Jegal Yeon Ji had her eyes tightly shut as she gathered the energy amplified by the pill.
Every now and then, her eyebrows twitched, her nose wrinkled, and her lips quivered. This gave off the impression that she was in a hurry.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything.”
Baek Woo Jin’s chest tightened as he thought that perhaps her reaction was due to his comment about the kiss after her cultivation was complete. He couldn’t take his eyes off her, worried that she might suffer from qi deviation at any moment.
Thankfully, it seemed his concern would not come to pass. The energy that had been surging inside and around her was gradually settling down, and the atmosphere was becoming calmer.
Ssss, hoo.
Her previously steady breaths were starting to become irregular. For a martial artist, even when breath was pushed to its limit, it would rarely break like this.
The reason was obvious. Her cultivation had already ended, but she was too embarrassed to open her eyes. This was likely because of the kiss on her mind.
With a smile tugging at his lips, Baek Woo Jin scooted closer to her. She was now sitting cross-legged right in front of him.
“Uh…”
When their knees touched together, a cute whimper escaped her lips.
Her face was so red it looked like it might burst at any moment, but she still kept her eyes tightly shut and refused to open them.
“How about opening your eyes now?”
As Baek Woo Jin leaned in and whispered softly, her body jolted in place. She jumped slightly before settling back down.
“Ugh…”
Judging that she could no longer hold out, she finally opened her eyes.
The moment she met Baek Woo Jin’s gaze, which was right in front of her, she tried to back away with her hands pressing against the ground. But he quickly grabbed her knees.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Realizing there was no escape, she raised her hands to cover her face. But she kept peeking at him through her fingers, only to immediately block her view again, repeating the process over and over.
“You get to choose, Miss Jegal.”
“Ch-Choose what…?”
“The kiss.”
Through the small gap between her fingers, Baek Woo Jin could see her ears turning bright red.
“Are you going to do it or not?”
The sound of her deep breathing was audible from behind her hands. Eventually, she lowered her hands and no longer covered her face.
She met Baek Woo Jin’s eyes directly. Though her gaze wavered nervously, she didn’t turn away, and she spoke with trembling lips.
“I-I’ll do it!”
“Good.”
As if he had been waiting for that, Baek Woo Jin swiftly closed the distance between them.
“Ah!”
Their lips touched.
***
Shin Ye Hwa started putting on makeup she had never tried before. She asked her friends for advice, learned step by step, and eventually, her newfound skills managed to brighten up her face.
“Heeh, I wonder what Woo Jin will think.”
Her friends who had helped her praised her and said how she looked so pretty now that if it were today, she would have been chosen over Yoo Hwa Yeon for the Academy’s most beautiful woman of the first year.
Her already bright smile grew even brighter. Men passing by couldn’t take their eyes off her. They just stood frozen in place while staring at her face.
“Hey, where do you think you’re looking?”
“It’s, it’s a misunderstanding!”
Even an innocent couple ended up getting caught in a quarrel.
But her mind was filled only with thoughts of Baek Woo Jin.
She arrived quickly in front of the male dormitory, but she was told Baek Woo Jin’s room was already empty.
“Where could he have gone?”
Suddenly, the sly face of Jegal Yeon Ji popped into her head. Could he be off somewhere with her again?
“Ugh.”
She felt like she had lost her chance.
She already felt like the two had grown significantly closer, so she was becoming more and more cautious.
I have to find him quickly!
In the end, there was only one place they would likely be. It was the academy’s inner grounds. She figured she could find him easily if she searched a bit.
She started her investigation by searching various places, including the Grand Training Hall. Everyone she asked about whether they had seen Baek Woo Jin and Jegal Yeon Ji answered that they hadn’t, until finally, she received the response she was looking for from a woman.
“They seemed to be heading toward a private training room…”
Suddenly, she recalled the time Baek Woo Jin had mentioned receiving an incredibly large private training room after becoming a Divine Dragon.
Just the two of them in that enclosed space?
Her sense of urgency spiked instantly. Her walking pace quickened as if she were lightly using her movement technique.
When she reached the private training room, that was specially reserved for the Divine Dragon, she took a small breath and steadied her breathing as she grasped the doorknob.
When she lightly pushed it, the door opened slightly. This meant that it hadn’t been locked from the inside.
“Haa…”
All she had to do was push the doorknob and slide it open, yet it wasn’t going as easily as she had hoped.
Why is my chest…
She felt uneasy. What would she see if she opened the door and stepped inside?
After taking several deep breaths while holding the doorknob, she finally calmed down.
Veins bulged in her hand as she forced the training room door open slowly.
The room that unfolded in front of her was on a different scale than the private training room she had been given as a student. In the center of the room, Baek Woo Jin and Jegal Yeon Ji were sitting face to face as they came into view one after the other.
“Ah.”
A sound escaped her without her realizing it, and she quickly covered her mouth with both hands to muffle it.
