I Became the Academy's Veteran Player in the Novel
The next morning, at eight o'clock.
Having driven off the ghost story, the group gathered around and ate room service breakfast together.
By pure coincidence, Yujin had taken the seat next to mine.
"Hey."
"Hm?"
"You want this drumstick?"
She held up a piece of fried chicken with her chopsticks, showing it to me. Of the two drumsticks on the platter, Seo Yujin had hastily claimed one for herself ahead of everyone else, but her stomach must have been full, because now she was offering it to me.
"Why? You're not eating it?"
Yoon Seokhyeon stopped his busy chopsticks mid-air.
"I don't like drumsticks. You eat it. Eat lots."
Seo Yujin demurely placed the drumstick on the plate in front of me.
Her expression looked, somehow, rather pleased with herself.
Yoon Seokhyeon glanced back and forth between the drumstick sitting on my plate and me.
Then he turned his head away with a blank face.
Ah-ha.
So that's jealousy, huh.
I picked up the drumstick and took a big, delicious bite.
Crunch.
The freshly fried, crispy chicken skin and the tender, perfectly brined meat melted together in my mouth.
Seo Yujin asked,
"Is it good?"
I nodded.
"Delicious."
Eat lots of protein so you cum plenty tonight♡
So that's what it was.
We finished breakfast quickly, freshened up, and headed up to the ninth floor.
The ninth floor was just as quiet, without a single soul in sight.
Still, just to be safe, we combed the entire floor from corner to corner.
I opened the bathroom stalls one by one and checked inside.
Nothing unusual.
I had just finished inspecting the bathroom and was about to head out when Yoon Seokhyeon's voice drifted in from outside.
"He wasn't supposed to bring Kim Ian."
I stopped instinctively.
Then Glasses's voice followed.
"Why?"
"He told me earlier. Now that we're here, he says S-rank isn't anything special at all. Asked why he was out there preaching about money he made off something so pathetic."
Huh? When did I ever—
"What? Ian said that? Seriously?"
Glasses sounded genuinely shocked too.
"Yeah."
Yoon Seokhyeon. You little shit.
I ate one drumstick and you're out here turning a whole man into a son of a bitch.
Well, fine.
But Glasses. We've been getting along, haven't we?
We built up a bit of a bond, didn't we?
You trust me, right?
Glasses's voice came again.
"This is why you shouldn't be nice to Nametag S-ranks. Act friendly with them for a second and they forget their damn place and start strutting around. Someone should petition the academy to create a U-rank or something above S-rank, for real."
Why, you fucking piece of—
Yoon Seokhyeon let out a sigh.
"Haah. Still, let's not actually say anything to him."
Oh, you—
Setting the fire and then stepping back from the flames, huh? I see how it is.
Glasses spoke up.
"Why not? He deserves a sharp little wake-up call."
Please.
Please, do go ahead.
That way I can settle the score too.
Yoon Seokhyeon muttered, sounding resigned.
"Forget it. He's just giddy, that's all. A few days from now we walk out of here, get famous, get paid — of course he's excited. Until like a week ago his life was F-rank gutter trash, and now he's about to get scouted by a major guild. You'd be high on it too."
"Ah. Kim Ian, that bastard. And here I thought he was decent.
Tsk. Guess not."
You son of a bitch.
Verify it's true first, you absolute donkey.
"That hallway's all clear too."
Chubby's voice rang out.
"Where's Kim Ian?"
It was Seo Yujin's voice.
Made sense that she'd look for me first — her life was more or less in my hands.
"Hey, you guys..."
Glasses relayed the story he'd just heard from Yoon Seokhyeon.
"Seriously? Ian actually said that?"
When Yujin asked him to repeat it, Yoon Seokhyeon nodded.
"Yeah.
Yujin, you watch yourself."
"Hm?"
"He's been sneaking glances at you since before we came in here."
"...What?"
"Looks like he's interested in you. Now that his confidence is through the roof, I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to confess."
Yujin let out a short laugh.
"Oh, come on. No way."
"...If he did confess, would you actually say yes?"
"M-me? Are you insane?"
"Right?"
There was real relief in Yoon Seokhyeon's voice.
"I'd rather be trapped in this ghost story forever than date some guy whose foundation is F-ra—"
I stepped out of the bathroom.
"Nothing over here either."
All four of them stared at me in silence.
Yoon Seokhyeon hastily changed the subject.
"Ahem. Let's each grab a room and rest until the next room service."
Glasses brushed past, giving my shoulder a light smack.
"By the way, do we really need to eat meals together? Let's just eat separately. Fuck. Eating next to you ruins my appetite."
We grabbed our rooms as usual and unpacked.
Knock knock.
A timid knock at the door.
Too early for the ghost story to come calling.
"Who is it?"
"Me."
Seo Yujin's voice.
I opened the door.
The cute face beneath those twintails looked up at me.
"Ian. Later tonight, what time do you want to—"
"Let's skip it today."
"Huh?"
At my curt tone, Seo Yujin's pupils trembled.
"I'm tired."
"..."
Her gaze dropped, deflated.
So he did hear what I said earlier.
I scratched the back of my neck and spoke like it was all a bother.
"We went plenty of rounds yesterday. Skipping one day won't kill us, right?"
"B-but then the demon poison I worked so hard to draw out will just spread again, so maybe we could just..."
I stared at Seo Yujin with a perfectly blank expression.
She forced an awkward smile.
"Hey. Did you happen to hear earlier? The F-rank thing. Is that why you're sulking? They just say stuff like that because everyone's caught up in the mood—"
I cut her off, sharp as a blade.
"Don't care. Think of me however you want."
Click.
I left her standing in the hallway and shut the door.
