Chapter 10
…Yeah, fine, getting him to admire my pajamas after showing them to him right in front of him was all well and good.
After he said that, it would've been awkward not to show him, and his reaction was really good, too.
His reaction was strangely addictive, and it made me feel kind of good, so I didn't think much of it up to that point.
If it had ended right there, we both would've been happy, and that would've been the end of it.
-Mom.
-Hm? What is it, Siyeon?
-Where is he sleeping…?
-Huh? Obviously, he's sleeping with you, Siyeon.
-…What?
…If only I didn't have to sleep with him, I could've had a truly peaceful, happy night's sleep.
At Mom's words, spoken as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, a high-pitched beep went off in my head. I stared at her in a daze, but she just smiled back at me.
…Seriously, is the distance between men and women in this world on a whole different level from the one in the world I used to live in?
Even if this is a dating sim, and I'm the heroine while that idiot has the male lead title, isn't it still way too early for the story to have started? I can't really be called a heroine yet, can I?
Sure, say I've gone from an ordinary tsundere heroine to a childhood-friend tsundere heroine. But even so, a boy and a girl wouldn't sleep together unless things had really progressed a lot, would they…?
‘Or would they?’
I'd never slept with a woman, so how would I know?
Forget sleeping together, I'd never even talked to a woman before, so if my assumptions…
Since I'd never shared a bed with a woman other than my mom or older sister, I had no idea…
Still, maybe since we're only eight, they just see us as kids, not as boys and girls? Like when everyone naps together in the same room at daycare or kindergarten.
‘I-I don't know…!’
Anyway, the conclusion was that I was in the same room as that idiot…!
The idiot was staring blankly at my bookshelf, as if he hadn't a care in the world—
“W-Wait! Don't look over there!”
“…? Why?”
“If I tell you not to look, don't look, you idiot…!”
Now that I thought about it, all the books I read were manga!
I-I'd been acting all smart by trying to make use of my past life's memories, but if he found out about those, my image would be ruined!
What if he said something like, ‘I didn't think you'd read stuff like this. I'm disappointed…’?
‘N-No, anything but that!’
I didn't work this hard to build up my image as a knowledgeable girl just to throw it away in an instant!
“I-I told you not to look, you idiot…!”
I rushed in front of Han Seojin and tried to block his view with my whole body, but with my short, frail body, I couldn't cover everything.
“[The Taoist Magic Thousand-Character Classic]…?”
“Ah….”
He'd found out after all…
Though it was a children's educational series for teaching Chinese characters, I'd read it back in the day without paying attention to the characters because the story was so good. Now he'd caught me binge-reading the whole series, lost in nostalgia…!
‘W-What do I do…!’
What if he really was disappointed in me?
What if he said something at school like, ‘You still read that at your age?’…?
“Oh, this! I love it, too!”
“…You do?”
Unlike what I'd expected, he reacted so positively that I felt something stir inside me.
“W-What did you like about that manga?”
“Hmm… Using Chinese characters to cast Taoist magic?”
“Yeah, yeah, that was so cool, too. Ripping up those spell books covered in Chinese characters, then—flash!—summoning a familiar, breathing fire, and suddenly creating a paradise with a four-character idiom. Isn't that so cool—awesome?”
“Y-Yeah. It is, right?”
“And when the protagonist's girlfriend gets kidnapped by the Demonic Cult and they start raising her as the Little Heavenly Demon, the protagonist sneaks into the Cult to rescue her. That was so cool, and I loved that part. Did you see it?”
“Yeah, I did.”
“When he rescues her and gives her that little smile, he's so handso—Huh?!”
I-I messed up…!
No one around me ever talked about this manga, and I didn't know anyone besides me who'd read it. I was so excited to find someone who had that I just kept talking…!
‘K-Kim Siyeon, you idiot!’
What on earth had I just done?!
I'd made a complete fool of myself, without even needing Han Seojin to call me one. I was so embarrassed that I covered my face with my hands and stood there for several minutes.
“…F-Forget everything I just said! Quickly!”
“Okay~”
“D-Don't just say that…!”
In the end, I decided to brazen it out.
“Still, you must really love it, huh? I've never seen you smile and talk like that before, Siyeon!”
“……”
“You really do look prettier when you smile!”
“…Ugh.”
W-What was that idiot saying?!
‘You look prettier when you smile’ sounded like something straight out of a dating sim, didn't it?
