Want to Touch Them?
The shower hissed to life. After the last of the climax had finally ebbed away, I slipped out of Kyle's arms and went to wash. My lower half was soaked through — I needed to clean myself, and my pants and underwear would have to be rinsed as well. I started to strip the bed too, but Kyle insisted he would handle it and steered me into the bathroom.
"Haa..."
Standing under the warm water, the past came flooding back. I had moaned like a woman, acted coy, and come. And as if that weren't enough, I had admitted to Kyle that I was a woman.
I didn't have a choice.
That was all it had been. I had fallen into Kyle's trap, nothing more. I did not truly think of myself as a woman.
That's right. I'm Kang Yu-eul. A man, and a Korean hunter...
A sudden unease about my nationality crept in. I was an American hunter now, but only because of the contract. Once it ended, I had planned to go back to Korea and work as a Korean hunter again. After seeing those comments, though — all that slander, all that contempt — I doubted anyone would welcome me even if I did return.
It wasn't that I cared too much about what people said. Like Kyle had told me, they were just words from strangers who didn't even know me. Still, it felt as though I had lost the place I was meant to go back to. The ease that used to settle over me whenever I thought of Korea was a thing of the past now, and the hope that these three years would simply hurry up and pass had grown faint.
"I'm Korea's..."
Am I even a Korean hunter anymore? The people there hate me, and even I...
I couldn't tell what I was feeling. I didn't know what I was, or where I was supposed to go. I couldn't finish the sentence. I couldn't even finish the thought.
And then, one person surfaced in my mind.
Kyle.
I had hated him at first, but now his side felt like home — not the side of those people who slandered and dismissed me.
That's right... I...
The person I was now was an American hunter.
Yeah. For now...
I turned off the shower and stepped out of the bathroom.
"You're back?"
Kyle greeted me from where he sat on the bed. He had changed the sheets — the bed looked clean.
"Ah..."
Looking at the freshly made bed, guilt and shame welled up, and I lowered my head. Not only had I soaked the bed we shared, I had left the cleanup to him as well. Kyle had volunteered to do it himself, but I couldn't shake the fear that deep down he might think of me as a dirty, shameless woman.
If even Kyle thought that...
If the one person who understood me came to despise me, I didn't think I could bear it. I didn't want to disappoint him.
Whether he had read what was in my heart or not, Kyle rose from the bed and pulled me into his arms.
"I already told you it's not your fault, Sera. You don't need to be sorry."
His arms circled my waist, and he slowly stroked my back.
"Uuh—"
It was the first time he had held me from the front. My face pressed against his chest — so solid, so broad.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Kyle's heartbeat struck my eardrums more clearly than ever. And then his voice, following right after.
No matter what I looked like, it didn't matter to him. Hearing that, the anxiety blooming in my chest felt as though it were being washed away.
"You were just pretty."
Kyle wasn't disappointed in me. He had even called my ugly side pretty. Pretty. It used to be a word that only made me recoil. Not anymore. I had grown to like it — Kyle's praise, telling me I was pretty. I wanted to keep hearing it.
"You're pretty right now, too."
As if he had read my mind, Kyle told me I was pretty again. Happiness swelled in my chest, and I wanted to hold him tight.
In front of me, anything is okay.
Kyle's words came back to me, and I followed the want without holding back. I squeezed. His thick waist filled my arms, and satisfaction bloomed through me. He felt like a solid pillar holding me up.
"Thank you..."
I meant it. He had become a sanctuary for someone who had lost her place to go. I was so grateful for his devotion to me.
"Good girl."
Kyle stroked my hair. Feeling how precious I was to him, tears spilled from my eyes.
"Huh?"
The sudden tears caught me off guard. I wasn't even sad, so why? Why was I crying?
"Sera, are you crying? Look at me for a second."
He had noticed. He wanted to see my face.
"I can't!"
I clung to his waist even tighter and hid my face against his chest. I couldn't show him. My crying face. My ruined expression. I didn't know why, but I didn't want Kyle to see me like this.
"It's okay. Look at my face, Sera."
"Nnh-nnn!"
A whimper slipped out of me before I could stop it, and I shook my head, face still buried in his chest. From now on, I only wanted to show him my pretty side. Kyle would call even my ugly parts pretty — I knew that — but I still didn't want him to see me cry.
"I want to see your face. Yeah?"
Kyle placed both hands on my cheeks and asked, gently, if he could look at me. At his request, I let his hands guide my face up, and I looked at him. Even through the blur of tears, his face burned itself clearly into my mind.
"Why would you hide a face this pretty..."
A voice telling me even my crying face was beautiful. I had expected him to say something like that, but hearing it for real still made me happy.
"I don't know..."
I was too embarrassed to say I only wanted to show him my pretty face, not my crying one.
Hearing my answer, Kyle scooped me up, carried me to the bed, and laid me down. He lay down beside me right away and pulled me close — not from behind like usual, but facing each other, the way he had just a moment ago.
