The Price of Obsession
"...Anyway, so I actually did that?"
"Yes, that's right, Master... no, Suhyun. No, Suhyun-ah. Yes."
At his command to stop calling him 'Master' so much, Jia continued to stutter as she referred to him. He was watching the video with a rather serious expression, while Eunbyul, with one of his arms tucked into her cleavage, was watching the same video, visibly aroused. It wasn't as if they had taken any drugs, or aphrodisiacs... it wasn't anything like that.
"I never knew this about myself."
"...We barely drank when we were dating. We just... we just did it as soon as we got home."
"That's true."
"..."
At the mention of 'dating,' Eunbyul's expression soured instantly. It was something she hadn't experienced. Hearing them share memories that only the two of them could possess in front of her made her feel terrible. It was jealousy.
"So I was like this at the hotel, too."
"Yes... I gave you quite a lot that day, but... when I sat on Master's lap—no, on Suhyun's lap—and told you to ejaculate inside me as much as you wanted, you completely changed. And while drinking wine straight from the bottle, we did it from behind... and you spanked my ass so hard, too."
Eunbyul watched Jia, who was saying, "It felt so good." Seeing Jia with an expression as if she were recounting a vacation she’d taken to heaven, Eunbyul’s jealousy flared even more. If she could, she wanted to drag him to the bedroom right now and make him do the same—or if doing it exactly the same was too difficult, at least make him drink or do something similar. But now, she couldn't make him drink, nor could she force him to do anything. The video was the problem. That damn video.
She had worked hard to prepare the contract and even got his signature, but it was all useless. Well, if she thought about it, just because he signed it didn't mean it held any binding legal power. Still, Eunbyul had thought it would be enough to apply psychological pressure.
"...You say that like it's something to be proud of."
"It is something to be proud of. I felt it until the very end—that I am not a being meant to conquer Master, but a being meant to crawl at Master's feet... a being meant to be conquered."
"So that's why you were acting strange this morning."
"...Master, Suhyun... I always saw him as a younger brother, but that day, he was just... I was scared."
As she said that, Seo Jia touching her own lower abdomen looked, frankly, incredibly lewd.
"Senior, talk to me for a second, too."
"...?"
Jia, who had been clinging to his arm and boasting to her heart's content, spoke as if she wanted Eunbyul to hear, then headed to the kitchen to brew coffee. Taking that opportunity, Eunbyul hugged him even tighter.
"...Hurry, you have to do it as soon as possible."
"Do what?"
"Sex. Everything. Everything you did with that woman. I have to do it, too."
Why? Suddenly?
"...That is, well..."
"Speak."
After keeping her mouth shut for a moment with a furious expression, Eunbyul spoke in a voice that was barely a whisper.
"I don't have any cards left. I don't have any cards to play."
"....?"
"In times like this, I just... I don't know how to do anything other than crawl on the floor. It's not like I have more money than you, and there's no reason for you to have sex with me anymore..."
"You did say you wanted to earlier. On the condition that you don't try any more weird threats or cause trouble..."
"Right now, do it. Quickly... I'm in a rush..."
For a brief moment, even in this situation, Eunbyul had searched for something—anything—to bind him, but after much deliberation, she decided to submit just like the others. It seemed like the easiest path. Eunbyul didn't have the extreme sadistic tendencies that Seo Jia had before their divorce, but she liked being in a position of relative superiority. She wanted exactly the level of power where the woman holds a bit more sway in the relationship. That was why she had tried to get his signature on a contract that had no legal effect, and if he found out later that it was invalid—
'...Then I'll just go to the police and report it. Even if it was consensual, the fact that you touched another woman doesn't change, and people don't even know you're divorced yet.'
'If you don't want your image to hit rock bottom, you'd better behave.'
She had planned to say that and then sleep with him more to get pregnant. If she had a child, she could stand on higher ground than Seo Jia, and it would be the same as gaining something she didn't have. Eunbyul firmly believed that he wasn't the type of person to mistreat a pregnant woman, whether he liked it or not, but it seemed like things were going to go wrong from the start.
"The contract, the threats—they don't work anymore. Now..."
"I keep telling you, I said I'd do it earlier."
