A Day at the Department Store
A weekend morning.
Lying in bed in my room on one of the rare days I had off, I found myself replaying what I'd done to Seohyun at the university.
The memories of using her — of treating the girl who called me "Master" like a piece of property I could toy with however I pleased, venting my desires into her at will — made that part of me swell all over again.
Even after that first time, I had relieved my lust on Seohyun several more times around campus.
I told myself over and over that this wasn't right, that it couldn't go on — but the sheer depravity of having a living person entirely at my mercy proved too intoxicating to resist.
Ryeonhwa still hadn't answered any of my calls, and I'd worried that Seohyun's memories might somehow snap back into place, but in the end it was all needless anxiety.
And that was because…
Knock knock!
At the notification sound, I picked up my phone to find a message from Seohyun: a selfie of her sprawled on her bed, legs spread wide, her cleft bared shamelessly to the camera.
Gulp…
The moment I saw the photo, blood rushed downward and that part of me rose to full attention.
As I wavered over how to respond to her message, I could feel the last of my inner moral defenses slowly crumbling away.
Dangerous fantasies I never would have dared entertain before crept into my head, and the stakes of those thoughts climbed higher and higher.
And somewhere in the midst of it, for some reason, I thought of the demon inside this house.
I still hadn't completely let go of my wariness toward it, but the dangerous whispers and temptations it had breathed into me seeped through the cracks in my collapsed boundaries.
If I used the demon… couldn't I feel even more pleasure than this?
Couldn't it give me a joy greater than anything I'd known?
Even if the price were my soul — no, even if it demanded more than that — surely that would be…
Knock knock.
The sudden knock on my door jolted me awake, and I hastily threw the blanket over the tent that had risen between my legs.
Only then did it hit me how deep I'd just sunk into those dangerous fantasies, and my heart lurched.
"Dohyun, honey, your mom's going shopping with Jia. Come with us."
Mom stepped into my room, already dressed and ready to go.
"Shopping?"
At my echo of the word, Jia poked her head out from behind Mom and beamed at me.
"Yeah, I promised Mom I'd go to the department store and buy some clothes with her. Come on, Oppa, you too."
The moment I remembered that a demon was nesting inside that flower-blooming smile of hers, my feelings turned to knots.
Back when Jia had still been the real Jia, she'd made the same offer every single time Mom suggested an outing — always turning to me first, come with us, Oppa.
And every time, nursing my inferiority complex toward my little sister, I had refused with a smile plastered on my face.
But this time, saying no didn't seem so easy.
Ever since Jia came back, the family had rediscovered its warm, intimate closeness.
Excluding myself from those days would have looked ugly, and I could see all too clearly how much it would hurt Mom.
"Alright, I'll come."
"Yaaay~ Going out with Oppa! I'm so happy."
Having no real choice, I agreed and got up to get dressed, and Jia practically bounced with joy.
Mom gazed fondly at her daughter and wore the happy smile of a mother content with her world.
A tender family. A family brimming with happiness — still being sustained, even now, by the demon wearing my little sister's face.
"I've settled into my classes, so I'm thinking of joining the student council sometime soon."
"Really? Is college life that much fun for you?"
"Mm-hm. The seniors are fun and all so nice, and my classmates are great too. And… going to the same university as you, Oppa, puts my heart at ease."
On the way to the department store, I walked ahead while mother and daughter chatted cozily behind me — until Jia shot me a sidelong glance and said it loud enough for me to hear.
"Honestly, you're such an Oppa-girl."
"Of course~ You have no idea how close Oppa and I are. Right, Oppa?"
When Jia asked with a grin, I answered with an awkward smile and a clipped reply.
"Sure."
Part of me felt uneasy, complicated. Everything was clearly peaceful, everything running smoothly without a hitch — and yet it felt as though some invisible thing was stirring restlessly right in front of my eyes.
And yet… that stirring, that unseen change — I couldn't bring myself to think of it as purely bad.
Once we entered the department store, Mom and Jia grew even chattier and dove into their clothes shopping.
Having little interest in clothes myself, I simply trailed along behind them in silence.
The classic position of a man: the bored, indifferent face shuffling after a women's shopping expedition.
"Dohyun, you need a new suit too. I noticed last time it doesn't even fit anymore, and it's worn out in places. I'll buy you one — go take a look in that store over there."
After browsing around the store with Jia for a while, Mom stopped in front of an expensive-looking suit boutique and turned to me.
"Hmm… I'm okay, I'll buy one myself next time."
A suit like that wasn't cheap by any stretch, and it was a high-end brand on top of that — I refused, feeling the burden of it.
"Dohyun."
When Mom spoke with that particular firmness, radiating the kind of authority parents wield that no child can defy, Jia cut in.
"Oppa, Mom's going out of her way to buy it for you. Just get one. I'll help you pick."
"That's right, Jia has a better eye for clothes than I do anyway. I gave Jia the card, so have her fit you for a suit. Don't worry about the money. My legs are aching, so I'll rest up front for a bit — take your time choosing."
Apparently afraid I might refuse out of discomfort, Mom pressed her card into Jia's hand and swiftly made her escape.
Squeeze.
"Let's go, Oppa."
Jia took my hand in hers as if she'd been waiting for exactly this.
The warmth of her soft hand, trailing a sweet fragrance, spread up from my fingertips and left me flustered — but before I could say anything, she was already pulling me along by our joined hands into the shop.
Perhaps because it was a high-end brand boutique, the interior had a medieval atmosphere, wonderfully old-fashioned.
Maybe it was that ambiance, but the shop was completely empty — as if someone had rented the whole floor.
