Chapter 195
Chapter 195
The party went on.
At one point, the guests all turned their attention to me, the guest of honor, insisting they wanted to hear me speak, which was mortifying beyond belief. The conversations that followed were nothing but empty small talk... or maybe that was exactly why they wore me down so much. Either way, I had to deal with an awful lot of people.
Most of them left no real impression. A few I remember. But aside from the ones I made a deliberate point of memorizing, almost nobody stuck in my head.
All of it felt pointless.
I wanted a small world.
Maybe living in one for so long had made me used to it. Maybe it was just my nature. It didn't matter either way.
I had no intention of giving up what was already in my hands, but I didn't want so much that it spilled over and slipped away, either.
After standing around for about an hour, completely drained, I holed up in a small room near the lobby where the party was happening.
By then, most of the guests had already found people they knew and were deep in conversation. The only ones likely to come looking for me were Ha-neul, Su-a, and So-hee.
Maybe Yang Hye-in, too.
Well, I didn't mind any of them finding me.
I had no idea what this room was originally meant for, but it was completely empty. The kind of space you could furnish however you liked and use right away. It didn't have an attached bathroom or shower, though, so living in it would've been a little inconvenient.
Even empty, the room still had a few chairs. I leaned back in one of them and let out a small sigh.
I hadn't noticed while I was on my feet, but apparently my legs were killing me.
Even after all that Stamina training, I still had a long way to go.
I was massaging my slightly swollen legs wherever my hands could reach when the door opened carefully.
"Sara."
It was Ha-neul.
"Are you okay?"
She'd seen me rubbing my legs, and her voice was tinged with worry.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little tired, so I'm resting."
I answered a bit more gently than usual.
She wasn't someone I needed to be sharp with.
With her hair down instead of its usual style, and that red dress on, Ha-neul didn't look like a kid from an ordinary household. If we'd been meeting for the first time today, and someone had introduced her as the granddaughter of some group's chairman, I would've just nodded and accepted it.
In that sense, I felt like the line between having money and not having it was utterly meaningless.
Though maybe Ha-neul just seemed that way because she was the type who worked hard to blend in wherever she went.
Ha-neul closed the door carefully, walked over to me, and sat down in the chair beside mine.
"......."
"......."
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
We talked almost every day, so there wasn't actually that much new to say. We even experienced most things together—we were practically attached at the hip.
But the silence wasn't uncomfortable.
It wasn't the silence of having nothing to say. It was the silence of shared comfort, of knowing we didn't need a reason to fill the space with words.
"Um, Sara."
"Yeah?"
"Happy birthday."
At her sudden words, my hands stopped their work on my legs.
I slowly straightened up and looked at her.
Ha-neul was looking right at me. Her face was faintly flushed, and her fingers fidgeted. She seemed a little embarrassed about this.
...She probably wanted to say those words to "that person," not to me.
In that sense, I did feel a little sorry.
I'd been subtly trading places, acting as though I were her.
But even so, I didn't particularly want to step aside.
"Thank you."
I gave Ha-neul a soft smile.
It was a relief that "that person" had set my birthday as today. Thanks to that, I could accept the greeting without any awkwardness.
"I left your present in the room, so I'll give it to you after the party."
She'd prepared a gift in the meantime, apparently. In some ways, that was impressive resourcefulness.
As for whatever the gift was... I felt the same way "that person" did. I had absolutely no intention of grumbling about a present my friends had prepared. Whatever it was, I'd be happy.
It was the first proper gift I'd ever received in my life, after all.
Truthfully, I knew exactly what presents "that person" had ordered online, but I kept quiet. I wanted to pretend I didn't know when I received them.
"Well... I guess I'd better get back to the party, then."
I smiled as I said it and got to my feet. Sitting for a bit had made me feel noticeably better.
When would this party end, anyway?
One more hour, maybe, and then we should start wrapping up. If I gave my uncle a few pointed looks, wouldn't he work something out?
As I stood, Ha-neul stood too.
We were about to walk out of the room side by side when—
Ha-neul grabbed my right wrist.
