A Shoulder to Lean On
Unlike when they first met, Mari had been looking quite downcast lately, prompting a worried look from Yunjae. "Mari...?"
"Ah. No, it's nothing. I was just wondering if it's really okay for me to be doing this."
In truth, she had been quite happy lately. Her days were stable and peaceful. Beside Yunjae, she now had female friends like Akemi, Suyeon, and Miju. They even chatted about cosmetics and clothes. For the first time in her twenty-seven years of life, she felt like she was living as a normal woman. It was undoubtedly the most peaceful time of her life, but...
But I didn't earn any of this with my own strength.
On some level, her heart felt heavier now than it ever had during her days as an active hunter.
"Ah! You'll do great, Mari! Much better than me!"
Seeing Yunjae try so hard to comfort her, she let out a soft sigh and shook her head. "...There's no way."
A parasite. Just as she had told Taejun, that was truly how she felt about herself. She had lucked into meeting Yunjae, and though she had stayed by his side ever since, she wasn't actually doing anything for him. She was just clinging to him. She was genuinely thrilled that he had shown his true worth today and was finally being recognized by everyone, but the stark contrast between them made her feel miserable and depressed.
"Mari..." Before she knew it, tears had welled up in her eyes. "Ah!" She quickly wiped them away with the back of her hand. "No, no! I think something just got in my eye!"
An ordinary person with no special abilities. And among ordinary people, someone who had lived a far-from-normal life at the very bottom. "...I'm sorry," Yunjae murmured.
"Wait, why? What are you sorry for?!"
This was her own hand in life, not something he should ever feel guilty about. Feeling even more apologetic because of his reaction, Mari shook her head, but Yunjae simply stared at her face in silence.
"I had no idea you were struggling with this. I'm so sorry for not noticing..."
A sudden lump rose in her throat at his words. Was it because she had started wearing skirts and makeup? Feeling as though she had grown far too soft compared to her past self, she bit her lip and shook her head.
"Why are you the one apologizing? It's only because I'm useless and can't do anything..."
She forced a faint smile, but Yunjae softly insisted, "...Still." Seeing him look as sorrowful as if it were his own pain only made her resolve crumble further.
"I don't want to pretend I understand when I don't, so I'm not sure what to say." Yunjae spoke hesitantly, as if worried that his presence was only making her feel worse. He was the absolute epitome of introverted anxiety, careful with every single word.
"No, really, it's not that serious. It's just..."
"There's no such thing as 'just' hurting. If it's constantly on your mind and weighing you down, then it's real pain."
Mari froze at his words.
"I don't know if this will be any comfort, but I'm truly happy to have you by my side, Mari. You say what's on your mind instead of getting frustrated and tongue-tied like me, and I genuinely have so much fun when we're together. Maybe that's selfish of me. I was the closest person to you, yet I didn't even realize how you felt. It makes me really sad."
His words forced her to wipe her eyes once more. "Oh, honestly... I told you it's not like that..."
He was incredibly delicate. He never presumed to measure her feelings or make hasty judgments. He simply laid bare his own heart and expressed his sincere regrets. It was far more moving than any cheap words of comfort ever could be. Looking at his guilt-ridden face, Mari managed a genuine smile.
"To be honest... I was a little jealous of you." Now that her heart felt lighter, she found herself able to voice the embarrassing truth.
"Of me? Ah! Why?!"
"Because you're amazing at everything. And everyone acknowledges you. Meanwhile, I haven't done a single thing... So..." Letting out a deep sigh, she continued, "I felt like I was just parasitizing off of you..."
"That's not true!" Yunjae cut her off, shaking his head vehemently. "That's absolutely not true. Please don't ever say that, Mari."
His uncharacteristically firm tone made Mari let out a self-deprecating laugh. "This is so embarrassing, really..." Yet, tears slipped down her cheeks once more.
"If I had done all this alone, I don't think I would be happy or enjoying myself like this," Yunjae said softly. "Just as you said, I might be able to learn things quickly and do them on my own, but there are things that are absolutely impossible to do by myself. Please don't undervalue that. I'm receiving so much from you, Mari."
At his words, Mari silently wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a tight embrace.
"Ah..."
"Thank you. Meeting you is the greatest stroke of luck in my entire life."
"Mari..." Yunjae slowly, hesitantly placed his hands on her back. But true to his ultra-timid nature, his touch was so light and tentative that it felt more like a tickle.
"If you're going to hug me, could you be a little bolder?"
"Ah! Is that really okay...?"
"Of course you can." At Mari's shy permission, Yunjae gently pressed his palms against her back, making her burst into a soft laugh.
