Why Not Call It A Draw? (3)

Cuteness Unleashed

0:04 / 1:07

At the foothills of an unnamed mountain, around its edges.

"Hwangdo, hurry up!"

"Baekdo, hah, hah. Please go up slowly."

Baekdo, climbing up between the trees, flashed a bright smile at Hwangdo, who followed behind.

"Ah geez, how can you be so slow?"

"Baekdo is too… eugh. Fast, I tell you…"

"Hehehe, it's because you always read those weird magazines that you're so weak."

"It's not a weird magazine!"

As Baekdo teased her, Hwangdo's ears turned bright red while she struggled to climb the tree.

"Really… I really hate Baekdo."

"I'm just telling the truth."

Hwangdo puffed up her cheeks, visibly upset. Baekdo playfully scratched the back of her neck.

"Isn't it nice to climb the mountain in the morning?"

"Not nice at all! I just wanted to talk with Sajeo…"

"What kind of talk? Something naughty?"

When Baekdo asked with feigned innocence, Hwangdo blushed and scrambled to make excuses.

"Hey, it's not naughty; it's about preparing for the future!"

"I really don't understand your thoughts. What's with that obsession over your future spouse…"

"Hmph, Baekdo should start preparing too. I heard a lot of people break up over bedroom issues."

"What are you talking about?"

Baekdo snorted, failing to grasp the concept.

'What love breaks over bedroom issues?'

Fifteen years had passed since the three peach sisters were born.

Excluding the precocious Hwangdo, Baekdo, and Cheondo knew little about such matters.

"The person I'll like won't care if I'm not good in bed, right?"

"What's Baekdo's ideal type?"

"Someone who always cooks for me… Has similar taste in food. Reliable and strong. Someone like me?"

Baekdo listed her preferences, counting on her fingers. Hwangdo looked skeptical.

"Someone like Baekdo…? That would be terrible."

Baekdo, who was known for playing pranks on Sajeo and others.

Her frivolous cheerfulness was enough to make everyone shake their heads.

Hwangdo recalled a past incident.

On Christmas Day, she helped Baekdo hang sparkles on all the peach trees in Dowon, only to get spanked. Why hadn't she stopped Baekdo from planning such a thing?

"A person like Baekdo doesn't exist in this world."

"Maybe it's rare because it's a match made in heaven?"

Hwangdo had no response to her naturally flowing words.

"Also, they must like hard peaches."

"What's that about? That's silly."

"Hmph, peach preference is the most important! Even if everything else is different, if the peach preference matches, it's fine!"

Someone who cooked was reliable, strong, playful like Baekdo, good at taking jokes, and liked hard peaches.

"…What are you saying, Baekdo? You're really silly."

Did such a person even exist in this world?

Hwangdo shook her head in disbelief.

Back to the conversation.

"Anyway, bedroom compatibility is super important!"

"Hmph, who divorces over bedroom issues?"

"You don't know how dangerous the world is nowadays! To catch a man more beautiful than Baekdo, blond and tanned foreign women are just…!"

"Hwangdo, your fantasies are too wild."

Baekdo put her hands on her hips.

"Someone more beautiful than me? Where can you find such a person!"

Such arrogance. Even the most stubborn would bow to such self-esteem.

Hwangdo's half-closed eyes looked towards Baekdo.

Baekdo, who had naturally flawless beauty, thought her personality would overshadow her charm.

"Poor guy who'll become your brother-in-law."

Hwangdo stuck out her tongue.

Baekdo's ears twitched at such a serious warning. Even the unparalleled Baekdo couldn't ignore it.

"Is the bedroom really that important?"

"Of course! They say if the chemistry is right, marital harmony is good! Do you know what happens if it's not?"

Darkness settled on Hwangdo's brow.

Like telling a scary story in a summer room, Baekdo swallowed hard at the seriousness on Hwangdo's face.

"Let's say Baekdo falls in love with a man."

"Uh-huh."

"But the bedroom experience is not satisfying."

"Right."

"What would happen to that man then?"

Hwangdo spread her hands with a "wham!" like a wolf.

"Both men and women are like wolves. If they're not satisfied, they go looking for someone with whom they're compatible."

"What are you talking about?"

"They seek pleasure."

Her statement was incomprehensible, but Hwangdo's serious demeanor invoked an inexplicable trust.

