I Picked Up My Female Friend's Remote
I turned toward the direction of the scream
and saw Pi Ah-reum, sprawled out in spectacular fashion.
It looked like she'd gone flying while rolling the bowling ball.
...Wait, can you actually wipe out like that while rolling a bowling ball? What kind of motor skills are those? She'd gotten all huffy earlier when I supposedly dissed her motor skills, too.
Well, that wasn't what mattered right now.
Pi Ah-reum's outfit today was a light beige knit paired with a long skirt that went below the knees. A look that suited her milk-brown curly hair and hamster-like appearance perfectly.
But when she fell forward, her skirt had rolled up. My gaze naturally drifted there.
'Panties... I can't see them.'
Because her skirt was so long, even though it had ridden up quite a bit, her underwear wasn't visible. The bare skin showing was just a bit of thigh above the knee.
My honest reaction? I was incredibly disappointed. Wasn't there any way to see? If I tilted my head slightly and adjusted my viewing angle...
I snapped back to my senses in an instant and turned my head away.
'I almost got so fucked.'
This wasn't my studio apartment where I watched hentai and jacked off with an onahole. Out in the world, keeping up a normal-person front was the only way to survive.
Hell, I was right here with the friends I'd just met today—the friends who were supposed to save me from the pit of lonerdom in my upcoming college life.
Couldn't exactly nuke it all before the semester even started.
I looked like a pig anyway, so shouldn't I at least come across as having a decent personality?
While I was pulling myself together,
Park Mi-hyeon had already helped the fallen Pi Ah-reum up.
"Areum, you okay?"
"Ugh. My knee hurts..."
"Let me see. No cuts. Just a little red, that's it."
A fall like that could've broken her nose, so a sore knee was a relief.
Pi Ah-reum stood up with teary eyes.
But only for a moment.
Pi Ah-reum's eyes shot wide open as she shouted.
"Oh, what the?! A strike!"
"Huh?"
Only then did Park Mi-hyeon and I look up at the scoreboard. We'd been so busy staring at Pi Ah-reum we hadn't noticed the pins fall, but the screen was playing the [Strike!] animation. The ball that had rolled slow as hell had toppled every single pin without us even knowing.
"Yes!"
Pi Ah-reum, who'd been on the verge of tears seconds ago, was jumping up and down with glee. Her knit bounced along with her. I hadn't noticed before since it was a loose knit, but contrary to her tiny frame, she was packing something enormous...
"Kkangcheol, your turn!"
"Uh, uh-huh."
I shook my head sharply and got up from my seat. Once my brain had become conscious of it, my eyes kept trying to stray toward places they shouldn't.
'My brain is pickled in erotic illustrations. Keep up the normal-person front, properly, Kang Cheol-jin.'
Guess this was an occupational hazard.
The guy who'd holed up in his room drawing and selling nothing but R-18 female character illustrations was me, 'Kkangcheol.' I'd drawn so much erotic art I was practically a known name even on Fexive.
Maybe that was why, once I let my mind slip, it was hard to rein it back in. My gaze kept drifting back to Pi Ah-reum. Looking at her pretty, delicate face stirred the perverted degenerate nature I'd kept buried under my normal-person front.
To the point where thoughts like this popped into my head.
'If it's portable-sized... is it a vibrator? Is it still running?'
I let out a wry laugh as soon as that thought hit.
Some random accessory I'd picked up was my female friend's remote-controlled sex toy? Ridiculous.
Something out of a hardcore otaku doujin like that couldn't possibly happen in real life.
"Hup!"
To snap myself out of it, I let out a pointless grunt and rolled the ball.
Tteogureureureu─ Deolkeong!
Right into the gutter, god-fucking-dammit...
"Ah, Kkangcheol, you're so bad at this! Total noob!"
Pi Ah-reum pointed her finger at me and condemned me.
If this were online, I'd have just spouted off something like 'reward, thanks' in response, but hearing it in real life stung a little.
'If my delusions were real, I'd punish her with this.'
I pressed the incomprehensible button on the accessory in my pocket.
Ttalkak. Max output.
Then Pi Ah-reum would moan.
"Hnnggghh?!"
Right, just like... that?
'Wait, what?'
Um, Ah-reum-ssi?
*
Naturally, Pi Ah-reum's moan turned out to be just a minor incident. She covered it up by saying she'd suddenly gotten chills.
Well, who would think that was a real moan? Imagine anyone suspecting there was a pervert wearing a vibrator out and about at a freshman orientation meetup.
"Areum, are you feeling really sick? Your face is a bit red. Did you hurt yourself when you fell?"
"If it's body aches, maybe you caught a cold from that shaved ice earlier?"
Not just Park Mi-hyeon, even Lee Seo-jin from the next lane came over to worry about Pi Ah-reum. It was because a faint flush had crept up Pi Ah-reum's face, and her whole body had started trembling slightly.
Worrying it was a cold with body aches was reasonable enough.
