1.5. My Sleeping Senior
Sirin reached toward the unconscious Seollin.
Soft.
The first place her hand found was a cheek.
When she pressed her index finger gently into the exposed skin, the soft flesh yielded and slowly sprang back.
"Team Leader?"
There was no answer.
"Senior. Heh heh…"
Even changing the form of address didn't make those eyelids stir. Sirin released Seollin's hands from her own and caught the collapsing body against her chest.
Seollin's forehead dropped against her shoulder with a soft thud. With the strength gone from her neck, her head lolled to the side, and a few strands of black hair tickled Sirin's throat and chin.
Sirin stayed like that for a moment.
Sniff, haah…
She breathed in the scent.
For a month she'd tried again and again to get close, but Seollin had always pushed her away first. Even when Sirin had carried her to her room, she'd gotten an earful of scolding; even when she'd put a finger in her mouth, thick disgust had shown plain on Seollin's face.
Now there was no resistance at all.
"You're really asleep, right…?"
She carefully removed the goggles. The hair that had been pushed up fell free and settled naturally.
The face that was usually full of nothing but irritation had softened in sleep into something with a different flavor entirely.
Softly… softly…
Sirin traced her thumb along the corner of an eye.
Softly…
Then she drew her fingertip down along the bridge of that straight nose and the edge of those lips.
Soft.
The lips were a little dry.
Still springy, though…?
Press.
When she pressed the lower lip with her fingertip, a small gap opened.
The memory of the finger that had been playing with her own tongue just a little while ago rose up, and Sirin's star-shaped pupils curved into thin crescents.
"You touched me with this hand and then fall asleep first? How is that fair. Heehee."
She was complaining, but her voice was full of delight.
Sirin lifted Seollin's right hand.
Calluses lingered on the palm — the kind left by someone who held pens and equipment for long hours. The joints of the index and middle fingers, slightly thicker and firmer than the surrounding skin.
…If it went in, it'd be stimulating, wouldn't it?
She slipped her own fingers one by one between those long ones. She turned the tightly interlaced hands this way and that, then pressed the back of Seollin's hand to her cheek.
It was warm.
When she touched someone's mind with her power, people changed easily — but Seollin was different.
Dozens of times over the past month she'd pushed alterations in, and Seollin had stripped every last one of them away. There had been moments of wavering, but she always returned to her place by reciting common sense back to herself.
So this time, Sirin had changed her approach.
Skin against skin, eyes locked, she'd pushed short sentences and concepts in little by little. She'd abandoned the greed of trying to change Seollin all at once. She'd concentrated her power only on blurring the edges of memory and calling up drowsiness.
And the result: Sirin now held in her arms a cute research team leader, snoring softly against her chest!
As a test, Sirin pushed a somewhat stronger suggestion into the sleeping Seollin.
The content: that Seollin believed Lee Sirin was the safest person in the facility, and that she would follow any instruction from her without suspicion going forward.
Crease.
Even in sleep, Seollin's brow furrowed at once.
Strength entered the interlaced fingers, and her wrist shifted as if trying to push Sirin's hand away.
Even unconscious, she was displaying resistance to mental pollution and attack.
"Even asleep, you still say no to what you don't like? Hmph, so unfair."
Sirin withdrew the command and soothed the back of Seollin's hand with her thumb. The stiffened fingers gradually relaxed.
If she'd been a doll that moved however Sirin pleased, the interest would have already faded. It was because she refused every touch and yet sometimes came closer on her own that she was interesting.
I'll have to savor this slowly.
Sirin laced their fingers together again through the loosened ones. This time there was no pushing force.
"…So it's not completely blocked, then?"
Softly.
Sirin tucked Seollin's hair behind her ear.
Cupping the back of her head in her palm and combing slowly downward, the smooth black strands slipped through her fingers.
She was the one who'd begged to have her head patted — and now she was the one stroking Seollin.
"Heh, heehee."
The feeling wasn't bad at all.
Her hand traveled past the nape of the neck and down to a shoulder. Beneath the white coat, a thick knit sweater was visible.
Sirin wrapped her arms around Seollin's waist.
Through the knit she could feel a slender waist and warm body heat. She tried to squeeze around the waist, but there wasn't much flesh to grab.
Soft give.
When she raised her palm a little, her hand found the underside of a full chest.
Hnn… haah… hnn…
With every breath, the soft flesh shifted minutely. The area around her chest rose and fell.
Sirin stopped right there.
