Blue Moon Resort.
A 4-star hotel located a long 7-hour drive away from the orphanage where Amon and Sonia live.
As you can tell from the name “Blue Moon,” the resort mainly targets couples.
And it is particularly popular with those proposing, newlyweds, or even those engaged in affairs.
Amon and Sonia were heading toward this couples’ haven.
You might wonder how two mere orphans could possibly afford to go to such a place.
“Thank you, Father.”
It was thanks to the boundless kindness of the squinting priest.
Originally, the plan was to break open their piggy bank and go to a reasonably priced resort, but thanks to the priest’s support, the destination changed.
The priest even offered to drive them there, and once inside the resort, holy knights from the Vatican would escort them with no expense spared.
Sonia was wary of the priest’s overwhelming kindness, but Amon was grateful and accepted it.
To Amon, the priest’s kindness had a good enough reason.
‘Was it that obvious?’
When Amon expressed his anxiety toward the Hexen Group during confession, the priest immediately requested the Vatican to send holy knights.
Even before Amon expressed any intention to convert to the Vatican, the priest had figured out, just from the single keyword “fear,” that Amon and Sonia would be coming to them soon.
If it had been anyone else, they might not have known, but as soon as the priest knew they would belong to the Vatican, he spared no support.
In that sense, the priest was quite calculated.
‘He’s certainly not someone you can let your guard down around.’
Though he wore a mask of kindness, the sharpness that occasionally revealed itself suggested he was not just an ordinary priest.
But that very calculative nature was something Amon could rely on right now.
Being calculated meant being consistent.
If securing two individuals with divine powers at once was on the table, then booking a 4-star hotel and providing an escort of holy knights was a worthwhile investment.
Because of that, Amon could trust the priest.
To be precise, he trusted the Vatican’s calculations and the current situation.
However, unlike Amon, Sonia seemed to have many complaints.
She texted him on her phone, concerned the priest might overhear as he drove.
[Do we really have to go with this guy? You said it would just be the two of us. And what’s with the holy knights tagging along?]
Amon could only offer a wry smile at her grumbling.
He understood her disappointment.
For her, going to a cheap resort, just the two of them, would have been much more fun than a 4-star hotel sponsored by the priest.
Amon fully understood, a hundred times over.
But if it were just the two of them heading to the resort, it wouldn’t have been surprising if mercenaries from the Hexen Group had kidnapped them.
That’s why Amon quietly accepted her complaints and tried to console her.
Still, when else would we get to visit a place like this before we graduate? It’s a 4-star hotel, after all.
Even the nuns recommended it.
After repeatedly handling Sonia’s complaints, which came in ten-minute intervals, Amon reminded himself of his objective.
‘The primary goal is to keep Sonia as far away from the Hexen Group as possible.’
Whether it was employment, an internship, or a career experience, she couldn’t be anywhere near that company.
This trip was part of his effort to keep her away from the corporation until graduation.
‘The secondary goal is to improve her opinion of the Vatican.’
Though Amon disliked the Vatican, it was still the lesser evil.
At least they didn’t offer people up as sacrifices, and they certainly protected their own.
But if Sonia kept rejecting the Vatican, they wouldn’t be able to rely on its protection.
That’s why they were taking this trip.
Amon calculated that if Sonia had a good time at the hotel, her opinion of the Vatican, which had sponsored the trip, might improve.
***
Lost in his thoughts, Amon felt Sonia’s fingers tickle the back of his hand from an angle that couldn’t be seen in the priest’s rearview mirror.
Responding to her playful gesture, Amon intertwined his fingers with hers.
The two continued their playful hand games for a while until, growing bored, Sonia resumed sending him complaints via text.
Once Sonia grew tired and fell asleep, Amon also closed his eyes.
The priest looked at the two sleeping in the quiet car with a warm gaze.
And when they woke up, they had arrived at the resort.
Blue Moon Resort offered two main courses.
A summer season course and a winter season course.
The resort, located in Colorado, offered this range of options because the state experiences scorching summers and bone-chilling, snow-covered winters.
The summer course allowed guests to enjoy swimming in the pool in front of the resort or fishing in the artificial lake.
The winter course involved skiing on the mountain behind the resort.
The prices for these courses varied according to the season.
You could choose the winter course in summer, but you’d have to pay for the cost of producing artificial snow in the middle of a heatwave.
Similarly, you could opt for the summer course in winter, but you’d pay for heating the pool and keeping the snow at bay.
Surprisingly, the off-season courses had been keeping the resort profitable for decades.
This was thanks to nouveau riche people and influencers who didn’t have the courage to go to a true luxury hotel.
But Amon never imagined they would experience such a package.
“Wow… a pool in the winter…”
The power of money was astounding.
They had gone to the trouble of creating a greenhouse to recreate summer temperatures and using light-refracting barriers to simulate summer sunshine.
Beyond the boundary separating the summer and winter courses, Amon could see people bundled up, holding skis, with envy in their eyes.
If he let his guard down, he might get drunk on a sense of superiority from their envious gazes.
‘Get it together, Amon. You’re not here because you’re special.’
