Chapter 22

EP.22 Meeting

"Haru, over here, over here!"

In front of the ice cream festival venue.

After getting off the bus, Shin Haru met her senior.

"Oh, Onee-san, you came first?"

"I just got here too! Let's take a look!"

"Sure."

The two decided to walk around the festival together.

Haru looked at her senior, who was chatting and laughing brightly, with a fond gaze.

Although Onee-san, Chae Hyun, is a year older than her, she is short and bright, which makes her feel like a younger sister.

"Senior, do you want to try this? It's supposed to be a rice-flavored ice cream."

"Sure!"

Seeing her senior enjoying the ice cream, Haru felt her mood improve.

Although she doesn't particularly like ice cream, the feeling of going out with her close senior after a long time made her mood gradually better.

In fact, Shin Haru doesn't have many friends. Since she has been focused on studying and her hero life since childhood, she has lived a life isolated from others. Even in college, if Chae Hyun senior hadn't actively approached her, she might have ended up with no close friends.

Of course, she does have friends from her hero identity. Shadow Walker and North Sea Ice Maiden are the most notable, both being A-class heroes. However, she rarely communicates with them.

Shadow Walker is active only at night, so he maintains a lifestyle of sleeping during the day and being awake at night, making it hard to meet. North Sea Ice Maiden is always busy covering the Korean Peninsula alone. As a result, the chat group with the three of them is often silent. Although Star Duster herself is also busy due to Egos, ...

While having such thoughts, she walked with her senior.

Of course, they received a lot of attention from people as they walked. While Chae Hyun senior has a cute appearance, Shin Haru, who is tall for a woman and has blonde hair, stood out significantly. Although she seemed cold and proud to others, her occasional conversations and laughter with her senior made many men's hearts flutter.

Of course, among those men, there were some who were walking with their girlfriends and were looking at them, inadvertently causing several couples to have disputes. They didn't seem to realize this, though.

After wandering around for a while, Shin Haru and Kim Chae Hyun, having eaten most of the food, walked toward the event venue.

"Wow! There's even an Egos-flavored ice cream over there!"

Her senior, smiling brightly, suggested they go there.

Although Haru came to forget about Egos, her face stiffened when she saw Egos again, but her senior, who was already engrossed in the mango flavor, didn't notice.

Thus, the two of them stood in line to buy ice cream.

Haru just sighed and took pictures of her senior, who was happily eating the ice cream.

Seeing her senior like this made her feel a bit bitter, but she was also relieved that her senior didn't show her the side that cursed Star Duster. She had read online that some of the more extreme mango fans cursed Star Duster, which was quite shocking.

After taking pictures and wandering around the remaining area, quite a bit of time had passed.

Since she had spent a lot of time with Chae Hyun Onee-san after a long time, it was a rather beneficial time.

Although the unease she felt when thinking about Egos remained...

"Let's do this one last thing before we go!"

Chae Hyun Onee-san pointed to a game where you throw darts to pop balloons.

It said that if you pop a certain number of balloons, you get a 10-layer ice cream as a prize. What exactly is a 10-layer ice cream...?

"Sure."

Thus, they slowly walked over.

The booth was designed to accommodate two customers at the same time.

Another customer was already occupying one side.

At first, she thought it was a family out for fun.

A mom, dad, and daughter.

But the mom and dad have black hair, while the daughter has white hair. Is it dyed?

Since it was the first time she had seen silver hair, she was curious. Getting closer, she noticed that the daughter seemed to be a middle school student, but the parents looked very young. They didn't seem to be a family, so what was their relationship?

While thinking about this, she felt strange. When did she become the type to observe others so closely?

Maybe it's because the silver hair is so unusual... But she usually just glanced and passed by even if there was a black man with green Apollo hair. Yet, for some reason, this pseudo-family caught her attention.

Especially that black-haired man. He gives off a sense of familiarity...

Well, it's probably just a random thought.

Shaking off these thoughts, she decided to watch Chae Hyun Onee-san throw darts.

Approaching the booth, she called the staff.

"Here."

***

Damn it.

"Here."

"Yes, ma'am!"

"Give me 10 darts, please."

"Sure!"

What the hell is going on?

Why did I have to run into this just because I came to enjoy the festival?

I felt my hands and feet trembling.

