Halli Galli
After afternoon classes ended and I arrived at Jiyoung's place, she was drying her damp hair with a hairdryer. She must have just stepped out of the shower.
"Hey~, Namhyukkie~ You're back?"
Jiyoung had this strange habit of not drying her body properly after showering. As a result, the white t-shirt she wore was always soaked right after her shower, leaving the shape underneath completely visible.
...At least she had a layer on top. Down below, today was no different—she was completely bare.
The wet, glistening skin of her most intimate area kept flashing in and out of view, teasingly hidden behind her thighs.
I was so mesmerized by the sight of Jiyoung's wet bare skin that I didn't notice the puddle on the floor, stepped right in it, and nearly slipped and landed hard on my ass.
"Whoa...!"
"Oh... You okay~?"
Jiyoung yelped in surprise when she saw me wobbling. I barely caught my balance and grumbled awkwardly.
"Jeez, seriously.... That's why I keep telling you to dry off after showering. Why do you always come out still dripping..."
"Ebebebe, it dries on its own anyway, so why bother~ Heehee."
....Sigh. What kind of fresh new nonsense logic is that.... As always, her common sense was twisted in every possible way.
I shook my head and sat down beside Jiyoung as she continued drying her hair.
We stayed silent for a while as I scrolled through my phone. Then, while still looking in the mirror and running the dryer, she suddenly asked me out of nowhere.
"....Namhyukkie."
"Yeah? Finished drying?"
"No, a little left. But something suddenly made me curious."
"What is it?"
I frowned, sensing trouble, and asked back. Jiyoung crossed her arms with a dead-serious expression and asked gravely.
"...That girl you like, Namhyukkie. Does she have long hair?"
"Huh...? Uh, that's...."
The completely unexpected question left me speechless for a second. Then Hyejung's long hair flashed through my mind and I nodded without thinking.
"Uh.... well.... I guess it's pretty long...."
"Long? How long exactly?"
Jiyoung kept pressing insistently. I hemmed and hawed, vaguely pointing to a spot below my waist.
"I-I'm not sure. Maybe around here?"
"Here? This far?"
She poked the spot right at the base of her tailbone where her butt crack began, eyes wide as she asked. I felt my face heat up a little and nodded.
"Yeah, roughly...."
In truth, if Hyejung let her hair all the way down, it reached exactly there. But since she worked out so often, she usually kept it tied up, so I rarely got to see just how long it really was.
Now that I thought about it, she'd had her hair down when I saw her at lunch today. She'd said she came straight from exercising, but it seemed she'd deliberately let it down before meeting me.
Jiyoung tapped her lips in thought for a moment.
"Hmm.... Okay."
Then she turned back to the mirror and continued drying her hair in silence.
What the heck... Why did she suddenly ask that....
I stared at her, puzzled, but she didn't say another word about hair length after that.
Once her hair was fully dry, Jiyoung neatly wrapped the cord and tucked the dryer into the basket. She stretched with a big yawn, then looked at me with a bright grin.
"Heehee, look at this, Namhyukkie. It's still super wet."
She rubbed her damp forearm all over my skin. When I recoiled in disgust, she got even more excited, wrapping her soaked body around me and rubbing vigorously.
Her wet breasts and soft thighs kept pressing against me. If this kept up I'd lose control again, so I shoved her away in a panic.
"Hey.... Get off, you're soaking my clothes..."
"Ebebebe~ I'm a water ghost~"
But Jiyoung ignored me completely, climbing on top of me even more persistently and trying to smear her wetness all over me.
Then, the next instant, the damp hand gripping my shoulder slipped, and she suddenly yanked my head straight into her chest.
"Ugh...!"
My nose pressed right into her wet underboob and my brain completely shut down.
The rich, damp scent of her skin—mixed with the sweet body wash—flooded directly into my nose. I'd only breathed it for a split second, but it was enough to make my mind go hazy.
Jiyoung hurriedly pulled back, grabbed my shoulders again, and mumbled softly.
"S-sorry.... Ah, your face got wet. I'll wipe it for you..."
She carefully wiped every drop of moisture from my face until I finally came back to my senses.
After a long moment, I cleared my throat awkwardly and looked away.
"S-so, I keep telling you to dry off properly.... I almost slipped and fell earlier because of it."
"Okay~, heehee...."
Jiyoung answered playfully and plopped down beside me. She thought for a second, then suddenly raised her finger and shouted.
