Su Yu's Adam's apple bobbed violently once.
"This is Elysia we're talking about." He forced the words out through clenched teeth. "If she hears something's off..."
"Then that's your problem." Through the fabric of the pocket, Eden's fingertip tapped twice on the buzzing metal, neither too light nor too hard. "If you don't pick up, she'll just keep calling more often. You know her personality."
The phone was still ringing like mad.
With an air that said it wouldn't stop until he answered.
Su Yu gritted his teeth and, fumbling, reached into his pocket and pulled out that scalding brick of a phone.
On the screen, Miss Pink Elf's chibi avatar was bouncing around energetically.
His thumb hovered above the green answer button, unable to press down.
Just as he drew a deep breath and prepared to press it—
A hand reached over from the side.
Not only did it swipe to answer for him.
It even casually tapped the speaker icon that meant hands-free.
"Beep—"
The instant the call connected.
"Su Yu? So you were up after all~"
Elysia's voice came through, brimming with vitality and a sweet, cloying lilt.
On the mountaintop, between the two tightly pressed chests, it even echoed off the metal hood of the sports car.
"I really thought that at this hour you'd definitely be tucked obediently in bed asleep already."
Eden lay draped over Su Yu's front.
That breathtakingly beautiful face, lovely enough to make the whole world swoon, was now less than ten centimeters from Su Yu's chin.
She didn't make a single sound.
She even deliberately slowed the rhythm of her breathing.
But the corners of her mouth curved upward to an unprecedented degree.
That smile—Su Yu had never seen it in the daytime.
It was a smile mixed with wicked delight, possessiveness, and some scorching, blistering thing he couldn't name.
Her good best friend's voice echoed right by her ear, utterly defenseless.
And the man her good best friend had always been interested in, yet who was as clueless as a block of wood—that man was now pinned down hard by her against a sports car out in the middle of nowhere, having to watch her expression even to breathe.
This sense of transgression, almost enough to burn through a person's sanity, made her excited.
She felt every single cell in her body trembling wildly from the thrill.
Su Yu's eyes went wide in an instant.
He looked at Eden's face, which all but spelled out "and how are you going to spin this," and felt his scalp go numb.
"Ah... mm, I'm here." He forced his voice steady, struggling to keep his throat from making that dry, scratchy noise born of nerves. "Why aren't you asleep yet?"
From the other end of the line came a faint rustle of fabric, sounding like someone turning over in bed.
"I was about to go to sleep." Elysia's voice carried a tiny note of complaint. "But... that's strange, why do I seem to hear an engine? And wind too? You're not at home?"
Su Yu's back molars clenched instantly.
The low-frequency throb of the idling engine was still transmitting steadily up through the metal panel the two of them were sitting on—there was no way to hide it from any modern person with normal hearing.
He felt the fingers Eden had resting on his waist slowly begin to trace circles.
The edges of her nails grazed the skin beneath that layer of fabric, there and not quite there.
"Oh... that, huh." Su Yu stammered for a moment. "I got a little hungry, so I came out to grab some late-night food. I borrowed a motorcycle from Brother Kalpas for a couple of days—my little electric scooter isn't good for hauling stuff, after all."
He pressed down on his voice, trying to make it sound casual, as if the cold wind blowing in had loosened it.
"Oh, so you borrowed Kalpas's motorcycle." Realization dawned on Elysia. "No wonder the sound was a bit weird. It's the middle of the night, you'd better be careful on the road."
"Mm, got it." Su Yu hurried to follow her lead. "You're calling me this late—is there something urgent?"
A burst of cheerful laughter floated out of the speaker.
"Of course it's urgent!" Elysia's voice suddenly jumped up an octave, even carrying a kind of excitement at having caught someone red-handed. "Confess honestly—what exactly is going on between you and Teacher Himeko?"
The fingers Eden had been roaming over Su Yu's waist paused, ever so slightly.
"What do you mean, what's going on?" Su Yu's heart skipped a beat.
"Don't play dumb with me!" Elysia gave a snort on the other end. "Do you have any idea—this afternoon, when I saw you and Teacher Himeko show up together, I really got such a shock! I always thought you two were just an ordinary landlord-and-tenant relationship. When exactly did you secretly develop into a boyfriend-and-girlfriend thing?"
