She wasn’t drunk.
Though she had drunk without dispelling the alcohol like an ordinary person, Yeon Haneul was, fundamentally, good with liquor.
Lately, she had accumulated a certain amount of fatigue preparing for the class competition, but she hadn’t lost her senses.
At least when she’d been in the elevator, she had been more normal than Do Gyeonu, who had seemed a little tipsy.
—Hey, you knowww….
—Yeah.
—It still hasn’t been twenty-four hours….
—….
—There’s still… a little over ten hours left….
Even so, the reason she had pretended to be drunk and borrowed the strength of that drunkenness to whine at Do Gyeonu was entirely because the time she had spent alone with him had been so very enjoyable.
Since it had been hard to see his face for several days, her desire to meet him had grown all the stronger in return.
To the point that she felt sorry to part with him like this.
But she was too embarrassed to say it directly, and worried she might look too easy, so she had expressed it indirectly.
—Then do you want to sleep together tonight? Like last time.
—….
—No, I don’t mean anything weird, just… let’s sleep holding hands….
Fortunately, her dense childhood friend had, for once, noticed Yeon Haneul’s feelings.
And they had decided to sleep together.
Only holding hands.
‘No way….’
After sending off Do Gyeonu, who had gotten into the elevator, Yeon Haneul’s tension finally loosened.
Leaning against the wall, she had no choice but to doubt the flow she had just let the mood carry her into.
It felt as if she had dreamed for a moment.
But it wasn’t a dream.
Something was something.
Half out of her mind, she staggered into her room.
Then, unable even to take off her shoes, she plopped down in the entryway.
“What? What? What?”
Her language ability, along with all manner of thought, had become paralyzed.
Like a broken machine, Yeon Haneul kept repeating the same words.
In her head, the memories of what had happened in the elevator kept resurfacing.
At the same time, her heart was pounding.
Even sitting still, she could hear her heartbeat.
Placing a hand over her chest to calm it, she gradually came back to her senses.
‘This… is that, right?’
Surely they weren’t just going to sleep holding hands.
Still, she didn’t know.
But it did seem like that was what it meant.
No, she didn’t know. She really didn’t know.
Do Gyeonu’s feelings might be different, so she couldn’t jump to conclusions.
For Yeon Haneul, all sorts of thoughts had no choice but to rummage through her head.
‘What do I do, what do I do, what do I do…. It’s not like I don’t want to, but… isn’t it too soon? We haven’t even kissed yet….’
Before that, they weren’t even dating yet.
Unable to shake off her distracting thoughts, Yeon Haneul tousled her hair.
Then she checked the time and, startled, sprang to her feet.
This was no time to be doing this.
Do Gyeonu would be here soon.
‘I have to hurry and clean up and wash!’
Her room was a mess.
Because she had been busy preparing for the class competition, she had hardly been able to tidy it.
The unmade blanket, as if she had just woken up; pajamas sprawled over the bed without any order; laundry piled up without being washed; cans and plastic bottles lined up in one corner of the room.
With nothing that didn’t catch her eye, Yeon Haneul hurriedly began cleaning.
If Do Gyeonu had seen it, he would have stopped her, saying, “What’s dirty about this? It’s cleaner than Yeeun’s room,” but as far as she was concerned, she wanted it to look even a little cleaner.
“For now, that should be enough for tidying….”
She paid special attention to straightening the bed where she would sleep with Do Gyeonu, changed the air freshener to a new one, and even then, worried that there might be some strange smell, sprayed the perfume she had previously received from Do Gyeonu’s mother around the room.
Since her time was limited, she had no choice but to handle the rest with magic.
Having settled one thing like that, Yeon Haneul quickly ran to the bathroom to wash.
After brushing her teeth twice, she washed her face and poured hot water from the shower over her body.
After finishing her shower, covered in soap bubbles, she dried herself.
Then she tried to put on her pajamas….
The problem arose here.
‘…Should I wear a bra too?’
Normally, Yeon Haneul did not wear a bra when she slept.
There were various reasons, but simply put, since there was no one to see anyway, she wanted to sleep comfortably.
But if she was going to fall asleep with Do Gyeonu, the story changed.