Caught completely off guard, I couldn't resist. Her pull spun me halfway around.
And then I was face-to-face with Ha-neul.
"Also... Sara."
"Huh, wh...?"
"I want to say happy birthday to Sara, too."
Ha-neul's smile was blazing. A burning, smoldering kind of smile.
"What? No, I am Sara."
"No, you're not. You're Sara, aren't you?"
Ha-neul stressed my name as she asked.
...How?
I was sure I hadn't said anything.
"So, how about calling Sara out for me? Hm? I have a gift I want to give her personally."
"...And if I say no?"
She'd figured it out. No point hiding anymore.
I looked back at Ha-neul with an equally burning gaze. In response, she shoved me backward. Of course, in a contest of pure strength, there was no way I could beat Ha-neul. I was driven helplessly backward until my back hit the wall.
Thud!
"Nn, ngh...."
Ha-neul's left hand slammed against the wall beside my left cheek.
Her face closed in. I could practically feel the heat radiating off her.
"Wh-what are...."
"If you won't call her out, I'll do it myself."
"......."
Ha-neul pressed her body against mine.
The dress fabric wasn't very thick, so the contours of her body pressed against me came through with stark clarity.
It felt like we could feel each other's heartbeats.
"G-go ahead and try it, then."
I forced a relaxed smile onto my face.
"You've never been kissed before, right? Are you really going to throw away your first kiss... on me, of all people, instead of her?"
"'You've' never?"
Ah.
"So that means... you have been kissed before? By who?"
"......."
"Sara? How?"
"......."
Ha-neul's eyes blazed.
They'd been burning for a while now, but this time it felt like they might generate actual physical force.
"H-how it happened doesn't matter, does it? I don't care either way. It's not my first kiss anyway."
I bluffed with everything I had—
"I don't care either."
"Huh?"
And Ha-neul crushed that bluff with a single fingertip.
"This body is Sara's body, after all."
"Wh... huh?"
"So I just press our lips together and wait until Sara comes back. That counts as a first kiss, doesn't it?"
If it was one long, unbroken kiss—wouldn't that count?
"What kind of nonsense is that?!"
But Ha-neul's face was already impossibly close.
"No, wait, Ha-neul, snap out of i, mmph!"
I turned my face away, but the hand she'd planted on the wall caught my chin and turned me back. One hand still had my wrist pinned. I tried to fight back with the other, but I was hopelessly outmatched in strength.
My mind went hazy. It was a sensation I hadn't felt in a long time.
Even if she and I could switch control of this body freely—
An external trigger could still force the switch, apparently.
I gave up on everything and squeezed my eyes shut.
Even with my sight blocked, I could feel with raw, vivid clarity who was right in front of me.
Our bodies clung together,
the tips of our noses brushed,
and then, something soft and warm met my lips.
The last thing I registered was a sweet scent, like lip gloss.
*
...Huh?
Whuh?
Wait.
No, no, no.
Wait a second.
Just moments ago, I'd been resting deep inside my consciousness.
Then the switch flipped, like suddenly waking from a dream, and when I opened my eyes, my vision was blurry.
Something was so close that my eyes couldn't focus properly.
Like lights flicking on one by one in a dark building, my senses returned one at a time.
The first thing I registered was a scent.
A fragrance like fresh flowers.
Maybe it was coming from the person pressed against me.
Next came the feeling of a hard wall against my back, and a soft body pressed flush against my front.
And then, something warm and soft touching my lips.
Almost certainly, the other person's lips.
"......."
Slowly, the other person pulled back.
My focus finally sharpened. My brain briefly scrambled, trying to place the face, and then it arrived at its conclusion: the person in front of me was Ha-neul, with her hair down.
And right after that, my brain produced another deduction.
...Just moments ago, Ha-neul and I had our lips pressed together.
Which meant,
we had kissed.
"...Urkgh?"
The conclusion was so bizarre that the error sound just slipped out of my mouth.
"Happy birthday."
Looking at me, Ha-neul smiled brightly and offered her greeting.