The Alleyway Interrogation
Yu Eunbi. Second-year Class A, ranked 12th overall in the ranking matches. Physical-type awakened. If I were to recite her profile, that about covers it. In game terms, her position feels like an assassin. But honestly, none of that mattered as much as the fact that she was Baek Seolah’s closest friend. That was why I could vaguely guess why she’d suddenly grabbed me from behind. Even without knowing the exact reason, it had to be related to Seolah.
“Mind putting that knife away first so we can talk?”
I tilted my head slightly, catching a glimpse of dark blue hair behind me as I spoke. I’d reflexively raised my hands in surrender, but a knife was still going too far. My reputation at the academy was already what it was, and after seeing how close Seolah and I had gotten, I could understand what Yu Eunbi must be thinking. But charging at someone’s back with a blade was still an overly hasty judgment. I didn’t know how things used to be, but lately my relationship with Seolah had been pretty smooth. At the very least, I hadn’t done anything bad enough to warrant this kind of reaction from Yu Eunbi. Probably.
Yu Eunbi didn’t even blink at my words. Her voice remained cold.
“Shut up and answer my questions. If you try to hide anything or lie to me… you know what’ll happen, right?”
“Mm.”
“What exactly did you do to Seolah?”
The main point she added was obvious—predictable, even. The kind of topic I could’ve easily anticipated. Of course, from my perspective, the suspicion was so unfair it was almost frustrating.
What did I do?
Strictly speaking, that wasn’t even a question meant for me. Lee Hyeonseong or Baek Seolah might’ve been the ones to hear it. When you got down to the root of it, my only crime was playing along with a couple who had some seriously perverted fetishes. Even if I had slept with Seolah, it had all been consensual. I gave her the usual answer, my expression somewhere between indifferent and tired.
“I didn’t do anything. At least nothing bad enough to make you this worked up.”
“……Bullshit.”
As expected, Yu Eunbi didn’t take my words at face value. She narrowed her eyes sharply, clearly convinced I was lying.
“If you really didn’t do anything, then why is she so out of it? She looks completely drained. From my position, I have no choice but to suspect you, Han Taeyang.”
“……Is that so.”
I hadn’t expected her to believe me anyway. I just clicked my tongue briefly, feeling no real disappointment. Still, something in her follow-up struck me as odd.
Out of it……? Drained?
The “she” she was referring to had to be Baek Seolah. There was no other possibility. But Seolah being out of it? …Now that I thought about it, when we parted ways after leaving the motel the other day, she had seemed strangely preoccupied.
Something on her mind.
My thoughts naturally arrived there. That fleeting mention of her inner turmoil while we were together. Some kind of worry related to me. If that was the case, maybe I couldn’t completely deny responsibility after all.
Well, this is awkward.
Just as I was scratching my cheek with that ambiguous feeling, Yu Eunbi added in a sharp tone.
“This is your last warning. I won’t ask twice. Tell me everything—what happened between you two, why you’ve been hanging around Seolah lately—from start to finish.”
“……Hmm.”
But here’s the thing. Feeling awkward about Seolah was one matter; meekly complying with Yu Eunbi’s violent threats was another. Even if I bore some responsibility, that didn’t mean I had to accept this situation with both hands raised. I only lowered my head for people I had romantic feelings toward. Whether it was Seo Ahyeon or Baek Seolah, Yu Eunbi definitely didn’t fall into that category.
This is getting annoying.
Thud!
“……Huh?”
I glanced sideways, waiting for the right moment, then grabbed Yu Eunbi’s wrist the instant an opening appeared. The very same right wrist that had been holding what I assumed was a dagger to my back. Crack—
“……!”
I twisted it just enough to keep it from functioning properly for a while without causing serious damage. She clearly hadn’t expected this kind of response. Her eyes widened as a dazed voice escaped her.
“……Eh, eh?”
She must’ve been confident in her skills, being ranked 12th in the ranking matches. Since I’d always hovered around the middle-upper ranks, she probably never imagined she’d be the one getting countered. The shock must’ve been that much greater. Even after I grabbed her arm, her reaction was noticeably sloppy—clearly a result of that surprise.
I let out a light scoff.
“You should’ve checked the rankings more often, Yu Eunbi. My rank went up a while ago.”
“Wh-what……!”
A few weeks ago, after defeating Seo Ahyeon, my rank had shot up from 31st to 16th. Even just looking at the numbers, I was in a similar position to her now. Whoosh—!
“……Eek, kyaa?!”
I was the one who’d taken down Seo Ahyeon—a physical-type monster in close combat—in a head-on fight. Assassin or not, once Yu Eunbi was caught at point-blank range, there was no way for her to escape. I lifted her up, spun her around once, and slammed her down onto the ground. She was so light that it almost felt like swinging around a mannequin.
