Chapter 162: More Than Friends, Less Than Lovers (2)

After finishing her night shift at Sky Blue Shield, Han Min-ah returned to her semi-basement villa in the morning.

As soon as she got home, she opened her KakaoTalk chat window and rolled around on the floor in various positions, lost in thought.

She had told Sung Taekyung that she would tell him directly about her heat period, but the reason she lacked the courage was that when it actually came time to say it, she just couldn’t muster it.

Especially since she had shown an attitude until now like she didn’t particularly need help, changing her words now felt like it would seem incredibly shameless.

Worried that the content of the text she sent might be perceived unpleasantly by him, Han Min-ah pondered its content many times.

In the end, pretending to be nonchalant, she barely managed to send a one-sentence text.

「My heat period is in two days, so if what you said last time is still valid, do it for me.」

Of course, as soon as she pressed the send button, she checked what she had sent and immediately regretted it.

“Ah, no! No, this isn’t right! How can you be so shameless, Han Min-ah, you crazy bitch!”

Until she sent it, she had pictured a cool version of herself, acting as if it didn’t matter whether he solved it or not, but.

Once she actually sent the message, Sung Taekyung’s face came to mind, looking dumbfounded after seeing the text, so she hurriedly deleted the message she had sent.

To be precise, she tried to delete it.

“…….”

Until the ‘1’ indicating an unread message on KakaoTalk disappeared.

Why was he checking her seemingly insignificant KakaoTalk message so quickly?

She felt secretly pleased by Sung Taekyung’s action, but also felt regret that the chance to correct the message she thought she sent incorrectly had vanished.

She worried unnecessarily that all affection for her might disappear the moment he checked the message.

Of course, if one were to be precise, she wasn’t his girlfriend and was merely a somewhat close female friend during their school days, so the very idea of affection disappearing might perhaps be an unnecessary worry.

It was just that she felt their relationship had suddenly become closer due to an unexpected physical relationship experienced about a month ago.

Certainly, it was true they had become a little closer than just friends.

Friend… not quite, girlfriend… not that either, and even as a sex partner… it was a slightly ambiguous relationship.

Although sex was included under the pretext of resolving heat periods as a reason for meeting, she wasn’t asking Sung Taekyung for heat period resolution solely for that reason and not someone else.

The affection for him she secretly cherished in her heart. And the friendship, built up over nearly 6 years, that wasn’t so shallow.

With the physical relationship added to those subtly mixed feelings, Han Min-ah also felt her own emotions were chaotic.

“Ugh, I really can’t figure out what he’s thinking…”

She hadn’t heard the detailed circumstances from Hye-eun yet, but at least she understood that having sex with her helped Sung Taekyung’s awakening ability.

That’s why even Kang Hye-eun, who always went crazy whenever his name came up, must be tolerating her or Yuri Unnie mixing bodies with him.

But even so, could it really be possible that Sung Taekyung could have sex with someone he wasn’t interested in?

In the case of women, sex wasn’t impossible, even without genuinely feeling interest towards the other person.

First of all, women have stronger libidos compared to men, so if the opportunity arises, their bodies easily become ready; that’s the first reason.

And second, from a woman’s perspective, whether it’s very wet or just a little wasn’t a major obstacle to sex; that was the second reason.

However, in the case of men, unlike women, a lot of mental preparation was needed before the act.

Because, as Han Min-ah knew from her sexual knowledge, without genuinely feeling sexual desire for the other person, it was hard to keep it up from the beginning to the last moment.

In reality, in this world, cases where a man’s erection would suddenly subside during intercourse, ending the sex limply, were common.

Men, with relatively less sexual desire compared to women, might initially get an erection due to external stimulation, but once accustomed to it, their desire would naturally subside, leading to the end of the erection; this occurred occasionally even among real couples.

But what reaction did Sung Taekyung show during their last physical encounter when having sex with her?

Not only did his erection not subside even while ejaculating twice, but even after finishing, didn’t he keep his erect penis inside her body for quite a while and have various conversations?

It was a clear expression of affection, enough that it wouldn’t be strange for a woman to misunderstand.

“Certainly, to that extent, they were much closer than friends, but…”

However, Kang Hye-eun clearly occupied the position of girlfriend, and what was certain was that she was in a slightly more distant relationship than her.

While she was agonizing over such bothersome thoughts, a reply came back from Sung Taekyung, which she had momentarily forgotten about.

「Yeah. See you in two days then.」

Compared to her carefully sending the text and worrying she had sent it incorrectly, it was a much calmer and drier reply.

Still, with this reply, Han Min-ah could regain peace of mind.

At least it meant the content of the message she sent wasn’t perceived as too strange.

“Haa, damn… Is exchanging just one text message about Sung Taekyung like this really this nerve-wracking…?”

Even back in school, it seemed they got along well as good platonic friends.

The two years they hadn’t seen each other face-to-face, and the sudden relationship that occurred immediately upon reuniting three weeks ago after a long time, were effective in many ways in rapidly changing Han Min-ah’s heart.

