Chapter 54
The days were gradually growing hotter, but July and August—the peak of summer—hadn't arrived yet.
During the day, it was sweltering enough to be hard to endure without an air conditioner, or at the very least a fan…….
“It’s cool.”
“……Yeah, it is.”
Once the sun had set and the pitch-black night sky arrived, a breeze blew in to cool our bodies.
Baek Seol-ah and I walked through the dark campus by the light of the streetlamps, quietly exchanging words.
It was already past evening and entering the early hours of the night.
It wasn't exactly an appropriate time for two students to leisurely enjoy a nighttime stroll, but given the nature of the academy, the dormitory curfew wasn't particularly strict.
Thus, I was walking as slowly as possible, worried that Baek Seol-ah's condition might worsen again.
Perhaps she had read my intentions as well, because she matched my pace with a faint, detached laugh.
‘This really doesn't look good.’
Ever since we left the café, my gaze had remained fixed on Baek Seol-ah. If she complained of strange symptoms again, I intended to at least look for the infirmary.
A typical university would naturally have been closed at this hour, but this was an academy for Awakened individuals.
Since students occasionally suffered serious injuries in unexpected accidents, Cheongwoon Academy's infirmary operated twenty-four hours a day as a rule.
The academy's nurse was also a retired S-rank healing-type Awakened who could care for mental issues to some extent.
Even Baek Seol-ah, who clearly didn't seem to be in very good shape right now, should be able to receive help.
I swallowed a sigh with a bitter expression and cast a sidelong glance at Baek Seol-ah.
It was too dark all around to see her clearly, but her eyes were still much duller than usual.
And although she looked less exhausted than she had in the café, the fatigue on her face was still quite apparent.
The symptom I'd assumed was morning sickness had actually been hyperventilation caused by mental fatigue, and I still didn't know its exact cause.
That was because Baek Seol-ah, who had clearly seemed about to tell me about it, had changed her mind at the very end.
The two words she'd uttered after her panic symptoms had subsided, with an air of having reached some kind of resignation.
-Apparently, this is something I need to solve on my own.
-Don't worry about it. You can forget it, Han Taeyang.
‘……Tsk.’
Thinking back on it made my blood boil all over again.
A problem she had to solve on her own, my ass.
If it were truly a knot she could untie through her own efforts alone, then given Baek Seol-ah's personality, she wouldn't have shown the slightest sign of agonizing over it in the first place.
What else could it mean that she'd broached the subject with me twice, only to hesitate and back away?
To reiterate, this wasn't some fanciful issue involving pregnancy or morning sickness. It meant that the problem was more concrete—and, in particular, connected to me.
I suddenly remembered what she'd said at the motel a few days ago. That it was an issue that concerned me as well, and that she promised she would tell me about it herself someday.
‘Damn woman.’
If she was just going to break that promise herself within a few days, why had she brought it up at all?
And after making me fret and worry like this.
‘But I can't exactly push someone who says she absolutely can't talk about it.’
I clicked my tongue so quietly that Baek Seol-ah couldn't hear me, then absently rubbed the stiff back of my neck.
That was when her hazy gaze, which had been fixed slightly ahead of me, turned back toward me.
Baek Seol-ah parted her lips with a feeble smile, as though she could see straight through me.
“……Are you that worried about me, Han Taeyang?”
“……”
She still looked visibly weary because of that unidentified concern, but she was smiling in a silly, carefree way, as though she didn't dislike having me worry about her.
Under normal circumstances, I would have thought her smile was cute, while inwardly calling her a damn woman.
But right now, I was more concerned by those precarious-looking golden eyes than by any such impression.
They weren't on the verge of completely collapsing, but I couldn't bring myself to call them healthy, even as an empty courtesy.
“Phew.”
I raked a hand through my bangs somewhat irritably and answered.
“Of course I'm worried. How could I not be? You nearly fell over on your own just a little while ago, you idiot.”
“……Heh. So you are worried.”
“Don't smile. I'll get attached.”
“Ahaha.”
I told you not to smile. This time, I openly clicked my tongue as well, and Baek Seol-ah's smile only grew deeper.
Before long, we had made a full circuit around the campus and arrived near the dormitories.
In other words, we had reached the fork where we would have to part ways for the men's and women's dormitories.
Even though we'd deliberately taken a roundabout route, we would eventually reach our destination.
Baek Seol-ah stopped walking first, and I stopped as well, looking at her with troubled eyes.
She pressed her lips into a straight line and remained silent for a moment. Then, about ten seconds later, she put her hands behind her back and turned to me.
“Hey, Han Taeyang.”
She called out to me with a faint smile and an air of considerable lethargy.
“What is it, Ugly?”
I replied indifferently, rather prickly since she was making an innocent person worry for no reason.
Though perhaps it was because she wasn't as bothered by it anymore……. Or perhaps she didn't even have the energy to be bothered right now.
Baek Seol-ah continued speaking with an expression steeped in fatigue yet paradoxically lively at the same time.
Her tone was exceedingly light, as though she was reluctant to part just yet and wanted to hang around with me a little longer─.
“Want me to get you off before I go?”
“?”
“It's the perfect time to do it outdoors.”
She then offered me a proposal audacious enough to leave me dumbfounded for a moment.
Baek Seol-ah calmly watched me, stunned, and subtly made a suggestive hand gesture.
In other words, the so-called ‘handjob gesture.’ She lightly flicked her wrist back and forth.
She even stuck the tip of her bright-red tongue out between her slightly parted lips, oozing sensuality.