"Welcome. Are you here to have your boyfriend fitted for a suit?"
A woman with model-like beauty greeted us, dressed neatly in a woman's business suit.
A black jacket over a crisp white blouse.
A black pencil skirt ending just above the knee, below which bare white legs descended into black heels.
Her hair pulled back tidily to leave her forehead bare, her makeup subtle and understated.
The classic outfit of a woman at an interview — clean, composed, professional. But layered over that image was a model's figure and the striking face of a beautiful shopgirl, which only made the clothes stand out all the more.
Glancing at a nearby mannequin dressed in the exact same outfit as her, I glimpsed the sales tactics beneath it all.
As I read the name tag pinned above her blouse — Ahn Yua — I realized she had misunderstood our relationship, and opened my mouth to correct her.
"Yes, I'm here to get a suit for my boyfriend."
Jia squeezed our joined hands and pressed herself even closer against my side, and the chance to correct her slipped away.
By the time I turned to her in shock, Jia was already smiling, deep in the kind of small talk women fall into with each other.
"Oh my… your girlfriend is absolutely gorgeous. You're a lucky man."
Getting a close look at Jia's face, the saleswoman's eyes went round with genuine astonishment as she showered her in praise.
It was not flattery. It couldn't be.
Decades of experience had taught me well: anyone who laid eyes on Jia had no choice but to say exactly that.
"Haha, yes…"
With no way to turn the situation back, I resigned myself to it and answered with an embarrassed laugh — and somehow, that made Jia beside me flush pink and smile shyly.
That expression — a far cry from either the usual Jia or the demon — startled me a little inside.
"Do you happen to have something in mind already?"
"Height 181 centimeters, waist 36 inches, chest 111, shoulders 46, sleeve length 89. Please make it for spring and summer. Gray for both top and bottom, regular fit, and the trousers need to be hemmed just enough to show a sliver of ankle. He hates tight clothes, so please leave the silhouette a little relaxed."
The instant the saleswoman began her sales pitch in earnest, Jia rattled off my measurements at machine-gun speed.
The seamless order and the intimate detail of what she knew about me left not only me but the saleswoman herself looking stunned.
"You, you certainly know your boyfriend well, haha… You pay attention to even the finest details."
Instead of boasting, Jia simply flashed a small smile.
"Then I'll go find what you've described. One moment, please."
As the saleswoman turned away behind her professional smile, the line of her panties peeked out beneath her snug skirt, her hips swaying softly as she went.
Whether it was because I'd indulged in fantasies about Seohyun that morning and never actually taken care of anything, I was brimming with frustration, and my eyes were drawn to her against my will.
Her suit was immaculate, not a wrinkle out of place, projecting an untouched innocence and modesty — which only excited me further.
I'd realized something about myself recently: I had a marked tendency to be aroused by dirtying things that were clean, pure, and unspoiled.
I can't keep doing this… get a grip, Yoon Dohyun.
Feeling a gaze from beside me, I belatedly realized I'd been caught and turned my head — to find Jia beaming at me.
The way her eyes narrowed into slits made me shiver, as if she could read every impure thought I'd just had.
"Want to mate with that woman?"
"What is that supposed to—"
"If you want her, take her. If you want to violate her, violate her. Everything in this world is yours."
At the demon's loaded words, a wave of unease washed over me — and at the same time, an inexplicable, nameless thrill began to stir in its wake.
"Good grief, what a picky order. The measurements are… hmm, so detailed… I'd better grab a few different pieces for him to try…"
In the stockroom, the saleswoman grumbled under her breath as she searched for garments matching the customer's requested size, moving to pull out a few likely candidates.
Ssshhh… shhhhhh…
From the shadow at the saleswoman's feet, a black liquid surged upward, and from behind her rose a sinister tentacle wreathed in an eerie, clammy mist.
Coiling slowly and silently, it climbed up her body from behind like a snake winding around its prey, then began to seep into her ear.
Ssssss…
"…Nghk!?"
Pop.
At the intrusion of something foreign into her body, the clothes slipped from her hands and her entire body went rigid.
The alien thing that had entered her began raking through her mind, seizing her existence bit by bit.
"Kyahihiik!? Kyaak!? Ihihit! Ih… ihiiit…!!"
Her body stolen while she was still alive, her memories and personality ripped away, her very existence ravaged — the woman arched and spasmed, flailing her arms wildly through empty air in incomprehensible gestures.
The screams she tried to let out in resistance curdled into grotesque noises, then faded dimmer and dimmer — until the whites that had filled her eyes slowly began to return to normal.
"Ih, he, hoo… pheewww… hehe… ♥"
By the time her trembling, aspen-leaf shudders finally subsided, the saleswoman was wiping the drool that had run down her chin with her sleeve and wearing a knowing smirk.
Bang.
"Yua? I heard noises back here. Is everything all right?"
Another employee stepped into the stockroom, looking at Ahn Yua's back with concern.
Yua stayed silent for a few seconds, then slowly turned her head to answer.
"…No, nothing's wrong, Team Leader."
Yua smiled brightly, as if to reassure her.
Only after seeing that smile did the other employee relax.
Her face, her body, her voice — all of it was exactly as it had always been. There was no reason not to believe the gentle words with which this woman reported her own condition.
Her eyes had gone clouded, as if something else now dwelled inside her — but that was a change of the inner self, not the outer, and no stranger could ever have detected it.
"Nothing happened at all."
With her clouded eyes, Yua soothed the employee — then, as if nothing whatsoever had occurred, began carefully selecting the very finest garments in the store for the man she was meant to dress.