A Paid Lesson in Love
"Watching that bastard Section Chief Baek get torn apart like that—God, it feels good. You think so too, right, Sua?"
"Ahaha. Yeah. Manager, you were so—so cool."
The praise for Kim Taeyoung poured out without end. Telling them to stop did nothing. If the jin-sang who showed up every day were field bosses, Baek Yuhyeon was a demon king, the final boss himself. Endless envy and admiration for the man who had wiped him out was only natural. Had the shop not already closed, the staff from the neighboring stores would have come swarming too.
"But hyung. Isn't this bad? People were filming like crazy."
"What's there to worry about? I'm not even an employee anymore. My face gets passed around online for a bit, and that's the end of it. And I've got you, haven't I? If somebody posts a malicious hit piece, you'll step in for me, right?"
"Of course we will! Do you have any idea how much you spent because of us?"
"That's right! We have to protect Manager!"
"Yeah! Yeah!"
The shop staff were of one mind. Online, what had just happened was already being broadcast live. A saleswoman who lived on her phone found it and flew into a rage, and then Jonghun, Jo Sua, and the rest all had their phones up.
While they waged their war of public opinion, a call came in on Kim Taeyoung's phone. Hwayeon.
"Oppa. I'm at the department store. Where are you?"
"Second floor. Ecobloom."
"Already shopping? I'll come straight there!"
The call ended, and Kim Taeyoung got to his feet. Time to leave the shop. He had shown them the man he had become, thoroughly enough, and thanks to that he had even pulled his old comrades out from under the gabjil demon king. The work was done. Time to keep flexing.
"I'm heading out. And Jonghun—send what I bought today to my place."
Luxury shopping came with all sorts of services attached. A delivery service for a whale was only natural.
"Yes, hyung. Same address as before?"
"Yeah. Send it there. Everyone, hang in there. Even if you mess up, don't let it crush you. And if a jin-sang shows up, you know the line."
"This, too, shall pass."
One of the saleswomen answered with the words he used to shout every day. He nodded, pleased.
"Right. Don't think of a jin-sang as a person. Don't keep the garbage they spit inside you. All right—good work. I'm off."
Kim Taeyoung gathered up the Aqua Red One, a watch worth some fifty thousand dollars, and walked out of the shop. Not long after he left, Jo Sua followed.
She had to say it now. She couldn't hold it in any longer. The feelings that had piled up around him had grown too large—and just now, he had been so cool. Like a hero saving a princess from a demon king. She hadn't had the courage to speak before. She still didn't, not really, but her heart had swollen past anything she could control. So she followed Kim Taeyoung with no plan at all.
"Manager!"
Catching him took no time. Kim Taeyoung turned, and the mouth that had been about to spill a confession locked shut. Her chest had felt ready to burst, so she had come after him—and forgotten they were still inside the department store. There were far too many people around.
"C-could we talk for a moment?"
She drew him toward somewhere quiet. The department store had plenty of places to slip out of sight. And before Kim Taeyoung could even answer, someone came up and linked arms with him.
"Found you!"
The way she took his arm was perfectly natural, as if they were lovers. And the woman was stunning—a pretty face, and a figure to match. The kind of beauty you'd want to get close to if you met her off the clock.
He has a girlfriend? He had definitely said he didn't, not long ago. Maybe it had happened in that short span. In that moment, Jo Sua's world collapsed.
"Sua. What's wrong?"
"N-no, it's nothing.... Thank you for today.... I'll get going...."
Struck square by a heartbreak beam, Jo Sua let her shoulders slump and turned away. There wasn't a scrap of strength in the steps carrying her back toward Ecobloom. Kim Taeyoung's face said what's wrong with her now? Should he grab her even now and hear the whole story?
While he hesitated, Hwayeon had already read the before and after from Jo Sua's face alone. She was quick on the uptake to begin with, and where romance was concerned that instinct upgraded several times over. She smiled, sly.
"Oppa. I think that girl likes you."
"Ha. No way. Do you know how many years are between us? She's still underage."
"What does age matter? And at that age, you can fall for anyone. So what's the story? A little sister you know?"
"A coworker from my old job. Didn't I tell you? Before I made my money in coin, I worked as a manager at a luxury shop. Right there—Ecobloom."
"Aha."
Hwayeon's eyes narrowed where she hung on Kim Taeyoung's arm. So he hadn't been born with a silver spoon after all. But nothing changed. Hwayeon was a camgirl whose popularity was on the slide. Unless a new whale came in, Kim Taeyoung was a line she absolutely had to hold.
More important right now was how to use this. A rich whale with no sense for people, and a young girl who liked him. Two methods. Plant a hard turret and shove her back so she couldn't even get close—or play the dating coach and buy Kim Taeyoung's favor.
