Sleeping Beside You
We ended up going twice more in the bathroom.
Twice more — and yet she'd jumped me the second we stepped into the shower, then passed out before I even came. What the hell was that?
It pissed me off that she'd gotten herself off and then just collapsed, so I didn't let up no matter how much she begged. I kept thrusting until I'd come twice. By the end she was convulsing all over like she'd completely broken, pleading with me to forgive her, and damn if that wasn't incredible. The way she cried and begged with those unfocused eyes was just...
Doing this even to Se-a noona... yeah. I really must have a sadistic streak.
"It still feels like you're inside me."
"What a cheap little pussy."
I said it as we lay side by side on the bed, her hand pressed against her groin. Se-a noona flinched, then rolled toward me and reached out an arm.
"I'm sorry, Dan-woo. Don't be mad anymore, okay?"
She murmured it while stroking my stomach.
"I'm not mad. I'm just speechless."
After we'd finished in the bathroom, noona had completely passed out. We were both soaked in sweat and needed another shower — so what was I supposed to do when she collapsed like that?
What else? I had to handle everything myself.
With this small, weak body of mine, I washed her too, then hauled her onto the bed. So why did I still feel sticky with sweat even after showering? That was why I'd been sulking this whole time. Noona had come to not long after we got into bed, and she'd been fidgeting like she was sitting on nails ever since.
"I already said I was wrong, didn't I? How was I supposed to know it would feel that... that good?"
"Haa..."
Truth was, I'd gotten over it a while ago. Who could stay mad with a woman that angelically beautiful acting like this right next to them? Noona flinched at my sigh, and I slowly scooted closer.
"I'm not mad."
"Really?"
"Yeah..."
The hand that had been stroking my stomach climbed to my shoulder. When I didn't pull away, she drew me in and wrapped me in her arms.
"Hehe. This feels nice. Like I'm dreaming."
"Dreaming? Don't even joke about that."
Noona laughed like she found that funny, then started patting my back in a steady rhythm. It was incredibly reassuring. Comfortable.
"It is a dangerous thing to say. If I woke up from a dream this happy... I don't think I could handle it."
"That's not going to happen, so don't worry."
Fighting off the sleep creeping in, I asked the question I'd been wanting to ask.
"Hey, noona."
"Hm?"
"Pregnancy... you're not worried about that?"
It had been nagging at me since I'd come the first time. Given how much I'd finished inside her, if she happened to be ovulating, she'd get pregnant for sure. Pregnancy itself didn't bother me. What I hated was the idea of noona stepping down as my Escort Officer because of it. I didn't want anyone other than Se-a assigned to me.
"Pregnancy?"
She asked it like she had no idea what I was talking about. Then, as if it clicked:
"You're scared of becoming a dad, huh?"
"Huh?"
"Don't worry. Escort Officers are always on medication so our periods don't interfere with our duties."
She ruffled my hair as she said it. Falling asleep like this would feel amazing, but I needed to say what I had to say and clear up the misunderstanding.
"I'm not scared of becoming a dad. It'd be our kid. Why would that scare me?"
"Our... kid."
The hand stroking my hair froze. I looked up — she was staring off into the distance with a dazed expression. I poked her cheek. She snapped back to herself and slowly started stroking again.
"What were we talking about?"
"That I'm not scared of having a baby."
"Ah, right. Sorry. Keep going."
Se-a noona gave me an embarrassed smile.
"What I'm worried about is the new Escort Officer who'd replace you if you got pregnant."
"You're scared of someone else?"
I shook my head. That's not it, noona.
"I'm not scared of someone else. I just don't want my Escort Officer to be anyone but you."
She didn't say a word. Instead, she pulled me into her arms and held on tight. My face buried itself between her breasts, and her scent washed over me.
Same body wash, but it smells completely different on her.
She didn't even have a change of clothes, so she'd thrown on the loosest thing from my closet — and she still smelled different. The body wash, the clothes, even the bed we were lying in — all of it was soaked in my scent. And yet coming off her was a completely different, wonderful fragrance.
"It's okay. Escort Officers suppress our periods with medication."
I was a little surprised there was even a drug for that. A pill that stops your period? In a world where convenience stores don't even sell condoms, the existence of something like that was pretty remarkable.
"They don't issue it to regular women. The government wants as many babies as possible."
Even if Extraction had solved the population problem, it wasn't a real solution in the truest sense. Until the gender ratio evened out, they'd keep teaching people to have kids and keep the system running.
"Then how come you get to take it?"
"Because I'm an Escort Officer. It'd be a problem if an Escort Officer got pregnant and couldn't work, wouldn't it?"
There was the anxiety a man would feel if his Escort Officer suddenly changed, and the loss to a government that had invested so much. I'd heard it costs a fortune to train a single Escort Officer.
So it wasn't as simple as I'd thought.
I scolded myself for how naive I'd been a moment ago. Noona swept my hair back with a warm smile. Surrounded by that soft, good-smelling space, feeling her warm body heat, the sleep I'd been holding off came crashing down.
"Would it be okay... if I loved you?"
I was already nodding off, barely able to hold on, when noona asked me in a trembling voice. Or maybe she was asking herself.
Half-asleep. The words just slipped out of my mouth, my mind already half-drowned in sleep. I had a vague sense that her arms tightened around me, and then I was out.
