61. If You Cheat, You'll Disappear Like the Wind
61. If You Cheat, You'll Disappear Like the Wind
61. If You Cheat, You'll Disappear Like the Wind
Yu Ha-yeon stood there without moving a muscle.
They say there's a calm before the storm, right?
She was utterly still, yet she filled me with dread all the same.
I mustered my courage and spoke to her.
"Y-Yu Ha-yeon?"
"..."
Her silence only made it worse.
No answer came from Yu Ha-yeon.
Utterly oblivious to Yu Ha-yeon's mood in a moment like this, Ban Ha-na clung to me.
"Si-jun! That woman took my phone...!"
"Ha-na, this really isn't the time..."
If we screw up, we might actually die.
I knew Shin Si-hwa was nearby, so we probably wouldn't die, but
I was terrified by the faint killing intent leaking from Yu Ha-yeon.
As the cold night wind brushed against my cheek, a chill that was starting to feel all too familiar,
Yu Ha-yeon let out a hollow laugh.
"Ha... haha... You were just going to keep lying to me until the very end, weren't you? Haha..."
The fact that she wasn't shouting made it even more terrifying.
It seemed she couldn't stand looking at the image of me and Ban Ha-na on that phone screen any longer.
Crunch!
"M-My phone...!!"
"I bought it with my own money..."
Yu Ha-yeon threw Ban Ha-na's phone onto the floor.
From the side, Shin Si-hwa muttered in a regretful voice, "The installment period isn't even over yet..."
I whispered to her.
"Ms. Shin, what do I do? I feel like I'm going to die."
"You won't... die. There's no way Yu Ha-yeon would do something like that to her childhood friend, right?"
Shin Si-hwa didn't know about Ban Ha-na's background photo, so she smiled and spoke optimistically.
'No, that phone screen has a picture of me with Ban Ha-na, remember?'
If I said that, Shin Si-hwa's expression would change,
so I decided it was better that the teacher remained in the dark.
In the midst of the chaos,
"Han Si-jun."
Yu Ha-yeon spoke icily.
Her eyes were glistening with moisture.
"You son of a bitch...!"
"I-I'm sorry!"
Yu Ha-yeon came walking toward me, shouting as if she intended to kill me.
To stay alive, I decided I had to tell her the truth.
"I... I had no choice if I wanted to live...! I'll explain everything...!"
"You're talking about explaining now...? The photo on that phone already explained it all...!!"
"There are circumstances... Just believe me this once...!"
Circumstances.
The circumstances that forced me to seduce Ban Ha-na.
I resolved to confess to Yu Ha-yeon the fact that I didn't have much time left to live.
"I don't have long to live. Two years? No... maybe about a year. Then I'll die."
If I don't seduce women, I really will die.
What little time I had left.
If I didn't want to be imprisoned, I had to tell Yu Ha-yeon the truth.
"What does cheating have to do with your lifespan? Don't make things up, Han Si-jun."
To Yu Ha-yeon, my voice simply sounded like an excuse.
"Say something that makes sense. Why would you die?"
"...No, Yu Ha-yeon. What Han Si-jun is saying is true. Don't you remember that day?"
"...Huh?"
That day.
'Ah, this isn't blood, it's tomato juice.'
The day when I bled and excused it as tomato juice.
Yu Ha-yeon had rhinitis and couldn't smell the blood, so the matter passed.
And on other days.
'What's spicy about this.'
The time I ate an extremely spicy curry loaded with capsaicin and didn't react.
'These are just vitamins.'
I always took nutritional supplements after lunch without fail.
In other people's eyes, I must have looked like a patient taking pills on a schedule.
"Ha... Han Si-jun...?"
Yu Ha-yeon was demanding an explanation from me.
As if she was asking whether what she was thinking was actually true.
She wanted confirmation, hoping that it wasn't.
'I don't know anymore...'
Anyway, now that I had been caught by her, what more was there to hide?
I had to let her know the truth about my lifespan.
"That's right. I'm terminally ill."
As soon as the words left my mouth, the tension drained from Yu Ha-yeon's shoulders.
From her perspective, the fact that I didn't have much time left must have come as a shock.
"Si-jun, are you pregnant...?"
"No. Terminally ill."
Ban Ha-na didn't know the term 'terminally ill', so she had no idea what I was talking about.
Yu Ha-yeon approached me, tears streaming down her face.
Then she grabbed me by the collar and spoke.
"Th-This is a lie... right? This is another lie...! Why would you die...?!"
"It's not a lie. I'm serious."
At the sound of my voice, Yu Ha-yeon seemed to lose strength in her legs,
and nearly collapsed to the floor.
"Are you okay...?"
I caught Yu Ha-yeon to keep her from falling.
Her condition looked quite poor.
Yu Ha-yeon bowed her head and remained still where she was.
Watching our state, Shin Si-hwa let out an 'Oh dear...' in a pitying voice.
'If you had helped from the start, this situation wouldn't have happened in the first place...'
But from her position, she had helped me as much as she could.
I decided not to let that resentful voice escape me.
Just then.
