How Our First Date Ended Up at an Adult Store (1)

So we hadn't taken a wrong turn at all. We'd come exactly where she meant us to.

From the start, Seolhwa had wanted to bring me to N.18 — a specialty adult shop, through and through.

"Ah… is that so…?"

"…Y-yes. Yeah."

Catching on to her intention a beat too late, I rubbed the back of my neck, suddenly sheepish. Seolhwa stole glances at me and fidgeted with the hem of her skirt for lack of anything better to do.

"…Ahem."

When I stayed quiet, embarrassment must have caught up with her; she cleared her throat, cheeks faintly pink, watching my face for a reaction.

That prim, quietly adorable look of hers made my heart thud for no good reason.

…Is it the outfit?

I knew perfectly well this wasn't normal — being invited into an adult store by a junior I'd only known by face for less than two weeks, someone I wasn't even dating. But maybe it was how fresh and soft she looked in that tennis skirt, because the thought of this kind of unconventional date didn't seem half bad.

Women's tennis skirts really did have some strange, underhanded magic that snagged a corner of a man's heart…

"D-do you… not want to go in…?"

Our first real outing together — our first destination just the two ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of us — and it was an adult shop. Something about that felt deeply off-kilter, but then again, our first meeting hadn't exactly been conventional either.

At this point, fretting over what was normal and what wasn't was pretty much meaningless.

"…Nah."

She'd worked up the nerve to suggest it, so turning her down felt wrong. And, to be honest, I was a little curious myself. I nodded easily.

"We can take a look…"

What exactly did they sell at the country's biggest adult store? I was genuinely interested.

"…R-really?"

Seolhwa's face lit up with a pretty smile she didn't even try to hide, and she looped her arm through mine — through my right arm. Something firm yet soft pressed against my triceps, a pleasant, unfamiliar sensation that made me glance at her before I could stop myself.

"Ah, sorry. I wore a bra because of the sports festival, so it feels a little hard, doesn't it?"

"…"

The weight of the contact was denser, sure — but she didn't need to apologize to me for that.

"Next time… should I take it off before I link arms…?"

"No. Just wear it."

She already drew stares everywhere she went with a chest that size. If she went around without a bra, people would notice for sure.

"And if you take it off again, I'll grab you right in front of everyone. Got it?"

"…Ah. Yes."

That was enough small talk. I pushed open the glass door. Whether because it was an adult shop or not, the ground floor — where anyone walking by could see in — held nothing at all: only a bare steel staircase leading straight up to the second floor.

As we climbed the spiral stairs, a simplified floor plan of the building appeared on the wall.

A floor for special nights…?

I was intensely curious what could be waiting up there to earn a description like that — but Seolhwa and I started with the nearest floor: Couples, on two.

The moment we stepped through the entrance, the interior opened up in a balanced blend of white and pink. There was also a large square steel cage. Beyond it sat a water bed of unclear purpose, with a pair of women's and men's underwear laid out on the sheets as if someone had just stepped out of them.

"Oppa, those panties… the staff didn't actually wear those and leave them there, right?"

"Well… probably not?"

It felt less like decor and more like a warning: past this bed, things only got more intense. My lips went dry for no reason at all.

Past the steel cage, the corridor bent in an L, and we came upon a bookshelf crammed with pink notebooks.

"What is this?"

"Hmm… notebooks, I think?"

Curious, I stepped closer and flipped one open. It was a kind of secret diary for couples.

When does your boyfriend look the sexiest? Which part of your girlfriend's body do you like best? What do you most want to do with your partner? Which positions do you prefer? How do you wish the other person would treat you…? The kind of things that are hard to say out loud, written down so you could show each other. A notebook designed with thoroughly suggestive intent.

Further pages held explicit sketches: little introductions of positions under the cheerful banner of Did you know there are positions like this too~? Looking at them made me quietly embarrassed. I glanced at Seolhwa — and of course our eyes met dead-on.

"…Ahem."

Her face was a little flushed, as if she'd been imagining something she shouldn't.

Pretending nothing was wrong, I closed the notebook and put it back. I was about to stroll past like it was nothing when Seolhwa, watching my face carefully, quietly slipped one into her bag.

"What are you going to do with that?"

"You never know. We might need it someday, right?"

She opened her tote, tucked the notebook inside, and murmured under her breath:

"…If things go well, we might even use it starting tomorrow."

"…"

I had nothing to say to that, so I just kept walking.

To get past the entrance proper, we had to prove we were adults. We each showed the clerk our IDs, and then we were truly inside.

Beyond a neon sign reading WAY TO L♡VE, the first thing we saw was row after row of boxes. From a distance the displays looked almost like a cosmetics counter — until you stepped close enough to read the product names, which were anything but ordinary.

"Onafit…? Oppa, what is this?"

As an example, Seolhwa turned over a box sealed in plastic packaging, saw the life-size illustrated diagram on the back, realized that "Onafit" was a type of male masturbation device — and nearly jumped out of her skin as she put it down.

"…Ah. Ah."

