Orientation
*The setting of this novel is Earth in a parallel universe.
The two of them seemed satisfied with a single drink, but I ordered my fifth large iced americano. I collected it from the counter and sat back down at A-jeong's table.
The two of them sat across from me in identical poses, staring without pause — eyes dripping with honey, chins propped in their hands.
Slurp.
A third of the coffee vanished in one go. The thirst had eased enough that I set the cup down on the table.
"A-jeong, you're only free until morning?"
"Yeah. I have to head back to Dongnimmun… home. I've got that mission."
Jumi glanced at A-jeong once, then chose not to press the question. A-jeong's mission was to attach a scroll to Hyeong-cheol.
"Hmm… alright. And Hye-yun called you this morning?"
"Yeah. She said since I'm going to the pet shop anyway, just buy two pretty retrievers. Originally she and Unnie were supposed to go together, but once she heard I was going, she just told me to pick them up."
"Ah… no way. Never mind."
I didn't bother asking why she was stopping by a pet shop. If she needed to attach dog-uterus creation scrolls, what other reason would there be?
"Don't go inside the house. Those guys are seriously low-quality scum."
Do not worry. She no longer harbors so much as a grain of feeling toward any man. Once Seo Hyeong-cheol's disposition has been altered, the plan was to immediately report their crimes to both the Korean police and the Pakistani authorities.
Was?
"Ah…"
I glanced up at empty air for a moment, then looked back down. A-jeong followed my gaze upward and smiled with quiet significance.
"Still, be careful."
"Okay."
I checked the watch on my wrist. Of all the watches the Constellation had left at the house, this was the most understated one I could find. Some kind of diver's watch — when I looked it up, the price tag of ten million won nearly knocked me over.
"Hmm. Shall we get going? It's nine-thirty."
"Yeah."
The two of them stood, slipped on their coats, stacked the empty cups, and Jumi loaded them onto a tray before rising. I drained what was left of mine in one pull, set it on the tray, and stood as well. A-jeong hooked her arm through my right.
"I wonder if those guys who used to like you will pick a fight with me for no reason."
A hundred percent they will. The only question is whether they'll do it petty or bold.
"Huh? Nobody ever hit on me, though? They only ever hit on Jumi nonstop…"
I tilted my head. Whether it was because she was too beautiful or because no one had the courage, the fact that A-jeong had never been approached put me in a good mood.
While we waited for Jumi, I noticed three girls from the next table heading out of the café. They walked arm-in-arm like best friends — around 156 to 158 centimeters, cute faces that kept catching my eye.
A little too intense for just friends, aren't they?
"Let's go, babe."
At her words I looked back at A-jeong. Soft, yielding breasts pressed against my left arm as Jumi linked arms with me too. Only then did we leave the shop and head toward the main gate.
"A-jeong, load up on as many classes as you can. You can take twenty-one credits, right? If you can graduate by then, you should. You're in the second semester of sophomore year, so just one extra course each term should roughly get you there."
"Okay. I'll do that."
"What about me?"
"Looking at your retakes, just focus on what you're already doing."
"Hehe."
Jumi rested her head against me and grinned. Mid-February was still cold enough that students walking toward campus kept rubbing their hands together.
We passed under the railway tunnel and stopped at the crosswalk — and there were those same three girls, standing side by side, laughing about something that clearly delighted them.
"Ian-ssi. Do you like them?"
A-jeong whispered against my ear with a smile. I shook my head, then leaned in to whisper back.
"I think they're girls I slept with in the future. Just for a moment, but I can see it."
A-jeong snorted a quiet laugh and rested her head against me again.
The light turned green and students surged across the boulevard in a wave. The anticipation and excitement on every face suggested most of them were freshmen.
We passed through the side entrance of the main gate. The three girls were frowning at the campus map, clearly lost on how to find the front of the grand auditorium. A-jeong unhooked her arm, gave me a meaningful smile, and walked over to them.
