The Honey Trap
The boss’s shout—“Hey, you little shit! What the hell are you eating during work hours?!”—froze the once-pleasant atmosphere in an instant. I’d already come in expecting trouble, and now that I was casually eating chicken with the girls, it was the final spark that set him off.
“I was the one who told him to eat.”
“What? No, Minji—”
Before I could even speak, the manager, who was close to the boss, jumped in to cover for me. It would’ve been nice if the boss had backed down, but he seemed to think she was taking my side and only grew angrier.
Since he couldn’t complain about the food anymore, he switched targets. “You little bastard, did you finish the cleaning I told you to do?”
“Yes, I did. Go check if you want.”
“What did you just say?”
Convinced I was lying—because there hadn’t been enough time—he stormed off to the storage room. When he found it spotless, not a speck of dust anywhere, his face turned red, then purple. Apparently even a perfect cleaning job wasn’t good enough for him.
“They say even a dog won’t bother someone while they’re eating. How about you ease up a little?”
“You little shit! You done talking?”
“No, not yet. Don’t you think it’s too much that you only ever boss me around?”
“Who the hell do you think you are, you little punk?! You wanna get fired right now?”
The thug-like bastard started barking like some wannabe gangster. I’d already been itching to quit, and now that he was practically begging me to leave, I decided to graciously accept his offer.
“Understood. So I just don’t show up starting tomorrow, right?”
“W-wait, you little—”
“No!”
“Don’t!”
Baek Jina and the manager both shouted at the same time before the boss could even finish. “Boss, aren’t you going too far all of a sudden?”
“Yeah, you went too far. Apologize and end it there.”
For once, both women were on my side instead of the boss’s. They were only defending me because of the chicken—if I quit, they wouldn’t get any more. The boss, unaware of that, trembled with wounded pride and tried to throw me out anyway.
“Fuck! If you show your face here tomorrow, you’re dead!”
“I wasn’t planning on coming back anyway, so do whatever you want. Just make sure you send this month’s pay and all the extra wages for the times you made me come in early. I’ve got everything recorded.”
“W-what?! When the hell did I ever tell you to come in early?! You got proof?!”
At the word “proof,” I pulled out my smartphone like I’d been waiting for it. Seria, play it.
Like the spirit she was, Seria operated the phone without me touching it and started playing back all the recordings I’d saved. The audio was full of vicious swearing, threats, and forced labor that completely ignored labor laws. The boss’s face flushed crimson with rage, and he charged at me like a wild boar.
“You son of a bitch! Delete that right now!”
He lunged for my phone, but I casually sidestepped him.
“Oh? Dodging now? You really wanna die, huh?!”
I didn’t even need to use Sex Power against this guy. His attacks were so simple and brainless that I could dodge them with my eyes closed. I played the part of a matador, dodging just close enough to make his fury spike even higher. What started as an attempt to snatch the phone soon turned into wild punches aimed at my face.
This bastard’s crossing the line. Part of me wanted to knock him out, but I had no desire to end up at the police station for assault right after returning to Earth. There were witnesses, and the store’s CCTV was running. While I was wondering what to do, a good idea came to me.
Seria, text 112 and report that there’s an assailant here.
-Understood, Jin.
Since we were in a busy university district, the police on standby would arrive in a minute or two. I leisurely toyed with the boss while waiting for them.
They’re here! Now’s the time.
The sound of a police siren approached, and two officers came running. The moment they opened the store door, the boss—infuriated that I kept dodging by a hair’s breadth—threw a full-power punch straight at my face. Contrary to his expectation that it would miss again, his fist connected hard. For a brief moment he looked triumphant, but when he noticed the officers standing right behind him, his face went deathly pale. He was caught red-handed in the act of assault.
* * *
“Fuck, fuck!”
After spending the whole night at the station and finally being released after reaching a settlement, the boss spat curses the moment he was free. Looking back, everything had felt off from the start. The guy who used to avoid eye contact had suddenly started talking back and deliberately provoked him. And the fact that the police showed up meant he’d been setting a trap all along.
The settlement had cost him five million won, including the part-time wages. On top of that, he’d been warned that if he didn’t pay three months’ worth of weekly holiday pay, night differential, and overtime within the week, they’d report him—so he was looking at losing several hundred thousand more.
“That fucking bastard set me up? Just you wait.”
“You should’ve gone easy on him like I said.”
“Whose side are you even on?!”
