Chapter 28

【A Kiss Tastes Like a Dream】

Yu Pado was at her feet.

Barely dressed, he knelt beside the bed and looked up at Eun Morae. Like an obedient lamb, Pado pressed a kiss to the top of her bare foot.

The respectful kisses slowly traveled upward, from the top of her foot to her knee. Each soft parting of his lips echoed with an indecently intimate sound.

Morae let her gaze wander over him.

Dark hair. Deep-colored eyes that weren’t especially unusual, yet somehow drew people in. A face that didn’t look frivolous, yet sometimes stirred the urge to call him insolent. A lean but solid body, well-proportioned from top to bottom. Thick thighs and… the darkness between them.

The place where something thick ought to have been was hidden in shadow, making it impossible to see.

Just as she leaned in for a better look, Pado spread her knees apart, stealing her attention.

His gaze swept over her most intimate place first.

Wait… had she been wearing underwear, or not?

“Where do you want me to kiss you?”

“Where…?”

Where do you want me to kiss you?

What an obedient, gentle question.

Urging her to answer, Pado lightly nibbled at her thigh. It felt oddly pleasant, like biting into soft jelly.

She didn’t say, “Figure it out yourself.”

Because this was a dream.

In a dream where he was as docile as a lamb, she could afford to be greedy.

“…My lips.”

If she could only receive one kiss, she wanted it to be there.

When she answered quietly, Pado rose smoothly to his feet and gently held her chin.

Even after standing up, it was strange that she still couldn’t properly see his sex. Something that should have been there simply wasn’t, and his body looked strangely blurred.

Morae narrowed her eyes, trying to focus on the hazy figure.

Before the image could sharpen, Pado’s face filled her vision.

He tilted her chin upward.

“So this is what you wanted?”

Standing close enough that their noses nearly touched, he smiled with easy confidence. That infuriatingly relaxed expression completely overwhelmed her.

“You wanted me to obediently do whatever you said?”

The Pado who had knelt meekly at her feet like a lamb suddenly flipped his attitude as easily as turning over the palm of his hand.

It wasn’t surprising.

Lambs were actually rather ill-tempered creatures.

Pado’s charm had always been that he refused to bend.

“You’re such a picky princess. You get bored the moment a man listens to everything you say, and yet this is what you wanted.”

Completely naked, Pado tilted his head slightly as he leaned closer.

Forehead against forehead.

Nose against nose.

He approached her with agonizing slowness, as though someone had pressed a slow-motion button.

Then—

“Even so… since this is a dream, I’ll do exactly what you asked.”

The moment the teasing words left his lips, their mouths met.

Soft lips touched hers.

A pliant tongue slipped between them.

—She felt absolutely nothing.

Morae blinked awake.

Still half asleep, she burrowed deeper beneath the blanket.

She still didn’t know what Pado’s kiss actually felt like.

Maybe she simply needed more time.

Smacking her lips slightly, she closed her eyes again.

Then a sharp voice cut in.

“Wake up. If you’re going to sleep, go inside.”

Keeping her eyes shut, Morae slowly shook her head.

If she spoke even a single word, it felt like the remnants of the dream would scatter. She needed to close her eyes immediately if she wanted to continue dreaming.

She tried to crawl farther under the blanket, but Pado gave her a light pat.

“If you’re sleeping more, go to your room. Or at least the lounge.”

Morae had only been asleep for thirty minutes.

Pado had happened upon her napping and had stayed beside her the entire time.

Since it had only been a short nap, he’d left her alone. But if she intended to sleep seriously with a blanket wrapped around herself, a room was far better than the garden.

The blazing midday sun made the garden a poor place for proper sleep.

He wanted her to rest comfortably.

Besides, he was starting to want to head back and rest himself.

“My dream… my dream…”

When Morae only mumbled incoherently instead of answering, Pado simply hoisted her over his shoulder.

As her feet left the ground, she instinctively grabbed his back.

Perhaps she’d woken up a little, because the hand clutching his back was surprisingly strong.

Once he started walking in earnest, his body swayed with each step.

Unable to keep sleeping any longer, Morae frowned as consciousness gradually returned.

Only then did she realize the person carrying her.

“Pado… you…”

Even without seeing his face, she knew.

His frame wasn’t overwhelmingly large, but his dependable shoulders and the familiar scent of water lingering around him unmistakably belonged to Pado.

Morae tightened her grip on his back.

The body that had been completely naked just moments ago in her dream was now covered by a slightly oversized T-shirt.

Sneaking a glance downward, she saw jeans as well.

She couldn’t say they looked bad…

But they certainly weren’t attractive.

Rather than not looking good, she honestly thought he had looked much better wearing nothing at all.

She had only just regained a clear view, and now he was dressed.

Still drowsy, Morae couldn’t hide her disappointment, and the words tumbled out without thought.

“Why are you wearing those clothes?”

“Just because.”

“Why did you put them on? You shouldn’t have.”

It would have been better if his broad chest and firm muscles had been exposed… if their bare skin had touched…

Hadn’t they both been completely naked just a moment ago?

She was merely whining because she still hadn’t fully escaped her daydream.

To anyone who didn’t know the situation, though, it sounded like she was picking a fight over his clothes.

Pado promptly smacked her on the butt.

“Why are you picking a fight the moment you wake up?”

“Ow!”

Within the West Sea Legion, there was an unspoken rule that if someone did something wrong, they got smacked on the butt.

If someone disrupted order within the Legion, a robot administered the punishment.

Otherwise, the members simply smacked each other.

It was a tradition Commander Eun Jisung had brought back after studying abroad, inspired by old American disciplinary methods.

Modern America no longer really did things that way, but White City still did.

