Chapter 59
Chapter 59
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: Childhood Friend's Self-Soothing Method
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Same time, at Kang Hye-eun's house.
"......"
An A-Rank Hunter from Silver and Jade Corporation.
The leader of the A-Rank Hunter party Sky Blue Shield, a shield specialist with the Awakening ability Warrior of the Guardian Shield.
And also Sung Tae-kyung's childhood friend, she lay quietly on her bed, picturing one person's face.
"Tae-kyung..."
His name felt especially distant today, even though she considered him the closest person to her aside from family.
Just a little while ago, she'd thought they'd truly shared love and advanced to an even deeper relationship. But his actual response had been the absurd notion of not lovers, but just "friends with benefits." Her confused mind showed no signs of settling even after several days.
"Why do you keep confusing me like this, Tae-kyung..."
Back in their childhood. After entering the same middle school to follow him in his dream of becoming a Hunter, she resolved to become a strong Hunter in his place when no signs of Awakening appeared in him. Her efforts paid off: right after high school graduation, she earned her A-Rank Hunter qualification and rose swiftly in the Hunter world.
Yet somehow, every time she progressed toward her goal of fulfilling his dream for him, Sung Tae-kyung seemed to drift further away. And with his recent declaration of friends with benefits, that suspicion had hardened into certainty.
"Haa, what the hell am I even doing..."
Yet ridiculously, it was she who couldn't let go of him easily, clinging to her lingering attachment.
She'd started suspecting he was secretly seeing other women after his friends-with-benefits declaration.
Whenever she dropped by his house unannounced, her childhood friend was no longer lounging in the bedroom on the second floor. Including today, she'd visited three times already and left without even catching a glimpse of his face.
As the leader of an A-Rank party, Kang Hye-eun had developed a certain sharpness. She vaguely knew what her childhood friend was up to on those late nights when he didn't come home.
She merely held onto the slim possibility that it wasn't true, since she hadn't witnessed it firsthand.
In truth, calling it "cheating" was odd too. She wasn't his lover or girlfriend—just his childhood friend.
Even after they'd had sex multiple times, labeling her as mere friends with benefits wasn't exactly pleasant. But sadly, words like that weren't nearly enough to extinguish the feelings she'd built up over more than a decade.
She was waiting for her childhood friend like a fool, telling herself his behavior was just a phase and that as long as he stayed by her side in the end, it would be enough.
"Haa, seriously. What am I even thinking."
Even she was dumbfounded by her own foolish behavior.
But humans weren't creatures who always acted rationally. And above all, picturing her childhood friend Sung Tae-kyung naturally brought back memories of the wild sex they'd shared.
Emotionally charged from the past few days' events, she took a deep whiff of the mattress still faintly scented with his presence, then quietly slid her right hand down to her lower body.
-Prod.
"Ngh."
It had been days since she'd seen his face, and they hadn't even talked on the phone or texted. Missing the bliss of his embrace, like swimming through a dream, was inevitable.
She'd been the one to angrily cut off their last conversation, so logically, she couldn't expect him to reach out first.
Yet even knowing that, Kang Hye-eun waited for him to contact her.
She called herself selfish for such foolish hopes, but stubbornly digging in her heels where it didn't matter was just her personality.
Efforts to become a strong Hunter in his stead since he couldn't Awaken. Secretly dealing with the ringleaders who bullied him in high school the moment she learned of them. Silently waiting while he despaired over failing to Awaken until he pulled himself together.
Kang Hye-eun had done so much for Sung Tae-kyung behind his back. But her petty pride refused to let her explain any of it to him, and unspoken truths naturally never reached him.
If she'd only shed a layer of that pride and been a little more honest with him, he might have given up on Awakening and chosen her instead. But she'd never know.
-Prod, prod.
"Ngh, ha."
For now, she had no room to dwell on such things. She simply surrendered quietly to her carnal desires.
Sexual frustration had built up over days without her beloved.
At first, his ridiculous words killed her mood for a day or two. But that was it.
