The Transparent Man Opens His Eyes
The end of the company dinner was always my spot.
Right next to the large speaker, no matter how loudly people burst into laughter, my name was never mentioned once. It was a strange angle.
It was my clear position, pinned in the organization's dark corner.
Han Si-woo. Twenty-five.
Only on the name tag did it say "Assistant Manager" in a flashy way, but in reality, my presence was even less than that of a new hire who just started this morning.
The first meat restaurant near the company was already over.
Seo Jae-won was scratching his card, showing off, and the team members were happily standing up saying let's go to the second one, while I was fiddling with my bag strap in the corner.
If I didn't go, I'd stand out and be noticed. Going was the natural air of this suffocating organization.
The invisible man with no presence was just silently following the flow of that air.
As we entered the dark alley, the smell of oil stung my nose.
I didn't remember the second store. It was a worthless place that didn't even need to be remembered for me.
The moment Seo Jae-won claimed the head seat at the table, the movement and seating of the people naturally arranged themselves.
Seo Jae-won, twenty-seven.
Even though he was a peer in joining the company with me, he was already the face of our team and acting as the real power.
That guy would lift his glass just a little and the people around him would naturally burst into laughter.
I was sitting boringly outside the barrier of that flashy laughter, secretly sipping soju.
Seo Jae-won: Eun-seo. Here. Have another drink.
Upon Seo Jae-won's call, Ha Eun-seo extended a thin, white glass with a bright smile.
Ha Eun-seo, twenty-three.
The freshest junior who joined our team the latest.
Her black hair smoothly reaching her shoulders, her white arms with the sleeves of her sky blue blouse gently folded up.
She was usually a haughty queen type, but only during dinners did her beauty shine even brighter.
But that bright beauty only poured towards Seo Jae-won, and didn't reach me at all.
As Seo Jae-won poured the alcohol and tilted the glass too much, the table slightly rocked.
The recoil caused Ha Eun-seo's smooth knee to slide wetly against my knee under the table.
Ha Eun-seo: Ah, sorry, senior.
The words were addressed to me, but her eyes were already bouncing towards Seo Jae-won.
Before I could mumble that it was okay, Eun-seo had completely turned her body towards the head seat.
This was my clear position in the company. It existed, but I was a person who wasn't chosen by anyone.
Seo Jae-won looked at me with a face full of alcohol and laughed "hehe".
Seo Jae-won: Si-woo is quiet today too. When it's a dinner, is it like a recorder? A doll?
The short sneer from Park, the senior at the next seat, was engraved.
It wasn't a malicious insult, but a habit that had always been like that.
Rather than openly cursing, this habit of ignoring was much more tedious and disgusting.
Eun-seo covered her mouth with her hand and gave a smiling eye to Seo Jae-won.
Ha Eun-seo: Senior is quiet, so it's rather comfortable. Senior Jae-won is too noisy, so it's a problem.
It sounded like praise, but the meaning was that humans are the same whether they have or don't have hidden intentions.
She emptied the glass at once. Soju was particularly bitter.
These words of ignoring had been accumulated since school days.
It doesn't take long for a person to be completely treated as a transparent man.
Just a few times of mechanical repetition was enough.
Eventually, the tangsuyuk side dish came up with the smell of fried food.
Seo Jae-won was showing off with chopsticks and distributing the side dishes to the subordinates like dotting them.
Ha Eun-seo, Park senior, and even the youngest. The most leftover messy meat bits were delivered to my plate last.
No one deliberately singled me out. It was just habitually skipping my existence.
Park senior pushed the glass towards Seo Jae-won and chimed in.
Park senior: This quarter, Si-woo worked overtime the most, right? But even in the dinner, there's no presence at all.
It was a word that was hard to tell if it was praise or open mockery. Seo Jae-won caught it meanly.
Seo Jae-won: Our Si-woo is for work mode only. The mode for dating people is gone from the head.
A light burst of laughter broke out on the table again. I ate the meat without saying a word.
Ha Eun-seo filled Seo Jae-won's glass with both hands and asked in a somewhat intimate voice.
Ha Eun-seo: Senior, do you have any special time this weekend?
Seo Jae-won: Of course. Why, are you trying to date with oppa?
Ha Eun-seo: Just. I was thinking of buying something delicious.
Just.
That small word seemed to be the most frequently exchanged flirtatious word at this dinner table.
Her coquettish gaze flew straight only towards Seo Jae-won sitting at the head seat.
I took out my phone with a bitter smile.
The company group chat was already being updated in real time with the glamorous photos taken at the second bar.
Seo Jae-won was propping his chin in the center, and Ha Eun-seo was smiling like a flower next to him.
