Either/Or
The day the Best Course launched had arrived.
The price was modest compared to the Premium Course Suhyun ran himself. Set against the regular course, though, it still cost one and a half times as much.
Choi Gwanghyun, Kim Ilsu, and Lee Deokhyeon — whose names had been listed as Best masseurs — sat in the waiting room, taut with nerves. Training under Suhyun had sharpened their skills considerably, and regulars had started trickling in at a decent clip. But that had all been for the regular course. Would customers actually pay more than one and a half times the usual rate for a massage? That worry still sat heavy in their chests.
Then the waiting-room door opened.
The man who walked in was a manager who looked like a gangster. Every masseur's gaze locked onto him at once. Whose name would he call?
"Gwanghyun."
"Yes!"
Gwanghyun was the one chosen.
"Room five. Sports massage, one hour."
"Got it! I'll be right there!"
Gwanghyun sprang to his feet, eyes sparkling. It was the same mix of thrill and tension he'd felt the first time a client had requested him by name. The other masseurs watched him go with open envy.
Before long, Kim Ilsu and Lee Deokhyeon received requests of their own and went off to work. It wasn't the overnight, fully booked frenzy that Suhyun's Premium Course had been. But it was a successful start in its own right.
At that same hour, Suhyun was sitting in a quiet café.
Today was Wednesday. Ordinarily he would have gone straight to Seongmo Orphanage, but he had someone to meet, so he'd pushed the visit back a little.
He sipped his coffee and waited. Then she walked in.
A clinging dress that left nothing of her figure to the imagination, sunglasses, a designer bag hanging at her hip. Park Soyeon, done up in full married-woman chic, stepped into the café. She spotted Suhyun, put on a delighted face, and came over, slipping off the sunglasses and greeting him with a bright smile.
"Suhyun! Sorry. You've been waiting a while, haven't you?"
"A little?"
"I'm really sorry. My husband's been getting a paranoid streak lately. Can you believe it? He actually suspects something between us. Keeps asking if you're my new side piece. It's not like we're meeting up to fuck. We're just a masseur and a client."
Suhyun chuckled quietly. This was a common side effect of getting involved with a married woman — a husband who started suspecting a wife who'd fallen hard for the Lust Demon.
"Is that so? Then I guess we won't be able to see each other anymore."
"What!? Don't say that! That bastard's out stuffing other bitches' holes every damn night! I don't care! So don't you dare say that, Suhyun."
Park Soyeon's voice rang through the café, sharp and loud. The content was juicy enough that heads turned. Suhyun laughed and tried to settle her down.
"Alright, alright. Keep your voice down. Everyone's staring. More importantly — why did you want to meet today?"
"I figured you'd want to know how that last incident got wrapped up... And you go down to that care home every Wednesday, right? I wanted to come along and apologize. Would that make you uncomfortable?"
A week had passed since Jin Yeongsu's crew had shown up at Seongmo Orphanage. Suhyun had stepped in and settled everything, but cleanup always took time. Park Soyeon had handled that cleanup herself. She'd asked to meet in person, hoping for a little praise — and a few extra points with him.
"I don't know that an apology is really necessary, but if you want to, go ahead. And from the way you said 'wrapped up,' I take it everything's been handled?"
"That's right. I might've gotten a little too heated about it, which is probably why my husband's gotten suspicious. But the Seongmo Orphanage building and the land are all under your name now, perfectly clean. Nobody from the Chilsung Gang or anyone else is going to go near that place."
"Good."
"That's it?"
"What, you want me to praise you?"
Park Soyeon, her real motive laid bare, was briefly at a loss for words. She did want the praise. But actually asking for it would bruise her pride. Suhyun smiled again at the look on her face.
"Come here. Tilt your head down a bit."
"Huh...?"
"Good girl. That's my Soyeon. You worked hard for me, didn't you?"
"Ah..."
Suhyun's hand stroked over Park Soyeon's hair. This wasn't the kind of praise she'd been hoping for. So why did it feel so good? Even as a teenager, she hadn't particularly liked having her head patted. Was it different because it was Suhyun's hand?
"There's one thing you need to keep in mind, though."
At some point Suhyun had dropped the polite speech, but Park Soyeon didn't particularly mind. She was more interested in what he was about to say.
"What?"
"If you want to keep seeing me, you need to put your husband's suspicions to rest. If this keeps up, he's only going to get more paranoid. Even if, like you said, we're not actually sleeping together — we're doing something pretty close, aren't we? And you've pictured having sex with me at least once."
"Th-that's...!"
Park Soyeon stammered. She hadn't expected him to be that direct.
"Anyway, be careful. Your husband's the boss of the Chilsung Gang. If this blows up, it won't end well."
Suhyun swallowed the rest. Your husband and his organization will be wiped out to the last man. That was too brutal a thing to say in the modern world.
"Okay... I'll be careful."
"Good. By the way, you really dressed up today."
Having delivered his warning, Suhyun changed the subject. Park Soyeon gave an awkward laugh and showed off her figure.
"You think so?"
"Yeah. You don't look like someone heading to an orphanage. People usually wear something comfortable for that."
"You mean volunteer work? Mm, I didn't think that through."
"It's fine. You wanted to look pretty for me, didn't you? Right?"
Park Soyeon couldn't keep her head on straight in front of a man who kept lifting her up and setting her down like this. He was younger than her — much younger. If a host at a host bar had teased her like this, she might have gotten angry. But even with Suhyun playing with her like this, it didn't feel bad.
"Shall we go, then? Let's go."
Park Soyeon drove a red imported car — a vehicle worth a few hundred thousand dollars. As it rolled down the road, cars in every direction instinctively gave it space. It was a strange sight, like the parting of the Red Sea.
