“Ms. Jua?”
On her way out after visiting her younger sibling in the hospital, Lee Seoha unexpectedly ran into Han Jua.
As if she had been waiting for her, the moment Han Jua spotted Lee Seoha, she approached and bowed politely.
“I’m sorry for saying such harsh things last time, Ms. Seoha.”
“Huh? Oh……”
Flustered by the sudden apology, Lee Seoha waved her hands in denial.
“I-it’s okay! You must have had your reasons, Ms. Jua… If anything, I’m even more sorry for speaking so carelessly when I didn’t even understand the situation.”
In truth, ever since their last meeting, a corner of Lee Seoha’s heart had felt uneasy.
Had she meddled presumptuously just because she thought they had grown closer while talking? Had she forced her own thoughts on her too much? Those regrets had come rushing in belatedly.
Just as Stella had pointed out before that she was terrible at social life, it really did seem like she was hopeless at it.
But Han Jua slowly shook her head and gave a bitter smile.
“No. After what that bastard did to me, I seriously reconsidered the things you said, Ms. Seoha.”
“By that bastard, you mean……”
“Yes, that’s right. Sigma.”
At the mention of that name, Lee Seoha’s face stiffened for a moment.
But soon, she looked at Han Jua’s complexion with a worried expression.
“Come to think of it, are you all right? I heard on the news that Sigma seriously injured you, so I was really worried.”
“Hehe, it wasn’t bad enough for you to worry like that, Ms. Seoha. As you can see, I’m perfectly fine.”
Seeing the clear eyes of Lee Seoha, who was sincerely relieved, Han Jua’s gaze softened.
She hesitated for a moment, then carefully opened her mouth.
“Do you happen to have time tomorrow?”
“Time? Um, as long as a villain doesn’t suddenly show up, I should be fine……”
“Then, after I’m discharged tomorrow, would you like to go shopping with me?”
“Shopping?”
At the unexpected suggestion, Lee Seoha’s eyes went round.
“Ms. Seoha, classes start again next month already, don’t they? Once you go to school, there’ll be all sorts of things you need, so as an apology, I’d like to buy everything for you.”
“No. You don’t have to go that far.”
The shopping invitation itself was bewildering enough, but when Han Jua said she would pay for everything, Lee Seoha felt burdened.
And just as she was moving her lips, trying to choose her words to refuse, Han Jua clasped both of Lee Seoha’s hands tightly.
“I feel so sorry about what I said to you, Ms. Seoha. I really won’t make it burdensome, so please come with me. Okay?”
“Umm……”
Faced with eyes dripping with earnestness, Lee Seoha couldn’t bring herself to pull her hands away.
Now that she thought about it, her clothes did seem a little worn, and it was about time she bought new writing tools and notebooks.
Most of all, because she had been juggling schoolwork and hero activities lately and had no memory whatsoever of playing with friends her own age, a corner of her heart was honestly a little tempted.
‘…Yeah, if it’s somewhere like an S Clothing store or a D Stationery store, it won’t be that much of a burden.’
She wondered whether she could really think of Han Jua, an S-rank hero, as a friend, but in the end, Lee Seoha shyly nodded.
“Okay… I’ll go.”
And so, the next day as promised, Lee Seoha arrived at a certain place, led by Han Jua’s hand.
But it was not the affordable brand store Lee Seoha had imagined.
“U-um… Ms. Jua? This place is…?”
“Yes, it’s L-City Tower.”
“Eek……!?”
At the majesty of the 123-story skyscraper towering before her eyes, Lee Seoha froze in a daze and swallowed a scream.
@
She had thought they would casually go to a store like S Clothing or D Stationery, but she had never dreamed she would be dragged to the shopping mall at L-City Tower.
Even when Han Jua told her to meet at Jamsil Station, she hadn’t thought much of it, but the moment she was led by Han Jua’s hand onto the luxury goods floor, Lee Seoha felt as if her breath had caught in her throat.
She was overwhelmed by the dazzling lights shining from every direction and the sheen of the marble floor, and the moment she glanced at the price tag of a single bag displayed beyond a show window, she truly felt dizzy enough to nearly brace herself against the wall.
“U-um…… You clearly said you wouldn’t make it burdensome……”
“? Yes, that’s right. L Tower Shopping Mall is a place anyone can comfortably come to shop, isn’t it?”
Han Jua tilted her head slightly, as if she truly thought so.
Only after facing that innocent expression did Lee Seoha realize.
For an S-rank hero whose activity funds and sponsorship scale were on an entirely different level, a place like this was literally no more than a stroll around the neighborhood.
At the gap between the worlds they lived in, so different it was almost absurd, Lee Seoha felt a dizzying sense of distance.
“Hueh……”
After being dragged around like a doll for ages and circling the luxury goods floor several times, Lee Seoha finally made it into the aquarium café inside the tower, and the moment she sat down, she slumped over completely.
Thanks to her physical enhancement ability, her body was fine, but her mental strength, shaved away every time she counted the zeros on a price tag, had already reached its limit.
“Really, what are we going to do if you’re tired already? There are still so many places left to look around.”
Han Jua, who had returned after placing their order in advance, gently sat down across from her.
“Uuu, but it’s just too burdensome……”
With a tearful face, Lee Seoha looked at the shopping bags placed by her feet.
Just the world-famous brand logos printed on the paper bags had already drenched her back in cold sweat.
Her face pale, she stammered as she asked,
“H-how am I s-supposed to accept something th-this expensive……”
“Is that so? They’re not that expensive.”
At Han Jua’s utterly calm answer, Lee Seoha’s mind flashed white.
“Hehe, I’m joking. I completely understand that you feel burdened, Ms. Seoha.”
