A Taste of Herself
"That's right! Hanayuki is Hanayuki-tan!"
Jihun ruffles Hanayuki's hair with a satisfied grin.
Droplets of water spray from her soaking wet hair.
"Now, let's put on your wig!"
Jihun roughly stuffs Hanayuki's hair inside the wig.
Atop her black hair, which clings to her scalp like wet seaweed, a light-blue twintail wig sits awkwardly.
"I'll have to do something about your real hair later," Jihun mutters, adjusting the wig.
It still sits precariously on her head.
A moment later,
Jihun asks, "You're hungry, right?" before starting to prepare a meal in the open-concept kitchen.
Left alone, Hanayuki looks around the room with anxious eyes.
The apartment is much larger than she expected.
It has a spacious layout, and they seem to be on a very high floor.
Through the wide windows, she can see the sprawling cityscape and a massive river cutting right through it—it might even be a coveted Han River view.
Is he richer than I thought...?
It is just as large and sophisticated as the apartment of her thug ex-boyfriend, who had amassed a fortune running illegal gambling sites. (Of course, Sohyun was the only one who thought of him as a boyfriend; to him, she was merely a convenient cum bucket.)
If only he weren't a complete psychopath...
She had never cared about the otaku who squealed over a mere 2D drawing anyway.
When it came to donations, she only ever looked at the amount.
She had forced herself to react to their video donations—laughing along or acting shocked—but she could never truly comprehend their bizarre sense of humor.
The chat comments scrolling past at blinding speeds (which she barely read anyway) always made her feel disgusted, as if she could smell the rancid sweat of the losers typing them.
I thought all otakus were broke losers...
Compared to the massive donations she used to pull in during her face-cam streaming days, the pocket change she got as a VTuber was pathetic. Behind her virtual avatar, Sohyun had always sneered at her fans.
She had only endured the broadcasts by looking down on them in her mind. But if she had known there was a "big fish" like this among them, things might have been different.
Meanwhile, the savory aroma of cooking tickles her nose.
Hanayuki glances toward the kitchen.
Something large is roasting inside the electric oven.
The scent of the sauce is incredibly mouthwatering, but the underlying smell of the meat is somehow unfamiliar.
It isn't pork, chicken, or beef. It is a scent she has never encountered in her life.
What is that smell...?
Though filled with doubt, Hanayuki desperately racks her brain to find a way out of this nightmare.
For now...
For now, I have to play along.
There is no telling what a crazy otaku who can't distinguish fantasy from reality might do if she upsets him.
Though he's already done the worst to me...
Her arms and legs are gone.
He said he inserted electrical wires into her spine. She doesn't know if it's true, but every time he presses that remote, agonizing pain shoots through her phantom limbs.
"Ugh..."
Hanayuki shudders involuntarily.
"Is something wrong, Hanayuki-tan?"
Jihun, busy setting the table from the open kitchen, looks back at her.
Does this bastard have eyes in the back of his head?
"Ah... N-No... No, it's nothing, Habung-ah!"
"Are you sure everything is okay?"
"Y-Yes! I'm fine! Everything is perfect!"
Hanayuki forces a twitching smile, desperately trying to appease him.
"Hmm..."
But Jihun frowns, looking dissatisfied.
"Gyah!"
The button is pressed, and like a startled cat, Hanayuki's torso leaps off the chair.
Despite having no limbs, her body bounces several centimeters into the air.
"How fun."
"Gyah!"
"Ack!"
"Kyah!"
Hanayuki's body bounces repeatedly, accompanied by pathetic, breathless groans.
The pain is immense, but her screams are stifled.
Because the sudden agony instantly paralyzes her entire muscular system, she cannot even voice a proper scream.
"Ah... Ahg... g-g-g... g-g..."
Hanayuki's eyes roll back.
"G-Gyah..."
The pink urethra between her stump thighs gives way. With a soft hiss, a stream of warm, pungent yellow urine soaks into the cushion.
"Why do you keep failing to understand plain English?"
Jihun, like a magician pulling a tablecloth from under a stack of cups, deftly slides the wet cushion out from under Hanayuki's buttocks.
"P-Please... Wait a second, please..."
"Honorifics?"
Jihun raises an eyebrow.
"Does Hanayuki-tan use polite speech?"
He shakes his head.
"Sigh..."
He shoves the urine-dripping cushion directly into Hanayuki's face.
"Mmph... Mmmph... Mmmff!!!"
The wet, urine-soaked cushion smothers her nose and mouth.
Unable to breathe, Hanayuki thrashes wildly.
She struggles with limbs she no longer possesses.
Naturally, she cannot push it away, and the cushion is ground into her face for a long, agonizing moment.
"Haa... Haa... H-Hegh..."
Hanayuki gasps for air, her body trembling violently.
"Does Hanayuki-tan seriously still not know what she did wrong?"
"I d-don't... sob... I don't know... No, I don't know... I'm too stupid... I'm too dumb to know..."
"You really don't know?"
"I don't know... No, I don't know... Habung-ah, please tell me... Please tell me... sob... Waaah..."
Hanayuki wails, weeping hysterically.
Tears and snot mix with the urine smeared across her face.