“Mm…. I should wear one, right? No, I’ll end up taking it off anyway…. No, that’s not right, I don’t know if that’ll happen… Maybe Gyeonu might want to take it off…. Uuugh….”
Back when she had taken the academy entrance exam, at the hotel where she had stayed then, she had slept with a bra on even though it was uncomfortable.
After agonizing over it, Yeon Haneul ultimately chose to wear one.
After checking that the top and bottom colors matched, she took out and put on her favorite pink pajamas.
The second problem arose then.
“What do I really do….”
Holding the Vitamin Cs she had hidden deep in a drawer, Yeon Haneul was seized by worry.
They were things she had, somehow, separately brought back from the hotel where she had stayed with Do Gyeonu during the entrance exam period.
To be precise, it would be more accurate to say she had taken them away from him when he had shown interest and tried to play with them.
—Gyeo, nu? What are you doing there? Why are you holding that?
—Ah, Haneul, this is….
—Don’t touch weird things and just leave it there. Got it?
—Uh… okay….
At the time, Yeon Haneul had been extremely flustered inside because there were Vitamin Cs in a perfectly normal hotel.
For no reason, she felt strange and tried to throw them away in the trash when Do Gyeonu’s interest had faded.
But when she actually tried to throw them away….
—Uuugh….
Suddenly, curiosity had welled up.
In the end, Yeon Haneul had been unable to throw them out and had separately kept them, and even now she had preserved them.
In any case, as she stroked the Vitamin Cs, her face red, she agonized.
‘If I show these to Gyeonu, he’ll think it’s weird….’
What if he misunderstood her as someone lewd?
Actually, it wouldn’t be a misunderstanding, but….
Even so, since this was the first step, she had no choice but to be deeply troubled.
‘Should I just pretend I don’t have them? But then… we’d do it without them?’
Yeon Haneul’s body trembled.
Half excitement, half fear came over her first.
Unable to readily make a decision, she decided for now to leave it to the mood, and hid them near the bed where her hand could reach.
It was around then that the doorbell rang.
Do Gyeonu’s voice came from outside.
“Haneul, it’s me.”
“Yeah! I’ll be right out!”
Still dazed, Yeon Haneul ran out barefoot and opened the door.
* * *
Something was something.
But as for what that something was, I wasn’t really sure either.
As if I couldn’t distinguish dream from reality, my mind felt like it was floating.
‘Why am I like this….’
If you think about it, this isn’t my first time sleeping with Yeon Haneul.
When we were in elementary school, there had been the occasional time we slept together at home, and it wasn’t as if there had been none in middle school either.
When we first entered Academy City, due to a computer error at the hotel, we had to live together for a week, and at the Hotel of Fantasy, we even spent a night holding each other.
So there was no need to feel unfamiliar with it, but strangely, I was nervous.
It felt like my heart wouldn’t stop.
‘Ah, was my heart not supposed to stop in the first place?’
As if proving its own existence, my heart was beating especially strongly today.
Was it because of the alcohol?
Was that why, earlier, Yeon Haneul had looked pretty to me and I had brought up sleeping together?
No, that wasn’t it.
Even if I was a little tipsy, I didn’t make errors in rational judgment.
I hadn’t drunk that much, and now that I had washed myself clean, I had already dispelled all the alcohol with magic.
And yet my heart was still pounding, making my mind restless.
Most of all, Yeon Haneul had always been pretty.
‘If I just go like this… that should be fine, right? Ah, I should spray on that body spray Haneul recommended. And make sure to take the sachet of affection I got from Heartland. I did wash thoroughly, but it’s still possible I might smell….’
It was just that something was something.
There was no way for me to explain this restless feeling.
Before going to Yeon Haneul’s room, I checked my appearance one last time in front of the full-length mirror and took a deep breath.
Then I went down to the floor below where her room was.
From here on, it was a place I couldn’t enter carelessly without the dorm supervisor’s permission, so I had to move quietly, suppressing my presence as if I were some thief.
“Haneul, it’s me.”
“Yeah! I’ll be right out!”
In that way, I found Yeon Haneul’s room.
As if she had been waiting, she immediately opened the door and let me inside.
