Pine Needles Flow Through My Body (1)
Pine Needles Flow Through My Body (1)
To be honest, I'd been agonizing over this quite a bit.
How exactly was I supposed to react when I met my wives again?
Would it be right to force my one-sided feelings on women who had forgotten everything about our time together? Things like that.
But the moment I actually stood face-to-face with Alice...
"Y-you are...?"
"......."
'What on earth was that outfit...?'
All those worries flew clean out of my head, obliterated by an overwhelming act of fashion terrorism.
A pinafore dress so violently blue it looked certain to lose all its color in the wash.
A vividly red beret contrasted with it.
An ensemble that looked as if she might start jumping around and smashing bricks at any second.
...No, seriously, where had she even found clothes that red and blue?
You couldn't find anything like that at Dongmyo flea market.
'I always wondered why she was late in the First Round. Looks like they made fun of her, she got upset, and going back to change her clothes made her late.'
At the same time, I realized the truth.
In the game, and in the First Round too, she had been a character who barged in during the middle of the entrance exam.
Saying things like, Sorry I'm late, please don't disqualify me.
I'd always thought it was just an obvious fixed event...
I never expected there to be this kind of behind-the-scenes story.
My head spun at discovering a side of my wife's fashion sense I'd never known.
'...No, I should respect her taste. Alice respected me too, after all.'
Of course, no matter how much she dressed like a certain MaXio character, Alice was still Alice.
The wife who forgave me even after the hypnosis broke, and who stayed with me for life.
I pulled myself together and spoke up.
Our first meeting of the Second Round. I had to show her my cool side.
"You two. You're new students too, aren't you?"
"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah."
"What are the two of you doing surrounding someone who's scared? And in a secluded place like this, no less."
First, I admonished them.
I couldn't use force, or Alice would think I was violent.
Leaving that kind of first impression on someone as timid as her would be a terrible move.
Of course, words alone amounted to nothing more than a thirty-five-year-old man's nagging.
On top of that, I kept my tone gentle so I wouldn't frighten Alice.
It had zero effect.
—Murmur, murmur.
"Should we ask if he's got a girlfriend?"
"You crazy, you've got a boyfriend!! If we're doing that, then I'll...."
'As expected, they're completely ignoring me.'
Maybe it was because, even at a glance, they had the look of delinquents.
They were impressively skilled at ignoring people.
Back when I'd just transmigrated in the First Round, it would have left me stammering and flustered.
But,
"Excuse me. When someone's talking to you, how about you listen?"
—Step.
Instead, I walked right up and confronted them.
I moved in close, until our noses almost brushed.
"You lot...."
"......!!!? J-just a moment...."
"———You shouldn't bully innocent people."
[Activating skill 'Complete Hypnosis'.]
At the same time, I hypnotized them.
I did it confident that they wouldn't be able to resist.
After all, there was no way newbie awakeners would know how to build a mental barrier.
'Well, my hypnosis is the type you can't stop even if you know about it.'
[Judgment successful. Target falls under 'complete' hypnosis.]
"Wo, woah...."
"Now this is what I call a country..."
Their pupils lost focus at lightning speed.
Their cheeks flushed red, and blissed-out smiles spread across their lips.
The phrase 'instantly conquered' fit them perfectly.
I had no idea why even wholesome hypnosis always got that kind of reaction, especially from women.
Maybe it was because it was an ability specialized for an eroge.
'Anyway. With this, Alice shouldn't be scared anymore.'
"You got it?"
"Yeshh...♡"
"B-but, we weren't bullying her. We were really just trying to tell her about a clothing store..."
"It's fine, just get going."
I shooed them away with a wave of my hand.
I wanted to comfort Alice, who had probably been frightened by then.
"Um, excuse me. Then at least your number..."
"Judging by your faces, you two need the bathroom 'really' badly. Like you might leak any second."
—Ding!
[Judgment successful. Target falls under 'complete' hypnosis.]
"N-now that you mention it...!!"
"See you next time then!! Definitely!!"
They were a little clingy, but one shot of hypnosis settled things easily.
The potential lemonade dispensers fled in a desperate hurry.
After the commotion died down, the one who remained was...
Alice, who had been watching me intently for a while.
My wife from the First Round.
—Murmur, murmur.
"Putting his face that close to theirs..."
'What, did she think I was just being a little rough?'
Alice was frowning and glaring at me.
Considering her timid personality, unable to say a single unpleasant thing...
That was an expression she only made when she was extremely displeased.
Before the regression, the year she turned thirty before I did.
It was the same face she'd made when I'd jokingly called her an "old lady."
...I really screwed up this first impression, huh.
'Can I actually make her fall for me without using hypnosis...?'
"Ahem. Sorry for butting in without asking. You looked like you were in trouble, and I couldn't help myself."
I attempted some belated damage control.
I am not a dangerous person.
I am simply a thoroughly decent Hypnosis Breeding Guy who's smitten with you.
Roughly that kind of expression.
It really didn't have much effect.
"Yes. Thank you for helping me, Mr. Lecher."
