Chapter 235: Jealousy (7)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 235: Jealousy (7)
Normally, her story would have ended there.
It was Seo-ha’s daily routine to be teased by Kang So-hyun, run away in a huff, and then sob alone at the hideout. But today was different.
As she was running away, Seo-ha happened to see someone passing by—truly by pure chance—and she stopped dead in her tracks, forgetting all about her flight.
One of the three women she currently resented most in the world was standing right there.
Since she had encountered her arch-nemesis while in the foulest of moods, it was only polite to offer a greeting, wasn’t it?
— …Uh? This wasn’t in the plan. Why don’t we just calm down a bit?
Shut up. Ha-neul is keeping secrets from me and trying to brush things off with half-hearted jokes, so I’m going to do whatever I want, too.
— …I feel like that’s at least half my fault, though?
The annoying collaborator in her head babbled something, but it was likely the usual useless chatter.
Right now, the woman in front of her was more important.
Sharp eyes, a cold expression, and an aura that felt like it would cut anyone who dared approach—all wrapped in an androgynous appearance.
Her resemblance to a wolf was so exactly as Seo-ha had designed her that it almost made Seo-ha want to laugh.
And yet, why was she wagging her tail only for Ha-neul? She’d turned from a wolf into a total puppy.
“Hey.”
“Huh? Oh, hey?”
She was probably trying to catch me off guard with that lethargic attitude, but it won’t work.
“This is our first time talking directly like this, isn’t it?”
“Uh, yeah. Sorry, but who are you? Do I know you?”
“Ah, right. No? We don’t know each other well. But I’d like to get to know you starting today.”
“Ah, sorry, but I’m not really interested in dating girls or anything like—”
“I know you think highly of yourself, but it’s nothing like that, so don’t get your hopes up, Ha-ni. I’m straight, too.”
The moment Seo-ha called her by her real name, Ha-ni’s relaxed atmosphere vanished. A wariness akin to a wolf guarding against an enemy radiated from her.
That idiot Ha-neul has probably never even seen those sharp eyes before.
“Who did you hear that from?”
“What if I said I heard it from Ha-neul… no, So-hyun?”
Of course, it was a lie. Seo-ha only knew because she was the Creator of this world, but honestly, she was pissed. The position Ha-ni occupied now was originally hers.
I was his best friend, and I was the woman closest to him.
However, instead of getting agitated as Seo-ha expected, Ha-ni gradually calmed down and began to look at her with a somewhat pitying expression.
“Liar.”
“…What?”
“Setting aside the fact that So-hyun isn’t the type to do that, you have a really resentful look on your face right now. I don’t know what your goal is, but your lie is obvious.”
What? Is she bragging about her bond with him now? Is she saying, ‘Lies like that don’t work between us’?
…I know that too, okay? I know he’s not that kind of person. If the roles were reversed, I could have said the exact same thing!
“…It doesn’t look like you’re going to tell me, but as long as you don’t spread it around, I don’t care. I’ve already finished talking with my father anyway.”
Seo-ha hadn’t even said what she wanted to say yet, but Ha-ni slowly turned around, preparing to leave.
It was infuriating.
He was my best friend. He was mine. Do you have any idea how hard I worked to keep others away and raise him to my tastes…!
Seo-ha felt that if she let her go like this, she would remain a “defeated woman” forever.
She couldn’t allow that. She wasn’t even sure what exactly she couldn’t allow, but she knew instinctively that if things ended here, it would be irreversible.
As she desperately racked her brain, a scene she had intentionally tried not to think about surfaced.
“The massages.”
“What?”
“He’s really good at massages, isn’t he? And how does he bake French toast so skillfully?”
“…What are you trying to say?”
Panic finally began to flicker on the face that had maintained its cool until now.
Just a little more.
“Oh, it’s nothing much. He’s strangely good at handling women, isn’t he? I just thought there might be a reason for that.”
She wanted to show off more.
She wanted to make it clear.
That she was the best friend, that she was closer to him than Ha-ni could ever be.
Someone like you.
You’re just a character I created. You just burrowed into his guilt to take the spot next to him.
You don’t know what kind of life he lived or why his personality changed like that; you just happened to fill the void I left behind.
“For example, how would you feel if he had done all those things for someone else countless times?”
She didn’t care if it was pathetic. She just didn’t want to lose to her.
Ha-ni, who had been staring with an expressionless face, slowly opened her mouth.
“What exactly is your relationship with So-hyun?”
Good. You’re finally looking at me. All of you fight amongst yourselves as if I don’t even exist, but don’t make me laugh.
Who gave you permission?
“Me?”
I’m standing right here with my eyes wide open. Who do you think you are, deciding who came first?
“Our relationship is much closer and goes back much further than you think.”
— Seo-ha, you realize you’re being incredibly hypocritical right now, right? Honestly, we’re the ones who grew distant; he didn’t distance himself from us.
…Shut up.
* * *
As Kang Ha-ni observed the girl before her, she scrutinized her with growing doubt.
Is she a crazy stalker, or is she actually closer to him than I thought?
Her intuition told her the girl wasn’t lying, but there were still suspicious parts that made it hard to believe everything.
…For starters, seeing how strangely hostile she was, it was certain she not only knew about Ha-ni’s relationship with So-hyun but also had some kind of connection with him herself.
“I know a lot about him that you don’t. What he was like as a child, what foods he likes, what hobbies he had. We’ve seen each other at our most embarrassing moments; there’s nothing I don’t know.”
…She knew So-hyun when he was a child? If that was true, Ha-ni was a bit envious.
But as she listened, something felt off.
