I Accidentally Met the Protagonist
"Hic—!"
The hiccups wouldn't stop.
The protagonist. Han Soyeon.
In the chapters I'd read, she was a character who could hesitate, even a little, before killing Lee Yuhwa, the main villain of Part Two—
"......"
In the beginning, though, she had hated villains without condition. Kind enough toward civilians, and crueler than anyone the moment a villain stood in front of her. That was Han Soyeon.
She stared straight at me. Then she started toward me, slow, and pulled out her phone as if to send a text somewhere.
Don't tell me... she figured out I killed him? Was that a report? New villain spotted? She might even have seen my body change size.
"Hic...!"
Damn it. The thought only made the hiccups worse.
"...You all right?"
"Hic...! Huh?"
"...Come here for now. It's dangerous over there."
She stepped in close and put her own body between me and the corpse, blocking it from my sight.
...She didn't catch me? If she had, there would be no reason to be this kind. Early Han Soyeon was pure catharsis—the type who ground every last villain into dust. One of the top comments in the webtoon's early chapters had even said they might as well rename the thing Villain All-Kill.
"Hic!"
"Calm down. I'm— no. Unnie's a hero. So relax."
As if to soothe me, she bent her knees until our eyes were level.
Amethyst eyes, beautiful as if cut from the gem itself. Set against the shimmer of her golden hair, they gave her an almost otherworldly air.
...She's really pretty. She'd been pretty in the webtoon, too. Pretty enough that there was a running joke about the artist being locked in some basement, surviving on frozen dumplings while being worked to the bone. Reality outdid even that. An Eastern beauty that could put most idols to shame, and against it the exotic harmony of blonde hair and amethyst eyes. Her clothes were casual, and they suited that cool, chic air of hers perfectly. Honestly, I had the feeling she would look good in anything.
Why on earth was she a hero instead of an idol?
Or maybe, with a face like that, the villains just turned themselves in.
"You okay? Was it that much of a shock...?"
"Hic!"
I'd been staring blankly at her face. I barely managed to snap out of it.
...I'm one wrong breath from dying, and I'm admiring her looks? Have I lost my mind?!
I couldn't forget. The woman in front of me was the very definition of Villain All-Kill—someone who slaughtered every villain she came across. A child's body was no guarantee she wouldn't kill me. In the story, she had cut down a doppelganger who had turned into a child without a moment's hesitation. The Ashen Boy, a villain who looked about middle-school age, had died by her hand as well.
"Hold on. Can Unnie pick you up?"
"What...?"
Unnie...?
Fwip—
Without waiting to hear what I thought of the idea, she lifted me clean off the ground.
"It's dangerous here... let's move for a bit."
She drew me tight against her. As if determined I would never see where his body lay, she pressed my face into her chest. Her chest pushed against my cheek.
Squish.
Th-this woman, without a shred of shame...! I was in no state to recognize the care behind it. How could a grown woman press herself against a man who wasn't even—
Oh. Right. I'm a girl now.
A little girl, at that. The Confucian dragon coiled inside me tried to rear up and died on the spot. Had meeting the protagonist frozen my brain, or had a large chest simply rendered me stupid?
Carrying me, she put as much distance as she could between us and the body. She stopped at a playground near the apartment complex. Whether the children had all vanished or it was simply during school hours, there wasn't a soul there.
"...Could you give me your parents' number?"
Once she judged we'd gone far enough, she loosened her hold a little and asked.
My parents' number...? In the webtoon, Yuhwa's parents hadn't seemed to exist either.
The house was bleak and cold. They're probably really gone. I wasn't certain. Lee Yuhwa's parents' number might technically exist somewhere, but it was safer to treat it as if it didn't.
From within her arms, I looked up at her.
"I don't have parents."
It felt like a long time since I'd said those words. As a kid I'd said them without understanding what they meant, and after being teased a few times I'd started fleeing any conversation that even brushed the subject. Not having parents was a painfully sensitive thing when you were young.
"...Then another relative's number—"
"I don't have any. No parents, and no relatives either. It's not that I don't have their numbers. They're just not there."
"......"
Maybe because I'd said it so flatly, she stared at me without a word.
...Wait. Did I slip? Had a little kid just announced she had no parents way too calmly? Had I just given myself away as a cruel little villain, a psychopath who didn't cry even when she was supposed to be sad?
Should I pinch myself somewhere and start crying right now—
"...I'm sorry. That wasn't what I meant."
...All right. Apparently that wasn't it. I'd barely survived a villain executive. Getting my throat cut by the protagonist would have been a miserable plot development, so this was a relief.
"And... could you put me down?"
"...All right."
At my request, she set me on the ground. Gently, the way you'd set down a precious piece of porcelain.
