Outdoor Play (4)
With a noisy slurping sound, Min Ye-won sipped at the coffee she'd taken from beside me.
At first she'd eyed me with suspicion, but apparently the coffee itself was quite to her liking — she cupped it in both hands and slowly savored every sip.
'So she doesn't hate it after all.'
I wasn't doing this out of any fondness for Min Ye-won, of course. It was closer to the opposite.
Training, by its nature, demands an alternation of whip and carrot. Work a subject too hard and they lose their motivation and fall apart in no time; let them off too easy and they forget their place and come crawling up to their master.
So when putting them through hardship or sorting out the hierarchy, I made their position unmistakably clear — and whenever they grew exhausted like this, I fed a little motivation back in, bit by bit. Do it this way and they don't break, which means I get to play with them longer.
As for why it was a caramel macchiato specifically — that was simply because it happened to be her taste. I don't much care for sugared coffee myself.
'Still, having such a simple mind makes her easy to handle. Can't complain there.'
There she was, ass still bare, completely absorbed in her caramel macchiato because it happened to be the coffee she liked — her whole way of thinking really was simple to the bone.
Honestly, it wasn't much different from picking up a 500-won coin off the pavement. The effort involved isn't particularly large, and the reward is modest but not nothing.
The greatest advantage of villain girls like Min Ye-won was that, unlike a main heroine, you didn't need to build trust step by step and take the relationship slowly over many rounds.
'To be fair, I could probably make Han Sora or Choi Marie like this too if I wanted.'
But I wanted to win those two the proper way. If I ground their original personalities into dust and turned them into Min Ye-won No. 2 or No. 3, what would even be the point?
Reducing someone to a state where I could take them without a thought was something villains were more than enough for.
"Here, cup."
"Finished it?"
"…Mm."
Whether she'd briefly forgotten everything I'd done to her today or not, Min Ye-won gave a small nod, a faint flush creeping over her face.
If I sent her home like this, I could probably even end the day with her carrying slightly positive feelings toward me. If I truly meant to conquer her the orthodox way, that's the direction I would have considered.
But right now, my immediate desire mattered more than going through all that tedious trouble.
An opportunity to train someone in a deserted, snow-dusted park didn't come along every day. If I let today slip by, I'd be waiting until at least next winter.
I brought Min Ye-won — still deliberating, glancing at me, over whether to put her discarded clothes back on — up to her feet.
"Ye-won."
"…Wh-what now…?"
"Take off your top. Underwear too. All of it."
"……What?"
Sending her home having only bared her lower half felt too much like a compromise made out of cowardice.
If you want a slave to understand, beyond any doubt, that she is a slave, then at minimum you owe her a naked collar walk.
"A-are you insane?! Absolutely not…! N-no matter what, there's no way I can go naked in a place like…!"
"Too loud, Ye-won."
"…S-still, no…. I-I'm already anxious enough about being seen as it is, how am I supposed to do that…?"
"So. You refuse?"
"Of course I re—"
She'd been speaking while looking at me, one hand covering herself between the legs, but the moment she saw my expression, she carefully shut her mouth.
She'd realized that at any moment she might suddenly be assigned a 'role' again.
Remembering how my words had forced her mouth shut just a little while ago, she could hardly afford to be careless now.
"Is that so? You refuse, hm…?"
"N-no…. Th-that is, I do hate it, but…. Th-that's not — I'm not saying I won't do what you say, it's just…."
"Then?"
"…I-I don't know how long you're going to keep this up. I-I'm already cold as it is, if I take off even more out here I might honestly freeze to death…."
All that drama over merely being naked. Even a small child knows that a Physical Enhancement Type's body is sturdier than an ordinary person's.
…Well, all things considered, she'd followed along fairly well by Min Ye-won standards up to this point. Maybe I could cut her a little slack.
"Then let's take exactly one lap around and come back."
"……Huh?"
"Walk one single lap with me, naked, and I'll end it for today. I'll let you get dressed right after and send you straight home. Deal?"
"……"
"Or… would you rather I hand you over to 'someone else' and take a little break?"
At the words 'someone else,' Min Ye-won flinched and her whole body jolted. She seemed to have roughly grasped that this was the final ultimatum — the last chance she'd get to make a choice.
After enduring this much, being assigned a 'role' now would strike her as unbearably unjust. She'd already stripped off her clothes with her own hands and even done it outdoors — to be toyed with by me from scratch all over again at this point would be something she'd rather die than endure.
"R-really? You… you mean it?"
"Mm."
"Y-you promise…. On-one lap and it's over, right…? Right?"
"Mm. Do that one thing and I won't ask you for anything else. No more sex either."
"……"
Endure the shame just one more time, and it would all be over. Whether to believe me was Min Ye-won's freedom.
If she trusted my word and obeyed, that would confirm my prediction that she possessed the makings of a fine slave; if she refused, taming her would simply take a little longer.
Which is to say, trusting me worked out better for her too. After all, if she was going to be trained regardless, walking that road the easy way was the better option.
"Y-you'd better keep your word…."
"I will."
"A-and if it's all over and you make up some weird excuse and don't send me home… th-then, anyway, you'd better keep your promise…."
Forgetting for a moment that I held her leash in my hand, Min Ye-won tried to deliver something resembling a threat, then fumbled it into an awkward mumble.
One garment after another dropped onto the bench from her shivering frame.
-Shrrrk.
"Hhh, hnnnn…."
You bastard. You absolute bastard.
-Shrrrerk.
"Hnn, hhn, hnn…."
