Ara Is a Pubescent Girl
After the whole noisy mess had blown over, I managed to talk Ara into coming with me to a nearby café.
Looks like I’m not making it to my part-time job today either…
But what could I do about it? It was all my own karma.
I ordered an iced americano for myself first, then got Ara a watermelon juice.
I remembered that every single time she came to a café, watermelon juice was the only thing she ever drank.
Neither of us knew what to say, so we sat in silence for a while. Even though we’d only just ordered, the buzzer went off almost immediately.
I was about to grab it and fetch the drinks when—
“Hey, just sit there. Your ankle’s still hurting, and if you go get them it’ll look like I’m making a guy wait on me.”
“…You just called me ‘you’… not Oppa…”
“…Hmph.”
Aigoo, terrifying.
The way she fretted over my ankle and brought the drinks for me instead still showed she had some fondness left for me, but the way she addressed me had plummeted straight from “Oppa” to “you.”
This was seriously bad.
If only she wanted something from me, it would have been a little easier to fix…
Ara set the iced americano down in front of me, placed her watermelon juice in front of herself, and sat.
She took a long, slurping sip of the juice, then looked me dead in the eye.
“So? What was so important that you had to cause this much trouble?”
“Urgh…”
“Honestly, I never imagined a high-schooler would act like that… Anyone watching would think you were in second grade of elementary school, not second year of high school.”
“Uuuugh…”
“Just so we’re clear, you’re not about to pull some insane stunt like ‘Congratulations on making it to high school’ now, right? Because even if you are a guy, I won’t be able to stop myself from hitting you.”
“…Ara’s gone dark…”
“…What?”
Undeniable facts stabbed into my heart like sharp daggers without a shred of mercy.
But that didn’t mean I could just sit here and take it.
I knew it was a little cheeky for the person who was in the wrong, but I really didn’t want our relationship to stay like this.
When she looked at me with pure contempt earlier, I actually teared up a little, okay? For real.
I wasn’t the kind of person who could do anything grand to earn forgiveness, so the best apology I could offer was one that laid bare every bit of my sincerity—an apology and reflection for what I’d done wrong.
I straightened my clothes and my expression, then simply held Ara’s gaze for about a minute and a half without saying a word.
When her eyes finally started to dart away from mine, I shot up from my seat and walked straight over to her.
“W-w-what… a-are you mad that I talked casually…? But…!”
The moment I closed the distance in one go, Ara startled so hard it was almost suspicious.
But right then I had no room to notice anything like that.
All I could think about was begging her for forgiveness.
“I-I know I… I was wrong too… but Oppa was the one who… first…!”
While she kept babbling, I wrapped her in a tight hug and spoke.
“Ara… Oppa is really, truly sorry. No matter what was going on, I should have come to see you. It’s completely my fault.”
She fell quiet for a moment, then her eyes grew wet.
After that she poured out her heart like she was venting all the resentment she’d been holding in.
“…That’s right… I… b-begged you so hard… to come…”
“Yeah…”
“No matter… h-how hard I looked… Oppa wasn’t… there…”
“I know… I’m sorry. Oppa was wrong…”
“I… only waited for that… and worked so hard… all through third year…”
“You missed Oppa that much, huh.”
“Uuu…”
In the end she couldn’t even form proper words anymore and just clung to me again.
I kept stroking her hair as I spoke.
“Oppa is really sorry. No matter how busy I was, I never should have forgotten the promise I made with you.”
“You were mean…”
“Mean Oppa is sorry…”
“…Then… can you grant me one favor…?”
Even at a time like this, who else would only ask for one single favor? What a good kid.
One? I wanted to grant her hundreds, but I knew that wasn’t what mattered right now.
“Of course. Just say it.”
I felt a little ridiculous saying that so confidently right after apologizing for breaking a promise, but I couldn’t back out now.
Ara twirled a lock of her yellow hair around her finger, fidgeting, then finally forced the words out.
“It’s been so long… come over to my house and sleep over with me…”
My first thought was that this hardly seemed like something that needed to be framed as a “favor.”
Then it hit me.
This was Ara being considerate of me.
She’d deliberately called such a small thing a “favor” just to lighten the weight on my heart.
