124. A Date with Seoyun
124. A Date with Seoyun
***
—BaTalk!
—BaTalk!
—BaTalk!
The BaTalk alerts kept going off.
"Nngh..."
The silver-haired woman was deep asleep. Serin only frowned and let out a small groan. She didn't open her eyes.
She was dreaming.
......
A battlefield drenched in blood.
Corpses tangled chaotically everywhere formed mountains of bodies and rivers of blood, a truly gruesome sight.
And at the far end of that battlefield.
A woman once called a saint stared at the corpses with unfocused eyes.
Among the dead were people she had once been close to,
people she had never known, and people she had merely passed by once or twice, exchanging a glance.
But whatever their relationship had been, as she looked at the corpses, the saint was consumed by a single thought.
They were not people who should have died like this.
Then the saint blankly turned her head and looked at a silver-haired woman standing not far away.
The woman seemed to exist there alone. Aloof to the point of indifference.
Even staring at this mountain of corpses, so gruesome it felt like her emotions might collapse, she showed not the slightest wavering of feeling.
The saint stared blankly at that woman, then cried out in a voice full of resentment, as if vomiting blood.
—Why...? Why in the world!? Didn't you save them!?
—You have that kind of power! With power like that! Was waving your hand once, opening your mouth once, really so difficult for you!?
—Really... truly... I'm disappointed in you.
......
The end of all journeys.
A massive hill at the western edge of the continent.
The empress standing atop that hill possessed an imperial aura that alone seemed enough to look down upon all existence.
Having achieved everything she set out to do, with more than half the world beneath her, the empress turned her head to look at a silver-haired woman standing beside her and finished a long deliberation.
Then she slowly parted her lips.
—If I were to say I like you...?
—Now that all our journeys have ended, I speak honestly. The feelings I hold for you are greater than any I have ever felt in my life. But since you never seemed to want it... I suppose I'm only saying this now, when we're about to part.
—Any answer is fine. I would like you to give me one.
......
—BaTalk!
—BaTalk!
—BaTalk!
Serin finally opened her eyes at the endlessly ringing BaTalk.
"..."
She blinked blankly, then reached out by habit and picked up the phone nearby.
—BaTalk!
Her face twisted into a deep frown at the alert ringing even at that moment.
"...Who the hell is it."
Still half-asleep and groggy, she was in a thoroughly bad mood.
Something hazy in her unconscious kept seeming to surface but never quite did, clinging to her with an unpleasant grip.
The memories that felt just within reach kept getting cut off by each BaTalk alert.
Click.
She brought her thumb to the screen and unlocked it with her fingerprint, and the display lit up.
And the first thing she saw was the current time.
August 15.
10:25 a.m.
"...Hoo."
She sighed blankly at the time, then the moment she looked at the BaTalk preview at the top, her eyes flew wide open before she knew it.
Han Seoyun.
[Sis, don't tell me you're still......sleeping? If you are, I'm seriously going to be mad?]
"Shit..."
She scrambled up from the bed and immediately stripped off the pajamas she was wearing.
'A date.'
Today was the day of her date with Seoyun.
And the time they'd agreed on was 11 o'clock.
She grabbed a nearby towel and headed straight for the bathroom.
Clack!
The bathroom door opened, and at the same moment the water came on full force.
***
—Ding-dong!
—Ding-dong!
At the doorbell ringing in quick succession, she immediately opened the front door.
Clack!
"...You were awake?"
Seoyun looked at Serin with sharp eyes.
"Ah. How could I not be awake on a day like today... Of course I was up."
"Whatever. Fine. Sis, seriously, from now on answer your messages on time, seriously... Don't stay up all night gaming and wake up late like today."
As Seoyun stepped inside through the open door and spoke, Serin nodded repeatedly and moved aside. Seeing Seoyun so obviously broadcasting "I'm sulking" with her whole demeanor, Serin had nothing to say even if she had ten mouths.
If Seoyun hadn't kept sending messages, it would have been completely unsurprising if she'd slept until the afternoon today.
'No. I definitely went to sleep early yesterday.'
She grumbled inwardly, but even Serin herself didn't understand why she'd fallen into such a deep sleep.
She'd gone to bed at 10 o'clock last night.
She'd gone to sleep early precisely in case she overslept. But today she'd ended up waking late anyway.
"Seoyun. Is there anywhere you want to go, or anywhere you've thought about?"
She followed after Seoyun and spoke.
"It's fine. Let's just... spend time at your place."
She was pouting, clearly still sulking, and Serin instinctively knew she shouldn't just nod along.
"No, Seoyun? We said it was a date... We should shop together, watch a movie, that kind of thing."
She spoke carefully, coaxing Seoyun, but her head was starting to ache a little.
