Symbol of Peace (1)
Symbol of Peace (1)
“Ugh. Uuuugh....”
Han Jae-jung stood before the mirror, frowning as he inspected his eyes from every angle.
“Acting up again.”
Behind him, Jo Ah-yoon clicked her tongue, reproaching him like she found him utterly pathetic.
“What, did you catch prince syndrome or something?”
“It’s not that.”
Once or twice she could have let it slide, but by now he was doing this every time he saw a mirror, and she was worn out.
She acknowledged that Han Jae-jung’s looks were exceptional. But when the man himself postured like that, it changed the whole viewing experience. Narcissism kills the appeal no matter what.
“No, it’s just my eye is....”
“Did you get an eye infection? Want to hit the eye doctor later?”
Despite Jo Ah-yoon’s concern, all he produced were deeply troubled groans—tsk, hmm—without much of a reaction.
“What the hell is it that’s got you flailing around like that?”
“Hmm... never mind. Let’s just get going.”
“Oh, for the love of.”
In the end, she didn’t get her answers and had to move on feeling unsettled. Jo Ah-yoon glared at Han Jae-jung’s strange behavior.
‘Did he eat something bad? Damn....’
Maybe he’d been so hungry yesterday that he ate spoiled food. If that was the case, he should’ve just gone to her place for dinner. Knowing the state of Han Jae-jung’s wallet, Jo Ah-yoon steeled her resolve anew about opening the café.
‘Before he scarfs down anything worse, I need to take responsibility and make him earn a living with his own two hands...!’
Even after announcing they should leave, Han Jae-jung kept examining himself in the mirror with an uneasy expression. It was his own face, a face that always gave him aesthetic satisfaction, but lately the sensation had changed a little.
Ever since Virgo healed his blinded left eye, the sensation in that eye was strange.
‘This doesn’t feel like ordinary healing.’
Was it a side effect of carrying Virgo’s last starlight? Several abnormalities had appeared in his body since then. The most notable problem was this left eye.
Virgo’s final act of kindness—the last magic she had sent for his sake. That healing power.
Not only had the vision in that eye become better than the right eye, but sometimes the color perception in the two fields of vision felt different. Compared to the right eye, it was as if the R in RGB had been boosted. Hazy, like looking through a red filter.
At times he even had the sensation that red starlight was flowing from his left eye. Of course, it was only a sensation; no starlight was actually flowing.
It only happened occasionally, so it didn’t interfere much with daily life. But it was unsettling all the same.
He had visited an ophthalmologist, but they hadn’t found anything unusual. That was what he’d expected. A problem caused by starlight couldn’t be treated with modern medical technology.
The biggest problem was this.
‘Don’t tell me I’m getting heterochromia.’
If an adult’s eyes changed color to be two different colors, what would people think? Han Jae-jung, who was always conscious of others’ gazes, didn’t want to make a face that already stood out stand out even more.
Every time he looked in a mirror, he grew anxious because the color of his left eye seemed to be growing redder. Most likely it was an illusion caused by the distorted field of vision.
“Hey, Ah-yoon.”
“What.”
“How’s my face?”
“Looks like shit.”
“Tell me honestly.”
“It’s pretty.”
“No, not that... isn’t there anything different about me?”
In that instant, Jo Ah-yoon’s heart froze. Her blood chilled and goosebumps rose on her skin like feathers guarding her body.
The words Han Jae-jung had just carelessly tossed out were a relationship-ruining question. A question of destruction, where any answer leads to catastrophe the moment you fail to notice the change.
Naturally, Jo Ah-yoon had not noticed Han Jae-jung’s change. Which meant that question brought only annihilation.
‘No wonder he was making such a huge fuss!’
So the reason he kept staring at the mirror was a cute wish that she would notice the change! Jo Ah-yoon squeezed her eyes shut.
“Huh? There’s nothing different?”
When Han Jae-jung pressed for an answer, she had no choice but to open her eyes and search desperately for a change.
There was, of course, no change she could detect. From his clothes to his shoes, everything was things she’d bought for him, and she knew them all. No accessories. His hairstyle was the same as always, and his eyes were still as sharp, still the eye-shape she liked.
“Uh. Umm... Uh... You, you got prettier. Maybe you, grew taller?”
“Hoo. Okay, that’s fine then.”
Letting out a relieved sigh, Han Jae-jung started moving with much lighter steps. So no visible change was showing on the outside after all. The only person who could feel this change was Han Jae-jung himself.
“...And the Belt hasn’t said anything either.”
His Belt had been eerily quiet since Virgo’s death. Watching the Metal Sphere stay silent—when it usually didn’t hesitate to blare emergency warnings the moment his health was in danger—Han Jae-jung once again felt reassured.
“What is it, seriously...!”
Don’t tell me he actually got taller. I’m still 150 centimeters! Jo Ah-yoon grumbled as she followed behind him.
“What are you doing going alone! We’re going together!”
“I’m walking as slowly as I possibly can right now.”
“What? Are you making fun of me because I’m short and have a small stride?!”
“No, I didn’t say a single word about—“
“Pak! You bastard!”
She kicked him lightly in the knee joint, and Han Jae-jung laughed bitterly.
