Chapter 23 – Episode 23 – Event (5)
– Thump-thump
As I started climbing the stairs, the footsteps from above suddenly went silent.
It was quite amusing to imagine Kang Su-jeong, who had been climbing the stairs with a gloomy expression, suddenly perking up her ears like a cat.
She peeked her head out and looked down the stairs. And then, she made eye contact with me.
“Huh?”
“Oh, Ms. Su-jeong. Hello.”
Hello. I waved at her, as if I was happy to see her.
However, in my waving hand, I was already holding a shopping basket filled with various items.
Keyword mismatch.
I had deliberately unfolded the shopping basket at home and put the items we had bought together yesterday inside. As if I had already finished grocery shopping.
“Yes, Jin-hyeon! Hello… you?”
She greeted me happily, but her gaze was fixed on my right hand.
“But those bags… have you already done your shopping?”
Her voice had become small. Her ever-changing expressions were truly amusing.
When she was waiting in front of the door, she had a gloomy expression, then she peeked down the stairs with an expectant look, and when she made eye contact with me, her face bloomed with a bright smile.
However, upon seeing the shopping basket in my hand, her expression cooled down again as if it were a lie. It was as if she wanted her question to be denied. She was someone who showed her emotions very well.
“Yes, I did.”
“Ah… I see.”
I answered her question curtly. She replied in an awkward voice.
The conversation ended there. A moment of silence fell. She was fidgeting, not knowing what to do. She probably hadn’t expected this situation.
Hmm. Should I tease her a little?
“But, Ms. Su-jeong, aren’t you going to the mart? I’ve already been.”
“Huh? Ah……”
When I pointed to the shopping basket in her hand and spoke, she was slightly flustered.
“I, I was just about to go. I was just about to go now. Haha……”
She laughed awkwardly and came down the stairs.
Her face was smiling, but her eyes were not. Her lips were also slightly pouting like a baby duck, and her shoulders were slightly slumped, which clearly showed her disappointment.
I chuckled and looked at her, and then, just as she was about to pass by me, I grabbed her wrist.
“You’re lying.”
“…Huh?”
When I grabbed her, her pupils widened. She seemed quite surprised.
“Why are you lying? You weren’t actually going to go.”
Her wrist was trembling slightly.
It was a different kind of trembling from when I had grabbed her wrist when I had forcibly violated her after transforming. Her eyes were also trembling along with her wrist, and she seemed to be busy analyzing what the heck was going on.
Looking at her calmly, I thought she looked like a puppy. Just a few days ago, she was like a fierce cat growling at me, but now she had a completely different attitude.
Ah! Her face and body have become even more beautiful, it’s so arousing.
Her sharp nose and clear eyes amplified her charm even more. She smelled good. Since I had been violating her continuously, even just smelling her from this close made my thing react.
I sang the national anthem in my head to calm my thing down, and then opened the shopping basket to show her the contents.
“Actually, these are the things I bought with you yesterday, Ms. Su-jeong. I haven’t even gone to the mart yet. I just came out of the house early and was watching you from downstairs.”
“Y-you were? Then why did you say you had already gone……”
“I wanted to see how you felt.”
I said with a smile. As I took another step closer to her, her body flinched.
“You were waiting in front of the door even before 30 minutes. It was so cute how you were pacing in front of the door.”
“C-cute……!?”
“And when you didn’t come out even after 40 minutes, you were about to go back home, right? After dressing up so nicely.”
When I looked at her clothes with a gentle gaze, her eyes trembled.
Originally, I was just an ordinary person, so it took a lot of courage to say these things to someone as pretty as her. But since I could directly see her favorability level, I was full of confidence.
She wasn’t dressed up too flamboyantly, just as if she was going to the mart, but it was different from the outfit she had worn when she went out not knowing she would meet me on the very first day of the event. The t-shirt and sweatpants were gone now.
“But why are you saying you’re going now? Tell me honestly.”
I said, looking straight into her eyes.
“You actually just wanted to go with me, right?”
******
‘I, I’m going crazy……’
Kang Su-jeong looked at her hand. A man’s hand was holding her wrist, where there should have been nothing.
Cheon Jin-hyeon, the man she had rapidly grown fond of over the past few days. Normally, it would be unpleasant for a man to hold her hand, but strangely, she didn’t feel that way at all with him.
The power of a favorability level of 60 was amazing.
Rather, as her hand was being held like this, Su-jeong could clearly understand her feelings.
Jin-hyeon, who had been so unappealing during their first meeting a few months ago, was now appealing to her. There wasn’t a big reason for her to fall for him, but so what? Being with him made her feel very comfortable and good.
“Ah… th-that’s……”
But her heart and words were separate issues.
Su-jeong avoided Jin-hyeon’s gaze.
