The Dawn of Worries and a Cat-Like Glare
The heroines in this adult game were too damn cute. It was a dawn heavy with countless worries.
Some carried concerns about love between partners. Others wrestled with the ethics of helping strangers.
That dawn, filled with each person's private burdens, vanished into the distance along with the biting cold air. Yet the sun still rose the next day.
"A-yeong!"
As usual, I called out her name and waved. From the alleyway in the distance, A-yeong hesitated for a moment before shouting back.
"H-Hajun!"
She came running and threw herself into my arms.
"...Did you wait long?"
"Nope, not even a second."
Just like how the ground hardens after rain, our relationship had grown even stronger after that one little fight—if you could even call it that—had passed.
"...You really didn't wait?"
"Well..."
To be honest, I had come out quite early. I couldn't risk repeating the disaster of arriving after A-yeong like last time, so I'd left about thirty minutes earlier than usual. I debated whether to tell her but swallowed the words.
"I really didn't wait. You came right on time."
"Hehe."
At that, A-yeong smiled brightly as if she'd caught on to something. I pretended not to notice, took her hand, and started walking slowly.
"So, how's your ankle?"
She lightly tapped her right foot on the ground to test it.
"Hmm... It still hurts a bit, but it's not that bad."
She gave me the all-clear signal. I felt relieved. I'd been worried that if it was still hurting today, I'd have to take her to the hospital.
"That's good."
I smiled as I answered.
"Yeah, it is."
A-yeong echoed my words with a smile of her own. It was the perfect start to a good day. I liked the lingering scent of dawn that still clung to the morning air, the cheerful chirping of birds in my ears, and the sight of my kind, beautiful girlfriend even more.
Everything felt perfect.
"Hmm-hmm~."
The girl walking beside me seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood too. I stole a glance at my adorable girlfriend, then couldn't resist reaching out and poking her.
"...Hm?"
A-yeong turned to look at me with a slight tilt of her head, as if she was used to such touches. I looked away, pretending nothing had happened.
She stared at me for a moment with a puzzled expression before turning forward again and resuming her little hum.
"Hmm-hmm~."
Why is she so freaking cute?
I used to watch those couple shorts on the internet and wonder why guys would tease their loving, precious girlfriends so mischievously. But seeing a reaction like this, I finally understood the irresistible urge. There was some kind of magic to it.
So I poked her lower back again.
"...Hng?"
This time even the slow-witted A-yeong noticed. She looked up at me with a meaningful expression.
"Hajun?"
I deliberately ignored her.
"......"
After a brief moment of thought, she grabbed my arm and wrapped it around her own waist. Then she placed her hand over mine and declared,
"...There. You can't do it now, right?!"
It was completely unexpected. I'd thought that if I kept pretending not to notice, she'd either poke me back with her finger in revenge or keep pestering me with questions. I never imagined she'd get back at me in such an adorable way.
I couldn't maintain my poker face any longer and burst out laughing.
"Ah, you laughed."
A-yeong's eyes sparkled as if she'd been waiting for exactly that. Alright, I surrender.
I raised my free hand in a gesture of defeat.
"I was wrong, so let me go now."
But this wickedly cute girl had no intention of forgiving me.
"...No way. This is your punishment."
She pressed even closer, half-hugging me as we continued walking forward.
"...A-yeong?"
At first I'd thought it was just playful banter and that she'd let go soon, but walking like this—completely glued together—started to make me conscious of the other students heading to the academy. No matter how much of a couple we were, openly showing affection in public like this felt a bit much...
With that thought in mind, I glanced around. That's when my eyes met those of a female student.
I flinched.
A girl with a long ponytail that swayed behind her, cat-like eyes lifted in a sharp gaze, staring directly at us.
"Oh? Ha-rin!"
...It was Lee Ha-rin.
At first I'd only thought the face looked familiar, but when A-yeong followed my gaze, spotted her, and called out, I finally placed her exactly.