"Um… you look like freshmen. Need any help?"
"Ah!!! Yes. Thank you so much."
All three bowed in greeting, and A-jeong dipped her head slightly in return.
"Where are you looking for?"
"Um… it says in front of the grand auditorium…"
"We're headed there too — want to come with us?"
"Thank you."
The three of them beamed and bowed again. One thing was certain: they were going to be even prettier than Jumi.
A-jeong walked between them, and we followed.
"Which department are you in, Unnie?"
"Business Administration. So which departments were you hoping for, juniors?"
Since admissions were done by social-sciences cluster, at the preliminary assembly you had to write your preferred department on a slip of paper. The student council then sorted the class sections from those and notified everyone.
"We're Business Administration too. That's why we got assigned to Commerce Class G."
Just as I thought…
"Ah!! So you really are my juniors. I'm Class of '01, Commerce Class G."
"What? Wow… should we introduce ourselves to our senior again?"
"No need. How about a quick intro starting from the leftmost?"
They paused in front of the academic building. Jumi and I naturally joined the circle.
"Yes. I'm Lee Ye-eun, from Daewoong Foreign Language High School."
"I'm also from Daewoong Foreign Language High — Lee Eun-ae."
"Same school. Lee Ji-eun."
Each of them bowed once and met our eyes in turn.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Seo A-jeong, Class of '01. This is my best friend Park Jumi, also '01. And this is Kim Ian, Class of '03 — boyfriend to both me and Jumi. We're all Commerce Class G."
When A-jeong introduced them, they bowed to Jumi, then turned to greet me — and their heads snapped up.
"Hello… wait? '03?"
Well, who would look at me and think Class of '03?
Standing next to them, my build and looks made me seem a year or two older than even A-jeong. That was the consensus I'd compiled from my women under command, of course.
"Yeah. I've got a pretty solid frame, so I look a bit older. Drop the formal speech. Ye-eun."
I smirked at the most startled of the three and held out my hand. She wiped the awkwardness from her face, smiled, and took it.
"Okay. Ian. But are you seriously dating both of these seniors? Does that mean you're going for polygamy?"
"Yeah. Polygamy."
Only then did Eun-ae and Ji-eun step forward and shake hands as well. They kept glancing back and forth between me, A-jeong, and Jumi. Then something shifted in their eyes. The three of them looked at each other and nodded.
Judging by how closely they stuck together, I was certain those three were dating each other.
"Babe. We'll head in first. Catch up after you talk with the three of them. Even past ten is fine. We don't go into the auditorium until around ten-thirty anyway."
A-jeong dragged Jumi off with a clear go seduce them energy, and the three girls bowed deeply after her. Then they turned and came toward me.
"So are you going to date even more women?"
"Of course. If pretty girls like you like me, I'd be happy to date and marry you. For reference, I'm filling at least ten spots no matter what."
I'm already past ten.
With a hundred billion won and the polygamy deposit for ten or more wives already paid, there were no further restrictions.
The three of them locked eyes again. We settled comfortably on a bench in front of the academic building. With me in the center, the prettiest of the three — Ji-eun — sat on my left, the shy-looking Eun-ae on my right, and the most lively and bubbly Ye-eun beside Eun-ae.
"You three are dating each other, right?"
I said it as I saw it, and they nodded. All three looked up at me with anxious little faces. It felt like three hamsters staring at their owner.
"Y-yeah… we shared a dorm room for all three years of high school. We got close, and by the summer break of senior year we decided to start dating."
"I figured. Even back at Stella Bucks, the skinship was way too much for just friends."
Touching cheeks, overlapping hands and stroking them — it went well beyond ordinary girl-to-girl affection.
"But how did you know?"
"Some of my women are lesbians. Actually, at this point lesbian is basically the default. I allow lesbian play between my women."
Their faces flushed scarlet. All three of them started trading glances across me at a rapid pace.
