Magical Girl Colleague
Sohee was a magical girl colleague.
From the very beginning, she had always seemed bright. She was the kind of girl who never found it difficult to approach people.
The moment we met, she came right up to me saying, “Let’s be friends!” and started looking after me.
I was grateful, but sometimes her kindness felt like a burden.
I wasn’t completely oblivious. There was no way I could miss how Sohee felt about me.
Still, she never crossed the line too obviously, so I just smiled like we were friends and let it slide.
“Hmm? Sujung, did you change your perfume?”
“Huh? No, I didn’t.”
“This scent… I feel like I’ve smelled it before…”
Because Sohee had gotten too close, I subtly leaned my body away. It was obviously the smell of Dayoung’s perfume. Thankfully, Sohee didn’t seem to think much of it. She simply reached out and pinched my cheek hard, pulling it outward.
“What the heck! One side of your face is twice as big now!”
“Ow—!”
If you know it hurts, why are you pulling?
“It’s nothing. I just… fought a villain…”
“You fought a villain? You?”
Sohee’s eyebrows shot straight up.
“You’re gonna lie to me?”
Of course she didn’t believe me.
Honestly, even I thought it sounded ridiculous after saying it out loud. How often did I ever get into direct fights with villains?
Besides, if I had really fought a villain, I wouldn’t have gotten away with just these kinds of injuries.
I should have said I fell down the stairs instead.
Wait, was that too cliché?
But I can fight too. Why does she always treat me like a child?
“I can fight when I have to. I’m a magical girl too, you know!”
“Then who did you fight?”
“Um… the villain’s name was… Kim. Mr. Kim?”
“Mr. Kim? Are you messing with me?”
Sohee’s expression soured instantly when she realized I was joking.
Thanks to her, I managed to laugh for a little while.
When I smiled, the corner of my mouth stung. I winced with one eye, and Sohee stared silently at my lips before grabbing my chin with a serious face.
“Hey, hold still.”
“Ah, what are you doing?”
“I said hold still.”
Sohee slowly turned my face from side to side.
She gently stroked it with her hand and pressed on the soft parts of my cheek.
“This side isn’t even swollen.”
It’s the other side.
Her touch felt strangely slow and gentle.
Maybe it was because of what Kim Dayoung had done to me earlier—any kind of touch made me tense up.
The fact that I wasn’t wearing panties and my lower body felt exposed also weighed on my mind.
What if she finds out?
I was worried she might think I was some kind of pervert or exhibitionist.
When I squirmed awkwardly, Sohee must have noticed my discomfort. She loosened her grip a little.
“…Did you put any medicine on it?”
“No.”
“Do you realize one side of your face is twice as big? Anyone can tell you got slapped.”
“The villain was a close-combat type, so she slapped me really hard…”
“Oh, I see. So Mr. Kim was a brawler, huh?”
Her response was way too half-hearted.
She suddenly walked back to her seat.
I thought she was done, but a moment later she returned with a brightly colored pouch.
“Give me your lips.”
“Give you my lips? What am I, a deposit? Just hand it over. I’ll put it on myself.”
“No. I’ll do it.”
I reached out for the medicine, but true to her mid-tier status, Sohee deftly dodged my hand.
When I stared at her blankly, she dipped a cotton swab in ointment and began gently applying it to the corner of my mouth.
The slippery feeling made me want to touch it with my tongue. I gave it a little poke.
“Hey! I just put it on—don’t eat it!”
“Ugh… it tastes weird.”
“I didn’t put it on for you to eat it.”
Sohee looked exasperated as she applied more ointment.
This time she gently lifted my chin and carefully coated the edges of my lips.
Up close, I noticed her eyes were a deeper, darker color than I had realized.
I could see the worry in her gaze. It made me feel uncomfortable, so I lowered my eyes.
“……That’s enough. Thank you.”
Our faces were way too close.
Sohee looked like she wanted to ask more, her lips parting and closing before she finally said something else.
“If it hurts, you have to go to the hospital.”
“Yeah. I’ll see.”
“I mean it.”
“I got it.”
Only then did Sohee return to her seat.
