If Unnie Fought That Unnie, Who Would Win??
Winter vacation arrived. It was about a month longer than summer break.
Unlike the summer vacation, which had been packed with so many enjoyable and varied events that two full months had felt short, winter vacation left a small emptiness in my heart from the very start.
After Se-ah moved away, her voice no longer reached me on the weekends, and the fact that she—who had come over almost every day even after vacation began—no longer visited left me with that quiet hollow feeling.
Knock. Knock.
"Harang, we're heading out for Seol-hwa's regular checkup. Are you coming today too?"
"Yes, Father. I'll get ready right away."
The only real outings I had were on Wednesdays, when Seol-hwa went to the Erosion Control Center for her scheduled inspections. Otherwise I simply stayed home doing vacation homework or reading books.
The younger a child was, the harder it was to control their superpowers, and many of them didn't yet understand how to use them properly. That was why they were brought to the Erosion Control Center and allowed to unleash their powers freely—so they could learn control that much faster.
I opened the closet and pulled on the teddy-bear-like coat I always wore in winter. It was the same coat that, in a way, had helped Se-ah and me become friends when we first met.
Riding in Father's car toward the Erosion Control Center, I gazed out the window. Girls wearing fluffy gloves and hats were stomping through the snow that had piled up overnight, rolling it into balls and playing happily.
"Harang, Se-ah will be doing just fine."
Perhaps he had noticed my expression. Father spoke while keeping his eyes on the road. I answered with a small nod.
We arrived at the Erosion Control Center, a place that had grown somewhat familiar by now. Father spoke briefly with the receptionist, then took Seol-hwa's hand and mine and led us to the room where she could freely use her superpowers.
Normally males like Father and me waited in the observation lounge where we could see inside the room, but Seol-hwa wanted me with her, so Father stayed in the waiting area while I went in.
In the space filled entirely with gray light, Seol-hwa clung to my arm, declaring she was excited and bouncing in place. Then she let go, stood in the center of the room, closed her eyes, and began to concentrate as if preparing to use her power.
Bubble!
Bubble-like water droplets began to form on both of Seol-hwa's palms. When she raised her arms high like a cheer, the droplets caught the light, sparkled, soared upward, and then slowly drifted back down to the floor.
"Unnie! Look at this! Pretty, right?"
"Yeah, it's pretty. All sparkly."
Unlike the first time she had used her power—when she had created one enormous water droplet—Seol-hwa always preferred making these small, glittering ones. It seemed heavily influenced by the magical girl series she loved. Magical girls, unlike the Light Warrior series, tended to use their powers in flashy, dazzling ways.
As if confirming my guess, after showering the air with water droplets Seol-hwa looked at me, struck a cute pose, and winked.
"Is Seol-hwa going to be a magical girl?"
"Yep! I'll go whoosh! bash! and do this and that with water droplets to the bad guys!"
Seol-hwa began pouring out all the words she had been holding back. She sprayed water droplets from her hands and struck poses as if defeating imaginary villains in the air. I smiled a little and acted out the falling villains for her—until she said, a bit pityingly, that Unnie wasn't a villain at all. I had to blush and scramble back to my feet.
Being a magical girl is hard...
About a month of winter vacation had passed.
At some point Seol-hwa began going to the Erosion Control Center with only Father, saying she was keeping it secret from me. Seol-hee Unnie was sleeping in her room with the intensity of someone preparing to hibernate. Mother went to work, and I sat alone in the living room with the television on, reading books. I wasn't watching the screen, but the background noise was better than complete silence.
While I was quietly reading, something flew through the air and struck the large living-room window with a solid thud.
I widened my eyes at the sudden foreign sound and looked toward the glass. Beyond the living-room window, in the small yard-like space, a soccer ball was rolling to a stop.
"Hey! Over there!!! Please give us the ball!!!"
A girl's shout came from outside—probably the owner of the ball. Besides her voice I could hear the low murmuring of several other girls.
I opened the window, stepped out, picked up the soccer ball, and tossed it back over the fence. With the girls' loud thanks behind me, I returned inside and resumed reading.
The book's content was filling in the knowledge of the original world that I still lacked, and it was enjoyable—yet it was a day when the tip of my nose tingled as if light-blue hair had just brushed across the bridge of it.
About two months of winter vacation had passed.
I couldn't really remember doing much of anything this break. Sleeping in my room, trying on the warm clothes Mother and Father had bought, or reading books—that was about the sum of it.
