11. The Bud Bursts (1)
11. The Bud Bursts (1)
Choi Ha-na's morning starts early.
Unlike the typical college student who's more familiar with dawn than morning sunlight, she slid out of bed with a drowsy face the moment her preset alarm went off today.
"Ugh....."
Though her face still hadn't fully woken up, Ha-na half-automatically got down from her bed and trudged into the bathroom to begin her morning routine.
She took pride in grooming herself and getting ready every morning.
As she washed her face to wake herself up, applied light makeup, and spent a long time deciding what to wear in front of the mirror, her sleepiness had already vanished.
"Hmm. Okay!"
With a bright expression like the spring sunlight streaming through the window - as if to ask when she'd woken up with half-closed eyes - Ha-na gave her appearance one final check before stepping out of the dormitory with light footsteps.
"Hi! Hello~ Hello!"
The walk to the classroom always came with countless greetings.
Though she hadn't been a college student for long, there were almost no people she didn't know among those she met on campus.
"Hello~ Did you guys go out partying all night again?"
A group of freshmen heading back to the dormitory staggering unsteadily - the complete opposite of herself now that she was awake.
"Ah, sunbaenim, hello~ Going to class?"
A department sunbaenim she met during freshman orientation.
"Tuntun-nyang! Lazy from the morning!"
Even the cat that often roamed around campus.
Though Ha-na cheerfully greeted everyone as she crossed campus, her eyes began to sparkle much more brightly when she saw the person walking ahead of her.
"So-jeong unnie~!"
Ha-na ran toward her as if about to jump and hug her, but stopped abruptly right in front of So-jeong. The belated thought that So-jeong, who had a weak constitution, might get hurt if she hugged her recklessly had occurred to her.
It had already been several weeks since they'd luckily ended up in the same group project team. At first, she'd been a bit confused about how to treat this unnie who resembled a beautiful porcelain doll, but now she could confidently say she'd gotten the hang of it to some extent.
Perhaps because of that, So-jeong also seemed to treat Ha-na more comfortably than before.
"Ah, Ha-na."
Turning her head at Ha-na's call, So-jeong forced a weak smile with somewhat hollow-looking eyes.
"Hello......"
"Gasp, unnie, are you not feeling well again?"
Ha-na asked with wide eyes as she saw So-jeong's pale face.
"Huh? No. I just haven't been sleeping well recently......"
So-jeong laughed awkwardly, "Ahaha," and scratched her cheek.
"You haven't been sleeping well? Why?"
"Um, that's... Assignments! There have been so many assignments lately."
As So-jeong brushed it off like that, Ha-na exclaimed "Aah!" and expressed intense agreement.
"Right! You've been really busy too, unnie? Ugh, are our department professors always this harsh? Midterms are coming up soon, but if we have this many assignments, I don't know how they expect us to study for exams!"
Ha-na chattered away as if pouring out all the complaints she'd accumulated against the professors, but So-jeong was only half-listening, letting the words go in one ear and out the other.
Recently, So-jeong hadn't been feeling satisfied with her 'sexual desire management.'
No. To be precise, all sexual desire management after the first time she masturbated had been like that.
Several weeks had already passed since she went shopping with Baek-seol and Ha-na, returned fully erect, and couldn't hold back from masturbating in the hallway.
Contrary to So-jeong's expectation that she would be calm for a few days after ejaculating once, her dick returned with full energy as if nothing had happened after just one night's sleep.
Before, when she got an erection upon waking or during class, it only felt somewhat stiff, but ever since experiencing ejaculating herself, whenever blood rushed to her dick, So-jeong was swept up by an unbearable urge.
It was as if the deep desires within her were egging her on to touch her dick again, to feel good.
"Ngh, haahk! Hhuup......"
Like drinking seawater where thirst only grows stronger the more you quench it, shaking her fully hardened dick with her hand before sleep had now become So-jeong's final daily routine.
"Ugh, it's coming......Hah! Ahh, ngh! Hht!"
Having learned from previous experience, she quickly brought the pre-prepared tissue wad to the tip of her dick and shuddered her body.
"Haa, hhuu......"
But after ejaculation was completely over, So-jeong's face as she flushed the tissue down the toilet showed not the refreshment of orgasm but an inexplicable discomfort.
The feeling of incomplete combustion, as if she hadn't poured out everything inside herself - unlike the first time she ejaculated.
