200th-Chapter Anniversary Side Story (5): Future Tae-il Regresses to the Days He Recruited Sakuya
Tae-il opened his eyes in bed and, on instinct, swept an arm out to the right.
Someone was there. Skin smooth and firm, springy in a way that made him want to keep touching it—addictive. He kneaded at it idly, and as his hand drifted lower it closed around a narrow waist.
"Nn..."
A low moan, as if it tickled.
Over the past few years her exercise had dwindled to pilates and the gym, and between shows and drawing manga she spent far more of her time indoors. Maybe that was why eyelids gone markedly paler than in her youth gave a faint twitch. A moment later, amethyst eyes touched with jealousy settled on his own.
Tae-il smiled.
"Good morning?"
"Good morning, my ass. Pawing at the waist of someone whose back is killing her..."
"It hurts? Want me to massage it?"
"No. You'll just start massaging and then do something dirty again."
"I can't?"
She couldn't. Sakuya whined and burrowed back under the covers.
"I've got a deadline today."
"Ah."
Anything else he might have argued, but a mangaka's deadline was hopeless. Tae-il sighed. He'd stolen so much of her time yesterday that today's deadline might be cutting it close, and the thought prickled him with guilt. Sakuya, reading the apology on his face, sighed, told him it was fine, and gave his cheek a light pinch.
"Don't worry. Rena said she'd help."
"Rena?"
"It's her turn today, isn't it? She said she'd finish fast, and then enjoy herself on her own time."
"Wow."
How is that kid this shameless? Is it because she draws erotic manga?
When Tae-il let out a sound of pure awe at Rena's sex drive, Sakuya snickered.
"She's a real pervert, right?"
"First of all, you all made me like this, so none of you get to talk..."
During an active season they endured, and endured again, but the moment a break arrived it was nothing short of a frenzy. And the ones who had turned Tae-il into a sex fiend were none other than the members themselves.
He swept all of Sakuya's sleep-mussed hair back behind her.
With her face cleared, Sakuya giggled.
"The doujinshi she's been drawing lately is hilarious if you actually look."
"How so?"
"She cast herself as every single heroine."
"Rena did?"
"Yeah."
Early on, she said, Rena had kept her distance and drawn nothing but exaggerated hourglass figures. Somewhere along the way her hand had become incapable of drawing anything but loli. Not even loli with huge breasts. She could only manage truly flat chests and slender bodies now, and even while drowning in self-loathing she moved the brush wherever her desire pointed.
"I checked the afterwords. Says she mostly draws from experience. You'd know the second you looked, babe."
"Uh... suddenly I don't want to see Rena's work."
"Pfft!"
The thought that his own sexual history and fantasies were being published in full to some unspecified public—anonymous or not—quietly embarrassed him.
"So."
As if to mash the shame flat, Tae-il kneaded Sakuya's hips and asked.
"Massage, or no massage? Your choice, Sakuya."
"You're not going to listen to me anyway."
She dragged the blanket up and hid her face like a hijab, muttering small.
"Animal..."
Good. Tae-il decided to live up to the name and pounce.
"Taichi?"
Mid-lunge, he froze in spite of himself.
Huh?
The name was familiar and strange at once, and it put a question on his face. The owner of the voice he knew never called him Taichi except when she was angry. In private she showed off a sticky affection where no one else could hear, calling him babe.
Tae-il lifted his head.
A small, neat face, and pure violet eyes that had weathered far less of time.
My eye level...
had dropped. After he'd grown up it had drawn roughly even with Sakuya's, but now it had gone back to the old days.
"Taichi? You okay? You spaced out all of a sudden."
"Hang on."
He caught Sakuya as she came closer with worry on her face, and looked around.
Enough to make him homesick. There was Rena, venom and a sharp temper written all over her expression. A long corridor so unfamiliar it might only have survived in some corner of his memory. And last, Sakuya in a jersey with Yuma across it.
Ah. So this is back then.
Gunma Prefecture. The first-year Interhigh volleyball final. The days he'd come to cheer Sakuya on, and gotten thoroughly roasted by Rena for whether he was even embarrassed to be there.
A dream?
He'd already lived through a past life, so he was confident a phenomenon stranger than that wouldn't shake him. Still, maybe because of what had just happened, the younger Sakuya nagged at him. She wasn't all that different, but seeing her like this, he felt it for certain.