My face was either half white on the edge of the frame or completely absent. No matter who took it, the result was always the same.
Ha Eun-seo leaned her body deeper towards Seo Jae-won.
Her white neck was exposed, and the sweet scent emanating from her skin was pushed close to my nose.
The seat for smelling that fascinating scent was not mine.
But my instinctive nose immediately noticed it.
The unique fragrance of a woman, floating above the dirty smell of the dinner table, sweet and slightly rough.
Every time Ha Eun-seo burst into laughter at Seo Jae-won's joke, that secret body scent was pushed thickly towards my face.
I was just roughly fiddling with the empty soju glass with my fingers.
Then, my mind suddenly flashed and completely emptied.
It was not a simple alcohol buzz or hangover.
The surrounding dirty noise and Seo Jae-won's murmuring were pushed back in an instant, and only Ha Eun-seo remained clearly in my vision.
Her slender fingers moving the glass, the cat-like eyes slightly raised when smiling, and that haughty gaze looking at someone else, not me.
My tenacious gaze stuck strongly like a magnet to that contemptible eye socket.
The moment the gaze touched, a strange sense of domination started from deep in the lower abdomen and ran down the spine.
The dark thoughts I didn't spit out extended like fingers and grabbed the brain of the woman over there in a strange feeling.
Not in the chest, but in the instinct near the genitals, deeper than that, a huge domination door opened.
There was no status window or crude system manual.
It was close to the feeling of a strong switch turning on in my brain.
Look at me.
But that arrogant sentence didn't die inside me, and it pierced through the air and went straight into Ha Eun-seo's head and stuck.
Although it wasn't visible, there was an absolute certainty that stuck stickily.
Ha Eun-seo's shoulder stopped first with a "thud".
Her white hand that was about to hand over the glass to Seo Jae-won remained strangely in the air.
And Eun-seo's eyes slowly turned back. Not towards Seo Jae-won sitting at the head seat, but exactly to me sitting in the far corner.
Her focus was matched a beat later.
Her lips were still smiling artificially towards Seo Jae-won, but her eyes were dazed and empty, losing focus.
It wasn't just drunk eyes. It was eyes as if bewitched by something.
Ha Eun-seo: ……Senior?
Eun-seo's voice was very small and delicate as she mumbled.
The table was still rolling noisily under Seo Jae-won's lead.
The crude laughter of Seo Jae-won and the person next to him was heard far away.
In that intense moment, I instinctively realized.
That I had executed the control I had earnestly wanted in my heart, and that the haughty woman had done it without knowing the reason.
No window flashing in front of my eyes. No ogling skill names like hypnosis or domination.
But at this moment, this was an immovable absolute law.
No matter how much that woman laughed loosely at another guy, as long as I kept my eyes wide open and dominated until the end, the gaze would definitely return to me.
And after returning, I could influence her body to some extent with my secret thoughts and make her move.
I had confirmed the great domination power on the dinner table.
Under the table, Ha Eun-seo's knee touched my knee again slightly outside.
Earlier, it had brushed and quickly fallen away by mistake. But now, it was completely in contact and didn't think of falling away.
The skin of her thigh felt through the thin stocking was abnormally hot.
As her breath came close to my shoulder, the sweet body scent became even more pungent.
Eun-seo didn't seem to know why she was sticking her body to this transparent man like me.
With a blank face, she was just staring at me intently.
I knew perfectly. That this woman's rationality was slowly collapsing in the net of my thoughts.
I had first extended the invisible hand of domination, and my domination instinct inside didn't dislike this situation at all.
I, who had lived as a transparent man in the corners of society and school for nearly ten years, had perfectly monopolized the gaze of others for the first time.
And the fact that the owner of that monopolized gaze was the haughtiest and most aloof Ha Eun-seo in our team gave an unusually thrilling catharsis.
Han Si-woo: Why are you staring so intently?
It was a provocative remark that the usual me would never say out loud. But today, my lips opened arrogantly first.
Ha Eun-seo blinked her big eyes. Her white cheeks quickly flushed red.
It was too perfectly timed to be just from alcohol.
Ha Eun-seo: No. Just…… Today's senior's eyes are a bit, strange……
Because of the hypnotic suggestion coming into my head, her expression was foolish, unable to choose the next words.
At that moment, Seo Jae-won turned his head sharply and interrupted with a stuffy voice.
Seo Jae-won: Eun-seo. What are you doing there? Your oppa's glass is empty. Fill it quickly.
Ha Eun-seo: Ah…… Yes, senior.
