52. Even Though My Body Shrank, My Brain Is Still the Same!
52. Even Though My Body Shrank, My Brain Is Still the Same!
52. Even Though My Body Shrank, My Brain Is Still the Same!
Atmosphere.
Atmosphere was an invisible psychological pressure shaped by the closeness, relationships, and personalities between people.
It didn't shift in an instant, and if the atmosphere around people suddenly changed, it meant something had happened between them.
Like two coworkers who vanished after a company dinner—only to reappear the next day wrapped in an awkward silence.
A changed atmosphere between people meant an incident had occurred.
'Huh...?'
Yu Ha-yeon finished disposing of the cannibals, with their melted-looking skin.
She used her ability to lift the white flower bathed in moonlight into the air.
She wanted to return to Han Si-jun's side quickly.
The younger Han Si-jun brought back old memories and was cute enough to bite.
That look of Han Si-jun, who'd always been showered with affection for his striking features ever since he was little.
Han Si-jun, whose looks could be mistaken for a girl's, was even cuter now that he'd grown up.
Yu Ha-yeon wanted to hold onto that image in her memory as long as possible.
"Hehe... I'm the one who's gonna dote on Han Si-jun..."
Han Si-jun possessed a cuteness that made her mouth water.
Yu Ha-yeon was brimming with anticipation at the rare sight of Han Si-jun's past self.
Unlike Lee Seol-ha, she wasn't after the shrunken Han Si-jun specifically—she simply liked Han Si-jun as a person, so his younger form was what delighted her.
Yu Ha-yeon liked Han Si-jun no matter what he looked like, and ever since his kidnapping, Han Si-jun had never left her mind.
And so Yu Ha-yeon, her body now a little smaller, raced toward Han Si-jun.
How much younger had he gotten?
How long would this form last?
Her mind held not a single one of those worries.
The moment she arrived, she saw an even smaller Han Si-jun and shouted.
"Han Si-jun! I'm back...!"
Lee Seol-ha must have known Yu Ha-yeon was coming, because she didn't look particularly surprised.
Han Si-jun was watching the flower as he greeted Yu Ha-yeon.
But a subtle current was flowing between them.
The atmosphere.
A very subtle atmosphere.
The cold stare that had been fixed on Han Si-jun was gone, replaced by something approaching goodwill in Lee Seol-ha's eyes.
And Han Si-jun, looking back at Lee Seol-ha, seemed faintly awkward.
Was it woman's intuition?
Or childhood-friend intuition?
Yu Ha-yeon was certain something had happened between them to create this atmosphere.
Had Lee Seol-ha done something to Han Si-jun?
Or had Han Si-jun done something to Lee Seol-ha?
Yu Ha-yeon felt a simmering sensation in her gut.
Han Si-jun had sworn he wouldn't fool around, and he'd broken that promise in a single day.
She barely held back her anger and asked him.
"The vibe between you two feels a little different...?"
At Yu Ha-yeon's tone—full of absolute certainty—Han Si-jun's expression flickered with panic.
***
'What do I do...?'
Yu Ha-yeon was sure something had happened between us.
And on the very day after I'd promised not to fool around, no less.
I let my mind drift back to a time when I'd broken a promise with Yu Ha-yeon.
'...Why didn't you keep your promise?'
Middle school.
I hadn't attended elementary school, so this was my first time going to school at all.
Yu Ha-yeon had told me that bad kids might try to talk to me.
She said if anyone spoke to me, I had to remember their name and tell her.
'For real. Absolutely. That's a promise!'
Yu Ha-yeon hated broken promises more than anyone I knew.
I suspected that trait had developed because I was always the one breaking promises first.
It was a headache, but I had no choice except to agree.
And for the first half of the semester, I—uncharacteristically—kept that promise faithfully.
Until after-school cleaning time.
I forgot to tell Yu Ha-yeon about a conversation I'd had with a girl who'd been cleaning with me.
Yu Ha-yeon, who'd been watching, got angry at me for breaking my promise.
'Han Si-jun. You break promises too...?'
Yu Ha-yeon wasn't in a great state of mind, and she interrogated me with tears streaming down her face.
It was too intense to be called sulking, too murky to be called anger.
Memories of having no choice but to soothe her through it all flickered past.
Cold sweat trickled down my back at the thought of breaking a promise with her.
"Wh...what are you talking about? Nothing happened."
"...Han Si-jun. Your lying's gotten worse."
Yu Ha-yeon let out a flat little laugh, as if to say don't even try.
She'd seen right through my lie, but there was still trust in her eyes.
She shifted her interrogation toward Lee Seol-ha.
"Lee Seol-ha. What did you do to Han Si-jun?"
Had I been removed from the suspect list?
I really hadn't done anything to Lee Seol-ha, so I hadn't fooled around.
Food had just gone into my open mouth. That was it.
I hadn't done anything to Lee Seol-ha.
