The monster extermination was a bit different from what I had imagined.
Instead of ending in an instant as I predicted, there was a horrific visual of the monster, its face frozen in agony trapped in ice, along with screams.
It had become a piece of contemporary art right in the middle of the road.
I went down from the rooftop, putting some strength into my staff and slammed it down from the top, causing the monster to shatter with a crunch.
Amidst the crumbling pieces of ice that clattered to the ground, the monster’s face wore a terrible expression.
“Well, this isn’t going well.”
Just from glancing at the scene, it was clear that things hadn’t gone as expected.
Siyeon seemed to think this was not right either. She curled her hands holding the staff close to her chest and stuttered.
“Wow, it completely shattered.”
Inside the shattered chunks of ice.
Gomteng couldn’t hide his awe and shock at the modern art piece etched with the monster’s suffering and kicked a small ice fragment away.
The monster resembled the contents of a mold.
Even in that pitiful form, it was disintegrating into powder.
In contrast to the boastful claims I had made, the miserable result was evident, and I awkwardly scratched my cheek with my fingernail.
“…Let’s just practice separately later.”
“Yeah….”
After a solemn atmosphere of mourning for the monster flowed by, it was just around 8 o’clock.
We transformed in a spot where people rarely passed by, and began heading home.
The city, under the night sky, had a convenience store surrounded by dazzling illuminated signs caught my eye.
Already, my stomach was filled with the delivery food that Gomteng had ordered, but even after the little walk, my thirst was starting to kick in.
Swallowing once in my dry mouth, I looked at Siyeon and simultaneously pointed at the convenience store.
“Shall we grab something to drink?”
“Sure!”
She replied with a bounce, sticking close to my back.
Maybe she was just as thirsty; Siyeon grabbed my shoulders from behind, guiding my steps towards the convenience store.
I felt like a robot being controlled, moving in sync as we marched towards the convenience store.
Once we entered, Siyeon’s grip loosened immediately, replaced by a sense of weight on my shoulders.
“Welcome!”
“Hello—”
After our brief greetings with the part-timer, we headed to the refrigerator to pick our drinks.
We had a bunch of carbonated drinks leftover from the delivery food, but now we wanted something smooth to wash down.
A finger aimed at the foggy refrigerator glass, where each 500ml drink was tagged at 2500 won, still a wallet-killing price.
I don’t know what got into me, but I picked up a fruit drink that I usually wouldn’t even glance at.
Siyeon chose an orange drink packed in a character-shaped bottle.
I knew she liked orange juice, but I didn’t expect her to pick one with a character cap.
“4800 won, please.”
After paying, I stepped outside the convenience store, twisting the cap off with a crack and took a sip of the fruit drink.
My first impression of the fruit drink was that it tasted like fruit juice watered down.
It was water, but it gently emitted a fruity aroma instead of taste.
‘Why am I paying for this…’
While I thought that, the price tag of 2500 won swam before my eyes, making me gulp it down.
Beside me, I heard the sucking sound like a baby bottle being used.
Even though I knew what it was, it made me turn to the side curiously.
Of course, it was Siyeon, sucking on the drink cap.
Even after getting to the apartment, she continued sucking, and once in the elevator, she kept on going.
When we got home, the pressure from sucking the empty bottle crumpled the PET bottle.
The distorted character face of the bottle looked awkwardly similar to the agonized monster.
“You come here.”
“I don’t wanna take a bath!”
I grabbed Gomteng, trying to sneak away to his room, and brought him into the bathroom.
If I were in elementary school, I would have just thrown him into soapy water, but…
Recently, with the incident at the amusement park, I gently submerged him into warm soapy water, making sure his face didn’t touch the water.
“Oh, wait?!”
I pressed gently on his arms and body, slowly extracting the food odors that had seeped in.
Surprised by my unexpectedly kind actions, Gomteng let out a bewildered voice.
As I squeezed his arms like wringing a sponge, he turned to me with a terrified expression and said,
“W-who are you…?!”
“What, was the previous method better?”
