Thrill or Money
It only sounded to me like she wanted to become my VIP so she could have sex the way Park Yuyoung did.
From here on out, it was a done deal.
Hoo. Haa.
I took one deep breath inside myself, then said it boldly.
"If you become my VIP, where exactly do you plan on getting your massages?"
"I've got a place in mind."
"Where?"
"It's close by. W-want to go?"
"Do we have... about two hours?"
"I-I think so."
Still sitting, we scrambled to get ready to leave. We pulled on the coats we'd taken off and stuffed the wallets and phones we'd set out back into our pockets.
The air around us heated up fast. The warm, sticky feel of each other's skin. Even through all of that, we still hadn't let go of each other's hands.
My heart was hammering like crazy. The best kind of thrill is always the one you never saw coming. And the fact that a future like this had somehow been set in motion felt ridiculously, impossibly attractive.
No—more surprising than that was the fact that the other person was Shin Iseol. I'd always figured there was no way the two of us would ever end up connected like this.
"Are you going to keep holding my hand, though?"
Still a total brat. We were about to have sex, grab thighs, press hips and asses together—and she was fretting about hands now?
I'd always said the only thing that should ever hit a woman is a dick. Just like with Seoah, I was going to have to send Shin Iseol through dick boot camp.
At her request, I let go of the hand I'd been holding. Then I started following wherever she led.
The problem showed up not long after.
I followed her completely out of the luxury brand floor and onto the escalator heading down to the first level—when a familiar smell hit me from somewhere.
Sniff sniff.
I tracked the scent with my eyes. And right there, just ahead of Shin Iseol, was Han Seoyeon. She was riding the escalator down with her butler.
"I told you I wasn't wearing this outfit today."
"Madam... I..."
"Same goes for you. Ugh, I've been terrified the Gucci staff would notice the Hodu fur stuck all over me—my face has been burning red this whole time. Ugh, ugh."
"Then what am I supposed to do... Lately Hodu's been tearing through the whole house like a maniac."
"Are you talking back to me right now?"
"No. It's just... ever since that masseur came, Hodu's gotten impossible to handle. He's the size of a bull, barking his head off and rampaging through the house... He even gets into the closets and the storage room over and over—clothes, carpets, everything's covered in fur."
"Isn't brushing all that off your job?"
"Madam..."
"Enough with the 'Madam, Madam' already."
"Then what should I call you?"
"Master."
"I'm not a dog, Madam."
So that familiar smell had been Hodu. The scent was so strong that even though I'd only smelled it for a single day, I recognized it instantly.
But what were those two doing here?
"I think that masseur needs to come back."
"I already called him again. But why? I'm the one getting the massage—why do you need him? Do you like him or something?"
"W-what kind of thing is that to say? Are you being serious?"
"Why are you making such a fuss? Just take it as a joke and move on."
"Haha... Right. No, it's just... It's not Hodu that's the problem—it's Choco. If we try to keep Hodu outside, Choco goes completely insane. He barks like crazy and drools everywhere until Hodu pees standing up."
"Just like you drooling precum all over the head of the bed?"
"Ah... Madam... people can hear— Huh? Kang Junhyun?"
"What? Holy— Kang Junhyun?"
I'd tried to turn my face away and dodge their eyes, but I got caught dead-on, so I had no choice but to nod in greeting.
"Hello."
"Who's that?"
"Ah, that's Han Seoyeon. The one Lee Mikyeong introduced..."
"Ah! Hello! I'm the shop manager."
Shin Iseol bowed politely, and Han Seoyeon looked her over from toes to head in one slow sweep. It was the kind of gesture that could easily piss someone off, but Shin Iseol—that monster born of capitalism—never lost her smile.
"Well, hello."
The funny part was that our whole meeting was happening on an escalator, so every single bit of this was unfolding while we were all riding down. Could there be anything more awkward?
Running into someone you'd never met—or barely knew—on an escalator and exchanging greetings... it was just painfully awkward.
"You two, what are you doing here? You don't exactly look like the luxury-brand type."
The second those words left her mouth, I braced for sparks to fly between Shin Iseol and Han Seoyeon. No matter how much of a capitalist monster Iseol was, her pride ran deep—she never let a humiliating line that crossed the line slide.
Shin Iseol smiled and fired right back.