She barely even wore makeup back then... Fresh. Tender.
He gently stroked the face of the Sakuya who was watching him with worry.
"Taichi?"
She was like that even now, if he was honest, but the Sakuya in front of him was more so. A complete baby. His callused thumb brushed across her lower lip.
"Wh-what are you doing, seriously. You're actually worrying me—what's wrong? Nothing happened, right?"
A little. A mean prank came to mind.
Back when Tae-il himself had still been innocent, Sakuya had gotten him plenty. In Gunma especially, he'd been teased without mercy. He wanted to torment her for as much as he'd taken.
If it's a dream anyway...
Would it be fine to just do it on impulse?
"Sakuya."
"Wh-why'd you drop your voice all of a sudden? That's embarrassing."
"Good luck in the final."
"Th-that's obvious..."
"Yeah. Of course you'll pull it off. You're the ace."
She had been in the band, too. There was a time she'd worried everyone around her, but in the end Sakuya had proved why she was the ace and the frontman. Tae-il loved that Sakuya—the persistence, the nerve, the stubbornness of someone who ran herself ragged to answer his faith and still refused to abandon the dream she'd carried since she was small.
Did she already like me, even back then?
Probably. It was obvious from the way she flushed bright red just from the two of them looking at each other this close.
Smiling, slick and knowing, Tae-il took her chin and her cheek in both hands.
"Sakuya."
"Y-yeah?"
He could feel eyes. Rena's. And the seniors from Sakuya's volleyball club. Right in front of them, Tae-il kissed her as if he wanted an audience.
"Mmph!?"
At the surprise attack, Sakuya's violet eyes shrank to the size of beans. Beside them, Rena was aghast.
"W-wai— y-you you you you—!?"
The volleyball seniors who had seen it kicked up a crashing commotion inside the waiting room.
"Kyaa! Sakuya kissed a boy!"
"A kiss, a kiss!"
"It wasn't a joke—she really had a boyfriend?!"
"Oh my god! This is news, this is news!"
Caught completely off guard by a mere peck of the lips, Sakuya froze solid. Someday kissing would be ordinary for her, and the innocent, adorable reaction made Tae-il grin as he leaned in and whispered at the ear of the girl who had turned into a human popsicle.
"Win, and I'll do it again when you get back. Deeper."
"Th-th-th-that..."
"Or do you want something dirtier?"
"Eep!"
"If it's you, Sakuya, it's fine. I can take responsibility. I love you."
"Ugh."
"Ugh?"
"Uwaaaaah!"
Brain overloaded, Sakuya screamed and tore away from him.
"Kyaaa!"
She tore down the corridor like a madwoman, screaming, and stopped only because Tae-il was blocking the way. He kissed the back of her hand like an English gentleman, then asked again.
"Well? What do you want to do?"
"Kyaa!"
Sakuya fled into the volleyball club's waiting room.
"Ahaha!"
Tae-il laughed at the reaction. Rena looked sick.
"No, you... haah. Forget it. I'm losing my mind."
"Want me to do you too, Rena?"
"What?"
While she was speechless, he tipped the brim of her straw hat aside and leaned his face in.
Close enough for his breath to touch her. Rena froze.
"Want me to?"
"Are— are you..."
"Are...?"
"Are you insane!?"
Rena shoved him off, dragged her suitcase behind her, and scurried away.
"Ahaha!"
Tae-il laughed. Thinking it over again, it was a fun dream.
"Wait."
Watching Rena's retreating back, he belatedly patched up a brain that had been ruled by his dick and managed something resembling an actual thought.
"If this isn't a dream..."
Am I completely screwed right now?
"...Screw it. Future me will figure it out somehow."
Afterward, Tae-il—his brain still governed by his lower half—dream or reality, went full not my problem and enjoyed himself on the strength of everything he understood about the two of them and everything he had already lived through. He toyed with them thoroughly. Very thoroughly.
He enjoyed them at karaoke. At a net cafe he enjoyed a long, sticky threesome, got chased out by the owner, and landed on the blacklist. If the clerk was going to scold him over a misunderstanding anyway, he might as well commit the real thing cleanly—that one-track thought was what produced the disaster.
And thanks to that—
"Shin-chan?"
