I Want to Go to a Motel!!
I deleted the entire five-chapter side story I'd already prepared—the one that only needed to be uploaded. I'd even told Park Eun-yeong that I was revising the plot. The string of events that had unfolded between us over the past few days had given me a different kind of conviction.
"Even if it's too different..."
"I mean... it's a side story. But if the reaction sucks, we're seriously fucked..."
"It's better to crash and burn than write rape-sweet-love crap like that."
She looked thoroughly displeased. Her lips were still poked out like a duck's.
"Anyway, I'm uploading it now."
"...Okay."
The finished portion came out to about three chapters. Originally the protagonist would have raped Park Eun-yeong right from the early parts of the story, but the revised version was almost painfully ordinary. It was packed with the most common, obvious tropes—stuff anyone would call a pure romance story.
The only real difference was that the starting point was us. The three-chapter novel contained a story that faintly mirrored our own.
"...So does that mean Park Eun-yeong liked her oppa from the very beginning?"
"What?"
"No... you said it was obvious. Like if there were a hundred people, ninety-nine of them would have that character."
"It's obvious, sure, but that's what makes it a cliché. It's also a classic."
"...That's not what you said before. Back then you called it overdone."
"It is overdone. But even that depends on how you write it."
"Ha! So you think you've got the touch?"
"......"
Well, I wasn't sure I had any confidence. The focus I was aiming for this time was my own experience more than anything else.
"Sigh..."
"Why the sudden sigh?"
What I had felt. What I had gone through. The memories from that time when my heart felt like it would explode—I wanted to melt all of it into the writing.
"Ah, whatever. I'm uploading it."
It was scary in more ways than one. The fear of the reviews that would follow, the terror that it might flop. This wasn't a hobby. It was my livelihood. It was work. My head was full of the thought that it absolutely had to succeed.
"Hey, hurry up and check the comments. Comments first!"
Park Eun-yeong, looking excited, started bouncing around beside me. She kept tapping my shoulder, urging me on.
"...Just a second."
"Ugh, what are you doing? Look already! Aren't you curious?"
"I am curious, but... sigh..."
I thought three years had toughened me up. Yet I still couldn't get used to the comments. If the number dropped compared to the previous episode, the thought that I'd screwed up would dominate my mind. Out of a hundred comments, even a single anti-comment could fill my entire head.
"Ah, I don't care anymore. I want to see them."
In the end Park Eun-yeong snatched the mouse from my hand. She began refreshing like crazy, checking the comment atmosphere. I watched her from the corner of my eye, then finally looked away.
"Whoa... there are tons of comments..."
"...I uploaded up to chapter three. So there should be three times as many, right?"
"Are you stupid? You just uploaded it. They're all piling onto chapter one!"
Her intrigued tone sparked my own curiosity despite myself. I tried to push it down, but in the end I opened Pandora's box with my own two hands.
"...What are they saying?"
"......"
I asked, but she didn't answer. So I sneaked a glance at her.
"...Hey, what's wrong?"
Her face had gone pale, her expression dark. Those cherry-like lips and the corners of her eyes were trembling.
"Hey, did you see anti-comments? Damn it... that's why I told you not to read the comments..."
I took the mouse back from her. As I moved to close the browser, the comments I'd tried to avoid flooded my vision.
Every single comment was about whether it was an essay or not. And with every refresh the comments snowballed, filled with wild speculation.
"Ah, uh..."
It was one of the common comment patterns I'd seen while serializing incest stories. But the sheer volume was on another level... just reading them made my own mind go blank.
"I-I told them not to put 'Not an Essay'..."
"Y-You also told me readers were just teasing... that it was a joke so I shouldn't pay attention..."
"No, nooo!! How is that the same as before?!"
I wasn't sure what exactly was different, but it seemed the completely revised story was the problem.
"It's fine, don't overthink it. It's a novel, after all."
"Haa... huu... sigh..."
She shot me a fierce glare and took deep breaths. Before long her face had turned as red as a ripe persimmon.
"S-Still, the reaction is good, right? Half the settlement money is yours... so it's all good..."
This kind of reaction was within expectations. The only problem was that Park Eun-yeong was sitting right next to me.
