I'm Platonic, After All
"Easy now. Nice and easy..."
Jeong Seung-a.
"...Harang."
Twenty-two years old.
"Harang. You asleep?"
Awakened ability: healing of physical and mental damage.
"Harang."
Special notes.
"Haaaah..."
Not normal.
Jeong Seung-a turned her head and glanced toward where the other seniors were. Most of them were asleep, though a few were still awake.
And the ones to watch?
Han Jihye was awake, but glued to a TV drama.
Kim Heejin? Out cold.
In that case, there was nothing to worry about. No one was paying attention to this side of the room to begin with.
Some had earbuds in and were staring at their phones; others were absorbed in the sound of the drama. Not a single person so much as glanced their way.
A world that belonged entirely to her and Seo Harang. No one left to get in the way.
Yes! This was the exact moment Jeong Seung-a had been waiting for.
"Harang."
Wriggle, wriggle. Jeong Seung-a eased herself carefully over the line and settled onto Seo Harang's mattress.
"Harang's scent..."
Then she lightly buried her nose against the nape of Harang's neck.
Ah. Sweet. And at the same time, bright and fresh. A fragrance words could barely capture.
God... this is so exactly my type... what am I supposed to do...
It bears repeating: this woman was not normal. She was hunting someone of the same gender, after all.
Truthfully, her radar had already lit up the moment Harang first arrived as her direct junior.
What is this? Something about her...
She was sharp. Those lynx-like eyes had felt like they were piercing straight through her heart.
It was a completely different caliber of heartbeat from anything she felt facing anyone else in the unit—different in kind, not just degree.
So this is my direct junior... she looks insanely intense...
At the time, she hadn't had the presence of mind to fully understand what she was feeling. That first impression of Seo Harang had been so terrifying she'd been quietly intimidated.
But then.
"Harang, um... hi?"
"Apprentice Awakener Seo! Ha! Rang! H-hello...!"
"I'm your direct senior. Jeong Seung-a."
"Ah...! Hello! I'm Seo Harang!"
She was earnest.
"Harang, you okay?"
"Apprentice Awakener Seo Harang. I'm fine. This much is nothing."
"Still, we should do it together. Give me half. We'll carry it together."
"I'm fine. I awakened on the physical side, so this is honestly nothing."
She was cheerful.
"What were you doing before you came here, Harang?"
"Me? Well... part-time jobs, mostly. Same as a lot of people, I guess. Because of a Gate, Mom and Dad passed away, so it was just me and my little sister left."
"Ah..."
And yet, beneath all of that, a miserable past had blackened her insides completely.
Even so—no, because of that past—Seo Harang was strong.
She was the only one who could draw the attention of those two demons and still hold her ground. The fact that those two took an interest in anyone at all was bizarre to begin with. No matter who walked into their world, they usually acted like they couldn't care less.
"Hah..."
"Harang, you okay?"
"I'm fine. Just..."
Every so often, she would let out a sigh that sounded truly exhausted. But even then, she never broke down or cried.
"If anything happens, tell me. I'm your senior. I can at least do that much."
"Thank you. I think I make it through each day thanks to you, Superhuman Jeong Seung-a."
And every time she felt this Awakener with the painful past leaning on her, Jeong Seung-a's heart gave a sharp, electric flutter.
Of course, she hadn't started out carrying feelings like that. First she had to wrestle with the basic premise.
Harang and I are both girls... this kind of thing isn't right.
Two people of the same gender getting involved—that didn't make sense. Jeong Seung-a still had that much common sense.
So she had told herself she wouldn't feel anything beyond ordinary senior-junior affection. And yet—
"Superhuman Jeong Seung-a. Good morning."
"Ah, yeah."
Harang greets me first more often than anyone else. The second she sees me, she comes running over to talk.
"Please enjoy your meal."
"Yeah. You eat plenty too, Harang."
Enjoy your meal... why does she go out of her way to lock eyes with me when she says that? Wait—is Harang a lesbian? Is she sending me signals...? Am I just dense?
"Lights out. Have a good night."
And if that's the case, why does she come take the bunk right next to mine? We really shouldn't... we're both girls.
That was what Jeong Seung-a told herself. Deep down, though, she already knew those reasons weren't going to stop her for a second.
For the record, the reason Harang took the bunk next to hers was simply that that was how the bed assignments had been handed out.
Anyway. The fact that they were the same gender was nothing more than a little device to lighten the weight and guilt of this dark emotion—even a little. But the moment the reins slipped, she would charge straight ahead like a runaway train.
And right now.
Harang... you trust your unnie, don't you...? You said you trust me. Right?
Jeong Seung-a threw away the reins she had already let go of long ago.
Wriggle, wriggle. She carefully climbed on top of Seo Harang. No one was looking their way.
Even the night-lights had been switched off, leaving the room dark. Even if someone opened their eyes, they wouldn't be able to make the two of them out right away.
How is a person even allowed to look like this? Are we really the same kind of Awakener?
Jeong Seung-a herself was pretty enough by other people's standards. Or rather—cute, more than pretty.
Innocent puppy eyes and a small frame. But to her, true beauty was the woman lying beneath her right now.
