Chapter 2. I messed up the hypnosis.
Chapter 2. I messed up the hypnosis.
[Where are you living right now?]
[Dormitory.]
[Get out immediately and come to my house.]
[Okay!]
And so, here I am in the car.
"Wow. This is fucking nice."
"You should just enjoy this situation. It's a car you wouldn't even dream of riding in under normal circumstances."
"It's my first time riding in one where the doors open upwards."
"If not for this business, you never would have ridden in one your whole life."
She really has a way with words.
Choi Yeon-ju. 26 years old. Short hair, great body, intellectual beauty. Overall cat-like features, so she seemed like she'd have a strong personality. I'd heard things around the workplace while working as a cleaner, too.
But I never imagined it would be this much.
It feels like she has a chainsaw attached to her lower jaw instead of a mouth.
"Are we going to your place?"
"Then where else would we go? A motel?"
"For real!?"
"I said that to tell you to stop talking nonsense."
That's mean.
Fuck.
The Hunter Association is located in Sejong City. Therefore, I, who live in the [Dormitory], also live in Sejong City. It seemed Choi Yeon-ju did too. Because she didn't take the road to Seoul.
That aside, the sound is killer. It doesn't look weird at all for a woman to be driving a sports car with a bull logo; it looks fucking cool. I can't even afford a compact car, so I walk everywhere.
"Do you live in Sejong City?"
"Is there any need to live far away? Seoul was Seoul back in the day. Isn't Sejong City the safest city now?"
"That's true."
It's true that there hasn't been an incident where monsters poured out of a Gate like crazy so far. But occasionally, one or two monsters would pop out. And "one or two" is just a figure of speech. For an ordinary person, running into a monster while walking down the street is no different from a disaster. Because they attack anyone they see.
It's like having a random murderer walking the streets.
As is usually the case with public safety, the focus is on prevention, but monsters aren't something you can prevent. Because they don't have the intelligence to realize, 'Oh, I shouldn't do this.' So what happens then? It basically means the response only starts after a person has already been killed or injured.
If you're lucky, you might report it first and have it discovered so the situation ends without anyone getting hurt, though.
Anyway, because of that problem, the area around the Hunter Association, which hunters visit the most, inevitably became the safest place in Korea.
Consequently, Eunma Apartment, which was waiting for redevelopment, really became dirt cheap.
Since Choi Yeon-ju was under hypnosis during work hours, it was past nine o'clock when we left the lab. Honestly, I'm sleepy. I need to sleep a bit early to clean again tomorrow. I'm anxious because my daily quests in the mobile game I've been playing are piling up.
Choi Yeon-ju's house appeared after driving for about thirty minutes along a wide-open, quiet road. It looked like a single large mansion with nothing else around it. As soon as I saw it, I felt it. Wow. Living here looks like a pain. For me, who needs at least ten places that deliver nearby, prefers the subway to be close, and needs a mart within a 5-minute walk, it was a house I absolutely wouldn't want to live in.
Because of that, these words automatically popped out.
"It looks like ghosts would come out."
"Do you want to see ghost pussies too?"
"No. I'm sorry. I won't do it. Please stop attacking me with that..."
I was just expressing my pure impression, but to attack me...
What a cowardly bitch.
That was my impression, but honestly, from Choi Yeon-ju's perspective, it probably wouldn't be easy to feel the inconvenience I'm thinking of. I don't know about delivery, but whether it's a mart or anywhere else, if she drives that supercar out, the Miracle of Moses would happen, so what's the problem? In my eyes, it looked like a car that, if parked in a mart parking lot, no one would be able to park on either side of it.
Choi Yeon-ju seemed to want to appeal that she lives well through her house, so spitefully, she drove the car into the basement of the mansion. That's right. The mansion had an underground parking lot.
"The house is totally nice."
"The underground parking lot was my top priority. I hate going outside when it rains and getting wet while opening the car door."
"Wouldn't it be fine if you built a garage?"
"Then the garden would get smaller, wouldn't it? Besides, there's a big difference between being underground and above ground. Have you ever opened a car door in the summer? It's hell on earth."
