The Sleepover Begins
Being chosen by a beauty is always a pleasure.
That is, as long as the premise of mutual affection holds true.
“······.”
“······.”
In stark contrast to the friendly chat we'd shared back in the clubroom, the walk to the empty classroom next door was filled with nothing but silence.
I watched Senior Ju-yeon's back as she walked ahead and, for a moment, fell into thought.
...Not the weird kind of thought.
A genuine contemplation of Go Ju-yeon as a person.
First off, Go Ju-yeon was definitely one of the heroines that existed inside the erotic game.
I'd even played her route myself, after all.
She had deep blackish-purple hair and an aura that was somehow both mysterious and elegant—an older-sister type of character.
She was packed with every element that would make her popular, so of course I'd fallen hard for Go Ju-yeon too.
I still remembered spending hours playing her, desperately trying to see her ending somehow.
But for all that effort, Go Ju-yeon had no set ending.
She was like a character who moved independently of the game's story.
She would wander this vast academy at her leisure, alone, occasionally helping A-yeong or other female students she knew.
Aside from that, she never did anything else.
And when the time for graduation approached with the flow of time, she would simply vanish without a trace.
So most players never figured out what role Go Ju-yeon actually played in this game.
Even I, after multiple playthroughs, didn't learn her true identity until I was close to the true ending.
...In fact, even now there were still some things about Go Ju-yeon that remained a bit hazy to me.
That was why, unlike when I faced other heroines like A-yeong or Ha-rin, I was observing Go Ju-yeon with a slight tension.
Sensing my gaze, Senior turned around and smiled softly.
“Shall we go in, then?”
“...Yes.”
What was I even getting so tense about?
All we had to do was enter an empty classroom and bring out a single small camera.
Creak—
The classroom door opened, and I slowly stepped inside after Senior, who entered the darkness first.
“...Cough.”
Perhaps because it wasn't a classroom that saw much use, the air felt stuffy and left my throat dry.
“Over here.”
Even so, Senior Ju-yeon walked without hesitation toward the box where the camera was likely stored and called out to me.
“Could you get this down for me?”
Senior pointed to a box up high.
“Yes.”
I reached up and easily took the box down.
“Shall I put it on the floor?”
“Mm.”
And so Senior and I began looking through the box together.
Then, out of the blue, Senior tossed a light question my way.
“...Aren't you curious?”
“Pardon?”
I tilted my head at the sudden question.
Senior smiled faintly and continued.
“Why I brought you along.”
In any other situation with any other person, those words might have made my heart race.
But for some reason, a strange sensation put me on edge, and I answered carefully.
“Well... because you needed someone to do the heavy lifting, right?”
Senior just smiled without a word.
Then came the next question right after.
“...You said you're dating A-yeong.”
“...Yes.”
“So it was true.”
In that moment, even though we were standing in the same place, a chill seemed to run through my entire body.
An unreadable shadow had fallen over Senior's expression.
My hands, searching for the camera, had stopped without me noticing.
“How did you two end up dating?”
It was an ordinary question, but somehow I had the gut feeling that if I answered wrong this time, something big would happen.
So I answered calmly.
“Just... I felt sorry for A-yeong being bullied, so I helped her out in various ways, and... we naturally started dating.”
I wasn't sure if my answer was perfect.
“...I see.”
But it clearly wasn't the wrong answer.
Senior had already found the camera and was holding it in her hand; at the same time, she pressed a few batteries into my palm and whispered.
“You have to love and cherish A-yeong a lot, okay?”
She said that with a smile.
“O-Of course.”
I gave an awkward smile.
Well, I had loved A-yeong a lot—that much was true.
No matter the situation.
On the way home after receiving the camera.
Lee Ha-rin was chattering excitedly about Senior Ju-yeon, whom we'd met in the clubroom.
“How should I put it? Super kind and elegant?”
As she said that, she mimicked Senior's movements a little.
“How is it? Pretty close, right?!”
She asked A-yeong beside her.
Naturally, kind A-yeong just smiled and praised Lee Ha-rin.
“...Yeah, it's exactly the same.”
I watched this sort of grooming behavior for a bit, then sighed.
“Haa...”
A sharp glare stabbed into me.
“Hey, Lee Ha-jun. Why are you sighing?”
“...It's nothing.”
My head was already complicated enough with thoughts about Senior Ju-yeon, so I raised both hands in surrender.
But Lee Ha-rin seemed to interpret my drained appearance in a different way.
