35. You Shouldn't Do That Among Family!
35. You Shouldn't Do That Among Family!
35. You Shouldn't Do That Among Family!
"What should I do...?"
I debated it in my head, but the answer was already decided.
Even thinking rationally, life is more precious.
I asked Fenrir.
"Hey, mutt. What's the condition? There has to be something, like locking lips, right."
How did he distinguish a female as his wife?
I needed to know that to obtain the qualification.
―Fenrir. Mating. However. Human. Different. Multiple. Women. At once. Gain. Their hearts. Lock. Lips.
Fenrir apparently defined his wives through the act of mating.
But because I am human, Fenrir followed human ways.
Those conditions weren't bad for me.
"So I just need to kiss four women who have feelings for me..."
―Deeply. For a long time. Satisfy it.
"...You're not actually in heat, are you?"
Should I view this as the S-rank Magic Beast Fenrir, or as a dog in heat?
To me, it looked like the latter, no matter what.
Fenrir's words weren't exactly reliable, but even Libra confirmed my lifespan.
I knew it wasn't right to do that to four women,
but even if I favored pure love, I had to do it for survival.
"Alright. That qualification. I'll do it."
Decent looks.
Not a bad personality.
My physical attributes were good enough to give me a fighting chance.
A challenge I could actually attempt.
If I stayed still, I'd die anyway.
Dying while twiddling my thumbs, or being stabbed to death by women I seduced.
Obviously picking the latter was the right choice.
And in the latter case, there was also a chance of survival.
'It'll be fine as long as I don't get caught.'
If I don't get caught, it's not a crime.
If I don't get caught, I won't get stabbed.
If I don't get caught, I won't die.
Meaning I could clear the world of V. AGE.
I felt like I was being toyed with by fate, but I decided to act immediately.
"Yu Ha-yeon."
When a serious problem arose, her name was the first to come to mind.
I guess you naturally rely on your childhood friend in situations like this.
Needing help, I picked up my phone and called her.
It was 6 PM.
The time when students had left school and were enjoying their free time.
My phone rang with Yu Ha-yeon's ringtone—once, twice.
After about ten seconds, her voice came through.
—Hello?
A clear and bright voice.
That slightly teasing smile woven into her tone was Yu Ha-yeon's trademark.
I asked her.
"What are you doing?"
—I was just thinking about training or something. Why?
Yu Ha-yeon had said she'd been ramping up personal training recently.
She felt a lot of responsibility for my kidnapping.
"Can you put off training a bit today? I have something to tell you."
—...All of a sudden? Is it important?
"Important, really."
—...Okay. I'll be there in ten minutes.
When I emphasized it was important, Yu Ha-yeon said she'd come to me.
After telling her, "Okay," I got ready to go out.
If students recognized me, it'd be a hassle, so I put on a hat.
After being pestered by reporters that day, I searched the internet and found hundreds of articles about me.
—Kidnapped student Han Si-jun returns!? What happened afterward?
—Collusion with a villain. Han Si-jun. What is his true identity?
Articles filled with all sorts of baseless, absurd trash.
They were laughably ridiculous, but after reading several, I could feel it.
'I'm pretty famous, huh.'
Setting aside that the Hero Academy's security was breached, a student was kidnapped on campus, so it was natural that people paid attention.
With articles like that out there, naturally, it would be even more well-known among the students.
So until I returned to academy classes, I had to hide from students for a week.
The attention would fade with time.
Ten minutes passed, I got a text that Yu Ha-yeon had arrived,
and I left the room to meet her.
'Well, who'd come in anyway?'
Paying more attention to security than usual, I shut the door tightly and headed outside.
***
Yu Ha-yeon was waiting in front of the dorm.
She looked the same as usual, but maybe because she planned to go straight to training after hearing me out, she was wearing training clothes.
When I approached with my hat pulled low, Yu Ha-yeon recognized me and spoke.
"What do you want to say? If you called me to tease me, I won't let it slide..."
The crying from yesterday.
We'd spent a long time together, but we both weren't very honest with our feelings, so there were many days we hid our true thoughts.
So seeing each other cry like yesterday was a rare event, the first time in about a year.
Perhaps embarrassed by it, Yu Ha-yeon's ears were turning red.
I spoke to her in a serious voice, as if to tell her not to misunderstand.
"If I were going to tease, I'd do it properly. Today's not that day. I really have something to say."
"I-Is that so? Well... okay."
Yu Ha-yeon was tense at the words 'something to say.'
I also felt a little embarrassed because I was hesitant to say this.
'I never thought I'd be saying this to her...'
