Chapter 33
As if waiting even a day or two were too much, Kang Ju-hyeok bolted outside the moment he heard about the bet.
He even told me not to go to the gym and to wait for him.
Ha. Fine.
Though he hadn't said so, I could roughly guess what he'd gone out to do.
He was probably going to Daiso to buy a phone tripod or something.
Since we'd said until the end of March, I suppose every day would feel precious to him.
…What an idiot.
That man had no idea how difficult a goal of ten thousand views was.
If it were that easy, I'd have reached it long ago.
It's not as if I hadn't looked up other YouTube channels, either.
“Ha-eun, come out for a second.”
Ding-dong.
It wasn't long before the front door opened, accompanied by his voice.
I gave my live-in partner an unwelcoming look as I let him in, even though he hadn't lived here for a week and was already coming and going as if he belonged.
…I mustn't get used to this.
Debt or no debt, I had to win the bet and kick him out right away.
“…What is this.”
“A computer and a camera. What else would they be.”
But whether he knew how I felt or not,
Kang Ju-hyeok began hauling his household belongings into my home.
A heavy computer in a suitcase and a monitor wrapped in bubble wrap.
A keyboard, a mouse, and tangled power cords.
Not a cheap phone tripod, but an obviously professional, genuine tripod.
Even a famous camera whose brand name I recognized.
“You, what the hell is this supposed to…?”
“Can unemployed people not use computers and cameras?”
His answer was shameless as expected, but honestly, I couldn't understand it at all.
Bringing the computer was unexpected, but there was nothing strange about him owning one.
But owning a camera too was really strange.
What would a baseball player ever need one for?
Judging by the fact that he even had a tripod, it didn't seem to be for a simple hobby.
…No way.
“I bought this to film my body, so it was pretty expensive, you know?”
“Hey, you…!”
“What?”
“…….”
…You crazy bastard.
What kind of brain did he have to be able to say so brazenly that he'd bought it to film sex… videos?
I'd suspected as much, but the more I saw that shameless smile, the more suspicion turned into certainty.
It was so vulgar just to put into words that I couldn't even bring myself to question him about it.
…That man, who was trying to get me in the frame with that filthy camera too, became even more frightening.
What if
I simply failed to find it last time.
He definitely deleted the recordings, but he said he'd backed them up.
…Then could he have secretly filmed videos too and backed those up?
Somewhere on that phone?
“Hey, what are you thinking about? I told you, I bought it to correct my form when exercising and throwing a ball.”
“…What?”
“What, did you think I was going to shoot porn with it? Are you crazy? As if there were a woman willing to shoot that stuff for me.”
“…….”
Kang Ju-hyeok frowned and picked at his ear as if asking what bullshit I was spouting, but once the wick catches fire, it doesn't go out easily.
Even when I'd searched through his phone last time, there had definitely been plenty of dirty photos and videos.
Could there really not be even one video among them that this man had filmed?
Even if it wasn't on his phone, couldn't he have hidden it somewhere else?
…Suspicious.
Already, I could clearly see how this suspicious man would treat me if I lost the bet,
and I was beginning to regret it.
…No, it's fine, it's fine.
There is absolutely no way I'll get 10,000 views.
Absolutely not.
***
If you asked me what mattered most when filming a person,
I could answer without hesitation: the magic of retouching.
Every female fan who flirted with me via DMs when I was a player looked as if she had flawless skin, a pretty face, and a hot figure in her photos and videos.
Of course, I don't particularly want to discuss what they looked like in person.
Usually, the ones with big breasts had fuller bodies and puffy faces,
and the ones with good skin usually had flaws elsewhere on their faces.
The women who were pretty-faced and had decent hips were better, even if they had small breasts and were skinny.
My preference for slender women was shaped by experience, too.
Of course, after sleeping with a genuinely voluptuous woman, I learned that nothing quite matched the fullness of big breasts.
Hey, um… Is this really it?”
“Yeah, why?”
But when a woman doesn't even need retouching, filming her is really, really simple.
Set the angle so it wasn't weird, get the colors right, and that was it.
I sat Seo Ha-eun in a chair, set up the camera, and filmed from her neck down to her thighs.
A fairly well-known, easy-listening mellow pop song.
Natural light filtering in through the blinds.
The suit she often wore for the team.
A white dress shirt and a snug black skirt.
Only the stockings were black instead of coffee-colored.
“…Really?”
“Of course it's real. What else would it be, fake?”
“….”
The only unusual thing was that we didn't start with her already seated.
Seo Ha-eun walked into frame, sat in the chair, casually plucked at the guitar strings, and finished with a V sign when the song ended—that was all.
I thought she'd be a little embarrassed, but surprisingly she followed along without much hesitation, so we got it in one take.
“See? With this, ten thousand views will be easy.”
“…This?”
The filming took less than ten minutes, and as she replayed the finished video, she glared at me with an expression that said she simply couldn't believe it.
…Did this woman even know how sexy her breasts were?
She was the one who was always whining that men stared at her.
“You can play guitar decently too. Even though only your neck is visible, your skin is white and smooth. Your figure isn't chubby, but the buttons over your breasts look ready to burst. Pretty much every guy likes black stockings. Do you really think fewer than ten thousand people will watch?”
“….”
“If you want to back out of the bet even now, say so. I won't pretend it never happened, but increase the reward and I'll raise the target to fifty thousand views.”
“…Forget it. No way.”
Why couldn't she understand that putting it online would get views?
It was truly a shame.
Though it was fortunate for me.
