Chapter 44
Anyway, just because someone chugged 40-percent vodka straight doesn't mean they immediately get wasted.
Sure, their head may throb terribly, their insides may burn, and everything before their eyes may spin.
In any case, unlike in comics, drinking a little of it doesn't turn you into a drunkard in a short time.
Baek Seol-ah was no different.
Though she had suddenly drunk Absolut vodka neat, that alone hadn't made her so drunk that she was staggering around in a stupor.
So…… to put it another way.
The problem lay somewhere else.
“……Baek Seol-ah, shouldn't you stop drinking soon?”
“Mmm?”
I said worriedly as I looked at Baek Seol-ah sitting cross-legged on the single-seat sofa in the room.
More specifically, I watched Baek Seol-ah sitting there and drinking cocktail after cocktail that she'd mixed herself.
It was far better than downing vodka straight like before, but alcohol was alcohol.
What good did mixing it with another drink do, whether she made a screwdriver or a vodka tonic?
‘Was buying alcohol a mistake?’
I clicked my tongue and carefully examined Baek Seol-ah's flushed complexion.
She had said it tasted fine as soon as she took her first sip and tried to drink more, so making her some quick self-mixed cocktails had seemed fine, but……
Either way, if she drank beyond her tolerance, more than her body could handle, she'd eventually get plastered.
Even if the ratios had been diluted, that was still true.
From what I could tell, Baek Seol-ah seemed to have a fairly impressive tolerance for a girl, but that was only impressive by ordinary women's standards……
She certainly wasn't capable of drinking endlessly at the same pace, no matter how much I poured for her.
“Give me the glass. Drink some juice now.”
“Aaah……!”
While she giggled and spun the glass─. No, the paper cup filled with alcohol, I nimbly snatched it away.
Baek Seol-ah waved a hand through the air half a beat later, then glared at me with a sulky expression.
“Give it back! I haven't had enough yet. Why are you taking it awaaay?”
“……After seeing the state you're in, how can you still ask why I'm taking it away?”
“What's wrong with my condition, hiccup.”
Her speech had warped into something closer to true baby talk than deliberate aegyo.
But Baek Seol-ah apparently wasn't even aware that she was doing it and kept grumbling.
“Heyyy. You think I'm drunk right now, don't you? No, that's not it. I'm completely fine right now.”
“You're talking nonsense. Here, drink this.”
Of course, as everyone knows, nine out of ten people who say “I'm not drunk” are usually drunk enough to be nearly insensible.
Baek Seol-ah was in exactly that state right now. I sighed and held out orange juice in a fresh paper cup.
Then I simply downed the cocktail Baek Seol-ah had left unfinished.
Even setting aside the difference in tolerance, it would be a hundred times better for me to drink it than for Baek Seol-ah in her current state.
Despite drinking alongside me, she had maintained a much faster pace than I had, and whenever I tried to slow her down, she threw a childish tantrum.
In truth, I also bore no small share of the blame for giving her alcohol whenever she demanded it, unable to withstand her pestering.
“Give it here. I haven't had enough yet.”
So I had to do something about it. I had already risen from the sofa, and I restricted Baek Seol-ah's approach by pressing a finger firmly against her brow as she tried to take the bottle I was guarding.
She had gotten stronger from being drunk, but ultimately she was still a magic-type.
“Ugh, noo……! Seriously, why are you being mean? I said I'm fine! I can drink more, okay?”
“Yeah, no.”
“……Eek, I hate you! I hate youuu, Han Taeyang.”
In the end, Baek Seol-ah failed to break through my ironclad defense and flopped onto the bed with a “Waaah.”
And, as I keep saying, she stretched out both arms and legs and flailed around like a child, but……
Sip─
I calmly sat down with one arm draped over the chair and tilted the paper cup to finish the remaining alcohol.
I didn't care in the slightest whether Baek Seol-ah threw a tantrum beside me. I didn't even spare her a glance.
