Ttek-tteki (2)
I'd come out for a leisurely night walk, only for the archer of Seo Woojin's party to appear right in front of me without warning.
The moment I called her Ttek-tteki, Yoo Ahrin looked up at me wearing an expression that was a perfect match for her nickname.
"What. What now? Did you drop another arm somewhere?"
"Can't you see it's attached just fine?! And besides, you're the one who dragged it back to me early yesterday morning for treatment, so what the—"
"Hah, then what is it, Ttek-tteki?"
"That's what I'm asking—what the hell is a Ttek-tteki?! Why am I Ttek-tteki?!"
"Because every time I see you, you scrunch up your face and start squawking. You think there's some grand reason behind it?"
Case in point, she was squawking at me the instant we crossed paths right now. Thanks to her, my night walk—the one I'd been taking to organize my thoughts—had been thoroughly ruined.
'I was holding off on using that name until later on purpose.'
My plan was to time it so that, right around when disciplinary action came down on Seo Woojin for what he did in the dungeon, I could broadcast what that bastard had done there like a megaphone, all under the banner of Ttek-tteki.
Until then, I had no intention of getting tangled up with the shield-toting Gomtaengi or the mage Jukjuki any more than with Ttek-tteki herself.
"I-I never squawked in my life…!"
"You're squawking right now, the second we met. What do you mean, never?"
"That's different—you're the one who picked a fight with me just now!"
"All I did was use a nickname. Where's the fight in that? By your logic, what you pulled on Sora at the Border Hall yesterday—was that not a fight either?"
"…A-ah… that, that was just…."
The moment I brought up yesterday's incident—still vivid in my memory—Ahrin averted her eyes and started fidgeting nervously.
She probably felt embarrassed about it herself. She'd been so infatuated with a lunatic like Seo Woojin that she'd openly tried to keep Han Sora in check, as if Sora were some kind of rival.
"Anyway. If you've got nothing to say, I'm leaving."
"…I-I do have something to say."
"……."
"I, uh… wanted to thank you for covering the church hospital fees. I'll pay you back later. F-for sure."
Well, well. For someone who'd been clinging to Seo Woojin's side, her conscience wasn't completely rotten through after all.
Not that it mattered much—even if she'd refused to pay, I'd already resolved to collect one way or another.
"Oh? And here I thought you had no intention of paying. You should, you know. Obviously."
"Th-that's not what I meant! Ugh, why do you always have to talk to me like that every single time we meet?!"
"Because I didn't like how you kept shooting Sora weird looks and making petty little jabs at her from the moment we first met."
"……."
"And don't bother thanking me—I was going to demand my money back eventually anyway. If you're broke, I'll wring it out of you three one way or another."
More than anything, I had no intention of letting her erase the debt with some half-hearted apology or thank-you.
The reason I'd invested a not-insignificant sum of money into those extra girls was because I expected exactly that much in return. It was a hassle, sure, but until I could drive Seo Woojin out of the academy for good, I needed to keep my lines open with the trio—Ttek-tteki included.
"I-I'll apologize to Sora later. I think I… must have lost my mind a little back then…."
"Fine. I'm staying out of it, so you two can sort it out yourselves."
"…By the way, are you and Sora, like, dating? You seem to care about her a lot."
"We're not dating. Just friends. We've known each other since the entrance exams, too."
"…I see."
…The moment the words she and I aren't dating left my mouth, Ttek-tteki's face relaxed into an unmistakable look of relief.
Her emotions were so transparent it was almost pathetic—I couldn't help but chuckle. Given how hung up she was on a guy like Seo Woojin, I'd assumed she was just a simple airhead, but apparently that wasn't the whole story.
Or maybe the girl had changed a little after what happened in the dungeon. It's a common trope in web novels, after all—a character getting 'saved' and falling for her savior.
'Whether that applies to a villain like me and an extra like her, in this world based on the original novel, I can't say for sure.'
Still, since this world was built on the web novel's foundation, the trope probably wasn't without effect. And thinking about how I might use her later, the fact that Ttek-tteki harbored feelings like these toward me wasn't a bad thing at all.
Women in love are, by nature, the easiest to handle. Just look at how the original Lee Seonho used and discarded Cha Eunju—or how the trio, Ttek-tteki included, went along with Seo Woojin's idiotic antics yesterday.
"A-anyway, about what happened yesterday…."
"The eight-to-two split on the salvage fees is non-negotiable."
"…Not that! I-I just came to say thank you!"
"……."
"You saved us when we were about to die in the dungeon, you recovered my right arm and Eunbi's leg and brought them back, and the salvage fees… we weren't supposed to recover anything, but thanks to you we saved at least a little. You paid my hospital bill at the church, and you called in a priest you know so I could get treated right away, and, well… all of that…."
"If you're grateful, pay me in money."
"I-I'll pay you when I get it! I-I don't have any right now, so I can't give you anything today…. I'll be earning money over summer break doing dungeon runs with Hayeon and Eunbi, so just wait until then…."
Every time money came up, she kept glancing at me for my reaction, shrinking smaller and smaller.
Watching a girl who'd been squawking at me curl up like a mouse before a cat was, unexpectedly, rather cute. …Though I couldn't deny she ranked a step below the main-heroine types in the looks department.
"Do whatever you want."
"B-but what were you doing out here anyway? A night walk? Alone?"
"Just came out for some air. Morning classes were brutal today, so I needed to work out the knots in my muscles, too."
