Sleeping Together
Sleeping Together
"If you're not going to sleep, at least change your clothes first."
I grabbed Aria by the shoulders and gave her a gentle shake.
Her eyes were blinking, so she still seemed to be in a dazed state.
"Hehehe, I wike you, Brother..."
Now she was outright wrapping her arms around my waist.
Was she seeing me in her dreams too?
"I'm going to have to either put her to sleep or wake her up."
At least if she slept soundly, she wouldn't cling to me while talking in her sleep like this. And if I woke her up, I'd feel a little bad, but she could change clothes and sleep comfortably.
What to do.
"Aria, wake up for a second. Aria!"
I did feel a little bad, but waking her seemed like the right call.
Sleeping in a dress couldn't be comfortable, and more than anything, I was starting to want to get out of this suit and into something comfortable myself.
"Mmm, Brother...?"
"Let's just change and go to sleep."
This was the one thing Aria had to wake up for.
There was no way I'd know how to get a woman's dress like this off.
Aria managed to sit up when I shook her and called out, but her body was still swaying like she was half-asleep.
She reached behind her back as if to take the dress off. But it wasn't working, and her hands just fumbled uselessly.
"Nnn..."
When she couldn't find the zipper, Aria eventually started dozing off again, head bobbing. Left with no choice, I examined her back myself.
"The zipper is... Ah, found it."
Whether it was for the dress's silhouette or because an exposed zipper would look unsightly, it had been carefully concealed.
Thanks to that, I had to wrestle with it for a while before I could pull the zipper down.
As the zipper came down, Aria's flawless, snow-white back was laid bare.
"Zipper's down. You can take it off now, right?"
Instead of answering, Aria pulled her shoulders back and slipped her arms out. With nothing left to hold it up, the dress slid all the way down in one swift motion, leaving Aria's upper body completely exposed.
I reflexively closed my eyes. Back when I only treated her as a little sister, I wouldn't have thought anything of seeing it, but honestly, I didn't think I could do that now.
'Wait. I can't just keep standing here like this forever.'
Leaving Aria to sleep with her upper body bare like that felt wrong too, and more than anything, the dress was the real problem.
Before, I'd only had to worry about the dress getting wrinkled. But now that the zipper was down, if she tossed and turned, the zipper could scrape her skin and leave a wound, or the dress could tear.
In the end, I steeled myself and slowly opened my eyes.
When I'd peeked through half-closed eyes, everything had been a skin tone close to white, and my heart had lurched for a second. But that very fact made me realize something.
Because it was all skin tone, without even the two protruding tips that should be on a chest—present on men as well as women.
That fact actually gave me courage, and when I carefully opened my eyes, I saw a strapless adhesive bra made entirely of skin-toned silicone.
"Phew..."
A sigh of relief escaped me before I knew it.
I'd almost had to face her tomorrow with unbearable awkwardness.
Then again, no matter how shoulder-baring the dress was, there was no way she wouldn't be wearing underwear.
But a bigger problem remained.
I couldn't exactly pull the dress off over her head like a T-shirt, which meant if I was going to take it off, I'd have to pull it downward...
"Laying her down might be better."
I carefully laid Aria, who was practically asleep by now, onto the bed. Then I slipped my hands under her waist and gently lifted her body.
Then I reached out and slowly pulled the dress down her body.
Honestly, this was still plenty embarrassing, but at least it was much better than before. At least here I was certain she was properly wearing underwear.
Normally this would have been just as hard to look at, but after what I'd just been through, I found it surprisingly manageable.
Of course, if I could go back just a few minutes into the past, I would've just let her sleep in the dress without taking it off. But now I couldn't stop halfway, so here I was.
The first thing that came into view was a white garter belt.
Next, matching white lace-trimmed panties.
And finally, matching white stockings.
After pulling the dress down that far, I carefully withdrew my hands from the gap between her waist and the bed.
Then this time I slipped my hands under the backs of her knees and gently lifted her legs. Then I grabbed the dress and pulled it all the way off.
"Hoo..."
Now I'd gone and taken off my little sister's dress, of all things.
Still, I let out a sigh of relief that I'd gotten it off without any mishap.
Maybe from the extreme tension, my body had heated up, and sweat was running down my cheeks in the flush of warmth.
I set the dress down at the foot of the bed, tossed my blazer over it, loosened my tie, and then unbuttoned my shirt. That made me feel a bit more alive.
"I'll have to send all of this to the cleaners later."
I gathered up the clothes and was about to leave Aria's room when I realized something.
Aria was lying on top of the blanket, and right now she was half-naked.
No matter what, I couldn't just leave her to sleep like that.
Even if I couldn't put anything on her, I at least had to cover her with the blanket so she wouldn't catch a cold.
