The Laboratory — Reversal, Conquest, the Drug, Obsession
The laboratory always smelled like this. Disinfectant, glass instruments, the sharp mineral bite of something boiling. Dain had grown used to it starting from the hallway. It wasn't a good smell — and yet, strangely, it had become familiar. Proof of how often she came here.
Why she came so often — she had decided not to think about that.
The truth was, she knew. It had started the night she lost to Jian. The first night she had ever been the one conquered. That sensation had never faded. She wanted to know what it was. She hated to admit it — but her body remembered.
She had always been the one in control. What it felt like to be the one who yielded — she'd been curious. She had never once admitted it.
She pushed the door open.
Jaewon stood at the lab bench in his white coat, head bowed, writing something. He would have heard her come in — he didn't look up.
Dain turned her gaze aside. The shelf. Ampoules and bottles packed tight. A small brown bottle at the very edge.
She reached for it.
Only then did Jaewon lift his head.
Dain picked up the bottle and shook it. The liquid sloshed.
"This is the one, isn't it."
Jaewon set his pen down.
"...That one's different."
"Different how?"
Jaewon looked at her. A moment of silence.
"If you drink it — you lose the ability to refuse. Your body obeys first. Whatever it's told. For thirty minutes."
It was a warning. At the same time — it sounded like an invitation.
This was what Dain had always done to her partners. Steer them where she wanted, make them follow. This time, it was coming back at her.
Dain smiled. Low, brief.
"This could be fun."
She twisted off the cap and swallowed it down.
By her own hand. To the very end, her own hand.
That was her answer.
Jaewon said nothing. He only watched.
"So — when does it—"
Her voice broke off.
Dain stopped.
It felt like something settling quietly inside her body. It wasn't fast. It wasn't resistance, either. Simply — as if some will were being switched off, one switch at a time. Slowly, from the ground up. The strength that would have fought back. The strength that would have slipped away.
Jaewon rose slowly.
His eyes were different. It was the look he always allowed himself for half a second before hiding it — and now he wasn't hiding it. He looked at Dain. All the way. The eyes of a man who had waited a very long time.
Jaewon's hands were trembling, faintly.
Dain saw it. He looked composed — but his hands had betrayed him first. He was shaking too. And still, he didn't stop.
"Kneel."
A low, quiet voice. The final syllable cracked.
Dain's knees moved to obey.
Thud.
The sound of contact with the floor. The hard, cold floor of the laboratory. Dain stared down at her own knees.
What is this. I'm kneeling right now. In front of this man. I have to get up.
Her body wouldn't listen.
There was no strength to rise. No — there was strength. She just couldn't reach it.
"...What."
"I've waited a long time."
Jaewon said it low, like a murmur to himself.
Dain went rigid.
Waited a long time. This man. For this. For me. For the me standing here like this.
She had never once imagined that Jaewon wanted this. He was always the one observing. Always the one writing. She'd assumed he was a man who never revealed desire — he had simply never revealed it. Until now.
Jaewon walked to the shelf, spread open his notebook, and picked up the pen.
"Take your clothes off."
The instant the words left his mouth, Dain's hands began to move. Jacket buttons. One by one.
Stop. Don't. Don't do it. But my hands—
They didn't stop. She had always been the one who made her partners submit. Always the one holding the lead. And now Dain's own hands were undressing her — at a single word from Jaewon.
By the time he turned back around, she was already bare.
Jaewon looked. His face gave nothing away. But his ears — they had gone red. Down to his neck. It didn't match those calm eyes at all.
The pen moved across the page.
He was recording it. This exact moment.
"What are you doing right now?"
"Taking notes."
Jaewon tilted the notebook slightly toward her.
Subject: Dain
Response onset: faster than anticipated.
Appearance: even better than I imagi—
Dain looked away. Something was climbing up her throat. Anger or shame — she couldn't tell them apart.
My body is being written down. In that notebook. I've become one of Jaewon's observations.
"...You're insane."
"Spread your legs."
Dain's thighs fell open at once.
She didn't want that. But her body moved first.
Jaewon stepped close and knelt. He looked at her there. He said nothing. Only looked. Just — looked. For a long time. Dain could feel his gaze wherever it landed. Without him doing anything at all, her skin was reacting. To his eyes alone.
All her life she had been the one watching. Now Dain was the one on display.
"Open yourself with your hands. Both sides."
Don't. Don't you dare.
Dain's hands moved. Her fingers drew gently apart on either side. Cold air touched her directly. She was already wet. Warmth spread between her fingers.
What am I doing right now?
Jaewon's gaze stayed fixed there. He looked for a long, long time. He didn't hurry. As if time belonged to him. The pen moved again.
The imbalance was mortifying. Jaewon stood there fully clothed in his coat, and Dain had nothing on at all, legs open. Taking his gaze.
And that shame — it stoked the heat below her belly even higher.
"Prettier than I imagined."
Low, quiet.
The heat below Dain's belly climbed again, for no reason at all. It made her furious — her own body, answering to his words.
"...Shut up."
Jaewon wrote in the notebook. Then he opened the container he'd brought.
