Finders Keepers
After Yeon-chan left, our house went dark almost overnight.
Unni yelled at Mom for the first time in her life, and Mom, too guilty to push back, said nothing. Both of us spoke less and less. At the time, I figured it was just the natural fallout of a close friend vanishing without warning. Looking back now, I wonder if Unni felt the same way.
She spent a few days moping around with a cloud over her face. Then, out of nowhere—
"Uwaaah! This is so annoying! Park Yeon-chan! You're so annoying!"
—she started shouting at the walls.
"Yeon-ah. Let's make a plan."
"A plan…?"
One second she was furious, the next she wanted a strategy. I tilted my head.
"That bastard. Even if we run into him by accident, he'll bolt."
She had a point. I nodded.
"So we catch him and kill him."
"Killing's a bit much… Let's just hit him a few dozen times."
"…R-right. I was joking, but you're serious about this."
"But how do we catch him?"
Oppa didn't look it, but he was ridiculously sharp. Even if the two of us put our heads together, pinning him down wouldn't be easy. I looked at Unni and asked.
"Yeon-ah. From this moment on, you don't tell a soul what I'm about to show you."
Her voice dropped. I nodded.
Fwoosh—!
A faint golden light began to shimmer and spill from Unni's body.
"Park Yeon-chan told me not to use it, but a little bit should be fine."
With that sly little smile of hers, our four-year plan began.
Time slipped by in a blink, and before we knew it we were middle schoolers. Once Unni pulled herself together, the house felt like home again. Life without Yeon-chan Oppa had finally started to feel normal.
And yet.
Ding-dong—
"Oppa, time for schoo— ugh… what am I even doing…"
I still couldn't scrub the old habits out of my daily life. We'd lived together for less than a year. The time apart had already outstripped the time we'd shared. Even so, his traces never fully faded.
Once we hit middle school, the kids around me started changing fast. Makeup. More effort on their looks. Talk about boys spiked overnight.
"I officially started dating yesterday!"
"Wow! Congrats~!"
"Yeon-ah! I heard you got confessed to again? So? So?"
Some of my friends had started going out. I'd been confessed to more than a few times myself.
"Not really. I don't know."
No matter who it was, nothing ever clicked.
"Isn't there anyone you think is even a little okay?"
"I just don't feel anything."
"Hmm… okay, then try this. Doesn't have to be a guy. Just picture dating the person you like most who isn't family. Holding hands, kissing, that kind of thing."
The person I liked most who wasn't family.
One face rose up without warning.
Holding hands with him. Kissing him…
I pulled up scenes from dramas and movies and swapped in myself and him.
"What is this…"
The second I tried to imagine it, my face burned red on its own.
Fourteen years old.
I had just figured out my first love.
"Yeon-ah. Focus."
"Huh…? Ah…"
While my mind wandered, the glow of my mana thinned and the thread connecting us snapped.
"That's enough for today."
"Sorry…"
"Everyone has off days."
Some time after Unni first showed me how to release mana, I awakened naturally myself. It was pretty early compared to kids my age, but once I did, the Mana Exposure Syndrome symptoms eased up. I actually felt lighter.
"Something on your mind?"
"No… it's just…"
"Spit it out. What is it?"
I hesitated, then decided to ease into it.
"Unni… have you ever thought about dating Yeon-chan Oppa?"
"……What…?"
A long silence, then that. She was clearly rattled. Unni always got violently allergic to questions like this, so she'd definitely say n—
"……I don't know…"
"……"
Now it was my turn to freeze.
Why would Unni, who spent every day sniping at him, say that?
Watching her try to hide her flushed face, I realized something.
Unni figured it out too.
With time, she must have woken up to her own feelings for Oppa.
Unni and Yeon-chan Oppa…
I clenched my fists.
Strangely enough, the second I pictured Unni and Yeon-chan Oppa working out…
I hated it. I didn't know why. I just did.
"Unni."
"Yeah?"
