Negotiation (3)
After wrapping up an afternoon class that felt like it had put every last muscle in my body through a shredder, dinner was followed—quite naturally—by nighttime training with Choi Marie. So I hauled a body that wanted nothing more than to collapse into bed out to the track.
"Hoo... good evening, Marie-sunbae."
"Why are you sighing the moment you show up? That tired?"
"Yeah, well... just a little."
"...Ah, right, you had that professor's class today, didn't you? No wonder you're wiped out."
Choi Marie gave me a faintly amused smile—she'd been through it herself, after all. It was a smile with just a hint of mockery mixed in, but she looked pretty when she smiled, so I didn't particularly mind.
"You're what, two weeks in now? You must be pushing real weight by then. What's your total, junior?"
"About 400."
"Huh? No, I don't mean one lift, I mean the big three. Squat, bench, and deadlift combined—what's the number?"
"...All three together, it's 400."
"........."
The moment she realized she hadn't misheard, Choi Marie fixed me with a look of outright, unfiltered disbelief. This is exactly why you can't have a conversation with physical enhancement types. At least Han Sora and Do Yoonchae knew what a normal human baseline looked like, so they were capable of some common sense—but girls like Choi Marie and Park Hana judged everything against their own absurd standards.
She hadn't said anything specific, but I could read plenty from her eyes alone about exactly what she wanted to say to me.
"Three hundred and forty—that's pretty solid by ordinary-human standards, Marie-sunbae."
"...I didn't say anything?"
"You were saying it with your eyes. Something along the lines of, 'and he has the nerve to act exhausted off of just that.'"
"...Well, I wasn't thinking it quite that hard."
So she was thinking it, just a little. Fine. I'd have to give her a proper demonstration this weekend.
"Last I heard, the average human total was around 500, no? I figured you'd at least be at that level, junior."
"Even people with years of training experience find a 500 total impressive. I've been lifting for less than two months."
"...You kept up well enough, though. I thought you had decent grit, Seonho—at least for someone who isn't physical enhancement—turns out your raw strength's just weak, huh."
"That's a physical-enhancement baseline you're using. How is a mental type supposed to keep pace with that?"
"...Mmm. Sure. If you say so, Seonho, then I guess that's how it is."
...She just keeps itching for a slap, doesn't she. You and me, this weekend. Just wait.
"Anyway, the fact that you dragged yourself out here at all means you're doing fine, right? If you were actually about to die, you'd have checked yourself into the Academy Church like last time."
"It's not that I'm fine, I came out because I promised you I would..."
"You measured your big three, so your upper body's had plenty. Let's focus on legs today. And I'll keep it to running and cardio so your muscles don't knot up."
"......Yes, ma'am."
Right. Even if it wrecks my body now, someday this too will pay off.
With that thought, I forced one more suggestion into my own head and fell in behind Choi Marie's training regimen.
Suggestion: Adrenaline Explosion
※ Target: Lee Seonho
...My body itself had rejected the self-suggestion, so it cost me a bit more mana than usual.
As the saying goes—no pain, no gain. Choi Marie's special training wasn't purely torture, after all.
Because today, using "I nearly collapsed from exhaustion" as my excuse, I had buried my face in her chest or wrapped my arms around her waist quite a few times, in broad view.
Admittedly, where my usual contact was high-intent, most of today's was genuinely unavoidable—I really was about to drop. All I did, at the moment of falling, was adjust my trajectory a touch, on the logic that if I was going down anyway, I might as well get some proper skinship out of it.
Fortunately, I looked exhausted enough that Choi Marie didn't react to any of it, dismissing it all as incidental physical contact. ...Not that she cut my training load because of it, mind you.
Shin Youngjoo in the afternoon, Choi Marie after dinner—by the time I dragged my thoroughly pulped body back to the dorm, I had one small consolation waiting: from today onward, I could recharge on a modest little source of healing energy in the form of Do Yoonchae.
"I'm... back."
"......So you have."
Do Yoonchae glared at me with eyes brimming over with wariness, exactly like the day we'd first crossed paths.
Despite my having told her there was no need to bind her chest while inside the dorm, there she was, cinched up tight as ever.
"You were parading them around this morning, and now you're suddenly shy, Yoonseong?"
"...As if that would be the case! I-it merely occurred to me that some human other than you might visit the room, so I was taking precautions, that is all."
Who on earth would be waltzing into someone else's dorm at this hour? The dorm supervisor barely touches students' private lives as a rule.
Still, my words seemed to have stung her somewhat, because Do Yoonchae hastily began unbuttoning the uniform she'd been wrapping around herself, right there in front of me.
"There. Behold. I trust you understand that displaying my chest to you means nothing to me."
"N-no, wait! I misspoke! I only meant that I'd like you to feel a little more at ease in the dorm, that's—"
"Hmph. Still skilled at hiding your true heart behind your words, I see."
Having already cemented her image of me, Do Yoonchae proceeded to strip off her uniform and unwind her compression bandages with an air of perfect inevitability, whether I flustered or not.
Ordinarily, such a prim, straitlaced personality would have been the very thing that drove her into villainy. To the current me, it was simply a godsend.
Thanks to it, I could play the shameless innocent and drink in the sight of Do Yoonchae's chest to my heart's content. Even if I'd already seen the goods several times over, good is good.
