“...A... a dog.”

“What?”

“A dog. A family dog. He’s ten years old. A m-mutt. He licks me in his sleep, so I thought it was W-Woongie...”

I blurted it all out in panic before I could stop myself—and instantly regretted it.

I’d just told the obsessive lunatic that I mistook him for some country mutt.

I quickly tried to cover it up.

“O-our Minwoong’s a mutt, yeah, b-but his mother’s a Jindo! S-so he’s not, like... a total stray or anything...”

That was a lie. Our Woongie was a 100% pure mutt through and through.

It was the kind of lie that’d be exposed instantly with just a photo. That maniac might cut my tongue out for saying it.

I dropped straight to my knees.

“I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?”

“I lied!”

“What was the lie?”

Joo Seunghyuk lifted my chin. Then he knelt down as well and met my gaze directly.

“So it wasn’t a dog... it was a human, huh?”

“......”

I swallowed hard. His eyes alone looked capable of killing someone.

“I hate liars more than anything in this world.”

The moment I heard his voice, low and quiet, my blood turned cold.

‘I hate liars more than anything in this world.’

That was the line Joo Seunghyuk said in the original, right before killing Lee Yeonsu.

So this was a death flag. I’d tried so hard, and still couldn’t change the plot.

Tears streamed from my eyes.

“Lee Yeonsu.”

Even the way he softly spoke my name after that final warning—it was exactly like the novel.

In the end, I gave up and confessed everything.

“O-our Minwoong’s really just a mutt...”

“What?”

“He’s not a Jindo. I-I’m sorry.”

“Pfft.”

I was crying as I admitted my guilt—when suddenly, he laughed.

What...? Why was he laughing?

The question popped up, but I didn’t have the guts to look up and confirm.

That’s when Joo Seunghyuk lifted my chin again. Unlike before, his eyes were now curved in a soft smile.

“Hyung, if he’s a mutt, he’s a mutt. Why are you crying over that?”

“...What?”

I was dumbfounded.

Why was Joo Seunghyuk calling me hyung?

He’d graduated high school early, so technically, he was a year younger than me. But even if we were academy classmates, we didn’t know each other at all—he had no reason to speak so casually.

And didn’t he just speak formally to me like ten seconds ago?

But unlike my bewilderment, Joo Seunghyuk smiled sweetly and kept talking.

“When you suddenly cried and apologized, I thought you’d done something awful.”

“D-done what...?”

“I thought you slept with some other bastard besides me.”

“...Huh? Slept...?”

I’d always been a good student. In my past life, I never got below the top percentile in language arts. Same in this one.

And yet I couldn’t make sense of what Joo Seunghyuk was saying.

As I stared at him in a daze, he grinned and stroked my cheek.

“If it was my first time but not yours, I’d be kind of pissed, you know?”

“Wait—f-first time? You mean...”

This time, I could tell exactly what he meant.

Joo Seunghyuk was naked. I was naked. We’d woken up in the same bed. And the first thing he did was lick my earlobe.

The moment he said “first time”, all the signs I’d been ignoring clicked together in my head.

“Did ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) we... sleep together?”

“...You don’t remember?”

His gaze, which had softened briefly, turned sharp again.

If I said I didn’t remember, he really might kill me.

I stared into his jet-black eyes. Any hope that this might be a joke vanished like smoke.

***

Last night was the freshman welcome party.

It was hosted by the student council and brought both Guide and Esper students together, along with alumni from the Ability User Academy. It was a long-standing, formal event.

Honestly, I didn’t even want to go.

This year, Kim Jun—the main bottom—had enrolled. In other words, the original plot had officially begun.

And the freshman party was supposed to be the fateful moment the main top and bottom met for the first time.

I was curious what the main bottom looked like. But my personal safety came first.

So I planned to stay holed up in the dorm and do absolutely nothing.

But without my knowledge, I was picked as the returning student representative for the welcome party. I had no choice but to drag myself there.

I was planning to give a short greeting and leave immediately—but the moment I stepped down from the podium, alumni surrounded me.

People kept handing me drinks, saying “just one,” and before I knew it, I’d drunk myself into a blackout.

And that was it. I didn’t remember sleeping with Joo Seunghyuk—hell, I didn’t even remember greeting him.

What the hell was I supposed to do?

Last night was supposed to be the fateful meeting of the main couple.

So why was that obsessive lunatic in my bed—the pathetic villainous side character? Why did he spend the night with me?!

It was absurd. It was suffocating. And most of all, it was terrifying.

What was I supposed to do? What could I even do?

But I couldn’t lie about remembering. I didn’t. And Seunghyuk hated liars.

I didn’t want to do anything that would make the obsessive maniac angry.

