Chapter 194 : Feelings Connected
Chapter 194: Feelings Connected
After getting off the plane, we took public transportation and arrived at Haeundae, where fresh sea air greeted us.
Eunha, standing beside me, let out a dying groan.
“Ugh, motion sickness…….”
Eunha had only briefly marveled at the sight of the sky for the first time.
The moment the plane took off, she succumbed to motion sickness.
She was a girl who hadn’t even knelt once before the End, so who could’ve known she would suffer not only from airsickness, but even motion sickness on public transportation?
Eunha’s pale face looked almost pitiful.
“Wow!”
Park Siwoo exclaimed upon seeing the ocean.
The winter sea was beautiful.
A vast sandy beach and an ocean with no end in sight.
White waves washed over the sand before retreating again.
Seeing that, Park Siwoo and the others ran toward the ocean like children.
They played around where the water met the sand, dodging the incoming waves.
They weren’t kids anymore.
Then Park Siwoo waved at me.
“You come over here too! It’s cool and feels great!”
At some point, they had taken off their shoes, rolled up their pants, and dipped their feet into the incoming waves.
“Just you wait.”
There was no resisting playing in the water.
The cold of the winter sea wasn’t a problem.
Park Siwoo spotted Dan Chun-woo standing a step away from the group and splashed water at him.
Dan Chun-woo’s feet slid across the ground.
Using a mysterious footwork technique that moved as smoothly as a snake crossing over a wall, he avoided the water and snorted.
“You thought you could get me wet with skills like that? How laughable.”
“Oh?”
Park Siwoo fell for Dan Chun-woo’s provocation.
Having roughly realized what was coming, Helena and I moved away from them.
Park Siwoo stomped the surface of the water.
As the water splashed upward with a splash, Park Siwoo extended his hand.
A thin layer of Mana wrapped around it.
Pahak!
The water spread outward in a wide spray.
Sword Aura surged from Dan Chun-woo’s hand.
He instantly split apart the widely scattered water.
Helena looked disgusted.
“That’s cheating.”
“Who uses Sword Aura in a water fight?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I never said I would play along with your childish nonsense.”
With those words, Dan Chun-woo swung his hand, which was imbued with Sword Aura.
The flying Sword Aura struck the surface of the sea, splashing seawater all over Park Siwoo’s clothes.
“Uwah!”
Caught off guard, he instantly became a drowned rat.
But Park Siwoo wasn’t the type to just take that lying down.
Star Mana rose from his hand.
Water began gathering in his palm.
Before long, a mass of water formed and shot toward Dan Chun-woo.
Once again, he split it with Sword Aura.
A faint smile appeared on Park Siwoo’s face.
“You really thought I’d use the same trick twice? You won’t be able to block all of these!”
Behind the exploding mass of water were several smaller masses.
They all burst at once and poured toward Dan Chun-woo.
At the same time, Helena’s Mana moved stealthily.
With his feet bound by Mana, Dan Chun-woo failed to dodge the incoming streams of water.
A small vein bulged on his forehead.
The battle between the two began.
Escaping the chaos they were causing, I looked at Helena, who had followed me.
“Why are you over here?”
“We’re not children. How could I possibly join in that mess?”
She spoke with a mischievous smile.
Shameless.
“Come to think of it, you seemed to be talking with Senior Da-hee on the plane. What were you talking about?”
“Ah?”
“What’s with that stupid look?”
Her pupils shook violently.
I had only asked because the two of them had even put up a Mana Veil while having some secret conversation.
“Seongwoo, really. Are you that curious about girls’ conversations?”
Seo Da-hee, who had approached before I noticed, lightly smacked my shoulder.
“You have no tact. We even put up a Mana Veil because it was private. Why would we tell you?”
“Ah.”
Convinced by her explanation, I nodded.
Yoo Yi-seo, who had been checking the schedule, called out to us.
“It’s about time we had lunch. I reserved a good restaurant.”
We each raised our Mana and shook off the seawater clinging to our bodies before moving immediately.
For reference, the amount of seawater that came off Park Siwoo and Dan Chun-woo was practically a bucketful.
After that, the trip went quite smoothly.
Yoo Yi-seo’s planning shone.
We had lunch at a famous restaurant in Busan and visited several well-known tourist attractions nearby.
With sweet seed-filled pancakes in our mouths, we spent time in the surrounding shopping district.
We were there to buy souvenirs.
Eunha was carrying an armful of Busan fish cakes.
“Why did you buy so many fish cakes?”
“To eat.”
“With that amount, aren’t you planning to eat fish cakes for all three meals every day for the next week?”
Eunha nodded at my question.
It seemed she had become completely hooked after trying the fish cakes sold by a street vendor.
I should’ve known when she ate ten thousand won worth of them.
But didn’t this girl not know how to cook?
“Whatever. I give up.”
With a sigh, I turned my head.
It was free time now.
We had agreed to split up and meet again once the appointed time arrived.
Park Siwoo and Dan Chun-woo went to look around the weapons displayed along the weapon street, while the girls linked arms and disappeared somewhere together.
Eunha and I were working our way through the food stalls nearby.
I looked up at the sky.
It was gradually getting darker.
“Seongwoo?”
I turned toward Eunha when she called me.
“What?”
“What does it mean to date someone?”
“……?”
The unexpected question left me speechless for a moment.
It wasn’t unusual for Eunha to suddenly ask strange questions, but this one caught me particularly off guard.
Eunha knew very little about the world.
She lacked not only basic common sense, but also experience in dealing with people.
