Leisure Time (16)
School had let out and I stepped into the apartment. It was around four in the afternoon.
I stripped off my clothes for the gym, walked into the bathroom, and let the shower rain down over me, soaking my hair. It had been nearly a week since I started training at the gym, and if I counted the days since shaking off the pursuers, it was closing in on two full weeks.
There were no interruptions. Just the clean, heavy sound of water striking my body, sliding down my skin, and slapping against the tile. It carved out a small pocket of space where I could actually think.
“...”
I’d been briefly distracted by the variable called Hong Su-a this past week, but even after eating that blue apple, the thought of the pursuers had never left my mind for a single moment.
The suddenness of their attack. The way every organization involved had gone deathly quiet afterward. It gnawed at me constantly. My danger sense had grown sharp enough to pick up nearby CCTV cameras and the presence of people without effort, yet I couldn’t detect even the faintest hint that we were being watched.
They were probably only two or three people at most. Should I just leave them alone? There was no way I could afford to be that complacent. I had no idea what they were thinking or what they were plotting.
The feeling was like being trapped inside an unsolvable riddle that had no end. I splashed water on my face and dragged both hands down it with a heavy sigh.
“...This is driving me insane.”
Of course, this was all premature worry. Nothing had happened yet, and there was no way to know what might. The frustration was enough to make me crazy, but there was nothing I could do about it.
I shut off the water that had been pouring over my head and dried my entire body with a towel. After wiping away the moisture, I opened the bathroom door. The hot, humid air rushed out all at once and cool, pleasant air wrapped around my bare skin.
“Oh, Oppa. Perfect timing. Come sit here for a second.”
“I’m home.”
I’d finished my refreshing shower and stepped out to find three women sitting together in the living room. None of them seemed to care that I was completely naked. Chae-yun beckoned me over with a wave, Seo-hee greeted me with a cheerful hand gesture, and behind Seo-hee sat a girl I didn’t recognize, trying to hide her body.
I quickly pulled on underwear and pants, then sat down among the women who had gathered for who-knows-what reason, glancing around at their faces.
“What’s all this about, suddenly?”
“Seo-hee unnie said she had some business to take care of.”
Seo-hee waved again with a half-hearted greeting. From behind her, the unfamiliar girl murmured in a voice so small it was almost a squeak, “Hello...” I nodded politely back at her.
“So you finished everything?”
“Yes, unnie. All done.”
“Finished what? What did you two do without me?”
Why were they talking about things only they understood? I looked back and forth between them. Seo-hee wore an unusually serious expression while Chae-yun kept stealing glances at me with a smile, as if checking my reaction.
She opened a laptop and brought up an unfamiliar website.
What the hell is this?
PRODUCT: BLUE ELIXIR [TRIAL]
PRICE: 0.00 BTC (Free Distribution)
EFFECT: Overwhelming pleasure. Irreversible addiction after first dose.
WARNING: Highly potent. Use at own risk.
“Here it is. The drug sales website I made.”
“What the fuck did you just say?”
“Ooh.”
Chae-yun straightened her back proudly. Seo-hee clapped in amazement. I, on the other hand, was so stunned I accidentally cursed out loud. The sheer absurdity of it made me laugh.
“Wait, what the hell did you two do?”
“It’s nothing serious. It’s just a site for buying and selling stuff, so you don’t have to worry so much.”
“Yeah, don’t worry.”
“The part that worries me is that ‘stuff.’”
“Just relax and listen.”
Chae-yun ignored my opinion completely and continued her explanation as if it didn’t matter.
“We’re calling it drugs, but that’s just the label. In reality, it’s more like a powerful aphrodisiac. We’re selling the stuff Seo-hee unnie makes through this site.”
“Wow, you made it this fast? Isn’t this completely fucked?”
“Yeah, it does seem pretty fucked.”
I leaned over to look at the screen as Seo-hee scrolled. Dark background, complicated interface, even cryptocurrency payments. The smell of crime wafting through my tiny studio apartment made my head spin.
“Don’t worry too much, Oppa. I studied hard and built it properly. Even if the president himself came looking, he wouldn’t be able to catch us.”
“No, I mean—why would you do something like this without even telling me...”
I was so shocked the words wouldn’t come out right. Just how much had these two done while I was out of the house?
