Friend, Huh?
…A friend?
A friend?
Did I just hear that wrong?
"You heard correctly. As I've said, I left your hearing untouched."
When the Queen read his mind with a subtle sharpness threading her voice, he hurriedly backpedaled.
"Ah, yes, uh, right… But, Sung-ha… A friend, really…? It's just so sudden, you know… C-could you explain a little more?"
The Queen tilted her head at him, just slightly.
"Do you not grasp the concept of friendship? You've consumed enough humans that I expected you to know it."
"No, I do know it… I know… Um… I mean… I'd be happy to be friends with your boyfriend, but… why…?"
The Queen lowered her gaze ever so slightly, and pushed her lips forward a hair's breadth — so subtly that only close inspection would catch it — her expression turning somber.
"Because of his difficult family circumstances and his life, Hyun-ok doesn't have many friends around him. I am his girlfriend, but unfortunately I cannot fill the role of a friend as well. I want Hyun-ok to wear a happy face, and I will do my utmost to give him that happiness, but I am aware there are domains of happiness I cannot provide. So you will become his friend."
No, no… Mmm… I mean, friendship doesn't work that way… 'Let's be friends starting today' — doesn't that only work up through elementary school…?
Yes, I'm older than that human man, but we are both, by human standards, unmistakably adults…
Swallowing a torrent of inner objections, he found his face twisting into bewilderment at her strange words — which felt somehow off the mark, and yet somehow exactly right.
"For the record, if Hyun-ok dies, you die too."
Hic.
When she dropped the bombshell as casually as commenting on the weather, his body's functions misfired yet again, entirely against his will.
That's the kind of thing you should have led with… Your Majesty.
"For as long as I exist, he will not die by any means other than natural causes — but the world is an unpredictable place. Therefore, you will serve as his friend, and his bodyguard as well."
"Right, of course… I mean, if he dies, I die with him anyway, hoho…"
At his hollow laugh, the Queen — taking it in a good sense, apparently — wore a satisfied expression for the first time, and rose from her seat before seeming to remember something and asking,
"Is the Forbidden Princess, Valliere, still alive?"
He flinched at the name he'd never expected to hear.
Valliere — a Rook among the very highest tier, and currently the being closest to Queen rank among all their kin. He was their leader, something like an interim president, and though hearing his name spoken aloud startled him, there was no reason not to answer honestly.
"Yes, she's alive. Lately she's been gathering the others together — I've received messages calling for me as well."
"I see… So that's how it is. Good that she's alive."
And that was all.
The Queen accepted the answer flatly, apparently having nothing more to say, and pushed the door open with wordless confidence and left.
He wanted to stop her, to ask her a hundred more things, but the words never came.
Left irresponsibly abandoned in the room, he stared blankly at the door she'd vanished through with hollow eyes — then burst out laughing.
"Hoho! …My life is ruined, hoho… Ohohoho!"
Laughing like a man who'd lost his mind entirely, he glared resentfully at the phone that now held the number the Queen's boyfriend had given him.
"Those words I may never hear again~
I love you~"
Leaning back against the bedside, he stared blankly at the television as the idol-and-singer belted out the high notes of her signature song for the umpteenth time.
His life had been too busy to keep up with celebrities, but the star currently singing so beautifully on screen was one he knew well. She had grown up in a broken home much like his own, knocked on the doors of major agencies while still underage, and failed audition after audition. Then, by chance, she signed with one company and debuted successfully as a solo idol and singer — and to this day she enjoyed nationwide popularity. He'd caught a snippet on the news that today, as it happened, she had legally come of age.
Having clawed her way to success out of hardship, she was younger than him, yet admiration welled up in him all on its own. And of course, her beautiful, adorable face was another reason he couldn't tear his eyes from her on the screen.
"Hyun-ok. Do you like that kind of song?"
The monster, sitting across from him and watching the TV in silence, asked out of nowhere.
"Mm… it's less that I like the song, more that I like that singer. Her name's Lee Ha-neul — ever since she was young…"
Like an otaku proudly showing off his encyclopedic knowledge, I launched into a full-length lecture on everything I knew about the celebrity on screen. The monster listened patiently, without seeming bored, but eventually it dawned on me that women generally hate this sort of thing, and I wrapped up my speech in a hurry with a cough.
"AHEM! Well, anyway, yes… Ha-neul right now is a singer and celebrity the whole nation loves. She's so beloved her nickname is the Nation's Little Sister. Step outside and everything from the ads to the music is plastered with her face. It can't be helped, though — she sings well, she's young and pretty and cute, she's got an inspiring life story, and she's got a bright, sunny personality. Who wouldn't love an idol like that?"
True to the nickname I'd just been lecturing about, I bragged about her with pride, as if she were my own little sister. The monster listened to me endlessly, then pointed a finger at Ha-neul, who had begun dancing on screen, and asked:
"I see. Then do you want to shove it into that woman's cunt?"
"KHAFF!"
The moment I burst into violent coughing, the monster's eyes turned worried.