She was the sub-heroine from the adult game I'd fallen into. While I wasn't sure about her looks or charm points, in terms of meme popularity she held an overwhelming first place among the heroines.
She was the so-called "insanely cute" Lee Ha-rin.
"Yeah, A-yeong. Hi."
True to the rumors, the girl who appeared before me was truly...
...She really is insanely cute.
She was adorable enough that I could finally understand why players had raved about her so much. While I was momentarily lost in her appearance, A-yeong exchanged a quick greeting with her friend before glancing at me and introducing us.
"Oh, and this is my boyfriend, Hajun."
I greeted her first in response to the introduction.
"Hey, you're A-yeong's friend, right? Nice to meet you."
But the reply that came back was ice-cold.
"...Yes."
The way she drew a clear line with that single word left me flustered.
...Did I do something wrong?
But nothing came to mind. Maybe Lee Ha-rin was just the type to be a bit shy around new people? Since I had no other information to go on, I had no choice but to dismiss it as needless worry.
Besides, she was happily chatting away with A-yeong.
"By the way, A-yeong, did you watch that show I mentioned last time?"
"Yeah, I watched it at home..."
A-yeong seemed to be enjoying the conversation with her friend, smiling nonstop. But at the same time, she must have felt bad about me walking silently after her friend joined us, because she poked me lightly with her finger.
'...Hajun, are you okay?'
She asked me discreetly. But watching the two heroines chatter away was actually pretty entertaining, so I didn't mind at all. In fact...
I'm fine, so go talk with your friend.
I gently pushed her toward Ha-rin with a smile, telling her to enjoy herself. Relieved, A-yeong moved closer to Ha-rin and dove back into their conversation.
It was a decent flow of events. Even though I didn't know why Ha-rin was being so cold to me when we'd just met, cats were usually more wary than welcoming toward strangers anyway.
With that thought, I glanced at Ha-rin, who was happily chatting with a cute little "nyaang" sound. As if sensing my gaze, she bristled and looked back at me with wary eyes.
What an interesting girl. That just made me want to tame her even more.
Ha-rin hadn't planned to treat Hajun so coldly from the very beginning.
But...
Again! It's happening again!
When she saw Hajun casually resting his hand on her friend A-yeong's waist in the very same alley where that incident had occurred, something deep inside her—the instincts of the Confucian girl Lee Ha-rin—threatened to awaken.
She had promised her friend Sa-ra that she wouldn't interfere in other people's relationships for a while. Yet she simply couldn't tolerate the shameless behavior happening right before her eyes.
And she had the perfect excuse.
"Oh? Ha-rin!"
After their eyes had met, A-yeong—who was standing right beside the shameless guy—had spotted her too. At the call, Ha-rin quickly trotted over to A-yeong's side and returned the greeting.
"Yeah, A-yeong. Hi."
They exchanged a few short words while she checked if anything seemed off. Then...
"Oh, and this is my boyfriend, Hajun."
When A-yeong introduced her boyfriend, Ha-rin responded,
"...Yes."
She kept her distance as politely as possible, then refused to even look at him again.
The reason was simple. Ha-rin absolutely despised men with such shameless, frivolous attitudes. Especially when she saw a guy casually touching his girlfriend in a crowded public place while smiling—her blood would boil.
How could anyone treat the girl he supposedly loved that way in front of other people? If he was going to act like that, he should at least do it privately in a closed room where no one could see. Or at the very least, he should hold back and cherish his girlfriend properly.
Whenever she saw men who couldn't control their instincts and reached out in the middle of the street, Ha-rin's heart would turn to ice. Of course, as her friend Sa-ra had said, they were adults, so it wasn't really her place to comment. Still... still.
At the very least, Ha-rin had no desire to become close with a guy like that. So even when Hajun kept glancing at her, she maintained a perfectly blank expression and showed no reaction whatsoever.
Absolutely... absolutely, there was no way she would ever get close to Hajun. She believed that with all her heart.