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When I woke up from a deep sleep, I found myself still in space.

Somehow, the hospital room in the middle of the universe felt excessively romantic.

As I tried to get up—

“Ugh.”

Every single joint felt like it was creaking, and I grimaced painfully.

In reality, I could hear a slightly dangerous sound every time I moved my fingers. I thought nothing was broken, but at the same time, I honestly felt a bit scared to move.

But I couldn’t just lie there forever.

As much as I wanted to, I wanted to check the situation after I fainted.

…I didn’t even know how many hours I had been unconscious.

I stood up from my spot and was distracted by something outside the window.

The window itself wasn’t very big. Just an ordinary-sized window you’d expect in a hospital room.

But the size of Jupiter visible beyond that window was enormous. Theoretically, to see Jupiter like this, I should be quite far from it, yet it seemed to take up about 75 percent of the view through the window.

If I looked closely enough, I thought I might even see some moons.

It was marvelous, but also a bit eerie. The inside of the hospital room was very quiet. There was some kind of light overhead, but I couldn’t tell if it was really a fluorescent light.

Unlike when I lived in the middle of Seoul, I couldn’t hear any cars passing outside, nor could I hear the sound of children playing that I occasionally used to hear.

Not even the sound of the wind.

The fact that I theoretically knew there would be no sound in space, but now witnessing that nothing was passing through from outside felt a bit strange.

Even in a world where enormous storms, comparable in size to Earth, were swirling without rest.

“…Ha ha.”

I let out a short laugh.

I had talked to Pang-pang about going to space together, and it turned out I really ended up here. Pang-pang had become a Magical Girl, and I, on the contrary, could use a wand without circuits.

I wasn’t sure how that happened. I just… believed it would be so.

I didn’t know if that would continue, but—

I turned my gaze.

It was silent, but there was a faint smell. A smell that seemed to suggest food was slightly burnt.

Next to the bed where I had been lying, there was something like a clock. Its outer part seemed to have melted and then solidified again, now a damaged circuit.

“…”

Had Pang-pang left this behind?

I quietly picked it up. The smell of burnt plastic was far from pleasant.

But that smell was the only thing realistic about this room.

“Haah…”

I exhaled deeply.

Just a little, but I finally felt it.

It was over.

Finally.

Although it was only a few months’ worth of events, the time felt longer than a lifetime.

Could I be happy again?

I didn’t know. I’d have to try. After all, I might despair again. But I wouldn’t give up. Isn’t that life?

I placed the circuit back on the table and turned my body.

I stumbled a bit, but I could move much better than when I first got up.

As I approached the door—

Creeeak, and the door opened sideways with a movement you might see in a cheesy sci-fi movie.

It wasn’t because I got close; someone was approaching from outside.

“…Ji-eun.”

The person beyond the door looked slightly different from Earthlings.

She was aesthetically a beautiful woman, but her skin was a different shade from that of an Earthling—blue. But it didn’t feel too strange.

Her round, sparkling eyes looked incredibly innocent. In some ways, her face might be more suitable for a Magical Girl than mine.

Her hair flowed around her neck, radiating a blue aura that seemed to claim she was indeed an alien.

In her hand was a tray.

On the silver tray, there was an antique-style silver kettle and a glass cup. She must have brought water.

“Um, sorry, there isn’t that much edible stuff here… Actually, we couldn’t find much.”

“…Are you okay?”

“Yes, thanks to you. Oh, it’s not just me; everyone else is fine too.”

“That’s good.”

I let out a sigh of relief.

“How long has it been?”

“Hmm, about four hours in Earth time?”

Earth time.

Even though the world had expanded beyond the universe, that expression still felt a bit foreign.

“So, I’ve been asleep for four hours.”

During that time, had these kids been struggling without a break?

“They said they would send a ship from Earth. James sent the coordinates, and people will come soon. After that… everything should be handled according to the law.”

When I didn’t show any particular change in expression, Pang-pang seemed a bit startled and quickly shook her head.

