1
Studying continued until the sun came up, and then it kept going until Kishibe came to the apartment.
Yeah. I didn’t let the two of them sleep. Not on purpose, exactly. It just ended up that way.
Maybe that was why. Their ambitiously prepared ambush failed before it even began, and then they couldn’t block a single one of Kishibe’s attacks when he came in, so they ended up rolling around on the floor.
"Did you even stay up all night? Why are your movements so sloppy? Still, using your head was good. Use it more from now on. That’s all."
After saying that, Kishibe turned around and disappeared down the hall.
After that, things continued exactly as they had in the original story—the one Future had told me.
Kishibe threw a knife to launch a surprise attack, saying not to trust a hunter’s words. Denji was badly rattled by the attack, and so on.
The only real difference was that Power had listened to my advice and distributed her blood properly, only to get beaten like a stray dog by Kishibe.
Anyway, Kishibe’s training continued smoothly, and my plan was used without a hitch, so the day ended there.
"Oh, right. I need to grab this."
"Hey, wait. Put that down. Are you not putting it down?"
Galli, who had come grocery shopping with me, yelped at the thing I was holding.
"Why."
"Put it down. Just put it down."
"This is the core of what I’m doing tomorrow. And you want me to put it down? What am I supposed to put down, you idiot?"
"No, just put it down."
"What are you—"
"—"
The argument that went on for a long time after that was, of course, won by me.
2
"Gongja, sorry to keep you waiting."
"Yeah. I waited a fucking long time."
Makima felt a chill the moment she exchanged just one line with Gongja.
Her eyes quickly darted over him to check whether anything about him seemed off.
His clothes were fine. His face was a little red, but fine. He was always short. He was holding some weird bottle in his hand. Wait a second—his face was red?
"Gongja, what’s that in your hand?"
"This? Liquor."
"...."
Makima realized at once that something had gone very wrong.
Unfortunately, she did not realize the even more important fact that she needed to run right now, so after making a face for a moment, she collected herself and spoke.
"Then, shall we go on our date?"
Gongja nodded at her words.
"Yeah. Then let’s go in."
"Where to?"
"The movie theater. Today is an all-day movie theater da— where are you going?"
Makima asked as Gongja, the instant he finished speaking, started walking in the exact opposite direction from the theater.
"To go on a date."
They had come to the movie theater to go on a date, but now he was saying they were going somewhere to go on a date. Makima could not make sense of Gongja’s words or actions at all.
But what could she do?
Makima swallowed, looking at the liquor bottle in Gongja’s hand, and thought it over.
Then, when Gongja crossed the street without once looking back at her and soon tried to get on a bus, she hurriedly followed him.
After all, it was her loss.
The bus Makima boarded after Gongja was extremely empty. It seemed the fact that rush hour was over had quite an impact.
Anyway, because of that, there were plenty of seats, and finding one where the two of them could sit together was easier than falling off a log.
"Sit down first."
Gongja gave Makima the window seat.
But Makima didn’t sit there.
"If I sit on the inside, I might throw up."
Because of a horrible memory.
In the end, Gongja sat by the window, and Makima sat on the inside.
After that, they spent about three stops just looking out at the scenery in silence.
Then, as they passed the fourth stop—
"Anything you want to eat?"
Gongja asked.
"Uh... just eat whatever you want, Gongja."
Makima answered simply.
"I said tell me what you want to eat."
"...Sand, sandwich?"
"Fine."
That ended the conversation.
After riding five more stops or so, they got off.
As soon as Gongja stepped off the bus, he dragged Makima to a nearby supermarket.
Then he went inside, bought some fresh vegetables and bread, tossed them into the prepared shopping basket, and headed somewhere else.
Makima had plenty she wanted to say, plenty she wanted to object to, but if she went and provoked that drunk bastard, she wouldn’t gain anything. In the end, she quietly followed Gongja.
"Gongja."
"What."
"Is this your house?"
But when she confirmed that the place Gongja had dragged her to was his house, she could no longer keep following him.
What the hell was that lunatic trying to do with me? Was he going to show me what an equal relationship was? Had I messed up by touching a nerve?
All kinds of thoughts flashed through her head.
Annoying. Tedious. Angry. Flustered.
So many emotions collided at once.
Her thoughts were such a mess she couldn’t even begin to sort them out.
"Was this a waste of time?"
She couldn’t make a proper judgment.
Because of that, when Gongja snapped, "What are you doing there?" and grabbed her, Makima let herself be pulled into his house without the slightest resistance.
"Sit there and wait."
Only then did Makima realize that Gongja had intended to cook for her himself.
Wouldn’t it be easier to just buy a sandwich? What a waste of time. Then why make it yourself?
She didn’t understand.
But she waited. As the disadvantaged one, she had already come all the way into his house, so she couldn’t very well turn around now and say she wanted to buy food instead or leave.
Then five minutes, seven minutes, ten minutes. Fifteen minutes passed.
"How long is this going to take?"
Makima’s patience was now heading straight for the floor.
For good reason. Chop some vegetables roughly, put them between bread, and that’s a sandwich. Making that kind of food should take less than five minutes.
That was common sense, regardless of what Makima thought.
And yet Gongja had been standing there for nearly fifteen minutes. And he’d completely left her alone while doing it! How could she possibly still have any patience left?
Just as Makima, out of patience at last, stood up from her seat—
"Sit down. You can eat before you go too."
At last, the food was ready.
At Gongja’s words, Makima sat back down and looked back and forth between him, staggering as he carried the plates while drunk, and the plates piled on the table.
And when all the plates were finally set down on the table—
"Hah..."
