Archery Training (1)
「N-no, you can'ttt... y-you can't watchhh...」
「It's fine. You're cute.」
「Nngh... hn, hnngh...」
...Damn. That really does something for me.
Good thing I filmed everything right up to the very end. Why is it so goddamn satisfying to watch Min Ye-won tear up while her asshole gets worked over like that?
Thanks to her, even though it's the weekend I've already blown two loads to this since morning workout. That insane little cum-thief of a bitch.
Why is the sight of a strong woman crying and begging so delightful? Proof that refusing to give up on the villainess, even when it seemed pointless, was the right call.
"Maybe I'll film her outdoors next time."
It was already mid-February, and temperatures were creeping back above freezing.
Sure, it was still a bit chilly to be doing anything outside, but with Min Ye-won as the subject, that hardly mattered. She was a Physical Enhancement Type—she wasn't going to freeze to death. Besides, showing consideration for a slave's comfort is a fool's game in the first place.
And no matter how dim she was, she'd agreed to work with me knowing full well that Jo Jin-hyun was the more dangerous of the two of us. She had no means of refusing my orders left.
'This much should be plenty for now.'
I'd let things cool off for about a week, then meet her once more right before the academy entrance for a second round of "training."
Frankly, I didn't have the leisure to spend my time on Min Ye-won alone anyway. I'd been carving hours away from the main heroines just to make contact with her, which meant it was time to start investing elsewhere.
Cha Eunju had gotten a date and full-on sex out of me not long ago, so I could leave her be for a while. Kim Isabel was scheduled for next Monday, so I had breathing room until then.
Choi Marie I saw pretty much every single day, so there was no need to explain her slot. Which meant the only people I could realistically meet right now were Han Sora or Park Hana.
Whoever it was, I needed to meet them and bank a little more goodwill.
As someone who wasn't the protagonist, I couldn't afford to obsess over the "main events" the way Seo Woojin did in the original. Unlike a web novel that spoon-feeds its heroines to its pathetic lead, I had to pound the pavement and manufacture my own points of contact.
'Might as well start with the academy.'
Han Sora, training at the academy grounds under the pressure of enrolling as valedictorian, and Park Hana, who'd moved into the Cheonmu Academy dorms early because she had nowhere decent to stay in Seoul—they'd both be there.
If there's no event, I'll build one. Either way, the affection meter goes up.
One corner of the Cheonmu Academy Archery Department Training Grounds.
A morning filled with the biting air of late winter. Bow in hand, Han Sora was loosing arrows at the target board, one after another.
Her eyes burned with fierce concentration, but something about her expression looked troubled. Her arrows were embedded all over the training grounds, nowhere near the moving targets—a sight that told most of the story behind that frown.
"Haah... I'm going crazy."
No matter how hard she shot, nothing improved.
No—that wasn't quite true. She had improved, if only a little. She was at least better than back when she couldn't even bring herself to aim at a moving target, hesitating until the moment slipped away.
The incident at the amusement park had given her the resolve to shoot first and worry about the miss later, which was progress of a sort. But her actual accuracy against moving targets was still stuck hovering around thirty percent. That was the current state of Han Sora's archery.
'I shot so well back at Neverland, though. Against those men.'
She couldn't even guess how many terrorists she'd put down—not with a proper bow, but with a toy one barely the length of her forearm.
It was a sensation she'd never felt in her life. Hitting a fast-moving target without missing a single shot, again and again—the moment at Neverland had been the first time.
She'd assumed that as a Physical Enhancement Type herself, Mental Type buffs would have a hard ceiling on what they could do for her. But that day had forced her to change her mind completely.
Lee Seonho's ability genuinely elevated the performance of an entire hunter party.
Someday, once she could compute and predict her shots through sheer effort, it would stop mattering. But for now, to pull her own weight, she needed his help.
'If only I could shoot like that one more time. Even once.'
If her body could just memorize what proper aiming actually felt like.
Because it had been a toy bow at the amusement park, her body had never stored away the correct form. Naturally, what it remembered was the accuracy of shooting a toy—so it hadn't helped her at all.
And dragging Lee Seonho out here and begging him to train her felt a little too guilt-inducing.
The vibe between him and Cha Eunju had seemed strange lately, and there was no way she could barge in on two people enjoying a weekend date together.
'Ugh. If I really need it, I'll just ask him to help after enrollment.'
Until then, all she could do was repeat the practice until the right form finally appeared.
She drew and loosed an arrow at a hologram goblin scuttling nimbly across the range—and at that exact moment—
"Sora...?"
A familiar voice spoke up out of nowhere, and Han Sora turned her head.
—Fwiiiiiish!
'Gwahk!'
...Oh.
I was just starting to hit things. Why now, of all times.
Typical. A childhood friend who was nothing but a hindrance. The one moment she'd finally started finding her rhythm, and he had to show up out of nowhere and get in the way.
She'd cut every last thread of feeling for him after the entrance exam incident, and her brows knitted together over a voice gone ice-cold.
"...Why are you here?"
"I-I just... I had this feeling you'd be here..."
"......"
Come to think of it, Seo Woojin had never once shown a masculine side, even as a kid.
