Adjusting After Coming Home (2)
"Juhyuk!"
"Geon hyung!"
Park Geon’s voice rang out from behind Ha Yujeong.
He hurried over and came to a stop in front of Kang Juhyuk, then set a hand on his shoulder and nodded with a broad, relieved smile. He was clearly overjoyed that the only member of his team who’d fallen behind had made it out alive.
"Thank God. I’m really glad you’re safe."
"Hyung... I’m sorry. Because of me..."
They seemed to be saying something like that, but Ha Yujeong looked away.
It was a relief that he was safe, but that was his business, not hers. As long as he’d survived without serious injury, it wasn’t something she needed to concern herself with. And it wasn’t the kind of conversation worth eavesdropping on anyway.
Ha Yujeong guessed that the reason this gate takedown had dragged on so long was because they’d been trying to rescue that man, Juhyuk.
The important part was the other side.
The woman striding toward her with a self-satisfied swagger.
She called herself Choi Eunho. She was wearing a jersey and T-shirt soaked through with blood.
...And she’d come out wrapped in a ragged scrap of cloth tied around her waist.
"Well? Perfect, right?"
"For Choi Eunho, you’re a little late, aren’t you?"
"What can I say? I was busy saving people. Isn’t that enough?"
"Yes. That would be enough."
She was undeniably a professional. Gate cleared, no casualties. Whatever problems Choi Eunho caused, this much was obvious: when it came to work, she was a pro.
Well, she had no flaws in her professional life. It was her private life that was a disaster.
Being delayed was a deduction, but preventing casualties was a plus.
As Ha Yujeong nodded and let it go, the woman who called herself Choi Eunho let a sly smile creep over her mouth.
It was that irritating expression Choi Eunho always wore whenever she’d pulled something off.
Ha Yujeong let out a dry laugh. On the original face, it had been infuriating. On this unfamiliar beauty, it was almost tolerable.
"Then let’s settle my part first. I already explained how I ended up like this, didn’t I? Once we’re back, the solution is..."
"Eunha noona!"
"Ungh...!"
But that smug face shattered the instant Kang Juhyuk’s voice came from behind her.
The woman who’d been acting Choi Eunho so perfectly just a moment ago suddenly seemed to lose the role altogether.
Her face shifted into something flustered, embarrassed, unmistakably female.
...Huh?
The woman in front of her, who had just looked like Choi Eunho with only her appearance changed, transformed into someone entirely different—someone Ha Yujeong didn’t know at all.
Whether she understood that confusion or not, Kang Juhyuk suddenly cut in and bowed, offering his thanks with a bright smile.
Park Geon, standing beside him, did the same.
"Eunha noona, thank you!"
"Hunter, thank you. I’ll come back later with something to repay you."
"Yeah, me too! I’ll come with Geon hyung!"
"S-Stop it. J-just go! Hurry up and go!"
It was a simple exchange of gratitude.
Without Choi Eunho’s help, the two of them might very well have died. There was nothing strange about thanking a benefactor for saving their lives.
And yet Eunha was waving them off with a frantic, almost shooing motion, as if trying to drive Kang Juhyuk away.
"Ah, Eunha noona. You asked for my phone number, right?"
"N-no. Shit. Do you have to say that right now?"
"Huh? You said to give it to you once we got out."
"The way you say it makes it sound like I’m hitting on you, you bastard. Haah... Just say it quickly and get lost."
"Yes, ma’am!"
Kang Juhyuk looked thrilled as he took out a scrap of paper, wrote down a number, folded it neatly, and handed it over to Eunha with both hands.
Eunha snatched it from him with a sharp clap, almost like she was slapping his hand away, then shoved the paper into her jersey pocket as casually as she could manage.
Kang Juhyuk wore a very excited expression, and Park Geon, watching the scene, looked back and forth between Juhyuk and Eunha twice before patting Juhyuk’s shoulder twice and giving him a thumbs-up.
Ha Yujeong watched the absurd little performance in silence, thinking it was genuinely ridiculous. But the moment Park Geon and Kang Juhyuk turned and walked away, she let out a hollow laugh and addressed Eunha.
"...Eunha, noona?"
