Transformation or Death

A Little Money and a Place to Live Tomorrow is Enough (4)

“He’s not here!”

Even when opening the door to the hospital room where he had stayed until a few days ago.

“He’s not here!”

Even in the ruins of the collapsed house.

“He’s not here…!”

Even inside the cafe where he works.

“Why!”

Baek Ah-hee fell to her knees in despair, pulling at her hair, unable to find any trace of Han Jae-jung anywhere.

Joo Ah-yoon was bewildered. Anyone would be if someone burst through the door screaming and falling to their knees.

“Ugh! I lost to you!”

Haru followed behind her.

“Ugh… Hey… Huff… *wheeze*… Why so fast…”

And behind Haru came an exhausted Ara.

“What, were you having a running competition?”

“No?”

“Yes!”

“Which is it…”

Joo Ah-yoon looked at them with displeasure. It wasn’t strange for the usual trio to come here together.

But today their entrance was so dramatic and inconsiderate that Joo Ah-yoon couldn’t welcome their visit.

‘What do they think our shop is….’

They better not think this is their hideout rather than a shop. They shouldn’t.

“By the way, haven’t you seen brother on the way today? It’s been quite a while but he still hasn’t come. He’s not even texting.”

“That’s it!”

Baek Ah-hee suddenly raised her head and shouted. Her voice, trained at rescue sites, had enough volume to startle Joo Ah-yoon again. Flinching at the unexpected loud noise, Joo Ah-yoon asked back.

“What, what is?”

“I’m talking about Jae-jung! Haven’t you heard from him either?”

Contact. Hearing that word made her shoulders flinch for a different reason. Her bored eyes narrowed sharply. Baek Ah-hee shrunk back when faced with her suddenly fierce gaze.

“Contact? Ha, contact? Contaaact?”

“Why, why are you like this?”

“Damn it, if I had received any, would I be asking you?!”

Anger like lava flowed in her pink eyes. The frustration that had built up exploded with this trigger.

“This crazy guy never contacts his boss! Whether he’s sick, whether he doesn’t want to come, whether he needs help, he doesn’t say any of that! Am I some cold-blooded person, why won’t he rely on me? I’m not some three-year-old child, I’m an adult with social status and capital!”

As mentioned before, he’s been drastically avoiding relying on her lately. Where did he throw away their previous talk about being colleagues? He treats her like some child. That’s why he won’t accept help.

Of course, Joo Ah-yoon admits she tends to act particularly childish in front of him, but that wasn’t meant to be treated like an actual child. She just felt relaxed around him.

Joo Ah-yoon was a proper adult woman. She had grown up in her own way. She had her status as a former magical girl and money, plus transformation abilities. Among support abilities, she had the overwhelming power of instantaneous teleportation.

If she were to publicly recruit people after revealing all these conditions, people would line up beyond this cafe and into other cities to find her.

“Even so, I’m not someone who deserves to be ignored this much…!”

Though she has disadvantages like being short, stubborn, and having an eccentric way of speaking…

“…Is that the problem after all? Is brother reluctant to receive help because I’m ugly inside and out…?”

After repeated failures to help, Joo Ah-yoon gradually lost confidence.

Opposite to earlier, now Joo Ah-yoon was making Baek Ah-hee flustered. What started as a journey to find Han Jae-jung was suddenly turning into a psychological counseling session for the cafe owner. At the same time, she felt a chill.

‘…Surely not.’

Baek Ah-hee turned to look at Haru with a terrified face. Her severe lack of social skills sometimes made her say things so tactless that others would wonder ‘Is she picking a fight?’

This was one of those times. In situations like this, she would perform the strange acrobatics of blurting out whatever she thought without any consideration for others’ feelings.

“Naruhodo (I see)… Aniki has no interest in petite bodies… Mmph! mmph!”

‘This shouldn’t have happened…!’

Baek Ah-hee quickly went behind Haru and covered her mouth. She ignored Haru’s betrayed look. Sorry. Please forgive me. There was no choice….

At that moment, Ara, who had been catching her breath for a while, suddenly stood up.

“What nonsense is that?!”

Unlike Baek Ah-hee who had just become an adult and teenage Haru, she had particularly struggled with stamina during their expedition between the hospital, house, and cafe, but now she shouted energetically as if her previous exhaustion was a lie. She seemed energetic, as if she had recovered her strength.

