“Commander, the Wisdom Cube inspection is finished.”
“The deck’s fine too.”
“Haa.... I have no idea how anything works anymore. I really shouldn’t be touching anything in the bridge without the Manjuu....”
The command ship was up on the dock. Yoo Jinseong stepped out of it and nodded as the shipgirls approached him one by one. Around him, the Manjuu chirped happily as well.
“Good work, New Jersey, Enterprise. Yorktown was in charge of the ship’s exterior...?”
“Y-yes, no problems....”
“....”
Yorktown appeared behind Enterprise with a sulky face. Jinseong squeezed his eyes shut, while New Jersey and Enterprise stared wide-eyed and carefully watched Yorktown’s reaction.
“Um, Commander? Did something happen to my sister?”
“I-I’m not really sure? Haha....”
Enterprise whispered to him quietly, but Jinseong could only answer that he didn’t know while breaking out in a cold sweat. In truth, he had no idea why Yorktown was in such a bad mood either.
“Hmm.... Should I ask my sister directly?”
“N-no. I don’t think that’s necessary. It feels like.... it’s because of me.”
“Because of the Commander? What do you mean....”
After what happened with Bremerton last night, Yorktown had started acting as his secretary ship again, and she’d been like this since morning. Jinseong had noticed that her side-eyes and snappish little movements only showed up when she was with him, so he could only assume something was wrong with him.
“Haa.... I don’t know what happened, but it’s rare to see Yorktown sister pouting like that. I hope you find the cause and work it out nicely....”
“R-right. I really should.”
Yorktown was in the middle of talking with New Jersey. Seeing that, Jinseong clapped his hands and called Enterprise again.
“Oh, right. Enterprise? Is Hornet doing okay?”
“Hornet? Did something happen to Hornet too?”
“Ah, that. More than anything else, that. Hornet is one of the shipgirls who were hurt by the previous Commander too. Bremerton and I... seem to have gotten closer, and Saint Louis has been coming to me first lately so we’ve been talking things through. Hornet’s the only one I haven’t properly met yet.”
“Hmm.... I think Hornet’s fine. If something was really off with her, or if there was a real problem, my sister Yorktown would’ve noticed first, more than anyone else.”
“I see. Still, I should probably meet her properly at least once. Could you call her to the Commander’s office after this?”
“No problem. I’ll do that.”
By then Yorktown, who had apparently been listening to Jinseong’s conversation with Enterprise, was glaring at him even harder.
“...Ahem! Cough, cough! All right, then let’s head back to the Commander’s office! Rest is important too, after all, yes indeed!”
Jinseong hurried toward the base headquarters, almost squeaking as he went. New Jersey laughed as she watched his retreating back.
“Heehee.... Am I the only one who thinks this situation is funny?”
“New Jersey, you’ve really gotten comfortable too....”
“I think it’s about time~ Besides, for Hornet’s sake, maybe I should skip the Commander’s office today and get some rest too?”
“Do as you like. Honestly, I was thinking.... it’s been a long time since the base felt this peaceful.”
Enterprise relayed to Yorktown that Hornet would be sent to the Commander’s office, then turned away. Even from Enterprise’s perspective, Yorktown didn’t seem to be genuinely angry at the Commander. It just looked like she wanted something.
“The Commander’s officially under disciplinary leave, but he looks busier than before~”
-------------
“Phew.... So if I just talk with Hornet now, that’s everything I scheduled for today?”
Jinseong entered the Commander’s office and stretched. Yorktown picked up the schedule on the Commander’s desk and checked it.
“Yes.... Counseling with Saint Louis, patrol around the base with North Carolina, the full inspection of the command ship.... You’ve done it all. Once you finish the schedule you just made with Hornet, you’ll really be done.”
Jinseong was now used to Yorktown, and he hadn’t failed to notice that she looked unusually deflated. He just pretended not to see it, thinking he probably shouldn’t poke at her.
But they couldn’t keep living together in this awkward state forever, so Jinseong gathered his courage and called out to her.
“Um.... Yorktown?”
“....”
Yorktown said nothing, only turning her head to look at him. Jinseong cleared his throat on purpose and continued carefully.
“You’ve looked so upset all day.... Um, is something wrong?”
“...Hmph. You’re asking way too late!”
“Hah, haha.... I thought it might be bad to ask too quickly without knowing anything. S-so, what is it?”
As Jinseong pulled out the chair at the Commander’s desk and looked at Yorktown, she seemed to hesitate a little before answering, her fingers fidgeting.
“T-that is.... Commander, last night....”
“Last night? Evening.... Ack! Huh?!”
Startled by Jinseong’s reaction, Yorktown jumped too and looked around before hurrying over to him. Jinseong clutched his head and stared under the desk.
“No.... Laffey, why are you under the desk...?”
