Chapter 49
The day after Cha Eun-joo and I shared her first time—the first person I'd started pursuing, and the very first target I'd begun working on after coming to this world.
The first thing I did after having sex with Cha Eun-joo was prepare the next episode. Under normal circumstances, we would have had a few days of free time after the practical exam, but I'd used all of those days up at the church with Kim Isabel.
Of course, it wasn't exactly bad news, since I'd ultimately earned a level of favorability from Kim Isabel that would otherwise have been absolutely impossible to obtain at this point.
The only thing I regretted was my relationship with Han Sora, of course.
‘Originally, I was planning to take Han Sora and Cha Eun-joo to a pub or something on the evening the practical exam ended.’
Kim Isabel didn't drink, and Cha Eun-joo had such a terrible tolerance for alcohol that she'd quickly get drunk and pass out, naturally giving me a chance to talk with Han Sora alone. If only I hadn't ended up hospitalized at the academy church with serious injuries.
I had planned to start by building a connection that small, then begin pursuing Han Sora, who had just grown distant from Seo Woojin, so it was a shame.
‘Can't be helped. It would be absurd to expect everything to go according to plan in the first place.’
I don't enjoy an uncertain future, but neither do I intend to dwell on things just because they didn't go my way.
What's past is past. Rather than waste time needlessly dwelling on it, I should focus first on the event most likely to raise the heroines' favorability at this point.
And the episode containing that event…was set to begin today, right here at ‘Amusement Park Neverland.’
‘A sudden villain attack that the students gather together to resolve is practically a basic cliché of hunter stories.’
Although Seo Woojin, who was supposed to play a major role in the original, was absent, it didn't particularly matter. Cha Eun-joo and I could run around working hard and more than fill the gap.
The close-range damage-dealer role that had originally belonged to Seo Woojin could easily be replaced in this episode by the character I'd be building a connection with.
The only real variable was that, in the original, Han Sora—not me—had organized this event, but surely that alone wouldn't damage the original's broad framework.
“Ah, Seonho…!”
“…You made it, Cha Eun-joo.”
I came out a little early and was organizing today's plans in my head when I heard Cha Eun-joo call out to me from a little way off.
She was wearing a knit cardigan with slightly long sleeves over a light, lacy shirt. Each time she took a quick step closer, the hem of her purple flared skirt swished around her knees.
Her hair was also straight and neatly arranged, without a single mussed or clumped section, making it clear that she'd put far more effort into getting ready than usual.
‘She seems to be completely seeing me as her boyfriend now.’
There had been signs of that several times already, of course, but after our first time together, she must have become certain that she and I were in a romantic relationship.
Of course, I planned to keep Cha Eun-joo as a pet rather than a lover, but for now it was better to make use of her misunderstanding.
“S-sorry…. Did you wait long…?”
“What do you mean, wait? There are still thirty minutes until our appointed time, Eun-joo.”
“Oh, uh, r-really…? I'm not late…?”
“The others haven't arrived yet, either. You and I just got here a little early.”
“I-I guess so…. Sora and Isabel aren't here yet….”
Realizing she'd come far too early, Cha Eun-joo blushed and gave an awkward smile.
As befitted a young lady who had experienced her first time only a day ago, she still retained some innocence.
…Even though yesterday she'd begged me to kiss her while we had sex and had even thoroughly cleaned the cock that had been inside her with a blowjob.
‘Now that I think about it, I want to do it again.’
Still, I should restrain myself for a while. Until Eun-joo starts getting a little more desperate.
Instead, until then, I should gradually break down the barriers between us with even light physical affection. I needed the boundaries separating Cha Eun-joo under suggestion from Cha Eun-joo in her everyday state to slowly crumble.
“That reminds me, why did you come so early?”
“I-I just…. I was afraid I might be late….”
“And why are you dressed so nicely? It's different from usual.”
“N-nicely…?”
“Yeah, very nicely.”
“…I see. Hehe, ehehet….”
