Chapter 32: The Heat Showdown: Waiting for Cool Relief

What I need for that is Siyeon’s silence and my confidence.

Also, a clear situation and script, as if prepared by an adult.

Considering the risk of air conditioning sickness, I opted for a wind-free air conditioner instead of one that blows air directly.

I meticulously checked the energy consumption efficiency ratings and, while I set aside the nearly extinct first-grade models, I compromised on a second-grade air conditioner.

No matter how much of a magical girl I am, the tiered billing is just as frightening.

“Three hundred….”

In the long run, it saves money, but the immediate purchase price is relatively high among the displayed air conditioners.

Still, what can I do? It’s not like it’s an appliance I can just throw away after one or two years of use.

Lately, the amount spent on computers, air conditioners, and other appliances has been increasingly worrying as it exceeds a month’s worth of magical girl activity funds.

Of course, if I include Siyeon’s activity funds, we could live comfortably and easily, but….

“I shouldn’t do that….”

I swallowed my bitterness, recalling money I had never really held in my hands.

It’s not like I’m an adult who takes away New Year’s money under the pretense of saving.

I couldn’t touch Siyeon’s activity funds either, as the memories of those days cried out my conscience.

Right now, it wasn’t a matter of conscience, but rather a moment when a white lie was needed.

I steeled my heart and approached the staff at the electronics section, ready to speak.

What I needed now was the courage and acting skills to spit out a white lie.

“Excuse me.”

I tried to speak in the most naive voice I could muster while tugging at my pants at eye level.

“Huh? What is it?”

The staff member, dressed in a neat white shirt and a green tie, wearing black belt and pants as part of a tidy uniform, looked down at me.

As I noticed his height, around 180 cm, I felt like a child again. Still, I continued speaking.

“My mom told me to order an air conditioner.”

“W-What?”

His voice was tinged with confusion.

From the staff’s perspective, it must have been quite a sight: two kids suddenly coming in to buy an air conditioner.

His first thought was probably, what? Where are these kids’ parents?

After a moment of clarity, he likely wondered if this was just a prank.

But I was serious.

Here we were, with our oblivious mom, who had gone up to the second floor to buy clothes.

We were just two naive kids trying to complete the errand our mom had sent us on.

No matter how many times he flipped through the customer service manual, there would be no clear guidelines for this absurd situation.

To shake his confused mind once more, I pulled out a piece of paper that would serve as the punchline.

“This is what I was told to show when buying the air conditioner!”

The neatly presented A4 paper contained our home address and the structure for air conditioning piping.

It clearly detailed the costs associated with installation after ordering.

Seeing the detailed explanation that an adult could not possibly write, the staff member fell deep into thought.

“Do you know what she asked you to buy?”

“LH!”

With my youthful response, I dashed toward the air conditioner I had mentally decided on, pulling Siyeon along.

Siyeon, with her free hand covering her mouth, remained silent the whole time.

Her role was simply to be a persuasive totem.

For some reason, the sight of the two of us holding hands gave more persuasive power than just one person alone.

Standing in front of the majestic air conditioner that would be the solution to the sweltering heat, I extended my card to the employee.

“Here, the card.”

“Yeah, okay…”

The employee’s expression, slightly tilting their head, seemed somewhat uneasy.

Even though this would contribute to their performance…

The look on their face seemed to convey thoughts like, ‘Is this really okay?’

Perhaps none of the employees, who have been working here for over ten years, had ever experienced such a situation.

Today, they’re having a rare experience.

After completing the payment and receiving my card back, I stepped onto the escalator going up from the basement. My smartphone chimed, notifying me of the payment a moment too late.

Turning my head slightly, I glanced at Siyeon, who was holding my hand.

She looked as if she had been holding her breath, her cheeks puffed out.

“You can talk now.”

“Puhaha~!”

The moment I gave her permission, a silly sound escaped her lips.

Releasing the hand that was sticky with our sweat, I pinched her cheek gently with my thumb and index finger, scolding her playfully.

“Why were you holding your breath?”

The sight of a child through the eyes of an adult is so adorable.

I find my reason to live is Siyeon.

If I were alone, I would have already…

‘Ah, such a nice thought… such a nice thought.’

