Childhood Friend

"...Mom?"

This was supposed to be the moment an alien smashed through the window. Instead Seo Mi-na opened the door and walked in.

And another thing—why the hell does that damn door open every single time, even when I lock it?

How had the future gotten tangled this time...? Or had the future never been fixed in the first place?

That was when the unpleasant feeling hit.

The sensation came twined with an alien resonance, ringing from somewhere I couldn't place.

"...Did I hear that wrong?"

"Hey! Park Woong-sung! What the hell did you do!!!!!"

Seo Mi-na wailed it.

I went to her, patted her shoulder, and said,

"I'm really sorry. You know how it is with me."

I'd meant to apologize with a little dignity, but being naked took the shine right off it. A moment she wouldn't remember once I reset, anyway. I headed straight for the veranda.

I was reaching for the door when the back of my skull throbbed and dizziness crashed over me. At first I thought Mi-na had clocked me. She hadn't. It felt physiological.

"Guh..."

And there it was again—that resonance only the aliens made.

"...Reset, now!"

With a shaking hand I forced the veranda door open, bent at the waist, and got ready to drop. Of all moments, Seo Mi-na grabbed me.

"Hey!! You'll fall if you do that!"

The resonance, again.

I have to reset... you crazy bitch... I wanted to say it, but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my vision smeared out.

Something blurred was moving on top of me.

"Nnh..."

When my clouded eyes cleared, dazzling white hair was swaying in front of my face. She was astride me, working her hips like a pestle in a mortar. The body was a work of art, the skin pale—a woman who looked delicious at a glance. Her head was bowed so low I couldn't see her face. What I knew for certain was that she wasn't Seo Mi-na, and she wasn't Auntie either.

"Ah... who are you...?"

"Hello... honey...?"

The moment she lifted her head, black eyes rushed right up to mine.

"Gyaaaaaah!!!!!!"

Auntie was staring at me, startled. That was when I woke.

"...Ah, sorry. I had a nightmare."

Fortunately, yesterday's alien invasion seemed not to have happened.

"I wish this were the dream."

Auntie's face was dark.

"Auntie, I told you I have a regression ability, right? If I die, I should be able to go back to the way things were. No problem."

"...I really hope that was true. I really do..."

She still couldn't bring herself to believe it. Of course she couldn't.

"I don't see Mi-na."

"For now, Mi-na's staying at her aunt's."

Honestly, I wasn't all that worried. Because if I regressed...

"I told her the two of us are lovers... there was no other way... I've committed a terrible sin against my daughter... a sin worth dying for..."

"...Ah. She believed that?"

"She saw me doing that filthy thing with you. How could she not..."

Auntie didn't look well. The shock had landed hard.

"I can fix this."

"...Regression? Yes. I hope that's really true... sob... what am I supposed to do..."

Tears showed on her face.

"Don't worry."

"...sob..."

I walked to the kitchen. Auntie wiped her eyes and asked,

"...Are you hungry...? Want me to make you something...?"

"No. You look exhausted. Rest."

"...All right."

I took a kitchen knife. If I needed to reset, this would be better than biting through my tongue. There was something strange about that, now that I thought about it. Dying so quickly just from biting your tongue was a little odd. People live with their tongues cut off.

Anyway. This loop had already shifted plenty, so the smarter move was to check what the aliens were doing first, then plan the regression.

"Then I'll go take care of this."

When I opened the front door, Auntie said,

"...If that cramped little room gets too miserable... come back."

Even in the middle of all this, she was trying to look after me. Those words put a warmth in me I couldn't quite name.

"I'll be back."

See you in the world where things are right, Auntie.

I left the house and headed for wherever Seo Mi-na would be. The only place that girl ever was, besides home, was school. I waited outside the main gate of her university until she came out. Luckily I didn't have to wait long.

A heavy gloom was pouring off her.

"Seo Mi-na."

She didn't answer. She brushed right past me. I ran after her and caught her wrist.

"Hey. I'm talking to you. Why are you just walking off?"

She wrenched her wrist out of my grip, hard.

"Don't talk to me."

"Ah, sorry, sorry—I'm really sorry about yesterday! But I couldn't help it."

"Couldn't help it?! You do something like that and then show your face in front of me?"

