Chapter 33
Chapter 33
"So, basically, you started searching because you wanted to figure out how to show me around so I'd have fun?"
Sitting across from Yu Ha-neul, I kept my voice even.
Believe it or not, in my past life I was a pretty cautious person. I thought my own looks were above average, but plenty of people around me insisted otherwise. Everyone has their own standard, and for some people that bar sits right around "good-looking", so their threshold is high.
Whether I privately rated my face above average or not, I had never once been confessed to the way guys whose looks are god-tier do.
Not that I've never been interested in pretty women. Some were kind enough to talk to me even though I was a total outcast at university, and others were the super-social type who dragged absolutely everyone to drinking parties and after-parties, outcast or not.
That's exactly why I had to be extra careful.
How many posts are there online about taking a leave of absence? I'd seen those stories again and again—people who mistook a perfectly harmless person's ordinary friendliness for personal romantic interest, made an over-the-top confession, and ended up agonizing over whether they could even keep attending the same school.
Daydreaming about what you'd name your grandchildren because your fingertips brushed once is one thing. Everyone has those moments. But actually mistaking that fantasy for reality and pulling it into the open is incredibly dangerous.
I'd only just learned the real story behind Ye Sa-ra, and I was right in the middle of putting together a plan to change her future. The last thing I could afford was to stick my foot out thoughtlessly, step on a landmine, and lose the one friend I already had.
The problem is, the situation then and the situation now are completely different.
In my previous life, sure, I thought my own looks were above average, but I never believed they were the kind of looks that worked perfectly on the opposite sex. My total lack of confession experience proved that. So obviously, there was no reason to interpret a person's friendliness as "friendliness aimed at me personally."
But what about now?
This bright, energetic girl with her head ducked low and her cheeks flushed so vividly that the red glows right through the radiance of her face—anyone would call her a beauty. And that made sense. In women-oriented dating sims, the female protagonist is always described as merely "ordinary," but in the CGs she's often gorgeous enough to put the heroines of most harem-genre stories to shame.
...Of course, the CGs in 'If You Wish' looked like the developer had doodled them in MS Paint. But anyway, that's the cliché. And in person, she was plenty pretty.
So then, what about me, the person sitting across from that girl, meaning the body I'm currently occupying, Ye Sa-ra?
Ye Sa-ra's appearance is pretty. That much is certain. Even in the game, it was described as pretty multiple times. And when I checked in the mirror, she was pretty. You could call her chest small, but despite being this slender, her body lines are so clear that she pulls off just about any outfit.
Finally, what about this world?
It's a world inside a dating sim, where a woman falling for a woman or a man falling for a man isn't strange at all. On top of that, Yu Ha-neul is a dating sim heroine. Which means she carries plenty of narrative plausibility to develop feelings for someone within a handful of days.
...In extreme terms, it wouldn't even be weird if she said it was love at first sight. Most first-love stories start that way anyway. In this industry, looks alone can serve as narrative plausibility.
So, right now, I am extremely confused.
Is the friendliness Yu Ha-neul is showing me just ordinary friendliness between friends, or is it romantic interest?
Up until a moment ago, I would have let it slide and moved on. But I had just seen Yu Ha-neul blatantly searching for date spots. Not even an accidental search; she had typed in exactly those words.
In a world where two women dating isn't strange at all, she's meeting a same-sex friend and guiding her through a date course.
If one of us were a guy, this would obviously look incredibly suggestive. Of course, we're both women, but still.
"Th-that is, well..."
After hearing my question, Yu Ha-neul hesitated for a long moment before finally opening her mouth.
"Y-yeah! Right! While I was looking for good places for two people to walk around together, I figured following a date course like this would be nice! The explanations were really good too! So I just picked that!"
The atmosphere had definitely felt exactly like a path couples walk. But I'd also spotted groups of girls walking together several times, so it wasn't necessarily a lie.
Except—
"And the 'couple's jumbo parfait' I'm looking at right now?"
Right. While I briefly went to the restroom, what Yu Ha-neul had ordered wasn't coffee. It was a jumbo parfait. A two-person serving. Yes, the spoons, forks, and straws were for individual use, but the menu had the word 'couple' printed on it plain as day.
"Th-that's—"
Yu Ha-neul's eyes shook violently. When I raised an eyebrow, they shook even harder.
"That's, because it's economical!"
After agonizing for a long moment, Yu Ha-neul shouted her answer.
*
Even after the word "economical," the suspicion in Sara's expression didn't entirely fade.
I mean, well, okay—it's true that I was honestly leaning into the date mood a bit. The outfit Sara was wearing wasn't one she'd specifically picked out, but she did look kind of cool in that slightly boyish style. So, since I was choosing an outfit anyway, I picked a dress. And Sara said it looked good on me.
I enjoyed linking arms with her and seeing Sara get flustered and blush every time I pressed close. Honestly, because she was cute.
Normally, when I fed her various things, Sara accepted them well, and I liked watching her get embarrassed while eating, so I'd deliberately pop snacks into her mouth in crowded places.
We spent about an hour wandering around together like that, and yeah, sure, at some point I got swept up in the mood and straight-up bought a couple's menu item. That was also true.
But, even so, my relationship with Sara was still at the 'friendship' stage. Just close friends who stick together at school every day.
So, any personal interest in that direction was not even this much—
.......
