Event (5) - The Confession Keyword

As I started trudging up the stairs, the footsteps that had been coming from above suddenly fell silent. Imagining Kang Sujeong climbing with a sulky face, then perking her ears like a cat, struck me as pretty amusing.

She poked her head out, peering down the staircase. Our eyes met.

“Huh?”

“Ah, Sujeong. Hello.”

I waved at her like I was happy to see her. But the hand doing the waving was already holding a shopping basket loaded with items.

The keyword was mismatch. I had deliberately left the basket at home and filled it with the things we bought together yesterday, making it look like I had already finished shopping.

“Yes, Jinhyun! Hello…?”

She began greeting me warmly, but her gaze locked onto my right hand.

“But that bag… Have you already gone shopping?”

Her voice had grown small. The way her expression shifted so dramatically was genuinely entertaining.

She had been sulking while waiting in front of the door, then peeked down the stairs with hopeful eyes. The moment our gazes met, a bright smile bloomed across her face. But the instant she saw the basket in my hand, her expression cooled as if someone had flipped a switch. It was the face of someone desperately hoping I would deny what she had just asked. She wore her emotions so openly.

“Yes, I have.”

“Ah… I see.”

I answered her question like a blade. She replied in an awkward tone. The conversation died right there. A brief silence settled between us.

She fidgeted, unsure whether to move forward or back. She clearly hadn’t expected this.

Hmm. Maybe I should tease her a little.

“By the way, aren’t you heading to the mart, Sujeong? I’ve already been.”

“Huh? Ah……”

When I pointed at the basket in her hand, she looked slightly flustered.

“I-I’m about to go now. I was just leaving. Haha……”

She laughed awkwardly and came down the stairs. Her face smiled, but her eyes didn’t. Her lips pouted like a baby duck’s, and her shoulders slumped just enough to broadcast her disappointment.

I watched her with a quiet smirk. Right as she tried to slip past me, I caught her wrist.

“Lie.”

“…Yes?”

The moment I grabbed her, her pupils dilated. She looked genuinely shocked.

“Why are ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you lying? You weren’t planning to go at all.”

Her wrist trembled faintly. It was a different kind of tremor from the one I had felt when I held her down in my transformed state. As her wrist shook, her eyes trembled too. She seemed too busy trying to analyze the situation to react properly.

Looking at her like this, she really did resemble a puppy. Just days ago she had been a fierce cat growling at me, but her attitude now was a complete 180.

Ah! Her face and body had become even more beautiful. It was too arousing.

Her straight nose and clear, defined eyes amplified her charm even further. A pleasant scent drifted from her.

After having sex with her so many times, even just smelling her up close was enough to make my body react. I quietly hummed the national anthem in my head to calm myself, then opened the basket and showed her what was inside.

“These are actually the things we bought together yesterday, Sujeong. I haven’t gone to the mart at all. I just came out early and waited downstairs, watching you the whole time.”

“Wh-what? Then why did you say you’d already been……”

“I wanted to see how you really felt, Sujeong.”

I smiled as I spoke. When I took one more step closer, her body flinched hard.

“You were waiting in front of your door before the thirty-minute mark. You looked so cute pacing back and forth like that.”

“C-cute…!?”

“When it hit forty minutes and you still hadn’t come out, you were about to go back inside, weren’t you? Even though you dressed up so nicely.”

When I looked at her outfit with gentle eyes, her own gaze trembled violently.

The old, completely ordinary me would have needed serious courage to say these things to someone as pretty as her. But being able to see her affection level directly gave me all the confidence I needed.

She hadn’t dressed up too extravagantly since she was only going to the mart, but it was clearly different from the outfit she had worn on the very first day of the event, when she ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had gone out without expecting to meet me. The t-shirt and sweatpants were gone.

“So why are you saying you’re going now? Tell me the truth.”

I stared straight into her eyes.

“You just wanted to go with me, didn’t you?”

‘C-crazy……’

Kang Sujeong stared at her own hand. A man’s hand was wrapped around her wrist, which should have been empty. The man she had grown rapidly fond of these past few days—Cheon Jinhyun. Normally the touch of a man’s hand should have disgusted her, but with him she felt none of that discomfort.

The power of 60 affection was incredible. Having her wrist held like this actually helped Sujeong understand her own feelings clearly. The Jinhyun who had been nothing special during their first meeting months ago now felt good to her. There hadn’t been any dramatic trigger for her feelings, but what did that matter? Being with him simply made her heart feel comfortable and happy.

