The Morning After
"Hey, so then I went and slammed a rocket punch straight into Frilly's gut—bam!"
That made seven times she'd told the story.
The first couple of times, it had been fine. I'd been just as stunned when I actually saw it happen. When Yeonwoo first drove that rocket punch into Frilly's abdomen, I thought it was impossible. And when Frilly crumpled into the corner, coughing up blood and passing out cold, I shot to my feet without even realizing it. Then Yeonwoo asked us what we were waiting for and told us to clap already, and I applauded with everything I had.
But this... this was something else.
"I'm so sorry..."
"It's all right. But, um, you'll need to pay for those broken tables..."
I returned the clerk's pained smile with an awkward one of my own.
Yeonwoo's rampage had left three tables smashed to pieces, two chairs with their legs bent out of shape, and four more with the legs snapped clean off. She'd stood up to go to the bathroom, then thrown a fit when I tried to help her, insisting she could go alone—and promptly fallen over. Then she'd grabbed one of the Mains to reenact how she'd won today, and fallen over again. Once the alcohol hit her, there was no worse nightmare customer in the world.
Eve had Yeonwoo slung over her back, limp as a rag. The height difference meant Yeonwoo's heels were still scraping the floor even piggybacked, but there wasn't much anyone could do about that.
I approached Yeonwoo, who was out cold, and slipped her wallet from the inner pocket of her jacket. Sorry, unni. But they said the company card hasn't been reissued yet.
"I can just put it on the tab with the company dinner."
"No, Eve unni. Yeonwoo wrecked the place, so Yeonwoo should be the one to pay for it."
"That's fair."
I pulled out Yeonwoo's card and paid for the damaged furnishings.
When I came back outside after settling the bill, Eve was holding Kabe. Kabe was eating a yogurt Eve must have bought at some point, and she grinned up at me, wide and bashful. Adorable.
"Good grief. What kind of drunk is she?"
"I know, right."
"She ought to take a page from Kabe."
"She'll quit drinking before that happens. She dotes on her like her own flesh and blood, after all."
"True enough. Anyway, Dusick—you saw it today. She's got real potential. Take good care of her. Given the position I'm in, I haven't been able to look after you the way I wanted. It's always pained me, watching you leave the Association and struggle on your own. Maybe I can finally stop worrying so much."
Eve stroking my hair always made me feel better. A kind person. A gentle person. My transformation form was male—and not even the kind of male anyone could generously call handsome or cool—so I'd spent my days getting bullied and shut out. Eve was the reason I'd been able to endure any of it.
"That's not true. I only made it through because you were there."
"Yeah. Anyway, take good care of Mother. Three minibuses will be there tomorrow afternoon. Just hop on and go. The concierge will have everything you need, so make yourselves at home. Treat it like my place. Got it?"
"Yes, unni. Get home safe."
Eve laid Yeonwoo down in our motel room—our temporary lodging—and headed home. I looked down at Kabe, who was holding my hand and staring up at me, and smiled back.
"Auntie Dusick."
"Yeah?"
"Is Mama sick? I don't like it when Mama's sick."
"No, Mama isn't sick. She's just, um..."
Telling a child her mother had gotten wasted didn't feel quite right.
"She just had a really hard day."
It wasn't a lie. I knew all too well how a person could crumble after being sexually harassed and dismissed right to their face. And yet Yeonwoo had stood tall and proven herself with sheer strength. That was something worth admiring.
"Want Auntie to pick you up?"
"Up!"
Kabe answered without a second's hesitation. She looked about eight, but she still loved being held this much. She wasn't heavy enough to complain about, and becoming a magical girl made you stronger than an ordinary person anyway.
"Upsy-daisy."
I scooped Kabe up and headed for the room where Yeonwoo was sleeping.
"Ugh, it reeks of booze."
"Ew, it smells weird, Auntie."
The moment we stepped inside, we both pinched our noses. Why did anyone drink that stuff? I hurried to open the window and air the place out.
"Nnnngh... wa... water..."
Yeonwoo stirred, her voice thin, and it sounded like she was asking for water. I quickly opened the mini-fridge, pulled out a bottle, and cracked it open. I wondered if it'd cost extra. Or not? I had no idea.
I supported her neck and sat her up. When I pressed the bottle to her lips, she drank, and only then did her eyes slit open, bleary and unfocused.
"Nngh, Dushick...? Where's Eve...?"
"She already left."
"That cheapskate... the bill...?"
Even now, she was worrying about the check. It was almost funny.
"She took care of it before she left."
"Ohhh... where's Kabe...?"
"Mama, I'm right heeere!"
At the sound of her mama calling for her, Kabe planted both hands on Yeonwoo's chest and shoved her face right up close. Ah—not there!
"Mmph—mmph—"
"Wait, unni, don't throw up in here!"
I scooped Yeonwoo up in a panic and rushed her to the bathroom. The instant I set her down in front of the toilet and guided her face toward the bowl, she started heaving. That had been way too close.
Once she'd emptied herself out, Yeonwoo's breathing evened, and she was asleep again. Kabe lay down beside her, clutching her mama's hand, and drifted off too. Yeonwoo was holding Kabe's hand just as tightly. I couldn't help but smile.
