Friends
This week was filled with nothing but ordinary classes.
Time passed, and before I knew it, it was Friday afternoon.
Seo I-eung and I left the lecture hall as usual, heading toward the cafeteria for lunch.
One thing that had changed from last week was that Isabella had somehow ended up joining our lunch group.
"What are we eating today?"
Isabella asked as she trailed after us like a puppy.
Seo I-eung answered with open indifference.
"Why even ask? We'll just walk into whatever place catches our eye, same as always."
Their relationship was truly something strange.
If I had to sum up the whirlwind shift that had taken place in such a short time: at first Seo I-eung had seemed completely at Isabella's mercy, as if the other girl had dirt on her. A day later their dynamic leveled out into something equal. And then, another day after that, Seo I-eung somehow felt like she had edged slightly into the dominant position.
I wonder what on earth happened between them. Should I just ask?
Until now I had deliberately held my tongue. If it had been just Seo I-eung and me, maybe. But with Isabella right there, I could never quite work up the nerve. Even though we were eating lunch together now, she was still a little awkward to be around.
Today, though, I felt like I could manage it. Maybe it was because this was already our fourth lunch together; the awkwardness had eased just enough that a strange courage was bubbling up inside me.
We stepped into a nearby restaurant. Before I asked the question, I swallowed dryly and slowly cleared my throat.
That was when it happened.
"Here—water."
Isabella, seated across from us, poured water into three cups and handed one to each of us. Next she spread napkins across the table and quickly set out chopsticks and spoons in front of us.
No one had asked her to. She had been doing this every day since Tuesday—setting the table before anyone else could move.
I was going to do it this time…
I had been waiting for the right moment to ask my question, and she had stolen the initiative right out from under me.
Even when we went to a barbecue place, Isabella never set down the scissors or tongs. She grilled every single piece of meat herself and even portioned it out onto our plates. Leaving everything to her all the time made me feel a little guilty.
Seo I-eung's fingers twitched and she scratched the back of her head; she seemed to be thinking the exact same thing.
"…Next time I'll set the table. You don't do it next time."
Seo I-eung spoke in a deliberately casual tone without looking at Isabella.
"Nah. Stuff like this is just whoever thinks of it first."
"Still, when it's always you it starts to feel bad."
"We're friends. Why feel bad over something like this? I do it because I want to, so don't worry about it."
"…Fine. Do whatever you want, then."
Their exchange ended. Seizing the opening I had been waiting for, I spoke up at just the right moment.
"Ah—"
Both pairs of eyes locked onto me. The pre-question warm-up had succeeded.
"What? Is your throat bothering you?"
"You got something you want to ask?"
Isabella tilted her head in confusion, while Seo I-eung saw straight through my intention in a single glance.
I lifted my gaze. When you ask a question, you're supposed to look the other person in the eye. In the past I couldn't have managed even that, but little by little I had been working on it; now I could at least hold eye contact briefly—at least with Seo I-eung.
"There's something I've been wondering about."
"What is it?"
"Why did you two suddenly get so close?"
"…You sure didn't waste any time asking. No real reason. Last time Isabella here found out one of my weaknesses and said we should be friends."
"A weakness?"
"Yeah, there's something. Not telling you what it is."
I hadn't planned on asking anyway. I had no hobby of prying into other people's weak points.
"So you're friends right now because of that weakness?"
"At first, yeah. I didn't have a choice, so I just went along with it."
Seo I-eung shot Isabella a sharp glance as she answered. Isabella avoided her gaze and ducked her head low.
Seo I-eung continued.
"But then I thought about it more carefully and decided using someone's weakness to force a friendship was pretty damn shady. So I told her to go ahead and spread my secret around if she wanted, then yelled every curse I could think of at her—except the ones about her parents. She just started bawling and apologizing."
"I didn't bawl… My eyes just got a little red…"
Isabella mumbled something timidly. It sounded like she was talking to herself, so I didn't pay it any mind and focused back on Seo I-eung's story.
"Seeing her cry right in front of me like that made me go soft. We talked a bit, I forgave her cleanly, and we made up."
"And you decided to keep being friends?"
"Yeah. She said she'd wanted to get close to me from the start, so I figured we might as well do it properly. After talking a few times we actually clicked pretty well… and it's not like she used the dirt to demand money or make me run errands or pull any other power-trip crap."
When she finished answering, Seo I-eung shifted her gaze to Isabella.
"But if you really wanted to be friends with me, you shouldn't have tried approaching me with a weakness. You should've just been honest from the beginning and asked. Who the hell approaches people like that? It feels awful."
"It was hard to approach you… I worked up the courage and tried talking to you a few times, but you always seemed completely uninterested…"
"Huh? You talked to me before?"
"A lot of times…? I even pointed out when you had something on your mouth."