Dead-eyed Ayane and her fire extinguisher very nearly cracked his skull.
Tae-il, in the army.
Pa-pam, pa-pa-pam, pa-pa-ra pa-pa, pa-pa-ra pa-pa...
His eyes flew open.
That damned reveille. The one no man could hear without feeling sick.
I hoped I'd go my whole life without knowing it...
Still, he told himself, at least he hadn't had to go twice, and he sat up on the bunk.
Sakuya really saved my life.
When he first went into the training center, he'd spent a long while worrying what this shabby body of his was going to do. Fortunately, the body Sakuya had drilled with nothing but their nights in mind had, unexpectedly, hardened in the hardware, and it let him weather the training center's grind with room to spare.
In the unit he'd drawn oddly contemptuous looks just for having been in a band, but the day of the completion ceremony was different. That day, he became a superstar.
Completion ceremony. Visitation.
"Shin-chan!"
Ayane, dressed up so deliberately that anyone could tell, shouted a nickname utterly unfamiliar in Korea and threw herself into his arms.
"A-Ayane? You really dressed up."
"Yeah! Auntie Hana said if I was going to visit her son, I should dress to crush every woman around me!"
"Agh. Mom..."
Thanks to that, every eye in the place locked onto the two of them at once. And Ayane was not the only visitor.
"Whoa, there are so many soldiers. Are all of those trainees?"
"You're into military stuff too?"
"As material for manga, I don't think it's bad. Rena?"
"Military's not really my thing..."
"Yahoo! We're here, buzz-cut Private Shin Tae-il!"
"You guys too..."
Every last member of Tales Tale had come to the completion-ceremony visitation. Tae-il looked around.
"My parents?"
"They dropped us off. They're waiting out in the parking lot now."
"They're not coming in?"
"Well..."
Iris smiled bitterly. Whatever his ease with his daughters-in-law, Shin Younghoon was still awkward with his actual son.
Anyway. A recruit standing in the visitation room with a cluster of beauties stood out far too much. Because of it, even after he was assigned to his unit, the rumor that he had a lot of pretty women around him spread in no time.
"Hey."
"Private Shin Tae-il!"
A short reset after breakfast.
"Aye-aye. No need to be so stiff between us."
"P-Private Shin Tae-il..."
Once Tae-il had finished rattling off his rank and name, the platoon leader folded his arms and smiled lewdly. It had become a regular ritual lately. At first there were only rumors—people who stared at him strangely, or asked in a timid way—and every time, Tae-il dodged. The problem came when the platoon leader, under the pretext of a surprise barracks inspection, went through his wall locker and found old photos. Photos from his student-band days. And photos with fans after they had successfully finished their first Budokan show. The platoon leader's eyes rolled back in his head. He'd gotten particularly hooked on Iris, and he needled Tae-il about her without end. It was misery. You couldn't exactly tell a superior in the army, She's my girlfriend, so back off.
"You said they're all Japanese, right? Goddamn, Japanese girls really are to die for down there!"
"Um..."
"Ah, sorry. They're your friends, right? I had no sense at all. My apologies."
He apologized, and still he didn't put away that openly lecherous look. Tae-il was quietly uncomfortable. So he spent his days facing a platoon leader who was nothing but a nuisance, forcing out a way with words he didn't have, and eating the stress.
And then a visitation day he would rather never have had drew near. The very day before it, even.
"Bet we're all coming, right?"
"Ah."
"Why? Is there a problem? Oh—I asked online, and I did get the advice to bring a ton of chicken!"
"Right..."
The entire lineup from the completion ceremony was coming again, just like that.
"Oh, right. I heard Senior Yuuya's coming too. Izumi-unnie can't—she's on a Southeast Asia tour. She said she'll come on her own next time."
"I'm so grateful I could cry..."
In truth he wasn't grateful at all. If anything, he was uneasy.
"I heard the army does morale shows too, so I asked around, but it doesn't seem like bands are very welcome."
"Because the singers who come do troop shows are almost all idols."
A band, coming to play for the troops? Unless you were on the level of Guckkasten, Crying Nut, or Buzz, you didn't have a prayer.
"What a shame! We're kind of an idol band too!"
"Don't start."
"Yeah, yeah. Oh, Ayane's coming. See you tomorrow! Poof!"
