Episode 3 - Confirming the Kill
#Chapter 3 - Confirming the Kill
The closer it got to quitting time, the more restless I became.
Normally I would have been watching only the work deadline, but today I checked the clock in the bottom right of the monitor and the messenger list over and over.
'Make some time this evening.'
'Refusal will be rejected.'
The words I'd heard earlier kept replaying in my head.
'What did she see, and how much?'
Yesterday's meeting.
This morning's shuttle bus.
And a little while ago, the small conference room.
Yu-ra had said she'd seen the line three times.
Especially this morning, she'd said she'd seen several lines at once, so by now it was practically confirmed.
When I connect with someone, the connected person can see that line too.
'Why did I have to find that out now, of all times?'
I couldn't ask Agent Gustav, and I couldn't ask Danbi either.
Neither of them was someone I could expect an answer from.
...
What bothered me more than that was the fact that Yu-ra hadn't gotten angry.
She'd been surprised and suspicious, but at the end she'd smiled oddly, as if she were almost certain.
'Why did she smile?'
If she'd gotten angry instead, I could at least have apologized properly.
Her smiling like that was scarier.
"Se-ryu."
"Ack!"
My shoulders jumped at the voice that suddenly came from beside me.
Yu-ra was peeking her face over the partition.
"Why are you so startled?"
"Oh, no, I'm not."
"You're leaving, right? Get your things."
"...Yes."
I obediently closed my laptop.
She was clearly just a coworker at the same company, but it felt like I was being dragged into a police interrogation room.
===
The place Yu-ra took me to was a small izakaya about a ten-minute walk from the office.
It wasn't a completely closed-off room, but each table had high partitions, so you could barely hear the conversation at the next table.
'Even the choice of location is ominous.'
"This place is okay, right? I've been here a few times. What would you like, Se-ryu?"
"Anything is fine."
"'Anything' is the hardest thing."
"Then whatever you want, Yu-ra."
"Heh heh. You're being very agreeable today, aren't you?"
"...I've always been agreeable."
"I don't think so."
After we finished ordering, a brief silence fell.
Yu-ra took a sip of water, and I pointlessly folded my chopstick wrapper.
Once.
Twice.
By the time I was folding it crosswise for the eighth time, Yu-ra spoke.
"So, since when?"
"...What do you mean?"
"That line. Since yesterday, right?"
I fell silent.
The corner of Yu-ra's mouth lifted slightly.
'Damn.'
I'd been too slow to control my expression.
"I was just guessing. I'd never seen a line like that before, and at yesterday's meeting you kept looking behind me, and every time I flinched, you got startled too. And then you suddenly took half a day off."
"...Was I that obvious?"
"A little."
As the evidence piled up one piece at a time, my escape routes were blocked off along with it.
"Still, you can't conclude I did something just from that."
"Right. So until yesterday, I thought I was just tired."
Yu-ra set down her water glass.
"But I saw you yesterday, Se-ryu."
"...What?"
"At the park."
My heart sank.
"The park?"
"Yes."
Yu-ra pressed her lips together as if holding back a laugh.
"Poking your face out from behind a tree, then hiding."
"..."
"Poking it out again, then hiding."
"..."
"And then, looking at the pigeons."
Yu-ra brought both hands to her mouth.
"Coo coo coo coo coo, let's eat~"
"Stop."
"Coo coo coo~"
"Please stop."
Yu-ra finally burst out laughing.
"Pfft, ahaha."
I buried my face in both hands.
'I want to die.'
This was more fatal than getting caught with a superpower.
"Why were you watching that?"
"I got out a little early yesterday too. Ever since the meeting, I couldn't stop noticing how strange my body felt, so I went to the park for a walk. And there was someone I knew playing hard-to-get with pigeons from behind a tree."
"...I should have paid more attention to my surroundings."
Yu-ra laughed again.
"So why were you playing hard-to-get with pigeons?"
"It wasn't playing hard-to-get."
"Then what?"
"...A range test."
After saying it, I shut my mouth.
Yu-ra's eyes narrowed.
"A range test?"
"..."
'Ah.'
I'd screwed up.
Yu-ra beamed.
"Se-ryu. You just confessed."
"Ha..."