Ever since Soyeon unnie disappeared, she had been looking after me even more attentively.
“Do I really look that weak…”
I pretended to look at the monitor while touching the corner of my mouth with my fingertips.
It was slippery from the ointment.
The medicine Sohee had applied now covered the marks Kim Dayoung had left behind. The feeling was strangely unsettling.
Should I tell Sohee?
No. What would change even if I did?
Sohee was mid-tier. She was stronger than me, but even so, she would still be no match for Kim Dayoung.
Her family was wealthy, she had plenty of money, and she was mid-tier while Dayoung was upper-tier. Looking at it this way, Kim Dayoung seemed impossibly huge.
If the two of them stood together and glared at her, they’d probably just get beaten up one after another. That would be the best-case scenario.
Then I’d feel too sorry for Sohee.
It wasn’t something I should drag her into. This was a burden I had to bear alone.
As soon as afternoon came, I packed my bag right away.
Since we had flexible hours, I didn’t need anyone’s permission, but my pay was docked accordingly.
I’ll work hard starting tomorrow.
Tomorrow’s me will do better.
I couldn’t stand the stares from people, my busted face, or the filthy feeling of sitting here without underwear. I grabbed my coat.
The moment I stood up, the bare feeling between my legs made my steps feel incredibly awkward.
There was no way anyone could know what I had done with Dayoung, yet I kept glancing around like someone who had been caught.
“Life really isn’t easy.”
I muttered to myself on the way home. The ground was covered in fallen leaves.
The maple leaves crunched under my feet and scattered in the wind.
If it had been before, I would have thought it was pretty and taken a photo. But now, the thought didn’t even cross my mind.
“Sigh… I guess it didn’t all come out.”
Swears rose all the way up my throat.
I rummaged through my bag for some wet wipes.
I found an empty alley and quickly wiped the inside of my thighs.
What the hell am I even doing?
The feeling was strangely dirty and weird.
I stood there for a while leaning against the wall, crumpled wipe still in hand, before I started walking home again.
This path… I had walked it with Soyeon unnie too.
Back then, we had laughed at how nice the sound of stepping on fallen leaves was. Just holding hands while walking had been enough.
Every time the seasons changed, we walked somewhere together. We laughed at the smallest things.
We would buy coffee to go from a café, and if the movie time was awkward, we would hold hands and wander around the area. Those memories had piled up inside me, one by one.
But now, on the same maple-lined path, I was lifting up my dress and wiping away the traces on my thighs.
Because of that person who had the exact same face as unnie, even the memories I used to cherish felt twisted and wrong.
When I thought of Soyeon unnie, I should feel warmth. Instead, Dayoung’s face kept overlapping with hers.
That was what I hated most.
It felt like even Soyeon unnie was being dirtied.
“Seriously… why did it have to be her of all people.”
I pulled out another wet wipe and cleaned my hands. No matter how much I wiped, it still felt gross.
A piece of discarded trash blew right in front of my shoes.
“Is this saying I’m the trash?”
Maybe I was becoming paranoid.
I kicked it aside with my foot and kept walking home with that dirty feeling still clinging to me.
“Ah……”
It hurts.
My head was pounding.
With a haggard face, I pressed hard on my temples with my index fingers.
I thought it would help, but the pain only became sharper. When I placed my hand on my forehead, it felt hot. I must have a fever.
Well, after crying so much and having such violent sex yesterday, it was no wonder I caught a fever.
I had left work early yesterday too. If I skipped today as well, how much would my paycheck be cut?
I briefly considered just going in to stamp my attendance, but the moment I imagined facing Kim Dayoung, the idea vanished completely.
Yeah. Money is important, but my body matters more.
“Where did I put the medicine……”
The moment I forced my aching body up, my lower back throbbed like it was about to snap. I groaned as I rummaged through the shelf.
After pushing aside a few boxes, my fingers finally found the medicine packet I was looking for.
I took it out and shook it.
“Ah, it’s all gone.”
Why didn’t I throw it away?
I tossed the empty packet into the trash and instead took out the ointment for new flesh. I squeezed a little onto my index finger and dabbed it onto my torn lip.
