Top Dog was right. There was no doubt that the hospital was involved in Target’s disappearance.

Entering the main hall, Top Dog, who was half-lying on the couch in his reserved seat, gave Won a look that said ‘Am I right?’ Won’s eyebrows slightly furrowed, not wanting to lose her momentum.

“Pretty girl, do you want to go out with your oppa?”

Every patient in the main hall stopped moving when they heard Top Dog’s loud voice.

‘Is this asshole really…’

Won clenched her teeth, feeling all eyes on her.

She knew all along that the bastard in front of her was no good. He may look like a simple, ignorant bastard, but he is surprisingly clever and has animalistic senses. She didn’t expect him to ask her out in front of everyone; she just thought he would be a nuisance at most.

‘Is this just to make sure the whole hospital knows?’

He’d rather go straight for the jugular than take a circuitous route. If being brash was his thing, he’s the best at it. His idea wasn’t a bad one, either, unless he considered the position of Won, who was receiving the public confession.

The agent in Won was convinced that Top Dog’s course of action was reasonable, but the human in her rejected it.

‘I hate this.’

The patients in the room were full of interest. Won felt like an idle spectator, but she was on a mission. She responded, trying to hide her arrogance.

“Why do you want to go out with me?”

Until yesterday, she had been pretending to like Target and chasing him. If she said ‘yes’ right away, the personnel watching the CCTVs would become suspicious. Won wanted Top Dog to ‘flatter’ her to the point where anyone listening would understand why she would be swayed.

‘Use your head.’

Won shot him a glare with that mean. She trusted he understood it because he is a smart man.

The corners of Top Dog’s mouth lifted as he stared back at her. Won thought he understood her and came over in relief.

“Because I get hard for you.”

The sound of his answer silenced the entire main hall. Not even the sound of breathing could be heard.

Won wanted to murder Top Dog.

Did he really think that after hearing such a shitty reason any girl would agree to go out with him? What girl would? Now she was the one who was put in a predicament.

Her hands trembled with the urge to smash his head in and beat the shit out of him. He needs to learn that talking like that will get his skull cracked, but if Won did as she wanted, she would only have a 50% success rate for her mission. Won knew how to separate business from pleasure.

After swallowing hard to prevent her rising anger from bubbling out, she had to figure out how to keep this plan from going awry. Won finally spoke up after a few moments of deliberation.

“Give me a more convincing reason and I’ll think about it.”

There wasn’t a person in the world who would agree to go out with someone who said that, but she couldn’t say no when they already agreed to pretend to be together. The best she could do to salvage this situation was to give him more leeway to fix it.

“Do you really need another reason for me to go out with you? It isn’t a proposal.”

Top Dog acted as if he didn’t understand. It was an insensitive comment, but Won wasn’t offended. She wasn’t interested in what he thought because she wasn’t really dating him. She just needed a reason for others to think it was a deserving relationship.

She didn’t say anything and just stared at him. As if a change of heart had come over him, Top Dog’s eyes narrowed and he suddenly raised his arms in a gesture of surrender.

“Okay, okay. I’ll come back when I’ve got a good confession.”

Whenever that may be, Won hoped it would be as late as possible. It was preferable to be after she rescued Target so they wouldn’t need to pretend to be together, even for a day.

He would be all over her no matter what, but if they were “officially” together, Won would be forced to play along.

“Hey, sweetheart, do you want to play tag with your oppa?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Try and catch me!”

Just thinking about it made Won feel sick to her stomach. Even if they actually enter the stage of pretending to be dating, the chances of her making such a whiny-flirting sound have converged on zero. On a mission, however, she always had to assume the worst. That way, if it doesn’t happen, she is relatively in heaven.

“Oppa, I’m in trouble! It’s a snake. I’m scared!”

“How dare that snake scare my pretty girl? I’ll have to teach it a lesson.”

Won stopped her simulation as she felt she prepared herself well enough. There is nothing worse than what she imagined, but she’ll be able to overcome whatever trials stand in her way.

