Butterfly Effect
Anyway, the irreversible act was over.
As the pleasure receded like the tide and reason returned, the first thing that crossed my mind was Haru-noona—who must have eavesdropped on our performance outside the door and fled.
What if Haru-noona misunderstood?
It had been a plan to make her misunderstand in the first place… Was it even right to be worrying about this?
"W-Woohyun?!"
Leaving Woohee-noona sitting on the bed behind me, I hurriedly ran downstairs to the first floor.
But Haru-noona wasn't in the living room.
Instead, Jiha, who had been cleaning the floor, looked up at me with round eyes.
"Oppa, what's wrong? You look really urgent."
"J-Jiha, where is Haru-noona?"
Jiha tilted her head and answered.
"Haru-unnie? Unnie hasn't been home since earlier. She's probably still with Mama."
My heart sank.
She wasn't home? Then who had been the presence listening outside the door earlier?
Jiha set down the rag she was holding and continued cheerfully.
"But… earlier, Hari-unnie ran out from the second floor looking like she was about to cry really hard. Did something happen with Oppa?"
Ah.
In that moment, every circuit in my brain stopped.
The one standing outside the door hadn't been Haru-noona.
It had been Hari.
Jiha's cheerful words tore through my eardrums and burned my mind white.
The sounds of me and Woohee-noona entangling outside the door…
In other words, the person who had been holding her breath, listening to that sticky, obscene feast of moans, was none other than Min Hari.
Yesterday morning—the girl who had tearfully reached out to me first.
I'll do it. Because I… like you.
My childhood friend who had taken my hand with trembling fingers.
I had gently rejected her courage, saying I needed a little more time to think now that I had my real name…
The truth had been a cowardly reservation—to weigh the possibility of something with Haru-noona.
…But how would it have felt from Hari's perspective?
Not even a day after being rejected, she had heard me enter Woohee-noona's room, lock the door, and cry out like a beast.
Moreover, Hari had read that book.
She would have vividly pictured in her mind the process of foreplay, insertion, and creampie more clearly than anyone else.
Hari…!
My breath caught in my throat.
Woohee-noona's plan had been to provoke Haru-noona's jealousy—not to hurt Hari.
"Oppa? What's wrong? Your face has gone pale."
Jiha tugged worriedly at my sleeve.
I didn't even have time to answer her.
"Jiha, did you see where Hari went?!"
When I shouted urgently, Jiha flinched and stepped back.
"Uh… well, I only saw her slam the front door and go outside. Maybe she went to the Cultivation Area…?"
"Thanks!"
I dashed out without looking back.
I jammed my feet into my shoes and roughly shoved open the old front door.
Bang!
I burst out into the exterior of the mansion where the artificial sun's dazzling light poured down.
The hot, humid air hit my lungs, but the blood in my veins ran as cold as ice water.
Thud-thud-thud!
I kicked off the lawn and started running toward the dirt path.
My mind was a mess.
Should I explain that what you heard just now was acting?
But how do I explain that?
That I pushed you away and rolled around with Woohee-noona sucking my cock?
That it was a performance to make Haru-noona jealous—not you?
How the hell was I supposed to explain that?
Biting my lip hard, I frantically scanned the path leading to the Cultivation Area.
Lush plants and large broadleaf leaves slapped my shoulders and cheeks mercilessly.
"Hari! Min Hari!"
I shouted at the top of my lungs, but all that returned was the greenhouse's characteristic stifling silence.
I arrived at the entrance to the Cultivation Area.
A spectacular spread of green tomato vines and herbs.
She had to be here.
But no one was visible yet.
Jumping over the furrows, I called Hari's name.
I turned toward the place with the plants she usually cherished most—and the old hotbed at the innermost part of the Cultivation Area where she hid alone whenever she was upset.
Rustle, rustle.
I pushed aside the large pumpkin leaves and dug into the narrow path.
And finally—
Leaning against the concrete wall, a pink head of hair buried deep into her knees came into view.
"Hari!"
I approached her with a cry mixed with relief and guilt.
At my footsteps, Hari's shoulders flinched hard.
She lifted her head sharply.
Her always calm eyes were bloodshot and swollen, and her cheeks were pitifully stained with a mix of dirt and tears.
"Woohyun…"
Hari's voice was terribly cracked.
The moment she saw me, she instinctively scooted backward on her butt.
Swoosh.
Her back hit the cold wall.
Realizing there was nowhere to run, Hari tightly gripped the hem of her skirt with both hands.
"Don't come."
"Hari, you misunderstood. What you heard outside the door… that was all a misunderstanding."
I bent down and carefully approached her, starting to make excuses.
But Hari squeezed her eyes shut and covered her ears with both hands.
"Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding? Are you saying the sounds of you panting in Woohee-unnie's room were hallucinations…?"
Hari spoke as if she were screaming.
Tears dripped down her jawline…
"You… you! You told me you needed time to think."
Hari's wet eyes glared at me with resentment.
"I thought you… liked Haru-unnie. That you put me off because you needed time to prepare your heart. So I waited like an idiot. Because I knew how hard it would be for you."
Hari pounded her chest and sobbed.
"But with Woohee-unnie?! When I clung to you like that you backed away—but you went into Woohee-unnie's room so easily…!"
Hari couldn't finish the rest and broke down crying.
