Learning About Her Past Felt Somehow Off (3)
The conversation at the cafe must have gone on longer than I realized. When we stepped outside, it was already past noon. I usually skipped breakfast, so I was pretty hungry, but the mood didn’t seem right for mentioning it. I kept quiet.
But then again, she wasn’t the royal princess’s bodyguard for nothing. Sohee looked at me like she already knew everything, then pulled something out of her handbag and tossed it my way like she was doing me a favor.
“You haven’t eaten, right? Sorry, but just make do with this for now.”
“What is it?”
“A chocolate bar. It’s insanely good.”
“Uh… yeah…”
What she handed me was, unexpectedly, a chocolate bar. I tore open the wrapper with a crinkling sound without stopping our walk. Sure enough, inside was a palm-sized bar. I was starving, so I wasn’t about to be picky, but this didn’t feel like any ordinary store-bought chocolate bar I knew. It looked heavy and thick… Was I going to break a tooth on this thing?
As I stared at the bar-shaped chocolate with that worry in mind, Sohee pulled a paper drink carton from her bag and glanced back at me.
“Are you on a diet or something?”
“No, I don’t really do that.”
“Hmm… guess that was a silly question.”
“What exactly are you looking at while you say that?”
Sohee was openly staring right at my chest. It wasn’t like I went around hiding it out of embarrassment, but having someone stare so blatantly made me feel shy anyway. I crossed my arms over my shoulders like I was shielding myself from her gaze.
She licked her lips like she was savoring the sight, then continued as if nothing had happened.
“That’s a special one made by the imperial chef exclusively for the royal guards. The calorie count is ridiculous. Here, have the juice too.”
“Oh, uh, thanks. I’ll enjoy it.”
No wonder the wrapper felt so luxurious. So the royal guards get chef-made snacks even while on duty…
I stared at the chocolate bar for a moment before cautiously taking a bite. The chocolate broke apart smoothly with almost no resistance.
What the heck? This is actually delicious.
It wasn’t mind-blowing, but… it was undeniably good. The sweetness wasn’t overpowering or one-note. The overall balance was excellent, with just the right level of sweetness and a subtle bitter aftertaste that hit like a perfect accent. It felt less like a chocolate bar and more like an expensive dessert from a fancy Western restaurant. No wonder eating this would give you energy for work. I nodded to myself in quiet approval.
With my hunger settled by the chocolate bar and juice, I stuffed the wrapper into my pocket and caught up to walk beside Sohee.
“So, are we heading straight to where Serin is right now?”
“Yeah. Today was supposed to be my day off, but I’m Lady Serin’s personal guard. I always keep her location shared so I can respond anytime she calls. It’s not far from here.”
Ohh, so it was close enough to walk to… Come to think of it, I was pretty sure today was one of Serin’s scheduled streaming breaks. Why would she come all the way out near the station? Did she have some kind of appointment?
I mulled it over in my head, but couldn’t come up with anything solid, so I decided to just ask directly.
“You said it was nearby… Does she have some kind of schedule around here?”
“As far as I know… she’s probably doing a cosmetics ad shoot.”
“Wait, she’s still doing ads? I thought she was on hiatus?”
“She turned down all the variety shows and entertainment gigs under the excuse of taking a break, but she decided to keep her existing brand ambassador contracts. They don’t eat up too much time anyway. It’s usually just one shoot a month.”
I see… Now that she mentioned it, I realized Serin was still promoting quite a few products. The official reason for her hiatus was to focus on her studies, after all. Maybe she still had obligations to fulfill as long as they didn’t interfere with school. I wasn’t familiar with that industry, but once a connection was made, it was hard to go back to how things were. Did that mean she’d been handling all of that while streaming as a VTuber…?
Just imagining it made me feel exhausted. A faint sense of dismay washed over me. Sohee gave a small, knowing wry smile, like she understood exactly what I was thinking.
It was right around the time I started wondering whether it was really right to convince Serin to return to VTubing. Sohee, who had been walking steadily ahead, suddenly stopped.
“Here we are. This is the place.”
“This is…”
“By the schedule, it should be wrapping up soon… Let’s head inside for now.”
“Uh, yeah. Okay.”
The building we arrived at looked quite large and upscale. Being right in the middle of a busy district, there were tons of people coming and going. Apparently Serin was on the fourth floor, in a high-end photography studio. I was a little scared that if we just barged in, we might get mistaken for suspicious people and kicked out. But Sohee strode forward confidently like it was no big deal, so I followed closely behind her.