I can't refute that.
Not because I sympathize, but because I've never experienced it.
It's a topic you can only sympathize with if you have a car.
The car slid smoothly into the underground parking lot and parked. It's a pretty spacious parking lot, but since there's only one car, it's convenient because you can park anywhere. Just like my thought, Choi Yeon-ju parked anywhere and turned off the engine.
Seeing this, I started to have a reasonable suspicion that Choi Yeon-ju might not be good at parking, but since she's a hundred times better than me, who doesn't even have a driver's license, I didn't think I needed to start a fight over this for no reason.
"Why are you sitting there blankly? Get out."
"Yes."
At Choi Yeon-ju's words, I unbuckled my seatbelt and got out of the car. And I marveled once again. Choi Yeon-ju's mansion even had an elevator! A private detached house with an underground parking lot and an elevator that can go up at once!
"Am I living here from now on?"
I couldn't control my extremely excited feelings. When I asked Choi Yeon-ju with a big grin, a response that poured cold water on me was heard.
"I'm sorry, but that's impossible. You should think of it as staying in the [Dormitory] for at least three days."
"Why on earth!?"
"You don't want to keep working as a cleaner, do you?"
"That's true. Why would I work when I have you?"
"...Well. Since you are fated to risk your life entering Gates for my sake from now on, I won't provoke you."
"That statement alone is already a provocation...?"
To say she's risking her life so easily when it's not her own business.
I said I would do it, but as is the case with these kinds of conversations, I already don't want to do it. Since she's talking about risking my life, it must be very dangerous, right...? Should I just not do it and live satisfied with this luck?
The elevator going up from the underground parking lot to the mansion was also unexpectedly spacious. This is a bit disappointing. If it were narrower than I thought, I was going to use that as an excuse to bump into her and touch her here and there.
"We're here."
"Wouldn't stairs have been better?"
"That's only for a time or two; if you live here and keep using the stairs, you'll get sick of it eventually."
Since we only came up from the basement to the first floor, I was about to preach the uselessness of the elevator, but Choi Yeon-ju's words also made sense, so in the end, I couldn't say anything and just nodded. Meanwhile, the elevator door opened.
I couldn't help but marvel.
"Wow."
"A house like this is something I couldn't even dream..."
"I know. I know. A house I couldn't even dream of! Please stop."
"Since it looks like you know, I'll stop."
Choi Yeon-ju nodded and went inside as I begged. I followed behind Choi Yeon-ju and kept looking around. The ceiling is incredibly high. It was a two-story house, but it had a duplex structure, so the second floor had less usable space than the first floor. It seems like Choi Yeon-ju's bedroom is likely on this floor.
"How many pyeong is this?"
"If you include the basement, it's 270 pyeong. Are you satisfied?"
"How do you clean this place while living alone?"
"I call a cleaner. Three times a week. Since I'll be living with a cleaner now, I don't think I'll need to call one anymore."
Huh?
"Huh?"
This is what kind of bullshit? As I looked at Choi Yeon-ju, Choi Yeon-ju tilted her head with a hypocritical expression, as if nothing was wrong.
"You're a cleaner, aren't you?"
"I'm going to quit?"
"You'll end up living here anyway."
"That's true."
"Since I'm the one making money, shouldn't you at least do the cleaning as someone who's sponging off me?"
"You're not saying that seriously, are you?"
You said you'd be loyal?
When I asked with an anxious expression, Choi Yeon-ju smirked and shook her head. It was a joke after all. If I really had leeway, I could laugh it off, but right now, I can't laugh it off at all. I'm in a position where I have to enter a Gate and risk my life before long!
"I'll keep calling the cleaner. You don't have to clean. As long as you don't make a mess during your daily life."
"Don't worry. I'm good at tidying up my surroundings."
"That's unexpected."
"What's unexpected...?"
She's beating me without breathing, so I feel like I'm going to lose my mind...
I wish she'd give me some time to catch my breath.
"First, sit here."
"Weren't we going to sleep?"
"...I came to my house because this isn't something to talk about at the [Dormitory]. You'll sleep later, so let's talk first."
"Yes."