"Tch. It was just a fake name. This face wouldn’t make sense with Choi Eunho. Besides, I didn’t want some bastard like that learning I’m Choi Eunho."
"...Eunha. Noona?"
"Shit. I told you to call me Hunter! But he keeps ignoring me and calling me noona!"
If that really was Choi Eunho’s personality...
Wouldn’t she have beaten down anyone who kept ignoring her like that?
Ha Yujeong had that thought, but she stopped herself before going any further.
There was something else bothering her more.
"What’s with the phone number?"
"...Why do you care?"
"It’s not really my business, but..."
Ha Yujeong narrowed her eyes.
She looked over Eunha’s appearance again, as if scrutinizing her.
Now that she thought about it, beneath the cloth wrapped around her lower half, it looked like she wasn’t wearing anything at all.
Just a little... maybe a very little, but it almost seemed like something was showing through.
A silhouette. A line. Faintly.
Maybe her clothes had been torn off during the fight. Still, something about it felt off. Very slightly off.
She’d been covered in vaginal fluid and sweat the first time they met too, hadn’t she?
Ha Yujeong hadn’t mistaken her for a toy Choi Eunho had dragged along for no reason.
And yet.
Suddenly.
Twenty-six hours inside the gate.
A surviving man suddenly calling her "noona."
He’d fetched her phone number.
"Shit. Why are you glaring at me? Open your damn eyes properly."
"...Yes, yes. I’m starting to feel sick too, so I’ll stop thinking about it."
No way.
No matter how you looked at it, that couldn’t be it.
She’d had the nauseating thought, and now Ha Yujeong felt queasy all over again.
"Then for now... I’ll drive you back to the apartment. We can talk tomorrow about what you wanted. Choi Eunho."
"...Call me Chae Eunha."
"Pardon?"
"When I look like this, call me Chae Eunha. I’ve even made up an identity for it."
Since she’d decided to use a fake name for the time being.
Chae Eunha said that and moved ahead of Ha Yujeong, heading for the car she’d arrived in.
Ha Yujeong watched the back of her figure with a complicated expression.
She looked like Choi Eunho, and yet something about her was wrong.
It was as if Choi Eunho’s traits and something else entirely had become mixed together.
She didn’t want to think about what had happened inside the gate—but she was curious.
Even if the rescue of Kang Juhyuk had delayed them, could it really have taken twenty-six hours?
But Ha Yujeong’s thoughts didn’t linger long.
Because—
"W-wait a second. You’re getting in like that? You’re covered in blood. I have towels, so please wait a moment. Let me wipe you down and put a towel on the seat too!!"
"I don’t care. Shit."
Thud.
"Ah, shit! Choi... Chae Eunhaaa!!"
Because Chae Eunha, drenched in beast blood, climbed into the passenger seat of Ha Yujeong’s private car without wiping herself off.
And so Ha Yujeong never noticed the semen running down between Chae Eunha’s legs.
.
Home.
I was home.
Home, after so long.
It had only been a day, maybe two?
And yet it had taken forever.
It was already late at night when Ha Yujeong dropped me off and left.
I wasn’t tired, exactly, but it was late, and I was in no condition to do much of anything.
I also wanted to shower immediately, so I said okay.
The place had been cleaned up neatly.
They must have called in a cleaning service right after shoving me into the gate.
Then again, even if I hadn’t been Choi Eunho, if the real Choi Eunho had come home and seen the apartment in that state, she would’ve harassed Ha Yujeong about it right away.
They’d probably just done what needed to be done in advance.
The moment I opened the door and stepped into the entryway, I started undressing.
These clothes were already torn to pieces from fighting the beast, and they were soaked with filthy blood besides. There was no way I could wear them.
When I pulled off my shirt, my chest—lacking even a bra—was tugged upward by the fabric before bobbing and falling back into place.
I ripped off the cloth wrapped around my waist like it was a nuisance to be torn apart, then bundled up the trash that used to be called clothes.
I opened the chute built into the entryway—the one that dropped straight into the basement trash pit—and tossed everything inside.
The scrap of paper with Kang Juhyuk’s number on it went in with the rest.
I didn’t even plan to keep it. Tracking someone like Kang Juhyuk was easy enough anyway.
