Way Too Soon!!

A sudden proposal.

"Wait… wait a second… I just… I need a moment, I'm a little overwhelmed…!"

Whether this body of mine was a woman's or a man's didn't matter. That wasn't the point. The tears that had been spilling just moments ago had dried up completely. All that remained was the heat climbing furiously into my face.

"So… what did you just say…?"

Hayeon spoke with a gravity so unlike her. There wasn't a shred of mischief on her face.

"Do you even know what you're saying—"

"I mean it. I like you…"

A faint flush rose to her face. It was an expression of embarrassment I had never once seen on her.

"…Since when, exactly?"

She and I had been comrades. Together with our friend Yujin, we had founded a guild for a single purpose: to slay the Ruin Dragon, the calamity of a bygone age. That was when I first met Kang Hayeon. From that day until this one, we had remained comrades.

But it seemed that was no longer true.

"…Somewhere along the way, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I just… started liking you."

At my question, the color in her face deepened.

She'd liked me?

The Hayeon of the past and I hadn't even been that close. I'd belonged to a guild with the grandiose mission of slaying the Ruin Dragon, but I was, at the end of the day, an alchemist saddled with the body of the Weakest. All I could do was brew potions of every kind and research a poison capable of piercing the Ruin Dragon's scales.

I usually stayed inside the guild anyway, so I ended up handling the management too, even if it was a lot…

Everyone else went out and risked their lives in battle. I couldn't, so even when it wore me down, I stepped up and ran the guild myself. And the Hayeon of those days had never thought much of how weak I was.

During our guild days, she and I had always been at each other's throats. She was forever causing trouble, and I was forever the one stuck scolding her for it.

But after the guild disbanded, Hayeon always came looking for me. I never turned her away. Plenty of other former comrades showed up at my house on any given day, after all.

At some point, Hayeon's way of speaking had grown gentler and gentler. Around the time I started taking on disciples, her whole demeanor had shifted into something I didn't recognize.

And then, starting a few months before I became a woman, she was always pulling things like that. Scaring me from behind. Hugging me out of nowhere. Doodling on my face while I wasn't looking. Every last one of her antics had been so thoroughly playful that the thought had never even crossed my mind.

Since when… exactly…?

Was it from the moment she changed her attitude toward me? Or from when she first started coming to my house? There had been a time, watching her grow kinder and clingier, when I'd wondered if maybe she liked me.

"…Was I that obvious?"

"That was… just you teasing me, wasn't it…?"

Startling me, mixing in jokes, throwing her arms around me—she'd always talked about all of it as if it were the most natural thing in the world between friends. At some point I'd started taking her teasing for granted, too. Even on the occasions when that other feeling flickered up, I'd told myself it was only a joke and let it go. So I'd put the idea that she might actually like me firmly out of my mind.

"…No. I just… I was too embarrassed to say it."

She gave a small shake of her head.

"If I didn't do it that way, I couldn't get close to you at all."

She said it shyly, her eyes slipping away from mine.

"…S-so then, from back then."

"Yeah… I've liked you for a long time."

"……!!"

A rush of heat flooded my face. It wouldn't fade. If anything, I was burning even hotter than before.

With every word she spoke, my heart hammered like it had lost its mind. Something sat thick in my throat. I couldn't get a single proper sentence out.

I must look completely pathetic right now.

A minute ago I'd been crying, and now my face was scarlet and I couldn't even talk. I lifted my arms and hid my face. I didn't want her seeing it get any redder.

"W-why are you suddenly… saying all this…"

"Because if I didn't say it now, you were going to stay mad at me…"

"Th-that doesn't mean the anger…"

…hadn't gone anywhere.

The fury from earlier had already been snuffed out by her staggering confession. For the three months she'd been gone, I'd been completely prepared to be angry at her, and yet…

If she comes at me like this, how am I supposed to stay mad?

"Ugh…!"

The woman in front of me was looking at me. Those clear eyes held me in place, and that beautiful voice sent a tremor through me. Dwelling on it any further only made my face burn hotter.

"The anger… it's cooled off a little, right?"

"…I don't know."

I couldn't even get the words out properly. I was supposed to be angry. I was supposed to do it right. I couldn't.

