Preliminary Research (1)
The wind cut especially cold that January day. I finished my workout and stepped out of the gym. On any other afternoon I would have gone straight home, but today I decided to make a rare detour to a café.
I wasn't heading there for the coffee. I was going to meet my lovely girlfriend, Jihye. We had agreed to sit down together and talk about new beginnings for the new year.
I'd just walked into the café and was scanning the room for her when Jihye's voice called out to me.
"Hyun~! Over here, over here!"
"Ah, there you are, babe."
She was sitting in a corner seat, waving. I raised my hand in reply, made my way over, and sat down. Jihye stared at me intently before she spoke.
"What took you so long~? Did something happen?"
"No, nothing happened. There were just way more people at the gym than usual today, so it was hard to get on the machines."
"Ahh~. So that's why you were a little late~."
"Yeah. I tried to hurry so I could make it on time, but I ended up later than I thought.... Sorry, babe."
"It's okay~. These things happen. Sticking to your daily routine is important to you, Hyun."
"Thanks for understanding, babe.... I'll make sure I'm on time next time."
"Hehe, I'd appreciate that~. Even if you're a little late, just give me a heads-up, okay? Don't stress about it too much."
"Mm...."
Our Jihye really was a goddess unto herself today, too. Feeling grateful toward a girlfriend whose heart was so wide it might as well have been the Pacific, I broke into a bright smile.
When we'd first started dating, there had been times I'd wondered if this way of talking was her being sarcastic. But after about six months together, I knew better. This wasn't sarcasm at all — it was one hundred percent sincere.
That was why I tried my best to be considerate of Jihye and take care of her in return. Even the café we'd met at today was near her place, and I'd gone so far as to switch gyms to one close to her house — so that whenever she texted saying she wanted to see me, I could run right over.
"Did you order a drink, Hyun?"
"Ah, no. I was just about to."
"Hmm~. What are you getting? Americano again todayyy?"
"Pretty much? Other drinks are just so high in sugar and calories...."
"That's so you, Hyun~."
"Mm. Did you already order, Jihye?"
"No, not yet. I was still deciding~."
"Then tell me what you want. I'll order and bring them over."
"Mm? I'm fine, though~."
"Come on, it's easier if one person grabs everything at once."
"Alright then.... I'll take you up on that, Hyun~."
When Jihye asked for a hazelnut latte, I stood up from my seat and headed to the counter. After passing both her order and mine to the barista, I killed time on my phone while I waited for the drinks.
My eyes were scanning the screen, but my head was completely occupied with the conversation I was about to have with Jihye.
A new beginning, huh....
I had a pretty good idea what she meant by a "new beginning," and the thought left me uneasy. Someone might have assumed she wanted to break up and start seeing someone else — but that absolutely wasn't it. If anything, that would have been less of a dilemma than the one I was actually facing....
"Your drinks are ready."
"Ah, thank you."
Lost in thought, I snapped back to attention at the barista's call. I carried the drinks back to the table, and Jihye beamed as she took both cups from me. She set the hazelnut latte in front of herself and the iced americano in front of me, then took a sip and smiled.
"Mm~. That's good. This place is known for their hazelnut latte, you know. You should try it sometime, Hyun~."
"Ah, yeah. I'll think about it."
"Hehe, why are you so tense? Your whole body's gone stiff~."
"T-tense? I'm not...."
The truth was, I was plenty tense. The thought of the conversation we were about to have about this "new beginning" still hadn't left my head. What if she was still set on that request? What would she think of me if I turned her down even now?
All kinds of thoughts were crowding my mind when a single sentence from her wiped it completely clean.
"Pffft...! What...?"
"You said you'd train me when we got back from the trip last time~. I was just wondering when you were going to start."
"Ah, no, that's...."
I hurriedly looked around. Fortunately there was no one nearby, and the barista off in the distance was standing blankly at the counter, apparently uninterested in our conversation. Confirming that no one was listening, I let out a breath and turned back to Jihye.
I'd expected something like this to come up, but actually hearing it was still genuinely startling....
"You're not going to tell me you're backing out now, are you? I'll be really disappointed if you do~."
"Ah, no.... O-of course not. What kind of man goes back on his word?"
"Right? That's my Hyun~. So when are you going to start?"
"Well...."
I tried to dodge her gaze, but those bright, sparkling eyes kept following me. There really didn't seem to be any way out of this. I organized my thoughts for a moment, then let out a sigh and spoke.
"First, babe, let me ask you one thing for certain. Do you genuinely, sincerely want to be... trained?"
"Yes!"
"This isn't roleplay like Haru and Jisu do?"
"I don't mind how you take it, Hyun, but I'm going to take it completely seriously~."
"Is that so...?"
I slowly lifted my head and looked at Jihye. A neatly tied ponytail. Deep, dark eyes. A face so beautiful it seemed to glow even with nothing more than a touch of makeup. And a chest whose presence no amount of everyday clothes could hide.
She was my perfect ideal type — as stunning on the outside as she was on the inside, the kind of beauty you couldn't look away from. I could make a woman like this mine. Not merely mine — I could make her look at no one but me, blindly, completely.
How could I possibly let an opportunity like that slip away?
"Alright, I get it. Honestly, it's not like I don't want to train you either."
"Really~?"
"How could I not want to own a lovely girlfriend with a pretty face and an even prettier heart?"
"Right? I want to be owned by my Hyun, too~."
"But we still don't know anything about training. Neither of us has actually done it."
"Of course not~. If I already knew how to be trained, could you even call that being trained~?"
Thinking about it, she wasn't wrong. This kind of thing was supposed to be the man skillfully gaslighting the woman, slowly coloring her the way he wanted. But right now it was Jihye who was stepping forward and begging to be trained, while I was the one hesitating.
Things were already plenty tangled right from the start.
"...Anyway, so I've been thinking."
"Mmhm~?"
"If I'm going to train you, I think I'll need to do some preliminary research on you first."
"Preliminary research?"
"Yeah. Don't I need to know everything about you before I can figure out how to make you mine?"
"Hmm.... That's true~. I mean, the person doing the training is supposed to know every last thing about the person being trained."
"So I was thinking of asking you a few things. Can you answer them?"
"Of course~. Ask me anything. I'll answer without holding anything back~."
"Alright then...."
I let out a sigh of relief, then sent her a message on my phone.
[Link]
Jihye checked it and tilted her head.
"What's this, Hyun~?"
"It's a BDSM tendency test."
"A tendency test...?"
"Yeah. When you train someone, you inevitably have to restrain them and put them through some torment. And most of that kind of play is connected to SM."
"I see...."
Tying someone down, tormenting their most private places, punishing them until they followed orders. Not every kind of training was one hundred percent like that, but that was the part I knew. And Jihye surely knew it that way too.
"So if I know what kind of tendencies you have, I can figure out how I'm going to torment you, right?"
"I-I guess so...?"
"This test will tell you in detail what your tendencies are. Let's start by finding that out. How about it?"
"Okay, let's do that...! So I just go into this link and take the test~?"
"Yeah. Show me when you're done."
"Got it~!"
Jihye nodded, then promptly buried herself in the test.