"…"

"W-why is this… here…? Ahem…"

…Cute.

She wrote novels full of hardcore training play. She was, by her own admission, a serious deviant. And yet simply ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠holding a male masturbation toy in her hands made her that flustered?

It sounded ridiculous, but maybe that was the gap between her usual behavior and this reaction. The Seolhwa I knew and the Seolhwa of a moment ago seemed so different that the difference itself was endearing — and I couldn't help a short laugh.

"W-why are you laughing?"

"Because you're being silly."

"…Ugh."

I couldn't exactly say I'd laughed because she was cute, so I softened it. She seemed to know she'd looked foolish herself; her lips pushed out in a pout. In that moment she looked every bit the twenty-year-old freshman.

Ah — not "like" a freshman. She was a freshman. Her earlier impressions had just been so intense that sometimes she barely felt like a junior at all.

"…Oppa, let's look somewhere else."

Slightly sulky, Seolhwa walked ahead without looking back at me. I followed at an easy pace, taking in the surroundings as I went.

"Hmm…"

Because this was the couples' floor, most of the products weren't divided by gender so much as meant for shared use. Love gels, mouth rinses, bath bombs for the tub, deep-red mood lights for setting a certain atmosphere…

Even without boxing them strictly as "adult products," there were plenty of things a couple might casually buy — and a few of them caught my interest. Like that display labeled Kiss Item!

I stopped mid-step and looked at the shelf with that slogan on it.

According to the copy, it was an oral spray you pressed into your mouth with a hydraulic button. The extra line of text was what really snagged my attention.

"…"

Blatant advertising.

I knew it was store tactics designed to prod men into buying. I knew that…

…And my hand was already holding the oral spray women supposedly loved most.

The price was reasonable, too. About sixty uses for twelve thousand won.

Two hundred won a spray…

Wasn't that incredible value?

"…I'm buying it."

Decision made, I slipped away from Seolhwa — who had gone on ahead — and paid for the oral spray at the register.

"That'll be twelve thousand won, sir."

"Here you go."

"Card received. Would you like a bag?"

"No, I'll just take it."

I took the card and the product, headed straight to the trial zone where you could try what you'd bought, and opened the packaging at once.

"Like this…?"

Click. Hiss—

I pressed the hydraulic button and sprayed into my mouth. A strangely sweet fragrance and taste bloomed, with a bright, clean note at the tip of my nose.

"Oh."

Felt good.

It was my first time using oral spray, but at this level I could use it for my own satisfaction even without Seolhwa in the picture. Before school, before recording sessions… maybe I should buy a few more and leave them at home?

Yeah. That settled it. I was turning around when—

"Oppa."

…Jesus. My heart.

Our eyes met. Why was she here? There hadn't been anyone nearby a second ago.

"What are you doing over here?"

"Huh? Ah, just… something…"

"What's that in your hand? What did you buy?"

"W-what are you talking about? I didn't buy anything."

I shoved the oral spray into my pocket and answered a beat late.

"…Hmm. Is that so?"

I must have looked a little shifty; Seolhwa eyed me with suspicion, but luckily she didn't press. She just gave my sleeve a light tug.

"Fine. You bought something, right? We've pretty much seen the second floor. Let's head up to three."

"I told you I didn't buy anything…"

I carefully settled the coat pocket, then followed her upstairs as if I were being dragged against my will. The third floor was the women's section. The floor space was similar to the second, but the layout was different.

From the looks of it, the left side sold self-care items and the like for boyfriends, while the right sold… those sorts of things for women.

"Oppa, where should we look first?"

"…You go ahead. I'll follow."

"Hmm. Okay then."

Given the choice, she thought for a second, then headed right while still holding my sleeve. I trailed after her. The products on the shelves came into view.

About half of them were dildos, vibrators, suction toys of unclear intended targets, and stimulators that looked ready to prod some very specific places — all of them brazenly explicit in design. The other half were tools so cute and whimsical they barely looked like adult products at all.

Is this… a rabbit?

I picked up an accessory shaped like a rabbit's head, one eye winked shut. I turned it over casually — and when I brushed the switch on the back, the rabbit ears began to vibrate with violent intensity.

"…Whoa!"

Startled. The vibration was stronger than I'd expected; I set it down in a panic. The rabbit head on the display twitched and juddered as if in postmortem rigor. It looked so much like a crawling insect that I flinched and couldn't bring myself to touch it again, until Seolhwa grabbed the rabbit head for me and switched it off.

"Ah… thanks."

"Don't mention it."

She put the rabbit head back in place and smiled as if it were nothing, so boldly confident that I almost fell for her all over again on the spot.

"But Oppa, you can't just grab things at random. Everything here is a vibrator."

"Huh? A vibe?"

"Not a vibe — a vibrator. A vibrating toy. The kind that starts buzzing when you flip the switch."

So this adorably designed rabbit head was a vibrator — a women's masturbation toy. Surprising, and at the same time curious. Did women actually use these in practice? Or were they just for show?

I was about to ask out of pure curiosity when Seolhwa picked something up and held it out for me to see.

