Anything But Study - Chapter 23

“What?”

“That’s impossible. A fiancée?”

Shocked reactions poured out.

“I mean, I only heard it in passing too, but there are rumors like that.”

“There’s no way. If he had a fiancée, she’d be a student at our academy, wouldn’t she?”

“Well, that’s true.”

The girl who had brought up the existence of a fiancée readily agreed.

She thought there was no way a noble lady who didn’t attend Erpen Academy could dare become the fiancée of that Alfred.

All the daughters of influential families were enrolled at Erpen.

If Hailon’s fiancée had been among them, would she have let him remain everyone’s ideal man?

There was no way.

They concluded that it was just a baseless rumor she’d heard, and that false rumors naturally followed someone like Hailon.

***

4:30 p.m. Melia, working her shift as a librarian, looked different from usual.

‘What’s wrong with me?’

Her eyes narrowed as if something felt off. As if trying to endure something, she bit down hard on her lower lip and clenched her hands tightly.

‘Could it be, again….’

No. That can’t be.

She repeated it to herself like self-hypnosis. It was nothing. She must just be coming down with a slight cold and feeling unwell.

Yes, that had to be it.

It had to be.

Then why was it getting wet down there again?

The strange sensation wasn’t something she was experiencing for the first time. It had only happened once, but her body clearly remembered that time.

That night at the camp.

The night she’d been held in Hailon’s arms, unable to count how many times she’d cried out.

Melia clearly remembered how that night had begun.

‘No.’

A scream burst out inside her.

If this really was the same phenomenon as then, it was even more unacceptable.

Because.

‘Hailon will be coming soon.’

Today was one of the days he came, just like always.

After exchanging greetings with Hailon yesterday, Melia had made up her mind to pretend she didn’t know anything and go along with what he wanted.

But what was she supposed to do if her body was like this?

Warning bells kept ringing in Melia’s head.

When she glanced at the clock, there were about thirty minutes left until Hailon arrived.

From what she’d experienced before, the more time passed, the more her body would crave stimulation.

By the time he arrived, Melia might end up….

‘Clinging to him again.’

That would be a disaster. What should I do?

There was no more time to think.

Melia stood up from the librarian’s desk. Her legs trembled violently, but she forced herself to move.

‘I’ll at least go to the restroom.’

Since she’d experienced it once before, maybe she could somehow relieve it with her hand.

Then she could see Hailon.

In a way, it might actually be lucky.

If this had happened during tutoring, she wouldn’t even have had a way to deal with it.

Her strengthless legs took one step, then another, as she headed toward the library exit.

When Melia finally reached the door, she glanced around the library.

There was no one there.

She wasn’t supposed to leave her post while on duty, but everyone who needed to come by today already had.

And more importantly, considering all that was impossible when her own situation was so urgent.

‘Hurry….’

Just as the hand reaching toward the door was about to touch the handle.

Creak-

Even though Melia hadn’t touched it, the door opened.

‘N-no.’

She needed to leave. Now.

It wasn’t yet time for her librarian shift to end. If someone had business, she was supposed to attend to them, but….

Melia slowly raised her head and looked at the person in front of her.

“Hi.”

Her heart dropped with a thud, and despair washed over her.

Of all people, it was Hailon. Why had he come so early today?

“Y-you’re here? You… you came early.”

Creak-

The door closed again behind him. Melia could only stare at the narrowing gap with desperate eyes.

“Yeah, I had some time to spare. It’s fine, right? It doesn’t look like there’s anyone here anyway.”

“Th-then.”

That wasn’t true. It wasn’t fine at all.

Idiot, why did you nod? Standing in front of Hailon always made her like this, as if something inside her broke.

Melia blamed herself and regretted it, but it was already too late.

“You looked like you were heading somewhere. Or not?” Hailon asked.

Melia fell into anguish.

“Huh? Well….”

Should she say she was going to the restroom, even now?

Her foggy mind forced itself to think. But then, when would she come back?

From what she’d experienced, there was no way to know when the relic’s effect would end.

Back then too, hadn’t she ended up tangling bodies with Hailon all night?

If she left now, there was a high chance she wouldn’t be able to return for a long while.

Leaving Hailon Alfred standing her up?

That was a sentence that should never exist in this world.

She worried that if Hailon got upset about not being able to have the lesson, he might say this tutoring was over.

Not even half a month had passed yet, and Ervan still needed continuous treatment.

At this point, there was only one option.

‘I’ll somehow endure it.’

She came to the conclusion that finishing the tutoring quickly, then staying behind alone and dealing with it somehow, was the best choice.

“…No. I just came in too.”

Melia forced the corners of her mouth up as she answered, deliberately ignoring the dampness spreading through her underwear.

“Really?”

There was a faintly suspicious nuance in Hailon’s voice as he asked again.

But Melia didn’t even notice. She was too busy thinking about how to end the lesson as fast as possible.

“Then let’s go in.”

Hailon gestured inward with his chin, toward the desk where they always tutored.

“Mm, okay.”

Melia turned her back first and walked quickly, afraid that clear liquid might run down her thigh, afraid that Hailon might see it.

After she’d taken only a few steps.

Click-

She heard the sound of a lock engaging behind her. But Melia, with no room to spare for anything else, didn’t notice.

“Haa….”

Moving with hurried steps, Melia barely managed to sit down in front of the desk. A sigh of relief escaped her without her realizing it.

Plop-

The moment she dropped onto the chair, the sensation of liquid spreading beneath her made her dizzy.

Hhk.

Maybe because the memories of that night were etched so deeply into her body, she seemed to react even more the moment she saw Hailon’s face.

And unlike her, the Hailon sitting across from her looked perfectly normal.

This time, it was definitely only Melia whose body was acting strange. Which meant she absolutely couldn’t let him notice.

‘Endure it, Melia.’

Thump-

Ugh.

But the instant Hailon sat down beside her, the scent of his body brushing her nose made Melia bite down on the tip of her tongue without thinking.

“What do we do today?”

At Hailon’s question, the urge to ask him to sit on the opposite side surged up to her throat.

But making a request different from usual would only arouse suspicion.

Melia pulled out a book and opened it first.

Her slender fingers turning the pages were visibly trembling.

“Oh, so today we’ll start with….”

This was bad. The words on the page wouldn’t register at all.

What was she supposed to look for again?

She needed to say something quickly.

Once again, it felt like her head was turning stark white from the heat. Maybe it was just her imagination, but her vision seemed blurred as well.

‘I can’t endure this. What do I do?’

She was completely at a loss over how to control her body, which was growing even hotter than before.

“So, so….”

Melia’s troubled voice scattered into the air, and a brief silence fell between them.

“Melia. By the way.”

Flinch.

Just having her name called made Melia’s body tremble. Her overheated body naturally recalled that day.

“So hot, Melia.”

The image of him calling her name with breath even hotter than hers.

“You’re not trying to melt my cock, are you?”

That question, saturated with desire.

‘Ah, no. Don’t think about it.’

Melia tried desperately to think of something else.

But the effort was completely useless.

Because right beside her, Hailon called her name once more when she didn’t answer.

“Melia?”

When the voice in her head was ringing so vividly in her ears, how could she possibly erase it?

‘S-stop.’

Please don’t call me. Don’t say anything more, Hailon.

It seemed today’s tutoring was impossible. It was completely unreasonable.

“Hailon, I….”

Just as Melia’s plea, saying she was really sorry and that today would be difficult, was about to slip out of her mouth without her realizing it.

“That night, you know.”

Words she never thought would come out of Hailon’s mouth flowed out.

Melia froze.

Slowly turning her head to look at Hailon, her eyes wavered with confusion.