05 Unexpected Encounter
A private room… I hesitated slightly.
Sharon, led by an employee, was slightly tense.
"Please, make yourself comfortable."
The room they entered was for two people.
Jake had not arrived yet, it seemed.
She thought it unusual for that meticulous man to be late, and waited in the chair.
After a few minutes.
"We'll be escorting your companion."
The employee brought in someone—
"Hey."
"Huh?"
Not Jake. Jin.
It was a predictable meeting for the two of them.
But a complete surprise for Sharon.
"A-ah, a-ah, a-ah…"
She chose to retreat immediately.
She stood up hastily, trying to leave the shop, but the situation was too dire.
"Wait. Where are you going?"
Jin blocked the exit.
The employee who had led her was already gone.
A narrow private room.
There is no place to run.
Pressed against the wall of the room in an instant.
You’ve been running away lately, haven’t you.
W-what are you talking about? I mean... your face is too close...
Don't play dumb.
Jin pressed his hand against the wall, driving Shirley into the corner.
Sharon becomes even more panicked at Jin’s arm thrust directly beside her.
—What do you think you're doing, hiding your face behind that welding mask like that...
C-Cool, isn't it?
I don’t know your hobbies.
Sharon’s face flushed crimson, her mouth opening and closing like a fish—there was something almost tragic about the sight.
Jin thought, slightly amused—like the goldfish he’d seen long ago.
Don't run. Let me talk to you properly.
I-I don't have anything to say...
"Hmm?"
"Are you mistaken about wanting to run away?"
"Hoohoo?"
Jin’s demeanor, as if he were the one to say something like that.
"There's a recording of that day here."
"Why do you even have something like that!?"
It was recorded originally for a serious discussion, stored as a record.
A fully standalone voice recorder, rare these days, carries no risk of exposure.
"I thought you were running away because of what happened... So that's not it. I see."
"Are you changing your character? You weren't the type to harp on things like this, were you?"
"You're the reason I haven't slept. Let me have this small revenge."
Jin released his hand from the wall.
The figure so close now receding, Shirley exhaled in relief.
"Sit down for now."
"Are we eating in this situation?"
"Of course we are. How much do you think they'd charge just for cancellation?"
"Ugh, so stingy..."
As usual, the familiar exchange continued.
Sharon sits perched on the table like a borrowed cat.
Her mood right now is that of a frog stared down by a snake.
She’s never seen a cat, a snake, or a frog.
A drink arrives. They clink glasses briefly.
“Cheers, for now.”
“Cheers to what, exactly?”
“Uh, commemorating removing the welding mask?”
“Really, that’s so… random…”
She takes a sip. Swallows.
“About that thing we talked about earlier…”
“Mm.”
“…Honestly, I was surprised.”
Jin speaks carefully, offering his thoughts.
“I didn’t expect to be seen that way.”
“Well… yeah… if I’d known, that’d be a shock too.”
She had thought she’d hidden it. Being so easily seen through leaves Sharon with no place to stand.
“Still… I’m sorry. I… still can’t forget the order.”
“I know. That ring.”
The twisted ring he’s always kept around his chest.
A ring no longer fit for a human finger.
“Sometimes I grip it like a lifeline. It belonged to Lieutenant, didn’t it?”
“…Technically, it was meant for him.”
Even in a private room, another person was just one wall away.
They managed to speak more calmly than they had that night.
“Ultimately, I couldn’t deliver it.”
A flicker of pain crossed Jin’s face as he spoke.
The wound carved into him had not healed.
“That’s why… your feelings—”
“Hey. Can I ask it differently?”
Sharon interrupted Jin’s conclusion with a new question.
Just a little alcohol to loosen the edge.
She’d likely suffer again in bed later, no doubt.
But it was better than crying there.
These past seven days. Laying bare her true self—so painfully, so deeply embarrassing.
Sharon could assert, by comparison to the past six years of concealing her true self, that this was far happier.
“Question?”
“Yes. Do you hate me?”
“No. I don’t… but…”
“Then do you like me? As a person?”
“As a person, yes.”
Nods affirmatively.
Ah. Sharon nods in return.
“Then one more.”
She smiles slyly.
“How long did it take you to accept me?”
“Guh.”
What an impossible question to answer.
“Come now. Answer quickly. You came here to talk, so silence isn’t allowed.”
“Just over two years.”
“Alone?”
“Do I have to say it out loud?”
“No. Say it.”
Even after hearing the answer, Sharon presses the attack, as if she herself should have been wounded.
A complete self-destruction.
“…I only finally let go after meeting Rei.”
“Hm. So that’s how it is.”
She smiled, satisfied despite the wound.
“In other words, it took us two years—just the two of us—to finally reach this point.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s how it works.”
Jin didn’t understand what Sharon was getting at.
He nodded anyway.
“Then, based on that equation, the time it’ll take for your heart to heal—accounting for margin of error—comes out to ten years!”
“What kind of equation is that? And anyway, you can’t calculate something like a person’s heart.”
“It’s fine. I’m not specialized in humans, after all! So what else can I do but approximate within my field?”
“What kind of logic is that?”
Jin scoffed at the absurd calculation.
But Sharon didn’t seem to hear.
“Ten years from now. We’ll both be thirty-six.”
“…Yeah, I suppose.”
“Late, but not fatal.”
“…Is that so?”
“Not for me, at least.”
Sharon stood there, having made a single resolve.
"Long-term warfare is ideal. Ten years from now—I’ll take you down again, slowly, deliberately."
"...You said I was a landmine, didn’t you?"
"I did."
"To be honest, you’re the bigger mine."
Sixteen years, including the time endured. She had said she would endure. This woman before him.
No guarantee of reward anywhere.
One misstep—no, even without misstep—this is heavy. Quite heavy.
And now, with the added phrase “once started,” the word “villainess” is also justified.
A heavyweight villainess.
"…You might not change by then."
"That depends entirely on my effort. Frankly, this is my battle with Commander Jin. You have no right to participate."
"Wait—this is my story, isn’t it? That’s kind of ridiculous…?"
A figure now existing only within Jin’s memory.
Sharon’s battle to surpass that memory.
"Hey, what should I call you, then?"
Jin thinks it's unfair to ask something like that.
Likely, saying "Lieutenant" would end this. Saying "Sergeant" would end it.
Cutting off Sharon's six-year-old longing.
He can't say such a thing.
Just as Sharon once soaked her pillow with tears six years ago.
Six years ago, Jin had stayed up drinking with Jake until dawn.
"Call me whatever you want, Sharon."
That's all Jin can say.
Even so, Sharon's face lights up at Jin's passive words.
"Yes! I'll call you whatever I like! From now on, please take care of me, Jin!"
"For now, let's eat. You came all this way, after all."
"Yes. I haven't been eating much lately... I'll order from one end to the other, okay?"
"Don't make it sound like a trainee's fast-food run. My wallet will die."
The pre-ordered course meal is brought to the table. A quiet appreciation is made.
"Forgot to mention—Jake asked me to submit a review."
"Troublesome."
"He made the reservation for this place, after all... It wasn’t easy."
Apparently, the staff’s discretion was crucial, and that had made things difficult.
Besides, Jake’s been looking after Mio ever since, so this MVP goes to Jake.
"Oh, right—Jin."
"Yeah?"
"If you want lots of siblings for Mio-chan, you’d better get on it sooner than ten years from now."