The evening before, Mother had come to me and suggested we visit an amusement park, but honestly, with the way I was feeling, even if the park were truly fun I didn't think I could enjoy it. So I refused. Mother seemed to sense the reason and said we would go together later, once Se-ah returned. In place of the amusement park, the whole family decided to go shopping downtown.
"Mom! Mom! Buy me that!!"
"Seol-hwa, wait a second. Han Seol-hee!! Mom told you not to wander off alone!!"
The large supermarket we arrived at with our parents was dazzling. Endless rows of merchandise stretched out, and countless people pulled baskets or carts while browsing.
Near the entrance Seol-hwa was bouncing up and down, pointing at a sparkling magical-girl wand that made noisy sound effects and begging for it. Meanwhile Seol-hee Unnie had somehow drifted off toward the food section in the corner. Mother handed Seol-hwa to Father, then dashed after Seol-hee and dragged her back.
Shopping at the large supermarket was fun. I had already sensed through books and television that the original world was far more developed than the other world, but seeing the ordinary abundance of goods in a place like this made me feel it all over again.
"Harang, what? Do you want that? Should I buy it for you?"
Father came over and offered to buy the bear-shaped snow tongs I had been looking at. I shook my head and declined, but he only smiled and dropped them into the cart. I had simply been marveling that something so complex-looking could be made so casually—and that it cost only three thousand won—yet it seemed to have caused an unintended misunderstanding.
On the way home the trunk of the slightly large car was packed full. There was the fish-shaped bun mold Seol-hee Unnie had chosen, the magical-girl wand Seol-hwa had chosen, and, resting in my own hand, the slightly oversized, cold bear-shaped snow tongs.
One week before winter vacation ended, I was walking toward the park near our house, holding Father's hand and Seol-hwa's. Part of the reason was to use the snow tongs I had bought, but another was to let Seol-hwa try her power outside the center now that her control had stabilized somewhat.
Seol-hwa tightly held my hand with one hand and gripped her sky-blue magical-girl wand—decorated with water-droplet designs—with the other, humming the theme song from her favorite series as she walked.
We crunched along the snow-covered path. As we drew closer to the park, what reached our ears was not children's giggling laughter but the sound of shouting and fighting.
Father gave a wry smile and suggested we turn back, but Seol-hwa's eyes sparkled. She bounced in place, declaring that this was a moment when a magical girl was needed. Seeing her like that, I persuaded Father that we should just take a quick look from a distance. He sighed at the two of us and started walking toward the park.
When we arrived the girls' fighting voices grew even louder. What came into view was a girl with messy dark-brown hair locked in combat against five others.
It was the first time I had ever seen girls fighting in earnest. The dark-brown-haired girl standing in the center caught the fist of a girl charging from the right, yanked her forward, then grabbed her head with her free hand and slammed her into the ground with a heavy bang. For the girl approaching from behind with a fist wreathed in flames, she simply swung the slammed girl like a weapon, raising a sandstorm mixed with snow powder, and knocked her away.
I looked at Father with trembling eyes at a scene rough enough that, in the other world, someone could easily have died. Father, however, was watching it as nothing more than a rough girls' fight.
"Wow!!! Unnie! Unnie! That unnie is super strong!"
"Father… should we not stop them?"
One of the three girls who had not yet charged pressed her hand to the ground. The park floor trembled, then with a heavy thud an earthen pillar erupted beside the central girl's right foot, throwing her off balance. In that instant the other girls swung an ice blade and a stone club at her—but the girl used the disrupted balance instead. As her body fell backward she planted her hands on the ground, spun her legs, and shattered the weapons flying in from both sides.
Immediately afterward she regained her stance, kicked the risen earth pillar, and drove it into the face of the girl who had created it, knocking her down.
The five girls could not defeat the single opponent and ended up sprawled across the park ground. Even more unsettling was the fact that none of the fallen girls showed injuries beyond small scratches or nosebleeds.
After confirming the fight was over, Father led Seol-hwa and me home and finally answered the question of mine he had left hanging earlier.
"Girls grow by fighting. Seol-hee used to fight so much too… haah…"
"Unnie! Unnie! If Unnie and that unnie fought, who would win??"
I gave a small bitter smile at Seol-hwa's words and had no choice but to say that I would lose. Even if I could use magic again, I could never display that kind of durability when hit by attacks like those.
Seol-hwa swung her magical-girl wand and bounced around, declaring that if I lost she would protect me. I smiled at her, thanked her, and gently patted her head.
Even after nearly a year, the original world still felt strangely unfamiliar.