A Covert Little Game (1)
About twenty minutes of leisurely waiting for Min Ye-won to show up at our meeting spot.
Precisely ten minutes past the appointed time, her figure finally appeared in the distance.
She replied to my Cocoatalk messages like she was annoyed, but she actually dressed up pretty nicely for this.
A short coat thrown over a cropped knit sweater, and jeans that hugged her figure.
It was, in a word, the textbook example of "effortlessly styled" fashion — the kind that looks put together without seeming like it. Whether she'd deliberately chosen that outfit or dressed that way on pure instinct, I couldn't say.
The fact that she at least matched some kind of dress code means she's conscious of this, at least a little.
At this stage, the fact that she was paying attention to me at all was enough. Whether that attention was good or bad didn't particularly matter.
When training a subject, indifference is a far worse sign than hostility. Negative emotions can, depending on how you handle them later, be converted into positive ones through cognitive dissonance or self-rationalization — but indifference can't.
"……"
The moment her gaze swung over to where I stood, Min Ye-won shot me a sharp look, her face scrunching up as if to say she wasn't pleased one bit.
And yet, she didn't run off or anything of the sort — she simply made her way toward me, slow and reluctant.
"You made it."
"……Yeah."
I offered the greeting with deliberate warmth, but all I got back was a curt reply.
Did she have any idea that behaving like this only meant more she'd have to answer for later? Her head still refused to turn, faithful as ever to nothing but her own emotions. Some things never change.
"You called me out to eat, right?"
"Yep. It's been a while."
"…You're just going to feed me and send me home?"
"Hmm. If you'd rather spend more time with me, Ye-won, I don't mind keeping you company. It's not like I'm short on time."
At my words, Min Ye-won glared at me once with a look of pure disbelief.
She didn't open her mouth, but her eyes were cursing me out so blatantly I could practically hear it. The expression of someone saying, who the hell would want to spend time with a bastard like you?
"……"
Still, some part of her brain did appear to be functioning, because she kept it off her face.
Choosing silence over an answer, she let me take her hand in mine and steer the conversation naturally toward the rest of our evening.
"What do you want for dinner?"
"…You're paying?"
"Obviously. I'm the one who invited you."
"……"
Well, technically it's not my money buying dinner — it's yours.
The money I'd taken from Min Ye-won was earmarked exclusively for dates with Min Ye-won. As I'd mentioned before, it wasn't as if my everyday finances depended on it.
I had no intention of giving it back, mind you — but keeping the books scrupulously straight on this front made everything cleaner down the line.
"Nothing you're craving? Should we just go somewhere random?"
"…Hold on."
She knew better than anyone that dinner wasn't the main event tonight, and yet there she was, pondering the menu with the gravity of someone deliberating a life decision.
"…Something expensive. Whatever."
After a long stretch of deliberation, the answer out of her mouth was every bit as shameless and absurd as only Min Ye-won could manage.
"Sure. Whatever you like."
Thanks for making it easy on me.
Expensive restaurants, as a rule, come with private dining rooms.
The place I took Min Ye-won was a Chinese restaurant a short distance from the Academy.
Prices sitting comfortably in the mid-to-high range without tipping into outrageous, and upscale enough that Min Ye-won would definitely feel she was being treated to something special.
It being a Friday evening, there was a real chance we'd find it full — but as luck would have it, one private room remained, and I escorted her inside as casually as could be.
"We'll take the dinner course, please. For the appetizer, the jellyfish salad."
"Of course, sir. Will there be anything else?"
"Ah — a bottle of Yeontae gooryangju as well, and two glasses."
"Very good, sir. One moment, please."
Right up until she'd finished ordering the food she'd been glancing around restlessly, and then I went and added alcohol to the order — Min Ye-won turned toward me with a flicker of panic.
The moment the server stepped out, she shot me a wary look and ventured her opinion with uncharacteristic care.
"I-I never said I was drinking."
"No? You'll want some once the food comes. Chinese food's mostly heavy on the seasoning."
"……"
"You don't have to if you don't want to. I'll drink it myself, no big deal."
"…Do whatever you want."
She'll say that now, then keep sneaking sips while checking my mood later. Her thinking was simple enough that she could never manage to be brazen about it outright.
Looking to break the faintly awkward silence, I turned Min Ye-won's attention to a suitably innocuous topic — while, of course, quietly reintroducing the fundamental reason she'd come to cooperate with me in the first place. Push too hard and humiliate her too fast, and resentment would bloom in an instant.
"How's Jo Jin-hyun been lately? Still in contact with him?"
"……J-Jo Jin-hyun?"
"Yeah. That guy."
Startled by the abrupt topic, she stuttered, a flicker of alarm crossing her face.
Thankfully, it seemed she was carrying her fear of that man exactly as thoroughly as I'd hoped.
If Min Ye-won ever stopped fearing Jo Jin-hyun, I'd lose one of the levers that kept her "cooperating" with me like this.
"I just… reply when he messages me, that's all."
"What does he say?"
"He asks how far things have gotten with you, so I just tell him we're in regular contact. I told him it can't be helped since we barely see each other now that I'm in the Academy."
"……Is that so?"
"Wh-what?! You're the one who told me to say that!"
"Hm? No, no — you're doing great. I wasn't saying anything."
