One Scoop of Ice Cream
That night, deep in the early hours.
After leaving the leader behind with Kim Mina, I shuffled my feet along the way home.
Passing between the flickering streetlights, I eventually stopped right in front of the apartment parking lot entrance and crouched down in place.
“Whew…”
What on earth had gotten into her to do something like this.
From that morning all the way to now, every single thing that had happened had flashed by in front of my eyes like a panoramic movie.
The one downside of having an awfully good memory.
“Hm…”
I reached out and rubbed the forehead that had been slammed against the floor.
Thanks to the spell the leader had cast on me, my skin felt smooth and untouched, with not a single scar remaining to the touch of my fingertips.
No pain. My mind was fine too.
If anything, the shock from passing out had made me wonder if I’d even be able to sleep properly before tomorrow morning.
…Well, it would work out somehow.
Thinking that, I rose from my spot and headed straight home when I caught sight of the unmanned ice cream shop still glowing brightly nearby.
Now that I thought about it, Harin wouldn’t have stuffed those tentacles into anything that strange.
Even reviewing my memories, it was a stroke of luck that she hadn’t even tossed them near me, let alone properly.
She probably hadn’t meant them to help me at all; I had simply held onto that vague thought.
“Let’s eat ice cream together again for old times’ sake…”
I had always liked ice cream.
I didn’t remember what flavor I liked best, but I bought several of them in a plastic bag so I could enjoy a mix.
Shaking the now heavier bag lightly back and forth, I finally made it home.
“Harin, I’m back.”
Swish.
As I opened the front door and stepped inside, Lee Harin’s upper body emerged from the thick, empty shadows draped along the wall of the living room.
“…You’re late. If my brainwashing had grown stronger because of that, I would’ve held you responsible?”
“So I bought ice cream.”
As I said that, I shook the white plastic bag filled with ice cream right in front of her eyes.
“!”
Harin’s purple eyes sparkled in an instant, and she kept chasing after the shaking bag like a cat eyeing the tail of a toy being waved in front of it.
“Let’s eat together.”
She nodded repeatedly, then popped out of the shadows and released her transformation.
I sat down next to Harin and opened the bag.
There were the crunchy cone-wrapped ones and the ones that overflowed with coolness beyond the plastic wrapping, ready to be sucked on.
I wasn’t sure which you’d like, so I brought all of them.
Harin glanced quickly into the bag, then slowly pulled out a cookie-and-cream ice cream that could be eaten without crunching.
She twisted the blue lid off in one motion and brought it straight to her mouth, slurping it down noisily.
“…It’s not coming out.”
“Of course not. It’s rock-hard frozen. Let it melt a little more first.”
“Hmph.”
Harin kept kneading the ice cream with her hand, but when she realized it was too cold, she pulled out her tentacles and started massaging it with them instead.
They even grew slightly red at the tips, as if some spell was being used.
The warmth I felt suggested she was melting the ice cream.
“You can use magic like that?”
“I need it to break through something hard.”
“…Ah.”
It was an application of a lethal technique.
Yeah… whatever.
Even if it was a lethal spell, as long as I wasn’t on the receiving end.
That reminds me—I once read online that GPS was actually military tech.
In that sense, even things invented for other purposes could become a way to help humanity more easily depending on how they were used.
Of course, things developed for humanity could just as easily turn against people…
I couldn’t turn Harin into that.
No matter how long it took, I’d restore her to her original self.
…All I could do was stay beside her and calm her brainwashing.
Squelch.
While I was lost in thought, Harin gripped the ice cream she’d taken from her tentacles and began sucking it enthusiastically with her small mouth.
Noticing my gaze, she glanced at me for a moment, then turned her body aside as if hiding the ice cream and muttered quietly.
“I won’t give you any.”
“I won’t steal it, so don’t worry.”
“Hmph.”
Was she thinking I was some kind of food-obsessed creature?
It was a pretty plausible theory, since I always finished my snacks like chocolate pie without even noticing.
But the one who used to come to my house, steal snacks, and eat them was her.
I guess that’s the reversal of who and what.
“…I remember that from long ago.”
Harin muttered while glancing sideways at me.
“When you came over to my house, we ate ice cream together. Was it in kindergarten?”
