What kind of bitch is she? (3)
What kind of bitch is she? (3)
I stopped by a restaurant to have dinner with hyung.
It was a very upscale restaurant.
We each ordered our food and began to talk.
A smile was still lingering on hyung's face.
"Ah, hyung. I bought you a gift. I'm able to have downtime like this all because of you."
I handed hyung a handkerchief I bought on the street.
He took the handkerchief, flipped it back and forth, put it in his pocket, and said,
"Pretty. I'll make good use of it. That aside, so what happened?"
"This whole thing?"
"Yeah."
I poured water for hyung and frowned.
"Agh, right. Hyung, I'm grateful because the problem got solved thanks to you, but it's not like everything you said was right."
"Really? What part of it was wrong?"
"You said they were acting like that because they liked me."
"I did."
"So just in case, I asked them like you said. Asked if they liked me."
"Oh~ And what happened?"
Hyung was looking at me with a fascinated expression.
"What do you mean, 'Oh~'? It ended with hearing that they don't like me. I almost became awkward with a close noona because of you."
Hearing that, his expression grew dull, like someone whose energy had completely drained out.
"...Really? That's strange. If she liked you, there'd be no reason for her to deny it on the spot."
"Look. She said she didn't."
"So. What about after that?"
"After that?"
"Well, you gotta explain up to the part where you said you got a girlfriend."
"Ah, right."
I rummaged through my memories.
"So... um. Originally, I wasn't going to follow hyung's advice, you know?"
"My goodness. After asking all about it?"
"I just felt uneasy about it. Plus I had to lie."
"Alright. So?"
"But I guess it was because I overworked my body chasing after my party members all this time, so during battle, my strength gave out once and-"
"-What??"
This time, hyung distorted his face.
It felt like I could see a tiger behind him.
Looking at him like that, it was a bit scary.
He really is an A-rank.
I casually brushed past the story.
"It's fine. It was no big deal."
"Stachys, hyung always told you to put safety first. Not just you, your party members too; once you lose your life, it's over."
"Alright. I'll be careful next time. Anyway-"
Speaking, I cautiously checked hyung's expression. He looked uncomfortable, but seeing as he was talking, he seemed to try and focus. Letting out an inner sigh of relief, I continued.
"-Once I realized that my strength gave out back then and I was in danger, I figured I should pay some attention to my health. Instead of just catering to my party members' moods. So I just trusted hyung and went for it like you advised, and it worked out."
"How was the reaction?"
"That wizard noona just burst out laughing, and you know my friend? That kid I've been close with for a long time."
"Ah. Was her name Rus...?"
"That's her. She collapsed to the ground. For some reason. But I figured if I asked why, the story would get long, and I felt like I'd get caught, so I just ran away."
At these words, a smile floated back onto hyung's face.
"Didn't you feel anything seeing her collapse?"
"What kin- Ah, hyung!"
He was sending me a sly look. Wiggling his pinky finger.
"The wizard noona wasn't even liking me in the end! Doing this again? You just spit things out easily since it's not your business."
"No... why are you getting so angry over that?"
A thought suddenly flashed through my mind, and I showed him my left thumb.
"Look. We even got friendship rings. If you get someone you like, hyung, would you buy them friendship rings?"
"Well, that's not it. Did she buy it?"
"Yeah."
"Oh~ Doing well, aren't you."
I was about to say a word out of annoyance, but seeing hyung's expression, a chuckle burst out.
He had the expression of someone who found teasing me insanely fun.
"Whatever. It's only my loss. Anyway, that's the end."
Hyung nodded.
"Well, still, it got definitively resolved."
At that moment, a waiter wearing a uniform approached.
"Your food is served."
"Thank you."
I reached out my hand to grab the plate.
"Stachys."
Hyung quietly called me.
He was snickering again as if he had seen something funny.
He gently shook his head from side to side.
Realizing what he was trying to say, I pulled my hand back.
Then the waiter neatly placed the food in front of me, took away the silver lid, gave a bow, and disappeared.
Once the waiter vanished, hyung started laughing in earnest.
Keuk-keuk-keuk-keuk.
I smacked my lips.
"It can't be helped. It's my first time in a place like this."
"That's why whenever I say I'll buy, you better follow along well. Mm, delicious. Eat a lot. You gotta pay for your size."