“Anyway, I'm going to give this a rough cut and upload it…. Oh, right. What's the Wi-Fi password here? I need to get the computer I brought online.”
“…I don't know. I use data. It's unlimited.”
Even as I looked at our actress, who knew absolutely nothing, with pity, the moment I turned my gaze from her to the camera, that pity vanished.
…Honestly, I said ten thousand, but depending on how much skin she shows, this could easily reach a few hundred thousand views.
I dressed her in a suit because it was the least objectionable sexy outfit, but what should I have her wear next?
Since this was an office-worker concept, filmed simply after she came home from work, maybe dolphin shorts would be good next?
It seemed fine to film her in this outfit a few more times too.
Abandoning the concept after just one video would look a little too obvious.
“What? Then I'll look into that myself…, ah, could you give me the YouTube account and password too? I need to upload it.”
“Once everything's ready, you can call me, Kang Ju-hyeok. I'll log in for you.”
“It's already ready. I just have to upload it, so wait a second. I need to set up the computer.”
I stopped Seo Ha-eun as she tried to get out of the soundproof booth as quickly as possible, and connected the cables to the computer I'd merely set down.
There was no desk, so I had to put the monitor on a plastic chair, but it ran without any problems.
I connected to the internet through a hotspot and handed Seo Ha-eun the keyboard, then carefully memorized the account name and password from behind her as she logged in with hunt-and-peck typing.
The ID was sophia0919.
The password was 940919she.
…She'd made them remarkably easy to remember.
“…Is it done?”
“Yeah. Uploading it won't take long, so go wait outside.”
“I don't know what you'll do if I leave, so I'll wait until it's finished.”
“Suit yourself.”
In front of her, I transferred the video we'd just recorded to the PC and uploaded it as-is without even needing to cut it.
I simply appended Guitar Cover to the song title.
Instead, I chose the photo of her making a V sign at the end as the thumbnail.
The guitar was conveniently nestled against her breasts, too.
It wasn't perfect, but it was enough.
“The video's short, so it's already done.”
“….”
“Ha-eun, if I don't hit ten thousand views by then, do whatever you want—whether you cajole me or throw me out.”
“…What are you going to do if I lose?”
She wasn't entirely free of anxiety, but it was obvious she was thinking, no way she'd lose~.
Of course, the moment that no-way thought crossed her mind, it was only natural for her to become afraid of losing.
Especially someone like Seo Ha-eun, who took pride in her figure, couldn't banish that possibility from her mind.
“We'll think about that when the time comes.”
“…If you make me do something weird, then absolutely….”
“I told you I won't touch you. I keep my promises too.”
“….”
But I had no intention of doing anything frightening to Seo Ha-eun right away while she trembled in fear of losing.
It was far better to let her stay scared and calmly milk her for all she was worth while she was terrified.
Claiming the spoils immediately after winning such a trivial bet was for amateurs.
If you had two aces in a poker game, you should raise the stakes. Going on an aggressive raising spree just to drive everyone else out wasn't a very good play.
I had to fatten her up before I ate her.
Suck her dry bit by bit.
Down to the marrow.
***
March 19.
…I lost.
“What the hell, Ha-eun? It's only been two days and you're already at nine thousand.”
“….”
Something that shouldn't have been possible
had actually happened to me.
Even though she wasn't that good at guitar.
Even though she hadn't shown her face.
…And it wasn't even particularly revealing.
“Hey, I'll win in a few hours. So what should I make you do? What were you planning to make me do, Ha-eun?”
“…W-wait….”
“I won't touch you, so do you want to sleep together tonight? It was definitely uncomfortable without a mattress. One's coming tomorrow, but we don't have one tonight.”
“…You, what did you do?”
“What did I do?”
If she'd paid attention to how confident Kang Ju-hyeok had looked from beginning to end, she should have felt uneasy.
She should have realized that no matter how obvious something seemed, that man could still be up to something.
…How did he do this?
There should definitely have been tens of thousands of subscribers for a video to get around ten thousand views.
She hadn't even had a hundred subscribers when it started,
and she still doesn't even have a thousand, so how on earth…?
“I didn't do anything special. People are watching because you're hot.”
“…Really?”
“If you don't believe me, want to change the terms of the bet? If you hit fifty thousand views by the end of this month instead of ten thousand, you have to do whatever I tell you without ever refusing.”
…I knew it clearly made no sense,
and I knew fifty thousand was genuinely unrealistic,
but seeing the views nearly reach ten thousand in only two days, I couldn't possibly nod.
“Including me touching you. …How about it?”
If I nodded, it was obvious what that man would do,
and fear of losing swept over me.
“Well…if you don't like that, do you want to just admit you lost? Looks like the remaining thousand will fill up soon.”
“….”
“Answer me. Pick one of the two.”
“…I-I l-lost…, s-so, something else, not anything weird….”
Countless ways Kang Ju-hyeok could harass and humiliate me without touching me sprang to mind.
Was he going to make me strip and masturbate?
Or strip himself and masturbate in front of me?
Make me walk around the house naked all day.
…Force me to pose obscenely and film it with his camera.
I wouldn't be raped or physically hurt,
but endless commands that could destroy my spirit and pride tormented my mind.
“Ah, well. I won't make you do anything weird. I'll make you do something else.”
“…W-what…?”
“I'm going to shoot one more video, so if that one gets over ten thousand views too, you have to do one thing I tell you.
“….”
“…Including touching you this time.”
But
as if he had no interest in such minor forms of humiliation,
he swallowed hard while staring intently at my breasts.
…If I refused,
his eyes looked as if he would pounce on me immediately, claiming I'd broken our promise.