A Day When Anything Was Possible
There were days when anything you did just worked. For Dayoung, today was one of those days. When she sang, the notes flowed out with perfect technique even though she wasn’t consciously thinking about breath support. When she danced, her joints moved on their own in perfect time with the beat. It wasn’t a matter of thinking then acting—it felt as natural as if she had spent her entire life singing and dancing.
“Seo Dayoung!! What the hell? Why is your condition so insane today?”
“Th-thank you so much!”
“Wow~ You were seriously incredible. Keep performing like this tomorrow, Dayoung. You’ll debut for sure.”
“Yesss!”
It was her private vocal training session. The tiger instructor, famous for being terrifying, had showered her with praise. Dayoung’s cheeks flushed bright red as she answered with energetic enthusiasm.
The same thing happened during dance training. Compliments about Dayoung poured out of the instructor’s mouth for the entire class. Dayoung felt like she was soaring through the sky.
All the effort she had quietly piled up was finally shining through, and she believed her skills had exploded overnight. Maybe she had possessed real talent all along and was only now discovering it. So singing and dancing were supposed to be this easy and fun? Yeah. This was what she had always wanted to do.
Dayoung was overflowing with confidence. Everything she attempted succeeded. It felt like the whole world belonged to her.
At least until the afternoon.
‘Huh…?’
It was the final item on her afternoon schedule: personal practice time. Dayoung stood inside a small practice room with the MR track playing, singing along. But something felt off. The high notes that had come out so effortlessly just moments ago suddenly felt burdensome. Or, to be more precise, they felt as difficult as they had always been. Her breathing was shallow. Her pitch wavered and her tone cracked.
Wondering if she had grown complacent simply because she thought it was her lucky day, Dayoung renewed her resolve and tried again. She steadied her breath, focused her mind, and pushed the sound out.
It was still hard.
‘What is this? It felt like it should work, so why isn’t it?’
She had spent the entire day experiencing exactly how to handle those high notes. She had definitely reached an epiphany. Yet suddenly that insight had grown hazy. The moment that had felt so clear and within reach had slipped away somewhere, leaving only a faint, lingering fragrance behind.
‘This is so frustrating. No, I can’t let this happen…’
Once the insight vanished, Dayoung grew anxious. Tomorrow was the monthly evaluation—an evaluation where her debut was on the line. Thanks to the miraculous insight that had come to her, she had already begun fantasizing that this time she would finally debut in a girl group. Ridiculously enough, she had even mentally assembled a lineup of which other trainees would be good to debut alongside her.
It had all been delusion.
After singing the same song for a long time, Dayoung abruptly stopped the MR track. Her throat was already overworked. Any more and she risked damaging her voice.
“…”
Dayoung played back the recording and listened to how she had sung.
‘It’s terrible. Completely…’
It was actually worse than her usual performances. She had been too anxious and restless to focus on the song at all, so the result was only natural.
“Ah… I can’t be like this…”
Tears suddenly flooded her eyes. Dayoung fought with every ounce of strength to hold them back. Crying would make her voice hoarse. The effects might linger until tomorrow. A small sniffle was one thing, but if she let herself cry in this state, she knew she would sob uncontrollably.
Dayoung lowered her head, walked to the corner of the practice room, and collapsed there. She felt utterly pathetic. A practice room like this was too good for an idiot like her, so she curled up as small as possible in the corner.
‘If you were going to do this, then don’t give me hope in the first place. Why did something like that come to me so suddenly…’
The higher you flew, the steeper the fall. The view from that high place she had glimpsed for a single moment was cruelly beautiful—so beautiful that it would have been better never to have seen it at all.
“Haa… hic—”
In the end, the tears burst free. It wasn’t unfamiliar. As her years as a trainee stacked up, Dayoung found herself crying more and more often. Spending so many days as a trainee meant her remaining lifespan as an idol was shrinking by the same amount.
She was twenty now—a full adult. In ordinary society she was still fresh and young, but in the entertainment industry twenty was by no means a small number. At most, she had one year left. If she couldn’t debut within that time, her dream would effectively be over.
Fear that the years she had worked herself to death would vanish without meaning made her, ever since becoming an adult, occasionally end up like this—huddled in the corner of a practice room, crying. Yes, it wasn’t anything special. But today, it hurt more than usual.