A little disappointing.
Is it right to take this person's chest virginity right now — the thought skimmed across Sirin's mind.
"I'll touch this when you're awake."
She lowered her hand back to the waist.
The lips were the same.
If she stole a kiss from the sleeping Seollin, she could be satisfied for the moment, but…
What she looked forward to was the moment Seollin would open her eyes, look at her, and struggle over whether to refuse or accept. She wanted to see her trying somehow to overcome a polluted mind.
Sirin had plenty of time.
"Heh, so help me out just a little instead."
Sirin laid Seollin on the bed. After folding a towel under her head, she approached the laboratory desk.
The report was clean.
Most of the fields were empty; only the provisional designation Tiny Fairy and a no-contact notice had been written down.
Sirin filled in the blanks with a pen.
Under classification she wrote Equivalent Exchange Type; under origin, that it was presumed to be an entity branched off from the tooth fairy. She also added that it returned items of similar value when given something, and that the danger level was low.
All of it was content she'd decided just now.
What the Tiny Fairy's real ability was didn't matter.
—Because that was something Sirin decided.
Sirin took the completed paper and went to the front of the containment cell.
Beyond the glass, silver hair stirred behind the dollhouse. When the tiny woman spotted Sirin, she hid herself inside the house.
"I can see everything."
Tap-tap.
Sirin lightly rapped the glass with her finger.
The Tiny Fairy didn't come out.
"In a little while, my Team Leader is going to give you something. When you receive it, give back something similar."
A small face carefully appeared at the dollhouse window.
"You know what to do if you don't have anything, right?"
Side to side.
The fairy shook her head. Her four transparent wings folded in as if wrapping around her body.
Sirin looked at the tiny woman with her star-shaped pupils. As a yellow light slowly turned within them, the fairy's face went rigid.
That anything received must be paid for, and that if there was nothing in the house, she would pay with her own body. One wing would be enough — this new common sense entered the tiny head.
The fairy covered her mouth with both hands and stepped backward. With tears welling in her eyes, she looked back and forth between Sirin and her own wings.
"Don't cry. The Team Leader will worry, you know."
Tremble-tremble.
The fairy's body shook even harder.
Sirin turned away, satisfied.
Next was the signature.
Returning to the cot, Sirin carefully lifted Seollin's body. Sliding one arm behind her back and supporting beneath the knees with the other, she found she could lift even the taller Seollin without much difficulty.
After seating her in the laboratory chair, she pressed close from behind and supported her waist. The sleeping head rested against Sirin's shoulder. The chest pressed flat by the knit sweater settled heavily onto her arm.
"Team Leader only trusts what she's written with her own hand, right?"
Sirin put a pen in Seollin's right hand. Overlaying her own hand on top, she wrote a name at the end of the report.
Seollin.
At first the strokes were crooked, but after repeating the attempt several times, she could copy Seollin's other signatures. She practiced until the rounded strokes and the habit of lifting the ends were close enough, and the failed papers she tore into fine shreds and buried deep in the disposal bin.
The final signature was reasonably convincing.
Sirin set down the pen and brushed Seollin's cheek with the back of her hand.
"Now the Team Leader thinks she wrote the report herself!"
The starlight turned again.
When she pushed the sentences in all at once, Seollin's eyebrows twitched. Even in sleep, she seemed to be resisting.
Sirin reduced her greed.
She left only the short content that the report was familiar, the transaction was safe, and that she herself had slept for ten minutes. This time Seollin's expression eased.
Heehee.
Sirin smiled, satisfied.
Standing behind the chair, she tipped Seollin's body forward.
She set the folded arms on the desk and laid the head so the cheek rested on them. She even adjusted the position so the edge of the report wouldn't poke her face.
She set the goggles neatly to the side. She smoothed the collar of the white coat and tidied the rumpled knit with her palm. Finally she gathered the hair to one side so the face would show clearly.
The sleeping Seollin's lips parted slightly.
Over a few breaths, drool gathered at the corner of her mouth. A transparent thread stretched long across the report.
"Cute! So cute! So much better without the goggles!"
Sirin went around to the opposite side and planted both hands on the desk. When she bent at the waist, their faces drew close.
From a distance where their noses nearly touched, she gazed at Seollin's sleeping face. Her finger drifted toward the corner of the mouth again.
Flutter.
Seollin's eyelids trembled faintly.
Sirin drew even closer just like that.
At last, Seollin opened her eyes.