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“……”

“……”

“……What are you staring at?”

One more person was now glaring at me.

No, these days all the magical girls had been staring at me like this. So it wasn’t exactly surprising.

“I’m just curious.”

Yeon-woo said, alternating her gaze between me and Jua.

This isn’t something that happens all that often. Usually, when I’m around the magical girls, Ha-yoon and Ji-hye would be sitting beside me.

Jua, a bit late to the scene, took my hand or leaned against my back. To be honest, I didn’t understand why she did that during such hot weather. It only ended up making us all sweaty.

…Well, I get it if they just want to stick together. Honestly, I don’t mind if it’s just for a moment. I am someone who enjoys being loved, after all.

It’s just that, how do I put it? Lately, I’ve been feeling a little too clingy.

Not that I mind it, though.

The reason I’m currently with Jua is that Ha-yoon and Ji-hye have wandered off for a bit. We’re not doing anything special; we’re just rolling around on the floor.

Ha-yoon has been giving off a vibe lately that she’s let something go. Not in a bad way, though. More like she’s thrown off whatever was holding her back.

After seeing me and Ji-hye rolling around, she began to really enjoy lying on the floor after a while.

Ji-hye has always been like that.

It could be that since the weather has been getting hotter, they both just want to rest on the cool floor every now and then. Meanwhile, I have other kids sticking to me on both sides.

“Jua isn’t usually the type to cling to others, though. She’s like a cat.”

“Who’s calling me a cat?”

Jua immediately retorted, but to be honest, I thought it was a pretty decent comparison. If I had to choose the most cat-like among my friends, I’d pick Jua without hesitation. Next would be Chae-yeon.

Jua, sticking close to me for no apparent reason, and Yeon-woo enjoying the show. It was a bit awkward trying to fiddle with my smartphone since one of my arms was occupied.

Hmm.

I pondered for a moment and said,

“Uh, do you have nothing to do right now?”

“Hmm? Are you trying to get me to scratch something?”

“No, I’m asking sincerely. If you’re free, I was thinking you could help me out a bit.”

“Oh.”

Yeon-woo made a curious expression at my words.

“What? Are you asking me to do something for you?”

“Yeah. I want to do some prep for the second semester.”

“Oh.”

Yeon-woo was impressed by my words.

“……If that’s the case, I can help you with that.”

Jua said with a rather dissatisfied expression.

“I can help too~”

Ha-yoon chimed in while lazily lifting one arm from her position on the floor.

“I want in on this too~”

Ji-hye said, raising one hand.

…Hmm.

I originally asked because I thought as a senior, you’d know more, but…

Well, I do need to study anyway.

Seo-hee said that magical girls have their own methods, but somehow I find it a bit hard to believe that. No matter how much my personality has improved compared to before, I still can’t fully trust others.

Just then.

As I was sorting out my thoughts, the door suddenly swung open.

Chae-yeon stood there.

“……I want to join too.”

How did you even hear about this?

*

There are advantages to studying together with friends. First off, there’s no pressure.

If a teacher were present, just asking one question about a test would have been a bit daunting. Even though I’m not that much older than them, I tend to take a long time to get comfortable with people.

But with seniors—well, even if there’s only a year between us, I can treat them casually, or with my same-age friends, it’s much easier to ask and answer.

Where we are is the magical girls’ lounge again. Studying alone with no one else around is pretty enjoyable. Thanks to that, it’s very quiet, and there’s no sound apart from our conversations.

We didn’t study for that long.

After all, it was just prep; we weren’t particularly gearing up for any upcoming test, so none of us felt overly motivated.

We mixed in some casual chatter here and there, and eventually, we just started saying whatever we wanted, and before long, we ended up closing our books and sprawled out again.

“I’ll go grab a drink real quick.”

As I said that and got up from my seat, everyone waved their hands at me casually.

I like this atmosphere. It feels natural.

Ha-yoon, who used to cling to me almost constantly, now hardly does. Ji-hye has also relaxed and returned to her previous self.

As for the other magical girls, well…

Even though Pang-pang, who doesn’t attend high school, has been hanging around, it’s whatever. I heard that the Noir Corporation is supporting this facility after all. Their leadership might have fallen apart, but thankfully, the funding hasn’t been cut off.

I rummaged through my pockets, made my way into the hallway, and pulled out a can of drinks.

And instead of heading back to where my friends were, I headed for the rooftop.

The sun was pouring down, and while this building’s rooftop wasn’t really designed for lounging, it was blazing hot. Still, I figured I should catch some sunlight on such a clear day, even if just for a little.

Thinking I’d only stay for a few minutes, I opened the rooftop door and spotted a small vegetable patch in the distance.

“Hmm?”

When I walked slowly over to it, I found a bright yellow flower blooming.

“Chrysanthemum?”

“Dalia.”

I heard a voice answering me from behind as I tilted my head.

“Ah.”

I nodded.

Oh, I see. This flower is Dalia. Indeed, it was a cheerful flower suitable for the magical girl responsible for yellow.

“Do you take care of it yourself?”

“Well, yeah. It’s a hobby of mine to grow various things.”

Yeon-woo said, stepping beside me and looking down at the flowers.

It wasn’t just a few stems carelessly planted in the pot. It was filled with enough blooms to stand out.

The pot itself was a regular brown flower pot you’d often see at a flower shop, but I could imagine just how much effort went into making these flowers bloom so beautifully.

“……Now that you mention it, we were able to survive in the abandoned house thanks to you.”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

Yeon-woo suddenly threw her arm over my shoulder and said.

“Are you saying you’re all emotional now after being so stubborn back then?”

“No, I just wanted to say thank you.”

“Eh?”

At my words, Yeon-woo seemed a little surprised.

“Back then, we could survive all thanks to that food. Without it, we would have definitely run out of things to eat.”

Living solely on vegetables was quite tricky. There were beans for protein, and we had some leafy plants, but—not to say there was enough to reliably get sugar and protein.

However, if we had had none of that, we might have ended up giving up from starvation altogether.

Let’s be honest, I left in a hurry without a real plan. James was there with me, but he wasn’t thinking of any grand schemes either.

What sparked the whole incident was simply the psyche of ‘I don’t want to die like this’.

An impulsive act, bursting out with a shout of “Let’s just try to fight back,” knowing full well how things would likely go.

…

So, I can’t even begin to express how lucky I was to encounter magical girls. Not just providing short-term help, but somehow staying by my side and looking out for me.

“Um, no, well.”

Yeon-woo openly embarrassed removed her arm from my shoulder.

Then, fiddling with her arm slightly, she said,

“Should I say that magic is more due to Delphinium, or if it weren’t for Delphinium, you wouldn’t have been able to grow this much?”

“Delphinium couldn’t have done it all alone either.”

I said while looking down at the flowers. Yeon-woo lost her words at that.

“Have you ever saved a life?”

“I have.”

I’ve fought countless aliens.

I’ve saved people from major disasters too.

It was something I’d almost never done as a magical girl. I had rescued people from burning buildings, but for magical girls, that was pretty much just a normal day.

“In a way, I added one more life to that list.”

I replied.

“……So, just. Thank you.”

“What, what are you saying?”

Yeon-woo said, seeming flustered as she playfully tapped my arm.

“Bringing that up now only makes it awkward, doesn’t it? Huh? Are we all such good friends now to start acting like this?”

“……”

“And to be specific, well.”

Yeon-woo paused for a moment while looking down at the flowers with me.

“……You saved the world too. If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t know what might have happened. At the very least, we were all there together at that moment, thanks to you.”

That was true.

But I couldn’t bring myself to reply right away, so I remained silent.

 

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