Chapter 79
Chapter 79
My brain ground to a halt.
Excuse me?
What did you say?
Ran away from home? Lee Su-a?
Why?
Well, I could sort of understand Shin So-hee showing up here. In the original story, So-hee always did have a tendency to act on impulse —enough to make you wonder what went on in her head. Like showing up at school and dragging Yu Ha-neul away by the wrist, or skipping class to run off together.
No matter what anyone said, her response was basically: "I did it because I wanted to. What about it?" It made sense that Yu Ha-neul, ostracized at school and growing deeply disillusioned with Hwayeong High School, would be drawn to that side of So-hee —and they did end up together at the end of that route.
So I could accept the way So-hee was talking and acting right now, neatly dressed in her maid uniform. If she'd decided her friend was in danger and came running, that fit her character well enough —even if it felt a little excessive.
But Lee Su-a...
The Lee Su-a I knew, at least, wasn't that kind of character at all.
Not that I'd ever played the Lee Su-a route. But even without that, Lee Su-a was the kind of character who crossed paths with Yu Ha-neul across almost every route.
She was the friend character you see in practically every dating sim —the one with the wide social circle who brings the protagonist useful information and helps them pursue characters successfully.
On the Yoon Da-ho route, on the Shin So-hee route —the focus varied considerably, but Lee Su-a appeared consistently.
Bright, good-natured, unable to leave anyone sitting alone, always laughing —
...Huh.
A character somewhat different from the Lee Su-a I knew now.
......
Huh. Ah.
This is...
"I just ran out of the house and kept running. I could hear someone calling after me."
No way.
"If I hadn't taken a slightly roundabout route, they would've caught me on the way here."
I stared at Lee Su-a, who was looking at me with eyes still holding moisture, and I was horrified. Yeah. I have no idea how her route played out, but the bright Lee Su-a from the original story never showed an expression like this.
Her mood never sank. She was a character who was literally, spotlessly clear. A gentle, upright girl who minded her manners —the kind who wouldn't even think about running away from home.
But the Lee Su-a sitting in front of me now somehow seemed like a very different person.
Was it because of me?
Did Lee Su-a's personality change like this because of me?
Come to think of it, in the original story Lee Su-a was a character who had no real contact with Ye Sa-ra either. Assuming Su-a had tried to talk to Ye Sa-ra before the story even started, Ye Sa-ra would have rejected her then, or her security would have cut things off.
So Lee Su-a would have given up on approaching Ye Sa-ra after that. There was no reason for them to become close, no reason for her to lose her existing friends, and no reason for her to lose her bright personality.
But in this version... I'd accepted that request.
As a result, she'd become a character who faced every kind of disadvantage at school. She was even hearing rumors that she was two-timing and had a harem, just for being associated with me.
No matter how bright her personality was, that's the kind of situation that forces someone into darkness.
Lee Su-a looked up at me with those blue eyes. In her worn-out clothes, with bandages stuck on everywhere, the way she looked up was like a stray kitten peering up at me.
Why, though? The one looking up at me was a person, not a stray cat, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd just been chosen to be a butler.
"Um, this is a really terrible thing to ask, but..."
Lee Su-a's voice came out with a faint tremor.
"Could I stay here for a while? I'll definitely repay the favor...!"
......
A moment of silence.
I glanced sideways at Yang Hye-in, but she just stood there without saying anything. Well, she was only here because I'd called her in the first place. Same for Shin So-hee.
So it was up to me whether to accept Lee Su-a's request.
Besides, right now Lee Su-a had no one else to rely on but me. All the kids who'd been her friends at school had distanced themselves the moment she got close to me.
She might have relatives, but if she went to their house she'd just get sent back to her own home, where the conflict wasn't resolved yet.
Lodging places were a bit tricky for a minor on her own, and kids this age used their parents' money, not their own, so she'd probably get caught right away.
"...Fine. All right."
I answered quietly. Lee Su-a's expression brightened instantly —so much that you'd never know she'd been gloomy at all. No, it was as if she'd never been gloomy in the first place.
But I decided to add a condition.
"But you can't stay here forever. You ran away. I don't know the situation, but your parents are still going to worry."
Ye Sa-ra's one and only stepmother was a thoroughly unreasonable person, but Lee Su-a's case was almost certainly different. Given Lee Su-a's sunny personality, she'd most likely grown up in a more harmonious home than Ye Sa-ra. Or at least she'd received her parents' love during her early childhood.
I didn't want Lee Su-a's family relationships to fall apart because of my choices.
...Besides, my choices had been purely for my own sake. Lee Su-a —no, not just Su-a, but Ha-neul and So-hee too. Based on rough guesses from the light radiating from their faces, I'd picked people to get close to who seemed like they might help me avoid destruction.