“Huh?”
“Eh?”
“Oh my.”
The moment we stepped out of the elevator on the fourth floor, we came face to face with a very familiar person.
A luxurious red dress, perfectly styled hair with tons of volume, and adorned with all kinds of jeweled accessories. Standing there was Serin in full battle mode, something I’d never even seen at school.
“Iryong… and Seolhwa? What are you two doing here…?”
Maybe it was the heavy makeup she didn’t usually wear, or the high heels, but she looked less like a current high school student and more like a beautiful queen. Yet she just stared at us blankly, her eyes trembling.
It was like a crack had formed in the perfect mask of the imperial princess. Strangely, I felt more confused by her visibly flustered reaction than anything else. I had expected her to brush it off casually like she had in the park yesterday.
A brief, awkward silence hung in the air in front of the elevator, as if time had stopped. The first to speak to Serin was Sohee, who stepped forward with complete confidence.
“We came to talk about something important. Uncle Changryong, can I borrow the young lady for a bit?”
“You… Do you really think that’s something you can just ask? Of course not.”
“I figured… Then, would it be okay if we joined you as part of the group? You’re heading home after this anyway, right, my lady?”
“Umm, that would be… my lady…”
The middle-aged man called Changryong glanced back at Serin. It seemed he’d decided this wasn’t something he could approve on his own as a bodyguard. But Serin had already composed herself in that short time. She smiled brightly as if there was no issue at all.
“It’s fine. But could you wait just a moment? I need to wash my hands first.”
“Of course. Take your time.”
She’d been filming for a while, so a bathroom break was understandable. And since this was the only exit, Sohee waved lightly, saying she’d wait right here.
But one minute passed. Then two. Eventually ten minutes went by, and Serin still hadn’t returned.
This… was way too long for a bathroom break, wasn’t it?
“…She’s late. Hey, Uncle Changryong. Where’s the bathroom again?”
“Hm? Just go down that hallway and turn right…”
“…Huh? Ah! Wait a second! Seolhwa, come with me!”
“Y-yeah?”
Had she figured something out from that short exchange? Sohee’s eyes widened as she grabbed my hand and hurried toward where Serin had disappeared. Shockingly, the bathroom—which had no other exit—showed no sign of anyone inside.
Could it be a princess kidnapping incident?! I was panicking at the ominous turn of events when Sohee peered through the strangely open window and frowned deeply.
“Ah, just as I thought! She ran away!”
“R-ran away…?!”
“That girl… She must have thought I told you about her past, so she pretended to go to the bathroom and escaped through the window. Tsk, if I’d known the back of the building was structured like this, I would’ve followed her from the start!”
So the reason she looked so shaken the moment she saw me and Sohee was… because she thought we’d uncovered her childhood story. That made sense. She had been trying so hard to hide the real reason she wanted to quit being a VTuber. If she thought we’d found out, of course she’d feel uncomfortable.
But still, escaping through a window? Wait a minute… wasn’t this the fourth floor? Was that even possible?
I approached the tongue-clicking Sohee and looked out the window as well.
Hmm, there’s a ledge right there…
Surprisingly, there was a drainage balcony-like structure just below the window. And seeing a discarded high heel there, it seemed she really had fled barefoot. Sohee probably hadn’t anticipated there would be an escape route like this. With a ten-minute head start, chasing after her now seemed nearly impossible.
She pressed hard on her temples like she had a headache, then stepped out of the bathroom to inform the other guards that Serin had disappeared. When she came back to me, her eyes carried a look of determination as she declared:
“Looks like we’ll have to chase her a bit more aggressively… Seolhwa, come here.”
“What are you going to—kyaa?!”
“Try not to bite your tongue.”
I had no idea what kind of technique she used. The moment I thought I was falling, I realized I was being held in Sohee’s arms. And not just normally held—princess carry style! Suddenly deprived of my freedom, I blinked blankly, unable to process what was happening.
But the real shock was yet to come. Still holding me, she took a light running start and leaped straight out the window!
Hiiiiiiik! I’m gonna die! This is definitely going to kill me!
My mind went completely white with terror. I couldn’t even scream. Being carried princess-style and jumping from the fourth floor without a bungee cord! All strength left my body as pure fear took over. I wrapped both arms tightly around Sohee’s neck.
