28. Please Understand, Partner (3)
[Partner.... I'm okay.]
A hospital.
Glitches rippled along the edges of my vision.
The colors were hazy, like a screen viewed through a CRT monitor.
The scene before my eyes relied entirely on that haziness.
[Am I scared? No, not at all...! I'm actually grateful to the Association.]
A lie.
I couldn't say why, but I was certain of it.
My gaze drifted to Peregrine's tail feathers and the corners of her mouth.
As I quietly traced Peregrine's habits, my certainty soon sharpened.
Peregrine was clearly afraid.
[Protecting people's dreams and hopes is a Magical Girl's role, isn't it?]
True.
A Magical Girl's role is to protect people's dreams and hopes.
But here, in this hazy boundary, I felt only disgust.
If Magical Girls exist to protect people's dreams and hopes...
then who protects a Magical Girl's dreams and hopes?
[Partner, could you bring yourself to destroy me?]
No.
I couldn't.
A movie only ends when the villain is defeated, and if that villain were you,
I'd rather choose to be trapped in a movie that never ends.
[Please don't make that face, Partner.]
My gaze soon shifted to the documents on the clipboard.
The more I hesitated over the signature, the more the glitches spread, and our movie began to regress, little by little.
From color to black and white. From sound to silence.
When everything returned to the beginning, only white letters appeared on a black screen.
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
You won
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
"Huh-huk...! Huk. H-huk... hoooh..."
Soaked in cold sweat, I sat up.
A dream. It was a dream.
It was a dream...
"..."
The digital clock on the desk still pointed to an early morning hour, not yet six.
A time endlessly ambiguous between falling back asleep and staying awake, as vague as the dream from moments ago.
When I crept out of bed, my gaze searched for Park Won.
Contrary to my worry, Park Won was still lying there, seemingly asleep.
'If he'd woken up because of me, I would've felt sorry for nothing.'
Only after confirming I was the only person awake in the room did I head to the bathroom.
When I turned on the shower alone, the memories from the dream flooded in like the tide.
As dreams usually do, and as the ebb tide does, the memories that rushed in kept scattering again.
Even so, I stood under the shower's water and struggled to clutch at what memories remained.
Why had Peregrine asked me if I could destroy her?
Why had I been hesitating before signing? What was the signature even for in the first place?
"You won." What was that supposed to mean?
I had no idea. Why had the Yu Seong-woo of the past thrown away such important memories?
As if each memory were a jumbled short film, I let out a deep sigh and curled up.
For some reason, my back throbbed and itched.
What had that been?
───
"Krrgh..."
After finishing my shower without incident, I was now groaning in the kitchen.
Since he'd taken care of me last time, today I'd make breakfast for Park Won too.
That was what I'd thought as I tried to make fried eggs.
But for some reason, I couldn't crack the eggs at all.
"No, there's no reason to hesitate. Why on earth...?"
The moment I brought the egg close to the frying pan to crack it, my hand stopped on instinct.
It felt like I was about to do something I mustn't do.
What if I cracked the egg and a chick came out?
Even setting that aside, the gooey contents that would spill out after cracking it...
Do you have the nerve to face that?
Whenever I made eye contact with an egg, I felt like I could hear those words, so I squeezed my eyes shut.
The frying pan was heated, and the oil was already hot, spitting with little pop, pop-pop sounds.
I just needed to crack the egg like usual, so why was I even breaking out in a cold sweat...
"Eek."
Failure.
"Eeek..."
Another failure.
"Eeeek...! Why can't I even crack one egg properly...!"
Three strikes, out.
Ah, Peregrine at the plate. All she has to do is bring it right up to the pan, but she just can't do it.
"Ugh..."
In the end, I set the egg down gently and bent over, bracing myself against the table.
It's just an ordinary egg. An unfertilized egg has no life in it. I understood that fact in my head.
It couldn't be that I'd started feeling attachment to eggs after becoming the peregrine falcon Magical Girl... some ridiculous thing like that.
Nah. No way.
[Crack.]
Huh?
[Sizzle.]
Uh...?
"What are you doing?"
"Uh. Uh...? Wait, you..."
"Hm?"
"You cracked... the egg...?"
"Can't exactly carry it around in my pocket, can I."
I stole a glance at Park Won's expression.
Don't look at me with those eyes.
How could you possibly understand the mess inside me.
No...
I wish you would understand, just a little.
"Are you going to crack another one...?"
"Aren't you eating?"
"No, I am. I'm eating, but..."