"Whenever we are in this room, I shall remain thus 'comfortable.' As you so desired."
"Wh-when did I ever desire such a thing?!"
"And yet your eyes cannot look away, and still you have the audacity to protest. Is it not about time you accepted my proposal? I did say that so long as you keep my secret, you may t-touch them as you please."
"That's what I keep telling you, you don't need any of that—I'm not going to tell anyone your secret, Yoonseong..."
"...Hmph. You intend to play the shameless fool to the very end, then."
With those words, Do Yoonchae folded her arms beneath her chest and glared at me—and her movement made both breasts sway with an extra measure of fullness, perfectly natural.
Whether she did it unconsciously or deliberately to emphasize her own chest, the reason hardly mattered. Either way, it was a very fine thing to behold.
"A-anyway, I'm going to wash up now! A-and while I'm at it, you change clothes too, Yoonseong! At the very least cover your chest!"
"It is not your concern, Lee Seonho."
Do Yoonchae now flaunted her chest with total confidence, and I made a show of averting my eyes as best I could before hurrying into the bathroom.
Barely just her chest for now, admittedly—but after the fatigue of an entire afternoon, it was more than enough of a feast for the eyes.
-Click.
"........."
Lee Seonho had fled into the bathroom like a man escaping a crime scene, eyes darting away from her bared chest in a panic.
Do Yoonchae watched the door he'd shut behind him in silence for a long moment, then murmured quietly, as if to herself.
"So he does not fall easily after all. Could it be that even looking as he does, he ranks near the top of his year?"
Even if the seat had come to him through Han Sora, the valedictorian, the process itself could hardly have been simple.
She had glimpsed the two of them together for only a fleeting moment—but to reach a relationship of that depth, how many different approaches must Lee Seonho have made to Han Sora?
Handled carelessly, there was every chance she too could end up used at Lee Seonho's whim, just as Han Sora seemingly was. To avoid that fate, Do Yoonchae had tried to set out the boundaries of what she could concede and negotiate within them—and yet.
"To think he would be so utterly incorruptible..."
With Lee Seonho showing not even the faintest crack in his negotiating position, Do Yoonchae was beginning to feel a genuine itch of anxiety.
If he remained unmoved even after she laid out every condition she could offer, it meant he wanted something beyond all of them.
The only part of herself she was willing to permit him, in exchange for his silence, was her chest—and should he demand any other condition, she would have no choice but to be thrown into disarray.
'So somehow, some way, I must end this on these terms.'
The one saving grace was that Lee Seonho was not entirely without interest in her chest.
Even moments ago, while feigning flustered retreat, his eyes had clung shamelessly to her bare torso—the man's instincts, it seemed, remained fully intact.
Nudge him just a little further, and there was ample room for negotiation. If only she could place her chest in his hands even once... after that, surely, he would be unable to refuse her terms again.
But left as things were, they would never so much as sign a proper contract—they would simply run on parallel tracks forever.
'How, in the world, am I supposed to...'
-Shhhhhhhh...
"........."
She was busy contemplating how to lure Lee Seonho to her negotiating table when the sound of running water drifted out from the bathroom.
Do Yoonchae pictured him briefly, showering behind that door—and a rather fine idea flashed through her mind.
'...It is a touch mortifying, I will admit. But this method may just work on him.'
With that thought, she opened the door of the changing room that connected to the bath and strode, head high, toward the bathroom where Lee Seonho was.
A decision once made required no further deliberation—that, at least, was her creed.
Warm water cascaded down over my head.
I let myself savor for a moment the temperature that seemed to wash away a full day's fatigue, and called to mind the sight of Do Yoonchae's chest from earlier.
Man, that really does something for me. How the hell does she lug those things around while crossdressing every day?
When I'd stolen a quick grope before, there had been a distinctly soft, yielding sensation.
And like the moment she'd stripped off her uniform earlier—the way she wound those bandages up and down as tight as possible, forcing everything flat, was honestly impressive.
Even so, her waist stayed slender through all of it, broadcasting woman loud and clear.
Do Yoonchae's a no-worry lane from here on out, isn't she.
With the other heroines I only got to advance the event track about once a week—but with Do Yoonchae, from today onward, every single day was a day of training.
Better still, I didn't even have to manage the training content myself. As long as I just kept up the appearance of rejecting her proposals, Do Yoonchae would escalate on her own, coming back with fresh terms at steadily higher stakes.
When it climbed to a satisfying point, I could cut it off at an appropriate level—or simply maintain the status quo until she fully graduated into my hands. Neither would be bad.
After all, even in the current state, there were plenty of ways to get my hands on Do Yoonchae's chest. One line like 'If you'd go that far, shouldn't you let me touch them once before deciding?' and she'd hand her own chest over to me like an absolute sucker, guaranteed.
Which was exactly why there was no need to rush. Her chest would be there to touch anytime—but the sight of Do Yoonchae squirming and restless? That was a limited-time viewing.
Maybe sometime next week I'll finally ask to cop a feel.
I was setting myself a slightly more leisurely schedule than with the other heroines, starting to lather up my hair, when—
-BANG!
"S-Seonho! S-since you went to the trouble, I—I shall scrub your back for you!"
"........."
Do Yoonchae came bursting into the bathroom, upper half still bared to the world.
...Yeah. Turns out this is not a girl whose training pace I get to control after all.