No Refunds for Hygiene Reasons
As Seo Tae-yang pushed open the glass door of the store to leave, Kang-san drove one last remark straight into his back.
"Next time you come looking for us, Assistant Manager Seo Tae-yang, make sure you try on those fine products of yours yourself first.
Only once you know the pain of the straps digging into your own flesh will you have any right to talk real business."
Lucy Seongsu Store, rear meeting room.
"We should expand our free-gift campaign too! Their opening buzz will die down in a few days and the lines will thin out."
"Let's lock down every major influencer in Seongsu-dong and burn more ad budget!"
The design team’s suggestions collided in heated debate until General Manager Kim slammed his palm down on the table.
"They just dropped an entire department-store high-end luxury line right on our doorstep! You think a couple of free tote bags are going to peel dopamine-addicted adult customers away from that?
The opponent is Lumière. Undisputed number one in the industry. Throwing more ad money and steeper discounts won’t flip a market of that scale and you all know it!
I want a real countermeasure on my desk by next week. Fail, and the entire team is pulling all-nighters at the desk right next to mine!"
Heavy silence settled over the room. Kang-san, who had been quietly lost in thought, finally spoke.
"General Manager. Those people didn’t come to our store just to sneer."
"Then what?"
"They came to check why Lucy still hasn’t died and is still fighting back.
They took in every detail of our fabrics and the bodies underneath. We still haven’t seen a single inch of their internal design.
Sitting here comparing documents won’t give us answers. We need to cross over to their side ourselves."
"And look at what, exactly?"
"What the consumers standing in that flashy line are actually seeing when they walk in, and what shape of underwear they’re carrying out when they leave. I’ll confirm it with my own eyes. You have to know the enemy to win."
"I’ll go with him, General Manager. Kang-san and I will tear it apart with proper engineering rigor."
"Fine. Go find out exactly why those bastards crawled all the way into this cramped corner of Seongsu-dong to kill us. Both of you look hard and come back smart."
In front of the Lumière Mega Store main entrance.
Club music thundered. A dopamine-soaked crowd of adults packed the doorway solid.
"Are we really going in? Why the hell would we spend our own money boosting the sales of those arrogant pricks who came to stomp our store flat?"
"They never paid for our products. They just pawed the surface, laughed, and left.
We’re going to pay the proper price and buy. If it’s good, we acknowledge it cleanly. If we find defects, we find the cracks we can exploit."
"That’s your idea of revenge?"
Eun Ha-neul looked up at him with moist eyes.
"No. It’s the bare minimum courtesy of an engineer and a designer who make products."
"…Fine. Let’s go."
Kang-san stepped through the automatic doors of the Lumière Mega Store. Dedicated pin lights blazed and the sheer scale of the displays flooded their vision.
Inside, the air was thick with secretive perfume and the aggressive colors of luxury silk lingerie.
"Whoa…"
Ha-neul, standing beside him, couldn’t stop the soft gasp that escaped her.
"This is weird, Kang-san."
"What is?"
"The customers here barely look at the price tags. Even the ones who check the numbers never put the product back down. At this high-end price range people should be trembling and hesitating. That’s normal."
Just then a beautiful Lumière staff member in a crisp, tight uniform approached and bowed politely.
"Welcome. Is there a particular product line you’re looking for?"
"We’re here to see Assistant Manager Seo Tae-yang. He left a shopping bag at our store earlier and we need to return it."
The employee’s eyes widened in surprise. She snatched the radio clipped to her thigh and made an urgent call toward the inner office.
A moment later the heavy office door in the distance opened and Assistant Manager Seo Tae-yang strolled out wearing a leisurely, arrogant smile.
"Well now. Lee Kang-san and even Eun Ha-neul? I never expected you to refuse to tuck your tails and actually cross into the heart of enemy territory. How do you find the grandeur of our mega store?"
"The building design is overwhelming and the interior is provocatively well done."
"Is that the full extent of your evaluation? As a costume design specialist you may confess honestly."
"No one who checks the price puts the item back on the shelf. Frankly, that manic data is the most terrifying thing here."
"Oh? Catching the invisible psychological metrics of adult consumers… unexpected."
