episode_0115

‘Oh dear.’

Baek Ayun sighed inwardly and smiled awkwardly.

She hadn’t expected this.

“First, calm down, and let’s talk. Soyul, Soyul?”

“……Talk? What talk?”

She frantically waved her hands, trying to calm the girl before her, but it didn’t help much. The lightning was already crackling.

The girl, Cheon Soyul, with her characteristic cold expression, flicked her finger. The flickering golden lightning, sparking faintly, seemed to growl as if ready to punish Baek Ayun’s impudence, but…

The fact that it wasn’t shooting out immediately was, in itself, strong proof of her patience.

“……Ahem.”

Baek Ayun didn’t miss the given opportunity and quickly adopted a polite posture.

If she didn’t at least feign some remorse now, her best friend wouldn’t hesitate unnecessarily and would unleash lightning indiscriminately.

So, first, she smiled.

Faintly, a soft smile.

“Well, first, um. I suppose so…”

“……”

“I was wrong, Soyul.”

There was no reply, but the lightning’s intensity slightly faded. Knowing this meant she was listening, Baek Ayun immediately continued.

“From my perspective, it was an action I thought was for you, Soyul, but I hadn’t considered that it might not be perceived that way.”

Perhaps a little deceptively, she spoke while putting on a disheartened, timid expression.

“Still, I really had no ill intent. If I had known you’d dislike it, I naturally wouldn’t have done it.”

“……”

“Ahem, ahem, in that sense, I have something to say.”

Baek Ayun returned her slightly drooping voice to normal.

And she slightly lifted her trembling finger and pointed.

“Could you perhaps undo these handcuffs?”

She pleaded for her restraints to be released, with a smile that looked as sorrowful as possible.

Of course, Cheon Soyul paid no mind.

“……Oh, please, ‘If I had known you’d dislike it, I naturally wouldn’t have done it,’ my foot.”

She merely turned her head with a swift flick of her neatly tied light brown hair.

A cold expression, as if to say she had, of course, seen through Baek Ayun’s shameless act.

“Someone like that pounced as if she’d been waiting the moment I opened the door? Subduing my arms first, as if fearing I might use magic……?”

“……Ahem, ahem.”

“Logically, how could I have thought ‘that kind’ of thought in that situation, damn it. It seems like something’s gone wrong with her, but I never imagined she wanted to sleep with me.”

The lightning swayed and shimmered on Cheon Soyul’s hand like a skein of thread.

Baek Ayun could do nothing. She could only smile awkwardly.

“Ahaha.”

“Don’t laugh. I’ll grow fond of you.”

Cheon Soyul clicked her tongue. Of course, despite her words, she had no intention of tormenting Baek Ayun any further.

Now that she knew Baek Ayun’s objective was merely sexual, then…

“……”

While thinking such thoughts, Cheon Soyul paused for a moment. Was it really okay to let go of her suspicions with something like this?

Although she suddenly felt a deep, inexplicable sense of doubt, there was still nothing she could do.

“Sigh.”

Cheon Soyul waved her hand once more. This time, it wasn’t to subdue Baek Ayun, but to unleash lightning to release her handcuffs.

Crack!

“Ooh.”

A thunderous roar rang out, and the handcuffs that bound Baek Ayun and the lightning energy hovering nearby were released.

Incidentally, the silver restraints that had kept her docile were none other than a hero’s contingency plan to subdue Violet in case of an emergency…

Cheon Soyul picked up the handcuffs that had clinked softly to the floor and clicked her tongue.

She wondered about using an artifact of this level just for playing around with a friend.

‘……So what.’

After all, she’d received it to use when needed. Responding to an unexpected attack from a lewd woman (?) was definitely a ‘necessary task’.

Having finished her light rationalization, Cheon Soyul perched back on the bed.

“So?”

And she asked Baek Ayun curtly.

“Hm?”

“What ‘hm’? Tell me. How did you end up here?”

Cheon Soyul added a supplementary explanation towards Baek Ayun, who was tilting her head. However, she didn’t want to believe that Baek Ayun had truly come all this way for sexual relations with another woman…

“……But I really did come for that?”

“……”

Cheon Soyul’s belief shattered. She wore a bewildered expression, but Baek Ayun also had nothing else to add, making the situation awkward.

“……At the very least, I was hoping she’d say she came to see Lee Hyunjin…”

Cheon Soyul sighed. After all, where would Lee Hyunjin be at this time? His own room, or Cheon Soyul’s room, right?

Given that Baek Ayun knew this, if she had said she came to see the young man she adored, she could have at least understood.

Cheon Soyul’s gaze towards Baek Ayun grew increasingly chilling.

And as a bonus, her evaluation of her classmate subtly dropped.

“Uh…”

Naturally, Baek Ayun couldn’t help but feel flustered—.

Of course, the reason for that fluster wasn’t merely Cheon Soyul’s cold gaze.

“Wait, Hyunjin? Had I not told you yet? ……No, before that, did that person really not say anything to you, Soyul?”

“……Uh, what?”

Baek Ayun spoke in a voice tinged with confusion, and Cheon Soyul blinked and lifted her head.

The two female students met each other’s gaze for a moment.

And Baek Ayun, realizing “Oh, no,” who had briefly parted her lips, then seeing Cheon Soyul’s bewildered expression, closed her eyes tightly.

