51. As Long as It Tastes Good, That's All That Matters
51. As Long as It Tastes Good, That's All That Matters
As Long as It Tastes Good.
"C-Call me big sister."
Lee Seol-ha, as if in a trance, was demanding I call her big sister.
Despite her misandry, she had grabbed my shoulders and was forcing me down.
'This isn't right...'
Something was seriously wrong.
The Lee Seol-ha I knew from V. AGE was a character who slowly built affection with the player, her hatred for men gradually subsiding over time.
It began with touching over clothes, then skin, then holding hands—and eventually, kissing.
In the V. AGE heroine popularity polls, Lee Seol-ha often competed for the top spots because of her story: the slow process of healing her misandry, her pitiable poverty and debt.
So what on earth was this?
The younger I shrank, to the point where my pants dragged on the floor,
the more her androphobia vanished without a trace, and Lee Seol-ha demanded I call her big sister.
To think this side of her lay hidden behind the Lee Seol-ha I knew.
I felt a sense of betrayal toward the Lee Seol-ha who had deceived me in V. AGE,
and at the same time, a flicker of fear as she looked at me, licking her lips.
"Help..."
The moment Yu Ha-yeon left, Lee Seol-ha had pounced on me. I tried to shove her off,
but in my shrunken body, I didn't have the strength to peel her away.
The only person who could protect me right now was Yu Ha-yeon.
I raised my voice, trying to call out to Yu Ha-yeon as she fought the cannibals.
"Y-Yu Ha-yeon...! Sa... mmph...!"
"St-Stay still...! Big sister will take good care of you...!"
My words were cut off as Lee Seol-ha intervened.
She pulled my face into her chest and wrapped me in a tight embrace.
"Haa... I hate men, but little boys... they're just so cute I can't help it..."
"Mmmph...!"
A sweet floral scent rose from Lee Seol-ha's arms as she squeezed me tight enough to suffocate.
She was acting like she had completely forgotten that the seventeen-year-old Han Si-jun was inside my shrunken body.
'How does she plan to deal with this when I grow back to normal?'
She looked down at my smaller self as if I were adorable.
Had she forgotten how coldly she treated me when I was my normal self?
I couldn't understand Lee Seol-ha charging straight ahead as if her brakes had failed.
She kept holding me, and when she finally noticed I was struggling to breathe,
she let go and started worrying.
"A-Are you okay...? You couldn't breathe, right...?"
"Wh-What are you doing, Lee Seol-ha."
"What do you mean...?"
Lee Seol-ha didn't show a single trace of shame over what she'd done.
She was running on pure instinct.
And then the word 'instinct' snagged in my mind.
'Wait, instinct...?'
Instinct.
Lee Seol-ha's instinct.
Because of her tragic past, she instinctively detests men.
But her instinct doesn't include boys.
My body had shrunk, but my mind was unchanged.
Lee Seol-ha was acting as though she had forgotten that fact.
Like she wasn't thinking at all.
Going solely by instinct.
I remembered her unique ability.
'Beast.'
An ability that grants the user animal-like senses and enhanced physical capabilities.
Lee Seol-ha had used her bestial hearing, sight, and touch to find the flower.
Because we'd been unlucky, she had kept that ability active for quite a long time.
Unique abilities, as we know, aren't purely beneficial to the user.
I sometimes had to spend my lifespan to use mine,
and in Yu Ha-yeon's case, keeping her unique ability active for too long made her consciousness flicker, causing her to act like a child.
So what was Lee Seol-ha's side effect?
An ability that uses animal senses and strengthens the user's body.
That had to be it. Just as a beast follows its instincts, Lee Seol-ha was following hers.
That was my guess,
and my guess appeared to be correct.
"Han Si-jun. Why won't you call me big sister? Do you not like big sisters? I want you to call me that..."
Lee Seol-ha looked genuinely upset that I wouldn't call her big sister.
Don't they say that people instinctively like those younger than themselves?
It seemed that inclination was far stronger in her than in most.
"Haha..."
Was I supposed to treat this as a preference?
I let out an awkward laugh.
Because there was absolutely no way I could get on board with Lee Seol-ha's tastes.
I had my own fantasies about a big sister with a steady income who cooked well,
but I had no fantasies about a big sister who took me captive and fawned all over me.
'I still have my pride...'
Wouldn't any man rather be seen as strong than cute?
A man's pride isn't something you can bend that easily.
I had to get Lee Seol-ha to stop using her unique ability before the side effects worsened.
If this kept up, her very reason might shut down, and she could turn into a person running entirely on instinct for the foreseeable future.
I spoke to her like I was handling a wild animal.
"Lee Seol-ha. First, calm down... how about turning your ability off?"
"Ah, right. I had it on. But I still can't yet."
Lee Seol-ha firmly rejected my suggestion.
Her ears pricked up, and she stared in the direction Yu Ha-yeon had gone.
It looked like an instinctive wariness of Yu Ha-yeon coming back.
'Still, the current Lee Seol-ha has some reason left. I can at least talk to her.'
Persuasion.
Let's try to persuade her.
Even if I can't make her turn the ability off, I can persuade her not to frighten me any further.
I spoke to Lee Seol-ha as rationally as I could.
