Crazy Bitch (3)
Han Jeong-a. The woman next door.
She had a pure, innocent look, her long brown hair tied back in a style that suited her clean features. The her I knew—whose every action was pure, whose bright smile was so charming—had met 91 men so far and engaged in sexual acts 132 times, yet remained a virgin······.
"How about it? Wanna give it a try?"
She was a crazy bitch.
"······What is there to try?"
I set her smartphone, which I'd been holding, down on the table with a thud. Thinking I should put some distance between us from now on, I started speaking formally again.
"Whyyy. I'll make you feel really good. Hm? Other guys beg me on their knees to please meet them, you know? Hm?"
Crazy bitch.
This woman was a genuine crazy bitch. Conversation was completely impossible. Her face was flushed red; she was so thoroughly drunk that she'd thrown off her mask entirely and was coming at me this openly. Now even fear was starting to set in.
"You're really drunk. Get some sleep. I'm heading out."
"·········Hmm."
Since we'd drunk together I ought to help with the cleanup a little, but getting out of this place was far more urgent. I rose from my seat and prepared to head home while she simply watched me in silence. Judging by everything she'd done so far, I'd expected her to try to stop me, yet she sat there more quietly than I anticipated.
"I'm going. Sorry I can't help clean up."
"·········Yeah, take care."
She gave me a soft smile and waved. Crazy bitch or not, at least she could still be reasoned with.
"But still··· if you feel like it, come play sometime?"
·········She really was a crazy bitch.
I shook my head hard at the voice drifting from behind me.
—Bang!
I slipped out of her place and stepped straight into my own apartment next door. With Seoyeon gone the house felt empty, and the tension drained out of me the moment I entered. In the dark interior I groped along the wall with one arm, skipped washing up entirely, and headed straight for the bed. I flopped down and stared up at the pitch-black ceiling, lost in thought.
How was I supposed to face her from now on? Should I just switch gyms, or change my workout hours, and avoid Jeong-a altogether?
Those thoughts lasted only a moment. Once the tension left me, sleep crashed over me in an instant.
The next morning.
"Hajun, I'm ho······."
I stepped inside and started to call for Hajun the way I always did, then lowered my voice at the strangely quiet feeling. I quietly took off my shoes and headed for his room; sure enough, he was still asleep.
"Hnn······ Hajun's sce······ nt······?"
Normally he would already be up by this hour. I lay down beside the still-sleeping Hajun, rubbed my face into his chest, and breathed him in—but something was off. It wasn't the scent of the Hajun I knew. Mixed with the smell of alcohol was an unpleasant odor that felt almost familiar.
So there was a sharp-tempered little cat hanging around···?
That bitch's scent that always clung to him whenever he came back from working out.
"Haa, haa······!"
My breathing suddenly turned ragged. Ominous images tore through my head. I hurriedly reached out, pulled his underwear aside, and sniffed.
"Hnn······ haa, haa······ no······."
For a second the scene of Hajun having sex with the woman next door flashed through my mind, but only Hajun's own scent rose from his cock. I felt a little relief, yet something still left me uneasy. That bitch's scent lingered thickly on his body.
"·········."
Still holding onto Hajun, I got up from the bed, walked to the front door, and put my shoes back on. I stepped out and went to the place that bitch lived—right next door—and raised my hand to the doorbell.
—Ding-dong. Ding-dong. Ding-dong. Ding-dong. Ding-dong. Ding-dong. Ding-dong. Ding-dong.
"······Ah, shit! I'm coming, I'm coming! Stop ringing it already······."
The face that appeared, twisted in irritation as she opened the door—the thieving bitch Hajun had told me was named Jeong-a—widened her eyes the moment she saw me. And first of all······ yes, this was definitely her scent. The exact same smell that had been on Hajun's body came drifting out the instant the door opened.
"······Huh? Y-you're Hajun's friend······?"
"······Hajun?"
Hearing the name "Hajun" slip so casually from the mouth of the woman named Jeong-a standing right in front of me only made the ominous feeling stronger. When had they gotten this close? Since when had they dropped formalities and started calling each other by name like this?
"·········Ah. Want to come in for now?"
After wearing an expression that almost seemed to mock me for a second, the woman pulled me inside. The moment I stepped into her apartment the reek of alcohol hit me, and more and more things that absolutely should never have happened began rising in my head.
"Have a seat first. I'll make some tea or something······."
"······Hey."
"······Hey?"
"What did you do to Hajun······."
I'd already been caught doing the things I'd done to Hajun all this time and had promised never to do it again. But I couldn't hold back anymore. Right this second I wanted to do something—anything—to the bitch standing in front of me.
