First Slave Hunt... Iljin Kim Hyejin...♥

BDSM.

An acronym taken from the first letters of three broad subcategories of sexual preference.

Bondage and Discipline.

Dominance and Submission.

Sadism and Masochism.

Those three branch further into twenty-seven distinct leanings, and right now those leanings were floating before my eyes in a hologram.

The so-called Status Window.

The Status Window had first appeared in middle school, the day my personal Iljin girl beat me senseless and I woke up to a pleasure I could not name.

The power let me take any target who met the conditions and turn them into a slave of whatever leaning I chose. Once a slave was set, additional abilities unlocked—I could check, amplify, strengthen, expand, fuse, mutate, or suppress their tendencies.

I had wanted to try it then and there. I was sixteen.

…There were, shall we say, adult circumstances to consider. So I gritted my teeth and waited four years.

And now, as a grown man, I had drawn that Iljin bitch Hyejin as my first slave. They say a gentleman's revenge is never late even if it takes ten years. Four was more than fast enough.

Anyway, if I was going to make Hyejin mine, I needed information. In this day and age, hunting someone down on social media was child's play.

…What leaning would suit that bitch Hyejin best… If I want to give back every beating I took, Masochist? Or… rekindle old memories and make her a Sadist? Or maybe break her into perfect obedience and hire her as a maid?

Before long, her posts confirmed she was working part-time at a department store.

So that was where I went.

The place Kim Hyejin worked was close to home.

A department store in the busy downtown strip.

Cosmetics shop on the first floor. Don't know the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠brand, but… if I wander around I'll find her. That face of hers hasn't changed. Kim Hyejin's face…

She had always been pretty. If she had grown up without going off the rails, she would have been able to cash in on those looks, no question. Judging purely by the personality I remembered from childhood, though, her current job… well, in the darkest version of my imagination I had pictured her working as some kind of karaoke "helper," or a bar girl, or something in that vein. Instead she was holding down a reasonably respectable job.

The first floor was all cosmetics counters and luxury brand displays.

The whole floor felt geared toward women as the primary target. Not surprising—men didn't haunt department stores that often. For someone like me who finished all his shopping online in five minutes, the whole scene was incomprehensible.

So I strolled the first floor at a leisurely pace. No need to rush. I was the one who could bind her as a slave; she was nothing but the slave-to-be. In this contract, there was no escape.

A contract came with conditions.

Most people carried several distinct sexual leanings at once—anywhere from one to more than ten. You checked them on the Status Window, and the BDSM tendency with the highest share had the best odds of a successful contract.

Which meant failure was possible.

On failure, the same person could never be contracted again!

Acquired leanings shaped by later experience also showed up on the Status Window, so if you wanted a particular leaning, you just had to push the numbers up until it stuck.

So what was Hyejin's leaning?

I cast my mind back to the girl she had been.

Heavy makeup that didn't belong on a face that age. Uniform skirts hemmed shorter than regulations allowed, shirts worn so tight they strained. At a school that strictly banned dyeing or bleaching, she had maneuvered teachers into a difference of opinion with some story about preparing for idol auditions, and walked the halls with a soft gold tint in her hair.

Her conversation was laced with cheap curses. Her hands—nails like an assassin's claws—always held a smartphone, the screen open to SNS.

How did I know all that so well?

Well… I used to sneak glances now and then…

Humiliating as that past was, she had been my personal Iljin.

More like a tribute item the boy Iljin handed over to win her favor, if I was being honest.

Middle school had been exhausting.

Bread Shuttle and homework shuttle were the baseline—protection money, carrying bags. She would even shove the ice cream she had been sucking on at me because it was "too frozen solid," and order me to eat it…

…That one wasn't so bad.

The fact that I deliberately bought the rock-hard ones was a secret. Call it consolation via indirect kiss, if you like.

Anyway, using the brief descriptions the Status Window provided for each leaning, I sorted through what Hyejin was most likely to have.

The leanings I expected her to carry were roughly—

…Something in that range, I figured.

Overall, thoroughly top-leaning sexual tendencies.

Hmm. Without some masochism in there, though, I can't really get revenge for everything she stomped on me with.

