An Unexpected Sleepover
I really, truly, and unavoidably ended up spending the night at the protagonist's house. Still, watching his little sister jump up and down with excitement made it feel worthwhile. Though that same sister later got scolded by their mother for running around too late at night.
After escorting Arin to her room and returning to the living room, I heard the front door open. A middle-aged man with black hair wearing a brown coat stepped inside.
“I'm home.”
“Oh, honey, you're back?”
“Father. Welcome home.”
His shoulders were slumped, and his back was bent from exhaustion. Even so, he was almost the same height as the protagonist, which meant the kid had inherited a lot of those genes.
“Hello. I'm Lee Haneul, a classmate of Si-woo sunbae. I'll be imposing on you for just one night.”
“Ah! So our Si-woo brought a friend home! How wonderful!”
He then roughly tousled his son's hair with both hands. Now I understood where those rough touches came from.
“Now that I think about it, we don't have a guest room… What should we do? All the other rooms are full…”
“Mom, my room has some space, doesn't it?”
“Then I'll just sleep in Si-woo sunbae's room.”
Since the protagonist was basically a friend to me, sharing a room sounded kind of fun. Later, I should bring Peony over too and have a proper pajama party with the three of us.
“Oh dear, is that really okay? No matter what, a boy and a girl sharing a room…”
“Si-woo sunbae and I are definitely not like that, so it's really fine.”
“That's right, Mom. Besides, she's still a minor. I would never lay a hand on her.”
For a brief moment, a chilling gaze from the protagonist's father pierced right through him. Had the protagonist said something he shouldn't have?
“Well, that's a relief, but… Si-woo. Just because you say so doesn't mean the world always works that way.”
The middle-aged man gazed at his wife with a look that was half joy, half regret. In response, the petite woman leaned into him, linked her arm with his, looked up, and gave him a bright smile.
“Ahem… Anyway, you'd better take responsibility for what you just said!”
“Of course, Father.”
With that, the father began ruffling his son's hair again. At this rate, the protagonist was going to go bald in a few years.
“As you can see, he's our eldest son. Ever since the Gate Incident, our family has been struggling financially, but thanks to him earning money from the Gates, we've been doing much better.”
“Father, that's because of me…”
“Nonsense. That wasn't your fault. We were the stubborn ones.”
“I heard about it… Was it because of the hospital bills?”
When the protagonist first woke up in this world, he had mentioned being in a hospital. In a world with potions, healers, and every possible treatment method, lying in a hospital bed meant his condition had been extremely severe.
“Yes. Still, our son was in a coma for several years and suddenly woke up recently, so that's a good thing.”
After explaining that much, he paused and looked at the protagonist. The words seemed difficult to say; they lingered in his mouth several times before finally coming out.
“And… son, how much have you told your friend?”
“She knows that I came from another world.”
I briefly considered revealing that I had also come from another world but decided against it. I was grateful for their kindness, but it was a secret I didn't want to share with just anyone.
“Then you two must be really close. Anyway, we originally thought our son was already dead.”
“Dead…?”
“Yes. When the first Gate opened, he rushed out to save people and ended up in the hospital. The doctors shook their heads, and even with medicine and new healing techniques from another world, our worthless son never opened his eyes.”
It seemed my prediction had been correct, and the injury had been one that was difficult to treat. They had probably only managed to keep his body barely alive.
“But then one day, he suddenly opened his eyes. I abandoned my shift and rushed straight to the hospital. My son had woken up… but the poor boy couldn't stay that way.”
His voice trembled slightly when he spoke those last words, but he cleared his throat with a loud “ahem” to hide it and continued.
“After talking with this current son of ours, we felt so sorry for him. Since he was the same age as our son, we decided to adopt him. Since the body was the same, the paperwork was surprisingly simple and convenient.”
Once again, his father vigorously tousled his son's hair. If he kept petting him like that every day, the protagonist really would be bald before long. It must have been hard to endure, whether physically as an ability user or mentally, because the protagonist finally spoke up.
“Father, Haneul seems tired, so I think we should go to bed now.”
“What~? I'm not sleepy at all…”
“Come on! Let's go!”
The protagonist pushed me by the shoulders and shoved me into his room. Just before the door slammed shut, his mother's thoughtful voice slipped through the gap.
“Still, make sure you use protection~”
“We're not doing that, Mom!”
— Mother's teasing remark successfully delivered —
The room I entered was truly tiny. With only a desk and a single bed, there was just enough floor space for the protagonist to lie down. Even that space partially overlapped with a clothing rack, so moving once you lay down would be difficult. Still, the familiar scent I caught somewhere made it feel strangely cozy.
