Let's Be Friends Starting Today (2)
Crunch. Crunch. Slurp. Chomp chomp.
Faced with the bizarre spectacle unfolding right in front of her, the girl — Lee Yeon-hui — stared blankly at the source of the sounds.
Weird. I'm pretty sure that's the same little brat from before.
It was definitely him — the boy who, not long ago, had ignored her completely no matter how warmly she'd tried to greet him.
She'd only called him over because she couldn't refuse her mother's request, and she'd been surprised enough that he'd agreed to come so readily.
And on top of that—
Chomp chomp chomp!
How was he eating like that?
She'd expected him to timidly poke at a few side dishes and leave it at that. Instead, Park Yeon-chan was shoveling food into his mouth like he owned the place.
What is wrong with this kid?
So flustered she hardly knew what to do, she glanced toward her mother — only to find the woman gazing at the ravenous Park Yeon-chan with a face full of boundless maternal warmth.
"Wow, ma'am, did you used to work at a hotel? These side dishes are insanely high quality."
"Oh my goodness, listen to the way he talks. Heehee. Here, try this too."
"Hehe. Don't mind if I do!"
Ma'am?
At this rate, anyone walking in would think she was his own mother.
Yeon-hui was staring at the two of them in pure disbelief when her mother noticed she wasn't eating.
"What's wrong? Not hungry?"
"No, it's just…"
I can't keep up with whatever this weird vibe is.
The situation playing out before her eyes had scrambled her brain so thoroughly that she could barely swallow a bite.
Meanwhile, the cause of it all remained completely unfazed.
"Hey. You're not eating? Guess you're full, huh? Back in my day we didn't even have stuff like this."
He casually reached over, scooped up the food she'd left unfinished, and dumped it straight into his own mouth.
Slurp. Chomp chomp.
"You know, your mom always cooks like this 'cause she loves you so much. Thish ish all love. Chomp chomp."
"…"
Is he insane?
That was the only thought that came to Yeon-hui. Her mother, on the other hand, was still watching him tear through the meal with a look of pure delight.
Am I dreaming right now?
In the end, Yeon-hui simply gave up on accepting reality.
At first, I'd planned to make up some excuse and turn them down.
After all, I couldn't remember it myself, but past-me had apparently committed some pretty serious social offenses — and I still had plenty of other things to figure out.
Then a thought crossed my mind.
I didn't know the details surrounding Lee Yeon-ah's death — Lee Yeon-hui's little sister.
If I was going to protect that kid under those circumstances, keeping a close eye on her would be the most efficient approach.
And for that, nothing beat building a good relationship and naturally weaving myself into their lives.
That was the real reason I'd accepted the dinner invitation.
Just keep saying everything tastes amazing. That should do it.
The actual goal was networking, not the meal itself.
Except—
Crunch. Crunch. Chomp chomp!
What the hell is this? Why does it taste so good?
Was it because this body had been so thoroughly undernourished that everything hit like a revelation? Or was this woman just an absolute monster in the kitchen? I honestly couldn't tell.
Chew chew.
"Is it good?"
"Ith'sh really, really good!"
It was disgustingly delicious.
Well — good things are good things, right?
My genuine enthusiasm seemed to make her mother happy too, so that worked out.
"How can you eat so adorably? It really feels like I've gained a son. I've only ever had daughters, and I've always wanted to raise a boy."
"Then I'll jusht come over all the time, okay?"
"Heehee. Maybe you should."
Man. Now that I thought about it, having someone cook a meal for me with their own hands — across every life I'd lived — had been a pretty rare thing.
"Whenever you're hungry, just come over and eat with us. No need to be shy."
Lee Yeon-hui's mother looked at me with a faintly wistful gaze as she said it.
I swallowed everything in my mouth and answered.
"Yes, ma'am. I will."
In her eyes, I probably looked like a pitiful kid the same age as her daughter, living alone without a single guardian.
It served my purposes, sure — but there was no reason to reject a kindness offered purely out of concern for me.
If anything—
Kind of a shame.
What would it have been like if someone like her had been around when I was a kid in a similar situation?
A pointless fantasy, but it crossed my mind all the same.
Knowing how much of a little shit I'd been back then — on par with this body I was in now — I probably would have turned her down anyway.
I was smiling bitterly at the thought of something that never happened when Yeon-hui's mother added, still wearing that same warm smile from the start.
"And while you're at it, it'd be nice if you played with my girls a bit too. Yeon-hui has a habit of being snippy, but she's fun once you get close."
"Mom!"
A scene you could find anywhere.
One I'd never had — and because of that, one I'd wanted more than anything.
Which was exactly why, if I could, I wanted to protect it.
If I ever reached a point where I couldn't see this anymore, I was pretty sure it would ache down to my bones.
The meal alone had already been a solid haul, but when her mother suggested I stick around and hang out, I didn't refuse. I rolled with it.
I'd come here to build rapport in the first place, not for the food.
