Ficorpio
Chapter 1
My son’s private tutor loved wearing yoga pants—and she had an incredible figure.
One day, a sudden downpour soaked her from head to toe. I told her to take a shower at our house.
The moment my wife left, the tutor started acting strangely.
As I watched her in confusion, a string of numbers suddenly appeared above her head.
Blushing furiously, the tutor said, “Daniel, it’s time for our tutoring session.”
“Darling, my best friend needs me. Something urgent came up, so I’m going to check on her. Stay home and make sure Ben studies.”
My wife slipped on her heels and hurried out.
“It’s raining outside. Be careful,” I called after her.
But she was already gone.
“Always in such a rush.”
I shook my head helplessly and stepped back inside.
That was when Sophie emerged from the bathroom wrapped in a towel, her yoga pants clutched in one hand.
For a moment, I forgot how to breathe.
When I finally came to my senses, I quickly turned away.
“Ms. Hart, you… Why did you come out dressed like that?”
Sophie’s face flushed even deeper.
“Daniel, I didn’t expect it to rain today. The clothes I wore here are completely soaked.”
“I… I didn’t bring anything else. Could I borrow a few things from you?”
I understood at once and hurried into the bedroom.
I found several of my wife’s clothes for her.
What I hadn’t expected was how much better Sophie’s figure looked than my wife’s. A perfectly ordinary outfit clung to her body like it had been tailored for her.
Watching her in those clothes left me so uncomfortable that I could barely sit still.
“Ms. Hart, why don’t you go help Ben with his lesson? I’m going out for a walk.”
Ben was my son. He was in third grade.
I had hired Sophie to tutor him in English.
With my wife gone, I was supposed to sit in on the lesson with them. But I couldn’t stand being around Sophie any longer. I was afraid that if I stayed, I might start having thoughts I shouldn’t.
So I decided it was better not to look at her at all.
I had just turned to leave when Sophie, who had been standing there shyly only a moment earlier, suddenly grabbed my arm.
“No! You can’t leave!”
Her voice had risen nearly an octave.
I turned back, bewildered.
“Ms. Hart, is something wrong?”
Sophie glanced instinctively toward the door. Then she looked at me again, tightening her grip around my arm.
“You’re not allowed to leave. Your wife told me to keep a close eye on you. She said you absolutely cannot step outside this house.”
My eyelid twitched.
What was that supposed to mean?
My expression stiffened.
I stared at Sophie and lowered my voice.
Chapter 2
“Why wouldn’t my wife want me to go out?”
Sophie opened her mouth without thinking.
“Of course, she—”
She stopped abruptly. After a pause, she forced herself to continue.
“She said you were supposed to stay and help me tutor Ben.”
I watched her evasive gaze and slowly clenched both hands.
There was something going on.
There had to be.
Just as my anger began to surge, a number suddenly appeared above Sophie’s head.
Zero.
The sudden number left me completely disoriented.
I had no idea what it was. For a moment, I even wondered if I was hallucinating.
Then my son came out of his room.
Above Owen’s head, I saw the same thing.
A zero.
That was when I understood it wasn’t a hallucination.
“Dad? What are you doing?”
Owen rubbed his eyes, still looking half-asleep.
“I was just…”
Before I could finish, he looked at Sophie in confusion.
“Huh? Ms. Hart, why are you here again? Didn’t you come by earlier today? I thought there wasn’t supposed to be tutoring tonight.”
I went silent at once and turned a cold stare on Sophie.
She panicked.
“Owen, you must be remembering wrong. Ms. Hart wasn’t here this morning.”
Owen tilted his head, his little mouth pushing into a pout.
“But… I remember it. You came this morning with some man.”
He paused, looking around.
“Mom was here too. Where is she? She can tell you I’m right…”
I didn’t let him continue.
After coaxing Owen back into his room, I faced Sophie again.
By then, a thin sheen of sweat had appeared on her forehead.
I drew a slow breath and gripped her shoulders.
“Ms. Hart, are you hiding something from me?”
