Blackmail (3)
It had been roughly three days since Miyoung caught me on video.
She was still blackmailing me with the footage, but the missions she handed down were always the tame variety—strip, touch your cock, that sort of thing. Not once had it ever gone all the way. Every single time, I was the only one left burning.
At this point I was the one getting curious. Why the hell was she filming these videos? What did she even plan to do with them?
My head was crowded with questions when, just like always, the shoot ended abruptly.
Today she looked especially pleased with herself. The corners of her mouth practically reached her ears as she tossed my clothes at me and walked out of the storage room.
Let’s follow her.
Something told me that tailing her today would give me answers. Miyoung must have been in a hurry; she moved faster than I expected.
I was afraid I’d lose her if I simply walked, so I kept up a light jog to stay on her heels.
“What the… it’s an arcade…”
The first place she stopped was an arcade. She dug a few coins out of her pocket and started playing like any other customer.
I watched from a distance while I sat inside.
A woman with bleached-blonde hair—roots grown out and black—sauntered over. She licked her lips and lifted the corners of her pierced eyes.
“You alone? Whoa~ Let’s have some fun together. I’ll show you something real good, yeah?”
“Nah… I don’t do ugly.”
If you’re going to live like a thug, at least have the face to match. What the hell was a girl who looked like she’d dragged her face across asphalt doing hitting on me?
My mood soured instantly. I almost raised my hand, but starting a fight here might get me caught, so I handled it quietly.
“Ugly? My dad always said I—!”
Thud.
A clean chop to the neck sent her straight to dreamland.
“Huh? Where did she go…”
In the second I’d been distracted, Miyoung had vanished. I spun around, searching.
Had I wasted too much time on that bitch? I rushed outside and caught her just within sight, barely.
She seemed to be heading toward the electronics district. I kept watching and saw her buy a single game chip.
She really likes games?
She’d just been playing at the arcade, and now she was buying more? It was ridiculous. The real question was where the hell she was getting the money to throw around so carelessly.
After the purchase she headed off again with that same indifferent expression. I followed her to the very end.
A… hospital?
The place she took the game chip wasn’t a house. It was a large university hospital.
“What brings you in today?”
“Where did the woman who just walked in go?”
“A woman?”
The lobby was crowded; losing sight of her was easy. I approached a man who looked like staff and asked about the red-haired woman with sharp eyes. He seemed to recognize the description and gave me a knowing smile.
“Ah, got it! You’re Miyoung’s boyfriend, right?”
“No… I mean, yes! I followed her here and…”
I needed to act if I wanted to learn anything. The concept of a worried boyfriend tailing his girlfriend would have to do.
When I confirmed I was her boyfriend, the nurse’s lips curved upward. She asked how long we’d been dating. I spun a quick lie and her pure, happy reaction told me Miyoung was a regular here.
Why would she visit such a big hospital so often? The answer came when the nurse led me to the room.
“Yujin, big sis bought you a game.”
“Thanks, sis. Wow! I’ve been wanting this one…!”
“Don’t stay up late playing, okay? What if your condition gets worse again?”
“I know! Sis~. Thank you.”
Inside the hospital room, Miyoung was talking with her frail younger sister who was clearly in the middle of treatment. The woman who always spat curses and wore unreadable expressions was smiling brightly. It was the first time I’d ever seen it.
I was about to walk in, but the situation stopped me. Instead I leaned against the wall and listened.
The gentle older sister in front of me looked nothing like the woman who secretly filmed and blackmailed people. It threw me off balance.
This is getting complicated.
I’d taken the video lightly, but now I was tangled in something much deeper than expected. Just thinking about it made my stomach turn. I’d already decided that if things went wrong I would hand her over to the police.
But after seeing this, I wasn’t sure I could report her. What the hell was I supposed to do?
“I’ll step out for a minute. Just going to the bathroom, so I’ll be right back. Don’t do anything weird, okay?”
I slipped aside as Miyoung came out. Once I confirmed she was far enough away, I peeked back into the now-open room.
