Chapter 40: In front of the bonfire(2).

Unlike the words with a very seductive feeling, what Byul took off was the coat she was wearing, like Chayeon.

“Well then, what kind of orders will Chayeon-ssi, who has become the king, give~?”

“Bow your head.”

“Yes?”

Byul widened her eyes at Chayeon’s command.

“I said bow your head.”

It was a minor revenge for Byul, who was playing with them.

When Chayeon calmly nodded to Byul, who was asking with her eyes, ‘Is it this atmosphere? Really?’, Byul had no choice but to bow her head.

“Eit! Eit! Byul needs to be punished a little!”

Arena, who had regressed to a child, was slapping Byul’s butt with the palm of her hand from the side.

Byul, who had bowed her head for 2 minutes and rubbed her forehead, stood up with a sulky expression.

“Just you wait.”

In the following fourth round.

Fortunately for Byul, and unfortunately for Chayeon, the same anomaly as the previous round did not occur.

Byul won without exception, and Arena’s defeat, who couldn’t hide her expression at all.

As Arena threw off the white stockings she was wearing, her snow-white bare legs were revealed.

The smooth thighs and calves reflected the brazier’s light and shone subtly.

“Hehe, Chayeon-ssi, you really gave me such humiliation, didn’t you?”

Byul entered a 500x more sinister mode and let out an unpleasant laugh.

“I didn’t want to do this, but I can’t help it! The king commands. The two losers, please do a Love Shot Stage 2~, no! Stage 3!”

Byul, saying that while clashing the two wine glasses that she had somehow brought with her, making a Clang sound.

Chayeon and Arena weren’t doing anything and were just staring blankly at Byul.

“I know what a Love Shot is, but what is Stage 3?”

“……?”

Byul widened her eyes at Chayeon’s question.

“Chayeon-ssi, is this your first time playing a drinking game?”

“No, I’ve tried it but……………”

I’ve never heard of Love Shot Stage 3.

More than that, it was questionable how Byul, who was younger than her, knew such a thing.

“I’ll tell you. How to do it is…”

As Byul explained, Arena’s mouth was widening.

“Sitting on, on her thigh!?”

Chayeon was also dumbfounded.

“Putting your arms around her neck……………”

Arena’s eyes were spinning.

It seemed that the intoxication had subsided a little.

“Come on! Hurry up! Hurry!”

Byul urged.

Arena was still embarrassed and dazed.

I don’t know.

Let’s finish it quickly.

There are no ulterior motives.

…A little, just a little.

Chayeon approached Arena – she didn’t even have to approach since she was already tightly attached – and straddled Arena’s thigh as it was.

Arena’s red face was seen right in front of her with a sound of ‘Huh? Uh!?’.

Taking the glass from Byul as it was, she puts her arms around her neck.

“Arena, p, put, your arms around………”

I tried to say it calmly, but I stuttered without realizing it.

“U, uh.”

Arena answered in a barely audible voice, and I could feel her putting her arms around Chayeon’s back.

When they hugged tightly to bring their faces close to the glass, I could feel the hot heat from Arena’s earlobe, which was touching right next to me.

It was as warm as an electric blanket turned on in a winter room.

Arena’s ears, and Chayeon’s ears too.

Glug glug-

Whether it was because she was intoxicated with the atmosphere, or whether it was really a different wine than before, she passed the wine, which spread more sweetly along the tip of her tongue than before, through her throat, and Chayeon carefully pulled herself out of Arena’s arms.

Both of them, with their faces reddened, were hanging their heads.

They were feeling that each other’s intertwined hands had become very hot.

“Well then~ Shall we play the next game?”

Byul was leading the atmosphere, smiling brightly.

In the following game, Byul and Chayeon, or Arena, took turns winning and various penalties appeared accordingly.

Whether she was hiding her thoughts or not, Byul kept putting out requests for things like hugs, hugging from behind, and whispering to each other to Chayeon and Arena.

It was already the realm of a master to lead the atmosphere without disrupting it while making such blatant demands.

The more they did the penalties, the hotter her whole body became.

Her face was flushed with heat.

It felt like she was being brainwashed by Byul’s voice, ‘Well, well, it’s a penalty!’

When Chayeon won, she made Arena and Byul do similar penalties, thinking she would give them a taste of their own medicine, but contrary to her expectations, the two of them did the penalties without being embarrassed.

What is different?

Byul won the following game as well.

As Arena approached to pick Chayeon’s card, Chayeon was on the verge of going crazy because of the long eyelashes that drew over her prim eyes.

She couldn’t pay attention to anything else for fear that her pounding heart would leak out.

I must be crazy.

Why am I like this.

“It’s Chayeon-ssi’s defeat! Now, please take it off.”

“……I don’t have anything else to take off.”

When she came to her senses, Chayeon only had the joker left in her hand.

Chayeon was troubled by Byul’s urging.

Unlike the two girls who were wearing a coat, socks, and hat, Chayeon, who had woken up from sleep and came right away, was now only wearing a one-piece pajama.

If she took it off, she would be in her underwear as it was.

“Hmm, that’s good. I’ll excuse you.”

For some reason, Byul gave in easily.

“CH!!”

The words that followed.

“I’ll raise the strength of the order as the king a little. Is that okay?”

Since there was no way, Chayeon obediently nodded her head.

“Then the king orders~ The two losers, please do a Love Shot Stage 5! It was originally Stage 4, but it went up because Chayeon-ssi couldn’t perform the penalty~”

Byul said energetically with a cunning voice.