The colors of the knitwear and the flared skirt were strangely mismatched, but there was no need to mention it.
This wasn't a date with just the two of us; we'd all come out to have fun together as friends. Besides, even setting that aside, Cha Eun-joo was simply cute enough to be forgiven for anything.
“B-but what about you, Seonho…?”
“Hmm?”
“Y-you came out earlier than me…. Wh-why did you come so early…?”
“I came out early because I thought it might let me talk with you alone like this, Eun-joo.”
“…Huh, wha…? R-really…?”
…What are you doing, blushing and grinning like an idiot over a compliment like that, Eun-joo?
She had the kind of personality that would lose every time, no matter whom she dated. I couldn't deny that she was especially weak against me, though.
-Tap tap.
“H-hyaaah?!”
“I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Don't worry about it so much.”
“Ah, uh, I-I see…. You were joking, ahaha….”
“Did you get home all right yesterday? You didn't have any physical problems because the ‘hypnosis treatment’ went on too long, did you?”
“…I-I don't really know…? I don't remember anything in particular…. Ahaha….”
I've heard that women sometimes have lower-back pain or other problems after sex, and with Cha Eun-joo's lack of exercise, hers was probably especially severe.
Even so, seeing her desperately ‘pretend not to remember’ what had happened yesterday made me think my training had gone quite well.
Even now, despite me lightly patting her butt and acting shamelessly, she was trying to smooth things over with laughter. If she really wanted to pretend she'd lost her memory, she should have gotten angry or flustered here, but that was probably impossible for someone with Cha Eun-joo's personality.
With her, I only needed to continue this sort of light physical affection little by little. If I kept it up, before long I'd find her having sex with me without even needing to use 「Suggestion : Hypnosis」.
…Once we progressed that far, I could even have her fully recognize our master-slave relationship during ‘hypnosis training.’
“Ah, Seonho! Eun-joo!”
“You made it, Han Sora.”
“Ah, h-hello, Sora….”
After talking with Cha Eun-joo alone for about twenty minutes, Han Sora appeared five minutes before the appointed time.
Unlike Cha Eun-joo, who clearly looked like she'd dressed up as much as possible, Han Sora gave the strong impression that she'd simply worn whatever was most comfortable. She was dressed in a long-sleeved T-shirt, a thin padded jacket, and loose, straight-fit jeans.
It suited her, but it certainly wasn't an outfit that suggested she was conscious of me as a man. That was something I'd simply have to develop slowly from here on.
“What's with you two? Why are you both so dressed up? I just threw on some clothes I had at home.”
“I just threw something on too. It only looks like I dressed up because I have a good figure.”
“Pfft. He says he has a good figure. You're pretty shameless, aren't you?”
I knew that, too. I knew that the villain Lee Seonho wasn't exactly blessed with a handsome face.
To begin with, in Han Sora's eyes—the childhood friend of Seo Woojin—I must have looked somewhere between a squid and a frozen pollock from the moment she first saw me. I'd deliberately targeted that point to make her laugh.
“Ah, n-no…! Seonho really does have a good figure…! I-I mean…!”
…Though there was one person here who couldn't take a joke.
Fortunately, Han Sora had the outgoing personality to strike up a friendly conversation from the very first meeting, so she was also skilled at talking with girls like Cha Eun-joo.
“Pff, yeah, yeah. You look much prettier than usual too, Eun-joo. Don't wear dreary tracksuits like last time; dress like that more often.”
“Oh, uh, r-really…? Th-thank you….”
“Do you want to go clothes shopping with me sometime when you're free? Once we get paid for the Owlbear materials from the one we took down during the entrance exam….”
Cha Eun-joo had seriously voiced an opposing opinion to my joke with Han Sora, only to be flustered when she received a compliment instead. Han Sora naturally shifted to another topic and kept the conversation going with her.
Someone like Han Sora would get along smoothly with everyone no matter where you dropped her. That was why she'd even taken the pathetic Seo Woojin, who had barely seemed human back then, to take the entrance exam with her.
