Found You
My plan spans four years.
My friend is the prettiest girl in our class.
No—she's probably the prettiest in the whole school.
"Did you get confessed to again?"
"Huh? Yeah."
A completely indifferent response.
She'd already racked up enough confessions this month alone to fill both hands, yet the person at the center of it all looked utterly uninterested.
"Not feeling it this time either?"
"I just never planned on dating anyone to begin with."
You'd think that with that many confessions, at least one person would catch her eye—but her attitude never wavered.
"Still, that senior just now seemed pretty handsome."
"Did he? Not really my type."
So it was a type thing?
My friend's ideal type—the kind of person who could make her casually brush off dozens of confessions. At this point, I was starting to get genuinely curious about what kind of guy she went for.
"What kind of person do you like? Older? Younger?"
"…Older."
She claimed she had no interest in dating, but she clearly wasn't indifferent to the opposite sex—the answer came right out. That alone made asking worth it.
"Okay, then what face type? Puppy? Cat?"
"…Someone who's a cat sometimes and a puppy other times."
"…?"
A little vague, but I decided to roll with it.
"Height?"
"As long as he's taller than me, I don't really care."
"What about style? Cool type? Cute type?"
"Someone who's cool sometimes and cute other times."
"……"
I tried piecing together all her answers in my head, wondering if a person like that even existed.
"Ah. Now I get it. The kind of person you like."
Someone's face flashed vividly through my mind.
"You like someone who's ridiculously handsome, cute, and has a cool charm going for him?"
So her standards were just absurdly high.
"Hey, where would you even find someone like that?"
"They exist. People like that."
"Sure, if you go looking hard enough, maybe. But I'm putting my money on 'extremely rare.'"
"I don't even have to look. He's already there."
The way she said it so matter-of-factly—I was certain.
"You had someone you liked?"
"I did. But he's gone now."
"What is that even supposed to mean?"
"I don't know either."
She said it with a little laugh, and somehow I found myself with nothing left to say.
It had been an interesting topic—wondering who the crush of the girl rumored to be the prettiest in school could possibly be. But there was a loneliness clinging to her smile as she gave those ambiguous answers.
"Still, I am curious. What kind of face you'd make if you saw the person you like."
That conversation had been just yesterday.
"Want to stop by Olive Young and then hit a café?"
"……"
"You listening? Or should we do the café first?"
"……"
"Hey, what on earth are you—"
I'd been talking to her for a while, but she hadn't given me a single word in reply. Sensing something off, I whipped my head to the side—
Whoa.
Looking at my friend standing tall beside me, I couldn't help the silent gasp of admiration.
My friend is beautiful. Probably the most beautiful girl in school.
No—maybe even the most beautiful in the whole area.
It wasn't that she never smiled, but she usually carried a faintly indifferent air about her. At a glance, it could even come off as cold.
And that friend of mine—
with those huge eyes sparkling, a startled expression on her slightly flushed face, staring at something—
looked like a painting.
What on earth was she looking at?
I followed her gaze, and two guys in hoodies came into view.
The oversized hoods covering their heads made it hard to see their faces clearly.
"Found you…"
Had she seen him clearly, somehow?
She breathed the words, then closed the distance to the guy she'd been staring at in the blink of an eye, said something to him—
and slammed her fist into his face.
"…???"
Blonde hair glittered as it whipped through the air, and with it, Park Yeon-chan's body crumpled from midair to the ground.
The one who'd thrown the punch didn't even pause—she clenched her fist again, ready to follow up—
when someone caught her arm and stopped her cold.
"I know it might not look like it, but he's actually pretty important to us. I can't let this go any further."
Park Jae-hyun hadn't awakened as early as Park Yeon-chan, but he'd still awakened young enough to rank among the stronger fighters his age.
And yet—
Whoa. What the hell. She's no joke.
The ominous pressure rolling off her made him flinch in spite of himself.
"Us…?"
"Pardon?"
"Does that 'us' include girls?"
The ice in her voice nearly made him let go of her arm on pure instinct. He barely held on.
He could have just not answered. Somehow, though, it felt like he had no choice.
"W-well… there is one, yeah."
"I see."
Park Jae-hyun watched her nod as if that settled something—
and then crack!
A crisp impact sent his body flying backward.
Leaving Jae-hyun behind, the girl tossed her long hair and walked toward Park Yeon-chan.
"I know you're not unconscious."
At her blunt remark, Park Yeon-chan gingerly pushed himself up.
"Hahaha… that obvious…?"
He got to his feet with an awkward laugh.
"Long time no see, oppa."
Brushing back her blonde hair, the girl—Lee Yeon-ah—looked at Park Yeon-chan with a radiant smile.
Maybe I'd gotten too careless because we hadn't run into each other until now.
Of all the absurd coincidences, we had to cross paths like this.
"Long time no see, oppa."
Looking at Lee Yeon-ah greeting me so… warmly? Was that warm? Anyway—I waved back.
"Ah, hey?"
"…Hey?"
Yeah. Wrong answer.
The way her head tilted at a dangerous angle and the light drained from her eyes made it very clear I'd failed the test.
"Oppa. Do you know how many years it's been since we last saw each other?"
"About four years…?"
"And the first thing you say is hey…?"
Was it just me, or were her eyes getting darker? I really hoped it was just me.
Whatever this pressure was, sweat was pouring down my back in sheets.
And that punch earlier—
So she awakened.
