A Real One
The virgin declaration hit me like a truck.
“What the hell are you? A thief?”
If I really were a thief, why the hell would he sound so calm asking that? This guy had to be the senior she’d mentioned.
But why was this so-called office worker—who should’ve been glued to a desk in some cubicle—here at this hour?
Clang.
“Ah, a-ah…”
The moment Sia’s eyes met the man’s, she froze like a mouse in front of a cat. Her hands started trembling violently.
“What? You brought this guy? I thought you ran away, but you dragged home a damn gigolo? Guess a whore’s mindset never changes.”
“N-no… that’s not it…”
Her breathing grew ragged. She could barely get a full breath in. I grabbed her wrist and pulled her behind me, shielding her body from him.
“Who the fuck are you?”
The man strode over and planted himself right in front of me, chest puffed out.
A heavy wave of alcohol hit me. Up close, his face was flushed beet red. Day drinking?
“Who the hell are you, asshole? What are you doing in someone else’s house messing with my property?”
He jabbed a finger hard into my shoulder, reeking of booze the whole time.
Part of me wanted to snap and punch him right back, but I didn’t want to end up at the police station. Sia was here too, and technically I was the one who’d broken in. I was at a disadvantage.
“Ahaha, sorry about that. I was just helping Sia pack up her things. Could you step aside for a moment?”
Smile. Just smile. We’re never seeing this guy again anyway.
Prioritize Sia.
Thud!
“Step aside? You break into someone else’s house and then tell me to fuck off? Hey, aren’t you coming over here? Looks like the bruises from last time healed up nicely, huh?”
His fist slammed straight into my face.
It was only one hit, but I could already taste blood filling my mouth.
“H-hiiik…!”
When the man raised his hand again, Sia let out a frail scream and collapsed to the floor.
Her body and mind were already completely soaked in trauma.
The instant his foot swung toward her, I stepped in front again.
“That’s enough. Sia isn’t your property anymore.”
“Ha, you little piece of shit!”
Wham!
He kicked me in the stomach with everything he had. A loud impact rang out as my body flew backward and crashed to the floor.
“Yujin-nim!”
Even while shaking from a brutal PTSD episode, Sia still crawled over to me after I fell. Cute kid.
“Look at this whore crawling straight to her new man. And ‘nim’? So you’re one of those perverted bastards who gets off on that kind of roleplay?”
Crunch!!
He stomped down on my side.
Like he’d found a cockroach and was making sure it was dead—he kept stomping, over and over.
It stopped feeling like confirmation and started feeling like pure venting.
“N-no! Senior! Please, please…!”
For a second I actually wished Seo Eunha would show up and wreck everything. But no—I couldn’t rely on someone else to save me.
“Whore, get your hands off him!”
Thud!
Another kick echoed through the room.
But I didn’t feel any pain.
Because that kick had landed squarely on Sia instead.
“Sia!”
“How touching. So fucking touching. It’s not like it’s any different from the usual beatings, right?”
“Yujin-nim…”
Thud!
I was wrong.
Standing still wasn’t helping her.
Taking the hits for her wasn’t the right path.
But using violence against him in her place wasn’t right either.
I caught the man’s incoming kick with my hand and pinned his foot firmly to the floor.
He wasn’t particularly strong, and he was completely drunk. Subduing him wasn’t hard at all.
“You crazy bastard!”
He tried to stomp me with his other foot, but I shoved my body into his raised leg and sent him toppling over.
“Ugh!”
“Go ahead, hit me more. But if you can’t kill me here, your life is over.”
“W-what? Have you lost your damn mind…!”
“You know Sia’s a magical girl, right? You probably know about the laws against civilians assaulting magical girls too. If a civilian locks one up, beats her, causes mental trauma, and does all the other stuff I don’t even know about… Sia might never have to worry about money again.”
The man, who had been grabbing my collar and winding up for another punch, froze.
The haze of alcohol seemed to evaporate. His eyes shook as reason returned.
“W-what the… She’s my girlfriend! We just had a little fight, that’s all!”
“There wasn’t a single scar on Sia’s body. She took every hit in her magical girl form so her human body wouldn’t get hurt. You probably didn’t notice since you dyed your hair red like some edgy human. I wonder how the Management Bureau deals with men who mess with their ‘assets’… I don’t know. Should I find out?”
I grabbed the wrist of the hand still clutching my collar.
He panicked and tried to shake me off, but a scrawny drunk like him had no chance.
“Sia didn’t report you because she still had feelings for you. Unfortunately, I don’t feel the same way about you. So let’s end this nicely. Take your hands off her.”
As I spoke, I forced down the rage boiling up inside me.
“Sia isn’t the kind of woman who belongs with a filthy piece of trash like you. If you ever make her look like that again, it won’t be the Management Bureau that comes for you first—it’ll be the undertaker.”
“Y-you fucking…!”
His face twisted in fear as he shoved me away and stumbled backward.
“Get out! Grab your shit and get the hell out of here!!”
