104. My Buff is a Drug
104. My Buff is a Drug
"I've been happy."
"Happy?"
"Yeah. Lately, I've been happier than I've ever been. I feel like I've finally become a real, functioning person."
So she hadn't felt like one before.
And honestly, back then, Na Hee-yeon had been pushed to the absolute brink, mentally.
If she'd had a breakdown and strangled her best friend Seo Ha-yoon, it was fair to say she'd hit her limit.
I'd heard she'd prostrated herself and begged for forgiveness, and they'd become close again, so that problem was resolved.
But the memory of it would still be a shock to Na Hee-yeon.
"I'm diligently taking classes, going on raids, steadily saving up points... and all my party members are so kind, it's wonderful. You, Hwa-ra, Ah-yeong. And Ha-yoon goes without saying, right? I love you all so much, so this time I absolutely refused to fall behind, and I trained like my life depended on it. That's when I realized it. The reason I'd been stuck in that slump was simply because I hadn't been truly, desperately working hard."
From the sound of it, she was satisfied with her life now and doing well.
Originally, she might have been tormented by that Malicious Virus until she dropped out, or in the worst case, even taken her own life.
In a way, Hye-yong had been the cause of it happening, but now that he'd saved her, he felt immensely proud and refreshed.
Without Hye-yong, even if she hadn't been infected by the Virus, wouldn't she have ultimately succumbed to depression and chosen to quit?
To hear Na Hee-yeon say she was happy now—that alone felt like it filled his heart.
"It's all thanks to you, Hye-yong..."
"What. I barely did anything major."
A soft brush...
Na Hee-yeon subtly freed her left arm and toyed with the back of Hye-yong's hand resting on the floor.
Hye-yong flinched for a moment, but then turned his palm over and took her hand.
It was soft and warm.
The female body is a mysterious thing; just holding hands was enough to make his heart pound fiercely.
The mood amplified it even further.
"Back then, if you hadn't appeared in my dream... appeared before me and saved me... I never would have gotten to feel this kind of happiness. I would've been so crushed by self-loathing that I'd have dropped out of the facility and never lived a decent life. I would've been tormented by that bastard for the rest of my life. Just thinking about it is too horrible..."
Hearing her talk like that was genuinely moving.
"But you saved me from all that. Even just being saved, I would've been grateful for life, but then you went and put a terrible person like me into a party full of these wonderful girls. And as if that wasn't enough, you even gave me an exclusive buff so I could do well. You're my savior, Hye-yong..."
And then her next words were...
"I like you... enough that I'd want to do anything I can for you."
It was a line that instinctively made him flinch.
Wait, she said she likes me?
Hye-yong looked closely at Hee-yeon's face.
Hee-yeon was staring intently right back at him.
Her face was intensely red.
It didn't seem to be from the alcohol.
'This isn't indirect, like that time we stood night watch. She confessed her feelings directly.'
Thump, thump, thump...
Silence.
Only the sound of their two hearts quietly echoed.
She must have mustered a lot of courage to confess.
Just sitting still like this was probably rude, but...
'It's strange. I can't think of anything. I just...'
He'd never in his life received a confession that made his heart tingle like this.
Flustered by an experience he'd never had before, Hye-yong reflexively tried to pull his hand away from Hee-yeon without even realizing it.
Feeling that, Na Hee-yeon tightened her grip and stopped his hand from leaving.
She spoke in a voice that sounded slightly tearful.
"D-don't go, Hye-yong..."
"No. I wasn't trying to leave..."
"What I just said... please forget it."
Hye-yong couldn't agree or disagree with the request to forget.
When you got down to it, I came here to help Mina and deal with a Virus...
I still have my work to do...
Getting into a serious relationship still needs some thinking...
Before he knew it, Hye-yong was busily dressing up his own feelings.
Back in the real world, if a girl like Na Hee-yeon had confessed to him, he'd have rushed to make wedding preparations to keep her from running away.
But now? He wasn't so sure.
