207. Ichikawa Sofia (2)
207. Ichikawa Sofia (2)
Truthfully, Sofia was the type who lived hiding a great deal behind a front very different from what people saw.
Outwardly cheerful and transparent, a friend to all who was kind to everyone.
But underneath that surface, she had a different side.
And she herself was very well aware of that fact.
'If anything, I'm more the somber, sticky type······.'
A particularly clear example of it.
Her Jin Yu-ha fan café activity.
【Flower on the Cliff】 had now become a massive café exceeding one million members.
It was a place where photos of Jin Yu-ha and pieces of his daily life were shared.
Within it was one legendary named user who had started as a regular member, passed through the ranks of the enthusiastic, and gone all the way to seizing a management position.
「Climbing Yu-ha's Nose Bridge」
He was a member praised by countless people for steadily posting direct-cam photos and everyday glimpses of Jin Yu-ha, who almost never showed himself in the media, as well as fanciful write-ups.
So while it had become more or less accepted as fact that his identity was surely one of the cadets at Velvet Hunter Academy...
No one thought he was actually Utopia's 【Saintess】, 'Sofia'.
Who could possibly imagine it?
That the Healer of the Utopia Party they had formed together was a sasaeng fan who watched his every single move.
The reason she had carried on steady fan café activity without being caught by anyone else until now was...
Because she had been doing work that put her in front of a camera since she was very young.
Putting on the shell that people wanted to see and concealing her true self inside.
That had become as natural to her as breathing now.
'But both of them are the real me, ya know.'
It wasn't that the image she showed on the outside was fake.
Nor was it that only the side she hid behind the scenes was real.
Opening up about this to another person, however, took a much greater courage than one might think.
There was exactly one reason she was contemplating coming out now.
Because Ichika's state felt exactly like seeing her own past self overlaid on top of hers.
'It's similar to how I used to suffer from Jin Yu-ha deficiency······.'
The day she first saw Jin Yu-ha in a news article, Sofia had fallen for him at first sight.
But even after asking around everywhere, there was no information about him.
And going to find him in person at Velvet Hunter Academy, where he stayed, was close to impossible.
So she had languished for almost a month.
Her condition was so severe it even started interfering with her modeling schedule, the work she'd always been doing.
In that moment, just as the world around her was slipping out of joint—
She was coincidentally summoned to the Velvet Hunter Academy's Midterm Evaluation,
And received an audience with Jin Yu-ha while he was washing up in a cave.
─ Wow.
*
Even now, looking back on that day, it truly felt like a moment out of a dream.
'Since then, I've been managing my urges through being a fan at close range······.'
Since she was holding herself in check that same way, the same method would probably work effectively for Ichika too.
It was right when she was gazing down intently at Ichika.
Twitch—
Ichika's brow furrowed.
"Weird ceiling."
She opened her eyes, spouting nonsense with her usual expressionless face.
"······Ichika, how are you feeling, ya know?"
"Hm, how am I feeling? Ah. My savior came and went."
Ichika slowly sat up and nodded.
Then she closed her eyes and touched her own body as if she didn't want to lose even a bit of the leftover warmth.
Sofia's eyes sank as she watched that.
'······Just as I thought, I absolutely cannot tolerate this woman receiving such an undeserved reward without making any effort at all.'
Ahem. Ahem.
Sofia straightened her expression and spoke.
"So, without meaning to. I ended up hearing about your circumstances too, ya know."
"Ah, you did?"
Ichika answered as though it were a matter of no consequence at all.
Twitch.
At that indifferent attitude, Sofia's fist clenched without her realizing it.
"Hoooh······. Well, first of all, Ichika, I do understand that you have to have, um, physical contact with Jin Yu-ha to stay mentally stable, ya know."
"Right, that's correct. I'm a body that can't go on without my savior now."
How could it be that,
every single word could get on her nerves this much?
A vein bulged on her forehead, but she suppressed it with transcendent patience and continued.
"Well, I am still the party's Healer, ya know······? So, I thought of an idea······."
Sofia picked up her phone, opened the gallery, and handed it over to Ichika.
Her hand trembled violently as she passed the phone.
"What's this?"
Ichika asked back, but Sofia said nothing.
The tens of thousands of files saved inside the photo album.
They were all Jin Yu-ha.
Photos of Jin Yu-ha.
Videos of Jin Yu-ha.
Voice recordings of Jin Yu-ha.
And every other single move and action related to Jin Yu-ha.
'This is no different from handing over my weakness······.'
