I Knew You Did It
The meeting that had seemed on the verge of ending stretched on long after that.
Even with the expanded scan range, the signal had registered only faintly — confirmation had taken until the morning after, and only then had it become something worth discussing. That alone meant it couldn't be anywhere nearby.
People split into two camps: those who insisted they had to go check it out, and those who said it was still too soon. No one, of course, suggested simply ignoring it.
The risk was extreme, but maybe it was because every mind kept flickering with the image of a team already out there, diligently pioneering. The thought that someone among them might still be able to use administrator privileges properly had taken hold of everyone present. You could feel it.
The side arguing it was too early made the case that it might be nothing more than an empty escape pod — or worse, just a handful of beacons left behind, spitting out intermittent signals. In other words, they were the adults coaxing children with a marshmallow dangling right in front of their faces. What if you get there and there's nothing? What if all that's left are rotting corpses and a few blinking signal devices sitting alone in the dirt?
And then there were those who argued the opposite: that the signal had cut out mid-transmission, so the landing must have been unstable, and they had a duty to go rescue the survivors of Escape Pod 1…
But the signal had only been detected. The contents were nothing more than a few lines of authentication code. No conclusion was reached. Even if one had been, they would have needed to pour the next several days into nothing but a travel plan.
So the meeting ended without anyone's opinions coming together, and I quietly slipped out from among the crowd and headed for the cafeteria.
I'd woken a little late and hadn't eaten, but more than that, I wanted to put off as long as possible the uncomfortable stretch of standing around reading the room again. Of course, once the meal was over I'd have to go back to the work site anyway — hovering awkwardly, then lighting up and running off whenever someone told me to fetch a few wrenches…
I stared for a moment at the square cubes on my tray, then cut one into a bite-sized piece with my fork and brought it to my mouth.
The cube, crushed between teeth and tongue, tasted as awful as expected. I was already missing biscuits and chocolate as I set the side of the fork against it to cut another piece—
"Unnie!"
"Hhk—!"
In a cafeteria I'd fully expected to be empty, a voice that loud was enough to startle anyone. I drove my knee clean into the table bolted to the floor before I managed to turn around.
Minseo. Come to think of it, Minseo and Jiwoo had the day off today—
"Eating?"
"Mph — y-yes…"
I swallowed what was left in my mouth and answered. For all the things that had happened between us, I'd thought we'd gotten somewhat closer — but coming back here seemed to have reset everything to factory settings.
"Hrm… I see."
She said it from the entrance, so I waved her off with a little see you — but Minseo just started clomping toward me. She still had the cast on her ankle, so she limped a little.
Then she pulled out the chair across from me, sat down, crossed her legs with deliberate casualness, propped her chin on her hand, and looked at me.
"……"
Chew. Chew.
Was she waiting for me to finish? It didn't feel like she was simply watching me eat, so I hurried a little, shoving food into my mouth. The stuff wasn't good — it was the kind of taste you actively didn't want to register — so I would have done the same even without Minseo there.
"…"
"Done?"
I nodded, briefly considering whether to offer her the tiny scrap left on the tray, then just pushed it into my own mouth. Trying to be considerate with something like this wouldn't help anyone.
"…S-so, uh, why…?"
"Come here."
Minseo beckoned. I edged around the table and shuffled closer, awkward. The way she looked at me was almost like she was dealing with an animal — and somehow, a little like she was angry.
Not that there weren't dozens of reasons Minseo would be entitled to be angry with me. But until now she'd barely shown any of it. Teased me, sure. But this—
"…Yes…?"
I stepped close and asked, and she reached for me at once—
"Kyaah—?!"
Like a predator lunging, Minseo snaked an arm around my neck and yanked me in. Then she started sniffing me — here, there, everywhere.
…!
I thought I understood why. I'd washed thoroughly, and after last night I'd brushed my teeth twice more on top of that, so there shouldn't have been any problem. I stood in her arms with only a thin thread of tension holding me steady.
"Mm……"
Minseo tilted her head, then loosened the arm wrapped around me.
"Ah — haha — u-uh, why are y-you…?"
I eased my body back a little.
"…Ah."
Still wearing a thoroughly puzzled expression, Minseo pulled me in again. She took hold of both my cheeks and slowly brought her face closer—
Of course I thrashed, trying to get away. Twisted thinking or not, I was pretty sure that what I'd done for her once and actually kissing were two entirely different things.
"Ugh — nn…!"
I shook my head left and right, and Minseo gripped my cheeks hard enough that my lips puckered. Then the hand at the small of my back hauled me in until our stomachs pressed together.
"Mph…!"
There was nothing for it. I shut my lips in the barest resistance and closed my eyes, bracing for the wet touch that was about to come.
"…"
"……"
But long seconds passed and nothing touched me — I couldn't even hear her breathing properly.
I carefully cracked one eye open. Over my mouth sat a beautiful, hard hand, sealing it completely. Not just resting there — pressed so I couldn't breathe through my lips at all.
"…! Mmph…! Mph…!"
"…"
Minseo's face, still wordless, was right in front of my nose. A fraction closer and our noses would have touched. Every time she exhaled, a clean mint scent mixed with the particular smell of human breath washed over me.