"······Sit down first?"
"·········."
I ignored the woman pointing at a chair with her chin and just glared at her. But she crossed her arms and met my eyes without flinching, as if there would be no further conversation unless I sat.
—Thud.
Summoning every last scrap of patience, I kept my eyes locked on hers and dropped my ass onto the sofa. Once she confirmed I was seated, the woman named Jeong-a sat down across from me.
"Talk. What did you do to Hajun······."
"······More importantly. What exactly is your relationship with Hajun?"
"······W-why does that even matter!"
"Looking at how you flared up, you're not lovers······ and from the way you two act, hmm··· just a sex-only arrangement? But you actually like Hajun, right?"
I flinched. The two fists resting on my thighs clenched tight.
"N-no! Hajun and I love each other·········."
"Hajun didn't say it that way. Childhood friends······ is what I heard?"
"·········."
"But if that's the case. You're not even dating. If you're just the one who likes him on your own. Then what does it matter to you what I do with Hajun?"
I couldn't find a single word to throw back at her. Not friends, not lovers—just a relationship of having sex with each other. Her words that so precisely grasped the nature of my relationship with Hajun left me unable to open my mouth.
"·········Hic."
Out of pure frustration, tears started dripping down before I even realized it. I stayed like that for a long while, unable to say anything, head bowed and just crying, until she finally spoke.
"······Want me to help you?"
"·········?"
At the sudden words I lifted my head with a puzzled look. She was smiling like a child who'd just found something fun.
"Want me to help the two of you? One-sided love where only you like him is pretty lame, right? How about it?"
"·········Why would you."
The woman in front of me was the one who'd been trying to steal Hajun away from me. From the beginning she'd been looking him up and down, clearly planning to do something with him. I wasn't falling for it. Even now she was obviously trying to seduce me so she could wreck things between Hajun and me.
"Hmm··· to be honest, I got rejected by Hajun yesterday. He said he actually likes this childhood-friend girl of his. But he couldn't bring himself to tell her the truth. Said it was too embarrassing or something?"
"·········What?"
For a second I doubted my own ears. She'd been rejected by Hajun? Hajun loved me? It wasn't just me loving him alone? We'd been loving each other all along?
"Anyway. Since I already got dumped. Getting in the way of your love on top of that would be a little··· pathetic, right?"
"·········."
"So I've got quite a bit of experience with guys, you know? I think I could help the two of you out a little······ how about it?"
From the moment I heard that Hajun actually loved me, my thoughts had already stopped. Nothing else mattered. As long as I had Hajun's love, that was enough. Right up until I arrived here I'd been planning to do something—anything—to the woman in front of me, but the instant I heard her words those memories simply vanished.
"······H-how are you going to help···?"
Even if I could just stay by his side for the rest of my life exactly the way Hajun always said, that would already be more than enough—but the greed inside my heart was already swelling bigger and bigger even in this very moment. She grinned at my question.
"First. You and Hajun······."
"Gulp."
"How do you have sex?"
"·········Huh?"
I'd been wound tight with tension, and the completely unexpected question made my eyes go wide as I stared at her. Out of nowhere the woman who'd just offered to help our relationship started talking about sex.
"W-why all of a sudden se-sex······."
"Oh my. What's the way a man and woman confirm their love? It's sex, right? How the two of you have sex. What kind of sex style the guy prefers. What the girl likes. You need to know that, don't you?"
Listening to her, I found myself nodding without thinking. She was right. The only way to confirm each other's love was sex.
"So. How is it?"
"W-well, that is······."
Even knowing that, talking about something like this to a stranger was embarrassing and mortifying.
"It's fine. If it's too embarrassing······ here."
"·········?"
She suddenly held out her smartphone, and I reflexively took it. The moment I checked the screen—
"Kyaaaaah!"
"Oh my. Did I startle you?"
"W-what··· what is that!"
"I showed you me having sex? I was just helping so you wouldn't be the only one embarrassed talking about it."
I shrieked and practically threw the phone back at her. On the screen a man was thrusting a strange object—panties with a dildo attached—into the woman who looked exactly like the one sitting in front of me.
"Anyway. I already showed mine, so hurry up and tell me."
"W-well, that is·········."
The shocking video I'd just seen kept flickering through my head. I did my best to push the memory away and started explaining to her how Hajun and I usually had sex.
"Hmm··· so that's why you hated it so much······."
"Huh?"
"No, never mind. So from now on what you need to do is······."
After listening to everything about Hajun and me, she began talking about the direction we should take going forward—and the smile on her face was a little creepy.