Want to Go to the 'Library' Together? (1)
The day after finishing my 'androphobia training' with Kim Isabel, and sending a small affection-raising event with Im Yujin as well.
When I woke up in the morning, unlike yesterday, Do Yoonchae was already in sight—fully changed into her uniform, ready to head out.
"Haaahm, morning, Yoonsung."
"...Yeah. Morning to you too."
Stiff as ever, but at least she returned the greeting. Waking up and having the very first conversation of my day be with a beautiful girl I lived with—by that measure alone, my life up to this point had been a resounding success.
I shuddered to imagine what would have happened if I'd botched the entrance exam and Seo Woojin had become valedictorian of the academy instead. If that coward had ended up sharing a dorm room with a crossdressing beauty like Do Yoonchae, I'd probably be waking up from nightmares even in my sleep by now.
Besides, since we were in entirely different departments, this roommate arrangement was the only point of contact I'd ever have with her. If our dorms had been different, we'd have crossed paths at most during shared lectures—and trying to get close to Do Yoonchae, whose guard against strangers was sky-high, from that starting position would have been at least ten times harder.
"Yoonsung, you have morning lectures today...? Are you heading out to eat now...?"
"...In a bit. We still have some time before we're supposed to meet."
"Right. Well, I'm going to wash up then? You already did, didn't you?"
"O-of course I did. Why would you even ask? I'm not the type to laze around in bed all morning like you."
"......"
"Wh-what's with that look!"
What do you think? It's because you had the gall to say that when you were nearly caught oversleeping just yesterday. The shamelessness is breathtaking.
Well, every one of these little antics would become a delicious source of embarrassment for her later, once her secret was out—so for now, just watching was entertainment enough.
Taking advantage of the moment her gaze was fixed on me, I immediately pulled off my shirt and bared my torso. Caught off guard, Yoonchae hurriedly whipped her head toward the desk on the far side of the bed.
"D-didn't I tell you to say something before you start stripping!"
"We're both guys. What's the problem?"
"I-I'm telling you this because I have zero interest in seeing some other man's naked body! It's—it's disgusting to look at and it puts me in a bad mood!"
"Must be nice being you, handsome. Bet you stand in front of the bathroom mirror every morning admiring your own face and body."
"...U-uh?"
"Since I'm not much to look at, face or body. Sorry for offending your delicate sensibilities, Yoonsung."
"N-no, that's not what I meant at all."
Look at her flounder. I'd barely pretended to sulk, and I could already feel, even from behind, how completely lost she was about how to respond.
To be clear, I wasn't actually angry or sulking—it was pure acting. Planting little debts of guilt like this on a regular basis would give me a whole arsenal of leverage for the day her identity came to light.
I was thinking I should let her off the hook at a reasonable point, and the moment I started undoing my pants, Do Yoonchae's head suddenly swiveled back toward me.
"Th-though, honestly, what I said just now might have been a bit harsh. Getting so worked up over guys seeing a little of each other's—"
"......"
"KYAAAAAH?! Wh-what are you doing, Lee Seonho! Wh-why is that thing out in the open!!"
The instant she saw what had sprung up between my legs, Do Yoonchae let out a squeal straight out of a girl's scream compilation, covered her eyes, and twisted away.
...Lately I've been genuinely starting to wonder whether she has any intention of hiding her identity at all. Honestly, at this point she's one nudge away from just confessing the truth and begging me to keep her secret.
'I do plan to bring her into my training program before this semester ends anyway.'
But I hadn't planned on moving quite yet, and with her flaunting reactions like that right in front of me, the rising heat in my blood was simply beyond my control.
"What's the big deal? Getting naked before a shower is perfectly normal."
"At-at least put on underwear! E-even between guys, isn't that kind of thing embarrassing?!"
"Embarrassing? Between guys? It's just natural, that's all."
"...D-don't lie! I-I looked it up on the internet, and it said that even among men, exposing your... genitals is considered shameful behavior..."
