READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 101
Ji-hye has been spending a lot more time staring at her smartphone these days.
Well, who doesn’t use a smartphone these days, right? Whether it’s watching videos, looking at photos, reading short posts left by friends—it’s become something people just can’t put down for a long time.
However, that doesn’t mean Ji-hye frequently reads online news.
She’s seen tabloid articles about celebrities on the main page now and then. It’s not because she’s particularly interested; it’s mostly because the headlines are provocative or because Ji-eun mentioned it as a ‘friend’ that got her to take a look.
Usually, there wasn’t much to talk about.
Up until now, there hasn’t been a single magical girl death. Along with that, there haven’t been any hospitalizations due to serious injuries. As far as Ji-hye knows, magical girls are almost invincible. If they get hurt, they can heal immediately, and thanks to the magic that envelops them, they rarely even get hurt in the first place.
Besides, their everyday lives are well protected, so even when they read articles with enticing headlines, there’s hardly any real content.
Among those articles, one that could actually be called ‘news’ was undoubtedly the one about Blossom’s romantic interests.
The star of the photos featured in the article was Ji-eun, and the content was pretty much fabricated, but still, the fact that they were ‘really holding hands’ and ‘really together’ was genuine.
Upon reflection, Ji-eun often talked about Blossom, or rather, ‘Ha-yoon.’
After all, considering Ji-eun said that Ha-yoon was her only friend, it might not be strange at all.
And it was Ha-yoon who took Ji-eun with her.
Well, that might not be entirely accurate. When Ji-hye thought about it, the one who was using the teleportation-like power was Ji-eun.
So if you think about it logically, it might be Ji-eun who manages the other magical girls too.
And each time Ji-hye recalled that fact, she felt a kind of indescribable emotion.
Yes, it was Ji-hye who clearly said she wouldn’t follow them. Following along would likely be of no help. It would be great if she wasn’t a burden, but there was a high probability she would end up being one.
The last time they met, Ji-eun looked at Ji-hye with a tender expression. Seeing that made Ji-hye unexplainably relieved.
That expression said Ji-eun hadn’t forgotten her, that the person she felt was her only family valued her—
“…”
So, naturally, it meant there was no need for Ji-hye to worry about where Ji-eun was.
There shouldn’t have been.
Today, just like every day, Ji-hye was watching the news.
Normally, it would have been a day to go to school, but today, coincidentally, she was off. Not because there was anything special happening. The anniversary of the school’s founding was quite far off, and if today had been a holiday, then government officials wouldn’t have been working in the first place.
About a week ago, some people in suits visited the orphanage.
The people who entered after showing some identification to the teachers came face to face with Ji-hye.
Their message was, “Today may be dangerous, so please stay inside and keep safe under our protection.”
It seemed they had already sent out an official notice to the school.
“Why…?”
“The likelihood that magical girls will move today is high.”
Was it to lessen the intimidation? The one relaying that message to Ji-hye was a somewhat younger woman. Though still, she looked to be at least ten years older than Ji-hye.
“They might come looking for Jeong Ji-hye.”
“Surely, you’re not trying to arrest me again?”
Ji-hye asked with a voice she rarely used, almost as though it didn’t matter.
She usually managed herself in an unobtrusive way, avoiding conflicts at all costs, but today, she didn’t feel particularly great.
No, she hadn’t slept well at all because Ji-eun had been far away from her. If it had just been distance that separated them, she wouldn’t have felt this way. If she could at least know that Ji-eun would safely return in a few days, then Ji-hye could have slept well without any worries.
But there was no guarantee of that.
Being a magical girl meant fighting aliens.
Until now, she thought it meant ‘no injuries,’ but having seen Ji-eun properly in the videos, she saw her getting hurt and suffering.
Did she even have adequate food? She had even gone as far as requesting something separately.
She had no idea where or how Ji-eun was doing. She couldn’t even get to a supermarket, so without a doubt, she wouldn’t be able to go to a hospital either. Would she even be able to wash herself properly wherever she was? Would her sleeping conditions be comfortable? Probably not at all. She might very well be in a place where the electricity wasn’t working properly.
And the fact that there were people targeting Ji-eun like this, left no room for her to feel at ease.
“No, it’s not.”
The woman responded that way, but Ji-hye couldn’t believe it at all.
Weren’t they people who had shot at Ji-eun with live rounds countless times? Plus, last time, they tried to take Ji-hye so they could persuade Ji-eun.
When they realized Ji-hye hadn’t responded, they even showed obvious disappointment, and now they wanted to use her as bait again.
“We currently have no plans to contact the magical girls. While there’s a lot we can’t explain…”
“Then how am I supposed to believe you?”
“…There’s nothing we can say other than asking you to believe us.”
The woman seemed to be genuinely at a loss. Convincing someone in a situation like this, where she had limited authority to speak, wouldn’t be easy. Ji-hye didn’t particularly care, though.
“Even if I reject it, you’ll act however you want anyway, right?”
She spoke a little nervously, but with an act of defiance.
The other side just offered a faintly embarrassed expression in silence.