Yu Ha-yeon, who had been silently bowing her head, opened her mouth.
"Han Si-jun."
"...What?"
What was she trying to say to me, someone with so little time left?
She lifted her bowed head and spoke to me.
"But what does you having little time left have to do with cheating...?"
"Well, you see..."
"If you don't have much time left, you should stick by my side all day. It's a waste of time to do anything else. So why cheat?"
"Yu Ha-yeon, you're scary, so soften your expression when you talk..."
She was radiating venom with a face like a vengeful ghost.
I couldn't look her straight in the eye.
I helped Yu Ha-yeon up and said,
"It was unavoidable because of my treatment method."
"...You can be treated? What kind of method...?"
"It's hard to believe, but to extend my lifespan, I have to kiss women."
"..."
Yu Ha-yeon simply stared at me and blinked.
'Did I mishear that just now...?'
Her expression carried that meaning.
"No, you heard correctly."
I delivered the final blow of confirmation to Yu Ha-yeon.
"Si... Si-jun, you didn't kiss only me...?"
"Even so, it can't be true, Han Si-jun. How can someone's illness be cured by kissing a woman?"
Ban Ha-na spoke with a look of betrayal on her face,
and Shin Si-hwa looked as if she could not believe me.
"Hey."
And Yu Ha-yeon was the same.
"Han Si-jun. What kind of illness in the world is cured by kissing women? Don't you just want to date lots of women before you die?"
"I'm not some woman-crazed maniac. Do you think I'd want to do that before dying?"
"You are woman-crazed. Hey! You did that kind of thing with me, and then fooled around with another woman! Who did you kiss first? Her, or me?"
"...I can't lie."
I turned my head and refused to answer.
Because chronologically speaking, Ban Ha-na was first.
My conscience pricked me, so I couldn't lie to Yu Ha-yeon any longer.
At my reaction, Yu Ha-yeon wore a blank expression for a moment, then her eyes went dead, and she lunged at me.
"How about you just die right now, Han Si-jun? I'll kill you. No, let's just die together."
"J-Just a second, let me explain the reason, Yu Ha-..."
Thud!
My voice was cut off by Yu Ha-yeon's headbutt.
From the impact, I felt my vision going blurry.
'Why does everything still go to hell even when I tell the truth...'
Regretting that I couldn't get those last words out,
I lost consciousness.
***
'Where am I...?'
When I barely regained my senses, a brightly lit room stretched before my eyes.
Judging by the room's structure, I guessed it was a dormitory room.
It was dark outside the window, and there was only one person I knew who kept the lights blazing this bright in the evening.
"Yu Ha-yeon. Untie this."
"No. Why should I?"
Yu Ha-yeon had tied both of my arms to the bed and was sitting in a chair, watching me.
I could deduce that she had carried me here after I fainted.
'What did she tell the teacher...?'
Did Shin Si-hwa actually give Yu Ha-yeon permission to take me away?
Since she enjoyed simply watching the current situation, which was like a soap opera,
I was somehow certain she had permitted it.
'What did I say at the end again...?'
I clearly remember making excuses to Yu Ha-yeon when I got caught cheating.
After that, we talked about my lifespan.
'Right. The lifespan.'
I had summoned up so much courage to say that.
Yu Ha-yeon believed what I said about my lifespan, but only half of it.
"Yu Ha-yeon, you'll regret this. I'm telling you, I really will die if I don't kiss a woman."
"Say something that makes sense, Han Si-jun. Think about it. Does that sound believable?"
Mm...
It does sound unbelievable.
It's true that saying your lifespan extends by kissing someone else isn't very convincing.
I asked Yu Ha-yeon.
"So what are you planning to do with me, tied up here?"
I didn't have time.
Soon, my body would return to its original state, so I had to conquer Lee Seol-ha before then.
Yu Ha-yeon smiled at me and said,
"You broke a promise. An important promise."
And you lied on top of that.
While saying that, Yu Ha-yeon plopped down on top of my body lying on the bed.
"I won't forgive you. For cheating."
"I was forced to do it because I didn't want to die..."
"And I was forced to tie you up because you cheated."
Yu Ha-yeon threw my words back at me childishly.
She always managed to say things at times like this that left me with no room to argue.
'I only have a week left... What am I supposed to do...?'
I thrashed my bound arms, trying to escape,
but Yu Ha-yeon had tied them so meticulously that it was physically impossible.
She looked down at me from above and said,
"Han Si-jun."
"What."
Her long black hair brushed against my cheek.
Then she whispered in my ear.
"I won't forgive you. So, you have to pay me back for all the time you spent cheating."
...That would be an awfully long time, considering how long I was cheating.
I swallowed those words and answered, 'Alright.'
And there was only one thing I needed to do while I was tied up by Yu Ha-yeon.
'Convince Yu Ha-yeon, who doesn't believe the lifespan extension method, and get her permission until I succeed.'
If I had to name it, lawful cheating. Consensual cheating.
"All the things you did with that pink-haired woman. Do them with me too."
Yu Ha-yeon was a perfect picture of jealousy incarnate.
I absolutely had to convince her.