Chapter 21 - Festival Days

"Nice weather."

A warm spring breeze blew through the air.

The last time I'd gone out to commit terrorism was already last week. Since then, I hadn't left the house even once, staying cooped up inside the whole time. It really had been a while.

On the way to the festival.

Seo-eun, Subin, and I were walking down the street together for the first time in ages.

Actually, it probably wasn't that long for Subin. She'd been going back and forth to do the shopping all along.

Anyway, it felt good to soak up some sunlight after so long.

Right. People need to sunbathe like this every now and then. Sunlight has that thing in it... what was it? Vitamin D. I heard that somewhere. You can't just stay inside all the time.

"Oppa, you're wearing black again?"

Seo-eun chided me.

Living together for quite a while now, I'd learned something—Seo-eun had criteria for when she called me 'hyung' versus 'oppa.'

Normally, I was 'hyung,' but when she needed to ask me for something or was in a good mood, she'd call me 'oppa.'

...Couldn't you just pick one and stick with it?

Honestly, if I really sat her down and scolded her firmly, she'd probably call me oppa all the time.

But honestly, I didn't want to go that far. It'd just make things awkward and create distance between us. I should wait for her to open up on her own. Someday she'll call me oppa all the time, right? I'm sure that day will come...

Anyway, she seemed to be in a good mood right now since she was calling me oppa, so that was nice. But why was she asking about me wearing black again?

I inspected what I was wearing. A black coat. Underneath was just normal clothes. Though they were covered by the coat anyway, so you couldn't see them.

The result was an all-black look, just like when I was Egostic. What? Black is the most stylish color for coats!

I decided to share a truth with Seo-eun that she clearly didn't understand.

"Seo-eun, for men, it's all about black."

"What are you even saying?"

Seo-eun giggled as she spoke. Huh, she's not usually this cheerful in her responses? I'd been bracing myself for the contemptuous dismissal she'd normally throw at me, so this was quite bewildering.

Instead, she was humming to herself as she walked, looking genuinely happy.

Seo-eun, you really are serious about ice cream, aren't you?

Or maybe she was just happy to be out for the first time in a while?

Subin seemed to find Seo-eun's demeanor adorable too, covering her mouth as she smiled warmly.

Maybe because Seo-eun's silver hair was so rare, people kept glancing at her, and since Subin was such a beauty, just walking down the street was enough to draw everyone's attention. Why is this happening?

By the way, Subin had the recognition reduction filter applied after appearing on that broadcast. Of course, the recognition reduction filter itself functioned by giving anyone looking at that specific face facial recognition disorder, so it didn't work on me since I already knew Subin was Subin.

But thinking about it, it was kind of fascinating. I'd been on all sorts of broadcasts, but because I wore a mask and filter, I could walk around confidently with my bare face like this. Meanwhile, Subin needed the recognition reduction filter every time she went out.

Speaking of which, this recognition reduction filter was also the pinnacle of cutting-edge technology. It was invented by a genius researcher in America who said, 'How long do heroes have to keep wearing those weird tight suits and masks?' You go through the device, and for a certain period, recognition reduction affects your face...

Every Hero Association office has one, and Seo-eun somehow looked at the blueprints and built one, so we have one in our underground base too. Thank you, Seo-eun-mon!

Without recognition reduction, we'd be screwed... Subin wouldn't be able to do the shopping.

If Subin couldn't go outside, we'd have no choice but to order delivery food for three meals a day. That's what being a 'homebody' means...

"Ah, I can see it over there!"

Seo-eun shouted, her excitement building.

Yeah, I could see it too.

[13th International Ice Cream Festival]

This place with its huge banner hanging.

The ice cream festival site—somewhere I never thought I'd end up in my entire life.

Every street was packed with booths containing refrigerators. I could only wonder how much the total electricity bill for this festival must be.

Seo-eun was already excited, turning her head in all directions to look around, and Subin was also looking around curiously, intrigued by it all.

"Oh, rice ice cream!"

Seo-eun dashed off somewhere. Hey, we should go together!

When Subin and I slowly followed after her, Seo-eun had already bought an ice cream and was holding it.

White ice cream in a cone.

"It's delicious! Do you want some too, Oppa and Unnie?"

Seo-eun asked, her eyes sparkling.

Rice ice cream. I'd heard of it but never actually tried it.

"Sure, let me have some."

I took the cone Seo-eun handed me and took a bite.

Mm. It's good.

I'd thought it might taste like cooked rice, but it was actually closer to vanilla.

"Oh, this is pretty good? Here, Subin, you should try a bite too."

"What? I, I'm—"

Suddenly flustered, Subin's face started turning red. Why was she acting like this?

"This is really good, aren't you going to try it?"

"Come on, Unnie, try it!"

Under the repeated assault from Seo-eun and me, Subin's face grew redder and redder until she finally hung her head.

"Okay. P-please give it to me."

