Change
"Huh?"
Morning.
I woke up without the slightest resistance.
No heavy, sluggish body. Nothing of the sort.
My eyes simply opened. Not a trace of fatigue.
"Whoa.... whoa, whoa...!"
Three consecutive gasps of pure admiration.
A clean morning with not a single dream to cloud it.
And as if to crown that morning perfectly—
"The time is....
...10 o'clock?"
10 a.m.
"....Mmm."
Was today a weekend?
If so, waking at ten made perfect sense.
I smiled brightly and powered on my phone to check the date…
Yoo Hyewon +15
Jeon Harin +7
Nam Sujin +33
Hong Yeonhwa +2
"....Hoh."
No need to check further.
"I'm fucked."
This was late, pure and simple.
...
..
.
"Gyaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!"
About three minutes until the bread finished toasting.
In those three minutes I finished everything from brushing my teeth to getting dressed.
A morning that began with the snappy precision of a five-minute standby squad.
I jammed the just-toasted, still-scorching toast into my mouth and ran.
"Shit.... Did I not set an alarm? I thought I did?"
You turned that off yourself. Claiming you'd wake earlier than any alarm anyway.
"Past me, you absolute bastard!!!"
Karma from my past self.
Apparently yesterday's me had decided that waking early once was proof I'd wake early today.
Good morning, Papa!
"Good morning.... morning... fucking morning, damn it!"
The car key wouldn't go in.
Hand tremors? Heart failure? Whatever it was.
After several failed attempts I finally jammed the key home, floored the accelerator, and—
"...Nox?"
Yes! Papa!
"???"
Why was I hearing Nox's voice?
I turned to Hecate on pure instinct.
"Did you let her out?"
Mana was stable so I released it. Any other problems?
"Not exactly a problem, but..."
I was flailing way too hard today.
My heart hammered and I couldn't settle my thoughts.
Maybe the result of Hecate overdosing me on mental stabilizers these past few days.
Without her, my emotions felt like they were bouncing around unchecked.
...But if emotions spike, doesn't mana spike with them?
Not severe. So it's fine.
"....Tsk."
Given the track record I still wasn't convinced.
Just in case I asked for one of Hecate's special stabilizers, but she shook her head and refused.
Your intent is impure, so no.
"Impure is a bit much...."
Anyway, no major crisis right now.
I took a slow breath and set my foot on the accelerator.
"Heh... so they pulled it off after all?"
A bit of good news on the way was welcome.
No death reports, so the Hero had finally done his Hero thing.
I drove without a single traffic jam toward the training center…
—Screeeech!
...Why did you stop?
Before heading in—
"Hold up. Convenience store real quick."
..............
I stopped at the one nearby.
"One piece of toast wasn't enough. I'm starving."
Fuuuuuu....
"Huh? Why. Want me to grab you one too?"
No need. Even if you buy it I won't eat.
"Harsh."
I bought a single triangle kimbap and ate it.
Hecate let out a sigh loud enough for my ears to catch every decibel.
She was probably needling me about eating a proper breakfast, but the situation was the situation.
...Sunwoo. Seeing you this hopelessly rotten is actually nice.
"You've been pretty rough with the comments all morning, huh?"
It's a compliment.
"How the hell is that supposed to sound like a compliment...."
After that I drove without stopping and arrived at the training center.
...
..
.
"Good morning, Sunwoo-nim!"
"Ah, morning."
"Ah....?!"
Ayoung greeted me on the way in; I just lifted a hand and walked past.
No time. Busy busy!
I opened the office door and stepped inside.
"Sa....fe?"
"That's three strikes."
"....Sorry."
Time: roughly 10:30.
I'd gone as fast as humanly possible, but physics still won.
I hung my head in apology. Hyewon slowly approached, took my shoulders, and pulled me upright.
"Hyewon?"
"Stay still."
"Wai— mmph?!"
The moment I was upright, her lips met mine.
No tongue, no biting or sucking—just a simple kiss. Yet—
"...That's your punishment."
"Uh, mm. Yeah... okay."
It was more than enough.
Anything more would have been dangerous.
I absently brushed my fingers over my lips as I left the office.
"Sunwoo...-nim....?"
"Huh?.... Why are you just standing right in front of the door?"
"Ah, no. It's nothing..."
"That so? Alright then."
For some reason Ayoung was standing stock-still right outside the door.
I passed her and headed into Nature's private training room.
"One. Two. Left once! Two. Two, right once!"
"Hwaaah... it's so hardddd....!"
"If it's hard, want me to teach you? I'm pretty confident I teach well."
"One! Two! To the leftttt!!!"
"...They're doing fine without me."
Nature was deep in dance practice.
Harin stood out front demonstrating; Sujin followed her moves.
Yeonhwa—well, among them she was definitely the best at handling her body.
The problem was that her style came out a little too linear and aggressive, like a combat specialist, but that was just her flavor, so it wasn't a real issue.
Still, every single one of them is...
A very welcome sight.
Harin had that springy college-girl muscle,
Sujin looked like pure voluptuousness given form,
and Yeonhwa was basically an Amazon—solid muscle with just the right amount of soft flesh. Ideal physiques in every sense of the word.
All that training paid off.
The real punchline was that only Sujin was still clinging to her original BMI.
She moved for singing, dancing, spirits—everything—and still kept that body? Just how hard was she working in secret? I'd have to ask her parents later and get the full story.