He was sickly, so he was always getting beaten up by the other children; he wasn't any good at studying either; and the number of times he'd clung to her, sobbing and begging for help, was well past counting.
Even on the day he'd awakened his ability, he'd seemed thrilled beyond words, but in practice he was no different from before. Granted, he was somewhat stronger than an ordinary civilian now, but the base package was so hopelessly frail that he inspired zero confidence.
'And he never even told me what that ability of his actually is.'
She had told him the name of her own ability, along with its every weakness—and he couldn't even return the courtesy. How was that fair?
It wasn't that Seo Woojin particularly wanted to keep it secret. Cupid's Blessing, which grew stronger the more he was loved by women, simply didn't function on anyone who knew its effects, so silence had been his only option.
Of course, Han Sora had no way of knowing that. As far as she was concerned, he was just hoarding a pointless secret for no reason.
'Still, I figured he'd manage to do something useful once, when it really counted.'
Instead, he'd turned tail and abandoned a woman in a life-or-death crisis.
It was more than enough to burn away ten years of accumulated friendship in a single stroke, and naturally, Han Sora had resolved to keep her distance from him ever since.
...Seo Woojin, for his part, was still lingering around her, unwilling to let go.
'I have to turn Sora's heart back around somehow. At this point it's too late to try meeting other women, and Sora was always the one closest to me anyway.'
From where Seo Woojin stood, Han Sora was the option with the highest chance of success.
Winning affection from the girl he'd spent over a decade beside would be the easiest way to grow stronger, so he simply could not bring himself to give up his childhood friend.
...Granted, part of it was also that growing up watching Han Sora had raised his standards so high that other women barely registered at all.
"A-are you training?"
"Can't you tell by looking?"
"A-about the entrance exam... I really did—"
"Drop it. I have nothing to say to you about that day. And I told you not to talk to me at the academy, remember?"
"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry... I-I was just genuinely scared back then..."
"......"
Had he come to apologize, or to make excuses?
Seo Woojin, appearing without warning and immediately launching into his justifications, chilled Han Sora's temper all over again.
"Right, you were scared. That's why you ran off without so much as a backward glance while people were collapsing all around you, isn't it?"
"......"
"You think you were the only one who was scared? You think I stayed on that field because I'm missing the part of the brain that feels fear? Lee Seonho and Cha Eunju charged in to save Kim Isabel knowing full well it could get them killed by that Owlbear—"
"Th-that's just... they're weird—"
"...Excuse me?"
"N-nothing. I mean... th-they're incredible, is what I meant... M-most people couldn't even bring themselves to think about going to save someone in that situation..."
He was very obviously apologizing, and yet somehow, the more she listened, the hotter her head burned.
Try as she might, she could not understand how she'd spent more than ten years as childhood friends with a boy like this. Maybe it was because, until now, she'd never had another close male friend to compare him against.
The entrance exam, Neverland—if Seo Woojin had managed even half of what Lee Seonho had shown, she wouldn't have found him this unbearable.
"I-I'm really, truly sorry... I-if something like that ever happens again, I won't run, I promise, really..."
"......"
But in the end, ten years of history was ten years of history.
She'd witnessed a failure at the entrance exam that was hard to stomach, yes—but Han Sora wasn't cold-hearted enough to sever a relationship over it entirely.
Her talent for getting along with everyone had always grown out of that same affectionate nature, after all.
"Haah... fine. Just this once, then—"
He'd only glue himself to her side and keep pestering her if she left it be, so she was reluctantly about to accept his apology when—
"Oh, Han Sora. Training on a weekend?"
"...Lee Seonho!"
The instant she spotted Lee Seonho approaching with an easy smile, her mouth spat out his name on pure reflex.
The frost she'd worn for Seo Woojin seconds ago had vanished without a trace.
"What brings you to the Archery Department Training Grounds?"
"Nothing much. I was bored, so I'm taking a look around the academy. Classes start the week after next, so I figured I'd scope out the layout while I had the chance."
"What, no date or anything? It's the weekend."
"A date? Please. I keep telling you, I don't have a girlfriend."
The moment Lee Seonho appeared, Han Sora closed the distance with a bright, sunny smile she had never once shown him—Seo Woojin.
"...Lee Seonho."
Watching her chatter away excitedly at his side, their own conversation apparently erased from her memory entirely, Seo Woojin quietly ground his lower lip between his teeth.
...Almost tanked the whole thing by getting too relaxed. Who knew that bastard Seo Woojin would be at the training grounds too?
In the original, he treated her like a heroine already in the bag and barely spared her a thought. Why is he suddenly crowding Han Sora and babbling at her in this timeline?
'Guess he figures being childhood friends gives him the best odds.'
Too bad Han Sora's already mine.
She's not coming back to you, buddy. Take that pretty face of yours and go hustle some other girl instead.
"So, Sora—you were training even though it's the weekend?"
"Just a little. Once I enroll I get free use of the training grounds—it'd be a waste to just laze around, you know?"
"Diligent even on your days off, huh. Want my handkerchief? You've got a bucket of sweat on your forehead."
"I'd love to borrow it~. Thank you~."
After all, I'm a specialist in taking. Having things taken from me was never my major.