“Huff… *wheeze*… What kind of corrupt interpretation is that…! Is it Han Jae-jung you’re thinking of to be such a pathetic man with that kind of character? Is he… *gasp*… Some trash who follows people based on conditions…?!”

Apparently not. Seeing how her words were interrupted by shortness of breath, it seemed she still needed time to recover her stamina.

“…! That can’t be!”

“That’s right. That’s just your misconception. Mr. Han Jae-jung must have his own circumstances. And those circumstances are not because of your shortcomings.”

Ara spoke with a confident attitude.

“Besides, if you have any shortcomings, you should think about either overcoming them or becoming someone with strengths great enough to cover those shortcomings. What are you trying to do by being so discouraged?! If you want to be relied upon, think about becoming someone who others want to rely on!”

“…Yeah, you’re right.”

Joo Ah-yoon nodded with a shy smile.

“You’re right. Thanks for making me realize that. I thought you were just an awful person… But you can actually say things that aren’t awful? I’ve learned that you actually have consideration for others. Who knew that even a jerk could have such warm feelings….”

“What do you take me for?!”

“A jerk.”

“Die, you midget!”

Watching Joo Ah-yoon and Ara start exchanging insults like usual again, Baek Ah-hee smiled contentedly.

“Things worked out well.”

“Mmph! Mph!”

“Oh right. Sorry.”

“Phew! I thought I was going to die… Ah-hee has assassination skills! I had no idea!”

“I’m really sorry….”

She apologized while timidly lowering her head. Haru accepted the apology with an innocent smile. After clearing her throat for a moment, Haru’s eyes lit up as she jumped between Joo Ah-yoon and Ara who had started snapping at each other.

“Senpai, that’s wrong! Since senior Orange doesn’t have a dick, it would be more appropriate to call her a pussy!”

“Shut up, you little shit!”

“Yes, that’s it!”

With Haru joining in, the battlefield became noisy, and Baek Ah-hee began to contemplate against this background noise.

‘Wait… So that means even sister Deneb doesn’t know where Jae-jung is….’

She didn’t seem to be lying. If that was a lie, Joo Ah-yoon should quit running the café and become an actor right away. Neither Joo Ah-yoon nor Han Jae-jung were good at lying.

She had now checked all the likely places where he might be.

‘Of course, there could be places that only Jae-jung knows about that I don’t….’

The timing being right after his discharge is concerning. His traces disappeared after an unusually quick discharge. His phone has been turned off since the first call. Even Joo Ah-yoon, who was his most reliable person, says she doesn’t know his current location.

Something is clearly wrong.

‘Don’t tell me he’s already involved with the strange person….’

A chilling thought ran down her spine for a moment.

‘How could someone in poor health do something… Ah, no. There’s still hope.’

Although she hadn’t identified all of Jae-jung’s acquaintances, she knew several people who had connections with him.

“So even sister Deneb doesn’t know where Jae-jung is?”

“This damn… Uh, yeah… That’s right. I’m sorry, I thought I was pretty close with brother but I couldn’t even accompany him when he was discharged, couldn’t be relied upon, and just became a useless boss who only gives money….”

“Save the negative thoughts for later! Let’s do something else now!”

Cutting off Joo Ah-yoon’s muttering, who still hadn’t completely shaken off her dejection despite Ara’s reprimand, Baek Ah-hee continued her words.

“Even after being discharged, the fact that Jae-jung is still a patient hasn’t changed. We have a duty to check where he is and what he’s doing right now!”

“Huh? We have such a duty? Why? He’s an adult, we shouldn’t interfere….”

“We’re magical girls! It’s natural to help those who are sick!”

“Sodesu ne (That’s right)! Sagashimasho (Let’s look for him)!”

She persuaded and silenced Haru who had suddenly become level-headed.

“Hey… Hey… But I still have the café….”

“Your employee is in danger, you know? Besides, we don’t have any customers except us anyway! We’re in the red every day!”

“That’s not true?! We do have customers?! They’re about to come?!”

“They haven’t come yet. Let’s go together!”

Baek Ah-hee was particularly sincere about Han Jae-jung. She even had a sense of mission.

Right now, she was the only one here who knew about Han Jae-jung’s terminal condition. As such, she wanted to make sure that others who knew him could spend as much time with him as possible.

Of course, she too wanted to be with Han Jae-jung until he died.

