It was something she hadn't expected.
That was because, originally, that child had been living in Daejeon.
And, in her memory as well, during this time she was still living in Daejeon, so there was no reason for her parents to come up to Seoul.
"Unni?"
"Ah, yeah?"
"Why are you just standing there?"
Suyeon asked as if finding it strange.
It seemed she had been frozen for quite a while.
Seoyeon soon shook her head and approached the child who was similarly frozen.
"Hi?"
"A, hello! Wow, you're the actress unni. You're the actress unni, right!"
"That's right."
"Wow, so Suyeon's unni is the actress unni."
At those words, Suyeon needlessly puffed up her shoulders.
Watching that sight, she was certainly cute but felt vaguely similar to herself.
No, of course she would resemble her, since she would have grown up watching her.
"But, what's your name?"
"I'm Yuna, Han Yuna."
A name quite similar to her past life's name.
Seoyeon felt a strange sensation, yet also felt complicated.
As if the name itself was connected to her past life.
"By any chance, you don't have an older brother, do you?"
"Huh? No, I don't."
"I see."
That means Yuna was the eldest.
Then, there was a strangely different aspect in terms of timing.
In her past life, she was the same age as the current 'Joo Seoyeon.'
In other words, Yuna was simply born late.
"But when did you become friends with Suyeon?"
"Ah, I moved here, and I didn't have friends at kindergarten."
It seemed the move was recent.
That timing was roughly when
She happened to come to Seoul too.
She said her daughter liked Dream Future so they went to the fan meeting.
'...Do kids watch dramas these days too?'
Such a question did come to mind.
Or perhaps
Either way, it felt subtle.
"Anyway, let's go back. Where's your house?"
"I'm..."
Anyway, she couldn't just leave her here, so they decided to go back together.
Suyeon did a double thumbs-up saying "As expected of my unni!"
Our Suyeon, isn't that expression a bit, well, outdated?
While thinking that, well, she's cute so it's fine.
Actually, she didn't ask anything else.
There was a lot she wanted to ask, but it would be rude in the first place.
And she didn't want to interrupt her sister's play.
Also, she thought there was no need to get too entangled.
Though various things did bother her a bit.
'The move just happened by coincidence.'
The circumstances of Yuna coming to Seoul weren't anything special.
Just, as Yuna was born late, it seemed her parents had worked hard.
So, their promotions came faster and they transferred to the Seoul headquarters.
And they must have come up together.
There was nothing special.
There wasn't, but there were definitely several things that caught her attention.
That wasn't about Yuna, but about herself.
"Unni, unni."
"Yeah?"
"Look at that!!"
Suyeon said while tugging frantically at Seoyeon's collar.
Wondering what was going on, she turned her head to see a small event being held by the roadside.
It seemed to be a children's animation event.
"It's Harara, Harara!"
"Harara?"
Truly a naming that's hard to describe.
But the pronunciation was easy, so it was easy to remember.
"Yeah, Magical Girl Harara. It's the cartoon Suyeon watches these days."
Seoyeon saw a bizarrely giant penguin, and a blue-haired magical girl beside the penguin.
'...Why a penguin?'
She thought the name was quite peculiar, and the composition was peculiar too.
A penguin and a magical girl.
Whoever came up with it, it certainly was eye-catching.
Anyway, it seemed to be quite popular among kids these days, as not just Suyeon but various children and parents filled the roadside at the event venue.
'This is quite a heavily invested event.'
There was even a stage.
The structure was simple.
Come up on stage, reenact a scene from the animation together with a child.
At the end, smash a game machine with a prepared rubber hammer and receive prizes based on the score that comes out.
Of course, adults wouldn't be the ones hitting.
If adults hit, the dads would have come.
When they're children, there's no difference in strength between boys and girls, so it could proceed fairly.
"Unni, unni."
"?"
While thinking such thoughts and watching, Suyeon tugged at her collar again.
Then eyes staring intently at Seoyeon.
It was the intense gaze of a child asking for something.
Seoyeon immediately understood the meaning of that look.
'Don't tell me, you want to do that?'
Seoyeon wanted to turn around and walk away right then.
That was because they would be reenacting a scene from a children's animation.
Villain role, magical girl role.
Both sides are divided between child and parent, and they act it out.
'I, I can't do it.'
If she were young, she would have eagerly volunteered.
Originally, Seoyeon was a shameless girl who didn't know nervousness or embarrassment when she was young.
The invincible shamelessness possible because she wasn't familiar with emotions.
But not now.
Even though she looked like this, she did properly feel embarrassment.
Really!
'Above all, if I do something like this, definitely...'
She could be certain.
With this many people, if Seoyeon came out and acted with her sister, it would be filmed and circulate on the internet.
She had gone to the trouble of wearing sunglasses and coming out heavily disguised, but if she acted, she'd have to take all that off.