"Irisss! Ayane wants the phone too— kyaa!"
Click.
The line went dead. Tae-il hung up the receiver and trudged back to the barracks, worrying about tomorrow.
The day of the visit.
The moment the band members walked into the visitation room, a murmur ran through the unit again. His peers from the same squad and his seniors, especially, stared at Tae-il one after another as if he were something rare. Every face seemed to ask, Why are you with people like that? He'd taken that look plenty of times back in school, so he let it roll off.
"Yahoo! Hello, soldiers! One, two—"
"We're Tales Tale!"
As if they'd promised it, the members bowed in unison and introduced themselves.
"Whoooa! I knew you were pretty. You were all idols!?"
"We're a band..."
"An idol band, you mean? I know those! AOA used to be like that!"
"Just a band..."
"Kyaah. So which one's your girlfriend?"
"..."
Even with chicken and pizza laid out as tribute, his peers and seniors wouldn't leave, and that same platoon leader was wedged in among them. Tae-il was irritated, but the members had gathered for once, so he forced a smile and kept the chatter going.
Then—
Poke, poke. Someone nudged his shin under the table.
He glanced around and met Iris's eyes. Chin propped on her hand, she grinned crookedly, worked the corner of her mouth, and flicked him a look. Roughly: let's talk alone.
Tae-il excused himself with the bathroom and slipped out for a moment. He waited in the corridor outside, and Iris appeared.
"Yahoo!"
"Why'd you call me out here?"
"Why else!"
As if the reason were obvious, Iris smacked him on the ass. Tae-il flinched and rubbed the spot.
"...You're serious?"
He was the one who startled. Iris was perfectly at ease.
"I looked it up online. Lots of couples do it."
"I told you not to believe internet trash..."
"So what. Hehe."
Iris glanced around. Realizing no one was there, she hopped up, looped her arms around his neck, and brought her mouth to his.
"Mmph!"
"Mm..."
Tongues that still tasted of chicken tangled together, trading spit. Soft, full breasts rubbed against him, and a knee lifted just slightly pressed at his groin.
That was the detonator.
"Kya!"
Months of holding it in exploded all at once, and Tae-il dragged Iris into the bathroom.
"Nobody's in here, right?"
"Hehe. I wouldn't mind if there were."
"I would."
He didn't want to show anyone else a side of her more lovable than anything.
At his whining, Iris smiled brightly and lifted her legs to hang from his waist. Somewhere in there his waistband had already come down, and he startled at a familiar sensation meeting the tip.
"Hey, Iris, don't tell me you—"
"Hehe."
"Do the others know about this?"
"Doubt it."
Iris smiled wickedly and whispered at his ear.
"This has to be something only you know. Okay?"
At that bewitching demand, Tae-il went ahead and did it.
Sex, for the first time in a long while. The thrill of not getting caught. And the guilty rush of doing it in a public place. Together they gave the two of them more pleasure than either had imagined.
After the deed, Iris scraped up with a finger the cloudy fluid running down past her thigh, licked it, and whined.
"Ugh. Keep this up and I'm going to get pregnant. I don't even have underwear to stop it from leaking..."
"So you hate it?"
"No? It's thrilling. I'm the best. Hehe."
"Hopeless..."
Tae-il smiled bitterly and kissed her one last time.
They tidied the area with the wet wipes Iris had brought and slipped out of the bathroom. And ran straight into someone.
"Y-you..."
"Ah."
The platoon leader. The man who had kept flashing his lust for Iris at Tae-il was flushing red and going pale by turns. His bloodshot gaze glared at Tae-il, then shifted to Iris right beside him—a faint blush still on her cheek—and just like that he grabbed the back of his neck and toppled to the floor.
"H-how could you... hrk!"
"Hmm..."
Unlike the flustered Tae-il, Iris looked at the platoon leader foaming at the mouth and asked in a perfectly calm voice.
"What do we do?"
"Run!"
Screw it. The two of them bolted for the visitation room.
Fortunately, the rumor never spread.
His standing rose for no good reason, purely because every person who came to see him was a beauty, but after that visit the platoon leader didn't come near Tae-il at all. For Tae-il, it was an absolute mercy.
One month later.
Tae-il looked at the photo she had sent—a pregnancy test, two lines—and, just as the platoon leader had, clutched the back of his neck.