But the blanket was underneath her.
With no other choice, I put one knee up on the bed again and carefully lifted Aria higher than before with one hand.
Then I'd pull the blanket out as far as I could, drape it over her, and lower her back down slowly—that would be the end of it.
But maybe because the sensation of her body slowly descending through the air was unfamiliar, Aria's arms suddenly wrapped around me.
Because of that, my posture collapsed, and I went diving onto the bed with Aria.
The bed was soft, so there was no impact.
Aria showed no sign of waking either.
But that was the bigger problem.
Because I'd taken off her dress, Aria was now half-naked.
Of course, everything that needed covering was covered, but still, among the exposed surface area, the proportion of bare skin was overwhelming.
If it were just a brief glimpse, that'd be one thing, but having our entire bodies pressed together like this was really something else.
"Aria?"
No response. Our arms were tangled together, so pulling free would inevitably require some force—and there was a problem.
I hadn't known this until now, but apparently these strapless adhesive silicone bras have adhesive applied to keep them from suddenly falling off.
How did I know that? Because I could see it. The gap between the silicone mass and Aria's chest, pressed against my arm.
More precisely, the sight of skin clinging to skin.
It was probably the kind of thing you had to peel off carefully from the edges, like removing a pain-relief patch. The adhesive was probably weaker than a patch's, but if it suddenly ripped off, it would definitely hurt.
So I couldn't just yank my arm free with force. If I whipped it out and that thing came flying off, Aria would wake up in pain.
And actually, what came after was a problem too.
Right now, the excuse that she'd fallen asleep in her dress and I'd only taken the dress off might still work. But if she woke up topless...
Somehow, I had a feeling Aria would actually like that.
Since it would be a chance to make it an established fact.
But that was also a problem, so in the end there were only two options.
Either somehow wake the half-naked Aria with a bigger stimulus and avoid the worst-case scenario, or just fall asleep together with her.
"Aria, Aria! Wake up!"
This time I even tapped her shoulder and shook her awake.
But she must have been truly deep asleep, because there was still no response. I considered shaking her harder, but seeing the silicone rubbing against my arm, I had no choice but to give up.
'I don't know anymore.'
I just gave up and surrendered myself to the comfortable bed.
Tomorrow was Monday. I couldn't stay up all night waiting for Aria, who might wake up at any unknown hour.
I forced myself to ignore the brightly lit fluorescent light in the room and closed my eyes. But apart from the fatigue, discomfort kept me from falling asleep.
I'd taken off my blazer and tie, but sleeping in a suit was still uncomfortable.
Fortunately, one hand was free. I unbuckled the stifling belt and tossed it to the floor, then unbuttoned my shirt, and that made things a bit more bearable.
Honestly, it was a rather precarious sight.
With the blanket pulled up to around our shoulders, from the outside we looked exactly like a couple or married pair who'd just spent their first night together. My shirt was open, and Aria was completely half-naked.
I shoved the stray thoughts that kept surfacing into a corner of my mind and closed my eyes for real this time.
* * *
"Anyone who saw you would think you were a corpse, Si-hyeon."
"Whoa, you scared me."
Through my hazy, half-dozing vision, a face so sharply beautiful that I could recognize it instantly loomed close. It was a jump scare that put the horror movie I'd watched over the weekend to shame.
"What is it, Han Seo-yeon? Why are you here?"
Instead of answering, Seo-yeon thrust her smartphone at me.
The general education lecture I'd been sitting through had long since ended, and the next lecture would be starting before long.
"This is insane."
I hadn't just dozed off—I'd been out cold.
The professor was so kind that dozing off once probably wouldn't bring any penalty, but he might not even have noticed I was asleep in the first place.
My seat was in the corner where I wasn't easily visible, and the elderly professor's eyesight was dim.
"Anyway, how did you even recognize me?"
First of all, given the lecture hall layout, the seat I'd taken wasn't one that would catch the eye the moment you walked in.
And if she'd just walked in, all she'd have seen was my back as I propped my chin on my hand. She really had recognized me impressively well.
"That's my seat, Si-hyeon."
"There's no such thing as your seat or my seat in a college lecture."
I said that, but I understood the feeling.
Whether on a bus or in a lecture hall, people tend to have a preferred spot. Just like this seat was my regular one.
Seo-yeon must sit here often too. That's why, even though she was smiling, there was a vein standing out on her forehead.
If someone from the same lecture had sat there first, she probably wouldn't have cared. But when someone from the previous lecture was dozing and occupying the seat, it was understandable to say something.
Our preferred seats overlapped too—blood really does tell, I guess.
The thought crossed my mind. Especially since this was an unpopular seat whose only advantage was being less visible to the professor, inconvenient to get in and out of, and with a poor view of the front screen.
