Taming (6)
Even with their faces hidden behind hats and masks, there was no way I wouldn’t recognize them. Their hair colors were far too eye-catching, and their proportions were simply ridiculous. Both of them.
“Who are they?”
“...Unnie.”
“Unnie? Your actual older sister?”
“Yeah.”
“Ah, I see.”
One tall woman with violet hair and hips that could drive a man insane. One petite woman with silver-white hair whose face was smaller than my hand. Her face was so tiny the mask swallowed her entire lower half, yet her eyes were astonishingly large. So this was what idols looked like.
I’d seen Seo Jia once before, so I could accept it, but the tiny woman behind her still looked tempting even while clinging to Haeun’s side.
...What was her name again? I definitely knew the face. She was that ridiculously popular Japanese idol. The one in the same group as Seo Jia. Nakazawa… Hinami, I think.
“Ah, hello! Jia unnie?”
“...Yes?”
“Jia unnie…. Ah, should I ask if you’re Jia’s older sister? Unnie, do you know who I am?”
“Ah, um, Hina….”
“You do know me! Wow, but unnie, that choker is really pretty! Where did you get it? I love chokers too!”
Anyway, this Nakazawa Hinami had a surprisingly friendly personality that didn’t match her pure-looking face. Without any actual touching, she stepped close enough that a bent elbow would brush Haeun’s and spoke to her in a warm, familiar tone.
If a man had approached a woman that way and asked her to vouch for him, I would have signed off on it nine times out of ten. Of course, the size difference was so extreme I wouldn’t have stood as the guarantor. Shoving my cock into a body that small would break the person. No matter how tiny, Haeun was the limit.
“Hinami. Be quiet. This isn’t a place where you can just chatter.”
“Why! It’s my first time seeing Jia-chan’s unnie! But she’s really beautiful. What was the age gap again? And her name is….”
“I’ll tell you later, so come out first.”
Watching her openly chatter inside a Brazilian waxing salon, it seemed this woman had quite a few screws loose. Wasn’t she an idol?
Yet even Seo Jia, who forcefully grabbed her groupmate’s wrist and tried to drag her out, looked somewhat dangerous in this light. Her looks, her voice, her height—she gave off that kind of aura. It wasn’t exactly my preferred taste, but the vibe was there.
“Eek, Jia-chan! Let go, let me go, I want to talk to Jia-chan’s unnie….”
“...Shut up.”
“Ah, this girl! How dare you speak to your senior like—”
“Be quiet! Why are you suddenly acting like this?”
I watched the two women perform their little skit with a blank stare, then shifted my gaze to Haeun, who had been left standing alone.
...She looked extremely displeased. Was it the shock of running into her sister, or was she uncomfortable that a stranger was touching her choker? Whatever the petty reason, it didn’t matter.
What mattered was….
“Haeun, let’s go. We already paid on the way in.”
“...Huh?”
That I now had people to show off my cute pet to.
Unfortunately I couldn’t drag her by the choker, so I grabbed Haeun’s wrist the same way Seo Jia had and left the shop. The staff stared at us with flustered faces, but I had nothing to be embarrassed about, so I didn’t care. Haeun, however, glanced back before we left and looked mortified.
“Ah! Jia, you dragged her out by force so Haeun unnie had to follow!”
“Unnie, why did you have to….”
“I didn’t follow. We were finished and heading home.”
Hinami, who had been squirming in Seo Jia’s grip, must have caught the name. She pointed at us as we came down to the first floor and greeted us cheerfully.
In contrast, Seo Jia—who had been incredibly rude to us earlier despite the awkward timing and location—checked that almost no one was around before letting out a deep sigh and offering a greeting.
“Haa…. Hello. …Unnie and Kang Juhyuk.”
“Yes, hello. What a place to run into each other.”
“Hello, Haeun unnie and… Haeun unnie’s boyfriend? Right?”
“I’m not her boyfr—”
“He’s her boyfriend. Why are you denying it, Haeun.”
“....”
.... Hmm. So it wasn’t just one rude person.
“Um…, what do you call your friend’s older sister’s boyfriend in Korean, Jia?”
“I don’t know.”
“It’s hyungbu, hyungbu. You’re Korean and you don’t even know that? And here you were pretending to be so smart.”
“Shut up. And he’s not hyungbu. That sa— …that gentleman.”
“....”
Perhaps exhausted by the wildly contrasting energies of the two women, Haeun—who had become much smoother in many ways—hung her head and hid herself completely behind my back.
...Even I thought I looked far more dangerous than those two, so why was she hiding behind me? Using people only as human shields was rather unpleasant. In more ways than one.
“Then what should I call you? Um…, can I call you oppa? Juhyuk-ssi? Ah, are you perhaps under nineteen…?”