"Don't move."
Gel coated his fingers. Then his fingertips touched her below. From one end to the other. Lightly.
"...Hah— aahhn—"
That was all it took. It was like electricity. She felt it race up her spine from below.
Jaewon pulled his hand away. Wrote in the notebook.
"Because I like the sounds you make."
He's recording my sounds. The ones I just made. Predicting the ones I'll make next — and waiting for them.
She should have been furious — instead, she burned hotter.
Jaewon touched her again. This time with a little more pressure. A thick, clinging sound rang out at his fingertips. Heat trickled down along them.
"Nngh— hnnnnngh—"
Longer this time. Dain clapped a hand over her mouth.
Jaewon wrote again.
And then — he stopped. He waited. A long while.
Only cold air remained. Only once the sensation was gone did she understand how strong it had been. Her lower belly ached. She wanted more.
I can't want this. Not from him.
Dain looked at Jaewon. He had set the notebook down and was waiting.
"Ask me to keep going."
Dain's teeth clenched.
This is a tactic. He's waiting so I'll beg him for more. I know. I know it, and still—
"...More. Please."
Her mouth moved first.
Jaewon's breath snagged, short. Just once. She caught it. He wanted this too — hearing those words come out of Dain's mouth.
He stripped off the coat. His hands were trembling faintly again.
The back of the laboratory. A makeshift cot.
Jaewon climbed over her.
"Look at me."
Their eyes met. The eyes that had always seemed so harmless. Not now. He wasn't hiding anymore. The eyes of a man finally taking out what he had waited so long to unwrap.
Dain tried to look away.
Jaewon caught her chin. Gently — but he didn't let go.
"Look. All the way."
And then he entered her, slowly.
Resistance. Tension pulled taut. The physical limit of forcing his way through a narrow passage. Even with the gel still there, she clenched down around him, crushing tight.
Dain's inner walls wrapped around him.
"...Aah—"
She tried to close her eyes.
"I said look."
Dain looked at Jaewon.
Her body adapted slowly. As he filled her, the soft folds gave way, and fullness and strain arrived together. Each time he drew out and pressed back in, a low, wet, clinging sound followed. Jaewon's breathing was quickening, little by little.
He's shaking too. Because of me. He's pretending to be calm — his breath gave him away first. He was always the one observing, and now Jaewon was feeling it from the inside too.
And that — strangely — made her burn even hotter. Knowing she wasn't the only one coming apart.
"Let me hear you."
Jaewon said it low.
"No."
The pace quickened. Body heat climbed with it. The wetness inside made every stroke smoother, and the sound of clinging and pulling apart fell into rhythm. Faster. Deeper. Dain's body slid toward Jaewon all on its own.
"...Ah— aahn—"
She couldn't hold them back anymore.
"Aah— haahh—"
Deep, deep inside her belly. A heavy, weighted fullness. The heat that had been piling up below her stomach hit its breaking point.
It wasn't the thrill of conquest. This was something else entirely. The feeling of her whole body opening. The moment when resistance ran out of reasons — she didn't want it to stop.
Her eyes found Jaewon's. His eyes held hers — trembling, and refusing to let go. Dain didn't let go either.
Every muscle in her body locked rigid, and her breath stopped. An instant of perfect stillness.
"Haaaaaahn—"
Her insides convulsed. Waves climbed her spine, split her back, ran all the way to the tips of her shoulders. Everything inside her spilled out at once. Warm and sticky, it ran down along Jaewon.
Jaewon didn't stop. The second wave came. Deeper.
"Aaah—!"
Where the wave had receded, nothing remained but raw, over-sensitive flesh. The slightest brush was enough to raise goosebumps. Dain's hands seized Jaewon's arms — as if she were afraid of falling.
She could see the ceiling. The fluorescent light glared white.
For the first time in her life, Dain had lost — to something. It wasn't the drug. It was Jaewon's eyes. She had never known that falling apart in front of someone who truly looked at her could feel this good.
Jaewon picked up his coat and walked back to the bench. He opened the notebook. He was writing again.
"What are you writing. Right now?"
Jaewon didn't answer.
Dain rose. Got dressed. Walked to the door.
Her hand touched the handle.
"...You'll come again, won't you?"
She stopped.
Harmless. Quiet. His usual voice.
Dain didn't answer.
She walked out.
The corridor. Her footsteps weren't her usual ones.
It still felt like it was ringing. Jaewon's eyes refused to fade. Because I like the sounds you make — those words. Look. All the way — those words.
I opened myself up. In front of him. I obeyed his words.
Dain bit her lip.
It was a first — being anything other than the one who conquers.
And — it was a first, pleasure this much stronger.
She could have blamed the drug. Her body had obeyed, after all. Because it hadn't been her will.
But if she was honest — when the second wave hit, Dain had grabbed Jaewon's arms. So she wouldn't fall. That hadn't been the drug.
That had been Dain.
Her footsteps halted — then carried on again.
The smell of the laboratory still clung to her clothes. Disinfectant. Glass instruments. And — Jaewon's scent.
Dain didn't wipe it away.