Chapter 196
Chapter 196
Ha-neul wore a smile that glittered and sparkled.
Not that her face wasn't always radiant, of course.
This wasn't a description of a physical phenomenon, just a figure of speech for the smile Ha-neul was showing me right now. At some point, her arms had wrapped tight around my waist, pressing our bodies close. Her smile, held at a distance where it felt like our lips could touch again at any moment, really did seem to shine.
Not with some bright light radiating from her face, but with the sheer radiance of the smile itself.
I was just staring at her, dazed.
Then something touched the back of my head.
There was nobody in this room but the two of us, and both my hands were hanging limp at my sides. Obviously, it had to be Ha-neul's hand.
I realized the hand she'd been gripping tight a moment ago was free. I hurriedly raised it to grab Ha-neul's shoulder—
"Uh, ngh, Ha-neul, wait a sek—...!"
But before I could put up any resistance, my head, which I'd tilted back as far as it would go just to get a clear look at Ha-neul's face, was pushed forward by her hand.
And naturally, Ha-neul's face came forward too.
Realizing what was about to happen, I squeezed my eyes shut in a hurry...
...Or maybe it was because I'd closed my eyes that it came through so vividly?
Ha-neul's lips were against mine.
Endlessly soft, so warm.
Our lips, pressed together like that for a while, only parted once Ha-neul relaxed the strength in her hand.
"...Huh."
Even in this shocking situation, my mind was perfectly clear.
...Why?
I understood the reason soon enough.
In this moment, when she should have been aghast and screaming, Sara was quiet.
In all the time I'd spent with Sara, I'd only experienced that once before.
...When she fainted.
So... does that mean she just fainted because of a kiss?
My head was spinning. I wasn't sure if it was because this was the moment a personality switch should have happened and it didn't, or purely because all the blood was rushing to my head. I couldn't say for certain.
But one thing was clear: I had just shared a kiss with Ha-neul.
...There wasn't even any need to ask why.
It must mean that Ha-neul likes Sara.
When I thought about it, it wasn't strange at all. Ha-neul was originally a character who could end up with Sara in the game. Considering the consistent kindness she'd shown both Sara and me all this time, it wouldn't be strange if those feelings had been there from the start.
It was so obvious that only just realizing it now felt stranger.
"Ha-neul, I'm sorry, but... that kiss just now wasn't with the Sara you wanted. It was..."
"No."
Ha-neul cut me off mid-sentence with a resolute answer.
"Huh, what?"
Having been cut off, I lost my thread for a moment and asked again. Ha-neul looked me directly in the eyes and spoke.
"The person,"
Word by word,
"I wanted to kiss,"
Deliberately,
"is you."
She said it clearly enough that it definitely reached my ears.
Ha-neul's eyes as she looked at me didn't waver in the slightest. That had to mean she knew exactly what she was saying, understood the situation just as clearly.
"So, what you're saying is..."
"I like you."
"..."
"I've liked you all along. From the very first time we met. From before 'Sara' woke up. The whole time."
"..."
Opening and closing.
I was just opening and closing my mouth, like a goldfish breaking the surface of the water, gasping for air.
My mind went completely blank.
It was the most shocking thing anyone had ever said to me, but I couldn't even run away. The personality that would take my place, Sara, remained unresponsive.
Though, apparently, it wasn't the kind of shock that would make the body faint.
...Then again, even if I fainted and woke up right now, the situation would be completely unresolved and I'd only end up in a more difficult spot.
Plus, we were in the middle of a party. Ha-neul was still in her dress. The room we were in wasn't our usual room; it looked like some small storage room I didn't recognize. At least it wasn't dirty enough to get dust on our dresses.
So... we were in the middle of the party, and whether we'd slipped in here to rest for a moment or Ha-neul had pulled me in, either way it meant we were off enjoying a secret rendezvous like this, just the two of us, while the party went on.
The hand Ha-neul had wrapped around my waist gently came loose.
So did the hand that had been touching the back of my head.
"Hwaah..."
Ha-neul took a step back. The air seeped into the space between us where we'd been pressed close together. Only then could I recall just how heated Ha-neul's body had been.
Or no—had Sara's body, my body, been that heated too?
I shivered at the sudden chill.
