Perception Change (4)

She wanted to make more memories with someone important.

Was there anyone in the world who didn't think that way?

-Ring-ring, ring-ring.

The cell phone's ringtone echoed at regular intervals before abruptly cutting off.

A woman's mechanical voice echoed in the room.

-...Connected to the voicemail, a call charge will be applied-

-Click.

"…Why aren't they picking up?"

Staring blankly at the screen, Jin Dallae was about to call him again, but then she threw her phone onto the bed, realizing her own situation.

"He must be busy."

Lying sprawled on the bed, her arm on her forehead, she muttered to herself.

"Am I being too obsessive…?"

Since the midterm exams.

It's been five days since she resolved to deepen her relationship with that man.

Of course, there hadn't been a proper meeting since, and there was no significant progress in their relationship.

"What should I do…"

She tried calling to make an appointment, perhaps leaving a subtle hint…

Aside from a few potions she brought over out of concern, she had hardly seen his face.

'I guess he's busy,' she could have thought, but such was the psyche of a woman.

It was her first time expressing such emotions, so it was bound to be clumsy.

"My sugar level is dropping."

Jin Dallae took a chocolate from the basket on the nightstand, unwrapped it, and popped it into her mouth.

She smirked at the sweetness in her mouth but still watched her phone intently, hoping for a call.

-Woowoo!

"Wha-what?"

The phone started to vibrate suddenly.

'…What should I say first? Greet him? Good morning…?'

Startled by the sudden call, Jin Dallae dove onto the bed to check the screen before it could hang up.

[010-xxxx-xxxx]

[Guseul]

"…Ah."

Her soaring expectations turned into sheer disappointment. Her flushed face instantly cooled down.

"Why does he hardly call except when eating…"

She grudgingly answered the phone.

"Hello…?"

[Ah, hello~ Hehehe. I thought of you and called. Is everything okay? It's a shame about the last tournament.]

"Ah, yeah. I've been a bit busy lately."

[Eh? Why does your voice sound so down?]

An acquaintance Jin Dallae had recently started to distance herself from.

Yet, Guseul always called her naturally.

She would have refused a call from anyone else.

But Jin Dallae didn't avoid Guseul's calls.

After all, she had distanced herself from people because she felt guilty for treating them as tools.

'…This girl.'

Jin Dallae's relationship with Guseul was slightly different.

Back in the military academy, Jin Dallae was busy recruiting people for her revenge.

She realized something while talking to Guseul.

[Is there something troubling you?]

A sly fox.

Someone like her, always hiding her secrets and never showing her true feelings.

Years into their acquaintance, she still didn't know Guseul's background.

"Troubling me?"

[Yeah, your voice sounds so lifeless.]

"… There's a lot to worry about. I'm afraid I might not make it to the Forester selection."

[Is that really all?]

'She's really quick-witted.'

Jin Dallae placed her hand over the phone and sighed, making sure the sound wouldn't escape.

She considered making up an excuse to end the call.

Just as she was about to fabricate an excuse, a thought crossed Jin Dallae's mind.

Guseul.

She was one of the distinguished beauties at the Korean branch of El Academy.

If Sansuyu was an untouchable noble lady with a majestic aura, Guseul was the beauty that every school seemed to have. With her long black hair, always beaming and friendly, cute enough to be the ideal first love, she had long been the subject of rumors.

…Could it be that Guseul knew how to charm a man?

She was always at drinking parties, and many of the men Jin Dallae knew had a secret crush on Guseul.

This gave rise to a significant hypothesis in her mind.

"…Um. Hey."

[Mhm.]

"Have you ever been in a relationship? I'm really, really just curious."

[...Oh?]

Playfulness crept into Guseul's voice.

[Hehehe. Our Dallae, have you never been in a relationship despite being in your twenties?]

'I knew it.'

A small arrow struck Jin Dallae's heart.

[So what? Did you meet a guy you like?]

"It's not that I like him."

[Oh, did you get confessed to?]

"...What?"

Jin Dallae closed her eyes and reminisced.

Her encounters with him were rare now, but she distinctly remembered something akin to a confession.

She remembered every conversation she had with Lee Shiheon without exception.

-No, I was just surprised to see someone I read about in the newspapers.

Those were the words she heard when they first met.

-I wanted to be friends, but maybe I got ahead of myself.

Thinking back, those words were embarrassing.

Above all, the most memorable words were:

-I couldn't stop thinking about you.

Back then, during a time of depression and impulse, those were the words Lee Shiheon left her at a drinking party.

She wasn't sure why he said those words…

But wasn't that essentially a confession?

A man telling a woman that he couldn't stop thinking about her.

Her face flushed with heat.

The idea that Lee Shiheon hadn't answered her call, not because his feelings had waned but because he was genuinely busy, gave her unfounded confidence.

"It wasn't a confession, but something similar."

[Oh my, oh my. I'm so jealous.]

"Why did your way of talking suddenly change?"

[Just because? Hehe. You know how aunties talk when they're watching dramas. I'm just imitating them for a bit. So… what about you?]

