Chapter 50
The academy's main building rooftop was often locked, but security wasn't always thorough.
Once someone was an academy student, most were awakened individuals who could easily break a lock, at least.
Thus, during lunch, it wasn't uncommon for the door itself to be left open.
That way, students could enter and leave quietly instead of pointlessly damaging school property.
But since this wasn't exactly a widely known fact, only students truly in the know used it as an unofficial rendezvous and rest spot.
“……Want a drink?”
“……”
“Or maybe some snacks?”
I, too, was one of the students who occasionally made use of that rooftop. It was spacious and open, and the view from such a height wasn't bad, either.
Recently, I hadn't had much reason to go there, but today, I intended to make use of its privacy.
Put that way, someone might misunderstand and think I was doing something improper that shouldn't be done on school grounds……. But that wasn't the case today.
I was merely laying out all sorts of snacks I'd bought from the school store—sandwiches and other bread, triangular kimbap, snacks, and drinks—as though presenting an offering before a female student.
And that female student was, naturally.
“Who are you?”
“……Ahyun, seriously, what’s with you.”
It was Seo Ahyun, who had seen me grappling with Yoo Eun-bi in the alleyway this morning and drawn a very bad conclusion.
She folded her arms with an expression that blatantly showed how sulky she was and turned her gaze away.
She was doing her best not to make eye contact with me at all.
From my perspective, I could only swallow a groan.
“I told you. It wasn’t the kind of situation you think it was. Nothing happened, really.”
“……Hmph.”
Even after I worked hard to explain myself, Seo Ahyun’s puffed-up cheeks showed no sign of relaxing.
No matter what I said, she simply ignored me with the same unchanging attitude.
It was incredibly frustrating from my perspective, but even so, I couldn't deny that the circumstances at the time had looked rather suspicious.
After all, a mount position was hardly an innocent sight. I was aware that it was easy to misunderstand.
I had only responded as best I could because I thought the thing pointed at my back was a dagger.
But Seo Ahyun, who hadn't seen what had happened immediately beforehand, remained this pouty all the way through lunch.
She hadn't even replied when I'd sent her coaxing and placating messages during class.
At least, when I called her out during lunch, she came up to the rooftop with me.
The items I'd bought as bribes(?) to soothe her anger hadn't had much effect, either.
Seo Ahyun simply continued to ignore me, doing nothing but speak in a prim, haughty tone.
“Do you think all you have to do is bring me food? Don’t take a woman’s heart lightly, you womanizing bastard.”
“……Ahem.”
Fortunately, her speech had returned from prickly formal language to its usual tone, but, well.
Judging by the content of her words, it was obvious that she was still fairly upset with me.
‘This is awkward.’
I did think it couldn't be helped.
Over the weekend, I'd been on a date with Baek Seol-ah and couldn't spare any attention for Seo Ahyun, and she had generously understood even that.
But the next morning, she'd immediately seen me on top of another girl.
From Seo Ahyun's perspective, it was only natural for her to feel hurt, even if she believed my explanation.
“I’m sorry, Ahyun.”
In the end, I had no choice but to apologize to her once again. Even if I hadn't done anything wrong, there was such a thing as the law of equivalent exchange in this world.
If I had freely tormented Seo Ahyun in bed—and planned to keep doing so—then at the very least, I had to yield to her during the day.
Though we never put it into words, this was the unspoken trick to maintaining our relationship that both she and I understood.
As a result, because I acted like the guilty party from beginning to end, the atmosphere had eased considerably.
Soon, Seo Ahyun cast me a sidelong glance with one eye that still held a trace of displeasure and spoke.
“Are you really sorry to me, Han Taeyang?”
“Yeah, I really am.”
“……Really? Then.”
Afterward, she plopped down onto the bench, her expression suggesting that her level of sulkiness had at least decreased somewhat.
She tapped the spot beside her with her right hand, then pointed at her cheek with that same hand.
“Give me ten kisses. As an apology.”
“……”
“Hurry.”
Then she made a rather shameless demand, and there wasn't even a hint of embarrassment in the expression with which she boldly urged me on.
Instead, she tapped her cheek with her index finger quite imperiously, as though I ought to indulge her to at least that extent.
I wore a dumbfounded expression at the unexpected command, but only for a moment.
Before long, I let out a light chuckle and sat down beside Seo Ahyun.
At that, Seo Ahyun swept her falling hair behind her ear, creating a convenient opening for me to kiss her cheek─.
“……You’ve gotten pretty honest, Seo Ahyun. To the point that you can make requests like this without batting an eye.”
I said this with a sly smile as I brushed my fingertips across her cheek.
Seo Ahyun confidently replied with both eyes calmly closed, as though she had no doubt that I would comply with her request.
“I’m naturally good at showing affection. Though that ex-boyfriend of mine, wherever he may be, was the kind of guy who couldn’t appreciate it until the very end.”
The words she deliberately tacked on……. probably contained both a small expectation and a timid concern: You won't be like that, right?
“……Hmm, is that so?”
Recognizing that obvious implication, I lowered my head in order to dispel her needless worry.
And.
“I’d better show my appreciation properly so I don’t get dumped like that guy. Just as I have until now, and will from now on.”
Along with that brief remark, which carried a distinctly teasing playfulness,
I immediately did as she wanted.
Smooch-
One, two, three. I lightly kissed Seo Ahyun's cheek, then continued with the kisses as her complexion gradually turned red.
Four, five, six. After that, I continued endlessly and persistently, until Seo Ahyun's body began to flinch─.