As she drank her water, resolving herself, she felt a gaze on her. She turned to see Black Cat staring in confusion, a hundred exclamation marks and question marks floating above his head.

It was understandable. He thought they were going to meet up and talk last night, but Won never showed up. When he woke up, Target suddenly disappeared. Top Dog was trying to get Won to date him and Won wasn’t pushing him away; he has no idea what was going on.

The problem was there is no way to explain to Black Cat what is going on until the CCTVs go out again. It is frustrating, but he will need to suck it up. Black Cat knows this as he already has a grim face.

‘There’s no way I can tell him.’

Won wanted to keep Black Cat as informed as possible because he was another candidate for collaboration, but it wasn’t possible now.

Back in her room, Won was thinking alone about the problem when there was a knock on the door.

“Unnie, can I come in for a minute?”

It was Ju-hee.

“Yeah, sure.”

The door slid aside as if she was afraid to ask permission. Ju-hee glanced left and right around the hospital room, then slipped inside.

“What’s going on?”

“I heard about what happened in the main hall. Oppa Rock confessed to you!?”

“Uh… yeah.”

“They said he wouldn’t take no for an answer and you would think about it.”

“Well, I said I’d think about it if he gave me a convincing reason, but I might never be convinced, right?”

Ju-hee laughed at Won’s response.

“That’s true. How much do you like him anyway?”

“I don’t know.”

“You always had a good vibe with Jin, and Gyeom isn’t bad, either. Is Rock your favorite?”

“I don’t think so…”

Won will admit his appearance was phenomenal, but if she had to choose, Target would be at the top in terms of appearance and Black Cat in terms of personality. If there was one area where Top Dog definitely surpassed the other two, it was his ability to drive Won insane.

“He makes me feel the most…”

If she told the truth, she would be asked why she was dating him later, so Won made it sound nice.

“He shakes my emotions and… so on.”

Ju-hee clicked her tongue as an ambiguous expression crossed her face. Won doubted her eyes for a moment, thinking she saw the tip of her tongue looking two-pronged. It was as if her tongue had been split in half and moved separately. Won realized she must have been imagining it, but she felt too nervous about just letting it go.

“Ju-hee, can you stick your tongue out?”

“What? Why?”

“Because I think I might be seeing something wrong.”

“Ahh…”

With an exclamation as if she had a trick up her sleeve, Ju-hee slowly stuck out of her tongue. Won stiffened.

She wasn’t mistaken. The top of her tongue was forked, like a snake.

“I have a split tongue.”

“Split tongue?”

“It’s a piercing that splits the tongue in two. Some people get it just at the tip, but I went a little further.”

Won was puzzled by the term she had never heard before.

“Doesn’t it hurt?”

“It did at first, but now it doesn’t hurt at all and I can move them separately.”

She stuck out her tongue and showed the tip going in opposite directions, and then intertwined. Won watched in disbelief as the two tongues moved like separate creatures. She didn’t understand how it was possible.

“It’s fascinating.”

“It is, isn’t it? And you know what’s great about it? When I kiss someone, I can make them go crazy.”

Holding her lips apart with her index and middle fingers, she stuck her red tongue out between them.

“I suck and lick them with two, and they lose their minds.”

Won imagined what it would be like to be wrapped around by two tongues with one at the top of her tongue, and the other at the bottom, and attacked at the same time. She wondered what it would feel like if the sensitive root at the back of the tongue was gently licked while the front was also gently stroked. She thought about whether the roof of the mouth and the tongue were stimulated together…

Her adult-like, naughty thoughts didn’t stop there. A strange heat pooled in her belly as she wondered what it would be like to have her nipple licked between parted tongues or to have two tongues teasing her sensitive clit.

“If you’re curious, why don’t you try it? Experience it.”

Ju-hee covertly whispered. Won was stunned.

‘Experience? Experience what? Will she kiss me?’

For the first time, Won understood what it meant to have her brain buffer. Like an old computer, her brain was sluggish and struggling to keep up.

Ju-hee’s cheeks puffed up as she stared at Won, unable to control her expression. Then, she burst out laughing.

Kofi