87. The Ring Commotion
87. The Ring Commotion
And so.
"You saw this video and copied it...?"
"Hehe..."
A video was playing on my phone.
The video was from a channel called 'Dating Expert' and the title was 'Your male friend suddenly has a ring!? You should be suspicious!'.
It was a clip of a woman who looked well over 100kg, wearing a mask and spouting nonsense.
"Haa... Ha-na. Watching stuff like this is bad news..."
"Why... Si-jun...! It taught me what a ring means...! This person might look like a pig, but she's nice!"
Nice, she said.
A 'Dating Expert' who used clickbait titles.
I couldn't exactly give her a positive review.
'Does she just hide the false info...?'
She gave off a bit of a scammer vibe,
but the content itself was surprisingly clean.
Explaining the meaning of rings, showing which fingers to wear them on.
She fulfilled the basic duty of an informational video.
However.
At the end, she slipped in some seriously bad information.
That was the reason Ban Ha-na had acted so strangely.
-If you want to win back your male friend who's been taken, just follow my advice.
The Dating Expert spoke in a greasy voice.
Disgust churned inside me,
but I managed to hold it in since she was a woman.
And then she spat out that reckless nonsense.
-If you want him back, just make it a fait accompli. Get his body first, instead of his heart. Leave your mark on his body. Then, even if that guy has a girlfriend, his heart will inevitably waver.
Heh heh.
The Dating Expert let out a bizarre laugh.
Goosebumps erupted all over my body.
She went on to deliver what seemed to be the highlight of her video.
-So, how do you seduce him? Simple. Wear an apron like this and invite the man over. Show him your domestic side. Then, once he arrives, you say:
Would you like dinner first? A bath?
Or... me?
"Urgh..."
"Si-jun! What's wrong?"
A situation that instinctively made me gag.
Ha-na.
How on earth did you manage to watch this whole thing?
In a way, I felt kind of impressed by her.
"Anyway, I'm confiscating your phone."
"Hing..."
Ban Ha-na made a disappointed noise.
Still, to think she'd watch this kind of video while I wasn't around.
It was obvious that XTube was poison for Ban Ha-na's mental state.
Ban Ha-na, as if feeling wronged that I took her phone, yelled at me.
"Si-Si-jun! This is so unfair! It's your fault...!"
"Huh?"
"If Si-jun just hadn't worn a ring, it would've been fine! Why did you wear a ring...!"
Ban Ha-na was snapping at me angrily.
She kept on going.
"Si-jun! Do you have a girlfriend?!"
"Wha... what girlfriend do I have..."
"Then why are you wearing a ring on your ring finger?! Are you rich, Si-jun?!"
"That's not it..."
"Then you must have a girlfriend!"
Did that logic even track...?
Ban Ha-na's voice was surprisingly persuasive.
But since Yu Ha-yeon wasn't my girlfriend,
I answered confidently.
"I don't have a girlfriend. What are you talking about, Ha-na."
"Th-then what's that ring...!"
"A fr-friendship ring...?"
A friendship ring.
A ring worn between friends to pledge their friendship.
As I explained what a friendship ring was to Ban Ha-na,
she tilted her head and asked.
"Si-jun. Who did you get a friendship ring with?"
"Yu Ha-yeon."
"Is that really a friendship ring, Si-jun?"
Ban Ha-na's innocent pink eyes.
They were pressing me hard.
'Is it just me, or is the color getting deeper...?'
Ban Ha-na's color was pink.
She had a low danger level between white and red.
But right now, Ban Ha-na's danger level had a bit of black mixing into the pink.
'This is the definition of polar opposites...'
If it turned black, might she use her unique ability to kidnap me somewhere?
A cold sweat trickled down my cheek.
I started making excuses—or something close to them—to Ban Ha-na.
"What else would it be but a friendship ring? Yu Ha-yeon and I have lived together for ten years. Something like this is nothing."
"Is that so, Si-jun...? You're not going to get a girlfriend and abandon me, right...?"
"Haha... Why would I ever abandon you, Ha-na."
Was she afraid of being abandoned?
Had she been thinking about that?
I had no intention of abandoning her from the start.
'Since Yu Ha-yeon has given her permission to a certain extent... I guess I'll have to convince Ha-na...'
Just as spilled water can't be scooped back up.
I had to solidify this harem that had been forced upon me.
So I wouldn't die.
I steadied my plan, which was to explain things to Ban Ha-na slowly.
However.
Ban Ha-na seized an opening.
"Si-jun. So friendship rings are something you do with friends, right?"
"That's right."
"Then, we could do it too, couldn't we?"
"...!"
Hehe...
Ban Ha-na smiled an innocent, carefree smile.
Had the threat of confiscating her phone made her smarter?
Today, Ban Ha-na's brain was working remarkably well.
'Should I have just let her keep the phone...?'
Ban Ha-na came closer to me and asked.
"Si-jun. You won't do it with me, but you'll wear a friendship ring with Kkamangi?"
