Chapter 8 — Friday (4)
Kim Ain had triggered the Sex Traffic Light.
Now her actions looked completely different to me.
She was merely raising both hands to tie her hair, yet it somehow felt flirtatious.
Same with the way she reached for side dishes.
She was only extending her hand to pick up meat, but all I could see was her chest swaying.
Am I really someone who avoids romance?
When I imagined Kim Ain smiling and saying, “Want to touch them?”, it felt like I owned the entire world.
And then the next moment, imagining Kim Ain ordering me around nonstop made me feel like having a seizure.
The suddenly appeared signal light completely scrambled my thoughts.
Just like her extreme personality, my imagination swung wildly between extremes.
Then someone lightly nudged my side.
It was Han Jia.
Wait.
Don’t tell me the two women are about to start fighting over me?
Like: “That fox bitch is deliberately showing off her chest.”
In an era where girls get called manipulative just for removing sesame leaves for someone, what would wrapping meat for a guy count as?
That kind of rivalry?
I secretly looked at her face with anticipation.
But no.
It was just the delusion of a loser.
Han Jia had already completely lost interest in me.
The bump had literally just been accidental.
…Honestly, that disappointed me a little.
I didn’t want to become her servant, but I had hoped she’d keep clinging to me.
Wait.
Maybe…?
I tried flirting with Han Jia myself.
This time, I casually placed a piece of meat onto her plate.
“My ideal type is someone who treats me well. So maybe if I met someone like that, I’d try dating.”
Ping.
A signal light appeared above Han Jia’s head.
Yellow.
But there was a butterfly effect.
At the same time, the green signal above Kim Ain’s head disappeared.
“Really?”
Han Jia smiled brightly, clearly happy.
Meanwhile, Kim Ain instantly lost interest.
So I tested it again.
“Though that doesn’t mean I’d actually date. I’ve just thought about it once or twice before. Anyway, I don’t really have any intention of dating right now.”
Ping!
This time, the opposite happened.
A green light appeared above Kim Ain’s head, while Han Jia’s signal disappeared.
…What kind of ridiculous nonsense is this?
One lights up when I say I will date.
The other lights up when I say I won’t.
A situation where I had to choose one.
And the choice wasn’t made by my heart.
It was made by my brain.
I was a herbivore-type man.
I genuinely had no interest in dating, and I had no intention of lying about that.
So I chose honesty.
“So yeah. I don’t have any intention of dating.”
I stated my true feelings decisively.
KakaoTalk.
A message arrived.
I discreetly checked my phone where nobody could see.
It was from Kim Ain.
[Want to grab another drink after this?]
I raised my head.
Kim Ain’s cold monolid eyes stared back at me.
They sparkled like she’d found a precious jewel.
***
Our first gathering worthy of being called a company dinner ended.
Since it happened after the promotion event, it finished very late.
It was now 11 PM.
Everyone started heading home.
The group scattered like ants.
Kim Ain and I left together with them, then split off to meet again afterward.
I headed toward the place she’d mentioned.
Crowded Hongdae streets.
From afar, I spotted Kim Ain.
A man stood in front of her.
A fellow recruit?
As I approached, I realized he was someone I’d never seen before.
The guy was desperately clinging to Kim Ain.
“Please, could you at least give me your number? You’re exactly my ideal type.”
The moment he said that, Kim Ain widened her sharp monolid eyes.
“I look easy to you?”
“Huh?”
“I’m not the kind of woman who’d give my number to someone like you.”
The man trying to hit on Kim Ain instantly became a rabbit crushed beneath an elk’s hoof.
His shoulders drooped as he turned away.
The other men secretly watching Kim Ain from afar reacted the same way.
It wasn’t just that she was rude.
The overwhelming aura of a chaebol family daughter radiating from her made everyone back off.
Should I just go home too?
Just as that thought crossed my mind, Kim Ain spotted me.
She crooked her finger.
“Over here.”
I walked up to her.
She moved beside me and faced the same direction.
“You said one more drink. Where are we going?”
“I don’t like people nitpicking words, but factually speaking, you’re the one who asked to grab another drink.”
“What are you talking about? Your eyes were asking first.”
“Sure, let’s go with that. So, what do you want to drink?”
“I want somewhere comfortable.”
“Comfortable?”
“Yeah. Didn’t you just see what happened?”
She gestured with her chin toward the guy who’d approached her earlier.
He was staring at me with jealous eyes, as if I were the ultimate victor of this Hongdae safari.
…That’s not it at all. She’s terrifying. She’s the kind of girl who ends up standing in front of detectives!
Then why the hell was I standing beside that terrifying girl?
It was all because of the signal light.
Kim Ain still had a green light above her head.
When I said I had no interest in dating, it only glowed brighter.