"......."
'What a word choice.'
I'd been insulted.
With a word I'd never actually heard in real life, despite being a native Korean.
...Well. Unlike before the regression, Alice had only just arrived in Korea.
She'd learned Korean through webtoons and dramas, so it was only natural her vocabulary was a little strange.
That remark about me being a debaucher was probably a mix-up with the word for a delinquent or something.
'I mean, I actually am lecherous, but I didn't do anything just now. She definitely misspoke.'
"Haha... Anyway. You're also a new student?"
"Yes. Alice Littenwood. I came from England. Hello."
—Bow.
See? She was actually extremely polite.
There was no way Alice would call me a lecher. Right.
A belated exchange of names followed.
"Yeah. I'm Seo Yujin. I'm a new student, just like you."
"Seo, Yujin...."
Alice repeated my name under her breath.
It wasn't hard to guess what meaning lay behind that action.
Better not get friendly with this guy. He's the violent type.
It had to be a resolution like that.
The inside of my mouth grew a little bitter.
'Now it's really hitting me. That I'm the only one who regressed. That all our memories together are gone.'
That the person I love doesn't remember me.
That she doesn't love me.
So this is what it feels like.
Regression wasn't purely a good thing after all.
To soothe the bitter taste in my mouth, I walked over to the vending machine.
'A cola... and this one for Alice. Just as I thought.'
—Clunk. Clunk.
Two drinks clunked into the tray.
Alice, who'd been repeatedly murmuring my name, finally looked my way.
"...Yujin?"
"Here. Since meeting like this is a kind of connection, I'll buy you one."
—Toss.
I lightly tossed one of the drinks to her.
It was the drink she'd really loved before the regression.
"This is...."
'I want to do more for you. But we're still strangers in the Second Round. Anything more would feel like a burden.'
"Let's get along from now on, Alice."
I turned away without looking back.
Because it was our first meeting. I figured this much was the best I could do.
For some reason, even the cola tasted a little bitter that day.
* * *
The can of drink that Yujin had handed her and left.
Alice Littenwood stared blankly at it.
Her thoughts turned to the man named Seo Yujin.
'He felt like someone I'd definitely seen somewhere before.'
The moment she first saw him, she had unconsciously covered her mouth.
Even though he was clearly someone she'd never met before...
Somehow, he felt nostalgic. As if they'd been together for decades.
Perhaps that was why.
'To someone like that, I even called him a debaucher... Why did I do that?'
He had approached the women who were criticizing her outfit.
At that moment, she had felt an inexplicable displeasure.
What's this, why is he sticking his face right up against other women like that.
She'd simply thought, 'I don't like that.'
For some reason, she'd grown so sulky that she had even called him a woman-chasing lecher.
'He's someone I just met. And on top of that, he helped me, and even gave me a drink like this.'
It made no sense.
By her own admission, she was the timid type.
She would never say something like that at a first meeting, least of all to someone kind.
The feelings she harbored toward Yujin were that strange.
'But still... he was cool.'
An emotion she couldn't even understand herself.
She decided to define it as 'goodwill.'
Goodwill toward the man who had come to help when she was flustered.
Goodwill toward Yujin, who hadn't said a word about the outfit everyone else had mocked.
'And our taste in drinks matches too. Pine Bud Drink.'
...Pine Bud Drink was polarizing, but she absolutely loved it.
Goodwill toward a man whose taste matched hers so well that he'd handed her one without hesitation.
—Pssht. Gulp.
'Maybe it's because I met a good person? It tastes especially sweet today.'
The drink he'd given her spread across her tongue as sweet as honey.
It was sweeter than anything she had ever tasted in her life.
'Yujin... I should get to know him. Just as he said, meeting like this must be fate.'
—Gulp. Gulp.
One sip. Two sips.
Sweet memories and emotions gathered in each swallow.
They flowed down her throat.
Her heart, too, beat with a light, thumping rhythm.
Her heartbeat grew a little faster with every sip, gradually but unmistakably.
By the final sip, it pounded loudly enough to echo in her temples.
—Gulp.
"...Haa♡"
Eventually, she emptied the entire can.
By then, her expression was hardly different from those of the women earlier.
Her eyes were slightly unfocused, and her cheeks were tinged pink.
That was the expression she wore.
'Now that I've quenched my thirst, time to head to the examination hall....'
—She froze.
'...Is this outfit really that bad? I wore it thinking it symbolized Korea, in my own way.'
The outfit she'd liked just a moment ago had somehow become completely unsatisfactory.
To her own eyes, it was pretty, but...
Still, Yujin had seemed to avert his eyes from her clothes.
She didn't think he would have reacted that way if he'd found them pretty.
'I'd better hurry and change. It's not particularly for Yujin, though.'
—Patter patter!
She hurried off to change her clothes.
'This is absolutely not for Yujin. It's to make a good first impression on my classmates,' she repeated to herself.
'Let's see, the outfit I definitely saw often in dramas....'
—Clench.
Far from throwing away the empty can of drink, she held it tightly in her hand.