“Ah… th-that’s……”

But feelings and words were two different things. Sujeong avoided Jinhyun’s gaze. Being asked something so direct made her unbearably embarrassed. She could feel her face burning red on its own.

Honestly, she didn’t even fully understand why she was reacting this way.

“Then do you dislike me?”

Jinhyun looked at her as he spoke. If ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this had been the old her, she would have answered “yes” without hesitation, but Sujeong shook her head quickly as if denying it.

“Ah, no! It’s absolutely not that……”

“Then answer me honestly. Why do you sound so weak? You were overflowing with confidence during yesterday’s stream.”

What? Stream?

“By any chance… did you watch my stream?”

“Yes, of course I did. It was fun.”

When Jinhyun smiled and said that, she felt her heart race. He thought it was fun. On stream her personality was quite fierce. She had assumed he would hate that side of her. Hearing him say it was fun made her incredibly happy.

“I like the way you are on stream too, Sujeong. So speak comfortably. How about it? You wanted to go with me, right?”

Was this… a confession?

Having gone through an all-girls middle school, all-girls high school, and then the streaming path, Sujeong had no frame of reference.

“Y-yes. I wanted to go……”

She spoke in a voice as quiet as an ant crawling across the floor.

Jinhyun’s face lit up with a bright smile. Objectively his features were ordinary, yet seeing that smile made her heart pound.

“Then let’s ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠go together.”

“Uh, where?”

“Where else? We’re going grocery shopping together, of course.”

Jinhyun moved his hand from her wrist to hold her palm properly. Sujeong’s eyes widened as she stared at their joined hands.

“From now on, let’s walk like this. Is that okay?”

“Yes……”

Her heart was racing wildly. As the two of them slowly descended the stairs, Jinhyun suddenly held out his phone.

“Oh, and give me your number too. That way you won’t fall for my tricks next time. From now on, don’t pretend it’s a coincidence—just contact me.”

Sujeong quietly took his phone and entered her number. A flush had risen high on her cheeks.

“Phew……”

After sitting in meditation for two full hours, I slowly opened my eyes. My vision felt sharper, and my senses seemed heightened. Most of all, my head felt refreshingly clear, like my sinuses had been completely opened. That feeling right after training in the Thousand Li Flame Energy Technique was truly the best.

It was 9 a.m. These days my routine was to wake at 6:30, wash up quickly, and immediately begin the first-star training of the Thousand Li Flame Energy Technique.

The first hour was spent gathering energy through small circulation, and the second hour was dedicated to circulating that energy throughout my body and practicing moving it at will.

It hadn’t gone well at first, but now I had a decent feel for it. I could sense the energy responding to my intentions.

My internal energy came from… the Energy Return Pill, I suppose. The name sounded impressive, but it hadn’t actually contained that much qi. That made sense; it was why it had come free with a 9-Grade manual.

Still, even that small amount of internal energy made me feel my body improving every single day.

It had been two weeks since I first slept with Kang Sujeong. I had begun learning the Thousand Li Flame Energy Technique the day after I took her, which meant I had been following this proper routine of qi training and exercise for two weeks now.

Yet my stamina, overall physical condition, and senses were already improving noticeably. The rapid effects of exercise seemed to be another benefit of the Thousand Li Flame Energy Technique.

The notification chime sounded. It was a message from Sujeong. It had already been eight days since I took the initiative to get her contact information.

After that day we had agreed to drop the formal speech with each other, and exchanging messages had helped us grow closer. Until recently we had pretended to run into each other every day for grocery trips, but now we only went shopping together two or three times a week. On the other days we simply met up for walks.

Today, however, it seemed she wanted to go shopping.

Her affection had already passed 80. As expected, the higher it climbed, the harder it became to raise. When it was in the 30s and 40s it would jump by 7 or 5 points at a time, but after 60 it only rose by 1 or 2. Still, that was significant progress on its own.

It’s about time.

I was smiling contentedly while looking at her affection level when my eyes suddenly caught the event window.

“Huh? An event?”

After I had gotten her contact information, events had stopped appearing. More precisely, they had stopped once we began making plans through messages. Yet now one had appeared again.

Hmm. What exactly were the conditions for an event to trigger?

“Hmm?”

While I was pondering that, the word “Confession” among the event keywords suddenly caught my eye.