· · ────── ꒰ঌ·✦·໒꒱ ────── · ·
Translated by BiasNil
· · ────── ꒰ঌ·✦·໒꒱ ────── · ·
"Haru, over here!"
In front of the ice cream festival venue.
Shin Haru got off the bus and met her senior.
"Oh, unnie. You're already here!"
"I just arrived, too! Let's go inside."
"Okay."
The two of them decided to look around the festival together.
Haru glanced at her older friend chattering with a bright smile.
Chae-hyun is one year older than her, but she's short and cheerful, so she looks more like a younger sister.
"Chae-hyun, do you want to try this? It's rice-flavored ice cream."
"Alright!"
Seeing her older friend happily eating ice cream made Haru feel good.
Honestly, she doesn't like ice cream that much, but hanging out with a close friend after a while made her feel better.
The truth is, Shin Haru doesn't have many friends. Ever since she was young, she's kept a wall up because she had to juggle studying and her hero life. If Chae-hyun hadn't actively approached her, she might have had no friends at college.
Of course, she has friends as a hero. Shadow Walker and North Sea Ice Women, who are also A-class heroes, are the representative ones. But they don't really keep in touch.
Honestly, because Shadow Walker is only active at night—sleeping during the day and waking up at night—it's hard to meet him. And North Sea Ice Women is always busy covering the bottom of the Korean Peninsula alone. That's why the chatroom where the three of them gather is always silent. Stardust herself is also busy with Egostic…
Lost in thought, she walked down the street with her friend.
They drew a lot of attention as they passed. Kim Chae-hyun is cute, but Shin Haru stood out more—tall for a woman with blonde hair. She looked cold and chic to others, but the sight of her smiling while talking with her friend made a lot of men's hearts pound.
Of course, some of those men were with their girlfriends, so the two girls were unintentionally the cause of various couples breaking up. Not that they knew.
Shin Haru and Kim Chae-hyun, after wandering for a while, finished eating and headed toward the venue.
"Wow! They even have Egostic ice cream over there!"
Her friend tugged her along with a bright smile.
Even though she came out to forget Egostic, Haru's face stiffened as she ran into him again—at least in name. But her friend, who'd already joined the Mango Union, didn't seem to notice.
They stood in line to buy the ice cream.
Haru sighed and snapped a photo of her friend happily eating.
And she felt bitter as she looked at her. Still, she thought it was fortunate her friend hadn't shown any signs of cursing at Stardust. Among the Mango Union who support the villain, some of them curse at Stardust… She had searched the comments herself and ended up shocked as she read them.
Time flew as they took pictures and walked around the rest of the festival.
It had been a while since she spent time with Chae-hyun, so it was precious.
Though she still felt unsettled whenever she thought of Egostic…
"Let's play that and call it a day before we go home!"
Chae-hyun pointed to a booth where you throw darts at balloons.
If you popped more than a certain number, you got a 10-layer ice cream as a prize. What even is a 10-layer ice cream?
"Sure."
They walked toward the booth.
It was set up to accommodate two players at once.
The other side was already occupied.
At first, Haru thought they were a family out for the day.
Mom, dad, and their daughter.
Both the mom and dad had black hair, but the daughter's hair was white. Did she dye it?
She was curious about the silver-haired girl she'd never seen before. Looking more closely, the girl seemed to be in middle school, but the mom and dad looked so young. Maybe they weren't family after all. What was their relationship?
As she wondered, she caught herself. Since when did she start being curious about strangers like this?
Maybe she was just amazed by the girl's silver hair… Normally she only spared a glance even if a guy with green afro hair walked by. But for some reason, this trio interested her.
Especially that black-haired man. She could somehow feel… a sense of tension from him.
Well, she was probably overthinking it.
Shaking off the thought, she turned to watch Chae-hyun throw darts.
They had already reached the counter before she knew it. Haru called to the staff.
"Here."
***
…Fuck.
"Here."
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Give me ten darts, please."
"Alright!"
What is going on?
