The Fifth Room

Jeong Iheon, who clearly believed they would be exiting through the rift, replied with striking confidence.

Because there was a child outside and I didn’t want him doing something inappropriate, I grabbed his ash-gray hair and yanked hard as I spoke.

“There’s a kid outside.”

“Then they can just turn around.”

“Staying in here any longer isn’t good for you.”

“For me?”

“Why?”

“Because do you know what I might do?”

“You want to stay trapped with me until I calm down?”

Jeong Iheon’s eyes curved playfully, but there was sincerity in his words.

From my perspective, knowing that even if we opened the door we wouldn’t exit the rift but only move to the next room, it was a warning I couldn’t ignore.

He didn’t hesitate and turned the doorknob.

The sound of the door opening reached my ears, followed by a short, sigh-like breath from Jeong Iheon.

“Ah.”

After checking beyond the open door, he spoke in a low voice, almost like a resigned sigh.

“There’s another room.”

“…Yeah.”

“What?”
“You knew there’d be another room?”

Jeong Iheon frowned and looked down at me, reading my reaction.

Honestly, he was uncanny.

I shook my head without saying a word, unwilling to open my mouth in front of a man who saw through lies so easily.

“You look like you knew.”

“I didn’t.”

“Sure.”

He didn’t drag it out and stepped into the next room.

It was closer to gray than white, noticeably darker than the previous room.

It was easier on the eyes, but the surroundings had grown dimmer.

If the brightness kept dropping like this, I had a feeling the final room might be pitch black.

As soon as we stepped in, the door shut behind us.

Unlike before, the closed door didn’t disappear.

Instead, another door stood directly opposite it.

We had entered a room with two doors.

Jeong Iheon and I checked their positions, then scanned the surroundings.

This time, text was written on the right wall.

It was the same prompt as before.

We fell into silence.

A heavy, sunken silence that reflected how neither of us fully trusted the other.

This time, I spoke first.

“Question.”

“You go first, Jeong Iheon.”

If it’s not an easy one, you’re dead.

I smiled, completely at odds with my thoughts.

“Ha ha, Doya.”

“That’s enough.”

“You’re one to talk.”

By the time we reached the final room, we were both furious, barely restraining ourselves from grabbing each other by the collar.

We had taken turns asking only the questions the other most wanted to hide.

After arriving in the fifth and final room, Iheon had asked first.

Now it was my turn.

Knowing this was the last room, I had nothing to lose.

Iheon, still believing there might be another room ahead, ground his teeth as he smiled.

“What are you going to do in the next room?”

He pressed the words out gently, almost crushing them.

I could see him smiling through clenched teeth.

Every now and then, I even heard the grinding sound.

And yet, the most miserable part was that I still couldn’t move my legs properly, forcing us to stand pressed together.

My final question.

It was about that dreamlike night.

“What am I to you?”

“Why did you say that to me that night?”

“Answer me.”

Why did you tell me, with that painfully desperate expression, that I shouldn’t do that to you?

We’d known each other for barely a week.

We had only been testing the waters, never sharing anything deep.

There was no ‘Jeong Iheon’ in my memories.

He acted as if meeting me for the first time, yet said those things.

‘Then why did I make Jeong Iheon cry?’

That was my biggest concern.

The question I wanted answered most.

Even after four rooms filled with high-level challenge objectives, from kissing to touching, this was still the question I wanted answered, no matter what this room demanded.

Jeong Iheon, his face stripped of all humor, stared straight into my eyes.

Without moving a muscle, he met my gaze and spoke coldly.

“Dare.”

Yeah.

Expecting anything else was stupid.

There was no way he’d answer.

We glared at each other, waiting for the challenge objective to generate.

Since it was the final room, I braced myself.

The system’s goal was simple.

To force deep interaction between me and the target.

Not mentally.

Physically.

Judging by what it demanded, it didn’t care about emotions in the slightest.

I wondered if all dating simulation games were this depraved, but there was no way to know.

I decided that if the world ever stabilized enough to enjoy civilization again, the first thing I’d do was play a dating sim.

