Chapter 8
“Then I’ll be in your care, boss.”
A bright, innocent smile.
Lee Cheolsu bowed politely and left.
A fresh-faced 27-year-old look.
Even if his parents were rich, he was diligent and never neglected his work.
Kindness that came naturally to him.
When judging people in black and white, Lee Cheolsu clearly leaned toward the good side.
But no one is perfect.
As psychology says that people who seem too perfect are, paradoxically, unstable.
Because the sexual desire hidden inside him moved in a direction a little different from everyone else’s.
Well, that’s that.
“W-wow, boss! Two premium clients in one day!”
Kim Yang smiled with a contract in each hand.
Renéa and Lee Cheolsu.
She had landed two 5-million-won contracts in a single day.
I told Cheolsu there was no need to do it today, but he seemed grateful that I had figured out his taste.
So he signed right away without even hesitating.
And Renéa too.
“He’s a decent young man. He’d go quite well with me.”
Renéa nodded in satisfaction.
Unfortunately, elves weren’t even within his range.
‘Or is it?’
Better test the waters, just in case.
“Now then, we’ll be counseling Ms. Renéa as well. Do you have any separate conditions?”
“Didn’t I tell you? A young, healthy man as handsome as Cha Woonwoo, with plenty of money.”
“It’s not easy to be this true to your desires. Thank you for being so honest.”
At 1,901 years old, shouldn’t you know how to hide it by now?
“For example, what about someone like Mr. Lee Cheolsu just now?”
“I like him. First of all, he’s young, and he looks decent enough.”
“Hmm, what if a spouse had unusual sexual tastes?”
“……”
Renéa made a baffled face.
But I added calmly, as if pretending to be composed.
“This is actually pretty important. We often have clients who want someone who can satisfy them sexually.”
This wasn’t a lie; it was true.
There were even clients who said sex was all that mattered, as long as they were good in bed.
“Y-yes, for example?”
“For example… animal cosplay?”
“Oh, that much I can do! Meow!”
A 1,901-year-old grandma who immediately imitated a cat.
I took it one step further.
“Then what if I told you to live like an animal altogether? To wear animal skins on your head and howl like one?”
“Wouldn’t I call the police?”
So that’s experience for you.
Wise.
“Hypothetically. Just hypothetically.”
“Oh, even then I don’t think that would work. No matter what, telling someone to become a beast is…”
But don’t elves live in the forest with beasts?
Aren’t they basically beasts that can talk?
“But what if the man has 3 billion won in assets?”
“Should I start practicing walking on all fours from now on?”
The queen instantly turned into a beast.
I liked that she could throw away her pride without hesitation for a good man.
‘Of course, it wouldn’t work.’
Lee Cheolsu, in my opinion, was the realest of the real.
He had no room for compromise, so he came here after skipping over other huge marriage agencies.
Because we accept everyone.
“Nyaa! Nyaa!”
“Paw.”
Anyway.
Leaving behind Renéa, who was pretending to be a cat, and Kim Yang, who was indulging her by calling her cute, I pulled out my phone.
‘So, beastfolk.’
Realistically, there was a limit to going up to the former Murim on the 5th floor.
It cost an absurd amount of money.
In the end, I’d have to find them on the 3rd floor.
Fortunately, I was a capable boss, so I had an employee prepared for times like this.
“Kim Yang.”
“What?”
“Where in Seoul do a lot of beastfolk gather?”
A famous influencer, no less.
Of course she’d know which streets were hot with young people.
“B-boss.”
But Kim Yang answered with a gloomy face.
“I don’t go to places where the young kids hang out.”
“……”
“B-b-boss is an old man.”
“I’m still in my twenties.”
“Really?”
Kim Yang looked me up and down in surprise, then added one more thing.
“Dress up a little.”
“……”
* * *
Itaewon.
As always,
the most open-minded neighborhood in Seoul.
The moment the sun set and the neon lights came on, this place was hard to call the 3rd floor anymore.
The air of another world seeped out from every end of the street.
At the entrance of the bars, martial artists from the former Murim’s 5th floor were tossing back drinks.
Right next to them, a food truck was releasing the pungent smell of an orc chef’s spiced hot dogs.
A street where all kinds of sounds passed back and forth.
A place where every bit of noise carried its own culture.
It was Itaewon.
“B-boss. Hurry.”
Kim Yang led the way as if she knew it well, her steps excited.
She said she sometimes came here with friends, but she looked far too familiar with the place for “sometimes.”
The good thing was that I wasn’t the only one flustered.
Renéa, who was clinging to my sleeve so she wouldn’t get lost, was with me.
