Campus Log - Chapter 87

I kept my eyes closed, but I had shifted all my focus to the soles of my feet. My nerves were on edge, trying not to miss any of Ryu Eun-seok’s reactions.

And then it happened.

A different sensation touched my heel. It wasn’t Ryu Eun-seok’s hard thigh muscle, nor his gently stroking palm.

It was blunt yet firm, bulging out above his thigh, thick and long and seeming quite heavy…

When I lifted my eyelids, I saw the bumpy wall. No sound came from my feet.

Only a sensation I had never experienced once in my life rose up through the soles of my feet.

Ryu Eun-seok’s hands, which had been squeezing and kneading my feet like stress balls, also stopped moving. Only the warmth covering the tops of my feet remained.

I rolled only my eyes and looked down. Ryu Eun-seok’s eyes were fixed on my feet. His straight profile looked lost in thought, and his fully exposed ears were flushed bright red.

A suffocating silence continued. The air conditioner breeze was clearly coming in, yet my entire skin was heated as if I were lying in an ondol-heated room.

Eventually, my toes curled. Ryu Eun-seok flinched and raised his head toward me. His heat-tinged face was clearly bewildered.

As if making up for how long he had held on, Ryu Eun-seok’s hands easily released both my feet. The force slipping away was so sudden it almost left me feeling deflated.

Without hesitating, I quickly sat up. And then I understood why Ryu Eun-seok’s face was so troubled.

One side of his mugwort-colored shorts was noticeably bulging. Anyone would have thought he had stuffed a water bottle inside. It was so obvious in shape and thickness that even I, who had never paid attention to such things, immediately realized what it was.

Ryu Eun-seok had gotten an e******n from touching my feet.

The man noticed where my gaze had gone and pulled his knees in toward his chest. His fluttering eyelashes told me just how embarrassed he was.

“Hey, Sang-hee. About this…”

Ryu Eun-seok quickly opened his mouth but couldn’t easily continue.

“Well, uh, this is… I…”

Instead of waiting for his explanation, I handed him a pillow. Meaning, cover it with this at least.

The man, stretching his legs back out, placed the pillow over his thighs as I had directed. But the pillow was too small to hide the grotesque shape, and even that wobbled and rolled to the floor.

Flustered, Ryu Eun-seok spread open his comic book and covered his left thigh. One book wasn’t enough to hide everything. I also opened wide the mystery comic I had been reading and handed it over.

We sat side by side again, without any exchange, like at the beginning. This time, instead of comic books, we both just stared blankly at the opposite wall. Only the sound of snoring drifting again from the next cubby disturbed the silence here.

“Ah, s**t.”

Eventually, Ryu Eun-seok buried his face in both hands and swallowed a curse. His ears were still bright red.

“This is so embarrassing, seriously. I’m not a pervert…”

His low voice was muffled by his palms. His strong shoulders heaved as he took deep breaths. He wasn’t crying, was he? I wanted to check his face, but his large hands covered it completely.

“What’s there to be embarrassed about?”

It was a gruff reply, but I was doing my best to soothe him.

“There’s a reason the word ‘full of youthful vigor’ exists, isn’t there? I won’t think weirdly of it, so don’t worry. I won’t spread any rumors either.”

Compared to the news that Ryu Eun-seok’s family had lost their fortune, a whisper that he had gotten an e******n while rubbing someone’s feet like a pervert would be far more sensational. But as I had explained to him two months ago, I had no friends to tell such things to, nor any intention of doing so.

“They say it happens all the time when you’re young. I won’t say anything. Don’t worry too much.”

I wondered if offering this kind of comfort was appropriate. Wasn’t I the one making excuses on behalf of Ryu Eun-seok?

“It doesn’t happen all the time.”

Ryu Eun-seok took his face out of his hands and looked at me. His eyes, tinted red like his ears, grew intense. I had offered him what I thought was a sincere consolation, but what came back was a complaint-filled rebuttal.

“I told you. I only do this to you.”

The man’s face was bright red, as if it might burst at any moment. The fact that he was looking straight at me was remarkable—he was clearly very embarrassed.

“It’s because it’s you.”

If I looked in a mirror right now, my complexion would probably be the same color as Ryu Eun-seok’s. We couldn’t take our eyes off each other, both in similar states. Breath that wouldn’t leave kept piling up in my mouth, raising my body temperature even more.

For a moment, I thought that if this cave had been completely sealed off, I might have done something else.

It was the first time I had felt a danger alert while being with Ryu Eun-seok.

Far more than Ryu Eun-seok’s explicitly aroused state, my own desire to offer him my feet again felt far less safe.

We waited until the bulge between Ryu Eun-seok’s legs subsided, and only after a long while did we finally escape the cave.