Trembling as I tried to recall last night, I watched as he wrapped a blanket around me, then opened the fridge and took out a 500mL bottle of water.

The way he moved so naturally in my room, like it was his own, sent chills down my spine.

“Drink this.”

He handed me the bottle.

“Th-thank you...”

“Hyung, just talk comfortably. We agreed to drop honorifics, remember?”

In the original story, Lee Yeonsu got brutally killed for using informal speech with Seunghyuk just because he was a year older—how the hell could I speak casually to him?

Watching him carefully, I opened my mouth cautiously.

“Honestly, I don’t really remember what happened last night...”

“I’d be really disappointed if you didn’t remember.”

“......”

His voice dropped to a chilling murmur. Colder than when he asked about Woongie.

“It was my first time, after all.”

I barely held back a You?!

I’d read the original. I knew exactly how much of a manwhore Joo Seunghyuk was.

“I-I see...”

But I couldn’t question his lie. If I did, he’d demand to know how I knew that—and then maybe kill me.

As if he’d already forgotten he was lying in the first place.

“You don’t remember that either?”

He widened his eyes.

His expression looked innocent, almost hurt—but the force beneath his gaze was ferocious. It felt like a black panther pretending to be a kitten.

“Uh... well...”

“Or are you pretending not to remember so you can avoid taking responsibility?”

“R-responsibility?”

“I told you, I believe in chastity before marriage.”

“...What?”

“I said I wouldn’t sleep with anyone unless I planned to marry them. And you said you’d take responsibility.”

“......”

Joo Seunghyuk claiming to be a virgin saint—our Woongie would laugh his tail off at that.

But that wasn’t even the problem right now.

“I... I said that?”

“You did.”

His tone suddenly clipped, and the hidden chill burst out again.

“I said no, that we shouldn’t. But you kissed me first.”

“I-I’d never do that...”

“How do you know? You said you don’t remember.”

He was right—I had no memory of last night.

Even if I tried to guess based on the novel, it would just be speculation.

And right now, whatever Joo Seunghyuk said would become the truth.

He was the only one who knew what happened last night.

“I... I just...”

“Don’t tell me there was someone else. You said it was your first time—was that a lie?”

His voice was laced with bloodlust. I panicked and shook my head furiously.

“N-no! It really was my first time! I swear it was mine too!”

“Good. I would’ve hated starting off with blood.”

“...Huh?”

“I’m fine with it, but you wouldn’t like it, right?”

“......”

So if I had said there was someone else, would he have killed me?

I couldn’t even voice that fear. I just froze.

Joo Seunghyuk gave me a bright, innocent smile, like he didn’t know anything.

“I’m glad I was your first too, hyung.”

***

I used class as an excuse to finally escape from Joo Seunghyuk’s arms.

Thank god I had a morning lecture starting from first period.

The place I was currently attending—officially known as the Ability User Military Academy, nicknamed “A.U.M.A.”—was the top ability-user training institution in the Republic of Korea.

Originally, it had been under the Ministry of National Defense, but about twenty years ago, a new government branch was created specifically for Espers and Guides, called the Department of Ability Users. That’s when the academy was transferred under their jurisdiction.

At the time, there had been talk of renaming it to something more globally friendly—like the Korean Ability User Academy—but the public backlash, both domestic and international, shut that down. So to this day, the academy still went by the name Ability User Military Academy.

That change in jurisdiction brought a lot of internal changes too.

Originally, everything had been run military-style, but now, aside from a few requirements like wearing uniforms during training, it functioned much more like an ordinary university.

The moment I entered the lecture hall, I started looking for Jihee noona.

She was an A-rank Guide and had been right next to me at the welcome party last night. If anyone knew what happened, it’d be her. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

“Jihee noona!”

“Lee Yeonsu, are you okay?”

But before I could even ask, she bombarded me with concern.

“Huh?”

“You can’t just accept every drink people hand you. You should’ve stopped at a reasonable point!”

“I didn’t want to kill the mood...”

“Ugh. Whether it’s alumni or seniors, just ignore them next time. Drunk jerks.”

She shook her head in exasperation.

Since A.U.M.A. had a rigid seniority culture, it was hard to say no when upperclassmen pressured you to drink—but last night had been especially bad.

It was the first time I’d ever drunk enough to actually black out.

“Good thing Joo Seunghyuk helped you.”

“J-Joo Seunghyuk?”

His name was the first to come out of her mouth.

“Yeah. You were super drunk, and you just collapsed onto him.”

“......”

The moment she said that, a flash of memory hit me—I’d wrapped my arms around Joo Seunghyuk’s neck.

I’d thought everything he said this morning was a lie. That he was just making things up because he knew I couldn’t remember anything.

But... did I actually throw myself at him?

My head went blank.