The glare in her eyes is fierce. Even though she's pledged loyalty through hypnosis, perhaps because she's a woman my original self wouldn't have dared to approach, I flinch when she gets annoyed. In the end, I can't do anything but sit down quietly.
Will it be fixed later?
When I sat on the sofa in the living room, Choi Yeon-ju also naturally sat on the opposite sofa. I'm distracted by her toned thighs and the shadow between them, visible through her tight-fitting mini-skirt suit.
Is it my imagination that I'd see something if I got closer?
"What are you doing?"
"Just stay like that for a second."
"Are you really crazy? How were you able to work as a cleaner?"
As I leaned my upper body forward to look openly inside her skirt, Choi Yeon-ju delivered a critical hit without even managing her expression. I snorted.
"Of course I wouldn't. Do you think I'd do something like this normally?"
"Are you saying you're doing it because it's me?"
Choi Yeon-ju asked with a hurt expression. Uh... um... Since she's saying it with that expression, I do feel a little sorry. Feeling sorry, I returned my upper body to its original position with an awkward expression. And apologized.
"Sorry."
"It seems like even the air you breathe is a waste."
"But you're loyal, aren't you?"
"Because that's a matter of course. You hypnotized me, didn't you?"
Amazing hypnosis!
I couldn't help but admire it inwardly at Choi Yeon-ju's words, who asked with an expression that said, "Are you talking nonsense?" I didn't know that a hypnosis, even if it was disposable, would be this amazing. Choi Yeon-ju stared at me for a while, then soon began to unfold the story that needed to be told in this place.
"First, when you go to work tomorrow, quit the cleaner job immediately. After that, you can do physical training here."
"Physical training?"
"You look weak just by looking at you, so no matter how good the equipment is, it's useless if the person using it isn't up to par."
"That's true."
I nodded because it was true, even though I was sick of the word exercise. Exercise... I've only done Kegel exercises and breathing exercises, so hell is about to begin.
"I'll also assign you a trainer. Because you're the type of person who would slack off if told to do it alone. You."
"........"
It was so spot on that I missed the timing to say it wasn't true.
"You need to know how dangerous entering a Gate is. Do you know? You have to enter the Gate alone and return alive. You can consider the difficulty higher than other people."
"Enter alone? Wasn't I supposed to go in with you?"
"Why would I go in there? I'm not an Awakened ability user, and even if I were, I wouldn't have gone in."
"Why on earth?"
"If I die then, what can you do?"
"........"
It made sense!
Because it was such a correct statement, I found myself nodding. In this situation, Choi Yeon-ju could be said to be my everything. It was because she was a person obtained by using a disposable ability. I couldn't use hypnosis again, so if the only person I had properly hypnotized died, I would have no choice but to be like a dog chasing a chicken.
I'd quit the cleaner job, so I might have to live day by day working a part-time job at a convenience store.
What a truly terrifying future.
Thinking that such a day could really come, I got goosebumps all over.
Choi Yeon-ju clicked her tongue at me and continued speaking. Although the fact that she clicked her tongue bothered me, I had no choice but to listen to what Choi Yeon-ju had to say. As I said before, in my current situation, Choi Yeon-ju was my everything.
"You must be regretting that you didn't hypnotize me to absolutely obey you, but hypnotizing me to swear loyalty was a stroke of genius."
"No. Why?"
Isn't absolute obedience better? If I had hypnotized her for absolute obedience, I wouldn't be a virgin right now. Choi Yeon-ju wouldn't be a virgin either. We would have had storm-like sex in the lab.
I feel like seeing Choi Yeon-ju's Ahegao.
"If you had hypnotized me to absolutely obey, your will would have taken precedence over mine. Have you forgotten? You are a fool and an idiot."
"You want to fight?"
"Listen more. Because you hypnotized me to swear loyalty, I am able to express my will to you. Between you and me, anyone can see there is a significant difference in intelligence, so the fact that your future is bright is entirely because I do not absolutely obey you."
Choi Yeon-ju smirked at me while saying that.
No matter how I look at it, from my perspective, it only looked like I had hypnotized her wrong.