"Whoever finds him first gets him."
"…? Fine."
Unni agreed.
So the one who catches him first owns him.
"Unni told me never to use my power in front of other people, but…"
Lee Yeon-ah trudged closer as she said it—
Whoosh—!
—and closed the distance to me in a blink.
"I figured it'd be fine with Oppa."
A bitter smile tugged at my mouth on its own. After I'd spent the last stretch running around like some phantom thief, hearing that kind of trust from her still got to me. I was only human.
And she mentioned Lee Yeon-hui told her not to use it…
The throwaway line snagged on something, but it wasn't a thread I needed to pull right now.
"It's been a while, Oppa. Have you been well?"
She walked up smiling like nothing had happened, and a dozen feelings crashed into each other at once. Still, first things first—
"Me? I get by wherever I am."
I smiled back as I answered.
"Liar. You've been off doing dangerous stuff again."
She jabbed a finger into a spot that still hadn't fully healed. Golden mana spilled from her fingertip and seeped into the wound.
"I'm not an idiot. I don't know the details, but I know you left without a word because of us."
"……"
How much did she know?
After regressing, had Lee Yeon-hui explained her situation to Yeon-ah? And if she had—did Yeon-hui know about Yeon-ah's other personality?
Complicated thoughts circled through my head.
Thump.
Before I noticed, Yeon-ah had stepped right up to my feet and bumped her head against my chest.
"I really hated you for disappearing without saying anything."
"I'm sorry."
"But I missed you so much. And seeing you… I'm glad."
"…Yeah. Me too."
I stroked her hair gently as I answered.
"So why did you run?"
"……"
No turn signal, just full throttle. The question hit so hard I went blank for a second. I scrambled to grab the wheel and change the subject.
"Have you eaten?"
"Why did you run?"
"Or do you want something to drink?"
"Why. Did. You. Run?"
"……"
Hey, a minute ago you sounded like you understood. You can't just flip like that.
The way she latched on, she clearly wasn't dropping it until she got a real answer.
"I had my reasons. For now, it's better if I don't get involved with anyone if I can help it."
No telling where the Association's eyes—or Freedom's—might be. The Hero Association was still manageable, but after poking around Freedom and, more recently, Lilis, keeping a low profile on outside activity was the smart play.
"Honestly, that explanation doesn't make much sense, but I'll let it slide."
"Thanks."
Yeon-ah giggled at me, then ducked her head and leaned against my chest again.
"You still can't come back yet… right?"
She tossed the question out lightly, but her voice was thick with feeling.
"Sorry. Not yet."
"I see."
No disappointment showed on her face. From her tone, she'd already known I couldn't go home.
"Once things settle down, I'll come back soon."
"…Okay."
I quietly let her burrow in like a kid seeking comfort.
"How's Yeon-hui?"
"Unni's… started acting like a completely different person."
That would be the regression point.
"She asks me about you like she's thinking about something. And she suddenly went and ransacked your house."
I didn't know the full details of Lee Yeon-hui's regressions. Which made this particular loop matter a lot. Had I existed in the timeline she came back from? Or was it the original story's flow? And if it was the original—did the memories of this altered loop stick around, or get overwritten?
Judging by what Yeon-ah said, it sounded like the original timeline's memories had been layered in without fully merging.
"She's okay, right…?"
"She's right in the middle of puberty."
"You sound exactly like Mom."
She looked up at me, worried. I answered as casually as I could manage, and she laughed.
"Besides, Yeon-hui's always been snippy. She'll have days like that."
"She's still snippy now."
"See? Her personality hasn't gone anywhere."
"Hehehe. That's true."
"I hope you don't go anywhere either, Oppa."
She murmured it under her breath and looked straight up into my face. Then she gently closed her eyes and slowly leaned her face toward mine.
I—
"Ah-ah. Nice try."
—flicked her forehead and pushed her back.
Last time, the other Yeon-ah's personality had moved too fast and I'd had no choice but to take the hit. I wasn't about to sit still for something I could see coming a mile away.
