Dancing Under the Blue Moon
"Hah... hahh...!"
A short while later.
I'd been hauled up to the rooftop against my will, scooped into a magical girl's arms. Sprawled facedown on the floor, I gasped for breath and barely managed to wipe away the cold sweat running down my whole body. Beads of it gathered and dripped onto the green waterproof paint covering the rooftop.
I really, truly thought I was going to die.
I'd never expected to taste a kind of death that had nothing to do with being hunted by the Demon King's Army.
"Whew!"
The blue-haired magical girl still wore that cheerful smile. She leaned her back against the wall and kept talking.
"So? Pretty refreshing up here, right?"
"Y-yeah... it's cool..."
I couldn't even tell whether her words were coming in through my ears or my nose. Either way, I focused on catching my breath and settling my body, and after a few minutes I finally managed to get to my feet. Not that it helped much — my legs were still trembling, so I had to brace an arm against the wall just to stay upright. I found her eyes at last and carefully opened my mouth.
"W-why did you bring me all the way up here...?"
"Hmm? Well, I figured if we talked down there, someone might overhear? And talking on a rooftop feels way more secretive!"
"Ah..."
So that was it. That simple, boneheaded reason was why she'd scooped me up in a princess carry and leapt through the air to get here. Well... I mean... sure. That tracked, I supposed. A magical girl's identity was supposed to be a complete secret, after all. Of course, I already knew one of them...
"Anyway!"
Her bright voice cut through my thoughts.
"Let me say it one more time!"
She raised her right hand to chest height, pointed at herself with her thumb, and bent her other leg slightly.
As you can see, I'm a magical girl!
Having introduced herself that way, the magical girl pressed on in that same lively voice...
"I was supposed to transform as quietly as possible, but I caught a nasty cold recently, so this was my first dispatch in ages, and I got so excited I just..."
Her voice gradually shrank until it was barely a murmur.
"Ahaha..."
I understood that feeling perfectly. That rush you get when nothing's been going anywhere, and then suddenly everything clicks — there aren't words for it.
"Anyway! You — what's your name?!"
Purifier Blue bounced right back, pointing at me with her index finger.
"I-I'm Jung Siwoo..."
"Hmm! Jung Siwoo! That's got a nice ring to it!"
It was just three syllables. I had no idea what about it made her so happy, but the smile never left her face. From the way she'd fought the Demon King's Army just now to this relentlessly cheerful attitude — she seemed like someone who longed to be a proper hero. The sort who never let her smile slip in front of anyone, spreading hope in a different way from the class president.
"Hey... wanna make a promise?"
She held out her pinky as she said it.
"No matter where you go, you don't tell anyone who I am!"
"...I don't even know."
"Well, I'm not just saying that. Later I'll buy you a meal or... wait, what?"
Purifier Blue cut herself off.
"I only saw you after you'd already transformed... Before that, I..."
"You didn't see?"
"...I caught a glimpse of a school uniform skirt, that's all."
I wanted to say I hadn't seen her pre-transformation form at all, but what could I do? I wasn't the type who could lie easily. Besides, she'd taken out the nearby Demon King's Army so fast — she'd saved me, too.
...Of course I couldn't tell her the whole truth, but this particular incident didn't involve Lee Harin or me directly. That made us even.
"You swear?"
"Yes."
"You swear-swear-swear-swear for real?"
"...Yes."
"Hmm..."
Purifier Blue let out a long hum, looking me up and down, then asked again.
"What year are you?"
"...Excuse me?"
"If you recognized the uniform from just the skirt, that means you go to our school too, right? Don't you?"
"...Uh..."
She was several times smarter than I'd expected. You'd think becoming a magical girl required passing the college entrance exam.
"Well, it's just a gut feeling, though!"
Never mind.
"I thought I'd seen your face around school a few times, but I don't know what year... What year and class?"
"Th-third year, class two..."
"Aha, same age! Got it!"
Apparently satisfied with my answer, she nodded and clapped me on the shoulder. There was something reassuring in the gesture, and I felt myself relax a little.
...Though looking at it this way, this was basically the exact same thing the class president had pulled on me.
"Um... I really won't tell anyone, so..."
"And I'm supposed to take your word for that? Well..."
Blue thought for a moment, then continued in a joking tone.
"Don't tell me you already know another magical girl's identity or something?"
"..."
Why is her intuition this sharp. At this rate I had to wonder if she was reading my mind. Or maybe she actually was, with magic...?
"Hmm..."
Surely this interrogation wasn't some scheme to make kidnapping me at school later that much easier... right? The class president had said she wouldn't do that kind of thing, and the magical girl in front of me seemed to be cut from similar cloth...
