The Tail
I slipped off the apron, stepped out of the café, and dipped my head one more time.
Ting-a-ling!
Yeah. I see her too.
The second I was out of the café, I headed straight for the bus stop. She was there, small in the distance at the stop.
Yeah.
Our time had overlapped anyway. I might as well follow her and nail the plan down while I was at it.
So this is what they call a blessing in disguise?
I kept my pace easy, nothing that would draw suspicion, and settled my cap properly on my head. On my phone I looked up the arrival time for the bus she'd be taking. Filter for the ones bound for Hankuk University, check the nearest slot, and—
I ran.
"Huff… hah…."
My breath climbed all the way up into my throat. I swallowed the panting as best I could, braced my hands on my knees, and dragged air back in. Luckily Kim Yuna hadn't noticed a thing. She was tucked into the corner of the stop bench, muttering into a call.
The bus pulled in before a full minute had passed.
"Hah…"
Inside, the heater had the air warm. I'd just started sweating from the run, and now this. At least the bus wasn't crowded.
The sweat smell won't give me away, right?
Obviously. What do I need to do?
Then…
I steadied my breathing and took the seat directly behind Kim Yuna. Fortunately, she never once turned around. A sniff. I could almost swear something smelled good.
I tilted an ear toward the bright, high voice coming from the seat in front.
"Oh, I just got on the bus—"
Pssh—
The bus pulled out, and her voice dropped. I focused on it as hard as I could, but the engine noise bled in until all that reached me was a murmur.
Chio. How are you planning to help?
Record / Playback
You're the best.
Okay.
"Ahem…."
I cleared my throat and tipped my head a little toward the seat in front. Lean all the way and she'd get wary, so I didn't commit. In practice I held myself just close enough for my hair to brush the seatback, bracing the posture on my triceps and my abs. To anyone else, I was supposed to look like a passenger nodding off.
Th-this about right?
With Chio's words, Kim Yuna's voice rang right against my ear. So this was cutting-edge wiretapping.
"Nngh..."
"—There is a guy I like, yeah. No. His shoulders are just insane. I saw him up close just now, and he's way too much my type."
My ears pricked.
"I seriously want those rough hands around my throat. What do I even do, I mean it… is this love?"
I nearly coughed. Her mask muffled Kim Yuna's voice a little, but understanding her wasn't much of a problem.
Right? Sexual preferences don't show up under special notes? Just from what I'm hearing, she's an extreme masochist.
Wanting to get choked counts as mild masochism…?
Hm. Then that's probably it. But if this is about how a guy wears a shirt… is she talking about the manager?
Yeah. The manager was handsome, I'll give him that. Broad shoulders, too.
Fucking annoying.
"—What if it turns out he's got a dragon tattoo on his back? Then he'd be seriously god-tier—"
…
"—After the semester started? I don't know. I don't think I've done it even once since classes began. The most recent? Why are you even asking me that.—"
…
"—I dunno, the last time was probably freshman orientation, before the semester started—"
The bus kept jolting, so it came through in pieces, but following the content wasn't hard. She was looser about sex than I'd thought. If that was good news, it was good news. A woman who treated sex as nothing special would be far easier to clean up after than one thick with wariness.
…Still, this is less useful than I expected. Do I have to keep listening?
Ugh, this hurts. Why am I holding a plank in here.
I wiped the sweat off my forehead with a finger.
"No, it's nothing special. At the afterparty she and I ended up at the same table. I think we went all the way to the third round… you know my tolerance. The bed felt unfamiliar in the morning, so I got up, and it was his place…. His face? His face was decent. But his body was kind of a beanpole. Anyway, that was like three weeks ago? Two? Something like that."
Feels like useless talk. A little longer, and if there's no substance, I'm done.
"Oh, he got in straight out of high school. …What the hell is this crazy bitch saying. That joke gets you hit with the child protection law. Sua, please. You're not going around saying stuff like that outside, are you? Does retaking the exam three times do this to everyone? Always watch your mouth, and watch who you're with. I'm telling you to keep your guard up around you. Me? I'm always on full alert."
