Third-Year Debut (4)
Director Lee Hyeryeong had been laughing her soft hoho when she caught my face mottling red. She flinched, and the laugh cut off.
I shut my eyes and set about settling the anger boiling in my gut, and her voice reached me, careful now, colored with caution.
"Um... please don't be too upset. Vice-Captain Sophia must have had her reasons, you know?"
"What reasons?"
"There are a few. The most important is to make it known that the boss has someone she treasures. She is simply far too young, and far too beautiful."
"...And what does that have to do with this."
I spat it out sullenly, then clamped my mouth shut as a thought skimmed past. Wait... could it be.
"You've figured it out, I see. Yes. There are a great many men who harbor designs on the boss. At home and abroad alike."
"........."
Hwayeon's mother is the stateswoman with the firmest support and the most formidable power in the history of the Republic of Korea. And the woman herself is the boss who raised one of the largest raid teams in the country — young, beautiful, cold, and strong.
"And the fact that the boss truly loves you, Seoha, is part of the reason as well."
"...Even so, if you think of Hwayeon's dignity, it could have been handled a little more... gently."
"Ah."
Director Lee wore a look that said she hadn't thought that far, then smiled with all the warmth she could muster.
"On the contrary, it worked out rather well."
"What?"
I looked up at her sideways, my face asking what on earth she meant, and Director Lee laughed — ahahaha — and went on.
"You know that our boss is the child Her Excellency the President bore by IVF, as an unmarried mother, don't you?"
...What is she saying right now.
My brow twitched. I gathered Mana Sieve into my eyes and swept everything within five hundred meters of the building with Spatial Perception, searching for anyone listening in on this conversation. Hmm. Too many points to check; I couldn't be perfectly sure. But aside from the people on the eighteenth floor, no one seemed to be looking this way.
Seeing me suddenly scanning the place, Director Lee smiled faintly and said,
"This room is fully prepared against sound leakage, wiretaps, and surveillance. The conversation we're having now will never, absolutely never, reach anyone else..."
"What about lip-reading?"
"...Pardon?"
"I'm learning lip-reading too, you know? Watch a person's lips and you can tell exactly what they're saying. What about the chance someone like that is around? This place is glass across the whole front. You can see straight in from outside."
"Hm. I hadn't thought of that... I'll be careful."
Watching Lee Hyeryeong bow her head to me while owning the mistake left me feeling a little hollow, and I raised a hand to scratch my head.
"No, I'm not in any position to be taking an apology from you, Director. I was... a bit like that myself. Still, I wish Vice-Captain Sophia would at least know the difference between a moment for teasing and a moment that isn't..."
As my voice trailed off smaller and smaller, Director Lee looked at me and smiled, just faintly.
Of course she was sharp, and she already knew I was seeing Hwayeon, so she'd let her guard down a little — that was probably it. Still. You know. There's a line. Yeah.
Even so, being corrected by someone a good deal younger than her ought to have stung, and yet Director Lee actually seemed pleased. Is she happy that I hold Hwayeon dear?
"The boss's birth was a major issue for a time, so anyone who knows, knows. In any case, the officials on the government side are all the more pleased that a proper match has appeared for her."
"Why?"
"Because the boss is the only family Her Excellency has. If the boss were to conceive and give birth, that child would be a grandchild beyond any other to Her Excellency. Everyone is glad at the thought of Her Excellency's bloodline continuing."
Hmm. Deputy Minister Kim Hakjun really had let out that grandfatherly laugh, looking at me and Hwayeon... But this country isn't a monarchy. Do descendants even mean anything? I tried picturing Hwayeon pregnant with my child, and it made me happier than I cared to admit. Even so... one thing still didn't sit right, and I stuck my lip out and grumbled.
"I don't much like the Madam."
"What?!"
"Well, she tormented Hwayeon like that, didn't she. They seemed to reconcile a little later, but after I heard the story from Hwayeon, I was pretty disappointed in the Madam."
"Ah..."