Not the other personality from before. Lee Yeon-ah herself had awakened.
No matter how off-guard I'd been, I wasn't so out of it that I'd take a clean hit from a civilian.
"Come here. We need to talk."
She sounded like a neighborhood thug about to shake someone down.
"Uh… so I developed this condition where I have a seizure if I get within two meters of the opposite sex."
"What kind of bullshit is that."
"Haha… Yeon-ah, calling your oppa's words bullshit? Why are you talking like Yeon-hui?"
"Whose fault do you think that is."
"……"
Yeah… probably mine.
I felt bad for both of them, but back then there hadn't been any other choice.
I'd rewritten history. There was no telling how that would affect Lee Yeon-hui's regression. She'd already be thrown off by how much the past had changed after looping back—and if someone as blatantly suspicious as me was hanging around, a collision was inevitable.
That was a secondary concern, though. Even setting that aside—
to pull Freedom's and the Hero Association's attention off Lee Yeon-hui before her regression, and to keep the people around her from getting hurt, the only real option had been to leave their side.
And that reason still held.
If anything, I had even more riding on it now.
"We need to talk."
"Haha… yeah, okay."
I still couldn't afford to stay.
I gave Yeon-ah half-answers while scanning the surroundings.
It should be showing up any second now.
I was desperately watching for an opening to escape when—
Vroooom!
A sedan shot past right beside me at high speed.
I grabbed the trunk and hung on, already putting serious distance between us and Yeon-ah, and shouted back at her.
"Sorry, Yeon-ah! Next time! I'll come find you next time!"
I really was sorry—but this wasn't the right time for us to meet.
I meant every heavy word of it.
"There won't be a next time."
"…Huh?"
I only caught it because I was an Awakened. At that distance, an ordinary person never would have heard her.
Yeon-ah murmured something I couldn't quite parse—
and then took off.
She came after the car at a terrifying speed, closing the gap in an instant.
"Park Jae-hyun! Floor it! Floor it!"
I slammed my palm against the hood, yelling at Jae-hyun in the driver's seat.
"I can't! This thing's on autopilot—it's locked to the speed limit!"
"Just override it!"
"I'm working on it, but she's even— wait! Boss! She's here! She's right here!"
"Why is she so fast?!"
Right behind us, Yeon-ah had already closed in to point-blank range.
"Hey! I'll peel her off—you handle the car and catch up!"
No time to wait for an answer.
If I stayed put, she was going to catch us. That much was obvious.
I jumped off the car.
Too many eyes on us. I need somewhere without people first.
I ducked into a deserted stretch and hid.
Yeon-ah had been right on my heels, but she was nowhere in sight now—so I'd shaken her, at least for the moment.
Just in case, I erased my presence and started scanning for cover—
"Oppa…"
"Aaaagh!"
A voice dropped on me from above and I screamed before I could stop myself.
How the hell did she find me?
I swallowed the question and moved immediately.
The second I started running, Yeon-ah was on my trail again.
I was faster, so if I broke into open ground and ran a straight line, I could lose her for sure—but that would draw every eye in the area.
Shake her once, then maybe go underground?
With that thought, I slipped into a crowd this time.
If she'd tracked me by sensing my presence, then the opposite should work—bury myself in enough people and she'd have a harder time picking me out.
I erased my presence as thoroughly as before, pulled on a uniform to match the people heading to a baseball game, and joined the entrance line.
A space packed wall to wall with people, men and women alike. Excited voices buzzed from every direction, hyped for the match.
"Man, this is gonna be so fun."
I was just starting to catch my breath when—
"Right, oppa?"
"Aaaagh!"
Yeon-ah was somehow standing right next to me. I shrieked and took off running again.
A villa district full of winding roads and constant ups and downs—the kind of place first-timers got lost in easily.
"Hah… hah…"
She might still come after me, but I'd managed to lose the Yeon-ah who'd been right in front of me.
What I still couldn't figure out was how she kept tracking me.
I'd erased my presence as carefully as I could, and she still locked onto me perfectly. Even buried in a packed crowd, she found me like I was standing under a spotlight.
How…?
I checked myself over in case she'd planted a tracker, but there was nothing.
"If it comes down to it, I might just have to outrun her with raw speed."
If she caught up again, that really would be the only option left.
I was mapping a route on my phone when—
"You can't run from me, oppa."
Yeon-ah's voice drifted down from a villa rooftop.
"Haha… oppa used to be the king of freeze tag, you know."
"Freeze tag? What's that?"
Ah. Kids these days don't play that?
Anyway.
"I'm a pretty fast runner. You won't be able to keep up."
At that, Yeon-ah let out a soft, amused little laugh.
"Oppa. I spent four years preparing for this."
She leapt from the rooftop, landed lightly, and walked toward me at an unhurried pace.
"Run wherever you want. I'll catch up right away."
She raised a finger and flicked it through the air.
Golden mana sparkled at her fingertip—
and from what had been empty air, a thin thread began to unspool.
I followed the line of the thread tied to Yeon-ah's finger.
It was stuck to my cheek.
No way…
Yeon-ah had only touched my face once.
The first time we met—when she threw that punch.
She'd planted the thread on me then, already accounting for a situation exactly like this.
"Now that you know, stay put. Unless you want to get hit again."
Yeon-ah brought a finger to her lips in a shushing gesture.
I swallowed hard without meaning to.
"You grew up way too sharp…"
Whatever had happened to her—she'd gotten terrifyingly clever.