Chapter 17
Watching Seo Ha-eun, who had scared herself half to death, was quite an entertaining pastime.
I hadn't even glared at her that fiercely, but she trembled all on her own. There was no easier prey to handle than this.
Clearly, the recording had come as a shock to her.
Anyone but an idiot would realize that I couldn't have merely recorded the sound.
“Hey, how is there nothing here to make and eat?”
While Seo Ha-eun was shut away in the bathroom by the entrance, washing herself, I gave my body a quick wipe-down in the master bathroom before searching through the refrigerator.
The contents were pathetic.
Judging by how the trash can I'd checked while throwing away the condoms was stuffed with nothing but food wrappers, this woman's staple diet seemed to be Subway sandwiches rather than rice.
There wasn't even a rice cooker in this spacious house.
Other than coffee beans, the only things I could put in my stomach were instant rice or sliced bread.
But seeing that even those were either multigrain rice or rye bread, she clearly did care about her figure.
That wasn't a figure you could maintain by constantly ordering delivery food.
“⋯We really do live in different worlds.”
Of course, unlike the pathetic state of the refrigerator, the view through the window made my head spin.
The Han River's nightscape had grown even more beautiful as dusk settled in.
Just yesterday, I had struggled to brew coffee in a tiny room, but now I was making it with a moka pot in a huge kitchen. I was overwhelmed by it all.
If I hadn't gotten hurt, I could have lived in a place like this too.
I'm not joking. I really was that good during my first season.
The thought that I had briefly held the dream I'd lost in my hands left my chest feeling tight.
“Ah⋯, fuck⋯.”
I pretended I wasn't impressed. Pretended to be cool.
I told myself I was only fucking Seo Ha-eun because I was horny for her,
but I couldn't deny that my sense of loss over the future I'd missed had turned into the pleasure I felt while fucking Seo Ha-eun.
⋯Yeah, this was how it was supposed to be.
If I'd been that popular during my debut season, this was how I was supposed to live.
In a spacious, comfortable high-rise apartment,
with a pretty woman whose figure was fucking incredible tucked against my side,
living a life where I could blow off all the stress built up during competition—that was the life I'd always wanted, and it was one I really could have achieved.
Even if the older women I'd spent nights with had never called me handsome or good-looking,
I had heard “You're fucking amazing in bed” from them often enough.
If I hadn't gotten hurt, I would have lived a decadent life forever.
I spent a fortune on my body during rehabilitation, after all.
“W-what are you doing?”
If I hadn't fought with this woman,
I would have lived like this throughout all three years of rehabilitation.
The money I'd sunk into my skin for nearly two years wouldn't have been spent so pointlessly.
The muscles that looked even better than they had when I was a player wouldn't have been used merely to lift barbells.
I could have enjoyed the feel of a woman's soft skin against mine,
and used my body every day to lift and pound a delicate female form.
Just like today.
“Brew some coffee. But why don't you have any food in the house?”
“⋯It's none of your business.”
After making the sound of washing her hair for quite a while, Seo Ha-eun crawled out, shaking her head vigorously.
If she'd come out wrapped in nothing but a bath towel, I would have pounced on her again, but unfortunately, she was wearing loungewear.
A baggy black T-shirt and baggy gray sweatpants.
It was a shame to see a woman who could radiate sex appeal even in a camisole and dolphin shorts dressed in such shabby clothes, but the fact that she gave off an erotic air even in that pitiful outfit was impressive in its own way.
Maybe it was because her hair was soaked through?
Maybe it was because I'd fucked her so hard earlier.
The most important thing was her breasts, though.
“I've brewed the coffee, so should I order some Subway? No matter how much I look around, it doesn't seem like there's anything we can make.”
“⋯Do whatever you want. I'm not hungry.”
“Ah, right. You did down that much alcohol and those snacks earlier. I guess you wouldn't be hungry already.”
“⋯.”
“Just kidding, just kidding. I'll order something low-calorie. I can use the address on that delivery box over there, right?”
“⋯Yeah.”
Keeping up my shameless attitude toward Seo Ha-eun as she bristled and watched me warily, I ordered two sandwiches loaded with chicken breast.
She was hungry too, no matter what she said.
She couldn't have been hungry already just from the calories in the alcohol and snacks, but she'd been panting while I fucked her for three hours.
If I held food right in front of her mouth, she would have no choice but to come to the table.
And after sweating so much and taking a shower, she had to be thirsty too.
“Dry your hair. If you have nothing to do, come sit here. The coffee's ready—drink it if you want.”
“⋯You do realize this is my house⋯?”
“Whether it's your house or not, I'm saying that because you look uncomfortable. If the homeowner is uncomfortable, the guest gets uncomfortable too.”
“You could just leave⋯.”
“You forgot what I told you, didn't you? I said I have nowhere to go because I broke up with my girlfriend. What are you talking about? If I had somewhere to return to, I wouldn't have come to your house. I would've gone home and slept soundly. With you.”
“⋯.”
Seo Ha-eun's face looked quite cute as she dried her hair stiffly, her expression full of displeasure.
It was obvious that she wanted to throw me out somehow, but was troubled because she clearly didn't think I would listen.
Until she cleared up the suspicions she had about me, she wouldn't dare treat me too harshly.
I had no intention of showing this valuable thing to anyone else, of course, but the fact remained that I had recorded it, didn't it?
I had even deliberately let her hear the sound.
If she still couldn't feel fear after hearing that, it didn't mean she was confident. It meant her ability to detect danger was severely lacking.