"So this is why people drive foreign cars."
"Pretty much, right? Most people buy them to show off, and it actually works. Don't you have a car, Suhyun?"
"No. I haven't felt the need yet. Though I have to say, this is sexier than I expected."
"Huh? What is?"
"A woman driving."
"Ah..."
Suhyun's sudden line knocked the wind right out of Park Soyeon. She'd spent years in the underworld. She'd met plenty of men. She'd thought she was used to this kind of flirting... and one sentence from Suhyun felt like it had punched straight through her heart.
Heart, why are you acting up like this?
Still, she had years of living and plenty of dating experience behind her. She couldn't just keep getting pushed around.
"Are you hitting on me right now? You want to date me?"
Park Soyeon barely managed to compose her face and fired back. Come to think of it, she'd been on the receiving end all day. A little payback wouldn't hurt.
But Suhyun was a man who sat on top of her head.
"I don't know. I'm not the type who likes being tied down. Then again, if the other person's a married woman, there wouldn't be any strings attached... so maybe that's fine."
"Hnh—!"
The red import that had been gliding smoothly down the road lurched hard. Screeeech—! Suhyun's hand had slipped under the hem of her dress and started stroking her thigh.
"W-what are you doing!?"
Park Soyeon shouted inside the car. Suhyun just grinned, sly and unhurried.
"What does it look like? I'm touching your thigh. For a married woman, this is incredibly soft and springy. Feels pretty good to touch."
"You— you...!"
"What? You don't like it? Should I stop? I didn't realize you hated my hands that much, Soyeon."
"No, it's because you grabbed me out of nowhere while I'm driving. I nearly jumped out of my skin. What if we get in an accident?"
"So if you're not driving, it's fine? Want to pull over onto the shoulder for a bit?"
Park Soyeon swallowed.
The feel of his hand on her thigh. And in her head, the word he'd used earlier — sex — started painting pictures. If just being touched felt this good, how good would the real thing be?
"There's a decent motel nearby. Want to go there?"
Park Soyeon was a married woman. On top of that, she'd been with plenty of men besides her husband. She didn't hide her desire or play coy the way a typical virgin would.
"Not really feeling a motel. If we go there we'll be stuck for an hour or two. We'll be late. Let's just pull over somewhere on the roadside and get it over with."
Unbelievable. Suhyun was talking about her like a boxed lunch he could eat anywhere he wanted. And the most unbelievable part was that talk like that from him didn't even bother her. No — if anything, she was looking forward to it. The thought that she might finally get to be with Suhyun.
How long had she waited for her next appointment after that massage? After it was over, she hadn't been able to think about anything but him for days. A man who could give her the most intense climax with nothing but his hands. What would sex with a man like that be like? She couldn't help being excited.
"I'll take the national highway..."
The red import, which had been heading toward the expressway, changed lanes. They needed the national highway. That was where you'd find quiet stretches of road, hills, places with almost no traffic.
"Whatever you like. More importantly, spread your legs a little."
"You're going to start fondling me now? We're really going to crash."
"Don't worry. As long as you keep your head on straight, we won't."
"Nnh..."
Park Soyeon frowned, but she spread her legs the way Suhyun wanted. His hands moved like a fish that had found water. They traced the grain of her thighs, hunting for erogenous zones, tapping at her pussy through her panties, teasing her arousal higher. Under that stimulation, Park Soyeon let out a whimper like a puppy that needed to go.
"Mmmnh... haah... I really can't figure you out... ahh, at least wait until we get there... haah..."
"Where's the fun in that? The thrill is the whole point of a situation like this."
Apparently not satisfied with just teasing her thighs and the outside of her panties, Suhyun shoved her dress all the way up to her waist. All that was left on Park Soyeon's lower half, as she drove, was her panties.
"You put a lot of thought into the panties, too. Did you wear these to show me?"
"Yeah... I did, so just hold on a little. I really don't think I can concentrate on driving like this."
"Hahaha. Fine. Since it's a cheap little pussy, I'll stop touching it."
"A cheap little what? You're the only person who'd ever say that to me."
Park Soyeon snapped at him, trying to cool the heat rising in her. But that kind of act didn't work on Suhyun. Having agreed not to touch her lower half, his hands moved to her upper body. The fabric stretched easily. It would be simple to pull off.
"Not the top!"
"Why not?"
"Other cars will see!"
"The tint's this dark. Who cares?"
"Still, no. I'll get us there fast, so just wait a little. And if you start grabbing my chest it could mess with my driving. If you bump my arm we could actually crash. So let's just wait a bit, okay? Once I stop the car we can enjoy ourselves together."
The tint was fairly dark. But the silhouette still showed through. Anyone with a sharp eye would be able to tell that Park Soyeon was stripped down. So she tried to talk him around as gently as she could.
It didn't work.
"Alright. I'll grant you the accident risk. I won't touch. But I am taking the clothes off."
"Do you really have to...?"
An either-or. Have sex, or don't. When Suhyun put it like that, Park Soyeon only had one choice.
"Haaah..."
Park Soyeon let out a long breath. She had no idea how things had ended up like this. Losing the initiative over sex. When she was younger, she couldn't have imagined it. Hell, she still couldn't. Among the bar's customers, there were more than a few who'd been in heat just wanting to fuck her once. So why, in front of this man...
It was because Suhyun's technique was too good. Even a touch of his hand brought a violent kind of pleasure. And his face was... well, he was pretty handsome. The kind of looks that made you understand what people meant when they said just looking at someone made them happy.
In the end, Park Soyeon had no choice but to let Suhyun strip her top off as well.