Chapter 31
‘……Ah, things have really gotten bad lately.’
With the mood having fizzled out after Jeong Jaeha’s sudden appearance and the news that class was about to begin,
Baek Seol-ah left the building containing the lecture hall and wandered across campus, awkwardly touching her lips.
A little while ago, what if Jeong Jaeha hadn’t suddenly opened the lecture hall door?
Or, rather, what if he had opened it but hadn’t made such a needless racket?
Even as Baek Seol-ah considered that possibility, she couldn’t bring herself to answer herself immediately.
Because she couldn’t be sure.
How far might she have gone if Jeong Jaeha hadn’t ruined the mood?
‘We probably would have kissed, I guess.’
That was the one thing she could say for certain. After all, their lips had nearly touched.
There had even been a moment when she stuck out her tongue first and lightly brushed it against Han Taeyang’s lips.
If Jeong Jaeha hadn’t been there, Baek Seol-ah surely would have shared a passionate kiss with Han Taeyang right then.
……Despite being the one who had imposed the restriction that kissing was off-limits on Han Taeyang in the first place.
“Haaah……”
It was definitely contradictory. Still, Baek Seol-ah did have some excuse of her own.
For one thing, the contradiction she had shown today was slightly different in nature from a double standard.
It wasn’t specifically a matter of Han Taeyang being forbidden from doing something while she herself was allowed to do it.
At least until now, Baek Seol-ah had wanted to keep kissing as an absolute taboo.
That applied not only to Han Taeyang, but to herself as well.
Like other lovers, Baek Seol-ah attached meaning to kissing and other forms of lip contact.
Even if she slept with Han Taeyang as part of their NTS play, occasionally gave him handjobs, and sometimes even gave him blowjobs……
She had decided that she would allow lip-to-lip contact only with her boyfriend.
She had sincerely made that vow, and until now, she had largely kept to that rule.
Whenever Han Taeyang approached her while aroused, she had always been the one to hold on to her senses and stop him.
‘……I had definitely managed to hold out until now.’
Why was that? Why, of all days, had Baek Seol-ah wanted to break the rule she had set for herself today?
Seo Ahyeon’s appearance? It had certainly been sudden. It was an entirely unexpected turn of events, too.
But even so, was she really such an easy woman that she would allow him to kiss her—or rather, even try to offer him her lips first—simply out of jealousy toward a ‘sex partner’?
“……”
Once her thoughts reached that point, Baek Seol-ah couldn’t help feeling somewhat depressed.
She had never particularly questioned her own single-minded devotion until now.
‘……Am I actually a huge pervert……?’
Tap, tap. As she crossed the campus with listless steps, Baek Seol-ah brooded gloomily.
Doubting herself, she timidly kept her lips pushed out in a pout.
It wasn’t as though she was unaware that resisting her sexual desire had gradually become more difficult lately.
Even so, she didn’t want to become a promiscuous woman.
Even if she cooperated with NTS play, she still needed to know how to put on the brakes when necessary.
‘Why do I always lose my composure whenever I’m dealing with Han Taeyang……? I keep trying to cross the line, too.’
Just as Baek Seol-ah’s inner turmoil was gradually growing alongside her faint shame and skepticism,
Thud!
“Ngh.”
“……Baek Seol-ah?”
Was it because she had been walking while lost in thought?
Baek Seol-ah suddenly felt a pain in her forehead.
She had been ambling along without watching where she was going and had bumped into the back of the companion who had stopped in front of her.
The impact from that absurdly solid back, like running into a wall, made Baek Seol-ah groan as she clutched her forehead.
“Ugh……. What? Why’d you stop all of a sudden?”
“No, well. Why ask why I stopped?”
When Baek Seol-ah raised her head, blinking back a few tears, Han Taeyang, who had been walking ahead, replied sheepishly.
He pointed toward the building to the side with his eyes.
“I have to go to my next class now, and Jaeha has more than four hours free, so he’s going to see his girlfriend. We should each get going.”
“……Ah.”
Only then did Baek Seol-ah realize that they had already come quite a long way.
From the Magic Hall where their liberal arts class had been held to the Combat Hall for students in the physical disciplines.
Baek Seol-ah let her gaze wander with an awkward expression, and happened to spot the other companion.
In other words, Jeong Jaeha, who had rudely(?) witnessed the intimate scene between her and Han Taeyang in the lecture hall earlier.
“……Why are you looking at me like that?”
“……”
Baek Seol-ah frowned without realizing it.
He was an acquaintance she had found increasingly irritating lately.
She could let it slide when he had grabbed and stroked Han Taeyang’s cock before, since that had been the result of their own carelessness.
But today, hadn’t his interruption come at an excessively bad time?
‘I couldn’t even finish because of him.’
That was why Baek Seol-ah was glaring at Jeong Jaeha with such intense displeasure.
She was already troubled because she had nearly kissed Han Taeyang, and she hadn’t even been able to go all the way?
It was her own miraculous arithmetic, but in any case, it meant that her inner turmoil had doubled.
Thinking that the idea was terribly unfair from Jeong Jaeha’s perspective, Baek Seol-ah began to speak.
“……Jeong Jaeha, why did you come into that lecture hall earlier? You said you had a free period from now on.”
“What?”
