Judgment. Rest. And Cleanup (5)
"I want to receive your gratitude by making love with you."
"W-what? Th-that... you mean...?"
As Yun Mina trailed off, I finished the thought for her.
"Yeah, that's right. Sex. I want to do it with you, Mina."
"W-woooow..."
Her reaction to my honest desire wasn't shock, horror, or disgust — it was something closer to pure admiration.
"Orabeoni, you've really... you've really changed so much. Honestly, when you explained the shift in the way you talk, I just figured you'd been exhausted from forcing that whole righteous act all this time... but now I get it for sure. A genuine change has come over your nature. And it's a change that doesn't stray far from who you truly are. The self you wanted back — the person you wanted to reclaim — has arrived under the name of change."
Even in a moment like this, that sharp instinct of hers for reading people doesn't dull one bit. It was the opposite of Kim Seyeon's quiet wisdom, and yet every bit as wise in its own way — this gift for psychological insight.
Some people might call it creepy. To me, it was nothing short of a dazzling charm.
"How could I not?"
I looked straight into Yun Mina's eyes again. Not a trace of revulsion or rejection — astonishingly, her gaze held a flicker of anticipation, and I didn't look away.
"With a woman this captivating right beside me, wouldn't it be stranger if my heart didn't change?"
"Pfft...! Oh, come on... how did the conversation end up there? That doesn't even follow."
The little laugh she let out lifted my mood all on its own. Even while laughing, she showed not the slightest intention of slipping free from my arms.
"Can't help it. Your charm has me so gone right now I barely know what I'm saying."
"A-ahahahaha...! That... that really is nice to hear. Especially this close, in Jeong Hoon Orabeoni's own voice... it really is nice. Truly."
Laughing brighter, louder, Yun Mina burrowed deeper into my embrace.
For a while we simply savored each other's warmth. A cool breeze kept blowing, and the flames that had been burning before us had died down considerably.
"But... Orabeoni? Sora unnie is watching with her eyes on fire. Are you sure you're okay with that?"
Ah — she means that security-system-level field of vision of Sora's. That absurdly wide range.
"Yeah, of course."
"Wow, you answered without even hesitating. Orabeoni."
"I'll say it again — how could I not? With a woman this captivating, with Yun Mina right in front of me... why would I spare a thought for Sora, who isn't even here?"
In my heart, I offered a silent apology to the Sora who wasn't present. That makes it okay, right, Sora?
"Orabeoni... th-that much, you... me..."
Trailing off, Yun Mina suddenly dropped her gaze from my face.
Puzzled by the abrupt hesitation, I carefully peered at her.
Ah — bright red. That masterful mask of hers, that bravado, was one breath away from crumbling.
"Y-you... you're looking at me... as a woman. As someone you desire... that's what you're saying, right?"
There was only one answer a question like that needed.
Carefully, I tilted my head. Closer to Yun Mina — close enough for our faces to touch.
"Ah...!"
She didn't pull away.
Our lips... met.
No tongue, no heavy hunger — just lips against lips, light and sweet.
"Ah..."
An eternity that lasted only an instant passed, and space opened between our mouths again.
And then I saw it.
Yun Mina's expression, transformed into that of a woman lost in the deepest rapture — utterly lovely.
If I dared to say it out loud: more than watching her stroll around in those borderline outfits of hers, this expression right now stirred my libido far more.
Yeah. It was definitely hotter.
But... acting on that impulse right here would not have been wise. For Yun Mina, this was almost certainly her first time. Leaving a girl with a once-in-a-lifetime memory out in the open like this was something my conscience would never allow. No matter how hard instinct thrashed, I still had common sense and consideration left in me.
A woman who could make a face that precious deserved a proper place for her first experience. That much I knew instinctively.
"Shall we move somewhere else?"
"W-where... to?"
Still dazed from the kiss — and honestly, our tongues hadn't even touched — I whispered to her with the gentlest smile I could manage.
"Somewhere we can make love."
Carefully, I scooped her up in a princess carry. Again, no resistance.
If anything, the uncharacteristic girlishness of it — the way she laced her fingers behind my neck and looped her arms around me — was thoroughly endearing.
"There's a hotel just outside the castle grounds, so we can—"
"Rejected."
...Hmm?
Yun Mina shot down my suggestion with a single clipped word. I stopped mid-sentence and looked down. Still flushed scarlet, her face dreamy, she spoke.
"Too far. To get there you'd have to cut across the park grounds or go through the territory, right? And more than anything... no matter which route we take, we'd get caught for sure. Absolutely. By that person with the wide field of vision who's been grinding her teeth over me."