Thud!
Yu Eunbi let out a sharp yelp as she hit the ground and was pinned beneath me. Sitting astride her stomach, I spoke in a flat tone.
“Sorry for handling you so roughly, but you pointed a knife at me first, so you don’t really have room to complain, do you? This is self-defense on my part…… Hm?”
I didn’t get to finish. My gaze, which had been casually scanning her, suddenly stopped. Specifically, on her right hand. The hand that had supposedly been holding a dagger to my back just moments ago.
“……A pen?”
It wasn’t a dagger at all. She’d only been holding a regular ballpoint pen with the tip extended.
What the hell.
I released her wrist with an awkward expression. Still pinned beneath me, Yu Eunbi muttered weakly toward the ground.
“……Yeah, you’re right. It was self-defense. It wasn’t a knife, but I did intend for you to think it was, so I can’t really say anything either.”
“Uh…… yeah.”
“Were you always this good at moving? I never expected to get flipped like that. Anyway, since it’s come to this, just answer one thing, Han Taeyang.”
Yu Eunbi glanced up at me with her bluish eyes, her voice considerably deflated.
“You…… really didn’t do anything bad to Seolah? Like, you didn’t blackmail her or anything?”
“……”
It was a much more subdued question than when she’d been barking at me earlier. Was the shock of being overpowered that severe? She looked strangely deflated, almost like she was experiencing a sudden reality check. Still, just to be safe, I flicked the pen out of her hand with my fingertip before answering.
“……I get what you were thinking, and I can understand it to some extent. But there was no coercion between me and Seolah.”
“……Really……?”
“Judging by your reaction, you tried asking Seolah directly, got shut down, and came after me instead, didn’t you?”
Yu Eunbi flinched at the question I threw back at her, avoiding my gaze. As I suspected, she’d come to threaten me as a last resort after failing to get answers from Seolah. I clicked my tongue and continued.
“If she’s keeping her mouth shut, then I can’t tell you anything either. Believe it or not, the right to reveal this secret isn’t mine.”
“……R-really?”
“Yeah, really.”
“……”
“If you really want to know, get permission from Seolah first. Then I’ll tell you.”
It probably wasn’t a completely satisfying explanation, but if she couldn’t accept it, what could I do? I had no intention of being the one to reveal the netorase play first. Especially not to Yu Eunbi—Seolah’s closest female friend. This secret was tied to Seolah’s honor, after all.
“……Haa, I see.”
Fortunately, while Yu Eunbi didn’t seem fully convinced, she didn’t look like she planned to keep bothering me either. The venom had drained from her expression, and she seemed to realize she’d acted rashly. The atmosphere had loosened a little. Not wanting to sit in that awkward silence, I deliberately changed the subject.
“By the way, where’d you leave that dagger set you usually carry? I was sure that’s what you had, so why the random pen?”
“……Well, since I wasn’t even sure it was your fault yet, I couldn’t exactly pull out a real weapon right away.”
She seemed to catch my meaning and let out an awkward cough.
“Hah, and yet the same person who knows that had no problem threatening someone on their way to school.”
“That’s…… um, sorry. The daggers are here.”
She apologized and gently lifted the hem of her school skirt. Strapped to her pale thigh with a belt was a single sheath. There was probably another one on the opposite side.
Oh. Thigh meat.
I let out a small internal gasp at the unexpected gift. Thighs squeezed tight by a belt had a strangely alluring quality. It wasn’t overly explicit, which somehow made the sensuality stand out even more.
“……Hey, you’re staring way too obviously.”
She seemed aware of it herself. Just as Yu Eunbi’s cheeks flushed faintly and she moved to lower her skirt—
“──What are you doing there, Taeyang?”
“……”
“……”
A soft, gentle voice rang out—one I never expected to hear in this situation. At the sudden appearance of a third party, both Yu Eunbi and I froze in our current positions. A girl soon emerged from between the buildings where we’d been scuffling. Black hair like ink and violet eyes, dressed in her school uniform. She quietly observed me mounted on top of Yu Eunbi—
“What’s that?”
Seo Ahyeon recited a single line with an impossibly benevolent smile.
“A new girl?”
“……”
Her hands were clasped neatly in front of her…… and despite the smile on her lips, her eyes weren’t smiling at all as she stared at us with an intensely chilling gaze. Seo Ahyeon, who had apparently been heading to school via a similar route, had appeared and instantly frozen the entire atmosphere. Hic— The short hiccup that escaped in that moment—had it come from Yu Eunbi, or from me? Maybe both. Either way, it obviously wasn’t an important detail.