First Experiences Come Without Warning ♥
I walked side by side with Seonyu on the path back to the mansion. Though it was a short stretch that took less than five minutes, Seonyu had already snapped back to her usual loudmouthed self, chattering away at me about completely pointless topics — as if she had completely forgotten everything she'd just seen of my most private shame.
At the mansion's old front door, Seonyu stopped just as she reached for the handle and turned to look back at me.
"Hey. Do it right this time."
Her black eyes pinned me like a spear.
"Don't forget what I said about not rushing it. And this whole thing… I'll tell Woohee about it at dinner, so just stay quiet by yourself today. Don't go causing any more trouble."
She gave my shoulder a light shove, then turned and vanished before I could even answer. Heading toward the garden, I figured — probably going to see Mama.
I murmured a small "Got it" toward her retreating back, then let out a long breath and opened the mansion door.
Creeeak—
From the kitchen connected to the living room, the rich smell of stew was already drifting out. Jiha and Haru must have finished preparing dinner already. From the living room itself came the soft murmur of two people chatting over teacups, conversation blooming between them.
"Kyaa! Really? Unnie, back then…!"
Jiha's unusually bright laugh rang through the living room. Whatever they were talking about must have been pretty entertaining — the mood between them was warm and lively.
I cleared my throat to announce myself as I approached, and Haru, sitting on the sofa, gave a little start of her shoulders before turning my way. Her cheeks were faintly flushed.
"Oh… Woohyun. You're back?"
"Yeah, I'm back."
When I answered briefly, Jiha whipped her head toward me and waved.
"Oppa! You have to eat dinner today for sure! Got it?"
"Yeah. I will."
I made the promise with Jiha and sank into an empty spot on the living room sofa.
Thump.
The moment I sat down, the noisy chatter the two of them had been sharing went dead quiet. A strange silence settled over us, as if I weren't supposed to be there at all.
They did this sometimes even with other people around — not just me. Maybe the eldest, Haru, and the youngest, Jiha, just happened to click in unexpected ways. Come to think of it, the two rooms on the first floor of the mansion belonged to Haru and Jiha. Spending so much time together in the biggest rooms, the two of them had clearly built up a fair stock of secret conversations all their own.
I fidgeted awkwardly at the end of the sofa, reading the room, until Jiha flung the cushion she'd been holding straight at me.
Whump!
"Oppa! Go up to your room! Haru-unnie is mine!"
Jiha grinned playfully and locked her arm tightly through Haru's. The whole scene was so oddly funny that a small laugh slipped out of me.
"Alright, alright. I'll come back down at dinner."
I got up and fled upstairs to my room on the second floor.
…And then.
Dinner time rolled around eventually. The atmosphere at the table was still heavy. When I snuck a glance at Hari — her eyes puffy, head bowed low — Seonyu, sitting across from me, kicked me hard in the shin under the table and shot me a piercing glare.
Thwack!
I know! I'm not looking, okay?
I met Seonyu's eyes with an injured look. She snorted, Hmph, and buried her nose back in her stew, focusing on her meal. In the end, the suffocating dinner finished with no progress and nothing gained.
We took turns going into the bathroom to bathe. Today's bathing order put me last. The person right before me was Haru.
Well — that much was ordinary routine, so I'll leave it at that.
Shhhhhh—
Even as the hot water washed away the day's fatigue and every unpleasant bead of sweat, my head was still a tangled mess. What had happened in Woohee's room, Hari's tears, Seonyu's comfort — all of those incidents clouded my vision like the steam filling the bathroom.
When I finished bathing and stepped out into the living room, towel-drying my wet hair, everyone seemed to have gone to their own rooms… The first floor was filled with nothing but quiet stillness. Looking out the window, every light under the massive concrete ceiling was off, and deep darkness covered the greenhouse.
And yet.
In one corner of the darkened living room, I could see a silhouette sitting alone on the sofa.
It was Haru.
She noticed me coming out of the bath and offered the faintest of smiles in my direction.
"So you finished washing up, Woohyun."
"Yeah. You're not sleeping yet, Haru?"
"Mm… I just can't seem to fall asleep."
"Haha. Some nights are like that. Still, better to turn in early. Tomorrow has tomorrow's work, after all!"
…I left that short goodnight and was just about to head toward the second-floor stairs when her voice caught my ankle.
"W-Woohyun!"
Haru's voice was urgent. I turned back, hand still on the stair railing.
"Yeah?"
It was hard to see clearly in the dark, but Haru's face looked strangely flushed. She fidgeted with both hands clasped over her knees, then asked in a small voice,
"Um… Woohyun, there's something I wanted to talk about for a second. Do you have time?"
I'd been planning to shut myself in my room and kick around under the blankets anyway.
"Oh, sure. Anything's fine."
When I answered, Haru hesitated, glancing around.
"It's a little hard to talk about… here. Would it be okay if we talked in my room?"
Her room. The most private space of the Haru I loved more than anyone else in the world. What could she possibly want to say?
I swallowed the faint tension climbing my spine and the flutter of excitement as best I could, and nodded firmly.
"Of course."
I followed her to the door of the room tucked in the corner of the first floor and stepped inside.
Click!
The moment we entered, the sound of Haru pressing the lock button on the doorknob hit my ears.
Why did she lock it?
