Promotion
Ever since Miju had been dragged off by Jumi in what had felt like the blink of an eye, she had been enjoying herself in a dazed kind of happiness.
Long before that ever happened, Miju had already been told what her role was supposed to be. She also knew that someday, when the time was right, something like this would happen.
So when things suddenly started moving so fast, she was a little thrown off, but not enough to worry. She did feel a faint reluctance at the thought of having to show her body, but that too had vanished almost immediately.
She hadn’t believed Jumi completely. She wasn’t naive enough to place her trust in something that had simply appeared out of nowhere one day.
Even so, the reason she had followed along without a single complaint was simple: it sounded fun.
She decided to treat it like an event that had suddenly dropped into her otherwise dull twenty-three-year life and enjoy it to the fullest.
And now that she had finally experienced it, she understood.
"This is insane!"
Miju realized she had known nothing at all about pleasure until now.
Whatever she had felt during those few experiences had been wiped clean from her mind with a single gesture.
And she had made up her mind.
"I’m never letting this go. No matter what happens, I’m holding onto it."
She wanted to keep enjoying that mind-blowing feeling for as long as she possibly could.
And honestly, that alone was enough to satisfy her.
But then…
- Why do you look so pretty today?
- Yeah, seriously. You seem a little different from usual.
- Did you change your cam? Or is it a filter?
The moment she turned on her live stream, people immediately started showering her with compliments about her looks.
Miju was a YouTuber and internet broadcaster.
At first, she had streamed without a cam, putting on broadcasts that were so far down in the gutter nobody could even find them properly.
But not long ago, she had switched on her cam on a whim, and the stream had exploded, quite literally.
After that, her game streams—run by a gorgeous woman with an exceptional body who did whatever she wanted—had grown at a frightening speed.
Thanks to that, her YouTube channel had surpassed one hundred thousand subscribers, and her live streams now pulled in anywhere from a few hundred viewers to nearly a thousand after that day.
The trouble was that Miju did everything exactly as she pleased, so the atmosphere in chat was much the same.
To put it simply, it was a broadcast where Miju and the viewers were too busy teasing each other to do anything else.
Her game skills weren’t all that great either, so they spent every day bickering back and forth.
And yet today, those same viewers were praising her appearance.
She had noticed herself that something about her had changed, but hearing other people point it out made her giddy.
"Guys, listen. I actually… didn’t even put on a filter today?"
- ??????
- ??????
- ??????
"And I didn’t do any makeup either!"
- You never do.
- Like there’s ever a time you do…
- I’ve literally never seen you wear makeup.
"Ah, whatever. I really do look that different?"
Lines of huhhhhhhh flooded the chat.
The question of what on earth had happened came up just as often.
And every so often, a snide remark about whether she had gotten some kind of injection slipped in too.
"What injection? Do you think just getting stuck with something makes you instantly better? I only got some massage or whatever. It was kind of like chiropractic work, and after that I ended up like this."
There were people who refused to believe her.
"If you don’t want to believe me, then don’t. I’m not the one who loses anything."
She didn’t care whether they believed her or not.
After all, the people typing in chat were strangers who had nothing whatsoever to do with her real life.
Men weren’t needed at all.
But then a chat message appeared in a different color.
It was from an older female broadcaster she had gotten to know recently.
- You really only got a massage?
"Yeah. I’m telling you, that’s all it was."
- Wow… sounds like the person’s insanely skilled.
While talking with her, Miju suddenly had a thought.
This could work.
Jumi had told her to find another woman who might be a match.
Another woman who could experience what Miju had experienced.
In return, she had been promised a reward. One part of that reward was the right to use it whenever she wanted.
At first, she’d thought, What kind of reward is that? But not anymore. It was more than enough.
She had also been told there would be a financial reward as well.
But money… honestly, it didn’t matter that much anymore.
If she needed cash, she could always make it some other way.
She had been planning to introduce one of her acquaintances.
She figured she could connect one of the women around her who was at least somewhat attractive and had some interest in that sort of thing.
They might be horrified at first, and maybe even curse her out, but once they tried it, she was certain they’d end up just as hooked as she was.
But her conversation with the older streamer changed her thinking a little.
"Should I just promote this on stream?"
Even after the broadcast ended, she thought it over calmly, and the idea didn’t seem bad at all.
"If I promote it as something really famous in that scene from the start… I might get lucky and draw someone in."
It was a pretty half-baked prediction, but if one person and then another bit, maybe something would come of it.
"Should I ask Jumi first?"
She was still mulling it over when the older woman who had shown interest during the stream sent her another message.
- Could you introduce me to that masseur?
The message had come in through a one-on-one chat window.
This older sister really did seem interested.
- Maybe?
- Um… is it expensive?
- A little, yeah.
She remembered what Jumi had said.
The words she had spoken when Miju had just woken up after fainting, and the promise that she would let Jun-young play baseball as a hobby.
That was why she had said it was expensive, but…
- How much is it?
