Just Think of It as Work
That's it. She's in.
I laughed only on the inside. On the outside, I put on the most startled face I could manage.
"What? Are you out of your mind? Have you lost it?"
Cha Yuna, face gone red, rushed to answer.
"I'm not crazy, and I'm not joking. I am dead serious right now."
"You crazy bitch. You really think you can do all that with me? Biting, sucking, the whole thing?"
"...Friends can shut their eyes and do it once."
"Hey, I'm not playing around. My livelihood's on the line here too."
"So's mine. You know that."
Neither of us said a word.
I stared straight through Cha Yuna, packing my eyes with as much has this girl actually lost her mind? as they could hold.
She was the girl I'd confessed to in middle school, the one who'd shot me down. After that I'd spent years lying to myself, playing it cool, pretending I didn't have a scrap of lingering feeling left. Even when her clothes slipped and a glimpse of skin showed through, I'd snicker and point it out like any other friend who wasn't affected in the slightest. All those years of practice were doing a great deal of work right now, keeping what I actually felt hidden in front of Cha Yuna.
"Cha Yuna."
"Yeah, Park Eunseok."
"What are we to each other?"
"Childhood friends. We've known each other since we were little."
"And you really want to do that with me?"
"If I want to finish school, what choice do I have?"
"You, that's..."
"I know. It's the logic whores use."
That wasn't what I'd been about to say. Cha Yuna jumped ahead of me and hurried on.
"If this were actually selling my body, I wouldn't do it if it killed me. No matter how hard things got, I'd just take a leave and keep tutoring."
"..."
"But it's you. If I tell myself it's just an extension of the way we used to mess around and play when we were kids, I can live with it. It feels doable."
There had been a time, back when we were little and didn't know a thing, when stripping naked to wash up and play was simply what we did.
"Ha. You can't seriously call sex an extension of the dumb games we played when we didn't know any better."
"Am I not enough? In the VIPs' eyes?"
"That's not what I'm saying."
"Am I not enough? Yes or no? Say that first."
"...You're not lacking. They'd fucking love you."
"Or do you not want to sleep with me? Does the idea put you off?"
I'd figured Cha Yuna would drag that old humiliation out at least once—the confession, the rejection. She never so much as mentioned it. I'd been waiting for something like, You liked me, didn't you? You wanted to do it with me. So why are you backing off? That was the reaction I'd predicted.
"Cha Yuna. Let me ask you one thing."
"Mm."
"If it were some other guy, would you still have said you'd model?"
"Are you insane? I'm putting up with it because it's you. Some man I don't even know? That's disgusting. What would I be trusting?"
"I can't tell if that's a compliment or an insult. Is this the part where I'm allowed to get butterflies, as a man?"
Only then did Cha Yuna let out a short laugh. The line I'd tossed off like a friend seemed, at last, to loosen the tension.
"Idiot. Why would I look at you as a man?"
"Wow. Got my hopes up for nothing."
"What are you even saying. Is there anything left between us that could flutter?"
"Why wouldn't there be. I used to like you."
"...Did you."
"I did."
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
"Hey, Park Eunseok. Why are you digging up ancient embarrassing history now..."
"It's my embarrassing history. Since when is it yours?"
Warm, Cha Yuna fanned herself with one hand and undid another button on her blouse. The pale line of a collarbone that had been hidden came into view, and heat surged up through me all at once. A body of twenty, ripe and good enough to eat—I wanted to take her to a hotel right then and put her on her back.
"Cha Yuna. Honestly, I thought you'd say this at least once."
"Say what?"
"Didn't you like me? Here's your chance to fuck the guy who liked you, so why turn it down? Stuff like that."
"F-fuck—how could I say something like that."
"Anyway, I was sure you would. But you never actually said it, did you?"
"...We agreed to bury that embarrassing history. Both of us."
I cupped my cheeks in both hands, fighting with everything I had to keep a laugh from bursting out. Cha Yuna. The day has finally come when you'll be under me, whimpering.
If I'd gone public with my money, I could have fucked Cha Yuna even more easily. But then things between us would've turned strange. We probably would've ended up dating with marriage already on the table, and she would've held the reins of the relationship tight. Sleeping with any woman besides Cha Yuna would've been unthinkable.
I've become a man who can't be satisfied by just one woman.
After I became worth a trillion won, I'd tried every kind of filthy sex there was with beautiful girls. My threshold for debauchery had climbed sky-high. What I wanted was a relationship where I could take the lead and keep Cha Yuna's body to myself—where I could sleep with other women and she wouldn't feel a shred of jealousy, would treat it as a matter of course, and could even join the orgies alongside me.
For that, dating was the worst possible choice. In the end, this was the only way.
This very moment was the correct branch—the one a certain Sex Strange by the name of Park Eunseok had sifted out of fourteen million possible futures.
"All right. Let's do this, Model Cha Yuna."
"...Let's do this."
Cha Yuna held out her hand with a look of hard resolve, and I took it. Something awkward moved between us. For a while we stayed locked there, stiff, still holding on, and then we quietly let go.
"You're not going to make me do anything weird, right?"
"You've watched a few times. You know I don't make anyone do anything dirty or disgusting."
"What counts as dirty and disgusting?"
"Torture. Scat. That kind of thing."
"What's scat?"
"...You're better off not knowing."
Cha Yuna couldn't stand the curiosity. She picked up her phone and searched it on the spot, then immediately screamed and dropped the phone onto the table.
