Something Like Love
"…"
Shock was written plain across Dahyeon's face. Given what she'd just heard, it was only natural.
What had happened with Jiwoo was nothing Yeoreum could ever have brought herself to tell anyone, no matter how hard she thought about it. She had kept it to herself on purpose.
"……Ah."
That was all Dahyeon managed — a short little sound — before she pulled Yeoreum into her arms again and held her tight.
Yeoreum didn't know how to describe the reaction. In her, Dahyeon seemed to see several people at once. A mother, maybe. A daughter. A lover.
"I'm sorry. I'll get your room changed. The cultivation wing's uncomfortable for you, right? Then over there— no, never mind. Just switch with me. Nothing like that will happen in our room."
"Nnh— a-ah, no…!"
If Yeoreum had wanted that, she would have said so long ago. The reason she hadn't was simple: she had decided that enduring those things was still better than drawing everyone's stares.
"Why."
"…W-well, th-that is. Everyone's, um, working so hard, and I'm the only one just… resting, so, so…"
"That doesn't make it okay. And you do work. You clean."
"…Th-that's…"
Of course she did it hoping for even a scrap of recognition from the others — but actually receiving it made her face burn. It was nothing, really. Barely worth mentioning.
And set against the harm she caused?
She couldn't even eat properly. Entertainment meant watching the same stored files she'd already seen dozens of times. Water was hard enough to produce that they broke it down and remade it; everything else was either under similar plans or still under discussion.
"…"
"You don't have to beat yourself up like that. It's not like you lost your memories on purpose…"
"…B-because of me, the arm and the leg, too—"
"Arm? You mean Jiwoo's?"
"Hap— a-ah, no…?"
"……No. Wait a second. Those little shits…!"
Maybe because of the memory of going back and forth with the two of them, the words about the arm injury had slipped out before she could stop them. Dahyeon pieced it together just as easily.
"I-I'm really fine, though!"
Yeoreum caught Dahyeon's arms — the ones still wrapped around her body — before Dahyeon could bolt out the door. They were facing the mirror again as they talked, so her reaction was quick enough.
"……"
After a long back-and-forth, Dahyeon finally gave up. Yeoreum could tell she hated using force on her.
And for a moment, she wondered if this might be love.
No — what she meant was, at least compared to how everyone else treated her. Because—
The way Dahyeon treated her was clearly different, wasn't it? Of course Dahyeon seemed to feel some desire for physical closeness too.
…How to put it. It wasn't like falling for a porn actress and hunting down her videos.
Everyone said they liked her, but she couldn't shake the feeling that none of them loved her — the person. Maybe it was a girlish sentiment; she wasn't sure.
Minseo was like that. Jiwoo too. They liked her, but to call it love… felt like a stretch.
If you loved someone, you'd want to protect them, right? She'd never been in a relationship, but she'd had people she liked, so she thought she roughly understood.
Or maybe not? Maybe you'd at least touch yourself thinking about them.
Either way — Dahyeon didn't seem like the type to turn around and demand a favor because she'd suffered and gotten hurt on Yeoreum's account.
"…"
"I-I, r-really, I'm fine, so…"
Dahyeon's stare was so sharp it stung; Yeoreum mumbled the words and fussed with a button for no reason.
If this was love, her answer would probably be yes. Dahyeon was beautiful — fatal to any sense of masculinity Yeoreum still carried — and reliable enough that she could entrust her body without hesitation.
"……"
Dahyeon's expression was complicated. She was almost certainly turning over the same tangled thoughts Yeoreum had chewed on so many times herself.
The stretch of time spent watching Yeoreum through the mirror felt endless. Truly endless. If she went back like this, she wouldn't even remember the movie she'd been watching. It had been pretty good, too.
"…Can I tell Soyeon?"
"Uh— yes?"
"I can't think of anything right now. I don't know what to do. I can't exactly chew them out, can I."
Dahyeon's eyes never left her. The hand wrapped around her stomach seemed, somehow, to be drifting a little higher.
…Did she want to touch her chest? If it was Dahyeon, Yeoreum would have said yes without a second thought. Not because she thought of her as the same gender — strictly speaking, they weren't. What lived inside this woman's body was still the man who used to grow dark stubble after about two days.
So it was more like looking at a close female friend who suddenly said her body felt good and asked if she could touch. You wouldn't let just anyone do it — but with a relationship like that, you could allow it.
And this was someone who already had some affection for her. If anything, it was the kind of situation that made your heart race, wasn't it?
"…"
"Besides, Soyeon's the one who actually studied this kind of thing. And even if she says she isn't, she's the leader right now."
"Aahm. I-is, is that so? I don't, I don't really know…"
"Then let's talk to her. She's not the type to go spreading it around. Got it? Ah — and if you hate it, you have to say so right away, okay? You're really fine with me telling her?"
Question after question, all of them making one thing unmistakably clear: Dahyeon was worried about her. So Yeoreum nodded. The thought of being protected pulled a shy little smile onto her face without her meaning it to.
She leaned back into Dahyeon. They spent a little while like that, then went back to the room, watched a bit more of the movie — and somewhere around the halfway mark, she fell asleep.
The arms holding her were stronger than usual tonight. Breathing was a little hard, and she slipped under into a sleep so deep she couldn't tell whether she'd dozed off or simply blacked out.
She wasn't unaware of the arm slowly climbing toward her chest.
