070. Ending (1)
070. Ending (1)
I would distract her with a surprise kiss.
To be honest, I hadn't thought the odds of it working were particularly high.
She wasn't stupid. She would surely see through it as a ploy to cloud her judgment.
So even though I was the one who went in for the kiss, I hadn't expected it to actually land.
Yeonhwa would push me away just before our lips met.
But that was fine.
My goal was only to fluster her.
If I flustered her enough to make her forget about kicking me out, I could open the conversation again.
Then I would state my case honestly and take the initiative.
That was the plan.
The next moment, Yeonhwa didn't push me away.
Far from pushing me away, she wrapped both arms tightly around my waist—
"Mmm... ngh......."
—and smoothly returned the kiss.
Why was this happening?
Was this girl really this much of an idiot?
More importantly, didn't she care that Rinne was staring at us in shock right beside her?
......No, perhaps.
Maybe it was precisely because Rinne was watching.
From what I'd heard, Yeonhwa had apparently been jealous of Rinne all along.
There were probably several reasons, but the biggest was likely that Rinne and I had already kissed.
Back then, Yeonhwa's personality had not yet surfaced. To her, it must have genuinely felt as though I'd kissed another girl.
In that sense, Yeonhwa wanted to show off.
The sight of herself kissing me.
To Rinne.
As if to say, see that?
"Mmph...... smooch....... Mmm...... smooch......."
Who knew how long Yeonhwa and I stayed locked together like that.
Just as I was starting to feel self-conscious about Rinne watching us, Yeonhwa finally ran out of breath and pulled away.
"H-hah......."
Of course, only her lips pulled away.
Her arms stayed locked around my waist.
On top of that, judging by her dazed expression, she seemed to have completely forgotten the situation from just moments before.
She was completely focused on me, our bodies pressed together as if we were one.
I could have admired that adorable Yeonhwa for an hour or two.
But now was not the time.
I grabbed Yeonhwa firmly by the shoulders and asked.
"Is it really okay for me to leave?"
"Uh, yeah......?"
"Don't you want to try kissing like that for real, in reality?"
Yeonhwa sucked in a sharp breath.
As if she'd finally remembered how the conversation had been going just before, her eyes went round.
Whether she remembered or not, I pressed on.
"If I leave here with Rinne, you'll never get to kiss the real Han Si-hu again. You'll only get fake kisses with a virtual character who happens to look a lot like me. Only Rinne over there will get the real thing. Are you okay with that?"
"Wh-who said anything about kissing Oppa......!"
Rinne cut in, but I ignored her.
That was not what mattered right now.
"Yeonhwa, I'm asking you. Are you okay with that?"
Yeonhwa knew the answer, of course.
Because she had finally learned the sensation of the kiss she had wanted so badly, the kiss she had been so jealous of.
Because she had finally learned what my tongue tasted like. What it felt like. What swallowing my saliva was like.
And that was not all.
That day had made Yeonhwa painfully aware of just how much fun it was to spend time with the real me.
There was no 'fake' that could fully replace this.
No, even if Yeonhwa said she was okay with it.
"I won't accept it—having you cheat on me."
At my words, countless question marks seemed to appear around Yeonhwa's head.
"Ch-cheating......? What do you mean, cheating?"
"If I leave, you're going to stay here and date the virtual Han Si-hu."
That's cheating.
"......Is that cheating?"
Yeonhwa asked, as if she couldn't comprehend it.
And at that, I shouted, genuinely furious.
"It is cheating! You'd be dating another man who isn't me!"
"B-but he's the same Han Si-hu......."
Well, sure, that Han Si-hu would still be Han Si-hu.
But he still wouldn't be the same person as me.
He would merely be another Han Si-hu materialized in this world.
In other words, he would be nothing more than my twin—fundamentally a 'stranger.'
And my first love, of all people, was planning to date that stranger.
I had absolutely no intention of tolerating that.
So.
"If you kick me out and set up house with that other Han Si-hu here, you and I are finished. We'll be separated forever."
"......U-urk."
Yeonhwa's face went pale at those words.
She'd talked so proudly about being satisfied with this virtual world, but apparently she still couldn't bear the thought of truly parting from me.
And so.
Had she finally begun to lose confidence in her own stubbornness?
Yeonhwa looked deeply conflicted.
Then, a moment later.
Yeonhwa cautiously opened her mouth.
"Then, well...... in exchange for going with you, I have one condition."