Was there any need to shoulder a burden like marriage unless it was absolutely necessary or offered some definite benefit?
That was Hye-yong's true feeling.
Dressing it up wouldn't change anything, but it was human nature to want to anyway.
He felt utterly shameless.
Instead, Hye-yong brought up something else.
"You just got unlucky and caught the wrong thing. You're absolutely not a terrible person."
I'm the terrible one.
He couldn't bring himself to say the next part and swallowed it back down.
"Thanks for saying that... And what about you, Hye-yong?"
"Me?"
"Yeah. I'm curious about your story, too. How you've been living, in places I don't know about."
"I've..."
It makes him think about it himself.
How he's spent his time until now.
Ever since parting ways with Na Hee-yeon, Hye-yong had...
'Lazed around, attended classes, worked out, made holy relics, tormented people and turned them into pets, forced myself on them, tricked one innocent girl who knew nothing... Shit, that's all just garbage, isn't it?'
The only thing he could confidently talk about was exterminating the Virus that had latched onto Geum Na-rin.
How the hell was he supposed to tell Na Hee-yeon any of that?
"Just... kept busy, I guess."
Na Hee-yeon pouted her lips.
"I told you all about me, but you're not telling me anything about you."
"Haha..."
"That thing about fighting those Aberrations... is it really such a secret story?"
There had been a time before when he'd told Na Hee-yeon he'd explain things to her somehow.
Aberrations, the Secret Society.
Those fabricated settings.
'Huh, it's been a while since I updated Hee-yeon's version.'
But at this point, there was no turning back.
It was a battle of getting caught or not getting caught.
Raising the odds of not getting caught, even a little, meant sticking to consistency.
Telling lies in this situation pricked his conscience, but he had no choice.
Hye-yong decided to shore up the fabricated story a bit more and tell her.
"I told you before. That I'm here on a mission from a secret society whose name I can't even speak."
"Yeah."
Hic! Na Hee-yeon let out a hiccup.
It wasn't from surprise; she seemed to be quietly mulling something over.
"Getting rid of the Aberration that latched onto you was naturally a job I had to do."
"...So, when you told me I was pretty, was that just something you said to save me?"
"No way, I meant that 100% honestly. Aberrations often feed inside dreams. To exterminate them, sincerity is the most important thing."
"I see... I don't really understand the secret society stuff. For me, that's all that matters. I..."
Maybe it was the alcohol, but she seemed to let it slide without asking for concrete details.
Honestly, having experienced that so-called Virus once, it was such a surreal and occult thing that even if you talked about Aberrations or secret societies, people had no choice but to believe it.
Hye-yong was banking on that and running wild with it.
"So you're always fighting against these Aberrations?"
"Yeah, more or less. Always tracking their traces."
"That must be so tough... trying to juggle that with school life..."
"Still, this is my job."
"Last time, when we faced that Aberration together, I felt something."
Come to think of it, Hye-yong had been curious about that.
Hadn't he called Na Hee-yeon when dealing with the Murder Virus?
He'd expected her to ask about the specifics, but Hee-yeon hadn't asked separately.
She clearly remembered it, but just acted normal.
He felt like he might get to hear the reason for that now.
"An Aberration is like a ghost, detached from reality, right? Something that could kill someone or ruin their life at any moment. Just imagining it terrifies me... but thinking that you're always fighting things like that, it just feels so amazing, you know? Seeing you find a way and solve things in situations that seem utterly hopeless to me... it made me think you're a person living in a different world."
She smiled faintly.
"I just... wanted to cheer you on so badly..."
Well, she's right that he lived in a different world.
"I was just doing what I had to do."
"No! Hye-yong! You're doing something amazing! That middle-division senior from back then, you saved her too, right?"
"Yeah."
"I felt a kind of similar aura from her... like she'd gone through something similar to me..."
Huh?
'So people infected by the Virus can sense something from each other?'
That was a crucial and unexpected piece of information.
"What kind of feeling is it?"
"Hmm, it's hard to explain in words... just a feeling like we share some unknown common denominator..."
