༺ Friendship? (2) ༻
1.
Sharon’s part-time job was a simple one.
She only needed to scan barcodes, swipe cards, receive cash in person, give out changes, check out the inventories, display some of the products, and occasionally wipe the floor.
Because of her beauty, sometimes there were overly clingy people that would try to hook up with her, but that was a story of the past. After she bought a Tarnishing Charm, those people stopped coming.
Said charm could significantly reduce the presence of the person wearing it. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that most witches in the Modern World owned it.
After all, all witches possessed an exquisite beauty, and such beauty would attract unneeded attention from pests, whether they liked it or not.
Although its performance wasn’t as good as Siwoo’s music box, which was able to hide both magic waves and sound, for something that could be bought for 500,000 won, it was worth all the money.
Without it, she’d have to deal with people trying to hit on her every ten steps, and that really wasn’t something she could appreciate.
“…Should I just quit?”
As she sat down by herself behind the counter, she looked around the empty convenience store.
Normally, at times like this, she’d try to study about stocks and blockchain.
But, after tasting the bitterness of crashing stocks and blockchain, all her passion about them vanished.
Nowadays, she spent her time in a daze.
In the first place, the reason why she took up a part-time job was to cover for her living expenses, including to pay for her rent.
But, she didn’t have to worry about both anymore. She only needed to teach Siwoo magic lessons to cover for them.
“Siwoo… Siwoo… Hmm…”
Crossing both arms and legs, she muttered the name that came to her mind.
She remembered the thing that happened earlier in the morning.
The ‘I’ll let you touch my chest’ event that she prepared with great care to soothe Siwoo’s sad and discouraged heart.
Now that she had the time to think about it, she realized that what she had done was something quite bold.
No matter how close they were, to let him see her bare chest like that was a little too far.
“But…”
Not only did she let him see, she also let him squeeze them to his heart content.
Though, as an exchange, he seemed to be more spirited than usual, so it wasn’t all that bad.
Sharon stared at her chest.
‘They’re nice…’
That was the first time in her life that someone had ever praised her chest.
“…Ugh…”
‘Are they really nice, though? If anything, they only make me uncomfortable when running… And there’s the mole…’
Because this was the first time she had ever shown her chest to a man, she was skeptical towards Siwoo’s praise.
‘But still, I showed him these… And even let him touch them…’
In some of the R-rated movies she watched, she saw scenes where the male protagonist would grab the female protagonist’s chest whenever they were making out.
Previously, she had wondered what it would feel like if someone were to do that to her, but surprisingly, she didn’t really feel anything.
Whenever her nipples brushed against his thick palm, she felt a little itchy, but otherwise, she didn’t feel anything special.
“Seriously, what’s wrong with me…?”
But, for some reason, whenever she thought about it, her face would turn hot.
Not only that, her chest also felt all tingly.
‘Those movies never said anything about this!’’
Nevertheless, she was proud of what she had done.
After all, it was clear that Siwoo seemed to like it.
While it might be that every male in this world would like what she had done, but still…
“It isn’t like I’m doing anything bad…”
She told him that he was free to ask her if he was having a hard time, but she knew that he wouldn’t do that. Even if he were going through a hard time, he wouldn’t go out of her way to trouble her just for something like that. He was that kind of a person.
That was why she decided that she’d be the one who’d brought the matter up instead.
‘Anyway, I should stop thinking about this.’
It was near the end of her shift, so she checked out the inventory for one last time. When she was done with it, she left the convenience store.
“…Huh?”
That was when she noticed something.
The steps she took were as light as a feather.
Though they sounded awkward, she seemed to be humming for a while now.
No, this wasn’t because she felt joyful over her ending shift.
It was because of the fact that she would be able to meet with Siwoo again after she took that elevator.
‘Even when you’re not here with me, I’d always think of you…’
‘I’d give you all the treasures in this world…’
‘Thinking about meeting you already made me feel happy…’
‘Back then, I still didn’t know why. But now, I know.’
‘I love you.’
Suddenly, she was reminded of a scene from one of the movies she had watched.
