The King Game (Part Two)
About an hour had passed.
In that time, I had been put through every bizarre, outlandish demand imaginable.
"For one minute... no, three minutes... actually, five minutes, please add 'nyan' to the end of everything you say!"
"What kind of bullshit is that, nyan?"
"The nyan-speak is correct, but somehow this isn't what I imagined at all...!"
"Why do you always have so many complaints, nyan."
Haerin's nyan-speak decree. A command laced with more than a little retaliatory spite.
"Please praise me."
"Out of nowhere?"
"Not just some throwaway compliment. Put your heart into it and praise me properly."
"....???"
Hyewon's praise decree. A demand to be cooed over and doted on like a newborn baby, complete with the whole bounce-bounce treatment.
The one silver lining was that none of them pushed past a certain line with their requests.
The real problem is something else entirely...
Right. Take Yeonhwa, for instance.
"I've been thinking about this for a while, and Instructor, you know what? The little-brother role suits you perfectly."
"You really want to say that to a guy who's almost thirty?"
"Come on. Call me big sis."
"............"
A full-on psychological assault. She wanted me — a man older than her — to call her big sis and act all cutesy about it.
No one in their right mind would ever issue a command like that. Then again, among Spirit Contractors, the odds of finding someone in their right mind were approximately zero.
"........Big sis."
"............."
"....?"
"Ah, wait. Hmm. That's a little... yeah."
I did as she asked and called her big sis. Yeonhwa wouldn't even look me in the face. She turned her head away and, without a word, pressed my head down into her chest with her hand — fwump...
"Fwumph?"
"It tickles, so don't talk. And don't breathe so hard through your nose."
".....Fwumph. Fwum-fwumph."
She was the one who'd dragged my head into her own chest with her own hand. And yet Yeonhwa stroked my hair as if she really were my big sister, crowing her big-sis declaration the whole time.
I could feel my sanity eroding in real time. Still — fine. Up to this point, I could endure it.
"Dyuhu... dyuhuhuhu.....!"
"...Hhhhh."
But there was one person. Just one. Nam Sujin. That girl operated on an entirely different plane of existence.
Th-this time, an ahegao line...!
Making me act out anime and manga dialogue was the bare minimum.
Stay completely still for one minute! ....Heheh.... hehihiheh...!!
Out of nowhere she'd order me to freeze, then bury her face in my chest and inhale so deeply it was genuinely unsettling.
Hold me tight....♪
A full-body, skin-to-skin embrace. This one was genuinely dangerous. Having her pressed against me everywhere was bad enough — but the real problem was how clearly I could feel her through my cock.
If Yeonhwa was the one driving me to my mental limit, Sujin was the one testing my physical breaking point. More than once my hands nearly turned traitorous, and I had to grind my teeth just to hold them back.
"Licht-nim... please, kiss my armpit!"
"..........."
Should I just endure it? Or was this basically a green light?
After that hug earlier, the stain left on my pants looked like nothing other than her wetness, no matter how you spun it. So this was a subtle go-ahead — as if it could possibly be that!
Focus! Concentrate! Please! Concentrate!
It was just a nasty little prank. I couldn't let myself get shaken by something like this.
"Hyaah.... Licht-nim's breath...♥"
".........."
I steeled myself all over again and pressed on with the King Game.
"Who will be the next kiiiing~?"
".........."
I let out a quiet breath and slowly reached for the chopsticks.
Someone might ask: if you already know the whole thing is rigged, why keep playing? Aren't you just enjoying it at this point?
And yet the reason I kept going anyway was...
"I am the king."
"""".........""""
...because sometimes I actually got drawn as king.
Usually right around the moment I was about to snap, or when I was clearly struggling. Right when I was seriously considering flipping the whole table and ending it, they'd hand me the king's token. A scrap of bait. Hope as torture — I knew that perfectly well.
But by now the sunk cost was too high to walk away. And if I just toughed it out a little longer, everyone could laugh it off and move on...
....Hhhhh.
Fine. I'll be honest. I might have been enjoying it. Just a little. A tiny bit....!
No. But. Still. What choice did I have?!
