“Your Majesty?!”
While Rosetta was away, the soldiers guarding the door were visibly startled at Rosetta running toward them. Rosetta swept past them and entered the room.
Rosetta, who didn’t even close the door properly, immediately approached the mirror.
His heart pounded. Of course, it wasn’t that his heartbeat had quickened from just running, but that he was excited at the thought of meeting the man.
‘Fortunately, I didn’t miss him.’
The mirror was reflecting only Rosetta. A mirror that reflected only Rosetta, not the surrounding furniture, not the surrounding scenery, nothing else.
‘Though it seems I’m not visible to others’ eyes either.’
What was visible in this mirror was only Rosetta, the man, and the place presumed to be the man’s house.
Rosetta kept looking at the mirror, hoping the man would appear quickly.
A man with short curly hair that people often called honey-like golden hair and transparent blue eyes that were called like a clear, clean lake could be seen, his cheeks flushed red, full of anticipation.
‘Will he like this face?’
He hoped he would like it. Since it was a face others always praised, objectively it shouldn’t be an ugly face.
Outside, the soldiers were whispering while looking at Rosetta through the improperly closed door, but that wasn’t Rosetta’s concern.
Rosetta was merely hoping that the man would appear in the mirror even a second faster.
Puti, who belatedly entered the corridor panting, was startled at the sight of those soldiers and ran so quickly he nearly fell, then closed the door and shouted.
“Do you all want to be fired? How dare you peek into His Majesty’s room!”
Then the soldiers quickly began making excuses.
“Th-that is… Your Majesty came running so quickly, so we wondered if something had happened….”
Puti put force in his eyes as if to say what kind of nonsense was that.
“Nothing happened! His Majesty is the same as usual!”
Just as the soldiers reluctantly nodded at Puti’s fierce reaction, an exclamation was heard from the room.
“Beautiful!”
Puti’s heart made a thump sound and dropped to his toes. If Puti heard it, the soldiers must have heard it too.
Sure enough, at Rosetta’s admiring voice, the soldiers began exchanging glances with each other. Puti glared and pushed away those soldiers.
“His Majesty has returned, so hurry back to your posts. Doesn’t His Majesty dislike having anyone other than me in front of his room when he’s inside!”
“But just now His Majesty….”
“Must you truly suffer his wrath before you return to your posts?!”
When Puti became genuinely angry, the soldiers left the front of the room as if they had no choice. Of course, as they left, they were talking amongst themselves about Rosetta’s narcissism.
As soon as they disappeared, Puti roughly disheveled his neatly arranged hair. It was good that he had gotten one over on Saintess Angel, but the ending wasn’t great.
‘My job… My power!’
Puti impiously glared at Rosetta’s door with resentment.
* * *
The crying sound was heard again. The crying sound that had continued for nearly two months now—one would think he’d be used to it by now, but perhaps because of the emotion contained in the sound, Seoho found it hard to ignore that crying.
‘Why does it cry so sadly?’
When he blinked open his eyes, he saw the wall. It seemed he had slept turned to the right side today.
Seoho looked at the eye drawn on the wall with eyes full of sleepiness. It felt exactly as if their eyes had actually met.
‘It seems like it moved, too.’
It seemed more lively than usual. Seoho let out an empty laugh at himself for having such nonsensical thoughts and blinked his eyes. Fortunately, the crying sound stopped quickly today.
Seoho fell into a deep sleep again.
* * *
Seoho yawned as he walked. He had tried to somehow fill his lack of sleep through naps, but sleeping in short bursts couldn’t completely relieve his fatigue.
‘It’s stiff.’
Seoho, who had been turning his neck this way and that, felt like he hadn’t been outside lately due to not sleeping properly and taking long naps, so after a long while he took a book and visited the cafe in front of his house.
Seoho, who had ordered a cold Americano and cake, sat by the window on the cafe’s second floor, basking in the sunlight, and turned a page of his book. Time passed quickly while reading the famous mystery novel.
“Seoho-ya?”
Seoho, who had been concentrating on his book for a while, raised his head at the voice calling him. It was a woman with long permed hair flowing down to her waist.
The woman, who appeared to be about his age, smiled brightly when their eyes met and greeted him.
“It is Seoho, right? Long time no see!”
Seoho was flustered. He felt truly sorry, but Seoho couldn’t recognize who this woman was.
She appeared to be about his age, and seeing that she knew him, she was clearly someone from school, but nothing beyond that came to mind. Seoho hesitantly returned the greeting.
“Ah, hello. Um….”
When Seoho trailed off, the woman burst into laughter and asked.
“You don’t remember me, do you?”