Director Lee's face went blank. She looked as if she had no idea what to say, then turned her gaze this way and that, plainly at a loss.
Anyway, Auntie Sophia... I was not letting this go. Just you wait! I was swearing it to myself, that I'd give her a proper hard time, when Director Lee suddenly put on a mischievous smile.
"It isn't entirely Vice-Captain Sophia's fault, you know? You played a part in that incident yourself, Seoha."
"...Huh?"
"You called the boss this morning, didn't you? Have you forgotten what you said then?"
Eh? Eek. No way.
"That remark of yours was revealed, uncut, in front of every single raider belonging to Time River. All of it. Hohoho."
"E-everything?"
"Yes. Ev-erything. You called just before the morale speech ahead of the expedition. I never dreamed you would make a declaration that bold on the spot. Hehe, how moving it was... With this, you are Time River's now, and there's no wiggling out of it. Do remember — transfer anywhere else, and Time River's raiders will rise in revolt."
I stared blankly at Director Lee as she winked, playful, then covered my face with both hands.
This wasn't something to shove off on someone else. I should have been cursing myself first. Ugh.
A cold sweat was coming on when Director Lee let out a small, breathy laugh and — for some reason — turned a soft gaze on me, the way one might look at a son, and spoke.
"What brings you by today, of all days? Curious how the review board is coming along?"
Hm. If she'd married a little early and had a child, she'd be at an age to have a son around mine, or a bit younger... Is that why she's looking at me like that? A stand-in for a son?
"Ah, no. I trust you and Hwayeon will handle that just fine. It's nothing else. Hwayeon told me to come this morning, so I came, but where did she go? I didn't see her anywhere in the building."
"I see. The boss has gone to Crafters Maestro Korea, in Gangnam. She said she'd arrive around five, so if you wait a little, she'll be here."
"All right."
"Well then, please wait in the boss's office on the nineteenth floor. Talking with you is a pleasure, and I'd like to go on a little longer, but there are too many documents waiting on my signature. I can't spare much time."
"Sorry for taking your time. Oh, right — does Hwayeon have the access pass?"
"Yes. It should be in the boss's office."
"Got it."
When I stood, Director Lee looked regretful that we couldn't talk more. Somehow, it felt as if I'd scored quite a few points by calling out the lapse in protecting Hwayeon's information.
I watched her see me off for a moment, then thought I ought to throw in a little extra, and opened my mouth with a grin.
"Hang in there, Hyeryeong-noona."
At the honeyed line she paused, then broke into an even brighter smile. Fortunately, it didn't seem to have bothered her.
I reached the elevator and found it still climbing from the third floor. One floor up — taking the elevator for that felt silly. I'd walk.
As I headed for the emergency stairs right beside it, Franc drew close with a suggestive look, and her voice came without a sound.
"Are you interested in Director Lee Hyeryeong as well, Seoha?"
"...If you're asking whether I'm interested in her as a woman, then no. Firmly no."
I shut the heavy iron door. The way sound hung in that vertically sealed space felt strange.
"I'm just grateful she treats Hwayeon's work as if it were her own."
Hwayeon had compressed the years from seventeen to twenty into a handful of words and left it there, but I was a little curious about what had happened in between. Why Director Lee had needed money so badly. How my sister had been of help to Time River. Whether the Madam and Hwayeon had actually reconciled. How they'd grown Time River alongside the four attribute ability users from the early days. I asked Franc.
"Aren't you curious, Franc? Sophia said she smacked her father across the face at the family estate in Britain and ran off. I wonder if that's even true."
"I am curious enough that I would like to hear it, should I ever have the chance. House Edelberg is a distinguished house, enough that it remains even in my memory."
"Really? What kind of house?"
"A count's house of considerable history. Even in my time, it was a family that wielded great power in politics. But I heard that around the time I entered the Phase World, it came under political attack and its standing was beginning to fade. I do not know the details."
"...Did that house propose to you left and right too, Franc?"
"Hehe."
Seeing Franc laugh so gently, I wanted all over again to bend Sophia over and give that backside of hers a good hard spanking.
