Chapter 59
Chapter 59
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: The Outsider Desperately Handling His Gaze
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***
When I returned from the convenience store with drinks, the three girls were practicing their dance moves.
I set the drinks down on a chair and watched them for a bit.
It looked like Yoo So-ha, who was playing the instructor role, was standing in front of the other two, calling out counts for the eight-beat sequence and demonstrating.
"One, two, three, four,"
"Twoo, two, three, four"
I grabbed a folding chair from the back of the gym and sat down.
Watching girls practice dancing right in front of me felt a little weird from my position as an Outsider...
But the three girls here didn't seem to mind at all.
Unlike me, who's completely isolated with no one in class talking to me, these girls were all Insiders, so maybe they saw things from a different perspective.
"One, two, three, four,"
"Twoo, two, three, four"
Watching Yoo So-ha teach the dance, I couldn't help but think she was incredibly capable despite her young age.
She was smart, pretty, good at dancing, and had lots of friends, which probably meant she had a great personality too.
Even though it hurt a little that she'd said she'd contact me and then never did,
I could accept it if filtering out a guy like me was just part of her skill set.
"Okay, here you put your weight on the heel of your right foot, turn sharply, then spread your arms up and down—bam!"
"If you try too hard to make the moves sharp and staccato, it won't feel cute, so move smoothly."
When she first demonstrated the dance moves, I'd secretly thought they didn't look that hard.
I figured you just had to memorize the arm and leg positions.
But seeing her break it down step by step, I realized nothing in the world was easy.
Not just the arms—leg angles, whether the heels were up or down, hip direction, all changing with every count,
and the moves weren't rigid breaks but lots of soft, flowing sways.
I couldn't even fathom how to move my body to make that happen; every single motion was that complex.
But I wasn't the only one surprised by the dance's difficulty.
The two girls, who tried to follow right after her demo, fumbled their movements and stopped with puzzled looks.
But Yoo So-ha just smiled gently at her struggling seniors and said,
"It's hard to follow all at once, right? But if you don't practice even these fine details, it'll look sloppy on camera, so we have to be thorough even if it's tough. This time, let's break it down even further into sixteen beats and practice step by step!"
She divided the original eight-beat move into sixteen parts, showing them one by one, and started correcting their postures.
Han Si-a and Yoo So-mi would move to her counts, and Yoo So-ha would adjust them into the right positions herself.
...
But... somehow... when Yoo So-ha corrected Yoo So-mi's posture, her hands got a little too clingy, didn't they?
She'd definitely just tapped Han Si-a's knee to fix her leg angle,
but with Yoo So-mi, it felt like she was lingering, stroking the inside of her thigh while "adjusting" the position.
The weird vibe every time Yoo So-ha touched her sister's body made me look at them with uneasy eyes.
...No. Thinking about it, they were both girls and family, so maybe I was the weird one for sensing something off.
Wouldn't it make more sense to say I was overreacting because I couldn't separate fantasy from reality, rather than her harboring sticky desires for her own sister?
The idea that I was having depraved delusions right in front of my friends and their family filled me with massive guilt.
.
.
.
"Eek!! So-ha! That tickles~"
"Heehee... Unnie's voice is so cute..."
When adjusting their upper body direction for the dance, she'd just grab Han Si-a's shoulders to correct her.
But with Yoo So-mi, she somehow slipped her hand under her arms from behind, placing it near the lower ribs under her chest to fix the posture.
...
Honestly... it felt a bit lewd.
But they were both girls, sisters.
So this scene feeling lewd must be my lifelong Outsider brain failing to distinguish fiction from reality!
Sisters who are really close probably touch each other all over to bond!
I don't know how real sisters act! Maybe that's totally normal!
I tried my best to observe the situation objectively without twisting it,
but I failed in the end.
Even if it was between sisters, lewd was lewd.
To avoid the trouble of standing up later, I decided to glue my eyes to the gym floor and endure.
But...
Han Si-a, diligently practicing her dance, seemed to see my floor-staring as slacking off.
"Why are you looking at the floor? You're not dancing yourself, but you're the only one who can check our moves properly when we film later. So stop spacing out and focus—watch and learn."
With no comeback to her point, I decided to ignore the Yoo sisters as much as possible and lock my gaze on Han Si-a.
*** -Han Si-a POV
I've consistently worked out to maintain my figure, so I'm confident I don't have bad coordination.
So-ha's dance moves were only tricky at first; after a few practices, I could follow them fine.
