Chapter 22
Chapter 22
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: 5. Lee Ha-yoon Wants to Be Treated Like a Big Sister
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The academy's health room was deserted.
To be precise, it was limited to the academy health room during winter break, when everyone else was out on practical training and only a handful of students remained.
And since it was morning, the room was filled only with the frigid chill that had built up overnight.
The beds and chairs left unattended all night were no different. A light breath produced a puff of white vapor right in front of your eyes.
I turned on the heater first, draped in my pure white gown.
Fortunately, Yojora wasn't as tolerant of alcohol as I'd remembered.
She was more of an alcohol enthusiast than a true drinker.
Bringing ten bottles of soju had just been for show.
She hadn't even come close to finishing them all. Around the eighth bottle, she'd slammed her forehead onto the table at the bar and started giggling to herself.
Of course, that was after mixing it with beer and chugging like she was pounding it into her stomach, so that had to be factored in...
Anyway, Yojora's exact tolerance wasn't the point right now.
What mattered was that an intruder had barged into my upcoming "enjoyable health committee life."
I'd wanted to tame female heroes to my taste in the privacy of my own life, free from any interference. But now Yojora was set to worm her way into my personal space at every turn.
The odds of convincing her to leave were probably zero.
So, either keep dodging her forever,
or pull her in as one of my women entirely.
Those seemed like the only options.
It was a dilemma.
The former was cleaner, but now that I'd abandoned the villain path, the latter was surprisingly tempting.
Taming the alcoholic villain Yojora into something docile...
She wasn't a hero, but it didn't sound half bad.
From a neutral third-party perspective, heroes and villains weren't all that different at their core.
It was like fans and haters of celebrities: their goals and mindsets differed, but what they did was pretty much the same.
They both hustled away in their own domains, of course.
And just like heroes had paparazzi snapping photos from every angle that got traded around, villains ironically built thick fanbases online despite being criminals.
All from a few blurry shots, no less.
Even Yojora, who was borderline unknown now, would start rampaging once I joined the company and draw in those self-proclaimed "fans"—total nutjobs.
That was around when she started wearing a pitch-black mask every time she went out drinking.
...Well, in the end, since she wasn't a hero, I'd never laid a hand on her even once.
But now that I'd turned my back on villains...
It kinda turned me on a little...
"Hoo."
Screw it.
Give up.
I was already busy laying traps for Lee Ha-yoon and Lee Ji-yoon. I didn't have the bandwidth to perfectly control Yojora on top of that.
One slip, and I could lose all three rabbits.
First things first: make a move on Lee Ji-yoon.
I opened my laptop and started hunting for a new place.
If I couldn't find anything, I could always ask Principal Seok Jae-hwa later.
He was crazy about me, so he might hook me up with a nearby apartment.
For now, something with good sunlight, full options, one-room style. Size: at least ten pyeong.
I didn't add any other filters and just started scrolling the mouse wheel.
I was in the middle of jotting down promising listings when
a light knock echoed precisely: tap-tap.
Hardly anyone would show up at this hour.
Maybe Lee Ha-yoon? I closed the laptop and cleared my throat.
"Come in."
The words had barely left my mouth when a familiar face peeked out from the gap in the door.
Lee Ha-yoon.
Her jade-green eyes sparkled as she looked my way, the girl who'd climbed the stairs to adulthood just last night.
"What brings you here so early? Noona."
"...I, I missed you..."
"Missed me?"
"...Yeah."
Lee Ha-yoon nodded vigorously and stepped cautiously into the health room.
A lively fragrance mingled into the quiet space that had been nothing but white tones.
One step, another.
She drew close to me, mumbling without quite meeting my eyes.
"Ahem, um. Hey, is, is your waist okay?"
"My waist? Yeah. Nothing much."
"I looked it up online last night, and it said not just girls but guys hurt too..."
"Ah... Yeah... You're asking me, right?"
Lee Ha-yoon, hands jammed deep in her jacket pockets, nodded.
A healing-type Transcendent asking if it hurt? Still, I answered it was fine and gave a faint smile.
I could've said we could spend days just doing it if she wanted.
But that'd just make her blush for no reason, so I kept it under my tongue.
"Are you okay, noona? Hurt anywhere when you woke up this morning?"
"I'm f... Ah, no. Actually, my waist is a little..."
"Waist? Hips? Or spine?"
"...Spine."
Lee Ha-yoon poked at her own waist with her thumb to show me.
It happened more often than you'd think.
During the heat of intense sex, excitement drowned out the pain, only for it to hit later once your body cooled down.
Or it could just be muscle soreness from tension.
But I distinctly remembered healing any issues last night before escorting her home.
...Probably just slept funny.
"Let me take a quick look. Got class right after? I don't know the schedule."
"Yeah. About five minutes...? I usually come way earlier, but today I was a bit late..."
Lee Ha-yoon scratched her cheek, making excuses out of embarrassment.
I stood and extended a hand toward her.
Treatment time—turn around.
But.
"...Eep..."
"...?"
