The In-Crowd Otaku Club President (1)
“Take care getting back, Seonho.”
“You too, Isabel. Get some rest.”
After wrapping up our little session of ‘Androphobia Training’—which, let's be honest, had been thoroughly erotic—I was back at the park near the Academy Church. On the way out, I'd slipped away under Kim Isabel's concealment magic, and now I quietly replayed what had just happened in my head.
I got way too carried away with the mood. I should have held back.
I wasn't just saying that. I'd come within a hair's breadth of resetting everything I'd spent so long training into her.
If she still felt fear even while under Suggestion, it meant her body was instinctively rejecting the act itself.
Considering that Kim Isabel's androphobia had begun back in elementary school, this was a psychological condition she'd been carrying for a good ten years, at minimum. I'd thought I was pacing things as slowly as I reasonably could… but this time had been genuinely dangerous.
I'll have to save fingering for another opportunity.
She still seemed to feel resistance toward the idea of something entering her body. If I pushed too hard now and things went sideways, I wouldn't be able to handle the aftermath once the Suggestion wore off.
I needed to build more trust first. More time until Kim Isabel's faith in me deepened on its own.
Until then… naturally, I couldn't afford to get ahead of myself and ruin everything.
One failure makes the next opportunity that much harder to create. Don't forget—you're already walking a razor's edge as it is.
Muttering to myself, I gave my own resolve a firm once-over.
The moment a heroine senses something off, it's over.
Cha Eunju, already fully conditioned, wouldn't be much of a problem—but if Kim Isabel, Han Sora, or Choi Mari ever came to register our physical contact as something strange, I was done for. So done for that getting expelled from the Academy would count as the merciful outcome.
First things first—I need to cool my head.
Sitting down on a park bench, I calmly sorted through my thoughts. For the time being, any further skinship with Kim Isabel was officially frozen.
We'd already gone far enough for now, and if I greedily pushed the pace and everything unraveled, that would be worse than useless.
Besides, an event to raise her trust would come around eventually anyway. No matter how well things were going, there was no need to get impatient and move up the schedule.
And… the same logic naturally applied to the other heroines.
Is Han Sora at the Archery Department training grounds by now? And Park Hana's probably in class.
If I really wanted to, I could head to the Archery grounds right now and run a ‘Hypnosis Training’ session with her—but Han Sora already had Wednesdays locked in as our training days.
Forcing extra sessions into the schedule wouldn't actually speed up our progress. If anything, an unexpected appointment cropping up on a Monday could turn my pursuit of Kim Isabel into a race against the clock.
Park Hana was likely in class, and even if I ran into her, I had no pretext to begin training her. Do Yoonchae, convinced her secret must never come out, always dragged her feet returning to the dorm—so heading back there would only mean eating air. As for Ma Nayeon, I'd already planted the hook; approaching her before she contacted me first would spoil everything.
Days like this, the best move is to just grind out a ‘zero-risk character’ while I organize my thoughts.
Cheonmu Hunter Academy still had plenty of supporting characters and villains to spare. I could simply target the ones I wouldn't regret failing on.
The moment I moved to rise from the park bench—
—Tap!
“Ta-da~! Guess who~!”
At the innocent voice behind me, a laugh slipped out before I could stop it.
“…I-Im Yujin, sunbae?”
“Ding ding ding~! What were you up to, junior Seonho?”
…What was I up to? Preparing to devour you, obviously.
Smiling at the prey who'd delivered herself right to me, I slowly turned my head to look at her.
“Ta-da~! Guess who~!”
Playfully stretching both hands forward, I covered the eyes of Lee Seonho as he sat on the bench.
Okay, honestly? It was a totally cliché prank. But when I spotted that familiar back of the head up ahead, something in me just wanted to do it.
He was sitting there spacing out, which made it look like he had a lot on his mind, so it happened before I could think better of it.
“…I-Im Yujin, sunbae?”
“Ding ding ding~! What were you up to, junior Seonho?”
Mmm, passable, at least.
Nayeon barely reacts when I pull this kind of stunt, and Jaewook goes along with it so transparently on purpose that it's no fun at all.
But seeing a freshman junior get flustered and a little embarrassed? Definitely more entertaining than either of those two.
And he's got surprisingly sharp instincts, come to think of it.
If he hadn't been there at that drinking party, things might've gotten a little awkward for me.
I slipped around to the seat beside the adorably flustered junior and settled down next to him.
“What were you thinking about? Boy troubles, maybe?”
“A girlfriend? I don't have anything like that.”
“Oh, come on, liar. You're tall—why wouldn't you have a girlfriend?”
“Really, I don't. I have friends who are girls, though.”
“Oho, who, who? Which one of them were you thinking about?”
“N-Nobody in particular….”
Look at him panic. Adorable.
Freshmen really are so innocent that teasing them is delicious. Or maybe this is just the kind of person junior Seonho naturally is.
His reactions were so much richer than Nayeon's back when she was a freshman that my interest only deepened.
Plus, hearing he was second in the whole year as a Support Department student—that's kind of fascinating too.