“Mmm.... Huh? I fell asleep while trying to scare the Commander....”
Laffey had been curled up and dozing under the desk. Rubbing her eyes with a drowsy face, she got up and came over to Jinseong. After fumbling for a moment, she tapped the chair and tugged at the hem of his clothes.
“Commander, sit down already.”
“Oh? O-okay.”
Jinseong let out a sigh of relief and sat down. He tried to pull the chair closer to the desk, but Laffey, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, climbed onto his lap, so he couldn’t.
“L-Laffey? If you’re sleeping, you should sleep in bed!”
“This is way better than bed. Fuu.... then good night....”
Laffey leaned her head against Jinseong’s chest and closed her eyes, clutching his collar tightly. Of course, he tried patting her shoulder to get her up, but it didn’t work.
“Laffey! I still have to talk to Hornet soon, and I’ve got work to do.... Laffey! Khh....”
“Zzz....”
Jinseong silently cried inside and had no choice but to pat Laffey while he felt the air around him grow cold. Then he slowly turned his head toward the source.
“Uh, um. Yo, Yorktown...?”
“....”
Yorktown had turned away completely, her eyes now utterly dejected and her mouth a little triangle.
“Wouldn’t it be better to finish what we were talking about...?”
“Hornet will be here soon, so let’s talk after everything’s done. I’ll go make some more coffee!”
Yorktown spun around and headed for the coffee pot. Jinseong felt sweat pouring down his back as he looked down at Laffey asleep in his arms. For some reason, he even thought he could see Laffey smiling.
In the awkward silence, only Laffey’s breathing and the faint clink of dishes continued, and soon Hornet appeared after a knock at the door. Hornet came in after taking off her hat and shaking out her hair once, then paused when she saw Jinseong sitting in a chair with Laffey in his arms.
“Huh? What’s this situation, Commander?”
“Ah, it ended up like this.... Don’t mind Laffey. Instead, could you grab a separate chair and sit in front of me?”
“Oh, u-um.... Okay.”
Jinseong and Hornet sat facing each other with the Commander’s desk between them. Yorktown brought coffee to the two of them.
Thud!
The coffee didn’t spill from the cup, but it was handed over with firm finality, reflecting Yorktown’s mood. Hornet jumped and looked between Yorktown and Jinseong.
“Uh, sis? Did something bad happen.... Commander?”
“Sob. Th-that’s how it ended up too.... Anyway! This is the first time we’ve properly sat down and talked face-to-face, right?”
“I’ve seen you often when you were with my sisters, but this is the first time like this.”
“Saint Louis is also talking things through with Vestal’s help, and Bremerton.... well, um.... seems to have worked out somehow. So I thought you should definitely talk too, Hornet. Even if you hear from Enterprise or Yorktown that you’re fine, you might still be hurting where no one can see, right?”
“Ah~ haha! It’s okay. I really didn’t think much of it. Maybe I’m just a little dull?”
“Really? If you say so, that’s a relief to some extent.... But the fact that something bad happened doesn’t change. If you need anything, you have to call me separately, okay? Then I’ll make sure we have a proper one-on-one talk, not like this.”
Hornet felt her heart warm at Jinseong’s serious tone. But with Laffey comfortably nestled in his arms and Yorktown off to the side making the dishes clatter loudly on purpose, it was so funny she couldn’t keep a straight face.
“If anything happens, I will, Commander. More importantly, pay more attention to my sister today. Hehe....”
“Th-that! O-okay.”
Unlike Jinseong’s somewhat prepared expectations, the talk with Hornet ended anticlimactically. Afterward, Hornet kept looking at Jinseong with an amused expression and left the Commander’s office with light steps, while Jinseong patted Laffey awake, who was now practically hanging around his neck.
“Laffey, Laffey? It’s dinner time now, so we should head back to the dorms, okay?”
“Mmmnuu.... Already? I want to stay with the Commander more....”
“Haha. Sorry, but no, Laffey~ I finally got my dorm back too. We need to head back soon.”
“Okay....”
Jinseong adjusted the clothes slipping off her shoulders and finally managed to wake Laffey up and send her off. He waved as she staggered out of the Commander’s office with surprisingly steady steps, then turned around and found Yorktown standing right in front of him.
“Gah?! Y-you startled me.... Yo, Yorktown?”
Her face had gone beyond a sulky expression and a triangle mouth; her cheeks were puffed out like she was stuffing air into them. As Jinseong hurriedly tried to find his next words, Yorktown lifted the coat and luggage she had already packed for him.
“I’ll escort you to the dorms!”
“Uh, wha? No, there’s no need to....”
As if his answer didn’t matter, Yorktown strode past him, opened the door, and waited. In the end, he couldn’t add another word and followed Yorktown to the Commander’s dormitory.
“I’m a little worried.”
