30. Darling
"Come on, puppy, pick already… Want the zap-zap, or are you going to put the leash on like a good boy?"
"E-Eunseo… please stop… Please, if you stop right now, I-I'll pretend I never saw any of this. Please just stop…"
Eunseo held a stun gun in her left hand and a red dog leash in her right. She looked at me with a crooked little grin and answered.
"Aww, our little puppy~ Having a hard time deciding? Should I just pick for you?"
She dropped the stun gun from my neck and held it up right in front of my face.
—ZZZZZZZT!!!
Blue electricity crackled right before my eyes, showing me the massive current surging through it.
"Our puppy… the second his owner looked away, he went off flirting with some other girl. I saw it and still looked the other way. I've been this generous, and still you hate this and hate that… So what am I supposed to do with you?"
S-some girl??
Was she talking about Minhi…?
"E-Eunseo, l-listen carefully… Th-that girl is my little sister…"
"Huh???"
"Th-the little sister I told you about a long time ago…"
At the news that the girl she'd meant was my younger sister, Eunseo pressed a hand to her forehead and let out a laugh of pure disbelief.
"Hahahahaha……… Aah~ Fuck, that bitch is pretty damn crazy too, huh? Locking her own big brother up and doing all that shit?"
"S-so… it wasn't like… whatever relationship you were imagining…"
She must have mistaken Minhi for my girlfriend and gone this far because of it, so I calmly explained that Minhi was my little sister. Eunseo dragged a hand down her face in exasperation, then fixed me with a cold stare.
"So, puppy? That has nothing to do with this, so hurry up and choose. Is it this?"
—ZZZZZT!!!!
"Or this?"
—Clink-clank.
"I'd really like our puppy to pick soon. I'm starting to get tired of waiting."
"……I-I don't want to… Please, E-Eunseo, why are you even doing this…"
"Why? Because that crazy bitch had you locked up this whole time, right?"
"Y-yeah… that's right…"
"So you two must've been biting and sucking and fucking each other the whole time, right?"
Even though I'd clearly told her I'd been confined by my own little sister, Eunseo didn't care about that detail at all. She seemed to be treating Minhi as just some ordinary girl, not family.
"N-no… How could I possibly do that with my own sister……"
"You… didn't? Really?"
"Y-yeah… I didn't… I-I swear…"
Because Minhi had been on her period, we hadn't gone that far yet. We'd bitten and sucked, sure—but I spoke as if nothing at all had happened.
"Really… Really, really, really, the two of you didn't do anything?"
"Y-yeah… It's true. B-believe me, Eunseo…"
"Huuuh… Is that so? So you're still brand-new, then?"
"Uh… uhh… I guess you could say that…"
The way she said "brand-new" rubbed me the wrong way a little, but all I could do was watch her face for cues.
"S-so just stop… I-if you let me go right now, I'll pretend I never saw any of this…"
"Ohhh really?? You'll really do that?"
"Y-yeah. We'll just go back to being normal senior and junior… I-I promise."
"Hmm…"
Unlike Minhi, Eunseo actually seemed to consider my words, a thoughtful look settling over her face.
"Puppy… No—Junhi-sunbae, then."
"Y-yeah, Eunseo…"
"Then I have one condition."
"W-what is it…"
Eunseo tossed the leash behind her, slipped the stun gun into her pocket, and looked me straight in the eye.
"Marry me."
"Huh??"
"I don't mean right this second. Start as my boyfriend from now on, and stay with me all the way to marriage."
"Huh??? E-Eunseo??"
It was so sudden.
The condition for letting me go was that I marry her.
No… I don't want this… I don't… If I have to spend my life caught by girls like this, I'd rather just live alone forever…
In that room behind her, there was barely any wall space left for more of my things and photos—this girl was already obsessing over me that hard—and now she wanted me to date her with marriage as the end goal. Was there a single sane person who would just accept that?
"Why are you thinking so hard?"
"I-it's just… i-it's so sudden…"
"I like you, pupp— I mean, sunbae."
"Y-yeah… I get that, but it's just so sudden…"
"So? Your answer? If you answer me, I'll open the door right away."
Just moments ago she'd been threatening me with a stun gun and a dog collar. Now she was looking at me with bright, sparkling eyes.
"S-so… if I really answer… you'll let me go right away……?"
"Yes. I promise. If you still don't trust me, I'll put the batteries in the door lock first."