I’d been with them so long that I’d momentarily forgotten. They weren’t ordinary humans. Today they reminded me of that fact in the most extraordinary way possible.
“Why didn’t I tell you? You do whatever you want without saying anything, Oppa, so I thought it was fine for me to do the same.”
“...Are you sulking?”
“Anyway, if an order comes in...”
Chae-yun deliberately ignored me and kept explaining to the two of them. She really was sulking. Now what was I supposed to do about it?
“Unnie can just keep making the product. For the actual handoff, I think it’s best if Nabi handles it since she can’t be traced.”
“...Why can’t she be traced?”
“Oppa, take a good look. Don’t you recognize her?”
Since the problem had already happened, there was no point fighting it. I naturally joined the conversation and asked. No traceable identity? Following Chae-yun’s suggestion, I stared intently at the girl named Nabi who was hiding behind Seo-hee. I finally realized she was one of the women who had put me in that hospital bed a few days ago.
“...Ah.”
“They wouldn’t have used someone with records if they wanted to stay hidden. Nabi probably doesn’t exist in society anymore.”
...She was more thorough than I expected. I didn’t know much about computers, but I wondered if Seo-hee understood all this.
“...”
She wore the same confident expression as before. At least I wasn’t the only one who didn’t fully understand.
“...I’m only asking because it seems like you’ll do it even if I try to stop you. Are you really confident you won’t get caught?”
Obviously I wasn’t asking out of fear of the police or getting a criminal record. What worried me was whether this would catch the eye or ear of that organization.
Chae-yun smiled sweetly and nodded. I wondered if I should trust that smile. The scale of this operation was no small thing.
“...Fine. Do whatever you think is best. You’re smarter than me and you’ve done well so far.”
I placed a hand on my knee, stood up, and gently stroked Chae-yun’s hair.
“I have to head to the gym now, so I’ll see you later. And Lee Chae-yun.”
“Yes?”
“...Sorry I haven’t been paying enough attention to you. This should be over soon. Once it is, let’s go out and have some fun together.”
I said something unusually embarrassing, lowered my head, and left. What the hell had I just said?
“...Whoa, hey, your face is all red.”
“What?! It is not!”
Seo-hee unnie, who had finally seized the initiative after so long and started teasing me, waited until Oppa had dashed out the front door. The moment he was gone, she pointed at my face and began making fun of me.
“Anyway.”
I cleared my throat once and continued explaining while pointing at the laptop.
“...Changing the subject, I see.”
“If you tease me one more time, I won’t help you.”
When I gave her a firm warning after she interrupted me again, she quietly turned her gaze back to the laptop without another word.
“...Good. Just leaving a suspicious site like this won’t get us any customers. People will think it’s some kid’s prank.”
“...Then what should we do?”
“We offer it for free at first.”
“What?”
Unnie looked up from the laptop in surprise, shifting her eyes to mine.
“Just listen carefully. Would you pay a lot of money for something you’ve never seen before? We need to build trust first. Show them how incredible the effects are.”
“...I see.”
“Besides, giving it away for free doesn’t cost us anything. We don’t need expensive ingredients to make it.”
The poison Unnie creates consumes the host’s own calories. So the material cost is practically zero. All she needs is a good meal.
“How addictive did you say it was?”
“Once you taste it, you can never stop.”
“What exactly did you and Oppa make? Anyway, that level is more than enough. People don’t turn down free stuff. In simple terms, those who get addicted from the first free dose will have no choice but to come back for more. Even if the price rises several hundred times.”
I took one of the blue vials from the bag Unnie had brought, shook the shimmering liquid, and finished my explanation. After listening, she nodded and let out an impressed hum.
“So, like you said earlier, this is safe, right?”
“Do you really think humans could catch up to what we made?”
It might look like something that would draw human attention. But the internet was a convenient space that provided ‘anonymity’ to hide our already concealed existence. As long as I didn’t make a mistake, there was no way human technology could ever identify me.
“So relax. There’s something I need you to do, unnie.”
“What is it?”
“No matter how free we make it, the people who do shady things like this tend to be extremely cautious. They suspect everything and trust no one. So for the beginning, we have to rely on ‘coincidence.’”
“Coincidence...”
Unnie, who seemed to understand my words immediately for the first time, straightened her posture. I licked my lips and made my request.
“Even if it’s a coincidence, since we’re the ones making it… could you kidnap a few people for us?”