"It's your breathing again, isn't it—"
"No, it's not that… Wait, don't tell me… Not her! Absolutely not!"
"What exactly is 'absolutely not'?"
When the monster cocked its head, clearly failing to understand, I spoke with force.
"I'm talking about Ji-yoon, remember? Ji-yoon! Last time, just because I said I found her attractive, you stole a human's appearance and hurt her— ahem, fine, you say you didn't hurt anyone this time, but either way, no."
The monster's words might not have been lies, but the whole thing still left a bad taste in my mouth, no matter how I looked at it.
"But aren't you lusting after that woman? I want to make you happy. If I steal her face and her identity and come back to you, as I did before, without causing harm, everything would be resolved, would it not…?"
For once, the monster trailed off ambiguously, gauging my reaction. In that instant, seduced by the monster's suggestion, I dared to commit the sacrilegious fantasy of having sex with the Nation's Little Sister — but I quickly shook my head inside. Honestly, any man who sees a beautiful woman has a lewd thought or two, but that was strictly the stuff of imagination. Especially with someone I admired as a fan and wanted to protect — wanting anything more from her felt unforgivable.
So I turned to the monster, which was eyeing my crotch with naked curiosity, and declared with finality:
"Not her, and not ever! That woman is the object of my admiration. And in a way, she's someone I ought to protect, like a little sister."
"Really? She strikes me as the type of human who would eat and live just fine without your protection… Hmm."
For the first time, the monster's face soured with a hint of displeasure — then, as if something had occurred to it, it said abruptly:
"Hyun-ok. Could you turn around for a moment, until I say I'm done?"
"Huh? Ah… sure… okay."
The request was baffling, but there was no reason to refuse, so I turned my back to the monster.
Crack… pop. Pop…
The grotesque sound of bone and flesh wrenching themselves apart came from behind me, sending a shiver up my spine, but I kept my back turned as promised.
"Hyun-ok, I'm don… hmm, is that not the right tone? Aaah… aaaaah… Oppa, I think I've got it. You can turn around now."
At a voice I couldn't place, I turned my head — and there, astonishingly, stood Lee Ha-neul, the Nation's Little Sister, the idol beloved by an entire country, wearing the very same stage costume she had on the TV.
"Wh-whoa…! L-Lee Ha-neul…! …Mmm?… Huh?"
I was so stunned by the appearance of the celebrity I idolized that I clapped both hands over my mouth — and then a wrongness prickled at me, and my brows bent like question marks.
The Ha-neul the monster had become certainly resembled the one on TV — but resemblance, by definition, meant she wasn't identical. Worse, the similarity was just uncanny enough to trigger a strange unease. To be fair, even that version was plenty beautiful; she'd pass for the real thing — barely, very barely — but to my eyes, she fell short.
"What's wrong? I don't look that much like her, Oppa?"
Her careful, tentative tone was pure Sung-ha, and though the voice imitated Ha-neul's, it was full of that same uncanny wrongness — like a machine awkwardly assembling human speech.
"Mmm… a-a little? Anyway, thank you. You did all this for me, right?"
Forcing a bright smile, I patted the monster's shoulder as it slumped and sulked at my all-too-visible reaction. Restored to its usual form, the monster wore its customary blank expression, but it seemed a little deflated.
"As I thought, perfect imitation is impossible without direct contact."
"No, no… it's not that you're identical, but… you look plenty like her. Really, you do."
I tried to console it, thinking it had been disappointed in its own ability — but somehow that only made the monster gloomier.
"Hmm…"
The monster shot me an apologetic look, then fixed a burning stare on the Ha-neul on the TV, its eyes narrowing by slow degrees.
"…Oppa, I'm going grocery shopping. Want to come with?"
Then, snapping back into Sung-ha all at once, it asked with a bright grin.
"Sure, sounds good."
Staying cooped up in the house was getting to me anyway, and there was no reason to refuse, so I agreed without fuss.
"Give me a sec — bathroom."
…The bathroom?
Ah, right, to use the toilet.
But she never had trouble going in front of me before…
It puzzled me a little, but it wasn't worth making an issue of, so I started getting ready to head out.
"Done, Oppa. Let's go."
Contrary to my worries, Sung-ha emerged from the bathroom with her makeup finished, and after getting dressed she looped her arm through mine as always, and we left the house together.
Squirm… squirm…
The lump of flesh that had dropped to the bathroom floor twitched a few times, and in an instant it rose into the shape of a woman. The woman walked out of the bathroom wearing a perfectly blank expression, gazed coolly at the woman still dancing on the television, and tapped away at a phone, studying a map.
A live broadcast, then… If I leave by car now, I will not be late.
"If I am not permitted to eat her… I shall alter her memories and her common sense, and have her come to Hyun-ok herself."
The woman stared unblinking at the woman on the screen, murmuring her inner thoughts aloud.
"Wait for me, Hyun-ok. I shall relieve you of your lust. Without fail."
With a stern, resolute face full of duty — the face of a soldier marching off to the front — the woman strode briskly out of the house.