An Unexpected Friendship
It was after a noisy lunch had finally come to an end.
Cheon Seo-hui stepped outside and headed straight for the classroom, intending to kill whatever time remained.
"Ugh. I'm so full."
That was before Han Nakyeong came trailing after her.
"Where are you going now?"
Having casually declared that they were the same age and she would drop the formalities, Nakyeong began chatting at her as if they were already close.
Seo-hui had already disliked the girl. Now she disliked her even more.
So she didn't bother answering. She simply kept walking in silence.
"…"
"Ah! Wait for me!"
Nakyeong came scampering up, fell into step beside her, and launched into a cheerful stream of chatter.
No matter how much abuse Seo-hui threw or how thoroughly she ignored her, Nakyeong clung on with a persistence that, against her will, earned a grudging flicker of admiration.
"Want to grab dessert at a café? My treat!"
At that point, even Seo-hui could no longer simply pretend she wasn't there.
"…Hey."
"Hm?"
She stopped dead, fixed Nakyeong with a sharp glare, and snapped,
"Why do you keep bugging me?"
"About what?"
"Are you actually that dense, or are you just pretending? I have zero interest in being friends with you."
Nakyeong didn't so much as blink.
"I know."
"…What?"
"I know you hate me."
She met the hostility head-on, as if she had been waiting for exactly this moment.
"Just like you hate me, I only want to get closer to you."
The sheer shamelessness of it left Seo-hui momentarily speechless.
She looks perfectly normal on the outside…
Realizing this girl was no ordinary weirdo, Seo-hui decided the smartest move was to get away as fast as possible—
"Did you fight with your boyfriend?"
—and then that single offhand question snagged her by the ankle.
"You seem especially out of sorts today."
A fight with a boyfriend.
The words dragged Dohyeon unbidden into her mind. Seo-hui shot Nakyeong a sidelong look and denied it flatly.
"…There's nothing like that, okay?"
"No way. For real?"
"…"
"I was sure you'd fought with your boyfriend… Or is it a crush, then?"
"I said no."
"Hmm… sure seems like it, though…"
Nakyeong studied her with raised brows and a serious face, then nodded as if reaching a firm decision and offered, with the air of someone bestowing a favor,
"Come to the café with me! I'll listen to your problems!"
Which, of course, circled right back to "come to the café with me."
"What are you even talking about."
Seo-hui recoiled in pure disgust and refused.
"I'm not going."
Naturally, Nakyeong acted as if she hadn't heard a word.
"I may not look it, but I'm a total dating expert, you know? I've read over ten psychology books!"
"Oh, for—! Let go of me!"
Nakyeong latched onto her arm without hesitation.
"Let's go to the café together! I'll buy you something delicious!"
"I don't need it—go stuff your face by yourself!"
Faced with Seo-hui's hardline resistance, Nakyeong switched tactics and played the sympathy card, confessing she had no friends.
"I don't have anyone to go with, so I always end up going alone!"
"…!"
Seo-hui, who had been just as friendless herself, flinched without meaning to and stopped fighting back.
"If you come with me just this once, I swear I'll never bother you again! For real!"
Their eyes met.
"Please? Just once…!"
Something almost desperate glimmered in Nakyeong's wide, brimming gaze. Seo-hui looked away, exhaled a long, heavy sigh—
And then.
"…Fine. But only this once."
In the end, she gave in to Nakyeong's plea.
"Yay! Seo-hui, you're the best!"
"…Haa…"
Resigned, Seo-hui turned toward the café, already vowing to order the most expensive thing on the menu as she followed Nakyeong.
"Did you know our café has a secret menu only the upperclassmen know about?"
Along the way, Nakyeong casually linked arms with her, playing at closeness—
"…How would I know that."
—and Seo-hui, unable to shake her off, simply matched her pace.
After a long, exhausting day, I finally made it home.
"Ugh. I'm dead."
Unfortunately, even at home I couldn't stretch out both legs and rest in peace.
There were still far too many problems left to solve.
How do I smooth things over with Cheon Seo-hui? I still have to give Yeonjeong an answer… And when am I supposed to talk Nakyeong around?
Had my life ever been this tangled before?
Back in my Hero days, even the nights we spent arguing over whether to sacrifice a small village hadn't felt this complicated.
"Haa… Let's think this through calmly…"
For Seo-hui, at least, I had spent the whole afternoon brainstorming and roughly sketched out a plan.
It wasn't something I could put into motion right away, though, so I could set that aside for now.
The real problems were Choi Yeonjeong and Nakyeong.
What the hell am I supposed to do.
Choi Yeonjeong was still maintaining total radio silence in the face of the endless flood of articles. Just as she had said before, she was waiting as long as possible for my decision.
I need to answer her soon…
Honestly, if it were only up to me, I would have jumped on board with Yeonjeong and Representative Kang's plan in a heartbeat.
Playing the lovey-dovey couple with a friend wasn't exactly my idea of a good time—but the money was real.
With enough cash I could move us somewhere far better than this, and take better care of both Nakyeong and Seo-hui, couldn't I?
But to do that, I first had to convince Nakyeong.
Ask her whether it was okay for me to appear in videos as a business couple with Choi Yeonjeong.