Se-a looked down at Dan-woo, sleeping soundly in her arms. She brushed aside the hair long enough to cover his eyes, revealing a face so cute it was hard to believe he was a man.
Just moments ago, she had tangled her body thoroughly with this adorable boy. Their first kiss. She had given him her first time. Even now, the sheer unreality of it made her arms tighten around him on their own.
"Nngh..."
Dan-woo fussed in his sleep, apparently too cramped, and she finally loosened her grip — proof enough that this wasn't a dream.
He had been worried about her getting pregnant. Not out of fear of becoming a father, but out of fear that she would have to step down as his Escort Officer.
"How could I not love him?"
Every word, every little thing he did was cute and precious. Anyone who wouldn't fall for a man like this would have to be a lesbian.
And that man had said he loved her. He had worked his hips so hard on top of her, dragged her down into a swamp of pleasure. Came inside her again and again. Made her climax more times than she could count.
And that same boy...
Remembering those words, her arms tightened again. Not only that — her insides started to heat up, as if his cock were still inside her.
I need to sleep. I have to fall asleep.
She repeated it to herself, soothing herself, chasing a sleep that wouldn't come.
"I love you too... Dan-woo."
She pressed her lips to the top of his head, and then she drifted off as well.
"Haa... how the hell do we clean this up?"
Half a day later, I stared at the sofa — its stains already dried stiff — and groaned. Up until this morning — well, lunchtime, technically — I'd been in a great mood. Se-a noona sleeping next to me, the two of us eating together when she woke up. It had felt like we were a married couple.
Even just waiting for her to wake up had been enjoyable. I didn't often get the chance to look at her this close. I'd still been happy when she opened her eyes, when we laughed over stupid little jokes all the way downstairs. And then I saw the disaster waiting for us, and reality hit me like a truck.
"S-should we start with the floor?"
"Yeah. Let's do that."
The floor beneath the sofa was sticky with all kinds of fluids — a trail of her juices, dripped as she'd walked toward the shower. We wrung out a rag and wiped it all up. Once the floor was clean, we decided the sofa was a lost cause and called a cleaning service, then took care of lunch.
"Cup ramen somehow tastes extra good in a mood like this."
"Right? It's really good."
We slurped our instant noodles in companionable silence, but every time our eyes met, we started laughing. Yesterday's intense sex had felt amazing, but this was incomparably better. If yesterday had been the peak of physical pleasure, today was the peak of emotional fulfillment.
"There's nowhere decent to relax without the sofa."
"Why? The bed seems fine to me."
After we finished eating, we naturally headed for the bed. Sunlight filtered through the half-drawn curtains, bathing the room in a soft glow. A naturally sentimental atmosphere settled over us.
"Dan-woo...?"
The house was silent, just like after I'd ended the stream yesterday. But unlike yesterday, each other's presence brought nothing but comfort. We held hands, staring up at the ceiling, listening to each other breathe, until noona spoke.
"What?"
"There's something I've been... wondering about?"
I turned my head to look at her. Taking that as an answer, she asked:
"Are we... dating?"
"...Huh?"
Wait. What even were we? An Escort Officer and the man she was supposed to protect? Just two people who'd slept together? We'd confirmed we loved each other last night, sure, but... so what did that make us?
"I-I'm not asking to be your girlfriend! I'm not shameless enough to want something that far above me. But still..."
Noona shot upright and blurted it out in a panic. There was only one reason I was letting her ramble like this. Because I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I wanted to see just how far she'd go.
"But even just a tiny bit is fine. Could you... love me? Even a little?"
By the end she'd completely lost her nerve, pleading like a rain-soaked puppy. What had made an angel like her this timid? Was it this world with its warped gender ratio? Was it me, for saying I loved her without ever properly confessing? Or was she just this shy to begin with?
One thing was certain: I was the only person who could put that worry to rest.
"Noona."
I shifted our joined hands and laced our fingers together.
She didn't answer. Instead, she kissed me. A kiss with no greed in it at all — nothing but affection.
"I don't know if I'm allowed to be this happy."
Noona said it while wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes. I smiled at the sight.
"You're going to be even happier from here on out. Don't start talking like that already."
She covered her eyes with her hand, embarrassed. But her twitching lips were still fully visible, so it didn't do much.
Becoming a couple didn't change anything, really. We still talked about nothing in particular and burst out laughing over the smallest things. If anything had changed, it was that we started smiling every time our eyes met. But that had been happening since this morning, so it didn't seem related to becoming a couple at all.
"Hey, Dan-woo?"
"Yeah?"
Whenever she called my name like that, the conversation always bounced somewhere new. I perked up my ears, wondering what she'd bring up this time — and she pulled out a topic I never saw coming.
"You can come several times a day, right?"
"W-well, yeah?"
"And I get the feeling you like dirty stuff, too."
Where was she going with this? I nodded slowly and waited for her to continue.
"Don't you want to do it with other women, too?"
...So she was worried I'd cheat? I asked, just to be sure. But the answer that came back blew my imagination out of the water.
"A man, cheating? That's a funny joke."
Noona let out a hollow little laugh.
"Dan-woo, if you're okay with it... I'd want you to be with lots of women."
"...Huh?"
If this were a web novel, the title would be something like this:
Girlfriend Starts Offering Other Women on Day One of Dating