Eun-seo's answer was noticeably late, and more importantly, her hot body was still sticking to my knee like a magnet.
Even after I went to the bathroom for a moment, the situation didn't change at all.
Eun-seo's eyes were still fixed wetly on my side in the corner.
Even in the noisy situation where Seo Jae-won was shaking the soju bottle and forcing the next glass, Eun-seo's head was slightly tilted towards me.
If others glanced, they would think she was just drunk and her focus was loose.
But I knew exactly that it was not a simple buzz, but the sign of a female being slowly marinated in my domination desire.
The test of my ability was sufficient with two times. Stimulating it a third time seemed dangerous in this situation.
The sound of Park senior at the next seat taking out his phone and taking a photo for the group chat came.
The shutter sound tore the narrow room briefly. I instinctively turned my head to get out of the frame.
It didn't seem like my strange ability was the type that would be directly photographed on media.
But if Ha Eun-seo's abnormally lewd and unfocused eyes looking at me were captured in the photo, it could become troublesome evidence later.
Seo Jae-won: Si-woo, why is your complexion suddenly like that? Are you sick?
Seo Jae-won asked after putting down the glass.
It was not sincere concern for me, but a careless pinprick because the pleasant flow of the dinner was interrupted by my dark expression.
Han Si-woo: Just.
I returned the same lame "just" they liked to use.
But the light "just" thrown by Ha Eun-seo to Seo Jae-won and the heavy "just" that came out of my mouth were essentially completely different weapons.
Come closer.
With my mouth tightly closed, I gave a short and powerful command in my head.
Ha Eun-seo's delicate shoulder slid half a span closer to me.
She seemed to be pretending to lean her body to pick up the meat on the table, but there was no meat on the end of her chopsticks.
It was because her brain was responding only to my command and losing normal body control.
My heart inside started beating wildly.
It wasn't because of fear of the situation. If this overwhelming ability was real, the thrilling certainty that the power dynamics of this shitty company would completely reverse from tomorrow was first.
But if I got caught, everything would be over. The cool warning sentence rose in my head as well.
I'll only confirm this much today. I won't cross the line any further.
While I was thoroughly braking in my mind, the temperature of Ha Eun-seo's knee touching my thigh under the table kept stimulating my lower abdomen heavily.
Just before standing up to calculate, Ha Eun-seo suddenly pulled the glass next to me towards herself.
It was an empty clean glass with no content. Her face was bewildered, unable to control why she was taking my glass.
Ha Eun-seo: Eh? It's not my glass……
Ha Eun-seo awkwardly laughed small and put the glass back down.
At the same time, the tip of her slender fingers circled the glass rim thickly once.
The lewd movement of those fingers came into my view very slowly and clearly.
The final calculation was still handled by Seo Jae-won's card. It was the same landscape as always.
Seo Jae-won: Okay, second round over! Everyone worked hard, let's take taxis!
When we came out of the bar, the cool night air felt rather refreshing.
The streetlights in the dark alley only illuminated the people's faces white, and the rest buried in darkness.
The team members were busy taking out their phones and calling Kakao taxis.
At the exit of the alley, a cold night breeze blew fiercely.
Carrying that wind, a few strands of Ha Eun-seo's soft hair brushed past my shoulder line.
Smooth black hair reaching the shoulders. Her unique sweet body scent remained even more deeply on my whole body.
I stopped my finger when I was about to turn on the taxi app.
Because Ha Eun-seo was standing right next to me as if she had made a promise.
She was clutching the bag strap tightly with both hands, fidgeting and only checking my mood.
Ha Eun-seo: Senior.
Han Si-woo: What?
Ha Eun-seo: Home…… What's the address?
It was an unimaginably strange question in this organization.
Normally, after a dinner, everyone turns on their app and goes their separate ways, and no one asks about others' home addresses in detail.
Especially not to me, a transparent man in the company.
Eun-seo's eyes were still slightly empty, deprived of focus on me.
The artificial fox-like smile barely returned to her face, but at the bottom of that smile was a sticky, unknown longing towards me.
She didn't know the reason for her own actions either.
Her red lips opened and closed several times.
Ha Eun-seo: No, just…… Maybe because the way to my house overlaps or something.
It didn't overlap at all. Eun-seo knew the address clearly.
When settling the after-dinner costs for last month's team dinner, she had directly checked the residence history in my card statement.
Even so, she was making flimsy excuses to tie me somehow because her brain was marinated in hypnosis.
From far behind, Seo Jae-won called out loudly with a tongue-twisted voice.
Seo Jae-won: Eun-seo! This taxi is our way home! Get in quick!
Seo Jae-won: Ha Eun-seo. Why aren't you getting in? Oppa is waiting.