Those lynx-like eyes still shone even with the lids closed. That long, slender body looked like it would feel wonderful no matter how you held it.
But she had no intention of taking the physical contact any further than this.
I'm platonic, after all.
A crazy psycho lesbian. But a believer in platonic love.
Thanks to Jeong Seung-a's determination to keep at least a minimum line, Seo Harang's day was preserved. Lucky her.
You, whose exhausted body needs rest—leave right this instant!
I bolted upright, some catchphrase I must have heard somewhere ringing in my head.
I owed Jeong Seung-a a little for last night. Senior or not, I'd gone and shown her a pathetic, weak side of myself for no good reason.
I wouldn't do that again. No more weak talk.
That resolution lasted all of one minute.
"Hey. You wanna die? Making your senior wait?"
I was weak!
Han Jihye, who usually only started thrashing around a full five minutes after reveille, was up first. That almost never happened. Maybe she'd overslept and—
"Huk!"
Crisis snapped my brain back online. I snatched up my phone and checked the time. Five in the morning. A full hour and a half before reveille.
"Uh..."
"'Uh' is informal."
"I'm sorry."
"Anyway! You know every minute, every second counts, right? Huh? Harang! Today's combat leave! Hey!"
Thank you for the explanation. But I would really prefer you not scream like that at dawn. Even a guy's heart has a damage ceiling it can take.
"Hey. Harang."
"Superhuman Seo Harang."
"Wash up and get ready to head out. Unnie's gonna count to sixty from right here."
"Sixty seconds, ma'am?"
"Fifty-nine..."
I shot up off the mattress and bolted for the washroom. A quick look around showed the other seniors starting to stir as well.
It didn't look like Han Jihye's voice had woken them—they seemed to be getting up on their own. Was that the power of combat leave?
I washed my hair in a rush, finished washing my face, and hurried back. Han Jihye was still sitting in the same spot, counting.
"Three..."
"I'm back."
"Oh, you're here? You could've taken your time."
This absolute psycho! She was counting until two seconds ago!
Han Jihye, who had been counting at a leisurely pace, beamed at me with a sunny little smile.
"Alright, shall we get ready for real? Doesn't it make you so happy, Harang, thinking about spending the whole day out playing with unnie?"
"It makes me very happy."
That was sarcasm.
Of course, an excited Han Jihye had zero chance of picking up on my real meaning.
So what did "get ready for real" actually mean?
"Hmm-hmm~"
Humming to herself, Han Jihye clicked on the lights in the living quarters.
"Uggghhh..."
"What the..."
"Aaugh..."
"What time is it... five-oh-three... so the rest of these bitches... are all up already..."
"Augh, I'm dying..."
Using the chorus of groans rising from every corner as her accompaniment, Han Jihye waved her hands like a conductor, then settled back into her seat looking thoroughly satisfied.
Next she clicked open her locker door and, peering into the mirror stuck inside, started rummaging for something.
Cosmetics.
Lotion, lip balm, sunscreen, toner. A whole arsenal of products that completely overturned my previous understanding of skincare, which had more or less stopped at those four. I wasn't even going to be able to memorize the order you put them on.
Han Jihye started doing her makeup. Didn't they say women take dozens of minutes just getting ready to go out? It looked like she was only just beginning.
Did that mean I could sleep a little longer? Honestly, getting up this early had left my head a little foggy.
"Hey. Harang."
"Superhuman Seo Harang."
"You don't do makeup?"
"Makeup, ma'am? I..."
I didn't know. I genuinely didn't. I had never even bothered to look it up.
"Don't tell me you don't?"
"I... don't, ma'am."
"For real? Wild."
I braced for some snide follow-up, but she let it go without another jab. A wave of self-pity washed over me at the fact that I had to live every day braced for whatever she might say next.
"Still, you've got to do at least basic makeup. Do you just not know how? Or are you too lazy?"
"I just... don't touch any of it, really."
"So you don't know, then. Watch closely. This is concealer, and this is powder. This is toner, and this one's eyeliner. First, the way you do makeup is, after you wash your face, you spread the toner—"
What was she even saying? Technical terms were flying so fast my ears and my brain started hurting at the same time.
Just memorizing the names of the seniors in the living quarters had been hard enough. If she expected me to memorize this too, I might actually cry.
...I felt like I was getting softer. I needed to shut that kind of thinking down in advance. At this rate, whatever masculinity I had left might wave goodbye and walk out the door.
"You listening? What did unnie just say? Do you remember what this is?"
"Eh—uh, um. Ah... lotion...?"
"You wanna die? You're not even listening properly? And now you're talking informal?"
I cried.
On the inside only.
Dawn on a combat leave day, and I was already drowning in despair.
"Ah, right. Harang."
"Superhuman Seo Harang."
"You hear anything about the combat leave rules?"
"What do you mean, ma'am?"
"That once we're outside, you can drop the formal speech."
"Ah... I did hear that, yes."
"Once we leave base, talk casual. I won't care."
Great. So I was supposed to unleash all the resentment I'd been bottling up, was that it?
"Of course, once we're back, the titles come back too."
...Yeah. I decided not to entertain any nasty thoughts like that after all.