The First Flame
Once the last of the students had signed their names and filed out — or lingered with a question and then gone — the teaching assistant stayed behind in the department office, working through her checklist.
I pulled out my phone and opened the app.
Come to think of it, I don't even know how this thing works.
The app loaded, and a menu appeared. Just three items.
Activate...
I tapped the button, and a red candle flame bloomed on the screen.
The target must look at this for 3 seconds.
This is a free trial. Only 3 uses are available.
The explanation was almost insultingly thin. Was this actually going to work? I was skeptical — but then I figured I was already an outcast. It wasn't like things could get much worse from here.
"Hm? Did you sign?"
The teaching assistant was looking at me. I left the app running and just switched off the screen.
"No, I'm twenty."
"Ah. Is that so."
A faint edge of irritation in her voice.
"Yeah."
I lowered the phone, keeping it in my hand. Every other male student in the room had already signed.
"The student reservists will all have to move as a group."
"Right."
She'd probably heard the rumors about me, but on the surface she was staying neutral. Getting mixed up in student drama never ended well for the staff.
After the other reservists had finished signing, I quietly approached her alone.
"Ah — um, I had a question about something."
The TA, who'd been gathering up her pen and papers, looked over at me.
"What is it?"
"That, and... I was hoping I could talk to you. About school, I mean..."
She frowned slightly. Maybe because she'd already heard about me. Maybe she just didn't want to deal with it.
"Does it really have to be me?"
She didn't even try to hide how little she wanted this.
"I just think I'd feel better talking it through with you, as the TA..."
She glanced at the time, then gave a small nod.
"Fine. Let me put this away... where do you want to do this?"
"Ah... somewhere quiet would be better..."
Counseling was a legitimate enough reason. If the two of us were alone, nobody would think twice about it.
"There's the department head's office next to the TA room."
"Huh? Oh. Okay."
"There's a counseling room across from it. Come over there. Wait for me."
"Okay!"
She left the classroom. A counseling room — I'd been at this school for a month and this was the first I'd ever heard of one.
I headed up to the next floor. Across from the department head's office, a door plaque came into view.
"...Storage?"
I opened the door. Nobody was inside. A few stacks of printer paper sat around, along with an old computer tower caked in dust. In the corner, a round table and four chairs had been arranged — the bare minimum to look like a room that served a purpose.
I sat down and waited. The TA came in.
"Have you been waiting long?"
"Ah, n-no."
There was a clear age gap between me at twenty and a teaching assistant in her late twenties, and she treated me with the easy familiarity of an older sister talking to a kid brother.
"Alright. So what did you want to talk about?"
As she sat down, she handed me a can of coffee.
"Th-thank you."
"Go on. Let's hear it."
She cracked the can open with a look that said this might actually be entertaining.
"Well..."
The moment I thought about pulling out the app, my heart started hammering. And then, somehow, I ended up telling her everything that had happened to me. I'd come here with an ulterior motive, and I'd still managed to actually get counseling.
Hearing it from my side of things, her expression shifted into something like surprise.
"Ah. So that's how it is. Well, I'm not planning on taking anyone's side."
"...Yes. I know."
Once she'd heard it all, she looked like she'd just been handed a juicy new piece of gossip. Not that I'd lied about any of it. Still, getting everything off my chest left me feeling strangely lighter. My heartbeat settled.
If I'm going to do it, it has to be now.
I took the phone from my pocket and turned on the screen. The candle was there, gleaming as the display lit up.
"...Um... could you look at my wallpaper for about three seconds?"
"...?"
The TA, who'd been getting ready to stand, looked over at me.
"Your wallpaper?"
"Huh? Ah — yes. I think my phone's glitching. This is the only thing that keeps coming up. I figured maybe you'd know something about it..."
A red candle flame was flickering across the screen.
"A candle?"
"Yes..."
She looked at the swaying flame. I could see it reflected clearly in her pupils.
...Three seconds. That's it.
Nothing happened. Cold sweat started beading on my skin. Three seconds had come and gone, and she hadn't reacted at all.
S-so it was a scam after all.
All kinds of worries were flooding through my head when I realized something was off.
No reaction?
The TA was frozen in her seat, staring at nothing but the candle. When I moved the phone, her eyes followed the flame.
N-no way. Holy shit. T-this is real?
Mouth hanging open, I waved the phone left and right. Something unbelievable was happening to me. I shut my mouth and asked,
"W-what's your name?"
"...Lee Dahye..."
Her voice was drowsy, distant.
"Y-your age?"
"...Twenty-nine..."
She was answering me like a machine.
"H-height..."
"...163 centimeters..."
I started asking her the simplest things I could think of.
"D-do you have a boyfriend?"
"...No..."
I was still sitting there in a daze when something appeared on the screen.
A two-minute candle. The words Trial Version sat off to the side. The app was real.
Thirty seconds left. My mind raced. Sweat poured off me like rain.
T-then... first, I have to make sure she doesn't remember this...
I cursed myself for not being more prepared.
"F-for now, you will not remember anything that happened today. When the hypnosis ends, you will go about your life as usual."
"..."
She nodded. I checked the time remaining.
Eight seconds.
If it ends like this... I'll never get another chance to talk to her alone!
If this session wrapped up now, there would be no opportunity to get the two of us in a room by ourselves again. I had to think about what came next.
"This weekend, you will come see me for another counseling session outside of school! At my place!"
I blurted it out in a rush. Lee Dahye nodded — and in the same instant, the candle went out.
The Activate button had reappeared on the screen. Only two trial uses left.