Sophie looked at me, then suddenly lowered her head. Color rose in her cheeks.
But she bit down hard on her lip and refused to say a word.
The number over her head changed.
Zero became twenty.
Then thirty.
After that, it flickered back and forth between twenty-five and thirty.
What did that mean?
I frowned.
What could make the number above her head change like that?
I couldn’t make sense of it.
At last, it settled on twenty-nine.
Almost at the same time, Sophie shook her head.
“Ethan, I don’t know what you mean. But I do know we should be getting on with Owen’s lesson.”
She turned as if to leave, and I instinctively caught her wrist.
The instant I touched her, the number above her head shot up again.
Forty.
Forty-five.
Then, unbelievably, it surged all the way to sixty-one.
The way she looked at me changed.
There was a strange light in her eyes. She even lifted her chin and subtly straightened her posture, though her face still held an expression of distress.
“Ethan,” she said softly, “please don’t make this difficult. We really need to start the lesson.”
My fingers twitched.
So she really was hiding something?
My thoughts were a mess, and my grip on her wrist tightened without me realizing it.
I didn’t notice that Sophie’s face had grown even redder.
“Sophie, I…”
I looked up, and the words died in my throat.
The number over her head had become ninety.
Then she suddenly took hold of my hand.
Chapter 3
“Ethan… do you want to…”
“Ethan, I’m home.”
Before Sophie could finish what she was saying, Victoria pushed the door open and walked in.
She was soaked through, water dripping from her hair, yet she wore a smile.
Sophie immediately let go of my hand.
The number over her head plummeted from ninety.
It finally stopped at sixteen.
I stared at the shifting number, my heart hammering as a suspicion began to take shape.
But when I turned to Victoria, I froze.
The number above her head was zero.
“Ms. Hart, haven’t you started Owen’s lesson yet?” Victoria asked, sounding puzzled.
Then she took Sophie’s hand naturally. “Owen needs to study. Let’s go together.”
Sophie nodded in a fluster.
I stood in the living room and watched them enter Owen’s room.
The moment the door closed, I quietly moved closer and peered through the narrow gap.
Victoria stood patiently beside them, watching as Sophie tutored Owen.
But I could clearly see it.
Her legs were trembling faintly. There was even a red mark along the inside of one knee.
The kind of mark left by kneeling for far too long.
My fists clenched until they hurt.
Yet the number above her head remained firmly at zero.
Had I been wrong?
Unable to hold myself back, I knocked on the door.
Victoria came out, looking at me in confusion.
I kept my voice as casual as I could. “Victoria, where did you go just now?”
Color rushed visibly into her cheeks. Her gaze darted away as she answered, “Um… I went out to work out with some friends.”
“Work out?”
My expression stiffened. I hadn’t expected her to answer so boldly.
“What kind of workout?”
Victoria’s impatience flared. “Oh, stop asking. It felt really good, all right?”
With that, she slammed the door shut in my face.
My expression darkened.
Felt really good?
How could she say that to me?
Did she really think I wouldn’t suspect a thing?
Then I remembered.
The old me really had trusted her without question.
Victoria and I had been married for eleven years.
Our son was already nine.
For all those years, our relationship had been steady.
Until last month.
She went to a university reunion, and I picked her up afterward.
That was when I noticed her leggings were gone.
She told me an old classmate had accidentally knocked over a glass of wine, spilling it down her legs. So she had taken them off and thrown them away.
There were water stains all over her skirt that night.
I didn’t question her.
But from that day on, she suddenly hired Sophie Hart as Owen’s private tutor.
And she insisted that either Victoria or I had to stay with Sophie whenever she came over to tutor him.
At first, I thought Victoria simply didn’t trust Sophie.
Now, though…
Maybe the person she didn’t trust was me.
When it was over, the number slowly fell again until it returned to 0.
Once Victoria had fallen asleep, I quietly slipped out of bed and looked at myself in the mirror.
There was a number floating above my head, too.
A sudden laugh escaped me.