Chapter 30
“Do you perhaps like me?”
“…….”
The response to my listless question was remarkably varied on Baek Seol-ah’s part.
At first, her face flushed bright red, and she even let out a flustered ‘Hwet.’
Before long, perhaps having recovered from the shock, she opened and closed her lips a few times, trembled around the eyes for a moment, and somehow regained her usual appearance.
In other words.
“……Just say it, Han Taeyang.”
Grab—
Though she had somehow managed not to lose her reason, Baek Seol-ah, a faint blush still lingering on her cheeks, grabbed me by the collar with a forced smile.
I realized that a deep blue-white mana had already gathered around the fist of her other hand.
The force behind it was so fierce that even I would have ended up in the hospital if I took a hit without bracing myself.
Baek Seol-ah’s smiling lips twitched faintly as she issued a vicious threat.
“Do you want me to hit you once, or do you want to take that back? Hm? I’ll be generous and give you a chance to withdraw it.”
“Hmm……”
Rather than choose one of the two options she had presented, I swallowed a low hum for a moment.
Then I thought to myself.
‘So I was wrong after all?’
It had been strangely suspicious, and it wasn’t as though I lacked some fairly reasonable grounds for thinking so.
Even so, the possibility that Baek Seol-ah had come to like me as a man……
Apparently, that had been taking things a little too far.
I looked down at Baek Seol-ah and casually said:
“Then I’ll take it back.”
“……!”
In any case, if I didn’t answer immediately, Baek Seol-ah’s fist might really end up buried in my solar plexus, so I chose the option she had offered.
Besides, I wasn’t masochistic enough to want to get hit for no reason.
Naturally, my choice was to roughly take back the words I had just uttered.
It wasn’t difficult.
When I shrugged with the same leisurely attitude as always, Baek Seol-ah instead froze solid.
‘What?’
She wore an expression as though she couldn’t believe I could answer so calmly after she had come on that strongly.
But wasn’t she the one who had given me the choices? It was difficult for her to look at me as though I were the most obnoxious bastard in the world.
Sure enough, after I cleanly withdrew my words, Baek Seol-ah apparently couldn’t find any justification to press me further and released my collar with a peculiar expression.
I briefly glanced at Baek Seol-ah, who had been outsmarted by her own scheme and was tilting her head as if to say, ‘This isn’t right,’ then said:
“So? If you didn’t suddenly start liking me because you ate something bad, then what is it?”
“……Huh?”
Even though the first possibility I had considered had been denied, I asked again because my confusion remained.
From my perspective, it was a perfectly reasonable question.
Those uncharacteristic things Baek Seol-ah had shown today in front of Seo Ahyeon and me.
Even I, who had felt as though I were sitting on pins and needles after being needlessly caught between them, couldn’t help finding that behavior novel.
It was a little delicate to say, but honestly, however I looked at it, hadn’t she been acting as though she were keeping Seo Ahyeon in check?
‘She seemed jealous, too.’
From the argument that had begun when she suddenly approached Seo Ahyeon with an unusually vicious attitude and pressured her.
To the way she had conspicuously strutted around and needled Seo Ahyeon after I had backed up what she said.
What exactly had made Baek Seol-ah so excited at that moment?
I still had no way of knowing.
Furthermore, her talk of a bond had been so shocking that it had created a considerable crack in my confidence that I knew Baek Seol-ah fairly well.
It wasn’t as though I had asked whether she liked me just to tease her, even knowing I probably wouldn’t hear anything pleasant.
“Just tell me freely. I won’t think it’s weird.”
“……”
Since I had already sent Seo Ahyeon away, I wanted to resolve this curiosity and wrap things up while I was at it.
I leaned back comfortably in a lecture hall chair, folded my arms, and looked up at Baek Seol-ah.
“It’s not like you suddenly started seeing me as a romantic prospect, and you still like Lee Hyeonseong, don’t you? So why exactly did you argue with Seo Ahyeon?”
“……Hmm, well. I mean.”
Baek Seol-ah avoided my eyes, her face taking on even deeper shadows. I had no intention of pressuring her, and I was actually speaking rather calmly.
She fidgeted intensely, as though she couldn’t bring herself to look me straight in the eye, and moved her lips uncertainly.