“Hmm… It's narrower than I thought. I'll sleep on the floor.”
“No way. If I made a guest sleep on the floor, I'd get beaten to death. So Haneul, you take the bed.”
Ah. So it wasn't consideration for me, but for his own safety.
“Then I'll sleep on the bed.”
When I sat on the edge of the bed, the weak springs barely pushed back against my light weight. The loud creaking noise made me wonder if someone exercising on it would get reported for noise pollution.
“Wait here in the room for a bit. I'll go wash up.”
The protagonist grabbed some clothes to change into and headed to the bathroom. And so, the real fun began.
“I'm not saying I'm interested in spying or anything, but…”
It was a small room, but curiosity was inevitable! What kind of life did the protagonist lead?
First, I looked at the books on the desk. They were all about Gates and abilities. The pages were filled with bookmarks, so even though he hadn't been possessed for long, he had been studying hard.
Next, I checked the trash can. It was completely empty. In manga and movies, trash cans often held a lot of information, but it seemed he had cleaned everything out when he entered the room earlier.
I sniffed around. The familiar scent in the room grew stronger. Did he spray air freshener in the trash can? At least it didn't smell bad, which was a relief.
Next was the computer. It was already on, so I moved the mouse and opened the internet browser. He must have cleared the search history, because there was nothing there. He read books so diligently, but I couldn't tell what he did online.
For now, I added helpful sites to the bookmarks—monster strategy guides, Gate review forums, and the like.
“Oh, that's right…”
There were ways to restore browsing history. I opened my bag and took out the robot vacuum.
“Beep?”
“Can you hack… I mean, restore the browsing history?”
“Beep!”
I pulled out the connector on the side of the robot vacuum and plugged it into the computer's slot. The vacuum let out a series of regular beeps and quickly spat out the results. The deleted browsing history was restored in an instant.
“Hmm… The sites he visits aren't too bad… but there are quite a few community-heavy ones. Places like that are full of personal opinions and fake information, so they're not great.”
“Beep?”
I'd have to teach it properly later. As I scanned through the list, one unfamiliar site caught my eye. The logo was pink, and it seemed more like a hobby-related site than anything about Gate strategies.
“Hmm… What kind of hobby does the protagonist have…?”
When I expanded the folded browsing list, the first thing that appeared was…
“Elf girl… underwear…?”
“Beep! Beep!”
Just as I read that far, a strong hand pressed down on my head from behind, snapping me out of it.
“Hey, who told you to touch someone else's computer?”
I finally turned around to see the protagonist pressing down on my head. I knew I was in the wrong, but squeezing my head like this? Was he going to take responsibility if I got any smaller?
“No, I just…”
When I looked back at the computer monitor, a video site was now playing a clip of cats.
“I didn't know Haneul junior liked cute things.”
“Of course I do. Cute things are the truth, after all.”
It seemed the robot vacuum had pulled some kind of trick. Thanks to that, I didn't get caught spying. Nice!
******
After taking my turn to wash up and returning, it was time to sleep. The moment I lay down on the bed, it creaked loudly and the familiar scent wafted up gently. Seeing this, the protagonist turned off the lights and lay down on the futon on the floor.
But just lying there didn't mean sleep would come. I lay still for several minutes with my eyes closed. Before long, the protagonist, who also seemed unable to sleep, spoke first.
“So, after conquering the Four Great Gates, what are you going to do?”
“You know what happens after that, right?”
“The final Gate appears.”
“Yes. And if you clear that Gate too, an artifact that grants wishes appears. That's the ending.”
Whether in games or novels, overcoming trials and reaching the end usually brings a great reward. And the cliché is that the main characters live happily ever after thanks to that reward.
“What wish are you going to make?”
“I have to go back home.”
“Hmm… I can't go back now. This place is my home.”
A brief silence followed those words.
“But if you're going back home, wouldn't it be better for Peony to date me instead?”
I thought the mood was getting serious, but he immediately said something that hit the nail on the head. A perfect bat-worthy statement. A bat popped out of my bag and lightly smacked the protagonist's leg. Even so, the clear thwack echoed through the dark room.
Instead of complaining about the pain, the protagonist held back his laughter.
“No. If I coax Peony well enough, she might even follow me to my world.”
“Is there even such a thing?”
“If Peony refuses, I'll give you a chance, Si-woo. After all, you're the best guy I know.”
“I'm glad you think highly of me, but you want me to just sit back and do nothing? Sorry, but I'll have to decline.”
“Pfft. Then come and try to take her from me.”