If I just walked away now, forget being a pushover — I’d need a chromosome test to confirm I was even a man.
And honestly, I was curious too.
What kind of sex fantasy was making that green light appear?
I decided to see this through to the end.
“What are you doing?”
“Ah!!!”
Since I’d gone silent while thinking, Kim Ain threw another liver punch at me.
“I was just thinking for a second.”
“You look nervous.”
“You seem nervous too.”
Despite the confidence in her voice, Kim Ain’s shoulders were trembling slightly.
She was the one who suggested another drink, yet she was trembling herself.
Embarrassed, she looked away.
“I don’t want to stay somewhere crowded where people keep talking to me.”
“Somewhere quiet, huh? Then should we change neighborhoods? Ack—!”
This time it wasn’t a liver punch.
A shocking jolt ran through me, and at the same time, I heard the God of Losers yelling in my head.
—You fucking idiot!!! A quiet place!!! Not a quiet neighborhood!!!
‘…The Han River?’
—Try it and I’ll drown you myself.
‘Then… ah, wait. Don’t tell me?’
—Yeah. Exactly what you’re thinking.
I looked at Kim Ain.
She was still staring into the distance awkwardly.
If I outright asked, “Want to go to a motel?”, I genuinely felt like I might die.
At least working in society had taught me basic social awareness.
Slowly—
My hand brushed against Kim Ain’s wrist.
Then lower.
My fingers slipped between hers.
I intertwined our hands together.
Warmth spread through my palm.
Kim Ain turned to me with eyes asking, What are you doing?
“Let’s go.”
I held her hand and pulled her along.
…My heart was pounding violently.
What if she suddenly said, “What the hell are you doing, idiot?” and the signal light disappeared?
It turned out to be a pointless worry.
“Huh? Ah… okay.”
This wasn’t the rude Kim Ain I knew.
Smack.
She suddenly clung to my side like a tame puppy.
Soft.
Is this even real?
Her chest brushed against my elbow.
But… something felt strange.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Contrary to her image, Kim Ain’s heart was racing like crazy too.
Our heartbeats echoed together.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
My own heart began pounding wildly as well.
***
Hongdae’s Bermuda Triangle.
The place where couples entered and mysteriously disappeared until the next morning.
We disappeared into it too.
I honestly don’t know what state of mind I was in when we entered.
We bought things from a convenience store like thieves.
And we paid for the motel like fugitives.
Well — Kim Ain paid for it.
She covered everything.
She even chose the most expensive room available.
Though honestly, we probably should’ve picked a cheaper one.
The room was spacious.
Clean too.
It looked more like a modern luxury hotel than a motel.
The problem was the wall.
The entire wall beside the bed was covered by one huge mirror.
The moment I saw it, I instinctively swallowed hard.
Kim Ain, who came in a moment later, reacted the same way.
“Uh…”
She looked embarrassed by the unexpected mirror.
I needed to change the atmosphere quickly, so I hurriedly unpacked the beer cans onto the table.
“For now… want a beer?”
“Huh? Ah… um… I want to wash up first.”
“Hm?”
“I was inside that mascot costume the whole time, remember? I’m drenched in sweat. I wanna shower.”
“Right. Yeah.”
Kim Ain narrowed her eyes sharply.
“You’re not just gonna sit there watching, are you?”
“What? Together?”
“You crazy bastard, what the hell are you saying?!”
Bang.
She rushed over and smacked me with a pillow from the bed.
If not together, then what was she expecting?
I tilted my head in confusion, and with a flushed face she pointed at the bed.
“Stay under the blanket until I come out.”
“That’s actually a good idea.”
Today was practically our first real meeting.
That would definitely be better.
I climbed under the blanket.
“I’m not joking — if you lift this blanket, I’ll use every connection I have to kill you.”
Her trembling voice made it sound completely sincere.
“I wasn’t planning to come out anyway.”
Honestly, I was still scared of sex too.
More accurately, I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do in a situation like this.
The blanket actually felt safer.
So I wrapped myself tightly inside it, but—
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Fuck, this is making my heart explode even harder!
Sounds slipped through the blanket.
Rustle.
Slide.
The sound of clothes being removed.
There’s a saying that imagination is the world’s highest resolution.
It really felt true.
My mind automatically pictured everything Kim Ain was doing.
Swish.
Sounds like she took off her shirt.
Rustle.
Sounds like she’s lowering her pants.
Slip.
Sounds like she’s taking off her underwear.
Click.
Then came the sound of a door opening.
She must’ve gone into the bathroom.
I couldn’t hear footsteps anymore — only running water.
Carefully, I lifted my head a little.
Thankfully, the bathroom was separated by a partition wall, so I couldn’t actually see anything.
