Chapter 32
Chapter 32
-5-
"W-well, you see. That is..."
Minji couldn't give a single proper answer to Seolhee's question about why she fought with her oppa.
'In the wager to decide whether to kidnap you or not, I didn't want to receive Corporal punishment, so I interfered with Taesu. That's why you got kidnapped.'
'Because of that, we fought, broke up, and your oppa was being so noisy that I had to put this ball gag on him.'
In front of Seolhee, the party involved in the wager and Taesu's younger sister.
How could she possibly say that truthfully?
'What do I do?'
If she told the truth, Seolhee, who was crazy about her oppa, would definitely not listen to a word she said.
From Minji's perspective, who had to train Seolhee somehow to avoid getting in trouble, it was an incredibly difficult situation.
"Why can't you answer? Are you hiding something from me, eonni?"
Seolhee, who immediately noticed the strange atmosphere.
Having grown up walking on eggshells under a violent appa since she was young, her intuition was top-tier.
"W-well, it's not like I wanted to do that... I didn't have a choice. Seolhee-ya..."
"So what is this 'no choice' thing? No, never mind. I'll just hear it from Oppa, take this weird muzzle off him."
"Euuup... euuuup!"
At Seolhee's words, Taesu strongly appealed that he wanted to speak, shouting even with the ball gag on.
'Ha... what do I really do?'
Minji was caught in a dilemma.
If she untied him, she didn't know what Taesu might say about her.
But if she didn't untie him, there was no way Seolhee would actively cooperate, which was necessary for her training.
"Minji eonni, why are you really like this? I told you to untie him, didn't I? You're the only one who can move properly!"
When Minji acted clueless without being able to give a proper answer, Seolhee's personality started to show.
She wasn't Taesu's sister for nothing.
When it came to having a nasty personality, she was at least as bad as Minji, if not worse.
Moreover, unlike Minji, whose personality had softened significantly after being kidnapped and suffering all sorts of humiliation,
Seolhee's personality was 'raw' and untamed, just having been kidnapped.
"Ha... that's not possible. If I do that, Master might get mad at me. I'm just doing what Master told me to, Seolhee-ya."
The excuse she eventually came up with was to blame Jihwan.
It was an excuse, but it wasn't a lie.
Because Jihwan had told her not to exchange useless words with Taesu.
Letting Seolhee talk to Taesu also fell into the category of 'useless.'
"Ha... every other word is Master, Master. Is this really the Minji eonni I know? Then tell me yourself!"
"Haa... okay, I'll tell you."
With Taesu standing right there, there was no way she could hide the truth forever.
It was much better to defend herself from her own perspective than to have it told through Taesu's mouth.
"......That's how it happened. I didn't have a choice either, Seolhee-ya."
While emphasizing that her choices were unavoidable due to the pain of the torture,
Minji told her everything that had happened with Taesu from her perspective as much as possible.
"Even so... how could you do that to Oppa?"
Seolhee's anger boiled over at Minji's words.
What she did to her oppa was one thing, but Minji also played a big part in her being kidnapped.
Like brother, like sister, Seolhee couldn't understand Minji's actions and raised her voice.
"That's something you can say because you haven't been through it yet. Look at your oppa right now. If you don't listen, you end up like that... do you think you would've been able to hold out?"
Since Seolhee, just like her oppa, didn't understand her position at all and only blamed Minji, Minji didn't back down and retorted.
They hadn't even started the training yet, but the relationship between the two was already creaking.
Seolhee looked at Taesu again at Minji's words.
He looked so haggard.
There wasn't a single part of him that was unscathed.
She didn't want to admit it, but if she had received that kind of torture, she felt she would have had no choice but to do as she was told.
However, that was only in the realm of reason.
"That's not for sure! So, in the end, it's because of you that I was kidnapped like this?"
"What did you do so right to treat Oppa like that earlier!"
Seolhee's personality was one where emotions came before reason to begin with.
With that kind of personality, being suddenly kidnapped to a place like this and seeing her oppa looking so haggard and pitiful,
it was inevitable that her emotions would take precedence even more than usual.