Her hair still had moisture in it, as if she had washed not long ago, and with her face fair and smooth, she was wearing pink pajamas.
There was also a scent that tickled my heart.
‘Is this girl an air freshener by nature or something….’
It was Yeon Haneul’s scent.
That fragrance was coming not only from her, but from the entire room.
It contrasted quite sharply with my room, where even if I put out an air freshener, no scent came from it.
I wondered what on earth one had to do for a room to drift with fragrance like this.
“You washed?”
“Yeah, just now. Your room is clean. Mine’s a mess lately because I haven’t been able to properly clean it….”
“I hurriedly cleaned it because you were coming. My room was a mess too.”
“Even if it was a mess, it wouldn’t have been as bad as mine.”
“I wonder…. If your room is dirty, should I help you clean it on the weekend? I think I’ll have some time then.”
“No need. You should rest properly on the weekend too. I’ll clean my own room.”
Following Yeon Haneul’s guidance, I looked around the room.
I feel this every time I come over to her room, but unlike me, she seems good at keeping things organized.
It probably wasn’t because she was a girl.
After all, even Yeeun and my mother, surprisingly, lived with their rooms messier than mine.
If they hadn’t had employees at home, I think it might have been far worse than it was now.
Thanks to those two, the me of this life had been able to break some of my prejudices about women.
That aside….
‘Why is she circling around?’
Yeon Haneul had been watching my reactions and pacing around me in circles since a little while ago.
Looking down at her, unable to stay still for even a moment and fidgeting, I felt puzzled.
Then she opened her mouth.
“Do you want something to drink?”
“…Even water is fine.”
“Okay, got it. …Here.”
“…Thanks.”
“Yeah!”
“….”
I felt as if I had become some kind of spectacle.
While drinking the water, I felt awkward about Yeon Haneul, who was still continuing to distract me.
Still… she was cute.
Every time our eyes met, I got drawn into her face as she smiled brightly, as if something made her happy.
Then, once we ran out of things to say, awkwardness arrived between us.
Forcing myself to break the mood, I spoke to her.
“Should we… sleep now? We have to get up early tomorrow too. Because of the competition.”
“…Yeah. Let’s sleep now.”
Yeon Haneul shyly nodded.
At that, I also became embarrassed for no reason.
The two of us stood there sheepishly, then walked to the bed.
The bed was wide enough for two people to sleep with room to spare.
“Can I turn off the light?”
“Yeah, turn it off.”
“I’m turning it off.”
With the light off, the room was dark.
Relying on the moonlight shining in from outside the window, I got under the blanket.
Yeon Haneul, lying on her side with her back to the window, was smiling.
She held out her hand to me.
“Give me your hand.”
“…Here.”
Lying on my side too, I reached out and clasped Yeon Haneul’s hand.
The soft, warm sensation felt pleasant.
Moreover, she was so pretty, facing me like this, that it was hard to take my eyes off her.
Her white-blue hair sparkled mysteriously under the moonlight, and her red eyes were extremely captivating.
“Sleep well.”
“You too. Sleep well.”
“….”
I was so conscious of Yeon Haneul’s gaze that I couldn’t sleep, nor could I close my eyes.
Even if I lay on my back and tried to sleep, the situation was the same.
So the best method would be for her to lie on her back and sleep too, but unfortunately, that was impossible.
‘I can’t tell her to sleep uncomfortably because of me.’
It was something from middle school.
I still couldn’t forget the conversation we had while sleeping together.
—I can’t sleep lying flat on my back.
—Why? Come to think of it, when you sleep, you always sleep on your side. Ah… is it because of your tail?
—Yeah. If I sleep like that, my tail gets pressed down and it’s uncomfortable. It’s not that I can’t sleep, but it bothers me.
—That makes sense. It must be hard for beastfolk to sleep lying flat on their backs. I didn’t know that.
—Still, I’m on the better side. My tail is small, so it’s fine, but imagine how stifling it must be for people with big tails like fox- or wolf-type beastfolk. Even more so for people with wings.
“What about merfolk-type humanoids? I heard some of them have legs that only turn into fins when they enter the water. Can’t they just sleep lying on their backs?”