Amon suppressed any growing sense of superiority, reminding himself that he didn’t come here through any merit of his own.
Still, after experiencing this feeling, he understood why nouveau riche and influencers flocked here.
The pleasure derived from this sense of superiority was not an emotion easily felt in a city where everyone dies equally.
It was too addictive and rewarding to be dismissed as mere vanity.
But Amon couldn’t afford to indulge in such feelings.
To him, all people in this world were children of the same mother, his brothers and sisters.
Feeling superior to others was an insult to his mother’s will.
While waiting for Sonia, who was still in the changing room, he bowed his head and made the sign of the cross several times over the cardigan draped on his bare body.
Passing guests looked at him with curious eyes.
Among them, some chatty female guests whispered behind his back.
“Is that a new fashion trend? Wearing a shirt and hat at the pool?”
“Maybe it’s religious? He’s been doing some weird movements since earlier.”
“Then is that hat like a Middle Eastern head covering?”
“A hijab? But he’s a guy, isn’t he?”
“He might not be a guy.”
In the world of cyberpunk, gender transitions or non-binary identities weren’t all that rare.
In fact, the women chatting might not actually be “women” themselves.
Thus, their conversation wasn’t malicious gossip but just typical American small talk.
However, Amon’s mindset was that of a 21st-century Korean gentleman.
Wearing a cardigan and hat was simply a remnant of his Korean habits.
Regardless of his appearance, old habits are hard to break.
He had stubbornly held onto this fashion, even in front of the priest, who had thought it looked strange in the changing room.
‘Ugh. I’m just too embarrassed.’
Without understanding his reasons, the women whispering behind his back made him feel uncomfortable.
Even though he rationally understood that this was American culture, emotionally, it was still enough to make him bristle.
To be honest, it wasn’t so much the fashion critique as the speculation about his gender that bothered him the most.
Amon turned around, his expression stiffening as he decided to correct their misunderstanding.
Just as he made eye contact to confront them, one of the women gasped.
“Gasp!”
Their overblown reaction made him hold his tongue.
‘What?’
Amon wondered if he had unintentionally made a frightening expression and quickly relaxed his face.
But the women reacted with even more excitement, squealing as they pulled out their phones and approached him.
“Oh my, are you a FaceTalk star? We didn’t recognize you!”
“No, I don’t use social media.”
Amon, who didn’t even touch social media, was perplexed.
Despite his curt answer, the women giggled and continued the conversation.
“Then are you here for a modeling shoot?”
“No.”
Their assumptions, based solely on his appearance, seemed far-fetched.
But looking at Amon’s face, those assumptions suddenly seemed reasonable.
However, for Amon, this kind of flattery felt unfamiliar and burdensome.
‘Model? I’m just an orphan.’
For a moment, Amon wondered if he should respond with a lighthearted comment, but realizing it might cross the line, he kept his mouth shut.
After that, the women continued to bombard Amon with questions.
Every one of his answers seemed to trigger more laughter, as if his every word was a punchline.
Before long, the questions turned to whether he had a girlfriend.
‘What do I do…’
Amon didn’t have a girlfriend.
But he knew all too well that this wasn’t the time to admit it.
If he said he didn’t have a girlfriend, they would naturally ask if they could be considered, putting him in the awkward position of having to refuse.
For someone like Amon, a shy Korean, this was a situation with a high difficulty level.
One might think turning them down would be no big deal, but surprisingly, this was Amon’s first experience with someone trying to hit on him.
He had always been with Sonia or surrounded by people who knew about her.
‘Oh, right. There’s Sonia.’
Finally, Amon remembered Sonia’s existence.
A thought crossed his mind—he could pretend she was his girlfriend.
But there was a problem.
‘Would she go along with something like that?’
This was an entirely new situation.
Even though they were close, asking her to pretend to be his girlfriend might be too much to ask, so Amon hesitated.
Fortunately, this dilemma was soon resolved by none other than Sonia herself.
“Sweetheart, what’s going on?”
At the sound of her familiar voice, Amon’s face brightened, and he turned toward her.
He tried to quickly pick out the right words to match her rhythm.
But the moment he saw Sonia, every word he had prepared disappeared.
She was wearing a white one-piece swimsuit, its color almost matching her silver hair.
True to her usual dislike of exposing her navel, the swimsuit covered it, but—whoever designed the swimsuit, some perverted freak, no doubt—the outline of her navel was still visible.
Her healthy thighs were visible beneath the beautiful lines of her hips.
But none of that compared to the sight that truly caught Amon’s attention.
‘Boo… Booba…’
The overwhelming symbol of motherhood, the source of all sacredness.
If that wasn’t the source of her divine power, then what else could it be?
Amon, who had underestimated Sonia’s figure thanks to her usually baggy clothes, was now completely captivated by the sight her swimsuit presented.
‘The designer… whoever they are, I respect them.’
Amon finally understood the concept of the “aesthetics of concealment” he had heard somewhere.
Looking at Sonia, he didn’t even try to calm his racing heart.
At 18 years old, about to pack his bags and leave the orphanage later this year, this reaction wasn’t a problem at all.
