Seolyahan (6)
I told her to follow me for now, but as we stepped out of the coffee shop I glanced at my watch and saw it was already around ten in the morning. I had a second-period lecture, and the professor who taught it was notoriously strict—obsessive about attendance.
Even during orientation he’d announced that missing a single day meant a grade deduction; missing two would bring serious consequences. Scoring well on the midterms and finals might make the penalty bearable, but I had a separate career and couldn’t pour hours into exam prep.
School grades, or taking care of this completely unhinged Seolhwa.
My grades already looked shaky; I couldn’t afford to tank them further. At the same time I couldn’t just abandon Seolhwa with her half-lidded, dazed eyes. So I chose the compromise that merged both options.
A quick check showed her second period was free, so I simply brought her straight to the lecture hall with me.
In a class of only twenty, a brand-new face might have prompted the professor to ask who she was. Whether he failed to notice or simply didn’t care, he luckily let it slide. And so I managed to sit through second period without incident.
“……Phew.”
Lecture over. Current time: eleven o’clock.
I packed my textbook and heaved a long sigh. It felt like a whole week had crawled past, yet it was still only eleven in the morning. Why did today feel so endless? Every part of me wanted to go home and collapse, but grades made that impossible.
“Hey, Hoyeong.”
Someone tapped my shoulder. I turned and found a familiar face—my college friend Kim Hyenseok, the guy with the decently handsome features.
Hyenseok jabbed a thumb toward the seat directly behind me, the very last row.
“Who’s that? She’s been staring at the back of your head this whole time.”
“Ah, someone I know. Junior in our department—don’t you recognize her?”
I brushed it off and shot a quick glance backward. Maybe she was sulking because I’d left her alone for a full hour; Seolhwa was boring a hole through me with slightly flushed cheeks.
“Nope, don’t know her. You two dating?”
“……I told you she’s just someone I know. Dating? Come on.”
“Nah, doesn’t feel like it. Something’s going on between you two. Otherwise why drag a freshman all the way here?”
As if urging me to come clean, Hyenseok jerked his chin toward Seolhwa and started kneading my shoulder. Feeling a little called out, I overreacted and shot to my feet.
“I said no. Look, I’m heading out first.”
“Not grabbing lunch together today? Ah—going just the two of you with her?”
“Yeah, prior plans. Catch you this afternoon.”
“What, for real? I knew there was something!”
“No, there isn’t! Does eating together once automatically make you a couple?”
If that were true, single people would be the rare ones. I scolded him with a straight face before I could stop myself, and Hyenseok only grinned slyly.
“Yeah, everyone starts out saying no just like you. But you know what?”
“What now?”
“From experience, after about a week the KakaoTalk profile picture suddenly becomes……”
“Hoyeong, Hyenseok?”
A bright, clear voice cut in. I turned and saw a third-year senior from our department—Yuri noona. We shared the same club, so I’d run into her a few times off-campus; the face wasn’t unfamiliar.
“Oh, hello, Yuri noona.”
“Hey, Hyenseok. You were with Hoyeong?”
“Yes, our schedules line up. Were you just passing by?”
“Mm-hmm. Heading to lunch and spotted you two……. Ah, are both of you free? Want to grab lunch with noona?”
The senior glanced my way and asked lightly.
I was about to decline politely when Hyenseok planted a hand on my shoulder.
“Noona, come with me. This guy already has plans with his girlfriend.”
“……Huh? Girlfriend?”
Startled, the senior blinked and repeated the word.
I gently knocked Hyenseok’s hand away, silently telling him to shut up.
“She’s not my girlfriend—stop saying that.”
“Right, not yet. Not yet.”
“Ah, so Hoyeong had a girl he’s seeing……?”
I’d been on the receiving end of some one-sided perverted villainy, but I seriously doubted that counted as dating. Probably not.
I shook my head awkwardly and tried to deny it.
“Um, well……”
“……Oppa?”
No—I was about to deny it. If only the person who had suddenly closed the distance hadn’t whispered right behind me.
Ah, that scared me……
I flinched and spun around. Of course it was Seolhwa standing there. Hyenseok and the senior both stared with round eyes; Seolhwa never even glanced at them. She only looked at me.
“Class is over. Aren’t we going to eat?”
“Ah—yeah. We should. What do you feel like? Anything you want?”
“Hey, hi? I’m Hoyeong’s friend Kim Hyenseok. You’re a first-year, right? I’m second-year.”
Hyenseok cut in and addressed Seolhwa directly.