“I don’t know anyone like that around me. But if there’s a type like you said, they probably can sleep lying on their backs since they don’t normally have tails. I’m jealous….”
“But you can sleep on your stomach, right?”
“No, I can’t do that either….”
“Why?”
“My chest gets in the way.”
“Ah….”
“Men supposedly sleep like that, but women like me can’t.”
Since I had heard about Yeon Haneul’s circumstances back then.
I couldn’t ask her to sleep lying on her back.
In the end, I had to spend the night facing her.
It was no different from torture to me.
I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep comfortably until she fell asleep.
It was while thinking this that her lips moved.
“Are you just… going to hold my hand?”
“….”
Yeon Haneul shook my reason.
Her expression, as if she both expected and guarded against something, invited misunderstanding.
Could I go further from here?
What did “going further” even mean in the first place?
All sorts of delusions and interpretations ran rampant in my head.
‘What is this? What is this? What is this really?’
Could I be mistaken?
While I couldn’t deny the doubt rising from a corner of my heart, I felt disappointed deep down.
Just holding hands wasn’t enough.
I summoned my courage and decided to act on my emotions.
Moving my other hand, I quietly placed it on Yeon Haneul’s shoulder.
“Ah….”
“….”
She could just shake it off if she hated it.
Yeon Haneul, touched by my hand, only let out a small surprised sound for a moment, but made no other response.
She neither questioned why I did it nor stopped me.
She merely nodded her head slightly with a trembling gaze.
Emboldened by her reaction, I lowered my hand as if caressing her shoulder, moving it to her waist.
Wrapping my arm around her waist, I pulled her gently.
Then she moved little by little and slipped right into my embrace.
“Gyeonu….”
“Haneul….”
Yeon Haneul was so close that our breaths touched.
Looking at her in the darkness, I couldn’t understand the situation.
I wondered if what she was feeling was similar to mine.
As if bewitched by something, we tried to press our bodies even closer.
The distance between our lips was gradually decreasing.
It was then that a sound was heard.
“Haneul, it’s the dormitory supervisor. Are you asleep right now? If you’re awake, could you open the door?”
“….”
The doorbell rang.
Along with the sound of knocking on the door, the dormitory supervisor’s voice came from outside.
Having come so close that our lips were about to brush, we suddenly came to our senses.
We hurriedly separated and turned our gazes toward the door.
“What business does the supervisor have?”
“Could she have caught me on my way to your room?”
“I thought I came without being noticed…. How about we just pretend to be asleep?”
I couldn’t help but feel dissatisfied at why she had to come at this exact moment.
I tried to persuade Yeon Haneul.
She seemed to be of the same mind.
Just then, the dormitory supervisor outside pressed the doorbell again.
“If you’re asleep, it can’t be helped. I’ll have to enter using my authority as supervisor. I’ll count to ten, and if there’s no answer, I’ll come right in.”
“…Did she really catch on?”
“…Gyeonu, hide somewhere for now. I have a bad feeling about this. Yes! Supervisor! Just a moment! I’ll come out right now, please wait!”
“Even if you tell me to hide, where? You know because you’ve heard, too. The supervisor is said to be excellent at detection magic. I don’t think hiding will solve this?”
Big trouble.
If caught by the dormitory supervisor, I’d not only get scolded severely, but I’d have to brace for considerable penalty points.
I might even face disciplinary action.
I wouldn’t really care personally, but I couldn’t cause trouble for Yeon Haneul, who worked hard to manage her grades.
Because of that, we hurriedly scrambled out of bed.
Finally, she spoke to me.
“Gyeonu, can you get out through the window?”
“What?”
“Fortunately, you only need to go up one floor, so you should be able to return to your room safely.”
“No, hey… isn’t that too much?”
“Please. I think this is the only way to avoid the supervisor’s eyes.”
“Ha….”
Yeon Haneul pleaded.
I clicked my tongue in disbelief.
But as she said, in order to safely escape the supervisor’s detection net, there was no other way.
In the end, I decided to climb the wall as she wished.
Wearing my shoes, I went out the window she opened for me.
“Gyeonu, I’m sorry….”
“It can’t be helped. I’ll get going.”
“Yeah…. Sleep well. Dream of me.”
