Chapter 36 …
Calisten felt as though he had committed a grave mistake. As Aselia approached, his heart pounded heavily in his chest. It felt as if he had been deliberately peeking in secret and had gotten caught. But he had only woken up there—and when he opened his eyes, she had been changing clothes.
Even so, he could have closed his eyes.
The moment he saw her reaching into the wardrobe, he squeezed his eyes shut.
“Ah.”
When the door opened, Aselia was staring at him in shock.
“Y-You weren’t asleep, were you?”
Calisten obediently opened his eyes. He didn’t know what to say. When he woke up, she had been changing. Because of the bed, he hadn’t seen everything—but should he admit that he had seen at least some of it?
“I’m sorry.”
An apology came first. Aselia’s face flushed even deeper, her eyes widening.
“D-Did you see everything?”
“…No.”
He hadn’t seen everything, so he said no. But Aselia, seeing his reddened ears, burning cheeks, and the way he avoided her gaze in flustered confusion, became certain.
“You saw it all.”
“…I’m sorry.”
It was the first time Calisten had seen Aselia in her true female form while fully conscious. She felt completely unfamiliar—and yet not. She felt like Aselia, yet also like someone he had only glimpsed once. Her voice matched what he had imagined, though it shouldn’t have felt familiar at all—yet somehow it did.
“Why were you in there?”
Flustered, Aselia tried to change the subject. She had no idea how much he had seen. A cold sweat ran down her spine. What if he had realized her true identity?
“I woke up and I was there.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. It seems like if I’m in there, the drug gets neutralized.”
At his words, Aselia finally understood why she had put him in there before—to wake him up when he was drugged. But why inside something that looked like a wardrobe?
“I’m sorry.”
“….”
She didn’t know what to say, but she could tell he was sincere. He looked genuinely apologetic, his face burning red.
At the same time, Calisten felt like dying. Her face was just as red, and she looked so flustered because of him.
“Are you the researcher in charge of Z-898?”
“Huh?”
For a moment, Aselia wondered if he hadn’t seen her transform. She stared at him. He hurriedly avoided her gaze, covering the back of his neck with his hand before lowering it again.
“I’m not a researcher.”
“Right, you said that. Then what do you do here?”
“I’m just… Alex’s toy.”
“What?”
Calisten stared at her in shock. But Aselia didn’t understand what was wrong with what she had said. Alexis always called her a toy and treated her like his possession. When he got angry about her being injured, she had thought it was simply like an owner upset that his cherished object had been damaged.
“What do you mean by that?”
“I just said it. Do I need to repeat it?”
“…No.”
He was taken aback by her calm retort. Hearing her say something like that so casually felt wrong—yet in this laboratory, perhaps it wasn’t strange at all.
“Why would you do something like that?”
“It’s not like I want to…”
“Then?”
“I’m A-class….”
Seeing that she was a woman and A-class, he thought there might be another facility somewhere that gathered only women. Even so, calling someone a toy…
But here, there were many A-class subjects who didn’t even get to be toys—they were simply discarded. Many were used in training for higher ranks and died.
“Is this room Z-898’s room?”
“Yes.”
Calisten remembered coming here before and answered. He didn’t know what he could do about her troubled expression, yet strangely he wanted to ease it.
“Hey, Z-999.”
“Yeah.”
It bothered him that she never called him by name. Because she felt so much like Aselia, being addressed only by a number felt like she was deliberately keeping her distance—and it stung.
“You really didn’t see everything?”
She asked again to make sure. He sighed.
“I didn’t see everything. I just woke up… and when I opened my eyes, you were changing. I’m sorry.”
She almost felt disappointed at how readily he apologized and stepped back. He was much gentler like this than when she met him as A-702.
It made her feel strangely as if she had lost to herself.
“Hey, Z-999.”
“Yeah.”
“You saw me changing, right?”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Then shouldn’t I get to see too?”
The words slipped out before she fully understood what she was saying. She resented him for making her feel this way, and at the same time hated the endless sinking ache inside her.
She thought if she said something like that, he would grow cold toward her. And then perhaps he would treat her better when she met him as A-702.
But his answer was unexpected.
“Then I’ll show you too?”
“Huh?”
“You want me to show you, right?”
He seemed fiercer again, though it was probably just embarrassment.
“N-No, I just said that….”
“Fine.”
He answered shortly and pulled off his top. When he removed the ash- and blood-stained pale blue lab coat, his well-built upper body was revealed.
“W-Wait a second….”
Instead of stopping, he met her gaze sharply. Aselia stiffened at the sight of his crimson eyes. Her gaze kept drifting downward. It looked different from what she had glimpsed over his clothes. She had seen everything before when they bathed together—so why did she grow tense every time she looked?
When she had become a man, she had looked at her own body too. Though unfamiliar, it had never felt strange. But Calisten was so big that whenever her eyes traced him, her face grew unbearably hot and her stomach fluttered.
“Look carefully.”
“B-But….”
“You said you wanted to.”
He moved to remove the rest. Aselia grabbed his hand to stop him, but when he tightened his grip around hers, she startled at the pressure and let go. Seeing her reaction, he frowned and glared at her.
“No, I….”
Aselia lowered her head. His abdomen came into view. With every breath, his perfectly sculpted muscles rose and fell—beautiful, almost like a work of art. Deep lines cast dark shadows, divided so precisely it looked as if water would flow smoothly along them.
Her eyes lifted to his chest. His pectorals looked as solid as carved stone. She had fallen asleep in his arms more than once; she knew how firm his chest was. Blood rushed to her head as she remembered how often her lips had brushed against him—hard, yet soft when touched.
And the blissful expression he had worn under the influence of the drug whenever she touched him.
“Z-999….”
Though he knew she didn’t know his name, he felt irritated that she kept calling him by number. He stripped off his pants as well. They dropped to the floor with a snap.
He left his clothes where they fell and looked at her. She covered her eyes with her small hands like a startled rabbit. The sight strangely reassured him, yet also made his chest itch.
“C-Could you put your clothes back on?”
“You said you’d look.”
“No, I….”
Seeing her crouch in embarrassment made him feel strangely ashamed himself. Yet noticing her flushed ears, her reddened face peeking through her fingers, her damp voice and trembling breath, the situation stirred something heated inside him.
“I’ll put them back on once you look.”
“Why did I even say that….”
She regretted her stubborn words. She tried to lower her hands from her face, eyes still shut tight—but she didn’t have the courage.
“It’s pretty cold in here.”
His comment filled her with a flicker of guilt. He had undressed because of her. If he caught a cold, she would feel awful.
“Am I really opening my eyes? Is that okay?”
“…Yeah.”
He answered calmly.
Aselia let out a small sigh, then slowly raised her head, fists clenched and hands trembling. She thought the pounding she heard was only her own heartbeat.
And then—
“What’s going on here?”
Alexis had returned.