My body, held tight just moments before, was now free. The blood that had been pooling could circulate properly again. But my face, far from cooling down, had only grown more flushed.
Because the cold air made me realize just how close we'd been.
And because, even in that moment, the distance that had opened between Ha-neul's body and mine,
the separation of lip from lip, felt just a little regrettable.
This had happened to me at Sara's hands several times in dreams already... but the thought that it had happened because of Ha-neul now brought a wave of shame I couldn't put into words.
It was the difference between a girl I'd thought of from the start as my other half, the one I could say things like 'I'll do this for the rest of my life' to without either of us batting an eye, and a girl I'd thought would never be like that.
No, I mean, I'm not saying Sara is any less precious...
...
Wait. Who am I making excuses to right now?
"Ah, guh-heh."
The language-processing part of my brain must have broken.
Every time I opened my mouth to speak, only garbled groans came out instead of words.
Before I could properly get a grip, Ha-neul had taken hold of my left hand.
She gently lifted my hand with her left hand, and with her right hand...
...With her right hand, she was slipping a ring, where she could possibly have produced it from that dress, I had no idea, onto the ring finger of my left hand.
"Ah, ah...!"
Only then, realizing what Ha-neul was doing, I tried to pull my hand back in shock. Ha-neul smiled bitterly.
"It's okay."
At that expression, I froze for a moment.
"You kissed 'Sara' too, didn't you?"
"..."
How in the world...?
No.
The person moving this body until a moment ago had been Sara. Maybe the two of them had talked and it had come out.
Maybe Ha-neul had heard that and acted rashly in a fit of anger...
...No, that can't be right. Not when she had a ring prepared.
Looking now, on the ring finger of Ha-neul's left hand was a ring with an identical design to the one she was putting on mine.
"You don't need to answer right now. Think of it as a friendship ring."
No, who puts a friendship ring on the left ring finger...?
Even between girls, wouldn't anyone look at that and misunderstand...?
"...Just for now, let it be like this. Please."
Because she was putting the ring on my hand, Ha-neul's head was tilted downward a little.
I couldn't see her expression.
But somehow, I felt like I knew what kind of expression it was.
"Uh, um..."
I was struggling to find the right words when Ha-neul suddenly lifted her head.
The expression on her face was, um...
Well, it wasn't the expression I'd been imagining.
How should I put it; it was an expression overflowing with confidence and conviction.
"Because I will definitely make you fall for me."
The words Ha-neul spoke were, no matter how you looked at them, words from a main character.
The words of a protagonist pursuing a heroine.
Though they were both girls.
"Uh... okay."
Confronted with that supremely confident face, I said it without thinking.
It felt like that was what I was supposed to say.
"Good."
Before I could say anything more, Ha-neul cupped both of my cheeks again.
Ah, at this point, I had a feeling I knew what Ha-neul was about to do.
"I like you. I really do."
And then, Ha-neul pressed her lips to mine once more.
"...Okay. Rest here for a bit and then come out. I'll be outside."
Ha-neul said that with a bright smile, then walked out of the room with a step that looked like she was about to float away.
The door closed carefully, making a soft sound and then another.
I crouched down right there on the spot, covering my face with my hands.
It really was overwhelmingly embarrassing.
*
I feel like I could just float away.
That was what Yu Ha-neul thought.
After seeing the confident 'Sara,' she had been able to guess a little at what had happened between Sara and 'Sara.' She didn't know how the two of them could have that kind of relationship, or how such things were even accomplished.
But that was exactly why she'd grown impatient.
So she'd watched for any chance to be alone together, bringing the ring she'd prepared as a birthday present...
Sara did not reject Yu Ha-neul.
She'd even kissed her twice more after that!
And she wasn't hated, and their relationship wasn't broken!
Sara had just been standing there, flustered out of her mind and in a daze, the way she usually was.
Alright. There's still a chance.
Even if her place wasn't one that could compare to 'Sara's,' who was always right there with her...
Still, she had one decisive advantage.
It was her body.
This body. The body that could definitely hold Sara, could definitely share a kiss with her—this body was Yu Ha-neul's real weapon.
Having realized that fact, Yu Ha-neul was in a good mood.
A mood so good that she'd forgotten, for a moment, that on top of 'Sara,' she had a great many rivals.