For the briefest second Seolhwa looked at him with an expression that clearly said What is this?, then politely dipped her head.
“Yes, hello. Senior Kim Hyenseok.”
“Uh, you don’t need the ‘nim’…… Just Senior Hyenseok is fine.”
“──Senior Kim Hyenseok, I’m sorry but I’m a little busy. If you don’t have any particular business, may I take Oppa with me?”
The reply was purely professional, so stiff it radiated distance and left even me standing next to her feeling oddly embarrassed.
It felt exactly like: I’ll answer because you spoke, but I have zero interest in talking to you.
Hyenseok seemed to catch the same vibe; he nodded, flustered.
“Ah, yes. Take him…… away.”
“Yes. ……Oppa, let’s go.”
Seolhwa flicked a quick glance at the third-year senior, curved her lips into a strange little smile, then firmly seized my wrist and pulled me out of the lecture hall.
The corridor was packed with students on break, and every single one of them stared at us. A bright-haired girl boldly leading a guy twenty centimeters taller by the wrist made for a pretty unusual sight; that had to be why.
Past the spiral stairs and the landing, out of the department building, Seolhwa dragged me somewhere quiet and deserted.
“……Oppa.”
Deep inside a secluded alley she finally stopped, released my wrist, and spun around.
“Why were you talking to another woman?”
“Huh? What?”
“Leaving me alone—why were you talking to another woman? ……Isn’t Oppa my Master?”
“No, Seolhwa, what are you even——”
“If you’re my Master, you’re supposed to look only at me. So why weren’t you talking to me and only talking to other women?”
“……”
My head nearly blanked for a second, but the moment I remembered I was dealing with the severe masochistic erotica writer Seolhwa, sanity snapped back into place.
……Stay calm.
This junior might look perfectly normal on the outside, but inside she was a full-blown masochist. Trying to reason with her would only cost me; when handling Seolhwa I needed to stay cool while also being a little unhinged. Wasn’t there a famous saying for this exact situation?
If you can’t avoid it, enjoy it.
“……”
No, that might not quite fit.
Anyway, after thinking it through the entire lecture, I had reached my own conclusion. Time to put that conclusion into practice.
I called her name softly and looked down at her.
“Seolhwa.”
She must have sensed the shift in my tone; she flinched and lifted her eyes to mine.
“……Yes.”
“Listen. No matter who I talk to or what I talk about…… that has nothing to do with you, right?”
“I-It does have to do with me!”
“Why?”
“O-Oppa is my Master. So Oppa should only with me……”
“No.”
I cut her off, raised my right hand near her face, and lightly tapped her cheek with the outer side of my index finger.
“It’s the opposite.”
“……Yes?”
“I’m Seolhwa’s Master. Seolhwa isn’t my Master. ……Which means Seolhwa has to look only at me. But I can talk to other women just fine.”
She looked stunned, murmuring with eyes full of pure injustice.
“Th-That…… seems really unfair……”
“Yeah, it is unfair. But this is what you chose, Seolhwa.”
“Yes…… yes?”
“You asked me to become your Master. So you have to accept me acting like this, don’t you?”
It was a pretty trashy thing to say.
But I wasn’t actually declaring that I planned to meet other women. This wasn’t my real feeling at all—it was pure shock therapy for Seolhwa’s sake.
If I deliberately played the low-quality guy and made her disappointed enough that her obsession cooled or vanished entirely, she could go back to writing. Win-win, right?
I would get to enjoy her novels in peace; she would keep writing; everyone else involved would keep making money as planned.
Of course Seolhwa would end up with bad feelings toward me…… but that was my burden to carry.
……I do feel bad, though.
For Seolhwa’s sake—for the author I loved more than anything—there was no other way.
I had to take the villain role.
Steeling myself, I lightly gripped her chin.
“I’ll say this first: I won’t treat you as an equal. You go when I say go, come when I say come. Bark when I tell you to bark. Why? Because you’re going to belong to me, and I’m going to be your Master.”
“……”
“I hate people who change their minds halfway the most. So if you don’t have the confidence to live like that for the rest of your life, give up right now. Seolhwa. I’ll at least nod if we pass each other on the street.”
Wow, that was genuinely trashy……
Even I was disgusted with myself. From Seolhwa’s side it must have sounded like the words of an irredeemable piece of garbage.
I might have gone too far, but surely this would make her give up on me.
……Or so I thought.
“……Hic.”
A short moan slipped from her lips.
Right after, I saw the lower half of her jeans growing damp.
……What.
