MT (3)
Was it because I was in it myself?
The MC's voice sounded especially grating.
- Five! Oh, the Drinking Team's already out? Oh man, the Survival Team's out too!
Two more guys said they couldn't go on, set down the girls, and collapsed. Even though the girls seemed light, they each weighed at least 50 kilos, so it was no surprise.
On top of that, this was the Digital Content Department. You could tell just from the department name — it was about as far from "active" as you could get. The guys' main job was sitting in front of a computer and clicking away, so how great could their stamina possibly be?
By the eighth squat, most of them were eliminated.
And I was, surprisingly, holding my own. The team leader cradled in my arms looked up at me with wide eyes.
"Cheol-jin, you've got good stamina?"
"I guess the exercise from dieting paid off."
So all that sprinting until the soles of my feet were soaked every morning actually had a point. I had to wonder, though: did running really build your thigh muscles that much?
"Maybe it's just that you're light, team leader?"
"What're you talking about."
Wait, was she embarrassed? I looked at her with new curiosity — I hadn't expected this side of her — but the MC's count had started again.
- Nine! Two teams remain! Team Victory and Norazo!
The guy from Norazo seemed like a regular gym-goer. He was clearly struggling but kept pace somehow.
Meanwhile, I had a little breathing room. My muscle strength was apparently more useful than I'd thought. The fact that the team leader wasn't all that heavy helped too, of course.
Still, lucky me. At first I'd been uncomfortable with a hard-on, but after a few squats, I'd returned to normal-cock. My blood flow must've redirected to my thighs.
I shouldn't have let my guard down.
Trouble always had a way of erupting out of nowhere.
"Let me just shift a bit."
The team leader squirmed, maybe because the carrying position was uncomfortable.
But in the process, her elbow — of all things — softly grazed near my crotch. It wasn't even direct contact, but the front of my pants stiffened in an instant. E-erection!
I hastily tried to readjust my posture. There was no way I could show off a hard-on to everyone after coming up on stage! I-I didn't want to drop out of school!
In the middle of adjusting, my body wobbled.
- Ahhh, Team Victory at its limit? We're in a crisis!
A real fucking crisis. While staggering, my little soldier stabbed at the team leader's side. She didn't seem to notice at first, but as I kept shifting to hide my erection from everyone else, the whole thing started looking weird.
The team leader was still in my arms.
I was in the middle of trying desperately to screen my alter ego with her body.
And before I knew it, my alter ego was pressed flush against the team leader's side.......
At this point, there was no way she hadn't caught on. The team leader in my arms, face flushed red, fixed me with a hatchet-eyed glare.
"Hey, you......!"
"S-sorry. It's a physiological phenomenon. I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
My face felt like it was about to burst from sheer humiliation. Why did you have to shift your position anyway! Just hold still a little longer!
While I was thinking my college life might be completely fucked.
"...If you don't get first place, you die."
The team leader said that.
Did that mean, in other words, she'd let it slide if I took first?
"I-I'll get first, no matter what."
Even if it meant my thighs exploding!
*
In the end, we took first place.
I honestly felt like my thighs were going to burst.......
"You little punk, you put that big frame to good use!"
"Cheol-jin's got a knack for this, huh? If he starts working out, he'll put on muscle fast."
Seongju Hyung gave me a Ppang-ppang on the back, and Ahn Seong-hyeon was creepily checking me out from head to toe. This bastard wasn't gay, was he?
"We got first place thanks to Cheol-jin. That sealed it!"
"As long as we nail the talent show, we're set. The cross-dressing is basically a lock for first anyway."
Yu-bam sunbae and Oh Si-hyeon both praised me for a job well done too.
Meanwhile, Ah-reum let out a suggestive laugh and slapped my thigh.
"As expected, as expected."
"What do you mean, as expected?"
"As expected is as expected. I knew. That Kkang-cheol is strong. Eheehee."
I felt like the nuance was a little different.
Well, it wasn't entirely untrue. The old saying that a man's virility was closely linked to his thighs had been around forever.
But this girl?
The moment everyone turned their heads away, she started stroking my crotch. What I'd barely managed to settle down sprang back up in a flash.
Damn it all, should I just grope her back?
The second that thought crossed my mind, Ah-reum's hand pulled away.
And then.
"Merong."
She stuck her tongue out and looked straight ahead like nothing happened.
Just you wait until this MT is over, seriously.......
*
Lee So-yeon, the team leader whose side I'd jabbed, said nothing more about it afterward.
Was she letting it go because I'd gotten first place?
That was a relief, but now just seeing her face felt awkward. Maybe it would get better with time.
Anyway, after dinner we gathered back at the lodging and practiced our talent show song.
But there was one problem.
"The cold winter passes~. Oh oh, love under the cherry bl— ehm, sorry."
Maybe because the talent show time was creeping closer, I kept cracking on notes that had been fine all day.
"It's fine, it's fine."
"You can totally gloss over a little crack like that. Nobody's even gonna notice."
"Guess Cheol-jin got nervous."
When I awkwardly apologized, the team members reassured me that it was okay. Maybe it was characteristic of our department, but everyone was so gentle and nice.
"I'll try again."
There wasn't much time left to practice.
I cleared my throat and focused. What if I messed up on stage like this?
*
The auditorium, filling up again after dinner.
The games were all over now, and the highlight of the MT was starting.
First up was the male disguise competition, then the female disguise.
The girls dressed as guys took the stage.
The team members, myself included, raised our voices to cheer on Yu-bam sunbae.
"Yu-bam sunbae, you're so cool!"
"Handsome!"
"Kkyak! Bam sunbae, date me!"
That last one was Pi Ah-reum's voice. Hey, you aren't bi, are you?