After that, we walked toward a rarely visited park so no one would recognize me.
"..."
"..."
We walked without a word.
On my side, there was hesitation from steeling myself.
On Yu Ha-yeon's side, she seemed to pick up on the strange mood—like the tension before a confession.
An atmosphere where even if I suddenly looked into her eyes and shouted 'I like you,' it would fit perfectly.
In that atmosphere, I looked at Yu Ha-yeon with sincere eyes.
"...Yu Ha-yeon."
"Wh...what...! Han Si-jun...!"
Startled, Yu Ha-yeon stepped back.
I glanced around to make sure no one was there.
And grabbed both of Yu Ha-yeon's hands as she backed away.
"Th-this kind of thing, I need to prepare my heart...!"
"Yu Ha-yeon."
Yu Ha-yeon desperately tried to avoid my eyes.
Her face was flushed red.
If it were the usual her, she would have tried to brush it off with her characteristic teasing air,
but in front of my sincere gaze, she couldn't.
Nervous, I swallowed hard and spoke to her.
"I never thought I'd say this to you..."
"You're... you're so sudden...! You idiot...!"
"Set me up with a girl."
"...Huh?"
Yu Ha-yeon expressed puzzlement, not understanding what I meant.
For someone with zero dating experience, I'd mustered incredible courage.
Why was she reacting like this?
I didn't understand either.
In that mood, Yu Ha-yeon said with a stiff expression,
"...So what you had to say... was that you want me to introduce you to a girl?"
"Yeah. I realized after being kidnapped. Dying without ever dating would be so unfair. I want to give it a try at least once."
Hiding that it was dating for survival, I told her a small lie.
Since Yu Ha-yeon had a lot of female friends, she'd surely introduce me to one.
'Han Yu-wol, Na Yu-na, Ban Ha-na are all ambiguous as dating targets.'
Every woman around me was twisted in one way or another.
Han Yu-wol was a heinous villain, Na Yu-na a future corporate leader, and Ban Ha-na was just Ban Ha-na.
Even though they were beautiful, I couldn't see them as dating material, so getting an introduction from Yu Ha-yeon was the best option.
As I was thinking that, Yu Ha-yeon spoke with a look of betrayal.
"Y...You weren't about to confess to me...?"
"...? What are you talking about? Why would I confess to you? We're family."
Family.
Could family date each other?
If you asked any random person on the street, they'd say it's impossible.
We weren't blood-related, but we were like family after living together for twelve years.
Kissing Yu Ha-yeon like that?
No, that's just not right.
Yu Ha-yeon was a beautiful woman on the outside, but first and foremost, family.
I had a bit of resistance to kissing her.
"So you'll introduce me?"
"..."
Yu Ha-yeon didn't answer.
Maybe she didn't have anyone to introduce.
She muttered quietly.
"Did I train so hard just to protect this kind of guy..."
"What?"
"Haa..."
I couldn't quite catch what she said, but she suddenly let out a sigh.
Then her eyes flashed, she shook off my hands, and began to question me forcefully.
"You. Say it clearly. Do you want to be introduced because you want to date? Or is there a specific woman around me you want?"
"...I just want to try dating."
"Aha... is that so...?"
Why was she suddenly convinced?
Whenever Yu Ha-yeon used that 'I see~' tone, things didn't end well.
'Did I say something wrong?'
While I looked back at myself in unease,
Yu Ha-yeon's face was smiling again.
'Is she bipolar? Why does her expression keep changing?'
A range of emotional changes I couldn't understand.
Like she had a brilliant idea, she smiled broadly and said,
"If you want to date, I'll do it for you. How about that?"
"We're fam—"
"Don't say family. If we put our minds to it, we can even get married and file a marriage registration. You said you wanted to date at least once before you die, right? Then date me."
To be precise, I needed to date multiple times.
If I said that now, Yu Ha-yeon might half-kill me, so I decided to hold back.
"Still, with you it's a bit... If we broke up, things might get awkward for no reason..."
Before I could finish, Yu Ha-yeon burst out.
"Th-then let's do it as practice...! Practice...! You've never done it, and I've never done it either...! Let's practice...!! It'll be useful later when we date someone...!"
Yu Ha-yeon had said it annoyed her when male students kept clinging to her since I'd disappeared.
Yu Ha-yeon must also think of me as family,
and so she proposed a practice relationship to me.
'...Practice, huh.'
Indeed, I'd never dated and didn't know how to win a woman's heart.
In that situation, what if I practiced with Yu Ha-yeon?
'Hmm...'
A moment of contemplation.
But practice dating, as absurd as the suggestion seemed, was surprisingly persuasive.