After
Especially the main viewership of dramas was young women.
If it were the young mothers here, they would be right in that viewership demographic.
"...Are you not going to do it?"
"..."
"The magical girl they're giving as an event prize right now, it's the magical girl Yuna really likes."
Looking at it, Harara's transformation types seemed to be more than one.
First, the protagonist Harara alone had fifteen transformation forms.
Including other magical girls, there were easily dozens of types.
'No, at that level, each episode has a different transformation appearance.'
In a way, it was like the Piniping Seoyeon watched when she was young.
Seeing there was even a Harara transformation encyclopedia, it seemed the other appearing magical girls also had more than one or two transformation types.
It was a magical girl army prepared to destroy parents' wallets.
Among them, what they were giving out as this event's prize seemed to be the transformation form of Inana, the magical girl Yuna liked.
"..."
She could see Yuna looking at Seoyeon with slightly expectant eyes.
Even her sister wanted to gift it to Yuna rather than keeping it for herself!
"Ah, alright."
Seoyeon squeezed her eyes shut.
Whatever the case, Yuna was Seoyeon's fan.
Plus it was her sister Suyeon's words, so it was a fight she couldn't win from the start.
***
Jin Yeongyeon, the MC who came out to host today's children's event, smiled with satisfaction as he looked at the children shouting energetically and the parents with troubled faces.
The money received for hosting such events wasn't much.
But it didn't matter.
He wasn't a professional MC in the first place; to be exact, he was a YouTuber who reviewed children's toys.
Since he was a YouTuber targeting children, he was invited to the event and took on the role of MC.
So he didn't really care about the money.
Just seeing the parents and children enjoying themselves was satisfying enough.
'The promotion seems to have worked well.'
As expected of a toy review YouTuber, his appeal for the latest Harara magic wand and magical girl set was certain.
Naturally, with that near-perfect review, the children were busy pestering their parents to participate in the event, and eventually the parents would come out reluctantly.
Well, kids' toys these days are expensive, and they say if you just meet the event requirements, they give away those expensive toys for free, so there was no reason not to do it.
Like that, the event had been running for two hours.
With one hour left, it was about time to wrap up today's event.
"Alright, then the next person!!"
When Jin Yeongyeon shouted, a woman raising her hand brightly at the very front caught his eye.
Why she caught his eye, first was her attire.
Sunglasses, and a mask too.
Plus she was wearing a hat.
If the two girls below hadn't been raising their hands energetically.
And if this place wasn't an event venue, it was an appearance that would have been openly regarded with suspicion.
First, she stood out, and perhaps because of that attire, curiosity arose.
"Then, the person wearing sunglasses at the front, please come up!"
At MC Yeongyeon's words, the woman with sunglasses flinched and came forward with the two children.
It was indeed a peculiar sight.
Not just Yeongyeon.
When those three went up on stage, attention focused on them at once.
First, there were three of them, and it was an eye-catching combination in many ways.
"What's our young friend's name?"
"I'm Suyeon! Joo Suyeon!!"
At that sight of her puffing her chest and speaking proudly, for a moment, a commotion arose among the parents watching the stage.
At such a reaction, Yeongyeon became a bit puzzled.
When the child named Suyeon introduced herself, the parents suddenly started whispering.
Then one of the event staff hurriedly ran out and whispered in Yeongyeon's ear.
"Golden Duckling! The child who recently appeared on Golden Duckling!"
"What?"
"That, the younger sister who appeared in actress Joo Seoyeon's family segment!"
Yeongyeon wasn't someone who watched TV variety shows much.
Even when watching video media, it was only YouTube at most.
He rarely watched TV in the first place.
Of course, he at least knew there was a variety show called 'Golden Duckling.'
A variety show mainly showing the reality of young or child celebrities.
But, if it was a child who appeared there...
'That means she's a celebrity's family, right?'
Yeongyeon swallowed dryly for a moment.
Then, who was that strangely dressed woman over there?
Somehow, the situation made her identity guessable.
The murmuring crowd's gazes also focused on the woman on stage.
"F-first, you've seen the event explanation, right? Now we'll reenact a scene from Harara! You can choose from these options."
"Number 3 for me!"
As soon as the examples appeared, Suyeon chose 3 without hesitation.
That wasn't anything special.
It was because the easiest among the examples was number 3.
A scene of Harara fighting against a villain.
Roughly throw out lines, and it ends by coolly landing a magical girl's special move on the villain.
A very simple and easy structure.
"Good! Then, here's the magic wand..."
As Yeongyeon held out the prepared Harara magic wand, Suyeon blocked it with her palm.
"Huh?"
"Suyeon will, be the villain."
"...?"
"I like the villain Zeroro!"
No, she's choosing the villain here?
Yeongyeon was flustered.