"Is that your idea of bold?"
"Ah! But if we rush things too quickly...!"
"You can at least pat my back, you dummy!" Finally, she laid bare her truest, most vulnerable desire. "Just comfort me. Honestly... I really wanted to be comforted..."
At her plea, Yunjae gently patted her back. "Yes, Mari..."
Since she was fourteen, she had scraped by as a hunter without ever having anyone to lean on or comfort her. As a serene, happy expression spread across her face at his touch—
"A-Are you feeling better now, Mari...?" came Yunjae's visibly tense voice.
"Yeah." Still holding him, Mari looked up at him. "If I ever get like this again, promise you'll do this for me."
"Ah! Yes, Mari!" Seeing his face flush bright red, she couldn't help but feel a wave of embarrassment wash over herself as well.
"H-How can you get so embarrassed over something like this?"
"Ah, actually..." Yunjae darted his eyes toward something behind her.
"Huh...?" Only then did Mari sense another presence. She turned her head. "A-Akemi! Y-You! When did you get here?!" Locking eyes with a thoroughly unimpressed Akemi, Mari scrambled backward in a panic, practically throwing herself off Yunjae.
"Mari! That's so unfair! Pouncing on him the second you get off work is way too much! It's barely even evening!"
"W-Who's pouncing on who?!" Though she hadn't done anything wrong, being caught in such an intimate moment left her utterly mortified.
"But anyone could see you were seducing him! You were hugging him in that office lady outfit—which is totally Yunjae's weakness—and begging him to comfort you!"
"T-That was!" It was too awkward to explain, but staying silent made it look even worse! Her mind went completely blank from sheer embarrassment. Unable to form coherent words, Mari just flailed her hands in the air.
"N-No! It's not like that at all, Akemi!"
"You even have two buttons undone, and there's alcohol! You were going all out, Mari!"
"It's because it's suffocating if I button it all the way up! And the buttons gaped open on their own!" Mari desperately defended herself.
"I've never felt suffocated by buttons in my entire life!" Akemi shrieked, her face a picture of tragic flat-chested sorrow.
"...Oh." Mari had absolutely no idea how to respond to that. Her mind blanked out yet again as she stood there, utterly speechless.
"Ah! Akemi! I have one correction to make! My absolute weakness isn't office ladies—it's uniforms!" Yunjae chimed in, his face bright red as he shouted.
"You idiot, how is that the important part right now?! And since when were you a uniform fetishist?!"
"Ah! I wouldn't go so far as to say fetishist, but I just felt like I had to correct the misinformation!" A man of conviction, even in his timidity! Watching their serious moment devolve into a parade of idiots, Mari couldn't help but burst into laughter.
"A-Anyway, it's absolutely not what you think! So don't misunderstand!"
"I even got nanomachines implanted... Why won't my chest grow?"
"Why are you still on about that?!"
"You don't understand, Mari! You'll never understand!" At Akemi's lament, Mari, still flushed with embarrassment, self-consciously covered her chest with her hands.
"Ah!"
"W-Why are you getting embarrassed again?!"
"I just thought you looked incredibly feminine just now, Mari!" At his confession, Mari shut her mouth, her blush spreading all the way to her earlobes. Thump! It was nothing major, but her heart had genuinely skipped a beat.
"A-Anyway, Akemi! What brings you here?" Flustered, Mari quickly changed the subject. Akemi let out a sigh.
"I got a call from Joe... He said there's no record of anything like that in North America either."
"Mamon Saga?"
"Yeah!" Hearing that, the heat in Mari's face finally began to cool as she turned to Yunjae. "So Mamon Saga really is a game that doesn't exist in this world?"
"But that makes no sense. It definitely..."
"Where did you even get it?" Mari asked. Surely there was a massive connection between Mamon Saga, Yunjae, and the Portal Incident.
"I was on my way home after winning a console as a prize, and some middle-aged lady sold it to me."
"Huh? A lady?"
"Yes. I wasn't actually planning on buying it, but since I had just won the console as a prize, I couldn't use the excuse of not owning one..." The origin of the game was incredibly sketchy.
"...You were timid even back then."
"Ah! But she said it was originally fifty thousand won, and since it was brand new, she'd let me have it for five thousand won! I figured I wouldn't be losing anything by buying it...!"
"So it wasn't just your forearms that were thin—your ears were thin too."
"I'm just slender all over, Mari!" In any case, Yunjae had acquired Mamon Saga from some random middle-aged woman.
"Then who on earth was that woman?" How could she have handed him a game that didn't even exist in this world? Who was she? And what exactly is Mamon Saga? Plagued by these questions, Mari glanced over at Akemi. "Akemi, what do you think?"
