Skip the Last Count
"PT Eight...?"
Heo Myangmyang faltered. She knew perfectly well what PT Eight was. The move turned up often enough on military variety shows. She had simply never imagined she would be the one performing it.
"Jihye. Do you know how?"
"You're actually going to?"
"We have to. He sent twenty thousand. And sorry, but you're doing it with me."
Song Jihye broke into a grin. She didn't broadcast anywhere but YouTube. People had asked her for donation reactions over there, too, but no one had ever demanded something this bizarre. Trust Corea TV. This was going to be fun.
"Unni, I'm fine. You're in a skirt, though. You sure that's okay?"
"Ah! I'll go change and be right back!"
Heo Myangmyang ducked out of the frame, leaving only Song Jihye on screen. She was a broadcaster herself. Standing in front of a camera didn't make her awkward.
"Thank you for the donation. Still, I think PT Eight will be rough on Minji unni. She's really terrible at exercise. Would it be all right if I did twenty instead?"
She stared into the lens with a challenging light in her eyes. A woman watching that face might well have taken her for some dashing prince.
This is fun.
Kim Taeyoung decided to take her up on it.
The instant his permission landed, she stepped back and lay down on the floor. Then she ran PT Eight in textbook form. Legs lifted into a perfect L didn't tremble by so much as a hair.
"One, two, three, nineteen! One, two, three...!"
She even nailed the skipped final count. A former athlete, no question — her stamina and raw strength were on another level. A woman who didn't train would have had her legs shaking after ten clean reps.
She was good. The defiance, though, was meaningless. Kim Taeyoung's money had no bottom.
"Begin! One, two, three, one! One, two, three, two!"
A contest of pride had started between Coin God and Song Jihye. The longer it ran, the more certain Kim Taeyoung's victory became. It was hardly a loss for Song Jihye, either. Every ten reps, ten thousand moon balloons burst, and a single PT Eight paid out sixty thousand won. Post a gig ad — one round of PT Eight, sixty thousand won — and several hundred thousand people would stampede to apply.
"One, two, three, nine! One, two, three...!"
Once again Song Jihye finished ten perfect reps. Unlike the first set, though, her face had colored a little. She was trying not to show it, but her breathing had grown short. Just a little more, and she'd have her.
Kim Taeyoung was about to fire off another donation wind when Heo Myangmyang came back into the kitchen, changed into pants.
"Wait! Jihye, why are you doing it alone?"
"Because I have to protect you, unni."
"Aigoo! What kind of nonsense is that? And if anyone's protecting anyone, I'm the unni. I should be the one protecting you."
"Ahaha. I'm stronger than you. When it's a job for the body, I should be the one stepping up."
"There you go again. Enough. We do it together from here."
The two of them started fussing over each other, sweet as anything. A prince-type gym girl who had to clear 180 centimeters with room to spare, and a loli-type cook who might not even make 150 — the picture they made fit remarkably well.
"Hold on, Coin God. Thirty in a row is too much for Minji unni. I'll do sixty."
"I can do it too, you know? Clumsy as I am, this much is fine. I exercise regularly and everything. We'll do it together, Coin God!"
"Unni! Your idea of exercise is a thirty-minute walk, and that's the whole of it!"
"It's fine, it's fine. It didn't look that hard."
Heo Myangmyang waved off Song Jihye's worry. The perfect demonstration had looked far too easy — she had only ever watched PT Eight, never tried it once. She regretted that thought almost at once.
"Haa—one, twooo, threee... eleven!"
The first two or three were manageable. Past five, though, as she pushed into the sixth, her body started to give. Neck, stomach, and thighs trembled in little jerks. By the time she cleared ten and hit eleven, her form had already fallen apart. How on earth was she supposed to do thirty of these?
At the sight of her struggling that hard, the viewers turned. The will of the crowd was the will of heaven. Kim Taeyoung might have been steering the room, but he didn't ignore the majority outright. He asked.
"Nngh— no. I took the donation, so I have to do it! Nnh!"
"Unni, stop. I'll take it from here. Push any more and the soreness will be so bad you won't get up tomorrow. That's all right, isn't it, Coin God?"
In the end, Heo Myangmyang's PT Eight stopped at seventeen. Even that had been a tremendous effort, and her whole body was still trembling. Song Jihye took the remaining thirteen. All told, she had done seventy-three. She was feeling it too — her face flushed red, a few beads of sweat sliding down her cheek — but she refused to look weak.
"Done."
