The Black Cat
The dark one-room apartment was lit by nothing but the bluish glow of the monitor.
"Aah! Aaaah......!! Ah, aah!"
Squelch, slurp, smack—!
The embarrassing moans pouring from the speakers and the wet, sticky sounds of flesh slapping together filled every inch of the cramped room.
The man and woman on screen had already gone far beyond the sixty-nine position. They were tangled in some bizarre, unidentifiable pose, sweating furiously as they moved.
Bathed in the blue light radiating from that monitor, Seola and I sat side by side, quietly taking in the scene.
"......Tsk."
I rubbed my chin, unconsciously clicking my tongue.
"I didn't notice when I was just watching, but now that we're actually planning to film the same thing ourselves, I have to admit Master Ken's professionalism is no joke. Wait, can humans even do that??"
Muttering to myself, I whipped my head to the side.
Seola was kneeling neatly on the floor, eyes glued to the screen without blinking once. Her eyes were wide as dinner plates, as if she were watching a crucial major lecture.
Drop—.
Soon, as if she'd come to a decision, Seola clicked the mouse and paused the video. In the sudden silence, she turned her head and stared straight at me.
"Hey."
"Y-yeah."
"But...... like I said before, are we really doing that? Exactly like that?"
Her voice was thick with clear embarrassment and helplessness.
I glanced at the frozen acrobatics on the screen, then wiped a hand down my face as I answered.
"......In my opinion, wouldn't you get hurt doing that?"
The equipment test was finished, so this was a high-definition reference video we'd paid premium for ahead of the real shoot. The hardware—resolution, audio quality, autofocus—was perfectly set. These specs could easily match professional productions.
The problem was the performance of the "subjects" that had to appear on that high-definition screen.
Watching the actors' skillful movements, their camera-aware positioning, and the techniques that maximized visual stimulation, it was ridiculous to think two complete beginners could pull it off.
What good was pro-grade equipment when the people filming were just amateurs in a corner room?
"......Tsk. So this is the direction, after all."
I closed the video, clicked the mouse, and muttered.
"We can't do those kinds of acrobatics. The raw 'amateur' category seems like a better fit for us. Honestly, our first video had pretty much that vibe too. Actually, from the very beginning when we got drunk and messed up—"
"Hey!"
Seola suddenly thrust her palm out and cut me off. I flinched, but kept going anyway.
"No, what I mean is, that time when we were drunk—"
"Heyy!!"
"......What? Why!"
When I asked in bewilderment, Seola's face flushed bright red. She whipped her gaze away and shouted.
"A-anyway! I hate that amateur stuff! That creepy feeling like some random person filming crudely in their room is just the worst."
"......"
I gaped at her in disbelief. She was the one who'd caused the drunk accident in the first place, yet it seemed she'd completely forgotten.
"......Hey, we're going to mosaic our faces completely anyway. And you already did it all before—"
Zap—!
A sharp glare shot from Seola's eyes like a laser.
"Mosaic or not, I hate that unpleasant feeling itself! I just don't like it!"
"Ugh, you're so picky. Then how the hell are we supposed to film......"
I scratched my head roughly and grabbed the mouse again. Filming like pros wasn't possible with our bodies, and filming like amateurs didn't suit the actress(?)'s tastes.
'......Ah! Wait. What if we go for this instead?'
A thought suddenly flashed through my mind. I quickly pulled up the search bar, even running it through a Japanese translator, and typed in familiar keywords.
The moment I hit enter, an overwhelming flood of Japanese videos poured down like a waterfall—far too many to scroll through.
"......"
I swallowed hard, then switched the category to Korean and searched again.
The results were pathetic. There were almost no properly produced concept videos, just a handful of crude ones with abysmal view counts.
"Oh... this is it......"
My eyes sparkled like Columbus discovering a new continent.
Meanwhile, Seola, who was peering at the monitor beside me, saw the [Little Sister] keyword boldly ranked right next to "childhood friend" and shuddered, her face turning pale.
"Euu...... I really, really hate that."
Whether she wrinkled her nose in disgust or not, I ignored her and started briefing my brilliant business strategy.
"Hey, Baek Seola. I did a full analysis. In Korea, videos with clear 'concepts' or 'roleplaying' aren't popular at all. The market is practically nonexistent—it's all about raw, real stuff."
"So what? You're saying we should film with that childhood friend concept? We are actual childhood friends, though......"
"No, that's not what I mean."
I rested my chin on my hand seriously and turned to her.
"Do you know how to speak Japanese, by any chance?"
"......"
At the out-of-nowhere question, Seola stared at me blankly for a second, then let out a sigh as if it was ridiculous.
"......What, Japanese all of a sudden? Have you gone crazy?"
