Chapter 60

The kidnappers last time had targeted Morae’s parents, but there was no saying that kidnappers wouldn’t target him, either.

Ever since the previous attack, the Hunter Association had been constantly eyeing Pado. Whether the half-year of silence was truly a chance given to him or not, they had started a media war and sent hunters to capture Pado.

When he briefly went to Seoul, he was ambushed by hunters who came prepared, and he had clashed with two teams in White City as well. It seemed they had gone around spreading rumors that Pado was a threat to White City.

The threat was closer than he thought. The Association’s promise not to touch Morae would likely be voided, too. There was no way the Association, which had originally targeted Morae, would stop here.

That was why he couldn’t just reach out carelessly. There were not one or two problems that needed to be solved.

Given this situation, he couldn’t just yield to his desire and rush blindly at Morae.

For starters, was Eun Morae just any ordinary woman? She was different from the women who said they liked Pado and were ready for the taking if he just reached out a hand.

To win over Morae, who already possessed pretty much everything and lacked nothing, he had to put in all sorts of effort. Even then, there was no guarantee things would go well.

When Morae had been laid up with feigned weakness, just how many people had come to visit her in the hospital? He remembered waiting endlessly outside her hospital room, hoping for a moment when she would be left alone.

Back then, Pado felt like a dog trapped in a shelter. He hovered around Morae, starving for a moment of affection, while around Morae there were so many people that one would grow exhausted just trying to meet them all.

You couldn’t earn affection simply by the fact that you were the Commander’s daughter. Morae was genuinely popular, and Pado was just one of the people hooked on her. The only reason she spared a lot of time for him was simply because his feelings among them were unusually intense.

Once he realized that, he felt like he was being a nuisance to someone who probably didn’t even care how much she liked him.

If he acted any more persistently, he felt like he would get badly burned and hurt. And it would be a blessing if it ended there; their relationship could end up ruined forever.

He could easily picture Morae’s face looking at him with a chilly expression and saying, “We’re not that close.”

He could also imagine her trying to brush him aside with, “Why are you so obsessed?”

He mustn’t misunderstand. They weren’t in any sort of relationship, and Morae didn’t give herself away easily. He shouldn’t forget that just because she had been sweet these past few days.

A mere shelter dog shouldn’t stubbornly pester someone who had only come to look after him for a little while. Because if she got sick of it, she might never come back again. And that would be too miserable.

That was why he kept his distance, yet she had the audacity to act like this.

He had tried not to let her into his room, yet she was being truly brazen.

What on earth was he supposed to do to hold out once she entered his embrace?

It was the exact same as putting delicious meat in someone’s mouth and telling them not to swallow it. Just smelling it was hard enough to endure, yet they told him to keep it in his mouth without eating.

Eun Morae was truly cunning. Even though she wouldn’t give as much as Pado desired, she doled out affection little by little to put a leash around his neck.

Even if that wasn’t it, her intention to calmly tease Pado was obvious.

Pado turned his back on the exasperated Morae.

He could ignore her malicious schemes as long as he went to sleep. Letting out a scoff, he crossed his arms as he lay there.

That resolution lasted ten minutes.

Ten minutes later, unable to fall asleep, Pado tossed and turned before sneakily pulling Morae into his arms.

He stretched his arm all the way up and then dropped it toward the mattress, pretending it was a mistake, pretending it was natural as he draped it over Morae’s body.

Tilting his body sideways just like that, he ended up in a posture as if embracing Morae. Awkwardly hugging her with one arm, he quietly breathed in.

“Asleep?”

The only reply was the sound of breathing. The room was silent.

It wasn’t that he wanted an answer. On the contrary, with no answer coming, his mind felt at ease. Pado closed the distance a little more while holding Morae in his arms.

What he had longed for was right in his arms. The warmth of a living person.

Pado cared more about warmth than intercourse. Sex was enjoyable, too, but after overlapping bodies a few times, he came to realize just how cozy the warmth provided by another person could be.

He could count on one hand the memories of having physical contact with others before. He had been separated from his parents before turning ten, and there was no one who took care of him as affectionately as parents would.

He didn’t hold hands or hug his male friends for long, and the teachers and the Association had weeded out any women. Once he grew old enough to understand things better, he started keeping physical contact at a distance on his own, so Morae was the very first person whose hand he had held or whom he had hugged for long.

He had realized far too late that the warmth a person gives was wonderful.

Whenever someone stroked his head, his hand, or even just his arm, his mind would settle.

Holding someone brought a sense of stability, and his eyes would close on their own.

The joke about being starved for women had become reality.

Pado yearned for a woman. He wasn’t hungry for massive breasts, plump buttocks, or mind-numbing sex; he wanted a warm, little hand or fragile arms to hug his waist.

He wanted to hold someone, to hold hands, and he wanted someone to tenderly stroke his cheek and pull him by the waist.

All of those things meant a woman to Pado, and that woman was Morae. After all, there was no way his mother was going to come back to life now.

Though he had always considered himself utterly alone, he had never really known what loneliness was until he embraced Morae a couple of times. Only now did he truly understand that the fleeting joke about his side feeling cold was actually such a lonely emotion.

The women who had previously flirted with him suddenly felt different. He had expected it to be a refreshing feeling, like choosing a luxury item or admiring a celebrity, but perhaps their chests had felt just as tight as this.

