2-Week Vacation (5)
"Really, even if I have sex with your friend, you're okay with that, Joanna?"
"Hmm, purely speaking, it won't be without any impact. But since I know how despairing it is for an artist to go through what May's experiencing, I can understand. And I've thought of a way so my heart won't get hurt."
"A way like that exists?"
I tilted my head, wondering how it could possibly be painless when your own boyfriend is sleeping with your friend. That's when Joanna dropped another bombshell.
"We'll do a threesome!"
*Cough! Cough!* "W-what did you just say, Joanna?"
"A th-three-what?"
"The three of us together. That way, at least I won't feel left out while you two are doing it."
I'd been steadily preparing myself mentally for a threesome, but I never imagined it would be with Joanna and May Lin. If not Ahyun and Boksun noona, I figured it'd be Jua noona and my mother-in-law. But for it to sharpen into focus so suddenly like this??
With the mission hanging over me, her words immediately piqued my interest.
'Should I go for it? Nah, turning it down is the right call, right?'
Hearing Joanna's proposal naturally brought May Lin to mind. Back during the shoot, I'd been so focused on getting the photos right that I hadn't really taken a close look at her. So all that came up now was her sharp, scolding voice and those stern, piercing eyes.
"You said May Lin doesn't know about this, right? The idea that sleeping with me would cure her slump doesn't even make sense in the first place, and I bet she'd hate it anyway."
"I'll handle that! So you're okay with it, right? My muse~!!"
Apparently, my failure to reject her outright sounded like approval. She threw herself into my arms with a gleeful squeal.
*Smooch~*
"Eugh. If you keep doing that... I appreciate it, but ahem!"
"Just say yes, and I can convince her. There's no way she'd turn down a chance to break out of her slump."
"You really think that'll solve it?"
"Absolutely. Thanks for agreeing— I was even bracing for a slap."
Bracing for a slap, and that's the attitude she had? That shocked me even more.
"But I have a condition."
"What? Tell me! I'll do anything."
"After I explain it to her, if she says no, you give up clean and simple."
"C-cleanly? Don't you need time to persuade her?"
"If she has that much resistance in the first place, we shouldn't do it."
"At least give it a few tries!"
"No. After I explain and ask if she wants to, if she says no, you drop it. I have my pride too. I won't allow forcing someone who doesn't want it."
"That stubborn girl would never agree on the first try..."
I shrugged with a smile at the worried Joanna.
"Then that's that."
I figured a threesome was inevitable someday anyway. If you overthink it, you get anxious; if you take it easy, you stay chill. I'd always planned to tackle what I could right away to hit that 110,000-coin goal, but there was no need to rush missions by sleeping with women who weren't mine.
'Especially since I've never even felt any rational attraction to May Lin.'
The world might be overflowing with women, but I didn't want to sleep around with just anyone.
"How about this?"
Joanna pondered my words for a long time, then her eyes sparkled as some brilliant idea hit her.
We moved to a private-room restaurant to avoid drawing attention, and before the food arrived, we waited for someone. I'd planned a date just with Joanna today, but her clever scheme turned our twosome into a trio.
*Knock knock knock—*
*Slide—*
"Maymay~!"
A knock sounded, and someone entered the room. I checked her out and tilted my head without thinking.
'What? Never seen her before.'
It was supposed to be May Lin, whom both Joanna and I knew. But the woman who opened the door wasn't her.
"What the hell? You call me out and you're here with some other guy?"
"Maymay~! Come on in. Why're you so late?"
Surprisingly, the unfamiliar woman's voice rang familiar. And Joanna was calling her "May."
'That's really May Lin?!'
No matter how much makeup changes a woman, this was extreme! Recalling my image of May Lin: hair pulled up tight, heavy eyeliner, bold red lipstick—a cold, unflappable woman who wouldn't shed a tear if stabbed.
But the one before me now wasn't that May Lin. She was a beauty I'd ask for her number on the street.
'The vibe's totally different!'
