Calling Dad At Last
Yun Seoyeon said, “Please feel free to talk comfortably, you two.” With that, the Association staff member withdrew from the isolation room.
The air inside the isolation room felt as cold as winter.
It wasn't actually cold. Even when I breathed out, no white mist formed, and the surrounding temperature even felt comfortably warm.
Yet being in this space made me feel terribly cold.
As if I—the very existence that is me—was utterly alone here right now.
“…”
I stared down at the desk in front of me in silence.
Because the smile I'd just glimpsed was so terrifying… and yet so achingly missed.
I couldn't bring myself to look up at it again.
Beyond the isolation room's glass walls, two C-rank magical girls and the B-rank magical girl Lumina Betaris stood waiting.
Just in case. Unlike the two tense-faced C-rank girls, Lumina Betaris was earnestly sharpening her sword with an infinitely serious expression.
All of this.
“Hmm… should I say it's been a while?”
Was because of the man sitting in front of me now—my “Dad.”
“To be honest, Dad has no idea what's going on right now.”
The man smiling wryly before my eyes might not even be the Dad I knew.
That's why I feared him.
A fear different from before.
As if another love lingering inside him would soon constrict me.
“…”
I fell silent at his words.
Beep… beep…
The sound of the heart monitor in the isolation room seemed to echo my current feelings perfectly.
I was breathing as quietly as possible, suppressing even the sound of my own breaths, but the machine kept beeping steadily at regular intervals.
How was the man in front of me seeing me right now?
The thought terrified me.
“I suddenly wake up in some unfamiliar place, and they tell me ten years have passed…”
He spoke to me in a bewildered voice.
A voice I'd heard throughout my life—over ten years, or even seventeen.
A voice too young to call “sir,” yet not quite fitting for a young man. An ambiguous tone.
I listened wordlessly to what he had to say.
“Haha… but look at this, sweetie. Turns out Dad's got some amazing powers?”
He was pulling the heart monitor and various metal fixtures around the isolation room toward himself.
It was a scene both wondrous and horrifying.
Just like before, he formed a model T-rex and showed it to me.
“Ta-da! What do you think!? Pretty cool, right!?”
His face lit up with a bright smile as he playfully boasted about the T-rex model to me. That sight.
Was just like the day I'd started elementary school.
The last image of him I could remember clearly.
“Wow~ my little girl’s already in high school…! Dad’s so sad he missed watching you grow up!”
Was this really the Dad I knew?
In the sullied memories of my childhood, what had he looked like?
Honestly, I couldn't even recall anymore.
I didn't want to dredge up memories tainted by someone else.
So I'd locked them deep away in my heart.
Both the memories I didn't want to see… and the ones I wanted to cherish.
I was afraid.
Afraid that the Dad I feared was the man sitting before me now.
I wanted to lift my head to confirm, but a weight like the whole world was crashing down on my neck.
Such a simple motion.
One I'd done countless times living in this world.
All I had to do was raise my head.
But as if I mustn't.
My body.
The muscles inside me.
Every nerve in my body.
Held me back.
The voice of the kaijin that had tormented and tempted me back then didn't echo anymore.
So why was I frozen now?
Please.
Move.
I pleaded desperately with my own body.
The evil was gone now.
All I had to do was lift my head.
But even to my pleas, my body wouldn't budge.
As if the only view permitted to me was up to his mouth.
I wanted to see Dad's face, now faded even in my memories.
But it terrified me too much.
That was the reason.
I was so afraid of Dad.
Afraid that the moment I raised my head.
I'd see not the Dad I didn't fear, but the one I did.
What color were his eyes?
How big were his ears, how much hair did he have, how many wrinkles?
Facts I'd never faced in ten years.
Facts I'd never seen in two weeks.
They crashed over me.
Ten years.
And two weeks.
I'd turned away from him.
Simply out of fear.
Was this my punishment for it?
“…” So terribly simple.
The kaijin.
The evil.
I'd defeated it.
With my own hands.
There was no Dad left for me to fear anymore.
The magical girl English Lavender had vanquished the evil named “Dad.”
But me?
Me, Yun Seoyeon—had I overcome Dad?
Had I escaped the Dad I feared?
My breathing grew irregular.
“Haa… haa…”
My hands trembled, my heart pounded wildly.
Cold sweat beaded on my forehead.
As my condition worsened, the staff beyond the glass wall asked via microphone.
“English Lavender, are you alright? If you want, we can end this right now…”
With a shaking hand, I cut off their voices.
I wasn't English Lavender right now, so I answered them.
“I-I'm… fine.”
My voice conveying those words was terribly unsteady.
I wonder what my face looked like now.
‘The magical girl English Lavender doesn't make faces like that.’
Words I'd heard countless times from Pronesis today alone.
When I'd hunched over in shame I didn't even understand.
When singing along with her had been so much fun.
When we'd gotten a prize from the claw machine.
Words I'd heard from her endlessly.
What would she say if she saw me like this now?
Suddenly, I recalled something she'd said before.
‘I think the magical girl English Lavender is like perfectly cooked alio e olio.’
When I'd first heard it, I hadn't thought much of it.
Just an acknowledgment that I'd been doing well all this time.
I hadn't assigned it any deeper meaning.
Because I hadn't accomplished anything on my own.
I was just a magical girl who'd fulfilled her duties without any real goal.
So I'd taken it as another pleasant compliment.
But I'm not that great a person.
A coward too afraid of the past to look ahead.
That was me.
If even she saw this side of me.
Saw me like this…
‘Because I like you, no matter what happens in this world, I'll stay by your side until the end.’
Ah.
No.
She'd promised never to leave me.
The name English Lavender carries many floral meanings.
Silence, and “answer me.”
There was a sad story tied to those meanings, but she'd deliberately broken it by answering my words.
That act felt like her telling me she wasn't someone doomed to live out a predestined tale.
Right now, I wasn't “English Lavender.”
I was just one ordinary girl named Yun Seoyeon.
So then.
At least breaking the silence wouldn't be so bad, right?
I tried lifting my head again.
Once more, a weight like the world settled on my neck.
I had to endure it.
Why?
What would change if I raised my head now?
Just to see Dad's face, faded even from memory?
No.
To escape from the Dad I feared so much?
No.
“I… don't make faces like that…”
Because.
“…when looking at the Dad I've missed all this time… I can't make a sad face like that… right?”
Slowly, I raised my head.
A faint smile on my lips, to finally see the face of the Dad who'd waited for me all this time.
I'm scared.
So scared.
But even that fear became my strength.
‘Sweetie.’
Ah.
A voice reached me.
A voice I'd forgotten.
It echoed in my ears, in my mind.
“Sweetie.”
“No.”
“Seoyeon.”
At last.
I could raise my head and meet his face.
“It's been… a long time.”
Yeah.
It's really been so long.
Ten years, or even longer.
The time I'd spent forgetting him, using fear as an excuse.
“Dad…”
I called out to my real Dad at last.