Stories of Everyday Life (3)
The day of our meetup arrived, and I headed for the meeting place.
I hadn't gotten any proper outfit recommendations. Everyone had claimed they weren't any good at picking clothes either.
That didn't mean their help had been useless, though. I may not have gotten outfit suggestions, but I did get advice about clothes.
Go to a department store, they said, and buy whatever the mannequin is wearing. Wear it exactly like that.
The way they hammered on that word — exactly — suggested they were worried I might somehow put it on wrong. I wasn't that hopeless.
Maybe before I'd known I couldn't dress myself, sure. But now that I was aware of the problem, I could at least manage that much!
What they recommended was… a skirt, though…
I'd wanted to stick with pants, but most of what was hanging on the mannequins had been skirts. I'd wanted to look elsewhere, but I'd gone in a rush and the store hours were awkward, so I just bought a skirt as-is and put it on.
Honestly… I'd known a moment would come when I'd have to wear a skirt eventually. And thinking about it, fretting over it after already having worn a suit skirt before was kind of ridiculous.
I decided to just wear it and go.
Hang out and chat at a café, then take a walk in the park afterward… By then it'll be close to five, so I can slip out around that time.
As I headed out, I ran through the other appointment I had lined up for the day.
I still hadn't mentioned the offline meetup. Ruining the mood this early was the last thing I wanted.
I could just say an important appointment had come up later. That would be enough.
I'd arranged to meet a mage online, and if I claimed that mage had suddenly contacted me late asking to meet today — well, what could anyone say to that?
According to Han Yaeseo, every mage was a total eccentric. So every mage other than me was probably a weirdo. Acting that way wouldn't be strange at all.
On top of that, mages were all high-ranking figures in the hunter industry, and I was a complete newbie. Making a good impression on a fellow mage mattered. Mhm. They'd understand.
And since mages were supposed to be eccentrics, saying I'd brought Lee Jihyeon and Han Yaeseo along shouldn't raise any eyebrows either.
"Sowol!"
"Sowol-ssi!"
As I walked, the two of them came into view — already waiting. Everyone had gotten here pretty early. Wasn't the youngest usually supposed to arrive first?
It was still ten minutes early and everyone was already assembled. Had they figured out I'd been reincarnated? My birthday came before Lee Jihyeon's, so counting my pre-reincarnation age I was technically the eldest, but still.
"You dressed pretty well today. Has your fashion sense improved?"
"I asked for advice. They told me to just wear whatever was on the store mannequin, exactly as it was."
"Good call. That's actually the right move. You just have to find one in your size."
"Sowol-ssi, so you've been alright since then? We've only been texting after what happened…"
"I'm fine. Thankfully, people took care of almost everything for me, so there weren't any real aftereffects."
"Well… if the hospital says you're okay… Anyway, Jihyeon unnie, shall we head in? My treat today — something delicious."
"Looking at this, I'm pretty sure I should be the one treating… Yaeseo, you're the one with good news. What kind of unnie takes free food from the person who should be getting gifts?"
"Ehh, you know perfectly well I've got way more money. Come on, let's go."
Money bought ease. People with money inevitably had more room to be generous. Even ideologies that demanded wealth redistribution didn't deny that capitalists tended to appear more morally upright.
They simply condemned a society that forced the poor into ruthlessness because they were poor. The conclusion being: rich people had better personalities. And so Han Yaeseo, the richest of us, was the most giving.
"But… Sowol…?"
"Yes?"
"Who are those people?"
Han Yaeseo had been chatting happily about the meetup when a sense of déjà vu seemed to hit her. She pointed behind me.
Two large men in suits were standing there. Both of them over 190 centimeters — bodyguards dispatched by Hermes. Ready to move the instant anything happened.
"…They're bodyguards. I got attacked, so Dad assigned them to me."
"Your father did…? Yeah, I suppose he'd be worried. But didn't something like this happen last time too?"
"…Back then, he didn't know I was involved."
"Ahh…"
The two of them looked at the bodyguards stuck to my back and seemed flustered. Well… they probably almost never saw anything like this. Fair enough.
Looking at this, though — did that make me the richest one now?
Hmm… Under normal circumstances, the capital I could mobilize should have been smaller. I wasn't a chaebol daughter. Even as the child of a four-term lawmaker, I was still a politician's kid. Politicians held power, not wealth — though by four terms, they'd certainly figured out how to make money well enough.
Even so, it should have fallen short of an S-rank… but Han Yaeseo had only been active as an S-rank for six months. If I played the dad card, Baek Sowol would have more money. Of course, I had no desire to play that card, so I was staying put.
