Chapter 32
“No, really…….”
Looking at Erica and Cassius standing side by side with their heads down, I sighed deeply.
Cassius, who was looking around, spoke first to me.
“I’m sorry, Yerine…….”
Then Erica, who glanced at Cassius next to her, apologized in a voice that seemed to creep in.
“I’m sorry too………I made you feel bad…….”
“Uh, well, I don’t feel bad, it’s just.”
In confusion, I put one hand on my forehead and closed my eyes. Now, let’s think again.
In the context, they seem to be planning to exchange and share my photos with each other.
I didn’t feel bad because it was all pictures that I allowed and it wasn’t something that would infringe on my privacy.
It was just that I couldn’t understand why these two people, who should have been connected in the original story, were obsessed with my picture.
“Oh, well, I really don’t get it……. why are you both so obsessed with my pictures? There are many other pretty and cool people.”
Erica and Cassius both raised their heads and blinked at the words. As if they didn’t understand what I’m saying.
“I don’t care unless it’s Yerine.”
Cassius popped out first.
“Yerine is the coolest and prettiest person I’ve ever seen!”
Erica also talked, banging her fists.
I can’t do this. I can’t talk to them.
“I, I’ll give you all the pictures back if you’re offended. I’ll stop taking pictures too. I’m so sorry….”
Erica spoke with tears in her eyes.
“Huck.”
No. Erica crying must look very cute and pretty, but I can’t allow tears to be in my favourite eyes.
“Yerine! So am I! I’m truly sorry, if you’re offended–”
“No, just take it.”
I cut Cassius’s words in the middle and spit it out.
“Huh?”
Cassius asked back, opening his rabbit’s eyes as if he didn’t know the language. Erica, who was next to me, also looked at me with a surprised look on her face.
Already at that time, I had long laid the strings of reason to confusion, and after seeing Erica’s tears, the thought circuit stopped working, so I simply answered what was on my mind.
“You’re not both going to violate my privacy or take pictures without permission anyway. You can just take it.”
Becoming more confused, Erica grabbed my hand and asked.
“You didn’t feel bad, did you? Why–”
But I was already thinking nothing back then.
“If you’re happy, I’m happy too…..just do whatever you want…..”
I don’t know, but Erica and Cassius were probably doing the kind of thing where they exchange their favourite photo cards.
When I was a fan in my previous life, I exchanged that a lot. In other words, I’m their favourite and they’re my fan. It was all good if my favourite could earn happiness by being a fan of mine.
“Oh, my God, Yerine…….”
Then Erica hugged me and began to cry, and Cassius fell down under my feet and began to bow.
“Thank you so much……… I’m touched! You’re such a good girl….….”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you…….”
Looking at the clear sky without a speck of cloud, I thought quietly. This is what life is like for a popular person.
***
“……rine.”
It was all black all around.
My body felt heavy as if crushed by wet cotton and I couldn’t lift a finger. There was a rumble of unknown noise around, and I frowned at the sound.
“Ye……. rine.”
A boy’s voice came dimly. What the voice said was my name.
‘Who is it?’
And why is he calling my name? At that time, something that was weighing heavily on my body became a little lighter, and I was able to turn my arms and legs a bit lighter.
“Eugh…….”
I struggled with a sickening sound, but I couldn’t get away from something that was pressing against me.
At that moment.
“Yerine!”
My eyes were wide open at the sound of the desperate call of my name.
When I opened my eyes in amazement at the desperate voice mixed with tears, I met eyes with a young boy who I had never seen before, who seemed ten years old.
“Yerine…”
The boy was definitely crying. Dropping the gemlike drops of tears, the child desperately hugged my body with his small hand.
The child’s teardrop fell on my cheek. The tears soon ran slowly down the cheeks.
The temperature of the child holding me, the sensation of tears falling on the cheeks, and the feeling that my face was refreshing as the tears dried up, everything was so vivid.
‘This is… what is this..…?”
I couldn’t really bring anything up. As if my voice hardened, I couldn’t open my mouth and make a sound.
The child distorted his face and screamed. But I couldn’t hear the sound. Slowly the darkness eroded the view. Gradually my eyes were blackened, and again something began to weigh on my body.
Then the child shouted even more desperate. But his words did not reach me. Just before I closed my eyes, what really came into my eyes at the end.
It was a golden pupil with endless transparent tears.