I entered as the top scorer of the Combat Support Department myself, but I was only around twentieth overall.
How does a Support Department student even manage second place in the entire year? Did he ace the written exam or something?
Though if I pried too hard into stuff like that when we weren't even close, the junior who'd so kindly come all the way to our club might bolt. Restraint, Yujin. Restraint.
“If I had to say… I was thinking about you, sunbae.”
“……Huh?”
…Hold on. Is that a pickup line?!
What do I do? I'm really not good with smooth talk.
Guys who are too tall don't exactly make ideal boyfriend material, either. Walk around with someone like him and everyone will just see a father with his daughter.
Wait—hold on. Maybe the reason he joined our unpopular little club was because he's after me…
“You said you'd teach me about dungeon exploration, remember? I was trying to figure out when I should come by.”
“…Oh! R-Right, that's what you meant!”
…And with that, it turns out it was all in my head!
Phew, thank goodness. I mean, real life isn't some manga or light novel—nobody confesses out of nowhere less than a week after meeting someone.
Maybe I've gotten so deep into romcoms lately that my brain's started drifting in that direction. But seriously, how am I supposed to cope with all the must-watch shows coming out this season?
Still, at least this means I won't have to tell junior Seonho that he's not really my type. Silver linings?
“So, what brings you out here, sunbae?”
“Hm? Just saw you while I was passing by! Figured I'd say hi.”
“Really?”
“Yep! Tota~lly coincidence!”
And it genuinely was a total coincidence, mind you.
I'd stopped by the student council building to turn in junior Seonho's club membership paperwork, and I was on my way back when I happened to spot him.
…Though, hmm. If I saw him while I was on my way to submit his paperwork, maybe it wasn't a complete coincidence? How strange.
“Perfect timing, actually. Want to do it right now?”
“Sorry, what?”
“I'm done with all my lectures today. And you're free right now too, aren't you?”
“I'm free enough to be zoning out on a bench, yeah.”
“Then it works out perfectly! Let's start right away! The Academy's dungeon training grounds have a mock dungeon set up for exploration practice—I'll show you how it's done! And show off my ability while we're at it!”
“I was a little curious about your ability, sunbae.”
“Fufufu, prepare to be amazed~! Come on, let's go~!”
He's the first new member we've landed in ages, right on the brink of the club shutting down—I'm teaching him everything, top to bottom!
Once junior Seonho makes a name for himself, the club gets famous, and naturally way more freshmen will want to join.
With a smile and a nod from junior Seonho, we set off at a brisk pace toward the dungeon training grounds.
“Here it is, here it is~! Welcome to the Cheonmu Academy dungeon training grounds~!”
Arms spread wide, Im Yujin announced it with a voice absolutely bursting with excitement.
She was so brimming with energy that you'd believe she was a middle schooler rather than a university student. Honestly, with her petite frame, it really did feel that way.
Her energy is definitely on another level compared to the other characters.
Probably the most outgoing character I've met so far. In the original novel she was a ‘supporting character’ rather than a heroine, granted.
But she's cute, so it doesn't matter. When it comes to conquest, the only question that matters is whether she turns me on. That's it.
Her teal hair falling to her waist and her softly swaying B-cup chest stirred my desires without even trying.
“Do you come here often, sunbae?”
“Obviously! I'm an exploration specialist, remember? If you want to clear dungeons, you have to get familiar with them firsthand!”
For reference, Cheonmu Academy's dungeon training grounds was a training facility that recreated an environment almost identical to a real dungeon.
To be precise, it was closer to an actual dungeon that had been refurbished for student use—modified so that students lacking field experience could safely practice exploration and combat.
Death-prevention magic was a given, and the professors controlled the monster population to adjust the difficulty. In other words, no walking into a Beginner dungeon and suddenly running face-first into a mountain troll.
Looking around, I saw students who appeared to be preparing for practical courses clasping hands with their partners and entering the dungeons.
“Every dungeon on this floor counts as Beginner level. Slimes, goblins, that sort of thing. Right next to each dungeon entrance, there's a sign helpfully listing which monsters appear and in what ratios—so there's no reason to be caught off guard inside.”
“The facilities are pretty thoughtful.”
“Well, they have to be! Beginner dungeons are for mock training, not real fieldwork! From Intermediate on up, though, they stop handing you hints this blatant—you're on your own from there.”
Forming a party, preparing your gear before a dungeon dive, hunting monsters inside, handling your meals and lodging—eventually, all of it falls on the individual.
The point was that they simply wouldn't force that on students at the novice stage. This carefully tiered training pipeline was exactly what made it Cheonmu Academy.
“So you're going to take me into one of these dungeons and teach me how to explore it?”
“That's the idea!”
“Then this one looks the safest bet. Only slimes spawn in this one, so at least in terms of safety—”
Tsk, tsk, tsk. “Oh, you sweet summer child.”
With each tsk, Im Yujin wagged her index finger side to side.
It was a gesture straight out of an anime—and she committed to it completely. Even among fellow otaku, she must be part of the in-crowd, because her energy was the polar opposite of Cha Eunju's.