Adapting After the Return (8)
"What are you talking about? Of course I’ll work with you."
"Huh? You hate me too, though. Weren’t you basically working for me under duress?"
"I don’t like Choi Eunho, yes... but I don’t dislike Eunha all that much."
"Hey. Quit being creepy."
"That’s not what I mean."
It sure sounded like that to me.
I backed away in goose-bump-inducing disgust. If I’d still been Choi Eunho, I probably would’ve been thrilled to have a woman show interest like this, but in this body, it just made my instincts recoil. Hell, even if I had still been Choi Eunho, if the woman in question had been Ha Yujeong, I would’ve broken out in chills.
Ha Yujeong was kind of... like a mosquito that hung around into late autumn.
She sighed and finished dressing, smoothing out her clothes as if nothing had happened. I had no idea what was going through her head. I was the one who’d attacked her, and yet here I was, thinking she was the late-autumn mosquito.
"Anyway, if you need help adapting to life as a woman, call me. I’ll help however I can."
"What would I need help with? You can just run errands for me. Like always."
"Normally I’d say that wouldn’t be enough, but... in Eunha’s case, I suppose it might be."
She had money, power, and the sort of influence that let her shape the world around her to fit herself.
With that said, the moment I came to my senses, Ha Yujeong got ready to leave. I didn’t bother seeing her out. To be honest, I was still too embarrassed to look her in the face.
The memory of collapsing into her arms and falling asleep while crying still hit me hard. Ugh.
Chae Eunha, you fucking bitch.
I had no idea how long it would take to forget this black mark on my life.
Anyway... in the end, I never told Ha Yujeong about my plan.
The no-brainer scheme of going straight into the Great Rift and searching for the being lurking in the Void.
It wasn’t even really a plan. More like wishful thinking.
At low depths, maybe. But the Great Rift’s deeper layers were extremely dangerous.
And since the Association had already given up on dismantling the Great Rift, they didn’t recommend high-rank hunters go sightseeing in the deeper floors.
From a practical standpoint, it made more sense to use high-rank hunters to maintain public security.
Clearing gates that appeared near the city, dealing with spatial distortions, preventing monster outbreaks, and so on.
Ha Yujeong, too, would never agree to me going into a dangerous Great Rift just for a flimsy hope that I might somehow return to my original body.
If I told her the plan, she’d only get in my way.
The only option was to keep sneaking into low-depth areas, saying I was just killing monsters to blow off steam, and quietly continue my searches over time.
The problem was... this wasn’t something that would happen overnight.
It would take a long time. A long campaign. Months, years, maybe, if it dragged on badly enough, more than a decade.
And of course, I couldn’t let my desire build up that long.
If I did, I’d be swallowed whole by my strengthened instincts in a single instant and go charging off to have sex. Without even contraception.
In other words.
I needed a dildo who could periodically relieve my urges.
Someone who would go into the Great Rift with me, and make sure I didn’t lose my blessing in the meantime...
Fuck. I needed a regular sex partner, that’s what I needed.
That was why I’d gone looking for Shin Jaecheol in the first place, trying so hard not to think about sex, and now that it had come to this, there was no dodging it anymore.
At first I’d thought maybe a woman would be fine, too, but...
No. That wasn’t going to work.
Setting aside the fact that Ha Yujeong was a mosquito in late autumn, her looks had been exactly the kind Choi Eunho used to like.
And yet... I hadn’t been aroused at all. Not even a little. Instead, I’d been making stupid comparisons like, My body is prettier, isn’t it?
The fact that I’d been shocked by that alone said everything.
So... the other person had to be a man.
It was fine.
I’d made up my mind.
Sex would be Chae Eunha’s business.
It had nothing to do with Choi Eunho.
I was only relieving the pressure building in my body.
...Though, yeah, it would probably feel fucking amazing. But that was because I was Chae Eunha.
It wasn’t Choi Eunho enjoying it. Anyone would feel like that if they became Chae Eunha, so it wasn’t my problem.
I might go mad with pleasure.
No. I wouldn’t go mad. Choi Eunho wouldn’t die. I could win. I could endure.
If I couldn’t, I’d die.
And yet, the moment I thought about sex with that grim determination, my pussy got wet again.
My breathing turned a little rough.
My body was heating up. A faint flush spread through me.
It had already been five days since I’d last had sex.
I’d held out as long as I could, but I could feel the desire steadily swelling now, unmistakably so.
If I hadn’t been keeping my urges at a minimum with creampie sex... the voice of instinct would already have been screaming in my head.
Ugh.
Sex.
Creampie.
Pleasure, joy, happiness...♡ No. This was... this was just sex.
Fueling the engine. Simple. Right.
Now then, who should the partner be?
I couldn’t just grab anyone. I’d need to stay as Chae Eunha for a long time.
If I ended up with a reputation as some kind of slut... just look at this face of mine. Some idiot would probably come running to fuck me without even wondering if I’d allow it.
I wasn’t in a body that could resist rape. If the mood went wrong, I really might end up getting fucked by anyone at all.
I needed one fixed person... hate it as I might, I needed that one person.
Someone who wouldn’t betray me.
Someone who wouldn’t try anything when I had no intention of doing so.
Someone who’d fuck me whenever I told him to.
Someone who would do exactly as I said and follow only my instructions.