‘Even when we aren’t together, I still think about him… I do want to give him a lot of things in this world… And… Just by thinking about meeting him, I already feel happy…?’
“Am I… In love with him…?”
This realization struck her dumbfounded for a moment. Soon, it was replaced by a hearty laugh.
‘What am I even talking about? That’s ridiculous.’
“What love? Can it pay all my debt? Ha!”
Her steps as she walked home were still as light as a feather.
2.
“Did you find anything?”
“Nope.”
Sharon, dressed in her witch outfit, was standing on a telephone pole while looking at her compass.
This was their usual routine.
After Sharon finished her part-time job, she, together with Siwoo, would put up flyers around the town while looking for Homunculi to hunt.
But this time, there was something that made her regret taking Siwoo with her.
Previously, she didn’t even need to consider this problem. She only needed to worry about whether they’d find a Homunculus or not.
The root of her worry was Della, as she had threatened to take her hunting ground.
Because of that, she tried to hunt by herself, leaving Siwoo behind.
This way, even if she were to bump into Della, she could bow her head, or beg for her mercy or whatever, and she could leave afterwards.
But, it wasn’t like she could just ditch Siwoo.
She didn’t have a good reason to.
Because he previously had claimed that he won against Della.
If she were to tell him to wait quietly in his room, that was the equivalent of her telling him that she had seen through his lies.
That would definitely crush his confidence completely and render all of her efforts useless.
In the end, she could only hope that nothing would happen tonight.
She swore that she’d come up with a good excuse to dissuade him from joining tomorrow instead.
“I guess there’s nothing for today too, huh? …Are you sure you’re okay? It’s been weeks since you’ve found something, hasn’t it?”
In truth, she didn’t even know what to feel about this outcome.
Nothing happened to both of them today, so in that sense, they were quite lucky, but…
At the same time, it meant that she wouldn’t have anything to pay her debt with either…
‘Let’s just go home…’
‘It’ll get dangerous if we linger around anyway…’
With that in mind, she jumped off the pole and landed next to Siwoo.
“Let’s call it a day.”
“Already? It’s only been half an hour, though.”
“I’m… Tired… I want to take a rest at home…”
Besides, she hadn’t recovered her mana yet.
It would be fine if they were to encounter small fries like what had been happening so far, but anything more than that, they’d have to rely solely on Siwoo to fight.
“Ah…”
Siwoo also noticed her situation, crediting it to her fight with Della, so he didn’t refute her any further.
At that moment…
“Huh…?”
The needle of the compass suddenly moved.
It meant that a Homunculus had just deployed an Interdimensional Barrier nearby.
Unfortunately for Sharon, Siwoo saw it.
‘Damn it! Why do you have to show up now?!’
“I can go there by myself.”
“What? No! Why the hell?!”
“Aren’t you tired? I know you haven’t recovered all your mana. Besides, I want to test out something.”
Hearing his calm words made her stomach churn.
She didn’t know whether he was serious or bluffing, but a Homunculus wasn’t something anyone should treat lightly.
And there was also the matter of Della. The more she thought about it, the more her head ached.
‘Anyway, I should dissuade him for now.’
“What are you talking about? This is a Homunculus! You don’t know how powerful it will be! You can’t just approach it so carelessly!”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be careful. It’s probably just the usual black dog, anyway. I can take care of them myself. If it gets too dangerous, I can always run. Besides, it isn’t like we can just ignore it. It might harm innocent people if we do.”
In the end, Sharon couldn’t dissuade him from going.
After all, the reason why he decided to hunt for the Homunculus was to protect the innocent.
He was a terribly kind person.
Even if she were to stop him, he’d just go by himself, so in the end, Sharon decided to go with him.
“Haah… Fine, I’ll go with you. I’ll need the money anyway.”
“Thank you. That’ll help me a ton.”
Grinning, Siwoo dashed to the direction Sharon’s compass was pointing at.
When they walked into a certain alley, they found out that the whole area, including a certain department store, was covered by an Interdimensional Barrier.
