Please Teach Me
She liked manga. That was the first I'd heard of it — one more scrap of a private life she'd kept shut away, I supposed. Last time, Yozora had said the client was one of Han Sua's relatives, if I remembered right. So this had to be material that person had passed along.
Then what persona should I lock in before we crossed paths? Matching her as a fellow manga lover was out. Everything I knew about manga was whatever I'd caught on TV as a kid. Better to play a newcomer whose interest had only just sparked. That didn't seem half bad.
Personally, I'd already used that angle on Lee Jiyoon, so it felt stale. Still, once a method has worked, you end up leaning on it. That's just how people are. Anyway. Persona was persona, but what mattered most was using this chance to plant the best impression I could on Han Sua. Kind. Harmless. Easier to be around than other men, at least. What would it take to leave an impression like that?
I kept turning it over while I got ready to clock out, then peeled off the white coat and tapped my phone.
I only fiddled with the non-prescription glasses for a moment.
Then I was on the fifth floor of a large building somewhere along the streets of Hongdae, and the scene in front of me was not the one I'd expected. I stopped and looked around. I'd assumed anyone who came all the way out to a place like this would be a man. The ratio of women was higher than I'd thought — and not just any women. Women who hadn't given up on taking care of themselves, dressed with a fair amount of effort.
Had I been stuck inside some outdated prejudice? Say the word weeb, and a man's face is the first thing that comes to mind. Was that just another kind of prejudice? Idle thoughts. I stepped into the shop.
A standee of some anime character I didn't know was waiting right at the entrance. Pink hair, holding a guitar — a bass? — some instrument, anyway. A girl. Beside her, blue hair, yellow hair, and red. Textbook anime, telling its characters apart by hair color. Unfortunately I had no interest in any of them, so I brushed past and walked deeper in.
From what Yozora had told me — we'd been in steady contact — the bookstore was farther inside. It was my first time, so I wandered a little, but the signs were well placed and I reached the place quickly enough.
The far end of the bookstore. Before long, two girls walking side by side came into view. One in a long white puffer, brown hair tied up rough, as if to announce she didn't care about style at all. And one in a zip-up hoodie, with long hair the color of a night sky — hair she clearly spent ages every morning wrestling a dryer over, and would, one of these days, absolutely take it out on some innocent man.
No one else was nearby. No one within fifteen feet, to be exact. Each held a volume she cared about, keeping her distance from the other, simply heading for the register.
If I walked up to Han Sua on purpose in a situation like this, I'd only invite needless suspicion. What I wanted was coincidence. Best if Han Sua noticed me first. Next best, Yozora spotted me and dragged her over. If even that fell through, I'd have no choice but to go find Han Sua myself. For now, standing here and idly looking through the manga seemed wise.
I didn't call out. I took a reasonable spot and fiddled with a volume. Whether they were trending or not, every single one had a ridiculously long title. Had they started using the title in place of a synopsis? You could see the rough plot before you even opened the book. Was that really a change for the better?
The thought tumbled out of my head the moment it formed. Just then, my eyes knocked straight into the crimson gaze Yozora had been sneaking my way.
At first she lit up like a dog whose master had just walked in, all dopey and glad. Then, as if a mask had dropped over her face, she went cold in an instant. Well. She was putting in her own kind of effort too, wasn't she. She wanted to get fucked. Every crude remark I'd wanted to spit at her, the way I used to back when we were close, I swallowed back down my throat.
If I just waited, Yozora would steer Han Sua this way on her own. If she wanted her "reward" a little later, she had to work for it.
Hair pressed calmer than usual. A thick gray long coat, chosen on purpose. Cheap glasses I'd bought just now, of some material I couldn't even name. Pretending to browse, I straightened my clothes and waited for them to come. Ten seconds. Click, click — two sets of footsteps drew up beside me.
"...Huh?"
Yozora's voice was the first off the line. Not the soft, tipsy voice I'd grown used to hearing for so long — a young, bright voice, put on for Han Sua. Honestly, every time I heard it, I had a hard time not laughing. I also wondered how she was managing to hold off the alcohol.
"Excuse me."
"Yes?"
"Oh! You're the health teacher, right?"
A poke at my side. I turned, and there was Yozora, faking surprise, whispering and smiling brightly as she talked. Up to here it was basically a script we'd prepared, so I traded a look of greeting with her, then met the eyes of Han Sua, who was tilting her head beside her.
Hair the color of a wheat field, and amber eyes that suited it almost too well, slowly tracing me up and down. The impression must have been quite different from the one she'd seen at the Academy. She seemed to be working hard to match me against the image in her memory. If you actually broke it down, the only real change was the pair of glasses sitting on my nose.... Had my image shifted more than I thought?
And what Han Sua hesitantly dipped her head to point out was, sure enough, the glasses.
"Glasses.... You're wearing them...?"
"Ah, I tend to put them on when I read."
"Ohh...."
"Does it look strange?"
"No! They... they suit you...."
