Crafting a Way to Hook the Prey
"Sss… haah…"
I stepped out of the villa, took a long drag on my cigarette, and let the proverbial smoke out with it. A thick cloud of tobacco smoke unfurled in front of my face, blotting out everything beyond it.
"Haa…. Fuu…."
The tension forced the breath out of me on its own. My heart, which had been hammering like mad, had finally settled into something almost manageable.
Outside, it was around seven in the evening.
"Ugh… it's chilly…"
Still early spring, so the night air had a bite to it. I'd come out in the training clothes I lounged around the house in, and even those weren't quite enough to keep the cold off.
The sun had already dipped low, and the dark of night and the stars of the night sky were spreading over the whole neighborhood. The cloudless sky was clear enough that even here in the middle of a bedroom community, you could just make out a few stars glittering overhead.
My mind, though, was the opposite of that clear sky — tangled up and spinning.
"Ssssss… fuu… pah…!"
I put the cigarette back between my lips, drew the smoke deep into my lungs, and blew it back out. Another dense curtain of smoke spread across my vision.
"I've made up my mind… but… fuck… do I actually do this…?"
My head was a mess. The internal conflict wouldn't stop. Like the cigarette burning down between my lips, like the lungs sucking that smoke in, something inside me was blackening and burning away.
"Ha… it's certain… it's really fucking certain…"
I couldn't stop talking to myself.
I kept the cigarette clamped in my mouth and pulled out my smartphone, opening the photo app. I tapped the most recent shot, and the screen filled with the picture I'd just taken of Nabi's profile on the monitor.
"Sss… ha…!"
I took another drag while staring at that photo, then exhaled. Every time I smoked, the haze that veiled my eyes felt like a perfect stand-in for what was going on inside my head.
Do I really… go for it? Just fucking do it?
Or is it too dangerous, so I leave it alone?
"Ssssss… ha…. Ha… fucking hell…"
The curse came out mixed with the smoke.
Back when I'd been sitting in my room turning it over and over, I'd been pure impulse. After finding out who Nabi really was, my heart had been pounding so hard it wouldn't calm down no matter what. The adrenaline had been dumping so hard that I'd just decided, in my head, that I was going to do it.
I'd sat in that chair from midday until now turning the idea over, and still no answer had come. In the end, with my head a tangle and my heart still racing, I'd only come outside once the sky started to darken — hoping a cigarette might straighten my thoughts. It still hadn't given me an answer.
Realistically, what I was about to do was blackmail and rape. Straight-up crime.
But…
The realistic part of me was scared, sure. That didn't mean walking away from prey sitting right in front of me made any sense either.
The perfect jotjip for turning into a flesh toilet was right there in front of me, and I was supposed to just hold back?
"Fine… say I do it. Say I actually fuck her. Then what?"
I asked myself after thinking it through.
Like I'd said, I already had the evidence — I'd photographed Nabi's Blow profile. On top of that, Nabi herself had posted a tweet straight-up asking someone to come fuck her.
But if I cooled my head and looked at it coldly…
That tweet read like nothing more than a wide-area provocation. Nabi had been running her Sect for years, built up a hundred thousand followers, and never once let her real identity slip. That kind of confidence was exactly what let her drop a tweet like that without a second thought.
Well… now that I'd found her out, that confidence could flip into pure arrogance depending on how things went…
"Ssssss… hua…!"
I drew the smoke deep again and pushed it back out of my lungs. I'd been thinking so hard that more than half the cigarette was already gone.
"Fuu…."
I let out a breath thick with tension.
What I was about to do was pure gambling. All-in. And not even an all-in with only what I had on the table. This was the kind of all-in where you go into debt and bet more than you own. If I put it down and cleaned up, it was jackpot. If I went bust here, my life was genuinely fucked.
Succeed and it was huge. Fail and it was a negative-life total wipeout. The return on the bet was as extreme as it got.
"Then… think it through properly before I go in."
Bet without thinking and you ruin yourself. I needed a plan. If I was going to do this, I had to move a little more carefully.
"Ssssss… ha…"
Another drag, lungs soaked in nicotine, then out again.
"Haven't even tapped the ash off once…"
I'd been chain-smoking so deep in thought that a long column of ash was still clinging to the cigarette. The burn had already crept almost down to the filter.
Tap. Tap.
I flicked the ash off with my index finger. It scattered into the air and rode the wind away.
"Hoo…"
Tap. Tap.
This time I hit the ember hard enough to knock it free too.
Tap.
Scrape. Scrape.
I ground the fallen butt out under my shoe on the asphalt.
"Fuu…"
I let out another of those sighs that had become routine thanks to the mess in my head.
I shook the last of the tobacco out of the butt and tossed it into the trash can by the smoking area.
"Ugh… it's cold…"
April, and the night air still had a chill. Whether it was just my mood or not, it felt colder than when I'd first stepped out of the villa. I trudged back toward the entrance, rubbing my arms with both hands against the cold.
