One fake couple and four real couples shared drinks as the party reached its peak.
They shared updates on their lives and exchanged meaningless jokes, continuing their pleasant conversation.
While they were all empathizing with each other and laughing, I quietly slipped away to the emergency stairs.
[What are you doing, Kyle? Are you home? Asleep?]
Cynthia called me.
[If you ask so many questions at once, what should I answer first?]
[Ah, sorry. I was worried because I couldn't reach you for hours.]
[Nothing to worry about. I met a friend for a light drink on my way home from exercising.]
I said it casually, as if it were nothing, but Cynthia was surprised and reacted strongly.
[What? Alcohol? Kyle, you drank alcohol?]
[Well, we're adults now. We can have a drink. I won't drink too much, so don't worry.]
[Who's the friend? Kyle, you had friends?]
She stabbed my heart without malice and asked as if she were subtly grilling me.
[The relationship is ambiguous, so I just said friend. We're not that close.]
[Oh, I see.]
[But why? Can't I have friends?]
[That's not it! Kyle finally has a friend! I'm happy!]
She was too loud for someone who was supposedly happy.
There was no need to raise the pitch to the 3rd octave.
Honestly, you're jealous, aren't you, Cynthia?
You want me to be your only friend, and you want to monopolize me, right?
[Anyway, what are you doing now? Are you at your relatives' house?]
[Yeah. I just showered and came into my room to call you. But is that friend a girl?]
I tried to change the subject, but Cynthia persistently asked again.
[Yeah, it's a girl.]
[...]
Even though we were far apart, I could see what she was thinking.
[There are guys too. We met as a group.]
[...Ah, so you're not drinking alone.]
Cynthia sighed in relief and blew air into my ear.
Of course, I could only hear the sound.
[By the way, Cynthia, why aren't you sending me pictures?]
[Pi, pictures? I sent them!]
[You didn't send them properly. Take them again and send them to me. All of them, top and bottom. Don't cover up like you did during the day.]
[No! I'm never sending them!]
No, you're going to send them.
You said no during the day too, but you ended up sending them, right?
If you want to monopolize me, you need to send me more revealing pictures, don't you think?
[Take pretty pictures and send them to me. I'll only look at them. That way, I can at least look at the pictures and make it until the weekend when you come back~.]
[I'm shy.]
No, Cynthia, you can do it. Be brave.
I want to ask for a masturbation video, but I'm letting you off the hook because you're still a virgin.
Be grateful and hurry up and take the pictures and send them to me.
[I'll be waiting. I'm not going to sleep until you send me the pictures?]
[Really...]
[Do you want to send me nude pictures if you don't want to?]
[What? Kyle, are you crazy?!]
[Yeah, I'm actually crazy. I haven't seen Cynthia for a few days, so I've gone crazy. Cynthia, you have to take responsibility.]
[I can't live, really... Kyle Smith, you pervert...]
And a little later.
Surprisingly, Cynthia sent me nude pictures.
'I thought it would just be underwear pictures again, but is being with a girl stimulating?'
She raised her legs and squeezed them tightly, and covered her breasts with her arms, censoring all the important parts herself.
Compared to the pure Cynthia from the first day, it was truly a remarkable development.
* * *
Around the time Kyle left his seat.
"Hannah, your boyfriend is amazing!"
One of Hannah's friends exclaimed.
"He's pretty and handsome, tall, and has a great body!"
It wasn't just that friend named Jenny.
Most of Hannah's high school friends expressed similar sentiments.
They said he was worth bragging about from the start.
They said he was good-looking even from a guy's perspective.
The friends praised Kyle, repeating Hannah's previous words and boasting.
"Uh-huh."
Hannah replied dazedly.
"I honestly thought it was a lie, but he's way beyond my expectations? Where did you meet someone like that?"
"It must be the academy. Hannah's boyfriend is very famous. At least, that's what she said."
She should have been proud of the attention and praise her boyfriend was receiving, but she wasn't comfortable.
"I didn't say he was famous, I said he was going to be famous..."
Hannah, who defended Kyle, smiled awkwardly as she made excuses.
She felt ambiguous as he received a more enthusiastic welcome than she had expected.
Kyle Smith wasn't her real boyfriend.
She couldn't help but worry that their relationship would be exposed, and she was embarrassed by her friends' enthusiastic interest.
'Kyle is handsome, though.'
Of course, she felt secretly good.
Praising him was the same as elevating herself.
In short, she had mixed feelings.
'Hmm, is he really that good? Kyle Smith?'
In particular, the Kyle Smith she had always seen was 180 degrees different from the current one.
She was surprised by the change, but the image that had been built up over a long time didn't change easily, and it steadily eroded her evaluation of him.
It was different from her friends who didn't know Kyle Smith's past.
"By the way, Hannah, why do you call your boyfriend Kyle?"
Then, Jenny asked.
"Is it like a nickname?"
Hannah's expression became even more awkward at her question.
"Y, yeah..."
No matter how good the atmosphere was, she couldn't reveal the truth.
Kyle was short for Kyle the Jjinda.
"It's a nickname. Cute, right...?"
At that moment, Kyle, who had a cute nickname, returned to his seat.
Not as a shameful nerd, but as a proud boyfriend.
Thud.
He naturally sat next to Hannah, looked around, and asked Jenny.
"What were you guys talking about?"
Then, Jenny smiled brightly.
"Okay. Your name is Jenny? Right?"
"You remembered it right away? Are you interested in me?"
Hannah frowned at Jenny, who continued to flirt subtly.