Ha Eun-seo: Yes……
Eun-seo left one last step towards me even while answering.
That lingering step that couldn't leave was the entirety of my perfect victory tonight.
Ha Eun-seo: ……See you tomorrow, senior.
The last words she left lingered strangely in my ears for a long time.
In the end, the taxis were taken separately by each person.
From the driver's seat radio, boring advertisement sounds flowed, and I quietly stared at the dark scenery outside the window.
The lights of the company sign in the distance quickly receded.
On my palm, the hot knee temperature from under the table where Ha Eun-seo had collided still seemed clearly remaining.
I thought it would be nice if all of this was just a temporary dream.
If it was a dream, when I came to work tomorrow, Eun-seo would treat me like a transparent man as usual.
The sense of exclusion that had always been like that was rather comfortable for my mind. It should have been comfortable.
But deep in my heart, the lame side that wanted to be comfortable as usual and the domination desire that wanted to completely break this woman and never be comfortable were fiercely coexisting.
The smartphone in my pocket vibrated heavily. The KakaoTalk preview screen floated to the top bar first.
[Ha Eun-seo: Senior, was I strange today?]
[Ha Eun-seo: But I don't know why…… Even when coming home, senior's thoughts keep coming to me.]
I stared at those sentences for a long time.
I hesitated whether to mark as read on this message, then eventually raised the top bar roughly and deliberately left it alone.
I didn't end up typing the reply. I just stroked the sentence of hers on the screen with my fingers as if caressing it.
Even when arriving at the dark one-room apartment, I didn't turn on the lights for a long time.
The action of taking off shoes and unbuckling the belt was unusually long and heavy compared to usual.
In my head, the empty eyes of the female who had been staring at me at the dinner table were replayed infinitely.
Beautiful eyes of the dominated one perfectly matched only to me.
Hypnosis Ability.
Only after sticking that grand word in my heart did my wandering story finally settle in place.
What was certain was that the bodies and minds of others moved obediently according to the direction and desires I wanted.
This vast world hadn't noticed my ability at all. Only I held this absolute power in my hand.
Only after entering the bathroom and turning on the shower hard did I realize that the tips of my fingers were slightly trembling.
The pouring water was hot enough to burn the skin, but my mind didn't become clear at all. It only became hotter with the heat of domination.
If Eun-seo treated me like a transparent man as usual when coming to the company tomorrow and smiling at Seo Jae-won, this thrilling event of today would be nothing more than a momentary illusion due to alcohol.
Conversely, if Eun-seo came to work tomorrow and begged with those empty eyes towards me again, tonight would be the great beginning of my great male harem.
Either way, I had become a body that could never forget Ha Eun-seo's lewdly unfocused eyes inside my head forever.
I turned the phone back on. The message from Ha Eun-seo on the screen was still floating alone without a reply. Clear two lines of begging.
Read-ignoring.
It was the miserable treatment that the usual lame me had received as if eating from those haughty women.
But tonight, the balance was exactly reversed, and I had the initiative to perfectly read-ignore that haughty woman.
The sweet taste of that power reversal stuck stickily at the tip of my tongue.
The moment I fully accepted that sweetness with my rationality, I couldn't deny the fact that I would use this great ability again at the company tomorrow.
It was a heavy night where sleep didn't come easily.
Staring quietly at the dark ceiling, I drew the dinner table scene from earlier in my head precisely again.
Seo Jae-won's crude sneer, the group chat photo Park senior uploaded, and Ha Eun-seo's empty eyes completely submissive under my domination.
Objectively, I was quite handsome. After showering and looking in the mirror, I clearly knew that fact myself.
But in this shitty company organization, that handsome face was of no use at all.
The sign of Seo Jae-won was always remembered first, and I was always called only by my name and surname in a neutral way as the last one in documents.
But tonight, what Ha Eun-seo saw was not my pretty face at all.
It was my great 'domination thoughts' itself that arrived first accurately in her brain.
If I had to give a name to this ability of mine, it would be closest to hypnosis.
No need for a ticking hypnosis clock or any grand preparation process of hypnosis. Just tenacious gaze and absolute submission thoughts.
Nevertheless, the result was more perfect than any hypnosis in the world.
Because the haughty person chose me as the only master without knowing the reason for their own actions.
I muttered while setting the alarm for tomorrow morning. Don't show it tomorrow. Confirm it one more time tomorrow. The two sentences were fighting each other.
The side that said confirm was a bit stronger. For the first time, the night remained without my words. I was scared of going to work tomorrow. At the same time, I was looking forward to going to work tomorrow.