Bait: Shin Mi-yun (1)
While I waited, a male idol and an actress came in as well. The trainee girl idols who'd arrived before me had already been called to their stations and were getting their hair done.
Still, every one of them kept stealing glances at me, painfully aware of my presence.
Nobody said a word, but I could feel what they were thinking.
Who even is that guy?
An actor, maybe?
Some new idol?
That was roughly the look in their eyes. Not a single one of them, though, actually worked up the nerve to speak to me.
They were curious, sure—but striking up a conversation wasn't so simple. What if they asked and it turned out I was already an active actor or idol? Then they'd be the ones who'd committed the rudeness of not recognizing me. Or maybe some of them were already debuted idols themselves, too proud to ask.
A little more time passed, and a man who looked like the actress's manager walked into the shop. He seemed a bit old for a regular manager—more like a team-leader level at an agency.
The moment he spotted the actress, he started scolding her.
"A-jeong. What are you doing just sitting here?"
"They said I don't have a reservation today… They told me to wait two hours for Ms. Shin."
"What? You don't have a reservation today? What the hell has that Tae-hyung kid been doing if he didn't even book the salon? The interview's in two hours. And you, A-jeong—if you didn't have a reservation, you should have told me ahead of time."
"I-I'm sorry."
"Or you should have asked them to squeeze you in early for the interview, or at least gotten someone else to do it."
"I'm sorry…"
So her name was A-jeong.
I'd never heard it before—probably a rookie actress. I might have seen her in a minor drama role once.
She was wearing an oversized printed sweatshirt, and even through that loose fabric the sheer volume of her chest was impossible to miss. That wasn't fat. My eye for these things was sharp enough—that was all breast.
Overwhelmingly massive tits.
Slightly drooping outer corners to her eyes, with a tiny beauty mark beneath one of them as the finishing touch. She still had a bit of baby fat in her cheeks, giving her face a soft, round, rabbit-like look. The bone structure itself wasn't particularly round, though—her jawline still held a clean V-shape. Once the leftover softness melted off, she'd have a cute-sexy kind of face.
That face with those breasts. Textbook bagel girl.
I was definitely putting her on my client list.
And "Ms. Shin"—wasn't that Deputy Representative Shin Mi-yun, the one I was booked with?
Perfect timing to hand over a business card.
I casually raised a hand and spoke to her manager.
"By Ms. Shin, do you mean Deputy Representative Shin Mi-yun?"
"Yes, that's right. Why?"
"Would you like me to give up my slot? I was next anyway."
"Oh, we'd really appreciate that. But…"
The manager looked me up and down.
"You're an actor, right? I know pretty much every actor and idol profile there is, but I've never seen your face."
"Ah. I'm not an actor."
"An idol, then?"
"Not a celebrity."
"Ah… You're not?"
For a moment the manager looked stunned speechless. Then something seemed to occur to him; he pulled a business card from his jacket and held it out to me.
"No Hak-gyu, team leader at TNB Entertainment. If you ever want to act, give me a call."
So this was street casting?
Handing over a card based on looks alone. That was the power of the Lust Demon God for you.
Not that I had any intention of becoming a celebrity.
A card for a card.
I stuffed his into my wallet and pulled out one of my own.
NOIR CLINIC.
"This is who I am."
"Ah… A clinic? What kind of…? Dermatology?"
"Not just skincare. Broader than that."
"Ah, beauty industry. So you're in the business yourself."
The reason I could call myself a representative even looking at most twenty-something: the expensive clothes and the watch. That was what the ten million won had been for.
See? Even a team leader at an entertainment company—a total industry veteran—was nodding along and buying it.
No Hak-gyu clicked his tongue.
"Tsk. Shame. Twenty years as a manager, and I thought I'd finally landed the ultimate prospect."
I pointed at the actress beside him—A-jeong.
"Isn't she someone worth betting on too?"
"A-jeong? She's still got a long way to go. Honestly, you seem better suited to this side of things than beauty work."
"I'm not interested in the entertainment industry. Sorry. But if you call the number on that card, I'll take special care of any TNB talent."
As a bonus, I handed a card to A-jeong as well. She glanced at her manager, then awkwardly accepted it.
