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I used to envy the harem protagonists in my past life.

Since I never had a girlfriend, I couldn’t relate at all to the idea of being surrounded by girls and saying it was a pain.

I figured that if anyone were to like me, I’d probably fall for them right away, yet the harem leads, despite being surrounded by girls, always seemed to have something to complain about.

Hmm.

If I say I understand it now, wouldn’t it just make me look like garbage?

“Phew.”

The dawn of May is still a bit chilly. But to me, it wasn’t something I couldn’t bear. I once spent a night in a tiny tent, huddled up in a sleeping bag, when the weather was much colder than this.

The reason I went outside was pretty simple.

I woke up in the middle of the night with a stomach ache, and when I went to the bathroom, there wasn’t any space to slip back into the room.

As luck would have it, it was around the time the sun was starting to rise, so I thought I might as well get some fresh air outside.

“……”

I still have no clue about the future. Rather, having gotten this far, it feels like I know even less now.

As a Magical Girl, I can still be active, and in some sense, I’ve caught the attention of heroes worldwide, so it feels a bit weird to quit now.

But now, it seems unlikely that aliens will show up anymore—

“…I guess I’ll just put it off until I graduate from school.”

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

I was mumbling to myself when I heard a response from behind, causing me to jump and turn around.

“Rose.”

“Did you not even think to call me by my name?”

Rose replied, looking somewhat incredulous.

There’s a reason I called her ‘Rose’. First and foremost, she’s a year older than me.

It’s not common to refer to someone a grade above you in high school as ‘senpai.’ At least for me, even if I got somewhat close with someone through club activities, I just called them ‘bro.’

So, in this case, I would have to say ‘older sister’.

If I happened to meet a new third year at this point, I could presumably be polite and call her ‘older sister’. It would be a lie to say I had absolutely no aversion to that title. But even if I felt embarrassed, I knew it wasn’t a big deal to others.

But now?

The reason I addressed the Magical Girls casually was that, at that time, I genuinely thought I was at the end of my life.

I was so on edge, and in a situation where it felt like destroying everything in existence wouldn’t relieve my stress, I figured a casual tone would be excused.

The problem is that I’ve just gotten used to that way of speaking.

Now I don’t want to call Rose, Dalia, or Delphinium ‘older sister.’ It just feels… not quite right.

But then, calling someone a year older than me without any title feels a bit awkward. Despite how it might look, I usually abide by social conventions when I can think rationally. It feels like I should show some respect to someone who’s just a year older… well, that thought crossed my mind.

Moreover—

“Don’t tell me you forgot my name?”

“……”

…That was indeed a problem.

“Haah.”

Seeing me unable to respond, Rose sighed deeply.

Then she shrugged and sat down next to me.

It wasn’t as close as when Ha-yoon, Ji-hye, or Jua sat beside me. There was enough distance between us so it wasn’t uncomfortable.

“Just so you know, my name is Seo-hee. Im Seo-hee.”

For some reason, it sounds like a name straight out of a textbook.

… I didn’t know I’d get this close with the Magical Girls. I didn’t even expect to be hanging out like this. I had only thought it was just all about their image.

From the look on my face, I couldn’t tell what Rose— no, Seo-hee was thinking. At a glance, she seemed very honest, but sometimes it was hard to read her expression.

It probably wasn’t just because she was a year older than me. She must have honed some skills while being a Magical Girl.

“You don’t have to overthink it, you know? Everything’s already settled. The experts will handle the rest… well, you might have reasons not to trust those experts, but don’t you think the situation is different now compared to then?”

“Hmm, maybe.”

I answered vaguely.

“Regardless of everything, we’re still students… Honestly, with everything that happened this year, shouldn’t we be more worried about school?”

Only then did I remember that Seo-hee and the other two were seniors this year.

“…Are you okay with it?”

It was a short question, but it seemed to carry enough meaning.

“I better be okay. Otherwise, I can always study for another year, like I mentioned before. To be honest, I was somewhat prepared for this since the moment I became a Magical Girl. I didn’t think I’d have to use that readiness this way, though.”

