Chapter 7 – Stigma
Me and Hyemi noona sat across from each other at a table with two people’s worth of coffee on it.
Scattered eyes gather from all over the cafe, centering on the older sister who is touching her cell phone while humming her hum.
There weren’t many people staring at me explicitly, but once I became conscious of it, it bothered me…
Rumors about Hyemi noona and her lover.
For some, it was a strange, curious, interesting gossip, and a good bite wound.
Each one has their own reasons, feeling uncomfortable at the gaze heading this way, and sipping coffee in a cup.
But Hye-mi noona doesn’t care about that gaze at all.
Even I, who is not the person involved, can feel the back of her head tingling, but my sister is flirting and fiddling with her cell phone.
I’ve been using my phone ever since I ordered coffee, what the hell am I doing…
“…What are you doing?”
“Huh? Ah, can you wait a little longer? …With this… It’s done!”
Despite her question, the older sister, who had been tapping her screen without taking her eyes off her cell phone, smiled and looked at her cell phone.
“I deleted all the photos and social media posts I took with that bastard. Ehehe, I don’t want to see you anymore!”
After showing her empty gallery, Hyemi noona throws her cell phone on the table and stretches her face with a refreshing expression.
Two days ago, the older sister, who said that she couldn’t overcome her loneliness at her lover’s vacant place and intervened in a drinking party with her juniors, seemed genuinely relieved.
“…Did you say Taejun? Was he… Cheating on you?”
I could understand her sister’s attitude.
I knew the situation, albeit roughly, from the conversation between my older sister Hyemi and a woman named Minji.
The betrayal of the lover she really loved, not knowing how her sister felt, she carefully brought her words out…
“Yeah. He and the girl named Minji whom I saw earlier. The two of them rolled on the bed even before entering the training center?
She looked at me for some reason and told me not to come hard for nothing. I was too lazy~”
Seeing her sister answer so calmly, she was speechless.
“Actually, I knew it for quite some time? Somehow, since about a year ago, I’ve been seeing less and less contact with me.
Then I found out by accident. We were going to meet and play together on the weekend, but he canceled the appointment because there was a family problem?
I can’t help it~ I went out with a friend that day thinking that way, but someone who looked something like Taejun was walking with another girl.”
“…”
“I already knew then.
I was constantly suspicious, and even though I found out who the other person was, I couldn’t say it easily.”
Unlike the sad and dark stories, Hyemi noona speaks as if she is telling a funny story while smiling brightly.
“…Is your sister okay?”
I hesitated at the expression and voice of my older sister, who seems to be far from the person who has usually suffered ‘betrayal’.
“Me? Of course I’m fine! Now I don’t care about those things? Um… Of course I was a little angry and annoyed,
When Tae-joon is discharged, he has become the representative trash who has to drop out right away, and as soon as Lee Min-ji is ‘completed’, he intends to use a lot of it somehow.
So I’ve already got my revenge on those two, so it doesn’t matter anymore! Above all, thanks to you, I was born again…♡”
Her eyes met her sister’s eyes as she blushed and licked the tip of her mug that was touching her lips with her jade-colored tongue.
“I still have something to tell you about it.”
The Hye-mi noona I know is someone who leaves her lover’s betrayal as a scar that cannot be easily shaken off.
Even if she understands that her sister, who is infinitely weak to her opponent who once gave her heart, was used with her head and betrayed in the end,
She was a person who couldn’t easily shake the fact out of her heart and struggled alone, but she was never one to talk about things like this lightly.
Her ‘mask’ changed her with her older sister Hye-mi, who obviously changed something in her.
She told it she had something to find out from her older sister, who had heard some stories.
“…Do you know that she wears that mask and that she has changed herself?”
“Of course. She is very aware that something has changed.
When I look at you, my heart pounds, I want to follow whatever you say,
And I know very well that my body has no choice but to follow your words…♡”
Hyemi noona showing off her cleavage by hanging her fingers down the neck of her shirt out of sight.
She tried to calm her excitement, took a sip of her coffee, and continued her question.
“Then don’t you think there’s something strange? Don’t you wonder why you have to follow me or why you’re me?”