"A condition?"
"The thing is."
Yeonhwa glanced briefly over at Rinne.
And then she said.
"......I-I'd like it if, every now and then, you'd let me take the lead."
......Huh?
"What do you mean? Take the lead?"
I didn't understand, so I asked.
Rinne, however, understood immediately and asked:
"You're asking me to let your personality take over sometimes too?"
"Y-yeah."
Huh.......
"Can you switch personas that freely?"
"If I wanted to, I could."
Rinne answered.
Up until now, Rinne had lived with her own persona as the primary one.
That had remained true even after she became aware of her past life and the Yeonhwa persona appeared, but it had not always been that way.
For example, the last time she'd tried to tell me 'I hate it' but blurted out 'I like it' instead.
At that moment, Yeonhwa's persona had briefly surfaced and blurted out what she had wanted to say as Yeonhwa.
"Well, that was about the extent of it, though."
Rinne said, as if it were laughable.
As I mentioned earlier, Rinne's and Yeonhwa's personalities were nowhere near equal in strength. If Rinne was 100, Yeonhwa was barely 3 or 4.
Because of that, Yeonhwa's influence was practically limited to emotional reactions toward me, and even those Rinne usually suppressed almost immediately.
But now Yeonhwa was taking the opportunity to negotiate with the dictator Rinne.
"I-I want to be able to get lovey-dovey with Si-hu directly, as myself. I want to properly say hello to Mom and Dad too. So even if it's only once in a while......."
To let her live as Yeonhwa.
That was what Yeonhwa asked of Rinne.
From a third party's perspective, it might seem only natural to grant her request.
One might even think Rinne was being a little too harsh. It wasn't as if she was asking to live as Yeonhwa for her entire life, or even half the time—just occasionally.
Couldn't she grant her that much?
Honestly, I thought so too.
But Rinne seemed to have her own reasons for not handing control over to Yeonhwa.
As Rinne had pointed out earlier, Yeonhwa had been acting far too uninhibitedly inside her.
In other words:
"If I hand control over to you, how far are you planning to go with Oppa?"
"U-uhh......."
Yeonhwa's face turned bright red.
And then, she said,
"I'm fine with anything Si-hu wants to do, but......."
"So I'm asking how far."
Rinne pressed again.
Instead of answering, Yeonhwa checked my reaction, then shuffled closer to Rinne.
Soon, she whispered something into her ear—and Rinne's face went bright red.
"Haah? Are you insane?"
"B-but...... Rinne, you said last time that 'if it were Oppa, it might be okay' too......."
"Oh, shut it!"
Rinne settled the matter unilaterally.
"Excluding emergencies, maximum 24 hours a month. Maximum allowed level is kissing. Anything beyond that I absolutely cannot permit."
......Just what had she wanted to do, that kissing ended up being the compromise?
Well, regardless.
"Okay. I'm satisfied with that much."
At last, they seemed to have reached an agreement.
And so.
I took Rinne and Yeonhwa to the window—the exit from this world.
At the exit, Yeonhwa asked the two of us once more.
"Um, are you really sure? Wouldn't everyone be happier if I just disappeared after all......? And if I wedge myself between you two, I'll only be a burden....... To Si-hu and to Rinne...... I'm just a piece of the past that's already gone......."
She still seemed to lack confidence.
So I needed to make one thing perfectly clear.
I grabbed Yeonhwa firmly by the shoulders.
And I told her without hesitation:
"There isn't a man alive who'd hate a dual-persona biodroid made up of 'a snarky, cheeky little brat of a subordinate and a girlfriend who's crazy about him.'"
"Th-there isn't......?"
There isn't.
There couldn't possibly be.
And why would there be—just imagining it was entertaining.
Rinne, who acted until yesterday as though I were nothing but a nuisance, could show up today as Yeonhwa and shower me with affection.
Then the next day, Rinne could return to her own personality, remember everything Yeonhwa had done while in control, and tremble with shame.
"That's every man's dream."
"......When Oppa says stuff like that, I suddenly don't want to take you with us anymore."
Rinne grumbled.
Even so, Rinne gripped Yeonhwa's hand tightly.
"But what can I do? You made this huge fuss about saving even my readers. I can't exactly refuse to save you too."
You're none other than my past life, after all.
At those words, Yeonhwa's face brightened visibly.
Immediately afterward, without anyone needing to say a word, we all ran toward the exit together.
And then, and then—