As her emotions took over, rather than understanding Minji,
she couldn't help but blame her more for kidnapping her here and making her oppa like that.
Seeing her oppa in that state and the fact that she was kidnapped here made her insides boil like a volcano, and she could only be satisfied if she vented that anger.
In this state, it was impossible for her personality to rationally move on by thinking, 'Ah~ I see, if I think about it from eonni's perspective, that could have happened. Since I shouldn't get Corporal punishment tomorrow, shall I start training?'
"Fine, I was wrong. I'm sorry, Seolhee-ya."
Minji, judging that there was no point in fighting more, lowered her tail first.
There was a mountain of things to teach, and she couldn't waste time on things like this.
It was more important to make Seolhee cooperative with the training somehow.
If it were the old Minji, she would have stuck to her own aggrieved position and never apologized out of pride,
but for the current Minji, avoiding Corporal punishment was more important than pride.
"......"
'How annoying. What did she do so right...'
Since Minji apologized so easily, Seolhee felt awkward, like a dog that had been chasing a chicken.
Since her emotions hadn't fully subsided yet, and Minji apologized first like that.
She couldn't get any angrier since she had already apologized, but she wasn't fully over her anger at that dry apology either; it was an ambiguous state.
"Seolhee-ya, are you a bit less angry now? First, I'll teach you the basics you need to follow here. We don't have much time, if we keep this up, both of us will be in big trouble..."
Minji said, trying to coax and soothe Seolhee in the softest tone possible.
"No! Why should I learn and do such fucking things from the person who made Oppa like that and kidnapped me?"
However, Seolhee, whose emotions were already hurt and agitated, was stubborn.
Like siblings, Taesu and Seolhee were terribly alike in this aspect.
For Seolhee, whose emotions dominated her reason, whether she was being tortured or not didn't matter right now.
She just hated following the orders of the people who kidnapped her and made her oppa like that.
Everyone probably has an experience like that at least once.
A situation where you know the fact that you have to do it rationally, but you are so resentful and aggrieved that you absolutely don't want to do it.
Seolhee was in exactly that situation right now.
Part of it was because she hadn't actually been tortured yet,
and originally, emotions were a realm that reason couldn't understand.
'Ha... what do I do? Do I really have to hit her to make her do it?'
When Seolhee didn't cooperate willingly, Minji fell into a dilemma.
She had a strong urge to smack Seolhee, who was being so stubborn, but
it wasn't like they were strangers.
Since she was in a position to receive Corporal punishment herself, she didn't want to teach by using Corporal punishment.
"Then what are you going to do? Do you really want to get tortured?"
"Yes! That's right, I want to get tortured, so what!"
"If I don't do it, they say you'll get tortured too, Oppa ended up like that, so why are you so fine? You should try getting hit too!"
When Minji came at her like that.
Seolhee, with a contrarian attitude, became even more unwilling to do it.
Honestly, she was afraid of the Corporal punishment, but her anger-filled emotions overcame that fear.
Since they made her oppa like that, she wanted to make Minji suffer the same way and get revenge.
It was Seolhee's personality to talk back even while being hit by her appa, incurring more punishment.
Of course, she had never received Jihwan's Corporal punishment or torture, which couldn't even be compared to her father's violence.
These were thoughts and words she could only have because she still lacked a sense of reality.
If she had received it even once like Minji, Seolhee wouldn't have been able to spout these words with her emotions taking precedence like this.
If emotions come before reason, survival instinct comes before that.
"Ha... if you come at me like this, I have no choice either. Seolhee-ya..."
"W-what... what are you trying to do?"
Seolhee, who was quick-witted, sensed something strange in Minji's tone.
'I have no choice. It'll be better to get punished by me than to get Corporal punishment from Master tomorrow.'
Rationalizing that it would be much better to learn while being punished by her than to be punished by Jihwan, Minji eventually took out the whip.
"Are you crazy, eonni? You made Oppa like that and even got me kidnapped, and now you're going to hit me too? Are you even human?"
