Chapter 8
This NTR story I'd found myself inside had plenty of unusual aspects. Though I hardly need to mention the point where it suddenly veered off course in Part Two.
What I'm about to talk about isn't that part—the one that so thoroughly blindsided the readers.
“……Seo Ah-hyun?”
“Hmph.”
I may have mentioned this before. In the original, ‘Han Taeyang’ stole the heroines away.
That's right. ‘Heroines’—plural, not singular.
Han Taeyang, remarkable in more ways than one, hadn't gotten his hands on Baek Seol-ah alone…….
Naturally, every woman Han Taeyang stole away was already in a relationship.
Just as Baek Seol-ah had Lee Hyunseong, the countless other women Han Taeyang stole away had lovers of their own.
From that perspective, this original novel could probably be described as an ensemble drama.
The number of male protagonists naturally matched the number of women Han Taeyang stole away, after all.
Although polygamy was legal in this world, all those couples were still in one-to-one relationships.
Anyway.
The preamble had run long, but the main point was simple.
Right now, it was a female student who stopped me as I was thinking of leaving the lecture hall and slowly heading back to the dormitory…….
She was a beautiful girl with thick black hair that had a hint of curl, tied into a side ponytail, and unusually vivid violet eyes.
“What brings you here? You even came up and talked to me first.”
Her name, as I had just mentioned, was Seo Ah-hyun.
She was one of the heroines from the original work I'd just mentioned.
She crossed her arms, her displeasure plainly visible on her face, and answered me.
“Don't get the wrong idea. I don't particularly want to talk to someone like you, either.”
“You still say such harsh things so casually, huh?”
“Hmph……”
Someone like me, huh? She really was foul-mouthed. Though I knew that was simply her personality.
Anyway, Seo Ah-hyun gave a short snort before giving me another pointed sidelong look.
For a brief while, Seo Ah-hyun and I silently locked gazes.
……Despite saying she didn't want to talk to me, she'd been the one to stop me first, so she seemed to have something to say.
“If you've got nothing to say, I'm leaving.”
“Ah! W-wait.”
But I had no reason to stand there and obediently wait for her.
No one should expect manners from a blonde, tanned bastard.
Baek Seol-ah, whose relationship with me had subtly changed because of the previous day's events, was the special case; in truth, my relationship with the heroines was generally like this.
Unless something significant happened, we almost never even found ourselves face-to-face.
And conversation? Need I say more? When I yawned indifferently and started to turn as if to walk away again, Seo Ah-hyun hurriedly grabbed me.
This time, with her hand rather than her words.
She approached with quick steps until she was right beside me, then lightly grasped the collar of my clothes as I was about to leave.
“What is it, seriously?”
“Why are you so impatient? I haven't even started talking yet!”
“What do you want me to do?”
I looked down at her with an indifferent frown.
The closer we stood, the more pronounced the difference in our eye level became.
Seo Ah-hyun was small and compactly built, so when she stood this close, her gaze was practically fixed on my chest.
That meant she had to look up at me while I looked down at her.
I didn't think she particularly liked being in that kind of position…….
“……Hey, let me ask you something.”
“What.”
For someone who never exchanged even a word with me despite our eyes occasionally meeting, she was being unusually forward.
I answered gruffly, but I couldn't say I wasn't curious.
I gave her a small jerk of my chin to tell her to get on with it, and Seo Ah-hyun quickly continued.
“Did something happen between you and Seol-ah?”
“……?”
Compared with the several possible reasons I'd imagined she might have for approaching me, it was a somewhat unexpected question.
I hadn't expected Baek Seol-ah's name to come up here.
But after thinking about it for a moment, it wasn't all that strange.
The events in the lecture hall today must have seemed strange enough to other people, after all.
Minor though it was, it was certainly enough to make the other students wonder.
The fact that none other than Baek Seol-ah had stayed beside me throughout the entire class.
She'd even seemed to exchange words with me from time to time, which must have piqued their curiosity even more.
It was hardly a secret that Baek Seol-ah especially despised me.
Still.
“You wouldn't have come up and talked to me directly just because of that.”
“……”
“Did your boyfriend put you up to this?”