"...It just feels like lip service. I won't be good at sex, and since you'll have to teach me everything, it won't be fun for you, so clearly... later on, you'll just be doing it with that masturbation sleeve every day..."
She had intended to use the contract as a threat even though she knew it had no legal standing, but because of 'that video,' it had become a piece of paper with zero utility. And the backup plan—the threat to 'report' him—would backfire if she actually reported him, because Seo Jia would arrive at the police station before him.
"My husband and I were divorced, and we were drunk when it happened. It happened inside our home, and I saw it with my own two eyes."
"We're divorced, but I told him I was sorry, so I'm living in the house. That's when I saw it."
"He continued to do it even though he knew I was watching. He was clearly enjoying it, and he was even laughing. This video is the evidence."
That was how she would handle it. In the end, she had wanted to use the threat of 'publicizing the criminal facts'—using public opinion to pressure him—to say, "If you want to settle this quietly, marry me!" But of course—
"The crime of publicizing a suspect's facts is strictly a crime of leaking official secrets. Do you want to see who wins?"
If Seo Jia used her judge father to push back like that, there would be no answer. She knew from the news that the father of that masturbation sleeve had even served as a Chief Judge.
"What are you talking about? The cards are..."
"Senior, I..."
She promised that from now on, she would behave even more prettily than Seo Jia, and that she would do her best, so please cherish her just as much. She had no other choice. When she heard about what happened at the hotel, and while watching the video, Eunbyul felt—
"...."
She felt like she was standing on the edge of a cliff where, just as she was finally settling into her position as his secretary, a rash threat against the General Manager could lead to her downfall. If they were to have intercourse, she would enjoy it, but it was uncertain if he would like it, and since they didn't really know what each other liked yet, Eunbyul started to get scared.
"I'll do really well. I'll never threaten you again. I was crazy. ...I just wanted you so much, Senior,"
"What's with the sudden..."
"It's obvious. She's doing that because she realizes she's going to lose,"
Jia said, placing two cups of coffee in front of him and herself. Naturally, there wasn't one for Eunbyul. Eunbyul wanted to glare at Jia and tell her to shut her mouth, but—
"Master, that girl seems to have wanted to bind you, just like I did before the divorce, because she wanted you for herself."
"Mm-hmm."
"But now that all the cards she could use to do that are gone, there's no reason for her to be here, is there?"
"...."
"The fact that she's a virgin? Implanon? What's the use of all that? In the first place, Master can't have a promiscuous sex life. You're a public figure in your own right, and you're going to be doing even more work and becoming more famous than you are now. But what if you have sex with a dirty vixen like that and she uses it as leverage to threaten you again? Even if she doesn't say anything, it's a worry, but look at her talking about the police just because she saw a bit of chest."
Right. She had forgotten. Seo Jia was also a very smart woman.
"...You, keep being noisy..."
"Master, please think about it. Would it be better to taste the pussy of your bitch Jia, who has been tamed by being fucked for several years for your sake, or would it be better to sleep with someone unverified like that—someone who might report you and cause defamation?"
As she said that, Jia leaned in close to his ear and whispered,
"Other than the fact that she's young, there's nothing particularly special about her. Master. ...I can give you three babies in no time if you just say the word...♡"
"Then apologize properly, for starters."
"Tch."
Jia felt slighted. Even after persuading him so thoroughly, her ex-husband hadn't completely fallen for it. On the other hand, Eunbyul clung tightly to his side, her eyes trembling. As soon as he finished his thought and spoke, she quickly stood up from the sofa where he was sitting, knelt down slowly, and said,
"I'm really sorry... for threatening you, Senior."
"Again."
"...Mastur—no, to Jia..."
"Ssssh..."
"No, no...! I'm sorry for speaking rudely to Jia-unnie, too. I just thought of her as a woman who made things hard for you, so I got angry..."
"Right. But that's not something you should be concerned about."
"...Still, that's too much. I was just defending you, why is this..."
"You were being rude. She's a stranger, and today was your first meeting."
After much deliberation, he had made Seo Jia and Eunbyul apologize to each other. He had thought about it before: even if it made him tired when they were together, it was better than the alternative—one side threatening him with weird contracts, or the other side clinging to him all day calling him 'Master.' He felt it was right to set up a check-and-balance system because it was burdensome for either side to try and monopolize him too much.