“Her persecution complex just keeps growing.”
“My height grew too!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
A few minutes of walking later, the two entered a shop at the same time. Their steps held no hesitation, even though a sign marked ‘CLOSED’ occupied the front of the door.
A quiet shop tucked away in an alley. An antique exterior and design that evoked a rainy European backstreet. The moment you stepped inside, the scent of coffee tickled your nose, and old-school city pop and alternative rock shook your ears—shook your heart, even. A shop like that.
Jo Ah-yoon’s vision of an ideal café.
“Boss! I’m here!”
“Oh my, you’re right on time.”
And a café that would very soon be in Jo Ah-yoon’s hands. As she stepped inside, an older woman smiled and waved at her.
“Of course. I meant to come earlier... but my employee here is a very slow walker.”
Glaring, Jo Ah-yoon shot a reproachful look at Han Jae-jung, and he bowed his head.
“I’m sorry. Even though I have twice the leg length of our boss, my mind wandered a bit and I ended up late... Aagh! Why!”
“You deserved it.”
Having kicked him in the shin this time, Jo Ah-yoon smiled brightly and sat in the chair opposite the woman.
“Ho ho ho, you two are so close.”
“Heh, hehe. Does it look that way? Well, you know~ we’re going to be running a shop together soon, so we have to be close....”
Scratching her cheek bashfully, Jo Ah-yoon turned her gaze to the documents on the table.
“Yes, it truly puts my mind at ease. I feel that the two of you will take good care of this place....”
The woman stroked the table, her eyes filled with years and affection, then pushed the documents toward Jo Ah-yoon.
“To be honest, I wanted to give you a better deal... but my daughter stopped me, so I could only go this far.”
“Oh, no! This much is more than enough—“
“We owe you so much.”
The woman spoke solemnly.
“When I think of the debt of gratitude we owe people like you, not giving it away for free almost feels like a sin. The reason I’ve been able to live to this age... is thanks to young ladies like you.”
A society where the elderly are precious. The woman’s words were no exaggeration. In a society where the mobility-impaired elderly have a hard time evacuating and even living out their full lifespan is difficult.
“Please take good care of it after me. You brought your seal, yes?”
The contract documents for the shop transfer. Jo Ah-yoon, smiling, pulled her seal from inside her coat.
“Of course!”
In under a minute, the signature line bore a pink seal.
**
❰Is public safety in D5 City okay these days?❱
❰A buddy of mine says he lives there—not many monsters lately?❱
A man posted that on an internet community, and several comments quickly followed.
└Get ready for a funeral
└DO City? RIP, I heard it’s a hotspot for light addicts
└Give it a few more months and monsters’ll be roaming the streets lololol
└Rather than going there, I’d just close my eyes and go to F or G man. Costs a fortune and monsters still run wild
└Tell that buddy of yours to get out, fast
“Huuu... this is bad.”
Heaving a deep sigh, the man shut his laptop. He didn’t actually have a “buddy” like that. The post was about himself.
When he’d gotten this place, the neighborhood had been problem-free. Then a few months ago, rumors started circulating that monsters were turning up, and reports of actual monster sightings spiked noticeably.
Eventually, the drug users who gather wherever monsters are—commonly called light addicts—also flocked to this neighborhood, and a few weeks ago it was officially designated a caution zone for monster appearances.
He’d reached the stage where he had to seriously contemplate survival, not just money.
“Ha, damn it, seriously....”
He was miserable. The man had no savings to speak of. He’d scraped together every last penny to move into this apartment, and now look at him.
Dying before forty was the national average. He thought of the internet losers who memed about “premature death.” Trying to calm his mind and body, the man opened a video site and watched a magical girl in action.
It was a clip of Red Vega, already well past five million views. Barely even a year into her career, and she was a hope for the new generation, displaying overwhelming magical firepower.
’...Wonder if she’ll come to our neighborhood.’
Someone that strong could mop up all the monsters in our neighborhood. What could she possibly be so busy with... For a moment, he felt resentful of Red Vega’s face on the ad screen.
“No. Get it together.”
The man slapped his cheeks to steady himself. He was different from those losers. Different from the anti-fans who spent their lives in pessimism, thinking they were all going to die to monsters anyway.
Even now, mindful of his social reputation, the man disciplined himself, telling himself he wasn’t like those bottom-tier outcasts.
He wasn’t like the trash who spewed nonsense at the only hope humanity had left.
I’m still alive, and there’s still hope. Having steadied his heart, the man decided to eat something and rose from his seat.
That was when the doorbell rang.
“What is it?”
He hadn’t ordered any delivery. Not that he could—the delivery companies refused service here.
Could it be a monster. The chilling thought had just flitted through his mind when—
“I’m coming in.”
Boom!
The steel front door let out a thunderous noise and went flying, a metal door easily exceeding ten kilograms. And this had been a door specifically rated against monsters.
Through the gaping hole where the door had been, a colossal figure stepped in. A giant of a person, well over two meters. No, there were too many alien features to call it a person.
A monster.
As the man looked up at the monster with its ferocious starlight, trembling in terror, the monster extended a hand.
“You. Won’t you become our comrade?”
The magical girls who could protect the man were far too few in number.