"H-how can we get married like this… I'm a woman right now…"

I dragged the words out of a mind in complete disarray. If I didn't pick at something—anything—I was going to be swept under by this atmosphere entirely.

"I don't care that you became a woman."

But in this situation, a line like that only served to provoke her.

"Y-you, why…"

She rose from her seat.

"……!"

Slowly, she started walking toward me. I backed away in turn.

"D-don't come—"

"I told you I'd take responsibility for turning you into a woman."

Slowly. But in a way I could never escape.

"And just because you became a woman… that doesn't mean the way I love you has changed."

"Y-you can't just say something like that like it's nothing…!"

One step. Then another. For every step I took backward, she closed the distance.

"It's not something I say easily, either. …It's not nothing to me. But…"

Thud.

In the end, I was trapped against the wall.

"…I've held this in for years. I was afraid you'd feel pressured. That you'd push me away."

"Th-then why today, of all days…"

"For three months, I missed you so much."

In her softly luminous golden eyes, there was only me.

"Truth is… I was going to wait. Confess slowly…"

She drew her body even closer to mine.

"Sorry. I guess I'm not that patient a woman."

"……!!"

There was nowhere left to retreat. The cold of the wall seeped into my back. Her hand came to rest on the wall beside my head. Soft hair brushed my cheek, light enough to tickle.

"I want you to like me back."

"…You, seriously."

Her hand gave my arm a gentle tug downward. She didn't even use any force, and yet my arm dropped without a hint of resistance.

"I want you to look only at me. To focus only on me."

With my arm out of the way, her hand drifted closer and closer to my face.

My body had gone completely rigid. I couldn't stop her. Her face looked so earnest—and though not as badly as mine, it was flushed a deep red.

There was no resisting this. Her hand drew nearer, carefully, deliberately, until those soft fingers brushed gently against my neck.

"……!"

A jolt ran through me. My body reacted on its own as her fingers traced along my throat. And then her hand grazed my cheek.

"…If you don't want this, push me away. Right now."

"……."

I lifted my hand a little. But it wasn't a hand raised to stop her. It had come up on its own, without my meaning it to.

Swish, swish—

My tail, hanging low, swayed back and forth of its own accord.

"…Then I'll take that as a yes."

Hayeon dipped her head to bring our eyes level. We looked at each other. There was nothing in my vision but Hayeon, and nothing in her pupils but me. Her face drifted slowly, slowly closer.

Is this really happening…?

The air between us made pushing her away impossible. And I myself had no will left to do it. I could see her lips—red, and as tempting as ripe fruit. I felt her breath. It trembled faintly, whether from nerves or something else, and it touched me.

And then, just as her lips were about to meet mine—

Ding-dong!

"…E-eek!"

The sudden chime of the doorbell nearly sent me ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out of my skin. In an instant, the soft, syrupy current that had been wrapping around us was gone.

"…S-someone's here."

The sweet midday dream had scattered far too easily. All that remained in the place where it had broken was the lingering aftertaste—and the sight of myself, swept up in the mood of it.

"Sihyeon, wait—"

Hayeon reached to stop me, but—

"I-I'll just go see who it is…!"

I fled the spot as fast as I could. I didn't look back, but she didn't come after me.

What the hell was I thinking…!

The heat in my face refused to fade.

"I've lost it. I've completely lost it…!"

I'd gotten caught up in that brief pink-tinted current and nearly made a mistake. It wasn't that I disliked her. I had feelings for her too, after all.

Not like this. Absolutely not.

She'd said she would take responsibility. She'd asked me to marry her. But this was my problem. I didn't want to be bound to her in this tiny woman's body.

And besides… it's still way too soon.

I'd only just found out she had feelings for me, and she was already talking about marriage. That was far too fast.

If we're going to do this, we should at least date properly first…

…Why was I even thinking about this.

Bang, bang!

"Hellooo~! Anybody home~!"

From the other side of the door came a familiar voice, along with someone pounding on the wood. There weren't many people who'd show up unannounced and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠knock like that. And at this hour, there was only one person it could be.

"…Hold on. I'll get the door."

"Oh, you're in!"

A lively woman's voice carried in from outside. Click. I opened the door.

"Mommm~!"

"Kyaa!"

And the moment it swung open, I was bowled over—just like before.