I reached the nineteenth floor and drew near the office, and the secretaries seated at the reception desk stared blankly at me in my school uniform. Then they startled, shot to their feet, and bowed deep at the waist.
"Whoa. You don't have to greet me like that."
"We couldn't possibly. The boss is away from her seat at present. Might I ask what business brings you?"
She was older — among the secretaries, that is. Face and figure both looked late twenties... Yikes. I scanned her naked. And I'd been trying to hold back.
Anyway. There was a mature air about her, and a little tension as she waited on my answer.
"Hwa— the boss called me here. But she was out, so I went to Director Lee on the eighteenth floor, and she told me to wait in the boss's office, so I came up."
"Is that so? I'll confirm that briefly."
Ooh. Professional to the bone. If it were me, once I understood, I'd have told her to go in and wait. Just then I felt the Certifier on my left wrist prick my skin, poke after poke. A call. From who?
I switched it on and checked the waiting screen. It was Hwayeon. The background showed a car interior — the white limousine I'd seen the day before yesterday — so she was on her way back.
Ah. The clothes she'd said she'd piece together with phase stones.
On the call with Hwayeon, I glanced at the secretary. She was watching me, tense, as I spoke with her.
The training ground at the main house. The one at the Madam's?
I ended the call and turned to the secretary.
"No need to go in and wait after all. I'll be on my way."
"Yes. Please take care, Mr. Jung Seoha."
I called the elevator and waited, and a fact I'd forgotten surfaced, leaving a bad taste in my mouth. My contract deposit was all set to vanish into a fine. So how was I supposed to cover the cost of a phase-stone jacket...?
The elevator arrived with a soft ding. I stepped in and looked at Franc, floating in the air. She caught my gaze and looked down at me.
Franc needed a sure way to equip herself too — a way to wear clothes. So she wouldn't have to hide her body, or cover it, out of shame anymore in a crowd.
"Is there something you wished to say?"
"How do we make clothes for you, Franc?"
Hearing me, Franc looked a little pleased. She rested both arms on my shoulders and opened her mouth with a tender expression.
"If I were to wear clothes... would you not grow bored, Seoha?"
That wasn't a tender look. That was dripping with sex appeal!!
At that heart-stirring smile I laughed — ahaha — and nodded.
"I'd be disappointed out of my mind. Even now, thanks to that pretty place of yours I can see between your legs, I'm already half-hard."
"Nn—!"
She'd looked playful, so I jabbed right back with something obscene, and Franc immediately covered her sex with both hands, her face flooding red.
"Seoha, you truly are a pervert!"
"And the Franc who finishes with it down her throat is a pervert too. A well-matched pair, aren't we?"
"Hey—!"
Needling Franc, who'd started the game, and drinking in the sight of her writhing with a tearful face — now that was a pleasure.
"Anyway, thinking of how you look when you wake up, I figure light could cover you. But that would show to other people's eyes too, so that's a bit of a problem."
At my words, Franc wiped the fluster from her face and sank into thought. Had she caught onto something? She seemed to be thinking hard, so I'd ask later.
Passing through the first-floor lobby, I ignored the stares gathering on me and made to step outside... then caught myself, and returned the temporary ID to the information desk.
"They told me to shred it, but I forgot and just came down with it."
"Ah, yes! I'll dispose of it."
Watching the receptionist take the card from me with both hands, all courtesy, left me oddly a little embarrassed. I waved her off as she moved to bow again, stepped outside, and found a white limousine already waiting in the lot in front of the building.
I dashed over. The door opened as if it had been waiting, and inside, facing each other, sat Hwayeon and Cha Soyoung.
"Come here."
I returned the greeting to Cha Soyoung, who lowered her head in a quiet, expressionless bow and then raised it, and sat down beside Hwayeon, who welcomed me in her usual cool way, arms folded just beneath her chest.
"Did you wait long?"
"Just got here."
"We arrived fifteen minutes ago and have been waiting."