“Anyway, I'm staying the night tonight. If you need anything, order it. I'll accommodate pretty much anything.”
“W-wait, you're staying? No! You again⋯.”
“Hey, I did it four times earlier. With you. Want to turn on your phone and ask your friends? Tell them you did it with your boyfriend four times this afternoon and are scared he'll pounce on you again tonight. They'll curse you for bragging.”
“Who, who is the boyfriend, you crazy bastard! You're disgusting⋯.”
“Then tell them you slept with a man you barely know. I even packaged it up nicely when I told you, so why are you getting angry?”
“⋯.”
Even when I acted this shamelessly, trembling all over was the limit of what she could do.
At least the Seo Ha-eun in the recording had welcomed me and been steeped in pleasure,
and the Seo Ha-eun in the video had shown much clearer signs of consent, clinging to me.
Of course, if she actually sued me, things would become quite complicated, but she didn't seem to have the guts to do that, so I could relax.
It was a real relief that she wasn't like her younger sister, who had glared at me so viciously earlier.
If it had been her, I wouldn't have been able to touch her from the beginning.
***
In the end, as soon as I turned off the hair dryer, I made Seo Ha-eun an iced Americano and handed it to her when she obediently sat down at the table.
As we sat facing each other and sipped our coffee, the food delivery arrived,
and I started toward the entrance after Seo Ha-eun reflexively rose from her seat, but she quickly stopped me.
“⋯Why are you following me?”
“I ordered it, so I was going to get it.”
“Forget it. Sit down. ⋯It's embarrassing.”
“Am I embarrassing?”
“You are! ⋯It's shameful and annoying, so don't come out.”
Seo Ha-eun seemed bold for openly insulting me to my face, but she was probably in a fragile mental and physical state, so I decided to let it slide this once.
She'd already been caught by her own younger sister; what difference would a deliveryman make? But troubled women were all like that.
She wasn't menstruating, but I roughly figured that her mental state was similar to when she was, then waved it off and sat on the sofa to look out the window again.
“⋯Seriously, this is driving me crazy.”
Unable to hide my astonishment at the scenery I still hadn't gotten used to, I unconsciously let out a curse.
⋯Honestly, I didn't want to take even one step out of here.
Unless I could go out with Seo Ha-eun tucked under my arm, I didn't want to return to that shabby dump.
Until a little while ago, I had only planned to run into her at the gym again, act openly friendly, and occasionally have sex with her.
But the more I looked at this absurdly beautiful nightscape, the less I felt that would be enough.
Simple lust wasn't enough.
By sheer luck, I'd grabbed hold of something I'd always dreamed of,
and I didn't want to let it go.
“Haa⋯, why did I end up with you⋯.”
“Ha-eun.”
“⋯They're both the same thing. Eat quickly and go into that room. I don't want to see your face.”
“I'm the one buying them. Can't you at least say thank you? I bought the drinks earlier too.”
“⋯.”
The more I watched Seo Ha-eun glare at me contemptuously and give an irritated little nod, the less I wanted to let her go.
There was no way I could forget that this woman, who hated and feared me, had been fawning over me and spreading her legs for me only a few hours ago.
“Why are you sitting so close to me, Kang Joo-hyuk⋯?”
“Food tastes better when you eat together.”
“⋯You're ruining my appetite, seriously⋯.”
Even though our feet touched because we were sitting so close, Seo Ha-eun couldn't bring herself to move to the other side. I racked my already overclocked brain.
Was there any way I could keep hanging around here?
How far could I go without crossing Ha-eun's limit, while still being able to keep fucking her?
That house looked ridiculously expensive. Did she really own it?
What excuse could I make to sleep with her tonight?
I ran through the possibilities in my head, listing and organizing them one by one.
The first thing that came to mind was,
“Ha-eun.”
“Don't talk to me.”
“What do you usually do? I heard you quit the team. You don't seem to be working, considering you come to exercise every lunchtime.”
Where on earth did this woman get her money?
She didn't seem to carry any luxury goods, but with my experience, there was no way she hadn't taken care of her figure and skin.
Judging by the state of her refrigerator, she probably ordered every meal too. A woman who had worked only two or three years at that small-time team would obviously be drowning in credit card bills if she ate like that.
Thinking back to the phone call I'd overheard, it seemed like she used a card her younger sister had given her. Was she really a completely unemployed parasite living off her sister without a single source of income?
No matter how thick-skinned someone was, that couldn't be easy.
“⋯I don't want to talk about it.”
“Are you unemployed like me? Well, I'm planning to start working next month⋯.”
“Could you not lump me together with you? ⋯I have something I do, in my own way.”
“What?”
“⋯I said I don't want to talk about it.”
“What, are you an online streamer or something? You seem to make pretty good money, judging by the way you dance and all.”
If she was going to be shameless, it would be better to be shameless with a stranger than with family.
With that face and that body, it would be stranger not to have considered it.
But even more surprising than that was,
“⋯I don't do stuff like that, okay?”
“Ah, then what about YouTube? There are so many different kinds.”
“⋯.”
⋯Unlike those eyes, which were practically screaming that she'd been caught,
I'd searched high and low for days, yet I hadn't seen even a glimpse of this woman's face.
A popular idol noona.
A figure with at least an F-cup and a waist narrow enough to make heads turn.
A sharp-featured face that almost any man would like, regardless of his tastes.
It would be stranger if she hadn't made it big.
What on earth did this woman do while cooped up at home?
This woman.