My heart was pounding. Racing like mad. Yes, I was exhausted and worn down — but more than that, something swelling and thrilling and intoxicating was flooding my skull until there was no room left for anything else.
As a man, this was a situation I simply could not back down from.
Judging rationally, wasn't this all complete nonsense? Sure. But the moment you were the guy sitting between four women with your dick half-hard, rational judgment had already packed its bags and left the building.
Still — this is the last one.
I slowly turned my head toward Hyewon and spoke.
"Phone. Hand it over."
"........"
Hyewon pulled a phone from her clothes and held it out.
"...What?"
"...You never specified whose phone."
Technically, she had given me Hyewon's phone. I was so floored I let out a short, incredulous laugh, and Hyewon flinched, her whole body trembling. Even she must have been embarrassed by her own stunt.
"Let's do this the easy way. Give it back."
"...I already gave you a phone."
But Hyewon wouldn't listen. If anything, she dug her heels in harder.
"Haaaah... Hyewon. You think I'm doing this because I can't just take it?"
"........."
I shot the words at her with half a threat in my voice. Hyewon kept her head down in silence. This time, at last, she started to pull out my phone and place it in my hand...
"This is my final command."
"...What?"
...but before she handed it over, she lifted the chopsticks — the king's token that had somehow ended up in my grip — and made her declaration.
"If you follow just this one last command, I'll give your phone back."
".........."
Why was she suddenly throwing a tantrum like a child? I rested my chin in my hand for a moment and studied her.
"If you listen just this once, I won't throw any more fits. So please. Listen to my command."
"....Haaaaah."
She kept her head down, unable to meet my eyes — ashamed of herself, clearly. And yet she still pushed. Still wanted it. Still pleaded for it.
What on earth had turned Hyewon into this?
"Fine. What is it you want so badly?"
I let out a long breath and asked her. Hyewon slowly raised her head. Her face was flushed deep red, but her eyes didn't waver as she looked straight at me.
"Please kiss me."
The final command.
Press lips to lips and hold for one full minute.
"Is this really okay....?"
Sunwoo looked a little flustered, but he didn't refuse. The usual Sunwoo almost certainly would have. But the Sunwoo sitting here now couldn't. This was the result of slowly, steadily shaking and warping his sense of where the line was supposed to be.
Thumpthumpthumpthump
...Nnh...!
Her heart was hammering hard enough to burst. The sound of it pounding in her chest — and even louder than that, Sunwoo's breathing right in front of her, brushing against her ear.
Has Sunwoo oppa always been this tall?
Of course he had. She'd always thought of him as solid, reliable. But today that meaning felt different somehow.
Male.
Put bluntly — she felt him as a male. A presence that melted her heart, her emotions, her reason, and reduced her to a single female.
If what she felt dealing with him day to day was "reassurance," then what she felt now was something beyond that. Something close to the emotion she'd once called "love" as a child, heart racing in her chest — only more desperate, more sticky, more clinging than anything from back then.
A thick, crimson feeling seeped through her heart and spread heavy and warm through her whole body, and before she knew it a tingling tremor started between her legs.
"Just one minute."
".....Yes."
She was wet.
It was mortifying.
But more than that—
"Hnn...!"
What was this? This feeling. This emotion.
There was nothing physically pleasurable about it. Lips weren't an erogenous zone, so there was no reason for any real pleasure to register. They weren't even mixing tongues, or biting and sucking. Just pressing lips together — the kind of peck a parent might give a child.
That was all it was. And yet.
What... do I do....!
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Her heartbeat thundered against her eardrums. A hot, strange steam filled her head to the brim. Both hands clenched tight, and before she realized it she was leaning her whole body into his.
She wanted to lean on him.
She wanted to be held in his arms.
She wanted to pour everything she had into his embrace.
Carrying that feeling, she pressed a little harder into Sunwoo's lips, pouring her heart into the contact.
But—
"Thirty seconds! Halfway there!"
"Chuuup....."
Was she the only one like this?
Was she the only one feeling this way?
Sunwoo didn't hold her. He didn't wrap his arms around the girl pressing into him.
"......Nnh...!"
"..........."