…Oh, right. This is a dating sim world.
A-Anyway! Don't smile and say things like that to me…!
“And I love this manga, too, so could you tell me more about it?”
“Y-You do?”
Something felt strange.
I gradually started to feel like something was wrong, but my tongue kept itching to talk, so I never figured out what it was and just kept going.
Han Seojin kept responding with things like, “Yeah, yeah,” encouraging me as he listened to everything I said, until I eventually got tired and fell asleep first.
…In the end, my image as a knowledgeable girl was completely ruined…
==========
‘She's cute….’
Would a day like this ever come again?
Thinking of Kim Siyeon, who'd started talking to him and smiling so happily, as if he might never see her like this again, Han Seojin chuckled softly.
‘She even fell for what I said last time. So who's the real idiot?’
Han Seojin's comment agreeing with the people around them when they said they were “dating”—the one that had shaken Kim Siyeon so badly—was something he'd said because he wanted to tease her.
Even at eight, Han Seojin knew what “dating” meant from playing house and things like that.
Of course, if he told Kim Siyeon that, she'd just call him an idiot and insist that wasn't what dating meant.
‘Still, I got to see a lot of new sides of her, didn't I?’
He'd never imagined that Kim Siyeon liked manga.
From Han Seojin's perspective, Kim Siyeon always seemed to know everything, and she had the sort of air that suggested she wouldn't read manga or anything.
But from the conversation they'd just had—though it was really just Kim Siyeon excitedly talking nonstop—he could tell she didn't merely read the manga; she was genuinely fond of it.
It was fascinating to see her describe the story volume by volume.
And the way she'd occasionally flinch and ask, “I-It's not boring, is it…?” was just too cute.
“Idiot.”
“Mmm…”
“Such an idiot. An idiot who likes showing off.”
Returning the insults he'd heard earlier, Han Seojin felt satisfied and was about to go to sleep, but—
-Squeeze.
“…Huh?”
He'd moved closer to tease her a little, but ended up being hugged tightly just like that.
“Huh?!”
“Mmm…”
Flustered, Han Seojin tried to wriggle free as gently as possible so he wouldn't wake Kim Siyeon, but she clung to him with her legs, too, as if she absolutely wouldn't let him go.
When he eventually gave up and stayed still, he shivered slightly at the feeling of Kim Siyeon pressed completely against him, her breath tickling him.
He had a feeling that somehow, this wasn't right.
Since this sort of thing had never even crossed his mind, he had no idea how to handle the situation.
“…I don't know!”
In the end, he decided to hug Kim Siyeon tightly, too…!
Of course, he didn't cling to her with his legs like she did or squeeze her so hard that he couldn't let go. It was more like a light, loose embrace.
“Hehe….”
Maybe that alone was enough to make her happy, because a big smile bloomed on Kim Siyeon's face. Seeing it made Han Seojin feel good, too.
‘I thought she only liked having her head stroked. Does she like this, too?’
As Han Seojin added another thing Kim Siyeon liked to his mental list, the night grew late.
==========
“Mmm…”
It was a really nice morning.
I usually didn't sleep well if I didn't have a pillow to hug while I slept. Had my constitution changed?
I'd struggled with that for decades, so there was no way it would suddenly change now.
‘…I must've hugged something while I was asleep.’
Feeling the thing I was holding tightly with my arms and legs, I realized I'd found a pillow and hugged it in my sleep.
It was a little firmer and warmer than the pillow I used, but just as comfortable.
It even smelled nice. I pressed my face toward the pillow and took a little sniff, and it made me feel calm.
The button brushing against my face was a little annoying, though…
“…Huh?”
Wait, a button?
There was no way a pillow would have buttons.
‘No way…?’
The uneasy thought that had crossed my mind began to take over.
Come to think of it, that idiot's clothes had buttons.
I opened my eyes, trembling, and the first thing I saw was the nape of that idiot's neck as he slept peacefully.
“A-Ah…?”
So the thing I was hugging so tightly wasn't a pillow at all. It was this idiot, and I'd slept pressed right up against him…?
And just now, I'd been sniffing him because he smelled so nice—
‘…I'm crazy, a pervert, an idiot, a moron, the biggest pervert in the world…! W-What have I done…?!’
I silently screamed and berated myself, trembling with self-loathing as I remembered what had just happened.
And yet, because I couldn't let this idiot wake up, I kept hugging him.