"Hwaaah….!"
The second I woke up, my mouth cracked open in a huge yawn. I had no idea how I'd even managed to sleep. Last night I'd stood outside smoking and fretting for ages, never reached a conclusion, and come back inside. Then, the moment I was home, I'd fired up the computer like always to shake off the tangled thoughts and gamed straight through the night. At least I'd crashed around four in the morning… so maybe that counted as going to bed early?
"Auuuugh…!!!"
I pushed myself up on the bed and stretched, working the stiffness out of a body that had gone stiff overnight. Strong sunlight was bouncing through the window and lighting up the whole room.
"What time is it…?"
I picked up the smartphone from the nightstand and woke the screen.
April 21, 2024 — 12:00 p.m.
For someone who'd gone to sleep at four, I'd woken up pretty early.
"Fuuuu… ah… I'm thirsty…"
Thirst hit me the moment I was up, so I headed out to the living room and over to the home water purifier in the kitchen.
Clunk.
Rattle.
Ding!
Glug-glug-glug…
I set a cup on the purifier's stand, hit the button, and filled it.
Ding!
Clunk.
"Gulp. Gulp. Gulp. Hua…"
One glass of cold water and the leftover drowsiness seemed to blow away.
"Uwaaah~~!"
I laced my fingers, stretched my arms high over my head, and let out a loud stretch. Working the stiffness out of my body, my head felt like it was clearing bit by bit.
A little middle-aged of me, maybe… but nobody was watching, so who cared. It didn't matter at all.
"Nice day again."
I murmured it under my breath, looking out through the living room at the veranda that opened onto the outside. Just like yesterday, the weather was bright and crisp. The complicated feelings hadn't fully gone, but looking at the scenery under that good weather made my chest feel a little lighter.
"Maybe I'll step out for a bit."
Out of nowhere I wanted some air, so I grabbed my phone and went to the veranda.
Rumble.
Rumble.
I opened the veranda window, stepped out, and opened the outer window as well. A fresh spring breeze came through the open frame and ran over my body. The soft wind felt good.
"Hmm…."
With a short sound in my throat, I unlocked the phone and looked again at the photo of Nabi's Blow profile I'd taken yesterday. I'd been living an ordinary morning until that second — and the moment I saw the picture, the complicated thoughts came flooding back.
"Once I put a foot in… I don't think I can go back to how things were…"
Exactly that. If I fucked Kang Hyunji — no. If I fucked that perverted Sect girl Nabi — my everyday life would flip for good. If I just buried it alone in my head, maybe it would hurt less. But I couldn't let the prey get away either.
"Hmm… huh?"
I was looking out past the veranda to settle myself when my gaze snagged on one spot. Someone familiar.
"Kang Hyunji… no… Nabi…"
I rolled every name for the woman who was about to become my prey around in my mouth and let them out. Nabi was standing out in the courtyard, which was packed with parked cars.
"…."
A thought flashed through me all at once. I closed the app that still had her Blow profile photo up and switched to the camera. The subject filling the phone screen was Nabi, standing out in the courtyard.
Click!
"Ohh… modern phones really are good."
The shot on the screen captured Nabi's face with surprising clarity.
"Got the photo, at least…"
The idea that had just brushed past me started hardening into an actual plan.
Rumble.
I closed the outer window.
Rumble.
Click.
I stepped back into the living room and shut the window that connected to the veranda. Then I went into my room, pulled yesterday's crewneck and jeans out of the closet, put them on, and tugged on a pair of socks. Once I was dressed, I took only my phone and headed out the front door.
"Ah, Hyunji-ssi!"
I called out to her in the courtyard like I was glad to see her. My heart, though, was hammering the way it had yesterday.
"Ah, Hyunwoo-ssi! Thank you so much for yesterday…!"
"Come on, it was nothing."
Hyunji had no idea I knew she was Nabi. I was trying as hard as I could not to show it — but my heart wasn't hiding a thing. Still, I crushed the tension down as far as it would go, at least in my voice.
"It worked out really well thanks to you…! You left right away yesterday — you should've at least had something to eat…"
"Ah, no, it's fine. It was nothing, really~"
"Even so… I'm so grateful. Come over to our place a little later! I'll give you something."
"You really don't have to…"
Obviously a lie.
"No, please. Come over and hang out for a bit!"
"W-well… maybe? Haha."
"Are you free today?"
"Oh, of course! Ah… I need to take care of something at home first, though. Do you have a phone number I could get?"
I played it a little coy and held out my phone with the dialer open so she could put her number in. She had no idea, but it was bait — the first hook for the prey standing right in front of me.
"Ah, yes! Just a second."
She took my phone, typed in her number, and handed it back.
"I'll probably be home all day today. Call me whenever you've got time!"
I took the phone back and fed her the casual lie with a straight face.
"Okay. I'll finish what I need to do and call you, then come over!"
"Yes! See you later!"
As soon as she finished speaking, she went back into the villa.
The prey had taken the first bait.