Chapter 4
Chapter 4
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: I'm an Adult, I Tell You?
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*Beep.*
"...Um, miss. You didn't forge that ID, did you?"
"...Do I look like I would?"
"Tsk... The ID looks real enough, but at your age of 27 with that face..."
"I get told I look young all the time, so anyway, just hand it over."
"Alright... That'll be 86,000 won."
After taking a taxi back, I was buying daily provisions at the convenience store in front of my place with the money I'd earned today.
The part-timer had changed in the meantime and kept pestering me about whether the ID was real or not, being a real nuisance.
But what could I do? It really was my age.
*Rustle.*
"Goodbye."
"..."
"Ugh... No? No, but still, no one would forge an ID that convincingly just to buy a pack of smokes..."
'*Worrying is a luxury, huh.*'
Well, I could understand. There were plenty of idiots out there who insisted on smoking no matter what, even if it meant harming others' lives by dodging the rules when they should just grow up quietly.
Being cautious wasn't a bad trait.
That said, I hoped it didn't turn me into some voluntary masochist who commits felonies like forging IDs just to sneak a few puffs.
Anyway, this appearance made every single interaction with another person a source of stress.
If I didn't have to show my ID for cigarettes, I wouldn't have bothered pulling down my hood.
Of course, even as Alice, I didn't enjoy mingling with people, so every moment was stressful either way—but the stress from Alice and the stress in this form were different kinds.
As Alice, it was the stress of forcibly acting out the character people wanted.
In my true form, it was pure discomfort from dealing with people.
It was right then, as I irritably pulled my hood back up and headed home with a bag in one hand containing cigarettes and some instant noodles and frozen food to tide me over.
"...?"
"Ugh... Oh! Ah, hello! You're from 101, right...? Whoa!"
*Crash!*
...What the hell is this?
A woman loaded with what looked like moving boxes was hauling stuff next door.
"Owie... S-sorry! Hold on a sec! I'm so sorry! I'll clean it up right away! Sorry for blocking the way!"
"...Yeah, whatever."
Her flustered scramble to repack the spilled boxes and her somewhat dazed expression already gave a glimpse of what kind of person she was.
*Tsk...*
Usually, people like this were the nosy type who paid way too much attention to their surroundings.
One of the types I found most uncomfortable.
I didn't even want to make eye contact on the street, and of all places, next door.
I'd have to hope she'd leave me alone if I ignored her long enough, but it felt like I'd be dealing with annoyances for a while.
"F-First, go ahead inside! I've got a lot of stuff... Sorry! I was supposed to move during the day, but something came up suddenly, so it's this late..."
"Yeah, it's fine."
"I-I'll move it as fast as I can! Sorry for the noise!"
I squeezed past the junk strewn across the path and made it to my door.
It said 101, but this was a single-story building now—no upstairs, just 101 and 102.
Ever since the Abyss invasions started, the number of high-rises kept dwindling, and I'd heard this building had its second through fourth floors completely obliterated, so they'd just patched up the first floor and kept it running.
The landlady was an old grandma with no family left at her age, so it felt less like she was running it for a purpose and more like a hobby.
Whatever. It worked out fine for me.
No need to deal with leases or anything annoying—just handed over a lump sum, and she let me treat it like my own place without complaints.
No upstairs meant no one bitched about me smoking inside either, which was another perk.
Even with how times had changed, finding a residential building that's just a single story in this country wasn't easy.
...Anyway, as I prayed this new neighbor wouldn't be the nosy type who bothered people and unlocked the door—
"Hyah!"
*Thud!*
*Rumble!*
"Waaah!!"
*Plop.*
"..."
As the woman was moving her boxes, stuff tumbled out and piled up at my feet.
It wasn't enough to piss me off, but one of the things that fell was something I couldn't ignore.
*[Love Under Starlight★ Alice's 1st Album]*
'*Why the hell is this here...?*'
That was because the very evidence of my desperate attempts to erase it was right in front of my eyes.
"S-Sorry! Are you okay?! Did it hurt?!"
"...Nah."
"Aaah, I'm so sorry! I always mess up like this...! Your foot's okay, right?! Nothing heavy fell on it?!"
As I glanced around at the spilled items, it wasn't just that one.
A figure from a limited run of 100...
