The Exchange (4)
The Exchange (4) — Incheon Central Library, in front of the third-floor reading room
"Alright then. Shall we go see Gaeul at her most sexy—crying her eyes out?"
I rubbed my hands together lightly and pushed open the door to the reading room. The flashlight drifting at my side swung over and illuminated Seong Gaeul, huddled in the far corner, weeping.
"...Get lost."
"I didn't even say anything?"
"...I said get lost."
What genre was this, exactly? Looked like the tragic heroine of a zombie apocalypse had wandered into the wrong story. I reeled her in with telekinesis.
"Khh— gghk—"
Welcoming the same pain she'd endured that afternoon, her body thrashed and squirmed. I shook Seong Gaeul around like a toy and spoke again. For someone so brilliant, how could she possibly have forgotten the lesson she'd been taught just this very day?
"Why can't you speak nicely? It's annoying."
Seong Gaeul, who hadn't managed to find air for quite a while, had a face red as a volcano. She kept hacking and coughing, viscous drool trailing down her chin.
Hmm, surely by now she'd gotten the message?
The moment the telekinesis released, she rolled across the floor and erupted into dry, racking coughs.
"Hk— hk! Haaaahk! Huk—"
And even through it all, the eyes glaring up at me were brimming with spite and contempt.
Whoa, so this is what they call a sharp-tongued catgirl? Absolutely devastating.
I crouched down in front of her and stroked her hair with tender affection.
"You okay? Our poor Gaeul must've been in so much pain."
The cooing tone made her expression rot even further.
Huh, so that's not it? I thought she'd be the type to fall for the bad-boy move—slap her, then apologize. Turns out this stuff really does require the looks to back it up.
If Kang San had done it, it would have gone straight into 'I-I won't do it again, I promise. You really scared me' territory.
Clicking my tongue softly, I forced her upright with telekinesis.
Well, if the face won't win her over, the power will have to. That's what makes a man a man, isn't it?
As I dragged her toward me, her face began to flush red all over again.
Screeeech— screeeech—
Seong Gaeul's flats fought for their lives, scrabbling backward across the polished floor. I grinned and tilted my head slightly for a French kiss—and heard the sound of teeth grinding somewhere in the dark.
Hey, keep that up and you'll need implants. Where exactly do you plan on finding a dentist in this world?
Eyes bloodshot to the brim finally stopped, right in front of my face.
Grrrk—
A vicious sound rose from Seong Gaeul's throat as she was drawn slowly toward me.
"Throw out a disc and you'll suffer your whole life."
"...You fucking bastard."
"Ooh, cursing at me is getting me excited. Keep going."
"Mmph—!"
My tongue, a seasoned veteran by now, ravaged the inside of her mouth. Her cheeks brushed wet against me as her head twisted this way and that, still damp with her earlier tears.
Unlike before, she'd apparently decided to bite my tongue clean off the moment it entered—she clamped down hard.
Thonk—
A strange sound rang out, one that teeth and a tongue had no business making. An awakened body was simply not in the size range an ordinary person could do anything about. If anything, every time she moved violently, my Liquid of Subordination swam all the more eagerly through her mouth.
Gulp—
Only after hearing the sound I wanted did I withdraw my tongue and wipe my mouth with my sleeve.
"Ptui! Ptui!"
Seong Gaeul tried to spit out every last drop of my saliva, but it was far too late.
"Do you know how much of a health tonic that is? What a waste."
"Y-you drug-addled loser bastard."
"Ah, it's not drugs. I keep getting slandered for nothing."
Apparently intending to vomit up the already-absorbed Liquid of Subordination, she tried to jam her fingers down her throat.
Fuck, no—she is not puking here.
I hastily bound her arms with telekinesis and spoke to her.
"Struggle all you want, it's useless. The rules of common sense don't apply here."
"...F-fucking bastard. F-freak."
Just like that afternoon, her body began to writhe and coil. Her thighs, trying to fill the void left by the stimulation, ground against themselves of their own accord. The stuff really was fast-acting, I'd give it that.
