But the person whose heart was racing the most was Jin Geum-ryeon. He couldn’t understand the situation at all. No matter how aroused he was by the Body fragrance, how could he have ended up tumbling around with his enemy? Especially since it was his first experience, he never imagined things would turn out this way.
As Ak Mujin seemed to have fallen asleep and was snoring softly, he carefully opened his eyes. Then, he lowered his gaze to their joined area. As he hurriedly pulled his body away, his manhood came out from between the fleshy parts, covered in all sorts of sticky bodily fluids, making a somewhat vulgar sound. Ak Mujin’s brow furrowed as if in pain.
Fortunately, the joined area came apart without incident, but Jin Geum-ryeon was confused. Too confused. Because now, with the remnants of last night still faintly lingering, he clearly felt not only physical pleasure but also an ambiguous emotion towards Ak Mujin. Looking at him with his eyes closed peacefully, his heart raced so much that it was hard to bear. The moment Jin Geum-ryeon vaguely recognized that emotion, he jumped up from his spot as if burned and hurriedly gathered his clothes, bursting out of the door.
The sound of the door opening and closing echoed loudly, but Ak Mujin didn’t wake up easily.
*
The sunlight leaking through the shabby window frame tapped on Ak Mujin’s eyes. He was so tired that he wanted to sleep more, but the sunlight was too much to bear. He blocked the light with his palm and forced his eyelids, which wouldn’t open, to lift, and felt a scratchiness in his throat.
Not only that, but as he woke up and his senses began to revive, his whole body screamed in muscle pain. The part he couldn’t tell anyone about was in an even worse state.
Only after he came to his senses could he recall what had happened last night. He had gone through a situation that he couldn’t even have imagined just a few months ago.
He had done it with the protagonist he had created!
He couldn’t believe that he had committed his first time, which he had never even experienced in the real world, in this way.
“Ugh…”
Ak Mujin pressed his temples with his middle fingers as if a headache was coming on, and raised his stiff upper body.
Come to think of it, the person who should have been by his side when he opened his eyes was nowhere to be seen, not on the bed or anywhere in the building. He looked around a little and finally looked down at his body.
That… the phenomenon that seemed like it would never go away was already resolved. That was really fortunate. Until just before he passed out and fell asleep, he had spent almost the whole night with a vague thought that something was wrong and what if he had to live like this forever.
But there was another sense of incongruity, and as he looked around his body, he realized that even though he had sweated so much while hugging and making a fuss with Jin Geum-ryeon last night, his body was strangely clean. He had even gone to sleep with his clothes crumpled up to cover his body. But why was he now properly dressed?
Ak Mujin looked at his clothes for a long time and then suddenly looked up at the table. On the table were two persimmons placed on a wide elm leaf.
He looked out through the window once. Jin Geum-ryeon was nowhere to be seen. It seemed he had left somewhere, leaving only food behind.
Suddenly, his heart started to beat again. He hurriedly put on the Long robe neatly laid out on the chair and tried to open the door and go out, but then came back in, stuffed the persimmons into his sleeves, and stepped out of the building.
Where to go?
Where should he go to completely escape from Jin Geum-ryeon?
As he was frantically stomping his feet, he felt a presence in the distance. And a huge man was walking towards Ak Mujin in an instant.
“You’re awake.”
Jin Geum-ryeon was coming from afar, holding something wrapped in white paper. Ak Mujin couldn’t hide his disappointment at the sight. If that was all, it would have been less troublesome, but the image of what he had looked like last night naturally came to mind, and it felt like his head was boiling.
Of course, the face that was visible on the surface remained expressionless.
“…Ahem. Where have you been?”
Ak Mujin asked, pretending not to know and putting his hands behind his back.
“I woke up early in the morning and went to see if there was a village nearby. There’s one just over two hills.”
…?
The sun was now in the middle of the sky. Did he mean he had gone over two hills and back in just half a day?
No, did he miss the chance to escape because he was passed out while Jin Geum-ryeon was going back and forth over two hills?
Ak Mujin narrowed his brow slightly and let out a groan that was barely audible.
“You were sleeping so soundly that I couldn’t bring myself to wake you. My moving speed is much faster when I’m alone.”
Jin Geum-ryeon must have thought that Ak Mujin might run away too. But the fact that he left him behind and moved meant that he had some ulterior motive.
Whether he did or not, Jin Geum-ryeon smiled brightly as if he didn’t care what he was thinking and opened the paper-wrapped thing and showed it to him. Inside were skewers of meat, seasoned and grilled well.