‘Who knew my childhood friend was like this…’
Amon couldn’t help but feel grateful for the connection the goddess had bestowed upon him.
Though Amon was a devout believer, he was also a man.
And nowhere in any doctrine did it warn men against harboring affection for women—on the contrary, the goddess herself had approved of it.
“Why do you think I created women and men separately?”
Thus, Amon’s racing heart was not in violation of any religious principles.
‘Wait, what was I going to say?’
Suddenly, Amon remembered the situation he was in.
Seeing Sonia in her one-piece swimsuit had turned his brain completely blank, just like the color of her swimsuit, making him forget what he was about to say.
When he tried to recall it, his mind was filled with one word—Booba.
Only his extraordinary willpower kept the word from escaping his lips, though it was on the verge of slipping out.
Sonia enjoyed Amon’s gaze with her entire body.
The stares she had felt before joining Amon after leaving the changing room had been incredibly unpleasant, but his gaze filled her with endless happiness and satisfaction.
If he wanted, she’d even be willing to show him more back at the lodge.
Amon’s eyes moved to her tied-up hair.
She was wearing the hairpin he had given her.
With a voice still tinged with awkwardness, Amon acknowledged the pin.
“Mm, darling. Did you bring that hairpin?”
Darling.
What a beautiful word!
Pride filled Sonia’s heart to the brim!
She felt an overwhelming sense of determination!
That determination led her to do something she wouldn’t normally have done.
Swaying her hips slightly, Sonia approached Amon.
She wrapped her arms around his, pressing that same thing he couldn’t take his eyes off earlier against his arm.
Her ample chest squished against Amon’s arm.
Amon’s arm immediately stiffened.
According to a video on YouTube, when a man likes a woman, he instinctively flexes his bicep when she touches his arm, and Amon seemed no different.
‘Should I ask him to flex?’
Apparently, telling a man to flex in that situation was taboo.
If you did, the man would strain to the point of tearing his muscles to impress her.
But her teasing ended there.
Sonia wanted to quickly shoo away the unwanted guests and spend some quality time with Amon.
Now, finally noticing the women Amon had been talking to, she feigned ignorance.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Were we interrupting your conversation?”
Amon is mine.
With that meaning, she shot a glare at them.
However, the women’s reaction wasn’t what Sonia expected.
Instead of jealousy or hostility, they looked at her with admiration.
“Oh, no! You two are a couple! We had no idea.”
“We’ll just leave you two alone!”
“Enjoy your love!”
And with that, the women disappeared in a flash.
Jealousy only arises between people on a similar level.
When the gap is this wide, it’s only natural for admiration and awe to take its place.
The women’s well-wishes didn’t seem to bother Sonia, and a soft smile appeared on her lips.
Then, putting on the seductive smile she had read about somewhere, she looked up at Amon.
“Shall we go?”
She didn’t specify where.
But Amon, despite his size, was led away by Sonia’s hand without resistance and replied.
“Yeah.”
Amon’s head was filled with thoughts of patriotic songs, doing his best to suppress his increasingly rebellious lower half.
Opportunities must be seized when they come.
Sonia knew this better than anyone.
Right now, with Amon showing her romantic interest for the first time, this was her chance to make a move.
Because of this, she could act without hesitation, doing things she normally wouldn’t.
On the way to the pool, she deliberately pressed her chest against him, bumped her hips into his, and when she spoke, she made sure her breath brushed against Amon’s ear.
Her strategy was incredibly effective.
She could feel through his arm that Amon’s body had stiffened.
She had another plan in mind, too.
‘If we get into the pool like this…’
She planned to splash around in the pool and then pretend her hairpin had come loose, giving her a reason to tie her hair up again.
During that process, she would subtly show Amon her underarms, hitting his heart directly.
But her plan shattered the moment Amon entered the pool.
Splash!
Pushed into the water by Sonia, Amon resurfaced, laughing it off, unwilling to say anything unpleasant.
When he reemerged from the water, however, his hat had fallen off.
With the hat gone, his full appearance was revealed.
As Amon slicked back his wet hair, Sonia’s heart skipped a beat—it was precisely her type.
‘Wait, is this really my type?’
His wet hair shimmered as it draped down, and beneath the soaked cardigan, his sculpted muscles were slightly visible.
His jawline and eyes, which were usually hidden by his bangs, were now fully exposed as he brushed his hair back.
‘That’s… a weapon…’
A face that could pierce the hearts of women, and even make men applaud.
The sheer impact of his appearance was overwhelming—so much so that when Amon emerged from the pool, everyone around it fell silent.
For Sonia, who was locked in eye contact with him, the shock was tenfold.
Her brain had short-circuited.
Her plans were completely forgotten, and every bit of her mental capacity was focused on engraving Amon’s jawline and abs into her memory.
Any remaining bandwidth was allocated to keeping up the image of the “usual” Sonia that Amon liked.
As a result, she had no energy left to carry out her carefully planned tactics.
While Sonia was lost in a daze, Amon wasn’t much better off.
He, too, felt a surge of excitement at this unfamiliar side of Sonia, something he had never been aware of in their day-to-day life.
And with it came the realization that there was no going back.