Having a Blast at the Karaoke Room
It was no exaggeration to say that I had every entertainment establishment near the office mapped out to the last detail. For the two women, I had picked the karaoke place with the dimmest lighting around and frosted windows you couldn't see through from the street, and I led them inside.
Since Ji-hyun claimed to absolutely love karaoke, I booked us two hours and pre-ordered dried snacks and four bottles of beer, then followed the part-time worker into the most secluded room at the far end of the hall. Today, this little karaoke room was destined to become a historic site — the very place where the fulfillment of my first wish would cross its halfway point!
The room itself was the smallest in the house: a snug four-seater with nothing but a small table and four sofas around it.
The moment we stepped inside, Eun-mi rose from her seat, saying she'd pop into the restroom for a minute.
Heh heh... well, she'd better go often. Otherwise all that water might just overflow.
Hardly had Eun-mi slipped out when the part-timer appeared with a round platter of dried snacks and a fistful of beer bottles.
"Team Leader."
"What is it?"
Once the part-timer had set the snacks and beer on the table and gone, Ji-hyun called out to me.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"I think I've had you all wrong this whole time, Team Leader."
"Haha? And how exactly did you have me wrong?"
"Well... at the office you were always so cold to the women, and you hardly ever talked to us, so I assumed you were a sexist. Honestly, you seemed even worse with me, Eun-mi unnie, and Seon-ju unnie than with anyone else, so I wondered if you looked down on us for being contract workers."
"Hahaha."
I just laughed at that, cracked open a bottle, and poured myself a glass.
"But after today... I can see I misunderstood you. Hehe. You'll forgive me, won't you?"
I flashed her a grin and tipped the bottle toward her glass. Ji-hyun received the pour politely, holding her own glass out with both hands.
"If anything, I'm the one who should apologize. For some reason, I've always found the women at the office a little hard to deal with. But... no more misunderstandings between us, right?"
"Right. Honestly, after talking with you today, I realized you're a really fun person, Team Leader."
Heh heh heh. When the whole point is to have my way with you girls, 'fun' is setting the bar awfully low.
"Oh, and Team Leader..."
Ji-hyun looked at my face with a meaningful little smile.
"What?"
"You and Eun-mi unnie..."
"What about me and Eun-mi?"
"You two... are dating, aren't you?"
Ji-hyun's artless question very nearly set me off laughing. Heh heh. Dating? Eun-mi was my plaything, plain and simple.
"Well..."
"Oh, come on! I could tell just from how Eun-mi unnie acted at dinner tonight. You have no idea how aloof that woman usually is. She's never like that with anyone. Even at clubs, when men try to approach her, she won't give them so much as a glance."
"Hahaha, is that so? I wouldn't know. I guess she just feels comfortable around me."
"Hmmm... am I wrong?"
"Hahaha."
Wearing my friendliest smile, I let the question glide right past and raised my glass. "Now then, first things first — we need a toast! To Ji-hyun's misunderstanding being cleared up. Cheers!"
"Yes! Cheers!"
Ji-hyun laughed her bright, innocent laugh and clinked her glass against mine.
Heh heh heh. Just you wait, Ji-hyun. Soon enough, you'll find out for yourself exactly why Eun-mi clings to me like that.
Ji-hyun truly loved karaoke — and she had every right to. The woman could sing.
In all my life I had never seen anyone sing the songs of Big Mama, Korea's powerhouse vocal group, that well. It wasn't a matter of simply belting out the high notes; she brought the emotion of every song to life so masterfully that a professional singer would have been hard-pressed to match her. And when an upbeat dance number came on, she'd rise right out of her seat and sing while she danced — showmanship and all. If Ji-hyun had been a man, I would have scouted her straight into the Sales department on the spot, no questions asked.
That was the kind of woman she was: someone who knew exactly how to have fun at a karaoke room. Swept up in her energy, Eun-mi caught the fever too, singing at the top of her lungs and dancing herself breathless. For my part, I dug deep into the repertoire I'd built over years of client dinners — all those nights I couldn't just sit back and enjoy the hostesses' company in the room, so it fell to me to keep the mood alive with song and dance instead.
The three of us carried on like that, playing so hard the first two hours nearly weren't enough. We tacked on another two, the drinks were refilled round after round, and by the end all three of us were drenched in sweat.
"Phew~ Let's stick to slow songs from now on."
"Yeah, yeah. Even I'm too worn out to jump around anymore... Whew..."
Only after they'd sung their finale — Girls' Generation's Tell Me Your Wish (Genie) — did the two women finally settle into their seats, catching their heaving breath and wetting their throats with beer.
— Tch! Just when a song worth a damn finally comes on...
The Genie in my head, apparently quite taken with Tell Me Your Wish (Genie), hummed the tune along with them even as he grumbled. Well, I suppose that figured — he was the star of the song. Heh heh heh.
