Chapter 54
We’ve finally eaten all the snacks.
What do you call this again….
Ah. ‘The food has run out,’ right?
My Korean teacher’s lesson finally came back to me.
We could get something else out of the fridge, but this is the perfect time to start wrapping things up.
“Uaaah….”
“Ahaha! Ha-eun unni, you’re such a lightweight, huh?”
Unfortunately, since Ha-eun-chan, who couldn’t hold her liquor, was the first to pass out, it wasn’t hard to steer things in that direction.
Jia had clammed up, so I only chatted with Ju-hyeok oppa, but that was fun in its own way.
We got along pretty well, and his reactions were decent too.
What I liked most about him, especially, was how well he took care of his woman.
“Bring me this,” “bring me that,” “get me some water.”
Ha-eun-chan kept ordering him around, but he dutifully did everything she asked, making it hard to find fault with him.
Even after I made him drink some really strong liquor, he showed no sign of getting drunk.
Well, with a physique like that, it wasn’t as if a little soju would get him drunk.
“Unniii, you look tired. Should I carry you…?”
“Ah, yes. I’ll carry her.”
Jia, who had drunk the somaek I’d slyly mixed for her, was reeling and clutching her head just as planned.
She looked like she’d be a hell of a drinker, but she was actually a total lightweight.
Then again~ no matter how sexy she looked, she was still a baby a year younger than me.
Maybe it was only natural that she got drunk?
“Ah, is Ha-eun unni heavy, Ju-hyeok oppa?”
“Not really?”
“Come on, Ha-eun unni’s passed out. You can be honest!”
“She’s not heavy except for her breasts.”
“That’s way too honest!”
I followed Ju-hyeok oppa as he carried Ha-eun-chan to the bedroom in his arms like a princess.
I wasn’t sure before, but after spending a decent amount of time drinking with him, I could tell he was a fairly charming man.
Maybe unlike his appearance, he was sweet at home.
…Though he was still a perverted degenerate who walked around with his girlfriend wearing a dog collar.
Ahaha.
Maybe she wasn’t even his girlfriend?
Maybe she was his owner and he was her slave.
That seemed to suit him better, judging by his build.
Pfft-hehehe….
“Ah…, Kang Ju-hyeok….”
“Yeah, what?”
“Some water, water….”
“Water?”
“Mmm….”
After being cuddled warmly in her master’s arms, Ha-eun-chan was gently swallowed up by the blankets and began acting coy with Ju-hyeok oppa while making sickly little noises.
Hmm…, at this rate, things were going to get pretty wild by tomorrow morning after we left.
They were a couple who had raunchy sex even while taking birth-control pills, so I got a sudden, dazzling certainty that they must be incredible even in my imagination alone.
Ju-hyeok oppa didn’t even look drunk yet, so maybe he was already getting hard.
“Shall I bring you some water instead?”
“Huh?”
“Water, I mean. Do you need some?”
“Ah…, yes.”
To cheer on the pair’s tender love, I left for a moment and fetched a glass of water.
Jia’s head was hanging low, so I went over briefly to check whether she was all right, only to find her blinking sleepily, her eyes drooping shut.
…Did I mix in too much soju?
“Jia. Are you asleep?”
“No….”
“If you’re going to sleep, go sleep inside. There seem to be plenty of rooms here—there isn’t an empty one?”
“I don’t know…. Probably that person’s room….”
“Ah, right. I’ll go ask.”
Well, it was lucky she’d passed out at exactly the right time.
I went back toward Ju-hyeok oppa with the glass of water, tapped him lightly on the shoulder, and whispered in his ear.
“The water.”
“Ah, thanks. Here, Ha-eun. Water.”
“Mmm….”
When Ju-hyeok oppa helped her sit up, Ha-eun-chan obediently rose, took just one sip of water, and passed out again, looking remarkably cute.
She was definitely much older than me, but she looked subtly young, you know?
Maybe because she was quite a bit shorter than Jia, even though she was taller than me?
Or maybe because she wasn’t wearing makeup.
It wasn’t easy to look pretty without putting anything on.
…And I was terribly curious what sort of circumstances lay behind Ju-hyeok oppa putting a dog collar on Ha-eun like that, too.
“Um, Ju-hyeok oppa. Jia’s passed out too, you know? Which room is empty?”
