Chapter 39: In front of the bonfire.

After that, there was no contact from Seohee.
She wondered if she should contact her first, but Chayeon also agreed with Byeol’s statement that there was a risk of information being leaked due to the records left when contacting her by text message, etc., so she gave up on that method.
With the indiscriminate violence inflicted by the warden, Chayeon had no trust left for Jindal.

However, Chayeon thought that the two girls had different circumstances.
They had been caught up in it purely for Chayeon’s sake.

“Don’t have useless thoughts and concentrate! Are you saying you can deal with someone like me while having other thoughts!?”

She had tentatively sounded her out during sparring with Arena, but only got scolded.

Chayeon, Arena, and Byeol were not the only ones going in and out of this large villa.
An elderly couple who usually managed the villa lived a little distance away from the villa and looked after Chayeon and the others.
They had been living here for a long time as employees of Byeol’s family.

At first, the elderly couple stopped by to cook and clean, but due to the trio’s continuous refusal, they eventually only came occasionally in recent times under the pretext of procuring food ingredients.

It didn’t take long for Chayeon to shake off the identity of a patient.
After that, Byeol was busy gathering information related to Jindal, and Chayeon spent time helping Arena’s rehabilitation.
Fortunately, Arena’s senses were smoothly returning.

A week passed like that, then a month passed, and then another month passed.

Two months in a familiar environment passed too quickly, but two months experienced in a new environment was a long time.
They hadn’t let their guard down at first, wondering if Jindal would suddenly come looking for them, and if they would hear news from Seohee, but as time passed, they gradually began to relax.
Amidst the distant crisis and the immediate peace, the relationship between them was also rapidly changing.

Time spent far away from the secular world, on a remote island, seemed to flow unusually slowly.

“…Uhm.”

Rubbing her stuck-together eyes, she got up groggily and looked out the window, and it was a dark night.
She had only meant to take a nap, but had ended up sleeping until late at night.
Chayeon squirmed and crawled out of bed, and checked the table clock, and it was 10 o’clock.
It was an ambiguous time to fall asleep again.

Hiding her yawning mouth with her hand, she somehow crawled out of bed.
It was subtly chilly once she came out from under the blanket.
The heating was on, but outside was in an uproar due to a record-breaking cold wave.
Not to mention the cold on an island floating on the East Sea of Gangwon-do.

“Arena?”

The lights were all turned off when she came out into the living room.
She forcibly corrected her staggering steps, which were swaying from sleepiness, and went down the stairs.

When she reached the first floor, she could faintly hear the murmur of voices from beyond.

‘What do you mean JinDo!? Wh, What!’
‘It’s already been two months. How is it?’
‘W, Well…, at the v-very least, holding hands…….’

She was about to open the door when she heard such voices from inside.

‘Just kiss her, all of a sudden.’
‘Kiss!? Are you, are you crazy!? That’s! Th, That’s to say…….’

As Chayeon opened the door as it was, the two girls, who had been talking, stopped and their gazes poured over.

“Chayeon!? Uh, how long have you been there?”
“I just came in.”

The room was warm.
A soft and fluffy carpet like one seen in foreign movies was laid down, and over there in the fireplace, oak firewood was burning, with orange flames crackling and burning.

And it was dark.
What were the two of them doing, sticking close together while relying on only the light of the bonfire?

“Were you very tired?”
“Ah, it’s already this time. What are you doing without turning on the lights.”
“It has an atmosphere, you know.”

Byeol covered her mouth with her hand and laughed.

As Chayeon got closer to the two girls, she could see that a trump card was placed in the middle.

“Cards?”
“Ah? Ah! Yeah! We were playing go fish! Th, That’s right? Byeol?”
“Hehe, that’s right.”
“Jeon Chayeon! You play with us too!”

Before Chayeon could say anything, Arena spewed out words like a machine gun, as if trying to erase it in a hurry.

“Go fish? How do you play it.”

As Chayeon sat down between the two, the three girls formed a triangle around the cards.

“What!? Don’t tell me you’ve never played go fish before?”
“What with go fish, I’m seeing a trump card for the first time.”
“What kind of school days did you have, exactly!? Don’t you have any friends!?”

Arena was sometimes too much.
Asking someone who really didn’t have many friends if they didn’t have any friends was bound to hurt them.

After that, Arena explained while swinging her arms around, and Byeol supplemented here and there, and Chayeon understood the general rules.
Chayeon, who had been thinking of games that were seen in casinos in movies with the fancy trump cards that she was seeing for the first time, was slightly let down by the much simpler rules than expected.

“I roughly get it, so let’s try playing. I’ll get a proper feel for it if I actually do it.”

The game started like that.

“I’m done now~”

Byeol removed her hand pack first, after picking out the heart 8 from Arena.
It was Chayeon’s turn.

Tap-
“Hot!”
Whisk-
“Hoo.”
Whisk-
“Aah!”

Easy.
It was extremely easy.
Arena’s expression changed rapidly every time Chayeon moved her hand back and forth between the two remaining cards.
Chayeon removed the diamond 7 as it was, and Arena’s defeat, who held the joker, was confirmed.

“No way! Ah, why!”

Arena, who was constantly losing, thumped the ground, as if she was resentful.
Well, if her emotions were that evident, there was no way for the observers to not know.

After that, Arena’s defeats continued.
Sometimes Byeol or Chayeon would lose, but the majority of the rounds ended with Arena self-destructing.