“Not at all. Did I tell you? Even though my memory is vague when I wore that mask, I remember your voice clearly.
Certainly, if it had been before, I would have cried and cried, but it doesn’t matter now. Rather… If only you would do a little more…”
…
No progress. The only answer to the question I had prepared was an incomprehensible answer.
There was only one question left for me. At least I wish I could get something…
“Then sister, you said the other day, ‘The mask taught you’? How did the mask teach you?”
“Ah~ That! It felt a bit strange. It sounds like a voice, but it’s not a voice.
It felt like it was ringing in my head, but for some reason I could understand it right away. That voice says it’s my role.”
“…What did that voice say?”
“‘Saints’ must swear absolute loyalty to the ‘master of the mask’, increase the number of identical ‘saints’, love their masters, serve their masters with blessed bodies,
There were many other things besides the master’s joy being the followers’ joy. How to use the changed body or something like that?”
Something finally caught on. The words ‘owner of the mask’ and ‘saint’ linger in my head.
It’s not certain yet, but a saint would mean something like Hyemi noona or Yun Sol, and ‘owner’ probably…
Jjiing-
I raise my head in surprise at the sudden ringing in my eardrums.
It sounds like it’s ringing in my head, but it feels different. That sharp, tickling sound came from the right side.
“Space? What’s wrong?”
“…”
The one on the right is my bag. A sound is heard from inside the bag.
I slowly reached out and put my hand into the bag, and soon my fingertips were able to touch the source of the sound.
When I grabbed the vibrating gong and gong from my fingertips and pulled it out, it was a mask.
The mask, which had not changed in particular, was trembling and making a loud noise. A sound that only I can hear.
“…This…”
One of the small letters written on the back of the pure white mask, which had nothing on it, caught my eye.
A light emerald color that shines softly.
“…’Slave?'”
It was written as a slave.
One of the words that was impossible to read was stuck in the head,
A single letter was engraved in my head, just as the translator turned in my head.
As my sister said, the sound of being inserted directly in my head was like a voice.
It was just a vibration that just ringed in my head, but it sounds like a slave.
A strange sense that cannot be explained in words. Among the many letters written on the mask, he brings his fingers to a letter that means ‘slave’.
When the finger touched the subtle and light light, the light came up with my finger and shined a little brightly. That moment-
“읏?!”
The light light of the ‘slave’ letters that spewed a huge light in a short moment disappeared.
“…”
Rubbed the characters that lost their light again, tapping it,
I bounced my fingers and hit it hard, but the subtle light didn’t even see a sign of returning.
“… What was it just?”
Similarly, she is surprised to cross her head toward her sister, who is dreaming of her eyes greatly.
“I don’t know … What is this …”
“… I’m sorry, but I think I should go out here.”
“Yeah? What is that…”
Let’s look around the mask and look at her’s hand in the hands of Hye -mi’s sister who taps my shoulder,
I was able to make eye contact with all the cafe customers looking this way. Even the staff are looking at me.
If you think about it, there was a light -like light in a narrow cafe, but it was natural that people’s eyes gathered.
“… Me, guest? What is the problem?”
“Oh, no. I’m sorry … I pressed my cell phone wrong …”
She throws an awkward lie to the clerk who came to look out for the center of the big commotion and smiles kindly.
It is not possible to say that the mask has shed light on its own, and it is best to get out of the place quickly in this situation.
‘Please be careful with other guests.’
“…I can’t help it, I wanted to talk to the universe a little more~ I have to go in now, and the universe is also a lecture, right?”
“Yes…”
She nods her head and sighs her, who has begun to organize two empty mugs on her tray. Maybe it’s because her tension has been released, so I feel like I’m going to have a good time.
It’s a bit unfortunate, so I’ve found something about the mask, so if you talk with Yunsol later at lunch, you can find out something else.
So for now, until then, quietly lecture…
“…What…”
While she finished her theorem, she brought her tray to the counter, and she was noticed in the midst of taking her burden.
The mask that I had seen and touched for the past three days caught my eye anew.
Black letters engraved on the forehead of the pure white mask, which had no eye sockets, let alone patterns.
“…Slave…?”
