The Narrow Gate (8)
If the first two had crammed knowledge into me, Yoon Seo-a helped me actually absorb it.
She distilled the key points, organized them, and drew up tables so they would be easy to memorize.
Compared to my original slapdash method of scribbling notes and stuffing things into my head, what Yoon Seo-a taught me was nothing short of revolutionary.
The problem, of course, was those wicked hands of hers that kept fondling my body.
"Seo-a, what if someone sees you doing that?"
"It's fine. My body is blocking the view, so no one can really see you, Ha-eun."
"Even so, sitting this close is bound to look suspicious—ngh."
The hand slipping under my clothes startled a sound out of me. I hastily clamped a hand over my mouth and checked around us. Fortunately, no one seemed to have heard.
I breathed a silent sigh of relief, then whipped my head around to glare at Yoon Seo-a.
"Seriously, not now. You know as well as I do that if we get caught here, there's no coming back from it."
"When have I ever cared about that sort of thing?"
Well, she had a point. If she'd been worried about getting caught, she wouldn't have done what she did in the infirmary when Shin So-hye walked in. Thinking that, I jabbed the arm that had gone under my clothes with the pen in my hand.
Apparently not expecting me to do that, Yoon Seo-a flinched for a moment, then looked at me.
"That hurts, Ha-eun."
"It was supposed to. I'm seriously warning you—absolutely not when other people are around."
I didn't want strangers finding out, but more than anything, I absolutely did not want Su-ryeon and Chae-rin to catch us.
Of course, Su-ryeon had pretty much already figured it out—but getting caught in the act was a completely different story.
When I spoke in a rigidly hard voice, Yoon Seo-a let out a hum, then brought her face close and said,
"Then tell me what happened with Hong Su-ryeon in the bathroom, and I'll take my arm out."
"In the... bathroom?"
"From what I heard from Hong Su-ryeon in passing, something about sweating..."
The meaningful look in her eyes suggested she'd already drawn her own conclusions.
In other words, that Su-ryeon had done something lewd to me the way she herself would.
How ridiculous. She really thought everyone else was just like her.
I snorted at the sight and said curtly,
"Does Su-ryeon look like the kind of person who'd do weird things to me the way you do? Nothing happened."
"Nothing happened... Then why would Hong Su-ryeon say something like that to me?"
"I don't know what she said, but truly nothing happened. The sweating was just... because I felt a bit unwell for a moment."
I'd left a lot out, but there was no lie in those words. So I spoke to Yoon Seo-a with a confident attitude.
She studied me for a moment as if gauging the truth, then shrugged and pulled her arm out from under my clothes.
"Fine. I'll believe what you're saying is true, Ha-eun."
"It's not about believing—it's the truth, so—ah!"
The hand that clamped firmly over my chest through my clothes made me barely suppress the moan that nearly burst out as I glared at Yoon Seo-a.
"Don't look at me like that, Ha-eun. It's not 'under the clothes,' is it?"
"Word games...! Ngh!"
"By the way, you seem awfully sensitive, Ha-eun. Even through your clothes—and with underwear on top of that, double layers—and you're still reacting like this... Hmm?"
Muttering that, Yoon Seo-a made a puzzled sound and squeezed my chest with more force.
Thanks to that I had to bite the back of my hand to hold back a moan, but she paid it no mind, continuing to fondle as if pondering something, then spoke in a voice of realization.
"I thought it felt different from usual—you're wearing one without underwire?"
"And whose fault is that...!"
"Well, mine, of course. No one else would have been touching your chest, Ha-eun."
Yoon Seo-a said it with a completely unbothered face. I looked at her with irritated eyes.
As if destroying one in the infirmary hadn't been enough, Yoon Seo-a had ruined two more over the past few days.
Whether it was because she was working out her urges by touching me without overlapping our bodies, or because the hardness of the underwire made it hard to feel the chest properly when she groped, I couldn't tell—but she gripped so mercilessly when she touched that they'd all been ruined and had to be thrown out.
And that wasn't the end of Yoon Seo-a's tyranny.
Since you don't have much chest anyway, wouldn't it be fine to just wear pasties and go around?
She'd even said that outrageous thing, scraping at my nerves.
W-well, sure, my—no, Yu Ha-eun's body was scrawny, that was true, but it wasn't like there was nothing there! There was something...!
For all those combined reasons, I was wearing a high-end brand bralette that wouldn't fall apart under Yoon Seo-a's hands.
Yoon Seo-a fondled my chest for a long while, then said offhandedly,
"Still, it's not as good as touching bare skin."
"Stop touching me! We're really going to get caught at this rate!"
