episode_0043

Morning is the time for preparing for school. No matter what, students must put on their uniforms and leave the dormitory on time.

…But if that student is a full-fledged adult, the story can be different.

It wouldn’t be different in that one must start by wearing a uniform, but it meant the place one departed from could be a motel in the city, not a dormitory.

That was precisely me today. I never imagined I’d spend such a wild night (?) on a weekday, not even a weekend, and then head to the academy.

‘I’ve truly lived to see something…’

I muttered briefly to myself. It was a ‘lived to see something’ moment imbued with many meanings.

The 9th-generation top-ranking student, who, though not exemplary like Cheon Soyul, at least kept the school attendance time.

Now, that top-ranking student was beginning to get used to waking up in a motel with a naked girl. Was this something to be feared?

Still, my biological rhythm was aligned; my eyes shot open exactly at 7 AM.

I held my throbbing head for a moment and sighed. Unlike before, I hadn’t been heavily drunk yesterday, so the cause of this headache must be external.

I glared rebelliously at that very ’cause,’ the ‘culprit’ provoking my headache.

“Hehe, Oppa…”

“…Haa.”

It was none other than Baek Ayun, still clinging tightly to my side, sleeping soundly. It seemed the concept play title we’d decided on yesterday had stuck, as she was even sleep-talking with it.

I repeatedly sighed, my hand on my forehead. I had truly lived to see something.

‘No way, not with Baek Ayun, of all people, and me.’

For some reason, the feeling of a sharp thorn stuck in my throat wouldn’t disappear.

It wasn’t that Baek Ayun was uncomfortable.

Objectively, she was a very, extremely cute girl student, deserving of that title, and I, too, hadn’t consistently thought of her only as a younger sister throughout the past year.

How could my heart not have pounded even once, entangled with her in various ways over no short period of time?

Even if it wasn’t to the extent of harboring some great affection, it was certainly true that I had been conscious of her as a member of the opposite sex.

I slightly stretched my stiff body and looked back at the relaxed Baek Ayun.

Suddenly, I recalled the ideal type poll that was secretly conducted among the male students of Cheongsong Academy during the training camp we went to on the West Sea at the end of last year.

Overwhelmingly, Cheon Soyul was first, Kanzaki Rie second, and lastly, Baek Ayun was third, right?

In my opinion, Baek Ayun wasn’t at a level where she’d be surpassed in beauty by Kanzaki, but perhaps her youthful physique held her back slightly.

Still, I remember the vote difference being in the single digits. In that sense, it seems these 9th-generation bastards prefer young, slender types more than I thought—

‘But that’s not what’s important.’

I shook my head from side to side. Anyway, what I wanted to say was that, somehow, by the beginning of this year, I had already entered into an unhealthy relationship (?) with two of those top three.

If this fact were to become known, I had a feeling I might get stabbed on the street.

For some reason, a base sense of superiority and selfish possessiveness that I couldn’t tell others simultaneously welled up.

Well, in short, is it a mindset like, ‘I’ve slept with two of this school’s idols…!’?

‘I’m taking pride in something utterly useless… Is this really right?’

As the saying goes, it was a base thought.

And of poor quality.

Though it’s said that males are naturally like that, I decided to more clearly recognize that it was an emotion I should feel self-loathing for.

Aside from everything else, wasn’t it a highly disrespectful idea towards both Cheon Soyul and Baek Ayun?

Let’s shake off these worldly desires.

No thoughts, no desires.

‘But it really was an amazing night…’

*Slap!*

I slapped my own cheek.

I shouldn’t be like this, damn it.

I quickly cleared away distracting thoughts and got up. My whole body creaked slightly, as last night’s ‘exercise’ had been quite vigorous…

Still, there was nothing to be done. Reluctantly, I quickly purified my entire body and uniform with cleaning magic, put them on, and knelt on the bed.

“Ungh.”

Baek Ayun was still tossing and turning, sleep-talking. Of course, completely naked and fair-skinned.

The curtains were open, so sunlight must be pouring straight in, yet she’s surprisingly enduring it…

Fortunately, I knew how to wake up such a sleepyhead immediately.

I rolled up my sleeve and spread my palm wide.