She couldn’t stop a dry laugh from escaping.
The table was packed not only with the sandwich she’d mentioned, but also mac and cheese, sauce, toast, fried eggs, and bacon.
And all of it looked delicious, too.
Of course, they were very basic dishes, but the sandwich looked so perfectly put together, and the mac and cheese looked so thick and properly seasoned even before being stirred, that it almost felt like something from a restaurant.
Seeing that, Makima forgot all about her exhausted patience and the time she’d spent waiting, sat down, and started eating.
First, the main dish: the sandwich.
It had the kind of clean, classic taste you’d only expect from a famous brunch place. In other words, it wasn’t special, but simple is best, and it was perfect for lunch.
The fried egg and toast would probably taste exactly as expected. So her hand moved to the mac and cheese.
Mac and cheese. A dish made by mixing macaroni with cheese and cream. It was simple beyond belief, but if the ratio was off, it became something only the cook could stomach.
So she’d been a little worried... but the result was more than satisfying. The macaroni was cooked just right, the cheese ratio was perfect, and the seasoning was exactly where it needed to be—not too salty, not too sweet. She would have believed it if someone told her it was sold at a restaurant.
With the main dishes like this, Makima was able to enjoy a very satisfying meal.
Time passed, and after the meal and cleanup were done, Gongja was taking Makima somewhere else.
Because lunch had been so satisfying, Makima’s opinion of Gongja had risen quite a bit.
And exactly twenty minutes later, that opinion hit rock bottom.
"What the hell is this place...?"
"A PC bang. We came to play games."
Because Gongja had dragged her to a PC bang and made her play games.
Of course, making her play games itself was fine. She could understand that much.
But the problem was—
"No, haaa... why are you so bad at this? You just have to run forward!"
"B-but... that person keeps grabbing me—"
"Getting grabbed isn’t the problem. You just can’t run, period. You can’t even get over the obstacles, and you keep turning down the wrong path! I’ve never seen anyone this bad at a game before."
"..."
He was throwing every insult he could think of at her.
She had never played a game before. She hadn’t even been interested in them. And now he’d suddenly made her do it, while lecturing her and hurling insults the whole time.
How could her score possibly stay the same?
Fine. Fine, if you want to make her play and criticize her, she could swallow that. She was the one at a disadvantage, after all.
"Why the hell are there webtoons from the 2010s here? ...Heart-Slicing...?"
But what was this? He’d made her do this miserable crap, while he sprawled around in the back reading comics?
Makima, unlike usual, had her expression completely twisted as she huffed and hammered away at the keyboard.
About an hour later, she realized her face had been thoroughly ruined, but since the idiot behind her already knew who she was, she decided it didn’t matter and focused on the monitor without caring at all.
4:00 p.m. They’d spent about eight hours on this ridiculous date. At this point, Makima was ready to throw everything away and go home.
Honestly, after being dragged around by that one person and losing the original purpose entirely, if she still wanted to keep going with him, that would be the weird part.
"Let’s get off."
Gongja said to Makima, who had pressed her head all the way against the window and was just about ready to say she was going home.
As soon as she got off, Makima was planning to tell Gongja off.
That had been the plan... but tell him off? She followed him as if possessed.
And where they arrived was... in front of the movie theater. The same place they’d gotten on the bus earlier. Gongja had dragged Makima back here.
"Why are we back here...?"
Makima asked.
Her blank expression, which she’d forced herself to keep after leaving the PC bang, had long since melted away.
"Hoo..."
Gongja just kept puffing on his cigarette.
After smoking two, he finally spoke.
"You asked what an equal relationship is, right? An equal relationship is one where giving and receiving happen actively."
He added, "That’s just my standard, but think of it roughly like that," and took out another cigarette.
Then he took a drag from the new cigarette and continued.
"A date spot is something both sides agree on. But you told me to come to the movie theater from the start. And after we got here, you said we should just watch movies all day."
Makima stayed quiet.
"That’s not equal. That’s selfish. It’s coercive. It’s just you doing whatever you want."
This time, she only lowered her head and listened. She had no grounds to argue.
"So, question time. Why did I come back here?"
The answer was simple.
But Makima couldn’t say it.
Because she didn’t want to admit it? Or because she didn’t know how to put it into words? Maybe both?
She didn’t know. She couldn’t know. If Makima herself didn’t know, how could Gongja possibly know?
As Makima continued to keep silent, Gongja gave a small laugh and said,
"You matched my time first, so I’m matching your time too. You gave me yours, so I’m giving you mine."
Makima felt something spark in her head.
Right. It was simple. You just receive as much as you give, and give as much as you receive. That was an equal relationship.
To think she’d been stumbling around without knowing something this simple... the more she thought about it, the more absurd it was, and a dry laugh escaped her.
"What are you doing? The movie’s starting."
Gongja led her along.
Was she grateful that he’d taught her something she didn’t know?
Or maybe not that at all.
"Oh, right. Come to think of it, our relationship isn’t equal either. I’m the only one who knows your secret. Hey, lean in."
Makima leaned her ear over.
"I’m actually sixteen. Fourteen by this world’s standards, I guess. Anyway. There, now you know my secret too. A relationship where each person holds the other’s secret. That’s an equal relationship. Got it?"
Maybe it was because she’d developed some inexplicable fondness for that side of him.
Her heart started pounding strangely.
And then... the face she had only remembered by scent was carved perfectly into her brain and her eyes.
Why was her heart beating like this? Why was that face suddenly appearing before her? She found herself wondering about those things.
But this time, she didn’t feel frustrated.
She only thought that she needed to spend more time with this man.
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