A fatal weakness at that, where a single poke would kill her the instant it happened.
What would happen if Jin Yu-ha ever came to know this side of her?
He'd feel disillusioned.
She had originally had no intention of letting anyone know this, ever.
She had simply wanted to leave behind just that level of recognition—a slightly unique and lively woman from a modeling background who liked taking photos of people.
Yet now she was carrying out a gamble of handing over her weakness.
She had to protect Utopia.
She didn't want to break the community apart.
She didn't want to make Jin Yu-ha sad.
Swish— Swish—
Ichika's eyes sparkled with interest as she accepted the phone and flipped through the album.
"······If there's anything among what I have that you like, I can share it with you, ya know."
"Oh."
"And I'll give you more whenever you ask······."
"Ooh."
Sofia spoke in a stiff, rigid voice, and Ichika let out a bright exclamation in contrast.
"Good. Then I like this video."
From within that sea of Jin Yu-ha, what Ichika pointed out and picked was none other than...
The video from when Jin Yu-ha captured the Demonized Human and his star rank rose.
It was something she didn't want to share with anyone else,
something she would rather die than give away,
Sofia's Number 1 treasure.
Because she herself had been at that scene with him.
'That one, I really do not want to hand over!'
But.
"Yes, I understand······."
She nodded with a feeling deep enough to cut to the bone.
And she raised the words she had to say to her lips.
"······So, please be satisfied with just that much. Ichika. Please stop getting close to Jin Yu-ha."
"Huh?"
"You just need to be able to fill your feelings toward Jin Yu-ha some way or other anyway, don't y—"
"I don't want to, though?"
A razor-sharp refusal.
A suffocating silence fell between the two of them.
*
'W-with what kind of heart I've been doing this······!'
A surge of indignation.
Sofia bit her lip hard.
"Wh-what did you say······?"
"You said to stop getting close. I don't want to do that."
Sofia asked back in a bewildered voice, but Ichika just repeated the refusal, utterly unfazed.
"Ichika—! Y-you really—!"
Now anger was boiling up.
Her head was gradually growing hotter.
She truly wanted to tear the woman in front of her to pieces.
The voice coming out of her mouth grew louder and louder.
"Ichika. No, you. Are you serious about Jin Yu-ha?"
"Serious?"
"Yes! Honestly, you barely met him recently, you're the kind of person who didn't even know who Jin Yu-ha was until now! And now you just suddenly barge in, completely shameless!!!"
"Does timing matter? Then, if Lee Yu-ri tried to take Jin Yu-ha, would you be planning to smile and send him off to her?"
"······Th-that!"
At her question, words clogged up in her throat.
Thud.
A feeling as if a massive rock had dropped into her heart.
'What on earth could you possibly know······!'
Her mask had shattered a long time ago.
Jin Yu-ha was not someone who could be brought up
so lightly and carelessly.
No, he was someone who should not be brought up that way.
A woman who had suddenly inserted herself was trying to smash that rule we had all silently kept up to now.
"Ah, so that's your real way of speaking, and your real face?"
For the first time, a gleam of interest rose in Ichika's eyes as she looked at Sofia.
"Now you're fun too."
* * *
"Hmm, we really did gain a lot from this U.S. Monster Subjugation Request."
At the Utopia Hideout, Shin Se-hee was buried in a stack of pure-white paper, working alone.
She was handling the follow-up for the U.S. Monster Subjugation Request.
You have to strike while the iron is hot, as they say.
"First, I need to put up Ichika's introduction video as well this time······. Mm, now that I think about it, Kang Do-hee, Lee Yu-ri, and I don't have separate introduction videos yet either, do we?"
The timing is perfect.
The whole party has just gotten stronger through Baek Seol-hee's test anyway.
And right now, when public attention is focused because of the U.S. Monster Subjugation Request.
If we can show how the party members have changed from before, we can attract even more attention.
"Then I'll have to prioritize making and uploading those. And should I update the ones for the people who already had theirs up? Hmm, then I should consult separately with Sofia about the video-related······."
That was when it happened.
Swoosh—
A pitch-black shadow suddenly shot out from beneath her feet.
"Hm? Ichika?"
And the shadow abruptly grabbed a pen that was on the desk, and—
Scratch— Scratch— Scratch—
began to write on the white paper.
And as she traced the letters being written on the paper, Shin Se-hee's eyes trembled.
"Huh? What?"
Shin Se-hee let out a hollow laugh at the completely unexpected content.
"Good heavens······. The very first one is Sofia. This is really interesting······?"