Letters of the same shape as the glowing letters seen on the back were engraved on the mask.
* *
“Ha…”
If you think you’ve figured out one thing, something you don’t know pops up, and if you think you’ve solved it, a new problem appears.
What is this, a task? Why am I the only one doing one more assignment?
In the hallway leading to the lecture room, I look down at the mask while letting out another sigh I can’t remember how many times.
The word ‘slave’ newly engraved on the mask did not disappear even after scrubbing it or washing it with water.
I look around at the characters that are positioned as if they were originally there, rather than drawn with paint or ink.
What else is this mask preparing for… You can’t relax…
“Wow!!”
“Ah! Ah, evil! Mr., What a surprise!!”
“Is it surprising that much? This is not once or twice.”
I almost lost my mask when I was startled by a hand that suddenly came from behind, but I grabbed the floating mask and put it in my arms.
Then I immediately turn around and check the culprit who hit me on the back.
A guy with short hair and a confident yet cute face? Even if you want to, the protruding breasts teach you a clear gender.
My cousin, Choi Choi-eun, was like a friend whom I had known well since childhood.
“What, were you in class? Then, before that, lend me a cigarette. I don’t have time to go to the convenience store.”
“…The one you stole last time in a pack?”
“Did I?”
“This year.”
“Oh, I’ll buy you two, so lend me one. It’s not worn out!”
“Cigarettes are worn out, so it’s a prickly head. And no. I’m a dodger.”
“Please, brother! No, brother!”
I wrap my arms around my waist and walk down the hallway, dragging the dangling Koeun as it is.
Go-eun, who has had great strength since she was young, is not giving up and is clinging to the end.
At a time like this, what are you doing with something you can just go to a convenience store and buy one for?
“Ehh, then…”
Just as the accumulated tiredness is about to burst, she rubs her hair and tries to take out the pack of cigarettes she had put in her inner pocket…
“…Uggh—?!”
The sudden dizziness gave way to his legs and he dropped to his knees on the floor.
A headache as if her head was bubbling, dizziness before her eyes. Obviously this morning…
“What, what’s wrong all of a sudden? Did you get cramped? …Ugh! Ahhh!”
I pick up the pack of cigarettes I dropped and leave Go-eun, who is smiling broadly, and reach out for the mask I had missed earlier.
That doesn’t work. That…
“But Choi Woo-joo, why are you so suddenly?
“Ah, touch it——!!”
Ko-eun, who was crouching down in front of me, picked up the mask that had fallen at his feet and held it out to me as if teasing me.
Go-eun, who touched the mask before he could finish his words, tilted his head.
“It would be a shame to pick it up? But what is this, a mask? What is written on it…”
It was when Go Eun raised her mask right in front of her eyes, frowning.
Fire-!
“Eww?!”
The mask, which seemed to be alive, rushed towards Go-eun’s face, just as it did to Hye-mi and Yun Sol-i.
Go-eun, who is holding on to the mask with both hands to remove the mask that blocks her vision, lets out a deafening moan.
It’s not too late. Focusing on the spinning field of vision, he barely gets up and immediately begins to pull the mask Go-eun is wearing.
“Fuck, why again…!! Ugh!!”
“Uhhh, urgent…!!!”
He tried to pull it as hard as he could, but the mask stuck to Go-eun’s face. At this rate again…!
Tuk-
“Ugh! … Huh?”
I fell backwards in the direction of the force. However…
Mask in my hand. It was the mask that had been removed from Go Eun’s face.
Unlike Hye-mi noona and Yun Sol’s time, I had only doubts about the mask coming off so easily, but first of all, Go Eun.
“Hey, are you okay?!”
“Cough, Cough…! Uh, I think I’m fine… It’s a surprise…”
Go-eun, who coughed and caught his breath, looked no different than usual.
“Ha, thank you, master! I almost choked to death…”
“…What? What did you just say…”
“Huh? ‘Master’. Why? Why are you looking at me so strangely?
What’s wrong with a slave calling his master master…?”
Except for the ominous jade-colored eyes, the same word for ‘slave’ engraved on Go-eun’s forehead, and calling me ‘master’.
* *