And because of those choices, Lee Su-a's school life had fallen apart, and discord had sprung up within her family.
That was something I hadn't even properly considered.
So what I added next was a statement that could be called irresponsible.
"...Yeah, okay."
Maybe she took my words as a scolding, because Su-a answered again with her head hanging low in dejection.
"...If it comes to that."
Seeing that, I felt like I at least owed her a few more words.
But what should I say?
I couldn't apologize now. Even if I did, she wouldn't understand the reason, and knowing Su-a's personality, she might not even accept the apology.
Besides, dragging her into all this and then just trying to get away with an apology —that would be insane.
If something had broken because of me, I at least had to make a show of fixing it. No, not just a show —I had to actually fix it. That's basic courtesy when you're in a relationship with someone.
So I spoke.
Not empty words, but genuinely, as sincerely as I could manage.
"If your parents don't forgive you easily, I'll go with you. I don't know if it'll help."
And if it did help, I would do everything I could.
Until now, I'd only been thinking about Choi Na-kyung's attacks. But I could block that much. Money could handle it. I had enough money to burn through trillions of won and still live a whole lifetime without ever working, just playing around.
But broken relationships —and not even my own, but someone else's —couldn't be fixed with just money. Whether the wound healed or not depended on me, the cause of it, stepping forward personally and showing as much sincerity as I could.
In that case, it would be better for me to go with her, explain the reason, and ask for forgiveness. Even if Su-a's parents couldn't forgive me, their own daughter Su-a could still be forgiven.
At my words, Su-a's head snapped up. Life came back into her eyes, and they sparkled.
Was it that reassuring? Well, when you're going to get chewed out, having company makes you feel a lot better than going alone —even if it doesn't solve the root problem.
"Okay!"
Su-a answered with a bright smile.
In that expression, not a trace of the rain-soaked kitten remained.
*
After basic first aid, Lee Su-a went in to wash up. The bandages could just be replaced with fresh ones afterward. Ideally we should have washed and disinfected first, but I'd been too flustered, and I hadn't imagined Su-a would end up saying she'd sleep over here.
Until I heard the words "ran away," my heart had dropped, worried something awful had happened to her outside. Not that falling down was a good thing, but I'd imagined the worst, so once the conversation ended I actually felt relieved.
"......"
So-hee was staring at the shower room, where the faint sound of water pouring down —shhhhh —could be heard.
"Is something bothering you?"
"Huh? Ah, no."
So-hee shrugged once.
"No. Nothing."
That made me more suspicious, actually. She wasn't thinking something maid-like like "a guest has arrived, so..." now that she'd actually become a maid, was she?
So-hee pulled over a chair from the table in the center of the room and plopped down. Then she unbuttoned about three buttons on her black shirt in sequence, as if she'd been feeling suffocated.
...And just like that, a beautiful girl in a maid outfit was created, looking extremely deliberate about it.
Though, from my perspective now, she's bigger than me, so calling her a "girl" feels a little off?
"Phew, now I can breathe."
Where in reality would you find a girl like that? In real life, no matter how much of a party girl you were, you didn't walk around with your uniform shirt unbuttoned like that. Maybe if you wore a T-shirt underneath and just had the buttons all undone —that I could see.
"Hmm."
Maybe she sensed me staring at her, because So-hee moved her body with a strange smile. I caught the slight shift of her open front.
...It's weird to say this, but I could vividly imagine the feel of it in various ways. I'd even buried my nose there once, after all. Though definitely not on purpose.
And now that I think about it, it wasn't just my nose I'd buried.
"What, you want to touch?"
"......"
...Is that something a girl says to another girl?
Ah, right. So-hee wasn't a normal girl. And strictly speaking, neither was I. Though I wasn't really a girl at all, either.
Was she a character who enjoyed this sort of thing?
I searched my memory....I think she might have been. I seem to remember a scene where she went out with the in-game Yu Ha-neul and tried to seduce her. Though the game itself was all-ages, so it wasn't anything too wild.
"Is a maid allowed to say stuff like that?"
I threw the question back because answering was awkward.
"Isn't this exactly what a maid does?"
came the reply, her face full of mischief.
...I'd love to have her say that again once Yang Hye-in gets back from buying underwear for Su-a.
What is she, some eroge maid.
It was a dating sim, though.
Just as I opened my mouth to object, the shower room door opened.
And Lee Su-a stepped out against a backdrop of billowing white steam.
Lee Su-a, her hair damp and straight, with nothing but a towel wrapped around her body.
!!!!!
Above So-hee's head as she turned to look, I felt an invisible exclamation mark appear.
And probably, if I looked up at my own ceiling, the exact same thing would be floating there.