This Is Where It Begins
This was where it all began. I was already looking forward to everything that was about to come.
The weekend passed, and Monday arrived. Just setting foot on campus was enough to set my heart racing. The air of late spring hung warm and languid over everything.
When I stepped into the department lecture hall, a handful of students were already there. Being a liberal arts major, there were quite a few women among them — and in my current frame of mind, all I wanted was to put every last one of them under.
"...When is this lecture going to end?"
I sat through class after class, and the only person I could think about was Ah Da-hye, the TA. I was dying to know whether the hypnotic suggestion I'd planted was still holding.
Lunch is coming up.
I checked the time, then casually fired off a message to her.
About two minutes of silence. Then my phone buzzed.
It was a short reply, but just getting one at all was enough to satisfy me.
No answer. For a moment I wondered if the suggestion hadn't taken. And then, unbidden, a flicker of doubt crept in about the app itself — about whether it was even real. It had worked when I was standing right in front of her, sure. But this was the kind of thing that could turn around and stab you in the back at any time.
I was still turning over those messy thoughts when a reply finally came.
The app hadn't failed. As long as I didn't ask for anything too outrageous, she would grant every request I made.
Machines don't make mistakes. People do.
From that moment on, I trusted the app without reservation.
The second class ended I slipped out of the lecture hall, and not a single person paid me any mind. I hurried to the parking lot and found the TA's car already running.
I pulled the door open and slid in. She glanced over at me with a faintly irritated look.
"Let's get going."
"Where to? Why a drive all of a sudden?"
I turned my head to look at her, and she immediately averted her eyes. The suggestion — that her heart would race whenever she looked at me — was working perfectly.
"Let's grab a bite together, at least."
"...Fine."
Her original, rational self would have refused without a second thought. But under hypnosis, she wanted to grant my requests. Those two selves collided, producing a slight buffering lag — though the intervals were getting shorter. Every time I asked her for something the two would clash, but eventually she would come to treat it as the most natural thing in the world.
The car rolled out of campus.
"So, where do you live?"
"Home."
"With your family?"
She bit her lip at that.
"...Alone."
Anything she didn't want to talk about, anything that made her uncomfortable — that was where the buffering kicked in.
"I see. So you live on your own?"
"...Yeah."
I grinned. I was a student, so this was fine. The TA office was fairly relaxed about these things anyway. Ten minutes late wouldn't raise any eyebrows.
"Then let's eat at your place."
"What?"
The question was apparently so absurd it actually got a reaction. A cold sweat prickled across my back for a second.
"...Please."
Her face twisted at the word. The response was immediate. The car that had been heading who-knows-where swung around and made straight for her apartment.
About fifteen minutes later, a modern officetel came into view.
"Wow. It's spacious."
"It's a lease."
We stepped into the new building. She punched in the passcode, and inside was a clean, well-kept three-room layout.
"Make me something."
She didn't answer, but she went to the kitchen and put water on to boil. The buffering intervals were getting shorter and shorter.
The water came to a rolling boil. She cooked up a simple pack of ramyeon — clearly intending to feed me as quickly and cheaply as possible and send me on my way.
I stood up and wrapped my arms around her from behind.
"...!"
She startled and twisted around to look at me.
"Stay just like this. Please."
"N-no..."
That was what she said. But the force of her resistance was already fading.
I knew it. I was right.
Plant a hypnotic suggestion, then keep using it, and the suggestion grows stronger. I understood that now, in my bones. Yesterday, when we'd shaken hands, she'd flushed and clearly hated it. But today's barrage of questions in the car had worn down that sense of dissonance, and she was starting to accept my requests as something natural.
I can push the intensity a little higher.
I could feel it instinctively. Before long, she wouldn't be able to resist me at all.
"Would you take your socks off for me?"
She hesitated, stuttering for a moment — then bent at the waist and pulled them off. Which meant my crotch ended up pressed right up against her ass. She must have felt it, because she snapped her upper body upright in a hurry.
"Just eat your ramyeon and go."
In the meantime she'd finished cooking and set the bowl on the table. Even her blunt, prickly tone didn't scare me anymore.
"It's hot — could you blow on it for me?"
I lifted a clump of noodles with my chopsticks and gave them a little shake. She looked at me. The instant our eyes met she looked away — and then she leaned in and blew on the noodles.
Yes. Yes!
If we'd come this far, it was as good as over. I swallowed a mouthful of ramyeon and moved around to her side.
"What cup size are you?"
Her pupils blew wide. She stared at me with a look of pure disgust — then turned her head away.
"D."
A D-cup. I nearly cheered. I hadn't expected them to be that big.
"...D? D-cup?"
"Yeah."
I checked the time. Lunch hour was almost over. A few more days of investment, and the sight of her standing naked in front of me wouldn't be a dream anymore.
"Are you on your period, by any chance?"
"...No."
"Then could you work without panties today? Please."
Her face flushed scarlet. She stood up.
"...No! Absolutely not!"
She looked like she wanted to spit curses at me, but she couldn't quite bring herself to do it.
Figures. But a reaction like that means it won't take long to strip her defenses completely.
This was her Maginot Line. This far, and no further. But time was on my side. And I still had one more chance to deepen the hypnosis.
After that I headed back to campus, and the TA went to the TA office, so I didn't see her again.
"Haaah."
Once lectures were over I rested at home for a while, then headed to the Cafe for my part-time shift.