It's a Date
Alice caught my hand and led me toward the movie theater.
It was a Thursday morning, and the place was nowhere near full.
"Hmm. I find myself quite unable to decide which film to see."
Posters hung in a row along the lobby wall.
"The next showing begins in ten minutes."
Setting aside whatever was already playing, three films were waiting their turn.
Matching You a Life
Legendary Hero
Silk
Judging by the posters, they looked like romance, action, and horror, in that order.
"Do you happen to have a favorite genre?"
She asked it as if she meant to let me choose.
"A favorite genre...? Hmm..."
Horror was out. Things leaping out of nowhere just to jolt a person's heart were unpleasant and startling, and I had never cared for them.
Not that I especially love action or romance, either...
I didn't feel strongly about either one, but if I had to pick, action was the safer bet.
Alice must have seen my eyes settle on everything except the horror poster. The smile she turned on me was pure mischief.
"If you cannot decide, then we shall watch this one."
"...What?"
The film she pointed to was Silk. Even a glance at the poster was enough: a grotesque woman's silhouette showing through a sheet of cloth, advertising a ghost as plainly as a marquee could.
"I—I'm not really great with horror..."
I tried to get the words out quickly, but—
"Too late."
Before I could stop her, Alice had already bought tickets to Silk.
"Come along. If we mean to get popcorn and drinks before we go in, we haven't a moment to spare."
Two receipts dangled from her hand. There was no running now.
"...Okay."
...I really did hate horror.
...This was the worst.
"Aaaaaaaah!"
How many times had I heard that scream? Had the actress lost her voice by the time they wrapped?
...I'll be dead before she is.
And here I was, worrying about a stranger.
Seriously... my heart's about to fall out.
I had never been able to watch horror. I was even less able now.
My heartbeat thundered, enormous in my ears. One more jump scare and it might have stopped outright.
In this body... I absolutely cannot watch this!
I had lost count of how many times the movie had startled me. At this rate, my heart had already abandoned my body.
The film was nearly at its end. The protagonist, the last one left alive, had just died. The ghost stared out through the screen at the audience, and then the image cut to the police and an investigation team arriving to pick over the case, clutching their heads, and the movie was over.
With a soft pop, the house lights came up. Two hours, done.
"Hmm... That was truly enjoyable, was it not?"
"No..."
Her eyes curved into crescents as they found me.
"Though I will admit you were far more entertaining than the film."
"......"
"Last time you were so frightened of me, and yet clinging to me like that was terribly cute."
"......"
...Embarrassing as it was, I had grabbed onto her arm once in the middle of it. Not because I was scared. I was startled, and I reached for whatever happened to be beside me, and I caught her by accident.
"...I-it was a mistake."
"A mistake, you say? Then will you call this hand you are holding now a mistake as well?"
Hand...?
What was she—
Soft.
Only when she mentioned it did I feel it: the give of a hand in mine.
"......!!!"
"Only just noticed, have you?"
Her hand was a little larger than mine, and the skin against my palm was impossibly soft. I let go at once.
"Hmm. You hold on only when you need to, and the moment you do not, you let go? How cold."
She flexed the hand I had dropped and looked at me.
"That's..."
"It is fine. Do not trouble yourself with excuses."
Her fingers closed around mine again, sure and quick.
"I need only take it back myself."
"...Pardon?"
My hand was caught once more.
"I am holding it because I need you now."
"...I-is that so."
...One way or another, I didn't think I was going to be allowed to let go of this hand.
After the movie, lunchtime found us at a famous sushi restaurant in Gangnam—an ultra-luxury place where the lunch course ran nearly a thousand dollars.
"How is this one?"
"...It's good."
"Eat plenty. This is my favorite place."
It was worth the price. Everything they brought out was delicious. I was someone who used to be full after two triangle kimbap, those cheap convenience-store rice triangles, and yet the food here kept disappearing.
"...I'm full."
"You have barely finished a single platter..."
"I can eat more!"