"Are you—are you insane? There are people who like this kind of perverted shit?"
"I'm telling you, none of the VIPs are like that."
Once we'd demolished the dessert as well, the awkwardness crept back in. Cha Yuna clinked her fork against nothing but an empty plate.
"I-is there anything I should get ready on my own? Anything I need to watch out for?"
"Take the pill. Not the morning-after—the one you start beforehand. If we're in this for the long haul, that's how it has to be."
"...I actually already started."
"Oh. You really came prepared? Then I don't have to worry about tomorrow falling through."
"You think I'd throw something like this at you on a whim if I were crazy? I made a hard decision too."
A thought hit me out of nowhere. If I told her I still liked her, how would Cha Yuna react? We were going to have sex anyway—would she be glad to hear it? Or would it feel like a burden? I couldn't tell.
"Cha Yuna, how long are you planning to do this? I just want a rough idea."
"...I don't know. I haven't thought that far. Just as long as I can?"
"So you could do it for ten years or more?"
"T-ten years?"
Cha Yuna's eyes went round with surprise. She tilted her head, blinked a few times, and asked.
"You really think this studio lasts that long?"
"Of course. You don't actually think I'm the first manager, do you?"
"N-no, I guess not."
In truth the studio wasn't even two weeks old, still wet behind the ears. But a bluff like this had its uses.
"The good thing about our VIPs is they don't get bored easily. Models have retired when they wanted to start a new life, sure. But the VIPs have never once cut a model."
"Really?"
"A body like yours, ten years would be nothing. You could go fifteen or more."
"Buddy, in fifteen years we'll be thirty-five..."
Even so, a guaranteed long run seemed to reassure her, and Cha Yuna smiled, small and quiet.
"Cha Yuna, want to get a drink?"
"A drink? Out of nowhere?"
"A farewell drink. To mark the end of us being nothing but pure childhood friends."
"What are you talking about. Sleeping with you doesn't mean we're dating or anything."
"So we're still friends? Biting, sucking, fucking, creampieing, and we're still childhood friends?"
"...Do you have to put it like that? God."
She scolded me, but she agreed to the drink. We went back and forth on where to go and ended up at the residence. There was already a decent stash of liquor there, and the hotel could handle the food.
Once the alcohol settled in, Cha Yuna's posture came undone. The faint line of her panties, glimpsed between the panels of her fitted skirt, made my breath catch all over again.
Why does that get to me. Honestly...
No matter how filthy a sex résumé I had behind me, the skirt of a drop-dead gorgeous girl I'd never once gotten to fuck had a way, all on its own, of kicking every male hormone I owned into overdrive.
"Cha Yuna, your mind hasn't changed? Last check."
"It hasn't. This wasn't some spur-of-the-moment decision."
She answered with her tongue just slightly tangled, waving a hand.
"So when do we start?"
"I don't know.... Maybe from the first broadcast?"
Her unfocused eyes found mine, and she grinned. For a second my heart dropped. I nearly threw out the staging, the whole production, and just ripped her clothes off and shoved my cock in.
"Watching Saika walk away with a hundred and forty-five million won... I think something in me gave out."
"..."
"All I'd be doing is rubbing up a little against the guy I've known my whole life, and I'd make that kind of money? God... anyway, something in me collapsed right then, and it took me a long time to admit it..."
Seated on the living room floor, Cha Yuna leaned sideways into the sofa and stared straight at me through half-lidded eyes.
"Well. In the end, it's about the money."
"Nobody hates money."
"Even so, if it were a guy I didn't know, I'd never do it. I mean that. Who knows what kind of filthy disease he'd have..."
"..."
"I mean, yeah, at the end of the day I am selling my body. I am. But to my one and only friend since forever... I figure I'm allowed to sell it a little..."
She murmured it like she was talking to herself, and then she simply folded. She could usually hold her liquor, and yet this much had knocked her out. She must have been worn thin.
I'm going to need a whole closet of outfits ready for the sex.
The next day, we woke up like nothing had happened and acted exactly the way we always did.
Today I finally fuck Cha Yuna.
"I'm off to class."
"Yeah, have a good one. There's a broadcast today. You're not going to ghost it, right?"
"Want me to run a rehearsal right now? Would that convince you?"
Cha Yuna gave me that little smirk and left for school.
I couldn't believe how long the day was. More than once I wanted to reach out to Cha Yuna, but I bit down on it. Push too hard and she might bolt.
And then it was evening. At last, Cha Yuna arrived.
The moment I saw her come in, my heart nearly burst from the shock.
"...Who are you?"
"Hey, cut it out."
"No, no, I seriously thought you weren't Cha Yuna."
"...I just stopped by a salon and asked them to do a full glam."
"Unreal. It's almost a shame we have to hide that behind an eye mask."
"I'm wearing it no matter what."
All I could do was mean it. Done up from head to toe, Cha Yuna looked like a goddess. She could have walked onto a film set this second and stood in front of the camera as the lead. I had never seen her commit to a full makeup like this.
God, I'm losing it.
My heart was hammering without mercy. I was really about to have sex with a girl who looked like this? Bite her, suck on her, take my time with all that soft skin, and then dump a load straight into her womb? I crushed, with everything I had, the urge to drag her off and fuck her right then.
We stood facing each other in the entryway for a long time, both of us tense. I set a hand lightly on Cha Yuna's shoulder. A fine, rapid tremor came through.