We went into the café and ordered drinks and desserts. A little later the food arrived, and conversation started flowing in every direction.
"So, Jihyeon unnie — do you know anything about why you got attacked?"
"I don't really know either. Even Hwarang says there's nothing on my end that looks like a motive. I don't think I'm the cause…"
The two of them said that, then turned their heads and looked at me. Every gaze locked on. The unspoken question was whether I was the reason.
I'd already explained to Lee Jihyeon, at least, that Baek Dohan was my dad… This was probably their way of being considerate. In case I didn't want to talk about it.
Hmm… I was the cause, but should I tell Han Yaeseo? Thinking about it, there wasn't much reason not to. It was a truth that would come out within a few months anyway even if I hid it. Might as well just say it.
"…Could you take a look at this?"
After glancing around to confirm no one was watching our table, I quietly showed them my phone. On the screen was a photo of Dad and me, taken in the hospital room.
I'd taken it in case I needed to show it to reporters later.
"Huh…? Don't tell me…?"
At the level of a four-term National Assembly member, quite a few people recognized the face — especially when the district was in Seoul. Still, allowing for Han Yaeseo's uncertainty, I immediately typed Dad's name into TreeWiki.
"…Oh."
Han Yaeseo seemed to have figured out who the person in the photo was.
"…That person is… that…"
"He's my dad."
"Ah… I see…"
A four-term politician occupied a different tier entirely. It wouldn't be the least bit strange if he ran for the presidency next cycle. He was someone in a position where becoming president in the next election wouldn't raise a single eyebrow.
Being told I was that man's daughter made it hard to deny that I suddenly looked different somehow. It was also a position from which you could genuinely crush people with power if you wanted to.
"Let's stay good friends, Sowol."
"Same here."
"We're already good friends, come on."
Besides, both of them had enough standing of their own that Dad couldn't casually mess with them without justification.
"I kept getting this rich-young-lady vibe from you…"
"I thought the same thing, unnie. No, she was just way too unfazed by everything, you know? I kept thinking, how is that even possible — but it turns out she was raised precious, with everyone around her taking care of her."
"And she just turned twenty, so she moved out, right? Even though they were against it?"
"Still, her parents don't seem that closed-minded. If it were me, I would've opposed it, Sowol. No matter how much money the family had."
And then the girls' talk kicked off in earnest. Just keeping up with it was exhausting enough. Suddenly the conversation flowed from their own experiences to boyfriends and then to exes, one topic sliding into the next like water.
"So, Sowol, do you have a boyfriend? No? Should unnie set you up?"
"No, I'm fi—"
"Then what about exes? Anyone? Have you ever dated someone decent?"
"Ah, n-no, I don't really want to talk about th…"
I had no idea whether Baek Sowol had dated anyone! Whether she'd never had a boyfriend or dated thirty of them, I was completely in the dark. But I couldn't exactly explain that, so there was no way out.
Should I claim I'd lost my memories, the way I had with my family?
That felt like a bad idea. It would just pile on unnecessary worries.
Besides, I'd already told my family that my memories from after I started hunter activity were intact, so there wasn't much room for suspicion anyway. If her memories are fine, why let her keep working? — well, that was what the bodyguards were for.
More than anything, my will had been firm, and it was a chance to field a mage — a massive strategic asset — so Dad hadn't been able to refuse. My sister hadn't really been able to refuse either. Looking at that, something pretty significant must have happened in the past.
They could have shut it down on safety grounds. They had the power to. The fact that they hadn't said a lot.
"But unnie, how long are you going to keep using formal speech with Sowol? I get that Sowol talks that way to people older than her, but still."
"Hmm? I don't mind either way. But Sowol-ssi's opinion matters too, doesn't it?"
"I don't mind at all. If anything, Yaeseo unnie already talks casually with me, so Lee Jihyeon-ssi using formal speech feels more awkward."
"Is that so…? Alright, then I'll drop it. Thanks, Sowol."
"It's nothing, unnie."
And so we all switched to casual speech and kept talking. Nothing of real substance was being discussed, but it was peaceful all the same.
"Oh, right. Weren't we going to post this on Insta?"
"Oh yeah. Ah, I held off because Sowol didn't seem to want the attention… Sowol, is it okay now?"
"Yeah. I don't really mind."
My face was already out there as far as it could go, so whatever.
"Alright, taking it…? Everyone get in position."
Han Yaeseo, the most famous among us, took the photo and uploaded it to Instagram right away.