Ding-dong.
A loud, ear-piercing sound echoed through the house.
She’s here.
He had been in the middle of reorganizing everything, dissatisfied no matter how thoroughly he cleaned.
Yu Siwoo hastily shoved the cleaning tools and scattered items into a corner before rushing to the front door.
"Hello!"
"Hello. You’re early."
"Am I?"
Arte’s beaming smile made Siwoo tense up.
This was the first time he’d ever let someone of the opposite sex into his home.
If he hadn’t carelessly agreed, Arte never would’ve stepped inside.
"I thought so even when I saw it briefly last time—your place is really nice!"
"You… no, well. Yeah. I guess it’s not bad."
He swallowed the words that almost slipped out.
*You see it all the time anyway. Did you just finish tailing me from outside before coming in?*
What kind of reaction would that get?
No matter how he thought about it, it wouldn’t be a good one.
So Siwoo couldn’t bring himself to admit he’d noticed her surveillance.
It was probably a secret he’d have to take to his grave.
"By the way, your place is pretty clean. Do you have OCD or something?"
"Not really. Just… a bit."
He couldn’t exactly tell her he’d flipped the entire house upside down after hearing she was coming, so he dodged the question.
Fortunately, Arte didn’t seem particularly interested—she was too busy looking around the room.
"Ah, are there any places I shouldn’t go?"
"It’s just my place. Just avoid the closet. There’s nothing else worth hiding."
"…That can’t be right."
"What can’t be?"
The closet had his underwear and the like, but what did she mean by *that can’t be right*?
He had no idea what kind of fantasies an Academy boy living alone was supposed to inspire in her.
It wasn’t like he had a maid like Arte, or was part of some secret organization.
He was just an ordinary student.
"No, it’s just… then what about your computer…?"
"Doesn’t matter."
"Huff… that’s strange…"
He caught Arte muttering under her breath.
His curiosity spiked. What the hell was so strange?
In the end, Siwoo couldn’t hold back and asked,
"Strange? What is?"
"…Ah, it’s nothing. It’s just… you said everything except the closet is fine to look at."
What was the problem with that?
Siwoo decided to wait patiently instead of pressing Arte, who was hesitating with her answer.
After a moment of silence, unable to bear his gaze any longer, Arte finally replied,
"It’s just… shouldn’t there be things you don’t want other people to see?"
"…?"
"Y-You don’t have to answer! Can I use the bathroom for a second?!"
"Uh, yeah. It’s over there."
Watching Arte flee toward the bathroom, Siwoo wondered,
What the hell was the issue?
"…Author-nim. Is Siwoo a eunuch?"
"?!"
What?!
At the absurd question, Siwoo instinctively turned his head toward the bathroom.
So that’s why she’d suddenly asked about the bathroom—she wanted to talk to this “Author-nim” person.
But why the hell was she asking *that*?
…Why was she asking if I’m *that*?
"If Siwoo were normal, he’d definitely have at least one or two things he couldn’t show a female friend."
"…"
Ah.
Only then did Siwoo realize why Arte had asked such a question.
She’d been trying to be considerate.
It was her way of being considerate so I wouldn’t end up in an awkward situation by accidentally seeing something in my own home.
My chest swelled with gratitude at her thoughtfulness—though only for a moment.
Siwoo’s attention was stolen again by Arte’s voice.
"Yes, yes. I’m not… impotent… Right, I have to be."
Why the hell was she even asking that?
What possible reason could there be for an informant to need to know about my sexual function?
The Amelias and Dorothys in my head whispered to me.
She’s asking because she loves you.
She’s worried about whether you’ll be able to have kids after marriage.
Kwaang!
"What was that?!"
"S-sorry! My hand slipped."
"Oh, right."
Maybe it was because I’d been listening to Amelia’s love stories for too long, from too close.
I felt like I was starting to think like her.
That’s insane.
I didn’t know why Arte had come to my house, but she must’ve had a reason.
Even if I didn’t get why she’d suddenly asked about my… functionality, there had to be another motive.
Get out of my head, Amelia!
"Huu… Should I call this lucky or unlucky?"
Arte’s muttering reached my ears.
I didn’t want to hear it, but I couldn’t help it.
Maybe because my house was usually so quiet?
For the first time, the voice of a member of the opposite sex who’d entered my home felt like it was drilling straight into my ears.
Thanks to my heightened senses, I had no choice but to listen to Arte, whether I liked it or not.
"I kind of wanted to find out his preferences."
"?!"
My preferences?!
The Amelia in my head started screaming.
What the hell was going on?
Siwoo was utterly confused.
"Ah, sorry I’m late."
"Uh, n-no. It’s fine."