"People who are empty on the inside always try to dress up the outside with luxury brands, don't they? Huh? But isn't that Gucci logo in your hand?"
"What? Pfft. Empty on the what? You're taking the long way around to trash me right now?"
Now the two of them were straight-up arguing on the escalator.
"What do you mean, 'this'? I've lived long enough myself, you know. Ah—I must look like a newborn baby to you because you're so ancient."
"Hey... please stop. Madam, you stop too, please."
"Are you taking that woman's side right now? I'm the client and she's the help!"
"Why am I the help? From what I just heard, you haven't even signed a contract."
"I'm about to. Then won't you regret treating me like this?"
"I'm sorry, but we don't take just any customer. To come in as a VIP, you need approval from me—the manager. No matter how much money you have, it means you can't get a massage. If anything, you should be trying to get on my good side."
"You—! Are you finished talking?"
I couldn't take it anymore.
"Alright, both of you, stop. If you keep fighting, I won't massage either of you."
Shin Iseol shot me a look full of pure injustice—the kind that said, Why aren't you taking my side?
The funny part was that the moment I stepped in, both of them shut up cold. Thank god. If they'd still been going at it when the escalator ended, I didn't even want to imagine what would've happened.
The second we stepped off, I asked Han Seoyeon first.
"Out shopping with your butler?"
"Ah, well. We come out sometimes."
Yeah, right. She was openly planning to cheat.
This wasn't bringing the butler along—this was a date. From what I'd overheard earlier, the two of them were close enough that she could casually talk about him drooling precum all over the head of the bed.
"Are you dating this person?"
Han Seoyeon pointed at Shin Iseol as she said it. Her eyes looked like she was staring at a cockroach.
"No. We're not dating."
"Hah. Heading straight back to the shop, then?"
"Uh... yeah. You could say that."
Shopping with the shop manager was already weird enough—saying we weren't heading back to the shop after that would've been even weirder.
"Then while you're going in, take a look at me."
"What?"
I looked at Shin Iseol. She'd already given up; she just sighed.
But when I looked at Iseol, the butler looked at Seoyeon. Seoyeon was still staring at me like she wanted to devour me, and she didn't spare the butler so much as a glance.
Looks like these two had also planned on having sex after shopping.
Which meant... that butler bastard was an M who liked Han Seoyeon's S-style sex.
"I want you to massage me at the shop. And while we're at it, let's do the contract too. Like the manager here said, without her approval you can't even make a VIP contract, right?"
"Ah, that's true."
"Of course you know the contract condition is that this massage is the only one at the shop—from next time on, you come to my house, right? Mikyeong unnie said she already talked it over with the director."
This time Han Seoyeon looked toward Shin Iseol. Their little war of nerves still wasn't over.
"Yes, that's fine."
Already resigned, Shin Iseol spoke like she had no other choice. She'd clearly already heard about this from Choi Wonjae.
I stood at a fork in the road.
The thrill I hadn't felt in so long... or the money.
As I hesitated, the two of them looked at me with completely different eyes. Han Seoyeon's gaze carried a little force and stubbornness; Shin Iseol's was warm and so moist it looked ready to spill tears any second.
Ah, damn it.
"I..."
The path I would choose was already decided.
The butler drove from the front seat while Shin Iseol and I rode in the back.
A cold current hung in the air the whole way, and before long we arrived at the shop. The entire time, Shin Iseol just stared out the window without saying a single word.
"Huh? Why are you back already?"
Choi Wonjae started joking around—then the second Han Seoyeon walked in behind us, his expression flipped.
"Welcome! Head to Toe Aesthetic!"
"Director. This is Han Seoyeon, the one Lee Mikyeong mentioned. She's getting a massage today and signing the contract."
"Ah, ah... Nice to meet you. I'm the director of this shop."
"So the director works the counter here too?"
"Ahaha. It just kind of ended up that way."
"Come out."
Shin Iseol stepped behind the counter and spoke to Choi Wonjae in a flat, dead voice.
She was sulking. That Shin Iseol was actually sulking.
Damn it. Later I'd have to spoil her rotten and discipline her properly.
"Hold on. Come with me a second."
But Choi Wonjae grabbed my arm and walked me down the hallway.
"That guy is here right now."
"What? Who...?"
"Who do you think? Shin Yongseop."
For a second I couldn't believe my own ears.