Debt (3)

A small café located on the grounds of Cheongwoon Academy.

With so few customers, it was suitable for discussing private matters.

“Here, drink this and calm down. It’s not like I did anything that bad, is it?”

“……Baek Seolgi, is that really what you’re saying right now?”

Baek Seol-ah returned to our table carrying the three coffees she had paid for and held one out to me.

According to her, it was an apology for the handjob that had taken place today without the other party’s consent.

‘I absolutely can’t forgive her.’

I had no intention of letting her off cheaply with a mere cup of coffee. How worried had I been in that classroom an hour ago?

Naturally, revenge was unavoidable, and I had no intention of putting it off.

For now, I was merely showing her the tiniest bit of mercy because a more urgent matter had to be handled first.

I clicked my tongue, brought the straw to my lips, and Baek Seol-ah naturally sat down beside me.

Then I turned to the male student sitting across from us, looking as though he had been deeply shocked while listening to Baek Seol-ah and me converse comfortably.

“Anyway……. Jeong Jaeha? To continue where we left off, what you saw was something the people involved had already agreed to. Hard to believe, I know.”

The conversation had been briefly interrupted because she had gone to get the coffee tray.

But there was nothing more to say.

Although we had been caught doing something rather lewd in the classroom, it wasn’t really a particularly complicated issue when I thought about it.

There had only been one witness, after all. So if we could just keep that one person’s mouth shut, wouldn’t everything be fine?

Baek Seol-ah and I had reached the same conclusion without even discussing it, so we had brought Jeong Jaeha to the café as soon as class ended.

Namely, to make Jeong Jaeha—who was also personally acquainted with Lee Hyunseong—understand the special circumstances of the situation.

In other words, it was our explanation for the NTS play.

Jeong Jaeha haltingly opened his mouth.

“……So you’re saying that what you did in the classroom all happened with Hyunseong’s tacit approval? No, that Hyunseong actually asked you to do it first?”

“Well……. Yeah.”

Baek Seol-ah was the one who mainly carried on the conversation with Jeong Jaeha. As with Lee Hyunseong, it would obviously be more effective for her to explain things herself than for me, who wasn’t particularly close to Jeong Jaeha.

In fact, it was a reasonable choice. At first, Jeong Jaeha had declared, even amid his confusion, that he was going to tell Lee Hyunseong about this immediately.

But after Baek Seol-ah explained the sensitive circumstances and even showed him the messages she had exchanged with Lee Hyunseong, he gradually seemed to regain his composure.

Before long, Jeong Jaeha hesitated as if thinking deeply about something, then glanced at me and muttered.

“……That bastard Lee Hyunseong. If he was into that sort of thing, he should’ve asked me instead. Why did he have to pick a bastard like this…….”

“……Huh?”

Jeong Jaeha had suddenly made me his target and launched an attack.

I was briefly dumbfounded, then let out an incredulous laugh.

Leaving aside the fact that he was treating me, who had openly lived as a delinquent, as ‘a bastard like this,’……

“Hey, ‘he should’ve asked me instead’? You sound like you just let some secret thoughts slip out.”

“……Ah.”

The words that came before that were even more outrageous. Who would have thought he’d suddenly insert himself into the NTR arrangement?

At my snickering observation, Jeong Jaeha flinched, as though realizing he had just put his foot in his mouth.

Then he cautiously gauged Baek Seol-ah’s reaction, an embarrassed, cornered look on his face.

“……Jeong Jaeha, you…….”

“Ah, no. That’s, I mean—”

As expected, Baek Seol-ah had also picked up on the strange nuance in Jeong Jaeha’s words and showed a slightly uncomfortable expression.

She wrapped both hands around her coffee cup and leaned her upper body back, and I decided it was the perfect time to intervene, so I grabbed her shoulder and pulled her toward me.

“……Ah?”

Since she was sitting right beside me, I simply extended my arm and lightly encircled her neck.

Baek Seol-ah, who had been pulling away, lost her balance and naturally ended up in my arms.

“H-Han Taeyang……?”

She cast me a sidelong glance with a distinctly reddened face, and I openly sneered at Jeong Jaeha, who had stiffened another degree with a ‘crack.’

“Jeong Jaeha, sorry about that? I’ve been this woman’s affair partner until now, and I’ll be the only one going forward, too. Obviously.”

