A Night with My Senior (2)

"Would you mind hanging out with me a little longer tonight? Honestly… I've never gone for a second round in my life."

At my words, my senior's steps faltered. She slowly turned her head and stared straight at me. Her large eyes caught the streetlight and glittered.

"So deep down, I kind of wanted to try it once today."

Whoooosh—

The wind rose, scattering her black hair. Her eyebrows twitched, and then her voice climbed in pure disbelief.

"Hey, Lee Seonghyun! Why are you only saying that now?!"

"Huh?"

"If you'd said so earlier, I would've dragged everyone along! Why do you always just sit there bottling everything up?!"

She smacked me flat across the back in frustration.

"Ow! No, that just felt a little… much…."

"Much, my ass! Ugh, seriously. It's already too late to go back now… What the hell were you doing freshman year that you never even got that kind of experience?"

"I-I just… lived, and it ended up that way. Back then I couldn't hold my liquor even worse than now."

I edged a step closer and casually slipped in the real point.

"So just… for tonight, could you hang out with me, Senior? You said you'd look after me."

She looked up at me with a faint crease between her brows. Under the streetlight, the way she stared straight into me carried a quiet tension.

Did I push too hard?

She let out a short sigh.

"Haa. No wonder you've been looking so weird all night."

"Was it that obvious?"

"Yeah. Extremely."

She huffed a laugh and tucked her hair behind her ear.

"Fine. Big sis'll play with you. But every bar around here is crawling with our department right now, and I don't feel like dealing with that."

She tapped her chin with a finger, thinking, then blurted it out.

"Wanna come to my place?"

"What?"

My brain short-circuited on the spot. Had I misheard her? Or had I written something insane in the diary feedback like Invite him back to your studio?

No—I definitely hadn't!

"Why so shocked? You don't want to?"

"No, it's not that… I just… is that okay?"

A stupid question tumbled out before I could stop it. She burst into full-throated laughter.

"Pffhahaha! Dude, is this your first time drinking with me? You look ready to explode after one or two bottles of soju. I'm bringing home a guy who can't even hold his liquor better than me—what exactly am I supposed to be worried about? Like you could even jump me?"

…Okay, that was also a fair point.

I had a garbage liver with a pathetic alcohol dehydrogenase deficiency, and she was the kind of drinker who could knock back three or four bottles of soju without blinking.

"No, well… if you're fine with it, Senior, then of course I'm happy."

"Then wipe that look off your face. Let's hit a convenience store and grab some beer."

My pride took a tiny hit, but inside I was cheering. Either way, I was getting into Kang Eugene's studio apartment.

She shoved me forward by the small of my back and took the lead. Watching her from behind as I followed, I couldn't stop the corner of my mouth from curling up.

The studio we arrived at was far more… human than I'd expected.

"Ah, shit. Why is this place such a mess."

Because you never cleaned it, ma'am.

She kicked aside the clothes littering the floor, clearing a path with her feet. A hoodie and a pair of jeans were sprawled across the bed—who knew when she'd stripped them off. Watching her shove clothes around so casually made me wonder for a second if she brought guys over often enough to be used to it.

I almost asked. I bit it back.

There was no need. I'd been peeking at her diary for the past four days—what more did I need to see? There hadn't been a single crack in her recent daily life for a man to slip into. No boyfriend. Not even a hint of a situationship.

I set the canned beer from the convenience store on the table.

"Hey. Let's drink."

Pssst—

With the crisp hiss of carbonation, we sat across from each other at the narrow table. The pleasant buzz seemed to loosen her tongue. She rattled off everything from the list of crusty professors to avoid in our department to the easiest gen-ed courses on campus.

"Oh, and for Professor Kim Jiwu's class, take the morning section if you can. Afternoon gets double the assignments. I genuinely thought I was gonna die."

"On the flip side, Professor Park Sol is a total angel. Show up, do one presentation, done. Though… I don't think she teaches any sophomore courses? Just keep it in mind."

"For gen-eds, grab Modern Society and Culture if it's open. Absolute cakewalk. You get good scores just for showing up."

Then the conversation drifted naturally toward me.

"But for real, you sure you don't want a tutoring gig? This one's actually solid. A girl who took a gap year for retakes—apparently she's super sweet and listens well. Pays great, too."

This again.

I'd already cut every tutoring side job when I transferred departments. Tutoring definitely paid well for the labor compared to most part-time work—but approaching it with that casual mindset was exactly how I'd gotten burned….

Still, now that I seemed to be doing better, Senior kept dangling new gigs in front of me. Even after saying earlier ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠she wouldn't recommend any more tutoring spots.

"Ah, no thanks. How do I know she won't grab me by the hair later too?"

"Oh my god. She took a gap year—she's an adult, you idiot! I go out of my way to find you something good and you still bitch about it."