“There isn’t an empty room, is there? One is my room, and the other doesn’t have a bed….”
“Even without a bed, if you lay down some blankets….”
“It’s too hot. There’s no ventilation either.”
To think there was even a room where guests couldn’t sleep.
It was suspicious enough to make me more than curious, but I couldn’t ask about it here.
Hmm…, I guess I’ll have to take Jia upstairs if I want to put her to bed?
Then all my secret talks with my secret friend would go to waste….
“Ah, Jia. You’re awake?”
“…I’m going to sleep, so please get rid of unni.”
“…Huh?”
“There must be a separate room over there anywayyy…. I’m sleeping here, so move unni to Mr. Kang Ju-hyeok’s room….”
…That almost happened,
but Jia’s true nature revealed itself thanks to the alcohol, and she barely saved me.
Phew, that was close.
“….”
…Well,
Ju-hyeok oppa’s face did turn pretty dangerous even in the darkness.
Hehe.
“…Ha-eun. Lean on me for a moment.”
“Mmm….”
Thanks to a homeowner who was just as rude as I was, Ju-hyeok oppa dug Ha-eun-chan out of the blankets and headed toward his room.
I stared at Jia, who had sprawled out and fallen sound asleep the moment she lay down, then followed Ju-hyeok oppa right behind.
“…Did you need something from me?”
Maybe he found it strange that I kept following him, because Ju-hyeok oppa, feeling something was off, whipped his head around and looked at me.
…Well, I had been openly acting friendly, hadn’t I?
Still, whatever….
Jia and Ha-eun-chan were both out.
I didn’t need to pretend to be nice anymore.
“Ah, yes. Want to drink some more, oppa?”
“…Huh?”
“There’s still alcohol left. Let’s have some more. …There are so many things I want to ask you, Ju-hyeok oppa.”
“….”
…I should pry into the story of that suspicious and fascinating couple.
In exchange…,
Drinking alone with an idol ought to be enough, right?
If it wasn’t,
I could sell him one of Jia’s lewd plans.
Ah, I absolutely wasn’t going to have sex like someone else.
I was an idol as clean, cute, and chaste as Jia.
For now, anyway.
***
I never imagined an idol would try to coax me into drinking one-on-one.
But I couldn’t say I didn’t understand it at all.
A man’s value naturally goes up when the woman he carries tucked under his arm is pretty.
Same goes for women.
Hinami, who had seemed excessively interested in Ha-eun and me, started grilling me about my romantic history the moment the other two passed out.
How did we first meet?
How did we end up dating?
Did I have any thoughts of marriage?
And so on and so forth.
…When I openly brushed those questions off,
“I heard Jia was trying to kick you out, oppa. Did you know?”
“Really?”
She tossed me these delicious little tidbits.
It was a little surprising to see that, despite looking like a high-school girl her age, she was that rotten inside.
I wondered whether she was really so curious about other people’s love lives.
But then again, seeing how openly she’d made sex jokes at Ha-eun the first time we met, maybe she was simply that sort of person.
Whatever the reason, it would violate basic professional ethics to gobble down such valuable information and then keep my mouth shut.
“Yes, really. She said she’d heard some strange rumors about you and wanted to kick you out….”
“…I really never imagined that.”
“That you dated a cheerleader and then tried to date another cheerleader from her squad too, or something…. Ah, was it the other way around? Anyway….”
“Ah…. But I’ve never had a girlfriend before. Ha-eun’s my first. It got distorted a little.”
“Huh…?”
“We were only seeing each other because we liked each other’s bodies. We weren’t dating.”
Since she seemed sexually liberated anyway, there was no need to mince words just because she was young.
Hinami, who had heard me say we were fuck buddies after I’d put it a little more delicately, was briefly surprised, as befitted an idol, then quickly regained her composure and nodded repeatedly.
…Well, no matter how promiscuously I’d lived, it couldn’t compare to the entertainment industry.
I’d never even had a history of seeing two people at once.
I’d only gone looking for someone new after losing touch with a fuck buddy, and that new person had happened to be her sister.
Getting turned on by a woman who resembles your fuck buddy isn’t a crime, is it?
“Then, could it be….”
“Ha-eun isn’t like that. I’m telling you in advance, just in case.”
“Ah, that’s not what I meant. Ahaha….”