How the hell do I even bring that up.
Saying it straight out was absolutely not an option.
The second the words left my mouth, a scolding would be the least of my worries—she might pack up and leave the house again.
I can't just bulldoze ahead either.
It felt like dancing barefoot across a minefield.
"…Mmm…"
I was still wracking my brain for some way to talk Nakyeong into it when, as usual, she finished cooking dinner, we ate, and settled onto the sofa together.
"…"
Out of nowhere, my eyes snagged on Nakyeong at the far end of the couch, fiddling with her phone.
Tap-tap. Tap-tap. Her fingers flew across the screen as if she were typing a message.
…Come to think of it.
She had been the same on the way home.
Normally, the moment she climbed into the passenger seat she would chatter nonstop about this and that. Today she had been glued to her phone the entire ride, typing away as if she were deep in conversation with someone—
and every so often she would even giggle to herself, looking thoroughly entertained.
No way…?
A few theories began to take shape in my head.
A guy…?
Most of them ended with a guy.
A thunderclap of pure shock rolled through me. I forced myself to breathe slowly and get a grip.
C-calm down. You always knew a day like this would come, right? Our Nakyeong's at that age now… No, wait—what little bastard dared to start sniffing around our Nakyeong? They couldn't have met outside. Has to be an Academy student. Magic Department? Some other department? Doesn't matter who the punk is—the second I find him I'm going to—
But the situation was the situation. The shock refused to fade.
What if she brings him home someday? Do I have to smile and welcome him like a good dad? Fuck, how am I supposed to smile through that? Maybe just slip some poison into the food and run a durability test… What if Nakyeong eats it by accident? Better to just throw down and verify his qualifications first. Yeah. Beat the crap out of him, make sure he's sturdy enough, and then—
Right then.
"Dad."
Nakyeong spoke up.
"Dad?"
"…Huh? Yeah, yeah. What's up?"
"What are you thinking so hard about…?"
"Nothing, just… Anyway, what is it?"
She gave me a look that said I was acting weird, then smoothed her expression and got to the point.
"Can I go out this weekend?"
"…This weekend?"
She was asking for permission to leave the house.
"Hmm…"
I rolled my eyes carefully and asked for the reason.
"…Going out's fine, of course. But why all of a sudden?"
Nakyeong answered with the bright, innocent smile of someone who had been waiting for exactly that question.
"I just thought I'd hang out with a friend for a bit."
"Ah… a friend?"
Friend. That ambiguous little word both soothed me and set every nerve on edge.
A guy? Or a girl?
Male friends were still "friends." Female friends were still "friends."
A girl friend would be fine.
A guy friend was a problem.
There was a high chance some boy had taken one look at our Nakyeong's face, developed ulterior motives, and approached her under the disguise of friendship.
More than that…
She had almost never gone out with friends before. The word itself felt strangely foreign coming from her.
Do I ask if it's a guy? No, is that overreacting?
Caught in a rare bout of parental internal conflict, I forced the conversation to continue as naturally as I could.
"That's new. You finally made a friend?"
And then—
"Yes! Want me to show you?"
"…For real?"
She stood up without hesitation, offering to introduce her friend.
"We went to a café together at lunch."
"Ah… the one on campus. That place."
So they had already been to a café together and even taken pictures.
Don't freak out even if it's a guy. Don't freak out even if it's a guy. Don't freak out even if it's a guy.
I steeled myself to face whatever truth was coming, leaned in with my whole body tensed—
And then.
"Ta-da."
Nakyeong held out a photo she had taken on her phone.
"This is my friend."
"……Huh?"
The second I saw the picture, my heart dropped straight through the floor.
…Why is she…
Of all people, the friend Nakyeong was pointing to was someone I knew extremely well.
"Her name's Cheon Seo-hui. First-year in the Swordsmanship Department."
It was Cheon Seo-hui.
"Do you know her?"
"Uh……. Uh? Yeah, yeah. Ah, I know her. Mm…"
My lips had gone bone-dry. I looked back and forth between Seo-hui and Nakyeong in the photo, studying them carefully.
That unfamiliar two-shot made my head spin.
Why them of all people…
If the other person had been a guy, I honestly wouldn't have been this shocked.
I couldn't even begin to guess what kind of connection could have formed between the two of them.
"Isn't she really pretty?"
Whether she could read my mind or not, Nakyeong zoomed in on Seo-hui's face and asked for my opinion.
I caught the glint in her sideways glance, instinctively sensed danger, and shook my head as I answered.
"W-well… I think our Nakyeong is way prettier…?"
"Really?"
"Y-yeah! Objectively speaking, there's no one at the Academy prettier than our Nakyeong…. Yeah…"
"Heheh. You think so?"
Pleased by the compliment, Nakyeong melted into a lovely smile and nestled straight into my arms.
"…"
I hugged her on pure reflex, stroked her hair, and tried to sort out the web of relationships surrounding Cheon Seo-hui.
She was the reincarnation of my late wife.
My cherished disciple.
And my one and only daughter's…
only friend.
Haa…
A relationship that had already been difficult enough now felt several times more tangled.
…What the hell am I supposed to do…
Everything in front of me went dark.