"O-oh, r-really? I-I just happened to come out for some air too. S-Selena-sunbae said that if I want my rehabilitation to work, I should do some light exercise on weekends, and…."
"Where are Gomtaengi and Jukjuki? Did you ditch them and come alone?"
"…Who the hell are Gomtaengi and Jukjuki?"
"The girl who carries the shield, and the girl whose leg got cut off."
"…You mean Hayeon and Eunbi?"
"Don't know their names."
"……."
Was that what their names were? I think I heard them yesterday, but I hadn't bothered to memorize them. Because once I'd chased off Seo Woojin, I figured I wouldn't have anything more to do with them, Ttek-tteki included.
She was the closest thing to a leader among the trio, so I'd only committed her name to memory as a point of contact.
"I can accept Hayeon being Gomtaengi, sure… but why is Eunbi Jukjuki?"
"Her expression, her whole aura is grim and gloomy, and she has the face of a woman about to die. Hence, Jukjuki."
"Wow… you are genuinely the worst at nicknames."
"So what? I don't even know their names."
"…Then don't tell me you don't know my name either?"
"You're Yoo Ahrin. Their names I don't know, but yours I do."
"……Th-that's good. That you at least know it, I mean."
…God, how predictable can you get.
All I did was say I knew her name, and she turned that red and started avoiding my eyes that openly.
A tsundere… no, if I had to be precise, her mouth ran a little too coarse for that—she was closer to the textbook shibaldere heroine archetype.
'Her type runs surprisingly similar to Min Yewon, doesn't it.'
I had no desire to bend my personality to match hers in a conquest, but she looked like the sort who'd be worth milking a few times if I gave her something for free.
Come to think of it, now that I looked, her looks were on par with Min Yewon's too. A slight notch below the main heroines, but a touch cuter than the average person.
…Not that raising her would mean much—she wasn't a main villainess like Min Yewon, nor even a minor character I'd ever seen in the original. Just a nobody.
"A-anyway, if you're going on a night walk, let's walk together. It was boring walking by myself."
"Me? With you?"
"……You don't want to?"
"…No, whatever. Suit yourself."
I'd considered brushing her off out of sheer annoyance, but watching her steal glances up at me so carefully, so cautiously, I decided there was no need.
As long as this girl behaved herself, I had no reason to drive her away. We could wander around a bit, and I could bring up a few things related to Seo Woojin while we were at it.
The moment I told her to do as she pleased, Ttek-tteki broke into a faint smile and sidled up against my side, and the two of us took an easy stroll down the late-night streets together.
"T-tomorrow's the start of the weekend. Seonho, do you have any plans this weekend?"
"Club activities, one appointment, and I'm supervising a personal training session for a sunbae I know."
"Y-you're busy…."
"Combat Support, remember. It's a position that gets you kicked out of parties by third year if you don't build connections. How else am I supposed to make a living as a hunter later?"
"Wh-what about our party? Ours is pretty well put together, you know…. We have a tank, and a mage handling firepower…."
"A party that couldn't take down a single pack of Poison Spike Wolves? If I joined, we'd have exactly one vanguard. Me."
"W-we can recruit more vanguards later! O-or you could bring someone you know, Seonho, and—"
"If I'm bringing people I know anyway, I'd rather just build my own party. And if I'm forming one with the Archery Department, why would I take you over Han Sora, the top student of the entire entrance exam? You'd just be the inferior copy."
"I-inferior copy?! Y-you don't have to go that far…!"
She was clearly hurt, but she couldn't actually refute it, so she settled for objecting to the phrasing itself.
After that, the conversation continued, though I kept a careful watch on the boundary, making sure she didn't cross a certain line.
'If I let a girl like this drag me into needless entanglements, it could become a problem down the road.'
A dry relationship—her approaching me purely to repay a debt for saving her life—suited me fine.
But every now and then you run into women who mistake gratitude for courtship, start playing the girlfriend of their own accord, or barge into a man's personal relationships and try to interfere. Getting tangled up with that type was guaranteed to become a headache, so drawing a firm line was the better option. With Ttek-tteki especially, given her track record—she'd played the jealous girlfriend in front of Han Sora from our very first meeting.
Nothing was stupider than clumsily building a relationship in pursuit of some unplanned extra girls, only for it to derail my conquest of the main heroines. Well, unless it was a situation where everything was laid bare and I could openly take what was on offer.
"Wh-what time is your club activity tomorrow? From when to when? If you're free, I could buy you dinner—"
"If you've got money for dinner, pay back the church hospital bill first."
"…I-I told you, I'll have the money saved by summer break. Th-then how about a dungeon exploration together—"
"I told you the party balance doesn't work."
"W-we could just go the two of us! An E-rank dungeon is totally clearable with two people! I-I can one-shot most of the monsters down there—"
"If it's going to be just the two of us anyway, I'd rather build a proper party and clear an upper-tier dungeon. No sense wasting the time."
"…Shiiiit."
That's enough. Give up already. The current me had zero intention of accepting some clumsy date invitation from Ttek-tteki out of nowhere.
If it weren't for the plans involving Seo Woojin, I'd have chased her off long ago for clinging to my side and chattering like this. The only reason I hadn't thrown her out completely was because she was still useful.
I was mulling over these thoughts as we turned onto the path back toward the dormitories when Ttek-tteki ventured one more cautious proposal.
"Hey, so, um…."
"……."
"Is there… anything you want me to do for you…?"
…Well, well. Look at this girl.