The little girl with the red bob who should have been on the bed… where did she go?
“Bleeeh!!!”
“Ack!?”
“Kyahaha, I knew you were there. Don’t watch from outside—come in.”
She grinned, clearly delighted her prank had worked. Why had she stayed quiet even though she knew I was there? Wasn’t the normal reaction to report a suspicious person in a hospital?
Even after I stepped inside and closed the door, my questions refused to disappear.
“Oppa, you and my sister are close, right?”
“Huh? Yeah… we’re close.”
Close. She’s seen my body and filmed it, after all.
“I knew it~ Oppa, you’re sis’s boyfriend, aren’t you?”
“Boyfriend?”
“You know~ Her b-o-y-f-r-i-e-n-d! She always says she doesn’t have a man, but she’s been hiding a handsome boyfriend this whole time~!”
I couldn’t ignore the girl’s wild imagination and ended up nodding along in a daze.
Proud of her correct guess, she put her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest.
“Still, I’m glad. I thought my sister would stay a virgin forever just playing with me.”
“It wouldn’t be forever… would it?”
“There’s always a ‘what if,’ you know. Sis is so cold to everyone else, so I can’t help worrying.”
Seeing her worry about her sister made her seem like a genuinely good kid. If I had a younger sibling, would this be what it felt like?
Her cuteness and maturity made me reach out and pat her head. I didn’t know their full story yet, but cheering them on couldn’t hurt.
Creak.
“You. Who the hell are you?”
“Sis! If you had a boyfriend you should’ve said something~.”
“Miyoung, can we talk outside for a second?”
From an angle her sister couldn’t see, she pointed outside with her finger. Understanding the signal, I followed her out of the room.
The distance between us suddenly felt vast.
We had both caught weaknesses the other didn’t want exposed. I decided to speak first and sort things out.
“Why are you doing this?”
“What do you mean…”
“You have a little sister. So why the hell are you running around filming random innocent guys?”
She must have given up on hiding it. The story she told me after that was surprising.
She wasn’t keeping the videos. She was selling them to other people, using the money to cover the hospital bills that kept piling up.
When I asked about her family, she said she had no parents—just like me—so there was no one she could ask for help.
What the hell am I supposed to do with this…
If it had only been my video, I could have let it slide. But if there were videos of other people too, her crimes became far more serious.
“I’ll delete your video… but this—”
“No. Even if I hide it for you, it’ll get discovered eventually.”
She seemed to know it too. She hung her head and couldn’t say a word.
What was I supposed to do? Was there a way to help this criminal without exposing her crimes?
Reporting her would be the simplest option. But I didn’t want an ending like that.
“First, delete every video of the other guys.”
“…Okay. I sold them with their faces and names mosaiced anyway.”
“Delete them. Now.”
I wasn’t sure if the videos on her phone were the originals, but she obediently erased them all.
Her submissive attitude was satisfying, but what I was about to suggest was an attempt to avoid the worst possible ending.
“Text everyone you blackmailed. Tell them you won’t be filming anymore.”
“…”
“And I’ll help make sure your income doesn’t dry up. At least somewhat legally.”
There was a way to earn money without filming through illegal channels—by turning views into cash instead of taking money directly.
“I’ll film everything for you. But promise me one thing. After you pay for your sister’s hospital bills and your own, give the rest to me.”
“What?”
“Look, honestly—who would watch those videos? They’re watching because they want to see my body. You can’t even give me that much?”
“No… this is…”
I pressed my index finger firmly against her lips before she could say anything else.
“Why don’t you want to fuck me? I’m offering it for free, so why are you refusing?”
“You crazy bastard…”
“Takes one to know one.”
This was probably the best way to minimize harm to others.
She seemed to accept the proposal of filming a kind of small-scale AV. We stayed at the hospital until late that night and left together.
The place we headed straight for was a nearby motel. She filmed the room with the camera she always carried and made a single suggestion.
“If we’re going to film anyway, how about we do some roleplaying to draw in more viewers?”
“What kind?”
“Rape.”