Anyway, since he was the one she had to face in two days, she needed to prepare herself mentally in various ways.

Whether to treat him comfortably, like a same-sex friend, as she had until now.

Or whether it would be better to subtly appeal with girlfriend-like elements, little by little, even amidst that.

Or perhaps shamelessly reveal all the affection she had for him without reservation.

While pondering how to set her behavior guidelines regarding Sung Taekyung.

Another text came back from Sung Taekyung regarding the meeting in two days.

「Want to meet outside? Or should I just go to your place like last time?」

Meeting outside was practically like a date, so it would be an attempt to create a girlfriend-like atmosphere, even a little.

Meeting at home meant maintaining the status of close friends, still close enough to invite over.

Torn between the two options, Han Min-ah cautiously sent a reply text.

「Just see me at my place. Why bother going out and making it complicated.」

「Okay, then.」

Not long after sending the text, just 3 minutes was enough for her to regret not suggesting they meet outside.

In the afternoon, after sharing a night with Hwayoung Sunbae, I returned home.

I laid out the various kinds of potions I received from her and was organizing their approximate uses.

“Healing Potions can probably be replaced with recovery magic, and Stamina Potions definitely seem useful to have…”

The memory of exhausting myself completely down to my last bit of stamina during the last Kraken subjugation came back, so among all potions, there was no item that would be as helpful to me in a crisis situation as these Stamina Potions.

Besides that, there were a few items I quite liked the usage methods of, like the Monster Incense Burner and the Paralysis Cure.

Of course, the thing I considered a more important harvest than these was naturally this one.

Male Enhancement Pills.

After checking the contents of the box containing six potions in one set, I smiled faintly.

The value of each of these potions was worth at least tens of points or more to me.

Even setting that aside, collapsing first during sex was also a matter directly related to my pride.

“…Last time, even when I was with just Hye-eun, I collapsed first.”

Of course, at that time, I was under a lot of stress for various reasons, and there was also the aftermath of an excited Hye-eun climbing on top of me and thrusting her hips wildly.

Anyway, collapsing from exhaustion before the partner as a man was quite a blow to my pride.

Of course, considering the stamina of women in this world and the condition of men, it’s much more common for men to get tired first during intercourse, though it might be.

Anyway, for me, the very situation occurring was not very welcome.

To prepare for such times, these ‘Male Enhancement Pills’ needed to be kept well.

Keeping them, I’ll take one at a time when it seems I’ll have to push myself.

Besides that, while organizing the potions, I finished sorting them into categories: what I would use, what I would give to the others, and what, since its use wasn’t clearly defined, would just be stored for now.

Even so, in the end, all of them being stored in the subspace pocket wasn’t much different.

It was the moment the role of the subspace pocket, expanded to 400 slots, truly shone.

And now, what remained was….

“Shall I check the rewards after having sex with Hwayoung Sunbae?”

『Skill Unlocks >> Point Shop >> Achieved Achievements (NEW!) >> Current Lust Management Hunter List (NEW!) >> Find Nearby Hunters >> Remaining Awakening Points: 560』

First of all, after using them all up completely last time, is it 560 points accumulated again until now?

Once on the yacht with Do Sihee.

Once in the underground training room with Eunyoung Noona, and once in the bedroom.

Once in the bedroom with Hye-eun who collapsed from exhaustion after work.

And just last night, for the first time, once at Hwayoung Sunbae’s house.

560 points from five times of sex wasn’t too bad.

Of course, among these was a special reward obtained when Do Sihee achieved the highest level of favorability, so excluding that, on average, it means I gained about 70 points per encounter.

This amount was just the right figure.

In addition, through sex with Hwayoung Sunbae, two more first achievement rewards were added, bringing the total points accumulated so far to 660.

『Taking the first experience of another race.』

『Taking the first experience of five female hunters.』

The physical relationship itself that I had with Hwayoung Sunbae was ordinary sex with nothing special, but after all, because Hwayoung Sunbae was a half-elf, it seemed I gained the benefit of the achievement.

The other one was that she was the fifth virgin I had relations with.

Realizing that the other person’s first experience was me was always a pleasant thing.

And for the woman I had relations with to think of me specially was even more pleasing.

In that regard, Han Min-ah’s KakaoTalk message, whom I would meet tomorrow, was a bit disappointing in various ways.

「Just see me at my place. Why bother going out and making it complicated.」

I thought if we went for a walk resembling a date outside, I could, in a way, make her conscious of me.

Still, for Han Min-ah, I didn’t seem to deviate much from the perception of a fairly close male friend.

Can’t be helped, I guess. For now, she still accepted the resolution of lust itself positively.

If I make her conscious of me, even little by little, perhaps we might become a little closer.

While thinking that, I finished my day’s work by casually browsing the system’s point shop or something.

Happily imagining how best to tame the cat in heat tomorrow.