Broken Heart
So the next morning came.
"Team leader, I think you might need to go to the hospital with me after I twist my ankle."
I sent the short message to the team leader early in the morning, then changed into my clothes.
-Ddong!
While doing so, the notification sound rang out and I picked up my phone to check the screen.
Harin: Are you okay? Can you go to the hospital alone?
"I'm fine. I got a lift from Harin."
"That's good."
After the team leader's reassuring message, no reply came for a while. I stopped the conversation and started changing clothes again.
-Ddong!
The notification sound rang once more. I glanced at the screen that had been left on.
Harin: Siwoo, why don't I just come over and cast healing magic for you?
As the kind team leader she was, she couldn't ignore even the smallest things.
Determined to help no matter what, the messages started arriving one after another.
"That won't affect my magical girl activities at all..."
"It's fine. I can't have the team leader come over because of something like this."
Once I calmly conveyed my thoughts, the sincerity was clearly passed on. Soon after, I received an immediate reply from Harin.
Harin: Got it!
At the same time the team leader's reply arrived, I had fully changed into my clothes. I opened the door with a limp and stepped outside.
"Harin-ah, I've changed my clothes..."
As I said this, I looked toward where Harin was. She was still sitting hunched in the corner of the sofa.
Was she not ready to go yet? I thought she hadn't heard me, so I called out louder again.
"Harin-ah, I've changed into my clothes. Do you need more time?"
Harin: Huh?
She flinched as if she had just woken from a nap during the day, then quickly gathered herself and continued.
"Ah, no. I'm ready too. I just need to put on a jacket."
"...You always wear only that. And that's not even for transformation, right?"
Harin: There are a lot of jackets that look exactly the same. Besides,...
I continued complaining about my opinion, then soon scratched my head with an expression that seemed to say she had nothing more to say.
"Tsk. Fine. No matter how much I explain, you probably won't understand anyway."
"You're telling me I'm just an ordinary person who can't use mana or magic at all."
"...Hmph."
Harin let out a snort of breath, then stood up from the sofa.
"Okay, let's go. I'll support you."
As she said this, she came closer and stood beside my injured leg, pulling my arm into both of hers.
Perhaps because of what happened a few days ago, my body felt strangely stiff and my muscles tensed. It was unlike my usual reaction.
"H-Harin-ah."
"Hm?"
When I called her name and briefly pulled my body away, the slight delay made her raise her voice with annoyance.
"That... if I hug you like this, it will feel a bit stronger..."
"...Hmph."
Harin heard my complaint and immediately lifted the arm she was hugging over her shoulder.
Only then did the proper weight distribution come, and my body, which had been frozen from the soft touch, finally loosened a little.
"Let's go, you idiot Siwoo."
"Why are you suddenly calling me that again?"
"Because you're an idiot."
With oddly sulking Harin, we left the house.
*****
Fortunately, I heard the doctor's words that I hadn't been seriously injured, and I received a splint and anti-inflammatory medication. I left the hospital.
"It's a good thing I didn't get hurt badly."
"Yeah."
Harin, still pouting because I had told her not to hug me, answered shortly with a deflated voice and took the first step.
"Just take the medicine and it should heal quickly. You have to rest at home for a while. You can't get hurt more, right?"
"...Yeah."
"...Why are you pouting again?"
"I'm not pouting?"
She answered shortly as if she hadn't been pouting at all.
Harin, if she was pretending, she should at least change her tone or the lighting.
Ever since we were kids, whenever she was angry with me, she would wait for me to speak first without saying anything directly.
But I always knew the secret cheat key that worked on Harin in situations like this.
It was...
"Want to go get cake?"
It meant going to eat something sweet together.
Harin was already crazy for sweets, and it always worked to calm her down when we were kids, so this time it would definitely work too.
But it didn't...
"...No."
"...Eh?"
This was an unexpected situation.
The great Harin was refusing to eat sweets.
It was something that could never happen no matter how the world was turned upside down.
"...Why?"
I asked with a dazed voice.
There was no other question I could ask.
"Do you think I'm a diabetic patient?"
"Isn't it the opposite, Harin-ah?"
Harin: ...
At my remark, Harin again contorted her expression and stared at me intently.
Then she let out a deep sigh as if the ground had disappeared, and opened her mouth.
"...It's just that, since you got hurt, I don't really feel like eating what I like."