Buuurp—
Okay, that one was real.
Anyway, that was how I ended up in Lee Yeon-hui's room.
What am I even supposed to talk about? She doesn't seem to like me much.
Contrary to my worries, though, Yeon-hui didn't show any particular signs of hating me.
If anything, she cut right through my fretting by bringing up something to do on her own.
"Hey. Are you good at studying?"
"Huh? Oh… studying? Yeah, I'm good. People used to call me a genius."
"…"
Yeon-hui, who'd brought over a math workbook, looked at me like I was some kind of pathetic case.
Hey, I really did grow up getting called a prodigy, okay?
"Then do you know what this is?"
"Yeah."
The second I saw the problem set, I scribbled out a rough solution. Yeon-hui stared at me with a look of genuine admiration.
"…You're better at studying than you look."
"Right? I get that a lot — that I'm good-looking and smart, which is kind of unexpected."
"You lunatic. You never even leave the house. How would anyone say that to you? Do you have a delusion disorder?"
"…"
A delusion disorder? I was so bad at arguing my case I could feel my insides boiling!
It was this body I'd possessed that never went outside — not me! In the world I came from? Everyone in the whole school knew my name!
I vented the injustice silently to myself and went through Yeon-hui's starred problems one by one, explaining each solution as I solved them.
"No way. You actually are good at studying?"
"Heh."
"I can't believe I'm worse than a shut-in."
"…"
Hey. Are you doing that on purpose?
Besides, I'd already completed a full university education. Not being able to solve elementary school problems would be a problem in itself.
You didn't need to be a genius for this stuff.
"So where's your little sister?"
I was pretty sure Lee Yeon-ah had been right there through dinner, so her absence felt odd. When I asked Yeon-hui about it, her expression darkened sharply.
"She's probably sleeping in the other room. She's… not feeling well."
"Not feeling well?"
Judging by her tone, this wasn't a cold.
Did the original story give the little sister a frail constitution?
There was so little information on Yeon-hui's sister to begin with that I hadn't grasped the finer details.
"Have you heard of Mana Exposure Syndrome?"
"…Yeah."
Mana Exposure Syndrome.
Ever since the Towers and Gates appeared, most children were born already awakened to mana — a faint power compared to what full Awakened could wield, but mana all the same.
And sometimes, a child's body simply couldn't handle that mana's output, or released it unconsciously in excess, leaving them exhausted far too quickly.
It was a condition that hit a lot of kids in the current generation.
"She's usually fine, but her mana output is pretty high, so once the day wears on she just… starts sleeping like she's passed out."
Yeon-hui's voice was markedly darker as she spoke.
The truth was, Mana Exposure Syndrome wasn't some incurable disease. It wasn't even life-threatening.
Once someone fully awakened their mana around age seventeen, it cleared up on its own.
But that isn't public knowledge at this point in time.
Those research findings wouldn't be recognized for another five or six years. Until the third-generation kids grew up enough to serve as a comparison group, it was nothing more than a hypothesis.
So Yeon-hui's worry was only natural.
"They say it won't affect her life or her day-to-day, but I still worry."
"She'll be fine. Mana exposure just means she hasn't learned how to regulate it yet. Once she gets older and properly awakens, she'll control it naturally and live a completely normal life."
"How would you know that?"
"Because I'm a genius."
"…Ha. Unbelievable."
Maybe the joke landed after all. Yeon-hui let out a short breath and cracked a small smile.
Spending even this short day with her, I'd gotten a sense of something.
Lee Yeon-hui was remarkably mature for her age.
Not because she was the protagonist.
She was special, sure — but at this point in time, she wasn't all that different from any ordinary kid.
And when a child was this grown-up for their age, the reason was almost always the same.
Deficiency.
A deficiency of affection. A deficiency of environment.
Yeon-hui's was a single-parent household. In a world where Towers and Gates had suddenly opened, that wasn't uncommon — but it didn't mean a child stopped feeling the absence of a parent.
On top of that, her little sister was sick, so their mother inevitably had to devote more attention her way.
At an age when she should have been soaking up love herself, watching her mother pour everything into her sibling — most kids would have been jealous.
She's something else.
You could see how much she cherished and loved her sister. Even now, she was trying hard to hide it, but her eyes had gone red around the edges while she talked about the illness.
"Don't worry. Nothing's going to happen. I promise."
"…"
"I'll stake my word on it. Your sister, your mom, you — nothing bad is going to happen to any of you."
"…Okay."
I rested my hand gently on her head and stroked her hair.
Yeon-hui kept her gaze lowered and gave a small nod.
I'd only been here a single day, but I'd already thought long and hard about why I'd ended up in this place.
Maybe it was a wish — that someone would properly bring this unfinished, drifting world to a close.
Because you couldn't do it yourself.
A request, entrusted to someone who loved your world.
And even if that wasn't it, it didn't matter.
Because I'd already decided. That was what I was going to do.