noveltune Chapter 49
Chapter 49
It was bewildering.
I never imagined that Sylvia would show tears.
Holding the ring she intended to give me tightly with both hands, Sylvia began to cry, her face contorting like a child who didn’t even know how to cry out loud.
Caught in confusion about what to do, I opened Sylvia’s hand and took out the ring she was clutching.
A ring set with a red gem.
As I looked at the inscription inside, guilt washed over me like a tidal wave.
A false relationship I desperately formed just to survive without doing anything.
I no longer intended to remain a bystander, so there was no longer a need to pretend to be friends with Sylvia.
However, it seemed impossible to pretend this relationship never existed now.
For me, friends were the support pillars of life and the ones who could soothe my sorrows.
The reason I loved academy stories and missed my school days was that they were precious moments when I could meet friends like that.
Because the word “friend” held immense meaning for me, I couldn’t consider the false relationship I formed with Sylvia for my own goals as a true friendship.
Even if Sylvia thought differently of me, our relationship could never be real unless I told her that I approached her with a hidden agenda.
Still, knowing that the truth sometimes wounds someone deeply, I slipped the ring onto my right ring finger and said,
“Thank you for the gift. Is the inscription on Sylvia’s ring the same?”
Sylvia nodded slowly at my words.
“I’m glad you think so.”
It was I who deceived, and it was also my fault.
Therefore, the weight of the ring on my right hand was something I had to bear.
While enduring the hardship, I expressed only joy.
As I smiled, Sylvia stopped crying.
Sylvia’s ring was on her left index finger, symbolizing friendship.@@@@
My ring was on my right index finger, symbolizing desire and goals.
Nonetheless, both rings bore the same engraving of the word “friend.”
...
“...I had a general idea about that guy, but ha... it’s worrying.”
After class, I told my classmates not to worry, and then I ran into Leonor while heading to the cooking club’s activity with Mei.
Leonor, seeing me, let out a sigh, tapped my shoulder lightly, and began walking towards the stairs.
Isn’t the cafeteria in the opposite direction?
While I was puzzled, Leonor casually turned her head and brought her index and middle fingers to her lips.
...Ah!
Just then, as I remembered something, I quickly followed her, with Mei trailing behind us, looking bewildered.
On the rooftop, Leonor and I each took a hit from a magical herb.
“Want one?”
“No, I’ll pass.”
Mei rejected Leonor’s offer with a very reluctant expression.
It’s not harmful, so why not join in?
Well, I couldn’t exactly picture Mei smoking a magical herb.
I took off the ring from my right hand and ignited the herb.
As I extended my hand, it was a bit amusing to see Leonor bow her head to light hers from mine.
Even though this was only our third time smoking together, it looked so natural.
With the herb in my mouth, I inhaled the smoke and noticed Leonor creating smoke rings beside me.
“Phew... Kek... How did you do that?”
“Chuckling, well, at some point, I just started doing it naturally.”
“How long have you been smoking, senpai...?”
Leonor laughed at my failed attempt to mimic her, and Mei asked her curiously.
Honestly, if she said she picked up the magical herb at a young age, I wouldn’t be surprised.
“I started smoking when my mother passed away, so it’s been about six years.”
Wow, Mei is really serious about her chocolate...
Quickly apologizing, I quietly waited for the cooking to finish.
As Mei poured the melted chocolate into molds and placed it in the fridge, Leonor’s dish was completed.
It was a spicy tteokbokki with the bright red sauce reduced by half.
The melting cheese stretched over it was just screaming that it couldn’t taste bad.
But today, the looks in Leonor and Mei’s eyes were particularly intense.
It seems many women genuinely love tteokbokki.
I began to wonder if there was some ingredient in tteokbokki that drove women wild.
While I was slowly fishing out pieces of fishcake instead of rice cakes, the two were working quietly but swiftly.
Seeing that there was no sound when Mei moved, it was clear she must have been using her abilities as well.
I had been absorbed in my thoughts during chicken meals, but as we ate tteokbokki today, I once again realized that heroes’ meals were indeed battles.
The tense showdown between the two over the last egg was more thrilling than the battle between Yoon Si-woo and Sylvia.
In the end, the victor was Leonor.
After all, it’s always the one who cooks that has the last laugh.
Mei brought out the cold homemade chocolate from the fridge for dessert.
When I took a bite of the chocolate Mei handed me, I had to admit that homemade chocolate did indeed taste different.
I nodded, and Mei, feeling good, smiled brightly.
There was plenty of both tteokbokki and chocolate, yet it all vanished in an instant.
Today, it didn’t feel like I’d eaten that much, but it seemed true that women had stomachs divided for meals and desserts.
After the delightful meal and finishing the cleanup, I said goodbye to the two in front of the school.
As they disappeared from view, I wiped the smile off my face.
The streets were still quiet.
I checked the time on my phone.
It was 7:30 PM.
It was Friday evening, but it was just a bit too early to jump to conclusions.
As in the original story, it was Friday night of the week when the incident occurred in the gym.
A protest was taking place in District 15.
It was a demonstration where citizens who had lost family members expressed their anger toward the heroes.
If that had been all, it would have been fine, but taking advantage of the heroes dispatched to stop the demonstrations from other districts, the monsters crossed the barriers and attacked the city.
I didn’t know who would die or which district it would happen in, but I knew such events would occur.
I stopped by a discount store to buy some bean sprouts and returned home to wash up and change clothes.
As I checked the time on my phone, I opened the window.
It was 9 PM, and the outside still seemed calm.
Then at 10 PM, 11 PM,
Midnight came, and Friday turned into Saturday.
Nothing happened.
Now, I could be sure.
The future I knew had changed.
Since there were no deaths, the protest did not occur.
Naturally, since no heroes were dispatched, the monsters likely didn’t invade either.
A future altered by my actions.
Now, I could no longer be sure of the events to come.
The events I knew might not happen, and things I didn’t know could occur.
In the midst of that, it could happen that I might die.
But rather than waiting for doom without doing anything,
I had decided to fight desperately to save more people.
Though it seemed like a feeble breeze for now, I hoped the end would be a storm.
The butterfly began to flap its remaining wing.