"Ah, shoot."
Lee Ye-eun, walking ahead of us, suddenly muttered something like a sigh.
She stopped, turned to look at me, the Minerva clinging to me, and Choi Hyun-woo, and said:
"Ji-hyeok, there's something I really had to tell you, and I forgot. I almost let it slide — that could've been bad."
Her expression said she really had almost let something slip, and after that flash of relief she added quietly, almost apologetic:
"Could we talk just the two of us for a second? Sorry to the rest of you, but the dining hall's right there..."
"She says it's urgent, so."
Choi Hyun-woo nodded like he understood, but Minerva didn't react at all.
Even with her openly ignoring her, Lee Ye-eun didn't look the slightest bit put out.
"...Minerva, I'm asking nicely."
When her eyes met mine, I tapped Minerva's back and spoke.
"What..."
Minerva looked up at me with the kind of expression a person betrayed in the deepest of trusts might wear.
Her eyes welled up like she'd burst into tears any second, and before I knew it I'd looked away.
...If she'd still been in her original form, I would've found some way to brush it off, but right now Minerva was in the shape of a small child.
I'd never been able to handle a crying child, ever since I was young.
For a moment I just stood there, helpless.
"Mm. So you go soft like this when I look this way. A worthwhile lesson."
Minerva muttered that and slid down off me.
She landed on the floor without a sound, light as a feather, and gave a small nod.
As if the welling tears from a moment ago had been pure performance, her expression was back to its usual relaxed self.
"Then I shall go ahead and wait."
With that, Minerva walked off ahead, and Choi Hyun-woo dipped his head slightly to us and followed her.
"Hmm, hold on... ah. This one's empty."
Once we were alone, Lee Ye-eun glanced around, found an empty room, and stepped inside, gesturing for me to follow.
I went over without any particular suspicion.
"You said there was something you had to tell me?"
"...Yeah."
As she said it, she quietly locked the door.
Then she started checking the room — looking for anyone inside, for security cameras, anything else.
Watching her, I figured this had to be a pretty important conversation, and then I suddenly remembered a secret of mine that only she knew.
'Don't tell me...'
A few of the kids knew I was from another world, but the only person who had read deep into my trauma and the inside of my head was her.
What on earth could this be about? While I was thinking that, she finished her check and gave a small nod.
"Huh?"
Without warning, she more or less collapsed into my arms.
Her arms locked firmly around my waist — deliberate, with very clear intent behind it.
"...Um, clan head?"
"There it is. 'Clan head' again."
Lee Ye-eun grumbled it out almost like she was whining.
Still hugging me, she tilted her head slightly to look up at me.
"When it's just the two of us, can you call me 'noona'... no, wait."
Lee Ye-eun shook her head a little.
"Can you just call me Ye-eun...?"
She kept her gaze lowered as she said it.
"I get it when other people are around, but why do you keep calling me 'clan head' and using formal speech even when we're alone? Are you keeping your distance from me right now?"
"Wait... you're holding on way too tight."
I tried to gently peel her off as I said it, but that only made things worse.
"Why?"
Lee Ye-eun deliberately loosened her arms, then squeezed even harder.
The pressure was intense — to the point where I had no idea how those thin arms held that much force.
"That Minerva girl gets to do this, but I don't?"
That was when I finally got why she was acting this way.
Lee Ye-eun, in this pretend-pouty way, kept lightly bumping her forehead into my chest, tap, tap.
"...You might be misunderstanding something, but I'm still young, you know?"
She muttered it in a trembling voice, like she was making some kind of confession.
"Maybe that's why, but I'm still not great at managing my own feelings. In front of other people I just pretend to hold it in. So when I'm alone I kick at my blankets, eat way too many sweets — you didn't know that, did you? And then you go and openly cu... cuddle in front of someone like that, but with me it's all 'clan head' this and that..."
Tap.
Her forehead hit my chest one more time.
"And why do you use formal speech with me? No, why only me? Think about it — that Minerva girl is way older than me. But you talk casually with her and you're all close. By rights I'm younger than you, so why am I the one who gets the formal speech? You're stonewalling me on purpose, aren't you? You are, right?"
"It's not that..."
"It's not? It totally is. I'm right, aren't I? I am."
She really did sound hurt as she said it, knocking her forehead against me — tap, tap — until eventually she was just rubbing it against my chest.
"...I know everything. I know exactly why you keep me and the others at arm's length. I know why you want to go back, too. I said I'm still young, but I'm grown up enough to figure that much out."
A sniffle came through.
"You have your reasons, your own situation, so let's wait. That's what I kept telling myself, and I just kept holding it in. But..."
Her voice started to muffle, like she was biting her lip.
"You're not like this with Minerva — no. You're not like this with the other girls. So why are you only like this with me?"
The hands that had been holding me slid down a little.