Having decided to decorate his death, she also wanted to decorate his life with herself. It might be greedy, but she didn’t care.

Death is a wound that the living must endure. Anyone would want to prepare before the wound appears.

This was a kind of altruism and also strong selfishness.

“…Where to? You said you don’t know where brother is.”

Joo Ah-yoon asked with a deep sigh, seemingly convinced. Baek Ah-hee pulled out her phone with a confident smile.

“There’s always a signpost. We’re not the only ones who know Jae-jung, right? Actually, there’s someone who might know where he is, someone who knows him better than we do.”

“Ah.”

Joo Ah-yoon let out a small exclamation, seemingly realizing who she was talking about. Without any hesitation, Baek Ah-hee operated her phone, and soon a name appeared on the screen.

The name that read ‘sister Sirius!!!!!’

“What’s with all these exclamation marks.”

“That’s the size of my affection!”

“Then how did you save my name in your phone, Ah-hee?”

“Hehe….”

“Ah-hee? Don’t just laugh, answer me!”

“….”

“Ah, I see it must have so many numbers that it can’t be said out loud!”

Haru interpreted it positively.

Soon, her ringtone started playing.

-Let’s save the world~ I’ll hold your hand~

“What song is that?”

“It’s the theme song of Magical Girl Sky Polaris? Don’t tell me you didn’t know our senior’s song?”

“Senior, I’m disappointed….”

“You knew about it?”

“No?”

“This version is different from what I know…?”

“Of course, this is the version before it changed! There’s a backstory where it was changed after three months because it was too awful! You didn’t know that, did you? Did you?”

“You crazy….”

The reason for deliberately setting the discarded theme song as her ringtone was to feel pride in being a ‘true fan’ who knew even such obscure songs unlike others.

Unaware of this dark background, the others waited endlessly for the call to connect.

-Hello?

And soon, the call connected.

Yoon Seol-hwa’s elegant voice stood out like a sharp icicle even amid the noise.

“Ah, hello? Sister?”

-What’s the matter?

At the same time, her voice was as soft as silk. It’s a heart-fluttering voice no matter when you hear it. Probably the voice of a magical girl that the whole nation would love. To think that she could have private conversations with such a person. Every time she hears it, it makes her feel real about being a magical girl. Baek Ah-hee spoke her main point with a beaming smile.

“I was wondering something… Do you perhaps know where Jae-jung is?”

**

“What do you want to hear from me?”

“What else? To ask why you have no dreams.”

The Archer answered with a casual attitude.

“Why are you curious about that?”

“Because I don’t have dreams either.”

Hearing those words, Jason burst into loud laughter.

“Hahahahaha!! Haha! Hah… Ughhhk! Kuhehek!”

Due to his current poor physical condition, he immediately had to cough up blood. The Archer clicked his tongue as blood splattered on his shoulder.

“What the hell….”

“I’ve finally found it!”

“Found what?”

“You’ve come to the right place, comrade!”

“You’re the one who came here, what nonsense… Huh? Comrade?”

“That’s right, comrade!”

Jason shouted loudly once again without even trying to clear his blood-stained throat.

“Among those without dreams, we are comrades!”

“People without vision being comrades… Sounds a bit like a losers’ club….”

Comrades, a relationship he had never thought about.

“Hmm, that’s fucking good. I like comrade. Better than companion.”

But he liked it.

“Great! From now on, we’re jobless comrades!”

“I’m not jobless! I clearly have a workplace….”

“A criminal bastard talking nonsense. Is crime a job, fuck! Both you and I are jobless.”

The Archer laughed loudly enough to shake the heavens. His feet leaping across building rooftops got a bit faster.

“Let’s go, dreamless gangster sidekick Jason!”

“Alright! Dreamless thug… Oh, what’s your name?”

“For now, Sagittarius.”

After choosing his words carefully, his dried-up, corpse-like lips moved slightly.

“I don’t know my previous name!”

“Then I’ll call you Saji! Sagittarius is too long.”

“Saji? Sounds ominous, like a place of death.”

“Don’t you like it?”

“No.”

Those dried-up lips curved slightly.

“I like it! I’ll just be the Saji who doesn’t go to their death!”

This is how two dreamless idlers very quickly became friends.

The reason they could propose being comrades and names without any hesitation, and accept them without any hesitation, was because they were both brainless fools.

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