"Then it's a bet! If Namhyukkie wins, I'll dry off with a towel just like you want. How about it?"
"Wait, why does it have to be decided by a bet? Shouldn't you just do it anyway?"
"Heehee, nope~ So let's play this after so long."
She dashed over to the shoe cabinet we used as storage and pulled out a familiar item.
It was a simple game with a button that rang a bell and cards covered in pictures of fruit. The so-called Halli Galli.
"Ugh... Halli Galli? The water will dry by the time we're done anyway."
The original rules required playing until someone lost all their cards, so with all the back-and-forth a single game usually took quite a while.
Jiyoung pouted, shrugged, and said.
"Then let's do a single round."
"A single round? With Halli Galli?"
"Yeah. If exactly five of any fruit appear, the first to hit the bell wins no matter what."
"Oh.... Feeling confident, huh? Okay, bring it on."
"Heehee, I'm an absolute master at this game~ I haven't lost at Halli Galli since elementary school."
...Yeah, well, is there any game she isn't good at.... Still, this one should be easy to throw on purpose. I could just pretend to be slow even when five cards showed up.
Jiyoung, clearly excited and licking her lips, split the deck into two piles and dealt them in front of us. She set the bell right between us and shouted.
"Alright, I'll flip first. One, two, three!"
She flipped the top card from her pile. Two bananas.
At the same time she made an obvious fake-out, lowering her hand as if to hit the bell.
No way. Who in the world would fall for such a lame fake....
When I gave her a pitying look, she huffed in frustration.
"What? You didn't fall for it.... Tsk, now it's your turn."
"Okay."
Without much tension, I flipped my card. Four bananas.
But Jiyoung, who was extremely tense, flinched the moment she saw them. She nearly slammed the bell but stopped her hand at the last second.
Wiping sweat from her brow, she muttered.
"Wow.... You didn't react at all. You're pretty good..."
"What are you, a monkey? Reacting only to bananas..."
"Grr... My turn."
She focused hard again and quickly flipped her card. Three strawberries this time.
"Phew.... Your turn."
When it came back to me, Jiyoung stared at my cards without blinking, eyes wide open.
She looked so cute completely absorbed in the game that I deliberately hovered over the card, teasing her for a long time. Finally she couldn't take it anymore, rubbed her eyes, and got angry.
"Ah, what are you doing! Flip it already, my eyes hurt!"
"Heehee... Alright, alright. Here."
As I spoke, I flipped the card sharply.
The card that appeared was, coincidentally, five strawberries.
"Ah...!"
The instant Jiyoung saw the five strawberries, she reflexively reached for the bell.
...You idiot...! You just put down three strawberries, so that makes eight total. You can't hit it on this turn...!
I widened my eyes and screamed internally. Luckily she realized right before hitting it and stopped her hand just in time.
Wiping her sweat, she tried to act casual.
"Whoa..... I didn't get tricked, right...? Heehee...."
Didn't get tricked my ass—you almost hit it.... I secretly breathed a sigh of relief and patted my chest.
Meanwhile, the game itself had basically been decided. Jiyoung had the clear advantage. With five strawberries already on the table, any non-strawberry card would let her hit the bell for sure.
And since she controlled when the cards were flipped, she could simply flip with one hand and hit the bell with the other at the same time. She basically couldn't lose.
I smiled secretly to myself. Good, I was supposed to lose anyway.
Even though she was clearly winning, Jiyoung still seemed nervous about the possibility of losing. She chewed anxiously on her thumbnail and kept glancing at me.
Then, as if a brilliant idea had struck her, she raised her hand.
"....Time out. Let's switch seats for a moment."
"Switch seats...? Suddenly?"
She suddenly lifted her knees, spreading her legs into an M-shape, and scooted right up to me with a mischievous grin.
"W-what are you—!"
Jiyoung giggled and looked up at me playfully. The bell that had been between us was now pressed right against the inside of her thighs.
The smooth silver surface of the bell clearly reflected her most private parts, still glistening with moisture.
....No. This is dangerous... If I keep looking, I really won't be able to hold back....
"...Heehee, here we go!"
The moment she noticed I was desperately staring at the ceiling to avoid looking down, Jiyoung set down her card and swiftly hit the bell.
"Oh yeah, I won!"
Having claimed the five-strawberry card, Jiyoung laughed brightly and waved it in front of me as if showing off.
"Heehee, that's my sixth win!♥"
