Taming (3)
I didn’t even want to wait a day or two. The moment Kang Juhyuk heard the word “bet,” he bolted out the door. He even left instructions not to go to the gym and to wait for him. Ha, yeah. He didn’t say it outright, but I could guess why he’d rushed out. He was probably heading to Daiso to buy a phone tripod or something. Since he’d set the deadline for the end of March, every single day must have felt precious to him.
…He’s such an idiot. That man has no idea how difficult it is to hit ten thousand views. If it were that easy, I would’ve done it ages ago. It’s not like I haven’t looked up other YouTube channels myself.
“Haeun, come out for a second.”
Ding-dong. It didn’t take long before the front door opened along with his voice. Even though he’d only been living here for less than a week, I greeted my cohabitant—who came and went like he owned the place—with a displeased expression.
…I can’t get used to this. It doesn’t matter if it’s debt or whatever—I have to win the bet and kick him out immediately.
“…What is all this?”
“A computer and a camera. What else would it be?”
Whether he knew how I felt or not, Kang Juhyuk started unpacking household items and setting them up in my house. A heavy computer that had been inside a carrier case, a monitor wrapped in bubble wrap. A keyboard, a mouse, and a tangled mess of power cables. Instead of a cheap phone tripod, it was a clearly professional, high-end one. Even a famous camera brand I’d actually heard of.
“What the hell is all this…?”
“Can’t a jobless bum use a computer and camera?”
His answer was shameless as always, but I genuinely couldn’t understand it. The computer was unexpected, sure, but it wasn’t that strange for him to have one. What was strange was that he owned a camera. What would a baseball player need one for? And seeing that he even had a tripod, it didn’t seem like it was just for casual hobby use.
…No way.
“This stuff was expensive because I bought it to film your body, you know?”
“Hey, you…!”
“What?”
“……”
…This crazy bastard. What kind of brain does someone need to say, without a shred of shame, that he bought this to film sex videos? I’d had my suspicions, but the more I looked at that brazen smile, the more those suspicions turned into certainty. It was so vulgar just to say out loud that I couldn’t even argue with him.
…The fact that this man wants to film me with that filthy camera makes him even more terrifying. Maybe the last time, I just hadn’t found it. He said he’d deleted the recording, but he also mentioned he’d backed it up.
…Then what if he secretly filmed a video and backed that up too? Somewhere on that phone?
“Hey, what are you thinking about? I bought it to correct my posture when I’m working out or throwing a ball.”
“…What?”
“What, did you think I was going to film porn with it? Are you crazy? It’s not like there’s a woman who’d let me film that kind of thing.”
“……”
Kang Juhyuk picked at his ear with a frown, as if to say, What kind of nonsense are you spouting? But once a fuse has been lit, it doesn’t go out easily. When I’d gone through his phone last time, there had definitely been a ton of lewd photos and videos. Was it possible that not a single one of them had been filmed by him? Even if they weren’t on his phone, maybe he’d hidden them somewhere else?
…It was suspicious. If I lost the bet to such a suspicious man, I could already picture exactly how he’d treat me, and it made me start to regret everything.
…No, it’s fine. It’s fine. There’s no way it’ll reach ten thousand views. Absolutely no way.
If someone asked me what the most important thing was when filming people, I could answer without hesitation: editing and filters. Back when I was a player, the female fans who used to DM me all looked like they had perfect skin, pretty faces, and killer bodies in their photos and videos. Of course, I didn’t want to talk about what they looked like in real life. Women with big breasts usually had more body fat and puffy faces, and women with good skin often had flaws on their faces. It was better to have girls with small breasts, slim figures, pretty faces, and decent hips. My preference for slender women came entirely from experience.
Of course, after sleeping with a real glamor type, I learned that the voluptuousness of those breasts was hard to beat.
“Hey, um… is this really it?”
“Yeah. Why?”
But if it was a woman who didn’t even need those filters, filming became incredibly simple. Just set the angle so it wasn’t weird, adjust the color grading properly, and that was it. I sat Seo Haeun down in a chair, set up the camera to capture her from the neck down to her thighs. The song was a moderately popular, pleasant, mellow pop track. The lighting was natural daylight streaming in through the blinds. Her outfit was the formal suit she used to wear often at the club—a white dress shirt and a tight black skirt. The only difference was that instead of coffee-colored stockings, she wore black ones.
“…For real?”
“Of course it’s real. What, did you think it was fake?”
“…”
The only real difference was that she didn’t start while already seated. Seo Haeun walked in from off-camera, sat in the chair, plucked at the guitar strings with a rhythmic ting-ting, and when the song ended, she finished with a peace sign. I’d expected her to be a little embarrassed, but surprisingly she followed along without much hesitation, so we got it in one take.
“See? With this, ten thousand views will be easy.”
“…This?”
The filming itself took less than ten minutes. As she watched the replay, she glared at me with an expression that said she couldn’t believe it.
…Does this woman even know how insanely sexy her breasts are? She was the one who used to grumble that men were always staring at her.
“The guitar playing is decent too. Even though we only see your neck, your skin is pale and smooth. Your body isn’t exactly plump, but those shirt buttons look like they’re about to burst. Most men like a guitar anyway. So you’re telling me it won’t even get ten thousand views?”
“…”
“If you want to back out of the bet now, just say so. I won’t pretend it never happened, but if you sweeten the reward a bit, I’ll change it to fifty thousand views.”
“…No thanks. Absolutely not.”
Why couldn’t she understand that simply moving this to the internet would get her the views? It was truly a shame. For me, though, it was a blessing.