“Oh, yes, it’s you.”
As he returned with a startled look even after I treated him kindly, I ended up frowning.
In an instant, his face returned to normal, and he confidently recognized me.
He completely kicked away what could have been a cozy bathing time.
“Yeah, it’s me.”
I gently cupped the part of his head that had merely touched the soapy water and dunked it straight into the soapy water.
“Uwaaaarrgh….”
Bubbling sounds filled the air as water boiled from his breaths.
This felt like the right way to interact with Gomteng.
After finishing hand-washing him, I decided to hang him up with clothespins until he dried off somewhat.
I couldn’t just let him wander around the house, dripping water everywhere.
Having squeezed most of the water off his limbs, he should be okay to move around once the surface dried up.
As I finished washing my hands and shook off the water, I came out of the bathroom to find Siyeon watching TV in the living room.
“Mary, Mary, look at this!”
“Why, what is it?”
“あなたの 心に 愛を 伝える 魔法少女！ ピンク 登場!”
(“The Magical Girl who conveys love to your heart! Pink appears!”)
As the unexpected Japanese words reached my ears, I glanced at the screen, where subtitles were running at the bottom.
It was a TV channel focused on news related to magical girls.
Listening to the somewhat understandable Japanese, I draped my arms over the back of the couch and looked at the TV from behind.
The scene was strangely realistic yet had an anime-like flair, so I asked Siyeon, who had been watching TV,
“What’s this, some kind of ranger-like special effects anime?”
“Nope, it’s a Japanese magical girl. I think her name is Pink.”
Naturally, there would be special effects magical girl shows beyond just rangers or riders, so I asked, only to receive an unexpected answer.
It wasn’t a special effects piece; she was simply a real magical girl.
I couldn’t seem to get any predictions right lately.
“Hmmm.”
The magical girl named Pink on the TV had exaggerated pink twin braids, almost questioning if they were indeed real hair.
Won’t that weigh her down?
The atmosphere surrounding magical girls in Japan felt different from that in Korea.
People were bustling around, gathered around the magical girl like it was a fan signing event.
Subtitles filled with Japanese words scrolled quickly, and she raised one arm joyfully as if making an important announcement.
“私、韓国に 行きます!”
(“I’m going to Korea!”)
With her bold exclamation, Japanese text subtly appeared on the screen.
What followed was the bold subtitle indicating her age as Pink (32).
Feeling a disconnect from the realistic number versus her actions, I frowned for quite a while in confusion.
Looking at her behavior, she certainly seemed like a teenager, but what? Thirty-two?
What was her transformation chant again? Something about conveying to your heart?
That was definitely not something someone over thirty should be saying.
What seemed like a grand interview turned out to be noise marketing to announce that the magical girl Pink was visiting Korea.
I wasn’t sure, but I heard she would hold some kind of signing event in Korea.
Checking the news on TV, I pulled out my smartphone to see the magical girl gallery page.
[씨ㅣㅣㅣㅣㅣㅣ빨 소리질러!!!!!!!!! (1)]
[닭장이잔아… (5)]
[핑크 빠는놈들은 제정신이냐? (3)]
[한국 마법소녀는 사인회 같은 거 안함? (12)]
[잘 익은거라고! (1)]
The community was the most sensitive to such news.
As expected, refreshing once quickly resulted in at least eight new posts, creating an explosive reaction.
“Oh, it’s a chaos!”
“What are you watching?”
While I checked the community reactions on my smartphone, Siyeon tilted her head back and asked what I was looking at.
“Magical girl gallery.”
I turned my wrist backwards to show her the blue gallery screen a bit.
It wasn’t exactly the kind of community she might be familiar with compared to those like Ansta, full of food or travel photos.
Anyway, a Japanese magical girl named Pink was coming to Korea for a signing event.
I just thought, ‘Well, that’s that,’ and moved on, but…
Surprisingly, the event’s stir was evident the next day at school.
“Where did Dongha go?”
“He’s ditching school to go to the signing event in Busan.”
“What a crazy guy.”
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