A Senior's Secret (2)
I followed the woman who appeared to be the shop's owner up to the second floor. Once we arrived, she turned to me.
"You work at the Magic Tower, don't you?"
"Y-yes? Uh... I do, but how did you know?"
"I saw you making the rounds with Seolhwa yesterday."
"Are you acquainted with my senior?"
Of course she would be. I was certain this was where that doll had come from. I was just curious about the nature of their relationship.
The woman let an inscrutable little smile play across her lips.
"I know her quite well. We're like sisters."
"I figured as much... so you're an Awakened, then."
"That's right. I used to work at the Magic Tower myself — though it's been quite a while since I left."
With that, she came to a stop before an entrance deeper in the second floor, veiled behind a black curtain. She glanced back at me with a suggestive smile.
"This is a place where we introduce products only to customers with... particular tastes."
"Particular as in...?"
"Tastes that run a little unusual? And Awakened tend to visit quite often."
She drew the curtain aside with one hand and stepped through. I followed her in.
"Whoa..."
A vast array of merchandise came into view. I could tell at a glance that they were all adult products of the BDSM variety — though I couldn't even begin to guess how half of them were supposed to be used.
The woman continued.
"Every item here is crafted through magecraft."
"Magic?"
"That's right. They're all made to fulfill the dreams of people with very particular tastes."
So everything in this room was a magic tool — artifacts infused with what people called supernatural ability. Magic.
"And the item you were looking for is probably this one."
She walked over to a display and pulled out a piece of leather.
"This is the RD-1. I made it myself."
"The RD-1?"
"Yes. It's an item that lets you disguise yourself as a Real Doll. Would you like me to explain the product?"
I nodded, still looking a little dazed. The woman grinned, the corners of her mouth curling upward as she launched into her explanation.
"When you put this on, it shrinks to fit the wearer's body perfectly — not a single wrinkle."
"Ah, I see."
"That's right. If the wearer stays still while wearing it, you'd never guess there's a person inside. They look like a perfect doll."
I already knew that. I'd thought it was a real doll myself, at first.
"It's our most popular product among customers who enjoy doll play. And it has a variety of hidden functions, too."
"Functions, as in...?"
"Those can only be set by the other party — not the person wearing the doll. For example, you could lock the doll's body rigid while someone's wearing it, or you could amplify the wearer's physical sensitivity."
"Sensitivity?"
"Yes. There's a function that syncs the RD-1's surface with the wearer's body. Even if someone touches the chest, the wearer feels it as if their own breasts are being caressed. And if you turn up the sensitivity from there, it gets even more intense."
The shop owner looked at me with a suggestive smile as she said this.
"You can raise the sensitivity by up to twenty times, you know?"
I swallowed hard before I even realized it.
"Shall we move on to the next product?"
Her tone was strangely accommodating, and I found myself nodding along without thinking.
I couldn't help thinking the world was a vast place. Vast, and full of people with all kinds of tastes.
"Every product here is perfectly safe. Legal, too, of course."
"I see."
After hearing every last explanation, I headed back downstairs with the shop owner. My expression was still vacant. It felt like I'd just been shown an entirely new world. There really were all kinds of tools — devices for simulated amputation play using portals, shrinking functions that could transform someone into an onahole...
"Was there anything that caught your interest?"
"Well, there were a few things, but..."
Plenty of things had caught my interest, but I couldn't exactly buy any of them. Purchasing something here would be as good as announcing to my senior that I'd come looking for this place. So I couldn't help feeling a little guilty. She'd gone to all that trouble explaining everything, and I was about to walk out without buying a single item.
"Um... I'm a little sorry about this."
"Hehe. Don't be. Besides, you're Seolhwa's assistant."
"Excuse me?"
Had I mentioned that I was Senior Seolhwa's assistant? I didn't think I had. I looked at her with a puzzled expression, and she answered with a gentle smile.
"The truth is, I heard about you from Seolhwa. Something about how she'd found an assistant she actually likes?"
"Ah, I see."
"Hmm? You're not as surprised as I expected."
Huh... should I have been more surprised? The way she said that, she clearly knew how Senior Seolhwa conducted herself at the Magic Tower. Then again, I already knew Senior Seolhwa liked me, so my reaction had probably come out pretty muted.
"Honestly... it is a little unexpected that Senior Seolhwa would compliment me."
"Hehe. Seolhwa may not look it, but she's a girl with a lot of feelings. She's just clumsy at expressing them."
I already knew that. Just listening to her inner voice was enough to tell me how emotionally rich she was. Well — not just emotionally. She was pretty richly endowed in the dirty-minded department, too.
