Chapter 737: It’s Not a Kiss

Seo Ye-in stared blankly at Song Cheonhye for a while, then glanced toward me.

Then she looked back at Song Cheonhye and said,

“......Secret.”

“No, why would you stop talking there? After making me curious?”

“I decided to reflect.”

“What did you do that you need to reflect on?”

“Excessive bragging.”

Seo Ye-in answered while looking around at the party members.

Seeing that, Song Cheonhye seemed to roughly grasp the situation.

Seo Ye-in had already bragged the night before, so bragging again would be restraining herself.

And since that meant there was no need to ask Seo Ye-in directly, Song Cheonhye trudged over to Han Somi.

“What did you talk about yesterday?”

“Hmm~~~”

Han Somi paused for a moment as if thinking, then smiled brightly and answered.

“It’s a secret for me too! Hehe.”

“No, why again?”

“I think that’s more fun!”

“It feels like there are more secrets these days.”

Song Cheonhye’s tone was half bluntness and half hurt.

But immediately after, an unexpected counterattack came flying in.

“But you don’t tell us either, Cheonhye.”

“What don’t I tell you?”

“What’s ‘that’ between you and Kim Ho?”

“That’s....... That’s.......”

Song Cheonhye stammered, unable to speak.

It seemed she still had not told them about the wish coupon.

In the end, she sighed as if giving up and looked toward Go Hyeonwoo beside her.

Of course, there was no way he would answer either.

“How could I lightly speak of what the parties involved have chosen to keep silent? I ask your understanding.”

“......Yes, I understand.”

Song Cheonhye sighed again.

Hong Yeonhwa was the last one left, but Song Cheonhye passed her by while pretending not to see her. It seemed she believed there was no chance of getting an answer from her in the first place.

She probably did not want to lower herself and ask, either.

At best, the two of them were rivals.

In the end, after going all the way around, Song Cheonhye came back to me and Seo Ye-in.

“Tell me something. If you do this, I’m going to be too curious to sleep.”

She was shifting the responsibility onto us, as if to say that if fatigue affected her midterms, it would all be our fault.

At that, Seo Ye-in lightly tugged at the hem of my clothes.

“She says she won’t sleep.”

“So now you want to tell her right away?”

“My mouth is itchy.”

Her gray eyes sparkled brightly.

When I thought about it, everyone would find out eventually anyway, and it was not something we needed to hide that desperately even now.

But it annoyed me to reveal the correct answer too easily.

“Then just give her one hint.”

“......Hint.”

Seo Ye-in soon fell into extremely serious thought.

It felt as if “Hmm......” was written all over her face.

Then she suddenly faced Song Cheonhye and tossed out a single remark.

“Hint.”

“What is it?”

“It’s not a kiss.”

“......What?”

Song Cheonhye.exe stopped working.

She stayed dazed for a moment, then raised her eyes and asked again.

“Why would a kiss come up there?”

“It’s not a kiss.”

“Then what is it?”

Under the continued interrogation, the sloth and Fast-Luckless answered one phrase at a time in firm voices.

“As much as necessary,”

—We showed her.

“More than that,”

—We will not show.

Song Cheonhye was so dumbfounded she lost the words to respond.

Meanwhile, Han Somi, who had been watching this, apparently thought of something. She cleared her throat with an ahem loud enough for everyone to hear.

Then she spoke to Go Hyeonwoo, who was looking at her.

“I think we can’t lose either!”

“I do not believe this is a matter of winning or losing. It is not a race, is it?”

“So you don’t want to?”

“It seems somewhat premature for us.”

“.......”

Han Somi’s cheeks puffed up like balloons.

The word “premature” seemed to have particularly irritated her.

Soon, air escaped through her pouting lips.

“......I’m going to sleep.”

“Han Somi, please wait a moment.”

*****

Song Cheonhye’s mind was hopelessly chaotic.

Questions kept rising up, one after another.

What did they do in Hyeseong?

And what did “It’s not a kiss” mean?

Of course, judging by the fact that Kim Ho had not corrected it or added anything, it did seem to be a proper hint.

So Song Cheonhye tried to think it through in her own way.

It’s not a kiss, but....... At the very least, it’s related.

The subject was almost certainly romance.

Go Hyeonwoo and Han Somi’s exchange had played a major role in that deduction as well.

Especially the remarks about “not falling behind” and “premature.”

It means they... moved forward, right?

But if it was not a kiss, then what on earth was it?

Song Cheonhye also had very little common sense in this field.

All she could do was wander and wander through the flood of questions.

In the end, she failed to sleep properly that night, and even the next day, she found it hard to focus.

Even after she resumed clearing the B-rank zone with the Discipline Committee members.

While Song Cheonhye was dazing off again, someone shouted sharply in her ear.

“Song Cheonhye!”

“!”

When she snapped back to her senses, a giant leopard was charging at her with terrifying speed.

The battle had only just started, yet she had carelessly let herself get distracted.

“KRAAAH!”

The leopard swung its forepaw with a monstrous cry.

Song Cheonhye twisted her body and narrowly dodged.

But because she had moved in a hurry and lost her balance, it looked like she would be unable to evade the second forepaw coming at her.

At that moment,

BOOM!

Jo Byeok cut in and slammed into the leopard with their whole body.

Next, Geum Johan swung a golden sword and launched sword energy.

Looking back this way, they shouted sharply again.

“Can’t you get it together?”

“......I’m sorry.”

Song Cheonhye calmly steadied herself and rejoined the battle.

