Chapter 29
As I looked toward the hospital-room door, wondering if it was mealtime, the person who appeared was Han Sora, the MVP of the Owlbear subjugation.
-Rattle.
“How are you feeling?”
“More or less okay.”
“What, Cha Eun-joo is here too? Didn’t you leave later than me yesterday, too? Don’t tell me you slept here?”
“Mm-hm. I was a little worried….”
“Wow, with your girlfriend this devoted, you’d better get better soon.”
Well, from someone else’s perspective, it was only natural to think Cha Eun-joo and I were a couple.
Seeing me run around with my arms wrapped around Cha Eun-joo without hesitation, or seeing her tearfully worry about me when I was injured, it was easy enough to understand why she would misunderstand.
But if people recognized Cha Eun-joo and me as a couple too early, it might make it a little harder to pursue Han Sora and the other heroines….
“W-well, I’m not exactly his girlfriend….”
“Huh?”
…Our Eun-joo. You’re being cute again.
Good job, good job. As a reward, I’ll make you my first sexual partner.
Since Cha Eun-joo had cut off Han Sora’s misunderstanding at just the right moment, I seized the opportunity and continued from where she left off.
“If I were your boyfriend, it would actually be rude to Eun-joo. We’ve only known each other for about a week, to begin with.”
“Huh, really? You two worked so well together that I naturally assumed you’d known each other for years.”
“We met by chance during the written exam and became friends. We also practiced working together while preparing for the practical exam.”
“…Hmm, I see.”
I had expected her to question me further, but Han Sora unexpectedly just nodded calmly.
Could the fact that I didn’t have a girlfriend be good news to her? Personally, I hoped it was.
Just as I was entertaining that fantasy, Cha Eun-joo carefully whispered in a voice only I could hear.
“Se-Seonho….”
“Yeah?”
“I-I don’t think it would really be rude….”
“What wouldn’t?”
“E-even if Seonho were my boyfriend…. I-I don’t think it would really be rude….”
…Eun-joo, we’re in a hospital room.
If you keep tempting me like this, I might just throw everything aside and pounce on you.
As I turned my gaze toward Han Sora while imagining such wicked things, I happened to notice the sky-blue envelope in her hand.
“What’s that? Fruit?”
“A get-well gift. They say you’re supposed to bring something like this when you visit someone in the hospital.”
“I don’t know. This is my first time being visited in the hospital, too. Anyway, thanks.”
“You don’t have to thank me for something like this. We all fought together, so I feel worse that you were the only one who got hurt badly enough to be hospitalized.”
“I told you, it couldn’t be helped because I’m in Support. Speaking of which, once we enroll and start taking group classes, let’s find one or two people for the front line. I know a senior in the Shield department who’ll be a second-year student next year, so if there are any classes we can take together, I’ll ask them….”
-Rattle.
“M-mealtime…. I-I’ll prepare it… for you….”
As Choi Mari came up naturally in the conversation, Kim Isabel appeared this time, pulling what looked like a cart.
It wasn’t just a patient meal; the cart carried several dishes on lidded plates. It was lavish enough that I found it rather extravagant for hospital food.
“Thanks, Isabel. But if you’re not used to being around men, someone else could bring me my meals.”
“N-no, no…. A-as the person assigned to Lee Seonho’s care, I-I have to….”
“Wow, what’s all this? Do they normally serve food like this at the academy church?”
“I think they’re trying to make things as convenient as possible during my stay because they feel bad about me getting so badly injured in the entrance exam. There was so much food this morning that even after sharing it with Eun-joo, we couldn’t finish it all.”
“…At this point, you didn’t need to bring fruit too. I should’ve just bought something like ice cream.”
“There’s a separate stomach for meals and one for fruit. Besides, I’m grateful you came at all, so don’t worry about something like that.”
“I-I’ll help too, Isabel.”
Kim Isabel naturally unfolded the folding table and began placing the dishes on it one by one, while Cha Eun-joo, now fairly close with her, stepped in to help.