"Recommend your best product. The highest-priced high-end line where Lumière’s technology and stimulation are most concentrated."
Seo Tae-yang smiled with satisfaction and gave a chin-nod to Coordinator Jo Eun-ha standing behind him.
"Coordinator Jo, open the inner VIP secret showcase."
"This is our Lumière signature prestige adult line containing our absolute top-tier technology. An ultra-limited garter-belt bra set of which only three pieces were stocked nationwide this season."
Kang-san lifted the product from its box—black silk completely covered in intricate lace.
He turned it over and over, examining the lace’s deformation tension and the internal seam finishing, until his fingers stopped dead in front of the price tag at the bottom.
Ha-neul, who had been holding her breath and peeking over his shoulder, seized his forearm in shock and whispered into his ear with a trembling voice.
"Kang-san, how much is this? Why does the number look like that? Why are there so many zeros?"
"One million five hundred thousand won."
"What?! This palm-sized scrap of panties and bra set is one and a half million won? Are you insane?!"
At Ha-neul’s horror, Seo Tae-yang lifted his chin arrogantly.
"Now that you’ve touched it yourself, how does it feel? Do you still think the price is excessive?"
Kang-san dissected the black lace texture with his X-ray vision as he asked,
"What was the single most important engineering value you considered while creating this insane product?"
"Splendor. And the absolute peak of sensuality."
Seo Tae-yang’s eyes flashed.
"People don’t always take off their clothes and put on underwear simply for physical comfort.
That decisive moment in front of the mirror when they face their most alluring, most beautiful naked body.
I believe that intoxicating, illicit memory creates far greater value than an entire day of minor chafing or discomfort."
"So the wearer’s comfort is not the priority."
"No. Comfort is important as well. But before that, we create the moment when the consumer looks at her own body in the mirror, admires it, and becomes aroused.
That dopamine moment is what brings people back to our brand."
Seo Tae-yang pointed a finger toward a VIP fitting room draped with secretive curtains.
"Would you like to step inside and try it on yourself?"
"Fine. We’ll buy it."
Without hesitation Kang-san slapped his personal credit card onto the table with a sharp sound.
"Of course we buy. An engineer puts it on an actual body and extracts clear data to find the flaws. Touching only the surface and casually dismissing it as garbage is the act of a coward."
A strange light flickered in Seo Tae-yang’s eyes. Ha-neul’s face went paper-white as she shoved Kang-san’s chest.
"…You actually bought it? Are you crazy? Who the hell is supposed to put this on right here and now?!"
Kang-san pocketed the card receipt and stared straight through her white shirt with X-ray vision at the curves threatening to burst free.
"Eun Ha-neul will wear it. Go into the fitting room right now, put it on, and come out."
"What? Me?! Why me! Hey, you really are a complete idiot who knows nothing about the lingerie industry, aren’t you?!"
Ha-neul’s face flushed scarlet with shame and panic as she covered her chest and hips with both hands.
"What do you mean? This is a fitting test."
"At least this is a top-grade underwire bra so trying the top is one thing,
but if it were a panty set I would rather die than put it on! Because of hygiene you absolutely cannot do direct wear-testing of panties in a store!
Everyone just feels them with their hands, stretches the fabric, checks the seams, trusts the brand, and buys them to wear at home. That’s common sense in this business, you perverted engineer bastard!"
"So no one ever tries on the panties before buying."
"Yes! No one does!"
"That is the biggest defect and the biggest problem. No one tries on the panties.
Until they lie down on their own bed at home, no one knows whether it actually fits the most sensitive parts of their body. That hidden real-measurement data—someone has to put it on right here, right now, and extract the friction trajectory."
Kang-san’s shameless yet brilliant logic temporarily froze Ha-neul’s thought circuits on the spot.
"…The words… the words are right. But why does the guinea pig extracting that intimate data have to be me of all people! And hey, this is a wire-correction bra that gathers and lifts the chest until it looks ready to explode!
Lucy’s life is the comfort of wireless. Why do I have to try on this filthy sexy thing that isn’t even a fair comparison!"
