Home, Outside
Even before they spent that day at the cave theme park, Saran had been trying to understand Charlotte—the woman assigned as her counselor.
It wasn't simply a means of easing her own psychological exhaustion or the pressure weighing on her. More than anything, it was because Charlotte was someone unlike anyone she had ever met.
Before adulthood and after it, Saran had always been dark and quiet.
As a child, the other kids—far sharper than their peers—had pushed her away. As she grew a little older, it was the conviction that she was different from everyone else. And once she became an adult, it was the need to keep secrets.
Her entire life had kept a considerable distance from other people. Those who stood close were nothing more than professional acquaintances.
And yet, in the middle of all that—
"Saran!"
"…Yeah."
"I got bored and opened the map, and there's an arboretum not far from here. Want to go take a look while we're at it?"
"An arboretum?"
"Yes. We got to tour such a beautiful cave this morning—it'd be such a shame to just end it here, wouldn't it? It's less than ten minutes by car, so I think we should go. And parting ways with you like this would be way too dull, too."
"……Fine."
Someone she had known for barely over a month.
Charlotte—whom she had been introduced to out of nowhere, met out of nowhere, and somehow ended up talking with—had been something close to a shock for Saran.
It started with how genuinely warm she was toward someone she had only just met. Then there was the way that, for all her carelessness, she became remarkably serious whenever the conversation turned to Saran's circumstances.
And yet, back in ordinary moments like this one, she was so lighthearted that she treated someone she had known for a little over a month—someone five years her senior—like a friend.
That was something Saran found almost impossible to understand.
"……."
She could only quietly watch her counselor wriggle beside her, looking thoroughly delighted.
The way she never once lost her smile as they made their way outside.
The way she kept pestering her to hurry up, to go before lunchtime.
Every time those images settled in Saran's eyes, she understood even less and thought even more—and still, she did as the platinum-blonde girl said.
They headed for the arboretum Charlotte had mentioned and began to wander through it at an unhurried pace.
"The flowers are incredibly pretty. You love meat so much, Saran… what do you think of flowers?"
"They're pretty."
"Heh, well, of course. Every flower has its own colors and shapes. Even flowers of the same kind differ in everything from height on down."
The arboretum was larger than expected—large enough that a leisurely walk could easily fill half an hour.
And because the girl leading Saran was short, her stride was short as well, so their time there stretched even longer than anticipated.
Every so often Saran checked the signs nearby and realized they still hadn't left the first section.
"I suppose it's only summer flowers because it's summer, but summer blooms are pretty too, aren't they? Most of them are big, with strong colors—something like that?"
"Yeah."
But she didn't particularly dislike that unhurried pace, so Saran followed the girl with steps far slower than usual.
Flowers of every color, and all manner of other plants.
And yet her gaze kept drifting to that beautiful platinum hair more than to any of them—and the small girl who owned it, for reasons known only to herself, kept smiling as she spoke to Saran again and again.
Each time, Saran gave a short answer, and words several times longer than that short answer came flooding back toward her. Over and over.
"Saran, it's a sunflower field!"
"……."
"Isn't it gorgeous?"
At the end of the first section lay a vast sunflower field.
With nothing but sunflowers—a plain filled entirely with bright yellow petals—at her back, Charlotte said those words. But more than the sunflower field behind her, it was Charlotte herself who filled Saran's eyes.
Even before this, Saran had already had to admit that her counselor's looks were nothing to scoff at—same gender or not.
The combination of platinum-blonde hair and emerald eyes had felt like a painting in itself, and a sunflower field suited that Charlotte almost too perfectly.
"…Yeah. Pretty."
So that was the only answer Saran could give.
She couldn't have said otherwise.
"……."
Perhaps the answer pleased her.
Smiling, Charlotte insisted they take pictures together—selfies and all kinds of other shots—and made a thorough nuisance of herself, and Saran didn't refuse any of it.
They spent the time slowly like that. And through it all, every little thing Charlotte did only made Saran's head more complicated.
"Nnngh……!!"
"…?"
"Haaah!!"
"What was that?"
"Nothing. We've been walking around all day like this, so my body's gotten a little tired."
