Don't Want to Wear It?
I slipped the choker into the drawer and stepped out of the room to find Kyle waiting in the living room.
He stood with his arms crossed, raking an indifferent gaze over me. His eyes brushed across my throat for just a moment. He didn't say a word, but that fleeting look was enough. I knew he'd been about to bring up the choker—and had swallowed the words instead.
My heart kicked into a sprint all over again. A sting bloomed at the nape of my neck, as if I'd been burned, and my fingers found their way there before I could stop them.
"Ah..."
Just from his gaze alone, I could have sworn the choker was already fastened around my throat.
"...Let's go."
Kyle must have caught my reaction. A smile touched with satisfaction crossed his face as he headed out the door.
When we arrived at the department store, I almost couldn't believe my eyes.
The midday sun poured brilliantly through the glass facade, but the automatic doors remained firmly shut. Staff in black uniforms stood in formation on either side of the entrance. The moment we stopped walking, they bowed their heads in unison.
"...Is it closed today?"
My voice rang out louder than I'd expected. In the silence of this enormous building standing still, mine was the only sound.
Kyle drew a short breath, then smiled in a way I couldn't quite read.
"No."
The instant the word left his mouth, the automatic doors slid open with a hush. The lobby beyond was impossibly empty. Light glancing off the marble floor left me briefly dazzled.
Not a single customer in sight. Instead, staff waiting on every floor bowed at the waist in perfect unison.
"Welcome."
"Welcome."
The male employee at the front might as well have called a cadence. Every movement was synchronized. Each time their voices echoed through the store, my throat went strangely dry, and my breath tightened in my chest. It was as if this entire space had been frozen for the two of us alone.
The silence stretched beneath the elegant lighting, rolling out across the polished marble. Standing in the middle of it, I found myself holding even my breathing in check.
I leaned toward Kyle so the staff wouldn't overhear.
"What did you do?"
A department store this size, and we were the only ones in it. No matter how I looked at it, this wasn't normal. Coincidence wasn't a word that could cover this.
"I rented the whole place."
That short answer knocked the air right out of me.
"You rented it? Why would you go that far..."
I kept my voice down, but I couldn't hide my shock. Kyle gave a light shrug.
"Think you could handle people staring?"
Ah... he had a point.
If we tried to shop in a crowd, we'd have to endure the stares and the questions long before we ever got to the clothes. And then there would be the reporters, twisting the two of us into whatever malicious story they wanted.
His consideration caught me off guard, landing somewhere deep in my chest. But a question followed right on its heels.
"But... is that even possible?"
Even granting everything he'd said, renting out an entire department store this size was beyond anything that made sense. Kyle looked down at me for a moment, then the corner of his mouth lifted.
"It is."
His tone was casual, but something unshakably solid ran underneath it. In that moment, I understood all over again. The man standing in front of me was the pinnacle of hunters—a being who, if he wanted, could turn even the impossible into the possible.
"I did it because I wanted to."
That being took a step closer and added, his voice low,
"I wanted some time with just the two of us. No interruptions."
At that even, quiet tone, my heart sped up for no reason I could name. I looked away, but the air inside the empty store only pressed in tighter, leaving me restless.
Following a staff member's lead, we went up to the women's clothing floor on the second level. Soft lighting spilled gently over sleek mannequins. Dresses in glass display cases held a muted glow, and the scent of fabric softener drifted through the air between the racks.
I walked slowly among the displays, but my fingertips never quite touched the fabric.
It's fine, I keep telling myself...
How much could those pajamas he'd torn even have cost? If I wanted, I could order a hundred of them online. A thousand. And yet he'd emptied out this entire massive department store just to bring me here and buy me new clothes... That fact alone made me hesitate even more.
Then, unbidden, the words he'd said that morning brushed through my ears.
I have a feeling I'll be tearing a lot more of them from now on.
The moment I remembered, a nameless unease skimmed across my heart. Don't tell me...?
"Sera."
Kyle called my name the instant the anxiety took hold. In his hand was a piece that looked almost identical to the pajamas he'd torn yesterday—except this one was a short-sleeved nightgown.
"How about this? I think it'd look good on you."
Why did my ominous hunches never miss? Kyle really had just wanted to dress me in something that suited his tastes. He looked at me with a gaze mixed with faint expectation and mischief, his eyes traveling slowly from my shoulders down to my toes, as if he were already picturing me in it.
"I... that one's a little..."
I waved my hands in a hurry and took a step back. A dress. Something you wore with nothing underneath. And at that length... just thinking about it, I could already feel cold air against my inner thighs.
"Yeah?"
He laughed it off like it was nothing and headed back into the store. The unease swept through me again.
Sure enough, when Kyle emerged, he was holding a sky-blue silk slip so thin it was barely there, hanging from nothing but straps. It ended mid-thigh, with a side slit that climbed high, and the chest was covered in nothing but lace—skin showing right through. A piece of clothing optimized for one thing and one thing only.
"This."
He offered it the way someone might recommend a perfectly ordinary pair of pajamas.
"You want me to... wear this?"
I already knew what he was after, but his completely casual tone made me ask again anyway.
"I think it'd look incredibly pretty."
He answered without so much as a flicker of change in his expression, as if he were recommending it purely because it was pretty, with no ulterior motive at all.
"...You were planning this from the start, weren't you?"
I glared at him as I asked. No—I didn't even need to ask. Anyone could see this was exactly why he'd offered to buy me clothes. His composure was infuriating.
