Time did not wait for the slowly fading relationship between us, and continued to flow.
The next day at school, my legs trembled up and down with anxiety.
The reason my legs were shaking like this since the morning was the news from yesterday.
The photo that Anne proudly uploaded on social media, featuring me in a two-shot.
Fortunately, I managed to prevent the rumors from spreading all over the neighborhood as the aunt probably didn’t see it herself…
Still, the anxiety didn’t go away.
“Ugh… no way…”
What kind of idiot would search for a photo of a returnee magical girl that was posted on social media just because there’s a girl who resembles their friend, and come to confirm its authenticity at my seat?
I don’t know which god listened to my prayers, but I guess yesterday, Taehyun’s house answered my faith as well.
Nothing unusual should happen at school, right?
“Please let today be a smooth day with no monsters.”
Just three seconds later.
“Hey, isn’t this you, Mari, from yesterday’s news?”
“Huh?”
The disaster that approached me while I was sitting at my desk was Dongha.
This guy, speaking of it, was a magical girl enthusiast.
As expected, he thrust the entire page of the news, which featured that day’s photo, into my hands.
At that moment, I realized that it wasn’t a god listening to my prayers but rather a monkey’s hand.
At some point, he brought over a blank notebook and uneasily left a request.
“Are you a magical girl, by any chance?”
My heart sank.
I calmed my racing heart and covered the situation with a ridiculous excuse.
“If I were a magical girl, I would have killed Seonhyuk first.”
“Real lol, then can I get Tiara’s autograph?”
“Ugh, get lost. What autograph from someone who’s already gone back to the U.S.?”
There are sometimes friends who are connected to celebrities.
My surroundings vaguely accepted it like that.
Honestly speaking, unless I show them my transformation scene, how many people would believe me if I said, “I’m a magical girl!”?
Of course, there was no way to get an autograph from someone who had already gone back to the U.S., so I naturally pushed the notebook away from my desk with a sharp attitude.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s later, just do it!”
However, Dongha didn’t back down easily.
Like it was a golden opportunity to get the autograph of a favored celebrity, he knelt on the classroom floor with joined hands on the desk despite my single rejection.
“Ha, damn… fine, just shut up.”
An excessively attention-grabbing conversation.
If I got any more attention, rumors might spread even to other classes.
While saying I understood, I pinched his protruding mouth with my left thumb and index finger like a stapler.
It seemed like I had successfully silenced one person…
Nonetheless, that photo was news anyone with even a little interest in magical girls could hear about.
And this damn world is quite interested in the existence of magical girls.
Compared to the relatively closed culture of Korean magical girls, America and Japan had a lot of information released about their magical girls.
Students who were fans of American or Japanese magical girls were plenty in our class, and naturally, during every break, the arrows of interest turned toward me.
Why, we could sometimes hear about such news.
Like when it was revealed that a student was actually the sibling of a famous idol, causing them a lot of pressure.
“Is it true that you can grow and shrink your body?”
“So, do you have to recite a transformation chant when transforming?”
“Can I get an autograph too?”
That was exactly my situation right now.
‘What the hell… what are these idiots?’
They were just people I knew by face, having exchanged a few words a couple of times.
On the other hand, there were guys who didn’t even know my face coming over from other classes with various questions, and it was driving me crazy.
I would have preferred it if the rumors just spread around the neighborhood.
No matter how tired I was and whether I lay on my desk or not, during recess, an unknown girl kept coming to ask endless questions…
“How does she really look in person? Is she pretty even in the eyes of girls?”
“Can you share Tiara’s contact information? What’s it like being a magical girl?”
Is she pretty? Does her body really grow or shrink?
Even silly questions that could mostly be answered in a gallery were being asked directly, as if they were trying to make a connection for any dropped breadcrumbs.
Because of this, my routine during breaks turned into occupying a stall in the bathroom, staring at the tiled ceiling.
At least if they were boys who were crazy about a famous female celebrity, just going into the bathroom could cut them off.
However, the girls were somewhat less of an issue.
The main reason being that I wasn’t a famous male celebrity, and there weren’t many girls still going on about magical girls.
“Ugh, this is exhausting.”
I sighed while going home, burdened with more attention than necessary.
The persistent boys who had probed me with questions during breaks fell away one by one as I went home, and eventually, the only one left next to me was Taehyun whose path overlapped with mine.
Seonhyuk and Dongha wanted to go to the PC cafe, but I refused, knowing that the boys bound for the PC cafe would surely annoy us to the point that we couldn’t play games.