"Where's your home?"
"The apartment right over there."
I slipped out of her arms and landed lightly—
"Nyak—!"
Goddamn it. I could not get used to this cursed difference in height.
"You okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine."
Damn it. Embarrassing. Child's body or not, falling that gracelessly... And she'd set me down so carefully, and I still couldn't manage that last centimeter.
Rustle.
...Come to think of it, were those triangular kimbap even intact? The drinks could wait. They'd been shaken so hard the carbonation was one nudge from exploding.
"Thank you. I'll head in now."
"Where are you going?"
"Home..."
"It's dangerous. I'll come with you."
Excuse me? Weren't we just in the middle of a goodbye? Why?
"...I'm fine. I can go by myself."
I refused with everything I had.
"Even so, it's dangerous. I'll walk you home."
"It's fi—"
"If walking's hard, should I carry you again?"
...She had no intention of listening to me at all. Right. She was righteous, and stubborn to the bone. Villain All-Kill or not, at her core she was still a hero.
Well... it's not as if every hero is righteous. There were corrupt heroes, and heroes more villainous than the villains. Killing those corrupt heroes was one of the things that came up often in Part Two.
"...I can walk."
Being carried the rest of the way was something I'd rather decline.
Not that I disliked it, exactly. That soft feeling had been good enough that I wanted to feel it again... It was more that it felt like my pride was cracking.
I started walking, and Han Soyeon followed behind.
Beep.
I opened the building's common entrance with the card in my wallet.
Good thing I had the house key. Hunger had sent me out the door without a single thought. If I hadn't brought my wallet—no, if the key hadn't been inside it—I'd have been homeless, plain and simple.
...But how long is she going to follow me? We'd come all the way to the apartment entrance, and she showed no sign of turning back. When she said she'd see me home, had she actually meant all the way to my door?
"...I can go in by myself now."
"Ah. Yeah. ...Am I making you uncomfortable?"
She spoke carefully.
In the webtoon she talked pretty rough, I'm sure of it. I had to wonder if this was really the Han Soyeon who butchered villains and threatened her fellow heroes. Was it because I was a kid? Or had she only been like that with villains? And... had there ever been a setting where Han Soyeon was kind to children? I didn't think she'd been this gentle even early on. I wasn't sure. It had been so long since I'd read the first episode that the memory was hazy.
"It's not that..."
She did make me uncomfortable, though. Now that I knew I held power as a villain, uneasy was the only thing I could be.
Isn't there some excuse I can use...? I racked my brain. The line kids always used to turn this kind of thing down...
Oh. Right.
"Um... Mom said I'm not supposed to let other people into the house."
"Ah..."
She flinched. Yeah. For a little kid, Mom's word was law.
"Mom said never to tell anyone where I live, either. I invited a friend over once and got in so much trouble..."
"......"
"And... she says other people are dangerous. Mom told me not to meet them."
The moment I opened my mouth, the lies came out on their own. All those childhood years I'd spent lying desperately so no one would notice I didn't have parents—they hadn't been for nothing. Right now I was doing the opposite, advertising that my parents weren't around, but anyway.
"...All right. I understand."
Whether the lie had landed or not, she nodded.
"Then... could I at least give you my number? If something happens, or you suddenly get scared... call Unnie."
Her number? I did have a phone.
Now that I think about it, I only grabbed it. I never even turned it on.
I pulled the smartphone from my pocket. A model similar to the ones I'd seen on Earth. The only difference was that it was a little smaller.
An apple phone...? On the back, where an apple should have been, there was a diamond instead. Yeah. Using the exact same trademark would probably be a problem.
When I turned it on, a lock screen with no wallpaper at all met my eyes.
...Thankfully this place has fingerprint recognition too. A small mercy amid the misfortune. A kid who couldn't even unlock her own phone? In an age like this, it was unthinkable. I didn't think she'd kill me on the spot for failing to open it, but there was always that one-in-a-million chance.
The lock released. A single cat sat cutely on the wallpaper.
...So Lee Yuhwa was a girl in her own way, after all? The phone itself had none of that girlish sensibility, but the wallpaper carried a hint of it.
"Here."
When I handed her the phone, she entered her number, then called it from her own.
"...There. That's Unnie's number."
"Okay."
"Could I know your name?"
"Uh... um... Yuhwa."
On Earth or here, Yuhwa was still the right name. The surname... I'd keep that to myself for now.
"All right. Unnie's a hero, so if anything happens, make sure you call me."
With that, she left the apartment complex. Even as she went, she glanced back at me. I couldn't tell whether she was suspicious or worried.
Only after I watched her disappear completely did I finally let out a sigh of relief.