Children usually choose the magical girl.
Because she's the protagonist.
And because she's pretty.
Of course, Zeroro who appears in Harara is also a somewhat cute villain.
With fierce eyes, black hair and red eyes.
She was a girl with a certain cat-like charm.
So even as a villain, merchandise did come out for her, but to think she'd choose the villain Zeroro at a place like this!
'Wait, then.'
Yeongyeon looked at the other person on stage.
It was clearly visible that the body of the person hiding their face with sunglasses had stiffened.
It seemed she had belatedly realized the fate that had befallen her.
"Um, since you need to act, could you perhaps take off the mask and sunglasses?"
"..."
The other person showed signs of hesitation.
But that was only for a moment.
As she slowly took off the sunglasses and mask.
For a moment, the mouths of the murmuring crowd briefly went quiet.
And.
"It's really Joo Seoyeon?"
"Right, it is. It's Joo Seoyeon from Golden Duckling."
"Mom, who's that unni?"
"An actress, an actress."
It suddenly became bustling.
Who would have expected an actress to suddenly appear at a children's event.
Normally they'd just buy things, not participate in events like this.
Naturally, the event organizer's face brightened.
'Today's promotional event is a jackpot.'
Without spending any money, a star had walked out on her own feet.
Of course, the crowd suspected whether she had been paid to appear like at an event.
'It doesn't matter anyway.'
'It's not like they're giving prizes by ranking.'
The prizes are all given out fairly anyway.
As long as you meet the event requirements.
"Now, um, you're the older sister, right?"
"...Yes."
"Please hold this magic wand. Um, have you seen Magical Girl Harara?"
"Just now..."
Before going on stage, she had just checked the scenes from the event through YouTube.
Because of that, Seoyeon couldn't help but tremble the hand holding the magic wand.
It was probably the moment her face turned the reddest in Seoyeon's life.
She had never once felt embarrassed about her own acting, but right now, she couldn't possibly be confident.
Shame!
That was an emotion she knew to some extent without needing to learn, but it was the first time it had come at her this intensely.
"Wow!! Magical girl unni!!"
As if unaware of Seoyeon's feelings, Suyeon, draped in the villain Zeroro's cape, raised both arms and beamed.
And Yuna beside her was also sparkling her eyes and clapping continuously.
'Unni always plays the bad roles, you should play the good role too.'
This was, in its own way, Suyeon's consideration-that-wasn't-really-consideration as a cute younger sister.
Though it was also true that she liked Zeroro more.
"Now, then. Let's shout the lines together with me. Harara, Harara~"
"H-Harara, Harara..."
"Your voice is too quiet! Harara~ Hararara~!"
"H-Harara, Harara!!"
Plus, because an actress had appeared, MC Yeongyeon's motivation also soared to 200 percent.
Perfectly implementing with his whole body the rhythm and even Harara's transformation lines!
She thought she should show wonderful acting as an actress.
But Seoyeon, at this moment, not lying, truly couldn't think of anything.
Just squeezing her eyes shut.
"M-Magical Girl Harara~!!"
She was just swinging the shining magic wand with all her might.
And, perhaps thanks to that passionate performance.
Fortunately, with Suyeon's wonderful hammer strike, the target score was not just achieved but exceeded.
Yuna was able to get the magical girl toy she had wanted.
It was truly a fortunate thing.
***
"Actress unni!! Thank you!!"
"U-um."
Yuna, hugging the Magical Girl Inana merchandise, answered with a radiant smile.
'...Th-this kind of thing is fine too, right?'
No one filmed it, right?
Anyway, it was somewhat awkward with Yuna, so she thought this was better.
"Yuna's birthday was not long ago, so can I think of it as a birthday present?"
"Huh? When is Yuna's birthday?"
"June 8th!"
It was Suyeon who answered on Yuna's behalf.
June 8th.
Seoyeon slightly furrowed her brow the moment she heard that birthday.
Because it was the same as her past life's birthday.
"Since actress unni gave me this present, I'll treasure it! I'll shake this a lot while thinking of unni!"
"U-uh. Ah, right."
While thinking she'd rather she didn't do that, Seoyeon hurriedly said something she had forgotten.
"Meeting unni today is a secret from mom, okay?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Um, well. Um, the fact that unni is a magical girl is a secret."
Unable to bring herself to say it was embarrassing, she said so instead.
Yuna widened her eyes then smiled brightly.
"Okay!"
Even if she was filmed, Yuna was in the back so she probably didn't appear well.
So if Yuna didn't tell, that side probably wouldn't find out.
Seoyeon decided to think that way for now.
Until the short that filmed this time's video of Seoyeon from beginning to end reached 3 million views.
Fortunately, Yuna wasn't caught on camera.
Separately from that, Seoyeon had to change her blanket one more time.