How to Get Closer
I'd talked with Soye. I'd gotten used to her face. But none of that meant we were actually close.
Getting closer would take more than that — more interaction, more conversation, more time spent together.
So how was I supposed to do it?
Using my position as her senior to make her eat with me, or to force her to hang around, was absolutely out of the question. No. Not a chance.
That wouldn't be getting closer. That would just be a senior picking on a junior, and I was never going to pull something like that.
Then what? How was a twenty-three-year-old career singleton like me supposed to get close to a girl a year younger than him?
Fortunately, I had the wisdom of those who'd come before me.
The protagonist of Your Wish. The protagonist of this world. A guy who'd been living the life of a rom-com novel hero since his first year of high school — and a guy I really, genuinely couldn't stand.
Seon Woobin had already given me the answer.
Not the Seon Woobin of the world I was living in now, of course. The one from the novel I'd read before I transmigrated.
In the original story, Seon Woobin had helped Soye carry the drama club's things. That was how they'd started talking. That was how he'd built a bond with her.
I was going to steal that event right out from under him.
Yeah. Just like this.
"Soye. Think you can move some props before you head home? These need to go in the Gymnasium Storage."
"Ah… yes, I understand…!"
The second club session had just ended when Moon Sea, our club president, immediately sent Soye on an errand. This was my chance.
"I'll go with her."
I raised my hand as I said it, and Moon Sea started glaring at me — like she was thinking, And why would you go?
Of course, from her perspective there was no real reason to turn down a junior volunteering to work, so she just nodded.
"Fine. You go too."
"Yes, ma'am~"
I nodded, stepped over beside Soye, and started taking some of the things she was carrying.
"Soye, give me some of those too."
"I'm fine with this much…!"
"No, I'll take just this much more. They're heavy."
"I'm okay, though…"
I wanted to take even more off her hands, but she might have felt awkward about it, so I settled for a reasonable share and started walking slowly toward the gymnasium with her.
"Watch your step."
"Ah… okay…"
Soye nodded and kept moving the props with careful, ginger steps. Was she just not that strong?
"Want me to take more?"
"No, I'm fine…! Really!"
She shook her head hard, then ducked her chin and spoke in a tiny voice.
"Thank you."
"For what?"
"For helping me with this. Honestly… I think it would've been a little hard on my own."
There was a faint thread of guilt in the way she said it. She probably thought I was putting myself out for no good reason.
I had just the thing to take that guilt off her shoulders.
"Soye. Do you remember what I said during the interview?"
"…Ah. Yes. I remember."
What I'd told her at the interview. I'll carry the heavy stuff, so you handle the drawing.
She must have recalled it, because she started laughing — a quiet little puff of a laugh she couldn't quite hold in.
"If there's ever any drawing that needs doing, I'll be sure to do it for you."
"I'll take you up on that. I really can't draw to save my life…"
I had no idea which part of that had been funny, but Soye kept smiling as she walked on ahead.
I thought it every time I saw her: her smile was genuinely beautiful.
I've always liked people who smile easily, but Soye's laugh had something else in it — something clear, like there wasn't a speck of dust on it. She just looked so much prettier smiling than other people did.
We were still making our way down the hallway when—
The classroom door right in front of us rattled open and clacked against the frame, and a boy stepped out.
A good six feet tall, with the kind of face that made the word handsome come out of your mouth whether you wanted it to or not. A boy who looked, at a glance, like he was walking around announcing, I am the protagonist of this world.
Seon Woobin.
We collided.
Seon Woobin startled, stumbled a step back, and apologized.
"Ah — sorry about that."
I gave him a small nod and walked on past him with Soye.
Originally, this was where Soye and Seon Woobin would have run into each other. She would have fallen, he would have felt bad, and he would have ended up helping her with her work. That was where the flag got planted.
But the person who'd bumped into Seon Woobin this time was me. One less thread tying Soye to him.
"Hoooo…"
Maybe it was the relief. A sigh slipped out of me before I even noticed.