A twenty-year-old D-rank hunter attached to a hunter team named Park Geon. One call to any private investigator, and they’d pull his address, his past records, and the locations of everyone he knew in no time.
Asking for the number was just a warning. It meant: I’m watching you, so don’t go around saying stupid things.
Don’t go telling people you slept with Chae Eunha. Don’t go spreading that Chae Eunha is a slut. Don’t leave behind some filthy little rumor about her sleeping with anyone.
It was ridiculous.
Using it like some sort of badge from a date. What was that supposed to be? Joking around or something?
And that look on his face—what, were you excited? What the hell was Park Geon doing, giving me a thumbs-up? Did he think I was the one trying to get his number?
I really wanted to kill him, but there had been too many people around, so I’d held back.
And why the hell did he keep calling me Eunha noona? I told him not to call me that.
Anyway. There was absolutely no way I’d look for Kang Juhyuk in private.
The only time I’d ever meet him again was if he said something stupid and I went over to kill him.
I walked through the living room naked, passing the sofa still stained with my own fluids, and headed into the bedroom where I’d had my one-night stand.
The bedding, which had been covered in the evidence of sex, had been replaced completely with fresh sheets and a new blanket.
Even the mirror on the wall by the entrance to the master bath had been swapped out.
She was a bothersome woman, but she’d always been quick and efficient at her job. She’d probably met that mage, Shin Jaecheol, and tried tracing Choi Eunho too.
What, did nothing come up? The way she half accepted it and called me Choi Eunho as soon as she saw me made it sound like that.
I stood in front of the large mirror outside the shower room.
For the first time since I changed, I looked straight at the body I’d previously ignored because I hadn’t even wanted to think about it.
My head was calm now, so I could look at it coldly.
With my urges already satisfied, I could examine Chae Eunha completely from Choi Eunho’s point of view.
Long silver hair that fell to my waist.
Red eyes framed by long lashes.
My face was the sort that looked cute by default, but changed dramatically depending on my expression.
Even without any makeup, it was already this level. If I put some on, I’d probably be outrageous.
About 160 centimeters tall, maybe a little more. Kang Juhyuk felt a little shorter than me by a head.
Balloon-like breasts. Maybe G-cups?
Looking at my shoulders and upper body, they weren’t all that broad. I had a delicate frame. With a body this small and breasts this large, they were closer to H-cups, really.
Among the women I’d played around with, there were maybe only two who were this big. Their faces had been awkward too.
And just looking lower made the whole thing seem absurdly massive, bouncing violently with every step. I already knew that, of course.
Even at the gate entrance, people had been staring every time I walked past. Men and women alike.
Of course they had.
Beyond being sexual, a body this huge was the kind of thing people would stare at just out of sheer curiosity.
A ridiculously narrow waist contrasted with breasts that didn’t lose to the ass.
It was almost laughable how all the flesh seemed to be concentrated in the exact points that mattered most.
There wasn’t a speck of softness on my abdomen, but it didn’t feel toned either.
I wasn’t expecting some flashy six-pack, but there wasn’t even that distinctive line of muscle I drew across the body. Just soft flesh.
Come to think of it, my arms didn’t really feel muscular either. Thin, weak-looking. No wonder I’d be helpless if my Blessing disappeared.
Turning around, I saw the plump, rounded apple of my ass jutting out beneath my smooth back.
Unbelievable. Did it only have muscle in the places that made the ass look perky? A body designed only to be sexy.
My skin was flawless—no moles, no blemishes, not a single mark to be seen.
It was smooth and white, so pale it almost looked like a doll’s, or silicone.
Only when you looked closely could you make out the tiny veins beneath it that proved I was human.
There wasn’t a single imperfection anywhere on this body. That impossibly unreal, alien scent.
It was probably because this flesh itself had been made by it.
The body’s climax mechanism and instincts were strange enough as they were. Why would its appearance be any different?
A body made to be pinned beneath a man.
Not Choi Eunho, who forced others into submission, but Chae Eunha, who existed to submit.
"Chae Eunha, you slut."
I insulted myself in the mirror.
Chae Eunha in the glass looked pleased to hear it.
It was disgusting.