She was also the kind of person who could sincerely apologize if her joke genuinely made the atmosphere awkward. The exact opposite of a certain childhood friend with nothing but useless pride.
“But if that's what you look like after throwing on whatever you found, what do you look like when you actually dress up? Even if you don't have many clothes, aren't you showing off that figure a little too much?”
“Hehehe. What are you talking about? I haven't seen you in ages, Lee Seonho, but you're really funny.”
That was enough.
With Han Sora, I could say I'd done enough with just that much praise.
It was still a little too early to give her compliments openly charged with romantic feelings like the ones I'd given Cha Eun-joo. Mixing jokes and compliments to leave a pleasant impression was sufficient for now.
Beauty was relative, after all. Once she developed some favorable feelings and saw me frequently, I'd have a decent chance even without a handsome face like Seo Woojin's.
…And so, the three of us chatted together for about ten minutes,
Han Sora was the first to question the absence of the last person, who still hadn't appeared even though we'd passed the appointed time by about five minutes.
“But isn't it past our meeting time? Why hasn't Isabel gotten here yet?”
“I-I know….”
“Did you not invite Isabel? Or did she say she couldn't come because she was busy?”
“No. I'm pretty sure I invited her properly and even got a definite reply that she'd come.”
Actually, I knew.
There was one event that gave me a good idea why Kim Isabel was late for the appointed time.
I'd considered that this event might not happen, since this wasn't the post-exam party Han Sora had organized in the original. But just as Han Sora and Seo Woojin had met at the practical exam last time, the broad framework of the story seemed to be following the original after all.
“I'll go to the restroom for a moment. If she hasn't come by then, let's contact her again.”
“Sure, whatever. It's not like we're in a huge hurry.”
“C-come back soon, Seonho….”
Using the excuse of going to the restroom, I naturally separated myself from the two of them, then deliberately headed toward the entrance of the amusement park, in the opposite direction from the restroom.
According to the event in the original, Kim Isabel would probably be stuck and unable to move somewhere near the entrance of the amusement park.
⁎ ⁎ ⁎
‘Ah, there she is.’
At the amusement park entrance, a short distance from our meeting place, Kim Isabel was unable to move, just as I'd expected.
A few men who looked somewhat sleazy were blatantly blocking her path.
“Why don't you just come have fun with us? Why do you keep avoiding us? You're making us feel bad.”
“Ah, aaaaah, ah, n-no…. I-I-I, I came with my fr-friends….”
“What brings a young priestess to an amusement park alone? And why are you hiding your face? Huh?”
“You came to have fun with your friends? Girls? Then we can have fun with you too, right?”
“Ah, aaaaah, n-no…. P-please, s-stop….”
…I figured it'd end up like this.
Two men had surrounded Kim Isabel on either side, blocking her from moving left or right. Another man stood in front of her, cocking one leg as he blocked her path.
Blocked by the so-called ‘tanned punks,’ villainous extras, Kim Isabel was flustered but still tried to move forward somehow, doing her best to avoid them.
“S-sorry, b-but…. I-I-I, I-I-I have a pr, pr, pr, prior engagement….”
“What? If you have something to say, spit it out properly. You don't want to play with us? Huh?”
……
-Nod, nod.
“You do?”
……
-Shake, shake.
“You don't?”
……
-Nod, nod.
“…Jeez, do you want to or not?!”
“I-I told you I didn't want to….”
…Still, at least she'd become capable of expressing that much of an opinion against randy punks.
If I remembered correctly, the original Kim Isabel had been unable even to nod or timidly voice her own opinion.
It seemed that the ‘training to overcome her fear of men’ I'd put her through over the past few days hadn't been entirely ineffective. Of course, training for such a short time wouldn't let her handle that gang of punks with ease.
‘In the original, I think Seo Woojin, who was late for the appointment, happened to find her and helped her.’
Naturally, Seo Woojin wasn't here for today's event. I'd deliberately left his place vacant.
So, of course, I had no choice but to step into the role he was supposed to play in the original.