69. My Buff is a Drug
69. My Buff is a Drug
"What are you doing?"
He barged in right before she was dragged off and kidnapped!
"M-Master— I-I mean, Buffer...!!"
As if she'd spotted her savior, Lanfang shook off Park Yuri, ran over, and clung to Hye-yong's back.
Having lost her intended prey, the clingy look in Park Yuri's eyes vanished, turning dry.
"So you were the one she was supposed to meet?"
She said that, then turned on her terminal to check the time.
"4:07. Seeing how long she waited, you must've been supposed to meet at four. Aren't you too late? Making your girlfriend wait. No manners."
You sound just like that homewrecker Geum Tae-yang.
And he had actually arrived by 4:01, but he was late because he was watching.
Of course, he didn't say what he was thinking out loud.
Pushing Lanfang, who was peeking out from behind him, farther back, Hye-yong spoke accusingly.
"Are you out of your mind? You know she has a lover, so why are you hitting on her? And you're a girl, too."
Park Yuri scoffed at the comment about girls hitting on girls.
"So what if I'm a girl? It's not even rare among Awakened."
"It's not common sense, though."
"That's for ordinary people."
"Fine, let's give you that much. Is it also not rare among Awakened to try and mess with someone else's girlfriend?"
"Tch..."
Park Yuri made a face like a sulky boy and grumbled loud enough to be heard.
"I was just trying to hang out today... I was happy to see her on the street."
The fact she said 'today' meant she'd intended to pounce on her someday.
'I like yuri too, but why do this to someone who says no? You punk-ass lesbian.'
He'd have to come on strong to keep Park Yuri from touching her.
"Lanfang is mine. Don't ever think about touching her again."
"W-Wow..."
Hearing that, Lanfang grabbed Hye-yong's uniform collar tightly and trembled.
Park Yuri's expression crumpled.
"Let's go, Lanfang."
"Y-Yes!!"
This was a clear victory anyway.
Just as Hye-yong was turning around, relishing his victory,
"Wait a moment."
What, she still had something to say?
He turned around to look, and she clenched both fists as if feeling wronged, staring intently at him before opening her mouth.
"Let's fight!"
What the hell...
"Your whole concept of chastity seems really messed up. Do you just not care if it's a man or a woman? Are you that starved?"
"Wh-What! What the hell are you getting at! I said let's spar!"
"Uh... why would I do that?"
"If you don't accept, I'll just keep pestering her whenever you're not looking."
Seriously, what is wrong with her?
"If I win, let me spend just one night with her! If you win, I'll give up cleanly."
"This is ridiculous. Stop spouting nonsense. Sorry, but I don't think this is worth discussing further."
In the first place, he had no idea why she was obsessed with Lanfang.
Sure, Lanfang was pretty enough to rank high in the whole province, but that was in the world Hye-yong used to live in. Here, she was probably just one of many cute girls.
Since Yuri herself was decently cute, she probably had plenty of women around her, so why her specifically?
"W-Wait. Then you add a condition too!"
She was insanely persistent.
With that level of persistence, she really might cling to Lanfang when Hye-yong wasn't looking.
'A weird leech has attached itself. I need to cut this off at the source...'
First, he decided to throw her own words right back at her.
"Then the same condition as you. If I win, I'll do whatever I want with you for one night."
"Ha... You're more shameless than I thought. How can you say that when your girlfriend is right there."
"I'm not as bad as you, asking to borrow someone else's girlfriend for a night."
Maybe she thought they were even, because she went quiet after that.
"...Saturday at 10 AM. Meet me at the sparring ground."
Park Yuri then shoved her hands into her uniform pockets and sauntered off.
She's accepting even after hearing that condition?
'I'm seeing all sorts of weirdos today. Whatever, that's a delinquent for you.'
Clench!
Still holding his collar tightly, Lanfang whispered her question.
"Master... will you be okay?"
Anyone could see the worry in her eyes.
What could possibly go wrong when he had Buff Custom?
"Don't worry. There's no way you'll be sold off."