“You were thinking about Senior Ju-yeon just now, weren't you?!”
She made that ridiculous accusation.
I waved my hands with a flustered look.
“N-No way.”
Of course I had been thinking about Senior Ju-yeon, but not in that sense.
...Really.
“...Ha-jun.”
Separately from that, the anger of A-yeong, who was holding my hand, seemed to be growing fiercer by the second.
So I wordlessly watched the two of them and trudged along weakly.
Unlike usual, we were heading first to Lee Ha-rin's house instead of A-yeong's.
The reason was obvious.
First: installing the camera we'd brought from the clubroom.
Second...
“...Of course we're going together. Right?”
Because A-yeong's strong will had been reflected.
Of course, unless it was a special case like when A-yeong had been sick with a fever, I had no intention of going alone with Lee Ha-rin to her house either.
So the three of us... no, A-yeong and Lee Ha-rin chatted happily, while I just watched their moods and walked slowly beside them.
“We're here!”
Lee Ha-rin said that in a vigorous voice, unlike last time.
She dashed ahead to the shared entrance door with a clatter and punched in the password.
We naturally followed behind her.
“This way, this way, guys!”
The elevator we boarded began rising at high speed toward the floor where Lee Ha-rin's house was.
Ding—
With that sound, the elevator doors opened.
“Alright, shall we give it a try?”
I said that as I took out the camera I'd packed in my bag.
“Hey, you said you have a laptop, right?”
I told Lee Ha-rin to bring the laptop to connect to the camera.
“Just a sec.”
Lee Ha-rin quickly entered the door lock password and opened the door.
Click—
She lowered the doorstop at the bottom of the front door to keep it open, then went inside.
I watched her back for a moment, then began thinking about where to install the camera.
...A place where the entire hallway would be in frame, yet the camera wouldn't be easily noticeable.
“Where would be good...”
If it had been a house that stacked stuff in the hallway, installing the camera would have been easy.
Unfortunately, there was nothing piled up in front of Lee Ha-rin's house.
The only thing that caught my eye was a single delivery box sitting next to the door, which Lee Ha-rin seemed to have ordered in advance.
I stared at that box carefully, then suddenly an idea struck me.
“Is this laptop okay?!”
Just then, Lee Ha-rin came out walking with the laptop in one hand.
I took the laptop from her and said to Lee Ha-rin,
“Hey, Lee Ha-rin. Can I use this box?”
“What for?”
“Uh, to take out whatever's inside and put this camera in... in case that guy shows up and runs off if he sees the camera.”
Seeming to think it was a reasonable judgment, Lee Ha-rin nodded.
“Yeah, then I'll just take the stuff out from inside.”
Lee Ha-rin said that and went back into the house.
I first turned on the laptop and slowly began connecting it to the camera.
She must have unlocked it in advance, because the desktop came into view naturally.
“...Hmm.”
There was a folder full of Lee Ha-rin's photos, as if she usually liked taking pictures.
Shaa—
At the gaze I felt from beside me, I hurriedly snapped back to my senses and clacked away at the keyboard diligently.
Fortunately, even though it was an old laptop, there weren't any big problems connecting.
I looked at the connected screen and nodded.
“...It really shows up.”
A-yeong's eyes sparkled as she looked at the screen with curiosity.
Well, there probably wasn't much occasion to see a screen like a CCTV like this.
I turned the laptop toward A-yeong as if to say she could look all she wanted.
A-yeong, who had been slowly watching the screen, carefully asked me,
“...Ha-jun, so do we have to keep watching this the whole time?”
I was about to say that of course there'd be a recording function, so if we got sleepy we could just check the video the next day.
But on a "what if" thought, I looked back at the laptop screen.
...No way, right?
Clack-clack—
I desperately tried to find any related function, but...
“Haha... there isn't one.”
I had no choice but to despair with that sound.
I'd forgotten... Come to think of it, even in the game there was a mini-game where you watched a CCTV with a camera that didn't record like this to find the culprit.
To think this was an extension of that.
“W-What's wrong?”
Lee Ha-rin, who had come back out, saw my state and made a flustered face.
I pointed at the laptop and said,
“This... it doesn't record.”
“...Ah.”
Lee Ha-rin seemed to grasp the meaning of those words too.
“So... we have to keep watching it the whole time?”
“...Yeah.”
Even if we ordered a new camera right now... the earliest it would arrive was tomorrow.
With a look of enlightenment, I said to the two of them,
“...Let's burn through the night once.”
It wasn't meant in a good way.