…Why was he acting like that?
Arte tilted her head at Siwoo’s strange reaction.
Had something happened? There’d been a loud noise earlier.
Leaving the creaking Siwoo behind, she took a step forward and sighed quietly.
Since she was already at the protagonist’s house, she’d thought about secretly checking out the kind of hidden stash any guy would have.
She’d planned to pretend to be considerate, subtly find out where it was, then sneak a peek and report back to the heroines.
But the clueless protagonist had ruined her scheme.
For a second, she’d actually thought he was impotent. She’d been shocked.
What if the protagonist, who was supposed to end up with the heroines, was actually impotent? That would be a disaster.
Thankfully, the author had said he wasn’t, so she had to believe that.
[I’m a little curious too. What kind of preferences does he have?]
Why did the author’s knowledge about the protagonist have so many gaps?
They knew he wasn’t impotent, but not his preferences?
…Well, that aside, there was only one thing she wanted.
For him to have normal tastes.
If he had weird preferences, the heroines would have a hard time accommodating them.
"…Huh? What’s this?"
"Th-that… Did I not clean it up…?"
When she entered Siwoo’s bedroom, something on the floor caught her eye.
It was a black thread, coiled into a circle.
"Oh, it’s soft."
"I-is it?"
"Yes. Hmm, this texture… It feels kind of familiar."
It reminded her of the leotard she was wearing, which made it even stranger.
As she ran her fingertips over the soft surface, she noticed Siwoo breaking out in a cold sweat.
…Ah.
"Sorry."
"Huh? W-what for…?"
"I must have been slow to notice."
I handed the ball of thread to Siwoo.
As he stared at me with a puzzled look in his eyes, I smiled and said,
"I wasn’t trying to tease you."
"Huh?"
So Siwoo had a surprisingly feminine hobby.
String spinning? That was a rare one.
He must have been pretty embarrassed to get caught.
He was sweating bullets, after all.
"I don’t mind, you know."
Whether Yu Siwoo was spinning thread or playing games—
I wouldn’t care either way.
Unless he was messing around with some extra women, of course.
[Hmm… that color looks familiar…]
I could hear the author muttering nonsense.
As if black was some rare color.
I wanted to snap at him, but with the protagonist right in front of me, I ignored it and gave Siwoo a small smile.
This should be fine, right?
I had no intention of judging someone’s hobbies.
Maybe he just really liked spinning thread.
If I left it like this, Siwoo would just keep feeling awkward, so maybe I should change the subject.
"It’s a little early, but should we start getting ready?"
"Huh?"
"Hey, what’s with that reaction? Why do you think I’m here?"
"Th-That…"
Siwoo just hemmed and hawed, not looking like he had any intention of moving.
Ugh, this is frustrating. I felt bad for taking up his time, so I wanted to finish quickly.
"What are you doing? Hurry up and take it off."
"Wha—?!"
"If you don’t, I’ll take it off for you."
"W-WAIT?! A-Arte! Stop! Please!"
"…What do you think this says?"
"I will stand in the sky."
"And what about this sound?"
"…A frog croaking?"
"Then what about this? Try eating it."
"Blegh, w-what the hell is this?!"
"I mixed mint, Tabasco, cheese, and caramel. Can you taste it?"
"I can taste it, and that’s why it’s disgusting!"
"Hmm, interesting… And this smell?"
"Vanilla?"
Siwoo blankly watched Arte as she moved without pause.
When she’d told him to take his clothes off, he’d been shocked—what was she even talking about?
But her reason was completely different from what he’d imagined.
"What exactly is intuition?"
"…Beats me. Isn’t it just intuition?"
"I know it’s the sixth sense, the gut feeling…"
Apparently, the reason Arte had come was for this.
She wanted to know exactly what my ability was.
I’d always thought of it as just intuition, but Arte said that wasn’t it.
She argued that if it were just intuition, it wouldn’t explain why my other senses were so sharp.
So she wanted to test it.
Even the whole "take your clothes off" thing was to test my sense of touch, she claimed.
"…But Arte, did we really need to take our clothes off for this?"
"Did I say to take everything off? Just your top is fine."
"Nngh…"
Out of nowhere, she produced a blindfold, earplugs, some bizarre nose plug, a candy to hold in his mouth, and finally, some strange liquid she smeared all over his back.
She kept swapping out the items, testing something on him.
"Ah! Just stay still for a second!"
"No, it’s just—uh…"
"This area should have numbed touch, so why are you—"
Because it’s my chest! My chest!
She said the sense of touch was numbed, but what about the parts she didn’t cover?!
If I let my guard down just because the covered areas were numb, what about the rest?!
Siwoo bent over as far as he could.