"No, the slice of the pie for concept videos in Korea is too small. Since we're filming anyway, we should target the home market where demand is guaranteed, mixing in a little Japanese to break in......"
I pointed at the screen, completely lost in my own serious marketing world as I muttered away.
Seola, who'd been watching me with my nose buried in the monitor spouting nonsense, eventually gave me a cold look like she was staring at a bug.
"......What kind of nonsense is this now?"
She shook her head in disbelief and walked straight out of the room.
Slam.
The sound of the door closing rang out especially cold.
"Haa......"
I leaned back in the now-empty chair and let out a deep sigh.
I'd seriously done market analysis and come up with a profit-maximizing strategy, but to Seola it must have looked like nothing but perverted delusions.
'Well, I did suddenly ask if she could speak Japanese like some AV actor, so I guess I deserved that.'
As I sat there alone, turning the next plan over in my head—
Click—.
The door opened again.
When I looked up, Seola—who had just stormed out—came back in with a face as red as a ripe apple. She was holding a small shopping bag.
"Hey, this......"
Seola hesitantly pulled some black fabric pieces from the bag and spread them out right in front of my eyes.
"......?!"
My brain shut down for a second.
Black lace, fluffy cat ears, and a long tail. It was unmistakably an adult cat costume.
With my eyes bulging, I stared back and forth between the fabric scraps hovering in the air and Seola's bright red face.
"......Ahem! No, last time...... Aack! Anyway!"
Seola let out a scream from sheer embarrassment and continued, huffing.
"Last time, when we used the underwear I brought, remember?"
'Ah, that cow-print underwear?'
The moment my mouth opened in pleasant recollection, Seola glared and yelled.
"Shut up!!! Don't say the name out loud!!"
"......"
"Anyway, we filmed it roughly with my phone and only the beginning part was left because of storage limits. It only captured up to the kiss and when you made me do that d-deepthroat thing."
"Yeah, that's right. But why bring that up?"
"That's what I'm saying. When you uploaded it, the overseas reactions exploded, right? Everyone was going crazy saying the concept was insane and asking when the next one was coming."
She was right.
Even though the quality was bad and the video was cut off midway, thanks to the clear "concept" and the [Busty Asian] tag I'd sneakily added, the foreign reactions had been hotter than ever.
Hundreds of comments like "Next level concept" and "Amazing tease" had flooded in.
"So...... I brought this because I thought something like this might be popular! Happy now?!"
Thud—!
Unable to handle the embarrassment, Seola hurled the black fabric in a fit of anger. It smacked me square in the face.
"Pfft...... Haha!"
I pulled the soft furry bundle off my eyes and burst out laughing. Seola furrowed her brows deeply, looking genuinely offended, and huffed angrily.
She must have thought I was mocking the item she'd seriously agonized over and brought.
"Sigh...... Okay, okay. You did good, you did good."
I calmed the puffing girl down and carefully examined the cat costume in my hands.
Cat-ear headband, choker collar, lace lingerie, and a long, fluffy black tail......
But as I fiddled with the tail, my fingertips caught a heavy, cold metallic sensation.
'......Huh?'
At the end of the leather tail was a shiny silver, round, blunt, water-drop-shaped metal weight attached firmly.
"......But what's this on the tail?"
At my mutter, Seola—who had been huffing until a second ago—couldn't contain her curiosity. She leaned in and peered at the object in my hand.
"Huh? What is it?"
She poked the metal piece innocently, without a hint of fear.
"No, why is this attached to the tail? Don't you usually pin it or tie it around the waist with strings? It's really heavy. What the heck?"
"......"
The moment I met her round, innocent eyes asking so naively, my mind went completely white.
This ergonomic design that was neither belt nor pin. To secure it to the body, it had to be inserted directly into a very secret and narrow "place." Thanks to my abundant theoretical knowledge, I knew exactly what it was.
The problem was how to explain it to innocent Baek Seola.
'......No, how the hell do I say this?'
The second I told sober Seola straight where this thing was supposed to go, today's shoot would be over before it began. She'd probably destroy my shins first, then throw the costume and lock herself in her room.
I swallowed the explanation that had risen all the way to my throat and secretly buried the heavy tail back into the costume pile.
'......Yeah, let's pretend I never saw this. Pass.'
"......Why? What is it?"
"Huh? Ah, no! It's nothing. The design's nice, really."
I awkwardly cleared my throat and played dumb.
"......"
Seola said nothing more. She snatched the costume to her chest and spun around.
Bang—!
The door slammed shut as if it would break.
I didn't add anything either. After more than ten years of experience, I knew the best move when she was this worked up and embarrassed was to just leave her alone.
Silently, I unfolded the tripod and started mounting the heavy camera I'd borrowed from Jinwoo.