"And on top of that, the second her body gets younger, you indulge her like that... so if I got younger, would you do the same for me?"
"...Why are you taking it in that direction now."
I tried softening my voice to coax her, but she showed no sign of stopping — like she meant to pour out every ounce of pent-up frustration and hurt all at once.
"Should I really drink that potion? Should I? Believe it or not, I was super cute when I was little. Dad, mom — and everyone around us said so too. I was even on TV. They said I was so cute. Would that do it? If I turned into a little kid like that woman, would you hug me too, pat my back, all of it?!"
When I pulled her into a hug, she let out a startled little sound, like the breath got caught in her throat.
She squirmed and tried to push me away with both hands, making soft little protesting noises — but unlike a moment ago, there was no real strength behind it.
"What... do you think doing this now is just going to make me drop it? You think I'm an idiot? Was I that easy to you — like all you'd need is to throw out a 'noona' or act cute once and I'd cave?"
It hit me again, all over: this person I'd always seen as so mature, the one I'd been leaning on without even realizing, was actually younger than I was.
I held her in silence and gently patted her back.
"I'm sorry."
If I really thought about it, she was still younger than Ji-na, younger than my sister.
"I was leaning on you too much."
"What — where's that coming from..."
"And because of that, I think I was putting too much on you. I shouldn't have..."
"Wh-why are you suddenly..."
I gently set the stammering girl back at arm's length and carefully raised my right hand.
The World Tree's Branch flowed out through my palm, as if guided by a will of its own.
"Here."
I held out my right hand to her.
"..."
People in whom the World Tree's Branch has taken root can vaguely sense each other's emotions and locations.
And in this kind of emotional sharing and resonance through the World Tree, unless something special was going on, the one with the higher standing as a World Tree — Lee Ye-eun, in our case — could see into all of me, one-way.
If she'd ever wanted to, going purely by rank as a World Tree, I would've been in a position to obey her, and she could've laid bare my thoughts and feelings whenever she pleased.
She knew that, and ever since the fight with Sbeungali, she hadn't brought up anything related to it. Not once.
Having accidentally caught a glimpse of my past, she'd been deliberately steering around it for my sake.
"You — you don't have to go this far..."
I wrapped my left arm gently around the back of the flustered girl.
Then I nodded, telling her it was all right.
"I'm not great with words."
I paused for a beat, just looking at her.
"...I'd never look down on you, and I was never just using you. And... none of those things you're worried about are happening either. But this is the only way I can think of right now to prove it to you."
After hesitating, she slowly raised her left hand.
A branch of the World Tree flowed out through her hand too, just like mine.
"...Are you really okay with this?"
I caught her left hand in my right without hesitation.
Before either of us could do anything, our two branches twined together.
A moment later I was overcome by an intense, unsettling feeling — like something inside me was being pulled clean out.
"Ngh..."
My legs nearly buckled, but I managed to hold my ground.
Through the dizziness and disorientation, Sbeungali let out a small sound of surprise.
[Oho, that's a bit—]
Then came a low chuckle, as if he were already enjoying what was coming.
Before I could tell him to shut up, something started flowing up through my arm.
I knew on instinct that it had come from her.
I couldn't explain it properly.
All I could grasp was that countless colors were blooming and spreading across my retinas, like fireworks bursting in front of my eyes.
I couldn't get my bearings — my whole field of vision shimmered in every color, as if someone had poured paint and smeared it.
Even through all of that, Sbeungali kept laughing like he was savoring the situation.
[Let's see... affection, comradeship, kinship, pity...]
A faint blue.
A glimmering gray.
A flowing green.
He muttered along like a commentator as he watched the pale teal.
Then, fierce enough to blind, a vivid red flared.
[......]
And from him — who'd been chattering away in delight a moment before — came something rare: a flicker of being caught off guard.
What on earth could she be feeling to make him react like that?
"Hngh...!"
A moment later, her branch — which had been gripping mine tight — pulled free.
Lee Ye-eun clutched her own left hand like she'd burned it, and quickly turned her back to me.
"Uh, um... that, well, that..."
With her back still turned, she fumbled and stammered.
The slip of her ear and the back of her neck I could see had gone bright red — vivid enough to stand out against her green hair.
Just like that red I'd seen a moment ago.
"That — okay... yeah..."
For some reason, she kept stealing glances back over her shoulder.
Seeing her like that, I started to wonder if I'd just done something unnecessary — though I really hadn't held any inappropriate thoughts or feelings about her —
[She, unlike you, could see everything you saw, too. And she wouldn't have just taken it in as vague colors the way you did — she'd have received it as clear, defined concepts.]
Sbeungali cleared his throat, then added:
[And the human subconscious, at the end of the day, isn't all that prim or refined.]
"O-okay. I get it. I — I understand what you really feel, Ji-hyeok... sir."
She nodded a little as she spoke.