We bickered like that as the beer cans emptied one by one.

Ding—!

A familiar alarm chimed inside my head.

Midnight.

Had it already gotten this late?

…Here it comes.

I fiddled with an empty can and casually stood up.

"I'm gonna use the bathroom real ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠quick."

She waved me off like it was a hassle.

"Yeah, yeah. And when you come out, start heading home. Haaawn— I'm ready for bed too."

"Who goes to sleep at midnight on a Friday?"

"Me. What, you got a problem with that?"

Decisive as ever.

I nodded and shut the bathroom door.

Click.

Only after locking it did I pull out the diary.

Alright. Let's see the contents first.

Hmm… that all seems pretty accurate. So what's wrong with it?

I'd been with her all day, so I figured I wouldn't need a token. Still looked like I'd have to spend one.

The footage raced by. Her bored face at the opening party. The way she'd stuck right next to me at the drinking table and built an iron wall. Everything leading up to coming back to the studio.

Yep. Same. Exactly the same.

…But it can't be the same, right? Fuck, what is it?

What was wrong? Where had it gone off?

Tsk. Looks like I'd have to burn more tokens.

I had no choice—I dumped every token I'd saved. They recharged two a day anyway, so there was no reason to hesitate.

"Huh…?"

Wait.

The footage played again, and near the end—right at the moment she'd just walked into the studio—

She was shoving the clothes scattered on the floor aside with her feet. And under that pile of laundry, something long and pink flashed past for a split second.

There was no way a guy's eyes would miss what that was.

Is that… a dildo?

I nearly choked on a cough.

Sure, an adult woman living alone could have a toy or two. But the gap between the rough, tomboy image of Senior Eugene and that pink silicone lump was enormous.

So that's why she was frantically kicking things out of sight earlier.

A faint sense of betrayal hit me at the same time as a rush of blood straight to my lower abdomen. Honestly, between the alcohol, being alone with her in this tiny room, and the particular scent of her skin, I'd been losing my mind for a while now. My pants were already strained tight in the front. The inside of my underwear had been sticky with precum for ages.

Editing the diary entry itself was easy.

The problem was the Feedback.

The hand holding the Red Pen trembled slightly.

If I edited this right, tonight I could….

Gulp.

It was teaching, right? Whatever I wrote shouldn't matter, should it?

Maybe I'd drunk too much, because I couldn't rein in the urge. People said alcohol usually made it harder to get hard—so why was I like this? I started writing whatever desire dictated.

Once I finished writing, even I thought it looked insane.

But whatever. I took a deep breath and hit Apply.

Beep—! Beep-beep—!

The system window hanging in midair suddenly started flashing a violent red.

"What the fuck?"

I'd expected a dissonance warning, but not a reaction this violent.

Why? Is the barrier that high?

It didn't make sense. I'd just seen that thing in the footage. If she used toys like that alone, it wasn't like she had no sex drive.

And she spent all her time playing the fox among guys—yet when it came to the real thing, her psychological wall was this tall?

There's no way Senior's never been with a man. Not with that many guys always around her.

"If this fails, all the Completion Rate I worked so hard to build is gone."

Whatever the reason, I had to revise the wording and force the Plausibility into place!

Think.

That pink object that flashed past in the footage. And four straight days of her daily life with not even a speck of a man's presence.

Apparently crisis was when my brain actually kicked into gear—I managed to land on one hypothesis.

…What if it's not that she doesn't care about me at all? What if there's a chance she's never been with a man?

It was the longest of long shots. Kang Eugene, the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠senior who always seemed to be herding guys around and managing her little aquarium of admirers—having zero experience with men?

Normally I never would have bought it. But right now was different.

What if she'd flirted, sure, but never actually crossed the line? What if she soothed herself with toys alone but had zero real experience?

She barely goes to clubs, and she can hold her liquor like crazy….

Then the extreme resistance to me casually writing take his virginity suddenly made sense. How was she supposed to teach anyone when she had no experience herself?

"…Fuck it. Let's go all in."

If it failed, I'd just write the usual safe Feedback and leave her studio looking pathetic!

With shaking hands I dragged the Red Pen across the floating system window and furiously crossed out everything I'd just written. Then I started scrawling a new sentence like a man possessed.

When I finished, my own face was burning. This wasn't a teacher's lecture—it was basically a threat mixed with a dare.

"Hey, Lee Seonghyun! You coming out or what? What are you doing in there, taking a dump?!"

Bang bang bang!

Perfect timing—the bathroom door rattled hard. Her irritated voice cut straight through the thin wood.

"Ah—coming right out!"

I shouted back and, with trembling fingers, hit Apply.

I swallowed hard. If this failed too, it was really over.

My heart dropped for a second—then the red glow of the warning window began to fade.

"Yes…!"

It worked!