“……Y-you, what are you suddenly talking about?”

Baek Seol-ah, who had slipped into my arms before she knew it, leaned against my chest and protested, but, well.

Since there wasn’t a trace of venom in her tone, it didn’t exactly sound sincere.

Normally, she was the sort of woman who would have immediately shoved me away just to preserve her dignity.

But today, she had crossed the line first as well……. So she was just letting herself be held like any ordinary girl.

What a good girl.

“B-Baek Seol-ah…….”

In any case, Jeong Jaeha seemed even more shocked by this uncharacteristically docile attitude from Baek Seol-ah.

Through the emotions visible in his eyes, I soon realized one thing.

‘So he isn’t a case like Kim Minjun, at least.’

I wasn’t certain, of course. The emotion conveyed by Jeong Jaeha’s pale green eyes was not sexual attraction toward Baek Seol-ah, nor jealousy, nor anything like that.

Rather, it felt as though he was simply flustered by Baek Seol-ah’s attitude.

My vague guess was that he did see Baek Seol-ah as an attractive woman, but his feelings were in an ambiguous middle ground that hadn’t reached the level of romantic feelings.

In other words, that was probably why ‘he should’ve asked me instead’ had slipped out unconsciously.

He might have wanted to cooperate with the NTS play and hold Baek Seol-ah, but it didn’t seem to be based on the sordid romantic feelings that bastard Kim Minjun had.

That made him a decent enough guy, didn’t it?

Of course, from Jeong Jaeha’s perspective, if Ryu Chae-eun found out about this, she would nag him half to death.

But that was none of my business.

“Uh, anyway, Jeong Jaeha. I’d appreciate it if you could keep what happened today a secret. Is that okay?”

When I sat there without saying anything after inflicting a suitable amount of mental damage on Jeong Jaeha, Baek Seol-ah turned to him again and brought up a new subject.

Even so, her refusal to make any effort to leave my arms was commendable. I suppose I could forgive her a little for that.

“……Ah, I. Um.”

At Baek Seol-ah’s request—which was only natural, if you thought about it—Jeong Jaeha trailed off, his face darkening for a moment.

The situation itself was so shocking that he seemed unable to respond quickly.

Well, anyone would have reacted that way. Even witnessing an ordinary couple engage in lewd behavior in a classroom would be startling enough.

And to top it off, the pair was me and Baek Seol-ah? How could he accept that right away?

Especially someone like Jeong Jaeha, whose envy toward me seemed to show itself whether he realized it or not.

I let out a snort at that blatant yet forgivable gaze. Its honesty made it tolerable.

Well, regardless of whether he had a girlfriend, Baek Seol-ah was a woman overflowing with physical appeal.

He was in the prime of his youth, so surely he could at least think about it. Just think about it.

I didn’t know whether Baek Seol-ah saw it that way, but in any case, she continued trying to persuade him.

“I even bought you a cup of coffee, okay? Please. Just let this be something only you know about.”

“……Hmmmm.”

Fortunately, the persuasion didn’t take long. Jeong Jaeha seemed to wrestle with it for a moment, then nodded with a sigh and answered.

“All right, fine. Since Hyunseong agreed to it, I don’t think it’s my place to interfere……. And it’s not exactly something worth going around telling people about.”

“……! Thank you, Jeong Jaeha.”

Baek Seol-ah’s face immediately lit up as she thanked Jeong Jaeha.

Her smile was so radiant and lovely that both Jeong Jaeha and I flinched at the same time.

“Ahem…….”

Of course, that lasted only a moment. To erase his embarrassment, Jeong Jaeha turned away while taking a long sip of the coffee Baek Seol-ah had treated him to as a bribe(?).

And so, the purpose of this meeting, for which we had gone all the way to a small café on the outskirts of campus, was fulfilled.

By the time the three of us had finished our coffee in a quiet, though not terribly awkward, atmosphere.

“……But, just in case, I wanted to ask.”

“Hmm?”

As Baek Seol-ah gathered all the empty cups and placed them back on the tray, Jeong Jaeha asked a question with subtle anticipation in his voice.

“As repayment for keeping this matter secret, would you possibly be willing to give me a handjob too, just once…….”

“…….”