"Yeoreum— no, unnie! Where did you sleep last night? I almost filed a report, you know? I thought you'd run off somewhere."
"Ah, haha… I-I just, we were hanging out and I, I fell asleep…"
Outside the meeting room. After the usual half-sharp meeting had wrapped up, Minseo clapped Yeoreum hard on the back. Jiwoo was standing right beside her.
"We looked for you…"
That was all Jiwoo said — short and quiet.
At the same time a hand settled on top of Yeoreum's head, and she looked up to find Soyeon stroking her hair.
"Ah."
"Heh-heh. Unnie. Fighting for today? See you at mealtime later?"
Soyeon said it while combing her free hand through her own light beige hair. It seemed she and Dahyeon still hadn't talked. If they'd had that conversation, Yeoreum figured it would have shown somehow.
"Y-yes. F-fighting…!"
As Soyeon started to hurry off, Yeoreum raised a fist. The moment she said "fighting," Soyeon came right back, pinched Yeoreum's cheek and stretched it out, then turned and left.
"Quit flirting already. Trying to get railed by someone else again?"
"Eugh…! D-don't, don't say things like that…!"
"Heh-heh! Why not?"
"S-someone might hear…!"
Wearing that same teasing look as always, Minseo stepped in close, grabbed Yeoreum's hand, and whispered right against her ear.
"Then should we go do it in the room? Heh-heh… running off on me like that. Yesterday I was seriously gonna fuck you raw."
The breath against her ear felt so strange that Yeoreum's whole body shuddered.
"……"
"Ohh? No refusal? Does that mean I have permission?"
"No—!"
"Ah. Minseo. How's the leg?"
Just as a shout was about to burst out of her, a woman Yeoreum still didn't know by name thumped Minseo once on the back.
"Ah, hi. It's whatever. Should be fine by tomorrow, though? Honestly it's pretty much healed already."
"Get over here and help us already. We're getting absolutely wrecked right now."
"How am I supposed to do your work."
"It's still facilities. Close enough. Anyway, I'm going. Good luck. Rest up. You too, Jiwoo."
Jiwoo answered with a nod. The woman didn't bother asking about her condition — of course not. Jiwoo was still standing there with her arm in a cast, locked so she couldn't move it.
It had been bent the wrong way to begin with. At least the medical capsules and equipment hadn't been locked down.
"Ah, goodb—"
Yeoreum started to bow at the waist, but the woman had already turned her back and headed for her post.
Left standing there awkwardly, Minseo let out a snort of laughter — and then started dragging Yeoreum straight toward their room.
"Hello."
"Ah. Yep. Hang in there! I'm planning to start working tomorrow!"
In the short walk down the corridor, Minseo traded greetings with everyone they passed. Jiwoo only dipped her head a little. The difference in their personalities could not have been clearer.
To Yeoreum, somehow, everyone still only ever looked at her the same way.
"Huu."
"We're here~."
The dorm door opened and they went in. Jiwoo shut it last, and silence settled over the room at once.
Click. The sound of the lock.
"…?"
And in the same breath, a rough embrace slammed into her.
"Ack…! W-wait a second…!"
"This is how it is. If I'm gonna make up for last night's losses, I have to start holding you like this right now."
Something surged — a sudden rush of blood flooding into it — and then it struck her stomach hard—
"Hyeek…!"
"Heh-heh!"
"Hey, th-the administrator's having a hard ti—"
"The one who already got a blowjob can shut up. I didn't get anything. Ah, Yeoreum. So I was thinking? I figure I've earned the right to get one with my mouth too— yeah. More than enough. What do you say?"
Jiwoo tried, at least, to stop her — but Minseo, injured body and all, scooped Yeoreum up and threw herself onto the bed with her. The springs screamed. Yeoreum let out a sharp little gasp of her own.
"Th-that doesn't even make se—!"
At the enormous thing pressed into the cleft of her ass, she made a weird little eugik of a sound.
And just like that, she was fighting a defensive war again…
The speaker crackled to life with a zeeeing-whoosh that dragged up bad memories — and Soyeon's voice came through.
"I-iiiigh…! Sh-she's calling me, s-so l-let, let go…!"
"Five minutes. No — three minutes."
"Yaaah…!"
Her top was half undone. Her bra had twisted into something strange.
It took a full thirty minutes before she finally managed to escape Minseo, who kept trying to pinch her nipples.
That thing pressed snug into the cleft of her ass kept twitching the whole time. It was so hard she was almost sure that if she'd stayed even a little longer, Minseo would have come.
The timing was perfect.
Minseo reached for her again, but when the second announcement came through she put on a disappointed face. Then she brought her fingers up under her own nose.
"Sniff."
"Why would you— a-ah, I d-don't know…!"
Her legs had gone weak. She barely managed to get herself upright, force herself calm, tear her eyes away from that disgusting display, and open the door.
Her face was red. No matter how repulsive something was, thirty minutes of that careful, that kind of— well. It still produced a physiological response.
Fortunately there weren't many people in the corridor. Work had only just started for the day.
A short walk later, a door came into view with the number 03 engraved into it. The thought struck her that somewhere along the way she had completely adapted to these futuristic facilities—
Bang!
The door flew open at high speed. Inside, Soyeon looked ready to charge out — almost. That was before Yeoreum walked face-first into the door.
"Augh…!"
A hollow tong rang through her skull. She clutched her head in shock — and the hand that came reaching out closed straight around her collar.