Chokehold Submission
Left alone in the training room, Shin Sua sat in a chair, lost in thought. The flag attached to the shotgun-shaped Spirit Lord Transformation that Kim Taeyang had used. It was definitely something she'd never seen before.
She wondered if it could really block the full barrage from the hologram cannons, and in the next moment, Kim Taeyang counterattacked. Just two shots neutralized the cannons on the wall and ceiling. No matter how many times she rewatched the recording, she couldn't figure out how that firepower had come about.
"And yet, why didn't he use something like this that day..."
As Gong In-myeong had said. This damn delinquent clearly harbored deep, obsessive feelings for her. That's what Shin Sua thought.
Gong In-myeong had only said that Kim Taeyang might be interested in her background, but Shin Sua had interpreted "interest" in an entirely different way.
"A guy with no sense of his place, but he sure has good taste."
Closing her eyes, she recalled Kim Taeyang's profile when she'd been dangling from him midair. The dizzying situation had made time feel like it was slowing down, allowing her to scrutinize his face while clinging to his waist.
The guy had been grinning fiercely, as if something was hilarious. With his hair and skin back to normal, he was definitely easy on the eyes. A little grooming, and he'd be a face she wouldn't be ashamed to have by her beautiful side.
"..."
Realizing her cheeks were burning hot at that thought, Shin Sua hurriedly fanned them with her hand.
"That jerk must be going crazy right now."
Shin Sua, with a self-enchanted expression, undid her braided hair and shook her head side to side. Her lush black locks cascaded over her shoulders. A fresh yet seductive fragrance tickled her nose—the perfect blend of her carefully chosen shampoo and perfume mingling with her natural scent. Exposed to it at such close range, Kim Taeyang wouldn't sleep a wink tonight. Shin Sua was convinced of that as she rose from her seat.
"Hm?"
Glancing down, a long white thread caught her eye on her black leggings.
"When did this get here?"
-Twitch.
It felt like the thread had just moved on its own, but maybe it was her imagination. Tilting her head, Shin Sua picked off the thread and headed back to her room.
"Ah, I'm so tired..."
She'd just take a quick bath and crash early. Muttering to herself as she left the training room, she didn't notice the thin white thread—now stiff as a needle and hanging from the ceiling—smoothly slipping into the cracks.
A cheerful-looking message. I hopped into the elevator and fired back a reply right away.
-Thwack!
I was so engrossed in the chat, marveling at Mun Hee-jeong's sudden emoji onslaught and cuteness attack, when a sharp pain exploded at the back of my head.
Flirting, are we? What bullshit.
Gemma glared at me with ice-cold eyes.
"What's your deal? Heejeong's totally your type. Honestly, better than you—"
Don't give her false hope. You're not even serious about dating anyway.
I tried to provoke her out of annoyance, but it didn't land.
"How would you know?"
Women just know.
"Says the shorty with no game."
Shut up.
Even back in my room, the chat continued.
Ah, that explained it. She was worried I'd get exploited by that wicked Shin Sua—touching.
A reply came back in less than 0.5 seconds after I hit send.
"She types fast."
You're insane?!
The moment I hit send, Gemma pinched my cheek hard.
Why'd you tell her that?!
"Can't I?"
Sigh... lemme prophesy: you're never dying easy now.
"Outta nowhere."
I ignored Gemma and flopped onto the bed.
-Vrrr!
My smartphone buzzed immediately.
I finished replying and closed my eyes. A lingering warmth. The cutesy messages from a girl my age packed a punch. They felt different from her usual demeanor, making them hit even harder.
But what had she eaten to start using emojis all of a sudden? Maybe she was too embarrassed in the club group chat.
This kid of yours...
"Hm?"
I opened my eyes at Gemma's voice, only for her firm thighs—clad in a black bodysuit—to slide under my nape and over my neck from behind.
-Crunch!
Lying opposite me, she extended her leg sideways into a reverse head scissor. It seemed like a technique from Schwingen, Swiss wrestling included in the martial arts Gemma had learned.
"Hey, can't... breathe... blood not flowing... tap... tap..."
Had she taken advanced Pilates or something? She clamped my neck with insane strength.
Aigoo, you're killing me here!
"You're already dead!"
Figure it out without me spelling it!
"What'd I do to deserve a choke?!"
Even BigTitsShin has bad eyesight, liking trash like you.
