Chapter 118
* * *
“……”
I turned around to look at Shin Ayoung pressing herself against me from behind and fell silent.
I couldn't concentrate on exercising at all because of the sensation I could feel.
The girls had been unusually touchy today. Ji Nuri too....
‘...No, is it a little different from that?’
She did it without realizing it, apparently, but Shin Ayoung was completely different.
The fact that she was aware of what she was doing hit me even harder.
......Moreover.
— “Haa....”
The mini-me's breathing had grown a little ragged.
Her focus was hazy, and she seemed to have wordless desire in her eyes.
— “Hold it in, hold it....”
Contrary to her words, she was kneading my forearm with both hands.
I couldn't feel the sensation, but the problem was that the act itself was laid bare.
‘...This is driving me crazy.’
Heat burned my earlobes.
Anyone who could stay calm in this situation would be the strange one.
“Hoo....”
I exhaled and shifted my attention elsewhere.
One... two... three... four....
I finished the set as quickly as possible and sprang to my feet.
I was a man too, so going any further was dangerous in every sense.
“Sit down.”
Feeling that this wasn't going to work, I decided we should switch places.
“Huh?”
Shin Ayoung looked at me quizzically.
“I said sit down. I'll check yours too. I did mine, so now it's your turn.”
At that, Shin Ayoung waved her hands from side to side.
“I'm fine. I've done enough today, and I'll keep watching your workout, Seungho.”
“You did less than usual, though. I said I'm fine. Sit down, quickly.”
Though my tone was half-forcing, it worked on Shin Ayoung better than expected.
“I-I....”
Shin Ayoung hesitated, but sat in the chair.
— “Th-this isn't how it was supposed to go...!”
The mini-me was sweating profusely.
She seemed flustered that her plan had gone awry.
“Here.”
I held the handle out to Shin Ayoung.
“Grip the handle properly.”
“……”
Shin Ayoung silently did as she was told.
Click—
After adjusting the weight, I slowly pulled the handle.
Watching her movement, I gently took hold of her arm.
I adjusted the position of her elbow.
— “Eek.”
The mini-me trembled from head to toe.
She seemed startled by the sudden contact.
She had initiated it herself, yet she was just as startled.
It did feel different when you were the one doing it versus having it done to you.
“Good. Pull while keeping it there.”
“Y-yeah.”
It didn't end with just once.
I took hold of her shoulder to correct her posture.
My palm naturally came into contact with the small of her back.
“……”
Now that I'd tried it, I understood.
I was shamelessly moving her arm for her, but this made the other person much more conscious of it than I'd expected.
Even if I tried not to, that's how it turned out.
Even so, I didn't stop.
— “Th-this....”
This was both a response to Shin Ayoung's forwardness,
and the smallest possible expression that I wasn't entirely uninterested either.
At this level, Shin Ayoung shouldn't be flustered.
I hoped that was the case.
— “---------”
Noise began to bleed into the mini-me's words as she could no longer hold out.
I didn't know how she had been so aggressively forward earlier when she was this embarrassed.
“Ugh....”
Shin Ayoung knitted her brows. Her posture grew increasingly crooked.
It was proof that she wasn't concentrating at all.
“Focus. Pull slowly while focusing on your back muscles.”
I placed my hand on her arm and moved in close behind her.
I spoke softly in a low voice near her ear.
— “Hwaaah...!”
For a moment, the noise cleared, and the mini-me exhaled.
Sssllip....
The strength slowly drained from her grip.
“!”
Clatter——!
I quickly grabbed the handle.
Because I moved a step ahead of time, I was able to catch it while the weight stack was dropping.
“Ah...!”
Shin Ayoung's eyes widened at the sight.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“...Yeah, I was just a little startled.”
She gave an awkward smile as she said she was fine.
Just as she said, she didn't seem to be hurt.
“...Should we stop here?”
“...Yeah.”
It no longer felt like we were in the mood to exercise more.
“W-what is it? What happened?”
Lee Seungah came rushing over, looking startled.
I narrowed my eyes slightly at the sight. It was nothing else but—
“Hey. You... wipe that off.”
I pointed at her chin.
Perhaps she'd dozed off somewhere from exhaustion; drool was running from the corner of her mouth.
It wasn't something she should let other people see.
“Oh. Sss.”
Embarrassed, Lee Seungah scrubbed at the corner of her mouth.
“……”
“……”
At the sight, Shin Ayoung and I let out faint laughs almost simultaneously.
The absurdity of it made the corners of our mouths rise.
She hadn't meant to, but the awkward atmosphere had eased as a bonus.
* * *
“See you tomorrow—”
Shin Ayoung raised a small hand at the two people walking in the opposite direction.
Lee Seungho waved back.
“Yeah, see you tomorrow.”
“See you tomorrow, unni~”
“Yeah.”
Shin Ayoung watched Lee Seungho's back grow smaller in the distance.
Thud, thud.
Even as she walked home, she turned around to watch him grow farther away.
‘...I'm going to be insanely sore tomorrow.’
Shin Ayoung rubbed down her forearm.
As she walked, fatigue began to rise in her arm.
“……”
Naturally, she replayed what had just happened in her mind.
