The Shadow
"Haa..."
A pang went through my chest, and before I knew it a sigh had slipped out. However brutal the performing arts were supposed to be, I could have believed she was practically a professional athlete. Rahui had never been like this. Not once had Hyunji so much as let on to me that her body hurt. If it was this bad, she must have been in pain every time we walked together, and she hadn't shown a hint of it. Maybe Rahui wasn't the bear after all. Maybe Hyunji was.
Does every job that uses the body turn you into a bear?
I sighed again and found myself gazing pityingly down at those legs, and I had just begun to stroke them with careful fingers when—
"Hnngh..."
...Huh?
The moment my fingertips brushed Hyunji's thigh, a tiny moan escaped her. A heat haze bloomed along her side. My eyes didn't go to it. Just then, the instant my hand passed over her knee, the shadow lying across it had twitched.
...My hand?
I stared at my hand and at the shadow on that knee, then looked up at her. She was smacking her lips around the pillow she hugged. I let out a short laugh, quietly reached for the knee, and the moment my fingertips touched it the shadow began to writhe.
Just as I thought. No idea why.
Something was changing. I knew it had to be the Special Internal Energy, but I couldn't be sure what it would do to Hyunji. Still, it was worth a try. I shifted my hips slowly down toward her legs.
Haa.
Looking alone, I would have called them ordinary feet—if anything, just a little more callused than most—and thought she took good care of them. I studied those dainty toes, then reached out and gently worked her big toe. That was when the shadow gathered there twitched, as if it hurt.
"Haa..."
Hyunji breathed out a sigh. There was no pain in it. My senses stayed on her while my eyes stayed on the energy. I kept softly toying with the toe, and the writhing energy was suddenly sucked into my body. The skin-crawling sensation passing through my fingers made me jerk my hand away before I could stop myself.
...
Soft breaths, in and out.
I checked Hyunji first. She was fine. I swallowed, stared at my hand, and looked myself over from one angle and another. Nothing seemed wrong yet—nothing except that eerie feeling. And I had the illusion that the shadow I'd felt on her big toe had lessened a little.
...Not an illusion.
I fixed my eyes on it. Faint, but definitely smaller. I closed my fist, opened it, and went back to quietly working her big toe.
"Hnn..."
A tiny moan slipped from her. Not pain. I lifted my head and found a faint smile on her face—safe enough to call it pleasure. The eerie sensation kept passing through my hand, but that expression took the edge off.
"Hnngh... mmm..."
Her toes wriggled as if they felt good. I waited so I wouldn't wake her, stroking the big toe and, little by little, the ankle as well. The energy in the ankle warped and suffered too, then began feeding me that same chilling feeling as it soaked in through my palm.
...I'm fine.
As the ailment shadow kept shrinking I stayed braced for any change in my own body, but there was no effect at all. Except for one thing I hadn't expected.
"Hnn, haah... mmph... mmm..."
Every time a little of the shadow soaked into me, Hyunji moaned. I could feel her body heating the way it did when I stirred the heat haze, because the skin under my hand was growing warmer and warmer.
...There's too much.
There was no way I could finish all of it while she slept. If she woke and felt something strange, stopping halfway seemed like the worst option of all. Once I'd cleanly drawn out everything in her toes and ankles, I tucked her foot against my groin and began to work the knee.
"Nnh, haah... Oppa..."
Her cracked voice stopped my hand. I'd wanted to at least make it as far as her waist. I held my breath and looked up, and a sigh escaped me. She was only talking in her sleep, calling for me. Even so, if she'd started murmuring, I needed to remember she was only lightly under. I'd already figured she might wake.
...Yeah. This is going to be hard to pass off as a favor.
I laughed under my breath and slowly stroked the pale skin of her knee. There was a small scar just beneath it. She had to be using these knees constantly, and it was stranger that a scar that small was all she had. The skin ought to have darkened a little. I kept caressing it with that same soft touch, and Hyunji twisted.
"Hnn, hnngh, ahhnn..."
I stopped again. Her head had turned aside; I heard her throat work, and a deep sigh flowed out of her. The moment my hand moved, her body began to squirm once more.
...Easy, boy. I'm barely holding it together myself.
I couldn't help where my eyes wanted to go. That precious place of hers was flushing a deeper and deeper pink, plain as day, and heat haze lay over it until I swallowed without meaning to. I knew perfectly well what kind of happy, warm Neverland waited past that scrap of pink cloth. Even so, the performance was only two days away now, and I wanted to help her however little I could before then.
Of course, it's only a guess that she'll actually get better.
"Ahhnn, hnnngh, Oppa... haah... ahhaang..."
She bent her knee, trying to draw the leg in, and I lifted my hips for a moment to ease it straight and settle it back in place. Those soft thighs opened slowly, as if to tempt me, and I swallowed hard before folding the leg closed again. The urge spiked so hard I almost wanted to just knock her out and be done with it, but I held it down.
Still, she isn't waking. Lightweight with alcohol?
I didn't even know where the liver sat, so looking her over wasn't going to tell me. There hadn't been any strange feeling in her abdomen anyway.
"Haah... hnngh... hoo..."
I finished the knee and waited so she could rest, absently wiping the sweat that had started to trickle down my forehead. Sweat?