"That's..."
"Aren't Si-jun and I friends yet?"
The mood was getting strange.
Wasn't it though?
I laid out the reality for Ban Ha-na.
"Ha-na. Of course I could do it with you. But we don't have a ring, so..."
"We can just buy one!"
"We don't have money..."
"We can just steal one!"
"No, we can't just steal one."
What is she talking about?
Clearly, Ban Ha-na must have dozed off during the Hero's Mindset course.
Ban Ha-na frowned and then shouted.
"Si-jun! Then we really just need a ring, right?"
"As long as it's not stolen, it's fine."
"Just wait a moment...!"
What was she going to do this time?
In front of my bewildered eyes, a portal of space appeared.
"Ha-na. What are you trying to..."
"I'll be right back, Si-jun!"
With those words, Ban Ha-na vanished into the space.
Where could she have gone?
I sat down where I was and waited for Ban Ha-na.
Maybe about 10 minutes passed.
A rift in space opened up in the empty air of my room.
And from within it, Ban Ha-na's urgent voice rang out.
"Aaaack...! Si-jun...!"
"Wh-what the—!"
Ban Ha-na came running frantically out of the rift.
In her hands were two identical small rings.
Mana was leaking faintly from the rings.
Still, Ban Ha-na laughed brightly and said,
"Si-jun! I brought the rings!"
"...Where'd you get them?"
The source of the rings.
Ban Ha-na's unique ability let her return to any place she'd been before.
But Ban Ha-na had spent most of her time at the Black Dawn hideout.
What did that imply?
It meant the rings in Ban Ha-na's hands were from the Black Dawn hideout.
I asked Ban Ha-na with a nervous feeling.
"Ha-na... so, why exactly did you come running like this?"
"W-well, the thing is... I went home and got caught..."
Caught.
Ban Ha-na was currently a runaway.
If Black Dawn had caught her, she would have been locked up there again.
Was it a relief that she even managed to come back alive?
Just as I was about to sigh in relief,
my eyes landed on the rift in the air.
"Ha-na. But why aren't you closing that...?"
"It's not that I'm not closing it, Si-jun. I can't close it."
"Huh?"
"If someone's body is inside the space, they'd get hurt, so I can't close it!"
Right.
As long as no one gets hurt, that's good, Ha-na.
But.
That meant someone else was coming through.
The moment goosebumps prickled all over my body.
A cold voice flowed out from the rift.
"Hmm. So you two little ones have been living here like this?"
"No way..."
Did it have to be that person who caught her?
I really thought my fate was a cursed one.
A hand and a foot started to emerge from the rift.
They showed pale skin.
Strands of white hair flowed out.
And once half her body emerged from the rift,
red eyes stared straight at me.
"It's been a while. Han Si-jun. Are you happy to see me?"
A cold voice and tone.
The person who came out of the rift was the woman who had once kidnapped me.
"...Hello, Miss Han Yu-wol."
"It seems you remember me. Could it be, you missed me?"
There was no way I'd missed her.
The routine of her sucking my blood.
It had wounded my pride.
Ban Ha-na looked at Han Yu-wol and screamed.
"G-get out...! I'm never going back...!"
"...She's gotten very feisty. Could this all be the fault of little Han Si-jun?"
Han Yu-wol turned her head to look at me.
She was subtly putting pressure on me.
"Ha-na was always like that."
"Is that so...? Well, if you say so, then I suppose it must be."
Hmph.
Han Yu-wol gave a seductive smile.
What on earth was she thinking, coming here?
I mustered up my courage and asked.
"Are you, by any chance, here to take Ha-na back?"
"I-I'm not going back...! Go back right now...!"
Ban Ha-na was opening the space again, telling her to go back immediately.
Unfortunately, Han Yu-wol didn't seem to have any intention of going back as Ha-na demanded.
"Yes, that's why I followed her. Is there a problem?"
A problem.
There was one.
Ban Ha-na didn't want to go back to Black Dawn,
and if she went back, she'd meet a tragic end.
And I couldn't just stand by and watch that.
"..."
Han Yu-wol, looking into my eyes, chuckled and then spoke in a calm tone.
"Your eyes have gotten a lot better. Before, you couldn't even meet my gaze."
"A growing student changes fast, you know."
"Hmm... Is that so?"
Han Yu-wol was unreadable; I couldn't tell what she was thinking.
Just in case, I checked her danger level.
'If it's close to black, I run.'
With that thought, I looked at Han Yu-wol's face,
and confirmed the color surrounding her.
'This is...'
What could this be?
A situation where white and black coexisted.
Around Han Yu-wol, who lived by a black-and-white logic, a mix of white and black swirled.
Will she let me live, or will she kill me?
Those were the thoughts she was holding.
Knowing that Han Yu-wol could attack at any moment,
tension tightened around my body.
"..."
"..."
A situation where we were just staring at each other, without a word.
A strange current flowed through the dormitory room.