— Focus. Pull slowly while focusing on your back muscles.
His low, whispered voice.
The gentle timbre had made her lower back prickle.
That was why the strength had slipped from her grip before she knew it.
“……”
Shin Ayoung tucked her hair behind her ear. Her outer ear, flushed bright red, came into view.
Her slender fingers brushed her outer ear. It was still hot.
‘I didn't know.’
She hadn't known her ears were so sensitive.
It was an unexpected side of herself even she hadn't known about.
Besides, this hadn't been the plan originally.
She had wanted to see him flustered by physical contact, and that had been her plan, but—
It hadn't gone well. If anything, the opposite had happened.
“……This isn't bad either.”
For a brief moment, she thought that being on the receiving end once in a while wasn't so bad either.
* * *
“……”
Lee Sol lay on the bed in her room, rolling around. She stared blankly at the ceiling.
She normally did like lying around.
But she was doing it now for a different reason.
“Nuri....”
She had another thing to worry about.
“...Nuri likes Seungho.”
In other words, there was one more person to worry about.
Lee Sol pressed her fingers into the mattress.
“……”
Surprisingly, she hadn't thought much about it at school.
Perhaps because it was something she'd expected from long ago, she had accepted it naturally.
She had thought that was all there was to it.
‘I thought I was okay.’
The moment she got home and was alone, her mood had become restless for some reason even she couldn't understand.
When it had been Shin Ayoung, she'd been filled with the motivation not to lose.
But now, she felt a little stifled.
‘Maybe it's because it's Nuri.... This feels different.’
Ji Nuri had helped her in various ways for a long time.
She couldn't say that Nuri hadn't influenced her decision not to model and to attend school.
Until she started going around with Lee Seungho, Nuri had been the person she was closest to.
The thought of Ji Nuri being rejected and feeling sad left a bitter taste in her mouth.
‘That doesn't mean I'm going to give way, though.’
If anything, precisely because it was Nuri,
she intended to do this properly.
“Whew.”
She couldn't win if she didn't give it her all anyway.
“……”
Lee Sol looked at her reflection in the mirror with a jaded expression.
Overall, she was smaller from the neck down.
‘...Small.’
Relatively speaking, that was true.
She had no choice but to admit that her physical attributes put her at a disadvantage compared with the other two.
If it were only a little, perhaps. But with this much of a difference, she had no choice but to accept it.
“It's not fair....”
Had she ever felt this frustrated before?
Even so.
Knowing that complaining wouldn't change anything, Lee Sol sprang to her feet.
It wasn't as if there were no solutions.
On the bed, Lee Sol came up with not one but two countermeasures.
The first method.
Lee Sol took a glass of chilled milk from the refrigerator.
“……”
She looked down at it with a conflicted gaze.
Honestly, she didn't like milk. If anything, she hated it.
“Hoo....”
Lee Sol steadied her breathing once.
Then she downed it in one go.
The milk went glug, glug down her throat.
“Blech....”
Lee Sol clutched her queasy stomach. The characteristic fishy taste lingered on her tongue.
“……”
Her hand trembled.
Hold on. I can endure this.
Right, I'm still growing.
Besides, it's not genetically impossible.
‘It's not like there's no chance, right?’
Lee Sol thought of her mother.
Even if she wasn't as developed as Ji Nuri or Shin Ayoung, the possibility of growing was what mattered.
‘Next.’
The second method was to seek someone else's help.
After much thought and deliberation,
she finally decided to ask for advice about her current situation.
She was probably the person she knew who understood romance best.
“……”
Lee Sol cautiously poked her head out. She spotted her mother sitting on the sofa.
Gulp—
Her throat bobbed as she swallowed nervously.
“...Blech.”
The fishy taste of the milk still lingered.
Splish, splash.
Lee Sol rinsed her mouth with water, then returned to the living room.
‘...I was going to have to tell her someday anyway.’
As far as telling her about her feelings for Seungho went, now seemed the perfect time no matter how she thought about it.
If it had been before, maybe not.
But recently, she'd even eaten with Lee Seungho.
‘...Yeah, this is right. I'll be seeing him often from now on.’
If possible, it wouldn't be a bad idea to tell her in advance.
It's all right. I can tell her properly.
Lee Sol walked into the living room with stiff steps.
Her hands were clenched into fists and showed no sign of opening, but her feet didn't stop.
“...Did you want to tell me something?”
Sensing her restlessness, her mother asked Lee Sol first.
“Um....”
Lee Sol carefully pieced her words together.
“...Mom. Do you have a moment?”
Her mother's gaze, lowered to the book, turned toward Lee Sol.
“What's the matter—”
Her words abruptly cut off.
Her dark eyes noticed Lee Sol's rigid expression.
“……”
Her eyelashes lowered.
Her gaze swept over the floor.
She turned her head away as if avoiding her and continued speaking.
“Sol, I'm sorry, but I can't right now....”
Her lips began to form a refusal, but once again, her voice trailed off.
“……”
Hoo—
A deep breath settled over the room.
She nodded and met Lee Sol's gaze once more.
“...All right. What is it?”
Kim Boyoung looked straight at her daughter, who had grown so much before she knew it.
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