"Th-That's not what I'm worried about."
"You're not doubting my ability, are you?"
"N-Not at all! I believe in you, Master!!"
"Good, then let's go."
As they walked together, Lanfang carefully brought something up.
"But, um..."
"Hm?"
"C-Could I... become your lover, Master?"
Lanfang's face was slightly red as she said that.
She must have gotten that idea from all the 'lover' talk.
'As she is right now, Lanfang really doesn't have any flaws.'
Hye-yong pondered for a moment before answering.
"I could do that."
"R-Really?"
"But, you know, being lovers ultimately means you're equals, right? Equals might have things they don't like about each other. Couldn't you end up fighting like that?"
Lanfang listened blankly.
"You could drift apart due to differences of opinion. You could break up and end up being nothing to each other..."
"Th-That...!"
"But if you stay as my pet dog, you don't have to worry about any of that and just receive my love?"
Lanfang clutched Hye-yong's arm tightly, as if anxious.
She continued in a slightly trembling voice.
"I like being your pet dog, Master... so please don't abandon me."
"Alright. You'll always be my cute little pet."
Hye-yong laughed lightly to himself and kept walking.
"But how did things end up like that with Park Yuri?"
"Ah, well..."
Lanfang said that on the day she first sparred with Park Yuri, she felt herself growing as she fought.
Visible growth.
The pleasure she got from it was no small thing.
"Wanting to work harder and get praised more..."
So one day, she went to the fight club on her own and sought out Park Yuri.
Park Yuri hadn't beaten her up severely under the pretense of sparring, and even praised her for having guts, so Lanfang had developed a favorable impression.
They met up, sparred again, and exchanged messenger info.
— This buff won't wear off until tomorrow morning, so if you want to train alone, go ahead.
After getting a growth buff from Hye-yong, if she had spare time, she'd ask Park Yuri, and each time Park Yuri would show up and be her sparring partner.
"It was... pretty fun. The more we fought, the more I felt I was catching up to her... At some point, I could even tire her out. Of course, beating her was still too much."
If it had stayed that way, they could have kept being good sparring partners, building a friendship between girls.
But the problem started about two days ago.
"I've never won, but she still praised me. She said she could see my skills getting better, that she'd changed her mind about me, and that she liked my type..."
Lanfang thought she meant liking her as a person, not that she wanted to spend a hot night together.
That day too, they were sparring.
As usual, Lanfang was beaten and knocked down by Park Yuri.
Because Lanfang's skills had been growing day by day and their sparring had intensified, a knuckle struck her face and a trickle of blood ran from her nose.
— Ah... sorry.
Since sparring weapons were designed to disperse mana and prevent injuries, even drawing blood from a direct hit to an Awakened's face—which has mana flowing through it—wasn't a serious injury.
The nosebleed would stop soon, and the pain would completely disappear after resting for a few hours at most.
But Park Yuri, looking down at the fallen Lanfang while catching her breath, started hitting on her under the guise of apologizing.
— Seems like an accident. Let's go to the infirmary together.
— I'm fine—
— No way! You have to get this treated quickly!
Lanfang tried to say she was fine, but Park Yuri practically dragged her to the infirmary.
And after she got treated, while she was resting on the bed for stability...
— Hey, you know, you're totally my type? I didn't feel much at first, but strangely, seeing you hit and knocked down, seeing you get back up even when hurt... it looked attractive.
As she said this, she started subtly touching Lanfang's body, causing Lanfang to jump in utter shock.
— Eeek! Wh-What!
According to Lanfang's account, as Yuri groped her chest and thighs, she didn't know what to do, but the moment she felt a hand slipping inside her uniform pants, she jumped up and barely managed to run away.
"Thinking of you, Master, gave me the strength to escape..."
She liked seeing her get hit and knocked down?
What kind of fetish is that?
Is it the kind where you beat someone down and feel affection watching them in pain?
'Well, Lanfang does look like she has a good hitting feel...'
Since Hye-yong himself had felt a kind of catharsis seeing Lanfang's dejected state, he could sort of understand it.