Lee Seol-ha's lips twitched as if she wanted to say whatever her instincts demanded,
but she kept her rationality in check and answered Yu Ha-yeon.
"...Nothing happened."
"Really...? Then why does Han Si-jun's chest smell like you...? Don't you think that's strange...?"
"...Yeah. Weird, isn't it. I have no need to talk to you."
At Lee Seol-ha's iron-wall defense, Yu Ha-yeon's eyebrow twitched.
She was clearly holding back her anger.
A chill hung in the air—the calm before the storm.
Before a fight could break out, I decided on the best move to stop it.
"Yu Ha-yeon. How about we clear the gate first?"
"...You and I are going to talk later."
Yu Ha-yeon delivered that line and turned her gaze to the white flower she'd brought.
In that moment, Lee Seol-ha looked faintly disappointed and mouthed something at me.
'Let's meet again another time, kiddo.'
Right.
We'd have to meet again.
Yu Ha-yeon either didn't see Lee Seol-ha's mouth move or didn't care. She silently held out the white flower.
A moonflower, brimming with white moonlight power.
Destroy this, and the gate would be cleared.
I decided to break the flower now, before any further delays caused injuries.
'God... this thing is heavy...'
I drew the academy-issued training gun from my waist.
Students were required to carry a self-defense weapon at all times, even off-campus—you never knew when something might happen.
'Episode 2 is finally wrapping up.'
I gripped the pistol with both hands, steadied my trembling fingers, and fired a mana-charged round into the flower.
Bang!
The gunshot echoed through the ruined city. Around us, the cannibals who'd heard it began racing toward us.
But they were beings whose existence lost all meaning without moonlight.
For decades they'd eaten people to hold back age—and now they began crumbling into ash.
Watching them, I felt not even a flicker of pity.
'If you're born human, you should live like one.'
How could eating people possibly be called living like a human?
Maybe they'd done it to extend their lives, but that was no way for a person to act.
Honestly, seducing women to extend your life is way better.
At least I, unlike those cannibals, was a man with a basic code of ethics.
"Look at that! Han Si-jun! The moon's breaking apart!"
Yu Ha-yeon wrapped her arms around my shrunken body from behind and pointed at the sky.
Up above, the moon that had been staring down at us split in two and shattered.
Yu Ha-yeon and I watched together, taking in the final moments of the gate's world.
"Yu Ha-yeon."
"What?"
"Just wanted to say your name."
The moon was crumbling, losing its shape as it vanished.
If I don't move properly, the world of V. AGE will collapse just like that.
I fixed my eyes on the disintegrating world and burned it into my memory.
***
On TV, a glamorous anchor was explaining the A-rank Gate incident.
—Anxiety across society has spiked sharply following yesterday's gate emergence at Jeonju Hanok Village...
Jeonju Hanok Village, where gate appearances had been at 0%, had now suffered an incident—and society was gripped by fear.
Voices of concern rose: at this rate, wouldn't gates start appearing even in the cities where we live?
Still, the good news, if you could call it that, was that there were no fatalities among those caught in the gate.
Because I'd cleared the gate relatively quickly, the only victims were people who'd suffered minor injuries from cannibal attacks or side effects of the de-aging.
The voices of fear weren't as loud as I'd expected.
'The villain situation... still seems okay.'
One of the main reasons I'd considered Episode 2 so important: the villain's appearance.
Villains fed on public anxiety, and that fear laid the groundwork for them to grow stronger.
If sixty academy students had died in Episode 2,
then the next episode would see named villains appearing in droves.
That was exactly the scenario Black Dawn wanted.
The fact that I'd prevented it let me breathe a little easier.
'Well, should be fine for now.'
I pressed the power button on the remote with my tiny hand.
My grip strength was so low I had to press harder than usual.
"Haah..."
When would my body go back to normal?
The academy had decided training couldn't proceed with students in this condition and had granted a short break while everyone's bodies recovered.
'Han Si-jun, Yu Ha-yeon, Lee Seol-ha. Thank you. We were able to minimize the damage thanks to you.'
They'd also told us that, for clearing the gate and minimizing the damage, we'd receive gratitude and appropriate compensation.
A very good turn of events.
But.
I wasn't in a great mood.
Inside my dorm room.
I was lying on my bed, and when I looked to the side, I saw Ban Ha-na with her face bright red.
She was desperately holding back laughter.
"Pff... pfft..."
"Don't laugh..."
Ban Ha-na had been grinning the moment she first saw me shrunken, like she couldn't help herself.
She looked at me and smiled.
"Si-jun. You're shorter than me! Hehe...! Like a little rabbit...!"
Yeah.
Having reverted to an elementary-school body, I was now smaller than Ban Ha-na.
And she was calling me a rabbit.
"Haha..."
Was this a dream or reality?
The body may have shrunk, but the mind remains.
The school trip was over, and I was now shorter than Ban Ha-na.
Until my body returned to normal, my academy dorm life would continue in this form.