Lee Seonho, you genuinely awful bastard.
-Clank.
"Hnnnn, hh, hnn…. Nnhh…."
A truly, truly, TRULY awful bastard. A perverted piece of garbage not even worth recycling.
I am absolutely going to get revenge on you. Someday, somehow.
If I'd known you were this kind of bastard, I'd have just kicked you straight in the crotch back when we met at the café.
Okay, fine, it's a park at night with no one around — but how can you make a girl walk through a park naked?!
And in this weather, on top of it! It's cold enough to kill just from having my ass out — isn't this going too far?!
-Shrrrerk.
'I-it's cold….'
Every time I shed another piece of clothing, it felt like the freezing winter air was seeping straight into my skin.
At least there's no wind, thank god, but cold is cold.
At least there's a roof here. The moment I step off this bench I'll be getting snowed on too… no matter how I think about it, this is insane.
"Ye-won."
"……"
"The bra comes off too."
"…I know, already…."
…Couldn't you just let this one slide? Anyone would say you're a garbage bastard.
But there's nothing I can do. I'm already down to one last piece of underwear — if I refused to take off this one and he found some new excuse to gripe, that'd be even worse.
Lee Seonho says if I do this one last thing he'll send me home. If I needlessly piss him off here, he really might keep toying with me until tomorrow. Like back at that hotel on the first day, when he did whatever he wanted to me.
'Just endure a little longer. A little longer and it's over….'
He said it ends if I just hold out a bit more. He said no more sex either.
So just bear it a little longer, and for now do what he says.
-Shrrrerk.
"……"
I can feel Lee Seonho's gaze landing shamelessly on my chest. Filthy perverted bastard.
Still — this is the last thing, I told myself, and tossed the bra carelessly onto the bench, only for that voice to come at me again with some new complaint.
"You should fold your clothes properly, Ye-won. What if someone mistakes them for trash and takes them to throw away?"
"…I know."
YOU'RE the one who said nobody was coming, so who exactly is supposed to show up? And who on earth looks at brand-new clothes and calls them garbage anyway?
But I'm not so dumb that I can't guess what he means by it. Leave them sitting out like this, and he's threatening to throw them away himself, isn't he?
Genuinely awful bastard. You've done more than enough already.
If you were going to treat me like a dog, you could've said so in advance. Look at him — deliberately making me strip naked before giving the order. This is straight-up malicious.
'I was an idiot for thinking he might be even slightly decent.'
He even gave me a caramel macchiato because I was cold, so for a moment there I wondered if maybe he wasn't all bad. Stupid me.
Lee Seonho is an awful bastard, period. I'm getting revenge, no question.
…I can't right now, but whatever. Revenge is coming.
'It's cold, so first — hurry up and fold the clothes….'
If I stay like this even one extra minute on a day like this, I'm actually going to freeze to death.
But saying that to this bastard would accomplish nothing, so for now all I can do is meekly obey.
So I gathered up the rest of my clothes within reach, folded them, and carefully stood in front of him. If I tried to lead, I'd just get another lecture.
"S-so I just walk one lap like this and come back?"
"One last thing before we head out."
"…Huh? Wh-what is tha—"
Something glinted in the light from Lee Seonho's right hand as it suddenly approached my neck.
Was he casting some kind of magic? While I tensed up, his hand began drifting back away from my throat.
-Rattle.
…Holding, in his hand, something that looked for all the world like a chain.
"Let's head out, Ye-won."
"U-uh?! Wh-what is that?!"
"This is called a collar. It's an essential item for walking a pet, you see."
"Th-that's not what I was asking!!"
A collar?!
Is he kidding me?! N-nobody said anything about wearing THAT!
And what — walking a pet?! Who gave him the right to treat me like some animal—
-Click…. Click, click….
"I-why won't it come off…"
"Sorry. It may not look it, but this is actually quite a rare artifact. Until its master — me — releases it, it can't be undone by the one wearing it."
"Wh-who's your pet…! T-take it off right now…!! Nobody said anything about this…!!"
"I told you we'd take one lap around, didn't I? A pet walk naturally comes with a collar."
"Wh-who's your pet! I-I only stripped down because you said it was just one lap, and n-now you're changing the deal, then I'll—"
-Click.
As if he'd predicted I'd say exactly that, Lee Seonho calmly raised his smartphone camera and photographed my naked body. At the quiet shutter sound, my mind went blank for a moment.
…And it hit me all over again — that his smartphone was already stuffed full of those shots of my body. All the leverage he'd ever need.
"Oh? Then how about we run a little survey?"
"…A survey?"
"Looking at Ye-won here, naked outdoors with a collar around her neck — do you think more people would call her a 'human,' or would more people call her a 'pet'?"
"W-wait a second…."
"Should I post it online and ask? If 'pet' gets the most answers, then you'll obey me nicely from then on. Won't you, Ye-won?"
"N-no! Absolutely not, I won't—!"
"That's an order. Sit."
"Hhnnk?!"
The instant I tried to snatch his smartphone away, his voice came, and my body collapsed to the ground on its own.
…Exactly as if I really had become that bastard's pet. My body moving without my permission.
"All I did was add a collar. Naked or not, there's hardly any difference now, is there."
"……"
"One lap, just like I said, and then I'll end it for today. Okay?"
"……"
"What's this? Having second thoughts now, at this point?"
You bastard. You absolute bastard.
I really am going to kill you.
"…F-fine. I'll do it."
…But I can't run away right now, so this is just me complying because I have no other choice. That's all it is.