NOVEL NEXT Chapter 397
Chapter 395
Side Story: The Last Story – 2
‘Will it go well?’
Yujin Baek was anxious.
Laughter echoed from the living room like ha-ha-ho-ho, but Yujin, lingering at the second-floor staircase, felt entirely different. She must have taken deep breaths and steadied her mind countless times.
Still, she hesitated to take a step. Ever since she saw her new sister-in-law this morning, she had resolved to speak up, yet here it was, dinner finished, and a drinking party had started, but nothing had changed.
Yujin had devoured lunch and dinner at an incredible speed then locked herself away in her room in between. All that time had been spent convincing herself with “you can do it.”
“But what about Yujin? What’s she doing?”
The slightly tipsy voice of Mrs. Kang Soyoung rang out. She flinched, her body shivering lightly. What was Yujin doing right now? That was, of course, a natural question to ask.
Her brother had brought his girlfriend, and she didn’t even greet her properly, barely eating lunch quietly, then locking herself up in her room, and now finishing dinner without a word.
And now she was still hiding away, so of course, it was curious what she was up to.
“I wouldn’t know.”
“Are you two fighting or something?”
“We don’t even contact each other, what would we be fighting about? That’s never happened.”
“Thank goodness, then. I was going to call you over and have you apologize to your brother for any trouble.”
“If we were fighting, it would definitely be her fault.”
“……”
Listening to that, Yujin felt a sudden wave of unfairness.
‘“It’s definitely my fault?”’
Wasn’t it just a matter of poking fun at her every time they met, back-talking to her brother, and throwing insults? She’s not even doing that now!
All because that idiot, Juwon Baek, held something essential to her life.
‘……I’ll deal with it later. Later. Mom would surely tease me if she hears this.’
After lingering indecisively on the stairs, Yujin eventually justified herself in her mind and retreated back into her room. She had no confidence to interrupt them at this moment.
After going back and forth between the room and the staircase several times, when the laughter of her parents finally faded, Yujin quietly descended the stairs and reached the first floor. She peeked her head out to survey the living room.
‘My sister-in-law and Juwon are sitting on the sofa… Are Mom and Dad in bed already?’
Mom and Dad didn’t seem to be around, and all she could see were the two of them sitting on the sofa, chattering away. Her sister-in-law was snuggled right up to Juwon.
‘Good.’
Confirming that her parents were absent, Yujin tiptoed into the living room. It wouldn’t be a big sin to walk in boldly, but she just felt like it was the right thing to do.
“What are you sneaking around for?”
“Uh, what?”
And before long, she was startled.
She was making no sound at all, intentionally wearing two layers of fuzzy socks to muffle her footsteps, but Juwon, who had just been chatting with her sister-in-law, called her out without even turning around.
Even though the subject wasn’t mentioned, it was obvious who he was talking about. There was only one person he would refer to with such a tone here.
“…How did you know?”
“Who knows? Why should I tell you? Just get to the point. You’ve been avoiding me since we arrived, so why do you suddenly show up?”
“Ha, ha, ha…”
Yujin gritted her teeth inwardly while maintaining a smile on the outside. Hold it together, hold it together! That stupid idiot has her life in his hands. She must bear with it somehow.
As Yujin approached the sofa and tried to sit cautiously across from them, she froze in place.
‘What is wrong with me, seriously…?’
She already knew her sister-in-law was exceptionally good-looking. Her parents endlessly praised her beauty, and Yujin had fully felt that praise firsthand.
With her looks, body, and voice, she was flawless, and to top it off, she was supposed to be bare-faced right now. For someone like Yujin, who was always neurotically skin-caring, it felt so unfair.
‘……How can a person be like that?’
However, today’s sister-in-law was on a whole different level. It wasn’t just pretty; it transcended the word.
The moment she saw her, her mind went blank, her mouth and tongue felt frozen, and her legs turned to jelly. Even after seeing her multiple times today, she still reacted this way.
The hair cascading down to her waist, her golden and silver eyes sparkling, the slight reveal of her collarbone and shoulder line due to her off-shoulder sweater, and the ample chest nestled within the sweater. Finally, her curvy hips and slender thighs.
It felt impossible for her to be human. Completely losing strength in her body, she plopped down near the sofa. She suddenly felt short of breath.
“Are you okay, Young Lady? Shall I help you up?”
The moment her sister-in-law reached out with a sweet smile, Yujin felt a shock hit her like lightning.
Despite having zero interest in women, she suddenly thought that if her sister-in-law proposed dating, she might just consider it.
“Just leave her to get up on her own. Does she have no legs or arms? With no chest, she should be able to get up by herself.”
“Still, she’s your sister.”
“Her?”
Right in front of her, Juwon insulted her as casually as breathing, but those words didn’t register at all in Yujin’s ears. She stayed frozen until her sister-in-law stood up to help her.
“Hey, so why did you come here? To see my girlfriend’s face?”