"…Th-then stop looking at me like that, all… meaningful."
Yes, I was staring her down like that on purpose, to fluster her. When the topic of Jo Jin-hyun came up, keeping her psychologically off-balance was exactly the right play.
As long as she stayed terrified of that terrorist, she'd find it that much easier to rationalize her cooperation with me. Whenever the subject of Jo Jin-hyun surfaced, I needed to periodically feed that anxiety.
"He hasn't called?"
"No. You told me not to pick up. I've been making excuses — said I was asleep, or in class and couldn't answer."
"Good. You're doing well. Your acting's clumsy, so that's better than half-assing actual phone calls with him."
"……Right. Thanks."
Shooting me an unreadable glare that made it plain she didn't appreciate the advice, Min Ye-won nevertheless nodded and thanked me all the same.
She was probably weighing me against Jo Jin-hyun in her head right about now.
Reinforcing the realization that no matter what perverted garbage I made her do, she needed me if she wanted to cut Jo Jin-hyun loose — and making sure she couldn't refuse to keep following along with my training.
Until Jo Jin-hyun was dead, I needed to keep exploiting that man's existence in exactly this way. Only then would the groundwork remain for keeping Min Ye-won as my slave for the next two years, even after he was gone.
And beyond that, I'd been deliberately dropping mentions of Jo Jin-hyun's past terror attacks, sprinkling in the lie that the police were tracing his trail — keeping her cornered, mentally, on a slow drip. Which is how the first course of the meal arrived at the table.
"Here is the chilled jellyfish salad with fried tofu and yuzu sauce. You may enjoy it as-is, or with the peanut sauce on the side."
The server set the dish down with a brief explanation and withdrew.
I naturally cracked open the Yeontae gooryangju that had come with it, filled Min Ye-won's glass first, then poured about half a glass for myself.
"I told you I wasn't drinking."
"Just the first toast. I won't ask you to drink another drop after that."
"……"
"Come on, cheers."
"…Cheers."
Wearing the same suspicious expression as ever, she nevertheless clinked her glass against mine and carefully tipped it past her lips.
"Ugh — why is this so bitter…"
"……"
The moment she set her glass down, her eyes drifting toward the food — I quietly topped her glass right back up.
So this is what chilled jellyfish salad tastes like.
Honestly, it's my first time eating it, so it threw me a little — but it's actually good?
Yuzu sauce, was it? Dipping the fried tofu in this is sweet and crispy — totally my style. The jellyfish is chewy, and this chicken-like stuff is mild, so they go together well too.
…This really is an expensive restaurant, I guess. When I ate at Chinese takeout places it was always just jjambbong and sweet-and-sour pork.
'Did he actually put some thought into picking this place?'
Lee Seonho is a pervert and a piece of trash, no question — but he's undeniably attentive in these ways.
If it weren't for him, I might've been properly suckered in by Jo Jin-hyun by now, tangled up in his terrorist business. He was there, so none of that happened, but still.
…Not that I'll ever forgive him for what he did the first time. Assaulting me, filming it on top of that. And then last time he made me walk naked through the park, too.
'But even back then, he did look after me in his own quiet way. Covering for me so nobody else saw. He even brought coffee — caramel macchiato, my favorite…'
…I don't know anymore.
If I'd met him as just a person, without him holding my weaknesses over me, I don't think he'd be that bad a guy. Where did it all go wrong?
It's all that bastard Jo Jin-hyun's fault. If it weren't for him, I never would've ended up dealing with Lee Seonho like this in the first place.
I wouldn't have given up on the Cheonmu Academy entrance exam either — I'd have sat for it at least once, and I wouldn't have failed.
'Right. I just have to hold out until I catch that son of a bitch Jo Jin-hyun.'
Lee Seonho asked me to help him only until he catches that guy. Once that's done, I won't have to play along with his blackmail anymore.
And he said he'd give back the money he took, too. With that, tuition and living expenses won't be a worry — I won't even need a part-time job.
…So for now, I just need to eat. I've been surviving on cafeteria food and instant ramen — days like this, I should at least eat something proper.
Chomp, chomp.
"Mmm… mmmh…"
"Good?"
"…It's fine, I guess."
Wait — is Lee Seonho even eating? After a bite or two, he's just been sitting there watching me this whole time.
Don't get me wrong, the less he eats the better for me… but something about it feels off. Suspicious, almost.
'Whatever. What he does or doesn't eat is none of my business.'
His endgame is obvious anyway. Considering what he'll put me through later, I might as well load up on food now while I can.
I was about three-quarters of the way through the appetizer plate on that line of thinking when Lee Seonho suddenly pulled something out of his bag.
"Here, Ye-won. Take this."
"…Mm?"
A small confusion washed over me as he thrust a little box toward me like it was a present.
Because the small box Lee Seonho was holding out to me looked exactly like a ring case.
'…What is this?'
Is he… confessing to me?
No. No way, not him. That's the last thing that'd suit him. Look at the guy.
But that thing looks like a ring case no matter how I stare at it. What else could even fit in a box that small? A ring, or earrings, maybe.
'Don't tell me… a real confession…?'
…What do I do? This is completely outside anything I expected from him.
How the hell am I supposed to react to this?