A Humiliating Date (1)
-CRASH!
“Aaagh! Agh! Aaaagh!”
What the hell do you want from me, you bearded, bespectacled bastard?!
With two weeks of accumulated stress boiling over all the way to the top of her head, Min Yewon hurled her smartphone at the wall with all her strength.
The wall already bore several dents from countless previous throws, and the screen had been shattered for ages now. She couldn't even afford the repair costs, so she'd simply left it broken.
“The money that bastard Jo Jin-hyun gave me, Lee Seonho took all of it…. And ever since that day, Seonho hasn't even asked me to do anything…. What exactly am I supposed to do?”
Back when only Jo Jin-hyun held a knife to her throat, she'd already been losing sleep over the anxiety. Now, with pressure squeezing her from both sides, Min Yewon was quite literally on the verge of losing her mind.
Because Jo Jin-hyun kept repeating the same demand—meet Lee Seonho and build trust. Seonho wasn't as terrifying, but this one was still a notorious terrorist all the same; if she failed to obey, there was every chance he'd report her to the police, or simply take revenge.
At the very least, if she could fake dating Seonho and shut Jo Jin-hyun up, her nerves might settle a little—but Seonho wouldn't even grant her a meeting on her schedule, and the frustration was unbearable.
She was the one reaching out with a humiliating date request—or more precisely, a decoy date request meant to deflect Jo Jin-hyun's suspicions—and all she got back in return was rejection after rejection.
What made it even more humiliating was her own position, forced to send those date requests over and over even as they were refused.
It wasn't as if she felt warmly toward Lee Seonho—she never wanted to see him at all—but the crushing weight of not knowing what Jo Jin-hyun might do to her if she stalled kept bearing down on her shoulders.
And rationally speaking, cooperating with Lee Seonho was still a better deal than obeying a terrorist.
Compared to Jo Jin-hyun, who had taken hundreds of lives, Seonho was at least marginally less of a piece of garbage… and above all, it was Seonho whose retaliation would hurt her far worse if she ever betrayed him.
Jo Jin-hyun's leverage over her was the single fact that she had cooperated with him. Lee Seonho, on the other hand, possessed that and a video which, if it ever surfaced, would end her life as a woman on the spot.
With Seonho holding a weapon that could destroy her completely, both as a hunter and as a woman, there was no escape.
“Why… why did I ever listen to that bastard in the first place….”
If only she'd never gotten tangled up with that girl—Isabel Kim, or whatever her name was—her situation wouldn't be nearly this pathetic.
With barely three days left until her admission to Myeongwol Academy, she despised herself for agonizing over nonsense like this.
If only for the sake of her father's face, beaming with genuine joy when he'd heard the news of her acceptance, she needed to shake off this wretched entanglement as soon as possible. But all she could actually do was wait for Lee Seonho to contact her.
Just as Min Yewon had lamented her pitiful lot several times over and sunk deep into depression—
‘Cocoa~talk!’
“……Huh?”
A message had flown in from someone with a short vibration, and Min Yewon scrambled to pick her phone up off the floor and check it.
“…….”
Not even a question of whether the time worked for her—just a one-way notice, delivered like an order from Lee Seonho.
Looks-wise and personality-wise, she was a hundred, a thousand times too good for him, so why did it feel like she was the one taking all the losses in this relationship?
Of course, she only thought that in the privacy of her own head; refusing was unthinkable. If she made the wrong move and roused Seonho's suspicions, it wouldn't end with mere doubts about her connection to a ‘mere’ terrorist.
Even someone as simple-minded as Min Yewon could figure out that, for the sake of her own future, she had no choice but to go along with whatever Seonho said for now.
“…Why are you suddenly pretending to be considerate?”
When it came time to film the blackmail video, he'd claimed it couldn't be helped and steamrolled right over her—but the moment she wanted to change the dinner menu, suddenly he understood. What was going through his head?
It was nothing more than the tiniest, most trivial concession… and yet somehow, it planted the faintest seed of trust in her heart.
Maybe he's not such a bad guy after all. Maybe he's only acting this way because he really wants to take down Jo Jin-hyun. Filming that blackmail video was something he had no choice about, and everywhere else he's actually been trying to look out for me….
“…No. Get a grip. There's no way that bastard Lee Seonho is that kind of person.”
If he'd ever been that decent, the idea of blackmailing someone with a lewd video would never have crossed his mind in the first place—and he would have been at least a little gentler to her the first time.
…The second time, honestly, did feel somewhat good. If it was him, he could definitely have made sure the first time didn't hurt, too.
‘Bastard. Either way, this one's an absolute bastard.’
