Squeak-
When I heard the sound of a door opening with the key, I immediately stood up.
I was getting bored so I was happy that he came back. I put down the book I was reading and ran over to Yves. To be honest, I was rolling around and was just about to ask if I could eat the two unopened bags of snacks in the corner.
Yves stared as I ran over to him with a bunch of snacks in my arms with a strange look on his face.
It looked kind of sad, kind of anguished. The one thing that I was sure of was that he looked a lot more tired than before.
"...."
Yves always liked to play with my hair. He followed the curls of my hair and twisted it accordingly. When he saw my fingers fiddling in his sight, he would play with my fingers. We didn't have much conversation going between ourselves, but Yves always had those strange quirks of his.
I looked at Yves and began to speak, watching as he cautiously played with my hair with an exhausted look on his face.
"Are you okay?"
It was obvious from a glance that he wasn't okay. I regretted asking as soon as the question left my mouth.
"Shushu. Wait."
Yves, who had just continued to watch me without a word, pulled me towards him. Then, he carefully hugged me and apologized with a curt "Sorry."
It was so sudden, and from someone that I hadn't expected, that I was surprised. But I stayed still because he really looked like he was struggling.
He felt like just another boy instead of the proxy leader of a giant guild. I felt worse for Yves thinking that he was a few years younger than myself in the past. I was always ready to fight against Hylli, but I was strangely weak against Yves. Oh, I thought I was kind of weak against Cory, too. I was reminded of the time I hugged him last time.
"Why does this feel strangely comforting?"
Yves muttered to himself and hugged me tighter.
Weird, he repeated to himself in a mutter.
On days that are rough, there are times when you just miss the warmth of another person. I had days like that too. Days when I just wanted to close my eyes and hug someone without a single thought. I thought Yves felt like that too.
I didn't know what had happened with the guild leader, but seeing how he was right now, I was sure that there was an incident that had messed with his emotions.
I patted his back softly. Yves seemed to jolt slightly, then buried his face into my shoulder. He hugged me as if he was trying to chase after me. I almost lost my balance. I was only able to catch him because I was in my adult form. If I was in my normal appearance, I would've fallen down.
Yves stayed like that for a while. Then, after seemingly calming down, Yves let me go.
When I saw his face, he had put on a cold expression once more. He looked at me, sighed, then opened his mouth.
"Shushu, let's go undercover one more time."
At his suggestion, I nodded without comment.
Then, with a calm expression on his face, he returned back to his seat and continued working on what he had been working on before he left.
Yves tried to sign a few documents, but he couldn't grab his pen properly. A few of his fingers had been horribly bent out of shape. Even when the bones of his fingers had been broken, he tried to force them to move.
He casually cursed and muttered the leader's name. It had to be excruciatingly painful, but Yves was so casual about the amount of pain he was in that I didn't even realize that he was hurt before he dropped his pen.
When I saw Yves' broken fingers, I stared, dazed. I ground my beeth.
Yves' treatment towards me changed slightly as the days passed. He was still cold towards me, but unlike before, it felt like he was shielding me.
The way he looked at me felt, hmm. It was hard to explain but if I had to compare it to something, it was like how somebody looked at their beloved pet.
Even when I wasn't needed, Yves took me with him. He took me with him to the nearby store to buy something he forgot, and tried to stick by me all day. Of course, I had no complaints because he paid me just as well for that.
If he wasn't going to give me work, then I would've gladly gone home, but it didn't seem like he had any intentions of sending me home.
After hugging that last time, Yves seemed to stick to me like glue.
When he hugged me the first few times, he always asked for permission, but when I gave him permission the first few times, it just became a daily habit. Now, he just popped up and gave me a hug without asking.
Whenever Yves became anxious, he came looking for me. The expressions on his face as he dragged me into a hug were always a sight to see.
There were times when he had murder in his eyes, times when he looked completely empty, and others when his expression was so cold that even I could feel the chill.
Every time that happened, I felt so scared that I thought I was going to die, but I knew that Yves' emotions weren't towards me. I just quietly pat his back without a word whenever he hugged me.
Oh, but it's gotten annoying these days so I'd started rebelling just a bit. Even though it was useless.
It felt strange and awkward to get hugged by Yves, who was a total stranger, but I bore it anyway. If it was for Yves' peace of mind, then, well. It just meant that he had opened his heart that much towards me, then.
Anyway, Yves asked me to do one more undercover shift with him. He told me that if we succeeded with this job, everything would be over.
Our meeting location was an area in the capital city.