"…It doesn't seem too bad."

[Mm, then there's a high chance it'll end quickly.]

"Actually… I think I might like him."

Guseul let out a shriek of excitement that could be heard over the phone.

[So?? Who is it, who is it!?]

"Why are you so excited?"

[Everyone loves hearing about others' love lives.]

"...."

In the ensuing silence, Guseul continued.

[If you like it, just accept the confession.]

"It's not a real confession, more like something similar…"

[Ah, so he hinted around it? Tried to see if you'd catch on that he likes you? How so?]

"He's always helping me, and when I'm struggling, he wakes me up to reality."

[That's true love, true love! Why else would he help so much? Definitely interested.]

Guseul started to ramble on.

Jin Dallae closed her eyes and reminisced again.

'…Really?'

Guseul's words were a somewhat logical deduction about love.

Lee Shiheon avenged her and was always there when she felt alienated in her relationships.

When she was sick, he shocked her back to reality.

When asked why, his answer was, "I thought of you…"

"Eh, no way."

[He made a lot of effort. If you like him, just openly confess.]

"…So how do you confess?"

[So, from there…?]

Despite the certainty she felt, as a novice in love, she couldn't express it outwardly.

[You can just confess over text. If you're really that close.]

"Is that okay?"

[Why are you hesitating? Someone else might snatch him away.]

Someone else…

Jin Dallae quietly fell into thought.

'Sansuyu.'

For some reason, the two, who had become close from a certain day, often spent time together, and she had felt a sense of unease about it.

"…Hmm."

As she was trying to figure out what to do, Guseul made a suggestion.

[How about at the training camp? I'll make it obvious that you like them.]

"How would you do that?"

[You know, like when they say to bring your closest friend of the opposite sex! You just rush to him and pick him up.]

Jin Dallae thought it was indeed a viable plan and took this advice to heart.

But what if such a topic didn't come up?

[I'm the one hosting the training camp. The recreation host!]

"…!"

For the first time, Guseul's advice seemed genuinely helpful!

"Really?"

[Of course. Oh… but I'm feeling low on sugar lately.]

"Cake?"

[Confirmed~ Let's meet separately and talk about it later!]

After the call ended,

Jin Dallae closed her phone and chuckled inwardly.

If things went well, perhaps she could form a more concrete relationship, not just some abstract notion of getting closer.

Embracing… and even more.

-Woowoo!

"…That startled me."

Her reverie was broken by the vibration; Jin Dallae checked her phone.

-Regarding the orphanage. Are there any changes from the last proposal?

The orphanage—a project Jin Dallae had begun to initiate following the recent Ent incidents that caused children to lose their parents.

Jinmok Orphanage Foundation.

To become a haven for wounded children.

She was juggling corporate work while being a student.

It was challenging, but she could handle it.

Her painful, embarrassing growth period was coming to an end, partly thanks to that man.

-Missed Call [Lee Shiheon] 1.

"Ah."

While searching her contacts to make a work call, Jin Dallae saw the missed call that had come in while she was on the phone with Guseul.

"..."

Lee Shiheon.

She looked at the name on the missed call and thought. The corners of her lips, which she absently touched, curled upward.

The sensation of that drunken kiss had somehow become a symbol of their connection.

Though it was a mistake, it was still vividly remembered.

And the memory of offering her cheek.

"Huhu."

Jin Dallae's laughter was sticky with an emotion called obsession.

-The customer is currently on a call, so after the beep, you will be connected to the Sound Source, and a call charge will be applied.

A female mechanical voice echoed from the other side of the cell phone.

She didn't answer the call.

Even though her affection level was quite high, it was scary. The thought that she might be talking to someone else made me feel uneasy.

'…Nothing must have happened, right?'

Jealousy led Hwangdo to put the strongest trees I know, Baekdo and Cheondo, into a deep slumber.

'Thinking about how kind Hwangdo changed so drastically… what could become of Dallae?'

It wasn't jealousy but obsession.

I was surprised she harbored such feelings for me.

I had thought she maintained a distance, as she insisted on using formal speech despite my requests not to.

'How could I have foreseen this?'

"Little Brother."

"Yes?"

"Another girl?"

I noticed the shift in Hwangdo's gaze.

'No, wait. Now that I think about it, sister has always attacked at night.'

Reflecting on it, Hwangdo's current jealousy didn't seem much different from before.

It was too complicated. Why had this change come about so suddenly?

"…Little Brother, this is not the time to think about girls."

-Crunch-

Hwangdo reprimanded me and pushed something round and soft into my mouth.

Even amidst this, Hwangdo's cheeks kept moving as though she was chewing.

'…'

I bit into the fruit, a bitter smile on my face.

"You have to eat it within 10 minutes."

Our water peaches spilled from the bed onto the floor.

I wondered if such abundance ever brought tears to the eyes of farmers. I felt like crying, too.

"Little Brother, chew quickly!"

"Yes."

Acorns were truly cost-effective.

That thought struck me out of the blue.