114) Chapter 17. What Should I Do? (9)
Living with someone in a dormitory isn’t always a bad thing.
Some people find dorms suffocating, but others feel a sense of liberation.
And the ones who feel that liberation are usually those who ended up with a really good roommate.
Days that feel more like hanging out with close friends than simply living together.
Going places together, returning to the room together, eating delicious things together, and going out to have fun on days off.
There are, of course, small things that can be annoying when sharing a room, but those annoyances don’t overshadow everything else.
“……Again.”
It was the same for Hyeonji.
She didn’t have many friends in middle school.
Her father was in the hospital, and although the hospital staff took care of him as best they could, there was no real reason for Hyeonji to miss school.
But she always went straight to the hospital after school.
She had always been someone with few friends.
It wasn’t because of her environment. The biggest reason was simply her own personality—she found it difficult to approach others for no real reason.
On top of that, she was a superhuman, and the daughter of a hero.
And then, during the school year, she heard that her father had been severely injured and was on the brink of death.
The kids didn’t know how to treat her.
Most of her classmates came from ordinary families with both parents. So when Hyeonji—who only had her father to begin with—was suddenly in danger of losing even him, the kids had no idea what to say or how to act around her.
They hadn’t been particularly close to begin with. And since she always went straight to the hospital after school, she didn’t have many chances to connect with them throughout middle school.
It wasn’t that the kids were bad. They still maintained a “we know each other” sort of relationship until graduation—greeting each other at school and chatting occasionally. That was all.
There were also kids she knew simply because they were the children of people who came to visit her father in the hospital.
But none of them were close. And at the beginning of this semester, one of those kids had gone berserk and tried to bully Rua, making things even more awkward now.
“…….”
So the other girls in this room were, for Hyeonji, the first close friends she’d had in years.
Even if, at night, they always ended up sleeping in… variously improper positions.
“……No, seriously.”
She muttered to herself.
She kept thinking about what happened earlier that day.
There was no one at home to take care of her. The reason she went to the hospital every day after school was because there was no one waiting for her at home anyway.
Cooking dinner alone in a big, empty house and going to sleep alone wasn’t exactly pleasant.
So there was no one to hold her.
She had given up on the idea. She was too old to be held by someone, and until she eventually got a lover someday, there wouldn’t be anyone to hold her.
But somehow, today, she had ended up in Rua’s arms.
What made it especially embarrassing and flustering was—
She could barely remember ever being held in a woman’s arms.
The only person who had ever hugged Hyeonji, who grew up in a single‑father household, was her father.
Being embraced so softly and warmly by a girl smaller than herself, as if being welcomed—
It was the first time.
“…….”
So it bothered her a little.
Rua, who apparently wanted to sleep comfortably, had gone to bed without wearing anything like a bra under her clothes.
Since they were lying close together as always, Rua’s chest was moving more freely than ever.
That bothered her.
But it wasn’t simply because “she broke a rule.”
There wasn’t even a dorm rule saying “same‑gender roommates can’t sleep in the same bed.”
If anything, they probably never imagined such a rule would be necessary.
Even so, the feeling she had now—
“……Hmph.”
Saying “one more time” would be… a bit much.
In the end, Hyeonji was still Hyeonji. Expressionless, a bit stiffer than the others, and hard to approach.
And since she wasn’t good at approaching others herself, she didn’t have many friends.
So there were many things she was experiencing for the first time while living in this room.
Her eyes drifting toward Rua’s body was definitely because of that hug earlier. There was no other reason. Her first hug with a friend.
And now she could understand Soi and Chae‑yi’s feelings a little better, making it harder to criticize them.
“Ugh.”
Rua groaned.
Soi and Chae‑yi were clinging to her tightly on both sides, almost like performing some ritual. The space between them looked even narrower than usual. Was this also because Rua had hugged Hyeonji earlier?
Hyeonji eventually turned her back.
It wasn’t like she was going to squeeze herself into that space anyway.
……Or so she told herself.
- *
“Rua!”
After washing up in the morning, Chae‑yi came up to me with a bright smile.
With her hands clasped behind her back and her face slightly tilted forward, she clearly wanted something.
“Uh, uh? G‑good girl, good girl?”
Not knowing what to say, I patted her head, and Chae‑yi’s eyes narrowed into a puppy‑like expression—
“No, not that. You know.”
She said something cryptic again.
But she didn’t give me time to think.
Fwump.
She buried her face in my chest.
The action was so natural that I almost wondered if this was normal.
Did we hug like this every morning?
Not really.
We hugged often enough, but there was no unspoken agreement to do it at a set time like some ritual.
I hesitated for a moment, then raised my arms and hugged Chae‑yi’s head.
Chae‑yi sniffed suspiciously between my chest, but hugging someone as cute as her still felt nice.
We both smelled good after washing up.
After hugging her tightly and letting her go, Soi was suddenly standing right beside me in the exact same pose.
“Oh, Soi too?”
“Of course. You’re not going to hug me? Were you planning to hug only Chae‑yi?”
“No, that’s not it……”
So I hugged Soi’s head as well.
Both were soft and warm, but in subtly different ways. Maybe because they were always together, Chae‑yi felt familiar in her own way, and Soi felt familiar in hers.
After hugging them for a while, I instinctively turned toward Hyeonji.
“…….”
“…….”
We both fell silent for a moment.
Wait, why did I turn toward Hyeonji?
The ones I usually hugged were Soi and Chae‑yi.
I had only hugged Hyeonji for the first time yesterday.
Hmm.
No, thinking about it, leaving only Hyeonji out would be weird.
There were four of us in the room. If three hugged and one didn’t, that would basically be ostracizing her.
“Hyeonji.”
I opened my arms slightly.
Hyeonji blinked.
“……Me too?”
“Do you not want to?”
“…….”
When I asked back, she fell quiet.
Yesterday, and in the original story too—
She didn’t dislike it.
She had stayed in my arms surprisingly long.
Hyeonji approached cautiously and lowered her head slightly.
Just enough for her face to almost touch my chest.
I reached out and gently pulled her closer.
Her face slowly sank between my breasts. ……Unlike yesterday, we had just washed up. My clothes were still just comfortable loungewear, though.
Her body twitched slightly, trembling a little. Was she startled by the different sensation?
But she didn’t try to pull away.
I felt a small exhale—haa—from between my chest.
Was it unconscious?
Or some kind of sigh?
Hyeonji shifted a little. As if uncomfortable, but not enough to move away.
Maybe because she saw Soi and Chae‑yi do it.
Or maybe I had mentioned my trauma before?
She didn’t try to hug me back, but she leaned in a little more.
After about a minute, she stepped back and released her arms.
“J‑just.”
Her face was red.
“I just thought… if I stayed too far away, you’d be uncomfortable.”
Ah, so that was why.
Well, hugging from far away would be awkward.
“I see.”
I nodded.
At my natural response, Hyeonji made a strange expression.
For some reason, she looked… frustrated?
Hmm. Why?
……Well, it probably didn’t matter.
What mattered was that we felt much closer than before, and that was enough.