Bust-Lighting
Ayoung's sudden shout cut through everything.
I peeled myself away from Sea and bolted over to check.
"Sujin's what now?"
"I don't know. She took one look at another guest and just... went like this..."
Before filming even started, Sujin had seen something that made her jump out of her skin and drop straight into a full-blown panic.
In her state, recording was obviously impossible. We still had to somehow get her stable again before we could properly begin...
"Instructor! Where the hell have you been all this time?!"
"Sujin's acting weird... She won't even take Ayoung unnie's healing, she just keeps shaking..."
"Uu...uu...uu...uu...uu...uu...uu...uu..."
"...Kid's completely broken."
Sujin was clutching her head with both hands, trembling so hard she looked ready to die on the spot—like something had terrified her out of her mind. The only things around were people, so was that it?
I immediately shooed Nature and everyone else back, laid a hand on my chest, and made the request.
"Shinpung. Quiet the area for me."
[Piyoo~!]
First priority: cut the sound. That was step one. After watching it earlier, copying it was easy.
"Seiren. Calm her down."
[Good child.... does it hurt a lot?]
Water energy forced Sujin's body into stillness. The ragged breathing that had been thrashing moments ago slowed and went quiet against her will.
"Huu....uuuu....."
Quieter, yes—but the mental shock was still sitting right there.
If I used Hecate's light to forcibly wake her reason here—
"—Even if she snaps out of it right away, she'll collapse again the second she faces them, im."
"Hecate?"
"If you could stay glued to her side the whole time maybe, but you can't, eum."
Hecate took a step back.
"I learned something watching Sunwoo. So just hold the kid for a bit, im."
"...You want me to what?"
"Hold her."
"Eh."
She hadn't stepped back at all—she'd grabbed Nox's hand and come right up with her. Hecate planted a foot on my back and shoved me toward Sujin.
I did as told and half-pulled Sujin into my arms. She flinched, then looked up at me.
"In...structooor....?"
"...Yeah. It's me."
If I flinched away from the snot, we were finished. I decided I'd wipe it later and just held her close for now.
".....Uu...uuu...!"
Sujin trembled hard. Then she stopped trying to speak, reached for me, and buried herself against my chest.
"Uuu...uuuuu! Uu, aaaaaaah!!!"
Breath that was nothing but screams. I couldn't make out a single word, so I just held her and stroked her back in silence.
"Hwaa....hwaaaang! Hic! Kkuu, hwaaaa.....!"
Tears thickening. Screams. Moans and raw wailing. She dry-heaved over and over, pouring everything into crying—until Nox slipped in behind her and held on as well.
What are you doing?
Darkness poured over Sujin's body. Quiet, cozy night-dark wrapped her completely.
".....Hic!.....Kkkuuuu....."
Maybe it was the night arriving. Or maybe she'd just cried herself empty once. The tears and sobs tapered off, and Sujin only burrowed deeper into me.
"Will you tell me what happened... if I ask?"
"........Kku."
No answer—just pressed her face harder. Was speaking too hard? I held her and exhaled, and this time Hecate laid a hand on Sujin's back.
"....Uuu. Huuuuu....!"
She shook her head hard. Shoved her forehead into my chest. Her arms locked around me like she couldn't hold something back anymore.
Oh....
And yeah, I knew this was the absolute worst time for the thought, but—
Nature's maternal-love specialist, after all.
A minute ago she'd been a bit of a pain. Now it was starting to feel kind of nice.
""............""
".....Shh."
Two spirits behind Sujin were staring at me with ice-cold eyes. I lifted a finger to my lips, begging them to let it slide. Hecate tipped her head like she couldn't believe me; Nox wordlessly grabbed her own chest with both hands.
Yeah. Hard to react, so maybe don't do that.
"Instructor....khung! Nihim....sniff!....huu....uuuu....."
"Calmed down a little?"
"...Yeeees."
"That doesn't sound calm."
".........."
Sujin quietly pressed her forehead into my chest again.
So what now?
Come clean and tell me everything?
Or just pretend nothing happened and move on?
Under that silent pressure, Sujin whispered,
"Do I... smell like milk...?"
"I asked you a question so you'd answer, right?"
"I look like a total slut... like I'd let anyone touch me... and, and...!"
"....Tsk."
Sujin's file: high-school dropout. I'd figured she got lucky, contracted a spirit, and hit the jackpot—but apparently there was more to it than that.
Of course. If she'd already had a spirit in high school, she wouldn't have needed to drop out; she'd have just gone straight to the Academy.
Reasonable suspicion.
And stacking that against every bit of behavior she'd shown so far...
"You got bullied?"
"!,....Kkng..."
A careful little nod.
"Teased you for having big tits?"
"...They're not big."
"Wrong. You might actually be bigger than a dairy cow."
"I'm not a dairy cow!"
"Is that yelling at me? Are those kids scarier than I am?"
"Auu....that....uuuuuu......"
She'd shouted bravely and then deflated again.
Hmm.
How to put this.
I slowly set my hand on top of Sujin's head.
"Even if you act like that, those people probably don't even remember you."
"....They remembered. Called me the creepy milk-boy."
"The perpetrator remembers the victim?"