While we were talking, the contents of another egg slid down onto the frying pan.
Park Won soon picked up a pair of chopsticks.
As the cooking eggs were mercilessly scrambled on the frying pan, a squelching sound rang out.
Once thoroughly mixed, season them, then turn off the heat while they're still soft and fluffy.
That's how you make appetizing scrambled eggs.
Strange. Even though scrambled eggs were something I normally ate without a second thought, today it felt like my gears were jammed and I couldn't move.
What on earth is this feeling?
"If you don't like scrambled eggs, you should've said so."
"It's the opposite, actually. I normally eat them just fine."
"Then?"
"Hey, Park Won... why am I like this...?"
Park Won's eyebrows twitched above his sunglasses.
They twitched once, up and down, and then Park Won lifted a bite of scrambled eggs with his chopsticks.
"Ah."
"Don't 'ah' me!"
"Try it. It's not bad."
"I said I can feed myself...?!"
"Aren't you standing there frozen because eating it yourself hits a little too close to home?"
I was frozen because it hit too close to home? Because I felt some kind of kinship?
So if I didn't feed myself with my own hands, it would be fine...?
Would Park Won feeding me really serve as a psychological safety net?
"Here. Ah..."
"Ah. Ah..."
"Good."
Park Won's chopsticks drew closer.
The scrambled eggs that had stopped me in my tracks came closer and closer to my mouth.
I just had to put those soft, fluffy eggs in my mouth and swallow.
Once I actually ate them, I'd realize they were good and eat without overthinking it.
These were just ordinary scrambled eggs...
All I had to do was open my mouth and take the bite...!
"No...!"
"What...?"
My teeth snapped shut with a click, and before the chopsticks could reach me, I closed my mouth first.
Something about that was dangerous just now.
I'd had a weird dream and was all unsettled, so I kept getting swept along at this guy's pace.
"If I eat, I'll eat it myself... Who do you think you're trying to tame?"
"I never said anything about taming you."
With one hand covering my mouth, I waved the chopsticks I was holding at Park Won like an arm.
What the hell. It's just good... I'd only hesitated for a second because I was rattled.
Get a grip.
If I slipped up, I'd end up eating out of Park Won's hand one thing at a time...
Only after seeing me pick up another bite did Park Won nod and move the bowl.
We finished breakfast with simple toast, and just as we were emptying our dishes,
Park Won, who had been fiddling with his terminal, set down his utensils and spoke.
"One thing to note: from now on, you are to commute with me without exception."
"From now on...? Why all of a sudden?"
"I just got word. The Director gave the order directly."
Park Won held out his terminal as he spoke to me.
The terminal contained the conversation between the Director and Park Won.
[Director: The reporters have been acting strange since Peregrine's bridge rescue.]
[Is that so.]
[Director: Park Won, as of this moment, you are to accompany Peregrine at all times.]
[Understood. I am currently with Peregrine.]
[Director: It is morning. Why are you together?]
[I slept over.]
"Hold on."
"What."
"Doesn't that sound weird...?"
[Director: ?]
Even the question mark in the Director's reply was speaking volumes.
See, this guy's baffled too.
"It's not wrong."
"It is wrong! Normally you'd say, 'There were circumstances, so I stayed the night.' You know that!"
"That sounds more pathetic."
"Keep that mouth still. This mouth of yours. Huh?!"
I pinched Park Won's lips shut with my chopsticks.
Strictly speaking, the fingers that had typed were the problem, but that flapping mouth was just as bad.
I ought to sew that mouth shut, seriously...
[Director: It does not matter. In any case, be on constant guard against reporters, and you, Park Won, are to bring her in personally.]
[I will keep that in mind.]
[Director: The information has already been shared within the Association. So make sure Peregrine is made aware of this as well.]
[Confirmed.]
The conversation itself ended dryly. It was the most concise exchange possible for conveying the situation.
That aside... the Director and Park Won, the two of them meshed in such a strange way that they said things like this without batting an eye...
I clicked my tongue once, licked the scrambled egg off the chopsticks with my mouth, and only then picked up the dishes and carried them away.
...
I felt like I was missing something.
"Anyway, get ready for work."
"Fine, I'll do it, I'll do it."
"And once we're at work..."
Glaring at Park Won as he tried to advise me, I answered with a frown.
I already know, okay.
"I just have to treat you like my Partner, right? Isn't that right, Partner?"
"Mm."
Park Won nodded at me as if that would suffice.
I tilted my head the other way and looked up at Park Won.