"Ooh..."
My heart stopped for a moment at the surprisingly emotional reason, and when I looked at Harin blankly, she scratched her head as if even that reaction was annoying.
"Tsk. No matter how it is, since you got hurt, I don't think that's the case..."
As she continued speaking, Harin.
"...Ah."
She suddenly looked dazed, staring at me without a word.
Her pupils trembled as if they weren't normal, and her lips quivered as if she wanted to say something out loud.
"...Harin-ah?"
No matter how much I moved my palm in front of her eyes, she didn't react at all and just stood there motionless.
Something was wrong.
Harin's reaction seemed like one of two things.
She had looked at something she absolutely should not have looked at.
Or, if not that, she had seen something so urgent that it had stolen her mind...
I didn't know why she was looking at me with those eyes, but had the brainwashing suddenly gotten worse?
Just like usual, I carefully approached her to calm her brainwashing.
I didn't care about the gazes around us.
But.
"W-What are you doing!"
Because Harin suddenly shouted, more people stared at us.
It was a situation where I couldn't explain anything around us, and I was hesitating because hugging outside might be embarrassing.
"...Euh."
Harin suddenly shuddered, and then buried her face in my arms.
Her earlobe was dyed red like a bomb about to explode.
"S-Sorry... I suddenly hugged you and scared you..."
-Quack...
Harin whispered this, then carefully hugged me tightly with both arms.
The gazes around us suddenly thought it was because of the hug and gradually fewer people looked our way.
"Sorry. It seemed like the brainwashing had gotten worse."
"T-That's right, but..."
-Quaaaak...!
Harin's arms, when answering like that, had strangely stronger strength.
"Because you fought Nightmare?"
"...Similar. Still, it should be fine."
She continued to bury her face between my chest, silently catching her breath.
Her small back rose and fell repeatedly, and I stood there quietly until Harin calmed down.
How many minutes had passed like that?
"...Are you done now?"
"...Yeah."
Harin, now calmed, stepped out of my arms and turned her gaze away with a slightly red face.
It took a little longer than usual, and her face was still red with a slightly higher body temperature.
Perhaps it was just because of her mood.
"You're not hurt anywhere, right?"
"...No."
I asked just in case, but she didn't give a proper answer.
Reluctantly, I stepped closer and gently placed my hand on her forehead, while the other hand on my own forehead.
"...Hic!?"
It was a bit high, but still, was it normal body temperature?
"H-Huuu..."
Yet the faint groan coming from Harin's lips showed that, no matter how I thought about it, she wasn't in her right mind.
Since I had come to the hospital because of my ankle, it would be better to go to another hospital or buy cold medicine from the pharmacy.
"W-What are you touching until when! Stop!"
-Smack!
Harin shouted nervously and reached out to pull my arm off her forehead.
"I'm fine... you should get better quickly, okay?"
"...Okay."
With Harin, who had become a bit strange today, we returned home.
*****
That night.
Harin stood silently in front of Siwoo's door, which was already closed. She was checking her own body.
The subtle heartbeat inside her chest that she had felt when she saw his face after going out with him for lunch today.
It wasn't the usual thoughts or feelings she felt, but a feeling that something completely different from herself was invading her heart.
"Siwoo..."
It wasn't the affection or emotion she originally had, but something deeper, more viscous, and a bit more instinctual.
It wasn't affection, friendship, love, or jealousy.
The name of the deeper, sticky emotion was...
"...I want to have it."
It was an endless obsession and a possessiveness like madness.
She didn't want to give Siwoo to anyone.
Siwoo had to look at her alone.
She wanted to taste everything, lick it clean, savor it, and feel it.
That's why it annoyed her so much.
-Crack...
The magical girls who kept sticking around Siwoo were disgusting.
If she killed all the magical girls who kept coming near him, would only she remain by his side?
That thought was about to continue.
"...Ugh!"
She suddenly woke up from a headache as if her head had been hammered with nails, and her face distorted.
"...What kind of thoughts am I having..."
Harin quickly left Siwoo's door and sat hunched in the corner of the sofa.
But even so, the Essence of Nightmare planted deep in her heart kept making her think about Siwoo and stimulating her desires.
That's why Harin desperately tried to cool her burning body, forcibly covered her eyes and ears, and tried to fall asleep.
Of course, it was impossible.