Chapter 22: The Meeting
Chapter 22: The Meeting
“Haru, here! Here!”
In front of the ice cream festival venue.
Shin Haru got off the bus and met her senior.
“Oh, unnie. You already came!”
“I just got here, too! Let’s go inside.”
“Okay.”
The two of them decided to look around the festival together.
Haru looked at her older friend who was chattering with a bright smile.
Chaehyun is one year older than her, but she is short and bright, she looks more like a younger sister.
“Chaehyun, do you want to try this? It’s rice-flavored ice cream.”
“Alright!”
Seeing her older friend eating ice cream deliciously makes her feel good.
Honestly, she doesn’t like ice cream that much, but hanging out with her close friend after a while makes her feel better.
The truth is Shin Haru doesn’t have many friends. Ever since she was young, she has been living while building a wall with others because she had to maintain her studying and her hero life. If Chaehyun had not actively approached her, she would have no friends while attending college.
Of course, she has friends as a hero. Shadow Walker and North Sea Ice Girl, who are also A-class heroes, are representative. But they don't contact each other.
Honestly, because Shadow Walker is only active at night, as he keeps a life pattern of sleeping during the day and waking up at night, it's hard to meet him. And the North Sea Ice Girl 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. Stardus herself is also busy with Egostic…
Holding many thoughts, she walked down the street with her friend.
They certainly caught a lot of attention as they walked by. Kim Chaehyun has a cute appearance, but Shin Haru stood out more since she is tall for a woman and has blonde hair. She also looked cold and chic to others, but sometimes, 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 watching while walking with their girlfriends, so these girls unintentionally were the reason for various couples to break up. But they don't seem to know that.
Shin Haru and Kim Chaehyun, who had been walking around, slowly finished eating and walked to the venue.
“Wow! They even have Egostic ice cream over there!”
Her friend asked her to go there with a bright smile.
Even though she came out here to forget about Egostic, Haru’s face stiffened as she faced Egostic again. But her friend, who has already joined the Mango Union, does not seem to notice.
The two of them stood in line to buy the ice cream.
Haru let out a sigh and took a picture of her friend who was eating while smiling happily.
And she felt bitter as she looked at her friend. Still, she thought that it was fortunate that her friend had not shown herself swearing at Stardus. Among the Mango Union who support the villain, some of them curse at Stardus… She searched for the comments herself, and eventually, she was shocked as she read them.
Time already flew so much as they took pictures and walked around the rest of the festival.
It has been a while since she spent time with Chaehyun, so it was a valuable time.
Although she still feels disturbed as she thinks about Egostic…
“Let’s play that and call it a day before we go home!”
Chaehyun pointed to the booth where they were throwing darts at the balloons.
They said that if anyone got more than a certain number, then they would get a 10-layer ice cream as the prize. What the hell is 10-layer ice cream?
“Sure.”
They walked toward the place.
The booth is designed to accommodate two guests at the same time.
The other customer already occupied one side.
At first, she thought that they were a family who was hanging out.
Mom, dad, and their daughter.
Both the mom and dad have black hair, but their daughter’s hair is white. Did she dye her hair?
She was curious about the silver-haired girl who she saw for the first time. Looking at them closely, the daughter must be in middle school, but her mom and dad look so young. So perhaps they are not a family. What is their relationship then?
While she was thinking about it, she felt something suspicious. Since when did she become the type who is curious about people like that?
Perhaps because she was amazed by the girl’s silver hair… She was the type who only took a quick glance even if a man with green Afro hair walked by. But strangely, this family seems interesting to her.
Especially that black-haired guy. She can somehow feel a sense of frustration from him…
Well, she probably was just thinking too much.
After shaking her head off complicated thoughts, she decided to watch Chaehyun throw darts.
They were getting close to the booth before she knew it, then she called for the staff.
“Here.”
***
Fuck.
“Here.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
“Give me ten darts, please.”
“Alright!”
What’s going on?
Why does this happen to me when I'm just here to normally enjoy the festival?
I can feel my hands and feet trembling.
My back was already sweating.
My eyes suddenly shake non-stop.
Looking at the side, Seo-eun and Soobin also looked stiff.
We all know Stardus’ real face.