"It isn’t comparison. It’s knowing the enemy. If we sell comfort, we need to understand exactly how they use the weapon called underwire to seduce a woman’s body.
The moment we close our eyes and refuse to look at the opponent, Lucy loses."
"…You only ever pick the correct things to say, seriously."
Ha-neul bit her lip and grumbled. Kang-san stepped even closer and locked eyes with her moist gaze.
"…Because it’s you, Ha-neul."
"What?"
"In this entire store, the only person who can read a woman’s intimate body data more accurately and more sensitively than anyone else is Eun Ha-neul.
I’m a man. Even if I put it on I can’t feel with my cells where and why it goes wrong. But the moment you wear it, you pinpoint exactly which coordinates are violating the skin.
For six months since you joined, I’ve watched that genius sense of yours from right beside you."
"…Why are you suddenly praising me so seriously? It’s embarrassing."
Ha-neul’s cheeks burned as she flicked her eyes away.
"I’m not praising. It’s fact. If it were some half-baked applicant or model I would never request measurement data of this purity. I’m asking because it’s your body, and I trust it."
Ha-neul stared at Kang-san for a long moment, then, unable to suppress the strange flutter and shame rising in her chest, snatched the 1.5-million-won prestige shopping bag.
"…Cheap shot. When you put it like that I can’t exactly refuse if I want to save a man’s face."
"Thank you."
"Just wait. I’m going to dig up a hundred flaws in this Lumière outfit and recite every single one right in front of your nose."
Ha-neul turned with the bag, then suddenly stopped as cold reality hit her.
"…Wait. Hey, if I put this on in the changing room I can’t even get a refund for hygiene reasons!
And it’s one and a half million won. Coming into the enemy’s store, buying the enemy’s product, with my precious hard-earned money? Does that make any sense?"
"It does. I planned to buy it with my own money from the beginning."
"What? That means… you brought me here from the start intending to buy this and put it on me? To extract my body data?"
Ha-neul’s eyes went round as she shielded her full chest with the shopping bag. Kang-san slipped the receipt into his pocket and answered flatly.
"This receipt also remains as perfect engineering data. Clear proof that we paid the proper price and verified it."
"…You really are a ruthless and terrifying human being, Lee Kang-san."
Ha-neul clutched the underwear box and glared at him fiercely.
"If even a little bit of skin chafes or feels uncomfortable after I try it on, the second I open that fitting-room door I’m going to pour a full bucket of curses over your head without mercy.
Conversely, if it actually feels good wrapped around my body I’ll admit it honestly. I’ll throw away every prejudice and tell you only exactly what my skin feels. So wait."
"I’ll be waiting."
Assistant Manager Seo Tae-yang, who had been watching the entire scene with keen interest, gave Coordinator Jo Eun-ha a chin gesture.
"Coordinator Jo, please escort Miss Eun Ha-neul to the highest-grade VIP exclusive secret fitting room."
"I’ll show you to the private room this way. Please change at your leisure and come out."
Coordinator Jo Eun-ha guided Ha-neul while enduring the defective tension of the garter belt digging into the flesh of her own hips. Left alone with Kang-san, Seo Tae-yang wore a sly smile.
"Not going in together? Usually colleagues or lovers wait right outside that precarious fitting-room door to check a woman’s outfit."
Kang-san answered with his hands in his pockets.
"I can’t allow a man’s subjective influence to contaminate the result-prediction data. If someone stands beside her saying ‘pretty’ or ‘sexy,’ a woman’s brain creates an illusion and she starts believing it actually fits her body.
Only when she faces the dark mirror completely alone does the purest feedback emerge."
"Acting so cool."
Seo Tae-yang sneered and turned away.
The instant Eun Ha-neul closed the private fitting-room door with the 1.5-million-won lingerie in her hands, Kang-san’s heart rate shattered the critical threshold.
A sticky ringing filled his ears, and X-ray Vision awakened like a lightning strike, piercing straight through the wooden door.
Heart-rate threshold exceeded
Visual penetration engaged
Ssshhk—!
The thick soundproof walls and wooden door of the fitting room melted away in an instant, turning translucent like glass.