The Hotel Pictorial
The scenario for this shoot was roughly as follows.
A couple, looking to recover from the wear of everyday life, spending a single night together on a hotel date.
In a way it was an utterly ordinary scenario—but then, the familiar flavors were always the ones that tasted best.
The simplest way to set a monthly magazine’s subscribers’ most primitive imaginations running wild: What exactly do they get up to for one night and two days at a hotel?
And if the model for that was Lee Yena?
Game over.
Of course, I had been firmly in the opposition when it came to this scenario.
Even back then—before Yena and I were dating—the thought of all sorts of images of her taking root in other people’s heads was something I hated more than anything.
So I had opposed it absolutely…
But the company had sales riding on the decision. There was neither the loyalty nor the reason for them to listen to a low-ranking employee like me.
Well, the other candidate concept had been a beach trip, and if that one had won out, Yena might have had to wear a bikini—so I would have fought that one to the death as well.
I had been dead set against Yena shooting for our monthly magazine in the first place precisely because of concepts like these…
Anyway.
The first location was a small, disused station that was no longer in operation.
A place where the distinctive atmosphere of old train stations still lived on—famous as a site for drama and film shoots.
Four members of the photography staff, Hyeonju, and me.
The six of us were running the shoot together.
“Yena, would you try stretching your hand out like this and imagining that you’re taking your boyfriend’s hand?”
“L-like this…?”
Yena stretched her arm out as the photographer requested, her small fingers fidgeting restlessly.
Her gaze was fixed in my direction, as if she really were imagining holding my hand.
“Photographer, I can’t seem to focus…”
“It’s your first time—it’s only natural to be tense. Immersion might be hard, but would you try thinking of me as your boyfriend?”
“Hmm, you’re a woman, so it’s a bit… That tall reporter standing in the back there would make a better boyfriend stand-in, I think…”
“Ah, Eunwoo—would that be all right with you?”
“Yes… Well, if my going over helps the Hunter concentrate, it would be my honor.”
So that had been our Yena’s plan from the very start.
When she had agreed to the shoot, we hadn’t been dating yet—so she must have decided to use this pictorial to seduce me.
If we really hadn’t been dating, I would have gone completely out of my mind…
I slipped the camcorder I’d been holding into my bag and stepped onto the set.
“Then let’s do it this way. Since you’re tall, Eunwoo, stand behind me and take Yena’s hand. Ah—if holding her hand is a bit much, just the gesture of holding it is fine.”
“Hehe. Okay.”
And so the shoot resumed. When I stretched my hand out toward Yena, her slender fingers slipped between mine.
The look in her eyes as she met mine with a bashful little smile made my heart drop with a thud.
“Whoa, damn… Incredible.”
There was no way the photographer was going to miss a shot this good. She pressed the shutter without mercy.
Then she immediately turned the camera toward Yena to show her.
“When you smile, Yena, that little dimple that appears is truly charming. So turn your head just a little to the left—I’ll take one that shows off the bridge of your nose and your jawline nicely.”
“Yes…!”
Perhaps thanks to the photographer’s praise, every trace of her earlier tension had vanished, and Yena was now completely absorbed in the shoot.
“Yes! That expression right now is perfect, Yena!”
Click.
Lim Dajeong was a veteran photographer with a gleaming fifteen-year career.
Since the previous year she had been under contract with Top Entertainment News, mainly shooting suggestive photographs, but working alongside beautiful celebrities had made her feel younger herself—and she was fairly satisfied with that.
But when she heard that the main model for the July issue was Hunter Lee Yena, she had been stunned.
Why on earth would Hunter Lee Yena do something like this?
No matter how much they lowered the heat level, this wasn’t the kind of pictorial a figure of Lee Yena’s magnitude ought to be shooting, in her opinion.
Well… from Lim Dajeong’s perspective, an opportunity big enough to leave a mark on her career had come knocking.
Honestly, though, she had been a little scared.
When that cold, haughty woman played the part of a bright, smiling cute girlfriend, the readers’ arousal would only double…
Could she draw out all of Lee Yena’s charm?
She had lacked confidence.
But once the shoot began, she realized those worries had been completely unnecessary.
To put it more precisely: the moment Reporter Lee Eunwoo appeared behind her, taking her hand, Hunter Lee Yena’s entire atmosphere changed.
It wasn’t acting—it was like watching a girl who had truly fallen in love with him.
How many models in this world could put on a performance that made a thirty-nine-year-old auntie who had tasted all the sweet and bitter of life feel her heart flutter?