“I’m seriously gonna die.”
I let out a heavy breath.
This was my first time experiencing something like this.
My mind was spinning.
***
I showered too and came back out.
Kim Ain was already outside, eating snacks with a can of beer in hand.
“I got hungry, so I started first.”
“As expected from the 1-kilogram woman. Ah! I’m joking!!!”
I only said it to ease the tension, so why are you loosening your shoulders like that?
Kim Ain instantly closed the distance in the cramped motel room.
She must’ve really trained in boxing.
She punched me in the stomach with another liver punch.
But it didn’t hurt.
More accurately, I’d already lost all sense of pain.
Kim Ain wore a white T-shirt with black underwear underneath.
For bottoms, dolphin shorts.
She ran toward me with those pale legs.
My eyes naturally followed them for a moment—
Then drifted upward.
The outline of her massive chest was visible.
And the way it bounced—
My soul practically ascended to Andromeda.
Kim Ain must’ve noticed too, because she quietly returned to her seat.
“Drink with me.”
“Yeah.”
It wasn’t an awkward atmosphere.
It was a tense one.
The two of us quietly sipped our beer.
By the time we finished one can together, Kim Ain finally spoke with her red lips slightly parted.
“You really don’t want to date?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Someone as handsome as you could probably date beautiful girls easily.”
“Just because someone’s pretty doesn’t mean you’ll be happy. It’s Like You.”
“Want to die?”
“Almost said it.”
I deliberately made it clear that I had no intention of dating her.
I wanted to see how the signal light would react.
Instead, it glowed even brighter.
Kim Ain leaned forward, almost as if telling me to look at her chest.
“To be honest, I don’t really want to date anyone either. I’ve never dated before.”
That was unexpected.
I tilted my head and asked back,
“Why? Feels like you’d have been really popular while studying abroad.”
“Oh, insanely popular. Still didn’t date anyone.”
“Your standards too high?”
“No. It was obvious what they wanted. They all just wanted to sleep with me. You’re the same, aren’t you?”
“I already said I don’t want to date.”
“But you do want to sleep together.”
Maybe because she was twenty-four, but this conversation was dangerously spicy.
“I wouldn’t know. Never done it before.”
“What? Seriously? Not just dating — you’ve literally never done anything?”
“Yeah.”
“You really are a loser. No wonder you seemed nervous.”
You’re nervous too, though.
She was trembling while drinking beer like I was interrogating her.
Problem was, I was trembling too.
Maybe because it was both our first time in a situation like this, we kept nervously drinking beer nonstop.
And because of that, we finished it way too quickly.
Only one can remained.
Click.
Kim Ain opened the last can.
Though her face stayed expressionless, she spoke like she’d made up her mind about something.
In other words, she sounded serious.
“My family was against it.”
“Huh? Against what?”
“Dating.”
“Why?”
“You probably won’t believe me, but my family’s kind of rich. No… saying ‘rich’ isn’t enough. More like… a royal family, I guess? Something like that. Anyway, because of that, they never allowed me to date anyone.”
“Am I talking to some medieval European noble lady right now? Honestly, they probably had more freedom back then. Your family seriously banned dating?”
“Yeah. Because my older brother was a complete mess.”
“How bad?”
“Drugs, stuff like that. Getting girls pregnant. Because of him, I was raised super strictly. Honestly, I only became freer after coming to Korea. I live alone here. And Korea’s a conservative country too.”
“Korea’s not that conservative.”
“Compared to America, it is. Anyway, to answer your question — I couldn’t date because my parents constantly watched over me.”
I see.
I could vaguely guess Kim Ain’s sex fantasy now.
She got a green signal whenever I said I had no interest in dating.
Maybe because she’d lived such a suppressed life, she romanticized the idea of a free, commitment-free one-night stand.
…What kind of ridiculous conclusion is that?
If I were a professor of sex studies, I’d give myself an F.
Just as I mentally failed myself, Kim Ain spoke again.
“Thanks.”
“For what?”
“For laughing with me. You really were the first person who ever did that. And…”
“Hm?”
“Never mind. Maybe it’s the heater, but it’s hot in here.”
Kim Ain tugged at her clingy T-shirt and fanned it slightly.
Every movement turned her chest into a game of peekaboo.
“Want me to open the window?”
“Do whatever you want. I’m going to sleep now.”
She climbed into the bed.
But then something unbelievable happened.
The signal light above her head changed again.
Both red and green lit up at the same time.
Like it was saying:
I gathered this much courage… so if you back out now, I’ll kill you.
Honestly, though, even if the red light hadn’t appeared, it wouldn’t have mattered.
I might’ve been a pushover, but I wasn’t an idiot.
After coming this far, there was no intention of cowardly running away anymore.