With her cheeks flushed red, Hinami giggled; honestly, she was about ten times the upgrade of the cheerleader I’d been seeing back then, even if you excluded height, so she was tempting.
She seemed at least ten centimeters shorter than that woman, but her proportions looked almost the same.
When I carried Ha-eun tucked under my arm, the difference in their breasts had kept me from feeling much, but she was an idol, after all.
The fact that even silver hair and colored contacts suited her meant that, honestly, she was prettier than any woman whose face I’d seen until then.
Her skin tone was especially striking.
Ha-eun was very pale too, but this was nearly corpse-pale.
At that level, I wondered if she was mixed-race.
Even East Asians with light skin didn’t have that kind of pallor.
“…Well, actually. I did intend to see Ha-eun that way at first. But my thoughts changed as we spent more time together.”
“Oh, really?”
“We met at a gym. She was a familiar face, and I thought she was pretty even back then. I approached her with that in mind, but then….”
“Aha….”
While giving the still-pale woman the answers she wanted, apart from her flushed cheeks, I paid for the information I’d received earlier.
Where we first met.
How I seduced Ha-eun.
But I seasoned it deliciously, piling on MSG about what made me grow attached to her.
If she heard what had really happened, she’d be horrified no matter how much she liked stories like this.
I spun out a story that would appeal to her tastes and sell to the general public.
It wasn’t exactly improvisation.
I’d prepared it in advance to use someday when the time came to make excuses.
“Ooh…. And then, you. …Fall in love?”
“…Well. Yeah?”
“Unexpected….”
“Ah, well…. I think so too.”
After hearing a piece of fiction based on a true story, Hinami clutched her cheeks and trembled her legs rapidly, as if she were moved.
…Was it a story too unrealistic to appeal to women?
Or was she moved because it hit her tastes dead-on?
The moment I began wondering, she tugged at the long mask dangling from her chin and glared at me.
“…Excuse me, Ju-hyeok oppa.”
“Yes.”
“I told you something really important, but …it’s a little unfair if you keep lying to me, okay?”
“Huh?”
“First of all, stop speaking formally to me, oppa. …You put a dog collar around your girlfriend’s neck. Why are you only sweet to me? Pfft-hehehe….”
…And then she decided, with a sulky look in her eyes, that I was lying and gave a little snort of laughter.
…I had my doubts, but
this woman had noticed right then and there.
She hadn’t arranged this drinking party to torment her friend,
nor had she approached me just to hear some sweet-and-bitter love story.
“Ah, is it because I’m an idol? Well, I am prettier than Ha-eun unni, aren’t I~? My breasts are a little smaller, though.”
“…Are you drunk?”
“Um…, if I say I’m drunk, then I’m drunk, I guess? If I say I’m not, then maybe I’m not?”
“Oh, okay.”
“Ahaha, you’re being honest now, Ju-hyeok oppa.”
…So this woman had forced her way all the way here because she thought it looked fun when a woman like Ha-eun walked around outside wearing a dog collar.
Wow, idols these days were scary. Really scary.
But….
“So, what really happened? Ha-eun unni is really beautiful.”
“…Who knows?”
“Ah, you still won’t tell me? That’s so mean….”
I didn’t have to tell her for free, did I?
…When you got down to it, this was practically my weak point.
There had to be an exchange.
I’d already paid for the previous information by tossing her a piece of fiction.
Something better.
“…Where are you looking?”
“Your thighs.”
“Wow, this oppa is sexually harassing me so openly….”
“You’re wearing undershorts anyway, aren’t you? Didn’t you come from a shoot or something?”
“That’s true…, but I’m not wearing them now? …I took them off when I went to wash my face earlier.”
“…What?”
“…If you don’t believe me, would you like to see?”
…I’d known she wasn’t wearing any since earlier,
but doing it like this.
“…It’s kind of comfortable, you know. Pfft-hehehe….”
Swaying gently,
while fluttering the hem of her skirt,
Hinami coyly teased me as she debated whether to untie the white knot,
and her mischievous smile was charming enough to shake even me, a full head taller than her.
…Was one required to be this crazy to survive in that industry?
The young lady who owned the house was quite crazy too.
Birds of a feather, I suppose.
Ahaha….
Ahaha….
Ahaha….
Ahaha….