We Just Held Hands While Sleeping
Behind a pillar a short distance from the bench where Elysia and Yi Siyun were talking, Carmen crouched in hiding, thoroughly flustered.
"W-what did I just hear...?"
What on earth had she just overheard?
She had only followed them out of worry. Lately Siyun had not looked well at all.
Keeping a careful distance as she trailed after her, Carmen had nearly lost the strength in her legs the moment she saw it.
It was because Yi Siyun was meeting and talking with Elysia—despite how many times Carmen had warned her!
This could not have been a chance encounter. Two people who were not even in the same year meeting on the street just before lunch ended was almost impossible.
Had they arranged to meet here in advance?
I warned her so many times...!
Everyone around Elysia was the sort who could casually kill people like them if they found them even slightly annoying.
Siyun was no fool. There was no reason she would deliberately try to get close to someone like that...
Then is it bullying?
Maybe Elysia had seized on some weakness of Siyun's and was tormenting her. That would explain why Siyun had been in such bad shape recently!
If that were the case, her sudden dash out of the classroom made sense too. Elysia must have messaged her to come out!
Rage surged up so hard that Carmen nearly charged in right then to tear the two of them apart.
"Elysia-sunbae!"
Siyun's voice stopped Carmen in her tracks.
Elysia answered the girl who had called her name with a gentle smile.
"Yeah, Siyun? What is it?"
Siyun took another step closer to her.
Why is she getting so close when it's dangerous!
Even if she had something to say, did people normally close that much distance?
"...There's something I want to... consult you about!"
They were too far away for Carmen to catch every word, so she craned her neck as far as it would go, desperate to hear better.
Consult? What kind of consultation with Elysia?
She had never told Carmen a single thing about it.
Even in a situation that might turn dangerous, a small spark of jealousy flickered inside Carmen's chest.
Does she trust Elysia-sunbae more than me?
She strained her ears toward them, but still could not make out the conversation properly.
She thought she heard her own name mentioned a few times, but...
Should I get closer?
If she stayed here she would hear nothing at all.
If Siyun had fallen for Elysia's schemes and started relying on her... then Carmen would have to rush in and save her right away.
While Carmen was busy rationalizing that to herself, Elysia and Yi Siyun began walking off somewhere, hands joined.
Hands joined.
Carmen's gaze locked onto those clasped hands.
It was the kind of light skinship that would not matter between two girls... yet the moment she saw it, Carmen's heart suddenly felt awful for some reason.
Her chest tightened as if she had eaten something wrong, and a strange emotion she had never felt before ran wild inside her.
Clutching that stifling chest, she stared blankly after the two of them as they grew distant, then belatedly hurried after them.
And that was how she arrived here.
In a quiet little spot with almost no people, she had overheard every single word of the consultation Yi Siyun and Elysia shared on the small bench.
Yes. Every word!
The strength left Carmen's legs. She slumped against the pillar and slid down it.
"What did I just hear...?"
Sh-she likes me? Yi Siyun? Me?
Of course Carmen liked Yi Siyun too.
She was the closest friend she had grown up with since childhood, the most precious person in her life.
But... from what she had just overheard, the feelings Siyun held for her were a little different.
A kiss? She said a kiss?
She had dreamed of kissing Carmen last night. And that was not enough—she said she actually wanted to do it for real.
Kissing Yi Siyun.
Without realizing it, Carmen traced her own lips with her fingertips.
She rarely had reason to touch them, so the soft, unfamiliar texture felt strange.
Come to think of it, when they were little they used to press their mouths together as a joke. They had simply stopped at some point as they grew older.
But everyone did that, right?
When you were young, showering family with kisses was perfectly normal, and to Carmen, Siyun was as good as family, so kissing her had never seemed strange.
But... a real kiss was different.
There was a more fundamental problem...
"...Ah."
Carmen covered her eyes with her hand and hung her head, having accidentally imagined it.
I've lost my mind.
Just because she heard that story, she was imagining something like that? Not even a simple peck... but a kiss that used... tongues!