I hated saying it, but the world was kinder to the strong. That held for raw power too—perpetrators had it easier than victims. So in most cases the victim suffered alone, and a perpetrator actually remembering their victim was extremely rare...
And yet they remembered her.
Remembered her with nothing but milk-smell and creepy milk-boy and every other keyword tied to her breasts.
"Sujin. Don't you want revenge?"
"Nweh...?"
Revenge.
That single word made her flinch and still lift her head.
"I don't love saying this, but has listening to me ever gone badly for you?"
"...It was really hard."
"If you're calling training hard, you're about to learn how much I've been going easy on you."
"Hiii....! It was good! There was never even once that it wasn't goood...!"
Maybe the tension had finally broken. The raw, authentic Sujin coming out meant her mental state was roughly back online.
What remained was for Sujin herself to face this and overcome it.
Of course she would never try that on her own.
"Sujin. I'm going to cast a spell on you."
"A spell...?"
"Yeah. A spell. One that lets you live without ever losing to anyone, anywhere."
"...Is it brainwashing? Or hypnosis?"
"Hey, come on."
Just shut up and listen.
I put my mouth to Sujin's ear and whispered a few lines.
"Huh? That... I'm not that kind of girl...."
"Uu...that's...that, gaa...?"
"Uuu. Yes. That's right. I'm a stupid milk carton that only knows how to think one thought...!"
"....Yes. That's right. I don't have anything left to lose anyway!"
Confidence blooming, step by step.
"To get socially buried you need a society, but I never had a society that could bury me in the first place!"
"Yes. That's the energy!"
She'd dark-evolved a little, but that part she would just have to live with.
And so—
"Yes. I'm sorry... you're right..."
"What....?"
"It's just that my chest is so big I can't see the floor properly....!"
"........."
From ancient times to now:
The insults you throw at others are the things that are your own greatest complex.
"Long time no see. Still letting every guy who walks by have a turn?"
"Hiiik....!"
The first moment they met again, it felt exactly like staring straight into a nightmare.
Why...?
Why had justice vanished from under this earth?
Why did a bitch like that get to awaken, of all people?
A thousand thoughts slammed through her at once, but Sujin still forced in one breath.
N...no!
Before she'd just taken it helplessly, but not now.
She'd grown. She wasn't that same incompetent, stupid, clueless milk-boy anymore...
"I...I'm not that kind of giirl....!"
"Oh yeah? Forgot because nobody's been touching them for you?"
"Higit?!"
She'd thought that.
Right up until the nipple got pinched.
"Th...stooop....stop it....!"
"No. A dairy cow doesn't get human rights, does it?"
A giggling voice.
Heart stopped. Mind froze solid.
Hate this. Scared. Want to run.
Want to die. Want to disappear. Don't want to be here.
".....Kk...."
"Kk?"
"Kyaaaaaaaaaaah!!!"
In the end she ran.
Ran again.
A stupid bitch who runs and cries in a corner.
Yeah.
That was her.
Nam Sujin—human failure, loser life, couldn't do a single thing.
No matter how high she flew or how hard she crawled, all a bitch like that could do was fiddle with a keyboard.
Even if she'd lucked into becoming friends with Dasu, even if she'd become an idol, none of that changed what she was.
"Haa... where the hell did you even go? You know the whole schedule's delayed because of you, right?"
"Hic!"
But the Instructor had said it.
He would cast a spell on her.
He would give her a chance to land one hit on the monster bitch who had looked completely unstoppable.
Terrified. Shaking. Couldn't trust herself at all.
"...So...rry..."
"Yeah. You should be."
Still.
If it was the Instructor.
If it's the Instructor....
She had been useless. She had been reckless.
The one who had somehow raised that version of her into someone who could carry her own weight—was none other than the Instructor.
Her parents' words,
her internet friends,
even the teammates she worked with now—
none of them had changed her.
"Ah, is it that again? Skill's so trash you have to go milk the staff in the back with those tits?"
".........."
Only the Instructor had changed her.
So.
"....I'm really sorry."
Throw yourself away.
Follow only the Instructor's words completely.
"My chest is just too big, so I... I got too embarrassed and acted like that."
"Ha....?"
Speak.
"I'm honestly so jealous of you that way. If my chest were small and pretty and easy to move like yours, maybe I wouldn't be this clumsy either..."
"N-no... what the....!"
Keep speaking.
"...Nam Sujin. You've grown a lot, huh? So now you're trying to talk back?"
"Hik....!"
Of course she was scared.
Terrified. Exhausted.
"...I wasn't talking back."
"Then what. What were you trying to say?"
The Instructor had said it.
"What can I do about it?"
"I've never had a small chest even once, so I was just so jealous of you!"
"..........."
Ah.
This.
"I'm sorry... for being such a vulgar, massive-titted milk-cow bitch...♪"
"Y...yyyyou....!!!"
She'd won.
Watching the queen-bee thrash and seethe, Nam Sujin quietly wore the smile of victory.
As a side note—
"It... wasn't that he changed...?"
Sea, who had watched from beginning to end, was thrown by the fact that the assumption she had built for herself was wrong.
That Sunwoo had changed.
The only thin comfort of an excuse she had left had just evaporated.