***
“Gasp.”
Surprised, I jumped out of bed like a spring.
The whole body was wet with sweat, and the heart was beating faster than ever.
“What the hell is that just now….”
It was a really wild dream. But it was so vivid to be a dream that I couldn’t get the afterimage out of my head.
“Golden eyes….”
Mumbling to myself, I wrapped my hands around my head and held it.
Still, in front of my eyes the eyes of the child, who was crying out my name in a desperate voice, growled.
“Wasn’t it a lie or an illusion…….’
Cassius’s words that he has met with Yerine. And his claim that Yerine had saved him as a child. I couldn’t conclude everything right with one dream, but I couldn’t dismiss it as a mere delusion because it was so vivid.
“They’ve really met…?”
So why, then, Why I have no memory? Why doesn’t Yerine remember anything?
“…what should I do?”
The white moonlight shone on the empty bed and quietly lit up the dawn.
I couldn’t sleep easily until the dawn gradually faded away and hid its signs.
***
“Yerine.”
“Gasp.”
I was stunned by the voice of Cassius.
“Oh, sorry, were you surprised?”
Cassius asked, bewildered.
Actually, the dream I had last night kept bothering me, and every time I saw Cassius all this morning I felt a little uncomfortable.
“N, no. I wasn’t surprised.…..”
“That’s because you’re always dumbfounded when I talk to you today. Did I do something wrong?”
Cassius said, looking up with his rain-hit-cat-like eyes.
I’ve never really felt sorry for himself when I used to look like that, but I felt a little sorry for today.
“No, there’s no such thing. I guess I was a little surprised when I suddenly heard your voice while I was just spacing out.”
He smiled in his own way as I said so.
“It’s okay, Cassius.”
In my response, Cassius looked suspicious, snatching his head, but returned to his seat, saying, “I knew it.”
“I won’t do it again, so don’t be surprised, Yerine. I might get a little hurt.”
“I’m sorry…….”
Then Professor Frain came into the classroom.
At the same time, Cassius turned his head and looked straight ahead.
I peeped at his side, his yellow eyes shining brightly, and I thought to myself.
‘Is Cassius really that kid?’
To be honest, the child in the dream looked very gentle, and his eyes were round. That gentle impression was completely different from Cassius, who would kill a person if he kept his mouth shut?
‘But if it’s another boy….’
The eye colour was too similar. Not only do I know that golden eyes are uncommon, but I’ve never seen anyone with the same or similar colour eyes as Cassius.
And the eye colour of the dream child was surprisingly similar to that of Cassius.
“Hmm…”
When I turned my head toward Professor Frain with such other thoughts, it was only then that I could hear her.
“So today, we’re going to hold executive elections as we’ve finished our performance tests. There are many things to do as chairman and vice-chairman, and there will be times when you have to sacrifice for the class. But there’s a chance to learn the practical process and attitude of being a court wizard, so I want everyone to be active in the election.”
Then the students began to talk to each other.
A roaring atmosphere just before the election, full of expectations about who will lead our class, and the desire to get attention as a leader over others.
“Well, please recommend a candidate. We’ll have an election among the recommended candidates and choose an executive.”
In response, Cassius turned his head and whispered to me with his mouth covered.
“Yerine, are you going to participate?”
“Well, I don’t know.”
The chairman has to lead the class, and there are a lot of things that bother me. In his previous life, I had never been an executive except when I was in elementary school.
I hate such a thing.
Surprisingly, no one raised his hand, whether it was only me thinking that way, or whether it was because someone else recommended me to be able to run.
“Is there anyone?”
Even with Prof. Frain’s words, people were just reading each other’s faces and never thought to raise their hands.
“Why? I think you’ll do well.”
“No, I think there’s a lot of people who can do better than me……”
Then I glanced through the silvery back of his head facing the front, sat upright in front of me and talked.
“I’m sure there are more people who want to do it than I do.”
Then Cassius grinned and talked.
“But if you’re the president, you can add extra points when you enter the court wizard later–”
Immediately I raised my hand.
“Oh, yes, Miss Spade. Please tell me.”
Once again, life is a real game, and I’d better do anything that can serve my interests. Sometimes pride was important, but sometimes you had to bend and go in. Sometimes there are things more important than that.
“I recommend myself.”
With all the students looking back at me with a surprised face, my clear voice rang out.
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