“No way! You guys schemed, right!? You guys definitely schemed, right!?”

Arena’s struggles and the ensuing commotion.
The game would become quiet, and then start again.

Crackle-
In the dark winter night, a reddish bonfire softly illuminated the room.
Peaceful time flowed by.
A time that had nothing to do with Jindal, demons, supernatural powers, and those kinds of things.

The things that they had experienced in the past already felt far away.
It was to the extent that it was hard to believe that it had only been a little over two months since they had come to this place.

Perhaps,

Wouldn’t it be nice to continue living like this?

“It’s getting kind of boring, so how about we decide on a penalty?”
“Penalty?”

Just when they were starting to get tired of the repeating pattern, Byeol brought up the topic.
Thus, a game of go fish with penalties added was started.

“Tada!”
“…Where did you get that?”
“Hehe, I brought it from downstairs.”

What Byeol took out was wine.
The word 1947 came into view below the trademark that said Chateau Cheval Blanc.
She didn’t know much about it, but because it said 1947, Chayeon vaguely guessed that it must be expensive.

“Alcohol? You guys are underage, you know.”
“Supernatural power users don’t have to worry about those petty things.”

That was a ridiculous argument.
What a brazen kid.

Arena was just silently staring at the wine bottle with wide eyes.
Judging from her eyes, she seemed like she wanted to drink it.

“I don’t know. Do as you like.”

As Chayeon’s permission was given, Byeol brightly smiled and skillfully opened the wine.
However, for some reason, she was only pouring one glass.

“What is it, only one glass?”
“We’re not just going to drink it. I said it was a ‘penalty’, right?”

Only then did Chayeon understand Byeol’s intention.

A punishment drink, huh.
It was a drinking game.

And that too, with a unique combination of go fish + wine.
It was completely different from the drinking games that Chayeon had experienced during freshman orientation.

Thus, a new game began.

“I win.”
“Ah! Ah, no way.”

Byeol won first, and Arena lost.
However, Arena’s expression had a certain anticipation in it.

Glug, glug.

“How is it?”
“Ugh, it’s astringent. And it smells weird.”

Such was Arena’s evaluation, as she was drinking alcohol as wine for the first time.
Soon, the second game.

“Oh my? I won again?

Similarly, Byeol won.
However, this time, it was Chayeon who lost.
Chayeon, who hadn’t been an adult for very long, was also drinking wine for the first time.

Glug, glug.

Hmm…….

“It’s astringent.”
“Right!?”

As Chayeon gave the same evaluation, Arena pushed her face in as if glad, and Byeol was clutching her stomach and laughing, as if it was fun.

Soon, the third round, fourth round, fifth round. The number of rounds stacked up, and Arena and Chayeon alternately drank wine.

“There’s still more!”

When the wine ran out, Byeol brought new wine from somewhere again.
She couldn’t quite read exactly what was written on it.
It seemed like it was a different alcohol than before.

“Hehe.”

Before she knew it, Arena had come close to Chayeon and was rubbing her face on her shoulder.
She could feel a hot energy through the fabric of her clothes.
Judging from her flushed face, she seemed to already be completely drunk.

Chayeon, who was thinking that, was also not in a normal state, in truth.
Perhaps because Chayeon was originally weak to alcohol, her vision was already dizzy.

“…But Byeol, it seems like you still haven’t drunk even one glass.”
“Is that so? Hehe, what does it matter.”

That’s right.
She wondered what it mattered.

“Arena, it’s stuffy. Can you move away a little.”
“Uhhng, I don’t wanna.”

When she told her to move away, Arena instead clung to her more.
She wiggled into Chayeon’s embrace, and was now even acting spoiled while leaning on her chest.
If she went to sleep, one stack of embarrassing history would be added.

“If it’s hard, should we change the penalty?”

Byeol, who was looking at the two of them with a somewhat sinister smile, cackled and made that suggestion.

“To what?”
“Hmm, in times like these, shouldn’t we play the king’s game? Or take off clothes, perhaps?”

Why did it seem like she could see the ego of a lecherous middle-aged man in a teenage girl.

<<I second that!>>
“Shut up, you.”
“Otay! Let’s Do It!”

After quieting Heukgu down, this time it was Arena who was causing a ruckus.

“Lena also seconded it, so it passes with a majority! Which one should we do? Ah, we can do both.”
“Taking off clothes is a bit much, don’t you think.”
“What’s wrong with it since it’s just us girls?”
“Why would we bother doing that if it’s just us girls.”
“Hehe, don’t worry. We’ll only liven things up while keeping a moderate line.”

Before they could even stop her, a new game had started.

“I win again~”

Byeol was once again victorious.
Soon, Chayeon and Arena were looking at each other’s cards while facing each other.

“Kkeueung-“

Arena was glaring at Chayeon’s hand with a deeply reddened face.
Chayeon had become the victor first, but because she was sitting closely with Arena, she also couldn’t know which one was the joker.

“This one, right here!”
“Ah…!”

It was a rare sight to see Byeol be flustered, and the identity of the card that Arena had drawn was revealed.
The ace of hearts. It was Arena’s victory.

“Yatta!”
“Oh my, I lost.”

Arena, who was expressing joy with her whole body, jumped up and down, and Byeol licked her lips as if she was disappointed.

“Then, should I take it off?”