I looked at Cha Soyoung, who amended Hwayeon's words with razor precision, and Hwayeon, flustered, unfolded her arms — then folded them again, face gone red.
"...Just now?"
"T-to me, it was just now!"
"All right. I'll let you have that."
Then the limousine must have pulled away. A vibration so faint it hardly seemed to be there at all rose through the seat.
I caught Hwayeon's folded arm and pulled. Flustered, she braced, forcing strength into it to hold. She was conscious of Cha Soyoung's eyes across from us, no doubt.
I grinned at Cha Soyoung, who was watching the two of us without so much as a blink, then lifted a finger and poked Hwayeon in the side.
"Eek—?!"
My finger sank halfway into that soft, plush waist. A strange little moan slipped out of her; she flinched, and her arms came undone — and I snatched her slender, soft hand.
She fidgeted in my grip, shy, so I laced our fingers. She flushed and turned her face the other way. The very picture of a bashful maiden.
At the sight, a playful urge rose in me, quiet and sure.
"Your dear husband's right here. Where are you looking?"
Hwayeon flinched hard enough that I felt it through our joined hands, and Cha Soyoung started too, and looked at me.
"Still not turning around. Come on, show me your face."
"Nn..."
Those ears, ripe and red, were honestly adorable. Hwayeon really was a shy one. Hehe.
Franc had taken a seat beside Cha Soyoung and was watching Hwayeon with a look of quiet enjoyment. Yesterday I'd been too sleepy and let it pass, but tonight I was really going to have to torment Franc too.
Hwayeon slowly turned her head to look at me, and on her face it was all laid bare — embarrassment, shame, joy, a thoroughly complicated heart.
She was so lovely that I reached out, caught her by the waist, and pulled her in.
"Hnn—?!"
With a cute little cry she tumbled against my chest, and Hwayeon stammered, not knowing what to do with herself. She was in a stiff suit, but it couldn't hide the fullness of her breasts; a soft, yielding thrill passed into my chest where we touched, and a smile rose to my mouth.
I spoke to Cha Soyoung, who was doing nothing but watch the two of us.
"Vice-Captain Cha Soyoung?"
"...Yes?"
"Even if it's an eyesore, please understand. Hwayeon's so cute I just get the urge to tease her."
"Pft. It is quite all right. I find the view enjoyable myself."
"You do?"
"I do."
Hearing this, Hwayeon hid her face behind my head as if she were truly mortified. Then she wrapped her arms around my waist and gave a slight pull — and before I knew it, I was the one held in her arms.
In the blink of an eye she'd turned the tables on me. For a second I thought it was magic, but what did it matter. It still felt good.
Quietly I slipped a hand beneath her suit jacket and stroked her waist. When my hand found her side I felt her flinch, but she didn't stop me. She only breathed out, a small breath through her nose.
More than that, the feel of her was no joke. The texture of whatever she wore underneath — shirt or blouse, I couldn't tell — mingled with Hwayeon's heat and turned into what I could only call a devilish sensation. I couldn't take my hand away.
I was lost, feeling along her waist, when the limousine came down off the elevated road and began to run straight toward where the mountains showed.
"Is the house near the mountain in Bangbae-dong?"
"Yes. For the training ground, and other reasons, we built the house on the slopes of Umyeon Mountain and Maebongjae."
"Isn't that against the Forest Protection Act? I think I heard in social studies that mountains in Seoul fall under it."
"Which is why we couldn't build on the mountain itself. We bought a property nearby and built the house there. I only heard that getting the permit for the underground training ground was the difficult part."
"Is that so?"
While we talked, the car had already turned into a quiet lane of high-end homes.
Every house was on the scale of a mansion, and even the walls were either sleek or dressed in ivy, old-fashioned and elegant. It looked like a place where only the rich gathered to live. Each one had a beautifully kept garden, too.
Then we stopped at the main gate of the largest house among them. A grand iron gate began to glide open, left and right, and the car slipped through the gap into a garden of finely laid lawn, cool and bright.