The image of her as a model student had already crumbled much in my mind, but it fell apart yet again, and it didn't feel as negative as I'd expected.
Rather, I found myself strangely satisfied by the thought that I had sexually corrupted ‘that’ Baek Seol-ah.
……If this had been another time, I probably would have quickly become aroused and willingly accepted her service.
I couldn't deny that the current situation was the sort of scenario that stimulated a man's desires.
In other words, though, not now. I cleanly ignored the reaction in my lower half after my instincts had been stimulated and merely let out a low sigh.
“Good grief, seriously.”
“Han Taeyang?”
At that, Baek Seol-ah blinked with a puzzled expression and tilted her head.
Did this girl really think I would rush at her eagerly even at a moment like this?
If so, she had taken me for a man blinded by lust. I wouldn't deny that entirely, but I wasn't a person lacking in self-control, either.
Pat-
“Ngh.”
I merely placed my hand somewhat roughly on the crown of Baek Seol-ah's head, then deliberately messed up her white hair as I continued speaking indifferently.
“What do you take me for? A horny son of a bitch who'd eagerly take a handjob just because a girl who's clearly having a hard time says that?”
“……Uh, no. Um.”
“I can't say I dislike you becoming more and more like the kind of sexy girl I prefer, but not today. Take care of your mental health for now.”
After I stroked her a little, Baek Seol-ah quickly became a demure young lady and obediently closed her mouth, as though she'd never said anything perverted.
She said nothing, merely blushing faintly, while I sighed as if I were dealing with a hopeless girlfriend and gestured toward the women's dormitory.
“Enough. Hurry up and get inside. Don't go doing anything weird, and send me a message once you're in.”
“……Honestly, you're unbelievable. Are you my boyfriend? Ahem, why are you so worried……?”
That was how she answered, but unlike the content of her words, her tone wasn't fierce in the slightest.
If anything, the opposite was true. Baek Seol-ah fidgeted energetically with both hands and wore an unguarded smile.
Anyone could see that she was quite pleased to be the object of someone's concern.
Her face was flushed bright red as well.
I watched her pleasantly flushed ear tips for a moment, then finally removed the hand that had been messing up her hair and spoke.
“Get inside. I'll leave after watching you go.”
“Ah, all right. I'll go even if you don't tell me to.”
Baek Seol-ah answered while belatedly smoothing out her badly mussed bangs.
I stared down at her for a moment, then added one more thing.
“……If something suddenly happens again…….”
“……?”
Baek Seol-ah blinked at me innocently, and I paused for a moment.
After briefly considering it inwardly, I slightly changed the words I had originally intended to say.
“……If anything happens, tell Lee Hyeonseong right away. For now, he's your boyfriend, isn't he?”
“……”
“I'll also text that guy later to tell him that you didn't look well today.”
Tell me right away if anything happens. As anyone could easily guess, that was what I'd originally intended to say: Contact me, and I'll answer immediately.
But the panic symptoms Baek Seol-ah had suffered today had looked dangerously serious.
At times like this, I thought her boyfriend, Lee Hyeonseong, would be more help than I was.
Strictly speaking, it was consideration shown solely out of concern for her condition, rather than any selfish desire of my own.
“……Just as I thought…….”
“……? What?”
Why did Baek Seol-ah's expression seem to grow slightly darker after hearing that? Was it just my imagination?
Baek Seol-ah murmured something in a tiny voice, almost too quiet for me to hear.
When I asked her about it half a beat later, she looked at me with a strangely sorrowful expression and answered.
“No, nothing. It's just that I really like that side of you. That uncharacteristically considerate side.”
“……Um, is that a compliment?”
“Of course. It is. But…….”
Trailing off, Baek Seol-ah added one more quiet word with a bitter smile.
“……Somehow, today, I think I might actually dislike that considerate side of yours.”
“……”
“I'm going now. See you tomorrow, Han Taeyang.”
That was the end of today's conversation. It was already quite late, and the night breeze had grown fairly chilly as well.
Baek Seol-ah waved weakly in farewell, then left toward the women's dormitory.
It probably wasn't just my imagination that her back as she walked away looked so gloomy.
As I had said, I only turned around after watching Baek Seol-ah enter the building.
‘Tsk.’
I did so with an uneasy expression that lingered because of the loaded final words she'd left behind.
I scratched the back of my head for no reason, abandoned my slow pace from earlier, and headed toward the dormitory.
‘……Come to think of it, I feel like I've forgotten something…….’
The thought occurred to me belatedly, but it didn't last long.
It was bound to be less important than the matter involving Baek Seol-ah, anyway.
“Haa.”
I let out a deep sigh, cleared my head completely, and continued walking.
I felt that I should go back to the dormitory and get some proper rest today as well.
*****
Meanwhile, in a male student's dorm room other than Han Taeyang's Room 901.
“……Hmm.”
Jeong Jaeha, a male student with pale green hair, had been staring fixedly at his smartphone screen without moving for several hours, his arms crossed.
After hearing the news delivered by his girlfriend that afternoon, he had sent a series of messages after working up considerable resolve.
Regarding the ‘favor’ he'd mentioned in passing before─. He had asked whether they could meet and talk when Han Taeyang had some free time.
No reply had come to those messages he'd sent to a classmate with whom he wasn't particularly close, in a somewhat awkward relationship.
Thus, Jeong Jaeha sat cross-legged on his bed for a while, blinking.
“Could I have been left on read?”
Only then did he realize a possibility he perhaps should have considered much earlier, and he made the world's stupidest, most vacant expression.