"Are you okay…?"
"I'm fine."
She got this worried over even a little reaction like that. I was just grateful. She really was an angel. An actual angel.
Before I knew it, we'd reached the gymnasium. We went into the Gymnasium Storage together and set the props down.
"Good work."
"You worked hard too…!"
Soye dipped her head in a neat little bow. I reached into my pocket, pulled something out, and held it toward her.
"A present for our hardworking, well-behaved junior."
The moment I stretched out my hand with something in it, Soye offered both of hers with perfect, earnest courtesy.
What I dropped into those small palms was—
"Gummies?"
Gummies. And not just any gummies — those famous little gummy bears.
"I got them in math class today. You should have them."
"Thank you…"
Soye had a handful of cute little character details, and one of them was that she loved these gummy bears.
When I heard the math teacher gave them out as a prize for solving problems, I'd jumped on the first one I could. It had been a simple calculation, so I'd managed it even though I'd forgotten just about everything I ever knew about math — whether I could pull that off a second time was anyone's guess. Looking at those problems again had made my head spin.
Soye looked down at the little packet that had landed in her hands, snuck a glance at my face, then looked back at the gummies.
She wanted to eat them. That glance was definitely her checking whether she was allowed.
"Go ahead. I gave them to you so you'd eat them."
"Ah…"
Her face went pink. She tore the packet open and started putting the gummies into her mouth one by one.
Even the way she held those tiny things in both hands and ate them one at a time was cuteness itself.
I walked back to the club room with Soye still smiling to herself, savoring every last one.
There was no one left in the club room. Not that there was any reason there would be — club time was long over.
"Soye, shall we head out too?"
"Yes. Let's go home."
Maybe it was the gummies. She seemed a little less tense than before, and she answered more readily than she had earlier.
If I had to put a number on it, maybe about ten percent of the timidness had gone out of her voice.
Still timid, though.
It was already past five and sliding toward six, and the two of us walked out through the front gate together like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Soye."
"Yes?"
I'd called her name mostly because I hated the silence, and then I had no idea what to say. What was I even supposed to talk about?
I turned it over and finally settled on something ordinary.
"Do you go to a cram school?"
"No, I don't. Studying on my own has just become a habit…"
A high schooler whose habit was studying alone. That was genuinely impressive.
The more I looked at her, the more amazing she seemed. Seon Woobin had to be an idiot for throwing a girl like this away.
"Do you go to a cram school?"
"Me… unfortunately, studying and I are on slightly distant terms."
"You seem like you'd be good at it, though…?"
"Thanks for the empty compliment."
"It's not an empty compliment."
She shook her head.
We kept walking the way home together after that.
Then a bus stop came into view, and Soye stopped beside it, standing there straight as a pin, and bowed her head to me.
"Thank you for today."
"Oh — you take the bus home?"
"Yes. I live in the next neighborhood over…"
"Must be rough getting up in the morning."
"My eyes just open at seven, so I think it's okay."
Even the habit of waking up early. Soye was like the word model student given a human shape — with a side of cute thrown in for free.
"Do you live around here?"
"Yeah. So even if I sleep in a little, I can still make it if I run."
"Pfft… you still shouldn't sleep in, though~"
"Everyone oversleeps sometimes, don't they?"
"Well… I guess I have too."
I still didn't know which part of that had been funny, but Soye burst into a bright, ringing little laugh.
The smile was so pretty that my mind went blank. All I could do was stand there and stare at her. That was how pretty it was.
"Then I'll see you next time."
"Ah… right. See you next time."
Soye bowed once more and climbed onto the bus, and I sat down at the stop and watched her.
She took a seat by the window, spotted me, and fluttered her hand in a little wave — like she was telling me to get home safe.
I just kept looking. At Soye, cute right up to the very last second. At the bus she was on, until it slipped out of sight.
And only once it had vanished completely did I finally stand up and start walking home.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
My steps a little lighter than usual.