"Ugh... stop stop."
Bloodflow aside, staying like this would knock me out in more ways than one, so I frantically slapped her thighs begging for release.
-Thud.
"Hiss, suuuuuck...!"
After a while, Gemma released my neck. She shifted into a crouch like a leopard, straddling me with a victor's smirk as she looked down.
I get you're at that horny age, but don't paw at every girl. Toying with hearts ain't cool. If you can't hold back—
-Stroke.
Her knee slowly grazed between my thighs. I knew without words. Option one: she'd crush my balls. Option two...
"Slurp."
Gemma licked her lips with a lewd expression.
The latter.
"...Not now. Grand Offering is in a few days."
Shangju must purify body and mind in the seven days before a Grand Offering—baths, abstinence, no self-pleasure or intimacy, or the ritual loses effect.
Tch... eunuch who can't eat even when served.
Gemma trailed her index finger over my cheek, nape, and chest.
After the Offering, you're mine. Not letting you off.
Blushing, she spat that and retreated into the Soul Thread Bracelet with a regretful look.
"..."
It was a night of endless self-loathing for accepting Shin Sua's invitation.
"Sigh."
Turning my head, I spotted the box with the gloves Mun Hee-jeong gave me.
"What to do."
I picked up the box, pondering. No time earlier to transfer the ring's blessing before bed—maybe now? But mental fatigue weighed my eyelids.
"I'll do it early tomorrow..."
I set the box back on the table and prepped for sleep.
8 PM. About an hour after Kim Taeyang arrived at Shin Sua's mansion.
Mun Hee-jeong glared at the iron fence surrounding the garden from afar.
"So this is the place."
The other end of the thread emerging from the split belly of her hedgehog doll was tied to the muffler of the black sedan in the parking lot beyond the fence.
Mun Hee-jeong hadn't just stood there dazed after Shin Sua drove off with Kim Taeyang. Even in her shock, she'd instinctively used her newly mastered Spirit Lord Transformation to send a thread latching onto the sedan.
After two hours of agonizing, she mobilized. No detour home—she followed the extended thread straight to Shin Sua's mansion.
Guilt gnawed, but she'd already decided long ago.
"Taeyang can't fall into an improper thing with Sua..."
Justifying it that way, Mun Hee-jeong activated her Spirit Lord Transformation.
-Ssssh.
Dozens of white threads burst from the hedgehog's belly, stretching at blinding speed and burrowing under the fence. Her threads, now antennae and ears, infiltrated every corner of the mansion—
"..."
Holding the hedgehog doll—connected by thread—to her ear and eavesdropping on the mansion sounds, Mun Hee-jeong was certain.
Kim Taeyang had succumbed to Shin Sua's seduction and pounced on her.
"Uuugh... sob..."
Mun Hee-jeong wept quietly. When the tears stopped moments later, no expression remained on her face.
"..."
With a blank look, Mun Hee-jeong pulled out her smartphone and messaged Kim Taeyang, hiding the black emotions swirling in her chest behind peppy emojis.
"Hehe."
A emotionless voice leaked from her red lips right after sending.
"Taeyang's a bad boy. Probably just finished having fun with Sua, yet he replies right away."
A grotesquely twisted smile crept onto Mun Hee-jeong's lips.
"It's fine. I like even that about him."
Lightly tapping the hedgehog doll with her fingertip, Mun Hee-jeong thought.
Even if the tanned blond delinquent's nature didn't change, it didn't matter. If Kim Taeyang's eyes wandered to another girl, she'd just redirect them to herself.
"Wait just a bit. I'll help you soon."
Just as she loved Kim Taeyang, she'd "correct" his tastes to make him see only her. The firm confidence rooted in her heart urged her to wield a new power.
Kim Taeyang's darkened room.
-Rip.
The gift wrapping he'd never touched tore open on its own. Thin threads pried through the gaps, shredding the packaging.
-Clatter.
The box opened with minimal noise. The pair of gloves inside wriggled their fingers like centipede legs and crawled out.
-Ssssh.
Mun Hee-jeong's gloves opened the door unaided and slithered into the hallway. Countless thread-fur extended like cilia or insect antennae, aiding movement and sensing.
-Swish.
Like a living creature, the gloves silently crawled walls and floors, ascending to the top floor, opening the door—and
-Crunch!
began choking the neck of the girl soundly asleep in bed.