Chapter 5. Nah, no way. (7)
Chapter 5. Nah, no way. (7)
I...... like Soi.
There's no way I could hate her.
In my life, if Soi had hated me even a little bit, my life would have become hell.
A child who suddenly moved into her house to live.
She wasn't even a real sister, just some kid Mom brought home from somewhere, someone she'd never seen before.
And on top of that, that kid required quite a lot of attention, so for a while, she even hogged all of Mom and Dad's attention.
Even though she could have easily been jealous, and could have easily hated me.
Soi liked me so much.
That's why my childhood could be so enjoyable.
Even now, I have a photo on my smartphone that we took on Christmas. The photo from the first Christmas I spent at that house. A small, young me hugging a large rabbit doll. And a small, young Soi hugging me.
The look on Soi's face as she hugged me was as if I were the real Christmas present, so whenever I looked at that photo, I couldn't help but giggle.
And the doll I received back then is still in Soi's room even now.
"Lua-ya, look at this."
After lunch, while we were basking in the sunlight on a bench outside the school building, Chaeyi, who had taken the spot next to me and stuck to me just like Soi, showed me her smartphone.
On it, a beautiful girl with black hair was blushing, looking embarrassed to the point of being awkward.
"Hey, she looks like Lua."
Chaeyi said, smiling brightly.
I like Chaeyi, too.
Chaeyi could have hated me until the end, too. She made me rely on her as she pleased, then left as she pleased, and only showed up a long time later to pester me to be friends.
Even so, the reason Chaeyi treated me coldly wasn't because she actually came to hate me, but just because the situation wasn't favorable.
It was really fortunate that I, who might have only had Soi as a friend I could feel comfortable with if things had gone wrong, had made a new friend like this.
However.
"Hmph."
"......Huh?"
Soi, who was sitting on the other side with me in the middle, looked at Chaeyi's smartphone and let out a scoff.
"Why?"
"No, just... I thought Chaeyi was a bit late."
At that, a slight wrinkle formed on Chaeyi's brow.
Surprisingly, Chaeyi never frowns in front of me. Even among friends, there are times when things get annoying, but it means she always shows me a shy smile.
There was only one person who could break that smile of Chaeyi's, and that was Soi.
Soi, who was sitting stuck to my side just like Chaeyi, crossed her legs and held her nose high.
Hmm.......
Soi-ya, if you cross your legs like that, wouldn't it be a bit dangerous? There are a lot of people passing by.......
But for some reason, at the point of saying that, it felt like I was the only one worrying about it, and since the person involved didn't care, me worrying about it alone felt even more perverted for no reason, so I shut my mouth.
"Look. I've already maxed out the affection level."
"......!"
Soi said that and thrust her smartphone in front of Chaeyi.
Oh, she really did.
In this game, raising affection levels slightly increases character stats, but the effect becomes negligible the higher the affection level gets, and from 50 and above, it has no effect at all.
Yet, Soi had raised the affection level to 100.
......It goes without saying, but to do that, you obviously have to spend real money. Extremely inefficiently.
"Keuk......."
Huh.
Chaeyi made a sound I'd never heard before, so I turned my head, and there was Chaeyi, smiling brightly just like usual.
What was that?
No, more than that. Why would she feel frustrated over something like this?
Not long after we had our uniforms tailored to be smaller, Chaeyi also had her clothes tailored like us.
Not in this world, but in the world I used to live in, Asians mostly had black hair, so most people with blonde hair had dyed it. And a fairly high percentage of kids walking around school with dyed hair were bullies.
Pink hair didn't even exist in nature, so that goes without saying.
So, to me, it felt like two female middle school bullies were occupying both sides of me, competing over what the affection level of a beautiful girl character in a smartphone game was.
......Why?
I don't know the reason.......
But it didn't seem right to ask the reason here either.
And I was also worried that if I said it was hot or stuffy for no reason, I might hurt their feelings.
In the end, I had no choice but to sit on that bench with Chaeyi and Soi on either side of me until the lunch break ended.......
*
That's why it's good to have friends at school.
Even if you have some serious worries, just chatting with those friends for no reason makes you forget the very fact that you were worrying.
No, thinking about it again, it was a worry that had nothing to do with me in the first place.
A villain appeared, and that villain is a serial killer.
A crazy serial killer who even sends letters to media outlets.
Even if it's scary, it's not like I can do anything about it anyway. In my past life, I was a reasonably aged adult, but here, I'm still a middle schooler.
Besides, in reality, even if I were a grown adult, there's nothing I could do. It's a job for the police, or in this world, the Heroes to solve. If I were to step in first, I'd only be a hindrance.