If I waited like that, it seemed I wouldn’t hear an answer until sunset.
I clicked my tongue and tapped my knee with the back of my hand.
“Hey, Baek Seol-ah.”
“Y-yes?”
“Come here.”
Then I crooked my fingertips at Baek Seol-ah.
I beckoned lightly, as though calling a puppy.
Baek Seol-ah’s expression stiffened in a different sense from before, but I paid it no mind.
I simply looked at her with calm eyes, without the slightest agitation, and continued tapping my knee.
Baek Seol-ah surely wasn’t unaware of what that gesture meant.
She must have seen it just before the previous class began.
Sure enough, after hesitating for a moment, Baek Seol-ah soon walked toward me in small, furtive steps and came right in front of me……
Then, after squeezing her eyes shut tightly once,
“……Ugh.”
She swallowed the conflict that had briefly risen to her face and plopped herself down on my lap.
Just as Seo Ahyeon had used my lap as a chair with remarkable naturalness right before first period.
But with a clear difference in posture and positioning this time─
Baek Seol-ah braced both hands against my shoulders and chest and adjusted herself so that she could face me.
In terms of position, it was probably a face-to-face seated position.
Well, both of us were still decently clothed.
Anyway, Baek Seol-ah sat facing me, clamped my legs between her thighs, and grumbled:
“Do I look like some obedient puppy……. Hey, just because you called, do I really have to come like this?”
“You came obediently enough. What’s with you now?”
Naturally, her complaining wasn’t enough to make me give in. It was cute, though.
Finding her complaints adorable and indulging them were two separate matters.
I merely reached out and lightly brushed the corner of Baek Seol-ah’s eye before asking in a leisurely tone:
“Were you jealous? Because I was close to Seo Ahyeon.”
“……”
Baek Seol-ah stuck out her lips and fell silent, but this time, her silence didn’t last forever.
Before long, she irritably turned her head and slapped my cheek with her flying hair before answering:
“Yeah, I was a little jealous. So what? Is that a problem?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Bullshit. You made me feel so embarrassed.”
Baek Seol-ah soon pinched both my cheeks and even pulled them out at length.
I let out a small laugh at the absurdly timid way she expressed her anger.
Then Baek Seol-ah narrowed her eyes as though my smile were truly displeasing and added:
“Don’t get any funny ideas. This jealousy I’m talking about now isn’t some soft jealousy because I see you as a romantic interest.”
“Of course not.”
I deepened my smile and nodded breezily, and Baek Seol-ah continued speaking while putting even more force into the hands pulling my cheeks.
“You’re……. You’re my fuck buddy. It’s not weird to be a tiny, very tiny bit jealous when my partner fools around with another woman.”
“Mmph, th-that’s……”
“Are you going to keep making that obnoxious face?”
Stretch—
Punishment came immediately when I gave her the same answer again with a snort.
I had a feeling that if I went back to the dorm and looked in the mirror, my cheeks would be swollen beyond recognition.
But I had teased Baek Seol-ah enough by sacrificing my perfectly good cheek fat, so I was satisfied. Baek Seol-ah, on the other hand, was thoroughly displeased.
She soon released my cheek with a snap like a rubber band and subtly changed the subject.
“……How far did you go with Ahyeon?”
“How far?”
“I mean how far you got. Don’t dodge the question.”
Apparently, she was curious about those specific details too.
I let out a small hollow laugh.
‘How far.’
Generally, even in the most open relationship, there were secrets one ought to keep.
But considering how Seo Ahyeon had gone after Baek Seol-ah today, it didn’t seem as though Seo Ahyeon herself intended to hide much.
So, after a brief moment of thought, I simply answered honestly.
“We went all the way. It just sort of happened.”
“……”
In truth, Baek Seol-ah probably hadn’t expected any other answer. Especially considering the moments Seo Ahyeon had spent stuck to me today.
That was why, even after hearing that we had gone all the way, Baek Seol-ah showed no particular change in expression.
She merely narrowed her eyes so faintly that I wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t been paying close attention, then added one more thing.
“I saw earlier—you two were kissing pretty naturally, too.”
“Hmm.”
“Did you kiss?”
I didn’t answer this time, but to Baek Seol-ah, my silence must have been an answer in itself.
Soon, showing a more distinct change in expression than before, she silently grabbed my shirt.
