Chapter 64: Incense Burner(4).

Bbiririk – Cheolkeong.

The door lock was released, and Chayeon followed Heukgu inside. It was a bleak apartment standing alone among the dilapidated commercial buildings that were sparsely standing, but the inside was cleaner than she had thought. But the structure was a bit bizarre.

She had followed him because it had happened by chance, but she thought this wasn’t right after all. If Unni knew, she would be shocked. But no matter how she looked at it, Teacher Heukgu didn’t seem like a bad person.

If she could judge that just by looking at her appearance, the world would be a much easier place to live in, but that’s how she felt.

Unable to do anything about the school uniform blouse and skirt that were dripping water and sticking to her body, Chayeon hesitated and stepped onto the shoe rack. She had to contact Arena, but her phone was still dead. The battery was definitely sufficient, and she hadn’t bought it that long ago.

“Go wash up.”

Heukgu brought men’s shirts and rubber shorts from inside the room. They looked slightly smaller than what he was wearing, so he probably picked out the smallest clothes. Heukgu pointed with his eyes to the place, that is, the bathroom next to the entrance.

When she was young, she traveled with her family. Although the frequency had decreased as her parents became busy and the children, that is, Chayeon and Seohee, grew up, they basically liked to wander around.

They had used various methods of accommodation as they had traveled a lot, but of course, the most used were hotels.

She thought she knew what the bizarreness she had been feeling since entering this room was. The structure looked more like a hotel room than a home.

A room that looked like a hotel. A teacher who told her to wash up. Uh… Was her head turning in a strange direction?

“What are you doing? You’ll catch a cold.”

“Ah, yes, yes!”

After receiving the clothes, he also gave her a large plastic bag. It seemed that he had given it to her to put her wet clothes in. As she rushed into the bathroom and soaked her body in warm water, her mind became more comfortable.

So what was the situation now? Why was she soaking in the bathtub of the house of a male teacher she had met for the first time this morning?

The shampoos, conditioners, and body washes were all lined up in disposable packs just like in hotels. The structure, which didn’t look like a home where people lived, was like that too.

Had she been dragged to a hotel without her knowing? She had clearly entered a dilapidated apartment following Heukgu.

She kept having strange imaginations, but she wasn’t scared of the situation. Why was that? It might be because of Teacher Heukgu’s atmosphere, but also because of his expression or eyes.

Whenever she happened to make eye contact with Heukgu, she couldn’t help but think, ‘Ah, this man really doesn’t have the slightest interest in me.’ Not to mention sexual desire, she couldn’t even feel human desire before that. Anyway, he was a strange person.

After washing, she wrung out her wet underwear and school uniform and stuffed them into a plastic bag, then put on the large shirt and rubber shorts. It felt strange to wear it without underwear.

The pants were large, but she tightened and tied the elastic band tightly, so it somehow worked. If she looked up from below, she would be able to see everything inside, right? She had to be careful. She had to fold the sleeves of the large shirt several times.

When she went outside, Heukgu was sitting on the bed, watching TV, and then glanced at her.

“Hmm, it suits you.”

-Shouldn’t she run away now, even now?

Just as her head was about to become complicated, familiar things came into her view.

“Huh? This is?”

Chayeon tiptoed past Heukgu and approached the bookcase next to the window. There were a lot of books that she didn’t know what they were, but they looked difficult, but that wasn’t why Chayeon reacted.

On one side, Jindal dolls, figures, and character goods were lined up.

“Teacher! Do you do Jindal too?”

Heukgu frowned at Chayeon’s excited tone.

“…Hmm, is that how it’s applied?”

“Yes?”

“No, it’s a soliloquy. Yes, I know Jindal well.”

“Wow!”

Oh my gosh. She never thought she would meet someone who did Jindal. Chayeon was enjoying it at a maniacal level, but because of the settings and characters that targeted otaku, it wasn’t easy to find the same user in reality.

“Wow! It’s Siren and Ariok dolls. Oh!? Baekgumiho figure! Daebak! Daebak!”

Chayeon jumped up and down while looking at the goods that were all rare. Everything that was placed on the bookcase shelf was a limited edition that Chayeon couldn’t get because the quantity was small. Even if she found used ones, there were many that she couldn’t buy because they were expensive as a student.

“You can take one if you want.”

“Yes!?”

Chayeon was surprised by the shocking statement.

“It’s not like I want them or something.”

“Don’t refuse. I have a lot.”

Gulp. Chayeon swallowed without realizing it. She never thought she would encounter such great luck. Oh my gosh. She was glad she came.

“Th, then.”

When she actually tried to choose, she didn’t know what to choose. Everything was expensive and precious. In particular, the Baekgumiho figure she had seen earlier was a hard-to-find item even among maniacs because only a very small quantity had been released. It was also the most expensive of these.

