May I Call You Master? (1)
A pleasant end to the workday.
"Seoeun, come down in five minutes."
"Understood."
Leaving together would have drawn the wrong kind of attention, so we'd agreed to stagger our exits by five minutes.
"See you next week."
Maybe it was the simple fact of clocking out, but even I had to admit my voice sounded unusually bright as I said my goodbyes and stood up from my desk.
I was almost out of the office when someone stepped into my path. Han Minah.
"Ah, Woojin. Heading out?"
"Yes. I'll be going first."
"Thank you for yesterday. Thanks to you, I think I'll be able to leave a little early today myself."
"Is that so? Glad to hear it."
"I'm not just being polite. I mean it. It's really all thanks to you."
Yesterday.
Ever since we'd had sex in the office after everyone else had gone home, something in Han Minah's atmosphere had shifted, just slightly.
If I had to classify the old Han Minah... "innocent" would have been the word. Her figure was explosive, no question, but her face had always leaned wholesome, even cute. She'd been a surprising distance from anything you'd call sultry.
"So next time... hmm. First, there's something I wanted to ask you."
"Yes? What is it?"
"This has nothing to do with the exam. I'm asking purely out of curiosity."
"Alright."
"Yesterday..."
But now she was... how to put it. Not just sultry.
"...Yesterday. Did you enjoy it too, Woojin?"
"Voluptuous" felt like the better word for what she'd become.
"...I did."
"Mmm. Good. Next time... let's skip the exam stuff. Let's just see each other. Privately."
"Ah — yes, of course. And Team Leader, I mentioned this in passing last time, but I wanted to bring it up again."
"What is it?"
"I brought up the team-play assignment before. Do you remember?"
"Ah... yes. I remember."
"I'll be setting a date for that soon. I thought you should know."
Team play, my ass. It was a threesome, plain and simple.
And even though I was telling her that her affair partner wanted to do it with another woman, Han Minah just smiled — a soft, easy curve of the lips.
"Alright. Get home safe, and I'll see you next week."
"Yes. See you next week."
Unlike Lim Jiwoo, who played at being a noona despite being a total pushover in bed, this was the real thing. A genuine older woman.
Han Minah left me with that faint smile — the same expression as always, and yet somehow completely different — and drifted back to her desk to finish up her work.
I thought I was finally free to leave. Then someone else blocked my path.
This time, Lim Jiwoo.
She flicked a glance toward where Han Minah had gone, clearly bothered that I'd just been chatting so warmly with her, and then—
"Woojin."
"Yes?"
"Umm... we talked about this last week. About grabbing a drink. I was thinking... maybe we could do that soon."
"Sure. Drinks, and then the exam too?"
"The exam... um. No. Not the exam. Let's just see each other privately. I just... I just wanted to see my Woojin. Personally."
She let out a coy little ehehe and smiled with her eyes, then tipped her waist toward me, close enough that a hint of her scent drifted across the space between us.
...The vixen act was second nature to her at this point.
"Then let's keep it simple. Sometime next week, or the week after, depending on how things look."
"Yeah, okay. You're heading out now?"
"Yes. What about you, sunbae?"
"I'll be leaving soon too. Why...?"
She drew the word out and sidled a little closer.
"...Want to do it with noona?"
"Shouldn't I be asking if you want to?"
"...N-no, that's not... not, uh, that's not it?"
The look on her face was hard to pin down. Maybe it was the contrast with Han Minah's newfound sultriness, but she actually looked... cute. She was older than me — a noona, no question — and yet she somehow gave off the vibe of a little sister. Even the way she got flustered and then puffed out her cheeks.
"...Just go already."
"Yes. I'll see you next week, sunbae."
"Ah, um. Woojin."
"Yes?"
"...Never mind. Just get home safe."
Oh?
"Yes. You too. Get home safe."
Looking at her now, that bratty sulking might as well have been a passive skill.
Meanwhile, Han Minah and Lim Jiwoo had eaten up enough of my time that I ended up walking out of the office at the same moment as Min Seoeun. She'd definitely seen me talking with both of them.
"Well, this works out. Let's go together, Seoeun."
"Yes, Assistant Manager."
Not a flicker of change in her expression. I had no idea what she was thinking.
Wariness.
Honestly, Han Minah wasn't someone Min Seoeun could even dare to be wary of. Even Seoeun, who didn't flinch in front of most people, somehow... shrank around her.
Setting Han Minah aside, the person Seoeun was actually on guard against was Lim Jiwoo.
She'd known ever since last time, when Jiwoo had been swishing her tail at Woojin — and just now, Seoeun hadn't caught what they'd talked about, but Jiwoo's face, her body language, all of it... she'd been wagging that tail at him again.
She ought to grab that tail and snap it in half. Seriously.
But if she did that...
"...Hmm."
"What's wrong?"
"Ah. It's nothing."
...Woojin might be a little disappointed.
Unfortunately, Woojin seemed to like Lim Jiwoo. Not that he was in love with her or anything like that. Which left Seoeun with only one option.
She would take on Lim Jiwoo's role herself, so that Woojin wouldn't get seduced by other women — especially women like Jiwoo. It sounded complicated, but the idea was simple: she just had to satisfy him so thoroughly that he wouldn't even think about anyone else.
And she was confident she could do it.
"Um... Assistant Manager."
"Yes?"