"……"
I kicked my legs, but we were already too close for it to do any real damage. I pressed my palm hard into the area around her ribs, but Minseo just stood there. We were in completely different weight classes to begin with. Something this small wasn't going to move her. I grabbed the hand covering my mouth — same result.
"…Hhh…!"
So what else was there? I breathed through my nose. I couldn't even begin to guess what she was doing. I stopped fighting and met her eyes.
"…I knew it. You did it."
Only then did Minseo open her mouth. Her eyes were terrifying.
—
Inside the dorm. Minseo had dragged me all the way here by the wrist. We'd run into a few people on the way; none of them stopped her, or even asked why.
Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes. Once she'd confirmed the door was locked, Minseo threw me onto the bed.
"Eek — kyaah…!"
"How could you? Huh? Do you have any idea what I've been through because of you? And you already got cozy with someone else?"
Minseo climbed straight on top of me, and I had never been more afraid of her. Unlike last night's mutual arrangement, this was pure coercion — an environment where Minseo could do whatever she wanted.
"W-what — what d-did I — what did I do…!"
There were far too many things I could be guilty of. My words kept breaking apart.
"What do you think. You reek of semen. That's so unfair. How could you do that and leave me out of it?"
Both my wrists were caught in her hands. She lifted them above my head and pinned them there with one hand alone.
Even so, my arms didn't budge. It was like she'd slapped cuffs on me — astonishing, how little they moved. Was the difference in strength really this absolute?
"I want to do it too. Unnie. Huh? No — Yeoreum. Can't you do it for me too?"
"W-what are you t-talking about…! I-I don't want to…!"
"No. Who was it? Tell me that first."
"I-I don't know…!"
Of course I knew. The denial just came out on reflex.
"Don't give me that. Spit it out. If you don't talk, I'll do it by force. Door's locked, and nobody's looking for you."
That was what Minseo said. Looking down at me from above — close enough to the underside of the bunk that the light barely reached her face — she was frightening. And telling the truth would have been miserable too.
"…I-it's not — like that…!"
The bed rocked a little. That was all. My hips were pinned. My hands were locked. Only my legs could thrash, and even then I couldn't quite bring myself to kick her in the back.
"Are you dating them?"
"No…!"
"Then someone you like?"
"I said no…!"
"Ah — wait. Was it Soyeon? Or Dahyun? Oh, right. Dahyun's a girl."
"N-neither of them!"
Faced with the sudden interrogation, I could answer with real confidence. I was a terrible liar — and it showed on my face — which meant that when something was actually true, I could be firm about it.
Minseo stared at me for a second with a blank look, thrown by the answer.
"Then what? So that person is fine, but I'm not?"
"Nngh…!"
"Stop squirming. So you did it with someone you're not even involved with? Unnie, don't tell me you're just a slut?"
"…! N-no — I'm not…!"
"Then what is it?"
She kept pressing, relentless. A slut, though. How could anyone say that to another person's face — to a woman, no, to a person — like that.
It was strange. Stranger still that hearing it actually hurt.
"……"
There was no time to sink into thoughts. Minseo looked ready to take me apart right then and there — and if it had been that kind of taking, it might almost have been a relief. The way she looked, she seemed just as likely to put a fist through me.
"Hurry up. I'm not going to go around telling anyone."
She asked like the answer was already hers by right. I'd told her once that she could touch my body however she wanted — but that hadn't meant she could handle me like this, completely at her whim.
And besides, wasn't this genuinely garbage behavior? Not Minseo's — well, not only Minseo's—
Using force on someone weaker than you was never a good look, sure. But talking about a sexual encounter to a third party without the other person's consent was a time-honored tradition of being absolute trash.
"…"
"Then — Hyeon? Hyejin? Jeong-a? Juhyeon? Jiwoo—"
When I still wouldn't open my mouth, she started running through names. And the moment Jiwoo's came out, Minseo's expression flickered with something like surprise—
"…Me too. Do it for me too."
—and then she deflated, like someone who'd lost a souvenir they'd bought on a trip years ago. The pressure of everything except her weight vanished.
"…W-what are y-you talking about…! And for the record, you don't even know if it was Jiwoo—"
"It's all over your face. Haa. I worked so damn hard…!"
Minseo climbed off me entirely and sat on the edge of the bed, elbows on her knees, face in her hands. She looked genuinely despairing.
Something about the posture called up a whole genre in my head. Not NTR — something a tier below that, if I remembered right. I couldn't recall the exact name.
The one where the person you'd been secretly in love with gets taken. Where you regret that someone else found the courage first… that kind of thing.
Maybe that was the kind of regret Minseo was feeling. If you thought of it as having your crush stolen out from under you, this reaction almost made sense.
"I was the one who came up with the idea, too. Ah — well… I failed, so. Yeah. It was the other way around…"
Even in the brief moment I spent thinking about something else, Minseo kept digging herself deeper. Her back had rounded enough that the curve of her sports bra showed through.
I felt a little sorry for her, honestly — but that didn't mean fine, just this once was a reasonable response. What kind of deranged free-for-all woman did that?
In a place where law and order had already vanished, maybe someone would transform into exactly that. But me — setting everything else aside — I was closer to the side that hated dicks, if anything.
"…"
I held my throbbing wrists and slowly pushed myself upright.
I wanted out. But Minseo was sitting right across the only way to the door, and poking her now felt like it might start something much worse.