…If there was none, I would settle for a cane.

It was still too early to give up on assumptions alone. There was hope. A person's sexual leanings did not always match their outward appearance. There could be secret ones they would never want anyone to know.

And if that one was Masochist?

Nothing could be better.

And then—

Had I made it halfway around the first floor?

At a counter done entirely in black, a familiar face came into view.

Kim Hyejin.

No mistake. Every trace of the childish look was gone; she was a full-grown adult now. Baby fat still clung to her cheeks a little, but the air she carried was mature.

Her makeup was lighter than it had been back then, if anything. Barely more than a basic face.

…Aren't you supposed to pile it on thicker as you get older? She's living life backwards…

Anyway, identity confirmed. Time to go check her leanings.

Thump. Thump.

My hands were shaking.

Coming face to face with the girl who used to torment me… What if she treated me the same way she used to? Her voice from those days rang so clearly in my ears it might have been real.

— Hey. Jjintta.

— Rub my shoulders a bit.

— You've got something to eat, right? Hand it over.

— Hey, go to the convenience store and buy me some pads.

Treating me like a butler—no, "butler" was too generous a word. The thought of her treating me like a kkobung again.

When I had run image training at home it hadn't been like this. I had expected to feel nothing at all…! I had thought I would be able to grab her by the hair and shout, "You're my slave, you fucking bitch!!"

Instead, the old jjintta habits buried in my chest were trying to claw their way out—the kind where you took a beating from an Iljin, went home, blanket-kicked on your bed, and beat them senseless in your imagination…

Of course, once I hit high school and put on size, I had no memory of being bullied again. Even when I crossed paths with Iljin types downtown, they walked past as if they didn't know me—or maybe they just couldn't start anything with my friends around.

At last I stepped into the cosmetics shop where Kim Hyejin was working.

And then—

She came scurrying over with quick little steps and bowed almost to ninety degrees.

"Welcome!"

"Ah—yes."

Kim Hyejin lifted her head. Up close, her looks really were the kind that could make a name for themselves even in the neighborhood. She had been one of the five famous online Ulzzangs of '07, after all.

Thinking about that only made it more pathetic. Reduced to selling cosmetics here. This was exactly why you didn't do the Iljin thing. She had even made contact with an agency, only for her debut to collapse when they caught her hanging around with delinquents. Look at the other Top 5 Ulzzangs—actors, idols, models, influencers, still growing their careers and showing up on broadcasts now and then.

Tsk.

Poor thing…

No. No, no, no.

Who the hell was I feeling sorry for right now?

The grown Hyejin fixed her gaze on me. Her irises glittered like blue sapphires. Did Korean people have blue eyes? Mysterious…

For a second I almost drowned in those eyes—no!

Those were lenses!

I had nearly fallen for it.

Our eye contact stretched a little too long, and Hyejin tilted her head. Her face was full of question marks.

Had she recognized me?

"Is there anything you're looking for, sir? This is a women's cosmetics shop… A gift for your girlfriend? Or… are you looking for the restroom?"

Ah. Right.

Women's cosmetics. Of course.

"Just give me some lotion I can slap on my crotch. It's summer and it stings… No rule against guys using it down there, right?"

"Pardon? Ah… just a moment!"

She squatted down behind the counter and started searching for something. The pose was nothing like the girl who used to stroll around with her hands shoved in her skirt pockets, radiating pure trash energy.

Damn, Kim Hyejin really pulled off a full identity wash, huh?

Whatever.

She hadn't recognized me? She was sticking strictly to the polite customer-service employee act. I had waited on her for more than a year and she couldn't even remember?

Why did that make me feel kind of hurt…

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Forget it. As long as I was close to the target, I could read her leanings.

It felt exactly like scanning a QR code.

I dropped the squatting Hyejin into the frame—

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There it was.

Hyejin's sexual leaning was maso.

I had hit exactly what I wanted.

So this was why people gambled?

When the thing you had been hoping for actually landed, the rush was unreal!

As Hyejin came toward me with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a sales smile, having apparently found the product, I smiled back.

It was summer.