And at the same time, someone so outstanding that he wouldn’t ruin my pride, someone that no one around us would be whispering about.
We’d be a party of two, but there’d probably be eyes on us.
I didn’t want to be treated like lovers, but I at least wanted to avoid being treated like freaks.
Because if somebody said, Why don’t you party with me instead of that guy? it would be a pain in the ass.
That sort of useful... convenient dildo.
Was there... anyone like that...?
Kang Juhyuk.
What?
Why the hell did that name just come to mind?
Had I lost my mind? Why the name of that rapist bastard, of all people?
That asshole was trash. He absolutely did not count. Obviously!
The only condition he met was that I could order him around however I wanted.
How the hell would I know he wouldn’t betray me? I didn’t know a damn thing about what kind of guy he was.
He was the kind of bastard who raped someone because he didn’t like the look on their face. He wouldn’t just wait until I told him to do it; he’d probably pounce whenever he felt like it.
And on top of that, he was an utter bottom-of-the-barrel D-class loser. Anyone with eyes would—if even some B-class nobody showed up, they’d probably charge at me saying I was better than him.
Kang Juhyuk was out.
Absolutely not!
...Ah♡
And yet.
I was getting wet.
I couldn’t forget the semen Kang Juhyuk had pumped into me.
Whenever I thought of his name, that sex came flooding back with it.
My pussy itched. I wanted to be filled.
I wanted him in me.
Don’t be ridiculous. This was... this was just what happened when a virgin lost it and couldn’t forget her first partner, right?
It didn’t have to be Kang Juhyuk, did it? Whoever it had been, I’d probably be thinking of that man right now.
Get a grip. He was the worst possible candidate. There had to be someone else, some better sucker out there.
A better dildo...
But if he was D-class, then I could control him however I wanted.
What the hell was he going to do, refuse me? If I said do it, he’d do it. If I said stop, he’d stop.
I could even make him worthy of the role. I was an S-class hunter. If I got him proper gear, he’d be able to pull his weight at least.
And if I handed over that kind of equipment and support, would he really betray me?
He’d probably cling to me instead of going chasing after some other woman.
What an idiot. Once I accomplished my goal, I’d turn back into a man and cut all ties. Then he’d be thrown away just like that.
A pathetic, useful-for-being-used dildo was the perfect fit.
Y-yeah.
A candidate.
I could at least put him down as a candidate.
For now, since the last time I’d had sex was five days ago, my blessing was probably about to fade.
I’d meet him this time, have sex once, and relieve some of the pressure.
Then I’d interview him.
I could go around interviewing dildos.
...Wait.
But...
Kang Juhyuk’s phone number.
I’d thrown it away.
"Ah—!"
I sprinted straight to the front door.
I opened the door that led down to the basement trash area.
And, of course, there was no lucky note wedged in there waiting for me.
I had no way to contact Kang Juhyuk.
At least, not right away.
Even if I called a private investigator, it would take a few days.
And in the meantime I wouldn’t be able to relieve my urges, which meant I’d lose my blessing too.
What if I went to the agency all worked up and got caught leaking... caught being heated... caught wanting sex?
What if the men there surrounded me...
And then it became rape.
...Ngh♡
No, no, no. That would be bad.
That was...
Frustrated, I pulled out my phone.
I had read the number on the note once before.
Could I remember it? It started with 010. Then 8... what was it?
It was on the tip of my tongue, but...
Beep.
Ah. I’d pressed the wrong button.
In my haste, I’d hit the call history button.
Whatever. It would only be Ha Yujeong, anyway...
"...Huh?"
- Juhyuk♡
- Ha Yujeong
- Juhyuk♡
- Ha Yujeong
- Juhyuk♡
- Ads
W-what?
What was this in my call history?
Once yesterday.
Once the day before yesterday.
Once the day before that...? It was the middle of the night. Mostly around one or two a.m.
At that time... I’d been asleep, hadn’t I?
Wait. This wasn’t incoming calls.
These were calls I’d made.
How... how had this happened?
I swallowed hard.
Then, on impulse, I called that number.
A normal ringtone.
Tooru-ru, tooru-ru, tooru-ru.
Three rings. Four.
No way. There was no way. Me... me? Calling him?
The ringing stopped.
The sound of the call connecting.
I couldn’t bring myself to speak. I just waited silently.
For the voice on the other end of the line.
"...Hello? You calling again to toy with me?"
W-what?
It really was Kang Juhyuk.
Kang Juhyuk answered the phone in a flat, surly voice. He sounded irritatingly unhappy, colder than I’d expected.
Wasn’t this the bastard who’d practically been overjoyed when I took his number?
Still feeling dazed, I was about to answer when he spoke again.
"Damn it... Haeun nuna."
"...Haeun nuna?"
But then my mood soured instantly.
"You... you fucking bastard. You slept with me for the first time, and it’s only been how long—!!"
"Huh? W-wait. Haeun nuna isn’t it?"
"Fuck! Who the hell is Haeun!!"
"U-uh, Eunha nuna!?"
Fuck—!!!
This bastard is out! Out—!!!
And with that scream tearing through my mind, I hung up at once.
I didn’t even know why I was so angry. I just... if he had another sex partner besides me, then the chance of him betraying me would only go up.
I tried hard to convince myself of that.