It was only a reasonable suspicion from my perspective.
Seo Ah-hyun wouldn't approach me over just that, would she?
There was no way. It wasn't as if she and Baek Seol-ah were strangers; if necessary, Seo Ah-hyun was exactly the sort who would ask Baek Seol-ah directly.
And yet, the instant the lecture ended, she'd scampered over and asked me about it point-blank.
As far as I knew, only one person could have inspired that kind of initiative in Seo Ah-hyun.
“Kim Minjun, that guy really hasn't changed. Don't tell me he's still hung up on Baek Seol-ah?”
When I chuckled and muttered that, Seo Ah-hyun's expression visibly stiffened.
It wasn't just because my laugh had been closer to a sneer than a chuckle.
I looked at her with pity and added,
“You're unbelievable, too. You know why he was curious, so just because he asked you a favor, you came scurrying to me?”
“……Hey. Watch your mouth.”
“You still go weak at your boyfriend's every word. Or should I say, you haven't gotten any better?”
Grab!
That was her one and only verbal warning. Immediately after my second remark left my mouth, Seo Ah-hyun seized me by the collar without a moment's hesitation.
Her violet eyes grew even colder as she began glaring fiercely at me.
Of course, much like Baek Seol-ah, she wasn't the slightest bit threatening to me.
I continued speaking evenly without the slightest change in expression.
“Go tell Kim Minjun this: nothing happened between Baek Seol-ah and me. We're still bitter enemies.”
“……Ha, you expect me to believe that?”
Seo Ah-hyun let out a hollow laugh and gripped my collar with even greater force.
True to her status as one of the top physical-type Awakeners at Cheongun Academy, she possessed frightening strength.
But it wasn't enough to stop me from breaking free.
I sneered in turn and knocked her hand away with a sharp ‘smack!’
“What are you going to do if I don't believe you? If it bothers you, ask Baek Seol-ah directly.”
“……You.”
“Though of course, he'd just tell you to come ask me on his behalf again.”
“……”
“What a fine boyfriend you've got, Seo Ah-hyun.”
Even after I openly taunted her one last time, her expression finally turned cold.
It was a chill of a completely different order from the light hostility she usually displayed toward me.
I knew, however, that a considerable portion of the negative emotions she was feeling right now wasn't directed solely at me.
I knew it, and Seo Ah-hyun knew it all too painfully well.
She lightly clenched her teeth and sharply turned her gaze away.
“……I really hate you, Han Taeyang.”
“I'm honored.”
I leisurely shrugged, and Seo Ah-hyun gave me one last loaded sidelong glance before turning and walking away.
I watched as a small-framed man joined her on her way toward the end of the corridor, then gave that direction a final glance myself.
Whether that guy wanted to play the complete doormat in his relationship or not…….
That wasn't my problem, was it?
‘What a hopelessly foolish guy. Tsk.’
All the more so when, on the surface, I was playing the part of Han Taeyang, the blonde, tanned delinquent.
I forcibly shook off the lingering discomfort and returned to the dormitory.
*****
Then the weekend arrived.
Bang bang bang bang!
“……Ah, shit. What the hell.”
My truly precious morning—when I had planned to stretch out comfortably and sleep in for once—had been interrupted.
I irritably flung off the covers, got to my feet, and staggered toward the entrance.
“What bastard has no manners, pounding on someone else's front door like this first thing in the morning……”
I opened the door with a fierce frown, intending at least to see the face of whoever had woken me from my peaceful sleep, but—
“Hello.”
“……?”
The person standing there was utterly outside the range of what I'd expected.
In other words, she was someone who had no business being in the men's dormitory at this early hour.
Someone who absolutely shouldn't have been there stood demurely in front of the door, both hands clasped together.
I forgot my annoyance for a moment and stared blankly, while she spoke with an awkward air.
“I've come to repay what I owe you.”
“……”
“……Could I come in for a bit? What if I get caught by the dorm supervisor while standing out here?”
Baek Seol-ah, dressed in unfamiliar casual clothes instead of her usual school uniform, whispered while glancing around nervously.
‘Déjà vu?’
Why was she here?