Comfort in the Erotic Game World
Even in the game, there hadn't been any real problems with it. After all, that hidden club event was a special route prepared for players who had already cleared the first playthrough and wanted to see the true ending.
Players who already knew the basic storyline would hear about the Training Center's secrets and think, Oh, so these kinds of hidden things were there all along. Then they'd wonder, Does that mean I should team up with these girls to uncover the Training Center's mysteries and aim for the true ending? They wouldn't notice anything strange about it. To them, it was just another event inside the monitor.
Even after activating the club-related route, if you didn't want to proceed with those events, you could simply avoid going to the club and stall. Time would pass naturally, and you'd reach the normal ending for the route you'd chosen.
That's why, when I joined the Trouble Counseling Club this time, I'd thought of it as nothing more than insurance for the future. But from the perspective of Lee Harin and Ayoung, who had no prior information, it must have been quite a troubling revelation.
Even though quite a bit of time had passed since we'd left the club room, the two of them remained silent. In the game, you could simply click a few times to move between locations—club, classroom, alleyway, home—and only play the specific events you wanted. But reality didn't flow that simply.
Unlike their game counterparts, these two had real emotions. I couldn't help but regret my choice a little, since I hadn't seriously considered that aspect. But what could I do? The water had already been spilled.
I rubbed my face with my hands and cautiously spoke to them.
“...Hey, I'm sorry.”
The two, who had been sitting there in a daze, stared at me blankly before letting out disbelieving laughs.
“Seriously, Lee Hajun... Of all the clubs you could have picked.”
Lee Harin pressed a hand to her forehead as if she had a headache.
“...Ha, Hajun. I'm fine, really.”
Ayoung said that, but her expression made it clear she was anything but fine.
“No, I really should have looked into it properly before bringing it up...”
Even though I'd known everything and done it anyway, I had no choice but to apologize like that. Harin waved her hands dismissively.
“It's fine. You probably didn't know what kind of club it was either.”
I felt a pang of guilt inside, but I said nothing.
“...Still, what a weird club.”
As I listened to Harin mutter, she continued.
“At first I thought it was some awkward acting thing, but then it turned into talk about incidents at the Training Center... and some kind of conspiracy theories.”
Luckily, it seemed neither of them was taking the things they'd heard in the club too seriously. I felt relieved and nodded.
“Yeah... I was pretty shocked too.”
To survive, sometimes you have to throw someone else under the bus. This time, the targets just happened to be the Trouble Counseling Club's upperclassmen.
After talking about that strange club for quite a while, the bell rang—ding-dong-dang-dong—signaling it was time to head home. We started gathering our bags.
“...Hajun, don't you need to stop by the classroom?”
At Ayoung's question, I told her I'd already grabbed my bag when we went to the club and took her hand. It was time to end this long day.
We were getting ready to head home together as usual, the three of us, when—
“...Oh, right.”
Lee Harin, who had been changing out of her indoor shoes in the entryway, clapped her hands as if she'd just remembered something.
“I don't think I can go with you guys today.”
At the sudden announcement, Ayoung tilted her head.
“Is something wrong?”
“No, it's nothing big.”
Harin waved her hand lightly as she answered.
“I'm meeting up with Sara today. I have something to pick up from her.”
“Sara?”
“Yeah. She's a friend I've known since middle school.”
After explaining, Harin looked back and forth between us with a slightly apologetic expression.
“I meant to tell you earlier, but I forgot.”
We waved our hands, saying it was fine. Instead, we told her not to stay out too late.
“Oh, you don't have to worry about that. She's coming over to my place and staying the night.”
There didn't seem to be any need to worry. So we said our goodbyes in the entryway and parted ways.
For the first time in a while, Ayoung and I headed home alone, just the two of us.
“......”
“......”
It felt strangely awkward. It hadn't been that long since the three of us started spending time together, yet with Harin suddenly vanishing like that, her absence felt oddly noticeable.
Ayoung must have been thinking the same thing, because she smiled softly and brought it up.
“...Hajun, it's been a while.”
“Hm?”
“...Walking home together, just the two of us.”
It didn't seem like she had any particular intention behind her words, but her voice sounded a little... sticky? There was something about the way she said it that made even such an ordinary comment feel open to misunderstanding.
I tried to shake off those thoughts and answered normally.
“Yeah, it feels different from the morning...”
Unlike the morning when the sun had just risen, the evening dyed in sunset hues carried a special atmosphere. I'd heard somewhere before that there were certain times of day when confessing to someone had a noticeably higher success rate... and that it was supposedly during the border between afternoon and evening when the sun sets.
That story suddenly came to mind, so I told Ayoung about it.
“I-I've heard that one too.”
Ayoung's eyes widened as she nodded.
“...They said people's emotions become richer when the sun is setting, right?”
She began sharing what she'd heard, and I walked along listening to her cheerful voice. Before I knew it, the worries I'd been carrying all day started to fade.
My head had been hurting from thinking about future plans, but... talking with Ayoung made all those concerns seem to vanish completely. It felt like no matter what I did, everything would turn out fine.
So I cautiously asked her.
“Ayoung.”
“...Yeah?”
“If, hypothetically...”
After a moment of hesitation, I mixed in an appropriate metaphor instead of stating the facts outright.
“Suppose someone knows things about the future.”
It was an out-of-nowhere topic, but Ayoung listened seriously.
“...And they know in advance that someone is going to become unhappy?”
“...Yes.”
There are times when you get that kind of feeling.
“At first, I tried to just ignore it... Even if it seems a little selfish... right? It's not like you'd casually help a complete stranger just because you have memories of the future.”
“......”
When you're struggling with a problem that's too difficult, you get the urge to confide in someone. That's why, even while thinking that Ayoung might realize the protagonist of this story was me, I couldn't stop talking.
“But if you keep watching that happen right beside you, it starts to feel suffocating, you know?”
“...Yeah.”
“Even though we're not that close, just thinking about them going through something so terrible makes my heart race...”
The more I spoke, the more my confidence seemed to drain away. Maybe everything I was doing was wrong. The thing with the club this time too. Maybe my excessive enthusiasm was just causing trouble for others and making things worse.
“So I tried to help... But somehow things aren't going the way I thought they would, you know?”
...I'd only wanted to do well.
“I wanted to do well, but everything keeps twisting and falling apart... and I start wondering if it would've been better if I'd just done nothing at all.”
Midway through speaking, I looked up at the sky. Ayoung simply patted my back in silence.
“...It's okay.”
Receiving her comfort, I finished my story.
“...I just had those pathetic thoughts.”
I'd tried to phrase it like something I'd heard somewhere, as if it were about someone else. But it probably sounded completely obvious.
I gave an awkward laugh and looked down at Ayoung. She wasn't looking at me with any hint of pity in her eyes.
Now that I thought about it, she was always like that. While other people looked at me with all sorts of different gazes, Ayoung's eyes were always filled with soft, gentle emotion whenever she looked at me. That's probably why I always felt like leaning on her like this.
The kind of person who would stay by your side and comfort you kindly no matter how embarrassing or how many times you failed.
“Hajun, I think it's fine.”
Ayoung didn't stutter or trail off like she usually did.
“Even if you think it's embarrassing or shameful, it was still an action taken to help someone, right?”
She spoke clearly, looking straight at me.
“The results won't always be good, of course...”
Ayoung smiled brightly.
“But there are also people who received help because of those actions.”
Her words became an incredibly big comfort to me.
“...So I hope that person can keep trying their best too.”