Eventually, realizing that her pouting wasn't working, Baek Seol-ah sat up with a disgruntled look and glared viciously at me through her bleary, narrowed eyes.
“You evil, shameless bastard…… You're just like a blond tanned bastard, without a shred of human feeling. Hic.”
“I'm Han Taeyang, you bitch.”
You bark all you want. I'll do what I have to. With exactly that mindset, I answered her words with nothing more than a hollow chuckle.
I hadn't known she even knew the term “blond tanned bastard”……
It was a fresh feeling in its own way. It also made me realize that, somehow, she'd only ever called me by my name until now.
Anyway.
‘……It definitely is a strange feeling.’
Around then, I too glanced at Baek Seol-ah sprawled face-down on the bed, my eyes lightly clouded by alcohol.
Perhaps realizing that I wouldn't indulge any more of her demands, she had given up on getting additional alcohol and curled her body into a ball.
From that position, she intermittently stole glances in my direction and shot me resentful looks.
I let out a quiet chuckle, but inwardly sank into a thought that was slowly rising to the surface.
Was it because I was drinking her share for her, or because I too was secretly enjoying drinking with Baek Seol-ah and had gone beyond my tolerance without realizing it?
Strangely, I felt the alcohol coming on earlier than usual, and with considerably more force.
In that state, I found myself thinking.
Really.
‘How did I end up coming this far with this girl?’
The heroine from the original work whom I'd seen in a past life, and the girl with whom I'd intentionally formed a bad relationship in this life.
It's a cliché, but how had I really ended up coming this far with Baek Seol-ah?
I wasn't talking about the location. It wasn't as though I'd be shaken merely because I'd come to a motel with Baek Seol-ah at this point.
More than that, it was probably closer to a recollection and retrospective look at this newly deepened, strange connection that I could never have expected even at the beginning of this year.
‘I definitely hadn't meant for this to happen……’
It had been a year since I fell into this world without knowing why—no, by now, had it been about a year and three months?
In any case, it was the early days after my possession, when I still didn't know that this was the world of a novel I had known.
After awakening in Han Taeyang's body on the day of the entrance ceremony and becoming mistakenly entangled with “her” while knowing absolutely nothing, I had made one resolve.
I would avoid staying close to the original's heroines whenever possible, and, above all, avoid repeating the things the original Han Taeyang had done.
I trained both mind and body for that purpose, and even trained my awakening ability in hopes of controlling my instincts……
Honestly, I thought I'd done my best to live within the limits of what I was capable of.
I had even seen some results. After all, I was no longer being swept away by the original Han Taeyang's instincts and was getting along just fine.
But still, I'm not so sure.
“……What are you thinking so hard about?”
“……”
“You look a little tired, somehow.”
Though I still took pride in those arduous days, I also felt a sense of emptiness.
I had worked so damn hard, only for the protagonists of the original to turn around and torment me instead, hadn't they?
Without me noticing, Baek Seol-ah had already scurried over to my side, crouched down timidly beside me, and looked up at me.
As I considered her words about me looking tired, I tilted my head slightly.
Was I tired right now? Well, I was a little worn out from stopping some drunk from pouring herself more alcohol.
But I was obviously nowhere near serious enough for that drunk to worry about me.
‘Rather…… Hmm, yeah.’
This wasn't so much fatigue as it was me, uncharacteristically, becoming lost in sentimentality.
I smiled faintly as I looked at Baek Seol-ah, who watched me with bright eyes and tapped my arm as though asking if I was all right, like a coy cat bothering its owner.
“It really doesn't suit me, does it? Sitting around pointlessly indulging in sentimental thoughts.”
“……Mmm?”
Then, after muttering a single line that was almost a soliloquy, I abruptly stood up.
I suddenly scooped up the startled Baek Seol-ah with a playful look in my eyes.
“Eek.”
“Oh……”
In other words, I slipped one arm beneath her waist and the other beneath her knees, completing what was commonly called a princess carry.
I let out a hollow chuckle, surprised that I had to use a little more strength than expected.