A photobook that came out once and got discontinued...
Even what looked like unofficial merch I'd never seen before...
It was all stuff featuring the familiar long silver hair and blue eyes of that Magical Girl.
'*I thought I'd collected as much as I could.*'
After I'd snapped out of it, I'd frantically tried to undo all the crap old Alice had accumulated, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop every single underground circulation.
Music at least—I'd clamped down with copyrights, so it was barely uploaded online anymore... But how do you stop physical CDs?
I figured figures and photobooks were floating around somewhere shady, but seeing them right in front of me still made my head spin.
I should at least grab this stuff somehow...
"...No big deal. Good luck."
*Click.*
Whatever.
Even as Alice, maybe, but in this form, what excuse did I have to collect it?
Leaving any link between this appearance and Alice was a risk in itself, so I decided not to bother.
*Thud!*
*Beeeep!*
*Clatter!*
'*Alice still has fans?*'
Back in the day, it wouldn't have been surprising.
Alice had once been a Magical Girl famous enough to set the whole country abuzz.
But now... Her activity rate was what it was, but she'd drastically cut media exposure,
And in the meantime, other Magical Girls were hustling harder with activities, shows, personal X-Tubes, self-promotion—burying her as yesterday's news.
When she came up at all, it was like, "Oh yeah, that Magical Girl. Wonder how she's doing these days."
Think about it.
Just search, and you'd find Magical Girls doing aegyo, singing, vlogs, fan sign events whenever they were bored—everywhere.
Who'd remember some girl who was active a good few years ago and hardly showed her face anymore?
'*Collector? Or a pro dealer?*'
For now, I'd only spotted Alice stuff, but she could be someone who specialized in collecting Magical Girl merch or dealt it for profit.
That might explain why only has-been Alice items were left.
*Click.*
*Hiss...*
"Hoo..."
Who cares.
Whether it was a fan of some washed-up Magical Girl or a pro at that crap, my life didn't have the spare bandwidth to give a damn about other people.
"Tokki. Remember you guaranteed me two days off? No matter what, I'm off until the day after tomorrow at midnight."
[I know, I know. Sejin, you've worked hard too, so rest up.]
"..."
*Fwooo...*
My gaze sank bitterly.
When the hell would I be done with this bullshit?
Dressing up weird, spouting lines that weren't me, acting the Magical Girl people wanted every damn day.
The more I thought about it, the more absurd it all seemed.
No matter how I looked at it, I wasn't cut out for Magical Girl personality-wise.
'*No choice in the situation back then.*'
I just hadn't expected my life to stay hijacked for another eight years after that.
...If I'd known, maybe I'd have chosen differently.
"Hack. Cough."
So this nicotine-soaked body was another unavoidable choice.
I couldn't endure it sober.
Especially after what happened before...
*Churn...*
"Urp..."
The familiar queasiness in my brain.
I stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray nearby and frantically grabbed pills from the bottle within reach, washing them down with water.
"Hoo... Hooo..."
It took about fifteen minutes for the meds to creep in.
'*It's fine... It's fine... That's all in the past... Nothing like that'll ever happen again...*'
I buried my face in the table, consciously regulating my breathing, clenching and unclenching my fists.
And about fifteen minutes later.
"Hooo..."
A gross sensation tickled my brain.
The feeling of my nicotine-pickled brain getting steeped in drugs too—every time it happened, I couldn't even lie and say it was pleasant.
I hadn't wanted to live like this from the start.
If not for that damn bitch, I'd probably be living normally right now—holding down a regular job, scraping by, buried in work but enjoying hobbies on the side, meeting someone along the way.
But this was how it turned out.
Looking back now meant nothing but more nausea.
Just as the drugs forcibly suppressed the sensations and helplessness started dominating my body—
*Ding-dong...*
"...What now."
Was that my doorbell?
No one should be dropping by.
...Probably nothing important. Religion peddlers, salesmen, whatever...
*Knock knock!*
"Ah, hello! It's your new neighbor from next door from earlier! About that... I felt so bad, so I brought some rice cakes? I-If it's too much, you don't have to take it... I-I'll just leave it by the door!"
"...Damn it."
Looks like my judgment that this neighbor would be a pain in the ass was spot on.
...Her face had looked like the type to annoy people from the get-go.