Seonha's Zenith
—SLAM!!!
—THUD!
“Yuri! Yuri!”
“You came running? Why are you so sweaty…”
“Haa… haa… Are you free right now?”
“I was. Until you just smashed the lounge door a moment ago. Guess I’ll have to get it fixed.”
“Haa… huff… haa… I finally got a proposal from Yeonwoo!”
“Oh.”
“You’ve worked hard all this time! Sound the drums of liberation!”
“Congratulations. So what about the Canadian grizzly bear you said you’d use for next week’s Operation: Make Yeon Juhee Cry?”
“Oh my… you little brat…? Do you want to torment an innocent girl…?”
“? Isn’t that what you’re going to do, miss?”
“Don’t do it anymore. Yeonwoo’s partner needs to be chubby and precocious.”
“What did Lee Yeonwoo say in his proposal?”
“Look at this.”
I flashed her the letter Yeonwoo had given me on my way home.
The bread from the other day was good.
Stay healthy this year too.
No, not too healthy.
Just… don’t die.
Hope everything goes well
for you
—Lee Yeonwoo.
…
“What is this, miss?”
“Sweet, right? This time it wasn’t blackmail. I didn’t dangle off a cliff, feed him sleeping pills, or hypnotize him with a coin! Yeonwoo gave it to me himself, okay?”
“What does this letter have to do with a proposal? And the last line’s crossed out. This isn’t a proposal, miss.”
“……Why are you being so negative? Can’t you just see it for what it is?”
“I am seeing it for what it is. Why do you turn into a total airhead at times like this? It’s not the first time he’s been nice to you.”
“Did you just call me an airhead?”
“What does this paper say?”
“Proposal letter.”
“Airhead.”
Yuri vehemently denied there was any love in the letter.
She pried open my mouth and force-fed me the red pill of reality.
“Fine, fine. I got a little carried away. Yeah. I don’t need a sycophant whispering sweet nothings in my ear. Even if I hate it, I need an advisor who tells me the straight truth.”
“Wise as always.”
“Separate from that, no Lunar New Year bonus this year.”
“Actually, it is a proposal letter. I’m getting all fluttery just looking at it.”
“Too late.”
I entered my room.
—Flop flop…
I collapsed face-first onto the massive bed, stockings still on.
“…Hngh…”
My heart. My heart was pounding so hard.
The bed was shaking with it.
I flipped over.
…
I’d been doubting myself constantly.
Am I doing this right?
Bringing you back to me without shattering your everyday life.
In a way you can endure.
…
“Am I being too much?”
I reached out and grabbed a pillow, hurling it to the floor. Whoosh! Papers scattered noisily nearby.
“…I’m not going easy on you either. But I am holding back my strength.”
We’re not on the same level. If I changed my approach, I could surely devour you whole. But that wouldn’t be love—it’d be predation. What I want is the day we hold hands and lie on this bed together, not you as a chunk of meat trapped in it.
…
There was a time when you wouldn’t even meet my eyes. When our skin brushed, you recoiled in horror. You avoided my very existence.
Compared to then.
There’s progress. There is progress.
Now we have conversations. His words are still all rejections, but my ears rejoice at his voice. I can look into his eyes. Our gazes overlap only for an instant, but I could stare all day. I know it. That he doesn’t do it willingly. But that’s fine. Even if his hand touches mine reluctantly, even if it’s just because of my whining, it’s okay. It was you who showed me this method works.
…And today’s letter. A letter given willingly.
…Yuri said it wasn’t, but…
I want to interpret these few lines in the kindest possible way.
Even if it’s the delusion of an airhead.
I need fuel to keep being hated by you tomorrow, too.
…
It’s not much longer now, right?
“Yeonwoo.”
Just once. Just open your heart once, and the rest will come in a flash. This is from experience.
—Slide
I opened the drawer and set the paper next to the box.
“……”
This room had long been crammed with papers and one ill-tempered girl.
So of course it was just my imagination, but…
Today, it smelled a little like pancakes.
*
The letter from yesterday was supposed to function like rice sent to North Korea—fewer missiles flying my way. At least, that’s what I’d hoped. Until this morning, when I spotted Seonha hobbling out from behind a utility pole with a cast on one foot.
“Hop hop…”
“…”
“Hop hop hop…”
“Why didn’t you take a car?”
“It broke down.”
“How’d you get here alone?”
“I walked from 3 a.m. Hop hop.”
Pitiful Seonha, limping on foot without even crutches.
“You’re coming this way today, huh, Yeonwoo? Must be tiring running your commute every day.”
There’s someone I keep “accidentally” running into on that commute, but whatever.
“Just… taking a walk.”
“Not to meet someone?”
“No. Who would I meet? I gotta—”
“Just leave like that?”
“Yeah. Busy.”
“Oh… so busy… I thought maybe you’d been standing here for 28 minutes waiting for a big-chested high school girl to pass by.”
“……”
“If Seonha gets abandoned here, it’ll be because her chest is smaller, right?”
“……”
“It’s fine. Tomorrow, Seonha will be the biggest-chested girl in school.”
“Name what you want.”
“What would a limping high school girl want on her way to school? Hop…”
“Call taxi.”
Her scheme was so transparent. I called a taxi company. Strike today, apparently.
“Bus?”