Yves told me to change my appearance when we met. To a girl who looked about nine or ten years old. I didn't know why, but he said the uglier I was, the better it would be.
Shapeshifting magic took a lot of mana, so I needed a magic stone. So Yves gave me a stone that glowed golden and felt familiar.
The golden stone he gave me held an incredible amount of magic. When I thought of who could make such a powerful stone, I remembered one person I knew.
Was this Cory's magic stone? I didn't know how Yves had Cory's stone, but it was a welcome sight.
Anyway, change my appearance? How exactly was I supposed to change it?
I didn't know who I should shift to, so I just began the shift without thinking. I didn't have an appearance in mind, so it would be chosen at random.
Once the shift completed, I looked at the mirror. I was shocked.
The reflection in the mirror wasn't strange at all. A familiar round face and East Asian eyes. Long, straight black hair and black eyes. Round, but slitted eyes. And the familiar mole right under my eye.
The form that the magic changed me into was my former self. Even though it was a younger version of myself.
When I didn't have a particular form in mind, it seemed like the magic had drawn something based on my unconscious thoughts. I looked at myself in the mirror and turned, smiling slightly.
This was right before my parents had passed, during the happiest part of my life.
I stared at the mirror a bit longer, lost in the memories of my childhood, before heading out to where Yves and I were supposed to meet.
When I walked around the streets in my former childhood appearance, it grabbed a lot of attention from passersby. My appearance was pretty different. It was a pretty rare sight to see Asians here. I regretted my thoughtless shift slightly and put my hood on. I didn't have any more stones so I couldn't change my appearance again.
When I walked through the streets to find Yves, I found Hylli and Cory.
Thinking back, I had promised to hang out and play with them today. It was a promise I had made at the beginning of break. We promised to search for good food and place bets on who would win prizes from street stalls…..
I lamented at how stupid I was for forgetting our promise. I had been too busy recently.
Hylli and Cory seemed to be waiting for me in the city.
Hylli was wearing a hood to cover his face because he was a prince while Cory was wearing a comfortable-looking casual outfit. Cory was leaning on a wall, watching people as he ate a lollipop, and Hylli had his arms crossed on his chest as he talked crap about me for being late. Seeing how the two of them were the same made me smile.
I should probably tell them that I can't play with them, right? Because they'll keep waiting. I approached Hylli and Cory.
"Um, excuse me….. Are you the people looking for Shushu unni*?"
I looked around ten years old, so I had to match my speech accordingly. They looked older than me, so. I decided to use the fake innocence I had gained while I was with Yves.
When I approached and began speaking to them, both of them turned to look at me.
Hylli observed me and began to speak first.
"Yeah, that's right. The brat promised to come out and play and isn't coming. Did something happen? But who are you?"
Hylli, this brat, he always called me Shuraina but called me Shushu behind my back. This dishonest, cute brat. My heart warmed at Hylli's worried tone.
Cory wordlessly continued to watch me. I looked at the two of them back and forth and smiled as I responded.
"I'm Ye-an, I'm working under Shushu unni. Shushu unni said that she had a problem that suddenly came up and told me to tell the two of you that she won't be able to come..."
'Ye-an' was my name in my previous life. My past name slipped out because of my current appearance.
"Ye, Ye-an? That's hard to pronounce. Are you someone from the Eastern continent? But anyway, to make such a young kid work under her.... If Shushu is exploiting you, you can tell us. If you need money, I can provide you a safe and stable job."
I stared at Hylli as he spoke and barely swallowed my annoyance. Did I look like someone who would exploit other people? I glared at Hylli but decided to let it go, knowing how much he had changed.
When I first met him, he always spoke with prejudice and without thought, but now he accepted a child from a foreign continent and treated them equally.
I felt proud. Kind of like a mom raising their child, or an older sister teaching their younger brother. It wasn't a bad feeling, at least.
Anyway, when I told them the situation, they nodded and understood. Hylli kept poking his elbow into Cory's side, saying that they could play on their own. Cory continued to look at me. Without looking away from me, Cory agreed with Hylli.
Hylli began to walk away with large steps, but Cory continued to just stand in front of me.
Cory had been strangely quiet throughout our meeting. Cory watched me and sighed.
When Hylli saw that Cory wasn't following him and was about to turn back, Cory came closer.
"....don't do anything dangerous."
With those parting words, Cory walked away. It seemed that Cory had realized who I was. Well, I was using Cory's magic to change my appearance, so it made sense that he would figure it out.
T/N: Unni/unnie means older sister. It's primarily used by younger sisters for their older sisters!