I was careful in my own way. I never carried it around when Won Dogyeong was in the kitchen or living room. I’d quickly snatch it up when I went into my room, or tiptoe out to get it when I heard the shower running.
If it seemed impossible, I’d just use the same one for another day. That’s how careful I was.
“I just turned on the water.”
Cunning bastard. It seems he’d turned on the water in the bathroom inside his room and was waiting by the door.
…He goes that far?
“Why didn’t you just ask…?”
“Why didn’t you just ask me to give it to you?”
I had nothing to say. He was absolutely right.
Feeling frustrated, I gulped down some innocent milk.
“So why did you take it?”
Won Dogyeong asked again, running his hand through his hair and frowning around his eyes.
I avoided his gaze and mumbled my answer.
“Because of the pheromones….”
“Pheromones….”
Won Dogyeong nodded as if understanding, then immediately tilted his head crookedly.
“Instead of me?”
I stared intently at one corner of the table and shoved the last bite of donut into my mouth. There was so much that my cheeks puffed up, but I forced it all in. At least I could postpone answering until I finished chewing and swallowing all this.
Of course I knew that Won Dogyeong himself was a more effective pheromone emitter than Won Dogyeong’s clothes.
But that meant I’d have to sleep next to Won Dogyeong himself, not his clothes. And naturally, the person Won Dogyeong didn’t just function solely as a pheromone emitter like clothes would.
The person Won Dogyeong’s main function was just being the person Won Dogyeong.
So unlike before, I wouldn’t simply be sleeping with a pheromone emitter—I’d be sleeping with the person Won Dogyeong who also emitted pheromones.
…Sleeping together?
With the person Won Dogyeong, in one bed!
“I’d be a hundred times more effective.”
I chewed busily. Gauging his reaction, I threw out an excuse that wouldn’t even work.
“My bed’s a single….”
“Mine’s a double.”
Right, it was.
How nice to be so well-prepared. I’m dying of envy.
He poured milk into an empty glass and leaned back loosely as he continued.
“What’s wrong with sleeping together?”
“…Just, kind of….”
“I won’t touch you.”
“That’s not the problem….”
Won Dogyeong raised the corner of his mouth in a cocky expression and asked in a subtle tone.
“Why, are you nervous?”
His playfully sparkling eyes left me speechless.
Is today Won Dogyeong Day or something?
The way he looked at me with that indescribable gaze at the store earlier, teasing me all day about my mistake, and even now, poking at me with probing words—I felt like I was being drawn in all day.
And honestly speaking, that really was the reason, so I felt even more wronged for having nothing to say.
I was already somehow conscious of Won Dogyeong whenever he was nearby lately, and if he were lying next to me in bed, I felt like I’d be so stiff I wouldn’t be able to sleep.
Plus sleeping in Won Dogyeong’s room, having to lie down together on the bed itself—all of it was just, well, that.
If I lay on that bed again, unrelated memories would definitely bubble up on their own.
Not to mention, with our current relationship that’s neither this nor that—who knows what might happen if we turned off the lights and lay in bed together?
How am I supposed to sleep lying next to Won Dogyeong while thinking about all this?
I rolled my eyes restlessly and sipped my milk.
Won Dogyeong, who’d been watching, soon straightened from his slouched position and lightly tapped my hand on the table with his fingertip. My finger joints flinched without me realizing it.
He opened his mouth in a gentler tone than before.
“You know my pheromones help with stability.”
I licked my lips. My throat was burning so I gulped down milk, but it didn’t seem to be that kind of problem.
“That’s why you took my clothes.”
Won Dogyeong looked at my face with the world’s most innocent expression and explained gently.
That’s definitely an expression he’s making on purpose right now, but the problem was that I had a habit of softening at that face, so even knowing everything, it was hard to ignore.
I’d been fooled for too many years by that kind, slightly pitiful-looking face with gently drooping eye corners. Just seeing that, I reflexively felt an urge to grant him anything.
Knowing now that it was deliberate didn’t change anything.
Like how your leg lifts when you hit your knee with a hammer—it was just a circuit wired that way.
I don’t know if Won Dogyeong had more strategies than this, but at least these two—cooking for me and acting pitiful—were definitely excellent strategies.
