Chapter 28
Tarmin stood in the bathroom, looking like an idiot.
More accurately, Enya had shoved him into the bathroom and trapped him there.
The bathroom was dim. Water dripped from the faucet, and he could see the firebox and pot for heating water, as well as the tub filled with bathwater.
It wasn't as if he'd forgotten how to bathe.
Even as he looked at the soap, bottles of scented oil, and towels arranged in a basket in one corner, all his attention was fixed on the closed door behind him.
The room was quiet, and he could hear the fireplace crackling in the living room.
The sound of Enya's slippers dragging along the floor as she came from the kitchen was drawing closer.
If she saw him standing there like a fool, she was sure to scold him.
Only then did Tarmin start flailing his arms in a panic, then grab his leg.
He'd intended to at least take off his boots, but he was so flustered that even that proved difficult, and he stumbled.
In the end, the door opened before he could get them off, and Enya saw him hopping around.
“What are you doing? When are you going to take those off and wash?”
“I-I, uh…”
Tarmin was doing his best to avoid Enya.
When Enya passed him and stepped into the bathroom, Tarmin turned his body to keep his back to her.
He stared at the corner, pointlessly making sure his boots were lined up neatly.
Seeing that, Enya burst out laughing.
“Ahahaha! Taal, it's okay to look.”
Look at what, exactly?
He stood facing the wall, squeezing his eyes shut.
The fragrant smell of soap in the bathroom made his head spin.
In the dim room, it felt as if his other senses had grown sharper.
He asked over his shoulder.
“Enya, you aren't, uh, wearing nothing right now, are you?”
He felt pathetic for asking so obliquely instead of simply asking if she was naked.
He didn't have the courage to check what Enya looked like.
Was she really planning to bathe with him?
“Who knows?”
Her teasing answer made him feel a little annoyed.
His pride was hurt at being looked down on, but as the one in the wrong, he had no intention of fighting back.
The situation had ended when he'd suddenly burst into tears and Enya had hugged him, but he couldn't deny that he'd been swept up in dark emotions and treated her as he pleased.
He owed her an apology on his knees, if anything.
Enya had ordered him to wash, then followed him into the bathroom.
Apart from the guilt, the pleasure branded into his mind was making him dizzy.
Enya had returned to Quaalid a perfect woman.
The superiority and sense of conquest he'd felt when he physically overpowered Enya, the Hero.
He'd ignored her wishes, forced his way between her lips, and indulged in her sweet saliva to his heart's content.
He'd unfastened the front of her shirt and buried his face in her full breasts.
He'd said he hated that Enya wouldn't tell him anything, but in the end, he'd used their friendship as an excuse to covet a woman's body.
He'd tormented his friend, now a woman, and enjoyed himself.
He sighed.
“Phew.”
Honestly, he wanted to see what Enya looked like right now.
He was worked up to the limit.
There was a reason he'd turned not just his head, but his whole body away.
The tightness in his pants was uncomfortable, so he shifted again.
He had no idea why she was teasing him so provocatively.
His mind was working hard to come up with rationalizations.
He might have sullied her, but Enya was the one who'd stripped off as if to show off.
Wouldn't it be fine if he happened to see her while washing?
He wanted to act casual, telling himself he'd already seen her once, and that they were friends, so what did it matter?
Besides, as Enya had said, he had to wash up before he could get out of this situation.
Staring at the corner of the bathroom like this would only make him cold; it wouldn't change anything.
Steeling himself, Tarmin slowly turned around.
He unbuttoned his shirt and gave her one last warning.
“Hey, you're the one who's naked, okay?”
“What am I taking off?”
When he turned around, Enya was wearing a large robe.
Enya spread her arms.
“Ta-da! What do you think?”
….”
At the sight of Tarmin falling silent, Enya's eyes curved into crescents.
When he met her playful, bright-red eyes, his body stiffened.
Her eyes curved even more as Enya casually asked,
“Were you expecting something, Taal?”
“…No, not at all?”
“You looked like you'd braced yourself.”
“I didn't. I was just thinking the robe looks good on you.”
“Thanks for the compliment.”
Enya giggled.
He realized from her reaction that she'd seen right through him.
He had to work hard to keep his face from burning.
He couldn't tell whether he was glad she was wearing a robe or disappointed.
Enya hung the candleholder she'd brought on the wall, then dropped a burning fire stone into the tub full of water.
“So that's how it heats the water? It doesn't go out?”
He changed the subject by asking about the stone.
“Yeah. It's not real fire. You were planning to wash in cold water, weren't you?”
“Well, firewood's expensive.”
Just as Enya had said, the stone continued to burn with a yellow glow even in the tub.
It was an unusual sight, the inside of the tub brightly lit up.
“That stone's been useful for a lot of things lately.”
“If it gets too hot, add cold water. You know how to turn on the tap, right?”
“Yeah.”
Enya left the bathroom with a bright smile.
“Well then, have a relaxing time, sir.”
Tarmin couldn't face her smile and had to turn his gaze away again.
She seemed to think he would be fine since she was wrapped in a thick robe, but the glimpse of her collarbones and smooth, bare legs between its folds was more than enough to provoke him.
**
Half an hour after Enya left,
Tarmin had gotten out of the tub and was enjoying the luxury of washing himself with high-quality soap and warm water.
Sitting on a small stool and rubbing himself with a wet towel, Tarmin pondered.