Sweat?
These days I barely sweated even when I ran hard, and a few passes of a massage had me dripping. I opened and closed my hand. I was definitely a little tired—not sleepy so much as fatigued. Like the middle of a run. Was this burning stamina?
Then there's nothing to hesitate over.
Stamina came back with sleep or rest. Lately I'd had so much that the excess itself was starting to worry me, so this was fine. I'd never had the chance to look at her body this closely either, and the simple fact of my hands on her felt good. It was a little like leaving a mark, claiming what was mine, so it wasn't purely exhausting. I caught my breath, climbed slowly up over her knees, and stared quietly toward her pelvis.
The lower back won't work like this.
Her lower back and neck would clearly be better with her turned over. That might wake her, so today I'd stop at the pelvis. I reached out and swept a hand up her thigh.
"Ahhnn..."
My hand stopped. Unlike the moans before, this one had come through clear. I lifted my head. Hyunji had forced her eyes open and was clutching the pillow, only her eyes peeking out as she looked at me. Playing dumb seemed like the better move, but—
"...Oppa..."
"You're awake?"
"Yes... I'm sorry I fell asleep first..."
"Don't worry about it. You didn't wake up because it hurt, right?"
"No... It feels... so good..."
"Yeah? How about here?"
"...Ahhnn..."
She seemed to have caught on to what I was doing. The motions were closer to a massage than to fondling. Separate from that, she was clearly enjoying herself. When I carefully stroked the crease between her thigh and her groin, she squeezed her eyes shut and moaned. I watched the faint lines of her abs flicker across her stomach and vanish, and then her voice reached me.
"...It feels good... Oppa... That spot hurt..."
The hoarse little whine she aimed at me, spoiled as a child, wasn't the least bit annoying. Whether it was the alcohol or the sleep, she sounded pleasantly drunk, and it was cute. What did catch me was the part about it hurting. So I'd guessed right.
"When?"
"Yesterday... I twisted it a little coming down from a jump..."
"You should've gone to a hospital."
"Everyone just... puts up with injuries like that..."
Her eyes curved softly, and she went on.
"...But when you touch it... it feels so good..."
"If it hurts, tell me."
"...Okay... hnngh..."
I watched her a moment longer, then slowly moved my hands. As I swept the hip joint and the area along the opposite side of her pelvis and rubbed with my thumb, the heat haze was dragged into my hand along with the rest, whether I wanted it or not.
"Ahhnn... Oppa, your hands... they're so warm..."
"Your body's soft too. Feels good."
"It must be... all hard..."
"It's firm. You like it here?"
"Ahhk... Yes... Do you know how to massage too, Oppa...?"
"I'm just pretending. Does it seem all right?"
"...Hnngh... It feels like heaven..."
"Go back to sleep."
"...I can't, I can't sleep... hnngh... ahhnn... There, that feels good..."
Sure enough, every time an ailment shadow was drawn in, her reaction changed. Pleasure filled the voice of the girl with her eyes squeezed shut, and both hands clutching the pillow were going white. None of it escaped me.
"Ahhk, hnn, O-Oppa... ahhnn, I, hnngh... I... haahk..."
"...Feel like you're going to come?"
"...Y-yes... I'm s-sorry... hnn, I'm sorry... haahk, I really feel like a pervert... ahhnn..."
"I like you more for it."
"Oppa, Oppa! I, there, right there—"
"...Here?"
"Hnn! Yes, yes! There! Ahhk, haahk, I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna come, right now, right now... ahhhnnn..."
Her slender abdomen lifted toward me and began to tremble. I wanted to press my mouth to that tiny navel. Watching the pink cloth darken as it soaked through, I swallowed too.
"Haah, hnngh..."
"Feel good?"
"...Yes... I'm sorry..."
"Sorry for what. If it felt good for you, then I'm happy too."
With that I hurried my hands along. I figured I could still finish clearing all of her lower body today.
"Hnngh... Aren't you tired, Oppa...?"
"Mm. I'm fine. Sleepy?"
"...Yes..."
"You can sleep. Don't worry about it."
"You can stop, if you want..."
"You don't dislike it, do you?"
"...It feels too good... Your hands are so warm..."
"Then I'll do a little more. I like touching you too."
"...Okay... hnngh..."
She swallowed and gathered the pillow back into her arms. I watched her and slowly stroked the hip joint and her side. The legs pinned under me kept fidgeting as if they were struggling, but I was almost done.
"Ahh, hnngh, nnh, Oppa..."
"Mm."
"...Couldn't you hold me...?"
She asked it in a voice that shrank smaller and smaller. I thought for a moment, then nodded.
"Okay. Just a little longer."
"...Ah... hnngh, ahhnn..."
At that her pretty eyes curved with delight, only for my touch to pull her brows the other way a moment later. I took the sight in as I slowly stroked her hip joint and her side. That was when I felt something strange in her lower belly.
Not an ailment shadow.
It was like that very small black point I'd sensed from her before. A presence, if I had to name it—no, too faint even for that. It wasn't an ailment shadow, and it wasn't heat haze. I didn't know what it was, but it didn't seem important now. If I kept watch, I'd figure it out.