Only then did Ak Mujin feel hungry.
“Why are you out here? Let’s go inside and eat something before we move.”
As he said that, Jin Geum-ryeon passed close by Ak Mujin, and he felt the faint scent of lotus that he had felt last night tickling his nose. As if that was a trigger, Ak Mujin’s face turned red. He coughed a couple of times outside to calm his face before going back inside the building.
“We wasted some time in Illusion Valley, but we’ve crossed the river, so the Martial Alliance isn’t far away.”
Jin Geum-ryeon cleared the leaves from the table and put down the paper with the skewers. Ak Mujin sat across from him and quietly looked down at it. That meant that the time Ak Mujin could enjoy the warm sunlight outside like this was also running out. He sighed softly and rested his elbow on the table, propping up his chin.
Jin Geum-ryeon’s attitude as he held out the meat skewers was as usual. He seemed so normal that you wouldn’t think anything had happened yesterday, so Ak Mujin felt strangely annoyed.
“Ahem, ahem… More than that, about yesterday…”
“I also got some birth control pills.”
As Ak Mujin hesitated and opened his mouth, Jin Geum-ryeon suddenly cut him off and took out something folded in paper from his pocket. It was smaller than the paper bundle containing the meat skewers, and when he unfolded it, there were several kinds of medicinal herbs inside.
“I heard that taking it for a long time can cause infertility, so I only bought one dose for now.”
Ak Mujin’s mind went blank for a moment.
Of course, he needed something like this now that he had a body capable of getting pregnant, but Jin Geum-ryeon, who was talking so casually, really seemed to have no feelings about what had happened last night.
Well… yeah. What kind of feelings should there be between enemies?
But. Still. He could at least express some regret.
“Uh… um…”
Ak Mujin cleared his throat for no reason.
“…Thanks.”
As he reluctantly replied, Jin Geum-ryeon held out the meat skewers again. Ak Mujin took it and stared intently at the animal flesh skewered on the stick.
Jin Geum-ryeon chewed on his share of the meat, his eyes fixed on the medicinal herbs, and asked nonchalantly.
“How are you going to take responsibility?”
“?”
Ak Mujin didn’t know what he was supposed to take responsibility for, so he looked at Jin Geum-ryeon in the same posture as he was about to bite into the meat. Only then did Jin Geum-ryeon look at Ak Mujin and continue.
“It was my first time.”
Ak Mujin was stunned.
First time? What? What they did yesterday…?
It didn’t look like his first time at all? Even Ak Mujin’s first time was the same!
“You have to take responsibility. As an older man.”
Jin Geum-ryeon said without hesitation. But everything he said was brazen and unacceptable.
Did I attack you? You attacked me!
And, strictly speaking, what happened last night was an incident with mutual fault. He didn’t know who was supposed to take responsibility for whom.
“…I am the enemy of your parents.”
“I know.”
“Then why…”
At Ak Mujin’s somewhat stiff reaction, Jin Geum-ryeon couldn’t help but laugh and shook his head, making a sound like crumbling.
“It’s a joke. It’s funny.”
Hey… why are you making jokes like a horror movie!
Ak Mujin couldn’t calm his still-fluttering heart and only blinked. Jin Geum-ryeon put down the remaining meat and carefully wrapped the medicinal herbs in paper again to prevent them from leaking out.
“I don’t plan to raise a child yet either, so when we get to the village, I’ll ask to borrow the kitchen and brew it for you. Come out when you’re ready.”
Ak Mujin stared blankly at Jin Geum-ryeon, who was getting up from his seat. After the door closed with a thud, Ak Mujin slumped back in his chair.
He was a person whose thoughts and intentions he couldn’t understand at all.
Ak Mujin thought carefully. He was briefly worried that the flow of this Doujinshi might have been greatly disrupted by what happened yesterday. However, judging from Jin Geum-ryeon’s attitude, it seemed that he had not developed any feelings from just having sex once.
Then that’s good.
Ryeon just needs to like Mae-yeong.
Since he doesn’t feel anything other than hatred for Ak Mujin, Ak Mujin thought that it might be easier than struggling to face death as in the original story.
Suddenly, he remembered that the tips of Jin Geum-ryeon’s ears, who had gone out of the building a little while ago, were flushed red, but he dismissed it as unimportant and put down the skewers that he hadn’t even taken a bite of and got up.