"You actually searched the internet for that? Shouldn't any guy just... know that?"
"...Y-you seemed so matter-of-fact about it, so I was merely checking for typical cases!"
The more Do Yoonchae talked, the deeper she painted herself into a corner, and her reactions were absolutely delicious. Watching her squirm like this made me think I could afford to put off revealing that she was a woman for a while longer.
After all, this was a pleasure I could only enjoy while living with 'Do Yoonchae, the girl disguised as a boy.'
"Me, I've got nothing to hide. Frankly, even compared to another guy, I've got nothing to be ashamed of."
"...N-nothing to be... ashamed of?"
"A man's confidence comes from his dick, obviously. Only the ones without anything to show get all embarrassed and try to hide it this way and that."
"...I-is that... how it works?"
"Hold on. Now that I think about it, Yoonsung—the reason you hide yours from me every single day, don't tell me it's because..."
"......?!"
With the expression of someone who'd just caught onto something, I let a subtle smirk creep across my face and stepped closer. Do Yoonchae averted her eyes from my gaze, flustered.
She rolled her confused eyes this way and that, searching for an escape, and I whispered to her with a lecherous grin.
"Yours is small, isn't it?"
"...Wh-what did you... say...?"
"Think about it. You're both guys—you'd think bathing together would be one thing, but you won't even let me see you change clothes. There's no other explanation. That's what guys with tiny dicks do—they're ashamed, so they hide it."
"......"
"What, am I wrong? Is there some other reason, then?"
"...Y-yes, actually, that's it! My-my dick... i-it, anyway, it's small! That's the only reason I haven't wanted to show it until now!"
Never in my life did I expect to hear a girl confess, out loud, that her own dick was small.
Which meant she'd been psychologically cornered to exactly that degree. She probably didn't have time to come up with a plausible alternative excuse under the pressure of the moment.
The way her face flushed red—even she seemed embarrassed by her own words—suggested that with a little more prodding, exposing her identity right here might not have been impossible...
'But it's better if it comes out through her own "mistake," at first, anyway.'
If the reveal turned into a scene where I forcibly exposed her, I'd have to start her training while she was wary and hostile toward me.
Knowing full well that a Mental-type like me planting himself as an enemy of a Physical Enhancement-type heroine before conditioning her was a losing proposition, I decided to call it quits here.
-Tap, tap.
"Huuueh?!"
"There, there. Chin up, kid. A man isn't defined by his dick alone, you know?"
I deliberately gave the center of her chest a couple of friendly thumps with my fist—and Do Yoonchae hastily twisted her body around to shield her chest.
Watching her scramble, with clearly no thought whatsoever of actually concealing anything, I gathered my change of clothes and stepped into the bathroom.
"Going to wash up~ No peeking out of curiosity, alright~?"
"P-peek?! Who would peek?! I'm not curious at all, so quit spouting nonsense!"
Says the girl who does the exact same thing to me every single day, and my one little joke is somehow out of line.
Maybe I'll engineer things so she comes clean on her own by next week at the latest. I'd gotten a decent read on Do Yoonchae's daily habits over the past week, after all.
As long as I acted just outside the range of her expectations, making her reveal her identity would be no trouble at all.
The morning session of Understanding of Weapons wasn't much different from last week's.
Cha Eunju and Kim Isabel had taken their seats on either side of me, rubbing their chests against my arms in a strangely competitive silent war, while from the row behind us I could feel the envious stares of the other students watching it all unfold.
Park Hana, just like last week, was dozing off in the seat beside Kim Isabel, mercifully oblivious to the three-way contest playing out around me.
'Park Hana really is as dense as they come in the original story.'
So dense that she's late to realize her feelings for the protagonist are love, and equally late to figure out that other women are after him too.
That said, she still got a head start on Cha Eunju, whose heroine recruitment was delayed because she was tied up with me. Even before all this, Hana had been doing plenty of 'natural' romantic appealing—she just never recognized it as attraction herself.