"What do you think, oppa? Do you want to date her?"
She asked his intentions first. If Kim Taeyoung had designs on Jo Sua, she would take the second path. If he didn't even care, the first.
"Me? I told you, the gap's a full twelve years."
"No—set the age stuff aside and think. Just as a woman. Do you like her, or not?"
"Why are you so fixated on this?"
"Well.... It sounds like it might be fun. And if it helps you, I'll make money, won't I?"
"Wow.... How do you just say that out loud?"
"Ehehe. So. Do you dislike her? Like her? If she's nothing special, I'll peel her off you for good. If you like her, I'll tell you how to make it happen."
At Hwayeon's words, Kim Taeyoung thought it over. No—there was nothing to think over. He wasn't a fool; he had already noticed that Jo Sua liked him. He had only forced himself to look the other way, because of the barrier of age and the wall of the real world.
"If it's only like or dislike, then I like her. But no matter how I turn it over, dating isn't it. She's a kid who just turned twenty. Shouldn't she get more experience first? And for a while, I want to enjoy life without a girlfriend."
"Meaning there are so many women to meet that one's a problem?"
"Put bluntly, yes. Like I said, I haven't been rich for long. So for now, I still want to play."
Hwayeon grinned. Newly rich, he really did still have a green side to him. This she could use. If she passed along a polished art of handling women, she could lock him down for certain.
"Then, oppa. What would you do if you could make her your girlfriend and still keep seeing other women?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Exactly what I said. There's a way to date her and still go around having sex with other women."
"How?"
"Hehe. From here on, it's a paid service. Hwayeon's dating-coach service. Care to try it?"
Kim Taeyoung was dumbfounded. It felt like he'd walked into a salesperson's trick—shove a product you'd never even known you wanted under your nose until you wanted it, then name the price. But one thing was clear. He had been drawn in because that desire already lived in him.
"How much?"
"Hmm...? However much sincerity you feel?"
"Fine. If I like it, I'll spray a lot. Let's hear it."
"Mm. First, you need a few more women. You've thrown plenty of donations at other camgirls too, right? And you've already had sex?"
He hadn't had sex with any camgirl besides Hwayeon yet. He had done things lewder than sex, though.
"Let's say I have."
"Say. What's there to 'say'? What a man does when he's got money is obvious. Anyway—keep rotating women, and keep showing up in front of her."
"Wouldn't that make it even less likely? Who likes a man with a lot of women?"
"No, keep listening. You rotate the women, but you also have to keep making it obvious you don't have a girlfriend. And here's the important part. You treat her specially. You talk to her even with a woman on your arm. If something's hard for her, you help."
"That actually works?"
"It works. Women are born that way. How many women stand beside an alpha male isn't what matters. An outstanding man is bound to have plenty of women around him anyway. What matters is how that alpha male treats you."
"And she's already full of feelings for you, so she has no choice but to fall. Show up rotating women, and thoughts like this start creeping in. Maybe I have a chance too? If I become his girlfriend, won't he look only at me?"
"Once it gets that far, there'll be some kind of reaction. She'll start contacting you a lot, out of nowhere. She'll show up all dressed up, out of nowhere. It differs from person to person, so I can't pin it to one thing. But if she feels a little different from usual, that's enough."
"First lecture ends here. Well? Starting to like it?"
Pressed to Kim Taeyoung's side, Hwayeon spilled the words out in a rush. He still wasn't sure. How did showing off that you had a lot of women get you a girlfriend who didn't get jealous? If anything, the jealousy and the obsession seemed likely to get worse.
But the one who had said it was Hwayeon. A woman who had survived ten years on the bone-chilling Korea TV camgirl circuit, and reigned as the number-one camgirl for seven of them. She must have seen and felt enough to talk like this.
"Give me the second lecture."
"Ahaha. So you liked it, then? I'll look forward to a show of sincerity. But the second lecture is still too soon. You finish the first one, then you get to hear it."
"But will it really work the way you say?"
"I told you it will. Oppa, if you asked her to date you right now, she'd say yes on the spot. But dating isn't the goal. You want a girlfriend who won't get jealous even when you see other women. So there's no way but to do as I say. Or else... give up the other women and go all in on her."
Hwayeon said it, and her face tightened. The "other women" in that sentence included her. She shouldn't have put it that way. She couldn't help it. One step back, for two steps forward. Surely Kim Taeyoung wouldn't give up his appetite. She had no choice but to believe that.
"Fine. I'll try it your way for now."
Kim Taeyoung nodded. Dating Jo Sua? If he could, good. But living the life of the one on top mattered more, and felt better, and that was why the decision came easily. If it worked out the way Hwayeon said, wonderful. If not, then it simply couldn't be helped.