*Splat!*

“Eh?! Uhet?!”

At the very end of dawn, Baek Ayun, whose rear had already suffered a blow from me once, shivered and blinked her eyes in confusion as she was struck again.

I cleared my throat a couple of times.

“Trainee Baek Ayun.”

And then, adopting a solemn tone, I urged her to get up.

“Wake up swiftly, commence.”

“Eh? Uhet.”

Although she still seemed to not fully grasp the situation, fortunately, Baek Ayun was a trainee who listened very well to her superior.

After glancing between me and her own body, she scrambled up, her face bright red, wrapping herself tightly in the blanket.

She pouted slightly and looked up at me pitifully.

“H-Hyunjin-ssi. My underwear, please.”

“…Hmm.”

I briefly raised an eyebrow at her reverting to her original way of addressing me.

But for now, I said nothing and simply handed over the underwear as she wished.

*Swish!* Baek Ayun snatched what I handed her, her face flushed with embarrassment, and scurried into the bathroom.

Casting cleaning magic isn’t difficult, but from months of recent experience, I knew that girls’ sensibilities were more delicate than expected.

They probably wouldn’t want it.

‘Why? Cleaning magic is convenient and good.’

Isn’t it very practical? It was a sensibility I slightly didn’t understand, but I had no intention of needlessly nitpicking.

I slowly began preparing for school.

*****

Even if I, who had already mostly finished preparing, moved leisurely, Miss Baek Ayun, who had overslept, couldn’t afford to.

However, the person in question didn’t seem to know that.

Judging by the fact that she spent nearly an hour on her shower. I tilted my head slightly and glared at her eyes, applying silent pressure.

If I’m late, I’ll kill you, Baek Ayun.

“I-I already said I’m sorry…”

*Whimper*, Baek Ayun mumbled an awkward apology.

And then she tried to resist timidly.

“…But if you thought you’d be late because of me, couldn’t you have just left me and gone ahead? Ah, ah! Sorry, I’m sorry. No, don’t pull my hair…!”

Such resistance was quickly subdued by grabbing her handles (twintails).

Baek Ayun whimpered, her face showing utter helplessness.

If her hands were free, she would have been ready to retaliate against me immediately, but what could she do?

She had to take responsibility for creating a situation where I might be late.

‘Hmm.’

To explain the situation in a bit more detail, Baek Ayun was currently running across the rooftops of buildings within the campus, with me on her back.

Considering the difference in our physiques, it should have been the other way around.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t yet skilled enough to carry someone else and perform high-speed flight.

In other words, Baek Ayun naturally had to carry me on her back and leap around.

Regular school attendance time had already passed… If we walked through the main building entrance normally, we’d definitely get demerit points.

Therefore, the method to choose wasn’t the orthodox one. It was a shortcut. Moving by jumping across building rooftops was part of that.

Baek Ayun runs, and I just fly with flight magic, you ask?

But I couldn’t miss the chance to be carried on a beautiful girl’s back, could I?

Anyway, Baek Ayun is naive, so if I don’t tell her, she’ll just go, ‘Oh, is that so?’ and fall for it, so it doesn’t matter. Let’s just be quiet.

Anyway.

In the end, we managed to arrive at the rooftop of the main building in the center of the campus.

Was it thanks to Baek Ayun’s exceptionally fast movement speed? Surprisingly, there was still quite a bit of spare time left before the start of the first class after we arrived.

Slightly cheered up, we amicably decided to stop by the cafeteria and went down to the first floor.

“Hmph.”

There, we ran straight into Cheon Soyul, who was getting a drink from a vending machine.

“…”

“…”

Hmm.

This was truly a bizarre encounter.

I instinctively adopted a polite posture, and Baek Ayun’s pupils trembled.

*Hiss!*

Meanwhile, Cheon Soyul slowly opened her canned drink with a leisurely gesture and took a relaxed sip…

Yet her golden gaze never left us for a moment.

She lowered the can slightly.

A quiet silence flowed.

“Last night must have been quite fun.”

Soon, Cheon Soyul casually tossed out a remark.

She glared at me and Baek Ayun alternately.

“And the two of you came in together, amicably, from the morning…”

“Hiccup!”