Why?
I told myself it probably didn't mean anything special… but my heart started pounding like mad.
Haru patted the edge of her bed and gestured for me to sit comfortably. Without pressing further, I carefully perched on the end of the mattress. Being one of only two rooms on the first floor, it was far wider and cozier than my room upstairs. The soft floral scent unique to Haru's room, mixed with the warm smell of fabric softener, tickled my nose. It had been so long since I'd been in here that I felt strangely buoyant.
That was when it happened.
Haru, standing in front of me, suddenly took one more step closer and pressed something she'd been hiding behind her back firmly into my hand.
Ssslick—
"Uh…?"
The soft feel of fabric. A faintly damp, moist sensation.
A dishcloth she used to wipe the table or something?
I looked down absently at the scrap of cloth in my hand. And my jaw nearly hit the floor.
Uh.
Uh.
Uh?????
Haru's white cotton panties. More precisely… the part that would have been pressed against her most private place, wet in a round, oval stain.
"H-Haru? This is…"
I stammered, too shocked to form words. Haru squeezed her eyes shut tight, fighting down her embarrassment as hard as she could, and opened her mouth.
"Th-these are… the panties I was wearing until just a little while ago."
My heart felt like it stopped.
Wh-what is this…???
I couldn't say a word — just gasped for breath. Haru cupped both hands over her burning cheeks and continued in a trembling voice.
"I… I was wearing these when I…"
Her lips quivered.
"…m-masturbated."
Thud.
The shock hit me like a hammer to the back of the skull.
"What?! Wh-why all of a sudden…"
At my frantic question, Haru looked down at me with reddened eyes.
"Yesterday… seeing you doing that alone in the bathroom… I felt so sorry."
Deep guilt colored her voice.
"No matter how much I told you I understood, that it was okay… I kept thinking how terribly ashamed and hurt you must have been."
"Haru…"
"And on top of that… getting caught masturbating is something you should never, ever let anyone see…"
She swallowed hard.
"So… earlier in the living room, I talked it over a bit with Jiha. Of course I kept it secret that it was about you — I changed the situation a little when I asked for advice…"
So that was the topic of the whispered conversation the two of them had been having when they pushed me out of the living room.
"Jiha said that if you've seen someone's weakness and hurt them… then maybe showing them your own most embarrassing weakness could be a real kind of comfort."
Jiha's quirky, pure logic had tangled itself up with Haru's kindness and produced this bizarre result. Was this what they called the butterfly effect?
Either way…
Sharing a weakness. That seemed to be the form of atonement Haru had chosen.
"So…"
Haru met my eyes straight on with wet pupils.
"I wanted to show you — not just with words, but with action, with proof — that you're not the only one who masturbates. That I do those kinds of things alone sometimes too."
She really was such a foolish, gentle woman.
"These…"
Her gaze dropped to the scrap of fabric clenched in my hand.
"They're… panties thick with the scent of my pussy, so…"
The crude word sliding off Haru's lips made every last scrap of reason in my head evaporate completely.
"I hope that getting these… helps even a little with what happened yesterday."
Her face was flushed past red now — burning as if it might burst. I clenched the panties, damp with her fluids, tight in my fist.
"Haru…"
After that I half-rose from my seat, not knowing what else to do.
"Thinking about my feelings this much… I'm really grateful. Truly."
At my thanks, Haru smiled faintly, as if relieved. The urge to bolt straight to my room with this incredible gift, mixed with gratitude for her desperate kindness, made my heart feel ready to explode.
I gave a deep nod of my head, fully stood up from the bed, and turned toward the door.
I was about to leave the room. Right — the door was locked, wasn't it? The moment I reached to click the lock button on the doorknob—
"Uh…?"
Haru's bewildered voice came from behind me. Wondering if she had something more to say, I turned my head — and found her staring at me, head tilted as if she couldn't understand.
Curiosity and confusion filled her brown eyes.
"Y-you're… not going to do it with those?"
The words that left her lips made me doubt my own ears.
"You're… not going to masturbate? You're just taking my panties with you?"
"What????"
A completely blank sound tumbled out of me before I could stop it. Haru fidgeted with both hands and dropped her gaze to the floor.
"I… I meant you could do it in front of me… while smelling them…"
While my body was still frozen solid with shock, Haru gestured toward me again.
"C-come back over here."
Her voice was trembling hard, but there was a firmness in it I couldn't refuse. As if entranced, I walked back toward the bed.
The moment I sat on the edge again, Haru climbed onto the mattress on both knees and drew right up in front of me.
"If you just go back like this, all I've done is comfort you. The way Mama taught us… once the comfort is done, I have to apologize too…"
Her soft white hands slid down to the waistband of my pants.
Ssslick.
"H-Haru… wait a second, seriously…"
My protest had absolutely no force behind it. Haru's gentle hands slowly began lowering my pants — and then the thin scrap of fabric covering what was underneath.
Sssrrrk—
My body had already been wrung out by a full day of terrible tension yesterday, and then drained again this afternoon in Woohee's room. But the single fact that my longtime crush was lowering my pants while pressing her own wet panties into my hand…
…was enough to make my lower half rear up, hard as a beast. ♥
"H-hhnn… Woohyun…!"
Mama… can you hear me, by any chance?
It seems first experiences really do come without any warning.