I sat her in a chair like a puppeteer working his marionette, then linked several more chairs together and lay down with my head pillowed on her lap.
For a moment, Seong Gaeul's expression went strange as she failed to process the situation. Then, rotting away with increasing earnestness, she launched what she must have considered her ultimate counterattack.
Splat!
A wet warmth landed on my face, complete with a rattling throat sound.
"Yum yum yum. Tasty."
"Uuuuuuuuugh—!"
Her knees vibrated violently right through the telekinesis, rattling my face along with them. A reaction as dramatic as someone who'd just seen a cockroach crawl across the ceiling.
"Mama, you don't happen to have any milk, do you?"
"...You pervert! Molester! Rapist! Pathetic loser!"
If that list was meant for emphasis, why did loser come last? And why did that particular word land like a critical hit on my heart?
But I didn't react, just closed my eyes. The plush, pillowy softness beneath my head slowly wore down even her long string of curses, until they finally faded away.
After a short silence, she asked me again.
"What are you thinking about?"
"About what?"
A dry question and a dry answer passed between us.
"You don't actually think doing this is going to make me like you, do you?"
"Ah, seriously, who do you take me f—... no. Never mind. Forget I said anything."
Who exactly was looking down on whom as a pathetic loser here? Ah, right. That would be me.
"Rather than that, I'm taking a more professional approach."
"...You call this professional?"
At her incredulous tone, I laughed along with her. Then, admiring a beauty that looked stunning from any angle, I spoke again.
"I'm currently working the Stockholm syndrome and the mere-exposure effect."
"...Don't dress up all your vulgar antics in such fancy vocabulary."
"Ah, I suppose you could see it that way. Sorry."
My flippant answer drew a sigh out of Seong Gaeul. She seemed to have resigned herself to the situation by now; her gaze drifted up to the ceiling. I turned toward her body and lifted the hem of her blouse slightly.
Caressing her porcelain-white stomach, I began peppering kisses and little sucks around her navel.
"Hh— hhng— d-don't!"
Ignoring her whining, I kept mass-producing red kiss marks across that blank white canvas. Watching the blooming red brands spread, a strange sense of satisfaction welled up inside me.
Her stomach, which should have been slick with drool, was turning only red—I'd noticed something. The Liquid of Subordination could be absorbed through the target's skin, too.
Then semen, pumped deep inside her, would also trigger the Liquid of Subordination, wouldn't it.
With that small realization, I sat up straight in the chair and parted my legs slightly, then seated Seong Gaeul in the gap, pulling her body firmly back against mine.
"W-what are you doing!"
Her resistance existed only within the space I permitted. Her squirming was ultimately suppressed entirely by my arms wrapped around her waist. Having locked her body in place, I buried my face in her long white neck like a vampire and began sucking loudly, deliberately letting her hear every wet sound.
"D-don't! Not that, really, don't! Hnng—!"
Her violent resistance, having caught on to my intent, could not last long. The same flowers that had bloomed across her stomach soon blossomed on her neck as well.
At this level of visibility, tomorrow they'd be even harder to hide. Gazing with satisfaction at the multiplying kiss marks, I asked her:
"What are you going to tell Kang San about this?"
"Y-you lunatic! You're just a loser bastard who got lucky and stumbled into power! Hnngh—!"
"Mmm! That's right."
"Hnnngh— s-stop it!"
"You should've done at least this much for Kang San, you know?"
I took her chin and turned her face toward me. From up close, her sexy upturned eye-corners stood out all the more, along with a flush on her cheeks that couldn't be hidden no matter what.
Hmm, can you even get kiss marks on your cheeks?
Mwah— mwah—
Her hair, thrashing with her furious struggle, kept whipping against my face. It wasn't all that long, so the tips of Seong Gaeul's hair kept tickling my nose.
"What, is Kang San's type the girl who looks pretty with a bob cut?"
"Sh-shut up! Mmn—!"