While they'd been playing at PT Eight, the delivery food arrived. At Kim Taeyoung's word, Heo Myangmyang and Song Jihye sat down at the table.
"Hehe. Still, thanks to Chairman Coin God, I actually got a real workout in. Maybe that's why I'm so hungry — this tastes incredible!"
Heo Myangmyang said it in a bright voice. Today, too, she had broken her all-time donation record. A hundred and twenty thousand balloons. Cashed out, that was 7.2 million won — serious money, something like twice a month of YouTube income, earned in thirty minutes. Exhausted or not, the smile was going to come.
"Ugh. I'm dying."
The moment she hit the button to end the stream, Heo Myangmyang let the groan out. On air she had played bright. That was what would leave Coin God, who had paid for all of it, in a good mood. The happiness itself was real enough. She had made a lot of money. The stamina it had cost, though, was far worse than she'd expected.
"Unni. Lie down here. I'll massage you before the soreness sets in."
Song Jihye did not let the chance slip. A perfectly legal opportunity to put her hands all over Heo Myangmyang's body. She hated Coin God for working her unni however he pleased, but she was grateful he had created this.
"Really? Can I ask you to?"
Heo Myangmyang's eyes lit up, only because she had no idea of the other woman's hidden intentions. Everything according to plan. Song Jihye was doing it because she wanted to, but she didn't forget to take her cut.
"Yeah. In exchange, let me sleep beside you tonight."
In front of everyone else she was the cool, icy prince of a beauty. In front of Heo Myangmyang, Song Jihye turned into a girl begging to be spoiled. No one else was allowed to see her like this. Feeling as if she had become someone special to Song Jihye, Heo Myangmyang smiled, warm and easy. For a woman who loved looking after people, she was the perfect housemate.
"Aigoo. What are you going to do without your unni?"
"Then you just can't disappear."
"Hehe. Right. Our Jihye's got it."
"Lie on the mat. I'll massage you. Oh — and undo that underwear, too. It's tight, isn't it?"
"Guess I should."
Heo Myangmyang took her clothes off. Song Jihye was watching, and she didn't care. The two of them bathed together now and then, mostly because Song Jihye had a way of acting spoiled until she got what she wanted.
The constricting shapewear came away, and a soft curve rose on the chest of Heo Myangmyang's loli frame. Not so large you'd call them huge, but a quite generous size all the same. Her broadcast concept was the Legal Loli, and a loli was supposed to be flat. For the sake of looking cute on stream, Heo Myangmyang wore shaping underwear and pretended there was nothing there.
"Haa. I feel like I can live again. Then, Jihye — the massage, please."
"Okay, unni. Leave it to me."
Song Jihye's hands worked over Heo Myangmyang's body. Now and then a hand wandered somewhere it shouldn't, but they were both women, and Heo Myangmyang never once suspected a thing.
"Hn—!"
"Does it hurt?"
"A-a little. It's fine, though. I can take it. But, Jihye."
"Yeah?"
"Should I message CoinGodGodGod separately?"
Song Jihye's hands hitched.
"Why...?"
"He donated so much. The money he spent today alone is over ten million won. Shouldn't I offer something back, just to say thank you?"
"H-he spent it because he wanted to. He's probably satisfied already."
"Even so, paying him back is my job. Oh, right — we should settle up, too. I'll send you your share from today in a little while."
"Yeah..."
Unease crawled through Song Jihye. She had the feeling Coin God was going to take her unni away, and she couldn't say that fear out loud. She was bisexual. Heo Myangmyang was purely straight. Since they'd started living together, Song Jihye had flirted with her countless times, but Heo Myangmyang — who had never even dated a man — treated every bit of it as a cute little sister's aegyo.
She had reached the stage of giving up. No matter how hard Song Jihye tried, she could not become Heo Myangmyang's lover. The woman didn't see women as romantic prospects at all, so Song Jihye had tried to be content just with staying beside her. And now she was supposed to stand there and watch her get taken by some worthless bastard who had shown up out of nowhere.
"What do I even say? Hmm..."
When the massage ended, Heo Myangmyang lay on the bed with her phone and fretted. The contents were already decided. Cooking and housework were what she was good at; the only thanks she could offer was a meal. She just didn't know how to deliver it. Heo Myangmyang had never been the one to contact a man first.
"Agh, whatever. I'll just say it plainly."
She had already secured Coin God's number on the excuse of a meal plan. Done hesitating, she tapped quickly across the screen.
"Sent."
Heo Myangmyang let out a satisfied breath. A few seconds later, the reply came at once.