Full alert, my ass. While I was sitting right here.
Just as I decided I didn't need any more, the stop chime went off.
Beep—
This stop is Hankuk University. The next stop is…
Kim Yuna slung the crossbody bag over her shoulder.
"I'm at school. I'll call you in a bit once I get home. I've only got this one class today anyway. Around six? Yeah, before my shift. I'm hanging up."
Yeah. As naturally as I can.
The moment she pulled the phone from her ear, I sat up straight.
Like this, I just look like a normal passenger, right?
Kim Yuna—no, the prey—got off, and only after the rear door shut did I settle back against the seat. I rubbed at my cramping abs.
"Agh…."
Hell of an ab workout, first one in a while.
As the pain eased off, I took out my phone, played Chio's recording back, and started writing down every scrap I'd just overheard, piece by piece. Listening to it live, I'd written the whole thing off as useless. Laid out on the page, it was decent information in its own right. In a game I might not have known what to do with it, but this was reality. Personal details always found a use somehow.
…Loose about sex. Has blacked out from drinking….
…Doesn't particularly mind waking up somewhere unfamiliar….
Once it was all down, I read back through the notes. I didn't figure it for wasted time. No hunter relaxes before the prey is fully in hand, no matter how perfect the trap.
Didn't know I had this kind of talent either. Want something bad enough and you get passionate, that's for sure.
I rebuilt the plan off the information, right up to the point where any more felt like wasting time. Slip even a little and this operation could brand me a criminal. I wasn't about to let a hypnosis ability rot in a prison cell.
I've really done as much as I can, right?
Thanks for the words alone, Chio.
If even this didn't work, I'd feel better just letting her go clean. I scanned the notes one last time and hit the stop bell.
Beep!
Whatever came of it, everything would be decided in the field two days from now.
"Mmm…."
Kim Yuna groped around her pillow, picked up the phone still plugged into the charger, and killed the alarm through half-lidded eyes.
Morning Class
She shut it off, rubbed her face into the pillow, and sighed.
"Ugh, I want online classes too…."
She picked the sleep from her eyes, stretched, and climbed out of bed. The dolphin shorts she'd slept in hung around her calves as she went into the bathroom and sat on the pink toilet seat printed with a rabbit character.
Trickle—
She finished and wiped herself, and something sticky came away on the tissue.
"...Have I really gone way too long without doing it."
She turned the phone on and flicked through the Instagram notifications that had piled up. The scroll stopped on one man's account. The profile picture was him with his abs out.
"…."
She hesitated a moment, then squeezed her eyes shut and hit the home button.
"Time to live a little cleaner. I'm not some kid retaking the entrance exam. I'm a college student."
Yuna stripped off her cotton tee and her underwear, tossed them out of the bathroom, and shut the door.
Shhhh—
"Today's the day I get to see the manager~"
She meant to get to campus a little early today. She finished the shower quickly and came out, then put her makeup on fast at the vanity. Lipstick went into a pocket. She stood up from the chair, gathered the memory bag strewn across the floor, and put on her mask. Yawning, she opened the front door.
"Ah, it's cold..."
She shivered at the bite of the air.
The long-awaited Wednesday.
Unlike the other days, Monday and Wednesday were when Kim Yuna had a morning class. Which meant today, without fail, she would stop by the café. I walked the sidewalk at a steady clip, straightening my clothes as I went. Fog hung over the road to the café—thin, of course, nothing like the fog I'd seen in the afterlife the day that hit-and-run got me.
Spring'll be here any day now.
I'd been letting my mind wander to shake the tension off, and before I knew it I was at the café.
Ting-a-ling—
I bowed to the manager in the kitchen.
Damn. Handsome, and diligent on top of it. If I were a woman, I'd have fallen for him.
How could I not be, you bastard.
"Today's the last day, right? A whole week and not late once. Consistent."
"Not at all. I was the one who asked, so it's only natural. Haha!"
I stepped into the kitchen and hung the shit-brown apron from its hook on the wall around my neck.