Bang!
“Hoo…”
Watching the man disappear into the room, the tension finally drained from me and I sank to the floor. Wow. I was worried he’d come back swinging, but that worked out.
“Yujin-nim! Yujin-nim!!”
“Quiet, quiet. If you provoke him again, who knows what he’ll do.”
Sia crawled over like a wounded animal and wrapped her arms around me, desperately trying to hold back her sobs as tears poured down her face.
Ow, ow. My side hurts…!
“I’m sorry. It’s all because of me. I should’ve come alone. Yujin-nim… At least I should’ve been the one who got hit…!”
Completely drained, I gently brushed my thumb across her cheek, wiping away her tears.
“What about your happiness?”
“Yujin-nim’s happiness…”
“Then what about your misfortune?”
“Yujin-nim’s misfortune…”
I ruffled her short red hair until it was a complete mess and smiled.
“Let’s go. You can cry when we get home. We need to finish packing.”
“So you just took all those hits by yourself?”
“Pretty much. Still, it wasn’t that bad since it was just a scrawny drunk kicking me… Okay, it did hurt, but I work out. I’m fine.”
“Did you really need to get beaten up like that?”
“Well… yeah, I guess.”
By the way, how long is this rhyming thing going to keep going?
“But…”
“Hold on.”
“What.”
“No more sentences starting with ‘but’ from now on.”
Seo Eunha stared at me like I was insane.
Was I the only one bothered by it?
“My body will heal with time, but the wounds in Sia’s heart won’t.”
“……”
Slap!
“Ow!”
“Who’s worrying about who?”
With a sulky expression, Seo Eunha smacked my bruised side hard. I immediately crumpled forward.
“Y-you cruel villain…”
“By the way, does the Management Bureau really care that much about magical girls? They wouldn’t just let it slide, but still.”
“Ah, that was a bluff.”
“What?”
“A guy whose life is already ruined wouldn’t know anything real about the Bureau. From what Sia said, he didn’t even see her as a real girlfriend. He treated her like a trophy on display.”
Thinking back, it was a reckless bluff, but the odds had been in my favor.
“Some people get the crap beaten out of them while others sleep peacefully.”
“She’s been through a lot. She deserves to rest comfortably.”
The entire way home, and even after we got back, Sia cried for dozens of minutes straight. She’d calm down for a bit, then start crying again. She’d get exhausted and stop, only to break down once more.
It took a long time before she finally fell asleep with her head on my lap.
I’d felt a tiny flutter when I met Han Yeeun earlier today, but Sia was… different. Even when we slept together or hugged like this, it felt more like having a puppy.
Not just ‘traumatized Sia,’ but ‘someone I know named Sia.’
“You had a rough day too, ahjussi. I was worried you’d come back covered in bruises… and here you are, covered in bruises. Want to die?”
“But I made it back safely. If things went south, you would’ve saved me, right, Eunha?”
“If only you couldn’t talk. I’m going to take a nap. Gotta get my money’s worth out of those new blackout curtains I bought.”
“???”
When the hell did she buy those?
“Brush your teeth before you sleep.”
Seo Eunha ignored me completely, flipped me off over her shoulder, and disappeared into her room.
Her attitude sucks, but at least she listens. That makes things easy.
“……”
In the rare silence that followed, my eyes closed on their own.
When I opened them again, I realized I was now lying on Sia’s lap.
What the…?
“Ah, sorry. I fell asleep.”
“Stay down.”
Using the overwhelming strength only a magical girl could possess, Sia pushed me back down before I could get up.
If only you’d used some of that strength on that guy earlier.
“Thank you.”
Thank you?
“Where are you going?”
“Huh? No, no. I mean thank you. For everything…”
Sia looked down at me with a complicated expression.
I couldn’t quite read it.
Gratitude? Guilt? Sadness? Remorse?
“Even after everything he did to you, the reason you couldn’t let go of that senior is because you fell in love with him before he started hurting you. But forget it. It was fake. He was trash who only saw magical girls as trophies to show off.”
“I know. But… but… I’m sorry. I said I liked you, Yujin-nim, but when he was hurting you, I couldn’t do anything. Deep down, I ended up taking his side. I told myself that the reason I stayed by his side wasn’t because he was beating you, but because my heart wanted it. Hic… ugh… sob…”
She’s crying again. Crying again.
I wiped the tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Cry as much as you want. There’s no one here who will scold you for crying.”
I almost mentioned Seo Eunha and awkwardly cut myself off.
“I’ll be the real thing. Not like that man who only kept you as decoration. I’ll be the real one who genuinely cares for you.”
“Haha… what is that even…”
I thought I sounded pretty cool, but maybe it came off weird?
“It was cool. Totally different from that other guy.”
This time, Sia stopped crying. She cupped my cheeks and leaned in close, her face inches from mine.
She hesitated for a moment, struggling to find her words.
“What’s wrong? You look like a puppy that needs to poop.”
“I-I’m a virgin!”
…Come again?