Baek Woo Jin’s right hand was naturally wrapped around Jegal Yeon Ji’s head, and at the same time, his upper body slowly leaned toward her.
No, no way.
No, no, no.
She kept shouting inside, though the words wouldn’t come out. She just watched as they grew closer.
“Hup!”
With a sharp intake of breath, she saw their lips meet.
A scene she had only imagined or seen in erotic paintings was unfolding right before her eyes.
And it didn’t end there.
Inside their touching lips, the two were entwining their tongues together.
Ah, ahh…
Jegal Yeon Ji’s melted expression which she could see over Baek Woo Jin’s shoulder was filled with an intensity she hadn’t even seen in those paintings.
She wanted to tear her eyes away, so much so that she wished she could gouge them out, but she couldn’t stop watching.
Please, please stop…!
Though she was screaming for it to end inside, her body grew hotter as she continued to watch.
Her entire body felt itchy as if bugs were crawling all over her skin. She desperately tried to suppress the urge to move the hands that were covering her mouth all over her body.
Her body, which was now overheated beyond control, began to slip from her grasp. She frantically rubbed her thighs together, but her legs gave out and she collapsed to the floor.
Thud!
The sound echoed through the training room, where only the wet sounds of their kissing had filled the space.
The two, who had been passionately locked together, parted away and a thin string of saliva hung between them.
Baek Woo Jin turned to look behind him.
“Ye Hwa…?”
A strange aura flowed over his slightly flushed face that she had never seen before.
“…Uh!”
Her body, which had been cooling down, suddenly heated up again, causing her to shrink back.
Jegal Yeon Ji who was caught in such an embarrassing situation let out a flustered “Hauu” sound, while Baek Woo Jin stood up and approached Shin Ye Hwa.
“Ah, ah….”
The closer he got, the stronger the strange energy became. An unknown scent flooded into her nose with every breath and stirred up her senses.
“Why are you here?”
Shin Ye Hwa, who had been staring blankly at Baek Woo Jin, quickly forced strength into her weakened legs and stood up, bringing herself to eye level with him. Her trembling legs barely carried her a few steps forward as she grasped the hem of his clothes with both hands.
“Hey, what’s wrong? Are you sick?”
Baek Woo Jin’s face, looking down at her with a peculiar gaze, seemed alluring. The unfamiliar feeling she got from that face she had known her whole life left her utterly confused.
“Haa, haa….”
She panted heavily and tried to steady her breathing. Then after looking up at him again, she asked,
“Are you… dating Miss Jegal?”
Baek Woo Jin turned his head to look at the collapsed Jegal Yeon Ji before quickly looking away.
“Well, it’s not really like that.”
They weren’t in a relationship yet. In fact, the kiss they shared today had been completely unexpected.
A hint of resentment appeared in Shin Ye Hwa’s eyes as she looked at him.
“So, you kiss a woman you’re not even dating?”
Now that she said it, it really did seem like the behavior of a playboy.
“No, it just sort of… happened.”
When he awkwardly responded with a troubled expression like that, Shin Ye Hwa tightened her grip on his clothes and shouted.
“Th-Then, you can do it with me too?!”
Because she was practically clinging to him, her ample chest pressed against his upper body.
Thanks to the mood that had been building just moments ago, it felt as if a lustful spirit had taken over his body.
As he looked down, her moist eyes and lips seemed more pronounced.
He shook his head vigorously, trying to rid his mind of the inappropriate thoughts.
“I-I told you it just happened with Miss Jegal, I swear. I’m not the type to go around kissing people.”
Shin Ye Hwa didn’t like the way he acted like an honorable scholar even though he was kissing a woman passionately just now.
“How does something like that just happen?!”
She felt wronged. They had spent their entire lives together, yet something like that had never once “just happened” with her.
“There’s… a certain atmosphere that’s hard to explain with words.”
Her chest felt like it was going to burst at Baek Woo Jin’s incomprehensible words.
Baek Woo Jin too was at a loss. He wanted to draw a clear line and tell her, “I can’t be with you,” but every time he tried, his body hesitated.
Memories of moments with her, ones he hadn’t even experienced himself, came to mind, and he found himself reluctant to hurt her.
Even when she confessed to him on the martial arts stage, it took a tremendous amount of mental strength just to return the words, “It’s already too late.”
Though his soul had changed, his body was still Baek Woo Jin’s. The memories they had shared throughout their lives, along with the lingering remnants of emotions, resisted the rejection.
“!!!!”
She alternated between glaring at Baek Woo Jin and shooting daggers at Jegal Yeon Ji, who was sitting a bit farther away.
“Just wait and see! I’ll create that atmosphere too, no matter what!”
She snorted angrily, spun around, and stomped out of the private training room with heavy footsteps.
Baek Woo Jin could only watch her retreating figure with a sense of pity.
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