Chapter 156

Oura and Yura had not seen each other in a while and wanted to spend a hot day together. Yura expressed her disappointment upon hearing my thoughts, but their relationship was not solely for physical reasons, and Yura understood that I still had many thoughts on the matter, so she did not rush me.

Despite this, Yura seemed to need time to think about it, and we couldn’t come to a quick conclusion. We spent a lot of time thinking while we were together. I told Yura that I planned to meet Hayang the next day.

Every time I went home after organizing my day, I felt less mentally sensitive than before. While I was relieved, I also realized that if I let my guard down, the current peace could be shattered quickly.

“Tomorrow I’ll meet Hayang, and the day after, I’ll meet SuA.”

I only made plans to meet them, unsure what would happen when we met.

On Saturday, I’d meet SuA, then rest for a day on Sunday, and start meeting people one by one during the week.

Thinking about this repeatedly from an Earth perspective, I began to feel like I was making a huge mistake, but there was no way to stop.

First, I needed to keep meeting these women and continuously pay attention to their moods and atmosphere. This was the path I chose, so I had to bear with it.

It was time to start planning for the following week. As I turned my head, I noticed the scenery in the room.

“I should start preparing to move out soon.”

Due to team leaders’ orders, I needed to move and find a new place to live. Since I met my girlfriends every day, I had to carve out time to look for a new place.

Originally, I planned to live in a new headquarters for a while before slowly looking for a house. However, meeting my girlfriends made me realize how urgent the situation was. Although I intended to hurry up, it seemed I could proceed as originally planned.

Thinking about the house reminded me of SuA inviting me to her place. It wasn’t a bad proposal at all and would even be a good offer if accepted.

SuA’s house was a large penthouse three times the size of a regular house with many rooms. Being in a relationship with SuA, who dislikes going out, living together would surely be an excellent environment.

However, several issues arose. First, there was the issue with the other girlfriends. Just recently, I promised to equally distribute the time I could spend with each. If I moved into SuA’s house, this balance would inevitably be disrupted.

This would lead to dissatisfaction, and trying to satisfy one complaint would create another. Even though I had thought about this before, it was best to take precautions to avoid predictable negative situations.

Secondly, I am Spacystro. The situation was already known to the girlfriends, so there was nothing to hide, but only Luche knew about my current situation within Spacystro.

There was a possibility that my living situation would be reported to Spacystro during the process of moving and settling in. Even if such a situation didn’t arise, the current situation might be discovered by Spacystro.

The discovery itself isn’t the problem. If Spacystro’s superiors knew about my relationships with HunterKiller members and took no action, it wouldn’t be an issue.

But the probability of this happening is very low. There would certainly be specific orders from Spacystro’s superiors, which could result in my girlfriends being harmed.

Although as a Spacystro soldier, I contribute to Spacystro’s interests, I have always wished for my girlfriends to be happy. I cannot let this go to waste.

For now, I decided to put off moving into SuA’s house and headed to Hayang’s place with a light heart.

When I rang the doorbell, Hayang’s voice came from inside. After entering with the door code, I saw Hayang standing at the door wearing an apron.

“Did you come?”

“Yeah, I did.”

Seeing Hayang warmly greet me with a smile, I wanted to bury my face in her chest as a greeting.

Often, feeling comfortable in Hayang’s embrace, I felt at ease. Even though she was the smallest member of HunterKiller, she always embraced me.

However, since I didn’t know Hayang’s mood and it was our first time alone since everyone met, acting like usual seemed a bit awkward.

Just as I was hesitating, Hayang opened her arms wide.

“Why are you hesitating?”

Seeing Hayang smiling and indicating that I could hug her, I realized she knew I was hesitating.

Unable to hide it any longer, I lowered myself instinctively and hugged her.

As soon as I buried my face in her chest, Hayang stroked my hair, looked down at me in her arms, and smiled.

“You were hesitating, weren’t you?”

“Yeah, I was.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t know what to do.”

Hayang continued stroking my hair, grabbed my cheek with her hand, and tilted my head up to kiss my forehead. The warmth I felt after a long time relaxed me immediately, and all the tension melted away.

“Just act normally. Are you hungry? You haven’t eaten yet, right?”

“Yeah, I didn’t eat because I thought I’d do something once I got here.”

Since it was around noon, I knew I would definitely eat at Hayang’s place. Although it felt strange to mention food in this situation, I was confident it wouldn’t happen again.

“Sit and wait. I’ll make it quickly.”

I sat quietly and waited as Hayang prepared the meal. I glanced at her from time to time as she hummed in the kitchen, and every time our eyes met, she smiled and continued cooking.

After a while, we sat down together to enjoy the meal Hayang had prepared.

Hayang’s cooking, which I hadn’t tasted in a long time, was still delicious. Since I hadn’t eaten breakfast, the food went down smoothly, and I felt satisfied.

“Thanks for the meal. You must have been really hungry. You ate a lot.”