Right. That was fair. Sunwoo oppa was "that kind of person," after all. Normally she would have told herself that's just how he is and let it go.
"Nnh.... chuuup....!"
"Hhk──?!"
But not this time.
Shame, embarrassment — none of it mattered. The everyday her, the rational her, even the mask she'd spent so long maintaining — she cast them all off and stood here as she was.
Throwing a tantrum like a spoiled child. Being as shameless and insistent as a brazen cat. And still, with everything she had, pleading with Sunwoo to receive this feeling.
That feeling. That resolve. A sincerity that put everything before it to shame.
A girl's heart had, at some point, become a grown woman's truth.
And Hyewon, as if pouring that truth out, flicked the tip of her tongue across Sunwoo's lips.
"Chuuup.... chu.... haahm.... jjuuup....!"
"Mmph.... w-wait, the tongue── mmph, nnmph..."
Please understand. Please understand how I feel. She pleaded. She cried out with everything she had. Before she knew it, both hands planted on Sunwoo's chest had locked around him in a full, desperate embrace.
"Twenty seconds."
She lapped at his lips. The way a kitten licks — a gesture begging for affection, pleading for love.
"Fifteen seconds."
Both arms squeezed tight. She pressed herself against him as if she never wanted to let go. Clinging to Sunwoo. Pleading toward Sunwoo.
"Ten seconds."
"....Hnn...!"
He still didn't move.
Faced with what was, for all intents and purposes, a confession — Sunwoo offered what was, for all intents and purposes, a rejection. Not a twitch. Not a single motion.
Was a confession given with everything she had simply going to end without an answer?
"Nine seconds."
"Chubububup!"
No. She didn't want that. Anything but that.
"Eight seconds."
"Haahm... chuuuup...!"
She forced her tongue into his mouth. Pouring strength into the tip, she tried to pry open the teeth clenched shut against her.
"Seven seconds."
"Jjuuuup... haahp!"
Even a lie would be fine. Even if he dismissed it as a momentary impulse — that would be fine.
"Six seconds."
"Mmph.... hnnngh....!"
She knocked. She knocked on Sunwoo's door with raw, desperate force.
"Five seconds."
"........"
Please understand. Please understand my heart. She knocked, and knocked, and knocked again.
"Four seconds."
"..........Ha."
Maybe it was only natural. Of course it was. She'd known what kind of person he was for a long time now.
"Three seconds."
"Sunwoo oppa."
She stopped pressing her lips to his. There was no point. No reason left. And yet the reason she was still standing here at all was—
"Two seconds."
".....Never mind."
The strength drained from both hands. How hard had she been gripping? Her palms tingled. Right. Maybe she'd seen this coming all along. Something inside her settled into place with a quiet click.
"One second."
"───Chup."
A light brush of lips. Infinitely lighter than before. But inside that briefest of kisses was something someone wanted to give the person they loved.
She could have forced it. She could have gotten angry. But she simply — simply loved him enough to let go.
"....Time."
"".........""
One minute passed, and they looked at each other. Hyewon wore a smile like something had been set down at last, her eyes full of tears.
And Sunwoo...
"One minute. I held out, so."
"....Oppa..?"
...had eyes in which reason had completely short-circuited. Eyes drowned in lust. The eyes of a male who could think of nothing but putting a child in the female in front of him.
THUD!
"Kyaaah?!"
He caught both of Hyewon's wrists and pinned them to the wall. No gentleness. No consideration. Rough enough that an ordinary person might have bruised.
And before Hyewon could even gather her wits—
"Nn──mmph?!..... Chuuup.... heahm, haahm. Churrup...!"
—he kissed her. Mixed his tongue with hers. Violently, hungrily, as if he meant to devour her whole.
"O....ppa....?"
"..........."
Half joy. Half bewilderment. For a fleeting moment her heart soared at Sunwoo's sudden transformation — and then—
"Ah......"
Something hot and hard pressed between her legs. And above her, Sunwoo's ragged, burning gaze. A look that had nothing to do with love — the look of a male intent only on impregnating the female before him.
"....Hic!"
The faint joy that had been rising in her chest was slowly swallowed by a dark, blue-black dread creeping in from every side.