Ah...
So Yun Mina was very much aware of how far Han Sora's vision reached.
I almost argued that we'd be visible from here anyway, then shut my mouth.
Because Yun Mina, still hanging from my neck in a princess carry, pointed somewhere with her chin.
"...Hmm?"
That was... the pier?
I'd heard there used to be a fairly large pier operating behind the National Assembly. Back in college, I'd even taken a Han River cruise tour once during a break.
And now, at the empty pier, several boats sat moored. Untouched by anyone. Floating on the river. Maybe because it was a river and the current was gentle, the vessels were in remarkably good condition.
"Th-that one... there."
Yun Mina freed one hand from my neck and pointed at one of the boats at the pier.
Oh — even at a glance, that was an extremely luxurious passenger ship... no, a yacht. The kind some tycoon would own. Why would something like that be docked in Yeouido...
Ah. Because it's Yeouido... of course it's docked here.
In that moment I was reminded once again of the original purpose of the building I lived in — the National Assembly Building.
"Shall we take a look?"
"M-mm... yes..."
Still in that shy tone, Yun Mina nodded rather timidly for someone who had made the suggestion herself. Wow, she was genuinely adorable. Adorable enough that I wanted to kiss her all over again. On the lips, on the nape of her neck...
And on her most private places, too.
Even with a grown woman in my arms, I strode forward without easing my pace. Numerically, my Strength was 19. That was past superhuman — enough to beat an ogre-class monster to death with my bare hands.
For some reason that Strength had done nothing whatsoever when I was with Kim Seyeon — if anything, she'd been the one pinning me down — but still...
On top of that Strength, my Agility was 18, feet fast enough to put a modern track athlete to shame. Carrying one woman over to a moored boat was easier than eating cold porridge.
"It's even bigger up close."
"Wooow..."
And the ultra-luxury yacht we approached... it was so large I genuinely wondered who it had belonged to. Fortunately it was docked, and a gangway had been left in place, so I boarded without any trouble.
A clean two-story yacht. The upper deck was large enough to house an entire room.
"Never thought I'd end up on top of a yacht this fancy."
"Technically speaking... it's ours now. Everything in this territory belongs to me, the lord."
"My goodness. The original owner would be beating the ground if they heard that."
"They're already in the ground, so it wouldn't do them any good. Or maybe they've turned into zombies and are out hitting people."
"Pfft! You're right. Hahaha...!"
Trading pointless jokes, we climbed to the yacht's second floor. An electronic lock sealed the door. Which, from my perspective, was about as good as a wide-open welcome mat.
Creeeak...!
I popped it with a Rogue skill, and light spilled in through the opened door. For a moment, Yun Mina and I both forgot we'd boarded this yacht to have sex and simply stared in awe.
This... was a full hotel suite. The furniture looked like it belonged in a five-star hotel's presidential room, and one of the cabinets even displayed whiskey.
And the bed above all... it was so enormous and lavish I had to wonder how they'd even gotten it in here.
"Woooow... put me down, Orabeoni. Hurry!"
Mina urged me to set her down as if she'd momentarily forgotten the first letter of the word sex. The moment I carefully lowered her, she bounced straight onto the bed and buried her face in it.
That was a clear mistake.
"Blech!? Cough, cough!"
It was covered in dust. Which was exactly why I'd been calmly surveying the interior. What happens when a sealed space sits abandoned for over a month? Dust piles up, that's what.
There was a duster nearby, so I gave the bed a rough once-over. Opened the windows too. We'd come here to get busy, and somehow the mood had shifted straight into housecleaning. Yacht-cleaning, more precisely.
After roughly dusting the bed and the nearby furniture, I let the river breeze through the open windows wash over me. Only then did I notice what a fine day it was. Earlier, when I'd been burning that bastard, weather had been the last thing on my mind.
"Orabeoniii~?"
Yun Mina called to me as I was enjoying the Han River view from the yacht.
Huh — in Mina's hand was... one of the bottles that had been displayed in the cabinet. Whiskey. And a fairly famous brand of single malt, at that. An eighteen-year.
"I've always wanted to try something like this. Setting the mood, on a yacht, enjoying fancy liquor — an alcohol party! Yeah!"
In that instant I was reminded once again that until very recently, Yun Mina had been a university student. A graduate student, more precisely.
Right — I'd been the same... that age was peak drinking-yourself-stupid, flying-around-wasted territory. The only problem was that the whiskey Mina was holding — and had already poured into two fancy glasses — packed a seriously high alcohol content.
A depth of aroma and proof on a completely different level from soju or beer.
"You should sip this little by li—"
"Come on, bottoms up, bottoms up!"
