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I’m a high school student.

Ha-yoon and I didn’t play that hard. I mean, we did have fun, but it wasn’t like we were splashing around in the sea.

We just wandered around, did some shopping, or sat on the street people-watching. That’s how we had our fun, and I thought it was perfectly fine.

The way I played with Ji-hye was similar, but Ji-hye was way more energetic than Ha-yoon. She didn’t care about what anyone thought, and her only worry was about money.

Pang-pang wasn’t a high school student, but even when she lived alone, she didn’t have any great fortune. When we hung out, we just bought a can of coffee and drank it. Well, it wasn’t really playing, just chatting.

I understood that high school students, or rather, ‘teenagers,’ still had some childlike traits and were the kind of kids who would get together to do something weird.

But for me, who mostly played in a chill way, I just couldn’t handle their overflowing energy.

Yeah. It was fun when I dove into the sea, holding all the kids like princesses. But after doing that for all the kids, I ended up feeling a bit sore. I jumped pretty high, and when I fell into the sea, the splash hurt more than I expected.

But the kids, whether they knew or not, genuinely enjoyed the water play—

If Ha-yoon was the center of attention among the magical girls before, I sometimes felt like I had become that person.

It was probably because whenever I ran away, the magical girls followed what I said, and after going through various incidents, we ended up just becoming close friends.

Ha-yoon was basically a quiet friend who spoke up when necessary, while I was the friend who talked about everything and anything. I was even close enough to take off her clothes… Well, not really her clothes, but her swimsuit!

Okay, that sounds weirder now.

Anyway, when someone who’s close to ‘everyone’ gets into the water with that ‘everyone’—

“Splash!?”

Yeah. It meant getting bombarded with splashes.

At first, I tried to resist somewhat. Since I was surrounded by enemies in all directions, I splashed water everywhere.

But after splashing around for a while, I was completely out of energy. No matter how powerful I was as a magical girl, if all the people surrounding me were also magical girls, it drained me.

“Ji-eun—Gah!?”

In the end, I decided to form an alliance.

I quickly crouched down and hid behind Ha-yoon.

I mean, Ha-yoon was definitely shorter than me, so this was quite a cowardly move. The other magical girls seemed shocked by my actions and momentarily paused.

However, that hesitation didn’t last long. Soon, water was being poured on the two of us like crazy.

Right. Even if Ha-yoon had a delicate aura, not splashing water in this situation would make it worse. Magical girls don’t have such rude personalities. No matter how much they might have a rivalry in webtoons— isn’t that the whole cliche? A story where girls who couldn’t understand each other slowly start to get it.

It’s still like that. No, it’s even better now. We understood each other. We knew why we thought the way we did, what we liked, and what hobbies we had; we already knew each other too well.

And that was also an opportunity.

“Whew!?”

As I jumped up to hide behind Seo-hee, this time, water gushed on her. Seo-hee retaliated against the kids, and before I knew it, a force was forming.

I think it’s a bit sneaky of me, but isn’t that what politics is about? Just quietly watching from the sidelines while getting involved somehow.

“Phew.”

I slipped back and briefly watched the kids playing in the water before slowly creeping out of it.

The kids, squealing and having fun, didn’t even notice I was gone.

Feeling a little sore, I headed to where Chae-yeon had been earlier.

Chae-yeon was lying under the parasol, reading a book.

“……”

“……”

When our eyes met after she heard my footsteps, Chae-yeon looked at me in silence for a while, then oddly blushed and shifted her gaze back to the book.

Hmm.

What I did might have been a bit much. But thankfully, she wasn’t covering herself with outer clothes right now. …Is that a good thing?

I approached her and plopped down on the mat under the parasol. The beach was well-maintained, and I couldn’t even feel any stones under my feet.

“When did you get here?”

“Earlier, around the time we started playing in the water.”

Aha.

So she was waiting for the moment when the attention was off me to make her move. I didn’t expect someone to think the same way as me before I even showed up.

Well, ‘Delphinium’ is supposed to be the smart one. Always sitting coolly with a book in hand.

Her signature color is a refreshing blue. It was slightly darker, but still a color that looked cool. Her hair was short but not too long or too short.

As I stared at her face, her eyes darted around nervously. She seemed to be more shy than I thought.

She tried to shield her face with the book, but eventually revealed just her eyes to look at me.

Is she really older than me by a year? Looking at her now, she seems rather younger. If someone asked who looked like the junior if we stood side by side, I’m sure many would choose Chae-yeon.

“Are you always this shy?”

“……”

Chae-yeon didn’t respond, just turned her gaze away.

“How did you become friends with others with such shyness?”

I had a rough idea. Ha-yoon definitely would’ve talked first. It must’ve been a bit awkward, though.

Ha-yoon couldn’t just leave me sitting alone in the corner. Well, I saved Ha-yoon from a group she didn’t like countless times, so we’re even in a way, but that probably wasn’t the case among magical girls.

“…I never thought about making friends.”

“I see.”

Hearing her clear response made me chuckle.

“Ugh.”

And I flopped down next to her.

The parasol came into view. The sun was so hot that I could almost see the bright blue sky beyond the parasol.

“Well, sometimes I miss just chilling like this.”

“……”

Chae-yeon didn’t respond, but from her presence, it seemed she was listening to me.

“To be honest, I wanted attention. I’d say I was a passive introvert at best.”

But I didn’t know how to become popular. The world I was in wasn’t a place with many people I wanted to get close to.

I wanted to be like Ha-yoon, but I also felt sorry for the situation she was in. At the same time, I wanted to win.

I think my feelings were all tangled up.

“But when I started getting attention, there were times I just wanted to be quiet like this. So I get that feeling.”

“……”

Chae-yeon remained silent for a while.

“…But.”

“Hmm?”

And suddenly, Chae-yeon said that, making me turn my head.

But she didn’t say anything after that ‘but.’

“…Aren’t you going to say anything else?”

“What do you mean?”

“…But, still, I think it’s good to play with other kids. …But I think it’s good to make friends too.”

“Oh.”

Right. I see.

Chae-yeon must have heard this many times before.

“Well, if you don’t want to, what can I do?”

I answered like that.

“…Just a moment ago, you jumped in and splashed around with them.”

How strange.

I felt a bit disappointed by her words.

Not a disappointment about me, but…

Did I want her to come back for more? Hmm, more than that, I think I was disappointed that after all that, what I said turned into something like this. I came all this way, wanting to play together.

I get the feeling. My introverted nature is just really annoying sometimes.

I want to play, I want to go out, and I want to see my friends, but when it actually comes time to go out, I feel like I’m already getting timid.

Maybe Chae-yeon feels like that too.

Hmm.

“That was because I wanted to play with you. I came all this way wanting to have fun with everyone.”

“……”

“But, well. After actually playing, I ran out of steam. So, I came here to take a break. You feel the same, right?”

“…Yeah.”

Chae-yeon answered my words.

“Taking a break is okay, right?”

“Yeah.”

Chae-yeon replied to me.

I chuckled and lay back right there—

“Hey, Jeong Ji-eun!”

—I couldn’t stay that way.

From a distance, Ji-hye was sprinting over here, sounding like she was mad about something.

Right next to her was Ha-yoon, and behind them was Jua.

No, they’re all running together.

I have a feeling they might be coming to get back at me for starting a fight with everyone.

“Looks like I’m out of luck.”

I said with a laugh, and

“…Yeah.”

Chae-yeon responded with a slight smile.

 

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