But to me, knowing the truth, things looked slightly different.
The flush was from sexual arousal, and the trembling of her body was probably from the stimulation she felt down below. Her darting eyes had to be searching for the remote.
'This is actually real?'
It was right before my eyes, but I still couldn't believe it.
Except I was holding the clear proof in my hand.
'Minimum output.'
I pressed the button marked 1.
Right away, Pi Ah-reum's face visibly relaxed. She let out a small breath and lifted her head.
"I-I'm okay. Just suddenly felt a little shivery."
"Are you really okay? You don't have to push yourself."
"Yeah, it's not like we're only seeing each other today."
"Ah, no. I'm really okay! It was just a bit cold... Kkangcheol!"
"Y-Yeah?!"
I jolted in surprise at the sudden call. D-did she seriously notice? I wasn't necessarily planning on doing anything weird with this!
In my head, every kind of absolutely fucked scenario was playing out—police, sexual harassment, handcuffs, red lines.
"Can I wear this?"
What Pi Ah-reum held up was my long padded coat, the one I'd taken off and left on the chair.
"Uh, sure. But won't that be way too big for you?"
Given the size difference, the hem was definitely going to drag on the floor. I didn't care if the bottom got a little dirty, but wouldn't it look way too weird?
"Hmm. I think if I zip it up and fold the hem inward like this, it'll work."
Only the bottom part bulged out weirdly, so it looked even more bizarre.
...Well, she said she was fine with it, so it'd be awkward to keep nitpicking.
"Yeah, sure. Wear it. I was feeling a bit hot anyway."
"Thanks!"
No problem. Thanks for not noticing.
*
In the end, we lost horribly at bowling.
Thankfully, it wasn't because of me. I'd only launched it into the gutter on the first throw—surprisingly, I hit exactly 100 points, and they even asked me if it was really my first time playing.
But Park Mi-hyeon's score of 130 was lower than expected, and Pi Ah-reum, after that first strike, managed to dump over half her balls into the gutter.
It seemed more like bad motor skills than the vibrator's fault.
'Looks like she took the vibrator out by now.'
It was just a guess, but very likely. She'd gone to the bathroom at one point, and when she came back, her expression had been totally at ease.
'Anyway, how do I give this back to her.'
If she had a bag or something, I could sneak it in there, but unfortunately, Pi Ah-reum had come empty-handed. Did she not even carry around the usual little cosmetic items? The other girls had all brought little handbags.
That mystery was solved at the next place we headed to.
The rice straw-grilled pork belly place Kim Seong-ju had led us to, calling it a famous restaurant.
Once we were seated, Park Mi-hyeon and Lee Seo-jin were squishing Pi Ah-reum's cheeks from both sides.
"Whoa, Areum, you weren't wearing any makeup?"
"Seriously? This is her bare face? Crazy, I was about to ask what tint you use."
"Ah, no. I do the basics. Toner, lotion, and sunscreen."
"That doesn't even count as makeup?"
"Um... it's a tone-up sunscreen? Oh, and the lip balm has a tint."
"...Does that seriously count as makeup?"
Suddenly, girl talk had broken out.
Something about leaves and lotions, makeup brands apparently—a conversation I couldn't really follow.
Anyway, we started our dinner.
Everyone was complaining about hunger, despite all those desserts we'd inhaled in the afternoon. Bowling seemed to have sped up everyone's digestion.
"I'll grill the meat."
I did something rare—I stepped up and offered first.
"I'll set aside the cooked pieces over here, so you can just eat."
"Oh, this is good. Kkangcheol, you're good at grilling meat."
"Thanks."
I accepted the praise nonchalantly. I don't know about anything else, but I was confident in grilling meat. Since I loved eating so much, I'd done a lot of cooking at home myself.
Kim Seong-ju, who'd gone to grab side dish refills, asked.
"Anyone want to drink?"
"Me! I wanna drink!"
Once again, Pi Ah-reum was the one who raised her hand first. The others, far from planning to skip it, eagerly joined in. We'd all only just become adults, at an age where the act of drinking itself felt fun.
Of course, I was the same. Today was my first time drinking in my entire life.
'That beer earlier was pretty good, though.'
It had been sweet, like drinking a soft drink.
I was looking forward to it when I tried the soju.
"Ugh. Bitter."
It made me scrunch up my face and stick my tongue out. It wasn't undrinkable, but I couldn't help wondering why anyone would spend money on this stuff.
But that only lasted a moment.
Once the glasses had gone around a few times, a pleasant tipsiness rose up and felt pretty good. How to describe it... a loosening of tension? The nerves I'd had from meeting people for the first time in forever began to ease up a bit.
That was why. Why I slipped up.
"Kkangcheol, what high school did you graduate from?"
Usually, I'd have deflected the topic somehow.
"Me? I didn't go to high school. Dropped out of middle school..."
Gasp—by the time I realized my slip-up, the others were already staring at me with surprised eyes.