CH 83

Cory seemed to be cold–his ears and basically every part of his face under his eyes were bright red. It sounded like he had caught a cold, because I could hear him sniffling every few minutes. Cory stopped walking for a moment before taking out the strawberry blanket he used often during club time.

Then, after putting his blanket around his shoulders, he lit a small fire using fire magic. When blue flames appeared, he made it float mid-air. It reminded me of dokkaebi* fire that I’d seen in traditional tales during my last life’s childhood.

After warming himself up, Cory seemed pleased. I could see his breath in the air as he sighed.

He tilted his head back and stared at the sky as he walked.

“Where are youuuuuu.”

He watched as his warm breath mingled in the air with the twinkling stars in the sky as he walked.

Cory was too busy staring at the sky to realize that I was right next to him.

“Here’s the Shushu you’re looking for.”

Cory tilted his head back as soon as he heard my voice.

Cory stared forward then realized that he had to look down, so he looked down to stare at me.

“Whoa.”

Cory walked a few steps back and turned around.

He rubbed his eyes with his hands after he turned away, then looked back and stared at me.

After he glanced at me, he turned back away from me.

“…….?”

I could see Cory with his head down, hand on the back of his neck, deep in thought. Cory’s skin was pale to begin with, and his fingertips had turned red from the cold wind. It looked like the back of his neck and his ears were also bright red.

“Whatcha doin?”

“…..”

Cory touched his red ears for a bit. He didn’t reply to my question for a long while before sighing and turning back to face me.

He stared at me. He turned away again.

“…….found you.”

Cory spoke, voice languid. He seemed relieved that he found me, but was still turned around and facing away from me. He muttered, “I was looking for you……” as he seemed lost in confusion.

Still turned around, he tousled the back of his hair. His neat hair became a bird’s nest again by the time he turned back to face me.

Hylli was weird. Cory was being really weird too.

I waited for Cory to get back to normal again.

The blue fire floating next to Cory seemed bigger than before and burned brighter.

“…..I don’t even know what to say. What is this.”

Why is my mouth broken. Cory muttered lowly to himself.

He refused to look at me properly and just continued glancing at me ever so often. I was getting kind of embarrassed because I thought it was because I looked awkward, but I stayed still.

Honestly, I was kind of uncomfortable from before because my dress was a bit too flashy. My makeup felt heavy on my face, and I felt like I had suddenly dolled myself up too much at once and was showing off. Whenever we had parties at home, I never did any heavy makeup. I barely just made sure my face was clean. I liked how Hazel unni did my makeup but I wanted to wipe it off all at once.

“Hylli too, and now you. Is it weird? It’s weird, right? This is why people shouldn’t do what they normally don’t do.”

I think the two of them were so weird because I looked different. I wanted to wipe my makeup off right then and there. If it was only Hylli who was acting weird, then I would’ve just thought that Hylli’s been having a hard time recently, but seeing both of them be weird like this made me think that this was, irrefutably, completely on me.

Man, I should’ve just worn my uniform to the party. Dressing up like this was just for people who always dressed up. It felt like I was wearing ill-fitting clothes. I felt uncomfortable. Even if it wasn’t Hazel’s makeup and my handiwork instead, I would’ve probably felt the same. I wanted to take off my makeup.

Cory seemed surprised at my words before he looked at me. He frowned as he tried to keep his eyes on me. Instead of looking at my forehead like Hylli, Cory frowned in concentration as he looked me in the eyes.

His already scary face turned even scarier when he frowned. Cory forced himself to speak.

“No, I’m saying this because you’re the prettiest ever.”

Those words, combined with that face. It didn’t match well.

“Wow, just looking makes me embarrassed.” Cory muttered to himself as he looked away from me.

I started to think when I heard that. He wasn’t saying something like, I’m embarrassed to even look, or something negative like that, right? If it was meant to be positive, then it was a bit too much. Cory wouldn’t go overboard like Harun, either. Then was it bad?

Are you ashamed of me?

Cory looked at the thoughtful expression on my face.

“I’m honestly saying this because you look pretty, so take it as I mean it.”

“You’re pretty good with words, huh?”

“….you’re the same as usual.”

Cory’s frown dissipated into a smile. Then, he put the strawberry blanket that he had on onto my exposed shoulders.

I decided to accept his request for me to take his words as he meant them. Well, Cory really did care for me. He wouldn’t badmouth me like that in the first place. He treasured me enough for me to feel it. Him being my fan aside, it just felt like he took care of me. Or he was just good at taking care of people in general.

Cory’s little sister was a first year, and I thought that Cory’s personality had a lot do with her. Anyway, Cory’s little sister was absolutely adorable. I never got the chance to talk to her before, but she was just really cute.