The night wind seemed to freeze for a moment.
Eden's eyes, which had been narrowed slightly with mischief, now stretched completely into a dangerous arc.
On that perfect face, the composure befitting an elder and the elegance befitting a superstar were, in that instant, burned utterly clean by some primal sense of territory.
That gaze was like a lioness who had just guarded her food, suddenly noticing another stray dog trying to lay claim to the prey she had only just marked.
Su Yu didn't even dare to swallow.
He saw with perfect clarity that the hand Eden had been resting on his waist was slowly moving downward.
And then.
Through the coarse fabric of his suit trousers, two slender fingers precisely pinched a soft bit of flesh at his waist.
She didn't use her full strength.
But that force, laced with warning, jealousy, and an unmistakable "you owe me a reasonable explanation," was sharper than any words.
A shura field.
What the hell kind of shura field was this?!
Miss Pink Elf's rapid-fire barrage over the phone, and the rich beauty's physical threat right up close.
The two enormous pressures were like two walls slowly closing in, about to crush him completely against this sports car's hood.
"Hello? Su Yu? Why aren't you talking? Feeling guilty, are you?" Getting no response, Elysia's voice gained an urging edge.
"No... no." Su Yu, enduring the sting at his waist, steeled himself and spoke. "It's not what you think. That was a misunderstanding."
Bearing the weight of Eden's gaze, he poured out everything that had happened today at breakneck speed.
"Sister Himeko's father insisted on meeting the boyfriend she'd found. She had no choice, so she pulled me in last minute as a stand-in to deal with that stubborn old man. It really was just pretend."
Once Su Yu finished, he cautiously stole a glance at Eden, so close at hand.
The two fingers pinching the soft flesh at his waist—their grip finally, slowly loosened the moment he said the words "just pretend."
But only loosened a little.
Her gaze still carried a streak of jealousy.
Even knowing now that Himeko and Su Yu had only been pretending, the very fact of "another woman holding this man's arm" was enough to make her displeased.
"Oh? A fake boyfriend?"
Elysia let out an exaggerated cry of astonishment on the other end.
"What kind of third-rate classic romance novel opening is that! Su Yu, just admit it—today in the hotel lobby, the way I saw Teacher Himeko looking at you, her gaze practically had threads of longing trailing off it!"
Elysia's voice, full of gossip and that delight in stirring up trouble, rang out especially loud beneath the silent night sky.
"Or how about... you just go ahead and say yes to her? Look, Teacher Himeko is so pretty, her figure's so good, and she can casually book a table at a restaurant that high-end—she's definitely a hidden little rich lady!"
"Didn't Kevin joke before that the biggest dream of your whole life was to be kept by a rich big-sister type, and then just lie flat in comfort every day? This is a once-in-a-millennium opportunity!"
Su Yu felt the world go black before his eyes.
He didn't even dare to look at Eden's expression right now.
The single biggest, most able-to-throw-money, can't-even-blink-an-eye top-tier rich big-sister in this world.
And she was lowering her head, the corners of her mouth carrying that "so how are you going to explain this" smile.
Su Yu opened his mouth, about to say something to bluff his way past the topic.
Eden's movements changed completely.
She stopped pinching the soft flesh at his waist.
Instead, she cupped Su Yu's cheeks with both hands.
Those eyes, somewhat moist from excitement, glittered in the faint light with a spine-chilling fervor.
She didn't speak, only stared fixedly at Su Yu's lips with a suggestive gaze, and then deliberately pushed that full chest forward a little.
Su Yu felt a "boom" go off inside his head.
The last string of his sanity was viciously snapped by a pair of invisible hands.
Eden didn't stop.
She forcibly pulled one of Su Yu's hands up and pressed it directly against the black knit top she'd just soaked through with sweat.
Beneath his palm.
The heart-stopping curve with nothing in between, and that horrifyingly soft sensation, blasted straight through all of Su Yu's defenses like a high-voltage current.
The instant his fingertips touched that spot, the last sliver of sanity left in his mind, like a glass slipping off a tabletop, flipped twice in the air, and then—
Shattered.
A muffled, indistinct sound escaped Su Yu's throat.
"Hello? Su Yu? Why do you keep going silent? Could it be... I struck a nerve?"
Elysia, on the other end, still refused to let it go.