"......Tsk. Why is this camera so heavy and massive?"
The performance was undeniably excellent, but the lens was the size of a cannonball, making it awkward to handle in such a small room.
'Once we have some breathing room, I should get a smaller, more portable camera too.'
I was struggling to adjust the height and angle when—
"Seola, are you rea—"
Bang—!
'The door's gonna break;;'
Before I could finish, the door burst open violently. I reflexively turned my head and froze solid.
Seola, now wearing the cat costume, stood in the doorway.
But her usual boldness was gone. She was hunched over, arms wrapped around herself as if trying to hide, fidgeting shyly.
And for good reason—the fabric was far smaller than expected.
The top barely covered her chest, and the lace bottoms were closer to decoration than actual underwear.
"......This is way too small. Did they make it in doll size or what?"
Seola's face was flushed bright red as she grumbled irritably. She twisted around, trying to check her backside, and added.
"Hey, and why is there nothing covering the back at all;; My butt's completely exposed. The design's seriously weird."
'......Ahem. That's because it's literally designed for exactly that purpose.'
I barely swallowed the reply that rose in my throat. But honestly, as embarrassing as it was, the visual impact was incredible.
I already knew she had a great figure, but seeing her in such an explicit costume... it suited her dangerously well.
"Uh...... It looks good on you, though."
"Really???"
"Yeah, for real. It suits you."
At my sincere answer, Seola let out a short "Haa......" and pressed a hand to her forehead.
Then, as if resigning herself, she trudged over to me.
That was when my gaze, which had been casually scanning her fully exposed backside, suddenly stopped.
'Wait a second.'
It was supposed to be a cat costume, yet the long black tail that should have been swaying from her hips was nowhere to be seen.
"Hey, where's the tail? Why didn't you put it on?"
At my question, Seola held up the problematic tail with a dumbfounded look.
"No, no matter how I look at it, this must have been shipped wrong. I checked the whole outfit—there's no hole or string to attach this thing. Even if I try pinning it, the metal weight at the end is so heavy it'll just droop. ......Must be defective. So annoying."
"......"
My mouth was itching to tell her. Based on my rich theoretical knowledge, I wanted to give her a very detailed explanation of exactly where and how to use that tail for the proper effect.
But...... the moment I said it straight to that innocent face, today's filming would definitely be canceled.
'......Sigh. Looks like we can't use this after all.'
I had no choice but to swallow the kind(?) explanation that had filled my mouth.
"......For now, just leave that over there."
"Huh? Okay. I'll put it on the desk."
Without any suspicion, Seola plopped the heavy tail onto the desk.
The water-drop-shaped metal piece hit the wooden surface with a heavy, dull thud.
"Whew, my setup's done too."
After double-checking that the camera's recording light was blinking properly, I took a deep breath and pulled off my t-shirt in one smooth motion.
"Huuup......"
Seola sucked in a sharp breath at the sight of my bare torso. Her gaze drifted down to my stomach, and she pouted.
"Hmm....... Hey, you should work out a little. Got it?? What happened to those defined abs? They were at least decent to look at."
"Ahaha....... I've been snacking on late-night food lately, so they've gotten a bit softer."
I scratched the back of my head awkwardly. It was true—eating well with her every day had blurred the sharp abs I'd maintained so strictly before.
"First, turn off the main light."
At my words, Seola quickly walked over and flipped the wall switch, plunging the room into darkness.
The moment everything went black, I clicked the switch I'd prepared in advance.
Flash—.
The filming light I'd bought with my emergency funds turned on, filling the room with a soft, sticky, atmospheric glow.
Against the dark background, Seola's pale skin in the cat costume stood out vividly—almost dangerously so—under the light.
The mood was perfect.
I slowly approached her as she sat on the edge of the bed.
The familiar scent of her shampoo and faint body odor washed over me.
Our distance narrowed until our breaths mingled. I wrapped my arms around her waist, about to kiss her deeply—
Tap—!
"......?"
Seola's hands reflexively pushed against my chest.
At the sudden rejection, I froze in an awkward position with my lips puckered, staring at her.
"Uh...... N-no, sorry......"
Seola seemed surprised at herself too. She panicked, eyes darting around.
This was the first time we were filming something this explicit in front of the camera, so she must have gotten extremely tense without realizing it.
'Well, that's understandable.'
"It's okay. Take it slow."
I gently stroked her trembling shoulders and whispered softly.
The kind touch seemed to ease her tension. She took a small deep breath and slowly wrapped her arms around my neck.
Adjusting my posture again, I gently pressed my lips over her red ones.
Smooch, smack...... .
In the quiet, lit room, the gradually wetter sounds of our kiss began to echo clearly toward the camera microphone.