However, Chayeon could only stare blankly at Byul this time too.

What do you have to do to do Love Shot Stage 5?

Since it was two stages higher than Stage 3, I should be prepared to some extent.

Towards Chayeon, who was making that resolution, Byul playfully put her index finger to her lips and moved her lips silently.

Mouse,

Mouse.

“Oh my! Look at me!”

Suddenly, Byul stood up while making an exaggerated sound.

Taking out her smartphone from her skirt pocket, Byul looked into it.

“I was supposed to spend tonight chatting with my grandparents, but I forgot. Look at me.”

The grandparents she was talking about meant the old couple who were the employees of this mansion and helped the three of them.

Getting up from her seat in a hurry.

She collected her belongings and headed for the door in an instant.

“Sorry for the suddenness, Lena-ya. I’ll go first? Ah, right! I’m planning to sleep at my grandparents’ house tonight. Then~”

With those words as the last, Byul closed the door and left.

Taktak-

Awkward silence.

In the quiet atmosphere, only the reddish embers were crackling and burning.

Warmth was coming and being transmitted from their tightly held hands.

They could feel each other’s pulse in their clasped hands.

Chayeon glanced at Arena slyly.

It was clear that it wasn’t just because of the light, Arena had flushed cheeks and was hanging her head.

Taktak-

The air was strangely hot.

It was unknown whether it was because the temperature in the room was high, or because her body was heated by the alcohol.

“Um……………”

In the silence, Arena spoke first.

“Shall we do it?”

A voice full of tension, squeezed with courage.

When Chayeon raised her head, the orange eyes that were stained orange by the light were looking at Chayeon.

‘Do it’.

What?

Why are you pretending not to know?

Chayeon, who had gathered her courage as well, nodded silently.

At that, Arena took the wine glass and moved the wine to her lips.

Arena’s light pink lips, which had red wine on them, were glossy.

A freshness as if she had just bloomed into fruit.

Arena’s face approached Chayeon.

Slowly, but surely.

Now lips that were finger joint length away from each other.

They could feel each other’s breath.

Slowly, carefully.

Arena’s lips, over Chayeon’s lips………………

Glug.

“Ah.”

Just before their lips touched, Arena exclaimed.

“You, what, you drank it all!”

“Th, that’s! Sorry!”

The tight tension loosened and awkward laughter was exchanged.

“Sh, she failed.”

“That’s right.”

Chayeon grabbed Arena’s arm as she moved her body away.

“Arena…?”

“A penalty, we have to do it.”

“Ah.”

In the quietness, they heard the sound of someone swallowing their saliva.

“I, I’ll do it again…?”

“Yeah.”

Again, with wine in her mouth, Arena slowly turned towards Chayeon.

The weight was put on their clasped hands and Chayeon was gently moved closer to Arena.

Finally, Arena’s lips were on Chayeon’s lips………………

“Wait!”

However, this time too, Arena drank the wine all by herself and ran away from Chayeon in a hurry.

“What, what’s wrong?”

I was slightly let down.

What’s the problem this time?

“Th, that’s! You! You’re dating Seohee-sensei! But th, this…!”

Arena was quick to move away and pointed her finger at Chayeon with her back against the sofa.

Those words were so absurd that she couldn’t help but be dumbfounded even if they were Arena’s words.

What? Seohee-sensei?

What is she talking about.

“After all, I can’t do something like cheating! Th, that’s, it’s true that I like you, but…”

“Arena.”

“But I’m also sorry to Seohee-sensei! And……………..”

“Arena, listen.”

“Ye, after all, doing something like this is wrong!”

“Arena!”

When Chayeon shouted in a sweet voice, Arena was startled and closed her mouth.

“Say honorifics to me, Arena.”

“Wh, what!? What are you suddenly saying!”

“I want to hear it. Quickly.”

As Chayeon sent her a mournful look, Arena momentarily swallowed her breath.

Then she carefully opened her mouth.

“…Yes, O…

Oh my god.

…Oppa.”

Chayeon got up from her seat.

“So, is this what Arena knew? I look like a woman, but I’m actually a man pretending to be a woman, and I’m in a male-female relationship with Seohee-sensei.”

“Th, that’s right!?”

A gaze full of absolute certainty that what she knew could not be wrong.

Even if Arena is a screwball, this is a bit much.

How could she think that Chayeon was a man while living under the same roof for two months?

Although we haven’t had a proper conversation about this topic since then, there is such a thing as reading between the lines and sensing things.

If it was normal, she might have chuckled, thinking it was absurd but like Arena, she might have chuckled.

But now, for some reason, she was a little annoyed.

“Arena.”

“U, uhung?”

Chayeon, holding the glass filled with wine, approached Arena as it was.

As Chayeon suddenly approached, Arena retreated back with her back against the sofa, as if embarrassed.

“I’m a m, man?”

“U, uhung……..”

Arena shrunk even more at the subtle force felt from Chayeon, who was smaller than her.

“Hoo,”

Chayeon exhaled once.

“Don’t you want to, check it out?”

“Uhung?”

At Chayeon’s words, Arena made a bewildered expression, not understanding the meaning.

Chayeon raised the hand holding the wine glass.

“Check it, directly.”

Glug-

“to see.”

Chayeon held the wine in her mouth.

Soon, Arena also held the wine in her mouth like it was natural.

On a calm night, under the night sky with the curtain of starlight drawn.

In a dark room that smelled of leather, two shadows illuminated by a brazier were superimposed together.