Old college habits die hard! It was obvious Yun Mina had never drunk anything like this. After pouring, she actually downed the whole thing in one shot — and it wasn't even a soju glass.
I could only press the rim lightly to my lips, savoring it, while staring wide-eyed at Mina's completely unhinged stunt.
"M-Mina!"
"Hwaah! M-my throat... my throat is on fiiire~ this stuuuff~?"
She'd gone down in one hit. It was a spectacle that wiped the first letter of sex clean out of my head all over again.
Yun Mina's face flushed in an instant. One glass of premium whiskey. Forty-five percent alcohol. A twenty-five-year-old woman used to soju and beer was drunk in seconds.
"U-uwaaah~ the world's spiiinning~ Orabeoni, I think I need to check if there's wind coming off the seaaa~~"
Stagger, stagger. Yun Mina was openly reeling now. I couldn't just watch — I set my glass down and caught her. I guided her to put down the whiskey in her hand, took her by the shoulders, and slowly sat her on the edge of the bed.
"Of course a beginner gets wrecked drinking it straight. Honestly..."
"Heeheehee... hic!"
Hiccups, even. I wondered if there was any water around... and spotted a mini-fridge.
I opened it on a hunch, and sure enough, there were 500-milliliter bottles of mineral water. Sealed in a closed space, so they should be safe. I carefully guided Yun Mina to drink.
"Here, drink it slowly."
"Gulp gulp..."
Were these two people who'd come to make love, or was this a scene of someone nursing a kitten?
Truly, the atmosphere had gone ice-cold. For the boiling heat between a man and a woman to rise again, something would have to spark it.
Forcing myself on a drunk girl... honestly, that was a hard no. Why did there have to be liquor on display here of all places...
...Wait. Hold on. Could it be...?
"Mina."
"Hic... whaat is iiit~?"
"Did you force yourself to drink because you were nervous about it being your first time... thinking the alcohol might make it easier?"
"Hic!? What... are you taaalking about~?"
Just now, Yun Mina flinched — hard.
It took less than a second for the drunk woman in front of me to show that adorable side of herself again.
Yes. The spark had caught once more.
The spark for getting down to business.
"So I was right, my cute little Mina."
"Hic! Hnn..."
Both of Mina's cheeks went red. Not from the alcohol. That look of someone failing to hide her embarrassment — no, not even managing to hide it — was unmistakably the reaction of someone whose bullseye had been hit.
"B-buuut... I-I'm nooot... experienced and curvy like Seyeon unnieee... and I'm not fresh and young like Sora sunbae... I mean little Han Sora eitherrr... I'm juuust... umm... just a virgin, so..."
Embarrassed as she was, the way Mina ended up confessing everything honestly was the most lovable she had been in all the weeks we'd known each other.
"The way you try so hard to hide it looks truly beautiful to me, Mina."
I wrapped both arms around her, pulled her into my chest, and whispered.
"Hic!? R-reallyyy...?"
"I'll show you it's not a lie."
Once again, a man and a woman's lips drew close.
This time, it was nothing like that light kiss from before.
Schlick.
A deep kiss, laced with something filthy.
"Mmph!?"
My tongue carefully pushed into Mina's inexperienced, rigid mouth. Worried she might clamp her teeth and hurt my tongue, I gently stroked her hair with my right hand as I slowly worked my way in.
"Nn, nnnnmmph..."
Under that warm touch and the coaxing of my tongue, she melted in an instant.
The alcohol and the scent of whiskey rode her tongue into my mouth. Ah — I was going to get drunk too. I'd already had a glass myself. The aged oak-barrel aroma was more than enough to stir every sense.
"Schlick, schlick... mmph!"
"Mmph, mmph... nngh...!"
Unlike with Sora or Seyeon, I took Mina's mouth slowly, carefully. One hand stroked her hair gently while the other held her upper body close so she wouldn't pull away.
When I cracked my eyes open just a little, I could see it.
Yun Mina's face, far more lost in ecstasy than during that first kiss.
Yes — she was changing, bit by bit. From girl to woman, and from woman into...
"Schlick... haah..."
I ended the deep kiss that had been both long and short. A translucent thread stretched between our parted lips. We looked at each other, then eased the distance just a little.
My hands moved naturally, peeling off Sora's — no, Mina's outer layer. Then I undid the side buttons of the daring black dress underneath, one by one.
Pop, pop...!
At last, when I released the clasp connecting the straps at her back, the dress came apart like so many scraps of cloth, and...
For the first time, I took in Yun Mina's bared breasts, and that secret place still veiled by her underwear.