“Ah, hhk. W-wait. That’s enough. Stop. I’ve gotten all ten, so, so stop now…….”
“Nope.”
“……Eek.”
I drove things so far that it looked as though I might lay her down on the bench; ten kisses were nothing.
Only after our lips had met more than twenty times did Seo Ahyun desperately beg me, her expression melting with happiness, saying that she was sorry and asking me to stop.
*****
[Seo Ahyun: You]
[Seo Ahyun: You’re banned from initiating kisses for the time being]
[Seo Ahyun: ……My heart can’t take it]
“Hmm.”
At four in the afternoon, during end-of-day homeroom after classes had ended,
I glanced at the phone screen flooded with messages and briefly considered how to reply.
Seeing her this embarrassed made me want to tease her even more, admittedly.
But overdoing it always invites trouble.
‘I might get smacked for this.’
Hadn't I already paid the price for laying more than ten kisses on Seo Ahyun's cheek, even after she'd stopped me during lunch?
Rubbing my stinging cheek, the result of Seo Ahyun's mana-laced pinch, I sent a simple reply.
[Han Taeyang: Got it]
[Han Taeyang: I won’t do it unless you ask from now on]
[Seo Ahyun: Huh?]
In text alone, I deliberately made myself sound just faintly dejected.
Since I'd decided to refrain from openly teasing her, I kept it only subtle enough that Seo Ahyun wouldn't notice─.
[Seo Ahyun: No]
[Seo Ahyun: That doesn’t mean don’t do it at all……. You know what I mean]
[Seo Ahyun: Use your judgment, okay? You know, right?]
[Seo Ahyun: Taeyang??]
‘……Cute.’
By treading the line just right, I had instead succeeded in making Seo Ahyun restless.
A satisfied smile appeared at the corners of my mouth.
From the outset, I had no such soft option as simply not teasing her at all.
As long as she didn't realize my intentions and I wasn't too blatant about it, it was certainly worth trying.
Whenever I teased her gently, I always got such satisfying reactions in return.
That was partly Seo Ahyun's responsibility, too. Her reactions were always a feast.
In the end, I sent her a downcast emoticon and finished my chat with Seo Ahyun.
A bit of revenge for those flushed cheeks, perhaps.
“All right, everyone, focus.”
Around then, Class B's homeroom teacher, Mr. Park Seong-chan, began to speak.
He scanned the thirty or so Class B students gathered at their seats for homeroom.
To add a little background at this point, Cheongwoon Academy doesn't actually have a separate period that could be called end-of-day homeroom.
That was true in principle. There was morning assembly at nine, but after that, things varied according to each student's timetable……
There was another reason the entire class had been gathered for homeroom as they were now.
‘Final exams are coming up.’
In early June, with the weather gradually growing hot and humid, final exams were right around the corner. The practical exams in particular.
The written exams, which were relatively less important, were each concentrated in July according to their lectures, while the practical exam for the entire grade was held separately.
Today was the day the contents and date of that practical exam would be announced, along with whether it would involve group evaluations.
‘I’d rather do it alone, if possible.’
I thought this as I received the handout distributed to each student by Mr. Park Seong-chan.
I didn't particularly hate group evaluations, but, as I said, if possible.
For me, taking the exam alone was a little more comfortable. It wasn't so much a matter of personal preference as the image I'd built up at school so far.
In one way or another, I wasn't exactly in a position where cooperating with other students was easy.
And unfortunately.
────────────────
[Second-Year First-Semester Final Exams]
[Practical Exam]
-Dungeon raid
-Group evaluation (5 people)
────────────────
“Tch.”
This practical exam was a group evaluation. Since the previous midterm had been an individual evaluation, it wasn't particularly difficult to predict, but.
As Mr. Park Seong-chan continued explaining the dungeon's characteristics and an overview of the evaluation method, I checked the back of the handout.
In group evaluations, the back usually listed the members who would be grouped together.
Hoping that, at the very least, I'd been grouped with people who weren't too incompatible with me, I scanned the names.
“Uh……”
I soon had no choice but to wear a displeased expression.
Not particularly negative, but not exactly positive, either.
It was an incredibly delicate lineup.
────────────────
[Group 15]
-Class B Han Taeyang, Class B Ryu Chae-eun, Class A Baek Seol-ah, Class C Shim Jaemin, Class D Kang Dasom.
────────────────
‘……Ryu Chae-eun…….’
Leaving aside the fact that, among nearly two hundred classmates, a group of only five somehow contained two original heroines.
Of all people, one of them was Ryu Chae-eun. I slightly furrowed my brow and raised my head.
Just then, I made eye contact with a female student who seemed to have checked the back of her handout as well.
“……”
“……”
Soft green hair. Unusual twin tails. Pale green eyes and gently narrowed eyes.
She possessed a rather superior figure, whose generous curves were plainly evident even through her uniform.
As a private matter, she was the only second-year student currently at Cheongwoon Academy to have graduated high school early, and, uniquely among the original's main cast, she occupied the younger, nineteen-year-old role─.
‘What are you looking at?’
She—Ryu Chae-eun, Jeong Jaeha's girlfriend—let out a derisive laugh and mouthed the words the moment our eyes met: What are you glaring at?
“Huh.”
I could only let out an incredulous hollow laugh reflexively.
……That girl, too.
Since last year, she had consistently been one impossibly rude little brat.
I really feel like giving her a proper lesson with my dick. Seriously.