In her mind, the conviction that I had mixed bodies with Woohee-noona and executed those obscene positions from the book exactly as written was deeply rooted.
"No! We didn't go all the way! I-it just turned out that way!"
I felt disgust at the trashy excuse that came out of my own mouth.
Didn't go all the way?
I only hadn't inserted—but the sticky memory of shoving my shaft into noona's mouth and cumming like a beast… was still vividly remaining in my lower body.
"Hari, please listen to me. This was planned with Woohee-noona. I didn't really intend to…!"
Just as I was about to urgently spill the truth—
"Plan? What plan?"
Hari's voice sank coldly.
The sadness flickering in her eyes… was gradually changing into betrayal and cold contempt.
"Are you saying you even faked acting? For who to hear? Me? Or Haru-unnie?"
"…………"
My silence gave her the answer.
Hari saw that and let out a hollow laugh.
"You've gone crazy."
She dropped her gaze that had been looking up at me to the floor and trembled.
"To make Haru-unnie jealous, you rolled around with Woohee-unnie making those vulgar sounds? In a situation where someone has to volunteer to endure that terrible act for us to survive… you used that as a tool to win unnie's heart?"
Hari's piercing rebuke left me dazed, as if I'd been struck on the head with a hammer.
Even if I had been swept along by Woohee-noona…
Only after hearing through Hari's mouth how disgusting and selfish an act I had participated in did I realize it to the bone.
"Hari, I was wrong. I was a coward. Please don't cry…"
I knelt and reached out to take Hari's hand.
Slap!
Hari roughly swatted my hand away.
Hari's violence—something I was experiencing for the first time in my life.
The back of my hand burned hot.
"Don't touch me."
Hari's voice was as cold as ice.
"You did that to me too. Yesterday when we fell together in the tomato field. Because you were afraid Seonyu would misunderstand, even though I was pinned underneath, you abandoned me alone and ran off like crazy to explain to unnie."
Thick tears fell from Hari's eyes again, but she roughly wiped them with her sleeve.
"What am I to you? Just a sucker who comforts you when you're having a hard time? Was it a joke when I said I'd offer up my whole body to protect the greenhouse—that I'd endure that terrible act in place of others?!"
"It's not like that! Do you know how precious you are to me!"
"If I was precious you couldn't do that kind of thing!!!!!"
Hari screamed.
Her pink hair was tangled and disheveled over her shoulders.
"Since yesterday morning… after seeing that disgusting book in the basement, my head has been like hell. Even though my hands and feet were trembling in fear while imagining you inserting into me—still, because you have to live… because I loved you, I said I'd force myself to endure it!!!!!"
Hari's confession was desperate and miserable.
Her love had been a sacrifice beyond devotion.
And I had torn that sacrifice to shreds with my light selfishness.
"B-but you, you, youuu in Woohee-unnie's room… haa, haa…"
Hari clutched her chest as if hyperventilating and gasped for breath.
I couldn't even make excuses anymore.
Fearing Hari would collapse like this, I steeled myself to be hit and tightly hugged her shoulders.
"Let go! Let gooooo!!!!!!"
Hari struggled madly to escape my embrace.
Her small fists rained down mercilessly on my chest and shoulders.
But I gritted my teeth and didn't let her go.
"Hit me. Hit me all you want. It was all my fault."
I rubbed my cheek against Hari's hair and whispered in a hoarse voice.
"Using your feelings, making excuses—it's all because I'm trash. So breathe, Hari. Breathe slowly."
Under my persistent hug, the strength of the struggling Hari gradually drained away.
She buried her face in my chest and finally burst into loud sobs like a child.
"Hwaaaang! You bastard… you son of a bitch…!"
Hari's hot tears soaked my thin shirt and seeped into my skin.
Without a word, I regularly stroked her trembling back.
It was the only atonement I could offer her.
……How much time passed like that?
Hari's crying gradually subsided, and only intermittent hiccup sounds echoed off the greenhouse walls.
Hari gently pushed my chest with both hands and slowly raised her head.
Her eyes were still red, but the explosive resentment from earlier had subsided a great deal.
Instead, deep resignation and fatigue filled that place.
"Woohyun."
Hari sniffled and opened her mouth.
"I know how much you like Haru-unnie. And I know how heavy a burden unnie is carrying in this greenhouse."
Hari pushed my shoulders away and staggered to her feet.
I stood up following her.
"But your method was wrong."
Hari dusted off her skirt and looked straight at me.
"If you want to win unnie's heart, don't make her jealous with these cowardly tricks. That's looking down on Haru-unnie."
Her voice had become more mature and calm.
And that calmness felt chilling to me—as if she were drawing an invisible line.
"Hari…"
"The proposal I made in the basement."
Hari bit her lip tightly.
"I'll cancel it."
My heart thudded and dropped to the floor.
"I don't want to give my first time to someone who doesn't cherish me. Whether it's Haru-unnie or Woohee-unnie—you figure it out yourself, Woohyun."
Hari turned her back.
Her pink hair that sparkled in the sunlight… swayed desolately today.
"I'll go in first. You come a little later. It'll be a hassle if Seonyu catches the dirt on you."
With those words, Hari walked into the plants.
I couldn't stop her.
Shallow lies and a moment's lust had completely destroyed the relationship with my childhood friend who had supported me most blindly.