“Hic… ugh— Why? Why isn’t it working…! It was going so well earlier…!!”
Dayoung poured out her resentment. She couldn’t control her emotions. The one who had done well was herself, and the one who had failed was ultimately herself too. With nothing clear to blame, everything felt resentful.
“Ughhh… haak, hic… haeu…?”
She was clearly drowning in despair. Yet suddenly her body registered a sensation completely at odds with the situation. Puzzled, Dayoung gently rubbed her lower abdomen. She couldn’t understand why it had begun to ache.
“Mmm… haeu… tsk…”
It wasn’t only her lower abdomen. Her throat gradually grew dry, then in an instant became parched as if she hadn’t drunk water for days. Her chest burned. Flustered, Dayoung jumped up and gulped down the water in her bottle.
But nothing changed. Severe thirst gripped her while her lower abdomen continued to throb. As she wondered what was happening, the face of the man she had met yesterday suddenly floated into her mind. She didn’t know why he had come to mind, but the moment she thought of his face and his semen, the discomfort in her body subsided as if by magic.
“Huh…?”
It wasn’t simply subsiding. Sensing a change, Dayoung immediately stood, turned the MR back on, and took her position to sing again.
The song she had been practicing was “I” by the former idol turned soloist Taeyeon. It was a difficult track that demanded advanced vocal control and powerful high notes—the exact song she would perform at tomorrow’s evaluation.
‘…!’
The moment she sang the first line, Dayoung’s eyes flew wide open in shock. Singing felt impossibly natural. This wasn’t a new feeling. It had definitely been like this that morning too. The moment she thought of Minjun, the insight that had slipped away came rushing back.
She drew a deep breath and prepared for the high-note section. The part where she had to belt a strong three-octave F was the song’s highlight. Simply forcing the note up was difficult enough, but she also had to deliver a refreshing yet slightly raspy tone that felt like it punched straight through everything.
With her eyes squeezed shut, Dayoung poured out her entire being in time with the flowing melody.
“Shining, I fly awaaaay——!! Yeah—!!!”
‘It worked—!’
Having perfectly executed even the brutal high-note passage, Dayoung clenched her fist tightly. The moment the song ended she barely calmed her pounding heart, snatched up her phone, and dialed.
There wasn’t the slightest doubt in her mind. Her head couldn’t explain it, but her body already knew. An overwhelmingly powerful intuition—the first of its kind in her life—was driving her actions.
“Hello?”
“O-oppa. Is it okay to talk right now? You must have been surprised I called so suddenly, right?”
Just hearing Minjun’s voice was enough to make her core flood with wetness. Because of her throbbing lower abdomen, Dayoung kept rubbing her thighs together as she struggled to continue the call. She worried that her behavior might disappoint him, but that concern lasted only a moment. She couldn’t hold back any longer. Steelng herself, Dayoung forced out the words she had been holding inside.
“…If it’s not too much trouble… oppa… c-could you… give me some… s-semen!!”
****
I kept talking to Dayoung on the phone while driving away from the house. After suddenly begging for my semen, she calmly laid out her situation. Thanks to that, I learned far more than I ever wanted to know about the trainee training system at her agency.
“So there’s a crucial evaluation tomorrow that will decide your girl-group debut.”
-Yes, oppa.
“And for some reason, just thinking about me and my semen makes your skills shoot up dramatically.”
-Wow~ How do you understand everything so perfectly? Oppa, you’re seriously amazing.
I wasn’t amazing at all. That was simply the effect of the cult leader skill.
-I was scared that if I said something like this you might think I’m a crazy bitch…
“No, Dayoung. It’s completely natural. Oppa has quite a few stories of his own.”
-Stories? What kind of stories?
“I’ll tell you when I see you.”
It would be closer to brainwashing than simply telling her, but whatever.
‘From now on I need to start carrying out proper external cult leader activities…’
I had no intention of revealing myself as the cult leader to Dayoung yet. The moment those words left my own mouth, the dignity of the cult leader would plummet. I simply planned to let her know I was someone special and give her a general understanding of the efficacy of my semen. That way I could plant her inside the entertainment industry as a mole for the Infinite Celibacy Sect.
‘While Dayoung is busy working, she’ll meet plenty of female celebrities.’
