Beyond the End (My Landlady Noona)

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Illustration for this chapter ->

I hope it can be seen. Crosses fingers

Also, I got a bit of news. I just got a full-time job, guys. Yeah, it turns out that slamming my fingers on a keyboard is nowhere enough to make a living, but it is what it is. I'll be doing a lot of overtime since it's summer, so updates might be slow for a while. If everything goes alright, I'll be back on the grind with fast updates by October.

Thank you for reading. 

On with the chapter!

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Leandro looked at the lollipop in Bada's hand. "... Why would I eat candy someone has already had their mouth all over?"

"What..." Bada scowled, cutely, in an attempt to be cute but only achieving cute-sexy instead. "Are you calling me filthy~"

He stared at the crimson orb, which had been lapped halfway through, almost reaching the core. There was a shimmering coat of saliva. Bada was about to retract her hand but, much to her surprise, Leandro took the stick from her. 

"Isn't candy sharing more intimate, Bada. I hope you haven't been doing this with someone else as well, or I'd be offended." He chuckled, sounding half-joking and half-serious.

Bada almost lost her balance when his lips touched her half-sucked lollipop. She stared, hypnotized. Was he really…? 

She flushed red, looking away. It was so random, she could've fainted. Her heart skipped a beat as she unconsciously gnawed on her bottom lip.

Leandro rolled the candy around his tongue. She could see the stick moving from one corner of his mouth to the other. His tongue was swiveling right where hers had been. 

"Actually, I didn't come all this way just for a simple chit chat." He leaned further off the railing. "Don't get me wrong, I love talking to you, but I also have a favor I was hoping to ask from you... well, it is in both of our best interests for you to accept it, Bada."

"Hm~" Her breath stuttered and it sounded a bit husky. She recovered quickly from her reverie. She kept blinking her eyes rapidly and avoided looking at him so her heart would stop going crazy. "Are you going to ask me to be your girlfriend?"

"..."

Leandro turned to take a proper, hard look at Bada, and he could've sworn he saw the illusion of a dragon's tail swishing behind her. When he blinked, it was gone. "Hah, truth is... I was hoping you could stay over at my place for a few days. Well, not my place exactly, but in one of the free apartments. A tenant is moving out, and you could stay there."

She stared at Leandro meaningfully as she scooted closer, and with a small hop she eased herself down on top of the railing. She smiled sweetly when he twitched, ready to react in case she fell off. She purposely spread her thighs, allowing the skirt to hitch up a bit. "I never knew you were so bold Leandro~" Bada stifled a girly laugh. "Isn't that awfully similar to inviting a girl into your bedroom for some adult fun~?"

He smiled wryly. "I guess it can be interpreted in that way, though who'd have thought our innocent Geum Bada would have such a dirty mind."

She lazily dangled her feet as she reached a hand out to pluck the lollipop straight from his mouth. With a smirk, she jammed it in her mouth. "Hmm~"

"Very seductive..." He joked, shaking his head as he looked away, but her smell was unmissable. It wasn't her shampoo nor her perfume, but she simply had this enchanting, relaxing presence. "... on a serious note—it's for your safety, Bada. I've extended the same invitation to Yuhee Noona as well. I want all of you to be in the same place as me when danger comes knocking."

Her orbs bore into his profile, as she lazily rolled her head to the side.

A teasing smile flitted across her lips as she pointed at herself. "Are you worried about me?" She discreetly scooted a little closer to him.

And she had to blink in surprise when a hand suddenly seized her lollipop stick and pulled it out. Drops of saliva flew out from the rough movement. When Bada looked at Leandro, she could see the stick poking out of his mouth.

She narrowed her eyes.

"Of course I'm worried." He threw her a look that made the chilly night air completely dissolve. "You're important to me."

Bada couldn't help but feel jubilant inside, like an innocent school girl that suddenly had the boy of her dreams confess to her. She wanted to push and shove the lollipop towards his throat and make Leandro gag so it would stop making him so sexier than he usually was, which was unfair.

She felt this unusual heat growing in the pit of her stomach.

'Focus Bada! Stop getting excited!'

Bada schooled her features, clearing her throat. "Well, well~ in that case I must accept. Wouldn't want to worry you, after all, right~ Um! Um!~" She nodded, wisely. "Are you going to protect me?"

"Why would I invite you over if that was not the case?"

Her bubbly, sparkly expression went flat.

"Idiot..." She faked a yawn and stretched an arm out. Leandro was briefly distracted by her arched back, which pushed her chest out in a tantalizing way. That shirt wasn't going to hold out for long, he knew it.

Bada's slender fingers wrapped around the lollipop's stick and plowed it out of his lips.

When Leandro tried to get it back, she scooted away, giggling, as she sucked on it like a vacuum, throwing him a smug look in retaliation. 

"Well then. So is it only Yuhee Unnie, your sisters, and myself—wait..." Bada halted, pondering, and gasped. She jabbed an accusing finger on him and pouted like a displeased cutie. "Are you inviting just the women over?!"

'That's a damn valid point. Am I inviting only women?'

"I don't... have male friends."

In retrospect, that was quite lame to say.

Bada burst out laughing. "I wonder why~" She leaned forward. "You could always invite Seok Oh. Wouldn't that be interesting?"

She was teasing him. Leandro scoffed, nose curled in distaste.

"No way. He'd be the first one I'd kick out. In fact, if I ever see him again, I'll sacrifice him to the apocalypse."

Bada patted him on the shoulder. "Don't hate~ he might even have a change of heart one of these days! Who knows? Maybe he'll try to apologize for all those mean things he used to say about you when no one was around."

