078 – Even a Straw Sandal Has Its Match…! # 3
"So, we're wondering whether today's date was fun…!"
It was just about time for bed.
Oinoi, toothbrush in mouth, fired off question after question at me.
"We nymph sisters love to gossip about other people's romances just as much as we love candy made from honey…!"
Nymphs, it seemed, adored talking about love and romance.
Well, to be fair, hearing about other people's love lives was pretty entertaining.
Then something occurred to me.
"You said Seo Yerim isn't a first-place bride candidate. Is there some kind of scoring rubric or something?"
"Mwheheh. We nymph sisters measure a bride's score through a very rigorous screening process…! Kore Yerim is far too magnificent a woman, and that is precisely why she and the Master of this house make such a poor match…!"
Too magnificent a woman, and therefore a worse match?
What on earth did that mean?
I couldn't make heads or tails of it.
Soon enough, Oinoi let out a mwheheh laugh and added an explanation.
"Even a straw sandal has its match…! But if a straw sandal's partner turns out to be a splendid, magnificent glass slipper, then the two simply don't fit together…!"
"Ah, I see."
I was a quick learner.
So I could immediately grasp what Oinoi was getting at.
"So you're saying I'm too scruffy compared to Seo Yerim, and that's why we don't fit? And because our compatibility is bad, she can't be a first-place bride candidate by your standards?"
"Precisely so…!"
That actually made sense.
Sure, Seo Yerim was a being like an angel living in the heavens, or a celestial fairy.
And me? I was basically the woodcutter in that story.
The odds of the two of us ending up together were zero.
Even if we somehow did, it wouldn't last long. In every version of the tale, the fairy eventually can't stand her shabby life on earth and runs off, doesn't she?
"A mismatched pairing breeds discord and ruin…! This Oinoi's mentor once told me of a man who died chasing the most beautiful woman in the land while he himself was a pathetic, lowly shepherd…!"
Oinoi warned me.
People who married or paired up with someone far above or below their own station could, apparently, die for it.
For a nymph's warning, it was a surprisingly serious piece of advice.
"Got it. I'll carve that into my heart."
It was right around then.
━Keong-keong…!
━Keong-keong…!
The Dog-Squirrels started barking.
Far off in the dark night, I spotted a car gliding soundlessly toward the neighborhood.
An extremely quiet car.
"Aaah! An electric vehicle this silent and eco-friendly can only be Kore Yerim's car…!"
Just as Oinoi said, it was Seo Yerim's car.
Hadn't she gone home?
Why had she come back?
Thud.
Illinoi and Seo Yerim stepped out of the vehicle.
"By the time Illinoi woke up, the situation was already end game…! Illinoi didn't even get a look at the perpetrator's composite sketch…!"
Illinoi babbled on and on.
She was highly agitated and looked completely frazzled.
Even I could tell something enormous had happened.
"So a woman who'd drawn a dagger snuck up and cut off your hair?"
I looked at Seo Yerim.
She'd always worn her black hair long—her lush, flowing locks were famous enough that she'd once starred in a shampoo commercial, or maybe it was a conditioner one.
Now that hair had been hacked off, blunt and ragged.
It looked like someone had slashed through it with merciless abandon.
"Good grief. A hair bandit is a first even for me."
Should I just be grateful she wasn't hurt?
Honestly, part of me couldn't quite believe the situation itself.
Seo Yerim, an S-Rank Awakener, ambushed one-sidedly and robbed of her hair?
Was that even possible?
"Illinoi had a promise—a promise—to enjoy a most delicious mango bingsu before bed tonight…! Kindly fetch me a lawyer at once…!"
Illinoi, too, seemed thoroughly furious at her schedule being thrown into chaos.
Watching her, Oinoi spoke up.
"Tonight you shall sleep with this Oinoi…! I will show you the glow-in-the-dark dinosaur that this Oinoi purchased with the money she received in donations…!"
"A luminous dinosaur…? How very interesting…!"
Pat-pat.
The two nymphs went into the bedroom and crawled under the covers together.
Watching them, Seo Yerim's brow furrowed.
"They just ambushed me out of nowhere? I tried to fight back, but my mana control was all wobbly. How should I put it—like I'd turned into a regular civilian. I couldn't manipulate my mana at all."
She said she hadn't even managed a counterattack.
Which explained how a whole bundle of her hair had been sheared clean off.
Seo Yerim was trembling.
Then she raised a finger.
Flicker.
"Even now the flames won't obey me."
"Really? You think losing the hair did that?"
Manipulation-type ability users tended to be exacting, fastidious people.
I'd heard that even the smallest dissatisfaction, or sensing any unpleasant 'change' in themselves, could throw off their power.
Now that her long-kept hair had been chopped off, some subtle shift had crept into Seo Yerim's control over her abilities.
If her control slipped at the wrong moment, someone could get seriously hurt.
"How long until you get your touch back?"
"As fast as possible! T-Rank Rifts keep opening up one after another, and now this on top of everything! What a stroke of luck I'm having!"
Seo Yerim was genuinely furious.
Whether to be glad that she was rattled and shaken rather than cowering in fear, I couldn't quite say.
Soon she let out a long sigh.
"What kind of perverts do that? What on earth are they planning to do with my hair? It's honestly disgusting!"
Anyone would feel violated if someone walked off with their hair. And Seo Yerim was a celebrity with a massive following—including more than a few obsessive private fans.
But.
Something about the idea of taking someone's hair felt strangely familiar.
There was a time I'd gone through hell and back trying to get ahold of Seo Yerim's hair myself, after all.
Back shortly after I'd met Oinoi.
