* * *
Before I could react, my lips were harshly blocked.
Startled, I stumbled backward a few steps. But it wasn’t what I feared.
SMACK!
Something small shot out from under my clothes and slapped itself right onto my face.
It was my little bird spirit, who had chosen that exact moment to fly out and latch itself firmly over my mouth and nose.
It took me a while to pry it off.
Guess it finally snapped because I forgot to feed it nuts this morning in all the chaos.
Even now, as I held it in my hands, it squirmed angrily, flapping its wings in protest.
“Okay, okay! I get it! I’ll give you some! Just wait!”
I’d heard spirits could be aggressive, but this little guy was way past aggressive.
Lately, I was really starting to feel that firsthand.
I should’ve known this would happen when I ignored his whining earlier.
The moment I popped an almond into its beak, it started munching with a loud crunch crunch.
“…”
Now that things had somewhat calmed down, I finally noticed Cha Rui still standing there silently.
He hadn’t moved at all—but his eyes were bloodshot red, and it made him look eerily intense.
Despite that, he didn’t blink.
Just kept staring at me like a predator sizing up its prey.
Normally, that kind of pressure would’ve been enough to freeze me in place.
‘Normally’, yeah.
But not right now.
Right now, I was in the middle of a life-and-death crisis.
I did my best to keep a straight face, but internally I was screaming.
“I—I need to use the restroom. Come on, you too, Chirpy.”
“Restroom?”
Cha Rui frowned for the first time as I quickly turned around with my spirit still nibbling on his almond.
I could see the confusion on his face.
But I didn’t have time to explain. I waved him off before he could follow.
“You’re not gonna follow me to the bathroom, right? I’ll meet you in the banquet hall. I won’t be long.”
And with that, I all but bolted out of the study.
I kept glancing around in case someone saw me, and finally ducked into a secluded corner of the mansion.
Luckily, the place was big enough that no one seemed to wander out this far.
No one’s here, right…?
Just to be safe, I turned to face the wall—and cautiously looked down at my lower body.
“…Shit.”
Unbelievably, the front of my pants was bulging hard.
Not just slightly, but to the point of a near-complete erection.
All because Cha Rui touched my ear a little?
If I hadn’t subtly shifted my position, I would’ve ended up embarrassing myself right in front of him.
“What am I, some kind of pervert?”
With a long sigh, I leaned my forehead against the wall, feeling utterly wretched.
In my previous life, I wasn’t interested in sex—didn’t even care much for masturbation.
Back then, sleep was more important than lust.
I just wanted to get home, wash up, and catch even one more minute of rest.
Looking back, what a suffocating life that was.
But ever since what happened with Do Soohyuk at the hardware store, something inside me began to shift.
Hard to describe in words, but it felt like a long-dormant sense had been awakened.
Like when I first tasted Celeste wine.
If that’s really what this is, then just like I lost control under the influence of wine… it could happen again.
And unlike wine, these desires—this—felt like a direct path to ruin.
“…”
I silently looked down, then slowly lifted my forehead from the wall.
At this rate, it didn’t look like it would go down anytime soon.
I had no choice but to deal with it before anyone saw.
“Where’s the bathroom?”
But no matter how many doors I opened nearby, the bathroom was nowhere to be found.
There were so many rooms, and yet all of them were either bedrooms, studies, sitting rooms, or massive dressing rooms.
It was enough to drive anyone insane.
Not that I had the guts to just do that anywhere, either.
This is driving me crazy.
Eventually, as I paced around in rising anxiety, I spotted a staircase leading upstairs.
Without hesitation, I rushed up—
And finally found what I’d been desperately searching for.
“There it is.”
Heaving a silent sigh of relief, I locked the door firmly behind me and sat down on the toilet lid.
I double-checked—no one nearby.
With urgent fingers, I undid my belt and grabbed the painfully hard thing pressing against my pants.
A groan escaped me, one I hadn’t meant to let out.
I thought it would ease up by now, but it remained rock-hard, jutting upward.
“Ugh.”
The moment I slid my hand up the shaft, it was like my body had been waiting for the signal.
The sensation surged instantly, as if just a few strokes were all it took to reach the edge.
Given someone could walk in any moment, maybe it was a good thing that it was ending fast.
“Haa…”
Damn it.
No matter how I tried not to think about it, I kept remembering the way he touched my ear.
I shut my eyes tight.
I had to be out of my mind.
With my vision gone, the sensations only grew sharper, more vivid.
And as my hand moved in rhythm, my body reached its limit.
God… this is wrong.
Dazed, I stared up at the ceiling.
The ornate chandelier and luxurious wallpaper I’d admired earlier now barely registered.
My mind couldn’t focus on anything else—every nerve was screaming toward a single point.
At some point, my fingers had traced exactly where Cha Rui had touched.
Starting from my earlobe, sliding up along the outer edge of my ear—
A shiver shot through me, impossible to suppress.
“…Khh!”
A wave of blinding sensation exploded behind my eyes.
If I hadn’t clenched my teeth, the moan would’ve escaped loudly—it hit that hard.
Maybe it had been too long since I last came, because the climax dragged on, spasms rippling through my entire body.
“Haa…”
After a moment, the pulsing member finally lost its strength and drooped.
My palm was a mess of sticky white fluid.
And my overheated body was already cooling down like nothing had happened.
As stupid as it sounds, this—this was one of the reasons I never masturbated.
People call this the “post-nut clarity,” right?
For most, it’s fleeting.
But for me, it always came like a crushing wave of emptiness.
So strong, it’d haunt me for days.
But strangely, this time… it just felt embarrassing.
Awkward. That’s all.
“…Should I take this as progress?”
I washed my hands at the sink and stared at the man in the mirror.
The flushed skin beneath my eyes was a dead giveaway—anyone could tell what I’d just done.
Only after splashing my face with cold water did I finally take out my phone to check the time.
8:40 PM.
Roughly thirty minutes until the episode officially begins.
Maybe less.
Time in the film was hard to measure precisely, so I had to guess based on the mood.
By now, that blue-haired guy should be starting his drama-stirring routine.
“I need to think about my next move too…”
As I left the bathroom and walked down the hall, I suddenly stopped in front of the study.
I had told Cha Rui to head to the banquet hall first, but just in case—
“…Don’t tell me he’s still in there.”
Creaaak.
I carefully opened the door and peeked in—
Thankfully, the room was empty.
To be honest, considering his personality, I half-expected him to follow me to the bathroom.
A little surprising that he hadn’t.
If he had… I’d probably have died of shame.
No matter how quiet I tried to be, a wooden door wouldn’t be enough to block Cha Rui’s ears.
Just imagining the humiliation was enough to make cold sweat break out down my spine.
Hmm?
I was just about to close the door, having decided there was nothing left to check, when something caught my eye—something that hadn’t been there earlier.
Just for a second—
But under the self-portrait above the fireplace, something out of place.
It was hidden so subtly that you wouldn’t notice unless you crouched low.
“What is that?”
I immediately stepped inside and leaned into the fireplace.
There it was—a small, square button, camouflaged to blend in with the wall’s color.
“…”
I almost pretended I hadn’t seen it.
But I just couldn’t resist the curiosity.
A hidden button in a world-renowned philanthropist’s home?
No one could walk away from that.
Click.
In the end, my hand moved on its own—
Whrrrr—
With a soft vibration, the fireplace slid aside like a sliding door.
* * *