Su Yu's Adam's apple bobbed frantically.
He desperately tried to pull his hand back, but Eden's fingers pressed down hard on the back of his hand, even guiding him to do some more outrageous kneading motions.
"...There's nothing to it." Su Yu's voice was already trembling beyond words. "Ellie... don't... stop joking around..."
Eden's lips drew close to Su Yu's ear.
Warm breath, accompanied by the scent of expensive perfume, poured into his eardrum like poison.
"Keep talking."
Her voice dropped to its absolute lowest, carrying a pleasure of total control.
"If our adorable Ellie spots even a single flaw... if everyone finds out you were doing this sort of thing in a woman's car in the dead of night..."
"From tomorrow on, you—you workaholic producer—might never have a single peaceful day of work again."
"—You know what you're supposed to do, don't you?"
At the same time.
The Golden Courtyard, inside Elysia's room.
Bored out of her mind, Elysia swung her fair little feet, twirling a strand of pink hair around her fingertip.
From the other end of the line came a blur of wind, mixed with a single breathy sound that all but melted into the night.
That sound seemed like it came from a woman, but it was too faint—Elysia just took it for the illusion of mountaintop wind blowing through the trees.
Right after, the receiver carried Su Yu's near-suffocating, ragged breathing.
He seemed to be struggling violently.
Or rather, crumbling under some extremely intense sensory stimulation.
Elysia could even picture his usually rigorous, solemn face now flushed crimson from some unbearable torment.
"Su Yu—are you listening to me?" Elysia arched her brow slightly, her voice carrying a trace of displeasure at being interrupted. "Are you spacing out?"
"Listening... I'm listening."
Su Yu's voice sounded like it was being squeezed out through the gaps in his teeth, broken and intermittent from being suppressed past all endurance.
"What were you... saying again?"
"I'm asking whether you have any feelings for Teacher Himeko or not! If you do, I can help you—"
Just then, a swallowing sound came from the other end.
Like someone sharply sucking in cold air.
Su Yu's breathing abruptly stalled.
Elysia heard a heavy gasp, followed immediately by a muffled sound of something heavy suddenly going taut.
He seemed to be desperately holding something back, which in the end turned into a hoarse, off-key breath.
"Huh? What's wrong with you?" Elysia keenly caught that change in pitch, a touch of worry entering her tone. "Why do you sound like you're in so much pain?"
"No... nothing." Su Yu's voice was terribly weak, accompanied by a faint cold shudder. "The barbe... cue I just bought... this chili... the aftereffect's way too strong... insanely spicy."
It sounded like an absurd excuse.
But in Elysia's logic, it seemed utterly reasonable.
After all, this Su Yu, who normally only buried himself in games and acted like a lazy fish, who stayed as monk-like as ever even in the face of her deliberate advances—there was absolutely no way he'd be having anything unspeakable with any woman out in the wilds at two-thirty in the morning.
With that block-of-wood personality of his, running off to a mountaintop in the dead of night to brave the cold wind and eat insanely spicy barbecue was, on the contrary, the kind of bizarre behavior that fit his dull persona best.
"If you can't handle spicy food then don't order the extra-spicy, what are you trying to prove?"
Elysia rolled a playful eye at the empty air, her tone taking on a slightly elder-like, exasperated scolding.
And what she didn't know was that the Su Yu of this moment was undergoing a baptism in the very depths of his soul—and the one straining to prove anything was not him at all.
Elysia heard the other end fall into a brief deathly silence, with only extremely heavy panting and the occasional sound carrying some subtle, sticky quality.
"Are you chugging ice water because it's so spicy?" Elysia listened to the commotion over there, picturing the comical sight of Su Yu, eyes watering from the heat, frantically searching for water to drink.
Right after, she heard the crisp sound of a metal clasp popping open.
Accompanied by a clearly audible friction of a zipper being pulled down, which stood out especially abruptly in the quiet night.
From Su Yu's side came a barely audible, almost pleading low moan—"Don't..."
"Oh my, you've worked up a whole sweat from the spice, huh?" Elysia tilted her head, speaking in the tone of someone who'd been there. "So hot you're undoing your jacket zipper? It may be hot now, but the mountaintop night wind is cold—don't go taking off all your clothes, careful you don't catch a cold!"