“Not at all. I’m twenty-six.”
“Hey, you….”
“Ah, yes. Thank you, Juhyuk oppa!”
Thanks to that, I received all the attention that should have gone to Haeun. Hinami began scanning my body up and down with eyes full of curiosity. She examined me so thoroughly it felt slightly uncomfortable, but her eyes were so pretty that it wasn’t offensive. Was this the power of beauty? If I stared at a woman that way, I’d probably get arrested.
“Wow…, you really have an amazing body. The Haeun unnie hiding behind you too.”
“Ah, well. We exercise together, so….”
“Exercise? Hmm… what kind of exercise…?”
“Hey, Hinami. …Stop asking pointless questions and follow me.”
“Why! I want to get close to your hyungbu too!”
“I keep telling you he’s not my hyungbu. I don’t want to get close either.”
Seeing her toss out even those kinds of questions with giggles, it seemed that while the direction differed, her lack of manners rivaled Jia’s. Of course none of it displeased me. The only one displeased was Haeun behind me, grinding her teeth.
“Haa…. Anyway, now that we’ve finished the introductions, you can be on your way. Sorry for the trouble because of her.”
“No, no, it’s not trouble.”
“Wait, Jia. I’m older than you—what kind of tone is that?”
“Stop talking nonsense and follow me. I made a reservation; leaving suddenly will inconvenience everyone.”
“Oh right, right. Okay, okay. I’ll go up. Then, Haeun unnie and… Juhyuk oppa? Nice to meet you!”
Startled by Hinami’s wild behavior, Seo Jia showed us a polite attitude for the first time as she dragged her up to the second floor. Even while being pulled away, Hinami kept staring at us. She tapped the black choker around her own neck, pointed at Haeun, then gave a sly smile and a peace sign before disappearing.
Even I, who rarely got flustered, was surprised by that final gesture. I quickly looked at Haeun, who had watched the entire thing.
“What the fuck is wrong with that bitch….”
...Wow, that was harsh. The second they were out of sight, she started swearing. She must have been really pissed.
“Why? What happened?”
“Hey, you, that, that thing—you didn’t see it? Huh?”
“See what.”
“She completely disrespected me, that crazy bitch…!”
She had reverted to the Seo Haeun of three years ago, stamping her feet and throwing a tantrum. The reason was one of two: either Seo Jia or Hinami.
“What, did running into your sister ruin your mood?”
“That’s not it! That crazy bitch, at the end, to me—she did this!”
“I didn’t see it.”
“You didn’t see it because you’re tall! I saw it! That crazy bitch did this to me…!”
Haeun tapped her own choker the same way Hinami had, then stuck her thumb between her index and middle fingers, made a fist, and gave me the potato gesture.
...Ugh, that was a bit unpleasant. I wasn’t sure which country’s insult it was, but in modern Korea it was generally treated as one. If she wiggled the protruding thumb, the meaning became crystal clear.
“Even if you saw it, it’s not really an insult.”
“Hey, Kang Juhyuk! How is this not an insult…?”
“Isn’t it telling you to fuck nicely? This.”
“You, you….”
Seeing how she had tapped the choker and smiled, it was clearly a well-wish to enjoy some good, tight sex after getting waxed. Logically, there was no way she would swear at her groupmate’s older sister on their first meeting. It must have been a cultural difference in expression since she was a foreigner.
“Why get so angry over something like that? Stressed because they pulled your hair out?”
“Hey, you crazy son of a bitch! Let go! Fuck off….”
I wrapped my arms tightly around the fuming Haeun from behind and gently stroked her head no matter how much she struggled. The important thing wasn’t that. Getting angry over things like this would only exhaust her.
“You hid so well behind me earlier, so why are you acting out now?”
“That’s because that crazy bitch kept looking at me with those weird eyes…!”
From behind the snarling Haeun, I reached into my suit’s inner pocket and subtly pulled out something that clinked. It wasn’t thick, but it was a steel chain most people couldn’t break with their bare hands.
“With a dog collar on, you want to hide behind your owner when a stranger appears?”
“What are you…?”
I fastened it to her bright red choker with a click.
“There’s no one around, so let’s go for a walk. Just like this.”
Then I grabbed the chain on both sides and turned her choker into a proper leash.
“...Huh? …Hey, hey! Hey, take this off right now! Are you insane?”
“...I said we’re going for a walk. I even got you waxed, so don’t throw a tantrum.”
...Truthfully, I hadn’t planned to do this today. But she forgot about pretending to be my girlfriend in front of her sister and suddenly got cursed at, so it felt like I needed to tighten the reins. Well… she liked walks, so it wasn’t exactly unpleasant.