"No—I told you I can turn time back."

Seo Mi-na's face flushed. Anger.

"Hey. Do I look like a joke to you?"

Then I saw the corners of her eyes reddening behind the glasses.

"Hey. Hey. Why are you crying...?"

"Even so... you shouldn't have done that to me..."

At first I'd thought hunting her down to apologize was pointless. If I reset to before I'd been with Auntie, even an apology would mean nothing. But the friend I was closest to was crying in front of me, and even if the moment was going to vanish, I wanted to apologize for real.

"Come here."

I took her glasses off so I could wipe her tears.

"...Ah."

In that instant I remembered seeing Seo Mi-na without her glasses before the regression. I'd been dying then. My vision had gone dark, and I never really got her face. Now, at last, I was looking at her bare face with both eyes. The face that had been nothing but a black shadow in my memory was finding its colors and locking into place, piece by piece. Like a puzzle.

This girl had a pretty face. Prettier than I'd thought. By a lot.

"Give me my glasses...!"

She snatched them back and put them on again.

"Are you an idiot...?"

"...Why are you cursing at me, you lunatic..."

"Just wear contacts..."

"So what... I don't want to... don't look."

"How strong is that prescription, anyway...?"

"Stop pretending you don't know... you see me every day."

"No. This is the first time I've seen you without glasses..."

Come to think of it, Seo Mi-na had been busy for a while after starting university. Then one weekend the three of us—her, Auntie, and me—had watched a movie at their place, and Auntie had bragged endlessly that Mi-na was popular at school. Honestly, I'd figured a mother with nothing real to boast about had to be making it up. Smarts aside, I'd thought the girl had nothing going for her. But it seemed she'd been wearing contacts at the start of the semester. That would explain the bragging. For some reason she was back in glasses now.

"We're best friends, and I'm only now seeing you without glasses!"

Seo Mi-na turned her back.

"We're not close anymore. Don't look for me. Don't talk to me. I'm blocking you. I'm going to hate you now. Get lost. Don't show up in front of me!"

"Hey, that's harsh..."

Thinking about it, what I'd done was harsher. Using regression as my excuse, I had hurt my friend. That much was true. Until this world was erased, I had no right to complain if she blamed me.

"...I'm canceling liking you."

With that, Seo Mi-na ran off as if she might fall. My chest dropped.

"Did I actually hear that right...?"

No way.

Seo Mi-na... me...?

Come on. No way. That would be pretty fucking awful, wouldn't it...?

But her face kept flickering in front of my eyes.

"Yeah, fuck, objectively it's a pretty face. I admit it. And if I think about it, she looks cute in glasses too. It's just we've been friends so long I can't see her as a girl at all...!"

This wasn't some shitty third-rate dating-sim plot. What the hell was happening. It pissed me off that it was happening to me, of all people. Then again, the regression didn't make sense either. What pissed me off more was the way my chest ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠kept feeling wrong. And the way that stupid girl, walking off alone and crying, kept stabbing at my eyes.

I could just ignore it and reset!

My chest kept lurching anyway.

Something else made it lurch harder still. Before I could even understand this fucked-up feeling, another anomaly stood in my way.

The countless UFOs hanging in the sky were coming down. And beneath them was Seo Mi-na.

I ran for her without a second of hesitation. I knew it was stupid. Reason kept urging me to reset, but my heaving chest kept ordering me to run to her. I'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠thought I was a rational person. Apparently my body disagreed. If I put a period on this story, I thought, I'd be able to look at Seo Mi-na's face later and still smile.

Aliens poured from the UFOs like a downpour. One of them hurled itself at Seo Mi-na.

"Seo Mi-na!"

I threw myself the same way and drove the kitchen knife into the alien's enormous eye. I couldn't kill it, but I could buy time.

"Run!"

I caught Seo Mi-na's hand and took off. The first day the aliens came down, I'd hidden among people and survived, if only for a little while. Luckily there were still plenty of students leaving campus. Hide among them, and we had a chance. No—at least I thought I could make the moment to put a period on this story.

"Wh... what do we do...!"

"Don't let go of my hand!"

I aimed for the highest place I could reach, and we made it onto the school roof. I found a chair nearby and jammed the door. This place looked relatively safe. The UFOs had gone down to the ground, so it would take them time to find us. It had been so long since I'd seen a clean sky that the light hurt my eyes.