Whether she'd meant it or was only being polite, her face gave it away at a glance. Politeness. She didn't particularly care whether the glasses suited me. Running into Teacher here was just a little surprising — that was the expression sitting on Han Sua's face. I'd hoped they'd give off something calmer, more at ease. Money down the drain. I didn't let it show. I smiled and kept going.
"What brings you two— no. You're here to buy books. Same as me."
"That's right! Do you like manga too, Teacher?"
"Not so much like it as... I've taken an interest?"
"Then shall I recommend something? What kind do you like?"
"Hmm.... Sports?"
"Oh, then how about a soccer manga? There's one recently...."
Yozora kept the conversation going in that small, noisy, contradictory voice, working hard at it. Han Sua only stood beside her, quietly reading the room. And reading the room meant, in other words, that this spot was deeply uncomfortable for her. I could already see how it would end.
Yozora had told me that once she started pretending to like manga, it hadn't even taken ten minutes for the two of them to become friends. So my plan wasn't completely rotten. The stark difference between Yozora and me came down to one thing. Gender. Unlike Yozora, I was a man.
In the end, the only one who talked all the way through was Yozora. Han Sua never opened her mouth. At most, when Yozora casually tacked a right? onto something for her, a short answer got stuck on the end. That was all.
Today wouldn't amount to nothing... but pushing any further was asking too much. If I forced a conversation on Han Sua here, it'd only do harm. A shame. Today I'd make sure she at least remembered my face, and aim for the next time. I wiped the disappointment away with a forced smile, bought a couple of volumes I had no interest in, and parted from them.
Aaah. This was my chance to practice talking to a guy. How could I just let it slip.... Idiot.
Oh, Teacher likes manga too. I should have at least thrown out something awkward like that. What am I even doing. If I'd managed even half of what Yozora did, seriously....
Don't tell me I was still hung up on this morning's treatment, when Teacher touched me all over. No, no. That couldn't be it. If that were why, my face would've gone bright red the second I ran into him. My face is fine.
I should have chimed in a little from the side while Yozora was recommending manga. I don't know the sports stuff well, but I at least roughly know what's popular right now. Haaah....
Sooner or later I'll need not just a friend who's a girl, but a friend who's a guy, too. I can't just sit back telling myself time will take care of it. At this rate, it'll take at least another year.
This is hard.
A promotional model.
If I want to talk to a man as warmly as Yozora does, what am I supposed to do? Practice conversations in front of a mirror?
I waited outside the shop, quietly deflated, and Yozora came walking out from inside, arms piled with manga. Seven volumes in all? Eight? They ought to have been heavy, but Yozora was busy smiling brightly, as if it were nothing. As if something fun were waiting for her.
"Bought 'em aaall...."
"Good work. Want me to carry some?"
"No, it's fine. They're not that heavy."
"Still...."
"I'm not going straight home anyway. I've got somewhere to stop."
"Where?"
"That's...."
Yozora, who'd been talking smooth as anything, suddenly started watching my face, as if it were hard to say. From that reaction, it had to be something private. The way I hated letting anyone see me rolling around at home with my manga, Yozora probably had something like that too. A boyfriend, for examp—
Master, was it? The person she'd been texting earlier?
"I-I came all the way out here, so I was gonna finish everything I'd been putting off before I go."
"So I probably won't get back until around ten."
No details at all. A deeply suspicious answer, handed over in crisp, tidy pronunciation. Of course I had no thought of pressing her. So she enjoyed a more debauched sex life than she looked. Figures. Exactly what you'd expect, coming out of a sex superpower. That was as far as it went. I laughed it off.
It was her private life. I knew perfectly well that digging would be rude.
Right on cue, a vibration hummed. At the same moment Yozora glanced at her phone, broke into a sly heh-heh-heh of a smile, and hurriedly turned to go.
"Then I'll head out first. See you tomorrow."
"...Yeah. See you tomorrow, Yozora."
We'd have to take the same path until we left this building, though. By the time I pulled my eyes off the question that had jumped up in my head, Yozora was already gone. As if she had somewhere urgent to be. As if her Master had called for her.
Whoosh.
Along the escalator, Yozora's scent lingered, lukewarm. I gave a light sniff, and the trace of where she'd gone drew a path before my eyes, vivid as if sketched there. It was Tracking — one of the more useful tricks I'd gained once I could draw on the lion's power. I'd named the technique myself.
Fifth floor down to the second. A left on the second. And there, the scent cut off clean.
An errand in the same building? Well, possible. I was pretty sure there was a cafe on the second floor. I scratched the back of my neck and stepped onto the escalator.
In one corner of my heart I wanted just a glimpse of what kind of person Yozora's Master was — even just the face. But that was the whole of the curiosity. If I didn't see him, I'd go home and read the manga I hadn't finished yesterday. And if I had time after that.... I'd try the one Yozora recommended, too.
That had definitely been the plan.
Until her scent cut off not at the cafe, but in front of the men's restroom on the second floor, it had only been a small curiosity.