In other words, the current situation is alarming.
I swallowed my saliva.
I have no idea why Stardus is here, but we have to run away immediately.
Stardus’ abilities are superhuman strength and flying.
But her superhuman strength is not just pure strength.
To be exact, the power from her body is huge.
Still, it's not like she can get stronger anytime she wants to, but she will go beyond a human’s strength and become a superhuman later on.
The development of five senses, such as looking further than others and listening better than others. In other words, the Association, who has no idea about it yet, named this ability as superhuman strength, in fact, it's right to see Stardus as a superhuman.
Not only five senses but also her sixth sense will develop.
Hence, her instinct can sense it when something is strange. It's actually a supernatural feeling.
Of course, compared with the original work’s timeline, it's still early. It hasn’t been to the point where she can look at me and immediately say, “That brat is Egostic!”. But of course, she can still sense something strange now.
The bottom line is, I'm in big trouble.
We have to run.
But I already got the darts.
Wouldn’t it look more suspicious if I ran away without playing the darts?
“Yap!”
“Oh, you’re good at this!”
“Of course! I'm good at this!”
In the original comic, when she’s in her daily life mode but not in a hero mood, I guess that's what she calls it? Anyway, that’s her closest senior friend when she lives as an ordinary citizen. She was also a popular character for her bright and cute personality. Of course, the thing that happened to her in the latter part…
“Throw and throw the darts~”
Standing next to her, Chaehyun was throwing the darts like crazy. I mean, I thought Shin Haru was throwing them for a second because she threw it so well.
“Aren’t you going to throw them, sir?”
Looking at my blank expression, the employee asked cautiously.
Oh, right. I should hurry up and throw them
While Haru is still focusing on Chaehyun’s dart throwing, I have to throw them quickly.
“Oh, the person next to me was so good so I stared at her without realizing. I’m going to throw now.”
Speaking quietly and quickly to the employee, I picked up the darts and started throwing.
“Haha, S-Seo-eun. Look at my dart throwing skills!”
“Uh, yeah. T-Throw it fast”
Seo-eun answered me while trembling. Hey! Act well! How can your voice be shaky like that… But I'm also trembling so I guess we are the same.
I began to throw the darts without thinking. Well, because I was just throwing without thinking so I obviously didn’t have any good shots. On the other hand, Shin Haru’s side seems to be done. Even though she arrived after us…
“Wow! I got everything!”
“Oh, Chaehyun. How did you do it?”
“Give me the prize! The prize!”
Wait, did she get all ten shots?
The employee told her with a smile that she was the first one to get ten shots today. He told her to wait for a second, and then brought out an ice cream cone from behind. After he brought it out, he scooped the ice cream out of a container in the refrigerator and started putting it on the cone.
Is that the prize, a 10-layer ice cream?
One scoop on the cone, two scoops on the cone, three scoops on the cone, four scoops on the cone, five scoops on the cone, six scoops on the cone,…
What the. How much will he serve?
In the end, he scooped the tenth one and put it up.
Since the ice cream went over the height of the employee, he had to stretch his hand and pile it up.
Finally, the 10-layer ice cream cone.
What the hell is this?
Even when he holds the cone near his waist, the end of the ice cream still goes over his head. That seems to be at least one-meter long.
I had no choice but to peek at it while throwing the darts.
God, what is that!
It's so tall as if it's about to fall.
The employee is also standing while sticking his hand out as if 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 myself, so I have to hold it. I can do it.”
Kim Chaehyun claimed it like that but barely accepted the cone from the employee.
“Uh…”
The ice cream tower is already shaking dangerously above her.
Well, I think something terrible will happen in a little while.
I also finished throwing all the darts. It seems like I got four balloons. Of course, I couldn’t get any prizes.
“Oh, what a shame. We will get going now.”
I was about to turn around and quickly escape. We have to run away.
Suddenly, I can hear Kim Chaehyun screaming next to me.
“Uh, uh…. No! No!!!”
When I turned to look, the 10-layer ice cream couldn’t grab its center and tilted. Eventually, it fell to the side.
I mean, to my side, as I was going to the closer side while passing by her to get out of there.
What the hell. Fuck, why is this happening to me.