Minhwa's Backstory
I glanced back at her, but she didn't turn her head.
"Somehow I felt something like this would happen even before I came here. Or, to be more honest, I intended it. Ever since our appointment was set, I haven't been able to sleep properly since last week. My heart kept racing, and I stayed worked up all day long. Those hours themselves were thrilling—a whole new experience for me."
Minhwa's hand drifted and began to stroke my chest.
"But I was worried too. As I told you, I've never been with any man but my husband. I had decided to go through with something that wouldn't be easy for someone like me, and I kept thinking—what if all that remained were unpleasant memories and regret? Looking back, maybe most of the anxious days I spent came from that."
I stroked her hair as I listened, curious about what she truly wanted to say. Minhwa turned her head and rested her cheek against my chest. I could see her beautiful face. She was smiling faintly.
"But every one of those fears was unfounded. My heart feels so full right now. It really is you, Jisin. Now I want to stake my whole life on Cheonsiman-gyo. Even if that's what it takes, I want to stay by your side."
Staking her life… the line was a little heavy, but I decided she was just speaking that way. Either way, having a beauty like her say those words left me nothing but grateful. Trying not to show it too openly, I pulled her close and kissed her. Minhwa kissed back with far more ease than before. Her hand slid down to my cock, slick with my semen and her own juices, and she took hold of it without the slightest hesitation. Her tongue slipped into my mouth—not because I had drawn it in, but because she had pushed it there. It roamed freely, and her sweet saliva flowed into me. My cock was hard again. Confirming it, Minhwa broke the kiss and looked up at me.
"Hold me one more time."
Thank you very much. I rolled her over and took her into my arms. Without much more foreplay, I pushed straight into her. That was how our second round began. From the second time on we tried one position after another—from behind, on our sides. Minhwa and I moved as if we had been lovers for years, our bodies fitting together without a hitch through the second and third rounds. She came more times than I ejaculated, at least. Outside the window, darkness was settling in. Drenched in sweat and semen, Minhwa staggered up from the bed.
"I should head back now. When can I see you again?"
I rose and caught her unsteady form, drawing her into a long kiss.
"Soon."
Minhwa smiled and went into the bathroom. Water ran for a while; then she reappeared, smoothing her hair, bowed to me with perfect politeness, and left. Some ten or twenty minutes after she was gone, Yunchae came in. With an expressionless face she went into the bathroom, wet a towel, and returned to wipe my body clean. She took particular care with my ruined cock as she spoke.
"She really is a beautiful woman."
I said nothing and only watched Yunchae's face. There was guilt in me, and embarrassment too.
The next day Myeongsuk came to see me. The moment the naked Myeongsuk entered, Jeongmi and Yunchae quietly slipped out of the room. Myeongsuk sat in front of me and opened her mouth.
"Did you have a hot evening with Ryu Minhwa yesterday? Were you satisfied?"
Her tone reminded me of a restaurant owner checking the bill after a meal and asking, Did you enjoy your food? A subtle smile played at the corners of her mouth as she continued.
"She was a woman I meant to send to you as a gift from the start. Of course her sphere of influence was tempting as well, but more than that, I thought she was someone you would thoroughly enjoy."
Her words were starting to sour my mood.
"Don't talk about her like that. You sound like some kind of pimp."
I wondered if I had gone too far, but her expression didn't change in the slightest.
"Because it's the truth. I believed that once she met you, you would take hold of her beautifully. She was already burning for it long before she set foot here."
Myeongsuk always seemed to be plotting something, so I watched her carefully without speaking. Her eyes turned cold.
"Have you heard much of Ryu Minhwa's story? Her family, her husband… things like that?"
I nodded.
"Yeah… roughly."
Myeongsuk's face grew serious again.
"She's a pitiful woman. If you like her and want to keep her at your side as a Jiseonnyeo, then do it."
My heart leaped at the idea. I wanted to spend every hour of every day with her. But there was reality to consider.
"She's a married woman. She has a husband and a child."
Myeongsuk's eyes grew even more frightening.
"It seems you didn't hear the details. Well then… let me explain a little. Ryu Minhwa's father spent many years at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office and retired at the mandatory age. She is his only child—an only daughter. From early on she was raised by a rigid, terrifying father and mother into a perfect model student. She never wanted for anything; she always had the best of everything."
I nodded. Even at a glance that much had been obvious.
"Her father was a man who held power that made the world hold no fear for him. He had lived by principle and rules, in his own way. Yet even he had one thing in his entire career that he desperately wanted to keep buried. He took an enormous bribe and turned a blind eye to preferential treatment for a major conglomerate. The money was huge, of course, but the pressure from political circles had been terrifying as well. For a man who had lived like a straight bamboo stalk, it was the one weakness he could not afford to expose. And there was only one person in the entire Republic of Korea who knew about that weakness."
I frowned.
"The husband?"
Myeongsuk nodded.
"Minhwa's husband is a thoroughly filthy human being. Back when he was a prosecutor he colluded with gangsters and involved himself in every kind of corruption and interest. Thanks to that he accumulated a fortune that would put many chaebols to shame. That filthy man became the sole Achilles' heel of Minhwa's father. He blackmailed the father, who had begun an internal investigation into his crimes, using that very weakness. After agonizing over it, the father struck a deal with him."
I thought it sounded like the classic cliché that always turns up in these stories.
"Marriage to his daughter?"
"Exactly. On that condition the man left the prosecution and became a lawyer. Thanks to the deal, Minhwa's father retired without incident and with his honor intact, while the naive Minhwa was married off to a man much older than herself—someone she didn't even love."
I nodded.
"Could a marriage like that ever be happy? And can a dog ever stop eating shit? That husband of hers is still a lawyer, still sitting at the center of every kind of corruption. In his private life, as far as I know, he keeps not two households but three. There might be even more."
Heat began to rise through my body. I had plenty I wanted to say, but for now I focused on Myeongsuk's story.
"Minhwa must have sensed it, of course. But she lives with her eyes covered. She leaves the child with a nanny and throws herself into PTA work and foundation business as if she is trying to forget that reality. By the time she showed interest in our order, she was already one step away from collapsing under that emptiness. I told her there was someone who could fill both her body and her heart, and that is how I drew her into our fold."
My mouth fell open. Yesterday had not been my doing. It hadn't been because I was the cult leader, and it hadn't been because of any masculine superiority of mine. Everything that had happened yesterday had been arranged by Myeongsuk. She had packaged it neatly so that all I had to do was open my mouth and swallow. She had given the staggering Minhwa the slightest nudge so that she would fall into my arms. Watching my dazed face, Myeongsuk continued.
"Minhwa holds more power than you might think. Her father still has influence in political circles and personal networks. And her husband… he is a thoroughly typical piece of legal trash. But even trash like that will be useful to us someday."
I was starting to wonder whether the person speaking to me was really Myeongsuk.
"Her husband is the type who seizes other people's weaknesses and shakes them. Her father was one of his victims. The more a man holds others by the throat, the more weaknesses he carries himself. If we are going to use that mad dog, we need to hold his leash as well."
I was beginning to feel a genuine fear of Myeongsuk.
"S-so…?"
The serious face that had been telling the story suddenly relaxed. Myeongsuk put on a foolish little smile and said,
"Well. We don't really need him right this moment. When the time comes that we do, we can think about it again."