Late at night, in the small hours.
The eleventh floor.
Seo Yujin stared blankly up at the ceiling.
She lay sprawled across the wide bed, wrapped in a soft comforter — but her heart was anything but at ease.
Zzz.
On the bed beside hers, Chubby snored softly.
Seo Yujin let out a long, deep sigh.
Quietly, she slid her right arm out from under the covers.
The arm that had been black all the way up to the elbow now had only her fingers darkened.
The result of taking Ian's creampies over and over again in the small hours of the previous morning.
Contrary to her initial expectations, the demon poison grew more concentrated toward her fingertips, so even identical creampies were dissolving less and less of it with each round.
At this rate, I'll need at least four or five more sessions.
If she skipped tonight, it would spread again while she slept and might creep back up to her elbow.
And if that happened, the treatment might not be finished by the time they escaped this ghost story.
And if she couldn't find a proper cure out there either... she might have to keep sleeping with Kim Ian even at the academy.
I want to finish the treatment before we get out of here, if I can.
He already had a girlfriend, and sneaking around for secret hookups at the academy — where there wasn't exactly a shortage of hiding spots but no truly private ones — wouldn't be easy.
Seo Yujin squeezed her eyes shut.
Ugh... why am I sulking over something like that?
"Your foundation is F-rank."
Words she'd thrown at him plenty of times herself.
Had that actually wounded him?
But Kim Ian called me an F-rank pussy yesterday too, didn't he?
We're even, aren't we?
The image of herself in that mirror — taking his creampie from that monstrous cock — still hadn't left her mind.
That huge cock pounding into her narrow pussy, her flesh quaking and rippling as he pumped her full of cum.
Just remembering the pleasure she'd felt then sent a fresh shiver racing down her spine.
That thick cock sliding out of her hole, the thick, potent seed it left behind drooling out in a slow stream, and herself — unable to contain the crashing waves of pleasure, squirting shamelessly, helplessly, over and over.
"Seo Yujin. Just how many times are you going to cum, huh? God, what an F-rank pussy."
She remembered herself — being berated by the very Kim Ian she'd always looked down on, squirting like a cheap whore while he did it.
The arousal only multiplied.
Mmmh.
Yujin rolled over under the covers onto her stomach.
She could deny it no longer.
Even tonight, deep down, she'd been quietly hoping to be pounded full of his cum while being degraded all over again.
She stole a glance at the bed beside her.
Zzz. Zzz.
Chubby slept on, blissfully oblivious to the world.
Flat on her stomach beneath the covers, Seo Yujin slipped a hand between her thighs.
She lightly rubbed her clit.
Her head rose without her meaning it to as she bit down on her lower lip.
"Mmnh."
In the dark silence, she fought to smother her moans.
Only days ago she'd been a pure virgin with zero experience in anything like this.
Seo Yujin remembered the words Ian had said the first time he took her from behind.
"Yujin. Lift that ass higher and drop your hips."
"L-like this?"
Under the covers, she raised her hips and lowered her back exactly as instructed.
Then she began circling her clit slowly, clockwise.
A pussy that had learned the taste of Ian's cock soaked through in no time.
Mmmh. Ian. I'm sorry.
She apologized to Kim Ian in her imagination.
I'm sorry. It was my fault.
The story about him dismissing the S-ranks as nothing special.
She'd known it was a lie.
The Bracelet of Truth had pulsed red at Yoon Seokhyeon's words.
That was the moment she should have spoken up.
But she couldn't say anything to him — the de facto leader of their club.
And the strange camaraderie of having mocked Kim Ian together as an F-rank lingered in her body like inertia, keeping her from contradicting his words.
She vowed it wouldn't happen again, starting tomorrow.
Her fingers rubbed her clit faster and faster.
Ian. Pound me until I'm screaming. You can cum inside as much as you want.
Seo Yujin recalled the dizzying feeling of Ian's thick cock dragging along her inner walls as it pushed inside.
You can suck on my nipples too.
She cupped her small breast and swirled a fingertip around her nipple.
The hand working her clit was getting wet beyond all control.
It almost surprised her — had she always been this lewd on her own?
What? You want to keep meeting like this even after we get out? But you have a girlfriend...
Yujin kept the conversation going in her head, with the Ian she imagined taking her from behind.
A kiss? ...Just this once?
Eyes closed, she stuck her tongue out and mimicked a kiss in her imagination.
Ahnn. Ian. I think I'm gonna cum again.
The imagined Kim Ian, apparently, had asked some vulgar question.
Mm. I love Ian's cock♥
It was only fantasy, so Yujin answered however she pleased.
What? You want to date me?
Hmm. Well, nothing I can do about that, I guess. Break it off cleanly with your girlfriend first, and then I'll go out with you.
She probed inside her pussy with her fingers, but it didn't give her the feeling she wanted.
You want to kiss again? You can't keep doing that. Haah.
Trailing a long thread of drool from the tip of her outstretched tongue, she rubbed her clit in a fast, frantic rhythm.
Under the covers, her hips jolted and shuddered as she tumbled over the edge into climax.
"Haa... haa..."
There had been a decent wave of pleasure washing over her whole body, certainly — but something about it felt hollow.
Mmmh. What... what is this?
This wasn't what she wanted.
That pleasure like a bitch in heat — gushing her pussy juices until her mind flew clean out of her skull.
That was what I wanted.
So that's how it is.
Only now did she understand.
Only Kim Ian could make her feel that way.
Ugh... so annoying.
Tears welled up in Seo Yujin's eyes for no reason at all.
She wiped them against her pillowcase and tossed and turned, her body burning with leftover heat.
Only when the pale blue of dawn was creeping through the window did she finally manage to fall asleep.