[‘I’m from America.’ Magical Girl Tiara makes a surprise visit, defeating a monster while using clumsy Korean in Myeongdong street.]
[Open American culture, is the Magical Girl no exception?]
[The identity of the publicly known American Magical Girl? Features of Magical Girls by country.]
[Representative Uncle Song says we should embrace advanced country culture… mentions ‘transparent fund management’ regarding the need to reveal the identity of Magical Girls.]
[Tiara, the American Magical Girl, undoes her transformation in front of people, ‘a matter of course’ in America.]
‘So, this is it.’
I thought if it weren’t us, at least it must be another Magical Girl nearby, I opened the internet.
As expected, there were freshly updated news articles filling the screen, ranging from one hour ago to three hours ago.
Contrary to my anticipation that there would be criticisms about the American Magical Girl defeating the monster that appeared in Korea, the headlines were rather mundane.
An elusive Magical Girl, and she’s American.
And there were images of her just undoing her transformation or greeting people in front of the public….
It seemed journalists found the cultural differences between Magical Girls from different countries quite fascinating.
The media focused more on the surprising and interesting aspects rather than criticizing the Korean Magical Girls.
Speaking of which, Tiara? That name sounds familiar….
[Oh, that’s the name of Ann? The Magical Girl name is Tiara.]
‘Ah.’
It dawned on me; that was the name of the person who called while Ji-eun unni was on her honeymoon in Japan.
I scratched my head as I recalled her real name, which I hadn’t even needed to think about until now.
Supposedly she had a lot of interest in Korea, but that wasn’t my concern.
In the end, she seemed to have made it all the way to Korea, but considering there was no call from the Minister at least, I firmly believed it was unrelated to me.
However, was it due to a lack of faith….?
With a phone call coming in, that belief shattered to pieces.
[Representative Uncle]
‘What’s this? He’s directly calling me….’
I should’ve just ignored it and pretended not to receive the call.
It wasn’t a restricted number, so I picked up without any suspicion.
But, the Representative Uncle turned out to be an acquaintance of Ji-eun unni, who was ‘formerly a Magical Girl.’
Then I should’ve realized beforehand that he was somehow associated with a department related to Magical Girls, and the cost of my ignorance was steep.
The call was from him, asking for help from that Minister.
It was initially meant to request assistance from me, but inadvertently, the conversation reached this side through Representative Uncle.
Since I had received significant help from him when I was in elementary school, I couldn’t just rudely hang up.
I heard there was a compelling reason he had to ask me.
“That Ann person, you know? She wants to meet Mari, who helped her defeat the monster, to say thanks when she’s in Korea.”
‘It should’ve been good that she’s not coming.’
“Ah, yes… I see. That’s an honor….”
Some murmurs that were inconsistent on the surface.
Even after hearing all the reasons, I couldn’t understand how it came to this and just let out adequate words.
What had progressed seamlessly without my knowledge had turned into a discussion between the Korean and American governments, and finally today.
Tiara, this American Magical Girl, had come to Korea.
Since her purpose was me, it had already turned into something I had no say in.
“Then, I’ll just tell Tiara your address where Mari lives, is that alright?”
“…Yes, go ahead.”
Resignedly scratching my head, I lay on my bed and nodded.
It seemed he was fully prepared to hand over this bothersome American Magical Girl entirely, but I couldn’t stick around all day either.
I couldn’t just let a foreigner who struggles with Korean sit around my house doing nothing, so I quickly searched for excuses in my mind.
The rapidly spinning brain soon found a conclusion.
“But, what about school?”
The best excuse to use during times like this, the duty of a student.
But it seemed worthless to this Uncle.
“Oh, that’s something I can inform in advance, right? What elementary school did you say?”
The Uncle asked as if it were only natural to notify the school.
Were they still seeing me as an elementary student despite my age?
I thought if I said I had gone to a middle school where it would be difficult for them to show leniency, he’d concede.
Could this actually work? I stuttered a pathetic excuse over the phone.
“I… I’m a middle school student starting this year.”
“Oh my! Is that right? I had no idea! I feel bad not being able to give you a present and just making you work.”
“So, about that Tiara person, is it alright for me to take her around everywhere…?”
“It’s fine, it’s fine, just miss one day of school! Which middle school did you go to?”
‘No response.’
Even though I was trying to beat around the bush, his straightforward words flew right at me.
Is it ineffective to beat around the bush when you reach your 50s or 60s?
Anyway, it seemed I had no options but to accept this demand, so I just gave in.
“Okay, I’ll say I’m sick and miss just one day.”
“Why go through that trouble? I’ll take care of it.”
“No, it will put pressure on the school somehow….”
In short, I didn’t want to come off as if I were connected to higher-ups.