I put a hand to my forehead.
My headache today didn't seem to be only because of my ability.
Just then, the food we'd ordered arrived.
Yu-ra calmly picked up a skewer.
She was so calm that it made me even more uneasy.
"So, what kind of ability is it?"
"I don't know exactly yet myself... but it does seem to be an ability."
"You even ran a range test with pigeons, and now you're saying it 'seems to be'?"
"...It seems to be an ability."
Yu-ra smiled, satisfied, and leaned back in her chair.
It was a total defeat.
I hesitated for a moment over how much to say, then finally opened my mouth.
"I haven't confirmed much properly yet, but I think I can connect the senses of different body parts. What I've confirmed so far is touch and temperature."
"Connect senses..."
Yu-ra blinked.
Then, as if something had occurred to her, she stared at me for a few seconds.
Her eyes slowly narrowed.
"Then yesterday..."
"..."
"It was my butt, wasn't it?"
"..."
"Se-ryu."
"...Yes."
Yu-ra laughed as if dumbfounded.
"Wow. So it really was you, Se-ryu."
"I'm sorry. At first I didn't know what it was either, and it connected all of a sudden."
"But after that, you did it on purpose, right?"
"...To confirm."
"Several times."
"..."
"With my butt?"
I quietly lowered my head.
When she stayed silent for a moment, I thought she was really angry and glanced up.
But Yu-ra was biting her lip.
She was holding back laughter.
"Why are you laughing?"
"No, thinking about it, it's just so absurd. Do you know how startled I was when something suddenly seemed to touch my butt?"
In the end, a small laugh escaped her.
"You did it on purpose in the meeting room today too, right?"
"...I'm truly sorry about that."
"Why did you do it?"
I hesitated for a moment, then answered honestly.
"Because you were a little annoying."
"Me?"
Yu-ra pointed at her chest as if baffled.
"Why?"
"You keep piling work on me."
"Because that's my job."
"You bring other people's work and dump it on me too."
"Because you're good at it, Se-ryu."
"That's exactly it."
Yu-ra paused for a moment.
I repeated the things I'd heard that morning, one by one.
"'You’d get it done in no time. You know this best, Se-ryu. It’s really simple.'"
"...Do I say that a lot?"
"Constantly."
"I didn't know."
"I only found out today too."
"Found out what?"
"...Never mind."
I couldn't bring myself to bring up U-hyeon.
Yu-ra looked at me for a while, then bit into a skewer.
"So you took it out on my butt?"
"...It sounds weird when you summarize it like that."
"It's weird even without summarizing."
I had nothing to say.
This time Yu-ra asked with a slightly more serious expression.
"Then this morning on the shuttle bus, was it also you who suddenly held me up?"
"I'm not exactly sure about that one either. It wasn't something I did on purpose."
I explained that at the moment of the sudden stop, I'd seen Yu-ra falling and reflexively focused on her waist and legs, and that it had felt like I'd moved the muscles themselves rather than just the senses.
I added that a severe headache had come on right afterward.
After hearing the whole story, some of the playfulness faded from Yu-ra's expression.
"So you caught me so I wouldn't fall?"
"I think that's probably what happened."
"...Then thank you. If I'd fallen like that, I probably would have gone face-first."
"Right. That could have been bad—"
"If I'd broken my nose, you would have had to take responsibility."
"...Why me?"
"Because it would have been punishment for you hitting my butt."
"That's a weird causal relationship."
Yu-ra smiled again, like usual.
The mood had loosened up a lot compared to a little while ago.
Then, as she picked up her water glass, Yu-ra suddenly spoke.
"When I saw you at the park yesterday, I actually thought about saying hello."
"Why didn't you?"
Yu-ra looked at me for a moment, then averted her eyes.
She fiddled with the rim of the glass with her finger as she spoke.
"You'd even taken half a day off and were alone in the park... I thought you were waiting for someone."
"...Me? Who?"
"How would I know?"
Her answer came a little quickly.
"I wondered if you had a girlfriend or something."
"I don't..."
The words slipped out before I could stop them.
Yu-ra's finger paused for a moment.
"...Really?"
"Yes."
"I see."
It was a short answer, but her expression seemed to brighten a little.