She had no idea what number to give her.
Miju had never actually received a massage before, so she didn’t even know the going rate for something basic.
But she couldn’t keep hesitating forever.
- About ten million won?
- Gasp. How many sessions would that be for?
- Just one.
"Is one million too much?"
Honestly, compared to the effect and the pleasure, one million seemed far too cheap.
But she had never heard of anyone paying that much for a massage, so she’d just written down something that felt roughly right.
Still, seeing the older woman’s reaction, she began to wonder if she had quoted too much.
"Even so, I should probably be getting a million… huh?"
Only then did she realize she had added an extra zero.
There was a reason the older woman had been shocked.
Ten million won for one massage.
Now that she knew she had typed an absurd amount, she hurried to explain her mistake, but…
- It’ll definitely work, right? From the way you look, it seems good.
"Is this woman insane…"
She was actually considering throwing ten million won at a single massage.
And Miju thought maybe she didn’t need to correct her after all.
- I could probably just spend a little less on games…
"Right. This sister has a different sense of spending."
She was one of those older streamers who drew in several times more viewers than Miju did.
Once she started spending money on games, burning through ten million won in a day was nothing unusual.
So it made sense that she would think it was worth trying, as long as it wasn’t a scammer.
- If I decide to go ahead after thinking about it, could you make a reservation for me?
- Of course!
- Okay. I’ll contact you again.
- Yep~
"It worked…"
She had said she would think about it, but Miju could tell.
This older woman had already taken the bait.
The promotion had worked.
And it had worked far more easily than she had ever imagined.
All she’d done was stream as usual, and somehow it had turned out like this.
And she was even getting ten million won for it.
"A financial gain, huh…"
Now she was getting greedy.
Her body was enjoying itself, and she was making money too—if that was the case, then promotion… hell, she could do that all she wanted.
"Damn it… I don’t have her contact info."
She wanted to brag about it right away, but she had no way to reach her.
The only thing she could do was wait for Jumi to come find her.
Or go look for her at home.
She quickly pulled up the baseball schedule on a portal site.
"Away game…"
He wasn’t home.
* * *
We had come to Busan for the remaining games of the season.
I’d been lying in the hotel bed, about to go to sleep, when I suddenly felt the sensation of someone staring at me. I opened my eyes, and there was Jumi, watching me intently.
"Jesus, you scared the hell out of me! What?"
Jumi had never followed me on an away trip before.
There was no reason for her to come, anyway. I wasn’t sharing a room alone, and I had no intention of talking with her in front of anyone else.
And yet here she was.
From the look on her face, it didn’t seem like she’d come for anything bad.
"Why are you here?"
"A reservation got booked."
"A reservation? What the hell—wait, don’t tell me?"
"Yeah. That’s right. Miju did a good job."
"Yeah, I see that. Faster than I expected."
I had no idea what she’d done to make this happen so quickly.
I wanted to know, but this wasn’t the place to ask for details.
If I kept talking too long, I might wake the guy sleeping in the room.
And if that happened, I’d at least be treated like a crazy bastard.
But Jumi still had more to say.
"The price got set too."
"Huh? You’re getting paid?"
"Of course. I told you I’d make a lot of money for you."
"You did… so how much?"
"Ten million won."
"…What???"
I practically screamed.
Ten million won.
The number was so far beyond anything I’d imagined that it came out of me before I could stop it.
My annual salary had only just barely crossed into the hundred-million-won range.
And she was talking about ten million won.
Considering Miju, it probably wouldn’t even take an hour.
And yet she was saying ten million won.
"What is it? What happened?"
Of course, I woke him up.
"Sorry, hyung. Go back to sleep."
"Ah, damn… you startled me."
"Yeah. Sorry."
Fortunately, he lay back down and tried to sleep again, and I slipped quietly out of the room.
Only after I reached the hallway and held my phone to my ear as though I were on a call did I get the chance to talk to Jumi again.
"Does that even make sense?"
"Why wouldn’t it? It’s more than I was expecting too, but… if someone’s willing to pay it, what can I do?"
"Hah… seriously…"
"It’ll be harder than last time. I told you before, didn’t I? I said Miju was weak."
"Oh, right."
"It might take a long time for other people. The more messed up their body is, the more trouble they’ll be."
So it didn’t look like it would take just an hour, the way I had thought.
Still…
"It’s ten million won, though. Heh."
At that price, I could grin and bear just about anything.
Besides, I’d get something out of it too.
Then a thought suddenly crossed my mind.
Could I really enjoy it?
Or had I only enjoyed it because it had been Miju?
What if I met someone whose tastes were completely different from mine?
"From where I’m standing, she looks pretty good."
"What? You know who it is?"
"Yeah."
Jumi let me see who my next partner would be.
It was simple. All I had to do was look up the woman’s old broadcasts.
And when I checked…
"Oh…"
Not bad.
No, she was more than good enough.
Good enough to make me lose sleep from anticipation.