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay. I have changed a lot. I transferred schools in between too. I’m Oh Yuri, the class president who was in the same class as you in second year.”
Seoho recalled the class president from his memories. A quiet girl who used to tie her hair tightly in one bundle without bangs.
Seoho looked at the woman before his eyes again in surprise.
“Oh Yuri?”
The image was too different. The features themselves hadn’t changed, but was it because her hairstyle had changed? Or was it because of the liveliness with which she approached him so familiarly?
Even after hearing her name, it didn’t match well with the image in his memory. At Seoho’s surprised reaction, Oh Yuri said playfully.
“We were class president and vice president together, and this is too much.”
“I’m really sorry.”
“It’s fine. I’ve changed a lot, right? Actually, I came to the neighborhood because I thought of it after a long time, and this place has changed a lot too.”
Oh Yuri pointed across from Seoho and asked.
“Can I sit down?”
Seoho readily nodded.
“Yeah. Sure.”
Oh Yuri naturally sat in the seat across from him and continued talking.
“After I transferred schools, I heard you were busy doing class president work.”
Now that she mentioned it, that was true.
He hadn’t particularly wanted to become vice president either, but he remembered being troubled when Oh Yuri suddenly transferred at the end of the first semester and he ended up taking on all the class president duties.
Seoho raised the corners of his mouth. It had been difficult, but still, it wasn’t a bad memory.
Actually, he had only thought of the class president and vice president positions as bothersome, but his parents had been very happy when Seoho accidentally became class president. That’s why he had been class president in third year too.
“Right. You suddenly transferred, so I ended up doing the class president work.”
Oh Yuri brought her hands together in front and apologized.
“The transfer was decided suddenly. Sorry.”
“What’s there to be sorry about? It’s all in the past.”
“So what have you been doing these days? Are you going to school?”
Seoho answered appropriately. Only friends who had been close to him knew that Seoho’s parents had passed away, and he didn’t want to talk to Oh Yuri about his parents.
“No, I took a leave of absence.”
Oh Yuri opened her eyes wide and asked.
“Already?”
Seoho shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, one thing led to another.”
Oh Yuri seemed surprised but still didn’t pry and talked about her own daily life.
“I see. I have a free period today. In high school I had no time like that, but now that I’m a university student, I have time to spare, you know? I got tired of drinking too, so I was worrying about what to do and ended up coming all the way here.”
Now that he looked, thick books were sticking out of Oh Yuri’s large bag. When Seoho glanced at those books, Oh Yuri added that they were textbooks for her major.
Oh Yuri explained this and that about her university life, then with a playful smile filling her face again, she looked at Seoho with meaningful eyes and said.
“But to meet you of all people. It’s an honor, isn’t it?”
“Huh?”
“There were tons of kids in our class who liked you.”
“Oh, really?”
That was the first time he’d heard that. It wasn’t that he had never received confessions, but he didn’t think there were enough to call it many.
At Seoho’s somewhat indifferent reaction, Oh Yuri pouted as if it was boring.
“I don’t know if you’re oblivious or pretending not to know. Anyway, there were so many kids who liked you that it was really annoying for me too.”
He didn’t know what to say in response.
“…I see.”
“Unlike most guys, you were kind and handsome, right?”
Seoho looked at Oh Yuri blankly and said.
“…You really have changed a lot.”
Then Oh Yuri looked at him blankly as if surprised, then erased her exaggerated laughter from before and said calmly with a smile.
“Well, yeah. That wasn’t like me, was it?”
“I don’t know about that. But you looked uncomfortable.”
It could have been an unpleasant thing to say. But Oh Yuri smiled comfortably instead.
“You’re really honest. You’ve changed a bit too. Your atmosphere is, how should I say….”
Oh Yuri examined Seoho’s face as if choosing her words.
“Should I say you’re overflowing with melancholy? Ugh, I got goosebumps from saying that myself.”
There was still a playful tone mixed in, but it didn’t feel as contrived as before. Seoho smiled slightly, following Oh Yuri.
After that, the conversation was still friendly but became calm and quiet nonetheless. It was thanks to the atmosphere improving instantly when Oh Yuri returned to being the 18-year-old Oh Yuri that Seoho knew.
Oh Yuri pointed at the book Seoho had closed and asked.
“So what book are you reading right now?”
Now that he thought about it, Oh Yuri liked reading books. He also remembered them recommending books they were reading to each other before. Seoho lifted the book and said.
“It’s a mystery novel….”
Even before Seoho could say the book’s title, Oh Yuri smiled brightly and said.
“Ah, I know that author too.”
Oh Yuri, who had brightened up with a whoosh, reached out her hand and took the book.
