Masturbation

"This... don't tell me it's an adult web novel?"

Even as I asked, I knew how absurd I sounded. With a title like The Tutoring Student Is Too Curious About Sex, what else could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it possibly be?

Ha-jeong, who had at some point settled cross-legged beside me, kept her lips pressed tightly together and simply looked up at me. I asked her, carefully.

"Is it... okay for me to read something like this?"

Lips still sealed shut, Ha-jeong answered with nothing more than a small nod.

"Ha..."

I accepted her phone and tapped the novel in question on the screen. Right — with web novels, the first sentence of the first episode is everything. Equipping myself with the mindset of a coldly objective reader, I read through the opening line of the novel Ha-jeong had written.

'Is she a virgin?'

Brilliant. Where else in the world would you find a question this superb? Virgin or not — for readers who enjoyed adult web novels, this was, without question, a matter of grave importance. Snared by that clammy curiosity from the very first sentence, I scrolled down as if in a trance.

The novel's protagonist was a man around my age. I simply couldn't believe a girl that young had written it. What's more, the prose itself — the way she described women — was what you'd call textbook male-oriented writing. It was uncanny. How could a twenty-year-old girl write with such a seasoned hand?

The whole time I read, the crude sentences from the practice pieces that twenty-year-old Han Yu-jae had once churned out kept surfacing to torment me. I did my best not to compare and pressed on.

Unlike me, the protagonist of Ha-jeong's novel had graduated from the math department of a respectable university. Thanks to that credential, even after quitting his company, he'd managed to scrape by tutoring here and there. The girl named Yeon Jeong-ha — the novel's main heroine, you could say — was that tutoring student. The girl learning math from him was, thankfully, a CSAT retaker. Perhaps she'd made her an adult with the Youth Protection Act in mind.

Prologue, episode one, episode two, episode three... As I breezed through them, the theme was perfectly clear.

'Is she a virgin? Or is she only pretending to be one?'

The portrayal of the protagonist's psyche, wavering violently between yes and no over that single proposition, was superb. And the tutoring student exploited his anxious psychology to the hilt. She was a succubus through and through.

"...It's well written?"

At that, Ha-jeong pouted instead.

"That's it?"

Had she been hoping for feedback?

"It's a short piece at only ten episodes, sure, but the story is complete in itself, and... above all, it's remarkably clean, with no clutter. The fact that it reads so smoothly is a big strength too."

Ha-jeong pulled a sullen face, but that was all I could honestly say.

"For a first attempt, this really is outstanding. You've genuinely got talent."

Empty praise came easily to me; criticism did not.

"There's really not a single flaw? All my friends do is praise it, so I honestly don't know what could be improved from here..."

"If there's any flaw at all, it's the premise? You've brought in a theme that can hardly stretch beyond ten ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠episodes. Basically, if you want to run an adult web novel as a long serialization, the premise has to allow for multiple heroines."

Only after hearing the feedback I'd wrung out with such effort did color return to Ha-jeong's face.

"Premise selection... I see. Is that all? Teach me more!"

Faced with such burning enthusiasm, my meddlesome streak kicked into gear — never mind that I hadn't actually decided to become her teacher.

"All your characters are too nice."

"Sorry?"

"They're too flat. The only character in this novel with any real depth — the only genuinely charming one — is Jeong-ha, your main heroine, and her alone."

Ha-jeong, who had been listening in silence, let her gaze drift off into empty air. She was probably chewing over the novel she'd written, scene by scene.

"Anyway, that's why the story can't help but play out predictably."

As I delivered my feedback in earnest, Ha-jeong's eyes grew brighter and brighter. Here was a girl so perfectly poised to learn — so why on earth did she run around with that pack of good-for-nothing delinquents?

Nodding as though she understood, Ha-jeong said:

"So the conclusion is, what it's lacking is depravity?"

Depravity? Ah. Now there was a familiar word. Unbidden, unpleasant memories came flooding back. Kim Hye-jeong, that high priestess of depravity — the chief culprit who demolished my moral compass.

Fighting off the thoughts that kept coming like follow-up blows, I barely managed to open my mouth.

"...Right. Depravity. That's the key point."

The secret to Human Guilty's success had been depravity, too. And the taste of that success had been so sweet. Chasing ever stronger depravity, I hadn't hesitated to become depraved myself. Flailing about inside the shackles of depravity like that, I eventually brought the disaster down on my own head.