"I couldn't follow you until now because I was busy. Anyway, I got it."
Just as hyung said, the food tasted on a whole different level.
Another reason to grow the party had emerged.
I wanted to eat stuff like this every meal too.
"Ah, as a side note, you're gonna have to be a bit more careful with your lies from now on."
Hyung advised me.
With his head still buried in his food.
"I know. That's why I went and learned how to lie well a while ago."
Hyung shook his head.
"No. You don't know, Stachys. If you did, you wouldn't be wearing a friendship ring or whatever."
"Huh?"
I chewed over his words and thought about it.
That's right. If I really had a girlfriend, she'd hate it just from the fact that I matched friendship rings with another woman.
"Pay more attention. If you want to rest more comfortably for a longer time."
"Got it."
"If you got it, take the ring off and put it in your pocket on the way home. I'm saying this for your sake."
I nodded. As expected, listening to hyung never hurts.
"Thanks, hyung."
He smiled gently and said,
"I love you, my little brother."
It was nighttime. The time when everyone goes in to fall asleep.
After the Stachys Treaty was broken, Lily, Vien, and Rus had arrived at Stachys's lodging.
The reason was to ask questions about Stachys's lover.
The first time he informed them he had a girlfriend, they couldn't believe it and asked how they met,
but now that they acknowledged he had a girlfriend, it was to find out what kind of bitch she was.
There were two unnatural things.
The first was how she managed to meet Stachys every time in the dead of night,
and the second was how and why they started dating in just two weeks.
Actually, rather than unnatural points, they were facts the women didn't want to believe.
They could have met every time by pure coincidence,
and if their hearts matched, they could date in two weeks.
Anyway, they braced themselves since they would be facing him and talking about his girlfriend.
Because it was so painfully obvious that they were going to get hurt.
But what if? Even in a millionth chance, if Stachys's lover was a gold digger aiming for something of his, and if they could make him realize that, those were wounds they would gladly endure.
"Stachys! Open the door!"
Kung-kung-kung-kung
"Chis-ya, we're here. Could you open the door for a second?"
Knock knock knock
"Stachys? I have something to talk about."
Each standing in front of his guestroom door in their own way, they pounded on the door.
Even after pounding for a long time, there was no response.
As they shook the lodging, an old man came out from the next room.
"Hey, jeez. Let a guy get some slep-"
"-Mute."
As Lily cast magic, the old man could only move his mouth up and down. Flustered and hesitating, he got scared by the three women sending him glares and retreated back into his room.
"Hey! Why aren't you opening the door!! ...Are you ignoring us just because you got a girlfriend...?"
There was no strength in Vien's mouth, usually so sharp.
In the end, instead of speaking, she continuously pounded on the door with her hands.
Kung-kung-kung-kung
"Young ladies! It's way too loud at night! What is this... Aren't you those pretty ladies who are always with Mr. Stachys?"
The inn landlady appeared and spoke to them.
Rus answered her.
"Sorry. We have something to talk about with Stachys."
The inn landlady blinked.
"That lad isn't here right now?"
"...Pardon?"
"He went out saying he was going to meet someone."
At the same time, a chilly aura wrapped around the inn landlady.
"Oh my goodness. Why is it suddenly getting cold... Hup."
Glancing around here and there, the eyes of the three women she saw were unusual.
Feeling an absurd anxiety that the building was about to fly away, the inn landlady quickly told them,
"...Uh, he'll be back soon. Stachys. There's nobody in the first-floor dining room, so how about waiting there..?"
The inn landlady felt a great deal of guilt toward Stachys.
It could be that Stachys had run away to avoid them,
but it felt like she had sold him out, yielding to force.
'I'm sorry, lad...!'
The inn landlady tightly shut her eyes and fled.
"Ha~ Feels so good!"
Stachys was returning to his lodging, nicely drunk on alcohol.
In his pocket, just as hyung said, was the friendship ring.
Stachys danced around joyfully and savored his drunkenness.
Others might have called him a lunatic for it, but he didn't care.
Because he was happy.
He arrived at the inn lodging.
He entered with a loud greeting.
"Landlady! I'm back!"
And at the scene that appeared next, the alcohol instantly sobered him up.
No, was he super drunk?
There was no way they should be here at this very moment.
Lily, Vien, and Rus were waiting for him on the first floor.