— Shut it. My tale has been handed down for thousands of years and retold in a hundred different forms. I am hardly the type to get worked up over one paltry little song.
Heh heh heh. You could stand to be a little more honest with yourself, my friend.
"You really are a good singer, Ji-hyun. I'm impressed all over again. Is your throat holding up?"
At my praise, Ji-hyun smiled sweetly and gave her shoulders a proud little shrug. "I was in the choir all through middle school and high school, so singing is the one thing I'm confident in. Besides, the three of us kept taking turns, so... my throat is perfectly fine."
"You sing really well too, Team Leader."
"Haha... me? I'm in Sales. You learn to sing whether you like it or not, just keeping the mood alive at all those dinners. But you, Ji-hyun, you're the genuine article. It's not just that your voice is pretty — you really bring out the emotion of a song."
"Hehe, I get absorbed in other people's feelings easily. Even just hanging out with friends, I get swept up in their mood in no time. That's why my friends won't let me sing when they're feeling down. Apparently if I do, they end up being the ones comforting me afterward."
"Hahaha, really? So what happens with a furious customer? Do you work yourself into a rage right along with them?"
"Hohoho, believe it or not, I'm a professional. I know how to keep my work life and my private life separate."
Ji-hyun laughed at my joke and parried it with practiced ease. Like her petite, slender frame, she had a nimble gift for steering a conversation along pleasantly, and it struck me all over again how wasteful it was to leave talent like that buried in the customer service office.
— Hey! This isn't a hiring interview for the Sales department, you idiot. Focus on how the hell you're going to screw that woman!
...
The Genie had a point. Swept up in the mood of the moment, I'd somehow forgotten the entire purpose of tonight's gathering and was happily singing the hours away.
"Tch, what is this? Acting like the two of you are the only ones having fun... All you've done is compliment Ji-hyun, Team Leader..."
Eun-mi pushed out her lips in a mischievous pout. Heh heh heh. All right, all right, I get it. Time for you to make a little sacrifice, Eun-mi — all in the name of today's grand design!
"Aw, is Eun-mi sulking? Sorry, sorry... You're an amazing dancer too, you know. And you sang beautifully."
"Save it. It's far too late for that now. Hmph!"
That little bitch...! How dare she snort at me like that!
A flash of anger spiked through me, but I swallowed it down and simply kept smiling at her. Ji-hyun, watching the two of us, had a smile playing in her eyes that seemed to say something unusual was going on between us.
"Unnie, unnie, don't be like that. Dance with the Team Leader instead — I'll sing for you."
Like a peacemaker stepping in between a quarreling couple, Ji-hyun herded the two of us out into the open floor, then punched in a moody, atmospheric pop ballad.
Suddenly evicted from our seats and left standing face to face, Eun-mi and I could only look at each other in awkward silence.
Damn it! This wasn't what I'd wanted...
The plan had been to smooth Eun-mi's feathers, get her singing again, and then slow-dance with Ji-hyun while my hands wandered over her by slow degrees...
Things were going sideways.
"What are you doing! Come on, hurry!"
As the intro stretched on, Ji-hyun gave up urging us from her seat and stepped in herself, taking my hand and planting it on Eun-mi's waist.
Her cheeks were burning scarlet as she pressed us together — whether from the beer she'd been knocking back all night, or from all that dancing.
In the end, I decided that whatever happened, happened. I took hold of Eun-mi's waist and pulled her flush against me.
Eun-mi balked at first, self-conscious with Ji-hyun right there, but the moment my hands wrapped around her waist she wound her arms around my neck and sank into my embrace.
Watching us with a fond, gratified look, Ji-hyun began to sing in a honeyed voice.
It was a Mariah Carey song I remembered from my college days.
Ji-hyun's soft voice wrapped itself around Eun-mi and me like a warm haze.
Whether Eun-mi was drunk on the mood of the song, or whether she truly believed I was her lover, she clung to my neck tighter than ever.
As her shapely figure pressed flush against me, her full breasts flattened against my chest, and through the palm I'd rested on her waist I could feel the graceful inward curve of her slender middle.
No doubt about it — hers was a luxury-grade body, the kind every male employee in the company dreamed of seeing stripped bare.
Locked in that tight embrace, the two of us swayed in slow circles around the room.
Then, once I'd turned so my back was to Ji-hyun and she could no longer see what my hands were doing, I slid my palm down and squeezed Eun-mi's ass hard.
I felt her flinch.
"Team Leader... Ji-hyun's right there...!" Eun-mi whispered to me in alarm.
"It's fine. I've got my back to her. She can't see a thing."
"Don't..."
"I'm telling you, it's fine. It's just a quick feel, that's all."
"Still..."
Even as her words chided me, the arms around my neck showed not the slightest intention of moving.
Somewhere deep inside her body, I'd have bet anything, my touch was already telling her not to refuse.