[Secretly from Each Other (5)]
So, that was the day I heard the sound of my sister and Seo Woojin kissing through a recorded file.
"...What the hell."
That was my first impression. Why on earth did he send this to me? It started with the quiet, tinny sound of karaoke accompaniment, and ended with a brief, soft sound of kissing. That was all Seo Woojin had sent. It was just a plain two-minute clip, with no post-credits scene—though I suppose they aren't really "surprises" anymore—like you'd find at the end of a movie. Even when I played it again out of pure confusion, it was the same. A woman, presumably my sister, and a man, presumably Seo Woojin, were softly tangling their tongues together, and the recording ended with my sister’s ecstatic, breathless gasp of "Phahhh..."
...She must have been panting with her tongue still resting on her lips at the end. Looking up at Seo Woojin with those dark green eyes that looked exactly like mine.
"......"
Anyway. Hmm. So, what was the intention behind sending this to me?
"Did he send it to the wrong person?"
Maybe he was trying to send it to himself to save the file and made a mistake... No, that couldn't be it. Sending a recording file to someone else is a subtly tedious task, and this was a file that shouldn't be heard by anyone else, let alone me. He definitely would have checked who he was sending it to carefully before hitting the send button. Which meant, unless Seo Woojin was a complete idiot, he had intentionally sent me the recording to make me hear it...
"...Why?"
Why, for heaven's sake, would you let me hear you kissing my sister? If you were going to do this, you could have at least written down a reason. Damn it...
I rolled around on my bed, clutching my phone. The bed was too small to even do a full roll, let alone a half-turn, but that was enough. I just wanted to relieve some stress by hugging my soft pillow and blanket as tightly as I could.
Anyway, now that the stress had dissipated a little, let's think. A reason why Seo Woojin would send me something like that. Bragging? I didn't think so. Could it be that he was trying to say he used what he learned from me well on my sister...?
"...Oh...?"
What? It actually made sense. When I pieced it together, that was the most plausible reason. To put it briefly, it felt like Seo Woojin was getting his homework checked by me. "I did as I learned from you, in the place I went with you, but with your sister instead of you, and I even progressed to kissing. Is this enough? ...How is it, teacher? Did I do well?" ...Something like that.
"......"
So they did it. Kissed. Seo Woojin and my sister...
Hmm... I was lost in a strange sentiment that was hard to refine into words. I dragged the recording file slider, which was already stuck at the far right, back to the left. "Phe-eh, chup..." My sister's breathless gasps, filled with a sweetness that overflowed with her love for him, leaked out stickily through the karaoke background music. Even though I’d already listened to it three or four times, only now did the full realization soak into my brain.
Seo Woojin kissed my sister. In the place I had visited with him first, Seo Woojin kissed my sister.
...Right. When I said I would do anything in return for his "treatment," didn't Seo Woojin ask me to help him practice dating my sister? Karaoke was on that list, too. So, it was perfectly, absolutely, 100% natural for him to progress slowly with my sister on the date course I recommended.
But.
"......"
Jealousy. I shouldn't feel that word toward my sister's boyfriend. But I didn't know what word to attach to this sticky, wet, unpleasant emotion. So, I forced the arrow of my thoughts to twist and bend sideways. I asked myself: "Then what am I? The younger sister, the one who was just a practice partner, the one who was just a substitute for my sister—how am I supposed to react to this recording?"
"Ughhh..."
"Did you do well?" No, that didn't feel right. Even if someone else thought it was appropriate, I just didn't like it. "You finally did it, you slowpoke?" Yeah. That sounded decent enough. I thought about adding something like, "I guess practicing with me helped," but I erased it from my head immediately. Saying it like that sounded too clingy. We weren't even dating; I was just a practice partner.
Let's be cool about this.
Determined, I rolled off the bed, brushed the hair that had gotten into my mouth away with my fingers, and started typing on my phone. But I immediately pressed the backspace key and deleted everything. Not satisfied with that, I turned off the phone screen and tossed it onto the blanket I’d just messed up.
My heart felt strange. It felt like it was broken somewhere. Not exactly fatal, but just uncomfortable enough to be annoying. That kind of breakdown.
Huuu... I painted my face with heat using both hands, then went to the kitchen to wet my throat with cold water.
"......"
I don't want to admit it, but it seems like... I'm sulking. The reason is that my sister's boyfriend kissed my sister. Because that, well, it just rubbed me the wrong way.
My sister left the room. On purpose? No, no. There's no way she left on purpose. It's not like my sister is trying to set me and Seo Woojin up. I know very well that it's just a coincidence.
"......"
...Being alone with Seo Woojin in a tightly closed room reminded me of the day we practiced kissing... practiced sex. It felt awkward for no reason. What on earth was I supposed to say...?
Unlike Seo Woojin, who was just munching on a cookie and looking awkward, I had a lot on my mind, so I kept my mouth shut and avoided his gaze. I wished I could be as indifferent as him, but that wasn't my nature, so I just fiddled with the board game cards I’d been playing with earlier.
...Haa. What do I do...