Her question was based on a suspicion that was reasonable if one looked at it rationally, but also heavily colored by her personal feelings.
Wasn’t that right? According to Han Taeyang, Jeong Jaeha had more than four hours of free time ahead of him.
And yet he had deliberately tried to open the door of an empty lecture hall where the next class was about to take place?
That was extremely suspicious.
Baek Seol-ah scrutinized Jeong Jaeha with the sharp expression and gaze of a detective.
“Don’t tell me……. Was class just an excuse, and did you see the two of us while passing by, then do that on purpose? Thinking I might let you join us if you barged in?”
“……W-what? No, what kind of crazy—”
Of course, having received such an unjust suspicion, Jeong Jaeha’s already aggrieved feelings only grew worse.
He hurriedly pulled out his smartphone and showed Baek Seol-ah his lock screen.
“Hey, damn it. Look at this before you talk. I really did have my next class in that lecture hall, okay? I just went in early and happened to run into you two.”
“……?”
Jeong Jaeha had never been more relieved that he had set his lock screen to his first-semester timetable.
Thanks to that, he was able to quickly shake off Baek Seol-ah’s dangerous suspicions and interrogation.
Baek Seol-ah narrowed her eyes and checked the timetable he showed her, and sure enough, the class Jeong Jaeha had mentioned was listed there.
This time, Baek Seol-ah turned toward Han Taeyang with a strange expression.
“You said he had a free period?”
Her look accused him: You told me earlier that Jeong Jaeha had four hours free, didn’t you?
However, it was Jeong Jaeha, who had put his smartphone away, who answered her question instead of Han Taeyang.
“It is a free period, too. More precisely, I skipped the class I should have been attending.”
“Huh……?”
“How was I supposed to focus on class after seeing that? I’m too shaken up, so I’m just going to skip it.”
As he said, Jeong Jaeha ruffled his hair with a deeply troubled expression.
Baek Seol-ah looked puzzled for a moment, apparently unable to understand what he meant.
“Aha.”
Then she casually scanned Jeong Jaeha from head to toe and muttered as though she understood.
“No wonder. Your pants have been awkwardly bulging since earlier, Jeong Jaeha, you……”
“……”
“Seriously, are you going to keep lusting after me? I’ll tell Chae-eun everything!”
Though it was only a few short sentences, it was such a dizzying exchange that it could make anyone’s mind fly out of their head.
Han Taeyang, who had been standing awkwardly beside them, immediately looked off toward a distant mountain and pretended he hadn’t heard anything.
And Jeong Jaeha seemed to take a tremendous psychological blow from Baek Seol-ah’s prim, sulky gaze, shrinking into himself.
He probably also intended to hide his visibly abnormal lower-body reaction as much as possible.
In any case, Jeong Jaeha finally lost his temper at Baek Seol-ah’s offhand remark, as though she found him pathetic─
“……It’s your fault for fooling around in the lecture hall in the first place! Why am I, an innocent witness, being treated like some horny animal?!”
He shouted that they could all get lost and that he was going to see Chae-eun, then hurriedly ran off.
At the very last moment, Han Taeyang clearly saw moisture gathering at the corners of his eyes.
Thus, after watching Jeong Jaeha’s retreating back with a rather sympathetic expression,
“……Well, I have my next class, so I’ll be going.”
Han Taeyang quickly turned around, lest Baek Seol-ah stop him as she awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck.
He had a perfectly valid excuse. Second period was right around the corner.
But.
Grab!
“Where are you going?”
“……”
Han Taeyang’s vision went dark when Baek Seol-ah reached out and grabbed his wrist as though it were only natural.
He had been afraid that the hysterics she had just directed at Jeong Jaeha would now be directed at him, and the thought left him short of breath.
“……Han Taeyang, what are you doing this weekend?”
“?”
Unexpectedly, Baek Seol-ah’s words contained something quite different from what Han Taeyang had expected.
Han Taeyang blinked and turned around.
“No, well. Nothing special, really.”
Baek Seol-ah returned to the subject she had been thinking about before she stopped after bumping into Han Taeyang’s back.
Jeong Jaeha, who harbored lewd thoughts about her, evoked no feelings in her at all—she merely felt sorry for him. Why, then, was it different when Han Taeyang was the one having those thoughts? She had begun to entertain that entirely reasonable question.
That was why she stole a glance at Han Taeyang with an unusually demure expression and gaze.
She gently brushed her snow-white hair behind her ear and asked in a suggestive tone.
“If you don’t have any plans or a schedule…… If you don’t have anything to do, I was wondering if you’d like to go downtown and hang out with me.”
“……Y-yes, ma’am?”
In other words, even ‘that’ Han Taeyang was so flustered that deferential speech slipped out.
It was the sort of remark that would have made everyone listening widen their eyes in astonishment.
……She had brought it up with the single-minded determination to figure out exactly what these vacillating feelings she had for Han Taeyang really were.
“I-I’m not asking you on a date, okay? We’re not exactly, you know, that kind of relationship.”
“……”
“……Though we would be hanging out alone.”
As though telling him not to misunderstand, Baek Seol-ah awkwardly added even more statements that no listener could reasonably accept.
Without realizing that her face had turned faintly red, Baek Seol-ah smiled awkwardly.