In her struggles, the wig has slipped further, exposing more of her natural black hair.
"Hanayuki-tan."
Jihun bends his knees slightly, bringing his eyes level with hers.
"Y-Yes... Yes, Habung-ah... hic..."
"Your pronoun."
"Wh-What?..."
Bewildered by the sudden demand, Hanayuki freezes.
"Your first-person pronoun."
"I d-don't... sob... It's too hard... Hanayuki doesn't know..."
Just as Hanayuki is about to sob again—
"Exactly! That!"
Jihun's face lights up with a bright smile.
"Huh?..."
Hanayuki is left dazed once more.
"Think back carefully."
Jihun says, grinning cheerfully.
"When Hanayuki-tan streamed, how did she always refer to herself?"
"Hanayuki... sob... She always said 'Hanayuki'..."
"That's right, Hanayuki. You never said 'I' or 'me.' You always referred to yourself in the third person as 'Hanayuki.' For example, instead of 'I'm hungry,' you'd say 'Hanayuki is hungry'..."
Jihun's expression instantly hardens as he grabs a handful of the black hair exposed beneath the tilted wig.
"So why the fuck did you forget something so simple, you stupid bitch?"
"H-Hieeeck..."
Under Jihun's murderous gaze, Hanayuki's face turns pale as a sheet.
"Listen closely... I'm not a fucking idiot. I know exactly how you bitches look down on otakus like they're absolute garbage."
He shakes her head back and forth by her hair.
"Feminism, whatever bullshit... I know all of it. I know exactly what kind of trash you are. But fuck... Yeah. Business. Let's do some business, shall we?"
Jihun growls, staring straight into Hanayuki's eyes.
"You were sold to me. I bought you. No, to be precise, I didn't buy you. I bought Hanayuki. Simple capitalism. It's capitalism, so use whatever brain cells you have left, you absolute retard."
Jihun pokes Hanayuki's forehead repeatedly with his index finger.
The force of the pokes tilts her limbless torso, nearly sending her sliding off the chair.
"Oops."
Jihun catches her and props her back up.
"Do you have any idea how expensive this is?"
Jihun adjusts her wig once more, then lightly slaps her cheeks—not hard enough to cause real pain, but with just enough force to be deeply humiliating.
"So you get what I'm saying, right? Keep your character concept straight and satisfy me. Do your absolute best. At least enough to match what I paid for you. Got it? Ha-na-yu-ki-tan."
"H-Hanayuki understands... Habung-ah... Hanayuki understands..."
Terrified, Hanayuki stammers, her eyes darting around in sheer panic.
Once again, her pink urethra opens, and the last remaining drops of urine hiss out, warmly soaking her buttocks.
"Bring me the rice!"
Jihun giggles, mimicking an old internet meme.
"Not funny?"
He suddenly wipes the smile from his face and glares at her.
"I-It's so funny! Hanayuki thinks it's so funny! Ehehe... hehe... hehe..."
Desperate to please him, Hanayuki forces out a hysterical, delayed laugh.
A short while later,
"Today's main dish!"
Jihun proudly brings over a large platter.
Resting on the platter is...
"Th-This..."
Hanayuki's pupils contract in pure horror.
Her entire body begins to tremble violently.
"It's Hanayuki-tan!"
"Ah... ugh... No... No way... Is this really..."
Resting neatly on the platter is "what used to be" Hanayuki's leg.
The toes are pointed straight like a ballerina's, emphasizing the slender curve of the calf.
Though her leg had arrived semi-prepared, Jihun had put his culinary skills to work to finish cooking it.
It is bound tightly with butcher's twine to keep its shape, preventing the skin from peeling and the juices from escaping.
Thanks to his efforts, the slender leg has turned a mouthwatering, reddish-brown color.
That isn't all.
He had trimmed the severed end for scraps, separated the fat, and slowly rendered it in a heavy cast-iron pan to extract the juices.
By adding seasoning and caramelized onions to the rendered fat and juices, he had crafted a "special gravy."
The savory sauce is glazed flawlessly over the entire leg.
Steam carrying a rich, savory aroma rises gently from the leg, which still retains the heat of the oven.
Even someone without "such tastes" would have swallowed their spit at the sight of it.
"It's my first time cooking with 'this ingredient,' so I hope you like it!"
With a proud look, Jihun raises a knife and carves a small slice from the calf.
The sharp blade sinks into the tender, plump calf meat, and seasoned juices run down the cut surface.
"Is something wrong?"
"A leg... A human... leg..."
Hanayuki's teeth chatter in sheer terror.
Clutching her pounding chest, she slowly pieces together the reality she desperately wants to deny.
She doesn't want to ask, but she has to.
Could this really be—
"My... leg..."
"Yep! It's Hanayuki-tan!"
Jihun chuckles smugly, placing the carved slice of Hanayuki's calf onto a pristine white porcelain plate.
As her flesh settles onto the fine china, the sauce and juices bloom outward like a flower.
"Looks delicious, right? Since it's made from Hanayuki-tan, I'll give you the best cut!"
Jihun offers the plate with a bright, cheerful smile.
Hanayuki's only response is—
"Ugh—"
—the vomiting of yellow gastric acid.