When I glared, Kyle came toward me slowly. He whispered with an easy smile.
"I'm going to take it all off you anyway... so just wear what I pick."
That low voice brushed past my ear. In that instant, electricity shot down my spine. I couldn't breathe.
...Take it off?
My ears refused to believe what they'd just heard. The words were shocking. His expression hadn't changed at all. My mind went completely blank.
Take it off... He just said that. Out loud. Like it was nothing. I'd already shown him myself undressed yesterday, but still...
Heat surged up from the nape of my neck. My heart slammed once, hard, and then the inside of my chest went hot and fast. I turned my head to look away—and at the edge of my vision, that thin slip caught my eye.
The moment I saw it, I pictured myself wearing it. Pictured Kyle's hands slowly peeling it off me. Soft silk whispering over my skin, baring me inch by inch...
"...!!"
My breath went short. My cheeks burned. My fingertips prickled strangely. My heart was hammering against my ribs from the inside, and I couldn't tell if it was shame or anger or something else entirely.
I stood there, lost in the confusion, and Kyle whispered again.
"If you don't pick something soon, I'm buying everything I like."
"...!!!"
After delivering that terrifying threat in a whisper, Kyle smiled and put some distance between us. The smile on his face as he stepped back looked somehow more dangerous than the threat itself.
I needed to grab anything that covered my whole body and get out of here.
"Ah. Picking something too modest won't help you either."
But Kyle added a line as if he'd read my mind.
...What? What even counted as "modest"?
No. Wait a second.
"That's not how this works. These are my clothes."
Why was I walking on eggshells? He was the one being unreasonable. He'd told me to pick what I wanted, then openly forced his tastes on me and threatened me.
"If you're going to be like this, let's just go home. I don't even know why we came all the way here."
Irritated by his attitude, I crossed my arms and turned toward the store entrance. The moment I started to take a step, Kyle's voice reached me.
"I'm doing this because they're your clothes... This one, that one—they'd all look too pretty on you."
Whether it was because his voice had gone low, or because it sounded like he meant it... the anger that had been boiling up lost its force, strangely.
"Really... I think you'd look so pretty."
God. Why did my heart go so weak whenever he talked like that...
In the end, I sighed and turned back into the store.
"Fine. I'll pick something."
I looked around. Everything in the store was either something he'd hate or something he'd like far too much. How was there no middle ground?
In the end, my eyes drifted back, against my will, to the shirt-style nightgown he'd first held out. Thin silk. A length that left my thighs completely exposed... I really didn't want it, but compared to the other options, I found myself thinking, at least this is better.
"...I'll take this one."
The corner of Kyle's mouth lifted, slow. As if this was the answer he'd been waiting for from the start.
"Good girl. I think you'll look really pretty."
He smiled and told the staff to wrap it up. I was going to have to wear that to bed with him every night... I ducked my head to hide my burning face.
"Here you are."
The moment the employee handed me the wrapped shopping bag, I took it and fled the store. I was so embarrassed I just wanted to go home.
But contrary to what I wanted, Kyle turned toward a different section. The place he headed was a store lined with lingerie.
"Um... Kyle? Why are we..."
I slowed my steps and called after him. Kyle glanced back over his shoulder, his eyes smiling.
"If you've got pajamas, you need matching underwear."
"...!?"
I wanted to demand what kind of insane logic that was, but his shameless expression left me speechless. My mouth just opened and closed. Meanwhile, Kyle strode right into the store. I stared at his back for a beat, then hurried after him.
"Kyle, we really don't need anything from here."
I grabbed his wrist, trying to pull him back out, but he didn't even glance at me.
Inside, mannequins stood in suggestive poses under the soft lighting. Sheer silk that looked like it would pour down a body. Delicate lace that barely concealed anything... I was so mortified I could barely look for a second. I just wanted to get out.
Kyle, completely unfazed, browsed the racks and opened his mouth.
"Come to think of it, I'll probably tear through a lot of underwear too."
...How could he say something like that without so much as a change in expression.
While I stared at him in disbelief, Kyle had already picked something up from a display. What he held out to me was a bra and panty set in a fabric so thin you could see skin right through it—and the parts that were supposed to be covered were boldly cut out.
"This is pretty."
"Wh—what did you just say!?"
My voice rang through the store before I could stop it. How was that even underwear? It didn't cover what it was supposed to cover. It gathered every eye instead. It was shame itself. I was never wearing that.
"Absolutely not. If it's something like this, I'd rather just not wear any—!"
What was I saying...
I clamped my mouth shut mid-sentence, but it was already too late. His eyes narrowed. The corner of his mouth lifted.
"Hmm... so you'd rather not wear any?"
"N-no... that's not what I—"
The voice I'd meant as an excuse came out so small I could barely hear it myself. Even backed into a corner, how could I have said something like I'd rather not wear any? My face was on fire. Shame made my feet slide backward across the store floor of their own accord.
"Now that I think about it, you might be right, Sera."
His voice dropped into a low, playful register. He held my gaze as he lifted the lace lingerie lightly on his fingertips. The thin fabric fluttered softly every time it swayed.
Kyle took one slow step—then another—closing the distance between us. With every footfall, his shadow fell across my body.
"Then..."
His eyes traveled from mine down the line of my throat, then to the underwear in his hand. The unfinished sentence hung there as the corner of his mouth rose, slow.