“Maybe… right? Our distance started getting farther… when middle school started, right?”
I fell into nostalgia with her answer too.
…But I didn’t have many memories that were crystal clear.
Even though we had played together quite a few times when we were close, I couldn’t remember all of them.
Just the usual things that happened, and a few that stuck out in my mind.
That was all I could recall.
“Back then you kept stealing my ice cream and we fought a lot.”
“I-I did?”
As soon as she heard me, Harin turned her gaze away and tried to deny it, but then she turned her head to stare at the distant lights outside the window.
…She seemed to remember it all.
Seeing her mixed reaction, I stared at the back of her head for a moment before continuing.
“You even stole all my kindergarten lunch.”
“You’re talking nonsense! I didn’t steal it! Stop making up stories!”
“You remember everything.”
“Ugh…!”
Harin’s face flushed red instantly, her expression a messy tangle of thoughts.
Embarrassment, annoyance, shame.
A faint murderous glint in her eyes, as if she wanted to choke the words out of me right then and there.
The good part was that she didn’t actually do it.
Compared to the Demon King Army’s personality, more of Harin—the Harin I knew since childhood—showed through.
She had always been like that.
In front of other people she kept up appearances properly, but when it was just the two of us she’d drop the mask.
Yet even while showing that side, she was also a shy girl who never fully revealed her true self.
I couldn’t help but smile.
“Why, why are you laughing…? Do you think I’m funny…!?”
Ssssh.
Black tentacles shot up around Harin, glaring at me.
But for some reason, instead of the sharp, angular look she had when fighting, they wiggled awkwardly, like they didn’t know what to do.
Unable to stand properly or even look at me, she was utterly embarrassed.
The tentacles rose like seaweed with no real threat, and I found myself smiling without realizing.
“Fu, fu…!”
“Y-you’re laughing?! I’m…!”
The tentacles twitched and slowly approached.
It was supposed to be a threatening move, but the seaweed-like wiggling kept the laughter coming.
“No, the, the tentacles… the tentacles… kuhuhuhu…!”
Finally unable to hold it in, a laugh escaped my lips and I covered my mouth, but it was too late.
Air seeped between my fingers.
“Ah, you really haven’t changed at all.”
“Hmph. You’re the same.”
Harin stuck out her lower lip and replied.
We stared at each other again, and at the same time, a light smile spread across our faces from the old memories.
“I like it when it’s like the old days. Back then, the kindergarten kids always teased us. ‘You two are dating!’”
“Yeah… there were all sorts of kids who loved to tease us no matter what.”
“Right. They’d say ‘you two are always together’ no matter what… even if we weren’t.”
Harin nodded silently and kept eating the ice cream.
“They’re just lonely because they don’t have friends.”
“…But we didn’t have any other friends besides each other either.”
In my memories, I’d never seen Harin playing with anyone else.
Why was she saying something that implied she wasn’t? I wondered.
“Close your mouth. And I had lots of friends.”
“Then why did you only play with me?”
When I asked her that, she tilted her head like she didn’t understand the question, then immediately opened her mouth.
“Of course I…”
Then.
…
She swallowed her words, her expression hardening.
If it had just been a pause, it would’ve been one thing, but with her eyes wide open, the look on her face was unmistakably “I just made a mistake.”
“Of course I was playing with you.”
“Y-you were?! Even if I didn’t know how to talk to you best…!”
“Is that what you were trying to say?”
Her expression was still awkward, so it looked like an excuse she’d just made up.
“No, what were you trying to say…?”
“Just one more word.”
Oof.
Harin’s voice dropped lower than before, sending a shiver down my spine.
In an instant, red eyes flashed between her hair as she glared at me.
The tentacles around her, which had been wiggling, now pointed straight at me with proper tension.
This… was real.
It was genuine killing intent directed at me.
“I won’t let you say anything more. I’ll choke you out.”
…
I slowly swallowed, nodded my head.
Even while doing so, I didn’t say a word.
It was my silent agreement to do whatever she wanted.
“Fine.”
Harin nodded in satisfaction, then immediately gulped down the last bit of ice cream still in the bag.
I had no idea what had set her off like this—I couldn’t understand how I’d suddenly triggered her rage.
I simply licked the ice cream quietly, savoring the taste.