“You understand, and yet you brought me here?”
If it had been something else, she would have laughed it off, but this time, even Lee Seoha couldn’t help sounding a little curt.
No matter how kind a person was, this felt like she was being openly teased.
However, Han Jua’s voice that followed was more serious than expected.
“I’m sorry. But you need to get used to places like this now, Ms. Seoha.”
“Get used to them…?”
It was a place that seemed like it would have nothing to do with her for the rest of her life, so she had no idea what exactly she was supposed to get used to.
“You know that the Association officially designated Sigma as an S-rank villain this time, right?”
“Yes…… Well.”
Not only the news but also the internet communities were buzzing with talk about that man, so there was no way she wouldn’t know.
“Against that Sigma and Deviant, unlike me, you achieved victory, Ms. Seoha. In recognition of that achievement, I heard the Association is discussing an agenda to specially promote you to S-rank—though that may be difficult right away—or at least to A-rank.”
“T-to A-rank?!”
Lee Seoha was so shocked that she sprang to her feet without realizing it, and when the gazes of the nearby customers gathered on her, her face turned red and she sat back down.
“No, promotion? M-my ability is on the lower end even among B-ranks……”
“Is that thing on your arm just decoration?”
Han Jua’s gaze turned to the bracelet fastened around Lee Seoha’s wrist, the Core Relic Stella.
“But Stella only lends me power. It isn’t completely my own power.”
“Even so, it’s a power only you can wield, Ms. Seoha.”
“That’s true, but……”
Stella responded only to Lee Seoha, whom she had chosen as her compatible user.
Stella herself said she would leave if a better compatible user was brought to her, but since she had taught her nothing about what the criteria for compatibility were or what kind of human she desired, for now, Lee Seoha was the Core Relic’s sole master.
“Then it would be fair to consider it your power, Ms. Seoha. The Association has officially recognized your ownership as well.”
Han Jua’s logic wasn’t wrong, but Lee Seoha couldn’t readily agree.
Could she really call a power borrowed from someone else her own?
What if a more outstanding compatible user appeared, just as Stella had said?
And what if Stella left without so much as looking back at her?
Of course, that might be too extreme, but even setting that aside, ever since the day Lee Seoha accepted Stella, she had felt a strange sense of incongruity.
Rather than feeling as if Stella had chosen her as a compatible user, it felt as though she had been chosen by something else.
She didn’t know the details, but because of this inexplicable unease, it was difficult for her to regard Stella as truly her own power.
“…You look like you have circumstances you can’t talk about.”
Whether she was quick-witted or whether it was all showing on her face.
Han Jua rose from her seat, changing the mood.
“It looks like everything we ordered is ready. Excuse me for a moment.”
“Ah, I’ll come with……”
“It’s all right. Please stay seated.”
Watching Han Jua’s back as she gently dissuaded her and headed toward the counter, Lee Seoha let out a long sigh.
“Haa…… Stella. Am I really your compatible user?”
She whispered in a low voice that others wouldn’t hear, but no answer came back.
Unlike usual, when Stella answered promptly to every question she asked, Stella’s silence, offering no certainty, made the doubt in Lee Seoha’s heart grow even deeper.
“You know that villain who was rampaging by the riverside yesterday? Apparently Nova was the one who subdued them.”
“Ah, that pretty, strong noona?”
“You bastard, there’s no way she’s older than you.”
“Shut up. If she’s pretty and strong, she’s a noona.”
It was a little embarrassing, but hearing people around the café talk about her had become a normal occurrence now.
Of course, they were praises directed at Nova, the form she transformed into with Stella’s power, but it was a level of recognition she couldn’t have imagined until just a short while ago.
Before she obtained Stella, only cold gazes and jeers calling her incompetent or a nuisance had followed her everywhere.
‘Ah, but still……’
There had been one person. Someone who had not looked at her dazzling, shining self borrowing Stella’s power, but had instead offered warm encouragement to the insignificant B-rank hero Lee Seoha and acknowledged her.
—You are my hero.
After her desperate battle with Deviant, all kinds of praise had poured in from countless media outlets and on the streets, but what remained deeply lodged in Lee Seoha’s heart was still only the single sentence that man had given her that day.
‘I really want to thank him, but is there no way to find him?’
His appearance was rather fierce, making him look more wicked than any villain she had met so far, but when she recalled that moment, her heart still pounded.
A man with long black hair for a man, sharp red eyes, and teeth pointed like a shark’s…… Yes, a fierce-looking face just like the person who had just passed by the window—
“Huh?”
At the sight of the man who had flashed through her field of vision, Lee Seoha pressed her face close to the window.
He had already moved away, but even from his back, she could be certain.
It was the person she had been searching for all this time.
“W-wait a moment!”
Before he completely disappeared from view, Lee Seoha sprang up from her seat.
“M-Ms. Seoha?! Where are you going all of a sudden?!”
Han Jua’s flustered voice came from behind her, but in Lee Seoha’s eyes, there was only one person.
“C-citizen……!”
After running at full speed, Lee Seoha finally managed to grab the edge of his sleeve.
“……Yes?”
The man turned his head. It was definitely him. The man she had wanted to meet so badly was finally right before her eyes.
Whether he had been the one who healed her back then, whether he was perhaps hiding his ability—there were mountains of things she wanted to ask, but the first thing she had to say had already been decided.
“Wh-what you said to me back then, thank you so……”
“Ms. Seoha!”
But before she could finish speaking, Han Jua’s voice rang out from behind her.
At that sound, Lee Seoha came back to her senses, and only then did she realize it.
‘Ah, I’m not in my hero form right now.’