Still, that didn't mean he could sympathize with it.
'More importantly, she already attempted rape? This bitch is insane. She needs to be taught a lesson.'
Of course, this wasn't something Hye-yong had the right to say, since he'd committed sleep rape on Lanfang the moment he found out he could enter her inner world. But human psychology being what it is, it still pissed him off when someone else did it.
Hye-yong was an absolute hypocrite.
'Since I'm at it, I might as well make full use of that bet to do whatever I want for one night.'
Strangely, he was looking forward to it.
July 1st (Tue), 7:58 PM
Physical Training Room
"...Hey?"
As you might remember, after what happened last time, Choi Ah-young started wearing gym clothes that showed almost no skin.
But today, she was back to the outfit that drove his lower half crazy, just like when he first saw her.
"Uh... hey."
What's this? Was the gym uniform uncomfortable after all?
Hye-yong was curious, but not deeply so.
It just made him think he had to keep his lower half in check.
"Shall we... exercise?"
"Let's do it."
While running, Hye-yong took small, deep breaths and decided he'd try to hold back his erection today.
'Sss...'
And he immediately failed.
At least it was only halfway, so if he positioned his pelvis well, it wasn't too noticeable, but it was uncomfortable regardless.
'Humanly speaking, she should be moderately hot, not make me constantly horny. How do other guys handle this? Is it because they grew up in a different world?'
Just think about his situation.
The girls he faces every day are all top-tier in the whole province, have no immunity to men, and their guard is loose. How could he not get hard?
Of course, it's not like he couldn't endure it.
He'd been enduring it all his life so far.
If he wanted to endure it, he could probably endure his whole life.
It would just be fucking awful!
'Still, it's better now. Because I have Lanfang, who blushes and says, "Me too, Master, I'd like that," whenever I want to do it.'
He felt like he finally understood why people got girlfriends.
A pet dog was even better.
With these random thoughts, an hour passed.
"Phew. This is tough."
But at least it had become manageable. Though who knew when this damn stamina stat would hit level 5.
Even though he was all-in on growth buffs these days.
'I guess physical talent is just inevitable.'
Hye-yong got off the treadmill, and was about to say goodbye to Ah-young and leave.
"Good work."
"Wait a moment."
But Ah-young stopped him.
"What?"
"Still, I'm here to teach you exercise. Isn't it a bit weird if we only run and you don't learn anything at all?"
She was being uncharacteristically wishy-washy today.
'I'm fine with it.'
It seemed Choi Ah-young was a bit bothered by it.
'It's because she's nice, I guess.'
Rather than refusing and turning away, Hye-yong chose to stay with Choi Ah-young a bit longer.
"Yeah, I guess it is a bit weird."
"Let's go to the 2nd floor. I'll teach you, even if it's just for a few days."
"Got it."
He followed Choi Ah-young to a private training room.
"As I explained before, we'll mainly do strength training here. For exercises to increase the strength stat..."
True to character, Choi Ah-young gave an easy-to-understand explanation and demonstration.
"Okay, like this. Rest the bar on your shoulders... Hup."
Choi Ah-young's appearance as she demonstrated the barbell squat, drenched in sweat, was incredibly bewitching.
"I'll show you from the front too, so it's easy to understand. Here... Hup."
As she squatted in those short workout shorts, the fabric clung tightly, making the mound of her groin practically visible.
'Hey, hey, hey... if you show me something like that...'
It wasn't that he hadn't expected something like this when he first asked Choi Ah-young to teach him.
But actually seeing it felt really troubling.
Vulgarity aside, he felt like anyone who didn't get hard seeing that must be the weird one.
'Whew. She's teaching me so hard, but I can't not look at that!'
His brain was telling him to look at the barbell, but staring at Choi Ah-young's face just made him want to look downward too.
"Okay, want to try? I'll hold your posture from the side."
"Uh, yeah."
Ah, can I avoid getting caught?
Hye-yong walked over to stand beside Ah-young with a pounding heart.