"Ah, Instructor!"
"Hweh.... hwehehehehe!!"
"You're super late today. What were you doing?"
"Ah."
I'd been trying to watch quietly from behind, but they spotted me.
In an instant the whole group swarmed my way.
"Richtoniim......!"
Sujin in particular launched a full Lupin-style dive at me like a rat that had finally found its hole.
Her entire body screamed I don't wanna move anymore!
"Save me... I really can't take it anymooore....!!"
"Ugh... hey, hey. You're getting sweat on me. Get off a little."
"....?"
"...Why aren't you getting off?"
When I told her to get off she only pressed closer.
Had she eaten a reverse-psychology frog for breakfast? I tried to shake her off; she freaked out and hugged me even tighter— hnnngh, seriously?!
"Hey hey... a little... ahem!"
"Dere? No. This is a bit more than dere.... Right. This is ero!"
"What the hell is 'ero,' you damn otaku!"
If she wouldn't listen, force it was.
I grabbed her and tossed her aside.
"Instructor. So why were you late today? Did you... do that kind of thing before coming?"
"What kind of thing?"
"You know. Like that time you were going at it hard with the boss in the bathroom—"
"Waaah! Waaaaaah!!!"
—Smaaaack!
I slapped her ass full force.
"Kyaaaah?! That— ow, that hurts, you instructor bastard....!"
"I hit you so it would hurt. You think I hit you to make you feel good?"
"If it's the instructor then maybe you wou— I wasn't finished talking yet?"
"Tsk."
Why did these kids love teasing me so much?
At least there was one conscience left in Nature—the least spirit-contractor-like spirit contractor of them all.
"Did something happen at home?"
"...You're the only normal one."
"Huh? Ehh?"
It might sound like a curse, but I really hoped Harin would always stay Harin.
"How many times do I have to say it! If you're a lightning spirit contractor you should at least be able to overpower your own spirit's personality!"
"Hgyaaaaaaaaah?!!"
Of course, once training started there was no mercy.
...
..
.
After Nature's training ended, the girls headed back to the dorm while I stayed behind in the office a while longer talking with Hyewon.
"Kids several years younger than me—my trainees, even—teasing someone ranked way higher than them. Does that make any sense?"
"So you didn't like it?"
"Of course I didn't."
What kind of question was that.
I shook my head and complained that the teasing had gotten excessive. Instantly Hyewon closed the distance.
"...What are you doing?"
"Teasing you."
Peck.
Our lips met lightly and parted.
"...You teasing me?"
"Yes. So did you hate it?"
".........."
I had nothing.
I shut my mouth. Hyewon spoke for me.
"I think that was answer enough."
"...Can't even make an excuse."
I covered my face with one hand.
Hyewon shifted to sit right beside me, smiling slyly.
"Look even now. You didn't go straight home—you stayed behind."
"...I didn't say a word?"
"Yes. Don't speak. That mouth of yours only says weird things, so I'll just shut it tight myself!"
"Mmph—!"
Once she crossed the line she just kept going without any sense of proportion.
And the fact that I keep accepting it...
No. The even more embarrassing part was that some part of me was hoping she'd cross that line again.
We spent a little while just the two of us like that.
"....What the."
When I finally opened the door to leave, for some reason it was already cracked open just a sliver.
As a side note.
"No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no"
After returning home, Ayoung sat on the floor staring blankly, muttering the same words over and over.
"No no no no no no no no no"
A voice that kept denying something, as if trying to brainwash herself.
"No no no—"
"—Uuu.... uwaaaaaah!"
".....Hey."
But a baby who had only just learned to crawl had no way of reading her mother's thoughts.
".............."
"Aaaaaah! Aeaahhhhhh!!!"
A sharp voice that drilled straight into the ear canals.
Suffocating feelings. Unexplainable reasons. A distance that had suddenly narrowed. A Sunwoo who had changed.
And all of it—
"Be quiet... can't you see Mommy's having a hard time...?"
Ayoung's hand slowly reached toward the baby.
An unconscious action. Something done without awareness.
Ayoung's hand drew closer and closer to the infant.
"Mommy's talking to you."
"Ah?! Abu, aaaaaaaah!!!"
"Why won't you listen to Mommy. Hm? Listen to Mommy already!"
"Buu! Bu..... hwaaaaaaah! Aaaaaaah!!!"
The inner thighs.
One, two—tiny scars appearing.
A target that couldn't resist. A child's crying. Indiscriminate venting.
"!... What... what am I doing...."
"Buuuu..... eueueuuu....."
"I-I'm sorry, Seona. Mommy's sorry, so sorry...."
By the time she came to her senses it was already too late.
Ayoung hurriedly healed the baby's body and erased the bruise marks on the thighs.
"This.... this isn't what it looks like."
But even if the bruises disappeared, the things done in the past never truly vanished.
And so—
"It's because Seona wouldn't listen to Mommy. Yes. If Seona had been a good girl who listened, Mommy never would have done this, right?"
Shifting the blame.
"So.... Seona. Our good Seona. Don't make Mommy suffer, okay...?"
Reversing cause and effect.
"If you make Mommy suffer.... I'll have to give you another 'punishment'....."
"Beut.... beuuuu....!"
Every time Ayoung's hand touched Seona's thigh, the baby flinched and curled in on herself.