My first impression of her was an ice sculpture carved into the shape of a woman by a great artist.
Her transparent, sparkling silver hair and clear blue eyes were so beautiful they seemed unreal.
Fortunately for me, I had a decent amount of resistance to beautiful women... especially now that I was at my peak. It had only been two days since I parted ways with Alkinea.
No matter how pretty Baek In-hwa was, she was still a notch below Alkinea. I mean, I... touched her! And...!
I pretended to be calm and raised my hand in a cheerful greeting.
"Hi. You're Baek In-hwa, right? I'm Choi Yeon-woo. We're in the same class, so let's get along."
...Oh my, did I just greet her smoothly? Is the deeply ingrained social butterfly in me just unavoidable?
[You seem used to talking to girls, Dad? What happened? What happened? What happened? ......]
My daughter is broken! Get a hold of yourself, Shar! Anyone can talk to a girl!
[The family is falling apart...!! Ah...]
Shar messed with my head with a voice that would have turned pale if she had been born. I tried my best to say something comforting to Shar. It was mostly praise for Alkinea. I couldn't see her expression, but I could feel Shar's mood improving, which was a relief.
Baek In-hwa, who seemed suspicious of the sudden self-introduction or the fact that I knew her name, looked at me for a moment before slowly opening her mouth.
"...Right. Let's get along."
Her speech was slow and her intonation was hard to read. Oh, this isn't good.
[What's not good!? You can't seduce her!?]
No, it's not that. It's because she looks upset.
[I'll believe you this time...]
"You... came early. Aren't you going to look around the academy?"
"Huh? Sorry, what did you say? I was thinking about something else and didn't hear you."
Shar's voice overlapped with hers, so I couldn't hear her properly. When I asked again, Baek In-hwa, who had been silent for a moment, shook her head and said it was nothing, then looked out the window again. Is she angry?
There was a slight awkwardness between me and Baek In-hwa. This is troublesome.
Baek In-hwa is one of the top students among this year's freshmen. There was nothing wrong with getting close to her. And above all...
She was one of the few people who he remembered from the last life.
There's that thing that often appears in science fiction novels, the time paradox.
When you travel back in time, if the time traveler's actions change the cause or effect, what happens to the future they return to? That's it.
Shar is an example of that. There's no problem right now, but Shar shouldn't be here at this point in time. I couldn't even predict what kind of results would come from that.
It was the same with Baek In-hwa. Even if I successfully saved her, causality or fate or whatever might work to drive her to death once again.
Never mind how I'm going to save her from the incident where she died last time.
To prevent that from happening, I needed to stay on good terms with her. At least enough for her to ask me for help without hesitation if something happened.
Because of Shar, because of Nea, if a paradox had to happen anyway, I wanted to save everyone I could in the process.
I forced myself to speak in the awkward silence.
"You don't have to be so wary. You're super famous... Should I appeal to the fact that I'm so weak that I can't do anything to you?"
Baek In-hwa, who had been resting her chin on her hand and thinking for a moment, finally relaxed her expression a little. Now she looks a little more human.
"...Well, I guess so."
She slowly sat down by the window.
Man, she looks like a picture.
I thought so and sat down in the seat in front of her, turning my body around. This was a conversation I had exchanged for my pride. I had to keep it going.
Looking up at her, her beauty was even more dazzling. If it had been before the regression, wouldn't I have been arrested by the police the moment I talked to her?
But even the fifteen-year-old me now was a handsome boy recognized by Claire. I wouldn't be that unlikable. I thought so and pulled myself together.
Honestly, I wasn't confident. I thought I had a decent face, but Claire's opinion was a mother's, wasn't it? 'Oh, my son is so handsome~'.
Okay, what should I talk about first? First, it seemed like it would be good to choose a topic that she could talk about without feeling uncomfortable.
I got the feeling that she didn't know how to talk to people very well. Look at her haughty posture. How can she just sit there without moving?
"You came from the Ice Palace, right? Is it really that cold there?"
"...So-so."
Baek In-hwa's "so-so" probably meant that I would freeze to death if I went there, but I just accepted it. Honestly, how could I answer the question of how cold it was?
And actually, I could roughly guess how cold it would be. The Ice Palace was located in northern Siberia. Considering that it was next to the Arctic Ocean, well...
"There are a lot of gates that have already exploded there, so you must have a lot of practical experience."
"...Right."
She's very blunt. She's not a very good conversation partner, but I didn't have to talk to her for that long. There were only a few minutes left until the homeroom period.
And actually, I knew a little bit about her. I saw it in her biological father's interview before the regression, but there was a story that she was actually shy and easily embarrassed.
That meant her current attitude was just her being shy. Thinking about it that way, she seemed a little cute.
[Dad!?]
No, I didn't mean it like that... Ugh!
"Where did you come from?"
"Me? I'm from a small town between here and Seoul. It doesn't really have a name."
"That's close. From here."
I answered her return question with a "yes". She definitely didn't talk much, but she seemed to have enough will to talk to someone. The Ice Palace was a closed-off place, so there wouldn't have been many people her age.
I roughly understood her personality. It was so boring that I wanted to die...
"......"
While I was indulging in such narcissism, a white finger slowly reached out and touched my arm, which was resting on the back of the chair.
"Whoa?!"
An incredible chill ran through me. It felt like a drop of water from an icicle hanging under the eaves in the middle of winter had fallen on the back of my neck and was running down my spine. I shuddered and fell backward.
Fortunately, there was a desk, so I didn't get hurt too badly, but Baek In-hwa also seemed surprised by my violent reaction and opened her eyes wide.
[Pfft, pfft! Cough, cough, sorry for laughing, Dad... Hehe!]
No, that's... laugh a lot. Did you know? They say laughter increases your lifespan. If you laugh hard, you might be able to recover half of Shar's lifespan that she used to come back to the past...
At my words, Shar, who was surprised and said, "Really?", started laughing silly. She believes this.
"...Sorry, are you okay?"
"Uh, uh-huh. I'm fine. Why did you do that all of a sudden?"
Even though I said that, her expression didn't ease. She must have been really surprised and sorry. This girl must be the type who loses out a lot.
"...I was just trying to show you that this is how cold it usually is."
It was a topic that had already passed in the flow of the conversation, but since I was quiet, it seemed like she brought up a dead topic. She was clumsy. I unconsciously opened my mouth.
"You haven't talked to people much, have you?"
"......!"
"Oh, it looks like the other kids are coming. Let's talk later."
Leaving Baek In-hwa, who was frozen in shock, I turned to the front.
The classroom door opened and students poured in. If they saw us talking together, they would pay too much attention to us, so I decided to pretend to be asleep.
Pretending to sleep... I'm used to it...