I said it after stretching as luxuriously as I possibly could.
It had already been a long time since my body had been optimized for office life—sitting in a chair, clicking a keyboard and mouse—and today we had truly been on our feet the entire day.
Of course fatigue was going to pile up.
Sure, we had traveled in Saran's car, but once we arrived somewhere it was standing and walking nonstop… there was no helping it.
My calves hurt. My lower back hurt…?
In short: I was pretty wiped out.
By now it was already evening, which meant we had been out and about for over ten hours together.
"Somehow we ended up having a ridiculous amount of fun. You had fun too, right, Saran?"
"Yeah."
"Heh, that's a relief. Honestly, I was a little worried I might have been forcing you too much, but if you enjoyed it too… yes, that's a relief. Do you think you could pick the place again next week, like today?"
"Doesn't seem like it'd be hard."
"That's good to hear."
The truth was, having Saran choose somewhere she actually wanted to go had ultimately been something I made her do.
There must have been a certain sense of pressure to it, and calling it a genuine invitation would have been a stretch, so I had been overthinking it a bit.
Fortunately, Saran hadn't seemed burdened at all—she had simply taken me to a place without fuss, and she had even said she could do it again.
Well, after the first stop today, I had been the one dragging her around to various places.
And the dinner spot we were heading to now was also my choice, but…
Still, I figured things would gradually get better.
"Here?"
"Yes. I did consider a restaurant with a really nice atmosphere, but it's hot out, and if I'm being honest about my own tastes, I prefer somewhere comfortable."
Anyway, after a fun day, the place we arrived at was a Korean barbecue restaurant.
Primarily to match Saran's preferences.
And it wasn't a place I disliked either.
I mean, people who hate meat are pretty rare, right?
Vegetarians exist, sure, but personally that was a preference I found hard to understand, and vegetables get raised too, so… anyway.
Meat was justice.
"Hehe…."
I waited for the grill to heat up so I could put the meat on.
And once again…
"You can put it on now."
"Yes, ma'am~~~"
I started laying the meat on the grill right on Saran's cue.
Using her temperature sense for something like this still felt a little absurd to me, but it wasn't wrong, was it?
If anything, it was a smart way to put the ability to work.
"Heheh…."
It was far too pleasant an evening meal for wrapping up such a good day.
Even just watching Saran carefully observe the meat as it cooked made that clear.
Setting the meat aside, I had also been able to feel, little by little, that she was improving over the course of the day—and the simple fact that she had spent so many hours outside, starting from a place she herself had chosen, was bound to help her.
It wasn't simply a matter of being extroverted or introverted. The real problem was that she had grown far too used to spending time alone at home.
Whether a person was introverted or extroverted didn't actually matter all that much.
Do you like home, or do you like being outside?
Trying to understand someone through those two questions alone—and acting only according to the answers—wasn't a normal way to behave.
People needed to recover from fatigue at home and feel a sense of security there. They also needed to go outside, feel a sense of openness, and feel that they belonged to society.
Burning herself out working like mad only out in the world—that was Baek Eun-hwa.
Spending all her time only at home and losing her will—that was Saran.
That was one way to look at it.
"Heh. Saran, I cooked this one perfectly. Try it—aah~"
"…Aren't you embarrassed?"
"About what? What's weird about feeding someone meat?"
"……."
Unlike a certain A-class hero I could name, Saran actually followed along with what I said, and it was almost endearing.
She had looked dubious at first, but when I offered again, she quietly ate the meat and wraps I fed her—and just watching that made me want to take even better care of her.
…Though she really did eat a lot of meat.
I had thought it last time too, but Saran had more of an appetite than you'd expect.
Whether she had other kinds of greed besides food, I couldn't say.
"Hmm…."
As I enjoyed the meat with that thought in mind, a rather decent idea occurred to me.
Something I could use alongside increasing her outings—those half-coerced, half-voluntary ones—and that might even address the root of the problem to some degree?
"Mmm…."
"What is it?"
"Saran, after dinner, want to come over to my place tonight?"
"……Tonight?"
"Yep."
To do that, we would have to head home first.