Chapter 77 — Everyone Has Seen It
Penny's expression changed instantly. She coughed awkwardly and covered her mouth.
"Uh… something unexpected happened last night."
Leonard immediately sat up straight.
"What kind of accident? Are you hurt? Do we need to call an ambulance? Or is it something that happened with… Ethan?"
Penny looked away.
"It's nothing, really. Just… one of those common accidents. Seriously, it's no big deal."
Sheldon walked back into the living room, his gaze shifting between Ethan and Penny.
"Although I neither know nor wish to know the exact nature of this 'accident,' based on the current state of disorder and the severe disruption to my morning routine…"
"I propose the following arrangement."
He spoke as if announcing a scientific protocol.
"Ethan and Penny, who both still require sleep, should return to Ethan's room to complete their sleep cycle."
"Leonard, you may remain in the kitchen or other common areas, but you must remain quiet."
"And I shall reclaim my seat and proceed with my morning routine."
Leonard protested immediately.
"Wait—why is that the arrangement?"
Sheldon replied matter-of-factly.
"Since Penny has already made her choice, we should respect that decision and organize accordingly in order to maximize overall satisfaction."
Leonard blinked.
"…What???"
Penny groaned.
"Sheldon! Don't say it like that—"
Sheldon raised a hand, cutting her off.
"I have no need to know the details of the process. My only responsibility is restoring order."
He pointed down the hallway.
"You two go back. I need to remake my cereal."
With that, he carried his half-bowl of sticky cereal back to the kitchen.
Penny sighed.
"I feel like we just got forcibly assigned."
Ethan shrugged helplessly.
"Welcome to my daily life. You get used to it."
The two of them returned to Ethan's room one after the other.
Ethan hung up his coat and casually changed into a clean T-shirt.
When he glanced at Penny leaning against the doorway, he suddenly remembered the dangerous, alluring boss from his dream. He instinctively looked away.
Penny crossed her arms, watching him with interest.
Then she suddenly smiled.
"Ethan… come to think of it, didn't you touch my chest last night?"
Ethan's hand slipped and he nearly misbuttoned his shirt.
"Please. That was a necessary medical examination! The only unprofessional thing was that I didn't wear gloves!"
"You're making it sound like I was taking advantage of you!"
Penny narrowed her eyes.
"Oh really? Because your reaction right now looks more like… you're reliving the moment."
Ethan decided silence was the safest strategy.
Penny continued.
"And don't forget, the first time we met, you 'accidentally' saw me without clothes, right?"
"The more I think about it, the more suspicious it seems. You clearly knew it was me in the bathroom, but you pretended you thought it was Raj. Otherwise, why would you even pull the shower curtain?"
Ethan sighed.
"Some historical truths are better left to the wind."
"Besides… I wasn't the only one who saw that."
Penny looked confused.
"What do you mean? The curtain was already closed when the others came in."
Ethan realized he had said too much—but it was too late to take it back.
"What I mean is… the day we met you, Howard found a low-budget horror movie you acted in online. Serial Ape-ist."
"There's a scene in it where… well… you're not wearing a top."
Penny froze completely.
Her face turned bright red in an instant.
"Wh—WHAT?!"
"Yes," Ethan said carefully. "More precisely, Howard found it less than ten minutes after you left our apartment… and then he sent the link to everyone."
The next second, Penny buried her face into the bed, clutching her head with both hands.
Her voice came muffled from inside the blanket.
"Oh my God! Stop talking!!!"
Ethan sank back into the chair, watching Penny squirm in embarrassment as if she wished the floor would open up and swallow her. He tried to comfort her.
"Look on the bright side—you acted… quite expressively. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. Well, everyone except Sheldon."
From beneath the blanket came a muffled but furious roar:
"Shut up, Ethan!!!"
Penny buried her entire face into the covers, her voice dull and muffled.
"Oh my God, this is so humiliating… I'm staying under this blanket all day. Nobody talk to me…"
Ethan watched Penny curl up like a turtle hiding in its shell and couldn't help smiling. She looked like a child playing hide-and-seek—except she had only hidden her head and completely forgotten about the rest of her body.
He stood at the foot of the bed and, for a moment, drifted into a brief distraction.
Penny clearly hadn't realized how she looked right now—her head buried under the blanket while the rest of her body, from the shoulders down, was completely exposed.
Her rose-colored fitted pajamas clung closely to her figure, leaving the lines of her waist and curves impossible to ignore.
Ethan stared for two seconds—then quickly looked away.
If he kept staring, this situation might become dangerous.
"I'm going for a run," he said, grabbing his workout clothes and underwear. "You can… keep fighting with my blanket."
He walked into the bathroom.
Soon Ethan had changed into an old set of running clothes and running shoes he hadn't worn in a long time, stretching lightly to warm up.
The fabric carried a faint closet smell from sitting unused, but once he put it on, it was like his body remembered something.
He returned to the bedroom to grab his phone and headphones.
Penny had already freed herself from the blanket and was now sitting cross-legged on the bed, scrolling through her phone. Her cheeks were still slightly red with lingering embarrassment.
"What are you doing?" Ethan asked.
"Trying to find that stupid video and erase it from the internet," Penny said without looking up. "But I can't even find it… Serial Ape-ist is definitely the title, right?"
She groaned.
"What kind of name even is that? I must've had water in my brain when I agreed to that role."
Penny dropped her phone and slumped dramatically.
"You know what the worst part is?"
"That movie only took three days to shoot. Most of the time I was just running around screaming. That 'important scene' was added last minute by the director—he said it was necessary for 'artistic integrity.'"
She held up a hand.
"And I got paid five hundred dollars. Five hundred! Now it's apparently my most famous work among you nerdy science guys."
Ethan tried to reassure her.
"Look at the positive side—at least it made an impression. Everyone likes you now."
"Stop talking!" Penny groaned again, grabbing a pillow and burying her face in it. "I need alcohol."
"Drinking this early is probably not a good idea."
Penny lifted her head to reply, but then noticed Ethan's outfit and blinked in surprise.
"Wait… you're actually going for a morning run?"
"Yeah."
Ethan scratched his head.
"I've been eating a little too many cupcakes lately."
"I did the math. One is about two hundred calories. Yesterday I ate five."
He grimaced slightly.
"That means I need to run about twelve kilometers to burn it off."
Penny's eyes scanned him like a body scanner, pausing near his stomach.
"Don't tell me you already have a belly."
Ethan coughed lightly.
"I just want to stay healthy."
There was another reason too.
Yesterday, when he and John had been smashing the basement floor together, Ethan had to stop and rest every so often. John, meanwhile, had swung the hammer nonstop from start to finish.
Sure, comparing stamina with a professional assassin wasn't exactly fair—but Ethan was younger than John Wick.
It was still a little embarrassing.
Penny nodded thoughtfully.
"Alright, go ahead. I usually run too, but not today—my chest still feels a little sore after you sat on it yesterday."
Huh? That shouldn't be possible. It should've healed already.
Still, Ethan simply said:
"Alright. Next time we'll run together."
"Deal. Running with someone helps with motivation," Penny said. "I usually do eight kilometers. Pace around five-thirty."
Ethan answered automatically.
"I run five minutes per kilometer."
Penny rolled her eyes.
"Guys being too fast really isn't a good thing."
Ethan: "..."