Eunseo stood, opened the cover of the door lock behind me, and slid the batteries in.
—Beep-beep-beep~
A cheerful chime sounded as the lock mechanism whirred to life.
"Can you trust me now?"
"Y-yeah…"
"So? Your answer? Depending on what you say, sunbae—pupp— I mean, sunbae—there's the path where you become my puppy, or the path where we date with marriage as the goal. Which will it be?"
Which one I had to choose was obvious.
Eunseo still had something on her that could drop me in an instant. She was weaker than Minhi, sure—but even if I ignored her, opened the door, and tried to run, I'd need those few seconds. And in those few seconds, if she pulled the stun gun from her pocket and hit me with it…
I'd end up on the floor. Chained to the wall. A dog for real.
"A-alright… I-I'll go out with you, Eunseo…"
"Really?? Really, really, really, really?!"
"Yeah……"
At the word that we'd be dating, Eunseo's eyes lit up even brighter. She threw herself at me and hugged me tight.
"Aah, sunbae, I've really… really, really, really been waiting for this moment… So now, instead of sunbae, I can call you honey, right?"
"Y-yeah…"
"Kyaaaaaah~~!! Honey, I love you so much, I can't even tell if this is a dream, I seriously can't believe it, I don't know, I really don't know, is this the dream you have right before you die?"
Still clinging to me, Eunseo started bouncing and thrashing with pure joy.
"Honey."
"Y-yeah… Eunseo."
"Why are you being so stiff? Call me honey too, already."
"I-it's just…"
Still holding me, she looked up—and for a single instant, her eyes went ice-cold.
"Hurry."
That look alone sent a full-body chill through me, so I said exactly what she wanted.
"H-honey…"
"Heheheheheh aaaaah I love it~ I really love it, I love it so much I could die, aaaaaaah~~!!!"
The moment she heard "honey," Eunseo sprang up from where she'd been hugging me.
"Honey, it's getting a little late—why don't you just sleep over at my place tonight?"
"Uh… uh…?"
"Yeah, better to just stay over. Mm-hmm, that sounds good. If you go back to that house, that crazy bitch will be there waiting, right?"
"Uh… y-yeah, that's true…"
She had a point.
Even if I got out of this house and went home, Minhi would be waiting for me. And then…
"Gulp…"
Under the name of "education," she'd torment me so I could never leave her again—and sexually assault me. That much was certain.
I looked at Eunseo beside me. The cold atmosphere from earlier was gone; now she was gazing at me with bright, sparkling eyes, the look of someone who truly loved me.
Maybe a fox is easier to deal with than a tiger…
Eunseo wasn't normal either. But… at least she was better than Minhi.
"What are you thinking so hard about, honey?"
"Ah—nothing…"
"So, honey, you're sleeping over at my place, right?"
"Yeah…"
"Heheheheh~ Aah, I love it, I love it~ I love it so much my heart feels like it's going to burst."
Eunseo took my hand and pulled me into the room.
I chased after the taxi that had been following them, and up ahead I saw it pull over and stop.
"Driver, pull over here, please."
"Yes, ma'am."
I handed him twenty thousand won in cash from my pocket and got out at once.
"Keep the change."
"Oh my, thank you. You'll be blessed for that."
The taxi I'd ridden turned around the moment I stepped out. I walked toward the one parked ahead.
A man who looked to be in his forties sat in the driver's seat, waiting for a call to come in.
"Oh? Welcome. Need a ride?"
He seemed to take me for a passenger the second he saw me.
"No, I'm not a passenger. I just wanted to ask—did a woman and a man get out of your taxi a little while ago?"
"Ah… Aaaah! Those couple from earlier?"
C-couple…
I wanted to snap and say something right then and there, but I had to hold it in.
"Yes, yes. Those friends of mine took a taxi without me and I'm trying to find them."
"Ahh, I see~ They went into that villa over there."
I glanced at the villa the driver pointed to, thanked him, and stared at the building from a distance.
"Ugh, damn it…"
A lot of the lights in the villa were on. Part of me wanted to go door to door and search every unit, but that would only blow things up.
"Fuck…"
That fucking whore of a bitch dared to take my man? Dared to?? You fucking bitch, I am not letting this go.
I will kill her somehow.
I'll stake everything I have and I will kill her for sure.
For now, I sat down on the villa stairs, prepared to wait day and night for Oppa to come out—or for that purple-haired bitch to show herself first.