“Strike there too. The drivers are fed up with wage freezes. About time they exploded. Hop.”
“You set it off.”
“Seonha’s just your average limping high school girl.”
“Ask someone else for help—”
“No one’s passing by for some reason.”
“I’ll call my dad.”
“Your father’s got urgent meetings with clients. Big deals. Ask him for something tasty for dinner.”
“How do you know things I don’t?”
“Hop hop.”
“Fine. I’ll go grab something like a rice sack for you. Wait.”
“Would a boy stuffing an injured high school girl into a rice sack really be popular? If word got out…”
“Get on my back.”
“Oh dear, no choice then. If you insist.”
Seonha hopped onto my back. With her injured foot, no less. Total faker.
—Squelch
…
Hmm, yeah. No comparison to Yeon Juhee.
“What are you thinking right now?”
“Nothing.”
Some might say, if you’re gonna end up like this, just carry her from the start. No. That’s not it.
Grabbing the tail of her words and dragging it out often lets you slip through needle-eye escapes. Just didn’t find one today.
—Squelch
Yeah, there is a difference—
“What are you thinking?”
“Nothing.”
*
Seonha had been in a great mood since morning.
Thanks to yesterday’s letter, maybe.
But the piggyback ride had the opposite effect.
Her assault, fueled with full vigor, was no joke.
……I got totally owned…
Not that it was ever any different…
But she was going all out today, grabbing my hand three times already.
Her routes were so outlandish, even a criminal like me couldn’t keep up.
“Why so listless…?”
“I’m fine…”
“Cheer up. Want Seonha to hold your hand…?”
“Please, anything but that…”
“Come on, Yeonwoo… Look at pretty Seonha’s face and get your energy back…!”
“……Ugh… Even my last strength to stand is…”
Slide, the classroom door opened halfway as Han Hyunjoo poked her head in.
“K-Kids. You know 5th period tech-home ec is a mobile class, right? With the other class…”
““Yes~””
“Hehe… Make sure you pack your materials… If the kids from the other class bully you, tell teacher…! I’ll tattle to the other teacher!”
…Then just tell that teacher from the start…
“Yeonwoo. Let’s go.”
I dodged the arm naturally snaking into mine and stood from my seat.
“Seonha.”
“Yes?”
“Something good happen?”
“……Mm, just… things are going well lately.”
Seonha’s things going well. Fuck.
*
I thought I’d been handling her assaults decently so far.
Defense only, but.
Thought I was holding my own pretty evenly.
Was it all an illusion?
Truth is, if Seonha wanted, she could end it anytime.
Like uncorking a kept wine whenever she feels like it.
Maybe she’s just toying with me because she enjoys my struggles.
Like in a finished game, Nexus not pushed, spamming skills at the enemy team cowering in base while watching them flail.
Seonha’s prime, huh…
…Prime’s a funny word.
It’s always her turn.
In a card game, she never passes—summons alone, floods tokens, dominates the field, direct attacks at leisure to end it.
“…Go easy sometimes.”
“Pardon?”
“Must be nice winning. Yeah.”
On the way here, she’d even scored an arm-link, tilting her head. …
Too strong. Han Hyunjoo. Ban Gyuri. Yeon Juhee. Mok Hye-won. Lee Jinyu. Bang Ga-yul. If all the other heroines fused, could they beat Seonha? No. Never.
—Step step
…Will my prime ever come?
—Slide…
I listlessly opened the multipurpose room door.
Then, out of nowhere—bang!
The status window lit up.
Thanks to Seonha lately, these hardly popped anymore—I’d even forgotten this was a game world.
Hidden achievement…? What the hell…?
Achievement Achieved: Enrolled in Ium High School without romancing any heroine
“What the—.” Stress hallucinations? As that thought crossed my mind, another bang! went off.
Reward: Hidden heroine appears! (Hidden heroines count as main heroines.)
Name: Yegrin. Hidden heroine. Ultimate childhood friend.
Age: 17 Grade: 1st year. Conquest Difficulty: ?
[Character Description] This world bends to her favor. Everything moves to benefit her.
…There’s still more to surprise me in this world?
“What is this crap… Seriously messing around.”
“Pardon?”
Seonha responded to my baffled mutter.
That’s when—
“Yaaap!!! Li! Yeon! Woo!!!”
Her voice was so loud, my head snapped toward it automatically. Surreal sight.
Something pale and white at the front of the classroom.
Slicing through desks with insane momentum.
Charging straight at me.
—Thump!
She stepped on a random chair and leaped.
!?
And tackled me. What’s this so soft? A person-sized cloud? A human-scale cotton candy?
“It’s been foooorever!”
“?”
“Do that thing we used to! Hurry! Huuuurry!”
“W-What, wait a sec…”
?!
This was confusing enough already. But her next move—one even 1 second ahead was unpredictable—left me stunned.
Stunned enough to briefly forget Seonha was right there.
……
I cautiously rolled my eyes sideways. Seonha’s arm, happily linked before, was now gone. …
……Is this your scheme too?
All heroines have danced in Seonha’s palm so far.
Definitely up to now.
But… not this time, apparently. Because.
Seonha’s poker face wasn’t just cracked—it was shattered.
Staring at the girl who’d just planted a smooch on my cheek,
with her jaw dropped and pupils dilated like nothing I’d ever seen.