A bit of stress from days of accumulation, her feminine instincts stirred from clashing shields with monsters on the front lines daily, and the faint lingering scent on the mattress from when she and Sung Tae-kyung had made love before.
By the time she snapped out of it, her left hand had slipped inside her pajama top, and her right had long since delved under her panties, fingers teasing her secret spot.
"Ngh... hng!"
The sensation of sexual pleasure after so long.
For her, who barely had time to meet Sung Tae-kyung amid her busy days—let alone masturbate—this was precious time to release pent-up lust.
-Squish.
She felt her fingers parting her slick, sticky folds and slowly entering her hole, pleasure creeping in bit by bit as her body heated up.
-Squish, squish.
"Ngh, urgh..."
Yet for some reason, the sensation felt subtly different from when her childhood friend touched her. Kang Hye-eun sensed a faint dissatisfaction.
She knew there was a difference between someone else touching her and doing it herself. But during sex with Sung Tae-kyung, even before full penetration, a far more ticklish pleasure had swirled through her mind.
Now, it was just the feeling of fingers on her skin—a mere physiological reaction, not the heartfelt ecstasy of her first time.
-Squish, squish.
"Ngh, haa, haa..."
Of course, deriving pleasure from her body alone was no issue. Her body warmed with each finger movement.
Her left hand kneading her breasts and nipples, her right stirring inside with her middle finger—the masturbation, filled only with the sound of mucosa rubbing, had evolved into serious pleasure-seeking.
-Squish, squish, squish.
In the quiet room, only the sound of thin fingers plunging in and out of her hole.
"Urghng, hng...! Tae-kyung, ahh...!"
And atop it, a woman's pleasure-soaked moans echoed.
"Hnnng...!!"
Her hips arched involuntarily from the pleasure, and Kang Hye-eun reached a weak climax.
"Ha, haa... ...Hng."
It was literally just a "weak climax," far from satisfying.
'Last time with Tae-kyung, it didn't feel like this...'
She still remembered how, even in foreplay, intense pleasure had nearly made her body bounce multiple times. And at the moment of insertion and ejaculation, an ecstatic sensation like drifting through the cosmos had enveloped her.
Now, this level of pleasure fell short of satisfying her, so naturally, her hands busied themselves once more.
-Squiiiish...
"Ha, just once more... exactly once more..."
She planned to push her fingers deeper to trigger climax, reach one more orgasm, and then stop.
-Squelch, squiiiish!
"Hnnng...! Pahaa...!!"
The next climax, reached in just over ten minutes, was still merely a "weak climax." In the end, the more she masturbated, the more she writhed, desperate for greater release.
"If only Tae-kyung were here right now... Ah, no..."
In the midst of middling pleasure, Kang Hye-eun hastily swallowed the words she'd muttered unconsciously.
Calling out her beloved's name just because self-pleasure fell short—didn't that make it seem like she only saw him as a bed partner?
Of course, sex with Sung Tae-kyung had been happier than any ecstasy she'd known. But after distancing herself to calm her confused heart, to seek him out again after mere days just for sex?
It made her feel like she only wanted his body, stirring a twinge of self-loathing.
'No... It's not just his body I like...'
She purely loved the boy she'd grown up with.
Their kisses.
Their sex.
Those were just catalysts that made her like him even more amid her affection.
That's why contacting him again because she couldn't forget their sex was something her pride wouldn't allow.
"Ha, but..."
Still, seeing his face after so long should be fine.
It had been nearly five days since they'd laid eyes on each other. It was about time to make up.
I'm not like those girls from school who tormented Sung Tae-kyung, driven by base desires.
Even if they weren't lovers, he was still the one she loved, and he'd affirmed she was precious to him too.
In this situation, thinking of Tae-kyung's face wasn't strange.
"......"
With her half-resolved desires only deepening her feelings for Sung Tae-kyung, she reached for the smartphone on her desk.
「Tae-kyung, you busy this weekend?」
She mindlessly typed out her heart's desire to him.