She'd told him to stay the night.
Even if he finished washing up and left clean, Enya wouldn't let him go home.
The days when an overnight stay made him excited with a sense of freedom were long past.
During the pilgrimage, they'd stayed at countless inns, and there had been many mornings when he woke beneath the dew of dawn.
Enya seemed to want to fall asleep beneath the same ceiling as him after all this time, but the problem was Tarmin.
He was much too healthy to sleep in the same house as a woman.
Much too healthy.
There was no way he could fall asleep lying in the same room as Enya, staring at the ceiling.
He could imagine nothing but going crazy and reaching for Enya.
He was already a criminal who'd tormented Enya before.
He needed to relieve himself before going to sleep.
The traditional way of relieving his urges.
Tarmin carefully checked his surroundings.
It was an unfamiliar place, but there was plenty to stimulate him.
The fragrant smell of soap.
Enya's bathtub and towels.
He slowly stood up, then closed his eyes.
As Tarmin moved his hand,
“Taal?”
The door flew open.
Crash!
**
Enya's eyes widened at the sight of Taal hurriedly crouching down.
“Did the water bucket do something to you?”
She was looking at the bucket he'd kicked, now rolling across the floor.
She meant nothing else by it.
Had he stubbed his toe on the bucket?
Tarmin, hunched up tightly, shouted as if screaming.
“No! You-you, Enya, you idiot! What happened to knocking!?”
“Why would I knock in my own house? I came to scrub your back.”
Even as she picked up a towel and wet it, Tarmin stayed awkwardly hunched over.
Was his stomach hurting?
Instead of complaining about pain, Tarmin said something else.
“That's enough, just go out.”
“I said I'd scrub you! Don't start scratching your back later because it's itchy. Turn around and show me your back.”
The image of Taal clinging to her and crying, begging her not to die, came to mind.
Seeing Tarmin's vulnerable side had left Enya lost in old memories.
When they were children, Tarmin had always struggled with the fights between the kids.
So it had been Enya's job to stand up for young Tarmin.
She'd only learned later that Tarmin's hesitation came from having techniques that could easily hurt someone.
Reminiscing about those days, she wanted to try bathing together like old times, but Tarmin was being completely uncooperative.
“I've seen you naked plenty of times, so I'm used to it. I said, show me your back.”
“I'm really fine.”
Ignoring Tarmin's refusal, she slapped the wet towel onto his back.
When Tarmin groaned, “Ugh,” she smiled and rubbed his back.
Somehow, Tarmin's back seemed wider than before.
Tarmin's back was firm now, unlike when he was a child.
But what was this acrid smell?
“What, are you embarrassed…”
She'd started to speak casually, but eventually trailed off.
The towel she'd been rubbing with had stopped moving without her noticing.
She was beginning to feel the suggestive air filling the bathroom.
Perhaps because the fire stone kept heating the water, the bathroom was full of steam.
The light wavering in the tub made the steam flow like silk.
A tingling itch rose low in her belly, and she twisted her thighs and squirmed.
It had to be because of all the humidity.
Through the hazy steam, Enya slowly remembered.
She knew all too well the sight of a man hunched awkwardly to hide his private parts.
Only then did she realize what Tarmin had been doing.
This smell… She knew it from somewhere.
Feeling her body suddenly grow hot, she blurted out,
“Pervert!”
“W-What?”
Tarmin's ear, turned away from her, instantly turned bright red.
It was a good thing Tarmin wasn't looking at her.
She hid her burning face in the steam and berated him.
“You're doing that in your friend's bath? Are you even human?”
“U-Ugh.”
“I felt sorry for you when you were crying, so I gave you special treatment, and this is what you do? This kind of thing?”
As she scolded Tarmin, Enya trembled as she herself felt the weight of what she'd said.
Only two hours ago, she'd told the man who'd been on top of her to stay the night.
The one she'd asked to stay wasn't a man, but her crybaby Taal.
But that Taal now had a broad back.
The next moment, Tarmin shouted furiously.
“I did it for you!”
Enya jumped in surprise and asked,
“What?”
“I had to do something before I went crazy in my sleep and jumped you. You know that, don't you?”
At his question—she knew because she'd experienced it too—she avoided answering out of embarrassment.
“I-I don't know.”
“Don't know, my ass. We're both adults, and now that you've caught me, quit acting coy, okay?”
Enya's attention was focused on what he'd said just before that.
What had he said he'd do in his sleep?
She squirmed for a while. When Tarmin, puzzled by her silence, seemed about to turn around, she asked,
“So did you?”
“Huh? Wait, what?”
“D-Did you, um, relieve your urges?”
Enya's face reddened as she said the word “urges.”
Tarmin stared blankly for a long while, unable to understand, then answered.
“…No. You barged in halfway through.”
“Then we're in trouble.”
“Yeah, big trouble. Thanks to you, I plan to spend all night stabbing my thigh with a knife.”
Tarmin made a shooing gesture.
“So get out, please. Stop making me feel so pathetic… Confessing to masturbating while naked? I'm going to drown myself in the tub now.”
“…Want me to help?”
“What?”
She wasn't offering to help him stab his thigh or drown in the tub.
“Want me to help? With… relieving it.”
Tarmin turned around in confusion.
Avoiding his gaze, she gripped the towel on his back tightly.
*****