Huh?
That was when my gaze drifted toward a doll on display on the first floor — a blonde with crimson eyes, wearing a suggestive little smile.
"Is that one also...?"
"Yes, that's the RD-1 I explained upstairs. Though of course, this one's stuffed with cotton for display purposes."
"I see."
"Ah, that reminds me."
The shop owner rummaged through the pocket of her apron and pulled out a switch studded with several buttons.
"I never did explain how the functions activate while someone's wearing the RD-1."
"The functions?"
"Yes. First of all—"
She pressed down on one of the buttons.
"This is the hardening function. Just as it sounds — the entire body goes rigid, and the wearer can't move. Would you like to try touching it?"
"Sure, I guess..."
I ran my hand along the doll's arm. It was definitely hard. How to put it? It felt like a stone had been packed inside a silicone-textured skin.
"But the breasts stay soft."
She started groping the left breast with one hand, kneading it slowly.
"Go ahead, try it."
"Ah, okay."
Following her lead, I fondled the unoccupied right breast. It was definitely soft. Everywhere else was rock-hard, but the chest hadn't hardened at all.
"And then—"
The shop owner squeezed the breast firmly, then flicked the doll's nipple with her index finger as she spoke.
"This is the button that raises sensitivity."
A beep sounded. The doll's body gave a brief, shuddering tremble. The shop owner kept flicking the doll's nipple with her finger as she continued.
"I just turned the sensitivity up about twenty times."
"I think the doll just trembled..."
"Hmm... the truth is, this particular unit is a failed product. It has too many issues for customers to wear, so I just put it on display as a sample."
She said this with a smile on her lips, her eyes narrowing into thin crescents as she gazed at the doll. At the same time, her hand clenched down hard on the doll's breast — and the doll's body began to tremble even more violently.
"It malfunctions during the sensitivity adjustment process. Strangely enough, every time you raise the sensitivity, the skin itself starts vibrating. I can't sell it, and it's not useful for anything, so I just put it on display like this."
There was something oddly disparaging in her tone. And yet I could also hear a hint of delighted laughter in it. She almost seemed to be gazing at the doll with genuine affection.
"Anyway—"
She smacked the doll's breast with her open palm. The doll's body shuddered even more violently, and she spun around as if it were nothing, continuing to speak.
"I just showed you a failed product, but the one you saw upstairs has all of these issues fully corrected."
"Ah, right."
"Hehe. If anything catches your fancy, you're welcome to come back anytime."
I nodded with a somewhat uneasy expression, then turned my head and looked at the doll. The way its body trembled somehow overlapped in my mind with my senior, wearing a doll suit and pretending to be a doll.
After Jihun had left, the shop owner approached the doll on display on the first floor, her heels clicking against the boards with every step.
The doll was still trembling.
Gazing at it with a loving smile, the shop owner quietly began groping and rubbing the doll's breasts as she spoke.
"Hnnngh! Nngh!"
Confirming that no customers remained, the doll finally stopped holding back, a whimper spilling from her lips. In a trembling voice, she spoke to the shop owner.
"L-let me go..."
"Ah, right."
The shop owner reached into her front pocket and pressed a button, releasing the doll's hardening. The doll slumped to the floor in a heap, wrapping her arms around her chest as her body continued to shudder. She looked up at the shop owner. The face was still smiling, but the shop owner could tell that the person inside was glaring at her.
"Th-the sensitivity..."
Still smiling, the shop owner pressed a button in her pocket. A beep sounded, and only then did the doll let out a sigh of relief.
"Hahh..."
"Did you enjoy that?"
The doll whipped her head away in a huff. Finding that adorable, the shop owner reached out and stroked her hair. The doll looked up at the shop owner — no, at her own older sister — and spoke in a sullen tone.
"It's your turn now, Unnie."
"Oh my, is it already that time?"
The doll simply nodded without a word. Her turn was over. Now it was her older sister's turn to put on the doll.
Her older sister, Jeong Hayeon, looked at her younger sister still wearing the doll and spoke.
"More importantly — you know him, don't you?"
"Yeah..."
Of course she knew him. They'd entered the Magic Tower as classmates. He was the rare peer who'd survived in Senior Seolhwa's school — infamous for how brutal it was. That alone had made him something of a known figure at the Tower.
"Get along with him."
"Whyy?"
"I've got an eye for people, you know. He seems like the type who'd be into this kind of thing too."
"Mmm..."
The doll hesitated for a moment, as if considering it, then nodded.