"This was a pretty satisfying trial lesson."

With that, Ha-jeong abruptly sprang to her feet.

"Well then, I should get going~♡" she sang, setting off with her trademark springy steps. It was all so sudden that I could only stare blankly at her retreating back.

Only belatedly did I remember what I needed to say to her.

"Just to be clear — I haven't actually decided to be your teacher yet."

At that, Ha-jeong turned around, flashed me a wink, and came out with the most absurd line imaginable.

"I haven't decided yet either? I suppose I'll go home and read the novel you wrote, Teacher~"

And that was how she planned to decide?

At last the storm that was her blew out the door, and nothing but silence filled my suddenly vast studio apartment.

Ha... what a chaotic day. Cho A-ran and Yeon Ha-jeong. That mother and daughter were tormenting me as a matched set.

And right on cue, that emotionally unstable little brat made her presence known too — as if to say I wasn't getting left out either.

Ah, peaceful Hayeon City.

I settled back onto the sofa and flipped off the noisy ceiling. The gesture was meant for the chief culprit of the racket, but it occurred to me that their sofa might occupy the exact same spot — with Ha-jeong sitting on it.

Was she sprawled there watching TV? Munching on fruit together with her family?

No. By now, Ha-jeong would be reading my novel. To take in those obscene sentences, she'd surely be shut up in her room.

I headed straight for my bedroom.

Lying down on my bed, I stared at the ceiling and pictured Ha-jeong: buried under her covers, Human Guilty open on her phone, reading slowly through it.

Following her lead, I turned on my own phone and opened the chapter list of Human Guilty.

'EP.01: Ups and Downs'

The novel's protagonist, Han Jae-yu, sinks into bitter regret in the middle of his affair with Jeong-hye. Lamenting why he let himself fall so far, he recalls the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠past. And so unfolds the story of where Han Jae-yu's turbulent sex life all began.

Episode two depicts, in fine detail, the scene where a girl named Kang Ji-min relieved twenty-three-year-old Han Jae-yu of his long-overdue virginity.

Unlike Yeon Jeong-ha, the main heroine of Ha-jeong's The Tutoring Student Is Too Curious About Sex, Han Jae-yu had been a virgin beyond any dispute.

He lays Ji-min down on the bed of his studio apartment, then, unable to even locate the right hole, does nothing but whimper.

"Heh heh."

Ji-min's laughter drifts faintly up. It sounds like scorn, and cold sweat trickles down him.

Was Ha-jeong, at this very moment, reading this very part? Was she letting out a laugh full of scorn, just like Ji-min?

At long last, Jae-yu accomplishes his miraculous first penetration of Ji-min's pussy. His cock was above the Korean male average in girth, size, and rigidity alike, and Ji-min lets out a moan that sounds satisfied.

"Haah~♡"

Was Ha-jeong letting out a moan at this very moment, too?

Embarrassing as it is to admit, when I write moan dialogue, I recite the moans aloud. What sound would escape her when her nipples were ravished? How would she react if lips brushed the nape of her neck? Because if I imagined this and that, imitating a woman's voice to test them out, I could put the most realistic moans possible down on the page.

One day, I was camped out in a café crowded with other patrons, serializing away. Without thinking, I let slip one of those moans that had hardened into habit — and it was loud enough for everyone nearby to hear. Silence fell over the café. Flustered, I struggled to sit there playing innocent, like the culprit of a fart.

Maybe Ha-jeong had the same habit. The moans that Yeon Jeong-ha let out in The Tutoring Student Is Too Curious About Sex had been extremely realistic, after all.

"Haah~♡"

I summoned the sound of Ha-jeong's moan in my head. As if it would stop at moans. I imagined her reading through the novel I'd written while touching herself.

I pictured Yeon Ha-jeong slipping a hand into her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠panties, rubbing her clit with her middle and ring fingers, imitating Ji-min's moans.

Lately, I'd been rereading Human Guilty from cover to cover now and then — recalling the atrocities the real-life Han Yu-jae had committed, the true events beneath the novel's surface. Yes. Never forget my sins. In a way, I read that novel with a mindset you might even call holy.

But what about now? Here I was, reading it while imagining the young girl upstairs masturbating. That's not what this novel is for. That's not why I've left it undeleted all this time.

A deep sigh escaped me. And at the same moment, my cock — which had been slowly, lazily stroked all this while — leaked a sticky bead of pre-cum.