Getting that much attention at a PC cafe would have been worse; maybe it would have been better if I were just in a girls’ middle school.
“But how did you get to know Tiara?”
“I just met her while shopping at the grocery store.”
An automatic lie flowed out without me blinking at Taehyun’s question.
In on the gossip asking what kind of relationship I had with her during school, I had formed a storyline of sorts.
I helped her out because she was struggling with various things at the grocery store, and that led to us getting to know each other.
That was really where it ended; it wasn’t anything special like being good friends.
I had no idea when she would come back to Korea, and these days, we hadn’t been in contact, so it was a joke.
Even students who were interested in Tiara wouldn’t steal my smartphone after school to look through our conversation, allowing me to lie like this.
Anyway, it worked well enough, and my current situation was due to their lessened interest during breaks.
“Today, I’m going straight home.”
“Okay, bye.”
As I pressed the button for the fourth floor of the elevator, I left my words with Taehyun.
As soon as I entered the empty house, I took off my outer coat and hung it on the rack, then headed to the living room where I turned on the television, fixing it to a good cartoon channel to kill time.
And with both hands, I played a smartphone game.
After all, Shiyeon wouldn’t return home until around 7 or 8 PM…
In this floating time, that would be about all I could do alone.
I had computer games too, but…
If I really started playing, the hours would vanish as if they’d been cut out of the timeline, so I preferred to save it for weekends.
Also, it was generally easier to find people to play games with on weekends rather than during weekdays.
So, while my eyes continued to alternate between the smartphone and the TV for a while…
“Um, Mari. Have you and Shiyeon had a fight or something?”
“Huh? No, why?”
Gomtaengi, who was well into the TV, suddenly threw the question.
I calmly replied without turning my head, keeping my focus on the game.
“Lately, you two haven’t talked to each other, and you’re only communicating through us, right? Shouldn’t we be worried about this…?”
Gomtaengi’s response was an analytical attempt to explain the situation obliquely, as if wanting an answer from me without being direct.
I still answered unphased, “Well, it’s probably just puberty… That’s not something I can touch.”
“Still…”
“I’m fine, it’ll sort itself out. They’re not elementary students or kindergarteners.”
With plenty of money in hand, what’s there for middle school students to worry about?
Yet, it didn’t feel like something that would annoy me.
‘Recently, I’ve been feeling easily irritated…’
While I softly brushed my long bangs to the side, I questioned my recent behavior.
Getting easily bored, avoiding annoying tasks, and having a feeling of restlessness? Or wait, was I always like this?
I wasn’t sure.
When does puberty start and when does it end, high school?
They say there are cases where late bloomers struggle during high school, but in any case, Shiyeon would likely get through it more quickly.
I didn’t know how long it would last, but maybe if I gave her about two years, she’d be okay?
With that thought, I started laundry, cleaning, and cooking at around 6 PM.
As I prepared to make pasta, something Shiyeon enjoyed when she was in elementary school, I went to the grocery store and returned around 7 PM.
“Huh?”
As the time grew dim, I spotted Shiyeon near the apartment parking lot.
She was sitting in the playground pavilion where older folks often appeared, the light from her smartphone shining on her face as she leaned in closely.
“Sh….”
As I was about to call out to Shiyeon to ask why she wasn’t going inside, I was momentarily at a loss for words.
She turned off the smartphone light and hunched over, seeming to curl her upper body tightly.
Her hand rubbed her arm as if it were aching, and her back trembled.
Suddenly, I felt like I had a lot of things to do.
The time I returned home was 7:46 PM.
Shiyeon still hadn’t come back inside.
The claim that she wanted to go to an academy was also a lie.
She must have been killing time somewhere until 8 PM, tricking me into thinking she played along.
Pretending to want to go to an academy and saying she needed money.
Isn’t that a pretty obvious story for middle and high school students?
“Sigh…”
I sat on the sofa, threw my neck back, and let out a deep sigh.
My palm had grown cold from being outside briefly, contrasting sharply with the heat radiating from my forehead and around my eyes.
This deep, heavy anger was new to me as Gomtaengi softly spoke beside me.
“Mari…”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Gomtaengi must have been able to sense my heavy contemplation.
I cut off any further words, first saying I was fine.
Concern for Shiyeon and probably about the other person as well.
It was clear to me what Gomtaengi was worried about; school violence, worrying over Shiyeon, and my overwhelming strength.
As long as I didn’t kill anyone, right?