“The, the 3rd floor is really r-rather dizzying.”
“Then why did you follow us…”
“B-but! I have to watch young people having fun if I want to pretend I’m young!”
“Don’t forget the goal. We came here to find the wild-folk.”
If the face is human, it’s beastfolk.
If the face is animal, it’s wild-folk.
In internet terms, wild-folk were furries.
“Well, don’t worry. But is Meracle’s company so small that you’re out here doing fieldwork yourself? Ah, I don’t mean that in a bad way.”
But that still feels bad, doesn’t it?
It was to hide Lee Cheolsu’s tastes, but it wasn’t entirely wrong either.
Where else would you find a boss who worked this hard for just one client?
‘Because there aren’t any customers coming.’
I just did my best whenever I had the chance.
As we walked the street, there were long lines of people at the bars and clubs.
I looked around, intrigued, and Kim Yang beckoned to me.
“B-boss. This way.”
I was following Kim Yang because she said there was a club where wild-folk gathered a lot.
Surprisingly, there were a few people who recognized Kim Yang.
Though as if by unspoken rule, they didn’t act like they knew her.
<Howling Lounge>
Howling Lounge.
A club sign written in stylish letters.
It really did seem like a club made specifically for wild-folk, since most of the people in line were wild-folk.
We came to the right place.
I could even spot a few of the wild-folk types Lee Cheolsu wanted.
We were about to line up, but the guard at the entrance opened a path as soon as he saw Kim Yang.
“Good evening.”
“Ah, good evening to you.”
The guard smiled and brushed off Kim Yang’s clumsy 3rd-floor speech. They seemed to know each other pretty well.
A thick arm blocked my path as I followed behind.
“Sorry, but guests aren’t allowed in.”
“Huh?”
When I asked back in confusion, he jerked his chin.
“Look at your clothes.”
“What’s wrong with my clothes?”
I’d come straight here in my work clothes.
I had come a little too casually.
“Either way, you can’t come in.”
No compromise.
Kim Yang, watching this unfold, let a faint smirk play at her lips and linked her arm through mine.
“My boyfriend.”
“Huh? A boyfriend? The one you mentioned sometimes? You actually had one?”
“Uh, so let us in.”
“Of course. Go right in.”
Thanks to pretending to be Kim Yang’s boyfriend, I was able to get inside.
There was more than one thing that made me feel awful, but the most annoying was that even the 1,901-year-old grandma didn’t get rejected at the door, while I did.
“Pff, well, that happens. It happens, of course. You truly lived your life for others, didn’t you? Since you clearly couldn’t even care about yourself.”
The grandma started teasing me, patting my back hard.
Even Kim Yang was trying to hold back laughter, and I wanted to argue, but the result was already in, so I couldn’t.
‘Ah, I should’ve just let Kim Yang style me when she offered.’
Coming so halfheartedly because I thought it was overkill was my mistake.
“Let go of this.”
I tried to pull my hand away, but Kim Yang only tightened her grip.
“B-boss. This is a leash.”
“Hey.”
“I-if you wander around alone, you’ll get kicked out again.”
“Hey!”
“Puhahaha! That’s right, that’s it! Stick to him nice and tight! That way—!”
“Excuse me.”
At that moment, a man suddenly cut in from behind. He was a horse beastfolk, with ears shaped like a horse’s.
Earrings and piercings, and the like.
He had the kind of face that looked like he came here often.
His looks weren’t bad, either.
‘Around B rank? Depending on his job, he might drop to C.’
Ranking and judging people was a bad habit.
Still, it was like an occupational disease for me.
Even when I tried not to do it outside of work, it wasn’t easy.
Surprisingly, the one who spoke to the horse beastfolk was Renéa.
“If you don’t mind, would you like to have a drink with us? We saw you at the entrance, and it looked like you didn’t have a partner.”
“Huh? Huh? Uh-huh?”
Kim Yang, arm-in-arm with me.
Since Renéa was alone, he naturally assumed she didn’t have a male companion.
‘Well, this won’t change her rank or anything.’
Sorry, but getting hit on at a club didn’t have much to do with marriage rank.
It wasn’t as if Renéa, who was F-rank because of her age, would get bumped up to E-rank just because she got hit on.
‘Still, if this is the kind of thing she wanted for romance and that sort of thing, it might not be so bad?’
It was the handsome man she’d wanted so badly, after all. Even if he fell far short of Cha Woonwoo, he wasn’t bad at all.
But Renéa herself had her head bowed, looking at a loss.