When she stretched her gloved hand above her head,

ZZZZZZT.

The lightning pillars scattered all around gathered in.

It was [Lightning Rod], the skill she had learned from her challenge austerity not long ago.

She controlled them to pressure the giant leopard, and the instant she spotted an opening, she poured them all down at once.

RUMBLE! KABOOOOM—!!

Once the battle had ended, Lee Seulbi scattered a healing rain over the Discipline Committee members.

Meanwhile, Geum Johan approached Song Cheonhye and pressed her.

“Are you all right? You can hardly focus today.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You are free to think about other things, but should you be causing trouble for the party as well? You nearly got hit just now.”

“This won’t happen again.”

Since she looked sufficiently remorseful, Geum Johan did not press her any further.

Even so, perhaps judging that removing the cause would be best if possible, they brought up Song Cheonhye’s “worry.”

“I can guess why you have so much on your mind. It must be because of the conversation you had with them last night.”

“......Yes.”

“But I do not really understand it. It certainly seemed to be a romance topic, but even so, is it not someone else’s business?”

“.......”

Technically, that was true.

Whether Kim Ho and Seo Ye-in had kissed in Hyeseong or held hands and walked around the city, was that really something she needed to care about?

It’s not, but.......

It bothered her. She was dying of curiosity. What was she supposed to do?

In the first place, this was not something she could resolve through rational thought.

Unaware of that, Geum Johan kept speaking casually.

“Before deciding whether it is my business or someone else’s, the topic of romance itself is extremely unproductive. Rather than pointlessly pouring time and energy into that sort of thing—”

But they closed their mouth midway through speaking, because they felt Lee Seulbi’s gaze.

Her expression was calm as usual, but her eyes had sunk coldly.

So Geum Johan asked,

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“.......”

“I do not believe I said anything wrong.”

“.......”

“......If I made a careless remark, I apologize.”

*****

As they continued wandering the B-rank zone and beating down monsters one way or another, night arrived again.

Despite Geum Johan’s advice, Song Cheonhye’s mind remained hopelessly chaotic even then.

She thought yet again of the question she had asked herself dozens, hundreds of times that day.

What is it if it’s not a kiss?

Her frustration had reached its peak, so Song Cheonhye glanced sideways at Kim Ho and thought,

Should I just use the mini wish coupon? Ask him to tell me?

But that felt far too wasteful.

It was an opportunity that might not come again, and spending it just to receive a single answer felt wrong.

While Song Cheonhye was unable to do this or that, Seo Ye-in moved close to Kim Ho and lightly tugged at his sleeve.

It was a scene she had seen many times by now, so she could easily guess the intention behind it.

......She wants him to follow?

Sure enough, after the two communicated with their eyes for a few seconds, they left together.

It looked so natural that no one else seemed to notice, but Song Cheonhye had a strong intuition.

......There’s something there!

It did not seem like they were simply going somewhere to talk alone.

Nine times out of ten, they were going to do that thing from Hyeseong, that thing that was not a kiss.

So Song Cheonhye immediately followed the two of them.

In the forest, lit only dimly by moonlight.

She saw Kim Ho and Seo Ye-in walking hand in hand.

Fortunately, they did not seem to have noticed that she was tracking them.

I can’t believe what I learned from Grandfather is helping like this.

Perhaps all her training in tracking and stealth had been for this very moment.

If the Thunder Lord heard that, he would clutch the back of his neck.

Another fortunate point was that the pursuit did not last long.

Before long, the two stopped walking.

Afraid they might look back, Song Cheonhye quickly hid herself behind a nearby bush.

Then, as she perked up her ears, she heard Kim Ho’s voice.

“Do we really need to come all the way out here?”

“Yeah.”

“You bragged so much I thought you wanted to show them.”

“This is secretly-secretly.”

“Why must it be secret?”

“Time for just the two of us.”

Through that conversation, Song Cheonhye became one hundred percent certain.

......They’re doing it here!

Not only would she get the answer, she might even be able to catch them in the act.

Just as she was about to peek past the bush, she discovered something.

Hong Yeonhwa was crouching a short distance away.

The two of them looked at each other at the same time and stiffened at the same time.

“......!”

“......!”

But at the same time, they realized it.

They had come here with the same goal.

So they quickly exchanged looks and reached an agreement.

—......Alliance?

—......Just this once.

If they started bickering for no reason and made noise, the spying would fail.

Besides, the fact that they had secretly followed the two of them was not exactly something to be proud of.

In many ways, joining hands was the best option for now.

So the two exchanged gestures with their eyes and chins, then peeked out past the bush.

“......”

“......”

Meanwhile, the conversation between Kim Ho and Seo Ye-in had stopped.

They were only facing each other, yet even from a distance, the atmosphere felt noticeably different.

At that, Song Cheonhye felt her heart begin to pound without meaning to.

Why... why am I like this......?

The pounding only grew stronger and stronger.

It felt as if something would happen at any moment.

But contrary to her expectations, the two showed no movement for a long while.

So long, in fact, that Song Cheonhye, who was watching, began to feel impatient.

How long are they going to... stay like that?

Surely not all night?

Just as she thought that.

Seo Ye-in lifted her hand, grabbed the front of Kim Ho’s clothes, stood on her tiptoes, and brought her face close.

Song Cheonhye’s eyes widened like lanterns as she watched.

Uh......? U-Uh......!

Her heart was pounding wildly too, as if it would burst at any second.

It’s... not a kiss!