Fingertips Tinged with Breeze
I climbed the stairs in a hush of subtle silence between us.
Normally, we'd chat about tonight's side dishes or how ripe the tomatoes in the cultivation area were—mundane little things.
But today, Hari's footsteps trailing a step behind felt unusually cautious.
Her breath on my back, the faint grass scent wafting each time her clothes brushed mine—it scraped at my nerves relentlessly.
Those anatomical diagrams from the underground storage clung to my mind, refusing to let go.
Hari's bare skin hidden beneath that skirt.
Once I'd seen how a woman's body opened and joined in those illustrations, I couldn't look at her the same way anymore.
"Woohyun, be careful. That step creaks a bit."
Hari murmured softly from behind me.
"Yeah, got it. Thanks."
I cleared my throat needlessly and quickened my pace.
When I gripped the doorknob to the living room, I paused to catch my breath.
Beyond this door waited Haru noona, Seonyu, Woohee noona, and Jiha.
And I'd have to set this massive, brazen lump of sexual knowledge from my arms right in front of them.
Fine. Let's do this. What's the worst that could happen?
Click.
I turned the knob and pushed the door open.
The living room air hung far heavier than before we'd gone underground.
No one spoke, but as the door creaked, four pairs of eyes snapped to me in unison.
Haru noona sat with hands clasped on her knees, her face rigid as she looked up.
Seonyu by the window had her arms crossed, gnawing her thumbnail.
Woohee noona lounged on the single-seater sofa again, chin propped, staring at the books in my hands.
Jiha hid half her face behind a cushion, peeking at Hari with wide, rabbit-like eyes.
"I got them."
My voice echoed too loudly in the quiet room.
I shuffled heavily to the table's center and set down the leather-bound volumes.
Thud!
The heavy books hit with a dull thump.
Dust particles danced in the sunlight slanting through the blinds.
Jiha's shoulders jerked at the sound, and Haru noona's gaze shifted to the covers.
Titles embossed in gold leaf.
[Human Reproduction and Reproductive Biology], [Human Sexuality and Bond Formation], [Practical Manual for Species Preservation].
The instant she read them, Haru noona's cheeks flushed peach-pink.
She averted her eyes hurriedly, covering her face with both hands.
"These... are they the books Mama mentioned?"
Woohee noona rose and approached the table.
Her voice strained for its usual calm, but the end quivered faintly.
"Yeah, I think so. They were stored separately in the corner. Way, way more detailed than the materials Mama used for our childhood sex ed."
Seonyu stormed over from the window at my reply.
"What, so detailed you had to build it up? Move."
Her face red with irritation, she shoved me aside and flipped open a cover without hesitation.
"Hey, wait! Seonyu, hold on—!"
No time to stop her—the pages fluttered open.
And there it was: a stark illustration of the coupling process.
Time froze in the living room.
"…………………………."
Seonyu's obsidian eyes locked on the drawing.
Her crimson lips parted slowly, then fire spread from her face to her neck.
"Wha-wha-wha…………."
Her hands began to tremble.
"This is insane!! Insane, insane, INSANE!!!!!"
Seonyu screamed and leaped back.
She clutched her flushed face, glaring wildly between the book and me in disbelief.
"Wh-what is this?! It's... it's like something beasts do!! A man's... that gross thing... into a woman's... aaah!!"
She couldn't finish, collapsing to the floor and plugging her ears.
Startled by Seonyu's outburst, Jiha crept forward and peered into the book.
"What's got her like that...? Let me see…… Kyaaah!!!!"
Jiha shrieked the moment she saw it, hiding her face.
Jiha peeked through her fingers at the illustration, face beet-red, mumbling.
"O-oppa's... that... goes... inside like that...? Isn't that where pee comes out...?"
"Jiha!!"
Hari clamped a hand over Jiha's mouth, her own face scarlet.
Even though she'd seen it in the underground stacks earlier, facing it again in the bright living room with everyone made her blush uncontrollably.
"Don't say those thoughts out loud...."
Hari whispered urgently into Jiha's ear.
Only Woohee noona brushed back her hair to hide her reddened ears and stepped to the table.
With trembling fingertips, she turned page after page, scanning the text.
"Yeah. Structurally... it seems unavoidable."
Woohee noona's dry analysis only stoked the room's heat hotter.
"According to this, penile insertion and ejaculation are essential. Moreover..."
She swallowed once, then looked at Haru noona.
"Haru unnie, this looks like the condition for the breeding act. It says physical contact and rapport called 'foreplay' must precede for the woman's body to prepare. So just doing insertion and ejaculation won't pass Mama's check."
"Fore... play.........."
Haru noona slowly lowered her hands from her face, murmuring.
Her brown eyes glistened wet, lips quivering with shame.
"That means... kissing... caressing... we have to do everything...."
No one could refute Haru noona's resigned voice.
I stood across the table between the sofas, fists clenched tight.
The suffocating fact that I was at the center of this—sole man in the greenhouse, against my will—choked me.
Imagining my face substituted for the man in those drawings, in the girls' minds as they stared... blood surged backward through my body.
I rubbed my dry face with a sigh, and Seonyu sprang up from the floor, pointing at me.
"Hey! You saw all this in the basement earlier?!"
Her voice cracked shrill.
"Yeah, how could I not?! It's plastered with drawings and photos when I pulled the books out!"
"Y-you pervert. What'd you imagine looking at it?! You thought of my face! Say you didn't!!"
"I didn't, you crazy bitch!! Do I look like I have the headspace?! And anyone but you—your face didn't even cross my mind!!!"
Harsh words spilled out unbidden.
Our shame and fear clashed like barbed thorns.
That was when it happened.
Hari, who'd stood quietly beside me, approached naturally—but with steps unmistakably different from usual.
She positioned herself so close our arms nearly touched.
"Woohyun, stop. Seonyu's just startled."
Hari's gentle voice cut through the tense air.
She reached out, carefully wrapping her hand over my clenched fist.
"Relax your hand. You'll hurt yourself."
Twitch—!
The moment her soft, cool fingers stroked my knuckles, every eye in the room stabbed at our joined hands.
Hari's cheeks burned, but she didn't pull away.
That resolve from the underground storage, when she'd offered herself fully—it shone through in this small touch.
Seonyu's eyes widened like saucers.
"You... you two...."
Her gaze flicked between our hands and my face.
Haru noona stared at our hands too, startled.
I didn't miss the faint tremor deep in her kind eyes—something I'd never seen before.
Was it surprise? Or the tiniest spark of jealousy?
Woohee noona cleared her throat and spoke.
"Ahem... anyway, we have enough info. And as I've said multiple times, we don't have to settle it tonight."
Woohee noona closed the book.
"But we should steel ourselves. One of us has to mix bodies with Woohyun as written here and stand before Mama."
Steel ourselves... resolve.
Who could muster that?
How perfect if Haru noona did.
I swallowed those selfish thoughts, clinging to a thread of hope.
"Haru noona. What do you think? You're the head of the house, so we'll follow your lead on this."
Hoping, foolishly, she'd volunteer for the breeding act.
What a stupid thought.