A Secret Treatment (3)
First there had been four of us at the table. Then three. Then, at last, just the two of us.
With each meal shared alongside Kim Isabel, the headcount had steadily dwindled — which meant that, for the very first time, I finally had a natural opening for a private conversation with her.
I don't need to gather information. If anything, feeding her information is the more important part.
Thanks to the novel I'd read in my past life, I already knew the character known as Kim Isabel inside and out. Timid, yes — but decisive when it mattered, which meant that once she reached a certain point, she was fully capable of expressing her feelings to the person she loved.
And above all, she was incapable of ever forgetting or dismissing a debt of gratitude — or the guilt that came with it. Solving that most troublesome issue of her androphobia was, in truth, more than half of the entire conquest.
One of the reasons she's hesitating right now is almost certainly her assumption about my relationship with Cha Eunju.
Admittedly, there was also the matter of the church requiring its priests to preserve their chastity — but that was a rule that only carried weight once a relationship had progressed to a certain stage. Most church priests preached premarital purity with one hand while conducting their romances and love affairs with the other.
Heck, I even knew from the original novel — courtesy of one particularly shameless priestess of a villain — that as long as one didn't lose one's virginity proper, everything short of the act itself was considered fair game.
In other words, once I cleared up the misunderstanding Kim Isabel almost certainly harbored — that Cha Eunju and I were lovers — she would find it increasingly difficult to keep her feelings toward me in check.
After all, that misunderstanding was likely a significant part of why she refused to let things between us progress beyond a certain line.
"It's nice, sitting across from each other like this. Honestly, until now it's felt a bit like eating alone in bed, so this makes a pleasant change."
"If I'd known you'd enjoy it this much, I should have eased the restrictions sooner. Still — you do remember what I asked of you earlier?"
"Of course. I won't take a single step outside this room, so don't worry."
"Yes, I knew you would, Mr. Lee Seonho."
With those words, Kim Isabel nodded, a small smile playing at the corner of her mouth.
For now, this mealtime was the only window I had into her expressions. Only the lower half of her face showed beneath the veil that covered everything else — but honestly, that was more than enough to work with.
My goal was to keep the conversation light enough that the atmosphere wouldn't turn awkward, so I laid down a little groundwork by steering things toward Cha Eunju.
"It's a shame Eunju couldn't join us. She rushed off saying she had somewhere to be before dinner, so it ended up feeling a bit incomplete."
"…Ah. I see."
"What? Don't tell me you'd rather she hadn't?"
"Oh, n-no, of course not. I'd be happy to share a meal with Cha Eunju as well. It's just… if Cha Eunju were here, receiving a buff from you like this might have felt a little… awkward."
"What do you mean?"
"Well — when Cha Eunju hears the name of the buff is 'Succubus Heart,' she might take it the wrong way, couldn't she? …People might think I've become some kind of succubus trying to steal you away from her."
…Kim Isabel's reaction was far more forward than I'd anticipated — forward enough that I was the one caught slightly off guard.
Suggestion or no suggestion, this was practically an indirect confession of her feelings for me. And her unconscious jab of jealousy toward Cha Eunju was every bit as transparent.
In the original novel, Kim Isabel never once fell under anything like Suggestion, so I'd never seen this side of her — but it turned out that without her androphobia holding her back, she could be surprisingly bold about voicing her emotions.
"Well, the buff's name does sound a little odd, I'll grant you. But Eunju would understand if you explained you're receiving it for the androphobia treatment."
"That's true, I suppose. Still, I'd rather not invite misunderstandings I don't need. Cha Eunju is your lover, Mr. Lee Seonho. I have no wish to intrude and end up damaging things between the two of you."
There it is.
By deliberately pushing the conversation toward Cha Eunju again and again, I'd gotten Kim Isabel to bring up the "lovers" assumption herself — and now all that remained was to feign a fresh realization and correct her misunderstanding.
…Technically it was less a misunderstanding than an outright deception, but then again, it was also true that we weren't lovers yet.
"Ah — I suppose from your perspective, Isabelle, Eunju and I could look like a couple."
"……I'm sorry?"
"Not in any strange way, mind you. But Eunju and I aren't in a relationship. We're just friends who met for the first time at the entrance exam."
"You're… not in a relationship? But you seemed so… close…?"
"We ended up seated next to each other during the written exam, and it went from there. I helped her out with a few things during the entrance exam, too — and more than anything, Eunju has a hard time fighting monsters without my buffs. And I have no combat ability to speak of. In other words, we each need the other."
"During the written exam? Then… how long have the two of you known each other?"
"Hmm, about ten days?"
"……"
"And honestly, I'd feel bad for Eunju if rumors started spreading that she was dating me. She's the kind of beauty that turns heads just walking down the street, and I'm just an ordinary guy from the Support Department with an ability that isn't much to write home about."
I made a point of stating, plainly and firmly, both how recently Cha Eunju and I had met and the fact that we were not a couple.
And I framed it by listing my own shortcomings compared to her — so it wouldn't come across as me deliberately pushing Kim Isabel away, either.
A flat, simple denial would only backfire, given everything Cha Eunju had shown me so far. She'd made it obvious, more than once, right in front of me, how she felt.
I knew Cha Eunju's heart well enough — so the play here was to casually let on that a man of my level simply wasn't worthy of accepting her.
Not that I'm exactly telling a lie.
We'd done plenty together, sure — but we still weren't officially lovers.
