I finally understand what Nana meant by gnome.

"Dense, stupid, and don't understand girls' feelings,"
I remembered her saying that! What did Nana mean by that? She showed me a picture of a gnome, too, but...

"YOUR NAME AND YOUR DAMN CURSE! I HATE IT!"
That was what Mrs. Siska said.
Are these two related? I need to ask Nana!

~~~~~~~

This was a story when I was on a break from university. I took a semester off from campus to spend my time back home. I missed my home, and I wanted to meet my mom and dad.

I also took this opportunity to meet my original seven. Well, at least some of them.

"AAH, Uta! How is your university life? Are you taking it well?" That was Meli's mother speaking.
"Yeah, Auntie. I'm taking it well. It's been fun."

Meli came out of the kitchen and served the cooking she had done, "UTA! I'm so happy you're back. I made your favorite food!"
"Wait, are you actually?"
"Yeah, I trained hard to make it!"

In front of me was a bowl of Rawon. It was smelling great. I couldn't believe she made this.

"Wow, you did an amazing job with this, Meli. I'm proud."
"Of course! I would do anything for you..."

She looked around and came back to me, said, "My Love."

I didn't flinch and replied, "Yes, honey. It was good."

I just did an Uno Reverse card on her, and she was the one who got shot and fell to the ground.

"MELI!" I quickly ran and kneeled beside her. "Are you okay?"
She grabbed my shirt and said, "You finally admit it! Are we..."
Before she could complete her sentence, I shot her downcompletely, "It was just a childhood joke, relax! We are not there yet."

That was me with Meli. Now, with Hana.
"Take a look at this, UTA!"

She gave me her drawing, and it was amazing.

"Wow, what a wonderful picture. You draw this yourself."
"Yup, and it won a prize at last month's competition. Look!"

Oh, by the way, I was in her bedroom, and she showed me her medals and trophies. It was impressive that within the range of my first to fourth semesters, she racked up five medals and three trophies.

"You've done a lot when I was gone, huh?"
"Sure, I did. This is not just for my future, you know."
"Hmm...?"
"This for our futu..."

I caught her face before she could thrust at my face.

"Not gonna happen, Hana!"

Then I met with Yui.
"MY PRINCE! YOU'RE BACK!"
"NOPE! We're not hugging in broad daylight. Not today, Yui."

Yeah, figured as much. She hasn't changed.

Upon hearing I'm back from Yogyakarta, Rai also took a break from all of her basketball tournaments. She saw me was about make my way to her house.

"UTA!"

She was running towards me. I put my hands in front, waiting for impact. She did impact me, but just on my hands.

"Hi-five!"
"Hi, Rai. How's the tournaments going for you?"
"It's been absolutely great! I won a lot of them. I will counter every loss I get so far, and I will do it until I can be a protector for our..."
"Stop, right there", I raised my hand between our heads, "We're not really there yet, Rai. Take it slow."

I love that I can counter them one by one now. It was such a fun thing to do because the reward if I did that was a puppy look on their face. Those are cute.

After that, I got called by Kak Prici.
"You came home? Man, you're such a piss-taker. I was there yesterday! You should've told me you came back."
"We could meet here whenever. I'm available in the neighbourhood until the next semester."
"You taking a semester off?"
"Yup."
"That was nice."
"How about you?"

I didn't get a reply, so I had to say, "Hello?"
Then, "Sorry, I'm just excited."
"Sorry...?"
"I'm happy that I will be getting my bachelor's faster than you. It'll feel good when I say that to your face later."
I roasted her back, "Yeah, well. We'll see if you get the top one."
I could hear her audible gasp, "You dare challenge me?"
"I didn't dare you", I smiled and said, "My confidence is up on the roof because I am, in fact, in the top 10 on my campus."

That was a fun talk with her. After that roast, we went on a bit of a tangent and finished it off by telling each other to "Fuck off".

Immediately after finishing calling Kak Prici, I got a call from Gina.
"Yoo, you already back?"
"Hey, how's the Korean girl been doing?"
"It's been great. I got lots of offers here and there about work. I am absolutely in heaven right now."
"Oh, really?"
I heard her choke up a bit, "Well, of course, I would be happier if I were beside you right now."
"Focus on your work, Gina. We'll meet when the time has come."
"Then I'll propose to you and we will..." I clicked the end call button.

I know, I know. That was rude, but she didn't bother. I have had this under control, guys. They're all fine because it was me. Don't you worry.

"Hey. Missed me?" Aaaand speak of the devil.
"Hey, Nana. How are you?"
"I'm great, you?"
"I'm doing great, too. How's the library going?"
"We're booming! I'm so happy there are people still reading books. It makes me in awe."

Great, now, to the point.

"The gnome."
"Hmm...?"
"The gnome. You showed it to me multiple time and I didn't understand what it meant."
"Didn't I say..."
"Yes, you said, 'You'll understand when time comes,' and the time has finally come."

Her face became more mature and serious.

"Why so serious? I just wanted to ask, what was it? One of my professors just shouted at me because of a dwarven curse or something. I had no idea."
"Ahh... I thought you figured more than that."
"What do you mean by...?"
"Dwarven curse. Well, it's not exactly about dwarves, but let me tell you the whole 'curse' that you heard from her."
"Finally!"
"I warned you, there are still things to be considered. There would be consequences if you wanted to cure it. You have been warned."
"Yeah, sure."

Okay, to speed things up, let me summarize and give my thoughts afterward.

Snow White and the seven dwarves. You knew them, you love them. It was that classic story about a princess and her seven caretaker dwarves. Apparently, I got cured upon getting the name, Main Character. No wonder.

See, here was the curse doing to the world. There will be an endless number of girls chasing after me, and to know which girls chase me, just turn to their names. I overlooked it so much because in my mind, those are just regular names. Turned out, not so much.

Meliana Kisatu. Satu. One. That was the first girl.
Nana Duari. Dua. Two. She was the second.

You know what's messed up? Those were not their real name. It was some sort of magical thingy-majik that changed their name upon meeting with me. After being caught in my gaze, they would have feelings towards me. To seal the deal, all I had to do was just be nice with them, and they would be my, what I call bitchies.

You got that all? Yeah, me neither. I still need to process how this thing worked. This is the real world; how could my name be this cursed? Is there even a name that sounds like me?

"Yes, there is."

What the...? Aqua? How did you get in here?

"Did you eat a 'forgot' pill or something? Our professor has been on this rodeo before."

... Wait, she was?

"God! Nana was right. You're such a dense and stupid person. How do you even get this curse was beyond me."

Then let my curse be gone! Help me fight it!

"I could."

Then help me!

"All you had to do was choose."

Huh...?

"From fourteen girls, who would you choose to be your partner for life?"

That's it?

"Nope."

What?

"Like Nana said. There would be consequences, and I couldn't just say it. That would not be fun for content."

True.
Then how would I know to deal with this curse?

"You got one more book. Deal with it there."

... Book?

"This is your second book, Uta. You'll do it one more time, and we'll wrap up your story."

What do you...?

"Stay tuned for the epilogue. See you at the last book!"

Aqua wait! WHAAAAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?!