Chapter 2: A Futile Farewell (2).

While I was crying in a complete daze from the wound.

Hayeon used the phone hanging around her neck on a pink strap to call her mother for me.

“M-Mom…”

[Yes. Hayeon. Is something wrong?]

“Geonyul… Geonyul… got hurt… There’s blood… Hwaaaang!”

[Geonyul? What are you talking about all of a sudden. Hayeon. Where are you right now. Should Mom come there?]

Of course, she had no choice but to call her own mother.

Hayeon explained our location through her tears, and her mother quickly drove over to where we were.

On the way to the hospital in the back seat of the car.

Hayeon’s mother muttered to herself while driving.

“We really almost had a big problem. It’s a good thing work finished early today… If not, ugh.”

I found out later that Hayeon’s mother had gotten off work early that day and was already near home.

If not for that, we would have had to wait there for a long time.

Once the shock started to settle, I stopped crying.

Then Hayeon’s mother spoke to me as if trying to reassure me even on the way to the hospital.

“Are you feeling a little better now?”

“Yes… It still hurts, but…”

“You’re brave. You stopped crying so quickly even though it hurts.”

Hayeon’s mother praised me like that, and even though she was someone I was meeting for the first time, it didn’t feel bad at all.

Maybe it was because she was Hayeon’s mother.

“So you’re Geonyul? The boy Hayeon talks about every day at home these days.”

“…What?”

Did Hayeon always talk about me at home?

Come to think of it, I had also told my parents about Hayeon quite a few times.

“M-Mom…!”

“What? It’s true. Every day when she comes home she only talks about Geonyul to Mom.”

“What are you talking about! W-when did I ever!”

With a flushed face, Hayeon tightly held my hand in the seat next to me.

Even while denying her mother’s words, the way she refused to leave my side was really cute.

“So how did Geonyul get hurt?”

Her mother had seen that I was hurt and decided to take me to the hospital first, loading me into the car, so understanding the situation came later.

Instead of me, Hayeon started explaining with big hand gestures.

“A huuuge black dog appeared and Geonyul protected me… And then it bit Geonyul and ran away.”

“A black dog? With no owner?”

“Yeah… W-we just ran into it on the street.”

“Haa… I see.”

Her mother let out a small sigh and nodded.

Perhaps she thought she understood the situation enough.

She spoke to Hayeon.

“But Geonyul protected you from that big dog?”

“Yeah… He put his arms out in front of me like this.”

“Wow~ Really? That’s so cool.”

As if she were proudly telling my heroic tale to her mother.

Hayeon imitated the actions I had taken while speaking to her.

Then her mother asked Hayeon.

“Then Hayeon. Did you say thank you to Geonyul?”

“…Huh? N-no.”

“If a friend helps you, you should say thank you. Right?”

“…Yeah.”

Hayeon squeezed my hand even tighter and looked at me.

Tear stains were still on her face, making her look a little pitiful, but those sparkling eyes and red cheeks somehow made me stare at her blankly.

“Th-thank you. For helping me. You were just like a prince from a fairy tale… I-it was cool.”

“Uh, yeah.”

At Hayeon’s sincere thanks, I felt my face grow hot too.

It was the first time I realized that receiving gratitude could be this embarrassing.

Her mother watched us and chuckled, then looked at my face in the rearview mirror and added one more thing.

“Geonyul. This auntie is really grateful to you for helping Hayeon~. Please keep being good friends with Hayeon from now on.”

It wasn’t even the middle of summer, but the air inside the car somehow felt hot.

I lowered my head and answered her mother.

“…Yes. I will.”

Because that was what a Mecha Hero was supposed to do.

I soothed my embarrassed heart that way inside.

Time passed like that, and before I knew it, Hayeon and I had entered the upper grades of elementary school.

After that day, the bond between Hayeon and me grew even stronger.

On top of that, the two mothers who met at the hospital became close, so Hayeon and I often went out to play together.

From amusement parks to camping, large parks, the zoo, and more.

Our childhood memories continued to pile up that way, and since we lived in the same apartment complex, we naturally entered the same school.

It was perhaps inevitable that we would grow so close.

“Wow~ Hayeon. You look so pretty.”

“Where did you buy that outfit? And that hairpin?”

And Hayeon gradually transformed into a beautiful appearance.

To the point where she was always surrounded by the girls in class and the boys kept sneaking glances at her.

The unfashionable glasses became high-quality round ones.

Her messy hair was now neatly arranged into long straight hair that reached her waist.

Even the stuttering way of speaking that had been the biggest target for teasing naturally disappeared as she grew up.