Joanna patted the seat next to her, inviting May Lin to sit.
*Pat pat—!*
"Quit complaining and sit here."
"Looks like a date. You really want me to?"
"Yup yup."
Where had May Lin's sharp edge gone? The cat-like woman had shown up today looking like a sweet, puppyish cutie.
'This is practically a transformation???'
I couldn't believe my eyes.
"Uh... you really are May Lin, right? You look so different from the shoot, I almost didn't recognize you."
"I went light on the makeup today. Anyway, I didn't expect to see you again like this. If Joanna was rude, I'll apologize for her. She's a friend, even if she annoys me."
"No need. I agreed to come."
"She's never dated, so she's clueless. You didn't think she'd actually call, huh."
Her personality hadn't changed with the puppy face. My body tensed at her frosty attitude.
"May, don't be so cold~ Sit already."
At Joanna's urging, May Lin sat reluctantly, crossing her legs with a sigh.
"I wanna smoke. Mind if I do?"
"Go ahead. It's not a no-smoking place."
May Lin pulled a cigarette from her bag and lit up.
"If you smoke, it makes me wanna too. You smoke, Jin?"
"Nah, I don't."
Surprisingly, in this new body, cigarettes hadn't crossed my mind. Since I'd quit, I was trying not to start again.
Joanna and May Lin chatted over their smokes.
"Stress must be killer. Light makeup, but you're radiating venom."
"Yeah, I'm super on edge lately. I came out to drink with you, and now this? Showing off your boyfriend?"
"As if~ I wouldn't be that tone-deaf to a friend in a slump."
"With your sense? Totally possible."
Watching their familiar banter, my mind wandered off-topic.
'Makeup alone turned her from cat to puppy?'
I was stunned that makeup had flipped May Lin's image 180 degrees. Makeup truly is magic. Without it, she was puppy-cute; for work, heavy makeup made her cat-sharp.
Having finished her cigarette, May Lin got to the point.
"So why'd you drag me into your date?"
"To hang out. What else? You're heading back next week and haven't toured once."
"...How'd you know?"
"I know you. Slump's got you glued to bed, obvious."
May Lin bit her lip, frustrated.
"Hate that I can't argue."
Joanna laughed and tempted her: good food, sightseeing, heavy drinks at night. May Lin caved eventually.
"Sorry for crashing your date unintentionally."
"No worries."
"I'd usually read the room and bail gracefully, but I'm not loose enough right now. I'll be the annoying friend just for today."
If May Lin knew Joanna's scheme, she'd bolt. She'd picked the wrong way to unwind. But with my promise to Joanna, I couldn't spill.
'Joanna's a slick liar, huh? Sly fox.'
Her plan was clever: don't bring it up right away or May'd freak and bail. Invite her for fun times first, have me flirt gradually.
Shift the reason from "slump cure sex" to "built-up attraction from hanging out." Same outcome for May's slump, but it required my cooperation.
'I was gonna half-ass it at first...'
I hadn't expected such a pretty transformation. And chatting revealed she wasn't all stiff and cold. She had boundaries: warm inside, icy out. Sharing space with insider Joanna and outsider me highlighted it starkly. Probably why Joanna fussed over her.
'That face with that personality. Exhausting. If I were Joanna, I couldn't ignore her either.'
One slip in attention, and she might *plop*—collapse. All thorny with outsiders, knowing that, Joanna made the absurd proposal to me.
'Was skeptical at first, but even in this crazy world, asking your boyfriend to sleep with your friend ain't normal.'
Polygamy might be legal, but hearing Joanna say May'd refuse confirmed it. Her suggestion was way off normal. She made it seem casual, but she'd agonized over it, unable to abandon May Lin.
I inwardly applauded their deep friendship.
"Stuffed? Wanna head out sightseeing?"
"But can this guy wander around? He's an idol."
"Uh... probably not?"
"Crowded spots might be tricky... As a rookie, it'd look picky, but yeah."