Only With Me
"Ahh... I'm stuffed..."
The snack shop uncle's portions were no joke. I nearly ate myself to death. My belly, slightly overstuffed, stuck out just a little. I gave it a soft pat-pat, and a cute little sound answered back.
As expected of me. Even the sound of my own stomach is adorable.
"So? Did you eat well?"
A nod. My deskmate stood there clutching a bag of leftover tteokbokki, nodding in satisfaction. Even with the scarf covering half his mouth, I could still see the smile. Good. I was glad he'd eaten well too.
"Haaahm..."
Should I just go home? The overeating was making me drowsy. It's not like I actually did anything at school anyway — staring out the window pretending to be too lofty to look at the boys, glaring at anyone who tried to talk to me until they shut up, sleeping with my eyes open. That was the whole curriculum. Wouldn't it be fine to just head home?
Tch... But just leaving felt kind of rude to the teachers...
In that case...
"Should I break something?"
"Hiek...!"
It's not like my holy power got restricted just because I crossed into this world. What if I just cleanly snapped one spot, claimed I needed the hospital, and got an early dismissal? I could heal it the moment I left school grounds.
Oh. Not a bad plan at all. This way I wouldn't be disrespecting the teachers, and I could take a perfectly legal(?) break. If I said my leg was broken I'd have to limp the whole way home, so legs were out. Arms it was.
Left arm? Or right arm?
I genuinely started weighing which arm to break.
Uh... what's wrong with this kid now?
My deskmate was trembling violently, plastered flat against the wall as far from me as he could get. He'd even ducked behind an old utility pole and looked ready to cry.
"Hey, what's wrong with you?"
Shake-shake-shake...
Oh. Don't tell me...
"Is this because I said I'd break something?"
Nod-nod-nod!
Watching him bob his head like a maniac, I pressed a hand to my forehead. I was going to lose my mind. He already looked exactly like a hamster, and on top of that he was ridiculously skittish. And he was supposed to be a guy.
Huuu...
Right... Reverse World. Right... Reverse World... I had to think of him as a girl. I couldn't keep judging everything by my own standards.
I equipped a mental blur filter over my eyes.
Oh? He was wearing a skirt, and he was pretty enough that with the blur on he almost looked like a girl. Through the hazy filter, my deskmate started looking roughly like a girl.
Before the delusion and the filter could shatter, I spoke as gently as I could, the way you'd soothe a little girl.
"I wasn't talking about you. I was saying maybe I should break my own arm so I wouldn't have to go to school. Why would I break my deskmate's arm?"
"...?"
The trembling stopped cold.
Scribble... scribble-scribble...
My deskmate wrote something in his notepad and held it out to me.
What's with that tone? So cringe~
This little—
No, this guy—
Even terrified, he still said everything he wanted to say. I couldn't even bite him for it. If he'd drawn a picture too, I really might have smacked him one.
His wariness finally eased and he edged closer.
Let's just go to school...
I took my deskmate and headed back.
By the time we arrived it was around ten past twelve.
What the? Nobody's guarding the front gate?
For some reason, not a single person was watching the entrance. Thanks to that, my deskmate and I walked onto campus completely unopposed.
I'm going to the library.
"Yeah. Go ahead."
"..."
Pout.
His scarf looked ready to tear from how far he stuck out his lower lip. What now? What was the problem this time?
Whoosh!
He suddenly took off running. I hadn't wandered the school enough to be sure, but that was probably the direction of the library. He wouldn't say he was going to the library and then head for the cafeteria.
Halfway there he glanced back at me for a second.
Beh...
He stuck his tongue out at me in a tiny little tease, then spun around and kept running.
"Hoh?"
Suddenly picking a fight?
Throb...
A vein bulged on my forehead at the blatant provocation. Sticking his tongue out at me was a capital offense worthy of having that tongue ripped out on the spot. But I was a merciful and ever-merciful Saintess, so I would settle for a simple flick to the forehead.
I pinched my thumb and index finger together and took aim at the back of my fleeing deskmate's head. No need to chase him down for a forehead flick. Multitalented genius that I was, I had even mastered Finger Bullet Technique. I dialed the power down to just enough to raise a hundred-won-coin-sized bump on his head.
Farewell, deskmate. You who dared provoke me.
I fired the Finger Bullet—
Poke!
"Hahk...?"
Something drove hard into my side.
Twang!
My aim jerked, and the Finger Bullet skimmed right past my deskmate.
Which bastard dares...
That sensation digging into my side. Definitely a finger. I'd had my side pierced by a demon's finger before — I knew the feeling. Who the hell was putting their hands on my body without permission?
I whipped my head around, eyes wide.
And there—
"Found you."
"..."
"Where did you go?"
—stood Jia, wearing a smile so cold it sent a chill straight down my spine.
Ugh... her eyes...
Jia's eyes looked seriously wrong. She was looking at me, but there was no focus — they were dull and twitching wildly, like someone who hadn't slept in days. I found myself overwhelmed by the sight of her.
Clench...
Jia grabbed fistfuls of my shirt around the stomach with both hands.
Tremble...
Her hands were shaking so hard it might as well have been a tremor. The vibration traveling up from the hem of my clothes made my whole body shake with her.