- As mentioned earlier, the professors' votes are crucial for the cross-dressing and talent show competitions! Professors, please pick your grand first-place winner!
Unfortunately, Bam sunbae came in third.
Her appearance was by far the most striking and cool, but she'd lost ground during the charm-appeal dance portion.
Next, the guys in female disguise streamed up onto the stage.
- Wow, seems like first place is already decided here, wouldn't you say? Wait, is that actually a guy over there? Looks like a real girl just walked up.
"Ah, he's definitely a guy! Can't you see the muscles?"
Seongju Hyung flexed his biceps to put his guns on display.
But it was no use.
Whatever it looked like in real life, unless your arms were ridiculously thick, showing off muscle on stage didn't really register.
- And now, the girl group dance time!
The cross-dressed guys on stage started dancing.
At that, Seongju Hyung — who'd been complaining about it until just a moment ago — suddenly went absolutely wild. What, how was he so good at the wave?
"Kkyahhhhk! Seong-ju oppa, you're so pretty!"
"Seong-ju unni, so sexy!"
Mostly the female students were going crazy.
The professors' votes were unanimous for Seongju Hyung, giving him an overwhelming first place.
I congratulated Seongju Hyung as he returned to our spot in his female disguise.
"Congrats on becoming Miss Digital Content, hyung."
"Like I enjoyed a bit of it!"
"Could've fooled me, the way you were dancing."
"They said I'd get an expensive wine. If we'd been outside the rankings I wouldn't have cared, but we were competing for first, so I had to go hard."
So that was it. Now that I thought about it, this hyung did love his booze.
Once the cross-dressing competitions wrapped up, the talent show time gradually approached.
A short break.
I stepped out of the auditorium to use the bathroom. Ugh, just thinking about going up on stage to sing was making me need to piss for no reason.
'After coming this far, I really need to score that wine, huh?'
Everyone was looking forward to some fa-ancy wine, so I couldn't afford a mistake. No idea how expensive it actually was, though.
On the way back to the auditorium after finishing my business.
I bumped shoulders with a group coming down the hallway.
"Ah, what."
The big guy scowled. When a face that looked so mean crumpled up, it turned seriously menacing.
I was just about to go into full cower mode and apologize.
"Hey, you jackass! You bumped each other, so what's with the temper? It's mutual fault."
A woman's voice, completely out of place among the big guys, cut in. Like she had no fear whatsoever, she smacked the back of his head with a Ppak and scolded him.
Strangely enough, the guy who'd been hit suddenly put on a hurt expression.
"N-no. I wasn't mad. I was just startled... M'sorry."
The guy bowed his head to me.
Flustered, I waved my hands.
"Ah, no. I wasn't looking where I was going either... Huh?"
Mid-sentence, my eyes flew open wide. Because the face of the woman who'd scolded him looked familiar.
"Seora noona?"
"Huh? Oh, Cheol-jin, isn't it?"
A healthy, beautiful woman with her hair in a single ponytail.
It was An Seo-ra, my morning jogging partner.
Seora noona came over with a pleased expression.
"You're here for MT too?"
"Yeah. Noona, you too?"
"Yep, that's how it is."
Seora noona was in the Sports Science Department. We called it Sports Sci for short.
I'd heard from Seongju Hyung that Sports Sci was in the same location, but I hadn't expected Seora noona to actually be here.
"Didn't you say you were a fourth-year?"
Who'd expect a fourth-year at a freshman MT? It was rare enough for second- or third-years to come.
"Fourth-year is right. As for MT, my juniors asked me to help out since they were short on people."
So saying, Seora noona slung her arm around my shoulder. N-Noona, your chest is touching me.
"Everyone, say hi. This is my dongsaeng, Cheol-jin."
"Oh, is he your real brother, noonim?"
"Not my real brother, he's my workout mate. He's my treasured dongsaeng, so if you threaten him like just now, you die."
Seora noona raised and wiggled her fist.
Shockingly, the big burly men all flinched and looked intimidated.
The guy who'd bumped shoulders with me, in particular, protested with a wronged expression.
"I-I wasn't threatening him. My face just looks mean......."
By this point, I almost felt a little sorry for him.
I awkwardly smiled and exchanged greetings with them. Their response was better than I'd imagined, though.
"Oh, you got that body just from running?"
"A diet? So you didn't do any separate weight training? Whoa, man, you were just born with this body."
"If you ever wanna work out seriously, say the word. Let's do it together."
"Th-thank you, hyungs."
The whole Sports Sci group were second- and third-years.
Before I knew it, they'd dropped the formal speech and were treating me like a longtime hyung-dongsaeng, which felt both overwhelming and fascinating.
"Hey, dummies. I said he's my workout mate? Don't try to steal him."
"Ah, noonim. Is it really fun hogging the newbie all to yourself? Let's all do it together."
"No. Cheol-jin, if you wanna learn to work out, contact me. Oh, right. Let's swap numbers."
"Ah, sure."
Seora noona and I hadn't known each other's phone numbers until now. We'd never felt the need to, since we saw each other every morning at the stream without making separate plans.
But while we were swapping numbers, the big guys edged in and slowly surrounded me. Heok, were they all into Seora noona?
"Ah, what's this. You guys didn't even have each other's numbers but acted so close all this time? So we'd be fine to snatch him away, yeah?"
Nope. They weren't checking me; they were checking Seora noona.
"You gonna shut your mouths? He's mine, so keep your hands off."
"Cheol-jin, gimme your number too. Hit me up if you wanna learn to work out."
"This son of a bitch!"
"Keok!"
The guy who'd asked me for my number took a gut punch. You're scary, noona.......