It seems like an incident that wasn't even particularly mentioned in the main story.
Unfortunately, I read it by skimming through, so I don't know the detailed contents well, so even if there was an incident like this, I might just not remember it.
Anyway, so, it's probably a story that has nothing to do with the main characters.
......Right?
I turned my gaze and looked out the window.
A few people are loitering on the playground. They are definitely not students, and they aren't teachers either.
That middle-aged man I saw at the ice cream shop yesterday.
The man who smiled and responded when Yujin-ajumma waved at him. I ran into him while going to school this morning, and he even greeted me back lightly when I said hello.
So, it should be fine.
It will be fine.
Nah, no way. What could possibly happen?
To be honest, the math teacher isn't someone who makes the class very interesting, and he's a teacher with very little variation in his voice, so I, who wasn't really interested in that subject anyway, kept getting distracted.
I'm not sleepy enough to doze off yet.
So, for no reason, like this......
Bzzzt.
While staring blankly out the window, I was startled by the vibration sound.
I didn't scream 'Heh-het', though.
Because the smartphone I had placed on the desk vibrated violently.
No,
It wasn't just my smartphone. The whole classroom was filled with that vibration sound. Even the smartphone on the teacher's podium.
A little later, an annoying alarm sound was heard. The sound you hear when a disaster text message arrives.
[Today 14:31, Superhuman disturbance occurred near City Hall in Jung-gu, Seoul. Do not approach the vicinity of City Hall. Those nearby, please evacuate according to police guidance.]
A text message popped up on the screen of the smartphone I reflexively turned on.
I blinked my eyes.
"Now."
The teacher, who had been teaching in a monotone voice, clapped his hands and said.
"First, stay calm. Do not move from your seats."
At those words, the kids started murmuring.
Because City Hall is quite a distance from here. Of course, it's a place you can get to in about 20 minutes if you take a car.
The teacher slammed his textbook shut and,
"Let's wait until guidelines are issued."
I guess so.
When you talk about Superhumans, there are people who can move incredibly fast.
If it's a distance of about 20 minutes by car, there might be someone who can get here much faster than that.
I was trembling slightly, and there was a kid holding my hand.
It was Soi.
"Lua-ya."
"U-uh, yeah."
I can't hide that my body is trembling.
As if my body reacted before my brain could feel fear.
I reflexively looked out the window again.
There was no one visible on the playground.
*
Bzzzt, bzzzt.
And less than 10 minutes later, the ear-piercing alarm sound was heard again along with the vibration.
Warning messages are coming in one after another.
Of course, among them, there must be messages sent by the children's parents.
Every single one of them was talking about a 'disturbance'.
Is it not a 'terrorist attack'?
If they aren't using guns or bombs, but only their abilities, I can see how it could be called a disturbance.
If each and every one of them has abilities on the level of a bomb, how many people would it take to cause a 'disturbance'?
......
Once again, I recall how complacent I was.
I barely remember the content of the novel now. I tried to write it down to organize it, but when I actually tried to write, all that came to mind clearly was the faint settings for each character.
It wasn't the only academy story I had read in the first place, so the settings of various works were mixed up and came to mind.
Even if I, like this, were to warn about the future, could I stop it? I was worried that I might end up delivering wrong information instead.
However, if it was a crisis where people could die. If it was an incident that broke out because I couldn't recall it.
If so—
......
Soi grips my hand tightly.
She doesn't bother to comfort me with words.
Afraid that if she said anything, I might get even more terrified.
......Am I not too pathetic?
I hear sniffling sounds from around me.
Their parents might work at City Hall, and even if it's not City Hall, Jung-gu is a place with a lot of workplaces.
If all of that is entirely because I couldn't recall the settings.
If so.
......Nah, no way.
It won't be. No way, that can't be it. Even so, would they have set up every single detail from years ago in the novel?
So......
This time too, my thoughts were cut off midway.
"Eek!"
Someone's scream.
Startled, I looked toward where the sound came from, and a kid sitting by the window was pointing outside with one hand covering her mouth.
I reflexively looked out the window.
On the playground, a picture was drawn in a circle.
In red.
The red line that was being drawn in a circle continued in a straight line near where the line ended.
At the end of it, there was a person bleeding and retreating backward.
"......Uh."
It was the man who had been standing on the playground until a while ago.
It was far away, so I couldn't see exactly what had happened—
Someone was watching the man retreating backward.
A woman with black hair.
The woman's gaze turns toward this side.
Perhaps, she seems to be checking our school.
And, somehow. It felt like her gaze met mine.
......No way.