Apparently, she was rivals with Karim, but they were both so cute that I thought I was going to go crazy. There wasn’t this kind of setting in the novel, but it seemed like me realizing my past life and shifting the plotline her and there had caused it. I loved this kind of setting.

Cory and I decided to head back to the party. But I wondered where Swan was after making false statements like that.

“Where’d Swan go?”

“He’s comfortably passed on, so don’t worry.”

“…….?”

“Seeing you now, I get why everything’s gone off-kilter like this.”

Cory said something that I didn’t understand. Again.

“Do you want to see Swan’s dead body?”

I nodded at Cory’s words. I wanted to take a walk because the trail was so pretty, and Swan being dead sounded kind of funny too. I wondered if he was sleeping on the grass like I had seen last time instead of being at the party.

Cory was heading towards the pond near the girls’ dorm. The path to the pond was kind of rocky, so Cory stretched out his arm to me. He said that the path was rocky and because I was wearing heels, he would hold my hand so I didn’t trip. I happily grabbed it. His hand gripped mine, just enough that it didn’t hurt.

I looked at Cory’s fierce yet neat features and wondered why he also didn’t have a partner. Looking at how he was searching for me, he didn’t seem like he had one, at least.

“But you’re so popular. Why don’t you have a partner?”

Cory opened his mouth to speak as he watched the different colored firefly-like bugs fly by.

“Honestly, I was going to partner with you, right?”

“….oh, really?”

“But Hylli was planning on asking you too.”

Cory just continued saying things that shocked me to the core.

“Then Swan said that he was going to be your partner too.”

Hylli and Cory I understood because we were really close, but I was really surprised at the mention of Swan.

Swanhaden and me, partners? We weren’t that close. So like he said that we were close so we were trying to be closer, but…..we weren’t close enough to just easily ask the other to be our partner.

But Swanhaden trying to ask me to be his partner was a shock. Did Swan not have someone to partner up with that much?

“So we all planned to take you together if you didn’t have a partner, right? But today’s been a mess.”

“Oh, so when you guys were all outside our class that one time…..”

So they were all hunched outside of the class because of me. Were those flowers originally mine then? But that Swan was trying to partner with me? That giant flower bouquet was supposed to be mine? Was he trying to beat me up with that bouquet like he did Yves? Hmm.

Wow, Shushu, you really lucked out. After being ignored by boys in your past and current life.

“Why am I so popular?”

I continued to walk hand in hand with Cory before I slowly became more and more worried about what he said.

Thinking about it, Cory and Hylli both were going further away from any kind of romance after I barged into their life. They were supposed to be chasing Hestia, but now they were too busy focusing on their own skills.

If you guys kept this up, you’re both going to end up being super successful. If you do, then, hmm. That’d be good. It was a happy ending, but I couldn’t help but feel guilty about it. It felt like I was dragging others into my life of forced solitude. Well, I guess it was okay because the original ending of the novel was garbage. Better this than the original ending.

“Next time, pick a real partner, okay? Normally, partners should be someone you like more than a friend. It’s more fun that way.”

It wasn’t a problem to go with friends, but there were only two graduation parties during the academy. Do you really want to go with me?

How optionless did you have to be to ask me? You’d been in the green class for three years now, wasn’t there someone you liked in there? If Cory and Hylli weren’t popular, I probably would’ve asked them first. I felt their pain and their loneliness, so I felt bad for them.

“I’ll take care of you until there’s someone you like, so be all sad. If there’s some kind of group activity like this, I’ll help you.”

Cory had a small smile on his face as he nodded.

The path grew neater as we approached the pond, so I let go of Cory’s hand. Cory stared at his empty hand for a moment.

When I headed to the pond, there was a person floating on the surface.

“…..Swan?”

That person was Swanhaden.

Swanhaden had fallen in the pond with the moonlight as his spotlight. It was random, but Swanhaden’s form under the moonlight was a beautiful sight to see. His skin looked a bit blue from the cold water, but he still looked incredibly beautiful. Honestly, he really did have the best looks within the main characters. If he conquered the world with only his looks, I would’ve understood it. I was awed at his shining face.

Swan didn’t seem like he had any plans to leave the pond anytime soon. He blankly stared at the moon as he floated on the surface. When he heard my voice, his face turned stony as he turned himself around. It was a pretty subtle movement.

Seeing him float with his face down like that made him look like a corpse.

But it was so cold that the surface of the pond was slightly frozen……wasn’t Swanhaden cold? I didn’t know that his natural healing abilities worked against the cold, too.

Wait, did his natural healing abilities have anything to do with white magic? I frowned at the knowledge that was somehow already in my head.