Really… how could she have grown up so kind…
I immediately sent a message to Master right then and there, then left the café with Ara.
Perfect.
“Shall we go, then? Oh, want to grab some snacks and drinks for tonight while we’re at it?”
“Wow! That sounds great!”
“Alright, let’s go!”
Heh heh. A celebration of our reconciliation.
I’m not letting you sleep tonight, Kim Ara! Brace yourself!
We bought a full thirty thousand won’s worth of snacks and drinks alone, and since it had been so long since I’d seen Maru’s parents, I also picked up a cake at the supermarket.
Even I could tell it was a pretty shabby gift compared to the Kim household, but I figured sincerity was what counted.
…I was a broke student, so hopefully they’d understand.
Walking with an excited Ara after so long naturally lifted my own mood, and we set a new record by covering a fifteen-minute walk in five minutes flat.
The first thing that came into view when we arrived was a house even bigger than Master’s.
I already knew, but it still caught me off guard all over again.
About twice the size of Master’s place, so… what, seventy or eighty pyeong…?
“Oppa, what are you doing? Hurry up and come in!”
“Ah, yeah.”
At Ara’s urging I walked toward the Kim house with awkward steps.
Ara punched in the front-door code right in front of me without the slightest hesitation, then grabbed my hand and marched me straight to her parents.
…! W-what about prep time?
And so I found myself standing in front of Maru’s parents holding a giant bag of snacks and a wine-style cake box.
“Ah, hello. Have you been well?”
I was flustered, sure, but greetings were greetings, so I quickly pulled myself together and offered a proper greeting.
Maru’s parents seemed to be processing the situation for a second before accepting it.
“Oh come on, no need to be so stiff with us. Hey, Maru! Chan’s here!”
“…Huh? Chan?”
That line would originally have come from Maru’s mother, but since this was the reversed world, it was Maru’s father who said it.
“Ah, it’s been so long I just… Ah, this is a little shabby, but here’s a cake…”
“Oh my oh my oh my oh my oh my! This is exactly why I can’t help liking Chan! Where do you even find such a polite young man these days? Ara, you’ve got to step it up, okay? Guys like this don’t exist anymore! Ah, that’s right. To celebrate, let’s have a party tonight. You kids go on upstairs and play.”
“Ah, yes! Oppa, let’s go!”
…She really hadn’t been this intense before. Honestly…
Ara dragged me into her room.
Maru followed right after us.
It wasn’t the first time I’d been in here, but I hadn’t set foot inside since Ara had grown up a bit.
The room I entered after so long was filled with all sorts of fragrant scents.
The room itself was a little messy, though…
“Sniff sniff, what’s that smell? Kind of like fishy seafood? What is it…?”
“Crazy——!!!”
No, I’d just said it smelled nice, so hearing that made me feel like I was the pervert somehow…
While I was busy trying to hide that complicated feeling, Ara hauled Maru out of the room at incredible speed.
I understood the panic, but wouldn’t kicking me out have been the correct answer, Ara?
Because humans are creatures who can’t overcome their curiosity.
Which is exactly why I ended up peeking into the trash can beside Ara’s bed,
why I pulled out one of the overwhelming number of tissues and sniffed it,
why Ara and Maru walked back in right in the middle of that scene,
and why Ara was so shocked and mortified that she collapsed on the spot and started crying—
all of it had been somewhat predictable.
“W-what the hell! Why is she suddenly crying, and why are you holding a tissue…? D-don’t tell me… crazy…”
Pure-hearted Maru, who had a lover he loved to death, finally seemed to understand.
This bastard. Normally people take care of that alone, you know.
“Haha… I’m fine with it… …Sorry, Ara. But it’s really okay. I understand…”
I tried to say something, anything, but it was never going to reach Ara, who had stopped crying and was now sitting there with vacant eyes, her mental state completely checked out.
While I was wondering how to bring her back to her senses, it hit me that she was going through such a vigorous puberty that her trash can was overflowing.
So the words just slipped out of my mouth on their own.
“Ara, Oppa’s sorry… Okay? If you snap out of it, Oppa will let you touch his ch—”
“…Chest?”
What is this… a bug?