Maid Sunbae (3)
For all that Choi Marie came across as a wild one on the surface, she was actually one of the better cooks among the heroines.
Her hobby was working out, and if you were going to exercise properly, you had to watch what you ate. She was the type who figured cooking for herself beat buying food out, so it was only natural her skills in the kitchen weren't bad either.
"Here you go, junior."
Twenty minutes after I'd sent Choi Marie off to the kitchen, the dish that emerged was stir-fried chicken breast with vegetables.
True to form, she'd seasoned it with little more than salt and pepper, but at a glance, the doneness was passable enough.
"Thank you, sunbae."
"...Well. I am doing community service, after all."
"Since you've already made it, why don't you eat with me? Protein intake right after a workout is important."
"...Do whatever you want."
Though I wasn't sure whether what Marie and I had done earlier could honestly be called a workout, we'd certainly burned a fair number of calories in more ways than one.
When she heard me say it, Marie absently took her seat at the table—and the moment she sat down, her whole body flinched. I barely managed to choke back the laugh that nearly escaped me.
Judging by that reaction, she'd forgotten she wasn't wearing any panties.
Deliberately pretending not to notice, she tucked her skirt beneath her backside and lowered herself down again. The skirt wasn't all that long to begin with, so a patch of bare skin still made contact, and the awkward way she squirmed at it was honestly kind of cute. Lifting a piece of chicken breast with my chopsticks, I brought it up in front of her face.
"Say 'ahh,' Marie sunbae."
"......"
"I said say 'ahh,' sunbae."
"......Ah."
She'd been caught off guard when I suddenly thrust the chicken at her face, but after I repeated the command twice, she finally caught on and cautiously parted her lips. I slid the piece of chicken breast into her mouth, then casually picked up another piece and brought it to my own.
Taste-wise, it was pretty decent for something built around boiled chicken breast. The sear and seasoning were just right—considerably more edible than what I usually ate, honestly.
But then, what mattered more than the taste was the situation itself—Marie and I sitting across from each other at the table like this.
"Sunbae, say 'ahh' again."
"......Ah."
She couldn't even bring herself to mention that we were sharing the same chopsticks—that we were, in effect, sharing an indirect kiss—and just meekly opened her mouth like a baby bird, accepting whatever I fed her.
Watching her cheeks flush a little deeper with every bite she took, I brought today's 'training' to its close.
This slightly unusual meal, carried on across the table, had stretched well past the lunch hour by now—and Marie was so flustered she couldn't even tell whether the food was going into her mouth or up her nose.
Feeding me out of nowhere—what is this even.
She couldn't exactly stop pretending to be hypnotized, so for now she was quietly eating what she was given, but that didn't make the embarrassment go away.
She'd steeled herself to serve him, and what did she get? Suddenly being ordered to cook. And once the food was ready, she got seated at the table and fed by hand, of all things.
Seonho, for his part, seemed thoroughly pleased with himself, grinning like an idiot as he kept raising his chopsticks to her lips.
"I've always wanted to try this with you, Marie sunbae. Feeding each other."
"...Is that so."
"How about you, sunbae? You don't hate it or anything, right?"
"...Not particularly."
Objectively speaking, it wasn't that bad. A little embarrassing, sure.
She'd already braced herself for things considerably more risqué with Seonho, so she could afford to indulge him this much.
...Although, the fact that they'd been sharing the same chopsticks this whole time did bother her a little.
Wait. Isn't this... an indirect kiss?
She wasn't usually the type to sweat that kind of thing, but for some reason, everything felt strangely off today.
Was it because he'd played a lewd little trick on her during training earlier? Now every single one of his movements grated on her nerves.
And yet judging from his reaction, she seemed to be the only one hung up on the indirect kiss thing—which stung her pride in its own weird way.
Whatever. If junior Seonho isn't embarrassed, why should I be?
Telling herself that, Marie tried her best to calm her racing heart. Her best just didn't amount to much.
So there she sat, the only one in the room aware of the situation, a tangle of complicated feelings in her chest, and by the time she accepted the last morsel of vegetables her junior offered her—
—Beeeeeeep—
......Oh.
The washing machine's chime sounded from far away, and Marie's scattered thoughts snapped back into focus.
......It's done.
Nobody had said the words yet, but she already knew. After all, the only reason she was sitting across from Seonho like this in the first place was to keep him company while the laundry finished.
The laundry was done, which meant it was time to change back into her clothes and return to normal. This embarrassing interlude was over, so logically she should have felt relieved and unburdened, and yet—
...Somehow, it feels a little disappointing.
The thought flickered briefly through Marie's mind.
It wasn't that she liked Seonho—not like that. But today, of all days, she'd gotten to see proof of how earnest he really was.
She still had no intention of dating him or becoming his girlfriend or anything of the sort. But for stretches of time like this, maybe it was fine to play along with this little 'lovers' game' her junior wanted.
Besides, with classes to think about, I'll need to keep receiving his training anyway.
At the very least, until she cleared Teamwork and Strategy, she ought to keep humoring him.
