Min Yugeon didn’t climax until quite some time had passed. I’d been pounded so relentlessly that it felt like the bed might collapse, and now I lay sprawled out, gasping like I might pass out. It honestly felt like I could just melt into the blankets and disappear.
“Ugh… ha…”
Min Yugeon, who seemed to be savoring the afterglow as he caught his breath, bent forward. The renewed depth of our connection drew another involuntary moan from my lips. Pressing his forehead to mine, he cradled my sweat-drenched face in his hands and gently brushed my lips with his thumb. I simply leaned into his palm, waiting for the wild thundering in my chest to calm down.
“What were you thinking about earlier?”
Min Yugeon whispered, his voice still thick with heat. I blinked up at him, too dazed from everything to recall any thoughts I might’ve had.
“…When?”
“That moment when your mind wandered.”
Ah… he must’ve meant when he was using his hands on me. I wasn’t distracted, seriously. I stifled a wry chuckle and reached up to tug on Min Yugeon’s cheek. Strangely, instead of looking silly, it just made him look even more adorably incomprehensible.
“You. I was thinking about you.”
His eyes widened in surprise.
“Me?”
“Yeah.”
Of course, I had no intention of telling him exactly what kind of thoughts I’d had. Things like how the pleasure I felt with him couldn’t even begin to compare to when I did it alone, or how I got weirdly irritated just imagining being with someone else. Even though I’d already moaned how good it felt with him deep inside me, there was no need to embarrass myself any further by blurting all that out.
Min Yugeon stared down at me with sparkling eyes, his expression screaming dying to know more. I let go of his cheek and pushed his shoulder firmly.
“Move. I need to wash up.”
“You’re not tired? Want me to wash you?”
He already looked completely recovered as he asked, like the marathon sex we’d been having for days had left no mark on him. It was honestly kind of amazing. If anything, he looked even more energized than usual—maybe I was imagining it. When I gave his chest a light smack as if to say no thanks, Min Yugeon looked a bit disappointed but got up.
The moment he started to pull out, it felt like it took forever. The way my body clung to him so tightly, like it didn’t want to let go, made my face flush with heat. Even Min Yugeon’s breath grew slightly ragged. When he finally, slowly, pulled out all the way, he left soft kisses along my thigh before looking up at me with a pitiful gaze.
It was the kind of look that would soften anyone’s heart.
Tch… I knew exactly what that look meant, which is why I let out the same little noise I usually made when dealing with Cat. Any more tonight, and I’d be useless tomorrow. Flinching at the sound, Min Yugeon drooped his shoulders.
“I’ll be home late tomorrow. Dinner plans.”
I ruffled his hair as I sat up. He leaned into my touch and wrapped his arms tightly around me.
“With your team?”
“No. There’s someone I’ve been seeing more often lately because of the project.”
Lying there wrapped in Min Yugeon’s warm, bare skin felt like soaking in hot water—my whole body limp and comfortable. After a short pause, I added,
“He’s a soldier. Apparently, he’s the one who found my parents.”
“…!”
His startled eyes locked onto mine.
“I just wanted to buy him dinner and thank him. I never really got the chance to do that before.”
“…Okay.”
Min Yugeon gently stroked my cheek.
“Hope it goes well.”
His kind gaze silenced me. I gave a small nod in return.
***
“Are we just going to keep doing nothing again today?”
Sun Woosung asked. After securing the heart rate monitor on his arm, I walked over to the barrier and pointed at the chair.
“That’s the plan for now. Familiarity comes first. You’ll get tired standing around, so please sit.”
“….”
Sun Woosung walked over with heavy steps and sat down. Sitting stiffly, he inevitably ended up facing Cat through the barrier. Too busy devouring the food that had just been placed in front of him, Cat didn’t spare a single glance at Sun Woosung.
“Usually, monsters aren’t irritable while feeding. No matter how starved they are, they don’t attack each other over food.”
Sitting next to him, I tapped the transparent wall lightly with my fingertip.
“Of course, in your case, Colonel, it’s not strange to be on guard like yesterday. But the space is divided, so he’s at ease for now.”
“…That feed…”
Nodding, Sun Woosung stared at the mangled meal being torn apart.
“Is it human flesh?”
“Absolutely not.”