“……Hee.”
Apparently, the traces from the night before last had happened to fall within her field of vision.
Baek Seol-ah stared coldly at the red mark on my shoulder beneath the shirt she had pulled aside.
“……Baek Seolgi—no, um. Seol-ah?”
“Shut up. Stay still……”
Then, with a meaningful glint in her eyes that left me flustered, she slowly lowered her head.
She pressed down on my opposite shoulder with one hand and brought her lips to the hickey.
Then.
“……Nng.”
“……!”
Chomp!
Immediately, as though there were no room for reconsideration, she forced her saliva over the mark Seo Ahyeon had left.
She opened her mouth and bit a wide area of my shoulder, including the hickey, coating it thoroughly with her saliva.
Baek Seol-ah’s canine sank deep into my shoulder.
“Kkh.”
I widened my eyes and straightened my body at the sharp pain that suddenly bored into my shoulder.
Though it wasn’t intentional, I naturally ended up gripping Baek Seol-ah’s buttocks with considerable force as well.
“……Slurp……”
Regardless, Baek Seol-ah neatly finished what she had come to do, what she had wanted to do.
Only after leaving a mark on my shoulder even darker than Seo Ahyeon’s hickey did she lift her head.
Baek Seol-ah licked the corners of her mouth with her pale-red tongue, then muttered with an obsessive look in her eyes:
“Don’t forget, Han Taeyang. You’re mine. You’re mine……. And in return, my body is yours. That’s the rule, isn’t it?”
“……No, what are you talking about?”
I didn’t even have time to say, What the hell are you talking about, you completely insane bitch─.
Baek Seol-ah suddenly thrust her face close and cut off my words.
Before long, in a distance close enough for our considerably heated breaths to mingle directly,
“I can probably guess the answer without hearing it. But I’ll ask again for form’s sake.”
“……”
“Did you kiss that Seo Ahyeon bitch, Taeyang?”
Baek Seol-ah asked me that additional question, then nodded as though she had reached her own conclusion.
“Open your mouth and stick out your tongue.”
“──.”
“……You fucking manwhore.”
With a strangely decadent yet alluring smile, she shoved an icy whisper into my ear.
She roughly seized my jaw with both hands. Then she opened her mouth first.
The moment Baek Seol-ah’s tongue, gleaming with an eerily sensual silver sheen, approached my lips.
Crash!
“……Aw, shit! W-what the hell!”
“……”
“……”
A voice suddenly rang out, completely shattering the sensual atmosphere between us.
Baek Seol-ah froze just as she was about to pry open my lips with her tongue and turned her gaze aside.
“……Ha.”
Then she muttered toward the male student who had entered through the door of the lecture hall, which had been quiet until then.
“You again, Jeong Jaeha?”
“……W-what?”
My monumental first kiss with Baek Seol-ah had nearly happened, but in the end, that moment had been ruined.
I too awkwardly turned my head and glanced at the guy sprawled in front of the back door of the lecture hall.
He had also been a witness back when Baek Seol-ah had jerked me off in another lecture hall.
He looked up at Baek Seol-ah and me in disbelief, his distinctive green hair all mussed up.
“You two—what the hell are you doing again……? You know there’s another class here soon, right?”
The third male protagonist of the original story, following Lee Hyeonseong and Kim Minjun.
Jeong Jaeha.
“Tch.”
At his reminder that another class was scheduled soon, I gently pushed Baek Seol-ah off my lap, and she clicked her tongue as well.
At the same time, she muttered quietly to herself:
“……It was just getting good. What a pain.”
“……”
I looked at her with an expression too complicated to put into words and thought:
‘Seol-ah, Seol-ah…….’
Before I started discussing the other guys’ perversion, this main heroine had already fallen quite deeply.
Not that I disliked it.
‘What is this world setting? Is everyone here missing at least one screw?’
It was a somewhat complicated feeling, if I had to put it one way. In the original story, Baek Seol-ah was the one who had resisted the original Han Taeyang for the longest, at least.
How had this girl ended up coming this far?
Today too, I had no choice but to repeat the same curse at the same target.
Anyway.
‘That fucking idiot Lee Hyeonseong, seriously.’
Thanks, you once-in-a-century moron.
Your girlfriend was fucking amazing…….