"Lee Seol-ha. Think carefully. I'm Han Si-jun, and my mind is perfectly intact. It's only my appearance that's like this. Do you understand?"
She stared at me without a word.
Then her dark blue eyes lowered,
and she murmured to me.
"Does that matter...?"
"What...?"
"As long as the appearance is good, that's all that matters, right...?"
"You crazy..."
As long as it tastes good, that's all that matters.
I never thought I'd actually hear those words, but Lee Seol-ha said exactly that—and then glanced in the direction Yu Ha-yeon had left.
Then, as if she still had time to spare, she approached me like there was no problem at all.
"Han Si-jun. Hurry up and call me big sister."
"...No."
"Hurry. Do you want to make big sister angry?"
What was she going to do if she got angry?
Was she planning to force herself on me?
Even so, there was no way she'd go that far.
The persuasion had failed, but Lee Seol-ha still had some reason left,
and the version of her I saw in V. AGE wasn't the type to attack a man just because she couldn't control a side effect.
"...You're looking at big sister like a meal, aren't you? You need to be punished."
My guess was wrong.
Lee Seol-ha looked ready to pounce on me the moment Yu Ha-yeon was gone.
If I didn't call her big sister, Lee Seol-ha was going to punish me by charging right at me.
'I don't want to go down like this...'
Watching her draw closer and closer,
I reached out to my last hope, Fenrir.
'Fenrir. Does someone like her even meet the conditions?'
What kind of emotion did she hold toward me?
No matter how I looked at it, it wasn't romance. It was just a woman failing to suppress her instincts.
Fenrir answered my question in his own way.
— Human. That. Female. Strange. Like a beast. But. Strong. If you can. I acknowledge. Her.
It really said something if Fenrir was calling Lee Seol-ha beast-like.
Fenrir told me he couldn't tell whether Lee Seol-ha's situation even qualified as a romantic emotion.
But because he felt that Lee Seol-ha was stronger than me and would become even stronger later,
he said he would acknowledge the condition.
'Is that so...?'
I looked into Lee Seol-ha's beastly eyes as she seemed ready to pounce on me at any moment.
"Lee Seol-ha."
"Yeah...?"
Perhaps the side effects were worsening, because the light in her dark blue eyes was steadily fading.
I stopped her and said,
"All I have to do is call you big sister?"
Before she could do anything to me, I had to seize control.
You can't tame a beast without first seizing control against it.
"Hurry, call me big sister!"
Lee Seol-ha nodded her head vigorously at my words.
I could see her reason slipping further and further away.
Watching that, I came to a decision.
'If I'm going to win over Lee Seol-ha, I have no choice but to use this chance.'
I was small, and I wasn't affected by her misandry. If this wasn't an opportunity, then what was?
Calling Lee Seol-ha big sister stung my pride a little,
but it didn't feel so bad when I imagined how she'd react once she came to her senses.
Normally, entering Lee Seol-ha's route and winning her over takes about two years.
Her route involved slowly drawing closer to heal her misandry, eventually leading to romance.
And now I was in a situation where her route's prerequisite—the misandry—didn't apply.
If this isn't a chance, what is?
I decided to use this opportunity to choose Lee Seol-ha as the third person to extend my lifespan.
"Haa..."
This is so cringey.
I sighed and fixed my eyes on Lee Seol-ha.
Her eyes were brimming with anticipation,
and since she was still using her ability, the fine hairs on her arms stood on end.
I steeled my heart and shouted.
"S-Seol-ha... big sister...?"
"...!!!"
Lee Seol-ha was overjoyed, as if I'd nailed the bullseye of her personal taste.
Why in the world had she developed such an abnormal preference?
I was curious, but I didn't actually need to know.
"Big... sister... he called me big sister... hehe..."
A thread of drool started to spill from the corner of Lee Seol-ha's mouth.
I couldn't comprehend her warped tastes at all.
Lee Seol-ha's ears twitched.
Was Yu Ha-yeon coming?
Lee Seol-ha seemed to regain her senses in an instant, the fine hairs that had been standing up smoothing back down.
It looked like she had deactivated her unique ability.
Lee Seol-ha looked at me and murmured with regret.
"What a shame... Big sister could have had a lot of fun with you..."
"Haha. It really is a shame, big sister."
I answered Lee Seol-ha in a flat, mechanical tone.
Since she was still half reason and half instinct, she didn't say anything back.
Yu Ha-yeon's figure appeared in the distance and started approaching us,
so we greeted her as if nothing had happened.
"You're back? How was it?"
"They were easy? Han Si-jun! I just have to destroy this, right?"
Yu Ha-yeon held out a white flower floating in the air toward me.
It was shining brightly, soaked in moonlight.
If we destroyed this, the gate would close and we'd be transported back to where we were.
The moment Episode 2 would be cleared.
Yu Ha-yeon looked between me and Lee Seol-ha.
Her eyes held a flicker of suspicion.
Then she walked up to me and started sniffing.
"Hmm...?"
Lee Seol-ha tilted her head as if something had caught her attention.
She narrowed her eyes and said,
"But something about the atmosphere between you two seems different?"
Something's off.
The vibe is off.
If Lee Seol-ha had a beast's instincts,
Yu Ha-yeon had a woman's instincts.
A childhood friend's instincts.