She stuttered as she reached out her hand.

Wait, why had she reverted to the extremely timid Subin from the early days?

Did I pressure her too forcefully to eat it? Did that resurrect the nightmare of when we first met?

"...Ugh...this...indirect...just me...is it weird?"

She muttered something, but it was so quiet I couldn't really hear it. Then she closed her eyes and took a determined bite of the ice cream. Why was she eating ice cream so dramatically?

"Mmm...it's delicious!"

After one bite, her eyes finally lit up as she said it was good. See? It had a slightly nutty vanilla ice cream taste, so it was pretty edible.

After we each took a bite, the remaining cone returned to Seo-eun's hands, and she cleanly finished off the rest. She eats well.

***

And so we wandered around various parts of the festival, tasting ice cream. We'd eaten so many different things that it felt like we were spending money like water, but since we had plenty to spare, it wasn't really a problem.

Maybe because this was a global festival that traveled around different countries worldwide, we could see all sorts of ice cream. The familiar basics like chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and mint chocolate, along with brand ice creams like Dad is an Alien and Shooting Star, were naturally everywhere. And besides those, there were ice creams you'd probably only ever see here in your entire life.

Wasabi flavor, cold noodle flavor, steak flavor, ramen flavor—all sorts of horrific hybrid ice creams. Though the steak flavor was actually better than expected. I wonder if this is what eating direct-fire ice cream would feel like? I don't even know what I'm saying anymore.

And then there were things that should never exist in this world, like desk flavor, booger flavor, and earwax flavor. Why are they selling those for money...

...Of course, we played rock-paper-scissors and made the loser eat one, so we bought the booger flavor. Subin was the only one who threw scissors and lost, so she ate it with teary eyes. After one bite, her complexion rapidly deteriorated, so we just threw the rest away. Don't eat it—donate it to the trash can.

Right now, we were eating mango-flavored ice cream. I didn't understand why we had to eat mango flavor after coming all this way... Right, Seo-eun?

When I asked reproachfully, she whispered back without a shred of embarrassment, standing on her tiptoes and putting her mouth to my ear.

"...Since Oppa is the leader of the Mango Squad, we have to eat mango-flavored ice cream!"

"Seo-eun... Honestly, don't you think this whole mango thing is kind of a brain fart at this point? If you milk it too much, it stops being funny."

"No? It's fun every time though? And no matter how much Oppa denies it, your fan club is already named the Mango Squad."

Seo-eun burst into laughter after saying that. Now she's just living for the fun of teasing me...

Yeah, well, as long as you're happy.

As we browsed around, we eventually arrived at the event corner.

This was where they sold collaboration ice creams—Frankenstein Flavor Ice Cream, Mikima X Flavor Ice Cream, and the like.

Over there, they even had Egostic Flavor Ice Cream...

Huh?

Wait, what flavor ice cream?

"Come one, come all! Get your Egostic Flavor Ice Cream—only available here!"

A woman inside the booth was loudly soliciting customers.

What the hell is that?

This is a violation of my portrait rights!

"Oppa, pfft—they have ice cream too. Bwahaha!"

Seo-eun was absolutely blooming with laughter. Is this really that funny?

Wait, even Subin is turning her head away and laughing right now?

What's even more ridiculous is that this is the only booth with a line. In front of it, people were holding their ice cream and taking proof shots. For Instagram, maybe? This is making me dizzy...

At the strong insistence of Seo-eun and Subin, I eventually joined the line and bought my own flavor ice cream. What exactly does Egostic Flavor taste like...?

The ice cream itself was ordinary vanilla with my trademark half mask made of chocolate on top. They'd even recreated the eyes and mouth in chocolate, which gave me... a strange feeling. The only real difference was that it had mango inside.

At least it tasted decent. Does that person selling it even know? That Egostic himself came and ate Egostic Flavor Ice Cream...

Going a bit further inside, there was a place where they had games. Throw darts to pop balloons. Pop enough and you win a prize. But since this is an ice cream festival, the prizes are ice cream too. 10-Layer Ice Cream? What even is that supposed to be?

"Seo-eun, Oppa's gonna show you something. I used to be a master at throwing darts back in the day, you know? I'll win you that 10-Layer Ice Cream or whatever!"

"Oppa, you're not planning to cheat with telekinesis, are you?"

Caught off guard by Seo-eun's words, I quickly decided to just play the game. This is why I hate perceptive brats. The booth could accommodate two people at once, and since no one else was there, we could play right away.

"Phew... This heavy yet cool sensation."

I was gripping the dart and spouting nonsense to Seo-eun when someone else came to play the game next to us.

Without much thought, I glanced over to see who it was, and—

My brain short-circuited.

Brilliant blonde hair.

A face more beautiful than anyone else in the world.

The person who'd come to play the game was Stardus—Shin Haru.

Uh... why are you coming out of there?