..........
.............
——Okay, fine. It wasn't exactly 'not even this much.'
Yu Ha-neul had to admit that to herself. She'd never felt romantic feelings for a woman before, and honestly she'd never even fantasized about dating any of her friends. But very recently, once in a great while, she had thought that if a girl like Sara were to confess, she might actually say yes.
Of course, she knew there was no chance of that actually happening.
Which meant... her relationship with Sara was 'still' at the friendship stage.
"I'll ask you honestly," Sara said.
After listening to Yu Ha-neul's answer and thinking for a moment, Sara spoke with a serious expression.
"Until now I've been cooped up at home, so honestly, I don't really know how to gauge the right distance between friends."
"Ah."
Right.
Sara had been locked up in that mansion all this time. According to Su-a, who had walked around with them and exchanged contact info, Sara hadn't had a single person you could call a friend throughout all of elementary and middle school.
Sara's face as she brought that up was completely calm. The kind of expression you can only make when you've gotten used to something.
If it were me, I'd feel miserable the moment the words left my mouth, Yu Ha-neul thought.
"Okay, first question then."
Having said that, Sara paused for just a brief moment, as if hesitating, then continued.
"Um... putting snacks into someone's mouth. Is that... normal between friends?"
"......Uh..."
If you ask "is it normal," the answer is no. But the experience isn't nonexistent. Between close friends, people do sometimes playfully pop a snack into someone's mouth.
Normally, though, that's limited to long stick-shaped snacks or slightly bigger pieces where your hand wouldn't touch their mouth anyway. There are also times when you hold out food for them to take with their hand, but they mindlessly accept it with their mouth, or when they're busy doing something and the only option is to accept it with their mouth, in those cases you don't think much of it and just put the food in.
But when you're putting a snack into someone's mouth, you don't casually touch their lips in the process.
......Right. To be honest, Yu Ha-neul had intentionally touched Sara's lips at least a few times.
Actually, "a few" might not even cover it. She hadn't kept count.
The feel of those soft lips had honestly been addictive.
"I-it, it is! Yeah. Between close friends, it happens sometimes, so, yeah."
It wasn't a complete lie. If you really wanted to split hairs, about seventy percent of it was a lie, but anyway, there was some truth mixed in.
And that she had wound up telling that kind of lie without even meaning to weighed heavy in her chest. Her conscience grew heavier.
Sara's eyes narrowed, and her brows drew slightly together. An expression of obvious suspicion, plain for anyone to see.
"......Alright."
But apparently, Sara had decided to trust Yu Ha-neul.
"Next question. Earlier, when we were walking around, we were linking arms. Is that normal too? Is that how close friends walk around?"
"Ah, that's—"
Yu Ha-neul started to say "yes," but then clamped her mouth shut.
Sure, linking arms is something you can do. Not all day long, but when you're in a good mood or you run into a really close friend, you sometimes end up doing it without thinking.
......But today had been a little different.
Yu Ha-neul hadn't just linked arms with Sara—she'd been practically clinging to her, half-hugging her arm as they walked. Close enough to feel Sara's body heat almost directly through their clothes.
......Obviously, that kind of thing was not normal.
"Th-that too! Between friends, yeah. If you're really, really close, you might do that..."
Her conscience shrieked under the crushing weight of sin, but Yu Ha-neul answered while doing her best to ignore it.
"Hm."
Sara made a skeptical little sound. But again, no follow-up question came.
"Okay."
At Sara's response, Yu Ha-neul let out a small breath. She'd passed this one too, it seemed.
"Then, last one."
Sara's gaze dropped to the couple's jumbo parfait sitting on the table between them.
"Is it normal for close friends to buy a couple's menu item because it's economical?"
"......."
There was no easy way to answer that.
Truthfully, before even thinking about whether Sara was suspicious, she had just gotten swept up in the mood and ordered it.
Sara looked directly at Yu Ha-neul, who couldn't easily answer. She was waiting for a reply in earnest. A posture of asking without malice, genuinely not knowing anything.
Was it really right to lie to someone like that, just because you liked her?
No, of course not. Even a moment's thought made it clear it was a completely selfish thing to do. It was no different from deceiving someone with almost no social knowledge about this kind of thing and enjoying a one-sided date at her expense.
But still, at this point, telling the truth was terrifying too.
She was afraid that even Sara, the only person in the class who listened to her, would become scared of her.
But no. Her conscience whispered softly.
She's your friend. Between friends, you shouldn't tell that kind of serious lie.
Right. That was the correct thing.
But—
"D-did you... not like it...?"
The words that came out of Yu Ha-neul's mouth were that question.
"......."
Sara's eyes widened. As if the possibility of that question had never occurred to her at all.
For a long moment, Sara looked at Yu Ha-neul with those wide eyes, then slowly let her eyelids lower. The way her eyes narrowed felt as slow as slow-motion. Watching it, Yu Ha-neul's heart nearly dropped.
Did she actually dislike it after all? Did she see through my lie?
While Yu Ha-neul agonized, those narrowed eyes curved up gently.
It was the eye-smile Sara gave Yu Ha-neul at school.
The eyes that looked like they could charm a fox.
"No, of course I had fun."
Sara said it with a smile.
The heart that had nearly dropped began to pound, rapidly, pitter-patter.
Yu Ha-neul felt her own face growing hot.