"It'll be better to learn while being punished by me now than to receive Corporal punishment from Master tomorrow. I'm sorry..."
Incongruent with the words 'I'm sorry,' her hand holding the whip mercilessly struck Seolhee's body.
"Kyaaak! Fuck, don't! Don't do it! I should be the one hitting you, what did you do right to hit me!!"
As Minji's whip headed toward her back and buttocks, Seolhee screamed and struggled.
Based on what she had learned while being hit by Jihwan, Minji didn't reply at all and continued whipping.
"Aaa! Kyaaaak!"
"It hurts, it hurts! Stop it, please, I'll do it, I'll do it!"
Minji, who had learned through her own body that if relentless violence continued without a single reply, the one being hit would eventually have to surrender, knew this all too well.
"Look, Seolhee-ya. If you can't even endure this much, are you going to receive the Corporal punishment Master gives?"
"Master doesn't even stop here like this. The intensity is much stronger than what I'm hitting you with, do you have a sense of reality now?"
"Fuck... I'll do it, I'll do it..."
Seolhee, who had been making such a fuss earlier that she wouldn't do it, eventually surrendered to the violence.
"Good, you thought well. If you just listen well, there's no reason for me to hit you like this."
'Crazy bitch... I'm going to kill you.'
In a state where she hadn't even met the person named Jihwan who kidnapped her yet, after suffering such humiliation from Minji,
Seolhee's anger and hatred were directed more toward Minji than toward Jihwan, who had actually kidnapped her.
Jihwan's intention of entrusting Seolhee's education to Minji was already starting to show.
Jihwan had predicted that since they were originally close, such an effect would only appear after 2-3 days.
Contrary to Jihwan's prediction, Seolhee's prickly personality and her love for her oppa were much greater than Jihwan had expected.
So, she created trouble with Minji in just one day.
Thus, Seolhee spent her first night in the basement receiving humiliating education from Minji.
-6-
The next morning.
When the time came, Jihwan entered the basement.
"Welcome, Master."
As soon as Jihwan entered the basement door, Minji was already automatically kneeling and greeting him.
'I can't do it...'
Unlike Minji, Seolhee, when it came down to it, couldn't do it right away like Minji due to her pride and shame, and hesitated.
"Minji-ya, what did I tell you yesterday?"
"I... I'm sorry. Seolhee-ya, hurry up and kneel and greet him!"
Minji, with her head buried in the floor, apologized and forced Seolhee to hurry up and kneel and greet him.
"That's enough, it's already too late. Minji-ya. I trusted you with it, but whenever I give you a Reward, you always disappoint me right away..."
Minji realized that once he said that much, the Corporal punishment was already confirmed.
'Ha... I'm screwed. Please...'
Since he hadn't told her to get up yet, Minji was still lying prone, praying for a low-level Corporal punishment to be given.
'W-what do I do? Should I kneel now?'
Seolhee sensed the chilling atmosphere and didn't know what to do.
"I told you, if Seolhee's education wasn't going well, you, Minji, would be the one to get in trouble."
"Yes, Master. I was wrong. I will educate her properly again! Please give me one more chance..."
"Yes, you should teach her properly. But, you have to be punished for what you've already done wrong, right?"
"Let's see~ Since she didn't kneel, this time I have to give a punishment for not kneeling. First, get up."
Jihwan decided on the Corporal punishment, teasing her like a child choosing a toy.
He opened the basement storage door and brought out something like a wooden board this time.
The surface of the board was not flat but in a '^^^^' shape.
It was a board intended to cause pain to the fragile shin bones if one knelt on it.
"While Seolhee isn't kneeling, Minji, you'll kneel here instead and take the punishment. Get on it, Minji-ya."
"Yes... Master."
'Ha... kneeling is painful enough as it is.'
Minji's knees were already shaking before she even got on it, thinking about how much it would hurt to kneel on that.
'Ugh... how do I endure this.'
Minji had no choice but to get on the board and kneel.
As she knelt, pain that felt like it was piercing her shin bones rushed in.
