Chapter 14
Gulp, gulp-
“……Phew.”
After coming out into the living room, I replenished my fluids while gripping a bottle of mineral water as though I might crush it. Then I took a fresh bottle from the refrigerator and returned to the bedroom.
I approached a little cautiously and handed it to Baek Seol-ah, who was sprawled out on the bed.
“Here, water.”
“……”
Baek Seol-ah, who had been blankly staring at the ceiling with exhausted eyes, turned to look at me.
She didn't turn her head or sit up, merely rolling her eyes toward me.
I felt the resentment clinging thickly to her gaze and cleared my throat.
“Ahem. Um, want me to unscrew the cap?”
“……”
Though she didn't answer, I quickly opened the cap and offered her the bottle with a polite gesture.
Baek Seol-ah spent a while glaring coldly at me with the back of her head buried in the pillow.
Just as I was seriously considering whether I should pour the water directly into her mouth, Baek Seol-ah thankfully reached out and snatched the bottle away.
Clack!
Then she gently braced herself against the mattress, raised her upper body, and replenished her fluids on her own.
Just as I had a moment ago, gulping it down. She diligently drank enough to make up for what she had lost.
“……Phew.”
Baek Seol-ah soon emptied the bottle and set it down on the nightstand beside the bed with a sigh. She seemed to have recovered at least a little of her strength.
“You perverted bastard. No, you beast.”
“……Mm.”
It wasn't exactly good news for me. Perhaps because she had regained a little energy, Baek Seol-ah immediately shot me a sharp glare and spat out those cutting words.
But I didn't bother answering in kind. Now that my reason had returned, I was a human being with a functioning conscience.
Even after seeing Baek Seol-ah trembling at the waist as though she could barely put any strength into her body, how could I fail to take the hint? As she said, that would make me a beast.
Unlike me, who had taken a short rest and at least put on my underwear, Baek Seol-ah had lain on the bed ever since we finished and was still naked.
She had covered her private parts with the blanket she had pushed aside, but……
The alluring atmosphere created by the imbalance in how much of her upper and lower body was exposed was quite intense.
Anyway, Baek Seol-ah swept back her bangs with an exhausted expression and muttered irritably.
“……How many times were you going to come? Seriously, were you trying to break my back?”
“Ahem. No, it's just…….”
“And you were so out of it that you could barely move, yet you even made me clean you up with my mouth……. Are you even human, Han Taeyang?”
I had no excuse. The longer Baek Seol-ah continued berating me, the more my head lowered automatically.
To be honest, it was true that I had gotten a little carried away and continued despite not considering her stamina.
To be even more honest, Baek Seol-ah's tearful pleas to let her rest had been insanely arousing, too.
Either way, that meant it had been unavoidable.
‘How was I supposed to resist that? I’m a man.’
Even so, I couldn't bring myself to meet Baek Seol-ah's sharp gaze directly, so I shifted my eyes around restlessly.
That was when her mouth happened to enter my field of vision.
‘……Ah.’
She had probably rinsed her mouth while drinking the water, but it seemed she hadn't managed to wash around it as well.
When I saw the white fluid still clinging wetly to her jawline, I quickly pulled out a tissue.
When I silently held it out, Baek Seol-ah belatedly seemed to realize what a mess she was in.
She frowned and checked the mirror in the corner of the bedroom.
“……Wipe it yourself, you beast.”
“Yeah.”
I couldn't find any grounds to refuse her command as she looked back at me with an even colder gaze. I hurriedly climbed onto the bed.
Baek Seol-ah glared at me fiercely and obediently lifted her chin, while I awkwardly used the tissue in my hand to wipe around her mouth with all the care and effort I could muster.
It wasn't as though I was normally the type to be so flustered around Baek Seol-ah, though.
Still, I figured I should humor her for the time being.
After what I had done, I couldn't bring myself to act as haughtily as usual.
“Clothes.”
So whenever Baek Seol-ah gestured, I picked up the underwear scattered carelessly across the floor.
And when she kept looking at me without withdrawing her gaze, what else could I do? I even had to dress her, taking the hint.
I went behind Baek Seol-ah and fastened the hooks of her bra around her back, then slipped the white T-shirt over her body as she raised both arms.