"Rookie actress A-jeong."
She bowed her head in greeting, and I felt the heavy sway of her chest. Even an oversized sweatshirt couldn't hide it. She'd clearly worn something deliberately big to cover up—but the fact that it still showed through that much told me the volume was staggering.
What cup size is that? G? H?
While I was estimating by eye, a salon staff member stepped into the waiting area.
"Sir, I'll show you in now."
I pointed toward A-jeong.
"Ah—please take her first. I'm fine on time."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. We've already worked it out."
"Understood. Then we'll do A-jeong first. This way, please."
"Thank you."
A-jeong bowed again and followed the staff member out.
My turn finally came.
My seat was right next to A-jeong's. She was getting her finishing touches from an assistant designer. We caught each other's eyes in the mirror and exchanged a small nod. She looked grateful for the slot. Under the salon cape, the swell of her chest stood out sharply. No matter how I looked at it, those weren't merely large breasts—they were massive.
My eyes kept drifting toward them, but in reality my gaze only lingered for a fraction of a second. Getting caught staring this early would be a disaster.
Shin Mi-yun, freshly finished washing her hands, swept over behind me with her blonde hair trailing.
"Hello. How can I help you today?"
"Just a hair set, please. I have an important meeting this evening."
I answered as calmly as I could, as if this were the most natural thing in the world.
I am the head of a clinic. I am the head of an aesthetic brand.
The silent self-coaching must have worked. Shin Mi-yun smiled brightly without a hint of suspicion.
"Then I'll tidy up the ends a little and give you a clean blow-dry. Do you use anything in your hair? Shall I sweep it back with pomade?"
"No. Keep it natural."
"Got it. Natural it is."
Her smile was genuinely warm. That had to be the Lust Demon God's influence as well.
I turned my head slightly and looked toward A-jeong's station in the mirror again.
Our eyes met.
That round little face with the softly drooping eyes was staring blankly at me. The instant our gazes locked, she ducked her head. Embarrassed she'd been caught looking.
I wanted to jump her right then and there—but this wasn't the murim world, and pulling something like that would be irreversible. I'd spend the rest of my life in hiding.
Not happening.
Patience. I'd held out for thirty years—what was another thirty days?
Bitter the root, sweet the fruit.
A-jeong finished up and headed out. The rear view in the mirror was substantial. Her exit was a shame, but this wasn't the moment to stake everything on her. I needed to focus on the target in front of me.
Right now, that target was Shin Mi-yun.
She worked on my hair as she spoke.
"Oh my, your hair is in such wonderful condition."
"Is it?"
"Yes. I've never seen a man with hair this healthy."
Shin Mi-yun praised me as she trimmed the ends.
She was older than A-jeong, and neither her face nor her chest measured up—but she had a slim, elongated elegance. A-jeong simply set the bar too high as a celebrity; Shin Mi-yun wouldn't lose to anyone in an ordinary room.
Grade-wise, call her an A-minus.
If top-tier celebrities were S, A-jeong sat somewhere between S-minus and A. Having sworn off anything B-grade or below, Shin Mi-yun's looks scraped just barely over my cut line.
That was fine, though.
She was going to be the bait that reeled in the celebrities. I needed to bring her under my wing properly from the start.
"An important meeting—is it something like an audition?"
Shin Mi-yun's small talk continued.
"An audition?"
"Yes. I've never seen you in our shop before. Are you an actor? Or a singer?"
"No. I'm not a celebrity."
"Oh—you're not? Wow…"
She looked me over again—face, hair, shoulders, body—and let out a quiet sound of amazement, as if she couldn't quite believe someone who looked like this wasn't in the industry.
"Your hair and your skin are just so good… I was sure you were an actor or an idol."
"Haha. Thank you."
"Do you get any special treatments done?"
"Treatments?"
Perfect.
I'd been wondering how to steer the conversation toward my work, and Shin Mi-yun had walked right into it on her own.
"I don't so much receive them as handle them myself."
"Oh, really? How? We use all sorts of products trying to keep our clients' hair healthy, but nothing ever quite beats what you're born with. And we change our own hair so often…"
Shin Mi-yun absently touched the bleached, damaged ends of her own hair as she muttered.
