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83

Cory seemed to be cold–his ears and basically every part of his face under his eyes were bright red. It sounded like he had caught a cold, because I could hear him sniffling every few minutes. Cory stopped walking for a moment before taking out the strawberry blanket he used often during club time.

Then, after putting his blanket around his shoulders, he lit a small fire using fire magic. When blue flames appeared, he made it float mid-air. It reminded me of dokkaebi* fire that I’d seen in traditional tales during my last life’s childhood.

After warming himself up, Cory seemed pleased. I could see his breath in the air as he sighed.

He tilted his head back and stared at the sky as he walked.

“Where are youuuuuu.”

He watched as his warm breath mingled in the air with the twinkling stars in the sky as he walked.

Cory was too busy staring at the sky to realize that I was right next to him.

“Here’s the Shushu you’re looking for.”

Cory tilted his head back as soon as he heard my voice.

Cory stared forward then realized that he had to look down, so he looked down to stare at me.

“Whoa.”

Cory walked a few steps back and turned around.

He rubbed his eyes with his hands after he turned away, then looked back and stared at me.

After he glanced at me, he turned back away from me.

“…….?”

I could see Cory with his head down, hand on the back of his neck, deep in thought. Cory’s skin was pale to begin with, and his fingertips had turned red from the cold wind. It looked like the back of his neck and his ears were also bright red.

“Whatcha doin?”
“…..”

Cory touched his red ears for a bit. He didn’t reply to my question for a long while before sighing and turning back to face me.

He stared at me. He turned away again.

“…….found you.”

Cory spoke, voice languid. He seemed relieved that he found me, but was still turned around and facing away from me. He muttered, “I was looking for you……” as he seemed lost in confusion.

Still turned around, he tousled the back of his hair. His neat hair became a bird’s nest again by the time he turned back to face me.

Hylli was weird. Cory was being really weird too.

I waited for Cory to get back to normal again.

Why is my mouth broken. Cory muttered lowly to himself.

He refused to look at me properly and just continued glancing at me ever so often. I was getting kind of embarrassed because I thought it was because I looked awkward, but I stayed still.

Honestly, I was kind of uncomfortable from before because my dress was a bit too flashy. My makeup felt heavy on my face, and I felt like I had suddenly dolled myself up too much at once and was showing off. Whenever we had parties at home, I never did any heavy makeup. I barely just made sure my face was clean. I liked how Hazel unni did my makeup but I wanted to wipe it off all at once.

“Hylli too, and now you. Is it weird? It’s weird, right? This is why people shouldn’t do what they normally don’t do.”

I think the two of them were so weird because I looked different. I wanted to wipe my makeup off right then and there. If it was only Hylli who was acting weird, then I would’ve just thought that Hylli’s been having a hard time recently, but seeing both of them be weird like this made me think that this was, irrefutably, completely on me.