“Yeah, I was very hungry, and it was great to eat after a while.”

“That’s good to hear.”

We sat across from each other at the tidy table, each with a glass of drink, enjoying the post-meal relaxation.

“Hey, can I ask you something?”

Carefully, I started the conversation, and Hayang looked at me with wide eyes and nodded, saying, “Sure, go ahead.”

Without any awkwardness or unnecessary hesitation, I asked my question.

“At first, I agreed when you said we should all meet.”

“Yeah, you did.”

Hayang seemed to understand what I was about to say, but her expression remained unchanged.

“But then you said you needed more time to think… How do you feel now?”

“Hmm…”

Hayang hesitated, either because she couldn’t think of what to say or because she already knew the answer but didn’t know how to phrase it.

Closing her eyes in deep thought, she seemed tense, and I could almost see sweat on her forehead. When she opened her eyes slightly and looked at me, she burst into a laugh.

“Why are you so tense?”

“It seems like you’re thinking hard.”

“Of course, you’re dating multiple members and discussing it. Naturally, you’d be worried.”

That’s true. Even if polygamy is common in space, there’s no such thing as polygamy without visible signs of worry.

At the time, I thought these situations were unrelated to me and dismissed them lightly, but facing this situation now, every moment felt tense.

“Still, I’m glad just knowing you’re here. Don’t get too tense. I won’t say anything you don’t want to hear.”

“Yeah…”

Even though Hayang tried to reassure me, I still felt tense, and I realized this tension would be hard to shake off.

“To be honest…”

Finally, the answer came, and I listened carefully to each word from Hayang’s mouth.

Hayang had initially agreed but then changed her mind, wanting to think more. Seeing her usually kind and friendly demeanor, I found it hard to predict how she would react if angry.

“I agree.”

“Then why?”

Why did she want to think more despite agreeing? Hayang continued without hesitation.

“Honestly, I thought about it a bit. I still like you, and the only thing I feel when I meet you is happiness, not any other emotion.”

Hayang smiled faintly as she recalled that day.

“The past month was tough. Even though we didn’t see each other every day, I always thought you were by my side and that we would definitely meet. But suddenly, you disappeared, and I felt nothing.”

Seeing her trembling hands, it was clear she had gone through a difficult month. However, I couldn’t fully grasp the extent of her suffering. Despite her kind and gentle nature, enduring tough times isn’t easy.

“So, rather than losing you, I thought it would be better to meet everyone for a longer time. But…”

Her gaze dropped slightly, and I saw my reflection in her eyes. Her direct stare made me shrink involuntarily.

“Pink’s opinion bothers me.”

“Huh?”

Yes, Hayang didn’t hesitate because she disliked the polygamous situation. What bothered her was that Yura was the first to accept polygamy.

I assumed Yura’s early acceptance was to gain an advantage, and Yura indeed admitted to doing so for that reason.

The problem was that not only I but also Hayang and possibly others noticed this.

“If I had agreed to polygamy at that moment, I would have followed Pink’s opinion. Even though Pink likes you a lot, I love you regardless of Pink’s opinion.”

“So that’s why you hesitated.”

I had expected Yura’s early statement to carry some weight, but I didn’t realize Hayang had picked up on this and withdrawn her initial agreement.

Thinking back, I remembered seeing members exchange glances several times when we were all together.

If those exchanges were as significant as I imagined, the overall atmosphere must be much heavier than I thought.

While our meetings were important, I hoped there wouldn’t be conflicts among the members. However, they aren’t puppets controlled by my actions. My actions led to emotional changes in them, and while I could prevent conflicts, I couldn’t control their emotions.

In any case, I now understood Hayang’s thoughts. Avoiding giving priority to Yura’s early statement would solve the issue.

Initially, there was no hierarchy among them, but the involved parties perceived it differently.

“Hey, who are you meeting tomorrow?”

As I nodded in agreement with Hayang’s words, she asked who I would meet tomorrow.

Considering we had talked about who I met yesterday and what we did during dinner, I assumed she already knew I would meet SuA.

“I’m meeting SuA.”

“Ah, you’re meeting Yellow.”

Something felt off. Perhaps it was unnatural?

This was a different atmosphere from what I had seen before with Hayang, and I couldn’t guess her state.

“Who did you meet yesterday?”

“Yesterday… Yura.”

“Pink met you too.”

Even though we all met the previous day, I had momentarily forgotten about it because it wasn’t something I could resolve then. I wondered if Hayang felt the same.

Out of curiosity, I cautiously observed her and asked.

“…Does it bother you when I call other members by name?”

“…Not really.”

Hayang avoided eye contact and answered. Although this was the first time I saw her like this, her current behavior confirmed it.

The feeling of unease was justified.

Specifically, calling other members by name in a familiar manner upset her.

It was amusing that she got upset over calling other members by name while being okay with meeting multiple people, but her reaction surprised me, and I couldn’t help but laugh.