Since it was mealtime, Han Sora seemed to feel awkward staying any longer and cautiously rose from her seat amid the commotion.
“I’m going to head out soon. Enjoy your lunch.”
“Han Sora, have you eaten lunch?”
“Not yet. I was going to go home and eat now.”
“If you haven’t eaten yet, eat with us. If Cha Eun-joo and I eat by ourselves, we’ll just end up leaving food behind anyway.”
“What, is that okay?”
“Why wouldn’t it be? I ate with Cha Eun-joo this morning too, so adding one or two more people won’t matter.”
“…Well, then. I won’t refuse.”
I guess she had been curious after all—about what sort of patient food the academy had gone to the trouble of preparing.
With this, everyone from our previous Owlbear-subjugation party was gathered, making it naturally easier to work on winning over Kim Isabel too.
“Since you’re here, Isabel, you should eat with us too. You haven’t eaten yet, have you?”
“M-me?!”
“Yeah, it would be nice if Isabel ate with us while she’s here. Come to think of it, we never even properly celebrated after the practical exam last time.”
“Yeah. Let’s eat together, Isabel. …Are you busy?”
“No…. I’m not particularly busy….”
Judging by the way she hesitated, her heart had already begun leaning toward joining us.
Even without me saying anything more, Han Sora and Cha Eun-joo took it upon themselves to pull Isabel over to the table, so in the end, she sat down too, and it naturally became a lunch for all four of us.
“Wow, this is good. But is a patient allowed to eat fried food?”
“I’m not hospitalized because of a stomach problem or anything. I’m not going to be stingy about food, so don’t hold back.”
“Se-Seonho…. The meat patties are good too. Should I move some over to you…?”
“Just pick up one piece and bring it to me. Ah~.”
“E-eh?! H-here….”
“…You two really aren’t dating?”
Eating alone with Cha Eun-joo wasn’t bad, of course, but food really did taste best when I was surrounded by heroines like this.
⁎ ⁎ ⁎
After lunch, Han Sora ate a few pieces of the fruit she had brought as a gift before leaving, while Kim Isabel returned to the priests’ waiting room after finishing her afternoon treatment.
That left only me, who still had to stay hospitalized for at least two more days, and Cha Eun-joo, who showed no sign of going home today either.
-Stare.
“Se-Seonho…? D-do you need anything…?”
“No, not really. I just happened to look over and find myself watching you.”
“Huh?! I-I see….”
It wasn’t that I disliked spending this time with Cha Eun-joo.
It absolutely wasn’t because I disliked it, but, how should I put it….
‘Since I’m hospitalized in a church anyway, I’d like to use this chance to somehow get closer to Kim Isabel.’
It was something like that. If Cha Eun-joo was a starter Poké○on, Kim Isabel felt more like a wild Po○mon.
Besides, being in a church meant I could get opportunities for the two of us to be alone, unlike usual, so you could call it a kind of drop-rate-up event.
Even just when she brought me meals or treated me, I got five or six chances a day to be alone with her. …If only Cha Eun-joo, who had been glued to my side since last night, weren’t here.
“Um, Eun-joo.”
“Yeah?”
“Maybe today….”
I was about to ask whether she could go home before it got too late today, but the words refused to come out.
Cha Eun-joo was worried about me and had stayed despite having to sleep somewhere uncomfortable, so it felt as though I were being cruel by asking her to leave.
And all because of the shameless desire to treat her like a fish I had already caught while trying to hook another one.
‘Sigh, what am I thinking?’
I was having thoughts like this about a girl who was worried enough about me to sleep at the church with me.
Instead of thinking about doing something more for obedient, devoted Cha Eun-joo, it was ridiculous to kick her out just because she was getting in the way of pursuing another heroine.
Let’s not get impatient. I’d have plenty of chances to pursue Kim Isabel anyway.
“Se-Seonho?”
“Yeah?”
“What about today…?”
“N-nothing.”