The boss snapped at Kim Minji, his high-school classmate and the store manager. Minji was feeling pretty disappointed herself.
I was going to watch him for a few days and figure out the recipe…
She’d never liked chicken that much, yet his cooking was so good she kept reaching for more. If she couldn’t learn the recipe by watching, she’d even planned to seduce him with her body. But this idiot had ruined everything.
“Damn it! I’m definitely getting revenge.”
“He already quit. How are you going to do that?”
After thinking it over, the boss looked at Kim Minji and carefully spoke up. “…Hey, do you know what a honey trap is?”
“What? Are you crazy—”
She started to get angry at the suggestion, then paused. Actually, it wasn’t a bad idea. I was already planning to seduce him with my body anyway. If it worked, she could blackmail him into handing over the recipe. If it failed, she could just pin everything on the boss and play the victim. She pretended to fiddle with her phone while turning on the voice recorder.
“Tell me the details.”
“So my plan is…”
Completely unaware that his voice was being recorded, the boss began rambling about his criminal scheme.
* * *
The next evening, I got a message from the manager asking if I wanted to grab a drink. I knew her number, but we’d never actually texted before, so I couldn’t help being suspicious.
She’s definitely up to something.
She’d seemed pretty close to the boss. Maybe she was calling me out for revenge. Ignoring her felt risky too—what if she came after me later? I decided to meet her and see what happened, heading to a bar near my place.
“Over here!”
“Hello, Manager.”
“We’re not at the store. Just call me Kim Minji.”
I hadn’t remembered her name, but she kindly introduced herself first.
“You didn’t go to work today, Minji?”
“I quit too. I never liked that bastard boss anyway.”
So now the only one left at the store was Baek Jina, the hall part-timer. The thought of her struggling alone made me feel a little sorry. I didn’t regret quitting at all, but not seeing Baek Jina again left a small pang of regret. We went to different departments, but since we were at the same university, I hoped we’d run into each other again someday.
We ordered drinks and snacks and started talking. The main topic was, of course, the boss. Kim Minji cursed him out with such genuine-sounding emotion that I couldn’t tell if she was being sincere or just trying to lower my guard.
I thought she called me here to get revenge because she’s close to the boss, but maybe not?
-Shall I check for you?
You? How?
-I may be a smartphone spirit, but I still have my uses. If you bring your phone near hers, I can check her messages and chat history.
Following Seria’s instructions, I placed my phone near Kim Minji’s. A moment later, Seria said she’d found something and displayed the chat logs on my screen.
-[Boss] Did you meet him?
-[Kim Minji] Yeah
-[Boss] When you go into the motel, send me the room number. Don’t forget to leave marks like you were raped.
-[Kim Minji] Got it
The conversation was short, but it was more than enough to understand their plan. They were going to leave evidence of assault, and once the sex was over, the boss would burst in and either press charges or extort a settlement. After reading the messages, I wasn’t even angry—just dumbfounded.
She said she didn’t like the boss, but…
If I hadn’t checked the chat, I might’ve been fooled. She’d lied without batting an eye. Given that the boss was a thug, it made sense that someone close to him would be just as shady.
What do I do now?
It was a honey trap I knew about in advance. If I just drank and left, nothing would happen—but throwing away the chance to sleep with her felt like a waste.
As long as I erase all the evidence perfectly, it should be fine, right?
“Something interesting on your phone?”
When I stayed silent, staring at my screen, Kim Minji held out her glass and spoke. Then she naturally started badmouthing the boss again.
“You have no idea how satisfying it was watching that bastard get dragged to the station. He’d stare at my ass whenever he was bored, then pretend to walk past and grope me. I only held back because he’s the boss—if it were a slim guy like you, I would’ve sued him for real.”
“I see.”
-She doesn’t even treat you like a person normally, yet she sure talks well.
Thinking I was drunk enough, Kim Minji started steering the conversation toward sexual topics. Before I knew it, she’d moved from across the table to the seat right beside me. She was close enough that I could smell her faint perfume, and she pressed her body against mine as she spoke.
“Now that I think about it, you used to stare at me a lot too. Didn’t you want to touch?”
“Well, I mean…”
She’d been walking around in skin-tight leggings that left nothing to the imagination—how could I not want to touch? Today she’d worn black ones on purpose, showing them off. She wasn’t even wearing underwear; the outline of her most intimate area was clearly visible through the stretched fabric.
Noticing where my eyes had gone, she gave me a suggestive smile and whispered in my ear.
“Then… want to touch it today?”