The Virgin Is Mine

I, Kim Minseok, may have been single for a long time, but my instincts weren't completely dead yet.

The way Seong Gaeul put it, it sounded an awful lot like, If I get off work early today I'll have nothing to do — want to catch a movie together?

It could have been wishful thinking, of course. But we didn't know any of the same people, and there was nothing to be embarrassed about if she turned me down.

"Whoa, it's a sequel to We'll Walk Together? I've been wanting to see that too… want to go together later?"

"Huh? Together?"

"Yeah. I'm no good at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠going to the theater by myself. And you said you were going alone anyway, so I figured, why not…"

"Hmm… yeah, okay! Then let's wash up and go see it together. Hang on a sec~ I just need to call Manager-oppa and make sure he knows I'm clocking out for real. Oh, and if you want a cigarette, you can smoke it right here."

With that, Gaeul got up, phone in hand, and slipped into the bathroom.

My instincts were still alive and well after all.

A proper date with a woman, for once — and not just any woman, but a beauty so striking I'd have trouble stringing words together if I'd met her on the street. The thought of it put me in an excellent mood. Given how we'd met, it was hard to imagine things getting truly serious between us. But if we got close enough, who was to say we wouldn't sneak in a quickie someday?

And if we did, that would mean more Sex Coins…

Ah. I should check how many I actually mined.

About eleven hundred coins.

Peg the value at 200 won apiece and that came to roughly two hundred twenty thousand won. The taxi had been nine thousand, the one-shot fee a hundred eighty thousand — meaning I'd actually come out ahead.

It wasn't a fortune I'd lose sleep celebrating, but the potential was staring me right in the face.

The yield, I'd been told, was Difficulty multiplied by Satisfaction.

Satisfaction of 8?

I couldn't honestly claim I'd done well with Seong Gaeul just now. She'd said it felt good, sure — but that was almost certainly just being polite. I wasn't deluded enough to think women would lose their minds over me just because I was a little bigger than average.

I wasn't some virgin, and I'd had a few girlfriends. I knew perfectly well how much atmosphere and foreplay actually mattered. And this time I hadn't done a scrap of either — I'd gone straight to penetration. Was Gaeul really supposed to have been all that satisfied by sex like that?

Not a chance.

Which meant there was still a lot of room left to climb on the Satisfaction scale. The max was probably 100, right? If I got even reasonably good at this, an 80 wasn't out of reach — which would mean ten times the yield.

One round with Seong Gaeul, worth a cool 2.2 million won.

I exhaled a stream of smoke and kept running the numbers. Just shaving and putting a little wax in my hair had bumped the Sex Coin value by 3. If I actually took care of myself — really worked on how I looked — that 2.2 million would climb a lot higher still.

The problem was that Difficulty dropped as the encounter count went up, and I still didn't fully understand the mechanism. Three possibilities came to mind right away.

The first: the number simply climbed every time she had sex, and Gaeul hadn't actually been working that long. But if anything you'd want to shorten the timeframe, not stretch it. So that one was out.

The second: it only ticked up once per unique partner and never again. That didn't work either — unless the period had been shortened, 184 was far too low. And the field wasn't even labeled "partners." It said "count." Out.

The last one was my working theory: the sexual encounter count increases by a maximum of one every twenty-four hours.

That line from the help section was what I was hanging this on, and it felt like the most plausible of the three. If that was how it worked, the count wouldn't balloon out of control either…

"Oppa~ I finished telling them I'm off~. Come in and shower with me when you're done with that cigarette~."

Gaeul cracked the bathroom door and poked just her face through.

Ah, I can figure this out later. For now, just enjoy it.

I stubbed the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cigarette out in the ashtray and got to my feet.

The movie Gaeul and I watched — We'll Walk Together — was a lot of fun. It picked up the lead from the original comedy and followed him from the start of a relationship all the way to the altar, and the chemistry with the actress playing opposite him was so good I spent most of the runtime laughing.

We were both so locked into the film that none of those classic theater moments happened — no brushing fingers in the popcorn, no flustered little glances. Then again, we'd already had sex. Getting bashful over something like that would've been pretty funny in its own right.

By the time the credits rolled it was a little past four. Early for dinner, but we'd both eaten a late breakfast that had doubled as lunch, so we settled on sushi. We talked through the movie over the meal and lost all track of time.

We left in high spirits, and I naturally reached for the check — only for Gaeul to snatch it, insisting that since I'd covered the tickets and the popcorn, dinner was on her. The bill was more than three times what I'd spent at the theater.

"I got treated to such a good dinner I wanted to buy coffee or drinks or something, but I've got plans at six… I'll get the next meal, at least."