“You're a little heavier than I expected, Baek Seolgi. How much do you weigh?”
“W-what, whaaat? Hic, what are you suddenly talking about? Wanna die?”
Baek Seol-ah clenched her fists and her eyes blazed at the added remark, which I had made solely to tease her openly.
She was a girl characterized by bleary, alcohol-soaked eyes and the occasional hiccup.
Regardless of whether she threatened me with her tiny fists, I strode toward the bed while carrying her.
For now, I cast off both the stray thoughts caused by alcohol and the memories and recollections of the past.
There was only one thing I needed to remember at this moment.
Just one utterly undeniable fact.
Whatever the case, I really liked Baek Seol-ah. I thought this charming woman was lovable.
If that was true, was there any reason to keep hesitating?
“Hey, Baek Seolgi.”
“……”
Everything I had hesitated and agonized over until now.
My true feelings, which I had painstakingly ignored and avoided.
“Let's stop drinking soon. Instead, I'll make you feel even better with something else.”
“……Hweh……?”
I gently laid Baek Seol-ah down on the bed and tenderly brushed my fingertip across her lips, which she had pursed like a baby.
And before she could say anything or react─. I decided to face my “true feelings.”
By pressing my lips against the lips I had just briefly caressed.
-I want to take her.
“……Mmph.”
This wasn't because I had been swallowed by the original Han Taeyang's instincts, nor because those desires had influenced me at all.
This was affection and fondness I felt purely as “me,” and, beyond that, lust and greed as a man.
Without a trace of hesitation, I stole Baek Seol-ah's lips, and she opened her eyes wide.
After all, it was the first kiss I had shared with her. It was our first mouth-to-mouth kiss.
She had every reason to be startled. She had every reason to flinch.
But there was no proper resistance.
Baek Seol-ah merely stared at me with her lashes trembling, and she didn't seem to feel any aversion toward my tongue forcing its way between her lips.
If she had, then no matter how drunk she was, she would have pushed against my chest long ago.
“……Hup, mm, ah.”
Instead, Baek Seol-ah slowly but surely, timidly but honestly, accepted my tongue, and……
At some point, she closed both eyes─. Then she began moving her tongue herself.
Our first kiss lasted for quite a long time.
It was wet and lingering beyond compare.
It was just as heartrending. Alongside the lust between a man and woman, perhaps only because of my own feelings, there seemed to be a mutual attachment layered on top as well.
Though it might still be small, in a world of possibilities, one is always worth more than zero.
“Pff……”
Before long, our lips parted, and just as we hurriedly drew in the breaths we had been holding……
Baek Seol-ah, with a clear tremor in her eyes, twitched the corners of her mouth and muttered.
“Ah, mm. We shouldn't, kissing, we shouldn't kiss.”
“……”
“We're not that close or anything, are we……?”
It was a sight in which the content of her words and the expression on her face were in complete disagreement.
How could there be such a blatant smile?
I let out a pleased chuckle at that obvious mismatch between her words and actions and replied.
“Okay, then.”
In other words, it was a counterquestion.
“If kissing isn't okay, what about sex?”
“……”
“That's okay, isn't it? Baek Seolgi.”
Perhaps it was too difficult a question to answer with her face currently as red as a ripe apple?
Baek Seol-ah didn't utter a single sound in response to my words, nor did she even manage a nod.
But surely…… the heavy desire lingering in her gaze as she looked at me contained an answer of its own.
I pressed down firmly on Baek Seol-ah's jeans, which showed off her plump thighs.
“Take off your pants, Baek Seol-ah. Even if you say you don't want to─. I won't be able to hold back, so I'll have to fuck you.”
And those words were enough.
“……Hht, hwaa.”
Baek Seol-ah's face flushed so red that it looked ready to burst with a “pop,” yet she reached out with an eagerness entirely contrary to her apparent embarrassment.
She was going to take off her jeans, just as I had told her.
Clack!
Before long, despite her trembling hands, she obediently undid the buckle of her jeans.