The spectators found it entertaining, and the person doing the spanking usually felt their resentment disappear afterward.

The idea was that embarrassing the other person left everyone feeling satisfied, with no lingering hard feelings.

Of course, sometimes it was simply an excuse for someone who wanted to playfully smack another person’s butt.

“Tell me, is criticizing the clothes of someone who waited for you the right thing to do or not?”

This was definitely one of those latter cases.

Seeing an opportunity, Pado reached for the waistband of Morae’s pants.

The instant his hand grabbed her waist, Morae’s eyes flew open.

The moment her panties were in danger of being exposed, every trace of sleep vanished.

“N-No! Don’t!”

With one hand, she shoved Pado’s hand away.

With the other, she pounded on his back.

Normally she wouldn’t have liked it anyway, but today it absolutely couldn’t happen.

She’d been so busy that she’d fallen asleep outside without even thinking about what underwear she was wearing.

If she’d been wearing a pretty pair, she could have brushed it off like accidentally showing the bottoms of a bikini.

But old, childish cotton panties were another matter entirely.

There was no way she could let Pado see those.

“Hey, I was just going to lightly…”

“I don’t want to! No! No, no, no!”

When Morae resisted with all her strength, the tension left Pado’s hand.

He let go of her waistband, gave her butt one more light smack, then obediently set her back down.

Dusting off his hands, Pado pointed a finger at her. Perhaps because he’d gotten to spank her, his expression looked noticeably refreshed.

“I was trying to wake you up, but judging by how lively you are now, I’d say you’re fully awake. Go on. And don’t fall asleep just anywhere.”

Instead of returning it to her, Pado draped the blanket over his own shoulder.

Morae instinctively reached out after the blanket, then lowered her hand.

It wasn’t even hers to begin with.

Pado had been the one who’d brought it.

“Did I sleep for long?”

She couldn’t even remember when she’d fallen asleep, much less when Pado had come to sit beside her.

All she vaguely remembered was sitting down on a bench for a moment because she hadn’t been sleeping well.

Maybe because she’d slept in such an awkward position, she’d ended up daydreaming about Pado and even confused the dream with reality.

The memory was embarrassing enough that her hand unconsciously rose to touch her flushed cheek.

“Not that long. About thirty minutes. You were sleeping pretty soundly, though.”

“Ah… thanks for covering me with the blanket.”

“It was nothing.”

But it probably hadn’t been nothing.

Who carried a blanket around instead of something small like a handkerchief?

He must have seen her asleep, gone to get one, then sat beside her while she rested.

Even without the blanket around her anymore, she still felt warm.

Lightly tapping the ground with the tip of her foot, Morae stepped closer to Pado.

“You know we’re having the new recruit welcome party today, right?”

“I heard.”

“Are you coming?”

It sounded like an innocent question, but it was really an invitation.

After all, Morae herself was hosting the welcome party.

Lately, both of them had been busy enough that they barely saw each other.

It wasn’t that they’d been overwhelmingly swamped, but neither had found the time to seek the other out.

Besides, she felt strangely self-conscious, worried she’d seem like she was paying too much attention to him.

A drinking party was the easiest way to naturally start talking again.

They probably wouldn’t get much time alone, but surely they could at least exchange some casual conversation.

She tried to sound casual as she invited him, but his answer came without hesitation.

“No. Crowded gatherings aren’t really my thing. I’m going to rest.”

“It’d be nice if the people who joined around the same time got to know each other. Everyone would be happy if you came.”

“What do they even know about me to be happy? I might be leaving soon. If we get close now, it’ll just make things awkward for everyone.”

“That’s still a long way off.”

Morae grumbled.

But deep down, she knew it wasn’t just talk.

In this short time, Pado had already paid off a huge portion of his debt.

He only had 320 million won left.

As expected of a Hunter with extraordinary abilities, once he seriously set his mind to earning money, he made it incredibly fast.

That was despite the fact that the organizations constantly sending him recruitment offers had been banned from entering Central Headquarters.

Apparently, he’d gotten advice from someone.

He’d been expertly picking only the jobs that paid well.

She’d hoped he’d earn the entire 500 million only through the missions she assigned him, but she’d never made that a condition.

That mistake had come back to haunt her.

At this rate, he might pay off the rest of his debt and leave before the year was over.

Morae fidgeted with her ribbon earrings as she shifted her feet.

“You’re really not coming?”

“What, are you going to miss me? Do you want me there that badly?”

Pado bent down, his head still a full span taller than hers.

Meeting her at eye level made talking easier…

But it also irritated her, as though he were treating her like a child.

Just because you’re tall… don’t get so full of yourself.

Morae lifted her chin defiantly, trying to narrow the height difference.

“You’re awfully full of yourself. You’re still just a new recruit. If you skip out whenever you feel like it, it’ll hurt the atmosphere. If you keep acting like you’re leaving any day now, it’ll only make things harder for the people staying.”

“Sure. Whatever you say. It’s a welcome party, so go have fun with the other new recruits. Eat plenty, drink plenty, get drunk, and sit there grinning.”

At times like this, Pado’s smile always looked unbearably smug.

With that mocking grin, he looked every bit the villain—a true outlaw.

“We bought plenty of good liquor, so come if you change your mind.”

“Stop inviting me. If I drink, I’m not confident I’ll be able to control myself.”

When even her final attempt failed, Morae gave up trying to persuade him.

If she kept pushing any further, it would only look like she was obsessed with him.

Her pride wouldn’t allow that.

“Do whatever you want. If you don’t come, you’re the one losing out.”

Having barely exchanged a proper conversation with him over the past two weeks, Morae left him with those barbed words.