"……."
It felt like I’d only closed my eyes for a moment, and yet it was already morning.
I felt oddly wronged by that, but instead of squirming around under the blanket, I immediately sat up.
After all, if you closed your eyes thinking, Just ten more minutes, thirty minutes disappearing in an instant was practically an unwritten law.
"Huaaam~"
To drive away the lingering sleepiness, I stretched and checked the time on my phone. It was 6:30.
Considering it took about an hour to get to the company, I hadn’t exactly woken up early.
If anything, it was about the same as usual, or maybe even a little late.
As I folded the blanket I’d used last night, I thought,
‘What happened yesterday wasn’t all a dream, was it?’
I’d already confirmed it by pinching my thigh, but I supposed it was human nature to want to double-check.
That was just how absurd the whole thing had been.
Holding the neatly folded bedding in my arms, I stared at the firmly closed door to the master bedroom, then mustered my courage and approached it.
Knock, knock—
I lightly rapped on the door, but there was no sound from inside.
‘Is she still asleep?’
I hesitated a little at the thought of entering without permission, but I had a perfectly valid reason: I needed to put the bedding away in the closet. So I carefully opened the door.
Creeeak—
The room was dim, since the lights were off.
On the bed I normally used lay a girl with a face that was both familiar and unfamiliar.
Tachibana Saori.
One of the characters from the popular Japanese mobile game Red Asterisk, she was a character who had gained enormous popularity within the ReA fandom thanks to her beautiful appearance, bold personality, and the setting that she was one of the strongest beings in the world.
And out of the more than 150 students in the game, she was also the only character whose affection level I had raised to 100.
‘She’s pretty even when she’s asleep.’
The character I had originally only known in two dimensions had become three-dimensional, but her beauty hadn’t diminished at all.
If anything, her realistic features only made her more beautiful.
"Mmm…."
Seeing Saori stir in her sleep made the fact that a game character had really popped out into reality sink in all over again.
When she’d called herself a pure and delicate beautiful girl yesterday, it had honestly killed the mood a bit, but her face really didn’t lose out at all even compared to any idol or actress.
‘Well, she was the character who climbed all the way to eleventh in the popularity rankings the moment she appeared in the story, purely on design alone.’
After putting the bedding in the closet, I quietly closed the door behind me so she wouldn’t wake up, then decided to get ready for work before it got any later.
***
I usually either ate a light breakfast or skipped it altogether.
Like most single-person households living alone, it wasn’t so much because I lacked time as because it was a hassle.
But today, since I had a guest at home, I decided to prepare at least a simple breakfast.
I’d also been treated to dinner yesterday.
‘Toast should be fine, right?’
I didn’t really know Saori’s food preferences, but Japanese people supposedly liked bread as much as rice, so it was probably a safe choice.
After putting slices of bread into the toaster, I took strawberry jam and butter out of the fridge and placed them on the dining table. Then I decided to fry some sausages and eggs to go with the toast.
Sssssss—
The pleasant sound of oil tickled my ears.
From the perspective of someone living alone, sausages were an excellent ingredient. They worked well as a side dish with rice and also as a snack with drinks.
They also often had one-plus-one deals, so I always grabbed some whenever I went to the mart.
If I wanted to be fancy, I would have added a bit of salad, but unfortunately, I was a meat person, so unless I was on a diet, I didn’t go out of my way to spend my own money on vegetables.
"…Good."
After placing the nicely browned sausages from the frying pan onto a plate, I immediately cracked two eggs into the remaining oil.
The key here was letting the oil, now infused with the meaty aroma of the sausages, seep into the eggs.
Once the bottoms were fried until they had a crisp texture, all that was left was to put on the lid so the heat spread evenly throughout the pan.
After placing the plate with the finished sausages and fried eggs on the dining table, I realized there was one last important matter left.
Should I wake Saori, who was sleeping soundly?
Or should I leave her be until she woke up on her own?
Either option made me hesitate.
‘It feels a little wrong to wake a kid who’s sleeping so well, but food tastes best when it’s warm.’
Just as my complicated thoughts were leaning toward the latter—
Click—
The firmly closed bedroom door opened.
"!"
When I flinched and turned my head, Saori, looking somewhat disheveled because she had just woken up, rubbed her half-closed eyes and asked,
"…Did you sleep well, Sensei…?"