"Would you like me to show you my method?"
"Oh, really? We'd love that!"
I took a business card from my pocket and held it out. Shin Mi-yun accepted it with the hand still holding her scissors and stared at it blankly.
"Noir… Clinic?"
"Yes. A beauty clinic. Skincare, body contouring… hair restoration as well, of course."
"Ahh. A beauty clinic…"
She looked mildly startled by my unexpected identity, and a little skeptical too. This industry was crawling with frauds, after all.
But that was the power of the Lust Demon God—looks and presence alone made people accept almost anything.
"We use a somewhat unique technique. Similar to meridian massage."
"Ahh…"
"Would you like to try it once? I can do a short session right now."
"Right now?"
"Yes."
I nodded with total confidence, and Shin Mi-yun's gaze wavered instead. She clearly wanted to try it—but receiving care from a client, in her own workplace, made her uncomfortable.
In the end, she agreed to let me give her a treatment.
She set down her scissors and closed the open door to the deputy representative's private room.
A brief window with no one watching.
I stood quickly and sat Shin Mi-yun down in my chair.
Client and stylist, positions reversed.
No hesitating here.
An opportunity that had come fast. I couldn't let it slip.
I placed my hands on Shin Mi-yun's scalp at once and drew up the power of the Lust Art.
A little nervous, honestly.
I'd trained in Hwanhui Saekjeong Magong for thirty years, but this was the first time I'd ever altered another person's body. Until now I'd focused almost entirely on building internal energy. Given the nature of Dongjagong, there was nothing I could do until the full body reconstruction unlocked the Lust Demon God.
How to channel qi into someone else to produce anatomical correction—that part I'd only been able to study from books.
First real combat.
I'd burned nearly all my internal energy on the reconstruction, so I barely had any left—but according to what I'd learned, even a speck of energy was enough to work the technique.
First I pressed the acupoints, sending a pleasant coolness through her while lightly brushing the back of her neck and the area behind her ears, coaxing a subtle stimulation.
"Mmm—ah. That feels amazing."
Shin Mi-yun closed her eyes and sank into the scalp massage. She was already melting under my hands.
"Hnn. Ah."
Pressing acupoints used only the faintest thread of internal energy. What I was after was getting Shin Mi-yun to feel a little pleasure and goodwill.
The Lust Art I'd mastered wasn't some crude energy-draining technique that simply stole a partner's internal power.
It converts the other person's goodwill and pleasure into internal energy—and absorbs that.
As I massaged her scalp, I took in the faint pleasure she was experiencing, converted it to internal energy, and fed that energy back into repairing the damage in her hair.
It's working! Just a little, but the lust energy is converting into internal power.
"Mmmnn…"
The comfort and faint excitement Shin Mi-yun felt turned into internal energy. Compared to what I'd once accumulated through decades of training, it was a speck of dust—but a speck was still something.
I gathered that faint energy in my dantian and channeled it back through my hands to restore her hair. Burning through every bit of energy from my first real application—but there was no reason to hoard something this small. I needed to think bigger.
"Hooo… You're really good at this. My head feels so clear and cool."
The split ends were slowly knitting back together. Hair that had been dry and brittle began to take on a soft, glossy sway.
Energy dispersed from the outside only lasts temporarily—but it'll do for now.
Good enough.
"All done."
"Al-already?"
"Yes. It's been a full ten minutes."
"Oh my, time went that fast…? It really does feel incredible…!"
Startled that ten minutes had already passed, Shin Mi-yun opened her eyes and looked in the mirror.
"I only did a simple version. Want to feel it for yourself?"
"Really?"
She smiled out of habit. The massage had left her feeling good, but she still didn't entirely believe me. As if hair could improve in ten minutes.
And then—
"Oh my god!? It's real?"
She held strand after strand up to the mirror light, stunned by the results.
"Your hair was pretty badly damaged, so it won't last long. This was just a short sample, too. If you want a proper treatment, call the number on the card. I'll give the deputy representative a good rate."
"Really? You mean it?"
"Of course."
"I'll definitely call!"
Eyes shining with gratitude, she clasped both hands together and promised she would.
I'd break her in with the Lust Art—and use her as bait to bring in the other celebrities.