors about had been flying everywhere lately.
She was always clinging to Luna right in front of everyone, and she was supposedly incredibly close with Tania and Adele too.
Taking someone like that at her word would be the stranger thing.
But there was a more serious problem than that.
Ever since she'd properly looked at that face… for some reason, Elysia's face kept flickering in front of her eyes.