“Anyway, situation’s over.”
Setting aside the lingering taste of disappointment, I grabbed the handle of the bag I’d put down to defeat the monster.
“Ugh, the smell.”
As soon as I bent down to grab the bag, a pungent fishy scent assaulted my nose.
The faint ink stains and lingering fishiness from the squids that had scattered as magical powder confirmed that they had indeed been here.
Maybe it was because summer was approaching, but that awful smell seemed to spread particularly far.
I thought about quickly heading back to wash it all off in my apartment.
Just after I heard the sound of the door opening, short footsteps echoed.
In an apartment where only two of us lived, it was obvious who was coming out.
“Mary! You fought a monster, didn’t you? Sorry I couldn’t make it….”
“It was enough by myself, it’s all good. Did you have fun with your friend?”
“Yeah! Yesul saw Merily, and um… talked a lot with Aunty.”
When I asked if she had fun, Siyeon’s limited vocabulary struggled to capture all the delightful experiences of the day.
I felt like if I continued listening, the stench of squid would seep into the house, so I briefly interrupted and set the bag I was holding on top of the shoe cabinet.
“Hold on, I’ll listen more after I wash up.”
With that, I kicked off my sneakers and headed straight for the bathroom.
There was still a bathtub attached to the wall, capable of cradling both Siyeon and me.
Even stretching my legs in the sloshing water, it was only a bit over half the length.
I thought that once I reached high school, this bathtub might become useless.
My fingers, still plump and youthful, showed no signs of wrinkling even after soaking in the water for a while.
I admired my excessive youth for a moment.
But with overdue housework weighing on my mind, I couldn’t just linger here.
With the sound of splashing water, I stood up, water droplets gliding down my taut skin, almost like they were slipping down a waterproof surface.
I grabbed a completely dried towel from the shelf and wiped my smooth skin unobtrusively, free of any protrusions appropriate for my age.
It felt much like how I did back when I was an innocent elementary school boy, filling me with no thoughts at all.
All that occupied my mind was whether to toss the towel into the washing machine first or the clothes.
“Ahh.”
With a sigh, I lifted the basket full of clothes from the bathroom and made my way straight to the balcony’s washing machine.
Today was the day to wash whites and towels.
Because of my height, the washing machine had to be a front-loader for easy access.
As I watched the laundry spin around inside with a thudding sound, a pure little boy inside whispered to me.
I wondered what it would feel like to be inside there spinning along.
“Probably would break, right?”
I ignored the ridiculous thought and pulled clothes out of the basket one by one.
Once I suppressed the wild, childish impulses inside me with the realistic notion of money, I finally started tossing in loads of whites as intended.
The familiar beeping of the washing machine and the sound of water filling it brought a sense of satisfaction.
After starting the wash cycle, I grabbed the forgotten black bag from the front hallway and pulled out its contents.
The crinkling of the bag caught Siyeon’s attention, pulling her gaze from the computer screen to me.
“What’s that?”
“It’s something to mix in milk; didn’t you read the home notice?”
While answering Siyeon, I tore open the paper carton and pulled out the sticks inside one by one.
Strawberry flavor, banana flavor, chocolate flavor, and finally, cookie and chocolate flavor.
The click-clack of the mouse silenced the video, and Siyeon approached with interest.
Since I didn’t particularly care which flavor I got, I asked Siyeon what flavor she liked best.
“Which one do you like?”
“I like… strawberry flavor!”
Without much thought, Siyeon quickly grabbed the light pink strawberry stick.
I had loved strawberry flavor when I was little, too.
There’s really no special reason for liking a certain flavor; it just is.
“Then, I’ll make sure to buy more of the strawberry flavor when we come tomorrow….”
Putting aside the remaining flavors that Siyeon didn’t like after packing them into the open carton.
Some kids think it’s delicious to just pour it in their mouth as is, but I don’t get it.
If you eat it like that, isn’t it just scented sugar?
Once I felt I had completed a bit of the housework, I noticed Siyeon, who’d been staring at the computer, turned to me as I lounged on the first-floor bed.