So whenever there was something she didn’t know, Eunha often asked the people around her.
But why was she asking about this?
“What does dating mean?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm. It’s when people who like each other confirm their feelings and become closer to each other.”
“Too difficult.”
After hearing my answer, Eunha took a bite of the seed-filled pancake in her hand.
“But why are you suddenly asking that?”
“I saw Helena and Seo Da-hee talking on the plane.”
“You saw them?”
“Ah.”
I realized why she had asked me.
Eunha was exceptionally skilled at lip-reading, figuring out conversations from the movements of people’s lips.
It was because she had learned language while spending nearly her entire life inside an Incubator created by Pandemonium.
In other words, Eunha had heard every word of Seo Da-hee and Helena’s secret conversation.
A Mana Veil could stop sound from leaking out, but it didn’t obstruct vision.
But Seo Da-hee and Helena had been talking about romance?
“Seo Da-hee likes Seongwoo. She said she’s going to confess today.”
“……What?”
“Are you serious?”
Yoo Yi-seo’s excited voice naturally grew louder.
Helena became embarrassed when she noticed all the gazes turning toward them.
“President, your voice is too loud.”
Helena’s words didn’t reach Yoo Yi-seo.
It was probably because of Seo Da-hee’s confession.
“You said you’d completely given up on him! So why are you suddenly saying you’re confessing to that good-for-nothing today?!”
“Yi-seo, calm down first…….”
“How am I supposed to calm down? Don’t tell me you suggested coming here to make friendship rings because you planned to give that bastard a ring and confess!”
Yoo Yi-seo had known for a long time that Seo Da-hee liked Yoo Seongwoo.
Seo Da-hee herself had said that she had given up on her feelings for him.
But there was no way Yoo Yi-seo could miss the honey practically dripping from Seo Da-hee’s eyes whenever she looked at him.
Even so, the reason Yoo Yi-seo was this angry was none other than a sense of betrayal.
Although she had visited various places because of Association or Hero work, this was Yoo Yi-seo’s first time going on a trip with friends.
She had been greatly looking forward to this trip.
Even while making the travel plans, she had excitedly filled her notebook with things she and Seo Da-hee could do together.
But now, thinking that the notebook they had filled out together had actually been part of Seo Da-hee’s confession plan made her angry.
It felt as though Seo Da-hee was using the trip to confess her feelings rather than to make memories with them.
“Yi-seo.”
Seo Da-hee was bewildered by her reaction, which was far more intense than expected.
She knew Yoo Yi-seo didn’t particularly like Yoo Seongwoo.
But she had assumed that Yoo Yi-seo, her most precious friend, would pretend to dislike it while still understanding her.
Neither could properly voice their thoughts.
The feelings that remained bottled up became misunderstandings, creating a cold silence.
Caught between them, Helena had no idea what to do as she alternated her gaze between the two women.
“Ugh…….”
What kind of disaster was this during a trip they had come on to enjoy themselves?
They had come to make friendship rings, only for their friendship to be on the verge of shattering.
‘If we go back like this.’
They were almost finished making the rings.
If they returned to the others at the appointed time with this cold atmosphere still between them, it would inevitably spread to the rest of the group, and the trip that had begun with excitement and anticipation would end in disaster.
That wasn’t the happy trip Helena wanted.
Helena clenched her fist after making a decision.
‘I have to resolve the conflict between them!’
When it came to conflict between people, there was no absolute right or wrong.
There were only circumstances and emotions.
At least, that was what a book titled <Anyone Can Make Friends> had said.
A sharp gleam appeared in Helena’s eyes.
Mana was influenced by emotions.
In other words, Mana responded according to the emotions one felt.
And through Dragon Eyes, Helena could perceive the forms and movements of Mana.
Her gaze swept over the two women locked in their cold war.
Helena quietly murmured toward the air.
“Connect.”
At the command of a Dragon who dominated Mana, a tiny thread was drawn out from each of Seo Da-hee and Yoo Yi-seo’s Mana.
Realizing something strange was happening, the two turned toward Helena.
“Helena?!”
“What are you suddenly doing?”
Before either of them could finish speaking, the Mana threads drawn from them connected.
Yoo Yi-seo and Seo Da-hee trembled as though they had been electrocuted.
“I’m sorry for doing something like this, but I was told that all conflict comes from a lack of communication. I simply created an opportunity for the two of you to communicate.”
As Seo Da-hee and Yoo Yi-seo’s Mana connected, fragments of the emotions and thoughts each possessed flowed between them.
“Yi-seo…….”
Seo Da-hee spoke first.
She had read Yoo Yi-seo’s dissatisfaction, worries, and fears.
Yoo Yi-seo was afraid that if Seo Da-hee began dating Yoo Seongwoo, she would be left behind.
The two of them had always been each other’s highest priority.
But if Seo Da-hee entered a relationship with Yoo Seongwoo, those priorities would change.
In the end, it was selfishness and jealousy.
The selfish desire to keep Seo Da-hee to herself, and the fear that Yoo Seongwoo would take Seo Da-hee away from her.
“You’ll always be my highest priority. I definitely like Seongwoo, but that doesn’t mean I would ever abandon you, someone who’s practically family to me.”
At that unwavering gaze, tears suddenly welled up in Yoo Yi-seo’s eyes.
Just as Seo Da-hee could feel Yoo Yi-seo’s emotions, Yoo Yi-seo could feel Seo Da-hee’s as well.
Her words were sincere.
Seo Da-hee opened her arms and pulled Yoo Yi-seo into a tight embrace.