The words left my mouth with a grimace. It was the kind of question that made it glaringly obvious that Sun Woosung had no real interest in how the monsters at the lab were actually raised, even though he occasionally helped capture them. If the countless feedings given to the creatures here truly were human flesh, nothing could be more horrifying.
“It’s artificial meat, infused with blood. The blood is usually sourced from residents through voluntary donations.”
At first, I’d planned to provide some of my own blood for processing the artificial meat. But Cat flat-out refused to eat any food containing my blood, so I had no choice but to abandon the idea. One interesting fact remained—monsters I hadn’t met face-to-face would eat food containing my blood without hesitation.
“He looks happy.”
Sun Woosung muttered as he observed Cat.
“Up on the surface, it’s all scavengers—monsters that devour anything and everything because humans and animals are basically extinct. Some are forced into herbivory, others leap into the sea to hunt… but none of them eat in peace. A few even chew through buildings when there’s nothing left.”
“….”
“So of course, the scent of a human now and then makes them go feral.”
He spoke of the dangers his reconnaissance unit had faced as if recalling a mere routine.
“That one was probably no different before it came here. Even if it’s artificial meat, to stay within its own territory, fed with food flavored with human blood… imagine how much more comfortable that must be.”
I said nothing in response and simply watched Cat lick the blood off his muzzle, just finishing his meal.
—Grooowl, grrr…
Cat, now clean, turned toward me with a soft, playful growl, but the instant he spotted Sun Woosung standing right beside me, his lips peeled back into a snarl. Then he glanced back at me, closed his mouth, then looked at Sun Woosung again, twitching the corner of his lip. Back and forth, over and over.
When I extended my hand toward the barrier, Cat’s attention shifted to it, falling momentarily still.
“Wouldn’t it be faster to just explain how that monster can behave like that toward you?”
Sun Woosung asked, and I turned to face him.
“Because he promised to cooperate.”
Sensing my gaze, Sun Woosung looked back at me. I’d told him not to force himself to feel any sort of goodwill toward monsters, but if there was an action that needed to be taken, he would take it. That’s what this meant. He really was someone with a strong sense of duty.
The issue was… his question wasn’t something easily answered. When my team had asked similar things, I’d brushed it off by saying it was because I didn’t fear the monsters—but Sun Woosung was different. I glanced down at his heart monitor. For a soldier who’d dealt with monsters roaming free aboveground, the monsters contained here posed no threat worth fearing.
Ordinarily, monsters would act favorably just by locking eyes with me. Which meant that even if I did something specific, there was no way to tell whether they were responding because of that action or simply because it was me. In the same environment, with the same actions, they’d be docile with me and murderous with everyone else.
Of course, like at the demonstrations, there were ways to study them while blindfolded. But my uniqueness was a kind of privilege known only to me. Because of that trait, I was able to rapidly tame monsters and restart the Military Beast Project. But if I began research from a point where I no longer had that ability, all I’d built up until now would collapse. It would be like going back to when my parents first started studying Rai.
If I couldn’t even get a monster to follow me, how could I ever expect them to follow a soldier?
“If it were something anyone could replicate, I would’ve told you already.”
I withdrew the hand I’d held out to Cat and murmured under my breath. I couldn’t tell the truth, but I didn’t want to lie either. So I offered a fact already known.
“It’s just… my constitution.”
“Your constitution?”
Sun Woosung furrowed his brow in confusion.
“Yes. Since I was very young.”
At the mention that monsters had never shown hostility toward me, a strange expression crossed Sun Woosung’s face.
“I’ve seen it myself, but…”
He trailed off mid-sentence, unsure whether it was appropriate to continue. He looked like he was lost in old memories.
I stared at him quietly, as if encouraging him to speak freely—but he pressed his lips shut.
—Grrr!
Right on cue, Cat broke the tension. He raised one massive paw and set it atop the barrier, glaring at Sun Woosung with wide, feral eyes. His sharpened tail-tip, usually kept honed, slammed into the floor with a wham, wham. From the intensity of his gaze, it was clear he wasn’t imagining the floor under his paw—but Sun Woosung.
The colonel, who had been watching me, now naturally turned toward Cat.
And in the next moment, a glimmer of menace appeared in his dark eyes too.
“…”
Watching their silent standoff, I felt a bitter taste rise in my mouth.
