Beautiful Girls Are Always Right...?
"Wait, wait a second."
I clutched my throbbing head and barely managed to claw my way back to sanity.
...No. I didn't.
That sensation of getting smacked upside the back of the skull was the kind of thing that wouldn't settle down in a mere few seconds. So the only things I could do right then were accept the current situation as logically as possible... and filter whatever was about to leave my mouth before it actually did.
"...You're the senior, right?"
"If you mean the first-gen trainee we were supposed to meet today, then yeah, that's me. Why?"
Okay. At least I'd found the right person. That meant I hadn't completely lost my mind and mistaken this for some kind of pickup. But that only made everything even harder to understand.
What the hell was that just now?
"...Uh, so what was all that about? The girlfriend talk and everything."
"Hm? Ah. Did I come on too strong?"
I ran the circuits in my head one more time, but the questions still refused to clear. Senior or not, I decided to just ask her directly—
"Listen carefully, junior."
"...What?"
"Beautiful girls are absolutely right."
Except this so-called senior just kept spouting half-baked nonsense.
"And I really, really love pretty things."
"...???"
"Someone as pretty as you needs to be kept right by my side and preserved!"
...Has this person actually lost it?
I get that you can't survive in the broadcasting industry with ordinary people's common sense. But could you please act normal in real life? We're social animals, you know? Right?
No wonder her concept was a crow...
...Was this why? I'd just brushed it off before, but looking at her now, it suited her way too well. Though I still didn't understand why she collected people instead of jewels or accessories.
No, hang on.
"...But, a beautiful girl?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"...Me?"
"...Hm?"
That... beautiful girl? Me? ...Based on what, exactly?
"Aha. So our junior is one of those, huh?"
"One of those...?"
"You know. The type with zero self-awareness about their own looks?"
...Looks, my ass.
I wasn't about to put down the face I'd inherited from my parents. But someone like me was pretty ordinary, right? Not ugly, sure, but I didn't exactly put effort into dressing up either.
"Those faintly cool, wolf-like eyes, and a sharp jawline that matches them perfectly. Medium-length black hair that cuts off at the shoulders, perfectly suited to the vibe... with a light white highlight as a casual accent. And finally, every last bit of soft flesh piled heavily onto one side—"
Whether I liked it or not, our senior drained the rest of her drink in one go and launched into a full-blown speech.
"—plus that lewd body of yours on top of everything!"
"No, what the hell is that even—"
"Perfect in every single way, and you claim you're not pretty? That's a lie!"
...The conclusion was seriously off. But faced with a chain of logic so deranged I couldn't even decide where to start poking holes, I—unfortunately—couldn't correct a single thing.
"Senior, so basically—"
"...Sihyun."
Because before I could even fire back—
"What are you doing here?"
"...Jia?"
Jia, who was supposed to be at home, suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
...Why was she here? We'd clearly talked it over before I left. And why did her face look like that again? Had something set her off...?
"...Senior."
"...Long time no see, junior?"
They seemed to know each other, but the way they looked at one another was anything but normal for a senior-junior relationship. It felt like the food I'd eaten today was sitting weird in my stomach for no good reason.
Whether she could read my mind or not, Jia glared at our company's great senior for a moment—
"Let's go, Sihyun."
"Uh, Jia, wai—"
"Hurry."
—and grabbed my hand, pulling me up.
...Is this okay? I've been roasting her to hell and back in my head from the first meeting until now, but she's still a senior. Higher rank than us. We probably shouldn't just blatantly walk past her like this...???
"Hm~ph..."
As Jia forcibly hauled my bewildered self to my feet, a subtle little hum drifted over from the seat in front of us.
"You two seem close."
"Of course."
"Aaah, don't look at me like that? I haven't even done anything yet."
She gave a soft little smile, then raised both hands slightly as if surrendering for the moment and showed us her pure white palms.
"Well... fine."
"..."
"I'll back off for today."
Uh... yeah. Did that somehow end okay? I couldn't keep up with this atmosphere at all.
"...And, junior?"
"...Yes?"
"Let's... see each other often from now on?"
...Seriously.