Celebrities shone brighter than anyone else. But the stronger the light, the deeper the shadow. Those who lived the most glamorous lives were often the most rotten inside. It was no coincidence that celebrities so frequently suffered from panic disorders, depression, and suicide.
‘Dayoung will bring those rotten celebrities to me. And I’ll cure them with my semen.’
Thinking about it again, it was an excellent plan. Dayoung’s strong social skills made her perfect for the role of mole. If I cleanly “treated” just one or two people, word would spread and the entertainment industry might react to the Infinite Celibacy Sect first.
Once I swallowed the entertainment world, expanding the cult’s reach would be as easy as drinking cold porridge. There was no better tool for promotion than celebrities.
‘Even if I just put Infinite Celibacy Sect chokers around their necks, the ripple effect would be enormous. Hmm… but that means I have to wait until Dayoung debuts? That’s not ideal…’
One thought led to another. Countless plans formed and revised themselves inside my head. After long deliberation, I reached a conclusion.
‘Yeah. Let’s just acquire Dayoung’s agency outright!’
It wasn’t easy for an individual to buy a company. But it didn’t seem impossible. I had no idea how much her agency was worth, but money was overflowing. It already was, and it would overflow even more in the future. Owning the company would also let me expand the cult’s influence efficiently and systematically.
If I brainwashed the staff and turned them into my limbs, I could make them carry out my wishes instantly. It sounded nice to call them hands and feet, but in reality it wouldn’t matter if I worked them like slaves.
‘And becoming the representative of an agency at twenty? I can’t pass that up.’
There was also the bonus of gaining a respectable job. This was absolutely not a hasty decision driven by empty formalities or excessive vanity.
Introducing myself as ‘Cult Leader (20 years old. Retake student.)’ carried far less weight than ‘Cult Leader (20 years old. Star Entertainment Representative).’ The difference was night and day. Once I held the title of representative, even the age of twenty would become an advantage rather than a weakness.
-Hek!
You’re a representative at such a young age?!
Anyone would show that kind of positive reaction when they learned I held the representative position. The obedience score might rise more easily simply because of the title.
-Oppa! You’re in the back alley, right?
I had been mechanically answering with “Yeah” or “I see~” while my mind continued working, but Dayoung’s unusually bright voice over the speaker snapped me back to the present. I tucked the “Star Entertainment acquisition plan” away in a corner of my mind and focused on the call.
“Yeah, yeah. Dayoung. I’m at the address you sent.”
-I’ll come out right now. Oh, oppa, is it okay if I bring one of my close younger sisters?
“That— Rachel?”
-Yes. Rachel.
“It’s fine. Doesn’t matter.”
Dayoung had already confessed that she had told her close friend Rachel everything that happened between us. Well, it wasn’t exactly something an adult man and woman needed to hide, and I had no desire to scold Dayoung—who was already diligently acting as my mole—over something so trivial.
-I’ll be there soon, oppa!
“Take your time. I’ll be waiting.”
-Yesss!!
I parked in the company’s back alley and waited for Dayoung. Truthfully, I had wanted to boldly park right in front of the building. That way I could burn flex points while clearly boosting the morale of Dayoung, who had become my believer. But getting photographed could cause problems, so I had no choice but to wait in the back alley.
“Oppaaaaa——!!”
“Kht.”
I had deliberately chosen the back alley so she wouldn’t stand out, yet Dayoung came running toward me at full volume, as if the eyes of others didn’t matter at all.
Beside her stood a woman who looked beautiful at first glance. That must be Rachel. Whether it was Rachel or a pretzel, I ignored it for now, stepped out of the car, and wrapped my arms around Dayoung as she hopped over.
Holding her, whose body temperature was wonderfully warm, always felt excellent. Although in the middle of summer it might be a bit much.
“Oppa, this is huge—!! You know I’ve been dying to see you, right?!”
“We haven’t even been apart for a full day?”
“Exactly! I think I’ve completely lost my mind over you, oppa. Th-that, and also…”
“That? What’s ‘that’?”
“Ah— you know, the thing I mentioned earlier. Oppa, that thing…”
“Ah~~ My seme— mmph.”
The moment I tried to say the word “semen” out loud, Dayoung frantically covered my mouth with her hand and glanced nervously at Rachel behind her.
“Shh… shhh!!”