The Morae in his arms felt cozy. Even though he was practically just draping his arm over her, his mind felt at ease. The trembling of his body, stirred by a greed different from sheer lust, subsided.

Gradually, sleepiness crept in. Pado closed his eyes.

Just as the thought that he felt comfortable crossed his mind, his body shook. Something in his arms struggled and pushed Pado away.

Opening his eyes, Pado saw the bedside lamp now switched on and Morae wearing a sharp, fierce expression.

“I didn’t say you could hug me to sleep.”

“…What?”

“You can’t just arbitrarily hug me while sleeping. I can’t breathe.”

“When did I….?”

He tried to make excuses, saying he had only lightly rested his arm over her, but he was wrong. That might have been true when he first fell asleep, but not anymore. A considerable amount of time had passed in the blink of an eye.

The moment Pado saw his own arm holding Morae tightly, he realized what had happened. Having fallen into a deep sleep, he must have hugged Morae tightly without realizing it, which was why she had woken up.

With an awkward look on his face, he loosened his arm.

“I must have hugged you in my sleep. If you’re going to sleep right next to me, you should have been prepared for at least that much.”

“If people sleep together, do they just grab and hug anybody?”

“Yeah. My sleeping habits are bad.”

Morae scurried down off the bed, dodging Pado’s sharp retort. She pointed a finger at Pado’s naked body.

“Ugh, in that look, huh? Doing that, huh? I feel like I’ve been harassed.”

“It’s my room, and I’ll sleep naked if I want to, so why are you meddling?”

“Do you normally sleep in your birthday suit? Did you pull this trick on purpose?”

“A trick, you say. I’m showing you so you can enjoy the view. You love it so much you can’t even take your eyes off.”

“When you’re walking around like that, of course it catches the eye. It’s fully pitched, so how am I supposed not to look?”

The towel he had wrapped around his waist had vanished somewhere in the meantime, and his erection from sleep stood stiffly upright. Pado picked up the towel that had drifted away and covered his lower half. He had no words to defend himself.

“…I just woke up from sleep, that’s why.”

“Not because you’re all built up? You can’t even control that much?”

“Why don’t you sit right there and take off your underwear. Just you wait if you’re even a little wet.”

It wasn’t spoken in a scolding tone, but it was certainly teasing enough. It felt as though she was egging him on with a mocking ‘Oh my, oh my?’, so Pado unleashed his ability. A thin stream of water bursting out from the bathroom whipped around Morae’s ankles.

“Eek! W-Wait, wait, hold on!”

“You pick a fight with me every single time, so you need to taste a little tough love today.”

As the stream of water dragged Morae back toward the bed, Pado quickly pounced. Keeping the towel tied around his waist, he grabbed the waistband of the pajamas worn by Morae as she sprawled across the bed.

When he tried to strip off the soft microfiber loungewear, Morae pushed Pado away and sat up.

“No.”

Morae pushed Pado aside quite firmly. Her skill in cleanly cutting off the stream of water binding her ankles and retreating backward was impressive.

This was Morae’s true capability. Whenever she genuinely decided something was a no-go, she managed to slip away somehow.

“We’re not in that kind of relationship, you know.”

Standing a good distance away from Pado, Morae looked him straight in the eye. She didn’t look at Pado with utter contempt, nor did she back away any further.

That was Morae’s position. A distance where she could leave or approach. A distance where, if he kicked off the ground and sprinted, he felt he could reach her in a single bound and hold her.

Standing there for a moment, Morae turned her back.

“Maybe if you were my boyfriend.”

“…….”

“If you’re going to touch me however you please, I’m leaving. Sleep well.”

Brushing off her unblemished legs, Morae slipped smoothly out the door. Her slow, lingering footsteps seemed to hint that she was waiting for something, but Pado couldn’t bring himself to get up from his spot.

Left behind in the room once again, Pado picked up the slime rolling around on the floor. He slumped onto the bed, hugging the slime that was roughly the size of a large cat. The slime let out a soft, crying squelch.

Maybe if you were my boyfriend. He wasn’t dense enough to miss the meaning behind those words.

It was an ultimatum telling him to confess first if he wanted to touch her any further, and a complete retaliation against his earlier remark that Morae would be the one dying to jump him first.

“Damn that Eun Morae.”

He curled his body inward, hugging the slime tightly enough to make it pop. The slime was soft and warm, but it fell far short of a real person.

Morning came, but no wake-up call arrived. Pado brushed his teeth while glancing back and forth between his phone and the watch on his left wrist.

He paced around the room, but even by ten o’clock, there had been no contact from Morae at all. Recently, Morae had woken him up every morning with a phone call and come by to eat breakfast together.

When there was still no word from Morae—who normally never failed to show up by nine at the latest—Pado anxiously paced the room while kneading the slime.

She must have overslept. Or perhaps she had a busy morning from the get-go. It was only natural that she didn’t reach out. Morae had no obligation to come fetch him.

Past ten o’clock, Pado stepped out into the dining hall with the slime resting on his left arm. The moment he stepped into the spacious dining hall, he spotted Morae, who was just about finishing her meal.

Seeing Morae seated among her friends, chatting and laughing back and forth over breakfast, Pado’s heart turned cold.

Morae hadn’t overslept. She had gotten up early and was already having breakfast. Leaving Pado completely out of the picture.