"Think about it. What if Baekdo's beloved isn't with her on Arbor Day but with another tree in a hotel making 'ehee♡' 'ahee♡' sounds?"

Hwangdo imitated a moaning sound exaggeratedly. Baekdo thought to herself,

Not with her on Arbor Day? Her chest suddenly felt tight.

"That won't happen. The person who likes me won't get physically involved with anyone else. Neither will I."

"It's because of such prohibitions that infidelities happen! Baekdo, do you know what Sajeo calls me?"

"What?"

Hwangdo patted her chest proudly.

"Expert Hitomi!"

"Hi…tomi?"

Somehow, it was a believable name.

"The expert says it. The bedroom is important! Do you know what will happen if Baekdo doesn't prepare from now?"

"What… Alright. What then?"

"You'll be overwhelmed in minutes. Unable to satisfy a man. Only Baekdo will be satisfied. Men can do it all day! Like two hours… You need to prepare."

The conversation was veering off track, but Baekdo had to sincerely think about it once.

'Two hours?'

She quickly came to a Baekdo-like conclusion.

"It's nothing."

"Baekdo knows nothing."

Hwangdo, whose head was filled with narrow-minded and stimulating comics and magazines, said this, but in reality, compatibility didn't matter much to her.

If it was someone she truly liked.

She believed they would like her back, regardless of what happened.

Baekdo trusted her judgment completely.

"Hey, Hwangdo."

"Hmm? What?"

Baekdo pointed at Hwangdo's shoulder and laughed.

"There's a bug on your shoulder."

"Aaaah!"

Hwangdo leaped from her spot and, stumbling, stepped wrongly on a branch, falling to the ground.

"Uh, uh!? Hic. Baekdo, really!!!!!"

Her voice faded into the distance below. Baekdo, giggling, sat on the branch, watching Hwangdo's fall.

"Hahaha! If there really had been a bug, I would have been scared and fallen first. Forgot I hate bugs? I wonder who the fool is!"

The playful, mysterious white girl in the woods.

It wasn't too long ago that the story of how she lost her laughter and parents and began to imitate Cheondo's manner of speaking unfolded.

After a long time, she dreamt of the past.

…Now a fond memory of her faded childhood.

A naive story of her running through the bushes with a branch, shouting, "I've surpassed the limit!" "I am the greatest in the world!"

Rising from bed with a throbbing head, she felt a refreshing sense of liberation, as if she had shed a skin.

"…My head hurts."

Maybe she had drunk too much the day before.

Feeling choked, she grabbed the blanket and shuddered at its unfamiliar texture.

Her eyes flashed open. It was a motel.

"What."

Baekdo lifted the blanket. Beneath it lay a man, sound asleep, comfortably wrapped in it.

She was drenched in sweat.

"…Uh."

Looking down, she saw a man's naked part.

"Huik!"

It was her first time seeing a man's part.

Baekdo, who had received no particular education since childhood and had only trained, was deeply shocked.

"Ju- Just a minute."

What on earth had happened the day before?

In a state of panic, Baekdo searched for her clothes.

A black tank top… Why was it torn?

It was torn from the neck as if forcibly ripped. The bra was a mess, too…

Her pants and underwear were embarrassingly soaked.

"…This."

Then, faint memories of the previous day began to resurface in her mind.

"Ah."

Cheap provocations. Struttingly going to a motel.

The previous day, lying on the bed and clumsily mixing bodies.

"Uh, uh… uh."

She clutched her head alone, punching the air.

She felt a presence next to her.

"Uh…"

The man, nursing a hangover, scrunched his face and looked around with bleary eyes until they landed on hers.

"Ah."

"...."

Silence was the only word to describe the atmosphere.

Ruined. Why had she acted so crazily then?

Lee Shiheon, why do you always talk so much…

It was the most humiliating silence in the world.

"Um, there—"

Lee Shiheon, breaking the silence, asked cautiously.

"Did you enjoy it?"

"You crazy bastard."

"Ouch!"

She kicked his shoulder, and he tumbled off the bed.

She hated how her eyes were drawn to his unnecessarily well-defined body.

Oh, really…

Calm down. As his martial arts master and as an older woman, she should maintain her dignity, even in such a situation.

And she couldn't let herself appear flustered over the previous day's events.

Especially not in front of this man. She didn't want to show even a hint of weakness.

