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“……”

It was the weekend, almost noon.

When I woke up from my late sleep, Ji-hye was sitting by the bed, staring at me intently.

Her face was a mix of emotions, but I couldn’t quite figure out what it was.

Lately, people around me had been staring at me more often. Ha-yoon was one, and the other Magical Girls excluding Delphinium were also doing it.

Even Ji-hye was doing it right now.

I sat up in bed.

To be honest, by the schedule, we should have been getting up in the morning to have breakfast with the other kids, but kids our age don’t follow such strict meal times.

Besides, some of them would just say they weren’t hungry.

Moreover, it had already become known throughout the orphanage that I was quite busy. I would come back exhausted after training and end up sleeping in later the next day, so no one really bothered me about sleeping in a little longer.

The weather was a bit chilly. The electric blanket was warm, but I hesitated to come out from under the covers.

I wrapped myself in the blanket and looked at Ji-hye.

“Why? You seem like you have something to say.”

As I let out a big yawn, Ji-hye shot me a pouty glare.

The person who celebrated the most when I said I could become a Magical Girl was Ji-hye. We’ve been close since sharing a room, and it was more than just friends; we were practically family.

Of everyone around me, she was the one I felt the most comfortable being with. I couldn’t be as at ease with Ha-yoon, that’s for sure.

“……You’re out too much these days.”

“Um……”

She suddenly said this; what should I even say in response?

I chose the most sensible answer first.

“I have things I need to do.”

I’m not a real Magical Girl yet. I’m still training.

It wasn’t just training; there was also sparring, and I was learning about magic fairly seriously. Cherry was the only one teaching me, but her understanding was so profound that it wasn’t really a problem. I sometimes felt like Iris from the cartoons might have gotten help from Cherry to design a gun.

“……Still.”

Ji-hye was being a bit stubborn.

“If you come back just when I’m about to sleep, we never have time to play together.”

It’s not like you’re a kid.

However, I found her words a bit endearing, so I didn’t respond too strongly and just laughed.

“That’s true.”

Of course, I often went out to play with Ha-yoon on weekends. But it wasn’t something that happened every week. The activity would be too limited for that.

When I played with Ji-hye, it was usually in our room. Watching movies together on our phones, binge-watching dramas, or listening to music. I listened to the CD that Ha-yoon gifted me on the player I got for a bit cheaper. It was a small radio-shaped device, but it wasn’t bad for listening to music.

But oddly enough, we hadn’t gone out to play together at all.

Maybe if it were very young childhood days, but do sisters generally go out to play together that much? People would say it’s more common to be close with friends while siblings are more like acquaintances.

Well, we weren’t that kind of siblings after all.

“Then, should we just go out somewhere?”

“Huh?”

As soon as I asked that, Ji-hye blinked in surprise.

“Were you not saying that because you wanted to?”

“Uh, no, it’s just that.”

Ji-hye and I often butted heads since we were young because our personalities were quite different.

Ji-hye is friendly to everyone. I haven’t met any of her friends in person, but from how often she switches the names of her friends when she talks to me, it seems like she must have a lot of them.

And being friendly means not hesitating to get close to someone.

That personality often doesn’t go well with introverts. It’s not that I dislike talking, but I sometimes didn’t like unnecessary friendliness.

And that was the case for me.

Even though I was a child, I would get irritated or angry every time Ji-hye touched my stuff without permission. Ji-hye obviously rebelled against that, and I remember us fighting quite a lot when we were very little.

During that time, we gradually adapted to each other, becoming friends as we recognized the good parts of each other’s personalities.

To be honest, I think I can understand Ji-hye’s feelings to some extent now. I may not feel completely like I fit in, but I get why it’s unsettling when kids in the same place are just sitting off to the side alone.

Though it’s not that I feel that way when it’s just the two of us, I somehow feel like Ji-hye might understand that feeling.

“More than that…… um.”

Ji-hye seemed to be thinking, not knowing what she wanted even after speaking.

“I didn’t expect you to answer so easily!”

“Yeah, that’s exactly it! …… Huh?”

She froze for a moment after answering herself.

“Wait, so does that mean you could have rested until now but didn’t?”

Yikes. Ji-hye’s getting mad.

“Not really. I had my own schedule, you know. Since it’s the start, I felt a bit awkward about skipping out.”

Even if I speak rudely, Seo-hee and Yeon-woo are my seniors. Seeing them busy there while I, as a junior, was absent felt a little awkward.

You could ask if it’s okay since we’re all students, but sometimes, it’s not that simple.

The manga I read described combatants getting beat up by Magical Girls under the premise of being “realistic.” It wouldn’t be strange if there was some kind of arrangement between Magical Girls.

Though there wasn’t, still, I did get beaten up…?

Thinking about it, that feels a bit offensive.

“You can probably skip out for a day or so without anyone making a fuss.”

I said, curling back up in the blanket. Ah, it’s so warm. There’s nothing better than sleeping warmly on a cold day. In summer, I can’t do the thing of sleeping wrapped in a thick blanket under the air conditioner because of electricity costs.

“Ah, but I need to call.”

I said while reaching for my phone.

Even if the seniors might be okay with me not showing up, Ha-yoon might genuinely be waiting endlessly.

I rubbed my sleepy eyes and turned on my phone screen.

*

And so, we found ourselves out here.

“Was it Ha-yoon? She looked cute in the pictures.”

Ji-hye, who was sticking next to me, got a bit quicker in her speech, excitedly.

After all, even though we were sisters, there was also a friend-like vibe between us. Ji-hye looked thrilled to be out with me, like a dog happy to be out for a walk after a long time.

“Yeah, kind of.”

Ha-yoon is pretty. Her appearance is quite stunning, and it sometimes feels like the gap is even more apparent because she acts somewhat shy with that beauty.

When Ha-yoon answered my call and carefully suggested, “So do you want to play outside today?” it caught me off guard.

Ha-yoon still didn’t know that I was living in an orphanage. Ji-hye had introduced me as her sister, but I was somewhat anxious about it.

It’s not like I didn’t think about how it wouldn’t matter if I got found out now. Ha-yoon and I had known each other for quite a while, and I knew she wouldn’t look at me weirdly just because she knew my situation.

Plus, both Ha-yoon and I are pretty much on equal footing right now. What I want is to win over Ha-yoon as a Magical Girl, not to become a wealthier person than her.

Still, I had some worries that Ha-yoon’s attitude towards me might change once she finds out.

……I couldn’t exactly tell Ji-hye not to talk about it. For some reason, I thought Ji-hye wasn’t the kind of person to hide where she came from.

“Why are you acting all weird? Are you crushing on Ha-yoon or something?”

Hmm.

Well, it’s still too early for a crush. If anything, even if I had no memories of my past life, I was well aware of the fact that I wasn’t recalling them clearly enough to treat them as fantasies.

“No, it’s just… ”

I just answered like that and moved on.

Well, anyway.

Ha-yoon had never been to my house, and I’ve never directly been to hers either. We always met outside due to various circumstances on both sides.

However, in all that time, I hadn’t met with Ji-hye.

Considering their personalities, it wouldn’t be hard for them to become close –

“Ji-eun!”

I heard Ha-yoon calling my name.

What a bright voice. Just from hearing it, I felt happy because it seemed like her smile was shining through.

But when I turned around at that voice, Ha-yoon’s face looked slightly stiff.

Hmm, what’s going on?

Even Ji-hye, who was next to me, seemed to notice and tilted her head.

After about a two-second delay, Ha-yoon properly smiled again.

Could it be she was a bit nervous because she was meeting someone for the first time?

I decided to think of it that way.

 

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