When I silently packed up and moved aside, Seo-yeon gave a small bow of thanks and sat down.
If it had been just the two of us in this space, she probably would've cussed me out. The fact that she was thanking me like this showed how conscious she was of the eyes around us.
"Oof."
From dozing with my chin propped on my hand, my jaw, shoulders, neck, and back were all stiff. When I stretched my body out and did some light stretching, I heard popping sounds here and there.
Suddenly I felt eyes on me.
When I turned around, Seo-yeon was staring at me with an odd expression.
"I'm just a little stiff. I'll be leaving soon, so don't mind me."
"No, that's not it. Si-hyeon, did you change your perfume?"
"Perfume? No. I'm using the same one I always use. Why?"
It wasn't particularly surprising that Seo-yeon knew my perfume. Every time we ran into each other—like when I went to see my mother—I'd always worn the same one.
Same brand, same scent. And only in a set amount, never too much.
That was because I didn't really like perfume in the first place. I wasn't interested in it, but for things I needed, I always ended up buying the familiar option.
But now that I thought about it, something was strange.
Naturally, since I didn't much like wearing perfume, I never put any on when coming to campus.
There was no way I'd smell like perfume.
"Just out of curiosity, what kind of scent is it?"
Maybe because it was my own smell, I couldn't detect anything particularly odd. When I finally asked Seo-yeon, she leaned in close to the nape of my neck and sniffed.
"I'm getting a cool scent. Like a winter forest. But it's also oddly fresh—though I can't tell exactly. I'm not a perfumer, after all."
That description felt familiar.
Like someone had put into words the impression I'd felt myself.
A winter forest, huh.
"What do you mean by fresh? Fresh how?"
"Hmm, something close to a floral scent? Like roses."
At the word "floral," my body flinched for a moment.
I had a guess.
Both who this scent belonged to, and how it had ended up on me.
At the same time, hearing those words made my nose and brain register what scent this was.
The culprit was Aria.
While I'd slept pressed right up against Aria, our bodies had rubbed together all over, so it made sense.
I also had a guess as to why I'd only noticed the scent so late.
I'd been smelling it all night while lying awake, so my nose had gone numb to the familiar scent.
The morning's events came back to me unbidden.
What had happened right after Aria woke up.
Fortunately, Aria was smart, so she quickly figured out what had happened.
No matter how well-intentioned the act, if her brother had taken her clothes off while she slept, she'd have every right to be angry or upset. But Aria had actually apologized first, saying she'd been a burden to me.
If it had ended there, it would've been a heartwarming little moment.
But Aria's chest had been trapped in that silicone all night, receiving the warmth of my arm, and covered with a blanket on top of that.
In short, no matter how cold her body ran, it would've been stranger if she hadn't sweated.
So naturally, the adhesive had weakened, and the moment Aria bowed her head—
Plop. The silicone mass fell to the floor.
I'd seen Aria's face turn beet red plenty of times, but honestly, I'd never seen her that red before.
Leaving Aria hastily covering her chest, I fled the room, washed up, and came to campus.
Honestly, I don't remember much after that. I was already barely holding it together from the near-sleepless night, so my mind was drifting in and out.
It would've been better to just forget it entirely, but the moment Seo-yeon's words made me realize what scent was on me, it all came flooding back.
The pale pink I'd faced that morning.
"I don't know what kept you up all night, but shouldn't you be heading to your next lecture soon?"
Seo-yeon snapped.
But the important thing wasn't some next lecture that didn't even exist.
I clutched my head with one hand and shook it hard, trying to shake the memory away.
At my behavior, the look Seo-yeon had been giving me—like she was staring at someone unsightly—began to fill with concern.
"Are you sick? A headache? What on earth happened that you stayed up all night to that point?"
"No, it's not that bad. But do I really look that rough?"
"Yes. Your dark circles are so bad that at first I thought you were wearing eyeshadow or something."
This time Seo-yeon opened her smartphone, switched the camera to selfie mode, and showed me my face.
The dark circles really were bad. I was exhausted, and my brain had been continuously stimulated into a state of wakefulness, so it was only natural.
Seo-yeon put her phone away and then reached a hand toward me. More precisely, toward my head.
"How tired must you be to have a gray hair like this on your head—"
The thing that looked like a gray hair came away all too easily, draping between Seo-yeon's fingers like silk thread.
It was a strand of hair with a faint silver sheen—not a gray hair that had lost its color.
More than anything, it wasn't my hair in the first place. My hair wasn't this long.
Seo-yeon's eyes narrowed. Earlier she'd at least been wearing a public-facing smile, but now that the smile was gone, a ferocity reminiscent of a lioness or leopard emerged.
"Whose hair is this?"
Seo-yeon asked.