"Ah, so he said stuff behind my back too?" Leandro was more amused than offended.

She looked away, innocently. "Oops. I don't think I was supposed to say that."

He laughed at the thought of that scrawny twerp apologizing to him; he could die from the sincerity, as opposed to dying from whatever will descend upon his Earth in the near future.

Bada gazed upon him as she licked on that damn lollipop like it was giving her orgasm levels of ecstasy.

It was in her nature to want to know everything about the person she liked.

There were still too many things that were hidden about Leandro from Bada; and from others, too.

Leandro tilted his head, smiling. "Is there anything else you're not telling me, Bada?"

She bobbed her head around, feet swaying.

The lollipop shifted in her mouth, swiveling under her tongue.

"Maybe~?"

 "Come on now. It won't do us any good if you keep secrets from me." Leandro wagged a finger around in a warning tone and with the face to match.

"Hmm... well, you never call, you never text, you never find an excuse to come visit me. Maybe if you start doing that, I'll tell you?" Bada teased him playfully, holding onto the stick of that damned candy as if it were the apple to the snake, her mouth lapping at the edges. "Come on, Leandro~ start visiting this Noona from now on..."

He chuckled. "What Noona? We're the same age."

Bada's cute tongue played with the lollipop.

Leandro got a nice eyeful of the pink flesh, and more as she kept sliding that damned candy down.

"I'll do that." He said, stretching his back.

"What did you say?" She edged closer, mouth curled up. "I didn't hear you~"

"I said..." He moved, quick and sudden—and when Bada touched her mouth, the lollipop had disappeared. "I'll be more thoughtful from now on. In a way, making sure you're safe is part of the atonement."

His serious tone and faraway look completely wiped the smile off her face.

"Is it going to be that bad?" Bada sounded nervous as she twirled a blonde curl of hair in between her fingers, thoughtfully. "What—who... what is the enemy?"

"Monsters, but you should know that." He shifted closer—not to Bada, but the railing. "Monsters with powers of nature beyond this planet. I've seen them."

She nodded, somberly. "Inside the Tower?"

They both looked towards the Monolith. Its stone black surface stood tall, eclipsing the Moon. It was foreboding and grim.

"Yeah..." He breathed out. 

The night air was chilly and sharp, yet she felt warm when he was so close she could count his lashes—if Bada didn't find that weird. Yeah, it was probably weird. 

"Leandro..." She looked at him, concern brimming in her innocent, jubilant eyes. "Are we really going to be fine?"

It was odd asking him that. He wasn't God, obviously, but there was something in him that made her believe things would be fine. Was it some good ole luck or good karma that brought him into her life? Maybe it was one of fate's strange whims.

She couldn't predict what he said next though.

His lips twitched; he smiled—or grimaced.

"There are many possibilities in this world, Bada. One could interpret the future as a single straight-line from beginning to the end. But in reality, our futures branch out into multiple realities that we cannot see—thus why a little prediction here and a small prod there can end in life or death... luck and chance plays a much bigger part than we give it credit for. But know this..." When he stared at her with such a look, she began shivering from the cold. Yeah, definitely from the cold. "I would not tell you half-truths to spare your feelings or to boost your confidence. I tell it as it is. If the time comes... trust my instincts and listen to me carefully. If you do, there won't be a single reality out there where you're not safe. This is my promise to you."

He smiled behind the stick and that sight nearly made her crotch spontaneously combust into flames.

"My, Leandro~" She averted her gaze, blushing a little. Well, more than a little. "Do you say this stuff to Yuhee Unnie and Hari Unnie as well?"

He rolled his eyes, huffing a laugh. "Only for the ones I care about. I doubt I'd be taking this kind of precaution for some random woman, Bada."

Bada swallowed. "Random woman." She repeated.

So she was special! A sudden tsunami of pride—and fluster—hit her so hard she might have let loose a tiny squeal that went by unnoticed, she prayed to all that was holy it had not been heard.

"Haah... I feel bad for Yuhee Unnie... and for Huri Unnie... and for Nari."

"..."

He looked at her, confused.

She wrenched the damn lollipop out of his mouth—it was hers to begin with!

She fixed herself off the railing, her feet thumping down onto the ground. Her voice became normal, again.

"If it's like this then, do I have time to fetch some stuff?"

Leandro pondered about that.

"Pack only the bare essentials. I can send someone for the rest."

Bada rolled the sucker around the entirety of her tongue in a scandalous manner. "So forceful." Her voice dropped to a sultry tone as she seductively walked past Leandro, hand trailing across his back and feeling those amazing muscles on their journey. "I might need someone's help to pack my stuff though~"

She halted at the emergency stairs and turned to wink at him.

Her blonde curls tumbled, as did Leandro's mind, when Bada flashed him an amazing smile with the lollipop bolting across her lips. The core dissolved on her sinful tongue, leaving just a half-eaten stick, drenched in Bada and his own spit.

She giggled.

"Wanna come help? I might need guidance from a reliable friend~"

He laughed. "Can't decide which pair of panties you want to bring?"

She smiled, eyes crinkled. "Exactly."

"Well, you see, I've recently discovered I have an intense allergy to packing. Just the thought of sorting through your wardrobe has me breaking out in hives."

Bada laughed, shaking her head. "Oh come on, don't be so dramatic. I promise it won't be that bad. Besides, if you do, you might get to see my tattoos~" She stuck her tongue out.

When Leandro opened his mouth, it was not because of any words that had been ready to leave him, it was because Bada surprised him by gracefully turning around and discreetly wiggling her ass at him before walking down the emergency stairs—very, very suggestively.

Goddammit.