historical

It was an impromptu kiss that eventually rose to new heights and deepened at the same time. Li Yang wasn't a man who was inclined for public displays of affection—exhibitionism wasn't his thing. And yet this might as well have been his new path of life considering all the circumstances.

Taiga's lips were soft and melded with his, with a slightly salty aftertaste to it when she leaned back away from him. Her orange hair fell over slightly back her shoulders and made the redness that streaked her skin look like a blushing tomato.

"Don't hide stuff from Taiga anymore, okay?" she said.

Li Yang stared up at the tigress spirit and smiled lightly. "Well, it can't be helped anymore. I'll let you know."

"If anybody's asking, I'm so glad that the two of you could make this little nook into your private room." Narissa said and flicked her wrist..

The Mermaid known as Bai Minghua was definitely used to seeing and hearing about scandals like this one in the celebrity industry—she was never involved in them, but seeing the two of them snuggle and canoodle with one another was definitely something else.

Maybe if she was the one kissing him, then there would be no complaints.

But it was Taiga so she might as well just nag.

"Apologies—it was indecent for us to do that." Li Yang cleared his throat. One needed to remember that they were still in quite a rather traditionalist country, no matter the actual people involved.. at least, that was still how reserved his thinking could be.

Either way, Taiga glanced at the other woman and only gave her a little proud grin.

Narissa rolled her eyes. "Geez, as if you could call that quick smooch a real kiss. We could do one better if you wanted it—but didn't you say that you had something to do? Your little friend might be reminding you to do the same thing."

"Little friend?" Taiga blinked. "Taiga's not short—you are!"

Li Yang cleared his throat and followed Narissa's line of sight, eventually ending up where Bao was in the first place. The creature seemed to be visible to those involved in the System and Heavens play.

"I do have a task, but I have ample time to finish it. What I wanted to do is to have some alone time maybe and talk with.. Bo Lifen properly. She sent me a note that asked if I wanted to have boba with her." Li Yang admitted at last.

"Oh, the girl from earlier?" Narissa said.

Taiga's brows knitted together at his confession. It made her wonder if it truly was alright that he admitted that aloud, because now she was aware that he wanted alone time to be with someone else. It was like Ying Yue He all over again.

Except this time, the Bossman knew she was into him.

"You want to talk with the tea temptress—er, her, Bossman?" Taiga gave him a look.

"Yes."

There was a mild panic evident in Taiga's tone. "Wasn't sleeping with her a one-time thing? Wait, is Taiga a one-time thing too? After everything that Taiga said—she's nothing more but a one-time and one-night stand? Taiga never actually asked for a label but really, that tea tempress?"

Narissa snickered. "Nice nickname."

Bao raised a paw to its face. "Okay, here we go."

In the corner of the man's vision were a small screen that popped up and relayed the onslaught of new messages.

[ Owl Brain: This conversation took long enough to start ]

[ The One Who Slaughters: Let these women fight and the remaining one be the victor and drink the others' blood to become stronger ]

[ Sea Foam: This is supposed to be a polyamorous relationship—he just failed to mention that, didn't he? ]

[ Observer 'Pomegranate' Has Prepared Popcorn For Fellow Spectators ]

[ Observer 'Trite' Recalls Some Memories ]

[ Observer 'Apache' Welcomes The New Development ]

There were too many messages, reactions and perceptions that came into his attention—when all he wanted was to just get boba with Bo Lifen. Did he think it was ridiculous that it turned out like this?

A part of him felt that way.

But this was going to be part of his life, wasn't it? Several women in his arms unless he was able to figure out a way to stop the System and Heavens once and for all. He didn't want to see anybody get upset over this at all—he didn't like problems starting in general. He reached out and held Taiga's hand.

She was the one more upset about it than anyone.

He squeezed her hand reassuringly. "Just because I want to talk with someone else doesn't mean that I like you any less, Taiga."

"Do you want to just talk with Bo Lifen—or do you want to get some pounding with her too?" Narissa cleared her throat. "Because that's clearly different. Friends talking and hanging out with them is alright.. but you and Taiga here seem to have something already."

"You know the situation, Narissa."

Narissa blinked at the use of her name. "Wait how did you—oh, I okay, I got it. Yes, I overheard and figured it out thanks to your little friend." She redirected her gaze back to the Panda, but eventually turned back to him. "So yeah, what's going to happen next?"

"You're interrupting our conversation!" Taiga tossed a look at Narissa and frowned. "We've barely seen each other and Taiga has to share her time with you now—several hours ago, I was with Bossman's ex-girlfriend or something."

"Luo Ju Di wasn't exactly my girlfriend."

Narissa propped a hand underneath her chin. The woman's elbow rested on the surface of their shiny table, the leftover meal of Taiga completely gone. "You don't look the playboy type, but you must be clearly a stud. Not my girlfriend—very interesting. So you're not a label type, as evident with Taiga here already."

"... I guess it wasn't brought up," Li Yang said.

"Nobody brought it up at all?"

He thought about all of the times he had sex, and most of the times, their precursor was a lot of strange events. Bo Lifen simply said she wanted to lose her virginity to the Kitagawa Twins, being motivated to do it on a whim or 'payment' for some error in their acts.

Li Yang shrugged. "It may or may not have exactly crossed my mind. They just kind of happened after all, but I see that this has led to this kind of scenario. I'm usually organized with everything but this..."

Narissa raised a brow. "Oh, is this a commitment issue?"

"What?" Li Yang stared at the Mermaid.

"Hey, I'm asking—nothing's wrong with open relationships. But for someone like you, I think you still want it to be exclusive right? You know how royalty have their harems? Although it's more of a political move than just sexy time, too."

—-—-

Author's Note: Phew, finally done with the Privilege tiers this month. I may or may not have underestimated the weakness in my wrists.. but there we have it. Aug 6, 2021 and we're back to regular releases. I also did not expect that we're going to have this harem/polyamory talk while it's just approximately fewer than ten women, but here we are! Just because you're in a harem doesn't mean people don't feel jealous. Relationships and people are messy. Who knew? /sex/what-is-polyamory