"Is your type glamorous, like A-jeong Unnie and Jumi Unnie?"
All three were clearly A-cups, with hips around thirty-one or thirty-two inches — petite frames.
"Hmm. Bodies can be cultivated. I just look at faces. You three are more than fine."
"Ahh~~"
"Why the interest in me?"
It seemed they'd already made some kind of pact about marrying one man together. Same-sex marriage was possible, but family opposition was usually so fierce that lesbians and gays often brought in one man or one woman as cover.
"Y-yeah… we figure we have to get married eventually… but our families are conservative. When we came out, everything blew up. All three of us."
Conservative households, Daewoong Foreign Language High graduates — you couldn't judge people on that alone, but these three seemed solid enough.
"Okay. So your parents told you to at least do polygamy?"
They nodded.
"But why me?"
"You're handsome, you say you're doing polygamy so you clearly have money, and the way A-jeong Unnie and Jumi Unnie were looking at you in Stella Bucks made it seem like you treat them really well."
The shyest of them, Eun-ae, laid it out at length, and the other two nodded along. Ji-eun on my left lightly brushed my hand, and I turned toward her.
"On the way over here earlier, we were only talking about you. We said we should find a guy like that at school and date him — all three of us at once."
Huh…
My future self had apparently dated them the same way. Maybe A-jeong had read their leanings and drawn them in back then, just like now.
"Answer me this one thing properly and I'll date you."
Roles reversed. Honestly, in the old days, the idea of girls like these offering to date me would have been overwhelming. Three beauties, packaged as a set.
"Huh?"
"Hymens. Do you still have them? Just answer. I'll date you even if you don't."
I said it shamelessly, and they nodded so hard their heads nearly came off. Then they shouted in unison:
"We do!!"
Then do I even need to go to OT?
I considered it, then decided to attend at least until the first round ended — or duck out before it started. I'd be running into them in class all semester; the least I could do was exchange greetings.
"Alright. If it looks like I'm leaving OT early today, the three of you follow me out."
"Okay."
It was a little past ten, so I stood. Ji-eun hesitated, then linked her arm through my left. I nodded, and Eun-ae took the other arm.
"B… babe."
"Heh… yeah. What is it, Ji-eun?"
"Nothing… just. We're fine with the stares, but… b-babe. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. You saw earlier — I was arm-in-arm with both of them."
If I hadn't seen the fragments of the future, if I hadn't fully absorbed Kang Ho's memories, the stares might have bothered me a little. But now it didn't matter at all.
The four of us walked toward the grand auditorium. Already the noise of a crowd was rising from the top of the stairs, and someone was calling out names — roll call, apparently.
And when I reached the top of those stairs, I couldn't believe my eyes.
The thought that my future self was an even more sex-crazed bastard than I'd imagined left me dizzy.
Blue light clustered heavily on one side, but it was scattered through other departments too. Above the heads of the people lined up in front of the grand auditorium, dozens — no, easily a hundred — blue lights were glowing.
One by one, as my eyes met their faces, the lights vanished.
Ah… just what kind of man am I…
Did I even properly graduate? I had my doubts. All those lights — all those women — was I supposed to meet every single one? And if I kept attending school, new freshmen would keep coming in every year.
You did not graduate, Kim Ian. Five years later, a fifth year was not enough — you were attempting a sixth-year first semester when the Great Upheaval occurred.
…On purpose?
The fifth year was deliberate. The sixth year was because you received an F in one major course.
So obsessed with women you got an F…
Still, with their arms linked through mine, I kept walking forward. Department flags and class banners came into view. Where the lights clustered thickest — just as expected — Jumi was at the very back with A-jeong, waving.
"Babe!!!"
But two guys were talking to them in a way that set my teeth on edge, looking angry, as if they were cornering A-jeong.
Those… bastards?
I hoped they wouldn't cross the line. A-jeong was currently carrying ten dog-uterus injection scrolls.
One would have been enough… and she had ten.