Chayeon, who had been contemplating in front of the Baekgumiho figure, turned her body around.

She wasn’t shameless enough to sell the things she had received as a gift, and even if Heukgu said it was okay, she had no intention of selling them. Besides, Baekgumiho was the most popular character, but for some reason, Chayeon didn’t like that character very much.

She stood in front of the other shelf. Chayeon’s body twitched. As expected, if she was told to choose, it would be one of these two.

The White Witch and the Blue Dragon.

The White Witch was a character that became stronger in the later part of the story. The main character of the White Witch line was similar to Arena, so Chayeon liked that character very much.

No, was it that she became interested in Arena because that character and Arena were similar? Which came first? She couldn’t remember well.

The Blue Dragon was a character that didn’t appear often in the main story. To be exact, the main character of the Blue Dragon line didn’t appear in the story, but instead, sub characters often came out.

They were characters with gray hair, what people called ‘Nuna’ characters, and that was also a pretty popular character that Chayeon liked.

‘Come to think of it, this one resembles Unni.’

She was troubled. They were both her favorite characters, and the goods were also well made. The witch character was a little deformed and well made to be round and cute, while the Nuna character was of a quality where the details were alive.

She couldn’t take both, right?

“Chayeon.”

“Yes?”

She was called at the perfect timing as if he had read her thoughts, so a hopeful expectation swelled.

“Are you having fun?”

What was it? It was a question that seemed out of the blue. If she said she was having fun, would he give her both? But if she said ‘Yes, I’m having fun!’, it seemed like her heart would be too obvious, so she just asked back smoothly.

“What do you mean?”

“I asked if you’re enjoying this dream world where everything is going as you wish.”

But at Heukgu’s following words, her blood turned cold.

“At first, I thought you couldn’t remember anything at all. You can’t even lie properly, but your acting has improved quite a bit.”

“I hope you stop your ridiculous play.”

Heokgu’s relentless bass voice echoed in the room. Heokgu’s sunken eyes were quietly looking down at Chayeon.

Chayeon looked back up at those eyes.

And then, she tilted her head.

“Huh?”

“…I see. Is that your answer now.”

What was he suddenly talking about? She was expecting that he would give her two, but Teacher Heokgu was saying incomprehensible things. Why was he looking down on her like that? She felt her mood go down. She didn’t need Jindal or anything.

“I think it’s okay after all. I’m not going to take it.”

“Do as you wish. Since you keep trying to run away, I’ll say it unilaterally.”

“I’m going to break your incense burner from now on. Originally, I was thinking of taking you out with a slightly gentler method, but it’s a different story if you have an ego.”

“I’ll do as I please, so you can resent me, hate me, or try to stop me, do as you please.”

“Well, it would be absurd to expect such a thing from you now.”

Heokgu laughed like that and turned his back. His cold voice dug into the inside of her ears and struck her skull.

“Follow me. I’ll send you back now.”

What, why was he spouting nonsense she couldn’t understand on his own? She felt like she was going to explode inside, but she barely held it in.

Chayeon lowered her head silently and followed Heokgu.

The weather had cleared up before she knew it. As she followed Heokgu’s butt here and there through the alley, Chayeon began to see familiar terrain.

From the passage of the building where the practice room was, Arena and the other people were coming out at just the right time.

Arena, who was looking around with an uneasy expression, widened her eyes when she found Chayeon on the other side of the road.

“Chayeon-ah!”

Chayeon ran to Arena and hugged her even faster than she came here. She had run at her with a crash, but she was holding on. Was it because she had been trained by dance and exercise? As expected, Arena was amazing.

“Chayeon! Where were you! You suddenly disappeared, and I couldn’t contact you!”

“Hehe.”

“It’s not ‘hehe’!”

Chayeon flinched at Arena’s loud voice. Was she very angry? She was a little scared.

What should she explain? To tell the truth, a black fox appeared and she followed it and got lost, and she got soaked because of the rain, but Teacher Heokgu appeared and she followed him and washed up.

Even she thought it was like she was crazy.

As Arena looked at Chayeon, who was hesitating, her eyes widened again.

“You, those clothes!?”

“Ah, that’s.”

As expected, there seemed to be no other way but to explain as it was. She would take out the fox part, and say that she had been helped by the teacher.

She felt Teacher Heokgu approaching from behind. Arena pulled Chayeon into her arms even more.

‘I wonder if Teacher will explain it.’

As she had such expectations, Heokgu, who had been quietly approaching, opened his mouth.

“Chayeon.”

“…You left your underwear at my house. I’ll bring it to you at school tomorrow.”

As if time had stopped, everyone froze in place. As for Arena, her eyes became blank and her mouth gaped like a goldfish’s mouth.

-Is this bastard doing this on purpose?

She had never cursed even once in her life, but that thought naturally came to Chayeon’s mind.