"Ha-eun. I told you just a moment ago, didn't I? That I'd make you memorize it even if you didn't want to."
"What does that have to do with you touching my chest right now—mmph...!"
When Yoon Seo-a precisely pressed her finger into the spot where my nipple was, I just buried my face in the table.
Regardless, Yoon Seo-a continued speaking.
"There's something called the associative memory method. For example, if I keep repeating the word 'dog' while thinking of you, Ha-eun, eventually the moment I think of you, the word 'dog' will immediately come to mind."
So she was saying she'd use the sensation of groping my body with some associative memory technique to make me perfectly memorize what we were studying right now?
After a moment's thought, I twisted my face and hissed at Yoon Seo-a in a small voice,
"Stimulating the body has nothing to do with that...!"
"Oh my, did I get caught?"
"Caught or not, you never even tried to hide it—ngh!"
"Well, it is true that the brain works faster under extreme conditions."
Squeezing my chest firmly, Yoon Seo-a continued.
"From now on, we're going to do a memorization test. I'll say the beginning or the end of a particular sentence from among the many written in the notebook, and you'll recite the original full sentence out loud."
"H-how am I supposed to do that!"
"Of course you can't at first. If you could memorize everything from the start, you wouldn't be in this situation, Ha-eun."
I wanted to retort something to that mocking voice, but if I let my guard down even a little with those fingers teasing my chest, a loud sound was sure to come out.
As I covered my mouth and kept my head down, Yoon Seo-a went on.
"If you successfully complete the sentence, nothing happens. But if you make even a single character mistake, then like this."
"Nngh...!"
When she pinched the thoroughly stimulated bud between her thumb and forefinger, my body trembled as if electricity had run through it.
Yoon Seo-a smiled sweetly at the sight.
"I'll do that. Got it?"
"Nngh, haah...!"
"If you don't want the others to find out, you'll have to study hard, won't you, Ha-eun?"
Vicious bitch. I glared at her with tear-brimmed eyes.
Even that seemed to please Yoon Seo-a, for she smiled.
Meanwhile, Hong Su-ryeon, who had been deeply absorbed in her studies, suddenly turned her head to look at the clock.
Already 10 PM.
They'd come to Yoon Seo-a's room a little after four in the afternoon after classes, and factoring in the brief tea time and the conversation with Yu Ha-eun in the bathroom, they'd started the study session proper around five.
Excluding the seventy minutes of the test and the time spent teaching Yu Ha-eun, that meant roughly three hours of nonstop studying.
In terms of pure solo study time it was no different from usual, but perhaps because of the earlier test and the time spent teaching Ha-eun, she felt more mentally fatigued than usual.
The others... are working hard.
Except for the occasional exchange when something was confusing, the only sounds from the round table where the three of them sat were the scratch of pens and paper.
Even Shin So-hye, whom she'd met for the first time today and who'd given a somewhat unreliable impression, was silently focused on her studies.
Looking at how she studied, the test scores from earlier made sense. The vacant look she'd shown in conversation was gone; she was fully concentrated.
I wonder how Ha-eun is doing...
She hadn't been able to pay much attention while studying herself, but since it was Yoon Seo-a's turn to teach—not just anyone—she'd glanced toward Yu Ha-eun from time to time between her own work.
Unlike with her or Yeon Chae-rin, the way Seo-a sat right up against her teaching made her blood boil a little for no reason, but from what she could see in those glances, nothing particularly strange seemed to be happening.
Occasionally Yu Ha-eun would have her head down, but it looked like she was just struggling with the material.
She never did that when she was with me.
Hong Su-ryeon felt a swell of pride at the thought. She had no idea how inflated Yoon Seo-a's study skills really were, but when it came to teaching, she was confident she was far superior to Seo-a.
Still, it was about time to call for a break. Everyone would have lost track of how much time had passed while studying.
Thinking that, Hong Su-ryeon clapped her hands. The sudden sound in the quiet space made everyone who'd been focused on their notebooks look her way.
But she didn't fluster, smiling as she spoke.
"I'm sorry to interrupt while everyone's concentrating, but how about we take a break soon? It's already ten o'clock."
"Al-already that late...?"
"Yeah, I am getting pretty hungry..."
"Now that you mention it, we haven't even had dinner..."
At Yeon Chae-rin's dazed words, Shin So-hye muttered as if in reply, placing a hand on her stomach.
As they said, having focused so hard on studying that they'd missed mealtime, everyone was hungry without exception.
Of course, the short tea time with snacks and tea had kept them going, but that had been hours ago.
And Hong Su-ryeon, who hadn't put a single snack in her mouth during that tea time and had only drunk tea, was hungrier than the rest.
