The Beast in Heat
I stared down at the mask, leaving Go-eun blinking at me as if to ask what the problem was with an animal in heat. The pure white mask had the word Slave that used to be engraved on its front completely erased. That same word, wiped clean from the mask, was now tattooed like a brand on Go-eun’s forehead.
I’d finally thought I’d figured out something about the mask, but like it was mocking my small sense of achievement, the bizarre thing tossed me a new problem. I barely held back the urge to hurl it to the floor and stuffed it into my bag instead.
“...Fuck...”
The unexplained headache pulsing through my skull and the fact that class was about to start weighed on my shoulders, but right now, Go-eun took priority over all of that. I brushed the dust off my pants, walked over to her—she’d fallen backward when the mask came off—and held out my hand.
“Oh, thanks. But what the hell was that? Did you put glue on it or something?”
I ignored Go-eun as she scratched the side of her head and pointed at the bag holding the mask, then slung the bag over my shoulder.
“More importantly, are you really okay? No dizziness or… weird voices in your head or anything?”
“Huh? No, nothing like that. What, have you been reading weird comics again lately? Man, middle-school Woo-joo was something else…”
“Shut up! Why the hell are you bringing that up all of a sudden!”
Go-eun kept giggling, digging up my embarrassing childhood history. At first glance, she, Hyemi-noona, and Yunsol all seemed to be in slightly different states. Unlike Hyemi-noona and Yunsol—whose masks refused to come off no matter how hard I pulled—this one had slipped off easily. And while those two had stayed completely silent and motionless with empty smiles even after their masks were removed, Go-eun was clearly different.
Even though the character for Slave was branded on her forehead and her eyes occasionally glowed with that familiar jade light, the Go-eun I knew was still there.
But I couldn’t relax. Earlier, Go-eun had called me “Master.” Had the word engraved on her forehead affected her…?
“...Hey, Choi Go-eun. Do you really think I’m your master?”
“Yeah, why are you even asking? You’re obviously my master.”
“Why do you think that? Think about it carefully.”
It was a question I could only ask because she still seemed mostly like her normal self. If I’d asked Hyemi-noona or Yunsol—whose very foundations had been twisted and warped—they would have just answered, “The mask told me so.” But since Go-eun had known me since we were kids, I held onto the hope that she might recognize the contradiction planted in her mind.
“Think about it carefully? What are you even saying… Huh? Now that you mention it, when exactly did I become your slave…? I’m pretty sure we used to fight when we were little. A slave talking back to her master doesn’t make any sense, does it?”
Go-eun narrowed her eyes for a moment, tapping her head as she pieced together the contradiction from old memories.
“Uh, um… Wait, right? Something’s weird, isn’t it? There’s no way I would—!”
Right before the light returned to her eyes and she could squeeze through that tiny crack in her memories, the black character engraved on Go-eun’s forehead glowed faintly.
Bwooong—
“...Ah…”
“What the—Hey, Choi Go-eun! Hey!”
The frown on her face melted away in an instant. Her arms dropped limply into the air. Saliva dripped from her slightly parted lips, stretching into a long strand, and the clarity that had returned to her eyes scattered again into a hazy blur.
Sensing something was wrong, I reached for her shoulder to shake her—then the character on her forehead, which had been emitting a soft glow, faded back to its original black. A pained moan followed.
“Ugh, ah… Slurp… Sorry, I spaced out for a second. What were we talking about…?”
“...Are you okay?”
Go-eun shook her head from side to side, wiping the drool from her mouth with her sleeve, then looked up at me with sleepy eyes.
“I’m fine, I’m fine… Oh, yeah. I definitely can’t remember exactly when it started… but I am your slave, right? There’s nothing weird about it at all! You’re making me nervous for no reason… Anyway, just call me whenever you need something done. I’ll do anything. Oh, and I’m taking this, okay? Heehee, I’ll buy two packs and give them back!”
“What? Hey, wait—!”
Go-eun had already run down the hallway with my cigarette pack, too far away for my voice to reach her.
.....
Just now, Go-eun had clearly felt a sense of discomfort toward the information forcibly planted in her head by the mask. And the moment that suspicion was about to become certainty, the character on her forehead had glowed. She lost consciousness for a brief moment, and when she came back to her senses, she spouted the same warped common sense as before.
“...Haa…”
I sighed and turned on my phone. Class was about to start. I’d already skipped without permission recently, so I couldn’t afford to miss this one. I decided to call Go-eun after class. We could meet up and talk, and I’d tell her to buy me two new packs of cigarettes.
“Hey, I’m out—why are you sitting like that?”
“...Just shut up and give me a cigarette.”
The smoking area bench, nicely shaded from the midday sun. While I sat hunched over, hugging my bag, Go-eun came skipping over cheerfully and handed me a cigarette. Ignoring the strange look she was giving me, I lit it.
“......”