Like a big dog lunging in, Lee Ha-yoon hugged me tight, sending my hand to the wrong spot.
Something hard and boxy in her pocket.
It slipped off, my palm grazing her hip,
and finally, my fingertips brushed her firm butt.
"......"
Her growing affection was nice, but problematic.
I pulled my hands off her body right away and glanced at the health room door.
Good—no one peeking.
Only then did I relax a bit and gently push her shoulders back.
Of course, even if another student or the principal caught us, it wouldn't be unsalvageable.
Image issue, though.
Health committee member fooling around with a girl student first thing in the morning...
I could spin it somehow even with my current image, but it was way easier to keep up the clean, friendly mask.
"What're you doing?"
"Morning greeting... fan service... and, y'know, treatment..."
"......"
So,
she wanted her waist treated just like this.
Hugged close.
Affectionately.
...No clue what the fan service bit meant.
"Noona."
"Yeah."
"What if someone sees?"
"They see, they just see... ...Why? Am, am I embarrassing...?"
"It doesn't look proper if others see. This is my workplace."
"......R, right... Yeah..."
"Do stuff like this outside the academy only. Not here."
"Okay......"
I gripped her shoulders and scolded, and she shrank back with a meek reply as her body pulled away.
Did she just like people that much, or was she starved for love?
Sometimes I couldn't read her sense of distance.
Strangers.
Friends.
I'd noticed from our first chat how she divided people that way, but lately it felt even more stark.
Hard to get, but I didn't hate it.
Quite the opposite—I liked it. That side of Lee Ha-yoon.
Simple reason.
Could someone as sunny as her really have no guy friends?
I'd taken her virginity first, so I didn't care, but how many of those guy friends had crushes on her?
What faces would they make if I flaunted our closeness in front of them?
Just imagining it sent a sticky thrill of superiority buzzing through my head.
Of course, no plans to actually do it.
Partly for my image, and watching idiots who'd seen the truth turn away was less fun than seeing them desperately reach for an unattainable flower.
That pathetic sight was why I'd dreamed of "fucking heroes" in the first place.
My heart raced from that first tiny, filthy footprint I'd left.
"Um, I, I should head to class now."
After a brief awkward silence, she glanced at the clock and bolted out like she was fleeing.
The door slammed shut before she could even hear my farewell.
...Her stride looked perfectly fine on the way out, so her waist probably wasn't hurting.
Seemed like she just needed an excuse.
I let out a small sigh and sat back down to tap away at the laptop again.
Total failure.
Failed to play the relaxed big-sis role and ask if last night felt good.
Failed to take the lead like a proper noona and snag a morning kiss.
Failed to slip her the condoms I'd just bought at the convenience store, saying we'd use them at her place later.
Couldn't even bring up eating lunch together.
Idiot.
Deep sighs trailed Lee Ha-yoon all the way from the main building to the lecture hall for class.
The only success was hugging him tight under the pretense of a sore waist.
And even that wasn't perfect.
I'd gotten so fixated on "want to hug" that I hadn't considered he might be troubled—I'd just shoved myself in recklessly.
"Haaaa......"
Well, if you thought about it, it was basically a secret relationship.
Ji-yoon was meowing warnings at home about being careful around guys, so no way I could say anything.
And if I even hinted to my friends? Within an hour, rumors would spread: Lee Ha-yoon's dating the new health committee guy.
That might reach Ji-yoon's ears later...
So in the end, I had to keep my relationship with Seo Woo-jin completely hidden.
...But.
Don't wannaaa...
...What should I even do?
Sex...
It felt insanely good, and
I wanted to gush about it, ask if it didn't feel good for him too, say maybe it was actually a boyfriend problem,
my mouth was itching to spill.
Maybe dump a light version online somewhere.
Like, story about absolutely railing that junior I met recently like a dog...
Both hands covered her face.
Lee Ha-yoon let out one more deep sigh into them, steeled herself, and pushed open the classroom's back door.
The room was utterly deserted.
No one but her, who'd just arrived.
It got packed during the semester, but in break, only a couple top idiots per grade had to show up.
And with slightly different curriculums assigned to each, she often ended up monopolizing the classroom alone like this.
Hmm. Right on time, but looks like the prof's late too.
Nothing to do, so she pulled out her phone and started idly browsing SNS.
Everyone in the photos and videos was having a blast.
One friend posted pics from hero internship.
One went skiing on their day off.
One celebrated 300 days with a cute cake pic.
...Somehow felt like everyone else's life was a nonstop festival, while she was the only one bored out of her mind.
On a whim, she nearly posted something meaningful like "Day 1," but snapped out of it and turned off the screen.
Hold it together. If I blow up now, it'll just trouble Woo-jin.
The moment she pocketed her phone,
the condoms from the convenience store snagged on her finger.
"......"
A ton of thoughts suddenly hammered her skull.
......Is it okay to do it?
......Or hold back and find some safe spot where we won't get caught?
Woo-jin did say stuff like this only outside the academy...
......
....
.
N, no one's around...
Might... be fine...?