“…”
It seemed the adults’ concerns had nothing to do with Ji-hye’s school life at all.
In the end—Ji-hye was unable to go to school today and remained inside the orphanage.
Not going to school was physically comfortable, but unease never left her.
Could there really be people out there trying to attack Ji-hye? Was there someone planning to kidnap her again, just like last time?
Would Ji-eun come to see Ji-hye?
While lost in such thoughts, she stumbled upon information about ‘places where Ji-eun might appear,’ as per what those people thought.
That’s how she ended up seeing the news this morning.
“Please call me Happy Lily from today!”
And there was ‘Blossom’ who appeared next to Ji-eun, shouting that.
Her face was radiant.
Ji-eun, in a white magical girl outfit, looked just red-faced and didn’t say a word, just like the last time.
And beside Ji-eun, another magical girl was sticking close.
“Magical… girl…”
Did Ji-eun become a magical girl by choice?
At least every time Ji-hye had seen her, Ji-eun had always looked exhausted. She thought there had never been a time when Ji-eun looked genuinely happy in that magical girl outfit.
And yet, Ji-eun didn’t deny those words at all.
It seemed as if they had their own conversation where Ji-hye could not see, just standing there red-faced in silence.
“…”
Yeah, Blossom was one of the few friends Ji-eun had. Maybe it would be even stranger if they didn’t reconcile after all that. If there were friendships between friends, maybe they wouldn’t just break apart that easily over a few bumps.
But the other kid next to her…
What was that strange feeling of deprivation?
She knew very well that feeling was quite odd. No matter how much you consider someone like family, not everything is laid bare, and it’s not like friends are ever entirely overlapping.
Just as Ji-hye didn’t know much about Ji-eun’s friends, Ji-eun didn’t know much about Ji-hye’s friends, either.
Yet, still, Ji-hye felt an inexplicable tightening in her chest.
Having worried this much, she should have felt relieved seeing Ji-eun was doing well.
What exactly could she classify this emotion?
*
“Ji-eun!”
And just like that, the feeling melted away the moment she saw Ji-eun.
Running out of the room, she bumped her shoulder against the wall in the hallway, but without feeling any pain, she immediately dashed towards Ji-eun.
And she leaped into Ji-eun’s arms.
Ji-eun wrapped her arms around Ji-hye’s back without saying a word.
Was it just Ji-hye’s imagination that Ji-eun’s arms felt a bit more solid?
“…Did you do okay?”
Ji-eun asked softly, wrapping her arms around Ji-hye. Ji-hye felt like she was about to burst into tears.
If she opened her mouth, all that would escape was a strangled sound, so she simply nodded quietly.
Even though Ji-eun’s shoulder was already getting soaked with Ji-hye’s tears.
As she held Ji-eun tightly, she then noticed.
There was a faint smell of oil coming from Ji-eun’s body. After blinking and letting her tears flow away, she caught sight of black grease stains on that white outfit.
The hair was the same. There were sticky patches of black and yellow grease all over.
Ji-hye pulled her upper body back slightly to look at Ji-eun’s face.
It was a mess.
There were small scratches here and there, and she even spotted places that were already turning purple from bruises.
Given how revealing her clothes for fighting were, those injuries stood out even more.
“What happened to your face…?”
Ji-hye fought back the tears that were about to flow again, bringing her hand to Ji-eun’s face.
Every time they met, she tried so hard not to cry, but it was never easy. Because Ji-eun was her only family, it broke her heart to see her hurt and suffering.
Moreover, all that pain was due to Ji-eun’s effort to keep the orphanage afloat.
She was able to barely manage with the subsidies coming in, but there were lots of corners that needed cutting. Wearing second-hand clothes, she couldn’t even dream of getting pocket money, and it was hard to get broken things repaired.
Ji-eun kept fighting for that orphanage.
Ji-hye, living in that orphanage, naturally benefited from it a great deal. Until now, she hadn’t realized it at all.
That made it all the more heartbreaking.
The best thing would have been to avoid such things altogether. To live with nothing at all would have been much better than living with the risk of her precious family getting hurt or killed. They could simply support one another after graduating together, or something like that.
If such a situation became unavoidable, she wished Ji-eun would at least take pride in it.
That everyone here was living off her work, she should be grateful for that. That she was working this hard.
But Ji-eun probably wouldn’t have said that.
Because that’s who Ji-eun was.
As she touched Ji-eun’s face with trembling hands, Ji-eun, smiling bitterly, grabbed Ji-hye’s hand.
“It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay.”
At Ji-hye’s words, Ji-eun’s face dulled a little.
Was this also an unnecessary intervention? Was it just getting in the way of what Ji-eun wanted to do?
She grew anxious. She thought Ji-eun wouldn’t hate her for this, but she didn’t want to be the person tripping her up.
“I’m fine.”
Ji-eun said.
And then she placed her hand on Ji-hye’s face and spoke.
“What about you? Are you okay?”
“I… I’m fine.”
Of course. She had to be fine. Because Ji-eun was working so hard for her.
Ji-hye, being someone Ji-eun cared for, should naturally be okay—
“…”
Ji-eun silently stared at Ji-hye, as if trying to read her thoughts.
