Anything But Study - Chapter 30

“D-don’t joke around.”

Melia quickly turned her head away. She wanted to hide her heated face.

It was obvious Hailon was teasing her. He threw out remarks like that sometimes.

The problem was Melia’s heart reacting even to such a short joke.

Even knowing it, she still felt fluttery.

Melia’s insides were noisy. Her heart was pounding like mad, pumping far too hard.

“I’m serious. What, you don’t believe me?”

At his question, Melia couldn’t answer right away. Her heart was beating too fast.

She didn’t know why he was making this kind of joke, but instead of feeling unpleasant, her chest felt like it was about to burst, which made it worse.

“I, I don’t know. Stop saying things like that. I’ll look over the problems you just solved. So for natural sciences, the second question is….”

Melia changed the subject.

As he watched Melia ramble while checking his answer sheet, a hint of regret lingered in Hailon’s eyes.

Hailon had so much he wanted to ask right now.

Whether she remembered everything from their childhood.

What she felt when she thought of the name Calix.

Whether it hurt her heart.

“And I’ll also go over what you got wrong in art studies. This one has the wrong year, and it’s an easy point to mix up….”

His gaze fixed on Melia’s lips as she explained earnestly.

In truth, there were so many other things he wanted to know instead.

About Melia Anderson.

Why those plump lips tasted different every time? Why they made him want to keep sucking on them?

His slowly lowering gaze stopped once more at the nape of her neck.

Why burying his nose in that pale skin and breathing in made an intoxicating scent, unlike anything in the world, torment him?

Everything. He wanted to know it all, every last detail.

But reality was different.

Wasn’t he in no position to even casually ask about the fact that she’d almost been married off to an old count?

Hailon felt that he was still far too distant from Melia.

He wanted to narrow that distance quickly.

Closely, even closer.

***

The morning of the exam arrived.

Erpen’s exams were held in the afternoon.

On exam days, there were no morning classes, so everyone tended to arrive slowly.

Of course, Melia should still have been at home at that hour.

But at home, Melia was….

“Ha, ah!”

A moan split by pleasure rang through the house.

Squish, squelch-

The sound of wet flesh colliding and saliva mixing was obscene.

Melia was naked in Hailon’s arms, being shaken senseless. And not just anywhere, but right on Melia’s own bed.

“Mm, ngh…!”

If she traced back how things suddenly ended up like this, the start was yesterday.

Last night.

As Melia was wrapping up the lesson and putting the books away, a good idea suddenly came to her.

“Ah, if it’s okay, do you want to meet briefly tomorrow morning too?”

It was Melia’s suggestion. She just wanted to help even a little more.

The exam was in the afternoon anyway.

“In the morning? …I’d appreciate that.”

After thinking for a moment, he agreed.

“But won’t there be other people in the library in the morning?” Hailon asked. Only then did Melia realize.

“…Right. I didn’t think of that.”

“Well, it’s not like we have to do it in the library. Right?”

He was right. But then, was there even a good place? On exam day, access to other classrooms was restricted to prevent cheating.

“I’ll come to your house tomorrow morning. How about that?”

The place Hailon mentioned was completely unexpected. Melia’s house.

“We can study at your place and then go together.”

My house?

Melia fell briefly into thought.

If there wasn’t a suitable place within the academy, her house wasn’t a bad option either.

But then didn’t that mean the opposite was also possible?

Her going to Hailon’s house instead….

‘Mm, no. That really won’t do.’

Melia came to a firm conclusion right away.

Wouldn’t Hailon’s house be the Alfred ducal residence?

Just the thought of stepping into that grand place, famous even by rumor, felt overwhelmingly burdensome.

But my house is a bit….

Very shabby.

Not a place fit to receive guests.

“Why, is that not okay?”

When Melia didn’t answer, Hailon asked again.

“No, it’s not that it’s not okay, but….”

In truth, it wasn’t even something worth agonizing over.

After all, Hailon had already been to Melia’s house before. Of course, he hadn’t gone inside and had only stayed outside, but still.

That meant he already knew how shabby Melia’s home was.

The reason she hesitated was simply that she didn’t want to feel embarrassed in front of Hailon. Silly as that was.

Hailon probably didn’t even care.

“…Alright. Let’s do that.”

In the end, Melia accepted.

And then, this morning.

The awkward, strange feeling of having Hailon at her house didn’t last long.

Since it was exam day, she’d prepared past exam questions…….

And Melia ran into an unexpected situation.

“These are just past questions, right?”

“Yeah, they are. I thought it’d be good to look over them lightly today.”

At first, Hailon had been solving the problems just as Melia said, but then he suddenly set his pen down.

“Why? Is there something you’re stuck on?”

The exam was just around the corner. Melia asked with a worried expression.

“No, it’s not that. It’s just my body….”

“What? Are you sick or something?”

Melia was startled and immediately looked at his face.

Since her younger brother Ervan was always ill, she tended to be sensitive whenever someone mentioned being unwell.

“Where does it hurt? What’s wrong?”

Even people who were usually healthy could fall sick all of a sudden.

“Your hand. Give it to me.”

Is he checking for a fever? Thinking that, Melia obediently held out her hand.

Then Hailon’s large hand grabbed hers.

It was hot.

Maybe he really did have a fever. Just as Melia’s face filled with concern.

“H-Hailon?”

Why was Melia’s hand going downward instead of to his forehead….

Before Melia could pull her hand away, her palm came to rest on his firm thigh.

At the same time, something hot touched her hand. Something larger, harder, even hotter than his hand.

“This hurts so much that I can’t focus on the problems.”

The voice asking what she was going to do about it sounded almost like a hallucination.

Having touched the thing that was radiating such an intense presence, Melia’s face flushed as she reflexively tried to pull her hand away.

But.

“You can’t just pull it away.”

“But this is….”

As if glued to his thigh, Melia’s hand refused to come free.

Because he was pressing it down with force.

With no other choice, Melia had to keep her hand resting on his hard penis.

As time passed, the shaft beneath her palm steadily grew larger.

She knew all too well how much this thick cock had gone in and out of her.

But it was too big. So big it was hard to believe it could even fit inside her body.

“Hailon, why does this keep getting bigger….”

“Well, because you’re touching it.”

Hearing that answer, Melia felt wronged. He’d moved her hand himself, so why was it suddenly her fault?

Melia tried to protest softly. “This is because you… made me touch it on your own. That’s why it got bigger.”

“Hm? Say the object. What did you touch?”

As expected, Hailon was being mischievous. But if she didn’t answer here, it felt like she’d get caught up in him again, so Melia swallowed her embarrassment and replied.

“Y-your… thing.”

As she said it, she squeezed her eyes tightly shut.

Then she heard Hailon chuckling. Melia slowly opened her eyes, suddenly uneasy. It felt like she’d been tricked again.

“I was talking about the relic, Melia.”

He smiled.

He meant that this had happened because Melia had touched the relic at the archaeology camp.

“Th… the relic?”

Melia was flustered, having naturally assumed that the thing being touched was Hailon’s member.

Her face turned bright red like a radish, and she didn’t know what to say next. Watching her like that, Hailon kept laughing.

As if he was enjoying her reaction.

“You’re… you’re being mean!”

“What does it matter? In the end, you have to take responsibility anyway.”

This wasn’t a joke. With the laughter gone, his low whisper tickled her ear.

At some point, Hailon had moved in close, his breath brushing against her cheek.

The meaning was clear. He was telling her to take responsibility for his body heating up because of the relic.

But this time, why was it only Hailon?

Until now, the reaction had always come to both of them at the same time….