"Oppa, look at this. Doesn't it look just like a soft-serve ice cream cone?"

"Yeah… it does. You can't eat it, right?"

"Pfft, why would you even ask that? It's a model, so of course you can't eat it."

We bantered as we examined it. Just as she'd said, it was shaped like a soft-serve cone — rounded and broad on top, pointed below — and it was labeled a Y-zone stimulator.

But Y-zone meant the groin, didn't it? How exactly, and in what manner, were you supposed to stimulate the Y-zone with something shaped like this?

"…"

I didn't want to know, and I had a feeling finding out would scar me, so I looked away. Seolhwa toyed with the ice-cream model in my place for a bit, then spotted something else and drifted toward it.

"Oh? So Womanizers come in styles like this these days."

"Womanizer? What's that?"

"Ah, you don't know? It's a toy that stimulates the clitoris. You just hold it lightly against the spot and press the button, and—"

We weren't alone on the third floor; other people were browsing. When Seolhwa started to demonstrate whatever a Womanizer was against her lower belly, I quickly caught her wrist and stopped her.

"Seolhwa."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

I jerked my chin toward the people watching, signaling that we had an audience. Only then did she notice the stares; her face flushed with embarrassment.

"Ah— ah, sorry. I just… without thinking…"

"…Let's go."

The couples and women on the third floor were looking at us like monkeys in a zoo. Unwilling to draw any more unnecessary attention, I snagged Seolhwa's wrist and headed straight up to the fourth floor.

True to a name that declared itself a world for men, the fourth floor hit us the moment we stepped inside with interior design aimed straight at the male psyche. Blue-lit walls, and in one corner a boxing ring. They'd even hung a pair of boxing gloves on the ropes, trying for a touch of realism.

"Whoa… there are boxing gloves…?"

Looking closer, they were eight-ounce gloves. How long had it been since I'd seen a real pair? A quiet fondness rose in me as I stepped closer and touched them. Seolhwa seemed to catch some of that interest; she glanced at my profile from beside me.

"Oppa, do you like boxing and that kind of thing?"

I'd even trained in it — of course I liked it.

When I said I'd done it for about three years, she looked so surprised I must have caught her off guard.

"Really? Oppa, you trained in boxing for three years?"

"Yeah. Why? Sound like a lie?"

"Ah— no. It's not that. It's just… it finally makes sense."

…So he really did work out, Seolhwa murmured, cheeks faintly pink. I huffed a quiet laugh and led her farther inside.

At a glance the interior of the fourth floor looked a bit like a cosmetics shop, or maybe an Instagram-aesthetic café — until you stepped up to those brightly colored boxes, wondering what was inside, and found, sure enough, adult products.

"Why are the condoms so colorful…?"

The designs were nothing like the ones you saw in convenience stores. The boxes were so pretty I'd almost taken them for gum or candy, but reading carefully with the box in hand, they were ultra-thin condoms.

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠flavor was listed as strawberry. Who exactly was tasting condoms that they needed to make them strawberry-flavored? I muttered to myself in disbelief and set it down.

"So they make them like this now…"

"They didn't used to?"

"I don't really know. Isn't it usually a scent, not a flavor?"

Not that I'd ever used one carefully enough to know. As I answered while studying the condoms, Seolhwa let out a subtle little snort of air.

"I see. So Oppa doesn't really know either…"

"Yeah. I don't."

"…Pfft."

"…?"

Why was she laughing?

Anyway, we moved past the condom display and wandered, looking around. True to a men's floor, they had every kind of adult product imaginable.

From the one-handed toys better known to the general public as "onaholes," to ones molded as a woman's hips, half-body models that included thighs and waist, and farther in, in a section labeled secret zone, full-body models dressed top to bottom in racy outfits.

"Whoa… that's something…"

This mannequin — or rather, what people called a real doll — built from head to toe, looked expensive at a glance. How much would something like that even cost?

Curious, I reached to check the price tag, lifting the edge of the skirt a little — and at that exact moment, my eyes met Seolhwa's.

"…"

"…"

She looked at me with an expression that was hard to put into words.

A little embarrassed, I pulled my hand back and turned away as if nothing had happened.

"Oppa."

Then her voice came from behind me. I turned on reflex.

"…Ta-da."

Whoosh—

…Huh?

My eyes went wide before I could stop them. Seolhwa had flipped up her tennis skirt and bared what was underneath.

Below the rolled-up pink hem: pale, smooth thighs, and a black string panty of a thoroughly wicked design, just barely on display.

"…Heh."

It was an outrageously sexy sight. Looking at Seolhwa, who was smiling as if she were the one embarrassed, I realized a beat late: she had shown me under her skirt on purpose.

"…"

The design of those string panties was so shameless that I stared, blank-minded, until she casually lowered the hem again.

Then, as if nothing at all had happened, she cleared her throat with a prim little expression and took a step toward me.

"Oppa."

"…Yeah?"

"I heard the fifth floor has even more interesting things…"

"…"

"…Want to go together?"