The Truth!!!...I'm a Man
I came back to my room after the contract was done. Kyle had demanded that, starting tomorrow, I live in his.
There was no taking it back now. The hunters from Ares had already left for Korea. By morning they would land, then move to clear the A-class dungeon Taegeuk had failed to take. If they succeeded, there would be no Dungeon Break...
I was relieved that people's safety would be in capable hands. At the same time, my head was a mess.
In exchange for sending hunters to support Korea, Kyle had asked that we live in the same room. Even I wasn't dense enough to miss what that meant. He wanted me. No — more precisely, he lusted after the body I had possessed: Kang Yu-eul's body.
That was why he had stared through me every morning. This face was the kind you couldn't forget once you'd seen it — even if it was mine now. Kyle had been so taken with this shell that he'd made living together a condition of the deal.
God... I'm going to lose my mind.
The problem was that I was a man. The flesh might have become a woman's, but the mind inside it was still male. Being lusted after by another man — every instinct I had as a man was screaming that this was impossible. It would be a terrible thing to do to Kyle, too. He only wanted me because he didn't know. If this went on, he would end up holding a man who merely happened to have a woman's body.
Judging by how he lusted after this body, he wouldn't want to hold a man either.
I had to tell him. That I had originally been a man. That I now occupied a woman's body. That a man's self still sat inside it. For my sake — and for his.
It's a contract, so...
I would go into his room first, then tell him when he wanted my body.
Once he finds out I'm a man, he'll send me back to my own room.
With that thought, I started packing to move. A contract was a contract. I had to keep it.
The next morning, Kyle was drinking his coffee as usual.
He was in a good mood. For the past month Sera had been so wary of him that he couldn't get close — and now she would be living in the same room. It was the opportunity he had extracted in exchange for clearing Korea's A-class dungeon.
Kyle hadn't liked her excessive self-sacrifice. Those people had sold her for their own safety. Why should she move a finger for them? She barely had enough life left to live for herself. But he knew perfectly well that her selflessness was what had handed him this chance, and he had no intention of letting it slip away.
He had demanded they live together to close the distance between them — mental and physical. She would still be wary, of course. But in a small room, just the two of them, he would win her over. Kyle was confident. He would pair forceful contact with sweet words whispered against her ear. She would resist at first. Then she would start craving the recognition and praise he gave her.
"Ah— g-good morning..."
Sera's greeting broke through Kyle's thoughts. He smiled as he looked at her.
She fidgeted, glancing at his face as she offered the greeting, looking like she already knew what would happen once they shared a room. The sight of her — knowing and still unable to run, not knowing what to do with herself — sent blood rushing downward.
"Morning. The hunters have arrived in Korea. They'll be heading into the dungeon soon. And starting this afternoon, you'll... you know."
Kyle hid the stiffness at his groin as he pressed her to honor the contract from that afternoon onward.
"I know..."
Watching her answer with her head bowed, Kyle worried about the patience that would be tested every night — and still found himself looking forward to the nights they would spend together.
"You're here?"
Nine o'clock at night. The top floor of Guild Ares, Kyle's room. The moment Sera stepped inside, Kyle welcomed her.
She was in the same sleepwear he had seen every morning. She couldn't keep her hands still. She wouldn't meet his eyes.
"Yes..."
A prey animal backed into a corner, waiting for the predator's decision. Kyle felt a deep satisfaction at the sight of her and began introducing his room.
A wide bed. A wardrobe taking up an entire wall beside the door. Floor-to-ceiling glass opposite the entrance, looking down over downtown Washington, D.C. Across from the bed, a dressing room and a bathroom. That was Kyle's room.
He introduced it with care. Sera couldn't concentrate on a word.
When do I tell him...
The thought of sharing a space with a man who lusted after her made it impossible to sit still. She needed to reveal that she had been a man — but Kyle's ongoing tour of the room gave her no opening.
"Am I making you that uncomfortable?"
