Chapter 21: Reward (1)
Chapter 21: Reward (1)
It was at least a good while later when I finally opened my eyes. In the dimly lit room, I could sense that much instinctively.
The ship must have departed, as the sea stretched out toward the horizon outside the window.
Despite the night having fallen, brilliant lights filled the surroundings. I stood up, drawn to them as if possessed.
It was dark. What time was it?
I reflexively reached out and searched for my smartphone.
[8:41 PM]
…I slept for a hell of a long time.
It wasn't exactly surprising. When seasickness hits, your physical condition naturally plummets, and when that happens, humans tend to try and recover through sleep.
I let out a groan as I pushed myself up.
“…I don’t feel any swaying.”
To be honest, when I first heard about the cruise and thought about going, I was worried.
I was famous for my motion sickness, after all. No matter how much I loved my family, the prospect of being bedridden with nausea for the entire trip was not a pain I could easily endure.
Inwardly, I had agonized over what to do and even searched for remedies here and there.
I eventually gave up after realizing there was no real answer.
So, for someone like me, the current situation was incredibly welcome.
First of all, there was no seasickness. My churning stomach and aching head felt like they had settled down completely.
In fact, I felt like I’d just woken up from a very refreshing rest. I couldn't tell if it was because the bed was good or the ship was high-quality.
Well, good is good. I tried not to overthink it as I got out of bed and stretched my body.
Only then did a few things catch my eye.
First, the room. Earlier, I had been too dizzy and nauseous to look properly, but the room was more luxurious and refined than I had expected.
I hadn't known those two vibes could coexist so well…
I suppose expensive places really do live up to the price tag.
Not that I paid for it, though.
Now that I was up, maybe I should grab something to eat. Would there be anywhere open at this hour? Just as I was wondering what it would be like, since this was my first cruise—
Ding-dong.
I perked up at the sudden sound of the doorbell.
Who is it? Are they delivering something since I missed the formal dinner?
Or room service? I didn't order anything, though.
As I opened the door while wondering, the person I saw was—
“Looks like you just woke up. Hungry?”
It was Kang Yu-min, drenched in sweat as if she had just finished working out.
She was holding a bag of snacks in one hand.
“…I think I’m a little hungry.”
“A little? Please. You left without eating because you said you were going to puke. You must be starving.”
“Am I?”
Despite my questioning tone, Yu-min brushed past me and walked into the room as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Oho, your room isn't that much different from ours, is it?”
“It’s a VIP room on the top floor. It’s probably the same.”
“I guess so. Interesting.”
“What’s so interesting about it?”
Yu-min hummed to herself as she wandered around.
Her sweat-slicked skin glistened, and her damp hair, which looked like it might start steaming, clung to her skin.
“Did you go work out?”
“Yeah, they have a gym here too. Thank god.”
“Thank god, my ass. Don’t overdo it. You’ll ruin your body.”
“Ruin my body? You ruin it by not exercising.”
Yu-min set the bag of snacks down with a thud and glanced at me.
That look.
To me, having spent nearly every day stuck to her for the past month, that gaze was crystal clear.
“Hey, wait—”
“I’m gonna go wash up, okay?”
“Ah, shit, listen to me for a—”
Yu-min stripped her clothes off immediately. And she didn't just take them off.
She pointedly threw the clothes she was wearing at me.
The sweat-soaked garments slapped against my face. The scent of sweat brushing past my nose carried a faint, suggestive musk that stirred my desires.
To be honest, it didn't feel bad. Yu-min probably did it knowing exactly how I’d react.
It was obvious, seeing how she marched straight into the shower room completely naked the moment I pulled the clothes off my face.
“Hey…”
“You want to wash up too?”
When I hesitated instead of following, she narrowed her eyes at me. Yu-min was smirking.
“You usually wash up after waking up, don’t you? Or what, are you suddenly shy?”
I wondered who this provocation was supposed to benefit. I hesitated for a moment, then let out a deep sigh and took off my clothes.
“…Why is it already standing up?”
“It’s normal to have an erection when you wake up, you dummy.”
“This brat…”
“What?”
“Calling your Noona a dummy?”
“Because you are a dum— ugh.”
The bathroom, which housed the shower booth, was far from modest.
The windows facing the sea were designed so that no one could see in from the outside, allowing one to enjoy the blue of the ocean rushing past without worrying about privacy.
The wide windows, stretching from top to bottom, seemed designed to let you enjoy the view even while lying or sitting in the bathtub.
Complete with a bathtub and shower booth that evoked the blue sea, the bathroom itself offered a sense of openness and refreshment, as if I had rented out a private beach.
As Yu-min looked at the bathtub, she naturally gripped my cock tight, cutting me off.
“I told you to stop doing that. It actually hurts.”
“Then stop calling me a dummy. If you apologize, I’ll use my mouth.”
She tossed the words out as if she were doing me a favor. Feeling a sense of familiarity at her words, I gave a passing apology.
Of course, Yu-min probably didn't expect a sincere apology either.
Naturally, we began filling the bathtub and laid our bodies inside.