Suddenly, Baek Ayun hiccuped.

My gaze and Cheon Soyul’s focused on her for a moment.

“…Howoo.”

And then she closed her eyes tightly, letting out a strange sound. What was that? A prey animal before a predator? A herbivore before a lion?

No, don’t look at me like that. Even if you look at me, there’s nothing I can do.

Baek Ayun made a ‘thump!’ shocked expression. As her trusted shield lost its effectiveness, she tried to figure out how to survive alone.

She hunched her shoulders, pressed her arms together, and slightly bent her wrists forward.

Ah, I know that. The posture of submission.

*Whining*, Baek Ayun whimpered.

I stared at her for a moment with a bewildered expression. Cheon Soyul’s reaction was similar. She blinked, looking displeased, as if thinking, ‘What is that?’

But the small animal, well-versed in hierarchy, diligently maintained its posture of begging for mercy.

Cheon Soyul and I exchanged awkward glances. The sulky expression she had briefly shown had somehow disappeared.

And somehow, an attitude of hollow anticlimax replaced it.

Cheon Soyul let out a weak chuckle, then pulled out two more canned drinks from the vending machine and handed one each to Baek Ayun and me.

A regular ion drink for Baek Ayun. But for me, a drink with a pine needle drawn on it…

“?”

I paused and looked at Cheon Soyul. My gaze was intended to ask, ‘What is this?’ Cheon Soyul looked back at me.

And then a brief staring contest. Cheon Soyul, who glared fiercely back at me without backing down, soon snorted *hmph!* and turned her head away.

‘Well, I’ll be.’

I couldn’t help but let out a silent, hollow laugh.

Somehow, the level of her retaliation was rather cute.

With a hint of apology, I approached her with my arms wide open. It was my intention to soothe my cute, sulking wife.

“Come here. I’ll hug you.”

“Get lost, playboy.”

And then I got sworn at. My spirits slightly deflated, I awkwardly lowered my arms.

Meanwhile, Cheon Soyul took the bewildered Baek Ayun and went to a nearby bench, where they amicably took seats.

Restless, rolling her eyes, Baek Ayun alternately scanned me and Cheon Soyul.

Of course, in terms of gauging the mood, Cheon Soyul accounted for over 90%.

Judging by the nuances of her few words, she must have roughly guessed what happened between me and her last night… Especially since I had already given her a heads-up.

She must have quickly grasped the unique and subtle relationship between herself, me, and Cheon Soyul.

Strictly speaking, as long as my relationship with Cheon Soyul remained that of ordinary close friends, Baek Ayun wouldn’t need to be so mindful of her. But given Baek Ayun’s personality, that would be impossible in itself.

She was probably sitting there feeling like an interloper (?) who had come between me and Cheon Soyul. The probability of that was very high.

‘If that’s the case, what would Ryu Seeun be?’

I pondered for a moment, a sudden curiosity surfacing.

Hmm…

‘A pet?’

Ah, maybe that’s a bit too much.

Then let’s just say ‘pet.’

It was when I was having such trivial thoughts.

Cheon Soyul was the first to speak.

“Don’t be nervous, Ayun-ah.”

She said that while patting Baek Ayun’s back, but I wonder if she knew that it only made Baek Ayun’s face turn even paler.

At the conversation attempt going awry from the first word, Cheon Soyul also slightly panicked and cleared her throat.

“…Ahem, ahem! No, you don’t have to be so scared of me. R-Really.”

Perhaps because she had a previous record of being rejected by Baek Ayun, Cheon Soyul, who had completely erased the displeasure she first showed, forced a smile and soothed her.

Fortunately, that effort bore fruit.

“…Uh.”

Baek Ayun shyly raised her head and made eye contact with Cheon Soyul for the first time.

Cheon Soyul brightened and quickly nodded, while Baek Ayun fidgeted with her hands.

And then she spoke.

“I-I roughly heard… about what kind of relationship Soyul-ssi has with Hyunjin-ssi…”

“…Huh?”

Cheon Soyul was slightly flustered. And then she carefully looked back at me.

It was clearly a look asking, ‘Did you say anything weird…?’, so I shrugged blandly.