Thank you, Chae-rin, So-hye.
She'd felt like mentioning it first would be like losing to Yoon Seo-a, so she hadn't been able to say anything—but thanks to the two of them, she now had a reason to speak up.
Hong Su-ryeon said with a brighter face than usual,
"Then shall we go to the cafeteria and grab something light to eat? It should still be open."
"There's no need for that. If you call the cafeteria and order whatever you'd like, they'll deliver it right to the room."
"...What? Delivery?"
"Yes. And they're open year-round."
So this was the service of Acacia Hall. While Hong Su-ryeon was blankly thinking that, Yeon Chae-rin suddenly raised her hand and asked,
"Can we order anything we want?"
"As long as the cafeteria has the ingredients, of course."
"What are you planning to get?"
"Miso ramen."
Ra...men? At Yeon Chae-rin's words, everyone looked at her with absurd faces without exception, but Chae-rin looked perfectly confident, as if wondering what the problem was.
Well, she is a commoner, so she might like that kind of food.
Hong Su-ryeon decided to be understanding of her friend's food preferences, even if she didn't get what was so good about that greasy broth.
"Then before we eat, would you all like to take a bath together?"
"A bath?"
"Yes. The bathroom in Acacia Hall is quite spacious, so several people can go in at once."
At Yoon Seo-a's suggestion, Hong Su-ryeon looked at Yu Ha-eun, who was still slumped over.
A mixed bath...?
She didn't know why her eyes had gone to her first, but she felt an oddly embarrassed emotion.
She couldn't understand why she'd feel that way when it was just girls bathing together. As Hong Su-ryeon fanned her flushed face with her hand for no reason, Yoon Seo-a spoke.
"Ah, but Ha-eun will be going in with me, so the three of you can go first and come out."
"Wait, what kind of arrangement is that?"
"As you can see, Ha-eun has collapsed from studying exhaustion and fallen asleep."
"...She was sleeping?"
No wonder she hadn't lifted her head even once while they were talking.
But what did Yu Ha-eun being asleep have to do with Yoon Seo-a going in with her? They could just wake her up and all go together.
When Hong Su-ryeon looked at her with eyes that said she couldn't accept it, Yoon Seo-a spoke with a composed face.
"We still have studying to do afterward, so letting Ha-eun rest even a little will improve her study efficiency. Besides, Hong Su-ryeon and the others are hungry, so wouldn't it be better to finish bathing quickly and eat?"
"But I can't leave Ha-eun alone with you. You know the reason without me having to say it."
Hong Su-ryeon said, glancing toward Shin So-hye.
She didn't want to burden someone who didn't know the circumstances. Of course, being in the same class, she might have some vague idea, but a timid girl like Shin So-hye would never have cheerfully followed along to a study session if she knew about Yoon Seo-a's misdeeds—so it was safe to assume she didn't know.
There was no need to scare her by talking about how Yoon Seo-a had harassed Yu Ha-eun or anything.
When Hong Su-ryeon took a rather firm stance, even the great Yoon Seo-a let out a sigh as if she had no choice.
"Then I'll go in with Shin So-hye, so how about the two of you go first?"
"Eh? Me?"
"With Shin So-hye..."
That might be acceptable. The one actually named, Shin So-hye, was looking back and forth between the two with a vacant face, but no one paid her any attention.
Hong Su-ryeon stepped even closer to Yoon Seo-a and growled in a whisper only she could hear.
"Fine. But if you try anything funny with Ha-eun, I won't forgive you."
"Yes, yes, I know. Aren't you being a little too distrustful of me? I thought we'd gotten a bit closer."
"Closer? Who with whom."
It was all because she was worried about Ha-eun. Having answered that way, Hong Su-ryeon huffed and turned around.
"Chae-rin, let's go bathe first. And So-hye?"
"Y-yes?"
"I can't tell you the detailed reason, but... please keep a good eye on Yoon Seo-a so she doesn't try anything."
"K-keep an eye...?"
"I'm counting on you."
Having repeatedly entrusted the dazed-looking Shin So-hye, Hong Su-ryeon glared toward Yoon Seo-a, then sharply turned her head and went downstairs with Yeon Chae-rin.
At that, Yoon Seo-a smirked, then stroked the back of the slumped Yu Ha-eun and whispered,
"Hong Su-ryeon is so devoted. Looking at how much she cares for you, Ha-eun."
Perhaps she feels the same way I do. At those words, the slumped Yu Ha-eun trembled and lifted her head.
The face that had been hidden by the table was redder than it had ever been.
"There's no way Su-ryeon is a pervert like you...!"