Had my own mother ever loved me like that? I had no memory of my parents, but moments like this made me wish I could see them, just once.
I looked down at Yeonwoo's sleeping face. Pretty as a sculpture. It was the kind of face that would drive Frilly and every other lesbian out of their minds. No—not just lesbians. Men would fall for it at a glance, too.
Of course, lesbians didn't throw themselves at someone for looks alone. But if actual dating was the finals and the talking stage was the semifinals, then looks were the qualifying round. You had to clear the qualifiers to reach the semis, and you had to reach the semis to make the finals. Marriage was first and second place. A face like this was a guaranteed pass.
And her mental fortitude was exceptional, too.
Yeonwoo still hadn't experienced combat as Mother. Keru probably hadn't explained it to her, either. He wouldn't want to pile the pressure on too early. I'd heard that every Mother after the first—whom I'd never even met—had been disastrous in terms of combat ability. Their tenures had been brutally short, too. Even since I'd left the Magical Girl Association and joined Mogumogu-dan, Mother had already changed twice. Yeonwoo was the third.
There was a reason every previous Mother had retired after three years at most—and as little as a single month. When battle began, a map of the battlefield was forcibly drawn inside your mind. A thoroughly alien experience. On top of that, the real-time combat status of every Main deployed across that field was jammed into your head whether you wanted it or not. And then you had to issue orders to match. The pressure of it. The horrific sensation when a Main was destroyed. That was how crushing the burden of being Mogumogu-dan's Mother truly was.
Even for me, commanding ten people had been the limit. How well would Yeonwoo manage that kind of battlefield command? There was no need to worry about it this early. Still, I hoped she would stay with us for a long time—as our boss, as our Mother.
I'd had to listen to Keru lament every single day that Mogumogu-dan had no future, that a proper Mother had never once appeared. And even when one did show up, they'd been so starved for magical power they couldn't produce enough Mains, and they couldn't even deploy to battle properly. Keru and I had ended up commanding the battlefield far too often.
But if it was Yeonwoo—if it was the evil magical girl Mother—then maybe, just maybe, this would be the time Mogumogu-dan finally flourished. The day we could truly restore the balance might actually come.
I gazed at Yeonwoo's face, lost to the world in sleep, and on impulse I reached out. The skin beneath my fingertips was soft as a baby's. Her full lips were smooth, without a hint of roughness. Not a single wrinkle on her neck. I could feel the faint, fluttering beat of her heart.
The soft line of her collarbone. The rounded slope of her shoulder. The place where her chest began to swell...
Ah. What was I doing.
I should sleep. I needed to sleep. Now.
I lay down on the opposite bed and pulled the covers all the way over my head. I touched the fingers that had just brushed Yeonwoo's chest with my other hand. My heart was pounding, for some reason. It was going to be a hard night to fall asleep.
"Nnnngh..."
My head was killing me. How much had I even drunk last night? I remembered Eve snatching my glass and telling me to knock it off, at least.
I blinked, and my eyes met Kabe's. She'd been sitting quietly by my pillow.
"Mama, you woke up?"
"Did you sleep well too, Kabe?"
"Mhm. Drink this."
Kabe pressed a can into my hand. Ah. A hangover drink. I didn't remember buying anything like this...
"Auntie Dusick bought it. She said to give it to you when you woke up."
"Did she now."
"Mhm. So I held it real tight and waited next to you."
Now that she mentioned it, the can was lukewarm. She'd been gripping it so hard her hands had sweated, and the metal was tacky with it. But I didn't mind at all. If anything, the thought of Kabe clutching that can so she wouldn't forget, waiting for her mama to wake up, was nothing but precious.
I finished the drink, downed a glass of water, and checked my phone. It was already past ten in the morning. I couldn't remember what time I'd fallen asleep. It had been a long time since I'd drunk myself into a blackout like that.
"Mama, are you okay now?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Yesterday you were crying in the bathroom."
So I'd thrown up. I genuinely couldn't remember a thing.
"Auntie Dusick was hitting your back and stuff. I got mad."
"Why?"
"You were crying, but Auntie was hitting you."
"That wasn't hitting, Kabe. She was trying to help Mama."
"She was?"
"She was."
Good grief. Even a biological daughter wouldn't love her mother this much. Maybe even more than a biological daughter would.
"Want a hug... no, never mind. Kabe, Mama's stomach still feels a little off. Want to hold hands instead?"
"Mhm. I like holding Mama's hand too."
I took the hand of a beaming Kabe and stepped out of the motel. The weather was gorgeous. Not a cloud in the sky—a clear, blue late-September day.
"Unni, you're here!"
"Mother. You're late."
"Keru, do you have to start nagging the second you see me? Sheesh. You lot—did you all eat well? Have fun?"
"Yes, thanks to you!"
"Boss, we ate well! Thank you!"
"Good."
I started walking toward Dusick and Keru, busy moving luggage, and toward my subordinate Mains. Somehow, it felt like from here on out, only good things would happen.