Even when she'd said she was doing community service, all he'd asked for was something this innocent—so she'd learned that Seonho wasn't using hypnosis for any sinister purpose in the first place.
...In any case, he hadn't truly crossed 'the line,' so Marie decided it was acceptable to let it slide, more or less.
-Srrrk.
"Marie sunbae, the hypnosis is over."
"......Oh, it's done? Good work."
As I stroked her head and withdrew my mana, Choi Marie slowly opened her eyes, performing her little awakening-from-hypnosis act.
Of all the women receiving 'hypnosis training' from me, she was far and away the best actress, which was probably why she looked so composed.
Cha Eunju, whose every emotion played across her face, went without saying—and even Han Sora gave herself away when she lied, avoiding eye contact or over-gesturing with her hands.
"Good work to you too, sunbae."
"...Eh, it's nothing. I was hypnotized with no memory of it anyway. Who cares."
"Still. Entrusting hypnosis training to me in the first place takes resolve, you know."
"What resolve? You're not some stranger—it's you, Seonho."
A remark that casually painted me as someone 'she could feel safe with.'
Considering what Marie had actually experienced while under hypnosis just now, the reaction made no sense at all. Today's training had, without question, seen me cross a line with her.
Which meant, in the end, that I'd managed to smooth things over by handling the aftermath well and banking goodwill. Had I botched it, things between Marie and me would have turned thoroughly awkward.
She couldn't bring up anything that happened under Suggestion: Hypnosis, so she couldn't exactly brand me a sexual harasser to my face—but I could assume that any 'hypnosis training' like today's with her had become impossible.
For me, it had been a gamble too: failure meant a long detour in winning Marie over, and there was even a chance I'd simply lose her altogether. Not that I had anything to show for it but a flashy success.
"What do you mean, 'if it's you, no resolve is needed'?"
"Hmm? You know best, don't you, Seonho?"
"I really don't."
"I mean, I figured there's no way you'd use hypnosis to do anything weird to a girl."
"......"
"...Or, what, did you actually do something weird?"
A probing question, delivered with a faintly narrowed glare.
She was hiding her true intent and watching my reaction—which meant there was no reason to bother lying here.
The whole reason Marie felt safe with the me standing before her was that I was a naive, dim-witted junior incapable of deceit.
"Th-the thing is, sunbae."
"Mm."
"A-actually... I-I might have... d-done something... a little weird..."
"......"
"I-I did it because I thought it was necessary for the training, b-but looking back, m-maybe I should have told you first... A-and, s-something came up mid-training and I had to clean it up, and in the process there was something that, i-if I had to call it a personal preference of mine... a-anyway, that sort of thing happened..."
"......"
"I-I'm sorry, Marie sunbae..."
First flustered, then ashamed, and finally bowing her head in apology.
So guileless a personality that she'd confess her own sins unprompted, without Marie pressing for specifics or even mentioning anything at all.
And it was precisely this disarming, pushover appearance that would keep Marie feeling safe enough to continue receiving my training. The moment I started offering awkward excuses or lies, I'd only erode her trust.
"I-I figured being honest was the right call, so... the truth is, while you were hypnotized, I—"
She shakes her head.
"Forget it. I don't need to hear it."
The instant I moved to confess sins I had committed first, Marie crossed her arms and shook her head.
With a soft snort of laughter and an odd little smile playing on her lips, she added, feigning indifference:
"Even if you did do something weird, Seonho, how weird could it possibly be? I'm not worried."
"B-but..."
"You said it was necessary for the training, didn't you? Then it's fine. If it was necessary, do what's necessary."
"......"
"This whole training started to help me overcome my weaknesses, remember? If you're going to do it, do it properly. There's no need for you to tiptoe around just because I'm your sunbae."
Not only did she wave off my sins without even hearing what they were, she casually dropped an indirect hint that I could go even further.
Right about now, she was probably imagining herself as some magnanimous leader type, gracefully forgiving her junior's misdeeds without even asking what they were. And to be fair, saying all that with no memory of the events would look pretty damn cool.
...Of course, knowing that she was saying it with her memories fully intact, my impression was entirely different.
So the first orgasm of her life must have felt pretty good, huh.
Watching her shift the very 'line' she'd never have permitted before, just so the training could continue, I could confirm my attentive ministrations had been well worth the effort.
Plus, officially speaking, the setup was that she remembered nothing from her hypnotized state. Which let her put on a bold front, as if receiving my hypnosis training gave her nothing to be embarrassed about.
In other words, continuing to receive hypnosis training from me meant Choi Marie got to experience an orgasm once a week, risk-free. There was no reason for her to give that up. She didn't need to date me or anything, and the only cost was keeping up the 'pretending to be hypnotized' act. A trivial price.
...Outwardly, she was playing the reliable sunbae who trusted her junior... but inside, she was nothing more than a female who, at some point, had given herself over entirely to desire.
"Th-thank you for trusting me, Marie sunbae..."
Performing the naive, guilt-stricken junior right down to the final moment, I was already thinking only of how far I'd push things in the next session.