That we'd only known each other ten days, that Cha Eunju was a striking beauty while I was a plain Support Department student — all of it was true.
Aside from the part about feeling sorry for Cha Eunju if dating rumors spread, everything I'd said was the truth. Naturally, if anyone should feel sorry on that front, it was Cha Eunju, who'd taken to calling herself her master's girlfriend.
"Ten days… ten days…."
Before I knew it, Kim Isabel was murmuring to herself, turning over the length of my acquaintance with Cha Eunju. The fact that we'd grown this close in barely ten days must have genuinely startled her.
You could call ten days long if you were feeling generous, but as a span between first meeting and becoming lovers, it was short. All the more so considering we hadn't met through some setup like a blind date, but had drifted into a natural friendship.
Of course, if Kim Isabel truly had no romantic feelings for me and genuinely wished only to support my relationship with Cha Eunju, she would have tried to talk me out of my self-deprecation right here. Something like, 'Cha Eunju wouldn't care about any of the things you just mentioned, Mr. Lee Seonho.'
…But Kim Isabel's reaction upon hearing that Cha Eunju and I were not lovers was this:
— clink, clink.
"…I… I see. You two were just so close, I simply assumed you must be together."
She scraped at the empty part of her rice bowl with her spoon, coolly burying the truth beneath the sound.
Well. Judging by that reaction, she had no intention of doing Cha Eunju any unexpected favors.
"It's not that I'd refuse if a girl like Eunju asked me out, for what it's worth. But we've only known each other a short while, and honestly, Eunju doesn't seem to have much experience with men. I'd hate for her to jump into dating someone like me and end up regretting it later."
"You really are… remarkably considerate, Mr. Lee Seonho. Your way of thinking seems so different from most men's."
"…That's a compliment, right?"
"…O-of course. I meant it in the best possible way."
Watching Kim Isabel's lips press together and shift ever so slightly, I could read the stir of her emotions straight off them — and honestly, it was a little entertaining.
Guilt toward Cha Eunju was part of it, no doubt. But what she was feeling right now was probably something stronger still — the quiet thrill of learning that I had no one.
"That considerate heart of yours, Mr. Lee Seonho… I'm certain it will be rewarded one day."
"I hope so. Thank you, Isabelle."
Preferably as soon as possible — whatever that 'reward' of hers turned out to be.
"Whew… hoo…."
— squirm, squirm.
"Haaaah… hoo…."
— rub, rub.
After dinner came the treatment hour once more.
The healing itself — channeling holy power into my body — had ended a while ago, but once again, Kim Isabel couldn't quite bring herself to withdraw her fingers from around my chest.
Her touch had grown a shade bolder than it had been this morning. Bolder than this afternoon, too.
By now she was openly tracing the lines of my chest muscles with her fingertips, feeling her way across them — movements frank enough that, had our genders been reversed, it would have been nothing short of harassment.
Naturally, being adorable, she was left entirely to her own devices. After all, this was precisely the outcome I'd steered her toward when I handed her the buff called Succubus Heart in the first place.
— sliiide.
"Hnnngh… hoo…."
And just like that, Kim Isabel inched her way downward again, ever so sneakily, hands creeping toward my abdomen.
She probed at my stomach with her fingertips — the faint suggestion of a split where abs would be, even if the definition wasn't yet vivid. Ever since learning I had no girlfriend, her hesitations had grown shorter and shorter.
Even if I caught her at it, she had the excuse of 'treatment' ready to hand — and now that she knew Cha Eunju wasn't my lover, the guilt of touching another woman's man had presumably evaporated as well.
I'd deliberately left her every escape hatch and every excuse she could want. All that remained now was to wait, patiently, and let Kim Isabel approach me at whatever pace she chose.
Still, letting things advance too recklessly would be dangerous — I need to build in at least a minimal safety mechanism.
For instance: the moment Kim Isabel, unable to restrain her desire any longer, seized me there — that had to be postponed as long as humanly possible.
All the more so considering the origin of her androphobia: her stepfather's attempted assault. While she was under Suggestion she wouldn't register anything strange, but once it wore off, the shock of realizing what she'd done would be devastating.
— haaah.
"……"
Which was why her current, silent attempt to slide her hand down toward my lower body needed to be stopped — at least at this stage.
Rather than letting her reach anywhere important, I'd simply redirect her attention elsewhere — anything to keep her aware of me as a man, without letting her cross the line.
"Hey, Isabelle?"
— smack!
"Hyaaaah?! Y-yes?! I-I wasn't doing anything, I swear—"
"Sorry to interrupt you mid-treatment, but if you don't mind, could you take a quick look at my right arm?"
"…My… my right arm…?"
"It was the only one I could use while I was restrained, so compared to the left, the recovery seems slower. If I'm just imagining it, feel free to ignore me."
"N-no, if that's what you're feeling, Mr. Lee Seonho, then it does need checking. May I see it for a moment?"
"Sure. One sec."
— slide.
I undid the buttons of my loose hospital gown's sleeve and silently rolled up the fabric covering my right arm.
And in the same breath, the man's arm that had been hidden underneath was bared before Kim Isabel's eyes.
"……"
Confronted with a man's bare forearm without warning, Kim Isabel did not panic, did not flinch — she simply fixed her gaze upon it, demure and unblinking.
Then her two small, delicate hands reached out and, ever so carefully, came to rest against my bare skin.