It didn't seem like he'd get much more out of her by asking further.
Hye-yong grew slightly tense.
'I've gotta be careful not to get caught. Consistency is key.'
A relationship built on lies will come tumbling down the moment it starts to creak.
He figured he'd need to rethink his cover story, make it as solid as possible.
Even in this situation, Hye-yong's head was full of nothing but thoughts of pulling off a con.
"Anyway! You're an incredible person! To me, you are. No, to everyone you've saved, you will be!"
Er...
He thought he understood Hee-yeon's heart.
He understood her heart, but...
Getting praised that fervently was just embarrassing as hell.
'She's probably saying that because she doesn't know the reality is I'm just a fraud.'
Still, now was the time to accept the praise.
"You think so? Is what I'm doing really worthwhile?"
"Yeah. At least to me, I was saved by you. The way you push yourself and sacrifice for others when you must be struggling and hurting too, it's incredibly cool. So, I really respect you..."
Hye-yong felt like the hand he was holding with Hee-yeon was curling up in embarrassment.
Stop it!
Don't look at me with eyes that are gazing at me with genuine respect!
'I'm a piece of shit! If she saw what I normally do, she'd pass out!'
His conscience was pricked and he was genuinely pained, but Na Hee-yeon showed no sign of changing her attitude.
Instead, she gazed at him more meaningfully and pressed herself closer to his side.
Before he knew it, Hee-yeon was hugging his arm, pressing her large breasts softly against him.
'Whoa... pressing something that wicked against my arm like that...'
With zero control over his libido, he sprung a full-on hard-on, mood be damned.
"Hehe, you got hard. You really do like boobs, huh?"
Na Hee-yeon, catching it like a ghost and grinning bashfully.
She kept firing off suggestive, tempting words.
"Hye-yong, do you want to do it with me? The thing we didn't finish last time, you want to finish it, don't you. Yeah? Hye-yong..."
Hee-yeon pulled the arm she was holding closer towards herself.
Hye-yong gulped and answered carefully.
"Hee-yeon, you... are you sure you're okay with this...? You saw it earlier yourself, you know I'm a real bastard."
"..."
He hadn't thrown those words out with any special intent.
However, what Hye-yong had just said was clearly loaded with a thoroughly calculated meaning.
You know I'm not going to accept your confession, right?
And still, you're okay with it? Doing this kind of thing with me?
That was the meaning behind his words.
"I..."
Na Hee-yeon hesitated for a moment.
Hye-yong already knew deep down.
That even after hearing that, she wouldn't refuse him at this point.
"I'm okay with it. Because this is about the only way I can cheer you on... just, if my body can make you feel good, then that's enough for me."
The moment his eyes met Hee-yeon's, an affectionate gaze pierced straight into him.
"If this can be even a little bit of support, if even just for the moments you're doing this with me you can escape the responsibilities weighing you down... then I'm glad just for that. I don't need anything special. I just want to express my gratitude to you. Even if it's like this..."
There was something pitiful about Na Hee-yeon saying that, but at the same time, Hye-yong became completely aroused.
It was the moment the consequence-free pleasure Hye-yong envisioned became reality.
'Hee-yeon, I may not be sure about other things, but I'll take responsibility for your life. If you ever have a hard time or are suffering, I'll definitely help you.'
The circumstances just didn't allow it yet, but if Hye-yong wanted to make it big in this world, he had more than enough ability to do so.
Just the holy relics he could make right now were game-changing items that would send shockwaves through the industry.
If he built up a trustworthy faction of allies and revealed it to the world, it was clear no one would be able to mess with him.
If that happened, taking responsibility for the lives of a few people would be nothing.
Hye-yong might have been lacking in many things, but his sense of responsibility once he'd slept with someone ran exceptionally deep.
Thinking he would take responsibility for her life, the feelings pricking his conscience slowly began to fade.
Hye-yong began to place his hands on Na Hee-yeon's body.
Hee-yeon smiled faintly and accepted his touch without any resistance.