Why does this happen to me when I'm just here to enjoy a normal festival?
I can feel my hands and feet trembling.
My back is already sweating.
My eyes are shaking nonstop.
Glancing sideways, Seo-eun and Su-bin both look stiff.
We all know Stardust's real face.
In other words, this situation is alarming.
I swallowed hard.
I have no idea why Stardust is here, but we need to run. Immediately.
Stardust's abilities are superhuman strength and flight.
But her superhuman strength isn't just raw power.
To be exact, the energy her body outputs is huge.
She can't crank it up arbitrarily yet, but she'll surpass human limits and become truly superhuman later on.
Her five senses develop too—she can see farther and hear better than others. The Association, clueless about the details, slapped "superhuman strength" on it, but really, Stardust should be seen as a superhuman.
Even a sixth sense will develop[1].
Her instincts can tell when something's off. It's practically supernatural.
Of course, compared to the original timeline, it's still early. It's not at the point where she can look at me and immediately say, "That bastard is Egostic!" But she can still sense something strange now.
Bottom line: I'm in big trouble.
We have to run.
But I already took the darts.
Wouldn't it look more suspicious if I bolted without throwing them?
"Yap!"
"Oh, you're good at this!"
"Of course! I'm good at this!"
In the original comic, when she's in daily-life mode—no hero mood—that's her closest senior friend as an ordinary student. Popular character, bright and cute. Of course, what happens to her in the latter part…
"Throw and throw the darts~"
Next to her, Chae-hyun was nailing the balloons like crazy. For a second I thought Shin Haru was throwing, she was that good.
"Aren't you going to throw, sir?"
Seeing my blank stare, the employee asked cautiously.
Oh, right. Throw. Now.
While Haru's focused on Chae-hyun, I need to finish fast.
"Oh, the person next to me is so good I spaced out. I'll throw now."
I whispered quickly to the employee, grabbed the darts, and started throwing.
"Haha, S-Seo-eun. Check out my dart skills!"
"Uh, yeah. T-throw them fast."
Seo-eun answered while trembling. Hey! Act natural! How can your voice be that shaky… Not that I'm any better.
I tossed the darts without thinking. Which, obviously, meant I wasn't hitting much. On the other hand, Shin Haru's side seemed to be wrapping up. Even though she got here after us…
"Wow! I got all of them!"
"Oh, Chae-hyun. How did you do that?"
"Give me the prize! The prize!"
Wait, all ten?
The employee told her, smiling, that she was the first to hit all ten today. He asked her to wait, then brought out a cone from the back. He scooped ice cream from the freezer and started stacking it.
So that's the prize—a 10-layer ice cream?
One scoop on the cone, two scoops, three, four, five, six…
What the. How much is he piling on?
In the end, he scooped the tenth and set it on top.
The stack was so tall he had to stretch up to place it.
Finally, the 10-layer cone.
What the hell is this?
Even with the cone held near his waist, the top still rose above his head. It had to be at least a meter tall.
I couldn't help but sneak a look while I kept throwing.
God, what is that?
It swayed like it might topple any second.
The employee stood with his hand hovering like he was playing some kind of balance game. What is he doing…?
"Oh my. This is harder than I thought, ma'am. Please be careful when you eat it."
"O-Okay!"
"Unnie… should I hold it for you?"
"No! I won it, so I have to hold it. I can do it."
Kim Chae-hyun insisted, then gingerly accepted the cone.
"Uh…"
The ice-cream tower was already wobbling dangerously above her.
Well, something bad is about to happen.
I finished my throws too. Looks like I got four balloons. No prize, of course.
"Oh, what a shame. We'll get going now."
I started to turn and make a quick escape. We have to run.
Suddenly, Kim Chae-hyun screamed beside me.
"Uh, uh… No! No!!!"
I turned just in time to see the 10-layer tower lose its center of gravity and tilt—falling to the side.
My side, specifically, since I'd been passing by her on the closer side to get out of there.
What the hell. Fuck, why is this happening to me?
[1] BN: Secondary Power?