Day Three's Dangerous Nap
The fact that today was the third day only truly registered when I saw that memo on the wall. [7-Day Restriction Plan] [Day 1 – Passed] [Day 2 – Difficulty of Temptation Raised / Still Passed] [Bonus: Subin Must Not Be Cut] It was the note I had hastily scribbled right after waking up at dawn yesterday. “……Yeah, today’s the third day.” I muttered it aloud, lips moving around the words.
There wasn’t a single rigid schedule in my real life, yet every single day felt crammed with dream-company obligations. I reached over to the memo and added one small line with a pen. [Day 3 – No Naps]
Once I wrote it, I found myself chuckling. “What kind of life is this, really.” A jobless guy adjusting his sleep patterns to match some corporation’s evaluation calendar. If a psychology textbook ever got involved, the chapter would probably have a whole section on “delusional escapism” or “avoidant personality.” But I had already been stamped as a High-Risk Customer by the Succubus Company Administrator, so what was the point of now diagnosing my own reality?
“Anyway, naps are definitely off the table.” Today, that thought felt especially important.
***While I ate breakfast, Mom glanced sideways at the wall. “What’s that?”
“What?”
“The thing stuck to the wall. The 7-day thing.”
“Oh, that… Habit correction project?” I shrugged it off casually.
“Because you keep tossing and turning at night, I’m trying to change your sleep routine.”
“Yeah, that’s good.” Mom said it surprisingly easily. “Just sleeping properly will make your mind a little less twisted.”
“Right. So lately I’ve been sleeping… uh.” I swallowed the words “too well, that’s the problem.”
Mom took another bite, then looked at me again and muttered, “Still, your eyes look a little better lately.”
“Better?”
“Yeah. Before, you were really… completely empty.”
The spoon paused for a second in her hand. “Now it’s faces that keep calling from somewhere. Constant contact.”
“……They do call, don’t they.”
Every night, just like an alert from the Succubus Company. “Even if it’s in dreams, if someone’s waiting for you, that’s not entirely bad.”
Mom stopped there and didn’t ask more. It wasn’t advice she’d planned, just a strangely precise remark that hit the core without spelling it out.
***After breakfast I went back to my room, booted up the laptop, opened the resume, closed it again, opened the email inbox, closed it again. There was something I had to do, yet there was nothing in particular. Every time that happened, the night from the dream would creep into my mind first. The sofa, the living room, Subin’s shirt, the breath I’d once shared with her. “……Thinking about this stuff during the day is the most dangerous thing of all.” I knew it, but my thoughts kept flowing anyway.
Yesterday’s dream replayed in my head. — Today you really held out. — So tomorrow I’m going to push it just a little further. The “just a little” part was something only the Succubus Company Inspector and Subin knew.
I stared blankly at the monitor, then suddenly stood up. “Alright, time for a clean instead.” I had cleaned yesterday, so I did it again today—tidied the desk a second time, sorted the junk drawer, picked out clothes I would never wear. My body moved on autopilot, and somehow time flew by. But physical labor had one side effect. “……I’m getting sleepy.”
After a quick lunch the eyelids started to droop. Hunger pangs. Normally I would have just collapsed onto the bed. But not today. I sat on the floor instead. “No. If I take a nap today, I’m in real trouble.”
It wasn’t the nap itself that was the problem; it was how easily it could connect to the Succubus Company side. Up until yesterday it had only been “night-shift commutes,” but now that I was a High-Risk Customer, monitoring could happen anywhere, anytime. “A few seconds of dozing and I’d be flagged for unauthorized access.”
Just imagining it gave me chills. — Did you sneak in even during the day, Customer? — This is a rules violation. I pictured the Administrator’s expressionless face.
“Damn, no way. Absolutely no way.” I forced my eyes open, picked up my phone, and turned on a video. Loud, sensational footage should wake me up. Fighting game clips, loud laughter, pounding sound effects. But at some point the sound faded. “……Hey.” The subtitles blurred, the screen dimmed. My eyelids grew heavier and heavier. In the video the character was fighting, when suddenly a pink head appeared hovering above his. “……Huh?”
