How to Convince My Lover (1)
After Sung Taekyung returned to his own home, at Kang Eunyoung's house.
"Haa, haa, haa…."
He had appeared like the wind, stirred up her damp emotions, and vanished like morning dew. Left behind, Kang Eunyoung couldn't control her heart, which had begun pounding wildly.
It felt like just yesterday that he was a child no taller than her thigh. How had he grown so much without her even realizing it? From a parent's perspective, no matter how much a child grew, there came the moment when the illusion that they were still a little kid shattered.
She hadn't been entirely free of awkward feelings even before, whenever she faced her overly grown son. But today's Sung Taekyung felt like encountering a completely different person from her position.
The moment she suddenly started seeing him not as her son, but as a man, her emotions plunged into unrelenting chaos.
His neatly grown height had long surpassed her own 170cm. His broadened shoulders, firm chest, thick forearms, and large palms. And that heavy sensation she'd felt subtly near her thigh—whether intentional or a mistake, she couldn't tell. As she recalled every element of him from that moment he embraced her, Kang Eunyoung's face flushed red on its own.
"Haa, you, you foolish old woman…."
Was it even sane to feel sexual desire for a boy less than half her age? No matter how objectively attractive he was as a man, she saw such feelings toward him as a sin.
And why had his personality suddenly turned so sly and teasing? Just a few years ago, when she'd tried to comfort and hug him, he'd shyly pull away after one or two attempts. But today, without the slightest hesitation, he'd thrown himself into her arms—and even subtly kneaded her buttock with one hand.
Unless she was an idiot, she could easily tell he'd done it on purpose, acting all sly like that. And so, every single element she encountered from him left her profoundly confused.
The boy she'd thought of as a son, a child, had grown so much in the blink of an eye. Over the dozen or so years she'd raised him like her own child, it would be a lie to say she'd never once felt heterosexual emotions toward him.
The more the years passed and the more his height grew and his body strengthened, the more Kang Eunyoung found herself unconsciously reminded of her long-dead husband whenever she looked at him. That feeling had intensified even further after he graduated high school.
Each time, she'd sink deep into self-loathing. It was absurd to feel lust for a boy who was her daughter's boyfriend and whose childhood form she'd known since he was little.
Especially since if she ever let those feelings show, it was obvious as slime in a jar that both Sung Taekyung himself and her daughter Kang Hyeun would despise her.
So she'd forcibly shoved her emotions down below her facade. I only love that one dead man, she'd remind herself deliberately of the old past.
The excuse that she'd have only one love in her lifetime was the most efficient way to flee from the faint feelings she'd developed for him. For a while, that had let her suppress her emotions toward Sung Taekyung.
But that was only "for a while."
Today, through his words and actions toward her, she'd finally realized it. She still harbored heterosexual feelings for him and had merely been suppressing them with a pathetic excuse.
'Your husband must've had broad shoulders and muscles like mine.'
'Plus, since he was originally a male hunter, he probably had a lot in common with me.'
The very first reason she'd felt heterosexual emotions toward Sung Taekyung was because, deep down, she'd already seen him as similar to her husband.
His desperate efforts to become a hunter despite being a man. And as he grew, his height and muscles became increasingly similar.
The moment she recalled how he'd grown to the point where she could say everything but his face was identical, Kang Eunyoung was swept into the most chaotic wave of emotions of her life.
And what about the attitude he'd shown her today?
'It worries me when you handle your body so roughly—not as a mother, but as Eunyoung.'
'I want to repay even a little of the grace you've shown raising me all this time.'
His demeanor, as if he'd mix bodies with her anytime she wanted, had slightly crumbled the sturdy wall in her heart. Her body, unaccustomed to intimate relations for over twenty years, had already grown excited without her knowledge.
Every time she pictured Sung Taekyung's face, her body twitched and jolted uncontrollably.
'From now on, I'll call you noona. I'm heading back, Eunyoung noona.'
"Hngh…!!"
How long had it been since she'd heard "Eunyoung noona"? Seeing him utter the exact same pet name her departed husband had used for her, she was instantly swept into the delusion that he and her husband might be the same person.
And the abnormal feelings she held for him spread uncontrollably.
"He's my son, my son…. Don't think weird things…."
Though the two children weren't bound by blood, she'd raised them both single-handedly, and she took pride in that. She'd just been thinking it was finally time to rest.
For her, who planned to drift through the rest of her life without further responsibilities, Sung Taekyung's bewildering actions were more than enough to plunge her body and mind into turmoil.
Though she'd somehow managed to send him away today, if that child she saw as her own came tempting her the same way tomorrow, could she shake it off?
Maybe the day after, or the one after that. If he sincerely embraced her and said he loved her, could she deny these feelings?
Even as such thoughts flashed through Kang Eunyoung's mind, she pushed her emotions aside by thinking of her one and only daughter.
As a mother, she knew better than anyone the feelings her daughter had held for him since childhood. It wouldn't do for her to interfere with her daughter's romance.
She'd already put in so much effort to keep him from being labeled a kid raised without a father. She doubted she could bear the guilt toward her two children after indulging in one moment of pleasure.
Kang Eunyoung decided in that instant to suppress these exposed emotions once more. Forever, eternally.
Having somehow succeeded in drawing out "Eunyoung noona's" emotions, I headed straight home and summoned Esila.
I felt the need to have someone verify if my current actions were on the right track.
In the past, I wouldn't have had the means to judge if I was doing well or not, but now I had SI, someone—no, something—I could confide everything in.
I cut straight to the chase with the summoned Esila, asking about my actions toward Eunyoung noona.
'Esila, am I doing the right thing right now?'
Judging by the rise in estimated acquisition points for S-rank hunter Kang Eunyoung, the master's plan appears to be progressing in a positive direction.
It wasn't a firm confirmation, but it was a reasonably positive response.
Just hearing that gave my actions some sense of legitimacy.
Of course, even if things seemed to be going well right now, there was still work left to do.
Kang Hyeun, who was basically my girlfriend at this point. No matter what anyone else thought, I had to explain this situation to her.
The thought that the road ahead was still long made my mind quite complicated.
Sure, there was the option of keeping it secret from Hyeun and just having sex with Eunyoung noona where her eyes couldn't reach….
Warning. This action carries significant risk.
'I know that.'
No matter how trashy I was, I didn't have the integrity to pull off something that low.
Some might find it ridiculous that I, already sleeping around with multiple women despite having a girlfriend, was applying my own moral standards.
Even so, I only moved according to the criteria I'd set for myself.
Especially this relationship with Eunyoung noona—it had started way beyond the moral line I'd drawn from the beginning.
To somehow pull this act back toward that line, I had to seek her forgiveness as much as possible.
That was the bare minimum conscience I could show Hyeun.
"…She's probably in the middle of combat inside a dungeon right now."
Considering the time she'd finish hunting, it'd be around five in the afternoon. If I sent a text or KakaoTalk message now, she'd probably read it by evening.
Today, I'd tell her everything.
About how my awakening ability worked, and that it wasn't limited to swordsmanship.
About the urgent quests, the conditions that triggered them.
And that it just happened to trigger with her mother, so I had no choice but to have sex with Eunyoung noona.
I had to explain everything I could say, or she'd never understand.
This was the moment to reveal all of me to Hyeun.