"You did well today. It was hard because of me, wasn't it?"
He slipped his arm under my head like a pillow as he asked.
"It wasn't."
"Yes it was. You did great. Shall we sleep now?"
He stroked down the back of my head as he spoke.
"Okay..."
Feeling the happiness of having Kyle beside me, I fell asleep.
Inside an A-class dungeon, Kyle and Sera still hadn't moved from where they stood, even after entering. Sera had her body wrapped in a black coat, her face flushed scarlet, her head bowed.
"Sera, hurry up."
Kyle urged her on.
"O-okay."
She answered and took off the coat. The outfit underneath came into view. Her body was sheathed in thin white fabric, the tight cut tracing every curve, the upper swell of her chest just barely visible. The sides were slit open, leaving her hips exposed.
"H-how is it?"
Sera asked for his opinion even as she squirmed with embarrassment. Lately she had developed a desire to look pretty for Kyle. She didn't realize that was the kind of thing a girl in love would do. She had stood in front of the mirror for a long time, fussing over the clothes so she would look pretty in his eyes. It was an outfit he had given her, so she hoped he would like it. She waited for his answer.
"Pretty."
Pretty enough that I want to pin you down right here.
Kyle swallowed the rest. Right then and there, he wanted to run his hands over every inch of her, lick her clean, pull aside the scrap of fabric covering her crotch, and paint her insides as his own. But it wasn't time yet. Once he had finished developing her body — once she had opened her heart completely — that was when he would take his fill of the fruit that was her.
Haa... Hold it together.
So Kyle locked his expression down and kept his answer short, burying the heat rising inside him.
But Sera had no idea.
He doesn't like it...
His reaction left her dejected. Unlike usual, when he would smile and tell her she was pretty, Kyle had answered shortly with a stiff face. Something about his mood felt heavy. Sera started watching him carefully.
Did I do something wrong? Or is something bothering him?
She wanted to ask him right then why he seemed so different from usual, but—
Kieeek—
The sound of monsters approaching forced her to focus on the fight.
"Haa... There were a lot of them."
"Good work, Kyle."
"...You too, Sera."
Kyle greeted her while avoiding her eyes again. It put Sera in a bad mood. She had gone out of her way to dress up pretty, but Kyle wouldn't even look at her. Throughout the entire raid he had kept a stiff expression, letting out deep breaths. To Sera, he looked like he was in a bad mood. She hated that. When Kyle was struggling, she struggled too. She wanted to give him a smile. She wanted to give him joy.
"Kyle."
"What?"
"My chest... would you like to touch them?"
The most effective way she had heard in her previous life of calming a man down. She didn't particularly want to, but for his sake, she could endure it.
Since I ended up with a woman's body anyway, I might as well use it like this...
She wasn't acting like a woman. She was just using a woman's body for his sake. That was how Sera rationalized it.
"What?"
Kyle asked back, as if startled by what she had said.
"Touch my chest and feel better."
To make sure he understood, Sera cupped her own breasts in her hands as she said it.
"They're not that big, but..."
Having said it herself, she twisted her body in embarrassment. Looking at her like that, Kyle felt something in his head snap.
He strode over and grabbed her breasts. Through the fabric, they mashed and yielded under his hands exactly as he wanted. The feel of them made him lose control of his arousal, and he groped her even harder.
"Nngh! ...I-it hurts."
Sera whimpered in pain at his touch, but Kyle didn't stop.
"Bear with it. This much is nothing."
After everything I've been holding back.
Kyle swallowed the rest and didn't take his hands away. Then he pulled her body against him from behind and took his fill of both her breasts.
"A pretty girl doing such pretty things, huh?"
"Nnh... hih—"
The praise Sera had been craving. At those words, a moan slipped from her lips — and a smile formed on them.
"Where'd you learn something like this?"
Kyle asked, curious about the motive behind her behavior.
"I just... Kyle, you looked like you were in a bad mood..."
And there it was — the model answer of a born female.
She's just coming on to me outright.
With that thought, Kyle slid his right hand between the exposed valley of her chest and grabbed her bare breast.
"Hnnngh?"
"Haa... fuck."
Soft, yet springy, wrapping around his hand. To only let him have something this good now — Kyle found her infuriating. He felt like he wouldn't be satisfied until he punished the cheeky little female in front of him.
"Sera, lift your clothes up so I can see your lower belly."
At Kyle's words, Sera grabbed her top with both hands and started pulling it up. The fabric whispered as it slid.
"Ah?"
Then she suddenly stopped, both hands frozen, and shook her head.
"I-I can't, this is..."
The outfit Sera wore was a one-piece, the fabric running down between her legs all the way to her ankles. If she pulled it up, her sex would be bared before her lower belly ever came into view. She had never shown him her panties before. Kyle already knew that. He kept kneading her breasts as he urged her on.