Park Hana does belong on my conquest list eventually, but at this point in time I had no pretext for training her.
At the earliest, I'd probably start around summer break. By then I'd have a suitable justification for conditioning her, and the surrounding environment would be more or less set up to my liking.
Besides, Park Hana came up from a rural backwater with almost no contact with the outside world and harbored a naive fascination with 'Seoul culture.' As long as I conditioned the friends around her properly, deceiving her wouldn't be particularly difficult.
-Squeeze.
"S-Seonho, I missed the part you just wrote down—could I take a quick look at your notes?"
"Sure. Though you don't really need to press in that close, do y—"
And there she went again, dangling some flimsy excuse while pressing her chest against my left arm.
-Crunch.
"I-I'll show you mine, Isabel! S-so you don't need to stick so close to Seonho...?"
And Cha Eunju immediately countered, plastering her own chest against my other arm in a blatant territorial display.
-Squeeze.
"That's quite all right, Eunju. Seonho is closer to me right now, so I'll ask him."
-Crunch.
"I-I see... Y-yes, of course..."
Even after that dramatic settlement, the two of them kept up their pride, grinding their abundant busts against both sides of my forearms until the lecture ended.
"Anyway, I've got Combat Department class with this guy, so we'll head in."
"OOOHHH!!! See you later, friends!!!"
"I-I'll be going too, Seonho...! Everyone else, take care."
As lunch hour ended, the group chat members peeled off one by one to their respective classes.
"Oh, Seonho. If you're free, could you help with my archery training again tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow? Nothing I can't do. I've got a free period after morning lectures tomorrow too."
"...Thank you. Th-then, see you tomorrow!"
At the mention of archery training, Han Sora flushed crimson as if last week's events were replaying in her head, and with her departure, only two people remained at the café.
Cha Eunju, seated beside me, was sending furtive, half-there glances my way with an oddly tense expression.
"A-are you training with Sora too? With that... 'hypnosis training' or whatever..."
"...I am, but it's not the same kind of thing I did with you, Eunju, so don't worry about it."
"...N-no. I wasn't asking because of that, exactly.... A-anyway, I see..."
Anyone could tell she was asking because she wanted to know whether Sora and I were doing lewd things under the pretext of training.
Well, the lewd things under the pretext of training part was factually true, but I hadn't lied. The 'hypnosis training' I did with Sora was a slightly different genre from the 'hypnosis training' I'd done with Eunju.
If Cha Eunju ever pressed me on it later, I could simply answer that it was 'training of a different method.' Knowing Eunju's personality, she'd never manage to press the issue in the first place.
"By the way, Eunju—you don't have any afternoon classes today, right?"
"U-uh-huh. Not really, no..."
"...I see."
"Yeah..."
"M-me neither, actually... I don't have afternoon classes either..."
"......Is, is that so?"
"...I-it's just an observation. Nothing weird meant by it..."
I deliberately acted as if I were too shy to say what I was really thinking, sneaking sidelong glances at Cha Eunju.
Up until now, Eunju and I had used 'hypnosis training' as our cover for sex. But after last week, there was no longer any need to keep up that particular pretext.
Which meant we'd reached the stage where we had to say 'let's have sex this afternoon' out loud, plain and simple—so under normal circumstances, embarrassment was the natural response.
Which meant I had to play this part flawlessly. Only if I acted too bashful to say it myself would Eunju relax and offer it first.
Sure enough, before long, the slightly impatient Cha Eunju blurted out the topic of our afternoon plans.
"U-um, Seonho...!"
"...Yeah?"
"W-well, you see.... I-if, if it's okay with you, Seonho..."
"......"
"L-like last time.... W-want to go to the 'library' together...?"
That's it. Thank you for saying it first, Eunju.
Truly, a female I raised myself—she reads her master's wishes like an open book.