“Anyway, I’ll edit this roughly and upload it… Oh, right. What’s the Wi-Fi password here? I need to get the computer I brought online.”
“…I don’t know. I just use mobile data. It’s unlimited.”
I looked at our actress with pity for knowing absolutely nothing, but the moment my eyes moved to the camera, that pity vanished in an instant.
…Honestly, I’d said ten thousand, but depending on how much skin this showed, it looked like it could easily hit several hundred thousand. I’d dressed her in the least objectionable sexy outfit—a suit—but I wondered what I should have her wear next. Since this was a simple office worker concept filmed after she got home from work, maybe dolphin shorts would be good for the next one? It seemed fine to film a few more videos in this same outfit too. Switching concepts after just one video would look too desperate.
“Whatever. I’ll look into that myself… Oh, can you tell me your YouTube account ID and password? I need to upload it.”
“When it’s ready, just call me, Kang Juhyuk. I’ll log in for you.”
“It’s already ready. I just need to upload it, so wait a moment. I’ll set up the computer.”
I stopped Seo Haeun, who was trying to escape the soundproof booth as quickly as possible, and connected the cables to the computer I’d simply dropped off. There was no desk, so I had to put the monitor on a plastic chair, but it ran without any issues. I connected to the internet via hotspot, handed her the keyboard, and carefully memorized her account name and password while she typed with her two-finger hunt-and-peck method from behind.
The ID was sophia0919. The password was 940919she.
…She really made it easy to remember.
“…Done?”
“Yeah. Uploading won’t take long, so you can go wait outside.”
“I don’t know what you’ll do if I leave, so I’ll wait until it’s finished.”
“Suit yourself.”
In front of her, I transferred the video we’d just recorded to the PC and uploaded it without even needing to trim it. The title was plain—just the song name with “guitar cover” added. For the thumbnail, I chose the last shot of her making a peace sign. It also conveniently had the guitar pressed deep into her cleavage. It wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough.
“The video’s short, so it’s already done.”
“…”
“It was until March 31st, right? If it doesn’t hit ten thousand views by then, you can roast me, kick me out, do whatever you want, Haeun.”
“…What are you going to make me do if I lose?”
She wasn’t completely without anxiety, but I could clearly see the thought There’s no way I’ll lose~ written all over her face. Of course, the moment someone thinks “no way,” that’s exactly when defeat starts to feel terrifying. Especially for Seo Haeun, who took pride in her body—she wouldn’t be able to shake that “no way” from her mind.
“I’ll think about that when the time comes.”
“…If you make me do anything weird, then I absolutely…”
“I won’t touch you. I keep my promises.”
“…”
But I had no intention of doing anything scary to Seo Haeun right away while she trembled in fear of defeat. It was much better to let her stay scared and slowly devour her while she was terrified. Winning a light bet like this and immediately claiming the prize was for amateurs. If you draw two aces in poker, you have to build the pot. Going all-in with heavy raises to wipe everyone out isn’t always the best move.
You have to fatten them up first. Suck them dry. Down to the marrow.
March 19th.
…I lost.
“What the hell, Haeun. It’s only been two days and it’s already at nine thousand.”
“…”
Something that shouldn’t have been possible had actually happened to me. She wasn’t even that good at guitar. She didn’t even show her face.
…And it wasn’t even that revealing.
“Hey, in a few hours I’m going to win. What should I make you do? What were you planning to make me do if you won, Haeun?”
“…W-wait…”
“I won’t touch you, so do you want to sleep together tonight? It’s really uncomfortable without a mattress. I’ll get one tomorrow, but there isn’t one today.”
“…What the hell did you do?”
“What did I do? Me?”
If I’d seen how confident Kang Juhyuk had been from the very beginning, I should have felt uneasy. No matter how natural something seemed, I should have realized that man was capable of pulling tricks.
…How did he do this? To get around ten thousand views, you normally need tens of thousands of subscribers. It definitely started with less than a hundred, and even now it hasn’t reached a thousand. So how…?
“I didn’t do anything special. People just watch because you’re hot.”
“…Really?”
“If you don’t believe me, want to change the bet? Instead of ten thousand this month, if it hits fifty thousand, you have to do whatever I say without refusing.”
…I knew it was impossible, and I knew fifty thousand was completely unrealistic, but seeing that it was already approaching ten thousand views in just two days, I couldn’t possibly nod my head.
“Including touching. …How about it?”
If I nodded, it was obvious what that man would do to me, so I was swallowed by the terror of defeat.
“Well… if you don’t want to. Should I just admit I lost? It looks like the remaining thousand will fill up quickly.”
“…”
“Answer me. Pick one.”
“…I-I lost… so, um, not anything weird… something else…”
Dozens of ways Kang Juhyuk could toy with and humiliate me without even touching me flashed through my mind. Was he going to make me strip and masturbate? Or maybe he’d strip and masturbate in front of me. Make me walk around naked in the house all day. Or force me into vulgar poses and film it with the camera.
Things that wouldn’t violate me or hurt me physically, but would destroy my heart and pride—endless commands tormented my head.
“Ah, well. I won’t make you do anything weird. I’ll make you do something else.”
“…W-what is it…?”
“We’re going to film one more video. If that one gets over ten thousand views too, you have to do one thing I tell you to do.”
“…”
“…This time it includes touching.”
But he didn’t seem interested in light humiliation like that at all. He was staring holes through my chest, swallowing hard.
…If I refused, it looked like he would pounce on me immediately, claiming I’d broken the promise.