I was acutely feeling my helplessness as a target.
If you’d been born in the Three Kingdoms period, you could’ve beaten Zhuge Liang, really.
“Really, I’m not saying this because I want to….”
Just as I no longer found it awkward to hold hands with Won Dogyeong, Won Dogyeong must also be keenly adapting to our changing relationship.
Until recently, he seemed anxious and restless enough to have a huge fight over me going to Haemin’s place, but these past few days he’d been strangely overflowing with composure.
“I’m saying this because I think it’d be better for Yongyong too.”
It felt like he was instinctively sensing my mood, like looking before you leap.
As if he’d somehow noticed that I was wavering.
He carefully removed my hand from the cup I was holding, took it, and shook it lightly.
“Hmm? What do you think?”
It was unfair to bring it up leaving no room for refusal, then ask my opinion.
Under the warm-colored lighting, his three-dimensional face created shadows. Making that expression with his considerably grown hair falling down to half-cover his forehead, even his sharp features looked endlessly pure.
Not Zhuge Liang but Diaochan?
The honey trap might have been his biggest strategy.
And knowing everything, I had no choice but to fall for it completely.
“…Fine.”
I answered in a crawling voice and picked up the fifth donut. I just felt like I had to eat this for some reason.
I was silently shoving the donut into my mouth when Won Dogyeong grinned satisfactorily from across the table and took my glass.
“Want more milk?”
“No.”
I acted grumpy for no reason, but he said “You will, you’ll choke,” and poured milk anyway.
Why did you ask?
“Is it good?”
“…Yeah.”
“You’re eating well. Want anything else?”
“Don’t know….”
In the end, I emptied the whole box. As we cleaned up together and turned away, Won Dogyeong oddly inserted a comment into my complicated mind.
“Come to my room after you wash up.”
I stopped dead in my tracks, mulling over those words, then went into my room touching my lips.
Wash up… we always wash up before bed, so he’s telling me to wash up and come, it doesn’t have any other meaning.
I’m just overthinking because I have too many thoughts right now.
…I definitely saw somewhere that it’s okay from the stable period onward.
Crazy. Why am I thinking this? Am I in my right mind?
I flopped onto the bed and scrolled through NeTube Shorts. I desperately tried to drive away the various thoughts constantly rushing at me.
I’ve been seeing this idol a lot lately.
I think I’ve heard the song before, what was it?
Ah, it was that song Won Dogyeong danced along to at the beach.
I remembered those strangely wriggling movements and giggled. That’s probably still on NeTube.
I searched for the Sokcho vlog that had been uploaded before and rewatched it from beginning to end. My voice could be heard faintly sometimes, so even though I’d already seen it, it was fascinating.
Won Dogyeong in the video looked happy. Throughout, he had a pleased expression with his lips refreshingly curled up.
…Cute.
Well, it was fun back then. The weather was nice, and the squid sundae was delicious too.
At the end, that dancing scene appeared and I covered my mouth. He really does seem to have a problem with his joints. It was fascinating that he could do most sports decently but couldn’t dance.
Sports… he’s good at them. That’s also a sport if you count it as one.
Agh!
I bolted upright. I ruffled my hair roughly.
Am I sexually frustrated?
They did say libido can increase when you enter the stable period… is that why?
Right, hormones. This must definitely be hormones playing tricks again.
Well, it has been a long time since I dated.
If there’s anyone who wouldn’t think anything in this situation, having to sleep stuck together with someone in this kind of relationship, come forward.
So then, I’m not weird. I shouldn’t be.
I glared at the navy blue blanket all crumpled up. I can’t be like this next to Won Dogyeong too.
We were just going to, I mean, just sleep in the same bed together. While the possibility of that happening couldn’t be ruled out, at least that wasn’t the premise.
Above all, if I happened to get hard on my own and got caught, I had no idea how I’d handle that embarrassment.
Should I jerk off once before going?
At the thought that flashed by in an instant, I turned pale and shook my head vigorously.
I’m not twenty years old—who jerks off before sleeping with someone because they’re worried?!
That was too… too humiliating to my pride. I couldn’t do that.
The same worries continued even while showering. Under the warm stream of water, rubbing in body wash, I bit the inside of my mouth several times.