Sitting here like this brought back memories of that night. The blind date I’d gone to because someone said they’d buy me drinks if I showed up. The mask I’d picked up while stepping out for a smoke. The ridiculous memory of not being able to stand up because my dick had suddenly pitched a massive tent. It was déjà vu from that day.
Right now, the huge tent my cock was pitching under my bag made it impossible to stand.
“Haa, I came so much this morning, and it’s happening again…”
“What? What did you come?”
“Nothing, never mind…”
I flicked the now-short cigarette into the ashtray and leaned back against the bench. I hadn’t noticed it at all while listening to the professor’s lecture. Only when class ended and I tried to stand up to pack my things did I realize my pants were massively swollen.
I cursed under my breath, sat back down, and waited until everyone had left the room. I even sang the national anthem all the way through to the fourth verse. Even after all that effort, my crotch refused to calm down. That’s when it finally hit me—this was the same thing that had happened three days ago.
I hadn’t had time to think about it back then, but now that I did, was this also the mask’s influence? The headache and dizziness I’d never experienced before in my life, plus that absurd recovery ability. I recalled the strange headache I’d felt again this morning and earlier in the hallway. Blood rushing to my head, shortness of breath, a pounding heartbeat accompanying the pain. The symptoms of the headache I remembered were exactly like… arousal.
And not normal arousal… but sexual arousal…?
In other words, my current state could be described as… being in heat.
“Ha, fuck…”
“What? Why? At least give me a reason before you swear. I’m curious.”
“So this is what it feels like to be an animal that’s been injected with heat-inducing drugs for breeding purposes…”
“...What the hell are you talking about?”
No matter how much I tried to rationalize it and tell myself it wasn’t true, the sight of my cock that absolutely refused to go down made reality hit like a truck. I didn’t want to admit it, but I was horny right now. Insanely horny. I wanted to fuck. I never knew not being able to control my own desires would feel this fucking pathetic.
“...You’re acting really weird today. You suddenly collapsed earlier too. Are you sick? Is it a cold?”
“I wish it was something like that… I think I should just head home. I’m dizzy, and down there feels weird too…”
Since I’d already skipped without permission, I’d been trying to avoid using a doctor’s note, but my condition was terrible. It wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t walk like before, but my head still throbbed faintly from the inside, and with my dick standing so rigidly like this, I couldn’t even walk properly.
I had no choice. I’d go home first, take care of the problem between my legs, then head to the hospital for an IV drip. If I just brought back a diagnosis, the professor would understand.
“Yeah, go ahead. Want me to walk you to the taxi stop?”
“No, it’s fine… I’m going.”
I slung the bag over my shoulder and walked with an awkward hunch. My house was close enough that I could usually take the bus, but right now taking a taxi would be—
Drip.
A warm sensation came from inside my nose. That warm something flowed out of my nostril and fell onto my shirt.
“...Blood…?”
Startled by the bright red stain on my white shirt, I clamped my hand over my nose. When I pulled it away again, my palm was soaked with intensely colored blood. I hurriedly tried to stop the fairly large nosebleed that was running down my nose and chin.
But then—
“Ugh… Urk—?!”
My vision started spinning again. The sky flipped upside down and the ground shook violently. My legs, which had naturally lost all strength, collapsed straight onto the hard stone pavement.
“What—Hey, Choi Woo-joo! What’s wrong?! Are you okay? Your nose is bleeding…!”
Go-eun, who had been standing behind me, rushed over and pulled out a wet wipe from her bag to press against my nose. I should have said thank you, but no voice came out. It was even dizzier and more nauseating than anything I’d felt before. Why the hell…
Bwooong—
At that moment, a vibrating sound rang out. I’d only heard it once before, but the vibration left in my head echoed once again. It was coming from inside my bag.
It sounded like a voice, yet not quite a voice—like a child throwing a tantrum.
‘Semen. If you won’t give it, I’ll take something else instead.’
The unpleasant experience of a sound ringing directly inside my skull made a phlegmy groan escape my throat. My semen? Why the hell did it need that? And what it meant by taking something else instead was obviously…
Only a single sentence had been hammered straight into my brain through my skull, but somehow I instantly knew what I had to do right now.
“This isn’t good, Choi Woo-joo! Just hold on a little longer! I’m calling 119 right—!”
“...No. Take me to Hyemi-noona.”
“Are you crazy?! No way! You’re bleeding so much!! We need to get you to a hospital right—!”
“I said take me to Hyemi-noona. That’s an order.”
“Eut—?!”
Go-eun reacted to the low voice that was so deep I doubted it had come from me. The Slave character still engraved on her forehead began to emit a faint glow once more—
“...Yes, understood…”
With eyes that had lost their sense of self, Go-eun opened them wide and offered me her shoulder. Then she began walking toward the lecture building where Hyemi-noona would be.
Yunsol would have been fine too, but right now Hyemi-noona was closer. Quickly. I had to use Hyemi-noona right away.