Why was there suddenly a wet stain? Panicked, I jerked my gaze upward.
“……Haa, hooo.”
The way she looked at me was strange.
Breath ragged, eyes glistening, cheeks flushed scarlet…… the face of a girl fallen head-over-heels in love.
“Haang, hoo, hooooot……”
“……Seolhwa?”
No—it was the face of an excited bitch in heat.
A chill ran down the back of my neck. I tried to let go of her chin, but—
—Grab.
She seized my wrist and held it in place.
“Oppa, me……”
“……W-Wait a second.”
Where did those slender arms get this kind of strength? She pinned me—a full-grown man—so thoroughly I couldn’t move.
Still gripping my wrist, she leaned in close and whispered stickily.
“……I think I like Oppa even more. No…… I think I’ve fallen in love.”
“……”
“Oppa, won’t you touch me……?”
She hooked her fingers into the waistband of her jeans, tugged it open just enough, and guided my hand toward the gap.
The flash of black underwear stole my attention. I almost touched her as if under a spell—then stopped myself at the last second.
Secluded or not, we were still outside. Doing something like that where anyone could walk by would be a disaster.
More importantly, if I laid a hand on her here my whole plan would go sideways. I snapped back to my senses and pulled my hand away.
……I prepared for this possibility.
Even after all those trashy words and actions, there was always a chance she wouldn’t give up. I had a contingency ready.
I hadn’t wanted to go this far, but there was no choice left. Time for plan B.
Looking into her excitement-clouded eyes, I asked quietly.
“You want me to touch you?”
“Yeess, yes—I want you to touch me as roughly as possible……”
“──Then serialize the novel.”
“……Yes?”
“Girlfriend TA. Post the latest chapter. Then I’ll touch you however you want.”
“Ah, no…… That—I can’t do it right this second……”
“……Hey, Seolhwa.”
I took her chin again.
She startled, eyes darting as she met my gaze.
“I’m your Master, right? And you’re going to ignore your Master’s order?”
“Ah, no, th-that is…… Th-That’s…… Ah, it’s just not possible right now……”
“I don’t care about ‘not possible.’ If you want me to touch you, somehow get the next chapter out. Otherwise I won’t lay a finger on you.”
“Ah, aaang…… Oppaaa, that’s too……”
When I delivered the cold verdict she clutched my collar in frustration and stamped her feet.
I mercilessly let go and stepped back.
“Seolhwa. Write one chapter and I’ll touch you however I want for ten full minutes.”
“……T-Ten minutes? Really, really?”
“Yeah. Ten minutes. But if you can’t even manage one chapter? Then I will never touch you. No matter what happens—I won’t. We can even bet on it.”
“……!”
The terms were ridiculously one-sided, yet they seemed to work on her like a miracle drug.
Life flooded back into those hazy, wet eyes. She shifted her feet restlessly, looking ready to sprint off any second.
“Ah, okay! Then after class—no, right now, I have to start immediately……!”
“Wait, Seolhwa.”
“O-Oppa! Don’t stop me—I need to get home right this second——”
“You’re going home looking like that?”
I pointed with my eyes at the thoroughly soaked crotch of her jeans. She looked down, checked herself, and went scarlet to the roots of her hair.
“Uh, uh? Why—why is it like this……”
“……Hold still.”
I unbuttoned my shirt, shrugged it off, wrapped it around her waist, and knotted the sleeves.
It roughly hid the wet patch, but she still looked mortified, muttering with even her ears burning red.
“Th-Thank you, Oppa……”
“Where’s your place?”
“Yes? Yes?”
“I asked where your house is. Is it close?”
“Ah, no. About forty or fifty minutes by taxi…… it takes.”
“Round trip almost two hours. You have afternoon classes?”
“Yes, at one o’clock.”
It was around eleven-thirty now. Catch a taxi, change clothes, catch another taxi back—she’d either barely make it or end up late.
Seolhwa cared about her grades too, so a reckless gamble was worse than a safe plan that got her to class on time.
“Follow me. Let’s go.”
“Yes? Wh-Where are we going?”
“Where else.”
I shoved my phone into my pocket and took a step forward.
“My place.”
“Yes? O-Oppa’s house……? Me, going to Oppa’s house……?”
“……Don’t start imagining weird things. Not that kind of meaning. You’re in that state, so we’re going so you can clean yourself up, got it?”
“Ah, underst——! Khung, understood, Oppa……!”
“……”
The little smirk she just flashed made me uneasy for no good reason.
……It’ll be fine, right?