“You said we were in a ‘some’ relationship.”

“Ah.”

And at my playful answer, Cheon Soyul’s face flushed slightly. She seemed somewhat pleased, a rather excited expression.

But Cheon Soyul quickly composed herself and looked back at Baek Ayun.

“No, Ayun-ah. Although I have a ‘some’ relationship… *Ahem*, a somewhat ‘that and this’ kind of movement with him, it’s not your fault at all. That scoundrel over there is the bad one. Isn’t that right?”

“Yes, yes?”

“He must have been very rough with you too… I understand completely. I also had a really hard time when I first did it with him. It’s a shame your first partner had to be such a lecher.”

And then she started badmouthing me. Directly, as if I weren’t even there.

‘What kind of otherworldly conversation is this?’

Anyway, I couldn’t feel comfortable. I frowned and called out to her.

“Hey.”

“What, you bad bastard. What.”

But it was a useless call. On the contrary, with Cheon Soyul’s attitude implying I was wrong, I was in no position to speak.

…Indeed, I remember both of us struggled a bit back then, as it was our first time.

So what could I do? I could only turn my head slightly and pretend not to notice.

I am a folding screen. I am a folding screen.

It was the moment Cheon Soyul was about to gloat, as if she had won, at my reaction.

“Ah, no.”

Baek Ayun spoke up, her voice slightly higher than before.

Cheon Soyul and I blinked, looking at her with surprise.

“Huh? What…?”

Cheon Soyul asked in a voice that held a slight ominous premonition, and Baek Ayun, closing her eyes shyly, recited everything she wanted to say.

“But Oppa, a-no, Hyunjin-ssi was very gentle with me. He kept complimenting me, saying I was pretty…”

“…Huh?”

Starting from those words, I suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of unease creeping over me.

I hurriedly looked back at Cheon Soyul.

Unfortunately, it was an angle where I couldn’t discern her expression. I shivered, feeling an inexplicable chill—

“A-And…”

Unfortunately for me, Baek Ayun continued speaking, failing to read my urgent eye signals.

Baek Ayun, cupping her flushed cheeks, spoke in a honey-sweet voice.

“In the very last moment… when something very warm filled my stomach, *ugh*, it felt really good…”

An expression of utter contentment, as if reliving some ecstatic memory.

Baek Ayun thus sank deep into her own world.

“…Pretty…?”

Cheon Soyul, somehow, muttered to herself in a voice that was unusually subdued compared to just before.

“Something warm fills the stomach…?”

*Creak creak-*

She intermittently turned her head to look at me, like a broken machine.

It was a look that demanded my immediate, active explanation.

“…”

In response, I slightly turned my head, avoiding her anxious gaze.

In other words, I chose to remain silent.

All semblance of emotion was wiped from Cheon Soyul’s face. Sharp, golden electrical currents crackled near her eyes.

“…Lee Hyunjin, you, surely…”

Just as Cheon Soyul finally ground her teeth and was about to approach me, poised to grab my collar—

Oblivious to the tension, the academy’s bell, signaling the start of first period, rang out.

‘Lee Hyunjin’ obtained 1 coin.

My life was temporarily extended.

‘Hmm.’

But it seemed Baek Ayun was secretly smiling slightly at the end…

‘Nah, no way.’

It must be my imagination.

*****

I spent a hectic day filled with such anxiety, but…

What I worried about didn’t happen.

Regarding the internal ejaculation, I’m a victim (?) too, I’d already scolded her seriously about it, and from next time, I’d sternly educated Baek Ayun to carefully cherish her body even on safe days, so don’t blame me…

I was fully prepared to explain in great detail and patiently waiting for the right moment, but…

Throughout the entire day at the academy… Cheon Soyul never once spoke to me. She didn’t even make eye contact.

I felt a very strong sense of ominousness.

That premonition soon became reality.

In a form quite different from what I expected.

*Ding-dong-*

Very early in the morning.

“…Hello.”

Suddenly, the doorbell rang, so I opened the door, and there was Cheon Soyul, dressed in pajamas and clutching her pillow, standing at my doorway.

“Do it inside me too…”

She said that as she passed by, her eyes rimmed red.