Eat The World Tree

Chapter 207: Let's Pick Stars (7)

If the husband performed well in bed the previous night, the dining table legs would break the next morning.

It wasn’t morning, but even during the early morning snack, Byeol put in a lot of effort.

“Did you finish chopping the scallions?”

“Yeah, should I put them in now?”

Byeol, nodding with a yellow apron on, looked like a short-legged chick. When she noticed my gaze, she smiled brightly at me.

“Why are you looking? Do I look pretty?”

Byeol said this while holding a metal ladle. The hickey on her neck was quite suggestive.

“…You are pretty.”

When I answered honestly, her lips curled up.

Look at that. Laughing so sneakily. Isn’t she being a bit too honest with her emotions?

“Do it one more time!”

“Okay, love you.”

“Hey, that lacked emotion! Do it properly. Action!”

“Okay, love you.”

“Tch.”

When I answered mechanically, Byeol pouted and lightly tapped my shoulder with her hand.

She seemed overly proud. Why was that? It felt like her affection became more active after the reunion.

“You won’t find anyone like me.”

She acted like a woman desperately trying to sell herself after her marriageable age had passed. It felt odd to describe it this way, but that’s what it seemed like.

“What do you want?”

“Just say you love me, and maybe, hug me from behind while I’m cooking! And give me a kiss, too!”

Even though she said that, I was not good at expressing affection. I had only recently started doing it more often.

“Alright, alright.”

I had no choice.

I added the thinly sliced scallions to the boiling kimchi stew and moved behind Byeol to give her a back hug. The yellow apron I was wearing touched her back.

With her head resting on my chest, Byeol looked up at me with eyes filled with affection.

“…I like it.”

-Bubbling.

Along with the sound of the stew boiling, Byeol’s expectant voice resonated. We continued talking while holding each other.

“I’m pretty good at cooking, right?”

“You’re similar to me. I started living on my own in middle school, or was it high school?”

“Really? We’re so alike. We both like games, live on our own, and are talented at the academy… Oh, and we’re compatible in bed?”

When she said that, I realized we did have a lot in common. Byeol rubbed her cheek against my arm like a cat. I could feel the soft touch of her cheek and the sharp tip of her nose on my skin.

“I think we met well.”

“Even though I met you just to sleep with you at first.”

“Ssshh, a blind date with Byeol is a hundred times better than being raped by Seyeong.”

“…You leave me speechless. And Seyeong said it was consensual.”

“Yeah, she’d say that. Oh, and don’t tell Seyeong about this, okay? I’ll be dead if you do!”

Seyeong got a hit. I’d have to tell her secretly later.

Before long, Byeol finished cooking.

“It’s done.”

After tasting the kimchi stew, Byeol released me from the hug. Then she brought a spoonful of stew to my mouth with the ladle.

“…How is it?”

After tasting it, it wasn’t bad.

A spicy kick with just the right amount of saltiness…

“Tastes like dashida. It’s good?”

“Beef dashida is the secret. My mom used to add a lot of dashida too.”

When she placed the finished kimchi stew in the center of the table, the well-prepared meal looked impressive.

Rolled omelet, kimchi stew, braised beef, various seasoned vegetables, and freshly cooked rice topped with oats. The quality was excellent, probably because expensive ingredients were used generously.

When I heard that one egg cost tens of thousands of won, I was surprised.

-As the vice president, I can’t handle the stress without eating like this.

It must be tough working at the association. The earnings seem to be substantial too.

“Let’s eat!”

Homemade food after sex. It couldn’t be anything but delicious.

“Enjoy your meal.”

“Enjoy your meal.”

I took a spoonful of rice and put the rolled omelet in my mouth.

“Wow…”

The ingredients were top-notch. The flavor of the expensive egg was distinct from the start.

Would other side dishes be like this? I picked up a piece of braised beef, and the texture of the beef strands separating as the savory soy sauce hit my nose was amazing. It shattered my prejudice that it didn’t matter if you ate roughly. Even though the cooking skills were similar, the quality of the food was different, which was surprising.

-Gulp.

As I was mindlessly eating, I heard Byeol’s proud voice from the front.

“Is it good?”

When I finally looked up, Byeol was looking at me with her hands under her chin, smiling brightly.

“Aren’t you eating?”

“I’m just watching because it makes me happy.”

It seemed she hadn’t taken a proper bite yet.

When I stopped eating and looked at her, Byeol blinked her wide eyes and then chuckled.

“Should I feed you?”

It sounded teasing, but she probably wanted it. I picked up a piece of rolled omelet with my chopsticks and brought it to her mouth.

“Ah-”

Byeol bit into half of the rolled omelet. She just held it in her mouth, giggling while looking at the chopsticks in my hand.

After savoring it for a while, she finally took a bite and smiled happily. She smiles a lot. I was a bit envious of that. I took the remaining half of the rolled omelet and smiled blandly.

I hoped I could keep seeing that smile.

After finishing the meal, the rest of the night was filled with exciting activities.

Game.

Sex.

Game.

Sex.

Sex.

With the cycle of game-sex-game-sex-sex repeating, I wondered if this was how a beast living by its desires would feel.

In truth, even when we said we were playing games, we were always together.

-Slurping.

“Tasty?”

Putting chocolate or snacks in each other’s mouths while kissing. Even though we continued moving the controllers, we never stopped the physical contact.