I mumbled my way through it so awkwardly that anyone could tell, but I couldn’t help it. I hadn’t prepared an excuse before bringing it up.
As the atmosphere grew a little awkward and I was regretting the thoughts I had entertained moments earlier, Cha Eun-joo cautiously made me a somewhat special proposal, her expression filled with resolve.
“Um, well….”
“Yeah?”
“Y-you know…. Were you trying to ask me to do something when you started talking to me?”
“No, it’s not that.”
“I-if it’s something difficult to say, you don’t have to. I-I can understand, no matter what…. Se-Seonho, you’re a guy too, and….”
“…Cha Eun-joo?”
She was interpreting my awkwardly cutting myself off as though it concealed some profound hidden meaning.
Curious what might come out of Cha Eun-joo’s mouth, I waited a moment, only for her to fluster me with something I never could have expected.
“I-if it’s hard to say directly…. W-what if you hypnotized me and….”
“……Yeah?”
“W-what if you hypnotized me and made me do it…? I-I’m okay with it….”
…Honestly, Cha Eun-joo was the one who seduced me first.
I had really been trying to hold myself back in the church. But there was no way I could resist when she tempted me like this.
⁎ ⁎ ⁎
“W-what if you hypnotized me and made me do it…? I-I’m okay with it….”
After blurting out something so outrageous that she herself could hardly believe it, Cha Eun-joo’s head began to spin.
Confusion, shame, embarrassment, and all kinds of other emotions became tangled together.
‘Cha Eun-joo, you idiot! Why did you suddenly bring up something so weird?!’
At first, it had begun with nothing more than a slightly naughty fantasy.
A slightly naughty fantasy that had started with a single remark from Lee Seonho.
Seeing him fall silent with a troubled expression after starting to say, ‘Maybe today,’ Cha Eun-joo imagined all sorts of things.
She wondered what Seonho had originally intended to say before awkwardly trailing off.
‘He probably isn’t asking me to go somewhere with him….’
With his body in that condition, he would have to remain in the church until he recovered.
Then he must have started talking to ask her for something… and as she thought in that direction, Cha Eun-joo’s train of thought suddenly veered into something naughty.
The way he had secretly touched her breasts while she was asleep during the practical exam just yesterday, and how he had secretly stroked her hair again that morning.
In any case, she had even shown him her breasts while hypnotized. After all those experiences, Lee Seonho’s suggestive words were enough to pull her thoughts in a naughty direction.
‘Maybe today he was going to ask me to sleep together on the bed….’
…No, that wouldn’t do. She hadn’t allowed things to go that far yet.
Besides, they weren’t even dating yet, and the only things that had happened were her showing him her breasts while hypnotized and being touched while she slept.
Wouldn’t moving forward so boldly be a little dangerous?
…It wasn’t that she disliked the idea. Yes, she didn’t particularly dislike it.
‘I’m curious.’
Now that things had come to this, she genuinely wanted to know what he had been trying to say.
If it really was the slightly indecent kind of request she was imagining, she probably wouldn’t answer even if he asked.
‘In that case, maybe….’
What if, as she had done until now, she pretended to be ‘hypnotized’?
He still didn’t seem to have noticed that she was only pretending to be hypnotized, and in any case, Seonho was more honest than usual when he was in that state.
If she were hypnotized, wouldn’t he answer her question?
They were inside a church. He probably wouldn’t make her do something mischievous like show him her breasts again.
…That was why. Just a little boldly.
“Hypnosis?”
“Y-yeah…. I-if it’s a slightly embarrassing request, you can just hypnotize me and make me do it…. B-because when I’m hypnotized, I’ll do whatever you ask….”
“…How do you know that?”
“……Huh?”
“How do you know that you’ll do whatever someone asks when you’re hypnotized, Eun-joo?”
“…….”
Ah.
R-right. Come to think of it, I wasn’t supposed to know this?!
“Um, Eun-joo?”
“……”
W-what do I do?!
How am I supposed to answer this?!