Drugs (Not)
If he had been on his way to meet some other girl, I would have kicked him square in the knee on the spot. Fortunately, Dogeon did no such thing.
Instead, we arrived at a rather strange little shop.
The lettering on the sign was so crude and idiosyncratic that it was hard to make out, but I managed to decipher it eventually.
“Casey’s Pet… Supplies… Shop? A pet supplies shop? Why on earth have we come to a place like this?”
The guy didn’t even keep an animal. Why the sudden interest in a pet store? I couldn’t stand the curiosity and asked him outright.
“I was thinking of buying some food for the stray cats.”
…Han Dogeon, you bastard. Don’t tell me you’re a cat dad. The moment I heard he was feeding street cats, my face twisted into a scowl.
In a way I was a cat myself right now, yet I had never particularly liked cats—not in my previous life, and not in this one either.
In my past life it had been the allergies and the caterwauling that came with every breeding season. In this life, I had raised one myself.
Unlike a dog, they weren’t loyal and never performed cute tricks; instead they acted like they were the master’s equal, which grated on my nerves.
They would be perfectly obedient toward Father, yet they always raised hell only with me, which made it even worse.
“To think you harbored such preferences… That is not good. The wild is most beautiful when left as it is.”
Still, they weren’t family, so I couldn’t exactly order him to stop. If he wanted to do it, what was I supposed to do about it?
Instead I simply dressed up a plausible reason and told him it was a bad idea.
Giving food to strays was, in a sense, ecological destruction. Cats multiply, they eat the birds, the birds decrease, the insects increase…
The truth, of course, was that I simply hated watching cats prance around right in front of me.
“Ah… I see. Then what if I raised one myself?”
If his love of cats had already jumped from “feeding them” to “raising them”… well, there was no helping it. If he was that set on it, there was nothing I could do.
“Taking responsibility is admirable, but are animals even allowed in the dormitory?”
I checked one more time, still hoping he might drop the whole messy idea. Without spaying, the racket would start up every single month.
“Yes. As long as you clean up after them properly, the regulations say it’s fine.”
But my wishes clearly didn’t matter much to Dogeon. He must have actually wanted to keep one badly enough that he’d already looked up the rules.
Nothing for it, then.
“Very well. Do as you please. If you are taking one in, I will say nothing—so long as you never abandon it again.”
And if you do dump it, dump it somewhere very, very far away.
“Don’t worry. That won’t happen.”
So he wasn’t just a cat dad; he was a genuine cat person.
I gave up complaining about the cats and decided to focus on what I had originally set out to do: stick close to Dogeon and make sure he didn’t do anything stupid.
Most of the people around us were women, so I had to start paying attention.
The majority looked like elderly ladies or respectable older women, but…
You never know. Maybe Dogeon had some weird sexual preference. A friend of mine had looked perfectly normal and still been into NTR, after all.
Or maybe age simply didn’t matter to him as long as it was a woman.
But as long as I was here, nothing of the sort would happen.
For a pet shop the place was surprisingly large. From the snatches of conversation I overheard, it seemed quite a few people kept enormous magical beasts as pets.
Certainly, you wouldn’t need cages that huge and sturdy just for dogs or cats.
While I examined the curious merchandise, I also kept an eye on where Dogeon’s gaze wandered. He was earnestly buying everything a cat would need.
Then I caught a scent—utterly captivating, sweet beyond description.
For a moment I even forgot what I had been doing. It was similar to the fog that settled over my mind during heat.
Where was it coming from?
…Ah. Over there. The display stand I had been circling for a while now. I didn’t even wonder why I had been circling it.
I simply wanted to smell that fragrance more.
Just a little longer.
“…Yes, I’ve bought everything I needed.”
Before I could forget everything and dive into the display, Dogeon’s voice snapped me back to my senses.
“…Hwat? Ah… you’ve already finished shopping. Then let us go.”
That was close. I had almost done something utterly bizarre in a place full of people.
I didn’t want to know what it had been. Just recalling it felt like it would leave room for no other thought.
Think about Dogeon. Yes, Dogeon.
While I had briefly lost my reason, had he looked at any women? Given that he had been searching only for cat-related items the entire time, I doubted it.
He hadn’t paid the slightest attention to his surroundings, so it didn’t seem like he had that kind of preference either. Feeling a strange sense of relief, we headed back toward the dormitory.
Looking at him, I had constantly felt a sense of familiarity, and suddenly I thought I understood what it was.