"—So that's why I keep saying, don't always bottle things up by yourself. If there's someone you like, just boldly say it—"
Elysia carried on playing her over-enthusiastic matchmaker role.
But Su Yu had clearly lost the basic ability to respond.
Accompanied by a high-frequency friction of some silky textile against air and against fabric, Elysia heard a strange, taut, elastic squeezing sound.
It was the kind of extremely tough synthetic material—like pantyhose—producing a peculiar resonance amid violent overlapping and rubbing.
"Good heavens, are you stamping your feet in place because it's so spicy?"
Listening to that highly rhythmic friction of fabric, Elysia conjured up a pitiful picture of Su Yu, sitting on a folding chair, scrubbing his legs wildly up and down, unable to sit still from the spice.
That high-frequency friction grew denser and denser.
Even through the electronic components, the heat rising from those violent movements seemed to travel right along the signal.
Every tightening and release of the rhythm was accompanied by Su Yu's muffled groan, suppressed to the extreme.
The point of view returns to Su Yu's side.
"Su—Yu—? Hello? Are you still there?"
Elysia's voice came from somewhere very, very far away.
Su Yu could hear that voice.
But he no longer had any spare brain cells to process it.
"Here... here."
His voice could no longer count as a normal human vocal tone.
It was a breathy sound squeezed out through the gaps in his teeth, almost on the verge of distorting.
"You were saying... go on..."
"Why does your voice sound so weird?" Elysia finally generated a sliver of doubt. "Don't tell me you've caught a cold?"
"Mm... maybe." Su Yu said. "The wind's strong up the mountain... caught a bit of a chill."
"You're up the mountain? Didn't you say you were eating late-night food?"
"A barbecue stall... up the mountain." Su Yu's brain, even at its limit, still strained to maintain the most basic logical capacity. "A famous one... the open-air kind..."
"Oh—so it's open-air, no wonder there's wind."
Elysia accepted this explanation.
"All right then, finish eating and head home to rest soon, okay? There's still stuff at the studio tomorrow."
"Okay."
"Oh right, one last thing—have you seen Eden? She went out today and hasn't come back, I'm a little worried."
Su Yu's body went stiff again.
He lowered his head and looked at Eden.
Eden was looking at him too.
The position where her legs gripped him didn't stop.
Her expression wasn't quite clear under the starlight, but he could see her lips parted slightly, her breathing faster than its normal rate.
She was waiting for his answer.
And at the same time waiting for his reaction.
"Sister Eden... I'm not too sure."
Su Yu's voice was squeezed out from deep in his throat.
"She probably has something work-related... don't worry too much."
"Mm—all right. Then I'll go to sleep first. See you tomorrow~"
Elysia's sweet voice drew the period at the end.
"Mm, see you tomorrow."
The call-ended tone sounded.
The phone screen dimmed.
The instant the call was cut off.
All the feigned composure, all the defensive lines of sanity, collapsed with a roar after this minutes-long tug-of-war at the limit and the double torment.
On the sports car's still-warm metal panel, beneath a sky full of stars.
Su Yu abruptly shut his eyes.
Under Eden's utterly unreasonable leg movements, he completely gave up all resistance.
This long eruption, almost enough to leave one's brain starved of oxygen, lasted a full half a minute.
It was a thorough, unreserved release—both physical and psychological—after being teased to the very limit, after bouncing back and forth between the fear of being discovered and the pleasure of transgression.
Eden lay quietly draped over him.
She felt clearly how the layer of dark gray stockings along her inner thigh was rapidly soaked through by a scalding warmth.
She didn't pull away.
She even adjusted her posture slightly, so that the scalding sensation could press more tightly against her.
She felt the chest of the man beneath her heaving violently from the extreme release.
Watching the fine beads of sweat seeping from his forehead and those eyes shut tight from the limit of stimulation.
Eden lowered her head.
In the sweat-tinged night wind, her red lips gently pressed against Su Yu's still wildly throbbing carotid artery.
"Well done..."
She said softly, in a lazy, breathy voice that only the two of them could hear, as if squeezed out from the depths of her soul.
"Good little brother."
Overhead, the Milky Way slowly turned.
The stars looked down at that supercar on the mountaintop, reeking of scorched tire rubber, and at the two people on its hood.
The stars said nothing at all.
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