"What are your plans for dinner this evening?"
"Let's eat before we go. What sounds good? We already had short rib soup, so..."
"Something clean and simple, perhaps? A set meal?"
"That works. Let's grab something nearby."
"Yes. Understood."
They ducked into a set-meal restaurant near the office and had dinner together. Then they headed back to the company building so they could leave for Gwacheon from there.
The elevators were still crowded with people coming and going. Seoeun trotted after Woojin like a well-trained puppy and climbed into his car.
Quietly...
She watched the address he punched into the navigation, and then—
"...Um, Assistant Manager."
"Yes?"
"Next time, perhaps... it might be better if you simply came to my place."
"Your place?"
"O-of course, anywhere is f-fine, as long as I'm going with you. But on weekends, if we keep using motels, the cost adds up, and..."
"That's a fair point."
She wasn't wrong. Woojin currently had five people registered as Intensive Management Targets. If he saw two of them each weekend, that was eight visits a month — nearly ten if a weekday session got thrown in. Taking every one of those to a motel would add up fast.
Of the five, the ones who lived alone were Lim Jiwoo, Chae Dayeon, and Min Seoeun. Ju Harin was... anyone's guess.
Either way, using someone's actual home — his or theirs — was clearly the smarter play.
"Alright. Next time, we'll go to your place."
"...Yes."
And then, all at once, the words she'd just spoken caught up with her.
Next time? Next time?
She'd said it without thinking — but how could she possibly assume there would be a next time?
The shock lasted only a moment.
"And the time after that, you come to my place."
"Y-your place, Assistant Manager?"
"Yeah. What, you don't like my place?"
"N-no. Not at all. I would like that."
"You live in Gwacheon and I live in Anyang, so it's close anyway. I told you before, didn't I? Call me whenever you feel like a meal. I wasn't joking."
"......"
And now she was going to visit Woojin's home after that. After sitting there fuming about Lim Jiwoo wagging her tail at him...
"...Understood, Assistant Manager."
If Min Seoeun had a tail of her own, it wouldn't have been swishing the way Jiwoo's did. It would have been spinning like helicopter blades.
Not that she noticed.
Then Woojin's hand slid onto her thigh, and a quiet sense of ease settled through her.
Ease, however, was a separate matter from the debate currently raging in her head: whether she was allowed to put her own hand on top of his.
Of course she wanted to.
But if she did, it would make it harder for him to touch her thigh properly. And if she didn't... that felt like such a waste...
"Seoeun."
"Yes?!"
"Whoa. Why so jumpy?"
"A-ah. It's nothing. What is it?"
"It's not a big deal. Remember what we talked about in the car last time, when I drove you home after your exam?"
The conversation from that day flashed through her mind.
"Yes, Assistant Manager."
"Today... look, Seoeun. I'm telling you this in advance, just so we're clear. What happens today is a reward I'm giving you. You understand that, right?"
"Yes. I'm very grateful."
"No — I'm not asking you to be grateful. That's not the point. The point is that you're the one who matters today."
"I'm not sure I follow..."
"If there's something you want, say it. Clearly. I'll try to accommodate you, within reason. Within reason."
"......"
He'd probably been talking about her preferences. That conversation in the car had included questions about which of the videos she'd watched had appealed to her, after all.
She already knew that. She'd already been agonizing over whether she was allowed to do this. Hearing him say it out loud gave her courage.
Still, she moved with extreme — extreme — care.
...Tap.
She laid her hand over the one resting on her thigh.
And then—
...Squeeze.
She held on tight.
That was sudden.
I'd put my hand on Min Seoeun's thigh for the obvious reason: I wanted to touch her. Thighs that went beyond firm into outright solid. The faintly scratchy texture of her pantyhose. The contrasting softness of her inner thigh. And inside her panties, which were already... rather damp. I wouldn't even have needed to tear the pantyhose. If I so much as tapped her clit through the fabric, I was pretty sure my fingers would come away slick.
But her sudden move made me pause. I turned my head.
I couldn't look for long — I was driving — but in that brief glance, Min Seoeun's face was bright with happiness.
In that case...
I slipped my hand out from between her thigh and her palm. She made a small, disappointed sound.
Then I turned it around and laid my hand on top of hers instead. A different kind of breath slipped out of her.
Another glance.
In the sliver of a second I could spare, Min Seoeun was wearing a smile I hadn't seen once in the past three weeks — a genuinely, unmistakably radiant one. If she'd had a tail, it would have been whipping through the air hard enough to generate lift.
Watching someone as expressionless as Min Seoeun light up like that stirred something proud in me. Something a Master ought to feel. She'd gotten this happy over nothing more than holding hands. What would she do if I gave her something better?
She had a way of making me want to do things for her. Not as a tactic. Just... because.
"...We got a little sidetracked. Seoeun."
"Yes, Assistant Manager."
"What I was trying to say is this. During that conversation in the car, we also talked about your tastes. Requests like that — don't hesitate. I like that kind of thing too."
"......"
She went quiet, as if turning it over in her mind.
I drove in silence for about thirty minutes. It wasn't until we'd pulled into the parking lot of the motel I'd reserved a few days ago, collected the amenity kit, and stepped inside that Min Seoeun finally opened her mouth.
"In that case... there is one thing I would like."
"What's that?"
Min Seoeun looked me straight in the eye.