Freshman ???-Cup Bronze-Skinned Busty Junior Kang Ha-neul (20 / Has a Childhood Friend ♥)
I know it's inadequate to simply call our relationship "childhood friends," but I'm well aware of how short that falls.
Honestly, even looking at it myself, it's complicated enough that I can barely explain it.
I can't give concrete examples or find a way to make it land for other people, so I just cut it off irresponsibly like that.
Ha-neul and I have been tied together since first grade of elementary school.
We met on the way home after the entrance ceremony, and for the simple reason that our houses were close, that connection stretched on for twelve years. We grew up punching and shoving each other so much that if I actually had a sibling, I imagine it would feel exactly like this.
Especially once you factor in Ha-neul's personality—she's so straightforward and tomboyish that it only made things more that way.
Still, we always made up after every fight, so nothing ever really went wrong.
But starting in middle school, things shifted.
Ha-neul hit her secondary sexual characteristics hard and fast—more dramatically than anyone else.
She was already a full fifteen centimeters taller than the average girl, and when her chest ballooned up like a pair of balloons, there was no way she could avoid drawing every eye in the room.
I hated the lecherous stares the boys kept throwing her way.
……
"…What are you looking at so hard, teacher?"
"Ah—nothing! Nothing at all, ahem!"
"Huh?"
Even the middle-aged male teachers were sneaking side-glances at Ha-neul in her school uniform.
I wanted nothing more than to beat the hell out of them, but—
"What? Why the death glare?"
"Ah, it's nothing!"
I was going through the emotional rollercoaster of puberty myself, so I deliberately started putting distance between us.
I no longer knew how to look at the Ha-neul who had suddenly grown too much for me to see her through the eyes of a close friend. I couldn't bring myself to dig out the half-formed feelings still ripening inside me and lay them bare.
So even though Ha-neul still came up to me without a second thought, I was the one gently pushing her away.
That lukewarm attitude carried us into high school, and then—
I screwed up.
"So Geun-seok's dating Ha-neul after all, right?"
The same exhausting question I'd been hearing since elementary school.
Irritation mixed in, and I answered cynically.
"No."
"What do you mean no~"
"The rumors say it's a hundred percent certain!"
It was truly sickening, but the girls in my class just grinned with dirty little faces and spun their own romance novels among themselves.
No matter how hard I tried to shut it down, they kept squealing and teasing us.
"Ah, seriously… he himself says they're not dating!"
"Yeah right, liar~ You've been stuck together from elementary through middle school and now high school too!"
"Our houses are close, so we don't have a choice…"
"Heh heh~ If you can stay glued together for a reason that flimsy, then I must have hundreds of handsome childhood friends myself."
"You two even took baths together and saw each other naked without batting an eye. I'm convinced there's definitely something there."
"That was ages ago…!"
"Kyaa~ Pervert♡ He just pictured it."
"Heh heh, keep denying it all you want—you're totally planning to date her. The childhood-friend pervert who prefers big tits♡"
My face went red, and that only poured more fuel on the fire for the girls.
I was completely fed up.
I couldn't take the accelerating mockery any longer.
Maybe the half-baked feelings I'd never resolved back in middle school had just become too much to stomach.
"I'm never dating Kang Ha-neul! I'd rather die than go out with that gorilla, okay?!"
"Hey! Kim Geun-seok—"
Rattle!
After-school classroom.
The exact moment I shouted it, Ha-neul came breezing in through the back door with a bright smile, ready to walk home together.
She had been smiling, but that expression froze into something awkward almost instantly.
Normally a total prankster, she turned into a lost little kid whenever she got flustered, fidgeting and stumbling over herself.
"H-Ha-neul! This is…"
"Ah… th-that… I'm gonna go first!"
She bolted right out.
I was the one who'd yelled it on my own, so I couldn't even bring myself to chase after her.
"Hey… sorry. I didn't mean for it to go like this."
"I'm really sorry. I just wanted things to work out for you guys…"
……
The girls from my class, desperately apologizing—faces I can barely even remember now, buried under time.
After that, Ha-neul openly avoided me.
It took about a week for the emotions to settle enough that we finally got a chance to talk alone.
"Ha-neul, about what happened back then…"
"Yeah, I made up my mind too!"
"…What?"
She brushed it off like nothing and smiled brightly.
"I'm never dating a dumb monkey like you either, you idiot! Bleh~"
She stuck her tongue out playfully, pure and mischievous.
That was Ha-neul's answer in her own way.
Don't worry about it—far more mature than anything I could have managed.
"…The real idiot is the one whose grades drop even with tutoring."
"Idiot, bigger idiot than me~ ♬"
I let out a soft snort of laughter.
Thanks to that, I was able to set down at least a little of the heavy weight on my heart.
Ha-neul's easygoing nature was the only reason we managed to get past an incident that could have ended in a complete break.
We became adults without ever properly untying that knot.
And then we ended up at the same university, where we got tangled up with some returning senior.
Seo Junhyuk.
Even as a guy, I could tell he had the kind of pretty-boy face that would make him popular with women.
He suddenly appeared, joined us for drinks, and before I knew it he was going to the fitness center with Ha-neul and closing the distance fast.
I worked out too, but most of the time it was only because Ha-neul dragged me there against my will.
On top of that, I'd chosen a major lower than what my family expected, so I had to lock down every scholarship I could. Time was too tight, and I quit.