"Don't be like that. We hung out together, so we should split things. Besides, you already spent a ton just to see me today, didn't you? I actually made money today!"

A little laugh slipped out of me at that. I wondered what kind of face she'd make if she knew I'd made money today too.

She ignored the laugh and kept grumbling.

"Still, it's kind of a shame. I actually got off early for once, and now I'm already heading home…"

"Sorry~ I've got a prior commitment…"

A few hours of dating had sanded the edges off. The conversation came easily now, naturally. The "plans at six" weren't really plans — I had a shift. The thought of quitting the part-time job had crossed my mind, now that Sex Coin was a source of income, but there were too many unknowns. I wasn't about to walk away from a paycheck on the strength of an app I barely understood.

"Well, nothing we can do. You're going to be late, Oppa. Grab a taxi first."

"Alright. Hey — what time do you start tomorrow?"

"Me? Noon. Why?"

"I'll text you then. See you tomorrow~."

There were too many people around to say it outright, but she caught my meaning. Gaeul smiled.

"Tomorrow too? Well, if it's you, Oppa, you're welcome anytime! Oh — do you even have my number?"

She took my phone and typed it in herself.

"If you can't make it tomorrow, just hit this number~."

I knew it was part of the job, keeping a client on the hook. Still, standing there while a girl put her number in my phone felt ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠pretty damn good.

That said — sex first, then a date, and only after all that a number exchange. You couldn't reverse a sequence much harder than that.

"Got it. Get home safe, Gaeul. See you tomorrow!"

The place I worked was a chicken shop. Not a chain — a little neighborhood hof. Closed Sundays, open every other day from six in the evening until two in the morning. I'd been there eight months already.

The boss handled the occasional delivery himself. One guy, Dongmin, worked the kitchen. On the floor it was just me and Lee Jieun. Four of us on a shift, and it was never that busy or that hard. The owner was a decent guy, and he sent out free chicken every night as a staff meal — which, more than anything else, was why I'd put on the weight.

"Whew~ safe!"

I made it at 5:57, just under the wire. I was heading for the changing room to get into my uniform when Dongmin shouted from the kitchen.

"Hold up! Jieun's changing in there right now — give it a minute!"

"Ah, got it."

The place was too small for separate locker rooms. Calling it a changing room was generous — it was a storage closet where we happened to change clothes. Jieun would have locked the door, of course, but having the handle rattle while you were half-dressed was the kind of thing that set anyone's teeth on edge, so I waited quietly outside.

"Oho~ you cleaned up today, Minseok. Meeting someone after your shift?"

"Come on, we get off at two in the morning. Who am I going to meet?"

Whether it was the wax and spray in my hair or the fact that I'd worn a coat instead of my usual beat-up puffer, Dongmin clocked it immediately.

"Hmm… you look like you're headed to a blind date. Well, you look a lot better like this. Keep it up — dress like that more often."

"He's right, Oppa. You look so much nicer when you're put together like that."

Jieun stepped out of the closet mid-conversation and chimed in without missing a beat.

"Alright, alright. Let me go change."

I'd already been planning to take better care of how I looked from now on. I needed to raise the Sex Coin value, and I needed to actually pull women if I wanted to keep mining.

Especially Lee Jieun. Her Difficulty was 364. I couldn't stop wondering how much a night with her would be worth.

She had a completely different kind of appeal from Seong Gaeul, whom I'd just left. She was only 156 centimeters — a cute, compact height — but her face was small to match, so the proportions never looked off. "Pretty" or "beautiful" weren't quite the right words. She was cute. Lovely, even.

She knew her own strengths, too. Her hair was cut in a short bob that barely reached her jaw, dyed a bright brown with a hint of red in it, which only pushed the cute factor higher. She had double eyelids and drew her eyeliner on heavy to make her eyes look bigger — a look that might have read as tough-girl on someone else, but on Jieun it just made her look like a fresh-faced student.

Even so, the way her chest pushed against that baggy black short-sleeve uniform, the nice curve of her hips — she didn't come off as too young. It was exactly the kind of youthful charm a twenty-year-old ought to have. That was Jieun's whole thing.

And a girl like that is a virgin…

I caught myself thinking the guys around her must be blind — then remembered that Dongmin and I counted as "the guys around her."

Lee Jieun was the kind of flower that just made you feel better looking at it. An unpluckable flower. Or rather, a flower I hadn't particularly thought of plucking. Between the money ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and the time it took to date, and the fact that I hadn't exactly been in a position to be seeing anyone, I'd never gone there.

But things were different now. I had Sex Coin.

Lee Jieun's virginity is mine.

I made myself the promise while I changed.