"I-I'll trust you. I trust you, oppa... yeah... sorry, for saying anything weird..."
"..."
What in the world had she seen for her to react like this?
I was just starting to think I'd done something stupid out of unwarranted confidence, when —
Cling.
"Huh?"
"Ah—?!"
The sound came from the doorway, and both Lee Ye-eun and I whipped our heads around at almost the same instant.
Lee Ye-eun in particular was so panicked I could even hear the catch in her breath.
"..."
In the doorway stood Rauné, stiff as a board, like it had taken a shock.
Beside it lay one of my scales — the one I'd given it — fallen in a careless heap on the floor.
It seemed to have dropped it, making the sound.
"..."
Its expression was as blank and absentminded as ever, but somehow its eyes seemed to burn.
...And somehow it also looked deeply scandalized.
"W-wait. It's not what you think!"
For some reason Lee Ye-eun snapped that out, flustered, and Rauné silently looked over at her.
Cowed by its stare, she flinched — and then it turned its eyes on me.
"..."
Still without a word, it bent down and picked up the scale I'd given it.
And then —
"......!!!"
It hurled it back down to the floor with a sharp slap.
Then it turned around and pattered off, sprinting away.
For a while, Lee Ye-eun — face still red, glancing my way nervously — and I just stood there in a daze.
It wasn't until the next day that we were finally able to leave the World Tree's territory and head back to the Academy.
Lee Ye-eun hinted to me that she probably wouldn't be able to return to the Academy until she'd personally received the 'item' Alice Blesbuck and Kath Ryle had asked for, and sealed it herself.
...For some reason she stayed shy and fidgety around me even into the next day, but she also looked noticeably lighter in spirit.
"...Rauné, are you still mad?"
"..."
From that moment on, Rauné just refused to answer me, no matter how I tried.
I picked up the scale it had thrown down and tried to hand it back, but it only jerked its head away.
I couldn't really see why entwining World Tree branches with Lee Ye-eun had made it this angry — but since it had never made such a clear show of being upset before, I just decided to be more careful going forward.
...Minerva, for some reason, had become able to shift freely between her adult form and her child form.
She'd even gained the ability to look about my current age, and after watching my reaction she burst out laughing at it.
Then she muttered something about being worn out from moving around for so long without sleep, told me not to wake her for a while, and slipped into my shadow.
I gave Han Su-yeong, Choi Hyun-woo, and Lee Yu-na my honest thanks for their help, and quietly mentioned that they should look forward to some good news in a few days.
I also told them I'd need to talk with Yoon Seul-hye, and that if I found out anything I'd share it with all of them right away. Everyone seemed to accept that, more or less.
The way Han Su-yeong said, half to herself in passing, that she wouldn't let me get away with it if I kept things from her this time too — that one made me flinch, though that's just an aside.
And lastly, Jin Ye-seul...
"Ji-hyeok."
I turned at the sound of my name as she came up to me after class — and froze for a second.
She seemed to have put on makeup, which she normally couldn't care less about, and her appearance struck me as completely unfamiliar.
Dressed in neat, office-worker-style street clothes, she gave me a heh-heh kind of laugh and asked:
"Does it suit me...?"
"Uh, yeah. It suits you. It really suits you."
She gave a small smile at my honest answer.
I'd already told her we were going to meet Yoon Seul-hye, and asked her to come along.
"But what made you dress up like that? Your uniform would've been fine."
"You said we're meeting outside, right?"
She had a point.
Yoon Seul-hye was currently outside the Academy under the pretext of Association business.
She'd told me there were too many prying eyes to risk meeting on Academy grounds, and suggested we meet at a restaurant she'd reserved in advance.
I'd told her that was fine, and let her know ahead of time that Jin Ye-seul would be joining us.
"You break someone's confidence right from these basic details. Like it or not, dressing in real clothes carries more weight than wearing a school uniform."
Jin Ye-seul pursed her lips slightly.
"Really...?"
"I'm telling you."
She tugged at me to lead the way as she spoke.
Unlike her, I was still in my uniform — and the thought hit me that to anyone who didn't know us, we might look like a freshly-employed older sister with her younger brother.
"Let's take our time, Ji-hyeok. Take it slow."
She made a deliberate point of holding me back by the arm, her heels clicking against the floor.
We weren't late for the meeting, but at this pace we'd definitely end up late. She just kept smiling, perfectly composed.
"Whoever's in a hurry is the one who has to keep waiting, restless, the whole time."
Like me.
The words came right after, and I glanced over at her.
"What?"
She turned a bright smile on me.
Her eyes glinted with a cold, eerie light.
"..."
Rauné, tucked inside my jacket, jolted like it had sensed something and gave a small shiver — and in that instant I was struck by the thought that I might have done something unnecessary after all.
"It's nothing... no, nothing at all."
...Too late for regrets now, probably.