But honestly, I'd never really enjoyed dancing before.
To me, "dancing" had always just been shaking my body half-heartedly to match the vibe around me.
But dancing with friends in this cool indoor space? Turns out it might actually be fun.
I was practicing diligently to So-ha's counts when I noticed Jeong Yi-an staring down at the floor.
He was probably bored sitting alone and zoning out.
Seeing that... it irked me for no reason.
But can you blame me? Me dancing like this was a rare sight.
Back in middle school, whenever there was a dance event, boys would subtly compete to pair with me,
and one male teacher even got disciplined for secretly recording and keeping my dance video.
Yet this guy wouldn't even try to take in this precious scene for a second—he was just staring blankly at the gym floor.
So I gave Jeong Yi-an a scolding, making up excuses left and right.
And it worked—he was finally looking at me properly.
.
.
.
Practicing to So-ha's counts, I caught his gaze flicking to specific parts of my body a few times before snapping back.
When I swayed my hips, his eyes to my pelvis.
When my chest moved with my upper body, to my chest.
Arms stretched high, to my underarms.
He seemed to be trying to hide his urges, looking a bit guilty about his gaze management, but no way. I caught it all.
Still, his stares didn't bother me.
It was kinda fun thinking I could control where he looked just by moving my body, regardless of his intentions.
Plus, a sneaky urge to make him even more flustered started creeping up.
This impulse grew stronger every time his gaze stuck to my body and peeled away...
Something I'd never do normally...
"Whew... Hot. Even with the AC on, moving makes me sweat. Guess I should take off my outer shirt."
I took off the short-sleeved shirt I'd layered on top and folded it on the chair.
Of course, I had a sleeveless top underneath, so it wasn't improper exposure.
But the short-sleeved shirt was coordinated as a set to cover more skin on the sleeveless one.
Without it... I figured it'd draw Jeong Yi-an's gaze even more intensely.
.
.
.
After that, his gaze wavered way more frequently.
Might be my imagination, but it felt stickier somehow.
Guilt and embarrassment mixed on his face, but his eyes kept drifting to my body.
Not just when dance moves highlighted certain parts, but even when I fanned my top to cool off—
I felt his gaze brush my briefly exposed skin before pulling away.
Jeong Yi-an probably had no clue I was doing it on purpose and was blaming himself for his poor gaze control.
Aww... such a cute, pitiful guy.
I wanted to tie his eyes tight in this room so he couldn't look away, dance seductively right in front of him.
And whisper in his ear as he stared at my body with trembling eyes:
'Nice, huh? Now you can stare right through my body, using being tied up as an excuse.'
To him making that super aggrieved face at my words, I'd pull a leather whip from my bosom and...
and...?
...
What the hell kind of sleazy delusion was I having?
***
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Han Si-a, practicing passionately, suddenly stopped and said she wanted a break.
Honestly, midway through, gaze management had gotten so tough for me that I'd been debating just closing my eyes, so it was perfect timing.
I didn't want to stare at my friends like that either.
So I tried to fix my gaze on Han Si-a's face as much as possible... but human eyes are inevitably drawn to moving objects.
Of course, I'm a guy too, and it was nice watching pretty girls dance.
But thinking back now, imagining a 35-year-old uncle enjoying that fills me with guilt.
My friends were sincerely practicing for the contest, and here I was ogling them lecherously...
They must've been pissed...
.
.
.
Han Si-a sat demurely on the folding chair, her face slightly flushed pink from the movement.
I handed her the café latte I'd bought earlier and said,
"My stares were bothering you earlier, right? Sorry. I tried to be careful, but it didn't work. Still, like you said, to film the contest smoothly, I need to learn the choreography properly too, so I had no choice."
"I'm not charging you for this café latte I bought, so forgive me with this?"
Ogiling a woman's specific body parts is beyond friendship-ending—it's criminal territory.
She'd locked eyes with me several times while dancing, so she definitely noticed.
Stuff like this needs immediate, proper apologies, or it snowballs into something unmanageable later. No letting it slide silently.
These were miracle friends for an Outsider loser like me. If apologizing kept the friendship, I'd do it a hundred, two hundred times.
Han Si-a seemed surprised I was apologizing seriously, fumbling for a moment before mumbling,
"I... I wasn't bothered at all even if you looked a bit, so look all you want if you feel like it. But I'll happily drink the coffee. Thanks."
Seemed like I'd successfully gotten forgiveness, so I felt a bit relieved.