"Who is it?"
"Huh?"
"I said who. The other magical girl whose identity you know."
"Who, well..."
I almost let the class president's name slip out, then swallowed it in a hurry. I'd promised to keep it secret. Of course, Lee Harin already knew her identity from fighting her once... but it wasn't as if I'd wanted that leaked. Right now... I couldn't say it. That was the promise I'd made with the class president.
"...I can't tell you. I made a promise."
"Aww, come on! It's fine! We're fellow magical girls! Just tell me already?"
"...I'm not going to. I promised her I wouldn't tell anyone."
"Oh-ho...?"
Purifier Blue flashed a grin, then stretched her arm out to the side. Blue mana shimmered at her fingertips, and the long spear she'd used against the Demon King's Army materialized. She spun the weapon with a flourish, then carefully brought the tip close to my body.
"Hhk...!"
Specifically, right next to my neck.
"You're really not going to talk?"
"...I'm not...!"
I squeezed my eyes shut on instinct, but the refusal still came out of my mouth. It was a promise with the class president.
A suffocating moment passed that felt like hours.
"...Alright! I believe you!"
Through my barely cracked eyelids, I saw the magical girl's face, grinning as if her suspicions had been cleared. Apparently the threat just now had been a test. To see whether I'd actually give up the name or not...
"Hahh..."
I let out a long breath, pressing a hand to my pounding heart, trying to calm down — and that was when it happened.
Shhhhhhh...
A sudden blue light flared from the magical girl in front of me, then faded. What remained was a girl in a short-sleeved shirt — she'd left her uniform jacket somewhere — with her hair in a ponytail. The skirt was unmistakably our school's distinctive red plaid.
"I'm Kim Min-ah! Third year, class one!"
"D-did you really need to tell me that...?"
"Come on! How could I not! I know your name, so you should know mine too! That's only fair!"
"..."
No matter how I looked at it, the math didn't add up. But whatever. I'd let it go. If this was her own brand of justice, I ought to play along.
"Let's get down already! It's cold!"
Kim Min-ah said, reaching for the rooftop door.
Clack.
A rusty hinge let out a sound I never wanted to hear again, and we threw ourselves through it, the creak of that hinge trailing behind us as we went.
"Alright! See ya!"
She gave a light wave, and by the time I registered it, Kim Min-ah had already sprinted off into the distance and rounded the corner. I soaked in the fatigue that hit me a beat late, and headed home.
...But.
"You said you were going to buy Choco Pies."
"Ah."
I'd forgotten again.
In the end, I spent that entire day — right up until I went to bed — trying to soothe a sulking Lee Harin who'd gone without a single Choco Pie. Along with a promise that I'd buy three boxes of them on the way home from school tomorrow.
The next morning, I left Lee Harin at home — still sulking over the Choco Pies — and went to school alone, where I slumped face-down on my desk. The class president came in shortly after, looked back and forth between my exhausted self and Lee Harin's empty seat, then carefully approached. I turned my head and looked up at her, still slumped over.
"Siwoo, is something wrong?"
"Just tired..."
"Sh-shall I use Cure...?"
"Don't bother. It's not worth all that..."
I declined with a faint smile — and that was the moment it happened.
Rrrrk!
The classroom's sliding door rattled violently open, and a familiar figure beyond it came charging straight at me.
"Yo! Jung Siwoo!"
"Ugh...!"
"What gives! Something happen yesterday? Your face looks like death!"
It's because of you, you know. Not that I could say that in front of the class president... I didn't even know if the two of them knew each other...
"Huh...? Siwoo, you were close with Min-ah...?"
"Yep! We're like, super close!"
"No we aren't."
Our answers clashed, and our eyes met. The class president watched the exchange closely, then seemed to realize something, staring into space for a moment. And then...
"Um, Siwoo? You don't happen to... Min-ah..."
She swallowed the rest. But in my ears, the words she was about to add seemed to linger like an echo.
Do you know she's a magical girl?
I rolled my eyes, wondering what I was supposed to do about that — and that was when it happened.
"Wait, what! The one you know is Seoyeon?!"
"..."
Apparently the two of them already knew each other.
"Aww, man! I tested you for nothing! If you knew Seoyeon you should've just told me!!!"
"W-wait... Min-ah! When did Siwoo find out about you...!"
"Not that long ago. Around yesterday? Man, though, Siwoo-oo! You're pretty lucky, huh? Magical girls are supposed to be hard to find out about, and now you know two of them! As friends, even!"
"Ahaha..."
I smiled, a little bitterly.