A silhouette with pink hair and black horns stood right in the direction the character was charging. “Jitae.” The voice called my name right beside my ear even though I hadn’t plugged in my headphones. My heart dropped like I’d been kicked in the chest. “Hey, it’s daytime right now…!” I muttered almost like I was screaming and forced my eyes open. It was real life. The phone was still in my hand, the video still blaring. My breathing came ragged.
“……Fuck, I actually got pulled in.” I couldn’t tell if that had been a real unauthorized access or just a hallucination. But one thing was certain: my mind had already been half-open to the succubus side even during daylight. “That’s why naps are banned, you bastard.” I cursed myself, shot to my feet, and turned the cold water on full blast, splashing my face. The icy water cleared my head a little. In the mirror my eyes looked a bit hollow, but better than yesterday—somewhat alive.
“Being alive is the problem.” Because I’m alive I have to go to work, and because I go to work I’m a High-Risk Customer, and because I’m a High-Risk Customer I have to survive the seven-day limit. At the end of the day, the only thing that mattered was one thing: survive the third day without a nap.
***Fortunately, until sunset there was no bigger danger. Sleepy once more, I deliberately moved my body or stepped outside to walk around the neighborhood. By the time night truly fell I started to feel tired. I waited for that tiredness. ‘I hope this exhaustion turns into proper sleep tonight.’ It was closer to a wish than a prayer.
Before lying down I checked the memo one last time. [Day 3 – No Naps] “First one’s a success.” Nobody was grading it, but I wanted to give myself a check. I turned off the lights and lay down. Today I deliberately didn’t look at my phone. I didn’t say “this is a dream.” I just closed my eyes, hoping to fall straight into it. My consciousness slowly slipped away. The last image that flashed was Subin leaning against the sofa in the living room yesterday.
***When I opened my eyes the first sound I heard wasn’t an alarm or a human voice. Beep—whirr. An unpleasant electronic tone. A white light stabbed into my eyes. “……Huh.” Rubbing my eyes, I looked around. It wasn’t the bed. The surface beneath me was cold, metal-like. Beside me stood row after row of round capsule devices. “Where the hell am I?” I muttered to myself. As my eyes adjusted, the writing on the wall came into focus. Customer Sync Monitoring Room.
“……Whoa, they really brought me here.” It looked like an internal Succubus Company facility. A dream, sure, but I had never entered this far before. Up until now I had only seen conference rooms, set-up spaces, or Subin’s prepared stage areas. Today felt more like a tour of the server room.
Beep—whirr. The tone sounded again. “Jitae.” A familiar voice. I turned and saw Subin behind a transparent panel. Today she was back in a suit. Her pink hair was neatly tied, and she held a clipboard. “What is this place, really?”
“The place where we check customer status.” Subin tapped the panel twice. Behind her several succubi stood in front of their own capsules, checking the humans inside. Different-colored graphs and numbers flickered on each screen. “Ugh, it really looks like a call center.”
“Almost the same. We’re just called ‘Dream Center’ here.” Subin shrugged. “Today they approved me to bring you here.”
“Why?”
“Boundary test.” She gave me a serious expression. “Since it’s the third day, they want to see if you get confused about whether it’s a dream or reality.”
“……Oh, so this is the exam?”
“Yeah.” Subin tapped the panel again. Several transparent windows floated above my head. [Lucid Awareness Meter: Measuring] [Reality Confusion Risk: Medium] [Intervention Impulse Prediction: High]
“Why is it always high?”
“High is good, right?”
“Not good high, this one.” The graph line was jagged, so they were obviously recording my excitement. “I’ll get straight to the point.” Subin tapped her clipboard. “Today’s test goals.”
“Let’s hear them.”
“First, whether you recognize for yourself if it’s a dream or reality. Second, whether you try to flip the script after realizing. Third, how much you cling to me in that situation.”
“……Huh?” The last one felt odd. “Isn’t that more like a personal experiment?”
“Personal desires sometimes overlap with company KPIs.”
“Scary company, really.”
“It’s a demon company.” The words fit perfectly again. I took a breath. “So right now, is this a dream? Not reality?”