Dogeon clearly resembled the captain of the guard.
His looks, his overall atmosphere, that easygoing personality—they were all similar.
…With apologies to the captain, Dogeon was slightly better-looking.
But the fact that the captain never showed the occasional lack of consideration that Dogeon did, and that he had been with me since the day I was born, made the captain far preferable.
I mean as a person, not romantically. The same went for Dogeon.
Mother somehow seemed to believe I liked Dogeon as a woman, but I simply kept resolving to clear up that misunderstanding someday.
Surveillance or not, I couldn’t follow him into his room, so until Dogeon did something noteworthy I decided to read the books I had borrowed.
On the day I had gotten angry I had gone to the library wanting a novel to cool my temper, only to fall completely under its spell and check out the entire series.
There were plenty of completely deranged plot developments—like the protagonist literally going to the moon—but that only made me like it more.
I was just about to lose myself in the story when someone knocked on my door; otherwise I would have kept reading straight through until lunch.
“…Are you in?”
Dogeon’s voice came from outside. Just when it was getting interesting. Reluctantly I slipped in a bookmark and opened the door.
The moment I did, an intense fragrance poured over me—incomparably stronger than the one at the pet shop.
It was coming from the small leather pouch in Dogeon’s hand. I nearly reached for it without thinking before I caught myself.
“I, uh… wanted to apologize for what happened two days ago, so I prepared this, however modest it may be.”
He seemed to be saying something, but I couldn’t hear a word of it.
“Come inside.”
Suppressing the urge to grab him and drag him in was the best I could manage. Every nerve I had was fixed on that leather pouch.
“Pardon?”
“I said come in.”
Right now.
Why did that moment of hesitation feel so endlessly long?
The instant Dogeon stepped into my room I shut the front door. I wasn’t sure, but I was certain my current appearance was nothing I wanted anyone else to see.
“…Hoyeon? Why did you close the door?”
I slowly approached him. For some reason Dogeon backed away.
It didn’t matter. Right now I simply wanted to bury my nose in that leather pouch. Speaking, or any better method, never even crossed my mind.
Just let me bury my face in that pouch and inhale with all my strength.
“Hoyeon…? Hoyeon?”
I reached toward him. He pressed himself as flat against the wall as he could, trying to pull his hand away, but that was the full extent of his resistance.
“Your hand. Give it here.”
“My hand…?”
“Not that one.”
The hand holding the leather pouch. Why are you offering me the empty one?
The moment he held out the hand with the pouch, I seized it with both of mine. He flinched in surprise, but I didn’t care.
I buried my nose straight into the pouch still clutched in his hand. He seemed to be calling my name over and over, but I couldn’t hear it.
With every breath, fireworks of pleasure exploded inside my skull; even with my eyes closed, dazzling colors I had never seen before flashed before me.
“Sssss… haaaaaaah…”
I felt the strength slowly draining from my legs. Still gripping Dogeon’s hand, I collapsed, hanging on him as if begging.
I wanted to beg.
Please just stay still like this. I don’t care what it is—just keep giving me this.
“…Yeon-ah! Hoyeon! What’s wrong?! Are you okay?!”
When I looked up at him with unfocused eyes, he was staring down at me with a worried expression.
…Ah. He must have called me several times, but I had been too blissed out to notice.
Well, if your one and only friend suddenly buried her nose in your hand and went completely still, I suppose you’d worry.
Hmm… I don’t know. My head felt floaty. I probably couldn’t even stand right now.
“…Yeah. I’m fine. Jus’ feelin’ really good…”
I had tried to enunciate carefully, yet the words still came out slurred.
Hmm, is this like alcohol? The way my speech tangled, my balance failed, and everything felt so pleasant… it might be.
So am I drunk? I’ve never even touched alcohol in my life, and now I’m somehow getting intoxicated by unknown means. Kind of embarrassing.
But it’s just a friend, so it should be fine. I can trust Dogeon…
“…You feel good?”
“…Yeah.”
I nuzzled my head against the leather pouch as I answered him. The pouch was a little small; from the outside it probably looked like I was rubbing my face against his hand.
“…Then… would it be all right to take that as… you like it?”
Whether I like it?
“Yeah… more…”
If possible, every single day.
Before bed, or whenever I inevitably couldn’t follow Dogeon around, I wanted something like this to ease the boredom.
Just drown the gloom under waves of pleasure and be done with it.
But for some reason Dogeon didn’t look nearly as happy as I felt.