Then, when I gently lowered myself to put pants on Baek Seol-ah as she sat on the edge of the bed with her bare legs stretched out—
“……It's almost lunchtime.”
“Huh, mm?”
“I'm kind of hungry.”
Baek Seol-ah pointed her chin toward the clock on the wall and brought up yet another request.
When I turned my head, the clock was already showing two in the afternoon, just as she had said.
Nearly five hours had passed since Baek Seol-ah came to my dormitory early in the morning and we had thoroughly rolled around together. It was safe to say we had missed lunchtime.
But I wasn't stupid enough not to understand the meaning of the golden gaze staring straight at me while she slowly rubbed her stomach.
I quickly pulled out my smartphone and asked Baek Seol-ah in return.
“Want to order something? My treat.”
“Malatang. And YeopX tteokbokki.”
“……”
Though the menu choices were a little horrifying.
“What.”
“……No. What spice level?”
“Level three.”
“Okay.”
The moment she saw my finger hesitate while I was opening the delivery app, she glared at me, and what could I possibly say?
Spicy food wasn't really my preference, but today I had no choice but to pick up my spoon and eat without complaint.
Ding-
[Your order has been completed.]
So I ordered delivery from two different restaurants.
Only after I showed Baek Seol-ah each order screen directly did she relax the fussy expression she had worn the entire time, if only a little.
“Hmph. Set things up when the food arrives. I'll eat as soon as it gets here.”
“……What are you going to do in the meantime?”
Baek Seol-ah stood up from the bed with a long stretch, and I looked up at her and asked in return.
“Well, what else……. I need to wash up. You made everything sticky all over the place, so I'm going crazy feeling grimy even now.”
“Aha.”
I nodded absentmindedly, but then stared blankly as Baek Seol-ah took off the short-sleeved shirt I had gone to the trouble of putting on her and headed for the bathroom.
Hold on.
‘……What?’
If she was going straight to wash because she felt so grimy, why had she made me dress her in the first place?
As she said, she must have been horribly sticky, so hadn't she merely dirtied the clothes for no reason?
“Ah, if you peek, I'll kill you.”
I made an incredulous face, but Baek Seol-ah didn't even look at me. She merely left me with that one remark before closing the bathroom door.
Soon, the quiet sound of the shower spraying water echoed beyond the door.
Ssshhh-
“Good grief.”
It was absurd, but it probably wasn't important enough to warrant trying to figure out her intentions.
Maybe all she wanted was to see me wait on her like a servant.
No, that was probably the right answer.
I shook my head from side to side.
About thirty minutes later, after I set the delivery food that had arrived right on time on the table, Baek Seol-ah emerged at the perfect moment, steam rising in wisps from her.
She had gotten dressed again and was drying her wet white hair with the towel I normally used.
Soon she pulled out the chair opposite me and sat down.
“?”
She paused for a moment when she saw the scene on the table.
“……You idiot. How could you order a plum-flavored drink? You should've gotten peach without me even saying so!”
Whack!
Without a moment's hesitation, she imbued a towel with mana, hardened it, and brought it down on the crown of my head.
It was because I had ordered the drink that paired perfectly with spicy food in plum flavor.
I grimaced as I clutched my throbbing head.
“……The peach flavor was sold out, so I had no choice.”
“What do you want me to do about it?”
“……”
At that immediate reply, I swallowed down the bubbling anger inside me and lowered my gaze.
I was letting it slide because she'd let me have my fill today. On any other day, I wouldn't have given her an inch.
‘Damn bitch.’
Seriously. Truly.
*****
After neatly finishing our late lunch, Baek Seol-ah spent some time in my dormitory.
She sprawled out on the sofa and became absorbed in the television, pretending not even to be aware of the bedroom.
For some reason, I looked down at Baek Seol-ah's feet, resting across my lap, with a delinquent's displeased gaze, then tossed a remark at her.
“Hey, Baek Seolgi.”
“Why?”
“Aren't you going back to your room?”
“Huh……?”
Perhaps only then did she realize how much time had passed. Baek Seol-ah blinked her round eyes and lifted her head.
Her eyes clearly checked the clock, but her indifferent expression remained unchanged.
Baek Seol-ah subtly raised one eyebrow, then struck my thigh with her heel—‘Thump!’—and spoke.