Even after rubbing his eyes and looking, they were still right there.
They weren't particularly welcoming Stachys's appearance.
The atmosphere was extremely heavy.
'Why are they here?'
Stachys thought.
Sensing things were going to get troublesome, Stachys tried to lift the mood.
"Huh? Wow! Who is this. It's our party members? What on earth... are you guys doing here..."
But it didn't come easily.
No matter how brightly he spoke to them, their expressions showed no sign of brightening, so his own energy drained out instead.
Ignoring Stachys's words, they asked,
"Stachys, where were you?"
"What were you doing to just now come back, Chis?"
"Hmph. Sniff. Hmph!"
Only Vien sniffed her nose and said nothing.
Did she catch a cold or something? Stachys thought.
'How long have they been waiting?'
He couldn't predict what on earth they had been waiting until now to say.
He decided to just answer their questions.
-'Ah, as a side note, you're gonna have to be a bit more careful with your lies from now on.'
Hyung's voice echoed inside his head.
'Can I say I just came from seeing hyung here?'
He had told them he had no time for 5 days because he was meeting his girlfriend, so he couldn't say he had just been meeting hyung.
"I came from meeting my girlfrien-"
he said calmly to them, but
"-Why are you wandering around so late!!"
Lily noona shouted and cut him off.
It was a sight he was seeing for the first time.
She looked a bit angry.
When Stachys couldn't give any answer, completely flustered, she startled and changed her expression.
"Ah, no... It could be dangerous, you know..."
He was dumbfounded.
"Noona, when I walked you home to your house, we were out even later."
In the end, unable to hold it in, he spoke the truth rather bluntly.
"I-Is that so? Fufu."
Then, changing her expression completely like someone with manic depression, Lily rejoiced.
Stachys didn't understand,
but Lily was happy, thinking there was a point where she was ahead of Stachys's girlfriend.
"Ha... Let's go inside and talk first."
Stachys moved his steps and headed toward the room.
The remaining three women trotted along right behind him.
-Click. Screeech.
The room door opened.
Stachys was surprised.
A clean room welcomed him.
'Ah, that's right. I cleaned the room, didn't I?'
Even though he was the one who cleaned it, he was surprised.
To Stachys, who was always accustomed to a dirty room, it was a pretty fresh environment.
But Stachys wasn't the only one surprised.
The three party members swarmed into the room and looked around everywhere.
"S-Stachys!! Why is the room so clean?!"
Vien, who hadn't even greeted him, suddenly threw a fit and asked Stachys.
Stachys thought deeply again.
'I cleaned it because I had spare time.'
If he said that,
'Hey, you had break time? Don't rest, meet me!'
it felt like he would hear that kind of reply.
Unable to give up his position of taking a rest, Stachys put his guardian angel in front.
"My girlfriend cleaned it for me."
As soon as those words ended, Lily flopped limply onto the bed, and Rus collapsed onto the chair as if falling over.
Vien came to a dead stop.
"You already brought her... to your home?"
It was Rus.
At her words, Stachys thought.
'Was it a bit unnatural? Eh, but whatever, I already blurted it out.'
"Well... that's how it turned out."
Fearing that making eye contact would cause him to get caught by Rus, he answered while turning his head away.
"Hey guys, what do you want to drink?"
Lily muttered from atop the bed.
"...That's how it turned out?...That's how it turned out?...What turned out like that?"
"...Noona, is something wrong?"
At Stachys's words, Lily startled.
"Ah, it's nothing."
This time, Vien muttered from the side.
".... You wouldn't let me clean up your trash..."
Stachys felt like his mind was already slipping away.
'Why are they all muttering like this? But what time is Vien talking about?'
Stachys searched through his memories and eventually asked Vien.
"Vien, when are you talking about?"
"The day you said let's go to the orphanage before! When I came at dawn and tried to clean it up for you!"
Stachys remembered then.
'Ah, that time?'
It was because he felt like shameful trash that he didn't want Vien to find out would come out.
But he couldn't tell the truth about this either.
This time, Vien raised her voice.
"You said it was uncomfortable for me to touch your stuff, that I shouldn't do it!"
Time to summon the guardian angel once more.
When things are a bit disadvantageous.
Smiling with a good-natured look, he said to her,
Lightly, like a joke.
"Aish, Vien. Are you the same as my girlfriend?"