"...Just like you said, the aliens are raping people... the regression was real...?"

"Yeah. I don't lie to you."

"...What do we do... Mom... what about Mom...!!"

Seo Mi-na started to pull out her phone, as if to call. I pulled her into my arms as she was.

"I'm really sorry."

"..."

She buried her face against my chest. Soon the front of my shirt was wet. She was crying.

"You believe me now?"

"......Okay. I'll believe you."

"And there's something I have to tell you."

Seo Mi-na went quiet and listened.

"The truth is, I slept with you in the last loop too. We had sex."

She jerked her head up, startled.

"Wh... whaaat...??"

I dipped my head with a warm smile and looked down at her. Close enough that our noses could have touched.

"Hyaah...!"

Seo Mi-na dodged my eyes.

"...Y-you're lying, right...?"

"It was from behind. So that was your thing."

Her face went red in an instant. The glasses kept getting in the way, though. The prescription was so strong that looking into her eyes up close was making me sick. I caught them and took them off.

"Don't worry. I was dying, so I don't remember how it felt in any detail."

"...No, even so... you remember that we... s-sex... no, that we were... that we did that..."

I could feel her body heating. She was mortified.

"I'm planning to regress this time too. If I do, you probably won't remember today."

"...I kind of hate that."

"But I can erase what I did wrong to you today."

"...That's a relief, at least."

"There's a problem, though."

"What problem...?"

"When I reset, I woke up right before I put it in Auntie. Maybe the regression point is fixed... If I die this time and wake up the same way, I feel like I'll have committed a huge sin against you."

"......"

Tears were spilling from Seo Mi-na's eyes again.

"There might be one way to fix it."

"......What?"

I steadied my breath and said it in a grave voice.

"Let me have a taste."

".........Huh? What does that mean?"

"Give it to me. Once."

"Give you what...?"

"Your pussy. I'm asking if you'll do it with me. Once."

"Eh.... Eeeeeeeh!!!!!!?"

"There's no time. The aliens will be up here soon."

"No no no no no, wait, wait, that doesn't make any sense...! We're not even lovers, and we don't even love each other... I mean of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠course I l-l... like you, but... why are you s... saying..."

She was about to ramble, so I kissed her.

"Mmph...!"

This otaku. So her lips were a woman's after all. Soft. Narrow shoulders, small, feminine... Thinking about it, there'd been plenty of chances. We'd even slept in Seo Mi-na's bed together. Why hadn't I seen her bare face back then? If I had, how would things between us have gone...

The thought landed at the same time I got hard, pressing into the mound between her legs.

"Mmph.... mmph..."

She seemed to feel it; she kept trying to draw her hips back. I caught her ass and pulled her closer. In that moment the world went quiet, as if only the two of us existed. In the silence her heartbeat traveled through my chest. I didn't want to admit it, but mine started pounding wildly too.

Seo Mi-na broke the kiss.

"...I—I think that's a bit..."

By then I was getting my pants off. There was no time to take this easy. We'd be found soon. Seo Mi-na noticed and startled hard. She even locked her head upright and stared at nothing but the sky. I took her by the shoulders.

"Just trust me."

Then I bent and caught her pants to pull them down.

"...H-hey... nooo..."

She was flustered. Her voice shook, and her eyes were a little wet.

"...You could have just asked me to help..."

"Huh...? Didn't you tell me to go to a brothel?"

"...Nooo... of course I didn't want that...... I was scared if I said it... you might ask me for help... so just in case, I told you to stay the night... and I even wore the underwear I save...... ah... I don't know.... hnn..."

"Our Mi-na's all grown up. Having dirty thoughts like that."

"......But if you already did it with my mom......"

"I'm sorry..."

"...It's fine. I know you don't like me... so you picked Mom instead of me..."

Hearing that, I understood why my chest had kept feeling wrong. There was something I'd forgotten.

"It was elementary school, wasn't it?"

"...What was."

"You told me you liked me. You asked me to give you an answer when we grew up."

"...I said I'm canceling it."

Yeah. That had happened.

"I think I like you too."

At least in this moment.

When the words ended, the strength went out of Seo Mi-na's fingers.