Even with my stomach full, the flavor forced its way in. I had never imagined I would have an experience like this.
Do villains make this much money...?
...Maybe I should try being the main villain.
The thought flickered through my head and was gone.
...I've gone money-blind.
I corrected myself at once. The moment I became a villain, I was headed straight for the shredder. I could not afford to forget that.
"Thank you for the meal!"
"...Yes. So long as you are happy, that is enough."
I hadn't eaten even half of what they'd served, but it had been delicious, and that was enough for me.
Afterward we left the restaurant and walked the street.
"A crepe shop. Can you manage one?"
"Maybe...?"
"You may leave some, if you wish."
It was one of those crepe places people said you had to line up for. We were lucky: we only waited about twenty minutes.
"...It's delicious!"
I had always leaned toward sweet things, but lately they seemed to pull at me even harder.
We walked. A crepe in one hand, the other caught in Alice's.
At first it had felt unbearably embarrassing. Maybe it was because we both looked like little girls. It was exactly the sort of thing girls that age would do, and no one looked at us as if we were strange.
"...What are those two?"
"No way... aren't they both, like, idol trainees or something?"
...People did stare, though. A lot.
And so we spent the day.
Enjoyed it enough that I forgot she was the main villain. Maybe it was the younger body, but I felt as if I had slipped back into childhood. I couldn't say every moment of that time had been happy, but some of them had stayed, clear in my memory: shopping with the director, racing through the streets with the younger kids. The good moments rose up soft and warm, warmer than the old hurt.
"This time, I will succeed. Without fail."
"...Do you know how many tries this is?"
"Endure it. I am determined to take that home."
Little by little, I opened my heart to Alice. I didn't feel afraid of her anymore.
A friend...
Since I had come to this place, had I ever felt this at ease?
"What is the matter?"
"...It's nothing. I'm just having fun."
...Had I been thinking of her as nothing but a webtoon character?
I looked at the girl in front of me.
"Hmm... It is already evening."
She resembled the way she had been drawn, and yet she was different. The cruelty of someone always thirsting for amusement and blood, someone who would use any means to fight Han Soyeon—none of that was anywhere on her now.
"You do not seem able to eat very much, so..."
All I could see was a mischievous girl who liked to tease people.
Maybe I've been wrong.
The scenes in the webtoon were staged for the dopamine of it, the author personally braiding incidents together so the characters would crash into one another. Then what about a reality where that author didn't exist? Wouldn't it be different from what I had watched on the page?
Even if the events I knew still happened exactly as they had, I myself was already not Lee Yuhwa. I didn't belong to the Villain Alliance, and I didn't have an adult's body.
...Have I been too afraid of the characters?
Soyeon, who was always worrying over me, always greeting me. I had always been afraid of her. I didn't know whether it had shown, but she had probably guessed. That must have been why she came looking for me, why she kept drawing closer, day after day.
...Good thing I at least gave her a triangle kimbap.
Otherwise I might have died of guilt.
"Come quickly. You wouldn't... be thinking of someone else, and leaving me behind, would you?"
"N-no, I'm not. I'm coming!"
I hurried after Alice.
"Thinking of another person in the middle of a date. How cruel of you."
"...I told you, it's not like that."
The shopping street blazed with neon. All those bright clusters of light washed over a cool spring night.
"Very well. I shall believe you."
This night, I thought, would be one I never forgot.
A night I would never forget.
"What is the matter with you?"
Yes. Today would be a night I never forgot. It really would.
The voice came from behind me, and it was cruel. She had come close enough that her breath should have brushed my skin, and yet I felt no tickle at all.
"...What are you doing right now?"
Something locked tight inside me.
What kind of feeling was this?
"Haha. I do not think I have ever seen that expression on your face."
The same playful laugh as always. That laugh warped whatever I was feeling even further.
"I'll ask again. What are you doing."
My heart went cold. The glow I had felt earlier was gone from this place. All that remained was the night air, blowing in cold.
I... was wrong.
Alice was a villain after all. The worst kind.