“Aww, I’m shy, you.”
As she blushed, her sister-in-law pouted, Yujin stared, captivated, until she finally snapped back to reality at Juwon’s slightly grim face.
“I have a favor to ask… um.”
“You want me to help you grow your chest? That’s a no-go.”
The chest size that was previously at least double her head had shrunk considerably over time. It was still head-sized, but it was no longer comparable to bees. It was more of a reward at this point.
Of course, for Yujin, it had always been a reward even when it was twice her head size. More wasn’t always better, and having a perfect washboard figure was worse than having one twice the size of her head that was difficult to handle.
“No, no, no! Not at all!”
“Then what is it?”
She had no clue how it was possible. But since the one who could magically change her chest size was Juwon, she had to comply with whatever he said.
Taking a few deep breaths, Yujin thumped her chest, gulped down some of the alcohol left on the table without any snack, and finally managed to speak up.
“Um, is there any chance I could get pretty like my sister-in-law…? I mean, not that I want to be as pretty as her! Just… um… one… uh… one percent? Like that…”
In reality, even saying that, Yujin was someone who was definitely not to be dismissed in terms of looks. Objectively and subjectively, she belonged to the category of beauties. Not that she was bragging, but she had been scouted off the street a few times.
Her only complex had been her chest, and now that was resolved too.
Juwon also didn’t think that about Yujin, but he had heard countless times from friends asking if he could introduce his brother who was too handsome.
Given that situation, Yujin had always believed she was beautiful. She herself didn’t understand it, but her brother’s life had been filled with compliments too.
But after seeing that ‘true beauty’, her perspective changed. There was no way she could ever compete, nor did she even want to think about it. The moment she recognized that beauty, she gave up on competition entirely.
So, she wanted to ask if there was a way to get even remotely close to that perfect appearance, just about 1/100th of it.
“……”
After finishing her request, Yujin squeezed her eyes shut, and when she heard no reply, she peeked at Juwon through her fluttering eyelids.
Juwon was smiling.
While smiling, he only uttered one phrase.
“Have you no conscience?”
“That’s why it backfires when you attack so openly. Try a little variety in your attacks.”
“Using Roll so blatantly? You mean to catch it and kill me, right?”
“Uh, you don’t know how to counter this? Really don’t know? Then I guess you’re dead. What can you do?”
“Alright, newbie! From now on, I’ll catch you with a broken sword. Ta-da, how is it? Pretty easy, right?”
“……”
“……”
Aoroa and Kaiquilia watched in a daze as their character was defeated by the broken sword, fell silent for a moment, then screamed as they threw the controller.
“Ahhh! What is this!”
“What the heck is this!”
The thrown controller was lightly caught by Minerva with magic.
On the TV screen, a character with purple skin wearing only panties was continuously using the ‘Joy’ gesture while holding a broken sword. Of course, it was my character.
I grinned and said, “Why are you so angry? I actually let you off easy.”
Aoroa’s and Kaiquilia’s voices rose higher.
“It’s a problem because you were too lenient! Didn’t I clearly say to take me on properly?”
“Even if I let it slide, I still win, so why put in the effort?”
“……!!!!!!”
Finally, perhaps their anger exploded, Kaiquilia rushed toward me.
It didn’t seem like she was trying to grab me by the collar or hit me; it looked like her body moved ahead of her inability to suppress her rage. I grabbed Kaiquilia’s arms and pulled her closer.
Kaiquilia gave a puzzled look.
A body clad in a black sleeveless crop top that barely reached her sternum and dolphin shorts short enough to reveal most of her bottom half melted into my embrace.
“Kaiquilia.”
“Stop it, I told you to stop!”
As I stroked her hair and whispered her name into her ear, Kaiquilia seemed to realize what I was trying to do and started to squirm. But there was no way she could break free. I continued to whisper her name into her ear.
“Stop it, stop…”
When her voice of defiance became all soft and melty, I patted her back and squeezed her bottom.
“Huuh?!”
Kaiquilia’s toes curled. Her whole body tensed for a moment then went limp. The golden dolphin shorts dampened, releasing a thick scent of peach.
I laid Kaiquilia, gasping for breath, onto the sofa.
“So, do you want to keep playing, Aurora? But it’ll have to be 1v1, not 2v1.”
“No way. I’m just going to get beaten again anyway, why bother?”
Aurora immediately shook her head. That was understandable. She had excitedly jumped in thinking that Eclipse had modified Brightest Darkness 4 for PvP, but she hadn’t been able to land a hit and only got beat up the whole time.
For hours.
‘I have a long way to go to win.’
Even if the game shifted from PvE to PvP, it was essentially my arsenal of weapons, the magic I used, and the sacred spells I had been using. Once you know how to dodge, it’s a piece of cake.
“Well, then let’s just call it a day here—”
“Can I try too, you?”
Suddenly, Eclipse took over Kaiquilia’s controller.