"Uh, yeah."
I answered reflexively, but my gaze couldn’t look directly at her and wandered all over the place.
Because her current outfit was far too dangerous.
‘A shirt over bare skin.’
Of course, I couldn’t see it, but she was probably wearing at least underwear underneath. Even so, for a thirty-one-year-old forever-single man who had followed the brutal tech tree of all-boys middle school, all-boys high school, engineering college, and game company, it was far too stimulating a sight.
Not knowing where to put my eyes, I hurriedly opened the refrigerator door and asked while pointlessly rummaging through the things inside.
"I made breakfast. Want some?"
"Sure…."
Saori staggered over with zombie-like steps and sat down in front of the table.
Only then did I finally have somewhere to rest my eyes, so I quickly closed the refrigerator door and poured the milk I had just taken out into her cup.
Then she held the cup with both hands and slowly tasted the milk.
People’s throats were usually parched right after waking up in the morning, so she must have been fairly thirsty.
I naturally sat down across from her and said,
"I won’t be back until evening after I go to work, so call me if anything happens. I wrote down my phone number and the house passcode here."
As I said that, I handed her the second phone I’d previously opened for work and a note.
Then Saori nodded while munching on plain toast without putting anything on it.
To be honest, the thought of leaving her alone and going to work made me worry first, but in the current atmosphere at the company, taking annual leave was practically suicidal, so there was nothing I could do.
In any case, perhaps eating the milk and toast had woken her up a little, because Saori asked me in a much clearer voice,
"Then when will you be back in the evening?"
"I’ll probably arrive a little after seven. Work ends at six."
Of course, during crunch periods, overtime was as common as eating meals, but since there wasn’t any work piled up right now, I should be able to leave on time.
"…Got it. I’ll quietly guard the house until you come back, Sensei."
Saori answered that way and obediently nodded.
Considering her personality in the original work as I knew it, that was honestly unbelievable.
So I asked in return,
"Won’t it feel stuffy staying home all day? I gave you the front door passcode too, so if you get bored, you can go for a walk during the day."
Saori slowly shook her head.
"I can endure it for a few days. If I go outside for no reason, something might happen that puts you in a difficult spot, Sensei. And I originally like staying at home anyway."
"If that’s the case, then that’s a relief…."
Since she said she was fine, it felt awkward to keep pushing, so I decided to just believe her.
Anyway, after we finished breakfast in that quiet atmosphere, I slung my briefcase over my shoulder at the entrance and said,
"If you get hungry at lunch, cook something with what’s in the fridge or order whatever you want through the delivery app. The card’s connected, so don’t worry about money."
"I got it, so stop worrying and go, Sensei. I’m not a little kid, you know?"
Saori said that while puffing out her cheeks slightly.
But from my perspective, leaving her, who knew nothing about this world, at home while I went to work felt like sending a child out near the water, so I couldn’t help it.
"…Then I’ll be back."
As I said that and opened the front door, Saori clasped her hands behind her back and smiled dazzlingly.
"Okay. Have a good day."
***
It took about an hour to get from Pyeongtaek, where I lived, to Guro, where the company was.
Since the arrival time changed depending on traffic conditions, I had no choice but to leave for work early in the morning.
After pushing through the suffocating traffic congestion on the commute and arriving at the company, the clock on my phone was already pointing to 8:50.
‘Still, I made it ten minutes early.’
I adjusted the briefcase slung over my shoulder and entered the office with coffee, the essential item for any office worker, in one hand.
"Good morning."
It would have been nice if such a pleasant day had begun like that.
Unfortunately, our department was still chaos itself.
The junior who seemed to have arrived before me rushed over in a panic and said,
"Assistant Manager! Another incident broke out at dawn!"
"Fuck me."
What was this, Conan? Why were incidents happening every single day?
But complaining wouldn’t change anything, so as soon as I arrived at the company, I had no choice but to immediately switch into office worker mode.
"What is it this time?"
"It seems the users were digging through the client and found the Trace Agency from an old story!"
"No, how did they… ha."
The ones who dug it up were impressive, but the ones who left it in were impressive too.
If it were me, I would’ve cleaned it out completely.
At the sudden wave of fatigue washing over me, I rubbed the space between my brows with my fingers and said,
"First, let’s figure out exactly what got leaked."
And so, another grueling day as an office worker began.