The center of the barrier was the aforementioned department store, connected to a twelve story building, with a five story underground building that was connected to Sinchon Station.
“Let’s go in.”
“I’ll take the lead.”
Because their operating hours had ended a while ago, the lights in the department store were off.
Siwoo amplified the mana in his body repeatedly as particles of shadow seeped out and formed an armor that covered his whole body.
Meanwhile, Sharon was pointing her staff into the entrance of the department store, taking up a readied stance.
The needle of the compass pointed toward the department store, and there was also the fact that the center of the Interdimensional Barrier was there, so it was safe to assume that the Homunculus they were looking for was inside.
“I’ll open it.”
“It feels like I’m doing something illegal.”
“I know, right?”
After exchanging such a meaningful joke, Siwoo grabbed the handle to the door.
He only pulled it lightly, but the power boost he received from his armor was tremendous.
The door’s frame was bent, accompanied by the sound of steel being crushed. Meanwhile, the glass between the frame was shattered.
Because of the quiet surroundings, the sound he made was explosively loud.
“…That didn’t trigger the alarm?”
“Stop dawdling and go in quickly.”
“I know, I was just… Surprised…”
Sharon was used to these kinds of actions, but that wasn’t the case with Siwoo.
Illegally breaking into a closed building wasn’t something he normally did, after all.
He knew that they were inside a barrier, but he was still amazed at how differently things went.
“Anyway, you said you want to try out something… What were you talking about?”
“Ah, I’ve changed the components of the shadow I’ve been using. Just a little though. I want to see how they perform.”
“What kind of change?”
“I mixed a little of the Earth Element that you told me. Can you look over it and point out the mistakes that I made?”
Sharon was barely able to hide her shock after hearing Siwoo’s words.
‘How long have you been taking lessons from me, again? You’ve already trying to mix it into your existing spell?’
Of course, she didn’t express her thoughts out loud.
After all, she could do it later, when he finally showed his magic to her.
…Though, she had a strong feeling that there wouldn’t be anything for her to criticize.
As they conversed, they explored the inside of the department store.
.”It’s pretty dark here…”
Just like any other normal department store, the first floor was the place where they sold cosmetics and seasonal clothes. The whole floor was engulfed in darkness.
There was no window, so no moonlight could enter and the only illumination inside was the green fluorescent light on the emergency exit sign.
“I’ll light it up.”
Five decorative lights were lit up around Sharon.
‘This feels like a date…’ Siwo thought.
But, he didn’t utter that thought out loud.
However, as they explored half of the first floor, both of them noticed something.
At that moment, they turned their gazes toward each other.
And their eyes met.
“Something’s off.”
“Right?”
Uneasiness covered both of their hearts.
One thing they just realized was the fact that Sharon’s compass only had a search range of 150m.
“From outside to here… We’ve walked way past 150m, haven’t we?”
“Something should’ve come out at this point…”
What should’ve happened was that the needle pointing in another direction at one point, but…
“The needle keeps on pointing in that direction…”
“…We should escape.”
Siwoo was ready to take Sharon outside.
While he didn’t know what would happen…
He had a terribly bad premonition.
“What…?”
And as they were having that conversation.
The compass suddenly started spinning uncontrollably, as if it was broken.
-Grrr…
Then they heard growling noises from their surroundings.
The source were the black dogs that they had been hunting so far.
“Siwoo, I don’t have the strength to protect you…”
“Sorry for being stubborn…”
“Save that for later. This isn’t something you need to apologize for, anyway. You didn’t know it would turn out like this.”
Let alone Siwoo, Sharon herself didn’t expect this kind of development either.
The case where more a bunch of similar Homunculi grouping up together was unheard of. Besides, even if there were ten of them, Sharon would still be able to dispose of them quickly.
But the growls they heard came from their surroundings. One or two Homunculi wouldn’t make that much noise.
From between the shelves, the escalator, hangers, corridors, emergency stairs…
Red eyes were staring at them from every direction, there were more than fifty of them.
After succeeding in luring their prey, the group of beasts finally revealed themselves.
Itching to take their revenge against two people who have been killing of their kins.
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