That serious expression made Ji-hye just look back at Ji-eun silently.
“How about here? Have there been any strange people since then?”
Ji-eun asked, removing her hand.
Ji-hye exhaled and nodded.
“There haven’t been any since then.”
“… Right.”
Ji-eun made a pained expression.
Was she blaming herself again?
Could it be that she was blaming herself for that day when those strange people showed up?
Ji-hye knew nothing about what had happened that day, anyway.
She didn’t want to know either.
All she knew was that Ji-eun was the one who saved her that day.
The fact that Ji-eun had come here today was probably also because of Ji-hye.
Such thoughts made Ji-hye feel strange again. Various emotions mixed in a chaotic mess, making it unclear what she was truly feeling.
Was it happiness? The joy of knowing that Ji-eun thought about her first even in situations like that? The joy that she had come running to protect her could be what made her heart race.
Or was it disappointment in herself?
The fact that she had become yet another stumbling block to Ji-eun, that because of her, Ji-eun was unable to go to a more important place—perhaps she was feeling this way because of that regret.
“I’m fine. I’m probably… okay here too. Just look outside. There are so many police.”
“They won’t be there every day, right?”
“Still…”
“… This place has become dangerous because of me.”
“No!”
At Ji-eun’s words, Ji-hye shouted out suddenly, then quickly covered her mouth. Ji-eun’s eyes widened a little.
“I mean, I just wanted to say that the ones trying to do something bad here are the bad ones, and that you’re not bad. You were just caught up in it. You haven’t done anything wrong at all.”
“There’s nothing wrong—”
At Ji-hye’s words, Ji-eun seemed to hesitate, then shut her mouth.
Her face stiffened.
Was it something Ji-hye shouldn’t have said? Was it something that would make Ji-eun unhappy?
Now, she really didn’t know anything. Every time she met Ji-eun since that day, her mind had been a mess. The various events had become tangled up, and she lost track of who was on whose side and what was right and wrong.
All she hoped for was that Ji-eun, in the midst of it all, would remain safe somehow. She just wanted to live on, meeting each other as family and as the closest friends.
Watching a precious friend like that, who shared memories of childhood so beautifully, go through such threats was just too much.
“…”
Ji-eun, looking at Ji-hye with that stiff expression, then slightly lowered her head.
And she pulled back a little.
“… I’m sorry.”
“Huh?”
It took a moment for Ji-hye to process what Ji-eun just said.
*
Seeing Ji-hye worry like this, what should I say?
What would the reaction be for an ordinary person suddenly exposed to a huge danger?
I wonder if I’ve taken that too lightly.
Ji-hye had been threatened to the point of losing her life. I don’t know exactly what they were planning to do to Ji-hye. Thankfully it ended without incident, but—
Anyone who saw someone chasing them with a knife would likely suffer significant mental trauma. They might have to live their life burdened with that trauma forever, maybe even if they weren’t directly stabbed.
I wonder if Ji-hye was living in that kind of fear.
And the one who put Ji-hye into that fear was none other than me.
“… I’m sorry.”
So then, I should have said this much earlier.
Ji-hye stared at me, almost absentmindedly, seemingly not fully understanding what I was saying.
“I… I made this situation.”
To be honest, that was an impulsive confession that slipped out.
It was the same with Ha-yoon. The situation that trapped the magical girls was entirely because of me. In the original, the chairman never got pushed out, so perhaps that too was something due to my presence. I still don’t quite know why, but maybe the current chairman, seeing how well the previous chairman’s matter was going, wanted to somehow make a profit before he loses control.
Even the reason why the webtoon author sent me to this place is unclear, but in the end, it might have been to cause me this pain.
I sensed the vibrations in the circuit around my wrist growing slightly weaker.
“From the very beginning, I must have caused all this. If I hadn’t gone to the company or if I hadn’t become a combatant, maybe none of this would have happened.”
I thought I needed to apologize to everyone, but in the end, Ji-hye was the one who was in the most danger—she didn’t even have a connection to the original work.
An ordinary person who couldn’t even transform into a magical girl. Yet she was the one being tormented by all sorts of people, because she was the ‘only one’ I had to lose.
“I… So…”
But I couldn’t finish my words.
Before I could say more, I felt a strong impact on my body.
Ji-hye dashed back to me and hugged me tightly.
“Why is it your fault?”
Ji-hye said.
There was unmistakably sadness in her voice.
“There’s not a single thing that’s your fault…”
Holding onto this, Ji-hye’s words seemed to bite down on the reality of the situation.
“…”
Ah, really.
You’ve always been… so kind.
I stood there motionless, unable to do anything, knowing Ji-hye was like this.
Ji-hye wrapped her arms around my waist even tighter.
As if trying to prevent me from saying more.
As if trying to keep me from escaping this moment.
What should I do?
Wouldn’t coming here, under the pretense of protecting Ji-hye, only hurt her more?
That thought seemed to tighten my chest.
But at the same time, my irreparably twisted mind felt joy that Ji-hye accepted my apology so easily.
… The circuits in my mind felt a bit resentful.