Yeon Haneul, poking her head out the window slightly, couldn’t hide her sorry expression.
Seeing that, my feelings softened and I let out a short laugh.
“You dream of me too.”
“Yeah! Be careful.”
Yeon Haneul disappeared to open the door for the dormitory supervisor.
I quickly moved along the wall to avoid the supervisor’s detection.
For someone of the Sin-geom Doga to be clinging to the wall like a petty thief—my appearance was truly absurd.
Somehow reaching the upper floor lobby, I returned to my room.
“I’m tired….”
Just as I flopped down onto the bed, I got a message from Yeon Haneul.
I checked it.
[Haneul]: The supervisor seems to have caught on ㅠㅠ
[Haneul]: She said she won’t let it slide next time if this happens again
[Me]: No, but how on earth did she find out??
[Haneul]: I asked because I was curious too…
[Haneul]: It’s… she said she had a hunch ^^;
[Me]: She had a hunch? Insane…
Was this misfortune happening because our luck was low?
Having learned the full story through her, I was left dumbfounded.
Words wouldn’t come out.
It was then that I received a message from the dormitory supervisor.
[Supervisor]: Unpermitted cohabitation between opposite sexes in the dormitory can be grounds for expulsion in the worst case. ^^
[Supervisor]: Even if you receive permission for wholesome purposes, the door must remain unlocked. I’ll be conducting surprise patrols.
[Supervisor]: I told Haneul too, but there won’t be a next time.
[Supervisor]: Do Gyeonu, understood?
[Me]: Yes…
[Me]: Yes, understood…
To keep this from happening again.
If there came an occasion where I slept holding hands with Haneul again, I’d either be much more careful or book separate accommodations.
With my excitement cooled, I sighed.
As a last resort, I decided to sleep hugging a rabbit doll that seemed modeled after Yeon Haneul.
‘I want to hold Haneul again….’
Really.
Only my feelings for Yeon Haneul kept growing.
* * *
The class competition that had gone on for two weeks finally came to a close.
As Do Gyeonu had expected, in the first-year division, Gang Hanbyeol’s class took the championship following the flow of the game.
Through this incident, he made his name known once again to the students as well as to those showing interest in the academy.
In other words, the news that he had defeated O Junsik of the Heukma Oga in the class competition had spread as well.
“Absurd. Not only did that bastard O Junsik lose to Lord Toegwi’s disciple, but he had his clan’s treasure stolen from him as well?”
Geumgang Academy, second year, black magic department.
O Junsoo of the Heukma Oga.
Having heard the news from a student of his faction, he clicked his tongue in contempt.
The students following him carefully gauged his mood.
“Junsoo, what are you going to do? Are you going to retrieve the clan’s treasure from him?”
“The clan probably expects it too….”
“If you show Lord Toegwi’s disciple a lesson, wouldn’t your standing rise even higher than it is now?”
In fact, the students’ opinions were also what the Heukma Oga implicitly desired.
Nevertheless, O Junsoo snorted as if it wasn’t even worth listening to.
“Why should I do that?”
“….”
“Isn’t it too pathetic for a second-year like me to challenge a first-year like him to a spar or duel under the pretext of avenging the stolen clan treasure? It’d hurt my pride….”
“Th-then what are you going to do? Are you just going to leave it like this?”
“But the clan has spoken up too, so I can’t just stay still.”
O Junsoo scanned those present.
The students who met his eyes waited nervously for his words.
A smirk pulled at his lips as he shrugged.
“Anyone will do.”
“….”
“If any one of you retrieves the clan’s treasure from him, I’ll give a fitting reward.”
The achievements of the students following O Junsoo were the same as his own.
In other words, this was a proposal that allowed him to maintain the authority of being a second-year while taking practical benefits by targeting Gang Hanbyeol.
It was advantageous for the students as well.
Because they could receive the protection of the Heukma Oga while securing their future.
Reading their thoughts, he stretched his lips into a wide grin.
“Surely you wouldn’t lose, right? He’s only a first-year, after all.”
And so….
O Junsoo, the boss of the first-year first-semester final exams, became aware of Gang Hanbyeol’s existence.
He had become the childhood friend of the mid-boss.