“Want more?”

Byeol held a bunch of chocolate in her mouth and pounced on me as I lay on the bed. Our tongues met, and the melting chocolate sweetly enveloped us.

“So sweet…”

Marveling at the taste of the chocolate, we resumed playing the game. Maybe because it was repetitive labor like an RPG, our affectionate gestures became more intense.

She’d rest her thighs on my stomach or rub my shins with her feet. When she suggested playing the Pocky game with shrimp crackers, I asked why we couldn’t just kiss, and she scolded me for lacking romance.

Then, when the switch flipped, we’d kiss passionately for an hour straight. If we got aroused midway, we’d undress and go at it.

Until the morning sun rose.

“Hoo… Hoo…”

Byeol used her fingers to scoop up the semen spilling from her and pushed it back inside.

Sunlight poured through the curtains. Since morning had come, it was time to part with Byeol for a while.

But perhaps because of the affection I poured into her all night, unlike the one time we had sex before, I could feel Byeol’s body becoming more erotic and skillful.

“…Hold me.”

We embraced each other naked. Byeol shivered pleasantly in my arms, exhaling a dizzying breath.

“I want to stay like this forever.”

“Do you like me that much?”

“Hehe, I love it. My house was always cold, but just having you here makes it so warm.”

Living alone in a rented room. Being a loner didn’t make one immune to loneliness.

Sometimes, coming home to nothing but cold air made you feel extremely depressed, as if you had been hit on the head. It’s not the temperature of the room, but the lack of any sign of human life that made a place feel cold. Living like that for years made you wonder if this was the right way to live. Byeol lost her parents, so she had no one to rely on.

I understood because I was in a similar situation.

Eventually, we should live together.

Byeol nodded happily at my suggestion.

“…You have a lot of girls, Shiheon.”

“Is it okay to say that now?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. I’m happy enough. That’s that, and… I’ve been thinking about something.”

Byeol snuggled in my arms, inhaling my scent, and caressed my back with her hand. Every touch and gesture was filled with affection.

“When you think about it… that Jin Dallae? And Seyeong too. Like me, we all have something missing, don’t we?”

“Byeol too?”

“Yeah, even Byeol… If I don’t say it, it’s at the limit. Every time there’s work… killing people. After my parents died, I lived earnestly… but it was all hard work. It was really tough.”

Byeol continued.

“You’re… pretty weird too.”

“Ouch.”

“It’s nothing major. But if all of us who have defects naturally met, isn’t that fate? That’s what I think.”

Fate. I didn’t like that word much, especially after the World Tree of Time incident.

“In the past, there was really a World Tree that had the power to determine fate. It’s not strange.”

“What’s that?”

“If all the women attracted to you have some deficiency, my hypothesis might be right.”

Byeol’s conspiracy theory made me think of the women I met.

Baekdo, Hwangdo, Cheondo, Sansuyu, and others. They were all far from normal.

They all had some deficiency. Sansuyu was almost emotionless, and Baekdo, Hwangdo, and Cheondo had incomplete memories due to the curse of the World Tree. Was this the moment when Byeol’s theory shines?

‘Ssss.’

Suddenly, I felt a twinge at the back of my neck.

Noticing my grim expression, Byeol quickly changed the subject.

“Ah, it’s not a certainty! Even if it were true, right? Even if some jerk forcibly tied us together, Byeol will love Shiheon forever! Hearts pop pop!”

-Smooch, smooch.

Byeol kissed my cheeks.

Her desperate cuteness made me laugh out loud. Yeah, even if it were true, love wouldn’t disappear.

“…Hehehe.”

Relieved by my laughter, Byeol smiled while enjoying my warmth. That weird conspiracy theory didn’t come up again.

“Anyway, now it’s time to focus on the current task.”

“That’s right.”

“About the Forester Selection Competition, handling Flower is your job, but it’s also the Hunter Association’s business.”

Even if I didn’t like the Hunter Association, Byeol was different.

Our goals were aligned. With the Forester Selection Competition not far off, and today being the last day off.

“That’s right.”

Byeol briefly left my embrace and crawled to the vanity to fetch a file and handed it to me.

“This is the Flower base revealed this time. It’s top secret.”

“A base?”

“Yeah. During the last terror incident… we got lucky and captured a few people to get information. I filtered out the obvious lies and picked the most probable ones.”

I took the file. Roughly twenty locations. I’d have to handle it while balancing academy duties and working at night.

‘How hard I tried to sleep that never came.’

Now I could move through the night again.

Seeing my faint smile, Byeol looked at me with half-worried eyes.

“…It’s a problem I shared this with you, but I trust you won’t misuse it.”

“I know.”

“Keep work and private life clear. Got it?”

Byeol might like games and had a nerdy vibe, but she didn’t become the vice president for nothing.

“I believe in you. Consider it as hiring you. I’ll do anything to help. But, you mustn’t do anything too dangerous.”

“Aren’t you worrying too much?”

At my retort, Byeol spoke seriously.

“Because you’re mine.”

“So I’m hired now? Should I start receiving a salary?”

“…Should I offer my body?”

“That’s already mine.”

“Hehe… That’s true.”

The serious atmosphere dissolved with Byeol’s giggle.

I prefer this playful Byeol over the professional one. I hugged her and kissed her lips.

“Do you like it?”

“I love it!”

Her affectionate replies never got old.