Even if I left a hole in the attendance, I decided I would rather skip myself.
“What about attendance, then?”
“Does missing a day cause the world to collapse, or what?”
Even after that response, the Representative Uncle kept saying how it wouldn’t be an issue if he said something, indicating there was no need for a hole in attendance.
I didn’t want to feel again what it was like in middle school when teachers would awkwardly inquire about various inconveniences, treating me like I was someone superior.
Even though I couldn’t catch his previous unwilling comments, he clearly understood when it came to this way of speaking.
…Wait a minute, was this intentional?
“Okay, I got it. She’ll be busy, so she’ll only be around for a short while tomorrow morning and afternoon before leaving.”
“Well then, I just have to let her try this and that.”
“Yeah, yeah, since she’ll mostly experience Korean things scheduled within that timeframe.”
“Yes, understood. Do you know exactly when she’s coming?”
“I think she’ll arrive around 10 AM.”
“Yes, people will come to pick her up when the time comes?”
“Yup.”
“Yes, understood. I’ll hang up now—”
“Alright—”
I awkwardly ended the rather lengthy phone call.
The call lasted about 8 minutes.
For me, where a typical phone call finishes in under a minute, it was a new record.
The Minister Aunt avoided answering restricted numbers, so she had to use someone I know.
While I also have some fault in ignoring restricted calls, even if a Magical Girl was involved, it wasn’t necessarily my duty to deal with it.
Still, considering how much I was pampered during my last trip to America, and the assistance I received around elementary school, I felt it inappropriate to outright say I didn’t want to do it.
“Ugh.”
In the end, all that escaped were light sighs.
But since she said she’d only be here shortly in the morning and afternoon, I found a silver lining in the misfortune.
By the way, what’s with the thanks?
I just took care of the monster instead of waiting for her to come here from that vast land.
Did she think she defeated the monster out of some burning sense of mission?
Or did she merely see it as doing her job and asking for a favor?
Without even knowing why she wanted to meet me, time passed… and the next morning arrived.
“Yawn….”
Three seconds after my alarm went off.
The palm I was resting on the bed barely reached the rectangle-shaped smartphone.
I always woke up 30 minutes earlier than Siyeon.
I didn’t plan to go to school, but I had to rise early regardless.
As a housewife with children, what to make for breakfast this morning?
‘I made soy sauce egg rice the other day, and I don’t have any tuna or ham for fried rice….’
Neither this nor that.
Scratching my stomach inside my clothes, I headed to the kitchen.
With my half-closed eyes, I trudged.
I opened the tightly sealed fridge door and glanced inside.
I spotted a chunk of tofu I had intended to use for budae jjigae but never did.
All alone, without any other ingredients, it looked quite pathetic….
But if I fry it like it’s being deep-fried, it can go down easily.
Having settled on what to make for breakfast, I quickly got to work.
I drained the water from the tofu pack, placed the bouncy tofu on the cutting board, and sliced it thinly.
The key was slicing the tofu to a thickness similar to the smartphone.
If it was too thick, the center would remain mushy, and if it was too thin, it would simply become a snack.
Instead of cooking oil, I pulled sesame oil from the shelf.
While it wasn’t much of a secret, I preferred to use sesame oil instead of cooking oil when frying tofu.
The sound of oil sizzling in the frying pan grew strong with the fragrance of sesame oil, and fog began to rise from the tofu which I had left to simmer behind the oil.
If I flip it too often, the delicate tofu will crumble, so I only did so about once or twice at most.
Once the pure white tofu’s surface turned a pale brown, I moved away from the frying pan and folded paper to soak up the oil for the bowl I’d place the tofu in.
By preparing the paper in advance, it definitely makes the cleanup easier later.
I transferred the tofu that had firmed up while frying without worry of it breaking and placed it in the bowl.
After dousing a small bowl with plenty of ketchup to dip the tofu, I headed towards Siyeon’s room.
“Siyeon, it’s 40 minutes, wake up.”
Using my hands, still carrying the rich scent of sesame oil, I shook her awake.
She squirmed a bit, then her blanket inflated as if she were a hot air balloon.
Siyeon, in a posture reminiscent of monks performing 108 prostrations, moved her hands around searching for her smartphone, which was specialized for waking her up.
‘Should I send a message in advance too.’
Today was a day she couldn’t go to school.
It’s standard practice to send a message beforehand to the homeroom teacher.
After leaving a message saying she couldn’t go due to being ill through a messenger app, I gulped down a glass of water, ready to welcome a foreign guest into the house, even for a brief moment.
My site has received a lot of DMCA notices, lol. From now on, I will update the MTL on https://darkmtl.com/.
The site is fast and lightweight because there are no ads yet. However, the theme is different from Cybor-TL, so take some time to familiarize yourself.
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.