“……Sorry. You can pretend you didn’t hear that, so just don’t look at me with eyes that scary.”

In the end, he got nothing and only received Baek Seol-ah’s contemptuous stare.

I also let out a hollow laugh beside her and glanced at Jeong Jaeha as though he were some fascinating oddball.

‘……Well now.’

There was no denying that he was honest about his desires.

Still, well.

He wasn’t all that detestable.

*****

“……Ah, Han Taeyang, wait a moment.”

“……?”

As we were leaving the café and about to go our separate ways, Jeong Jaeha cautiously stopped me in a voice quiet enough that Baek Seol-ah wouldn’t hear.

“You know. If it’s okay, could I get your phone number?”

“What?”

He approached and subtly held out his smartphone; apparently, the number pad was open.

I gave him a peculiar look, and he looked back at me with the same expression.

“Don’t tell me that because you couldn’t get what you wanted from Baek Seol-ah, you’re asking me instead…….”

“……No, what the hell are you talking about?!”

I asked, based on the reasonable suspicion that surely couldn’t be true, but Jeong Jaeha immediately shouted his denial as though having a fit.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem like he was trying to get the reward he hadn’t received from Baek Seol-ah from me instead.

‘Whew, I almost beat him to death.’

I was relieved that at least one of the original novel’s protagonists wasn’t a gay bastard.

I asked again, feeling much more at ease.

“Then what is it? What are you planning to use my number for?”

“Ah, well…….”

Jeong Jaeha moved his lips, his eyes uncertain, as though hesitating for a moment.

Someone who had treated me like just another delinquent and given me the cold shoulder until now was suddenly asking for my phone number.

Naturally, wouldn’t I be curious about why?

I took Jeong Jaeha’s smartphone for the moment and entered my number, giving him a sidelong look; by then, he had begun to murmur quietly.

“……I don’t know myself yet, but I thought I might need to ask you for a favor someday.”

“?”

“Like Hyunseong did.”

I had gotten an answer, but its contents were so unexpected that it was difficult to understand immediately.

I blinked with a blank expression, and Jeong Jaeha quickly snatched his phone back.

Then, perhaps embarrassed himself, he turned away in a hurry, his face slightly red.

“Ah, it might not happen, so don’t wait around for a call or anything. Anyway, I’m leaving!”

“Hey, wait.”

I didn’t even have time to stop him. For someone from the magic faction, why was he so fast on his feet? By the time I reached out, Jeong Jaeha was already far away.

All that remained where my outstretched hand had reached was the faint grassy scent befitting a plant-magic user.

I wore a hollow expression, pointlessly clenching the empty air, then lightly rubbed the back of my neck.

It was a possibility I had once considered on my own.

Namely, the possibility that there were two top-tier perverts like Lee Hyunseong at Cheongwoon Academy……

‘……No way, right?’

Just as I had then, this time too I dismissed my unnecessary speculation with a surely-that-can’t-be-right attitude.

This time, however, it was a little vague. I smacked my lips and turned around.

And then.

“Where do you think you’re sneaking off to?”

“……Eek.”

While I was exchanging words with Jeong Jaeha separately, I captured a certain black cat that had been subtly moving away, trying to put distance between us.

First, I stopped her with a casually uttered remark, then slowly approached and grabbed her by the scruff.

Baek Seol-ah, sweating profusely, avoided my pitying gaze.

I narrowed my eyes.

“I think we still have some settling up to do between us.”

“I-I don’t know what you mean…….”

“You really don’t?”

“No, hya……?!”

With a tight squeeze, I slipped my other hand under Baek Seol-ah’s skirt and grabbed her butt.

It was just as pleasant to touch as her belly fat, and the adorably plump flesh fit snugly into my hand.

Baek Seol-ah reflexively let out a moan, then hurriedly covered her mouth.

Her face gradually flushed. Her trembling eyes turned toward me, and I muttered with a chilly smile.

“You have to pay the price for acting as selfishly as you pleased, don’t you? That’s the way of the world.”

“……Ah, ah, ngh.”

“I trust you’re prepared. At least for having played with your hands so brazenly.”

With the unexpected variable Jeong Jaeha and the problem related to him neatly dealt with,

it was about time you started chanting that you were dead, Baek Seol-ah.