"Aren't you being too familiar? Jenny, are you drunk?"
"I'm not drunk. And friends can joke like this, right~?"
Unlike Hannah, Jenny smiled sweetly.
She wrapped her arms around herself, showing off her cleavage as a bonus, as if she found Hannah's reaction amusing.
"Since when were we friends?"
"Today!"
"Please read the room. Can't you see your boyfriend's been looking uncomfortable since earlier?"
"Hey, it's just a joke, what's wrong with that? Right, big brother~?"
Jenny immediately changed her attitude, clung to her boyfriend's arm, and acted cute.
Soon after, a woman named Emily asked Kyle.
"Come to think of it, I heard you're good at studying, unlike Hannah. How's the Hunter Class?"
Kyle looked back at Hannah without a word.
Swoosh.
Then, Hannah avoided his gaze as if she was ashamed.
It seemed that she had introduced her boyfriend as being in the Hunter Class early on, considering Alex Parker's company from the beginning.
"The class is so-so..."
Kyle, realizing this, answered tactfully.
"The Hunter Class is one thing, but Stella Academy's education must be different from other small academies, right?"
Emily continued to ask.
They were far from being Hunters, so they seemed curious about that side of things.
"The system itself isn't that different. The academy mainly teaches theoretical things. Sometimes we do practical training and exercises with the approval of the Management Bureau."
Kyle easily resolved the doubts of people like them.
"There are many ordinary students inside the academy, so we don't use our abilities freely on campus, and students don't duel with each other."
Judging by his smooth explanation, it was as if he was actually in the Hunter Class.
So much so that even Hannah was momentarily mistaken.
'He's quite good at acting. Did he have this side to him?'
Hannah looked at Kyle with new eyes.
But that was only for a moment.
"...!"
Hannah suddenly flinched.
It was because Kyle pulled her shoulder, and their bodies closer to one another.
'Why does he keep doing skinship without permission, like when he suddenly held my hand earlier?!'
Hannah bit her lower lip tightly, turned her head slightly to the other side, and moved her lips as if whispering.
"...Do you really have to go this far?"
Kyle smiled without answering.
"Wow, you two are really close. Are you going to kiss?"
Jenny said, giggling at the right time.
"If we do, we do. We're a couple. Right, Hannah?"
Kyle, who calmly accepted Jenny's words, turned the arrow to Hannah.
'This bastard, he's doing this on purpose, right?'
Hannah glared at Kyle sullenly.
'It's not acting, he's enjoying it all by himself.'
Then, she bit her lip tightly and said.
"Zeu-reu-heu-jeu meu-reu."
In addition, the sound of grinding teeth was heard, but Kyle didn't bat an eye.
"...I'm going to the bathroom for a bit. Kyle, come with me."
With that, Hannah forcibly dragged Kyle out.
Thump!
She suddenly pushed Kyle against the wall, glaring at him.
"Kyle, are you crazy? Do you think I'm easy? Huh? Why do you keep climbing on me since before?"
"What did I do?"
"You touched me!"
"Your choice of words is weird. Anyone who hears that would think I touched a weird place."
"What? Do you really want to die?"
Hannah glared at him coldly and clenched her fists tightly.
"I was just acting like your boyfriend. I wish you would praise me instead."
"Praise my ass! What was that earlier? Who said you could kiss if you wanted to?"
"Then, should I have said I couldn't? What if they suspected us?"
"That's enough! If you do skinship again without my permission, you're dead! Just be a wallflower like we promised at first!"
She turned her head and strode forward, and Kyle said from behind her.
"Where are you going? That way is outside."
"I'm going to smoke! Why! Don't follow me!"
Hannah, who was so angry, went up to the ground and smoked in a quiet alley.
Tsssk.
The red-burning cigarette represented her inner thoughts.
"Ha... fuck..."
Hannah, who exhaled a long stream of cigarette smoke, suddenly messed up her hair.
'Should I have brought him? Why do I feel so uncomfortable?'
She regretted making Kyle her lover to some extent.
'I haven't even held Alex's hand.'
The problem was that she didn't dislike the skinship with him as much as she thought she would.
"Ah, shit. My head hurts. Did I drink too much?"
Hannah shook her head as if to shake off her confused feelings and took out another cigarette and put it in her mouth.
It was at that moment.
Some thugs who looked like they were straight out of a drawing picked a fight with her.
"Why are you being so prickly? Let's just have fun together?"
"Seeing you out here alone at this hour, weren't you secretly expecting something?"
They threw out pick-up lines before starting a fight.
"Didn't you hear me tell you to get lost?"
However, at Hannah's cold reaction, the three men quickly revealed their true colors and surrounded her, creating a menacing atmosphere.
"You look like a slut, but you're acting so expensive."
"In my experience, the stronger the bitch, the more helpless she becomes when she gets fucked."
The harassment was a bonus.
Hannah, who was already in a troubled mood, finally let go of her reason at their vulgar comments.
"..."
She used her ability.
Crack!
Suddenly, Hannah's right arm swelled up greatly, tearing her leather jacket, and she swung her beast-like arm with a cold, calm expression.
Wham!
It was instantaneous for Hannah to knock down the three thugs.
"Sa, save me... Ugh..."
She grabbed one of the thugs by the neck and lifted him up, showing off her tremendous strength.
Click.
Strangely enough, the sound of a camera shutter was heard.
"The focus is blurry. I'll take it again, Hannah. Look here and smile."
The person holding the phone was none other than Kyle.