“If I answer that, today’s exam loses meaning.” Subin smiled. “How’s your intuition?”
“……Almost completely certain it’s the dream side.”
“Why?”
“You’re too succubus-like.” She chuckled. “Then good, first item is almost complete.” A small checkmark appeared on the panel. [Lucid Awareness: Secured]
“But the problem is number two.” Subin covered her clipboard. “When a lucid-dream customer reaches this stage of realization, their next action is almost always the same.”
“What is it?”
“They flip the room upside down.”
“……Huh?”
“Wake the capsule, wipe the background, and personally rebuild the server room.”
“Wow, that sounds fun to try sometime.” The words came out before I could stop them. Subin looked at my face and immediately raised her hand. A beep—whirr sounded again. [Intervention Impulse Index: Rising]
“That’s what happens when you push it like that.”
“You deliberately led me here, didn’t you?”
“The higher-ups are curious. ‘What would this customer do if we brought them this far?’” She answered honestly. “Honestly, I wish I hadn’t done anything here.”
“Why?”
“I’m afraid I’d slip and lose my career along with everything.”
“……That’s actually pretty convincing.” I pressed my palm to the metal floor. The texture felt too real—cold, solid. It looked more like reality than a dream. “With this level of texture, most lucid-dream customers would immediately start hacking around.”
“So if you can endure that today…” Subin slowly walked closer. “I’m really going to owe you one big debt.”
“Debt?”
“Yeah. A succubus-life debt.” She gave a small smile. “The heaviest debt in this world.”
“So interest is also stacking?”
“A lot.” That single word felt more dangerous than the test itself.
***A brief silence fell. The only sound was low machine noise, distant electronic tones, the faint breathing of the humans in the capsules, and Subin’s heels. I listened for a long time, then pressed my forehead. “……For now, I have no intention of causing trouble here.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” I said it with certainty. “Honestly, I’d love to try. Rip it all apart, delete all the surveillance data behind you, and take a ‘Succubus Company server down’ screenshot.”
“……Fits the profile of a high-risk lucid-dream customer.”
“But if I did that, your name would be the first to appear in bright red, right?” Subin was momentarily speechless. “So I’m not going to.” I raised both hands. “Can I just do a tour and leave here?”
Subin stared at my face for a long time, then exhaled slowly. “Ha…” Her lips curved. “That recording just went through.” A small icon blinked in the air. [Forced Intervention Will: Suppressed / Risk Lowered]
The graph dipped a little. “……Oh.” An involuntary sound escaped me. “Today’s second item is also basically passed.” Subin said with relief mixed in her voice. “And the third is…”
“What was the third again?”
“How much you cling to me in a dangerous situation.” She stepped in front of me. Up close, Subin’s face looked far more “human” than in the conference room. “So, Jitae.”
“Yeah.”
“The reason you chose not to touch me here is because of me, right?”
“Half of it.”
“Half?”
“I didn’t want to lose my mind either, and I didn’t want you to be disqualified.” I said it honestly. “The two of us mixed together, but today it feels like a little more weight on your side.”
“……That’s another dangerous statement.”
“I know.”
“The higher-ups will probably write ‘enhanced demon emotion intervention’ next.”
“Still, I’m not going to say I won’t do it.” Subin bit her lip, staring at me. After a long moment she gave a smile that felt a little forced. “Yeah. Today, with those words, the third item is passed.” [Emotional Dependence: Rising / High-Risk Customer Maintained] [Relationship Preference: Specific Succubus Locked]
Similar sentences floated in the windows, but Subin deliberately covered the panel with her hand. “There’s no need to look at these things.”
“I already saw them.”
“If I hadn’t read them, they wouldn’t have been seen.” The logic was messy, but I understood her feeling just a little.
***“Alright, that’s the end of today’s tour.” Subin waved her hand and the capsules began to dissolve one by one. The floor, the walls, the electronic tones all faded. My feet felt lighter. “Now back to my main job.”
“Main job?”
“Yeah. Here I was a ‘customer management target,’ now I’m back to being a ‘night customer.’” Subin turned with a smile. “Enjoy the concept today.”