The arm pinning her body naturally slid up to fondle her chest. Each time my circling hand grazed a nipple, her whole body gave a jolt.
"Hnngh— I told you to st—! Hahk—!"
I needed to stir up ripples in her heart, which was likely as shaken as her body was. My face, which had climbed her neck with slow breaths, licked its way up to her ear.
Shhhh— haah—
Slowly sucking on the curve of her ear, I exhaled even more lewd sounds right up against it. And then I whispered to her, to a body now trembling harder than ever.
"Why should you be treated like that? Someone as beautiful and smart as you deserves so much better."
A woman only becomes happy when she meets someone who truly loves her. You did your best—that much is true. And you and Kang San simply weren't meant to be. Besides, in the end, he chose his own sister. He abandoned you.
Looking at her, I understood the old saying: devote yourself to someone, and you'll end up nothing but a discarded rag.
Comfort and slander, blended in just the right proportions, seeped into her.
"N-no! Kang San is— haahng—!"
My fondling hand now swept down between her thighs. Her arousal was already soaked through—just brushing her sex left my fingers dripping. I pressed that slick-soaked hand against the mouth that had been trying to deny my words.
"Mmmph— haah— aaaaah—"
This time it wasn't my tongue but my hand that toyed with the inside of her mouth. I caught the tongue that had been fleeing from my fingers and began playing with it.
"Don't stay trapped in the past. You know it already, don't you? All those endless preparations you watched him make that afternoon—they were never for the future, were they?"
"Aaaaah—"
With her tongue and mouth already under my control, all she could do was babble like an idiot. And I kept going, scratching at every tender, ticklish part of her mind like brainwashing her.
"Handing over every last weapon just to save one sister—I would never have done it. You opposed it too, didn't you? All the stockpiling in the world, and what good would it do them? In a camp that burns an entire day just searching one building?"
"Hnngh— haah— haah— haah—"
She had escaped my clutches, but she only caught her breath. She did not argue back.
"You should be eating, fighting, sleeping—every day, without a worry in the world."
A fragment of daily life impossible in this world.
"You should be receiving one hundred percent of someone's love and attention, completely."
The deepest want she'd ever carried—the lack that had shaped her whole world.
"So stay like this. The pitiful woman betrayed at the end of it all. I'll take every one of the villain's roles. It's okay. Everything is okay."
I could see it: waves of emotion swelling larger than any she'd shown before. It was as if her interior, which even the Liquid of Subordination had failed to strip bare, was laid open before me.
"So let's make a bet. A perfectly fair one."
"...A bet?"
Having lost her weapons, she could do nothing more than echo my words. That fragile, trembling tone made my cock stir. Intelligence has little to do with believing in a religion. If anything, highly intelligent people are more likely to become fanatics once they start believing something. They carry enormous pride in their own choices—the conviction that they could not have chosen wrong. I had to force that choice on her. And that choice would become, in the end, a comfortable set of shackles she had picked out for herself.
Only now had I stepped up to the starting line of truly winning her over.
With a kindly smile, I gently stroked the kiss marks that had swelled up like welts.
"Tomorrow, if Kang San stays behind at the camp, then everything you said was right. I'll admit all of it. I'll apologize to you, and I'll do whatever you tell me to."
"......And if he leaves?"
"Then you'll have to admit, all on your own, that everything I said was true."
Perhaps she didn't feel her odds were good, because Seong Gaeul's face darkened.
No. Don't think like that.
"Why not hurry upstairs and try talking him into it, even a little? If Kang San really understood your devotion and your love, wouldn't he choose to stay behind at the camp and handle things a bit more wisely?"
"K-keep your promise. Every word of it."
"Of course. You keep yours too."
I smiled as I watched her hurry out of the reading room.
Kang San would not stay at the camp tomorrow, no matter what happened. If Seong Gaeul failed to persuade him, naturally he would leave on the long expedition. And even if she succeeded—
He'd be lying somewhere no one would ever find, already a corpse.