Forty-Seven Percent
I punched in the passcode — beep, beep, beep, beep — and stepped inside. The room that greeted me made yesterday's sweaty cleaning session worth every minute. The teaching assistant followed me in, and her distinctive perfume drifted through the air.
"This is it? Cleaner than I expected."
Hearing that, I was glad I'd gone to the trouble.
"Not bad for a guy living alone, right?"
"Pfft. Yeah."
She snorted at my remark, slipped off her shoes, and came inside. I closed the window I'd left open for ventilation and sat down. The teaching assistant sat after me, her eyes sweeping the room.
"So what kind of counseling did you say this was, again?"
My heart started pounding. This was where it really began. The first test: would she go along with the session even if it was strange? I swallowed and looked at her.
"...It's counseling about sex..."
I let the words trail off, watching her face. It froze for an instant, then relaxed. My heart clenched and unclenched in time with every shift of her expression.
"...Ms. Lee?"
When she didn't respond, I lifted the end of the question a little, and she looked at me. Her light makeup and the sweet scent of her perfume filled the space between us.
"...Ah. Sex?"
"...Huh? Y-yeah. It's weird, right?"
It seemed like I'd failed.
Even with hypnosis, maybe there still has to be some plausibility...
I was about to give up and hastily change the subject when she answered.
"Well, you came for counseling. Fine. What kind of sex problem is it?"
Her expression was completely different from a moment ago. She even shifted her posture, settling in to take the session seriously.
We're in.
If there were no preconditions attached to the counseling, then everything I said from this point on would be permitted. I opened my mouth immediately.
"I've never done it before. Have you, Ms. Lee?"
I turned up the heat a notch. She seemed about to frown, then went through several shifts of expression before she finally spoke.
"Of course I have. I did it with my ex-boyfriends."
At her age — late twenties — that was only natural. It would have been stranger if a woman this attractive had never had sex. After that, I asked not only more explicit questions but some that were a bit of a stretch as well. What I learned was that as long as it related to the counseling, she would accept any question at all.
"Then... would you do it with me? Just once?"
Now only the final hurdle of the session remained. She looked slightly flustered at my words, but the hypnotic suggestion seemed to make her stammer.
"I'm sorry, but I can't do that. Try it when you get a girlfriend."
She stammered her way through it, but in the end, I was rejected.
"So that's the end of the counseling, then?"
"..."
"We'll take this as the end. Let's stop here."
The first hypnosis had ended. Its duration had expired. I discreetly pulled out my phone and checked the screen.
Responsiveness Rate:47%
Something new had appeared: a Responsiveness Rate.
Responsiveness Rate?
It was new, but my mind was already spinning at high speed, instinctively telling me what it meant.
It's how fast she responds to hypnosis.
The higher the percentage, the easier it would be to put her under. If I hit 100%, I'd be able to give her commands with my voice alone.
But 47% in a single session? Isn't that a little too easy?
While I was turning all this over, the teaching assistant was getting up from her seat. It was time to move on to the second round.
"M-Ms. Lee."
"Hm?"
I tapped the trial hypnosis on my phone. Two uses remaining.
Candle ignited
Duration: 2:00
"Could you look at this for just three seconds?"
I held the screen out to her, and she stared at it blankly. In an instant, the tension in her pupils went slack. After three seconds they contracted again, and a vacant expression settled over her face. It matched exactly what I'd seen before. When I shifted the phone slightly to the side, her gaze followed the candle.
"What is your name?"
"...Lee Dahye..."
"Your weight."
"...Fifty kilograms..."
"Your height."
"...One hundred sixty-three centimeters..."
I asked much faster than before. Now I needed to plant a new suggestion.
"Alright. I'm going to implant a new suggestion in you. When the hypnosis ends, you won't remember what just happened, but the suggestion I plant will remain in your subconscious, and you will follow it."
"...Yes..."
The two-minute candle was burning down fast.
"When you hear my voice, your heart will race with excitement."
"...Yes..."
"And when I ask you for something, you'll want to grant it no matter what."
"...Yes..."
I checked the time — only thirty seconds left.
"Good. Now repeat the suggestions I gave you."
"...When I hear your voice, I feel excited... When you ask me for something... I want to grant it..."
She remembered it perfectly. Her gaze was still locked on the candle, so I could relax.
"Good. Finally — you will completely forget this situation, but the suggestion will remain in your subconscious, and you will follow it."
"...Yes..."
As I finished speaking, the candle went out. Only one trial hypnosis remained.
My second curiosity was emotion. If I used hypnosis to implant a change in her feelings, would it actually work the way I intended? On top of that, the counseling condition was one that vanished once the session ended. But if it was an emotion — would that persist all the way through? I wanted to know.
The teaching assistant's expression went slack for about a second, then returned to normal.
"Alright, let's wrap up the counseling."
"Yes. Thank you for your time."
She glanced at me, then put on her shoes.
...No particular effect, then...?
She was normally ice-cold with students, so this kind of situation was familiar enough.
"Then before you go, at least shake my hand."
I made the request and held out my hand. She flinched. Ordinarily, she would have refused.
But the woman standing here now reached out and clasped my hand.
"Thank you. Ah — would you hug me as well? Please. I'm asking."
Drawing on what I'd learned during the counseling, I raised the intensity a little at a time.
"Alright."
She let out a faint breath and pulled me into her arms. The scent of her light makeup and perfume tickled my nose. I went hard, swelling thick against my pants. Earlier, the tension had kept me from reacting at all. Now that I'd relaxed and the certainty had set in, my body had loosened up considerably.
"Thank you."
"...Sure."
The moment she stepped outside, I hurriedly opened the app.
The number that had been zero had changed.