“So, did you do anything while I was asleep? I think I slept for about six hours.”
Sitting across from me, Yu-min wiggled her toes as she answered.
“Well, we all went to that formal dinner thing and ate… Unnie and Yuri went to see a musical. Me? You know. I went to the gym.”
It was evening. The fallen darkness swayed along the sea, and atop it, we were filling the bathtub without a single tremor.
It was an intimate environment, to say the least. Yet, even in this setting, Yu-min was acting no different than she did at home.
That was the comfortable part. To be honest, compared to Eldest Noona or Yuri, that was Yu-min’s strength.
The fact that we could always care for each other, diss each other, tease, or hit each other like something more than friends but less than lovers, bickering affectionately.
So, I absentmindedly pulled out my smartphone. It was waterproof, so it didn't matter if it got a little wet or even dropped in the water.
“You’re gonna drop it again.”
“It’s waterproof. You should’ve bought a waterproof one too.”
“Must be nice having money to burn, huh?”
“…Don’t we actually have money to burn? Anyway, once I play some games during my free time today and tomorrow—”
The cruise had Wi-Fi. However, I hadn't turned it on yet, and I hadn't turned on my data either.
Any contact I’d get would just be a text or a call. Usually, that was the case.
That was why I froze for a moment when I saw the message that appeared on the screen.
It was a sudden reminder of a certain fact.
Even if the LAN cable was pulled, the Family-Friendly Game ran normally and gave me quests.
It was the same now.
[Purchase condoms at the cruise ship's convenience store with your Second Noona, Kang Yu-min.]
[Reward: Automatic Contraception Function added]
The Family-Friendly Game installed on my smartphone was giving me a quest.
And it came with a type of reward I had never seen before.
As I stared blankly at the screen, Yu-min peeked from behind it.
Actually, it was something I could have expected.
Hadn't I already received a luxury cruise trip package as an additional reward? I knew well that cash wasn't the only reward, and I figured these types of rewards might be given in the future…
But I thought that would be limited to new rewards. Rewards that could realistically exist.
So, the maximum limit of rewards I had imagined was, at most, shares in Anurtin, additional functions for the Family-Friendly Game, or a new vehicle.
Material rewards, or things that could be material.
Not this kind of reward.
What the hell was an "Automatic Contraception Function"?
How did it even work? If it was a function limited to the game, there was no need to announce it so grandly, and even if someone got pregnant in the game, it wouldn't have any impact.
There was no one to answer my questions. This game wasn't exactly the type to kindly explain everything, after all.
“What is it? Why the sudden blank face? Is there something?”
I had to block Yu-min as she tried to peek at my phone, turning off the screen and setting it down.
I didn't know what would happen. I didn't know how Yu-min would react if she saw this, or how I would respond to her reaction.
…No, that’s not it.
That’s a lie. I actually knew exactly how Yu-min would react. Because Yu-min had been dying to do it with me for an entire month.
Because she had crossed the final line, mixed her body with mine, and desperately wanted my cock to pierce her pussy and pound against her uterus.
Because she wanted me to ejaculate like that and fall into the deep abyss together, hiding it was the right decision.
“Just… a little dizzy. I spaced out for a second.”
It was an obvious lie. Yu-min knew it was a lie, too.
But Yu-min was quick-witted, and she easily noticed the attitude in my words that signaled I didn't want her to ask.
“Hmm, really?”
The water in the tub rippled, and as we felt the comfort of the hot water, it was a natural conclusion that we would just wash together and nothing more.
Yu-min seemed inwardly disappointed by my lying and sudden drawing of a line, and since I had received such a quest, I couldn't interact with her normally either.
Yes, I had to admit it. I wanted it too.
I also wanted to cross the line with Yu-min, to do things siblings shouldn't do, and to completely warp our relationship.
But if, in the midst of that, I gained some unknown method of contraception…
There was no telling how far we would fall. It was obvious that Eldest Noona or Yuri would notice.
Even now, wasn't I trying to strictly (strictly, in my own way) control Yu-min’s entry because we’d be caught if Noona or Yuri came by and rang the doorbell?
So, all these actions were right. I stood up from the bathtub without a shred of guilt.
Swallowing the lingering regret, I intended to ignore the quest as if nothing had happened.
But there was one thing I overlooked.
“Gotcha.”
Yu-min wasn't exactly a person who listened well.
“Uh, hey, hey!”
I shouted, but it was already too late. As if to check what I had seen to make me act like that, Yu-min snorted and turned on the screen.
“…Ah.”
She froze upon seeing the message displayed clearly.
[Purchase condoms at the cruise ship's convenience store with your Second Noona, Kang Yu-min.]
[Reward: Automatic Contraception Function added]
“…You pervert. Seriously, seriously, seriously a pervert…”
With a flushed face, Yu-min insulted me while hugging my smartphone to her chest to hide the screen.
By the time I noticed, that bitch’s lips were already curled into a wide, unmistakable smirk.
“Do you really want to do it with me that badly? You pervert.”
Yu-min still believed the quests originated from my own mental imagery.
Frustratingly, even as I swallowed a groan, I had no words to refute her.