Kyle asked, watching her fidget and steal glances at him. Sera startled and rushed to deny it.
"N-no, that's... that's not what I—"
It was uncomfortable, actually — but the point she needed to make was that she was a man on the inside. She tried to continue. Kyle was faster.
"I don't blame you. I used Korea's safety as leverage to force you here."
Sera said nothing.
"I understand I don't look like a good person from where you're standing."
Kyle admitting fault, just like that. Sera hadn't expected this from him at all. She couldn't open her mouth.
"At first it was curiosity. A pretty face and an ability I'd never seen before. That was all."
He stepped closer as he spoke. For some reason, Sera couldn't look away.
"But after I received your support, I made up my mind. I was going to have you. No matter what."
Kyle didn't dodge her gaze. He kept talking.
"When an S-class dungeon appeared in Korea, you argued for taking it on even knowing the odds of clearing it were slim — even knowing it could cost you your life. When I heard that, I was sure."
"I decided I would keep the most hunter-like person I'd ever met right beside me. That I'd make you mine — your ability and your mindset both."
Kyle set his hands on her shoulders. Contact he hadn't even attempted in a month. She was looking him in the eye, hanging on every word. Kyle felt his approach working.
"I knew the method wasn't right. I did it anyway, because I didn't want to lose you."
"Nnh..."
Kyle's read was accurate. Every time Sera heard his voice, her whole body prickled. The first man who had ever thanked her. And now that same man was recognizing her. Calling her more hunter-like than anyone. Saying she had been as brave as the protagonists in the novels she used to read.
"The reason I tried to control your ability was because I was afraid that if other men experienced it, they'd want you for themselves. That's why I did it."
Ordinarily, Sera would have frowned at a line like that. But she found she didn't dislike him saying he wanted her all to himself.
As he spoke, Kyle's hands moved. The hands on her shoulders slid down her sides and closed around both her arms. Sera felt the touch. She didn't pull away.
This was the hunter she had wanted to become. He had seen the effort she'd put in to be like them — and he was acknowledging it. His hands were acknowledging it. A touch that should have made her recoil. Strangely, it didn't.
Those large hands that had held her shoulders seemed to wrap around her, gentle and sure. When they slid down to grip her arms, they felt like they were bracing her so she wouldn't shake. She was still drunk on that comfort, that solidity, when his voice reached her again.
"I had you move into my room because I like you too much. I wanted you close."
"Hah—!"
His words snapped her back. Kyle liked her. That had to mean romantic feeling — attraction. No. She had to tell him. For her sake and for his.
Sera blurted it out.
Kyle said nothing.
"I-it's true. I was a man in my previous life."
Kyle fell silent, unable to find a response to Sera's claim that she was a man. Taking his silence as disbelief, she insisted again that she had been male.
"Alright. Calm down."
He said it — but of course Kyle didn't believe her. She had confessed she used to be a man the moment he expressed his feelings. Was she that embarrassed by his confession?
She still hadn't shaken off the hands he'd placed on her. Instead she had layered her own over them, head bowed, looking up at him through her lashes.
Kyle let out a dry laugh at this particular flavor of rejection.
Cute.
She really was. Cute enough that a smile rose on its own.
How did she even think to reject me like this?
So this is what it means to be a natural, he thought, his mind already working.
Why did she turn me down?
She was showing this much resistance — even inventing, by his standards, a lie as an excuse.
Did I come on too fast?
That was the only conclusion Kyle could reach. She had accepted the touch she'd resisted for so long — then flipped the moment he confessed.
Instead of confessing, he needed to melt her heart first. Sweet words, the way he had used them tonight, until she soaked him in and physical contact became something she took for granted. Once that happened, she would start acting like a female in heat and ache for him.
With that in mind, Kyle changed the subject.
"Alright. Let's get your things moved first."
And so Kyle carried in the belongings Sera had brought, and finished moving her in.