Not a single one among the models she had worked with, at least.
Well, if you said her face did all the work, there was nothing more to say.
Yena was one thing, but Reporter Lee Eunwoo wasn’t that handsome. At best, a pleasantly warm-looking fitting model.
And yet the two of them looked like a perfectly matched couple—that was no trick of the imagination.
If only Yena hadn’t already gone public with her boyfriend, I might have tried a little matchmaking~, she thought with the typical imagination of a Korean auntie, as they moved on to the second location: the hotel.
The pictorial shoot was far more fun than I had expected.
The outfits were more revealing than what I usually wore, but every one of them was a design that pleased me.
And above all—every time the clothes got a little shorter, Eunwoo’s face would flush red, and the sight of it was so adorable I thought I might go crazy.
Judging by his reactions, Eunwoo definitely liked the “missing bottoms” look.
That was why he scolded me so hard every time I went out in a short skirt or shorts.
Turns out our Eunwoo has a pretty strong possessive streak.
Hehe—I giggled and scurried over to the photographer.
“So for the hotel scene, Yena, the main pose is you climbing on top of your boyfriend’s stomach and smiling,” she said, bringing over a pure-white body pillow and placing it on the bed.
Then she climbed onto the pillow herself, striking a sultry pose to show me exactly how to position myself.
“This arm propping you up on the pillow is the arousal point. So to put it simply—if you stretch your hand a little up or down like this, men’s imaginations will go wild in that shot.”
“Oh…”
Listening to the photographer’s detailed lecture on the academic theory of arousal, I found myself impressed by her professionalism.
If the chance ever came, I would love to take lessons on various poses I could use on Eunwoo.
“Want to give it a try?”
I nodded and climbed onto the pillow, imagining Eunwoo’s face watching me from behind.
I had expected it to be a little softer, but it was far firmer than I had thought.
Apparently catching my surprise, the photographer’s lips curved up slightly.
“Hehe. Surprised how hard it is, right? This pillow is specially made—it’s designed to feel like you’re actually sitting on a guy’s stomach.”
“Ah…”
I think Eunwoo’s stomach was a little firmer than this, I thought, pulling the corners of my mouth up as high as I could.
“Oh, that expression is great. Ah… just a moment. Yena, would you hold this lightly between your lips?”
I bit down on the scrap of fabric she handed me.
“Like this…?”
A lewd little laugh—“Uhehe…”—burst from the photographer, but rather than being unpleasant, I felt certain I was displaying my charm as a woman well, and it didn’t feel bad at all.
The moment the okay sign came, I shifted my gaze straight to Eunwoo.
The instant our eyes met, he whipped his head away.
He might have managed not to show his face, but there was no hiding the way his earlobes had flushed bright red.
Hehe… So cute…
Click.
The sudden shutter sound nearly made me topple backward in surprise.
“Huu… I’m sorry for shooting so suddenly. Your expression just now was so good I couldn’t help pressing the shutter…”
“I-it’s fine… But could you show me the photo you just took, just once?”
“Of course…!”
The me in the photo the photographer showed me looked quite different from the face I usually saw in mirrors and pictures.
It was clearly my own face, and yet the atmosphere I gave off was softer, somehow?
Perhaps because it was an unconscious expression that had come out without my awareness, it felt far more embarrassing.
So this is the face I make when I look at Eunwoo… I never knew…
“Do you like it?”
“Yees…”
“I’m glad. I think a lot of people’s image of you is going to change a great deal with this pictorial, Yena.”
“Y-you think so?”
“Hehe. Of course. If even a middle-aged auntie like me feels that way, the younger ones won’t be able to keep their heads on straight.”
“…I hope so.”
I did want to see Eunwoo completely head-over-heels, unable to keep it together.
It might be fun in its own way to make him plead—when he begged me to hug him, saying something like, Hmph, Lee Eunwoo, beg a little more desperately!
In reality, the moment Eunwoo so much as opened his arms, I couldn’t hold back and would throw myself into them.
Well, at least I can imagine it…
…But the fact that imagining it made me suddenly want to be held again suggested it would probably be impossible for the rest of my life.
“Shall we stop here for a short break?”
Break time had arrived at just the right moment.
“Hah…! Yes! Would it be all right if I stepped out to the restroom for a moment?”
“Of course.”
Pretending to head for the restroom, I moved to the room that would serve as my waiting room for the day.
And then I immediately called Eunwoo.
"Eunwoo, I'm in the waiting room now… Can you come over for a bit?"