[Challenge Objective Generated.]

[Sexual contact culminating in climax for both participants.]

[Sexual contact refers to genital union.]

“Ha.”

A hollow, incredulous breath escaped Jeong Iheon.

He exhaled sharply and muttered coldly.

“What the hell is this rift that it only makes us do crap like this?”

Sorry about that. That’s my system’s fault.

“You can just answer.”

Ignoring the obscene challenge my system had created, I spoke to him.

It wasn’t complicated.

“If I answer, you’ll die.”

“…Are you insane?”

“I’m just listening to an answer, why would I die?”

Jeong Iheon spoke in a flat voice, devoid of emotion.

He lifted one corner of his lips into a crooked smile, sighed again, and continued.

“You say that so easily because you don’t know anything.”

His way of speaking made no sense.

If he answered, I’d die. If he didn’t, I knew nothing.

What was he even trying to do?

It seemed he had no intention of telling me anything, no matter what.

With an empty expression, he adjusted his grip on me and said casually,

“Standing, or lying down?”

“With these legs?”

“How am I supposed to stand?”

“I can hold you.”

“If you lie down, you might get hurt.”

I snapped at him for trying to complete the objective without answering, but when Jeong Iheon looked down at the bare floor, his expression cooled, and his voice held a strange note of concern.

For someone who claimed I’d die, he was oddly gentle.

He looked at my arm fixed in a brace and my leg wrapped so thickly in bandages it barely moved.

“Just stay still.”

“Don’t get hurt more than you already are.”

…I couldn’t understand his thinking at all.

If he’d just been cold, I could’ve dismissed it as hatred.

But the way he acted toward me said otherwise.

‘It’s more like he likes me.’

The memory of his heart pounding wildly when we kissed surfaced naturally.

He clearly felt sexual attraction toward me.

That sound had been far too intense to dismiss as simple physical response.

While I was lost in thought, Jeong Iheon walked toward one wall.

When he reached it, he lowered me so I could stand and bent his tall body forward.

“What are you doing…?”

I raised my eyebrows sharply, and without meeting my eyes, he answered evenly.

“Take your clothes off.”

Despite his calm tone, his heart was once again racing like it might burst.

Judging by his face and voice alone, no one would’ve guessed he was shaken.

But I knew. And he knew that I knew.

His expression now was different from the impassive one he’d worn moments ago.

The face angled downward was filled with shame and self-loathing.

Because my leg was heavily bandaged, I was wearing shorts.

Looking down at Jeong Iheon’s dark expression, I carefully lifted my injured leg.

Balancing on one leg was hard, so I placed a hand on his shoulder and pulled my shorts down without hesitation.

Jeong Iheon squeezed his eyes shut.

His heart was pounding so violently I wondered if it would explode.

Aside from his heart, only the faint redness at his ears betrayed his emotions.

‘Why does Jeong Iheon like me?’

‘Why?’

I wanted answers I couldn’t get from him.

But there was no trace of him in my memories.

Nor anyone remotely like him.

I would never forget a man with prosthetic arms.

“I can’t get this side off.”

“Take it off for me.”

I could undress the injured leg easily.

The problem was the uninjured one.

I couldn’t put weight on the injured leg, so removing the underwear and pants caught around my calf was impossible while standing.

At my request, Jeong Iheon slowly opened his eyes.

Facing my exposed thigh, he let out a low breath.

The warmth of it brushed my skin, sending goosebumps racing up.

Without saying a word, he lifted my injured leg and rested it on his shoulder.

Half my weight leaned into him.

He lowered his gaze and pulled down the underwear and pants caught at my calf.

To free them from my ankle, he lifted my leg with one hand.

My leg rose slightly into the air, and my weight pressed down on the thigh resting on his shoulder.

“Isn’t it heavy?”

“Not really.”

I asked without thinking, fascinated by how he supported my weight on one shoulder alone, forgetting my anger.

Jeong Iheon replied flatly and fully removed the clothes, tossing them aside.

He released his grip on my calf.

My foot touched the floor again.

At the same moment, his face pressed into the inside of my thigh.