“What’s the concept today? Since it’s the third day, you said it would be more dangerous.”
“Yeah.” She took one step, then another toward me. “Today I’m laying the board in the place where you’re easiest to touch.”
“My room?”
“I already did that.” Subin gave a tiny smile. “This time it’s the ‘future life’ concept you’ve never properly used before.”
“……What?”
“You’ll see when you go.” The server-room-like space disappeared completely, and my vision went dark.
***When I blinked once, I was already standing somewhere else. The ceiling was unfamiliar, but oddly overlapped with the image of the house I had once wanted to live in. White-tone wallpaper, large windows, city lights filtering through the curtains. A wide bed stood to the side, and beside it a silhouette leaning against the bed with one body propped up. “……This really does feel like a future life.”
It was Subin. Today she was pushing the “someone who shares your life” concept to the limit—loose t-shirt, hair tied and loosened, almost no makeup. “Jitae, sorry for the trouble getting home late.” She spoke with a teasing voice.
“Hey, you’re not supposed to have work in dreams.”
“I finished my Succubus Company shift and came home.” The words landed strangely well. Server room to home. “Today’s test was also passed, and now it’s only the two of us left.” Subin brushed her bangs back and smiled. “Whatever I do here, the surveillance will only see ‘my direction.’”
“……Hold on.” I turned my head and scanned the surroundings. The background definitely wasn’t something I had imagined. I hadn’t created anything all day. So this entire room had been prepared by Subin. Background intervention: 0. I hadn’t touched anything.
“So can I do whatever I want?”
“As long as you don’t set the board first.” Subin said quietly. “The things I summon, the things I approach first, the things I start—these are still within the allowed range according to the rules.”
“So today the temptation difficulty is the ‘future version’?”
“Yeah.” She tapped the side of the bed. “Come sit.” I hesitated for a moment, then sat on the edge of the bed. My heartbeat was far stronger than yesterday. The server-room tour, the High-Risk Customer graph, the suspended contract, and now this “future concept” in front of me all converged into one point at the end. “Jitae.”
“Yeah.”
“Will you hold out again without doing anything today?” Subin leaned closer and asked. Her voice was even nearer than yesterday. “……That’s a pretty unfair question.”
“I still have to work.” She laughed. “But I have one promise.”
“What?”
“No matter how much you shake me, I won’t flip the board by the end of today.”
“……I’ll try that much.” It felt a little unstable to call it a promise, but it was the best I could do today. Subin’s hand slowly covered mine on top of my back of my hand. “Good.” She whispered softly. “Then today’s third day—I’ll shake you properly.”
***What followed was a night different in kind from yesterday. Not a sofa, not a company room, but a completely unfamiliar house. Yet strangely, it was a house that felt too familiar—something I wasn’t supposed to get used to. I knew all the way to the end that I could flip the board if I reached for my hand, and I held that hand tightly on purpose the entire time. Subin watched me, breathing deeply, eyes closing and opening several times. And as the dream started to blur, she whispered beside my ear. “Jitae.”
“……Yeah.”
“Everything will be recorded again today.”
“I know.”
“But— I’ll leave it like this in my records.” Subin smiled softly. “Day three. High-Risk Customer, still holding up quite well.”
That line lodged itself in my ear last, and the light faded.
***I opened my eyes. Reality ceiling. Narrow room. Fluorescent light. I let out a long breath. My body felt heavy. I barely managed to sit up and stood in front of the memo on the wall. [7-Day Restriction Plan]
Below it I added a new line. [Day 3 – No Naps Success / Server Room Tour / Future House Concept / Still Didn’t Flip the Board] The letters were crooked, but writing them down eased my heart a little. “……I won’t make Subin get disqualified.” That was the only criterion I had been holding onto throughout this seven-day mess. And it seemed that criterion was quietly changing the real meaning of “Succubus Disqualification.”
“It wasn’t just me who could get disqualified.” I stared at the memo once more, then slowly nodded. Today was Day Three passed. What remained were four more nights. No matter how the next test shook me, one thing was clear. — Don’t ever make the mistake of knocking Subin down first. As I engraved that thought deep in my chest, I stepped out into another day.