Was I imagining it?
Yu-ra immediately changed the subject.
"Anyway, shall we sort this out?"
-Clack.
She set down her chopsticks and raised her index finger.
"First. Se-ryu has developed a strange ability."
"Yes."
"Second. You used that ability on me three times without telling me."
"...Please exclude the shuttle bus. I saved you there."
"Then twice."
"Yep."
I'd corrected her for no good reason.
After the second finger, a third went up.
"Third. When I'm connected, I can see that white line."
"It seems so."
And then a fourth finger went up.
"Fourth. Se-ryu doesn't want anyone else to find out about this."
"..."
'Ah.'
So this was the real point.
It was the same gentle smile I'd always seen at work, but today it looked oddly foxlike.
"Right?"
"...Right."
"Good. Then I'll keep it a secret too."
"Really?"
The answer had come so easily that I was suspicious instead.
"What's the condition?"
"Why do you think there's a condition?"
"That look on your face says there's a condition."
"Heh heh."
I knew it.
Yu-ra leaned forward a little.
"First, don't use it on me secretly from now on. I don't like having it done to me without knowing."
"Yes. I really won't do that."
"And if there's ever something to test when we both know about it, let me join in too. I'm curious as well."
Yu-ra looked down at her own palm and clenched and unclenched her hand once.
"I could feel what someone else feels, and someone else could feel what I feel. How could I not be curious when something like that actually exists?"
"...Aren't you scared?"
"A little. But I’m more curious than scared."
Yu-ra looked at me for a moment, then added.
"And it's you, Se-ryu."
"...What does that mean?"
"Who knows."
Yu-ra smiled.
"If it were someone else, I might have run away immediately."
My heart gave a strange thump.
Yu-ra drank from her water glass as if nothing had happened.
I quietly averted my eyes.
'What was that?'
'What did she mean?'
A little later, Yu-ra spoke again.
"And one last thing. This isn't a condition."
"What is it?"
"From now on, don't refuse my requests too coldly."
Yu-ra rested her chin on her hand and smiled.
"That has nothing to do with my ability."
"That's why I said it isn't a condition."
"Then can I refuse?"
"Hmm..."
She pretended to think for a moment.
"At least hear me out first."
"That's how you always start at work too."
"Because you're good at it, Se-ryu."
"..."
I knew it.
What I'd heard that morning didn't seem entirely groundless after all.
I let out a deep sigh.
"I'll only take on work within reason."
"You're firmer than I expected."
"I've learned now too."
"Learned what?"
"How to deal with a fox."
The moment I said it, I knew I'd messed up.
Yu-ra's eyes narrowed.
"...A fox?"
"Ah."
"Who's calling me a fox?"
"That's..."
"Se-ryu."
Yu-ra smiled brightly.
"I think you'd better choose your words carefully."
'I'm screwed.'
Today, it seemed like my mouth would kill me before my ability did.
But strangely, the tension from earlier had almost completely disappeared before I knew it.
I'd thought getting my secret exposed would be a disaster, but Yu-ra hadn't reported me or gotten angry.
If anything, she'd acted like she'd discovered something fun.
And I didn't dislike that either.
"So who said it?"
"I don't know who."
"Hmm."
"Really."
Yu-ra looked at me for a moment, then suddenly held out her hand over the table.
Her palm was facing up.
"Then try this."
"Try what?"
"Sensory sharing."
"...Right now?"
"Yes. But while I'm watching."
Yu-ra wiggled her fingers.
I looked back and forth between my hand and Yu-ra's hand.
"What should I make you feel?"
"Hmm..."
Yu-ra thought for a moment, then smiled playfully.
"You decide, Se-ryu."
"..."
This was definitely a little ominous.
But strangely, it also seemed like it might be fun.
This was the first time I'd used the ability with the other person knowing about it and having agreed.
Yu-ra's palm.
My right hand.
Connect.
A faint white line stretched between the two of us.
I lightly tapped my right palm with my index finger.
-Tap.
Yu-ra's eyes widened slightly.
Her gaze immediately went to the white line connecting us.
This time she didn't startle.
Instead, the corner of her mouth slowly rose.
"...It really connected."
There was far more curiosity than fear in that voice.