If not for Akemi, they wouldn't have even known that Mamon Saga didn't exist in the real world. Since Akemi was a hardcore gamer and surprisingly sharp when it came to deduction, perhaps she could offer a plausible theory.
"Yes! I'd love to hear your thoughts, Akemi!" Yunjae also seemed eager to understand why he had been trapped in Mamon Saga. Both of them stared at her with dead-serious expressions. Akemi looked back at them with equal gravity and spoke.
"Should I get breast implants?"
"Phew." Yunjae and Mari let out a deep, simultaneous sigh.
"Let's do our best, Mari!" "Yeah! I won't let anyone look down on us!" Starting today, they were management! Though they had failed to uncover anything about the mysterious woman who gave Yunjae Mamon Saga due to a complete lack of clues, they had to focus on their new beginning.
"Then manage me first! Make me your number one!" Akemi, who had tagged along on their commute, shouted with a fully restored, energetic face.
"Small chests, big chests, none of that matters. What matters is that a chest exists!" Recalling how Akemi had regained her confidence thanks to Yunjae's bizarre comfort, Mari gave her a slightly dubious look. "You really insisted on commuting with us today. At this rate, are you actually going to move in?"
"Well, your place is the penthouse unit, so it's way too big for just the two of you anyway." "...I guess that's true." It was nice having Akemi over as a close friend, but now she seemed poised to practically squat in their home.
"Actually, I'm seriously considering moving over there. No, wait, I don't have anything else to spend my money on anyway, so maybe I should just buy the whole building? Then I can let you guys live there rent-free!" But of course, she was already a multi-millionaire with tens of billions of won to her name.
"Ah! If you do, please wait until our fifteen-month lease is up, Akemi!" "Eh? Why?" "Because we have a fifteen-month rent-free contract! If you buy the building before then, you'll have to assume the lease, which means that shady real estate agent will profit from it! So you have to buy it after the fifteen months are over!"
True to his petty, grudge-holding nature, Yunjae had calculated exactly how to prevent the greedy real estate agent, Kim Myeonggu, from making a single cent. Mari couldn't help but snicker. He might look clueless on the surface, but he was absolutely not the type to let himself get ripped off.
"Well, we certainly won't lose anything either way. It's best to milk those fifteen months dry just like Yunjae said!" Akemi was a top-tier S-class hunter who had amassed tens of billions of won at the tender age of nineteen. While a tiny pang of insecurity still lingered, Mari—having shed her emotional burden thanks to Yunjae's comfort the night before—chuckles and accepted it gracefully.
"Hmm, fifteen months. But I'm too worried Mari will pounce on Yunjae in the meantime! Even if I don't buy the building right away, I definitely have to move in!"
"W-What would I do?!" Reminded of last night's events, Mari's face flushed red again.
"Yesterday might have been a misunderstanding, but you could launch a full-on romantic assault any day now! He said chest size doesn't matter, but let's be real, that's where feminine charm comes from!"
"Ugh...!"
"And saying 'comfort me'?! No matter how I look at it, that sounds way too suggestive!" At Akemi's competitive outburst, Mari's face burned even hotter.
"I told you it didn't mean that! And where on earth do you see any 'feminine charm' in me?!" Though she had been feeling more feminine lately, having spent thirteen grueling years as a rough-and-tumble hunter made the label feel incredibly awkward and embarrassing.
"If you just cover your face, you're the ultimate woman, Mari!"
"Do you want to die?! What's wrong with my face?!" As Mari snapped, Akemi pouted.
"But honestly, your face has gotten a lot more feminine lately too. You looked like a total tomboy when I first met you."
"Ah! She definitely had a bit of that vibe!"
"Who are you calling a tomboy, you brats?!" Mari barked, still unable to shake her rough, boyish way of speaking. Akemi giggled.
"Anyway, I'm seriously going to think about moving in! You guys can spare a room for me, right? It's a three-bedroom apartment after all!"
"...The three of us living together?"
"Living alone is boring!" At that, Mari stole a glance at Yunjae.
"Ah, but one guy living with two girls is..."
"...I guess it would be a bit uncomfortable, right?" Mari actually didn't mind. She and Akemi were close enough, and they were both women. If another man were to move in, she would have found it awkward and uncomfortable, so she figured Yunjae might feel the same way about living with two women. As Mari and Akemi both looked at him expectantly—
"Ah... I'll try to keep an open mind about it..." he replied with a shy, blushing face.
"You really are a closet pervert!"
"Ah! I actually thought I was being pretty open about it!"