It wasn't like being hit where immense pain rushed in all at once,
but the fear of this Corporal punishment was that she could continuously feel the pain as if her shin bones were breaking.
If it were shins trained like a Muay Thai fighter, it wouldn't hurt at all,
but for the body of a fragile woman who had never even tried training, it was a Corporal punishment where every minute felt like the pain of hell.
"Ugh... hurry up and kneel and greet him, Seolhee-ya!"
Minji, enduring the pain, urged Seolhee to kneel and greet him.
'Crazy bitch, just because you hit me a little yesterday, are you doing this on purpose?'
She wanted to get out of this pain quickly, but she felt so resentful toward Seolhee, who was still not kneeling.
'What is this? Am I not getting punished?'
Jihwan only punished Minji and just left Seolhee alone.
Seolhee, who had been watching the chilling Corporal punishment, thought she should kneel too out of fear.
However, after realizing that Jihwan wasn't punishing her but only Minji, she deliberately held out without kneeling.
This was because the lingering resentment from what Minji had done to her yesterday made her want to make her suffer more.
"Seolhee-ya, if you don't want to kneel, you don't have to. Unlike them, you haven't done anything wrong to me, right?"
Jihwan assured Seolhee, who was hesitating and didn't know what to do, that he had no intention of punishing her.
"T-then why did you kidnap me?"
In her heart, she wanted to use informal language and curse at Jihwan who kidnapped her, but having seen and experienced things, she held it in and asked politely.
"Do you know what 'guilt by association' is? I looked into it, and you only relied on your looks and didn't study at all, so maybe you don't know?"
"I... I know that much."
Although Seolhee was a blockhead, she knew what 'guilt by association' meant.
"Right, because your oppa did something wrong. You, his younger sister, are paying for it instead. But well, it's not the Joseon Dynasty, and I don't intend to punish you the same way as those two."
'I-is that a relief?'
At the words that he didn't intend to punish her the same way, Seolhee felt a sense of relief for now.
"T-then what are you going to do?"
"Look at this even now. You did something wrong, but Minji is the one getting punished. Since I don't intend to punish you here, you don't have to worry too much. You just have to make a choice."
"A... choice?"
At Jihwan's ambiguous words, Seolhee asked back without realizing it, wanting to know the exact intention.
"It's to choose whether or not you will share your oppa and Minji's punishment."
"If you, Seolhee, say you don't want to share it, I have no intention of punishing you at all. Instead, just like Minji is kneeling right now, Taesu and Minji will receive the punishment as it is."
'What, then there's no need to kneel right now.'
She had no intention of kneeling for Minji when she wasn't the one getting punished.
Because Minji's actions toward Taesu and what she had done to her yesterday were too unforgivable to kneel for Minji.
"Then, why would I kneel. There's no reason for me to kneel for that eonni."
Seolhee was rather hoping that Minji would suffer more by deliberately holding out without kneeling.
"Is that so? But, if you do that, will you be able to endure Minji's training time tonight?"
"......"
This was exactly what Jihwan had originally intended between Seolhee and Minji.
Minji trains Seolhee, and if Seolhee doesn't listen, Minji gets Corporal punishment.
Minji, who received the Corporal punishment, doesn't want to be punished, so she uses even stronger means like yesterday to train Seolhee.
Seolhee, who has accumulated bad feelings while being trained like that, deliberately doesn't listen like now, making Minji get punished more.
Then, a vicious cycle where Minji uses even more powerful means to train her to make her listen again.
Jihwan predicted that to break this vicious cycle, Seolhee would choose to submit to him voluntarily rather than choosing to submit to Minji.
As Jihwan intended, Seolhee's hatred and anger were leaning more toward Minji than Jihwan right now.
Moreover, Jihwan was the absolute power here who could stop Minji from punishing her in an instant.
'Everything is going very smoothly so far.'
Until now, except for a few details, everything was going as Jihwan intended.
Although it was a bit annoying and complicated, it was the method Jihwan chose to feel less guilty and rationalize himself while punishing and training Seolhee, who was not the target of revenge who had directly wronged him.