A week later, inside the rental apartment.
The worst of summer's heat had passed, but the rooms were still stifling—airless, heavy, and sticky.
Exusiai was still dressed in nothing but a bra and hot pants, lazily fanning herself by pulling at her neckline with a palm fan while sprawled across the sofa.
"Heeey, Li Lin—pass me a drink."
"Get it yourself."
"Cheapskate…"
Like a cat, she bent down again and hooked a bottle with her fingers, casually showing off a flat stomach and a clean line of muscle above her waistband. Then she spoke as if it were nothing:
"If we don't hurry and eat the beef Sora brought, it'll go bad. You're grilling way too little. Put more on—don't worry, I can handle it."
"Do it yourself… and can't you tell her I'm not mad anymore?"
"Huh? You tell her."
"I did. She doesn't believe me."
"Well, isn't this kind of nice, though?"
Exusiai grinned, shrugged, and tossed another slice from the fancy meat platter onto the Originium mini-grill on the table. The fat hit the heat with a bright sizzle.
"Sora's apologizing seriously—like, from the bottom of her heart. She wants to make it right. If you don't accept it, she's going to spiral instead. Just take it as a good deed and accept it."
"How long am I supposed to accept this for? The whole fridge is full…"
"You won't take money, you won't take a place to live, you won't take anything else. This is basically all she's got."
"…But this is way too much. If it were you, what would you do?"
"Mmm…"
Watching the meat crackle, Exusiai licked her lips and tilted her head, thinking.
"I'd probably do the whole seppuku-in-front-of-you thing."
"…What? That's terrifying."
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Li Lin, you really can't tell, huh… Ah, it's done. Anyway, you can't eat much. I'm gonna eat it, okay?"
"Could you maybe consider how I feel, when my ribs were this close to cracking?"
"Then open up—I'll feed you. Aaah~"
"You think I'd be embarrassed? Wrong."
He bit the meat straight off her chopsticks.
Staring at the little skillet steaming with heat, chewing the tender, juicy slice, Li Lin let out a helpless sigh.
Exusiai didn't get mad at all—she just smiled, picked up a second piece, arched an eyebrow…
…and when he didn't open his mouth again, she calmly put it into her own.
"Mmm! So good!"
"…"
Is that an indirect kiss…?
He chewed slowly, watching her eat with an expression of pure happiness, and thought about what happened after that night on the rooftop—after Exusiai had walked in and seen everything.
It had all unraveled fast.
The solution had been simple: talk it out.
Sora had burst into tears on the spot and practically dropped to her knees, bowing over and over—more like a full prostration, even—until Li Lin stopped her. It had been so extreme it blew past anything he'd imagined, to the point he briefly wondered if he'd inherited some kind of succubus bloodline by accident.
And then came Penguin Logistics' big, noisy "happy ending," like a crowd that showed up just to make a scene. Even Croissant piled in—everyone hugged him, hard, squeezing in as if they had to physically prove their sincerity and concern.
So, naturally, when faced with the raw enthusiasm of Terra's people, Li Lin collapsed almost immediately.
He was hauled to the hospital for a checkup, where they found bruised ribs and mental exhaustion, and told him to rest at home.
He truly did not want to remember the awkward atmosphere in the clinic.
Everyone's chests were warm.
Unfortunately, he was fragile.
How ridiculous was that?
After that, life kept moving. The sun kept rising. Sora started feeding him like a madwoman—high-end food after high-end food—as if she were terrified he'd suddenly drop dead somewhere with a single ga.
Life wasn't bad, really.
But there was… a small problem.
"…"
Li Lin glanced at the obvious line of muscle above Exusiai's hot pants and slowly breathed out.
The repression didn't stop.
How to put it—back then, he'd had no thoughts like that at all. But afterward, the more he replayed it, the more he realized he'd missed the opportunity of a lifetime.
How the hell was I in sage mode at a time like that?
People can't empathize with their past selves. Thinking back now, Li Lin genuinely suspected his brain had been missing a wire.
Texas didn't even need to be mentioned—Syracusan "beautiful wolf," a stunner who'd hugged him up close, her chest and thighs and tail practically locking him in, her breath close enough to feel…
How had he managed to do nothing but stare at the stars?
Look at the beauty, you idiot!
And later, when everyone had piled together into a chaotic group hug, it was even worse.
In that mess… if he'd stolen a kiss, would it even have mattered?
No—wait—during that crushing pileup, didn't he actually kiss someone?
Or not?
Did he?
He should have!
And with everyone wearing his clothes, tangled up together, he must have seen a lot of things he should and shouldn't have—everything was loose, everything was chaotic. Things slipping out of place would've been normal.
Damn it—brain, what are you doing?
Why is it only when I'm under pressure that I remember everything perfectly, but when it's something I actually want to see, I saw nothing at all?
That was the kind of memory you keep for life!
He tried with everything he had to remember—thinking, replaying, reconstructing—and in the end all he got was a blank, blurry wash of white.
He could tell it was exactly what he wanted to see.
There were even faint hints—reddish spots, long shapes, something half-glimpsed—
But he couldn't see it.
No matter what, he couldn't see it.
He couldn't even successfully imagine it.
Because he'd been too tired.
He hadn't seen anything clearly.
…Maybe I should just leave.
Life feels meaningless.
A supreme feast was placed right in front of me, and I still didn't get to eat it—what's the point of living?
Li Lin felt like a salted fish.
"Li Lin, if you're not eating it, I am."
"…Aah."
Actually, life still had some point.
Accepting Exusiai's feeding, Li Lin sank back into the sofa and thought: Yeah. Still pretty worth it.
The two of them took turns—one bite for him, one bite for her—gnawing through expensive ingredients. Before long, footsteps sounded outside in a rapid series.
Then the door burst open, and a whirlwind of blue rushed into the room.
Sora arrived breathless, eyes scanning frantically—until she saw Li Lin, and visibly relaxed.
"Senior! I came as soon as I got off work!"
She stripped off her uniform, hung it on the rack, and hurried over with a pained, worried expression.
"How are you feeling? Is it better? Does it still hurt? If it hurts, you have to tell me—okay?"
"I'm really fine. You don't need to be this tense. This is already more than enough—"
"How can it be enough?! You ended up like that because of me. If I don't make it up to you, I…"
"You really don't have to—"
"I'm checking!"
"You really don't need to!"
Sora, now in just a white blouse and black skirt, leaned in close—far too close—trying to pull at his clothes to examine him. Li Lin kept his eyes forward, forcing himself to maintain that "gentle and composed" mask.
It failed almost immediately.
And because the door hadn't been shut, the consequences were swift.
Just as Sora was trying to undress him to check, another figure appeared at the entrance.
Texas stood there with a pocky stick between her lips, eyebrow lifting as she took in the chaotic scene.
"So it's starting already?"
"Texas! Save me!"
"Since I'm here, I'll eat too. The Emperor just sent a new order. We'll deliver it after we're done."
"Where's Croissant?"
"She went out to run a stall."
"Oh."
"Could someone please save me first?!"
Sora's lingerie is a camisole, and she's moving around like this—if this keeps going, I'm not going to survive it!
Li Lin couldn't help shouting at them.
Exusiai and Texas, perfectly at ease, sat down on the sofa like they were watching a show.
Desire rose as usual—just like the sun.
Penguin Logistics seemed to have returned to its "normal" track.
Only, in the distance, a blue figure watched this scene in silence… then slipped into an alley and vanished without a trace.
....
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