“……Well, I guess I should get going. When did it get this late?”
“Because you ate malatang and tteokbokki, then stole my ice cream on top of that.”
“Goodness, why are you making such a fuss over one tub of ice cream? How unmanly.”
Baek Seol-ah lifted the corners of her mouth with a sly eye-smile.
Then she rose with a rather adorable little grunt of effort.
“……What are you doing?”
“Wait a second.”
As I said earlier, her ankles were currently resting on my lap. I suppose I had been treated as a reverse lap pillow—or rather, simply as a footrest.
But while she was doing that, Baek Seol-ah immediately stood up using her excellent core strength. What do you think happened?
Baek Seol-ah suddenly narrowed the distance between us, giving off a subtle citrus scent, and wriggled her body once more.
Her body moved past my ankles, the hollows behind her knees, and the backs of her thighs, until her pelvis had finally advanced right in front of me.
What the hell did that mean?
“Take one picture with me. I have somewhere I can use it.”
“……What?”
In other words, while I sat there frozen in a daze because I couldn't understand what was happening, Baek Seol-ah sat on my lap like it was a chair and half-embraced me.
I flinched in surprise at Baek Seol-ah's sweet body scent as she came within virtually zero distance of me.
“Okay, cheese.”
Click!
By then, Baek Seol-ah had wrapped her left arm around my neck, pressed her cheek against mine, and taken the picture.
It was the moment when her cheek, adorably squashed from the close contact, was captured plainly in the lens.
While I sat frozen with a dumbfounded expression, unable to understand what kind of situation this was at all, Baek Seol-ah checked the smartphone screen, then quickly nodded with a faint smile.
“Yeah, it came out pretty well. This’ll do.”
She added, in a voice so quiet it was nearly inaudible without concentrating, that the subject had definitely turned out well, too……
Baek Seol-ah covered her lips with the smartphone, whose screen had gone dark, glanced at me, and spoke.
“Well then, Han Taeyang? I'm going to head back now. I came over first thing this morning and stayed quite a while.”
“……What? No, hey. What exactly was that just now?”
When she finally rose from my lap as though she intended to return to her own room, I asked in confusion. She looked back at me shyly and answered.
“Mmm. It's nothing, just.”
By then, the photo we had just taken had appeared on her smartphone, whose screen had lit up again.
……A picture of Baek Seol-ah and me pressed tightly together, looking as though we were lovers deeply in love with each other.
Baek Seol-ah's eyes, which she deliberately held up to show me the screen, shimmered with a strange light.
“A sort of proof photo to torment my hateful boyfriend a little cruelly……. You know?”
“……?”
Naturally, I had no idea what she meant.
Regardless.
“Anyway, I'm heading out now! You've been accommodating my unreasonable demands from the very beginning, but I'm always sincerely grateful for that, Han Taeyang.”
“……”
“Oh, and since we took it anyway. I'll send this to you later, too.”
Well.
If you like it, save it as a keepsake or something?
With that strangely sensual smile and coquettish afterthought, Baek Seol-ah gave me one last glance.
Soon, she shoved her feet into the slippers she had put on that morning and left my room.
Ding!
As promised, not long afterward, a picture arrived from Baek Seol-ah through the messenger app.
I checked the picture with a peculiar expression impossible to describe in just a few words.
And I briefly sucked in a breath.
‘Ah.’
……The scene of Baek Seol-ah's cheeks, which I had already thought would be soft, squashed against mine.
I frowned and thought to myself.
Seriously. Truly. Baek Seol-ah was a damn bitch.
That was what I thought.
‘Just a few weeks ago, you despised me, saying you felt disgusted whenever even our hands touched.’
And now, what was this? She was rubbing her cheek against mine like that, without anyone even telling her to.
If she knew what she was doing, she was vicious; even if she didn't, she was still one hell of a bitch.
Either way, she was still a damn bitch.
At the very least, she had an exceptional talent for making my heart soar and plummet. Whether she knew it herself or not was another matter.
I furrowed my brow for a moment, then quietly moved my thumb and tapped a spot on the screen.
[Photo saved.]
It was a two-person shot with a composition perfectly suited to becoming my wallpaper.
Well, actually doing so would make me feel like a seriously creepy bastard, so I didn't.