"You skipped class... you skipped lunch... where did you go?"
"...I just went to the stationery store..."
"The stationery store?"
Jia's eyes flew wide, and a look that seemed ready to leak killing intent pinned me in place. Under that gaze, I couldn't bring myself to lie.
"Actually, the tteokbokki place..."
"I... like tteokbokki too..."
"W-we can go together next time. It was really good there..."
"That's a promise... right...? You're going only with me, right?"
The fingers gripping my shirt tightened.
Nod-nod-nod!
I bobbed my head like a maniac.
Thud.
Jia let go of my shirt and stepped back.
A little better.
Once she'd put some distance between us, Jia looked a bit more stable. Not fully okay, but better than before. Earlier she'd looked like someone who'd lost the entire world; now she looked like someone who'd lost the world but had caught a glimpse of hope.
"W-who did you..."
"Hm?"
"N-never mind."
Jia started to ask something and then stopped, turning her gaze aside as if embarrassed.
"You said the school lunch tastes bad, right?"
"Uh... yeah, it does, but... did I ever say that to you?"
"You did. So from now on I'll pack you a lunchbox. Don't go out snacking — we'll share the lunchbox."
"...?"
A lunchbox? She was going to pack me a lunchbox every single day from now on? Why would she volunteer for something that annoying?
Jia crossed her arms, cracked one eye open, and looked up at me.
"Except for the day we go together, I'll pack you lunch from now on, so don't leave school during class. Got it?"
"Yeah, but won't packing lunchboxes be hard on y—"
"It's not hard. I'm doing it as a precaution because if you go running around with other gu— I mean, if you just wander off all over the place, it'll cause problems for me too. So just say you understand."
"...Fine, whatever. Got it. Pack away. Works for me."
I wasn't the one packing them, and a homemade lunch beat the terrible school food any day. There was nothing to lose, so I accepted Jia's offer.
A hillside neighborhood packed with five-story-or-under studio villas. Into the innermost building of that cluster — Daram Villa — Jiyun hurried home.
"..."
The villa village sat high up like a hillside shantytown, so by the time Jiyun reached Daram Villa his forehead was slick with sweat. If he hadn't been wearing the scarf he might not have sweated at all, but he never took it off. He wiped the sweat away with the handkerchief he always carried. He didn't want Dad to see him drenched and get sad, so he scrubbed every last drop off before going inside.
Just like always, Jiyun pulled out the notepad he'd already written in and stepped through the door. Inside, his father came out to greet him in an apron, and Jiyun held up the notepad with a bright little flourish.
I'm home
"You're early. A whole hour earlier than yesterday."
We had one less period today.
"I see... That's good. Nobody bothered you?"
Nope, nobody bothers me. I'm strong! ⌯ꈍ𖥦ꈍ⌯ಣ
"Heheh... That's right. Our Jiyun is strong."
Jiyun puffed out his chest proudly, and his father, Han Jina, started affectionately squishing his face.
I-it burns...
Jina had come straight from chopping onions and forgotten all about it, rubbing Jiyun's face with his bare hands. Jiyun's eyes watered from the sting, and his cheeks started throbbing where the hands had touched.
Pat-pat!
Jiyun finally couldn't take it and started batting at Jina's arms. Sensing something off in the way his son was pushing him away, Jina stopped the cuddling and looked at him properly.
"Why are you crying... Ah! I was prepping onions, wasn't I?"
Only then did Jina remember what he'd been doing, and his face went pale. He scrambled around looking for wet wipes.
"W-wet wipes... F-found them!"
Drip... drip...
Jina handed the wet wipes to Jiyun, who couldn't even open his eyes from the onion burn and was just streaming tears. While Jiyun wiped his face as a temporary measure and headed for the bathroom, Jina started sorting through the bags for him.
"Hm? Tteokbokki?"
While tidying up, Jina found tteokbokki piled in a black plastic bag. It had been sitting long enough that every trace of warmth was gone. A question mark floated over Jina's head at the sudden appearance of leftover tteokbokki.
When Jiyun came back from rinsing off the onion sting and was drying his face with a towel, Jina asked,
"There's tteokbokki here. Who did you eat with? Looks like you brought the leftovers home."
"..."
"Son?"
Jiyun couldn't answer easily. He had the pen in hand, but writing something down felt impossibly hard. Who should he say he ate with? A friend? His deskmate? Or maybe...
A... girl friend?
Whoosh!
The moment that last word crossed his mind, Jiyun's face went red as a beet. And Jina didn't miss it.
Startled by the reaction, Jina asked,
"Oh my? Don't tell me... you ate with a girl?"
I don't know! Just give me food!
"Just the two of you? You've barely started school and you're already having meals with a girl... Wait, is it that delinquent-looking kid next to you that you mentioned on the first day?"
Just give me food already!
"It's not even dinnertime yet, you know? More importantly, hurry up and tell me. Is it that kid, or..."
Sensing that his son's youth had finally arrived, Jina's eyes lit up as he chased Jiyun all over the house. Jiyun tried everything to shake him off, but inside their home he was a squirrel trapped in a jar — and in the end, he had no choice but to come clean.