"Finally done with those boring classes!
Ah! Geun-seok, I'm working out with sunbae starting today, so I'm bailing, okay?"
"Uh…… yeah, yeah."
Ha-neul's back as she walked away from me.
I was supposed to head to the library, but something unpleasant and ominous—something I'd never felt before—started blooming wildly inside my chest.
She was a walking weapon.
There was no other way to describe the Ha-neul I met at the fitness center.
"Oh! Sunbae, you're already here!"
After I finished showering and walked in, there she was in the distance—stretching under the white lights, flashing her canines with a bright smile and waving at me.
……Is she trying to kill every guy in here?
She'd stripped off her department jacket and shirt, left in a big sports-bra-style crop top and an Adidas jersey that had slipped halfway down one shoulder from stretching.
That left a deeply moist bronze valley on full display, but at least she was wearing a second layer of underwear underneath, so I could breathe a little easier.
Her chest stole the eye first, but her lower half was no less dangerous.
The long athletic pants clung tight to her hips, radiating a violent, healthy beauty even at a glance.
A literal weapon.
A woman like this and I wouldn't last a single day—how the hell had that childhood-friend bastard survived all those years?
"We're still ten minutes early, but Ha-neul… you're really diligent, huh?"
"Yep, I love working out!"
Squeeeze—!
Wow… I'm going insane.
The closer I got, the harder it became to stay upright on two legs.
Ha-neul sat on the floor and casually stretched her thighs open, putting her cleavage, her thighs, and the full line of her hips on complete display.
When she leaned forward until her breasts nearly brushed the floor, pouring out that thick visual female scent, I almost reached down and adjusted myself out of pure habit.
But I was a gentlemanly university senior.
I stamped that fact into my brain over and over and swallowed hard.
"Ha-neul……"
"Yes, sunbae!"
"Shall we start with cardio?"
"Sounds good, sunbae!"
We began with a light run.
Seducing Ha-neul was priority number one.
But I was also a man who took his training seriously.
If I was going to keep multiple wives, my body had to be healthy first—so I never half-assed my routine just because a woman was next to me.
Once I sank into the workout, I could even forget the magnetic pull of Ha-neul's hips and chest for a while.
"Whoa! Sunbae, you're amazing!"
When I put on a show with the more intense stuff—leg press, pull-ups, rowing—the calories I burned seemed to burn off some of my ulterior motives too, and the conversation between us grew a lot freer.
Through that indirect physical dialogue we started encouraging each other and trading compliments like real close seniors and juniors.
The problem was—
"Hah, hah… I think you're the more amazing one, though……"
This wasn't some humble grooming exchange of praise. I meant it.
After an hour and a half I was the one looking pathetic, catching my breath.
Ha-neul, on the other hand, still wore that bright, smiling face.
Honestly, I'd been pretty confident that my defined muscle and lung capacity were well above average.
I'd thought my pace was pretty demanding, yet Ha-neul matched it easily. Despite the difference in male and female weight classes, I was pouring out buckets of sweat while Ha-neul only had the tips of the hair by her ears slightly damp.
Even for a healthy beauty, she was still a woman, so I'd looked down on her a little—but the weights she was lifting were basically the same as mine.
"You're barely even sweating… wouldn't physical education have suited you better?"
"Ah! I thought about it for a while."
But she waved it off lightly, swinging her arms.
"They still make you study a bit over there, so I dropped it."
"You could've gone the athlete route.
Ball sports, or with your height, volleyball would look good on you too…?"
"Ahaha! Sunbae, even if you compliment me, nothing's coming out of it! I'm nowhere near athlete level~"
I was being completely serious, though.
Even if she'd gone pro and the results hadn't matched her hopes, her clean personality and looks alone could have generated plenty of buzz—she could have become a sports star.
The more I looked, the more she really was a raw gem of a junior.
And a solid candidate for my next wife, too♥
I wiped my sweat with a towel and topped up the calories with the protein shake I'd brought.
Ha-neul was looking down at me as I sat on the bench, so I offered it, but she recoiled in pure disgust.
"Ugh… why would you eat that food garbage, sunbae."
"That's harsh to the person actually drinking it… everyone has this after working out, right?"
"What a waste! Filling your stomach with something that tasteless!"
"Ahh, so that's your type. You work out so you can eat, huh?"
"That's right! No need for supplements—just eat three solid meals a day and train healthy, no problem!"
"Great, then—"
I stood up abruptly and tossed it out casually.
"You like beer, right? As thanks for introducing me to a good gym, I'll buy. Wanna go grab a light drink?"
Ha-neul's tail practically started wagging like a dog in front of a bone.
"Sounds good, sounds good!
I'll call Geun-seok and Doo-hee right away."
"No no, just the two of us."
"Huh?"
I soothed the slightly startled look on her face.
"Just a light drink.
If more people join it'll drag on like last time, and with the distance most of them will flake anyway. Let's do the full five after afternoon classes."
"Ah…… um, well……"
"One drink's fine, right? Come on? I've got my own wallet situation too, so cut me some slack~"
A pure virgin with zero resistance to men and a head full of wariness.
I didn't push too hard—just dangled the single drink. A light skewer place after the workout as a reward. I kept tossing out the bait.
Ha-neul hesitated, then finally gave in with her usual bold answer.
"Alright! Just one drink sounds perfect."
I grinned.
My future second-wife candidate had finally stepped into one of my traps.