"Crazy… crazy…"

…But it wasn't easy. The mere thought made her face flush with frustration.

"Why are you so angry?"

She loathed his calm demeanor. He must have been very experienced.

Well, she lacked self-esteem in that area.

She had never masturbated in her life… She had always thought 'whatever'. It was true she had acted wildly, especially considering he wasn't someone she would normally get involved with.

"Who would have thought it would end up like this."

"Please shut up."

"Or what… a draw?"

"Ah, really…!!!"

Her emotions exploded.

Without bothering to cover herself with the blanket, she rose and began to stomp on Lee Shiheon.

"Ouch! Wait, no, Master… Ouch! You're hitting a bone. Bone! Bone!"

After about 20 minutes of relentless stomping.

Lee Shiheon lay on the floor, whimpering like a tragic princess, weeping fake tears.

"You started it…"

"Bring me my clothes. Before the kids wake up."

"Okay."

Lee Shiheon concentrated for a moment and then conjured several sets of clothes from the dormitory using space magic. He had become quite adept at it. His progress was both notable and annoying; was it just her mood that made it so?

"Get out. I need to dress."

"After seeing everything already—"

"Do you want to bleed today?"

"Yes, I'll leave."

After Lee Shiheon hastily left, she donned the clothes he had brought.

'My clothes aren't here, and he brought his own…'

She fastened the unhooked bra and pulled on a loose T-shirt. The sensation of the wet underwear was unpleasant, but she had no choice.

"Sigh."

She was not even drenched with water, yet she felt so wet. Suddenly, she recalled being tightly held by him the previous day, unable to resist.

-Huak, stop, stop! It's strange… it's strange…

-What's strange.

-…Third-class disciple… Ah♡

"Ah, ack!"

She kicked the floor rug furiously and shook her head with force.

Just the thought that Lee Shiheon knew everything about that incident made her cheeks flush with heat. She made a vow to herself:

'If he brings up that story… I'll tear him apart.'

Now fully dressed, she mentally steeled herself and stepped outside.

Lee Shiheon was leaning against the wall near the door, his eyes closed.

"Oh, you're here?"

His naturally nonchalant expression was exasperating to look at.

"...."

"I'm feeling really awkward right now, so please say something."

"…Sigh. Really a pain. Alcohol is the devil."

She trailed after Lee Shiheon in silence.

They settled the motel bill, ignoring the strange stares from the receptionist, and left the building, walking under the sky that was gradually brightening.

Breathing in the crisp early morning air, she felt her mood lighten slightly.

"Feeling a bit better?"

"If you would just stop talking, that would be much better."

She slowed her pace to walk beside Lee Shiheon and snapped at him; he responded with a bitter smile.

"Let's drink less next time."

"…Yeah. But… how far did we go yesterday?"

"We didn't go all the way."

That was a relief to hear.

She was genuinely relieved.

'But why did I have such a dream all of a sudden?'

She glanced at Lee Shiheon.

No matter how many times she saw his unmasked face, it was always irritating.

A man like him was her destiny. To engage in such acts with him at night.

She walked absentmindedly, lost in her thoughts.

"Just a moment."

Then, suddenly, Lee Shiheon spoke.

-Bam!

She felt someone sharply tug on her shoulder.

A horn honked from behind.

A car sped past Baekdo, barely missing her. Her head tilted slightly, made contact with the annoying guy's shoulder.

"Ah, geez, watch out. It's dangerous. Walk on my left side."

Cursing and glancing at the car, Lee Shiheon's face displayed a slightly furrowed brow and intense eyes.

…A look that would linger in her memory for a long time.

Feeling suddenly irritated, she shoved his chest.

"Why did you do that? It was unnecessary!"

"What?"

"...."

She couldn't find her calm, even in the morning.

"No, ah. Sorry."

"Haha, what's that? Honestly, I was just worried about the car. If there was an accident, it might get a dent."

His playful words, his unnecessary concern, and yesterday's incident.

Her mind was too cluttered and overheated. She felt incapable of sorting out her thoughts right then.

"Let's go back quickly. We'll stop by the supermarket on the way. I'll make some hangover soup."

She didn't respond.

No, she couldn't.

She studied Lee Shiheon's face intently.

"…Make it or not."

No matter how many times she reflected on it and reconsidered it,

It was an annoying face that didn't suit her at all, not to her taste.