When I looked in the mirror, it had improved a lot compared to yesterday.
Both my lips and cheeks. Even though I was only lower-tier, a magical girl was still a magical girl. My recovery speed was definitely fast.
“I’m a proper magical girl too.”
Now with the added frail beauty on top.
I said it and then burst out laughing without meaning to.
“Frail beauty, my ass.”
The me in the mirror just looked like a person standing there blankly with a feverish face.
In my own eyes, I was far from looking pretty or delicate.
“I should go to the pharmacy.”
I threw on an oversized boxy t-shirt and shorts and headed outside.
It was early morning, so the streets were quiet. Maybe because it was slightly before rush hour, there weren’t many people around.
I walked slowly, as if taking a stroll. My body still felt heavy, so I didn’t have the energy to walk fast.
Back when I got sick, Soyeon unnie would always come to the house carrying a bag of medicine.
“Does it hurt a lot? Let’s go to the hospital.”
“Just lie down. Tell me what you want and I’ll do it for you.”
Even if I had just a slight fever or the slightest sign of a cold, unnie would always come to me.
She would bring porridge or medicine, then make a huge fuss treating me like a patient over the smallest things.
At the time, I thought she was being overly dramatic.
But now, I missed that drama terribly.
They say you miss someone more when they’re not by your side. It really seems to be true. The moment I closed my eyes, unnie’s face would appear.
Kim Soyeon.
The face that smiled at me.
That face suddenly changed into Kim Dayoung’s.
The face that twisted one corner of her mouth up and looked down at people.
“Ah, what the hell.”
I covered my feverish face with both hands. My mood instantly turned foul.
Why do you have to show up even here?
What I hated most was Dayoung’s face overlapping with Soyeon unnie’s. It wasn’t just similar—it was identical, which made it even worse.
Even when I tried to remember her smiling face, the next moment I imagined Dayoung using those same lips to spit out filthy words.
Kim Dayoung, that personality-ruined psycho who didn’t have an ounce of guilt in her. I couldn’t understand why she was tormenting me. We barely had any connection.
If I just endured it long enough, she would eventually lose interest.
With a rotten expression, I pushed open the door to the pharmacy.
“Welcome.”
The pharmacist didn’t look at my face strangely. Thankfully, I must have looked like just another sick patient.
“My head hurts and I think I have a fever. Do you have any medicine I can take?”
“Yes, just a moment.”
While the pharmacist went to the inner shelf, I absentmindedly looked around. Vitamins, probiotics, digestive aids—everything was neatly lined up on the shelves.
That was when a dull throb pulsed in my lower abdomen.
I froze for a second.
Oh.
It hit me like a lightning bolt.
“Excuse me.”
The pharmacist turned around while still looking for the medicine.
“Please give me emergency contraception too.”
Just in case.
From now on, I had to carry it with me no matter what.
Why did I have to prepare something like this?
Right then, my phone vibrated.
I looked at the screen without thinking and immediately froze.
[Wear a tight blouse and a skirt from now on.]
It was from Kim Dayoung.
My fever-addled head felt like someone had dropped a rock on it.
What the hell is wrong with this woman?
Does she even see me as a magical girl? Has she forgotten? Does she just think I’m a regular office worker?
Of course, when we transform our outfits change, but I always wore practical, easy-to-move-in clothes.
Some people wore suits, but they weren’t skin-tight.
“Telling me to wear tight clothes is obviously because she’s a pervert, right?”
Is her head only filled with that kind of stuff?
I stared at the screen for a long time before typing a reply.
[Yes.]
After sending it, I felt like my fever rose even higher.
What else could I do?
The weak have no right to talk back.
If she tells me to do it, I have to do it.
The only thing I could do was stand in front of the pharmacy shelf and flip her off while staring at Kim Dayoung’s text.
Even then, I turned my body slightly to the side so the pharmacist wouldn’t see. Still, after cursing out Dayoung, even though my head hurt, my mood felt a little lighter.
I must never get deeply involved with that filthy-rumored magical girl.
I bought water from the convenience store and immediately swallowed the medicine.
“At least I’m resting today, so I won’t have to see her. Thank god.”