“Do you know why he started liking omurice?”
She was certainly mentioning things Ha-ni didn’t know.
“The reason he strangely pushes other people away? You don’t know that, do you?”
It was hard to put into words, but… how should she describe this?
“We’ve been best friends since we were little. I understood him better than anyone.”
Ah, she figured it out.
“You don’t know anything, but I know everything about—!”
“Right. You’re feeling inferior to me, aren’t you?”
“…What?”
“Everything you’ve been saying is true—I don’t know those things—but you’re only talking about things that happened in the past.”
Honestly, Ha-ni didn’t think this was a topic worth getting competitive over.
Others were others, and she was herself. She had grown close to him at her own pace, and frankly, she felt that other than Professor Cathy, she had no real rivals left.
Why would she get worked up over whatever this girl said?
However, she was a bit surprised by the stories.
What the girl said sounded plausible, and above all, it explained why So-hyun was strangely accustomed to dealing with women.
But as she listened, she realized something.
The So-hyun this girl spoke of was stuck entirely in the “past.”
“I don’t know if you’re an ex-girlfriend or just an old acquaintance, but you’re only acting like this because things ended between you and So-hyun, right?”
“…Who said things ended? And I’m not his ex-girlfriend!”
“Really? Then I guess you were just a close female friend. I can see that So-hyun’s weird sense of distance is because of you, but so what?”
Ah, this is bad. Ha-ni had only intended to give a moderate rebuttal, but since the girl had picked the fight first, she was starting to get annoyed.
“Go ahead and keep comforting yourself with the thought that you were his best friend in the past. I’ll spend my time getting to know the So-hyun you don’t know. Oh, as time passes, maybe the memories he shares with me will outnumber the ones he has with you?”
Now, how will she react? Ha-ni was confident she could handle it, whether the girl lunged at her in anger or tried to pick another verbal fight.
“…Ugh.”
Wait.
“Heugh…!”
She hadn’t expected crying.
“Who… who says it’s me…”
“Hey, are you okay—”
“Do you think I wanted to be away from him!? I had no choice…! You don’t know anything…!”
Just as Ha-ni was about to offer comfort, thinking she might have gone too far, the girl’s atmosphere began to turn chilling.
“It’s because of all of you. If it weren’t for you… if you hadn’t burrowed into that idiot’s guilt, this moronic world wouldn’t exist, and he would have lived happily with me. It’s all, all, all, all, all, all because of you.”
Ha-ni didn’t know what was happening, but it was dangerous.
The girl, who until a moment ago had felt like an ordinary girl no different from herself, suddenly felt like something not of this world. Ha-ni’s hand naturally moved toward her sword.
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
The girl’s expression shifted abruptly again.
“The child is a bit hot-tempered and unstable, isn’t she? I won’t ask you to understand, but I hope you realize she has her reasons.”
“What’s with you all of a sudden? Are you going to claim you have a split personality now?”
“Hmm, you can think of it that way for now. It won’t be like that for long, but that perception is fine for the moment.”
Honestly, it didn’t seem like much had changed.
“It would be best not to draw your sword. Even in this weakened state, I can easily handle someone like you. But I don’t want to do that.”
It was eerie.
Even when facing Death itself, Ha-ni hadn’t felt this ominous. Just what was this girl?
“It would be such a waste for you to die in a place like this.”
Ha-ni knew she had to avoid the reaching hand, but for some reason, she couldn’t resist at all. Even when the hand touched her cheek and slowly slid down to her neck, her body wouldn’t move.
“I hope you, Cathy, and Ga-eul all become even closer to him. I hope you all heal his wounds, become his support, and become something so precious to him that he wouldn’t trade you for anything.”
The girl, who had been stroking Ha-ni’s neck with a radiant smile, pulled her hand away as if it were a joke and smiled brightly again.
“To complete the man that I and this child love so much.”
What on earth was she talking about?
“So that when he finally stands up with hope again and tries to move forward, he will trip once more, crawl on the ground, and return to the starting point. So that he realizes it’s no use no matter how many times he gets up, until he is so covered in wounds that he can no longer rise.”
Ha-ni didn’t understand everything, but one thing was certain.
The woman before her was a monster many times more dangerous than the one who had been crying just moments ago.
“Please, become his weakness. Become the things that will be snatched away from him in our stead. Trample the hope that has bloomed within him, let his efforts come to naught, and make him scream that he simply, simply cannot do it anymore.”
“What are you even…”
“So that in the end, when he is broken and complaining that he can’t go on, we can embrace and comfort him.”
Before Ha-ni knew it, the girl had put a great distance between them.
“So please, until then, be his warmth. So that the boy who was so used to the cold that he didn’t even know he was freezing will melt in that warmth and lose his hardness. So that he will scream in agonizing longing for the warmth he has lost.”
It was dangerous.
This wasn’t just the rambling of a lunatic.
This woman would actually do it.
To hurt So-hyun, she would wait until they were close and then tear them away in the worst possible way.
She was a devil smiling with a face as benevolent as a saint and as divine as a god.
“You…!”
The moment Ha-ni overcame her fear and leveled her sword.
“So please, make him as happy as possible until that day.”
The girl had already vanished, leaving only her voice behind.
“Ah, one last thing before I go. It seems I don’t have to worry about you, but I hope none of you are children who get consumed by something as trivial as jealousy. This is advice given out of pure goodwill.”
Ha-ni pushed her mana sensing to the limit at the voice echoing in the air, but unfortunately, she had lost the trail completely.
It was so thorough that it felt as if no one but herself had been there from the very beginning.
“What the hell was that, seriously…?”