When Jinseong arrived at the Commander’s dormitory, he opened the door with some concern. Since the former education officer, who could no longer be seen, might have used the place however he pleased, Jinseong, visiting for the first time, might have had to clean up the mess.
Click.
Contrary to his worries, the dorm was spotless from the living room to the kitchen to the bedroom. It was so clean it almost looked like someone had gone through it by hand, and he could only look around in surprise.
“You seemed worried, and sure enough, the dorm was a complete disaster.”
“What? Then why is it this clean...?”
“We took turns cleaning the Commander’s dorm voluntarily. The Manjuu aren’t very good at repetitive tasks unless they’re tied to a specific job.”
“You did?! If you’d told me, I would’ve helped too...!”
“Then it wouldn’t be a surprise gift for the Commander, would it? Besides, we also.... really hated seeing that person carelessly rummage through our Commander’s space.”
“...Thank you.”
As a superior, as a senior, it was a feeling he was experiencing for the first time. Jinseong felt tears welling up a little from the slow, sinking warmth. He knew how hard it was to meet people who would return your kindness and effort with pure sincerity, which made it all the more moving.
Shipgirls really were friends you couldn’t help but like.
“Anyway! So.... Commander!”
“Ah, y-yes. Yes....!”
“Last night.... what exactly did you do with Bremerton?”
Yorktown’s critical hit instantly washed away all that emotion. Jinseong stammered for a moment, then answered right away with what he had been thinking.
“It was something like counseling with Saint Louis! That was all it was, just that!”
“When you were counseling with Saint Louis.... y-you didn’t hug her or take off Saint Louis’s clothes....”
“A-ah! N-no, what kind of misunderstanding is that— that’s a dangerous thing to say! I didn’t take off her clothes! I-I don’t know! Bremerton took off her own coat!”
“....”
Seeing Yorktown’s cheeks turn a little red made him feel strangely off, so Jinseong tapped his own cheek once. When Yorktown fidgeted for a moment, he spoke again.
“Bremerton had a string of bad things happen to her, right? Even so, she held up well and tried to carry out my orders faithfully. Honestly, in a way, you could say it happened because I asked her to do it....”
“That’s not true. It’s not the Commander’s fault.”
Yorktown was, as expected, absolutely firm on that point. Jinseong smiled a little and nodded.
“Anyway, so.... I praised her. I told her thank you for holding up so well, and for being honest with me.”
After hearing Jinseong’s words, Yorktown fiddled with the hem of her dress as if folding it between her fingers, thinking hard before making up her mind and taking one big step closer to him.
“Commander! I need it too. Um...! Praise!”
“What?”
“I thought about it, and I still feel left out. I was the first one to meet the Commander in Korea, and I was the first one to know the Commander’s true nature....”
Jinseong had trouble keeping his expression under control at Yorktown’s unexpected, childlike complaint.
Yorktown’s face was getting redder and redder too, but she kept talking without stopping.
“I’ve stayed by the Commander’s side longer and closer than anyone else from the very beginning, so can’t you praise me too...?”
“Th-then how do you want me to praise you? Just saying you did a good job probably isn’t enough, right?”
Jinseong forced his face into something like composure, even though he no longer knew how to manage his expression, and held out a hand to Yorktown. At his words, Yorktown slowly opened her arms.
“At least as much as you did for Bremerton.... please....”
A fierce conflict rose in Jinseong’s heart. Hug Bremerton last night, and hug Yorktown tonight? What kind of spineless nonsense was that? Was he trying to keep two shipgirls on the hook at once?
His thoughts fought in every direction, tangled with doubts over whether this was right or wrong. But that conflict didn’t last long. Yorktown’s pitiful face and trembling outstretched arms caught his eye.
Whoosh!
“Ah?! Ugh...!”
As if deciding not to think anymore, Jinseong tightened the arms that had already wrapped around Yorktown’s shoulders and waist from the start.
Now, everything they felt for each other had been exposed.
Yorktown slowly tightened her arms around his back and gently pressed her nose to the nape of his neck.
“If it weren’t for Yorktown, I might’ve just lost all motivation and given up while going through the motions. Thank you for trusting me from the very beginning, even when I was still awkward with the other Eagle Union shipgirls.”
Yorktown, who found Jinseong’s scent pleasantly comforting and didn’t want to lift her head, slowly raised her face as if under a spell and moved toward his cheek at his words.
Tap.
“...Huh?”
“Ah....”
The moment her nose touched his cheek, she came to her senses.
“Eek!”
Yorktown hurriedly shoved at Jinseong’s chest, then clutched the chest that had been pressed tightly against his body and dashed out of the dorm in a panic.
“W-wait, Yorktown!”
Click. Click!
“G-good night!”
The door, which had already closed once, opened a crack again, and Yorktown’s farewell drifted in, making Jinseong once more savor just how earnest and lady-like she really was.
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