I was already breaking out in a cold sweat.

My eyes were shaking uncontrollably.

Looking to the side, I saw that Seo Eun and Su Bin also had stiff expressions.

Everyone knows Star Duster's true face.

In other words, they know how dangerous the current situation is.

I swallowed hard.

I don't know why Star Duster is here, but I need to run away immediately.

Star Duster's abilities include super strength and flight.

But this super strength is not just brute strength.

More accurately, it's an incredible physical power.

For now, it just means that her strength becomes extremely powerful when she wants it to, but eventually, she will become a superhuman beyond human limits.

Her senses, such as sight and hearing, will be more developed than others.

In other words, although the association has named this ability as super strength, it's more accurate to see Star Duster as a superhuman.

Not only her five senses, but even her sixth sense will develop.

In other words, she can instinctively sense something dangerous. It's almost like a super-sense.

Of course, it's still early in the original timeline. She won't immediately recognize me as Egos, but she will definitely feel that something is off.

In short, it's a big problem.

I need to run away.

But I've already received the darts.

If I suddenly receive the darts and then run away, it will look even more suspicious.

"Yah!"

"Oh, Onee-san, you're doing well?"

"Of course! I'm pretty good at it!"

The woman throwing darts and laughing on the side.

Kim Chae Hyun, Haru's close senior.

In the original story, she is in her non-hero, everyday mode. She is the most close senior when she lives as a regular person. She is a very bright and cute character, quite popular. Of course, she does become a hero later on...

"Throwing darts, throwing darts~"

The sight of her throwing darts and popping balloons. At first, I thought it was Shin Haru throwing them because she was doing so well.

"Customer, are you not throwing?"

The staff asked cautiously, seeing me standing there in a daze.

Oh, right. I need to throw quickly.

While Shin Haru is focused on Chae Hyun's dart-throwing, I need to quickly throw mine and leave.

"Oh, the lady next to me is so good that I was just staring without realizing it. I'll throw now."

I quietly and quickly told the staff, then quickly picked up the darts and started throwing.

"Ha ha, Seo Eun. Look at this. See my dart-throwing skills...!"

"Y-Yeah. T-Throw quickly."

Seo Eun, trembling, responded to me. Hey! Try to act better! If you tremble, it will be obvious... But I was trembling too, so I guess we're in the same boat.

I started throwing darts. Of course, my accuracy was poor. Meanwhile, it seemed that Shin Haru's group had already finished, even though they arrived later than us...

"Wow! I hit them all!"

"Oh, Onee-san, how did you do that?"

"Give me the prize, please!"

No way, she hit all 10?

The staff laughed and said that she was the first to hit all 10 today. He told her to wait a moment and then brought a cone from the back. He started scooping ice cream from a container in the fridge and piling it on the cone.

Is this the 10-layer ice cream cone?

One scoop, two scoops, three scoops, four scoops, five scoops, six scoops...

What the heck, how many more scoops?

Finally, he scooped ten times.

The ice cream eventually towered higher than the staff's height, and he had to stretch his arms up to stack it.

The completed 10-layer ice cream cone.

What... What is this?

When the cone is held at waist level, the top of the ice cream is well above the head. It looks like it's about 1 meter tall.

I couldn't help but glance at it while throwing darts.

Oh my, what is this?

It's so tall that it looks like it might fall over.

The staff was standing there, constantly adjusting his hands as if playing a balance game. What is he doing...

"Oh, it's harder to balance than I thought, ma'am. Be careful when you eat it."

"Okay, okay!"

"Onee-san... Should I just carry it?"

"No! I got it, I can do it."

Kim Chae Hyun, insisting, finally managed to take the cone from the staff.

"Uh..."

The ice cream tower was already wobbling precariously above her.

This, if it falls, something terrible will happen.

I had just finished throwing my darts. I hit about 4 balloons, so of course, there was no prize.

"Oh, what a pity. We'll leave now."

Saying this, I turned to quickly leave. I need to run away quickly.

At that moment, I heard Kim Chae Hyun's shrill scream from the side.

"Uh... No!!"

Turning to look, I saw the 10-layer ice cream, unable to balance, tilting and finally falling to the side.

And it was falling toward me as I tried to pass by.

What the hell, why are you doing this to me?