If I could, I’d love to follow my sister and make an excuse to leave, saying I needed to go to the bathroom. But thinking about meeting Seo Woojin in secret later, I felt like I should resolve this awkwardness now, so I couldn't bring myself to get up. It wasn't that I liked being alone with him. Absolutely not...
.......
...Hmm.
"Jiyoon."
"Uh, uh..."
While I was busy shuffling the pile of cards that had been scattered about, Seo Woojin, having swallowed the cookie crumbs left in his mouth, spoke to me first. I was so startled that I accidentally bit my tongue, but he didn't seem to notice.
"...Since your sister went to the bathroom for a moment, I wanted to ask you a few things I was curious about."
"...Curious about?"
Instead of answering, the distance between our bodies closed in. Earlier, when he asked if I was okay, he’d stayed about two palm-widths away. But as soon as my sister disappeared, that gap shrank to one width, no... even less.
...And then, Seo Woojin's hand covered mine. If he wanted to, he could hold my hand so tightly that I wouldn't be able to pull away, even if my sister returned right now.
"You heard it, right?"
"H-heard what? What?"
"What I sent."
"......"
"...The 'read' receipt disappeared less than 3 minutes after I sent it."
"Ah, that... the recording..."
"Yeah. That."
"......"
His voice was infinitely soft. Since Seo Woojin's voice was usually low and calm, it was enough to make my ears tingle. But I felt an inexplicable pressure within that voice. Like a chipmunk standing in front of a snake with its mouth wide open. That kind of inexplicable pressure.
...Aha. Maybe I felt this way because I was having a secret conversation with Seo Woojin behind my sister's back. It's okay. We're just sitting a little close, and even if my sister suddenly kicks the door open and comes back, nothing will happen. As long as he lets go of this hand, nothing will happen. It's okay...
"...I listened to it. What you sent."
"Really?"
I answered honestly because there was no reason to lie. I had to take the fact that I’d gotten turned on listening to it and used it as "side dish" a couple of times to my grave, but there was no need to hide the fact that I’d simply listened to it. At that, the light smile on Seo Woojin's lips turned a little more lecherous.
...Pervert. He really must be doing this because he wants to hear, "I did exactly as I learned. Did I do well? Teacher?" I’d felt it when we were doing that thing with CZ on Discord... ah, anyway. He’s a pervert. Definitely.
"Listened to it, huh... Listened to it..."
"......"
"I thought you might have ignored it since you didn't say anything."
"...Ignored it? Why would I... usually, you can't help but click on something like that out of curiosity..."
"So."
"......?"
"So, how was it after listening?"
"...What?"
"Give the recording a score. From 0 to 100. You didn't tell me anything."
"......"
He's a pervert. A total pervert.
"H-how am I supposed to score something like that, you idiot...!!"
"Because you're the one who taught me how to kiss."
"What is that supposed to..."
You crazy bastard. You said you only kissed, not had sex, right? And I clearly intended to just pretend to kiss you while wearing a mask, but you got excited, pulled my mask up over my eyes, and kissed me anyway! And then you went straight to having s-sex...! No, wait, are you trying to say that since I seduced you first, I’m the one who taught you how to kiss? ...I did have a history of tying my hair in a ponytail like my sister, wearing her dolphin shorts, pretending to be her in her room, and lending you my thighs to practice sumata, and since it stung from the friction, I even put my saliva on your c-cock myself...! But seduction...!
"......"
Asking me what my sister likes instead of asking her, freezing up the moment I sat on your thighs... I thought you were a novice before we had sex, but now that you've tasted me once, you're full of yourself...
"...Do I just have to give a score? How the recording was?"
"Yeah."
Fine. I'll play along once. *Sigh...*
"...5 points."
"Out of 5? Or out of 10?"
"...Out of 100."
I responded childishly, matching the childish mental state of men. In reality, all I could tell from the recording was the sound, and even that was slightly buried in the karaoke music, only audible when my sister was gasping for breath. I didn't know what he wanted me to score based on.
"That's stingy. The score."
"...Hmph."
"I thought I did pretty well, just as I learned."
"How would I know just by listening to the sound, you idiot."
"But you heard the sound of her being happy after the kiss was over, right?"
"......"
"She was so cute when she was panting and looking up at me... ...Ah, she was just like you."
"Sh-shut up..."
Anyway, this should be enough. I wiggled my right hand, which was pinned under Seo Woojin's, and picked up a buttery cookie with my left hand.
"Then, where do I need to fix it to get over 5 points?"
"......?"
While I was munching on the cookie, waiting for my sister.
"You have to fix it. The parts that were wrong."
"...Fix..."
I dropped the new cookie I was holding. I was pulled in softly by Seo Woojin. Behind my sister's back. With my sister's boyfriend. I never expected to be kissing him, the air filled with the scent of sweet cookies.
"...Nngh, chup... Ugh..."
...Actually, I had expected it to some extent. I let the tension drain from my body, roughly calculating how much time had passed since my sister left, and obediently accepted Seo Woojin's tongue.
"...Phah... ...A little more actively than this... Chup... Nng..."
A few days ago, when I heard the sound of my sister and her boyfriend kissing. The resentment I’d been nursing since then melted away completely. Breathlessly.