In the pitch-black world behind my tightly shut eyes, floating in that endless falling sensation, what arrived wasn’t horrible pain but the feeling of a soft landing somewhere.
My heart was pounding so hard from the tension flooding my brain that I could hear it right next to my ears. Gasping for breath, I opened my eyes and realized we were now on the rooftop of the building across the street.
“Y-y-y-y-you—!”
“Don’t talk yet!”
“Kyaaaaaaaaaah!”
Save me! Please save me! I didn’t do anything wrong! Even though I hadn’t committed any crime, I begged for forgiveness nonstop while being carried in Sohee’s arms as she kept running. But the tension had completely drained the strength from my waist. All I could do was bury my face in her shoulder and tremble violently.
Yet astonishingly, she used only the power of her legs to leap stably from rooftop to rooftop. My body weight had to be at least fifty kilograms. The physics of it all felt so unreal I started to dissociate.
No no, this wind and the feeling of falling definitely isn’t a dream. This is supposed to be a completely normal world without superpowers, right?!
At least I was grateful I didn’t have a full bladder. If I had, I definitely would’ve wet myself. Still, she wouldn’t be doing something this crazy without a reason. As Sohee dashed across the rooftops, she muttered to herself.
“Right, the guards are waiting at the front entrance, so the only place she can escape is the back…! Found her.”
“Hie?”
“…!”
At her words, I shrank my neck and looked around. In the distance, I spotted a striking bright red dress. She closed a ten-minute gap just like that? As expected of the guard personally assigned to the princess. Her skills seemed to exist in a realm normal people couldn’t even imagine.
But what Serin did after glancing back was even more shocking. With eyes full of resolve, she roughly tied her hair back and started sprinting forward—barefoot!
Wait, why is she so fast too?!
She wasn’t some professional track athlete. The speed at which she weaved through people while running was unbelievable. Come to think of it, she did say there wasn’t a sport she couldn’t do… The thought that I’d lose to her a hundred times out of a hundred made me feel faint.
Still, it seemed Sohee’s raw physical ability was clearly several levels higher. Even while carrying me as dead weight, the distance between them was steadily closing. After all, while Serin was running along the winding sidewalks, Sohee was cutting almost straight across the rooftops. It was the difference in routes.
“I-I was wrong about everything… Please put me down… My s-stomach… ugh!”
“Hik! W-wait! Not now!”
The problem was… it seemed my stamina had finally reached its limit. On the verge of death, I whimpered and begged her to let me down. Fortunately, she didn’t want me throwing up while being held, so Sohee quickly climbed down the side of the building and gently set me down in a quiet back alley.
“Seolhwa, you really need to start exercising. Getting this scared over something like this…”
“Huff, huff… This isn’t… hie… a matter of… huff… exercise… ugh, I feel like I’m gonna throw up the chocolate bar…”
I was just an average, below-average, fragile civilian… Finally freed, I collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath right on the edge of passing out. I was so exhausted I couldn’t even care that my hair was a complete mess.
Sohee looked a little guilty about putting me in this state. She scratched her cheek awkwardly for a moment, then gently patted my back.
“Can’t be helped. I’ll go ahead and catch the young lady first. Once I do, I’ll send you the location on your phone. Rest here and catch your breath for a bit.”
“Y-yeah… please…”
Sohee left me there and dashed off in the direction Serin had gone. She was so fast that after blinking a few times, she had already disappeared from sight.
Did I pick the wrong world or something…?
Once some strength finally returned to my body, I grumbled to myself and staggered up from the ground. Brushing the dust off my butt and knees, I spoke casually as if talking to myself.
“Serin, you’re hiding there, aren’t you? I actually saw you earlier.”
“…Ugh.”
Almost as soon as the words left my mouth, someone hesitantly stepped out from a nearby alley. It was Serin, drenched in sweat from running so hard on such a cold day. The truth was, when Sohee had jumped down from the rooftop earlier, I’d seen her frantically hide in this dead-end alley. She must have planned to wait here until I left.
It was practically a miracle that Sohee hadn’t noticed. Or maybe she had noticed and just pretended not to.
“You both look like a mess.”
“…Yeah. We do.”
Yesterday we had parted ways looking perfectly neat without a drop of sweat. Today, we were both a disaster from head to toe. I couldn’t help but wonder if we could really have a serious conversation in a situation like this. A bitter smile crept across my face.