“Has it been because of skipping classes?”

“That’s right, yeah.”

The sunlight began to slowly shine on Seo-hee’s face. In the distance, the sun was slowly rising from the direction we were facing.

Though it happened very rarely, I liked that sight. It was one of the few beautiful moments in our rundown neighborhood. Though at some point, I couldn’t just leisurely enjoy it anymore.

“Anyway, from now on, let’s study hard and get into university. I wanna go to college.”

“Do you have something you want to study?”

“Hmm, I’m not sure. More than that…”

Seo-hee glanced at me and smiled.

“I want to enjoy campus life a bit.”

“Ah.”

I understood.

While some people go to university to study what they want, there are probably more who don’t.

Maybe to prepare for a job later on.

Or maybe just to postpone entering society because they have no idea what to do after graduation.

I just wanted to see what it was like to be in university.

“What about you?”

Seo-hee asked.

“Right now, I’m saying I’m gonna study hard, but what do I want to do afterward? Do you plan to jump straight into work once you turn adult?”

“Well, I’m not exactly sure.”

I hadn’t thought it through.

I had always just been focused on what’s ahead.

People often tell you to think about the future. Whether it’s heartfelt advice or simply something written in educational materials, I’ve heard it often enough.

But it’s not that easy.

Even for someone like me who has been through something resembling working life, actually finding a new job out here isn’t an easy task.

Getting older doesn’t automatically increase the variety of experiences. If someone worked at one position for decades, wouldn’t they just know that job and nothing else?

Whether to go to university, start working right away, or try something else entirely… I still haven’t decided any of it.

“You still have a whole year left.”

Seo-hee said.

“Take your time to figure it out. And hey, don’t forget to have fun with romance too.”

“…Why are we suddenly talking about romance?”

“Wasn’t that why you came out? Once you get back inside, you’d be sandwiched between everyone else.”

I couldn’t argue with that.

Ha-yoon is great. Ji-hye is awesome too. And Jua isn’t bad at all.

How indecisive of me, not wanting to hurt any of those three when they’ve already worried about me so much.

In the end, I’ve turned into what I used to find annoying about those harem protagonists.

Even with so many girls around, not deciding to date anyone and feeling a confusing mix of bliss and embarrassment in that situation.

“……”

As I sat in silence, Seo-hee started giggling.

“Then, how about this?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Summer vacation is coming up, right? Even if we skipped so much school, a break is still a break.”

“Don’t we need to take extra classes?”

“Well, we’ll have to, but it doesn’t mean we’ll be stuck doing that the entire vacation. And honestly, is there anyone among our teachers who’d force us to come in when we say we need a break?”

I don’t think so.

Even if it were a broader issue than just the teachers, I doubt anyone would want to make enemies out of us right now.

That’s partly why I try to be careful.

Even if the other party is a bit lenient, if I act too threatening, they’ll want to get rid of that threat.

“So, let’s go out and have some fun.”

“Fun?”

“Yeah.”

Seo-hee looked at me again and smiled.

“How about we go to the sea?”

“The sea.”

I’ve been… I think. However, we’ve never gone together just the four of us. Unfortunately, finding the chance to do that was not that easy.

“Actually, we had thought about it sometimes, but everyone was either too busy or dealing with issues, so we couldn’t go, right? Now that things are like this, it feels like we should take the chance to go.”

“What about studying for the college entrance exam?”

“Do you think a couple of days away will ruin everything? No, more importantly, do you think cramming a couple of days will change the scores?”

Hmm…

That’s a point.

Shrugging my shoulders, Seo-hee did the same.

“Alright then. Let’s do that. I’ll let the others know—”

As she was saying this, Seo-hee began to stand up but suddenly froze and looked behind us in surprise.

Curious about what had startled her, I turned around to see Ha-yoon, Ji-hye, and Jua standing there.

“……”

I wiped my face with one hand.

Well, I guess it’s clear that while I’m feeling happy, that doesn’t mean it’s not a bit of a headache.

 

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