Maybe this was connected.
My instincts were telling me so.
It felt like two ants crawling up my back.
━Zzji…!
━Oro-rong…!
"Oh. Look at that—it's Angangi and Elizabeth."
I plucked the culprits off my back and set them down one by one on my palm.
Honey Ants were such well-behaved creatures; once they climbed onto my palm, they sat perfectly still.
Seeing this, Seo Yerim wrinkled her nose.
"You really do live with those honey ants and Dog-Squirrels like they're your family."
"Of course I do. They're going to guard us tonight."
"Guard us?"
"That's right. Seo Yerim, you're staying here tonight, aren't you? This house looks flimsy, but security-wise it's actually a fortress. I've got Keongkeongi, plus Angangi and an entire army of honey ants."
Someone who's been attacked once can be attacked twice.
So Seo Yerim's decision to take refuge at our place was actually a pretty sound one.
Truly the judgment of a veteran S-Rank.
"This Oinoi is in high spirits, because there are so many people around…!"
Oinoi hoisted her pillow high overhead with both arms.
She seemed delighted that Seo Yerim and Illinoi would be sleeping over at our house tonight.
I asked her in a low voice.
"So what are the odds that the person who cut Seo Yerim's hair is the same Witch who cursed me?"
"This Oinoi does not know…! But Kore Yerim's hair would be most excellent—most excellent indeed—as an ingredient for a curse…!"
Oinoi nodded gravely.
A terrifying Witch.
The thought that such a being might use Seo Yerim's hair to cast some new curse on people made me a little uneasy too.
"Keongkeongi. Keep watch—don't let anyone suspicious get close."
━Keong-keong…!
"You too, Kwangkwangi."
━Hio-ong…!
I assigned surveillance zones to every animal living in our house.
Only after confirming the CCTV was running smoothly did I finally relax a little.
"It's been a while since I felt this helpless."
Swipe.
Seo Yerim clenched her fist as she stared at the CCTV monitor.
She'd been riding high as an Awakener, treated like a living weapon—and then caught completely off guard by an ambush. No wonder the whole experience felt strangely new to her.
I told her:
"Get some sleep, then. I'll keep watch tonight."
I was pulling an all-nighter.
My stamina was excellent, so staying up one night was nothing.
Time flew by when you were scrolling on your phone anyway.
I've got a backlog of variety shows to binge—
It was in the middle of that thought that Seo Yerim spoke.
"You. You like me, don't you."
"What?"
I was genuinely flustered.
It was the first time I'd heard that question since I was a kid.
What kind of conversation had I even walked into?
Seo Yerim kept going.
"You're just too nice. You even gave me milk tea today. I have great instincts about these things. You're being nice to me because you like me—getting your goodwill in early, aren't you?"
Slowly—
Her narrow eyes slid open.
"I've noticed it for ages. You're weirdly favorable toward me. Since we're doing this, just be honest. You like me, don't you? Since when? Since way back? Tell me. Since the first time we met, right?"
In some ways, Seo Yerim's personality resembled Cassie's.
Cassie was pure-hearted and simply said whatever was on her mind; Seo Yerim, by contrast, had the arrogant conviction that whatever she felt like saying, she would say.
"Your secret's already out. No point trying to hide it. I was planning to just let it slide and pretend not to notice, but seriously—"
Fan-fan-fan-fan—
She fanned her flushed face furiously with her palm.
An old memory floated up in my mind.
Back in elementary school, my desk partner had once blurted, "Hey! Ha Ildo! You like me, don't you! That's why you keep leaning over onto my desk and stepping on my indoor slippers!"
I'd been so flustered and nervous back then that I'd blurted out "No!"—and the girl's face had crumpled, and she'd burst into tears, and every girl around us had turned on me in fury.
━Hey! Why is Areum crying? Apologize right now, or I'll hit you!
━You totally like Areum! Just admit you like her already!
This time too, I almost reflexively answered "No!"
But something told me that would be a disaster, and I barely managed to swallow the words surging up my throat.
Because I had a strong premonition that if I said "No!" here, Seo Yerim would frown, snort—and burn the whole house down.
It was right then that she said it.
"I like you."
"……!"
I was absolutely floored.
It felt like my heart was about to lurch clean out of my chest.
Swipe.
Seo Yerim closed the distance between us.
She said:
"I've liked you for a very, very long time. You like me, Seo Yerim. And I like you. Isn't that enough?"
Gulp.
My heart felt like it was going to burst.
Seo Yerim had liked me since long ago?
"Seo Yerim, you liked me? Since when, exactly?"
"Why would you ask something so embarrassing? Obviously, from the moment we first met."
"When was the first time we met? Was it the fast food place?"
"That's right. That time."
Swipe.
Seo Yerim stepped closer to me—and took off her sock.
Every nerve in my body went taut.
And then, slowly, my hand reached for the dagger I'd left on the table.
Shing—!
I gripped the utility dagger and asked:
"Who are you?"
"What kind of question is that? It's me. Seo Yerim."
"No. You're not Seo Yerim. Seo Yerim is too busy to even think about romance, she told me so herself. And me? Liking me? She'd never say something like that. Also—Seo Yerim and I first met at a gukbap restaurant, not a fast food place."
I was certain now: the woman in front of me was not Seo Yerim.
The stranger wearing her face frowned—then broke into a sharp, wicked grin.
"Quick on the uptake. And here I fooled even the animals."
Crash—!
The woman with Seo Yerim's exact face smashed through the window and fled.
A cold shiver raced down my spine as I shouted reflexively:
"Keongkeongi! After her!"