Honestly, she'd thought there was no need to prepare just to go somewhere with her little sister, so she hadn't prepared anything at all. But seeing Seoyun's attitude now, that had apparently been the wrong call.
Pat.
Seoyun, who had been unpacking the things she'd brought, suddenly turned her head and met Serin's eyes.
And with a very subtle look in her eyes.
"No... I really am fine. And Sis, you're a streamer now, right?"
"Huh?"
Serin looked at her, wondering what being a streamer had to do with anything, and Seoyun let out a small sigh and continued.
"Before I came today, I actually watched a few of your streams. But Sis, unless you're gaming, you don't even turn your cam on the whole stream, right?"
"Well, yeah. But why does that...?"
"Why do you think... Sis, isn't it because you want to hide how you look from your viewers? Your in-game character looks exactly like you, but you hide your real appearance as if it isn't, because you're still really shy around people, right?"
As she said that, she slipped onto the living room sofa, and somehow the sight made it look like she was saying it really was okay to just stay home.
So for a moment, Serin was at a loss for words.
'...What am I supposed to say to that.'
It was true that she didn't want to turn on her cam, just as Seoyun thought. She didn't want to reveal her face to viewers. She just wanted to stream without any pressure like this.
But that didn't mean she wanted to never go outside at all and just hole up at home.
When she'd gone to meet Eunha last time, half the reason she hadn't dressed up in a different look was that same intention.
Though in the end, Eunha's consideration—if you could call it that—had made it pointless...
Slip.
She quietly raised both hands and gathered up her white hair as if tying it back high.
"When it comes to my appearance, I can make myself look different, so it's not like I can't go out. And Seoyun, people don't recognize me as much as you think."
I'm not some famous celebrity, and the idea that I can't go outside because someone might recognize me seemed like Seoyun was seriously overthinking it.
And besides, even though I really didn't want to... for today at least, I was planning to do some makeup for Seoyun's sake and even change my whole impression.
Just like Sua looked completely different before streaming versus during her streams, I figured even if I couldn't manage that much, I could pull off some level of it.
"...Again."
But at the sight of me, Seoyun just smiled faintly and shook her head, as if she'd thought something.
"Again... Sis, you're trying to force yourself to go along with me right now, aren't you? You really don't have to push yourself that hard."
'I'm not pushing myself...'
I thought blankly, unable to understand where this misunderstanding had even started.
I even found myself wondering if I'd said something weird to Seoyun before.
"No, it's really fine. I just want to stay at your place with you today. Spending time together like this is still a date, isn't it?"
Seoyun emphasized again that she was really fine, and I couldn't help asking once more.
"Seoyun. Are you really okay with this?"
From the start, when we made this plan, it was Seoyun who'd been looking forward to it as a date, not me, so I wondered if today could really go like this.
"Yeah. Sis, I'm really fine."
Pat.
Pat.
She patted the spot right next to her, signaling for me to come over, and I naturally moved to Seoyun's side.
Slip.
As I sat down right next to Seoyun, she smiled brightly and began pulling things out one by one from the bundle she'd brought.
"Well... honestly, we can shop together at home too, and watch a movie, so it's fine."
Listening to Seoyun, even I felt a little pitiful.
Was this really okay?
I wondered if I should try to persuade Seoyun to go out even now.
—Click.
Along with the sound of something being pressed.
A massive hologram began to fill the space in front of us.
'A beam projector...?'
The word flashed through my mind at the huge hologram, but what I was seeing now was something far more three-dimensional and vivid.
"Here, here. Sis, lie down and get comfortable too. Let's pick out clothes together first."
Seoyun naturally took my hand and guided me down onto the sofa.
As I blankly followed her touch and lay down on the sofa, I suddenly couldn't believe my eyes.
As I lay down with Seoyun, the hologram adjusted its angle along with us and filled my view, and I wondered if such a thing even existed.
'...What is this?'
Even though this was definitely reality, it felt like an Another World hologram had been half-materialized.
Unlike me, who was a little surprised, Seoyun leaned back against the sofa with familiarity and looked at me.
"Sis. You don't mind if I ask you to buy me a lot today, right?"
"Yeah. Even if you ask for something really expensive, it's fine."
I said it sincerely while staring blankly at the hologram, and from beside me came a soft laugh.
"Pfft... Seriously, Sis, listen to yourself."
"Huh?"
"No, I mean, do you know that you seem like you've changed a lot over the past few months?"
"...Really?"
Even as I answered, I felt strange.
Because it felt like Seoyun was comparing the old "me" to who I was now.
"Yeah. Your way of talking, your attitude? Everything seems a little different. But I don't mean that in a bad way... It's just that I like this side of you a lot more."