"Don't remember."
"Every time I tried, the way you reacted made it feel like you didn't want to get close to me at all."
"I don't remember, but I don't think I ever actually thought I didn't want to be friends. You must've just misread my face. If you really wanted to get close, you should've kept trying with more guts."
"I couldn't just keep hanging around someone I wasn't close to. That would've been weird."
"You're weirdly timid about the strangest things. Wait. Hold on. You didn't join the club just because I was in it, did you?"
"No. I joined because I actually love animals."
"Good. If you'd been a fake animal lover I was planning to kick you out."
"……"
Seo I-eung looked away from Isabella and turned back to me.
"Anyway. There are a lot of nasty rumors about me, and the fact that she still came up to me even after hearing them… it was kind of nice, honestly. So I decided to open up and be friends with her for real."
Having heard the full detailed explanation of why the two of them had become close, I gave a small nod.
A lot happened while I wasn't looking.
Just as that little curiosity of mine was resolved—
"Sundae-guk is ready. Who gets the spicy one?"
The soup we had ordered arrived.
"Ugh… so spicy…"
After finishing her spicy sundae-guk, Isabella gulped down water as if her tongue were on fire. She clearly couldn't handle heat well.
"You're a spice wimp? You can't even eat spicy food properly, so why did you order the spicy one?"
"Haa… hh… I can normally handle spicy food just fine. This place is just unusually hot, that's all."
Seo I-eung and Isabella chatted as they moved toward the counter. Isabella shot a quick glance at Seo I-eung, then suddenly sped up her steps and pulled out her wallet. It looked like she intended to pay today.
But then—
"Eh?"
Seo I-eung roughly grabbed Isabella by the scruff of the neck and hauled her back.
"Out."
She held out her own card and finished the payment.
"Ah… You always treat, so I was going to pay today…"
"Don't do pointless crap. Kang Hahwi hates it when girls buy him food."
"…Why?"
"There's a reason. Don't dig too deep."
"Okay… But you paid for Kang Hahwi's too, right? You're also a girl."
"I'm the exception."
She always transferred me the money for my meal later. Well, what she said wasn't a lie. After weeks of eating lunch together, having Seo I-eung treat me felt less burdensome. The reason I still sent the transfer wasn't trauma—it was simply that freeloading made me feel bad.
Still… somehow I get the feeling it might be okay now even if a girl who isn't Seo I-eung paid…
Originally I hated receiving free meals from women. Whenever a girl paid for me instead, the trauma flared up. But after spending every day with girls and sharing lunch with them so often, maybe I had gotten used to it. The trauma felt… not overcome, exactly, but eased enough that it might not be a problem anymore. Of course, I couldn't be certain.
Even when I'm not in my angel form, my mental strength really has gotten stronger than in my past life. I can actually feel the trauma fading little by little.
At this rate, maybe I wouldn't even need to keep going to the psychiatric hospital… A quiet confidence rose in me that I might be able to erase the trauma quickly through mindset and effort alone.
The weekend.
Saturday and Sunday were workdays for the part-time job. I showed up at the site diligently and hauled Magic Stones a little more loosely than I had the previous week. The pay was the same either way, so working myself to death alone would just be a loss. I still carried slightly more than the others and quietly slipped a few stones onto Isabella's pile when no one was looking. Without my help she would get fired in no time.
For the record, Isabella's Magic Stone haul had clearly increased compared to last week. Part of it was that she had given up her break times to work even harder, but she also seemed to be getting the hang of the job. She might not be great at new tasks right away, but she adapted impressively fast. Of course she still looked clumsy and carried less than the others, but…
Well, give her a few more weeks and she'll be competent soon enough.
I finished the Saturday shift like that. After collecting my daily wage in Zone A and heading toward the pickup van—
"…Kang Hahwi."
Isabella approached and called my name in a low voice. I glanced at her.
"What."
"I saw."
"Saw what?"
"You putting Magic Stones on my pile…"
…Words failed me. How had she noticed? I had only set them down when I was sure no one was looking. Had she been watching me the whole time? Was she about to get angry that I had helped without permission? Had I scratched her pride?
Worries tangled together in my head.
"Take this."
Isabella held out a white envelope. It was her daily wage envelope.
"Why would you…"
"It doesn't feel right for me to take the full pay when I couldn't even do one person's share. Including last week's portion, I'm giving you today's entire wage. If it weren't for you I would've been fired last week."
I was about to tell her there was no need, that she should just keep it—
"Think of it as money you earned by doing more work."
Isabella forced the envelope into my pocket.
"A-and…"
She immediately put distance between us.
"……Thank you. Really. Tomorrow I'll work hard enough that I won't need any help."
With those words she bolted toward the pickup van as if running away.
We were going to ride together anyway.