She was too embarrassed to receive such a direct question. She could feel her face turning red. Honestly, she didn’t even know why she was like this.
“Then, do you dislike me?”
Jin-hyeon said, looking at Su-jeong. It was a question she would have answered with a firm “yes” in the past, but Su-jeong shook her head quickly as if to say no.
“N-no! It’s definitely not like that……”
“Then, answer me honestly. Why are you so down? You were so confident during the broadcast yesterday.”
What? Broadcast?
“Wait… did you watch my broadcast?”
“Yes, of course, I did. It was fun.”
When Jin-hyeon said with a smile, she could feel her heart pounding. Fun, he said. Su-jeong’s personality was quite violent on the broadcast. She thought he would definitely dislike that side of her. But he said it was fun, so she was very happy.
“I like your personality on the broadcast too, Ms. Su-jeong. So, please speak comfortably. Is it true that you wanted to go with me?”
Is, is this a confession? Su-jeong, who had taken the path of an all-girls middle school, all-girls high school, and broadcasting, had no idea.
“Y-yes, it’s true that I wanted to go……”
Su-jeong said in a voice as small as an ant crawling. Then, Jin-hyeon smiled brightly. Objectively, he had an ordinary face, but strangely, her heart pounded when she saw that smile.
“Then, let’s go together.”
“Wh-where to?”
“Where else? We have to go grocery shopping together.”
Jin-hyeon moved his hand from her wrist and this time, held her palm. Su-jeong stared at her hand with wide eyes.
“From now on, let’s go like this. Is that okay?”
“Y-yes……”
Her heart was pounding. As the two of them slowly walked down the stairs, Jin-hyeon suddenly held out his phone.
“Ah. And please give me your contact information too. You need to know it so you won’t fall for my pranks next time. From now on, let’s not pretend it’s a coincidence and just contact each other.”
Su-jeong quietly took his phone and entered her number. Her cheeks were flushed.
******
“Hoo……”
After sitting still and meditating for two hours, I slowly opened my eyes.
My vision was clearer, and my senses felt sharper. Above all, my head felt refreshed as if my nose was completely clear. This feeling right after finishing the training of the Thousand Mile Flame Qi Gong was truly the best.
It was 9 AM.
My routine these days was to wake up at 6:30 AM, take a quick shower, and then immediately start the first stage of the Thousand Mile Flame Qi Gong training. One hour was spent gathering qi through the Small Heavenly Circulation, and the remaining hour was spent practicing moving the qi freely while transmitting it throughout my body.
It didn’t go well at first, but now I had a good grasp of it, and I could feel the qi moving according to my will.
My internal energy… was it the Qi Return Pill? The name sounded grand, but it didn’t seem to contain much internal energy.
Well, that’s probably why it was included for free with a 9th-grade book.
But even with that small amount of internal energy, I could feel my body getting better every day.
Two weeks had passed since I first violated Kang Su-jeong, and since I started learning the Thousand Mile Flame Qi Gong the day after I first violated her, it meant that it had been two weeks since I had a proper routine of qi training and exercise.
However, my overall body and senses, including my stamina, were already improving. The fact that the effects of exercise were appearing so quickly seemed to be one of the effects of the Thousand Mile Flame Qi Gong.
– Ding
[Kang Su-jeong: Don’t forget 11:30! Let’s go grocery shopping today. (^~^)]
[Me: Okay. See you later.]
I got a message from Kang Su-jeong. It had been eight days since I had actively approached her and received her contact information.
Since that day, we had decided to speak informally to each other, and we had become closer by texting each other. Before, we had gone grocery shopping every day pretending it was a coincidence, but now we only went grocery shopping 2-3 times a week, and the rest of the days we just met up and went for walks or something.
But it seemed like she was planning to go grocery shopping today.
◆ Current Status
– [Favorability: 82]
– [Affinity: 49]
– [Lust: 13] [Appetite: 27] [Fatigue: 16]
Her favorability level had already exceeded 80. As expected, it was harder to raise the favorability level as it got higher. When it was in the 30s and 40s, it would jump up by 7 or 5 at a time, but after 60, it only went up by 1 or 2. Of course, even that was a big improvement.
‘Is it about time?’
As I looked at her favorability level with a satisfied smile, I suddenly noticed the event.
◆ Event
[Target: Kang Su-jeong]
[Time and Place: Today 11:45 AM, V Mart]
[Keywords: Spam, Invitation, Lunch, Cooking, Confession]
“Oh, an event?”
Actually, no events had occurred since I received her contact information.
To be precise, no events had appeared since I started making appointments with her through contact. But now, an event had appeared again.
Hmm. Then, what are the conditions for an event to appear?
“Hmm?”
As I was thinking that, I suddenly noticed the word “confession” in the event’s keywords.