Pushing away the happy thoughts of breaking through the ceiling of the apartment below and the floor of the apartment above, I turned on my smartphone and pressed my stomach as the time was getting late.

It was about time I started feeling a bit hungry.

Just as the escalator reached the upper floor, I noticed the food court that I hadn’t even seen when I came to look at the appliances, one that’s found in every large supermarket.

The portions are ridiculously small, and the prices are outrageously high at that food court.

Still, rather than going home and ordering expensive delivery food…

If both are going to be expensive anyway, I decided to choose the option that would solve the problem close by.

With that thought in mind, I immediately asked Siyeon,

“What do you want to eat here?”

“Yeah!”

Her immediate answer seemed to say that even asking was a bit rude.

It brought back memories of when I was a child, dragged to the supermarket by my family, always begging to eat here regardless of the prices or portions.

Since realizing the value for money, I hadn’t visited such a supermarket restaurant in a while.

From various stews to soups, fried foods, Chinese dishes, noodles, and snacks,

it’s essentially a comprehensive restaurant where you can find anything.

Now, I had to think about what to order.

“What do you want to eat?”

“Hmm…”

Though I asked what she wanted, in reality, there wasn’t much for kids to choose from at this kind of supermarket food court.

The options would probably be limited to tonkatsu, special assorted katsu, or omelette rice.

“Omurice!”

“Then I’ll have the special mixed cutlet.”

These days, even food courts are automated, with kiosks standing in place of people.

So, here’s the problem.

There was no kiosk for children.

‘The height…’

For Siyon and me, the screen of the kiosk was impossibly high.

Two girls stood in front of the kiosk, frozen.

In a food court where the order volume seemed low,

“What are you trying to order?”

A lady came out from inside the food court to help us.

I used to think about how sad it must be to be short, but at this moment, I felt the sorrow of not being able to order anything by myself.

“Omurice and, um, s…”

“Special mixed cutlet.”

As I stretched my card upward, the lady took it and completed the payment at the kiosk.

Coincidentally, the lady was also from the food court where we had ordered our food, so we didn’t even have to blankly stare at our order number.

The lady took the number right away, designated a nearby seat for us, and seated us.

“Sit here; I’ll bring it to you when it’s ready.”

“Thank you!”

“Thank you very much.”

This kindness was beyond mere goodwill.

We expressed our gratitude with a bow to the lady, feeling that the world still seems bearable thanks to people like her.

With swift cooking, warm omurice and special mixed cutlet, which included pork cutlet, fish cutlet, and shrimp tempura, were served.

Along with that, there was miso soup and corn salad, and a lump of rice.

Even though it was slightly over ten thousand won and the portion might seem meager, it was enough to fill us up.

The sweet and sour sauce, familiar and overflowing from the dish, delighted my palate.

Finishing a satisfying meal, despite the price, we stepped out of the store, immediately confronted by the sweltering heat that made us want to go back inside.

The weather was so unbearable that I couldn’t even think about walking.

In the end, I took the taxi waiting at the front of the line outside the store and told the driver my address to head back home.

Even after returning home, the nightmare of the heat didn’t end.

Small beads of sweat flowed from my pale skin.

The sweat began to soak my clothes, darkening the fabric around my neck as if I had fallen into water.

“Let’s just hold out for a few days with the fan…”

“I want to take a shower…”

The lonely battle of just the two of us began, waiting for the air conditioner to arrive.

During that time, we had to double up on showers and laundry.

In the midst of the sweltering heat and the cycle of showering and laundry, we waited for the air conditioner, fighting our own battle.

Suddenly, I thought to ask the two beasts sprawled on the cushion,

“Aren’t you hot?”

“???”

“”

Not receiving an answer, I felt something strange and turned to look at the cushion.

Usually, the mascot of the twisting snake is curled up, and the bear, with its fingers pressed together like a lock, is crossing its legs and holding its head back.

However, instead of their usual posture, they were sprawled carelessly on a cushion, like dead corpses, with their tongues hanging out toward the floor.

‘Looks like they’re feeling the heat too.’

As I picked up the two mascots with each hand, a damp, sticky liquid was flowing across their surfaces.

Is this some kind of sweat?

What I thought was a lonely battle between the two turned out to be four.

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