"Oh... comments are starting to pile up on the other chapters too?"
The readers who had begun binging left more and more comments.
"Ah, well... they say it's fun..."
I hurriedly closed the browser. I tried to ignore Park Eun-yeong's sharp glare as her shoulders shook with barely contained emotion.
"Hey! Stop leaving weird author notes!"
"Ah... why?"
"Because you keep strongly insisting it's not a real essay, the readers are having a field day and the comment section is exploding."
"...Why?"
"Because you keep dropping bait first. How can readers not bite when you do that?"
"Then what am I supposed to do? They keep calling it an essay, so I have to say it's not..."
"Just stay quiet, okay? Stop saying unnecessary stuff. Can you understand that?"
"Ah, fine. I got it. I'll stay quiet."
The serialization was going smoothly. The reaction wasn't bad. No, it was better than good. Park Eun-yeong, who had been rampaging around, headed for the door. I quickly chased after her and grabbed her wrist.
"...What now?"
She tried to shake me off with a small flick of her hand. I gripped her wrist tighter.
"...Park Eun-yeong."
"What do you waaant!"
"Um, have you... done that before?"
"...What? Done what?"
Her pupils were shaking like there was an earthquake.
"You know... a guy and a girl going on a date..."
"Haa... why are you suddenly saying such random stuff?"
She let out a sigh that sounded a lot like relief.
"No, you know... the side story changed quite a lot."
"So? What do you want me to do about it?"
After that day we'd both been pretending nothing happened. It wasn't for any deep reason—we were just embarrassed. No matter how you sliced it, even if we'd used the excuse of "experience" and she'd kept her top on, neither of us had thick enough skin to look each other in the eye like nothing had happened.
"But when I actually try to write it... I hit a wall."
"...So what, you've done rape before so you can just write rape and training scenes?"
"No... it's different. That's a completely different territory. I can't just half-ass the side story."
"...Dates can be half-assed too. Or what, are you asking me to go on a date with you? Ew, gross."
She actually shivered like she got goosebumps.
"Hey, why is it gross? We've already done everything there is to do between a guy and a girl—"
"Shut up."
"......"
"Let go."
Her voice was so chilling it made the back of my neck tingle. I quickly shut my mouth and released her wrist. Park Eun-yeong immediately brought her hand to her neck, trying to cover something. But her small hand couldn't completely hide the marks I'd left. They still sat on her throat as faint reddish bruises.
"......When?"
"Whenever you're free. Weekdays would be better than the weekend, though."
When her attitude suddenly turned positive I quickly added more.
"......Where?"
"Don't you have anywhere you want to go?"
"...You were the one who suggested a date without even deciding on a place...?"
"I thought you might say no."
"...You talk so smoothly."
"If you were Park Eun-yeong, where would you want to go?"
"......"
She put on a surprisingly serious face and seemed to think hard. I stood there quietly and waited.
"......tel."
"What?"
Her lips moved a few times as she mumbled something under her breath. I leaned my ear closer to her.
"......tel, I want to go."
"What?"
"Haa, huu..."
I brought my ear even closer. We were so close I could feel her breath.
"I can't hear you. Again."
"M-Motel... I want to go to a motel!!"
"Whoa!"
Her voice rang through the room so loudly I actually stumbled backward.
"A m-motel?"
"...Yeah."
"......Park Eun-yeong. You're way more perverted than I thought?"
"N-Nooo!! It's not me! I just thought that's where the character Park Eun-yeong would want to go!!"
Whether from embarrassment or not, she yelled at the top of her lungs. Then she quickly drew a line, insisting it was purely for research.
"D-Don't misunderstand! You asked first, so I just squeezed an answer out of my brain, okay?!"
"Ah, well... I'm not misunderstanding."
Living together or going to a motel—what was the difference? Everyone knew why a man and woman went to a motel, so it was impossible not to have dirty thoughts.
"...Are we going to have sex if we go?"
"Heyyyy—!!"
Her small fists flew at me.
"Ow, ow, hey, that actually hurts."
"It's supposed to hurt! I'm hitting you on purpose!!"
Thud. Thud. The surprisingly loud sounds rang out. Yet instead of just pain... for some reason it felt ticklish and strangely arousing.