Even to my young eyes, Hayeon looked like some kind of princess.

The timid coward Seo Hayeon who always hid behind me was gone now.

If anything remained the same, it was that she still didn’t talk all that much, similar to when we were little.

You could say she was shy around strangers.

Hayeon still wasn’t the type to talk a lot unless she was in front of me.

I was also fairly popular among the boys in my own way.

My build was still on the large side, even if not as much as in kindergarten.

And I wasn’t bad at soccer, basketball, games, or anything else.

Unlike our childhood when we played without distinguishing between boys and girls, the time I spent playing with Hayeon naturally decreased.

“Hey. Yul.”

“Yeah?”

“…Why don’t you hang out with me much these days?”

It was the usual walk home from school that day.

At school it might be different, but walking home had become a habit we did together by now.

In fact, the days we didn’t walk home together felt more awkward.

It was a speech habit Hayeon had picked up after entering elementary school.

At her calling me by the shortened name Yul, I turned around.

“We do hang out. We even go play together on the weekends.”

“Nooo~ At school and after school too, you only hang out with the boys.”

Hayeon seemed somehow upset, but I couldn’t really understand her feelings.

I just told her my honest thoughts.

“You don’t like soccer that much and you don’t like games that much either. You don’t even go to PC rooms.”

Maybe it was only natural.

The ways boys and girls play tend to solidify more as they get older.

Just like how Hayeon liked dressing up and going shopping.

I was simply drawn to the things boys liked.

“Then if I do those things with you, will you hang out with me?”

To Hayeon, who asked with a bright expression, there was only one answer I could give.

“Hmm… Not really? The other guys probably wouldn’t include you anyway.”

Since Hayeon’s athletic ability was low and she had no interest to begin with, even if she forced her way in.

Most of the boys would just find playing less fun.

“…But we can still play games together, right?”

“That’s true, but… Don’t you have more fun hanging out with the girls?”

It wasn’t as if Hayeon disliked hanging out with the girls either.

I couldn’t find a reason why she had to force herself into the group of boys to play.

It wasn’t like we never saw each other, and we still went out to play together on the weekends.

Most of the time it was going on trips together following our parents, but still.

“Ugh… That’s not it…”

Hayeon suddenly stopped walking in the middle of the path.

Then she lowered her head deeply before lifting it again with a flash, as if she had made up her mind about something.

“…You and I are the closest, right?”

Her lips twitched under slightly flushed cheeks.

Even her eyes wandered here and there.

It seemed she was embarrassed to say this.

“I don’t like it when you get too close with the other boys. I’m the closest to you.”

“Pfft. What is that.”

I twirled a strand of hair around my finger and burst out laughing at what Hayeon said.

It made me think of a little cousin who would pout if you didn’t dote on her.

“D-don’t laugh. I’m serious, okay? Then would you like it if I got closer with someone else than with you?”

“Hmm. That… would be a little no good. Yeah.”

Hearing it that way, it wasn’t as if I couldn’t understand Hayeon’s feelings.

I had also felt a little upset when Hayeon became more popular after entering elementary school.

I finally realized what she wanted to hear from me.

“Don’t worry. You dummy. Even if the time we hang out decreases a bit, you’re still the closest to me.”

“…Yeah.”

When I said that with a smile, Hayeon grinned and scurried over to my side.

She tightly grasped the hand she hadn’t held so easily since elementary school.

If we stuck too close, people around us would keep teasing us.

But I didn’t dislike that warmth either.

So I didn’t bother letting go of her hand until we arrived home.

Hayeon’s father had passed away in an accident when she was young.

I heard he had been working as a supervisor at a construction site and died in a fall.

So Hayeon’s mother, who worked at a company that required frequent business trips, was always having a hard time.

There were times she had to go on trips not only on weekdays but occasionally on weekends as well.

That was why she often left young Hayeon at our house instead of leaving her home alone.

Our houses were next to each other, and it was also because Hayeon liked me.

That day was another one where Hayeon’s mother left Hayeon at our house and went on a business trip.

“Hayeon! Hayeon!!”

My mom rushed into the room where Hayeon and I were playing, calling for her urgently.

“Yes?”

Looking at Hayeon’s face that seemed to know nothing, she sank down right there, pulled her into a hug, and burst into tears.

“Hic… Hic… Hayeon…”

“…W-why are you like this? Auntie?”

“I’m sorry… Auntie is sorry…”

Right up until that moment when she was expressing that inexplicable apology.

…Until then, I never imagined that we would never be able to see Hayeon’s mother again.