“But, but! Yesul said she likes Shar more than Merily!”
“That conversation isn’t over yet?”
It seemed the conversation that had stalled due to her limited vocabulary resumed once more.
Listening closely, it turned out there had been some minor argument with a kid named Yesul because their favorite characters from an animation differed.
Merily, Shar… ah, the green-haired and blue-haired characters from that magical girl animation?
Thinking back, magical girls in animation often tend to roam in packs.
It’s not just one or two.
But aren’t they on the same side anyway?
Cheering each other on, fighting side by side, why argue about who’s better?
“What are kids thinking….”
It’s a story I no longer grasp, given how cynical I’ve become.
Isn’t it always the same story, where they throw in some crisis and then overcome it with the power of love in the end?
Right now, I’m just a doll nodding along while thinking ‘I see.’
While I was responding appropriately at Siyeon’s level…
“Do you like Merily or Shar more?!”
“…Huh?”
The unexpectedly launched question froze me in my tracks.
To be honest, I dislike both.
Wait a sec, am I actually warming up more to the monster instead?
These guys with their enormous spaceship in orbital patrol can instantaneously teleport to Earth with advanced technology.
Aside from Earth with its magical girl setup, aren’t they rich, colonizing various parts of the universe?
Yet, they’re still unsatisfied with just multi-planet dominion and are attempting to invade Earth. Such determined self-made characters.
Looking at it with an adult perspective, you have to admire their ambitions, right?
Still, I shouldn’t say that.
I’ve never even seen Yesul’s face, so it’d be wiser to stick with the person right in front of me.
“I like Merily, yeah.”
“Right?! Merily’s the best!”
I thought that would wrap up this topic.
However… the perseverance of children can be formidable.
Their little elementary school minds could focus entirely on whatever they liked, turning thoughts into an endless loop.
Even when I thought it was over, the debate lingered, carrying all the way to school.
“Mary said she likes Merily too!”
“What? Shar is prettier!”
During recess, I found myself pulled into the hallway by Siyeon, who seemed to be seeking a confrontation.
Next to her was someone, I presumed to be Yesul, the one involved in the previous argument.
I can’t be sure, but from what I overheard, it was pretty clear.
“So, why am I…”
“What’s so great about Merily? She can’t even catch monsters!”
“No way! She helps a lot!”
The passion of children to get so worked up over a single character.
They even dragged me out to discuss it among themselves.
Eventually, I grew weary of it all, staring at the fall-prevention bar installed horizontally in the school window.
“Ugh….”
A long sigh escaped me.
Taking three steps forward, I leaned my arms on the bar and gazed at the blue sky.
Maybe the clouds were aware of people’s hearts; they drifted along, swimming through the ocean-like sky.
Children fighting over trivial matters for reasons that made no sense.
Nothing tires me more than being forced into such disputes.
It felt like the sensation of watching cousins bicker during a family gathering on a holiday.
Do teachers at elementary schools experience this kind of struggle often?
I threw open the stiff window of the hallway, letting out my frustration in the form of words.
“This sucks, damn it….”
Honestly, I would rather see a monster appear at a time like this.
Even after giving up the entirety of recess, no solid conclusion was reached.
The bell signaling the boring class I usually hated rang, and at present, I found it to be the most welcoming sound.
After school, I opted for an earlier escape, preferring to return home ahead of diving back into that pointless magical girl discussion.
As I headed toward the narrow path to the apartment off the main road, Gomteng asked softly.
“Do you not have any friends, Mary?”
An abruptly rude question caught me off guard.
For a moment, both my feet and my mind came to a stop.
What is this? Is this a challenge?
My feet stood still.
Sensing my unnatural pause, Gomteng hurriedly spit out an excuse.
“Ah, no. I didn’t mean it that way….”
“Are you missing the thrill of your monotonous life and longing for some pain?”
The case for my smartphone’s back cover.
I ripped off the thing that had been stuck to it like an ordinary ornament.
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