Her face burned hot. Then a sudden question rose.
If one day... Yi Siyun confessed that she liked her, what should she do?
Of course she liked Siyun too... but was it that kind of like?
Would dating her with a different kind of feeling actually be doing her a disservice?
Even if they did start dating, if she asked for a kiss? Would Carmen be able to kiss her?
Press their mouths together, mix their tongues?
She did not think she would be unable to...
"No, wait—two girls in the first place. Isn't that a little weird...?"
She had no intention of looking down on homosexual people or anything like that...
But Carmen, who until now had always assumed she herself was not one, felt her thoughts grow tangled and confused.
Am I... normal to begin with?
Is it normal to think that if Siyun asked for a kiss, she would give her one?
How do I... think of Siyun? What kind of liking is this feeling I have for her?
"I-I... what am I supposed to do..."
Her heart pounded wildly. Her body grew hotter and hotter.
How was she supposed to blow away this uncontrollable emotion and cool her head?
Squatting there and stamping her feet, Carmen finally settled on a method: running like a madwoman.
She shot to her feet, slipped away without being noticed by Yi Siyun or Elysia, and—
"Uwaaaaaaah!"
—began sprinting while screaming at the top of her lungs, even pouring her ability, Physical Enhancement, into it.
She didn't notice, right?
Having skipped an entire class, Carmen finally returned to the classroom, sat at her desk, and bounced her legs restlessly.
She had screamed in a fit of heat just to vent the fire in her chest... but that had not given away that she had been eavesdropping, had it?
Still trying to calm the heart that kept thrashing inside her, she looked up at the sky through the window.
Rattle.
The closed door opened and Yi Siyun walked in.
Like Carmen, she had cut one class and only now arrived, so the other students' eyes lingered on her for a moment before their interest faded.
She was such a diligent person that they probably figured she must have had a good reason.
But unlike the others, Carmen's gaze stayed locked on Yi Siyun.
No—more accurately, she had frozen solid while staring at her.
H-how am I supposed to act around her?
If she still did not know, it would be one thing, but now that she knew Yi Siyun liked her...
She could not let it slip that she had overheard... so she had to act as normal as possible.
"S-Siyun."
The voice calling her name trembled.
Hearing her name, Yi Siyun—who had been fidgeting with a faintly flushed face under Carmen's stare—gave a small start.
Watching that, Carmen's own heart pounded like crazy.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
W-why am I like this?
Somehow Yi Siyun looked a little different from usual.
No, she really had changed.
The makeup she had clearly put more care into made her face even prettier, and it set Carmen's heart racing.
And maybe it was because of what she had overheard earlier...
Those soft pink lips kept drawing her eyes.
Get a grip! I have to get a grip!
She clung to her reason as hard as she could while it kept swaying.
Then, putting on the calmest expression she could manage, she called to her the way she always did.
"S-Siyunnn... c-c-come here."
"Y-y-yeah!"
Watching the two of them stutter through a conversation like maniacs, their classmates reacted with things like "What are those two doing?" and "Beats me," but...
That was perfect. If I just keep acting like this, she'll never find out I eavesdropped!
Elysia-sunbae said to wait for a more certain moment and then confess... until then I have to keep hiding it just like this.
Each of them was convinced she had completely fooled the other.
Their delicate little war did not end there.
On the way home.
N-n-normally what did we do? D-did we hold hands? Link arms?
Is it okay to hold her hand...? It should be fine, right? Yeah, yeah, we always linked arms before, so something like this shouldn't feel weird to her at all...
While washing up.
Aaaagh! Knowing everything and still washing together is somehow embarrassing...! I keep getting self-conscious!
W-why is she looking at me like that? Did I gain weight? My weight was the same! If I want to raise the odds of a successful confession even a little...
When it was time to sleep.
……………………………….
……………………………….
Both of them had tensed up so hard that their minds went completely blank.
...Is it okay if I hold her hand?
Correction: Yi Siyun wanted to hold hands while they slept.
And the way Carmen went completely frantic when her hand was suddenly seized was just a bonus.