"Why not?"
"You're too young."
How old was I mentally? Even if my body had gotten younger, I still had a brain-age to answer for. I wasn't about to commit a crime.
"Then when?"
She puffed out her cheeks, sulking hard as she pushed back. Which raised a question of its own.
"Why do you assume the answer isn't just 'never'?"
"Everyone says I'm pretty."
"……"
"And they say if a girl's face is pretty, guys are already ninety percent sold!"
That… wasn't entirely wrong, but—
"And I heard I'll only get prettier in high school and even after I become an adult, so what's the problem!"
Who the hell was putting ideas like that into a middle schooler's head?
Granted, both Yeon-ah and Yeon-hui had been standouts from the bud up, so yes, they'd only get more beautiful as they grew—
"What does any of that have to do with this?"
"……"
Watching her mumble and flounder like she'd lost her script, I couldn't help a short laugh.
High school. College.
For a second I tried to picture Yeon-ah and Yeon-hui as high schoolers. Baby fat gone, those big eyes looking even bigger, features sharpening into something striking—
Throb.
Halfway through building the image, it overlapped with someone else's face and my head started to ache.
Not the time for this.
I cut the thought off cold.
"Anyway. Think about that kind of thing a little more carefully."
I gave the Yeon-ah in front of me the adult advice she needed. She was still a kid. Meeting me again after four years had her so overwhelmed that her feelings were just running ahead of her. Childhood memories had a nasty habit of getting romanticized.
"I've been thinking about it for four years. How much more do I need?"
Her lips were still stuck out in a pout, but her eyes held a serious light they hadn't before. Looking straight at me with that much will behind them, she made it hard to brush off and move on.
"Hahaha! Look at you, getting bold."
I'd figured Yeon-ah's other personality had just gotten slicker with time. Turns out it might have been her nature all along.
"Still. Think on it a little more."
"I don't need to thi—"
I gently poked her forehead and brushed a few strands of hair aside.
"Next time we meet, I won't run. So take your time thinking."
"…Annoying…"
I slowly loosened the arms locked around my waist.
"See you next time."
I patted her head and turned away.
"I'll call. Pick up."
The words hit my back. I stopped and looked over my shoulder.
She had no way of knowing my current number, so she had to mean the old one.
"I don't use that number anymore."
The second the words left my mouth—
Brrring—!
—my phone started ringing in my pocket.
"Aren't you going to answer?"
"……"
She held up her own phone and gave it a little shake. She must have lifted my contact info out of my pocket while she was clinging to me.
I should've put a lock on it.
I was always needing to make emergency calls, so I'd never bothered setting a password. I never thought that habit would blow up in my face like this.
What a pain… guess I'll have to change my number.
As if she'd read my mind—
"If you change your number or stop answering, I'll come find you."
Yeon-ah wriggled her fingers, making the thread connecting us sway. A flicker of heat rose in me and I tried to grab it—but whether it was designed that way or not, it slipped straight through my hand like a joke.
"You'll pick up, right?"
"……"
She phrased it like a question, but my opinion clearly didn't factor in.
"Are you Park Yeon-chan?"
The woman looking down at the fallen man frowned at his words.
"Why is that name coming out of your mouth?"
"Ha… so it is you. The report said it was a man, but—"
Slash—!
"Gaaaaaah!"
Her sword carved through the man's arm without a shred of mercy before he could finish.
"Answer the question. Why is that name coming out of your mouth?"
"Th-there's a guy who's been tearing through our hideouts lately! He said his name was Park Yeon-chan—said he was the one we were looking for, and told us to come catch him if we could!"
Shing—
Once she'd heard enough, her blade traced a light line across the man's throat.
Thud.
The body that had been talking a second ago went still and crumpled lifelessly to the ground.
"Park Yeon-chan… just who are you…"
Speaking a name she had once called out with desperate longing, the blonde-haired woman slowly left the scene behind.