“B-b-this noble one… th-that is—”
“Pponnyeo? Haha, that’s cute. What’s your name?”
He’s a player.
He’s toying with the old lady.
Kim Yang and I supported our client’s active love life, so we watched from the sidelines.
“P-p-pponnyeo has a boyfriend!”
She suddenly hooked her arm through my other arm.
“Ah, what the…”
I was about to say something in disbelief, but I could feel the arm holding me trembling.
“Huh? A boyfriend?”
The man stared straight at me.
He clicked his tongue when he saw I had two women on either side, then headed back to his group of friends.
“Shit, if you’ve got money, go to a lounge and rent a room there.”
I guess I looked like some rich guy playing around with two women.
Or did he just think there was no other way to explain it?
Even after the man left, Renéa was still clinging tightly to me.
The one who got annoyed was Kim Yang.
“B-because of that grandma, I-I ended up looking like the woman getting cheated on! I-I’m a sheep beastfolk!”
“Your sense of humor’s gotten better. You’re not even worrying about the boss, and you’re only thinking about your own image?”
Kim Yang grumbled that she’d become the woman getting cheated on.
But Kim Yang just shrugged.
“The boss benefits.”
Forget it, let’s not even talk about this.
In the meantime, having apparently recovered, Renéa wiped away cold sweat and puffed herself up proudly.
“Hoo! I overcame that hooligan. Praise me at once.”
“You spoon-fed it to him, and he still couldn’t swallow it and spat it back out. What do you want me to call that?”
“……”
“Sigh, fine. Well, I didn’t come here for Ms. Renéa anyway.”
Anyway, arm-in-arm with the two of them, I went into the club.
Every now and then, Renéa beside me—
“A drink? You need to meet at least ten times for that.”
“For a first meeting, you should at least walk through the forest together or sit on a tree branch side by side.”
“You can hold hands by the third date—”
She kept muttering and grumbling, but I ignored her.
And so we reached the end of the hallway and arrived inside.
It was my first time in a club, but Kim Yang explained things right away.
“T-that’s the main floor. DJ. Dancing. I’m there a lot.”
Among the dancing guests, there were quite a few wild-folk types I was looking for.
“Y-you can drink and talk too.”
Then she pointed to the bar.
Cocktails, beer, whiskey, and so on.
That side had a somewhat quieter atmosphere.
It seemed like people went there to rest when they got tired of dancing.
“A-and lastly, there are private rooms too. Don’t look over there. I-it costs a ton.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
“B-b-boss. L-let’s go dance.”
“Are you crazy? Don’t you know what we came here for?”
“...To dance?”
Unbelievable.
“We came here to work. Work. You go find the wild-folk. Ms. Renéa, please enjoy yourself.”
“Don’t leave this noble one alone here! I absolutely will not let go!”
Renéa clung to me tightly, making a tearful face.
At this rate, I wondered why she had even come.
Kim Yang also poked out her lips and asked.
“Th-then. Night shift pay?”
“Go have fun.”
“Yay.”
Kim Yang tugged Renéa along.
“C-come on, I’ll show you around.”
“Eh?! N-no! This noble one is scared! What if some stranger suddenly talks to me again?”
“Th-then say you have a boyfriend. I-I always do that. I always sell out the boss.”
What?
It was absurd, but Kim Yang hurried off with Renéa, disappearing into the crowd as if fleeing.
I, on the other hand, headed straight over, and there was one woman who stood out immediately.
A leopard-faced woman.
Her body was sleek and full of healthy curves, and the way she swayed her tail looked like she was waiting for someone.
‘Looks like this one will take some legwork.’
But I was confident.
Client Lee Cheolsu was only unusual in his tastes; in every other respect, he was quite excellent.
I took out a business card from my pocket.
I immediately went over and sat in the seat next to her.
“Excuse me.”
“...?”
The leopard woman glanced me up and down, then waved me off as if she had no interest.
I immediately handed her my business card, saying this wasn’t a pickup.
“The truth is, I’m in this line of work.”
When I handed over the card, the leopard woman glanced at it and snorted with a smile.
“So this is how it’s done these days?”
“Pardon?”
“You don’t need to worry. I know all about it too.”
She smiled slyly without even looking at the card on the table.
“I’m in the business too. Shall we get going right away?”
“No, what are you talking about.”
As I was getting flustered—
“You’re more shameless than you look.”
Suddenly, the leopard woman grabbed my wrist, yanked me in, and let me touch her breast.
“?!”
“How is it? Do you understand now?”
A soft breast pressed warmly into my hand.
But that wasn’t the important part.
“Huh?”
This… what am I touching?