But she was in no position to cut ties with him regardless, so Min Yewon had no choice but to send her reply.
…Aren't we just supposed to fake a date? What the hell does ‘a lot to take care of’ mean?
But Min Yewon had no room to dwell on suspicion over those words. The message that followed immediately after snapped her awake as if she'd been struck across the head with a hammer.
…Ugh. Eww.
I really, really hate this.
Fine, it was supposed to be acting—but how was it possible for him to flip completely from the attitude he'd shown just moments ago and send texts this saccharine?
Min Yewon felt a fresh wave of revulsion as she imagined Lee Seonho on the other side of the smartphone, typing out those Cocoatalk messages.
…Not that it changed the fact that she had no choice but to play along with this puerile little performance.
A date with Min Yewon, squeezed out of time I didn't actually have.
I would have needed to do it at least once more before the new semester started anyway. If anything, all the chaos lately had kept me postponing and postponing it until it ran this late.
My schedule was packed to bursting these days—morning and evening workouts with Choi Marie, and archery training with Han Sora filling every hour of the morning and afternoon.
Yet here I was, graciously carving out time to go see my slave. Yewon really ought to be thanking me. As it happened, Marie was busy moving back into the dorms today and said she couldn't make it to our workout, so the schedule was conveniently empty.
If it had been a normal conditioning day with Marie, I might have hesitated a bit. Don't get me wrong—Yewon is a decently appealing piece of ass, but she's a villainess through and through.
My goal, always, was conquering the heroines. A villainess who turned me on was good enough for the occasional release in my spare time, nothing more.
‘Things have been plenty frustrating lately anyway. About time I blew off some steam with the dedicated cum dump.’
Before the semester began, I'd already advanced things with Kim Isabel up to her chest, Choi Marie was still unconsciously rubbing her face against my dick through her cleavage during our workouts, and with Han Sora I'd been steadily escalating the skinship disguised as archery training. Busy times indeed.
Suppressing desire for no reason only makes it harder to control my erections in front of the heroines later. And honestly, if I don't put a worthless girl like this to use on occasions like these, what's even the point of keeping her around?
‘Speaking of which, is she late again?’
She'd shown up a little past the appointed time last we met, too.
Back then I'd let it slide, sensing that Jo Jin-hyun was watching. Not today, though.
Well, frankly, whether she was late or not, what Yewon had coming to her today was already set in stone.
-Ssss…
“Ah.”
…And now it's snowing, on top of everything. Your weather luck is absolutely dogshit, isn't it, Yewon.
None of this would have happened if she hadn't betrayed Kim Isabel in the first place—it was all her own karma. She could complain all she liked about unknowingly cooperating with a terrorist, but no one was obligated to hear her out.
About ten minutes past the appointed time, a familiar shade of light-green hair came drifting slowly toward me in front of the sushi restaurant near Meeting Square.
“There you are, Yewon.”
“…….”
…Look at that sour face. I'll be fixing that habit of hers before the day is out.
I'd apparently gone too easy on her, and she'd spent the past while forgetting to fear her master. Time to remind her exactly who owned her.
“Yewon, have you been well?”
“…Whatever.”
“I asked if you've been well. You should answer.”
“…Shut up. I'm barely restraining myself from smashing your skull into that door right now.”
“Sure. Go ahead if you can. Just bear one thing in mind if you do—the debut adult video of a certain rising actress named Yewon might just find its way onto some adult site somewhere via scheduled upload.”
Did she really think I'd come out here without a single insurance policy on this simple-minded girl?
She was the type who only understood threats at this level. If I could have manufactured more blackmail material, I would have done so without hesitation.
“…You really… really are a fucking bastard.”
“Yewon, watch your mouth. Smile, too. Jo Jin-hyun could be watching the two of us from somewhere right now, you know.”
“…….”
“Or would you rather get the ‘Born Actor’ buff again like last time? Take it and you won't have to strain yourself putting on a show. Sounds nice, right?”
“…N-no! Never again! Anything but that, absolutely not!”
“Good. Then if you don't want it, play the couple properly and behave. Take my arm, and loosen that face up like you're happy to see me after so long.”
“…Haah, fuuuck….”
“And stop cursing.”
I could completely understand the urge to swear, but what could she do? If she wanted someone to blame, she should blame her own stupidity.
On a snowy winter night, Min Yewon's crumpled face was forced into bloom, and she gingerly threaded her arm through mine.
“I-it's been a while, Seonho…. H-have… have you been well…?”
Her forced smile was actually pretty hilarious, I'll give her that.
…Laugh it up while you can. In a little while, you probably won't be able to smile even if you try.