“Oh, just because of that doesn’t mean you’ll have any problems. They essentially rescued all the Earthlings, right? If they punish you, other heroes might just rise up too—”

“Got it, got it. I’m not worried about that.”

I was serious.

After everything I had gone through, I was too weary to worry about anything like that now.

For the moment, I was just grateful I had removed the circuit from my wrist.

“Can I drink some water?”

When I asked, Pang-pang eagerly nodded and lifted the tray slightly toward me.

I grabbed the cup and kettle, poured some water into the cup, and quenched my thirst.

The water I drank after hours was incredibly refreshing and satisfying. Well, it didn’t really have a ‘taste.’ The water itself tasted even blander than what I usually drank.

After hydrating, I felt a bit more alive, so I ventured deeper into the room, still holding the kettle and cup.

I took another drink by the window.

Feeling a bit revitalized, I glanced back into space, then set the cup and kettle down on the nightstand.

“…In the end, we did come to space.”

“Oh, yeah.”

Pang-pang replied a little shyly as she stood next to me.

“Well, I didn’t expect something like this.”

“Ah, about that, this is enough for me.”

“Really?”

I asked while looking at Pang-pang.

For some reason, she couldn’t seem to meet my eyes and kept looking away. She usually appeared quite confident.

Perhaps she was recalling when I helped her out of the container. Goodness, it felt like that happened days ago. In reality, it hadn’t even been a full day.

I also thought of the things and words I exchanged with her and felt my face heat up a bit.

“It’s not over yet. We still have other promises to keep. You said we’d go camping on your planet.”

“Ah… that’s true. Yeah, we did make that promise…”

I understood why she couldn’t recall it.

Yeah. We were all fighting for our lives. To survive, to achieve a happy ending.

After a moment of silence—

“Ha, Ha-yoon and Ji-hye came by in turns a while ago. And the others too.”

“Is that so?”

“Right now, I’m a bit busy… I still thought we should at least keep the monsters restrained. So we had a lottery—”

It was oddly adorable how she was rambling.

“Pang-pang.”

“Y-yeah?”

As I called her name, Pang-pang blinked in surprise.

“…Thank you.”

“…Ah.”

Her face slowly turned red at my words.

“Thanks to you, I was able to survive until now. If I didn’t have you as a friend, I probably would have had nowhere to escape and collapsed long ago.”

“…”

Yeah.

That was what I wanted to say. A word I almost didn’t get to say.

So, I planned to keep saying it multiple times from now on.

If I regretted it after it had all passed, it would all be meaningless.

“…Um, I’m sorry too.”

When Pang-pang finally met my gaze, she spoke.

“Maybe it would have been better if I had just told you from the start.”

I wondered how it would have been.

If I had believed Pang-pang’s words wholeheartedly, despite my doubts—well, that didn’t really matter now.

Whether it was okay or not was only a matter of hypotheticals.

There’s a chance things could have gotten a lot worse than they were now.

Instead, I decided to simply be content with the present.

In the end, I had been able to save Pang-pang.

Eventually, we all managed to survive. We could now dream of the future.

“When we return, what do you want to do?”

“Return?”

“To Earth, we have to go back.”

“…”

“Well, even if we go back, we won’t be able to do the part-time job we were doing before at all.”

At my joke, Pang-pang chuckled.

“Why not? Those old men are probably still working. Maybe even the men we worked with might be at it a bit.”

“…That’s true.”

Should we go back and do some demolition work?

Hmm, since the circuit had escaped.

“Pang-pang, are you thinking about school?”

“School?”

“I’m not sure about high school, but what about college? I’ll be graduating next year… Ah, will I even be able to graduate?”

I didn’t know.

But that was okay.

Even if it got pushed back a year, it would be fine.

I thought it would be fun if I could study at the same university as Pang-pang.

I with a beer in hand, and Pang-pang with a cup of coffee.

I felt like that would be enjoyable.

I gently took Pang-pang’s hand.

“Let’s go together.”

Pang-pang simply blushed.

 

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