……Surely, Baek Ayun’s conscience wasn’t so worn down as to hide the truth even after seeing such an innocent expression from her.

“So, actually, right now—.”

“……”

What followed was a not-so-long explanation.

Baek Ayun spoke, and Cheon Soyul listened.

Baek Ayun was one of the few who knew the content of the contract (?) exchanged between Cheon Soyul and Lee Hyunjin: “Always report beforehand before having relations with another woman.”

As such, she had expected that contact would naturally have been made regarding Rachel’s matter.

‘To think he went straight to a hotel without saying anything. Does this person have five or six lives or something…?’

It was something that made Baek Ayun break out in a cold sweat. Even her affection for ‘Oppa’ had to falter slightly at this moment.

Having finished the rough explanation, she then observed Cheon Soyul’s reaction.

There was no significant change in Cheon Soyul’s expression. But precisely because of that, Baek Ayun grew more tense.

Something was truly amiss. Just how much anger was she planning to unleash?

‘……If the arrow were to turn on me, oh. That would be really troublesome.’

She had to prepare herself to some extent. After all, she had overlooked such a public affair scene involving Lee Hyunjin.

In a way, couldn’t Baek Ayun be considered an accomplice to the incident?

It would be an utterly unfair situation for her, though.

It might be too much to ask for such a rational and reasonable distinction from the furious Cheon Soyul.

Therefore, Baek Ayun slightly hunched her body and focused her attention on her legs.

This was in case the opportunity arose to try and make an immediate escape—.

“……Eh?”

Her prediction was wrong.

Quite spectacularly, at that.

Drip, drip-.

It was falling. What? Liquid. From where? Cheon Soyul’s face, specifically, her eyes.

Baek Ayun’s complexion turned pale. Such a reaction was beyond her expectations!

“C-c-calm down, Soyul?! Why are you crying again, making the messenger awkward!”

Panic set in, but Baek Ayun quickly stood up and approached Cheon Soyul.

As she wiped her tears with her sleeve, fortunately, it didn’t seem to be a serious level of crying.

But she had cried nonetheless. It seemed like just a few tears had fallen from a slightly agitated heart, but it was completely different from the reaction she had imagined.

Carefully shifting her gaze to look at Cheon Soyul, Baek Ayun couldn’t help but be flustered.

So why did she suddenly cry? As it was difficult to guess the fundamental reason, she waited for a moment for the person concerned to speak.

“……Last time too, it was like this.”

Soon, a moist voice, trembling thinly, flowed from her lips.

Baek Ayun rolled her eyes with a bewildered expression.

Last time too? It was like this last time too? What?

‘……Breaking a promise?’

The promise between the two of them to contact first before doing anything. From what she had vaguely heard, the weight of that contract wouldn’t have been light…

Surely not, there had already been a previous incident? Baek Ayun’s expression turned blank.

It seemed her ‘Oppa’ wasn’t quite in his right mind.

“Even when he did such a thing with Seonbae, she just let it go, and how long has it been, and he’s doing this again…”

Even amidst this, Cheon Soyul’s intermittent and broken lament continued.

She remembered clearly.

The third-year Seonbae, was her name perhaps Seo Harin? Not only what happened with her…

And her resentment regarding the criminal Violet hadn’t fully dissipated yet.

‘He promised, yet.’

He clearly promised he’d contact her.

……Bastard.

Cheon Soyul, who had mumbled a swear word to herself, clenched her fist in a surge of emotion.

Of course, even if she got angry and punished him every time, there was still an underlying fear.

What if he does this, what if he does that? Even if she tried not to think about it, it was human nature to imagine bad things.

She might have been able to overlook it one more time with ‘It could happen,’ but.

There seemed to be quite a significant difference between directly witnessing the scene of him breaking a promise and hearing about it through someone else’s mouth.

She felt bad. Very bad.

……It was distress.

“……Ayun……”

So Cheon Soyul turned her head. Thankfully, she looked at the girl sticking close beside her, who was nervously rolling her eyes.

“Y-yes?”

And she asked the girl, who answered as if flustered.

In a timid voice, as if lacking confidence, softly. But pleadingly.

Cheon Soyul looked at Baek Ayun with wavering eyes, and at the same time, the question was posed.

“He clearly said he liked me, he did……”

“……”

“Maybe the depth of our feelings is a bit different……?”

It was a very shaky voice.

There was an answer she wanted to hear.

But there was also an answer she didn’t want to hear. Cheon Soyul did not want that answer to come from Baek Ayun’s lips—.

‘……No, really.’

Baek Ayun, who could immediately see through such an expression, couldn’t help but hold her forehead.

She understood what she was feeling, and what her heart was saying.

Even though they had confessed to each other and promised marriage… when one side kept showing uncertainty every time, she must have gotten scared.

Yes, she understood. What she wanted most in this situation was a sense of stability.

And comforting her for that wasn’t a difficult thing, but…

‘This, no, this really.’

Baek Ayun couldn’t help but feel a little troubled.

She mumbled softly to herself.

No. Soyul.

I understand.

That feeling, I do understand it, but.

Me too, me too—.

‘……I like that person too……?!’

You know, don’t you? You’re not ignorant!

But you’re asking me that?

……Is this okay?!