The sensation of the embers of unextinguished desire still sizzling within her was the reason So-jeong hadn't been sleeping properly recently.
'Something is missing.'
Actually, So-jeong vaguely knew what was missing, what the difference was between her first masturbation and the subsequent acts.
As she had resolved after her first sexual desire management, So-jeong had tried not to think of her closest friend Ryu Baek-seol while masturbating.
So whenever she managed her sexual desires after that first day, she focused only on quickly moving her hand up and down to ejaculate before Baek-seol's image could appear in her mind.
She thought that was probably why she felt more stinging and insufficiency than satisfaction after ejaculating.
'But what can I do?'
She thought that making Ryu Baek-seol - who always worried about her and helped her - into a 'side dish' for sexual release (So-jeong somehow felt this word was most appropriate) would be an act of defiling and betraying her.
'It's not like I started masturbating because I wanted to in the first place.'
But no matter how much she tried to reason with herself like that, So-jeong didn't yet know that with each daily ejaculation, unsatisfied sexual desire was gradually accumulating within her.
The remnants of carnal desire accumulated over several weeks settled like sediment at the bottom of the sea - slowly, but simultaneously thickly and densely.
"......Unnie? Unnie?"
"Huh? Ah, yes?"
Startled by the voice calling her, So-jeong turned her head.
"Unnie, are you really okay?"
Perhaps she had been lost in thought for too long, as Ha-na was now staring intently at So-jeong.
"You keep spacing out."
"No. I'm fine."
So-jeong forced an ordinary smile at Ha-na.
"Let's hurry inside. We'll be late for class."
"Yes~ Hehe."
With a smile more colorful than the cherry blossoms beginning to bloom on those trees, Ha-na naturally linked arms with So-jeong.
Arm-linking and other skin contact were among the elements Ha-na had gradually unlocked (?) as she became closer with So-jeong.
Since Ha-na had carefully approached her so as not to be burdensome, So-jeong could now comfortably accept such touches from Ha-na as friendly skin contact rather than contact from a stranger.
Watching Ha-na cling to her arm with a hehe laugh, a question suddenly arose in So-jeong's heart.
'Why don't I feel anything when Ha-na touches me?'
Being overly sensitive to others' gazes, So-jeong knew.
Just how much of an eye-catching, beautiful presence Choi Ha-na was.
Yet even when such Ha-na linked arms with her and clung so close that her perky breasts touched So-jeong's elbow, So-jeong's heart didn't flutter. She only felt her heart warm at the girl's cuteness and brightness.
'Why does my heart malfunction whenever I see only you?'
Walking down the corridor toward the classroom, she was there as always.
"Hello."
With that one word, waves crashed in So-jeong's calm heart.
'Why does my chest pound like this just from seeing you.'
"......Hello, Baek-seol."
She greets casually and sits beside her. So she won't suspect me.
'Why does everything else become inaudible when I just hear your shallow breathing beside me.'
She directs her unfocused eyes straight ahead. So she won't worry about me.
'Why does my body get this hot whenever your shampoo scent faintly tickles my nose, whenever our arms brush slightly against each other.'
She wanted to confess to her and get it off her chest but forcibly swallowed the words. So she won't dislike me.
'Baek-seol. I think I've become strange.'
This feeling has only been growing stronger over the past few weeks.
The more I try not to think of you, the more I crave you every night.
Could it be love?
Have I ended up falling in love with you, crossing the wall of being two women?
But So-jeong shook her head.
No. This wasn't a white, pure emotion like love.
This was carnal desire. Greed seeking physical pleasure.
The evidence was this hideous thing currently standing stiffly upright, making her skirt bulge out.
No matter what other thoughts she tried, her dick showed no signs of subsiding. The lump of sexual desire that hadn't been fully released for weeks no longer calmed down easily.
'I'm sorry, Baek-seol.'
Though she barely covers her crotch with her handbag, deep in her heart she ends up hoping you'll notice.
She unconsciously ends up wishing that you - who always helped her, so kind - would help her this time too and free her from this frustration.
When break time comes, if she goes to the bathroom and masturbates again, it will barely subside. But that won't last long either.
'Sorry. I'm sorry, Baek-seol.'
So-jeong's dick twitched at Baek-seol's scent wafting like flower fragrance through the open window. And along with it, So-jeong's expression also momentarily contorted.
'I don't think I'll be able to see you the same as before.'