22 - Chapter 20: Irina
For a few days after that incident, nothing much happened.
"Shall we head home?"
"Yeah, let's."
Maybe because we'd hung out over the weekend, the distance between Seo-yun and me had shrunk considerably. Before long, we naturally started walking home from school together.
We had always been close anyway, and given my current situation, I certainly didn't mind the company.
We were walking down a fairly wide street with no clear division between the sidewalk and the road
when the roar of a motorcycle echoed from behind us.
"A motorcycle's coming."
She nudged me toward the inside of the path, casually stepping aside herself, relying entirely on the sound.
For both of us, this was just routine, so we kept walking without giving it a second thought.
That was why we failed to notice the motorcycle was heading straight for us on a dangerously close trajectory.
We had only moved aside based on the sound, and since most bikes or cars usually kept their distance and steered clear of pedestrians, we naturally didn't pay it any attention.
But.
We shouldn't have been so careless.
"Huh?"
The motorcycle caught up to us in an instant. As it brushed past, the rider swung an iron pipe, slamming it hard against the back of Seo-yun's head.
"...!"
The heavy blow to the back of her head sent her crashing to the hard pavement before she could even let out a scream.
"What the fuck...?"
Panic seized me at the sudden turn of events. The motorcycle screeched to a halt just ahead, and the rider dismounted.
Slinging the blood-stained iron pipe over their shoulder, the rider walked toward me with slow, steady steps.
"Su-hyeon... ah..."
"Noona...?"
Somehow, Seo-yun managed to cling to consciousness. She struggled to her feet, blood dripping from her head, and took a defensive stance even as she stumbled.
"Run... get away..."
What?
At her words, I looked back and forth between her and the rider.
Seo-yun possessed incredible physical durability, befitting her high mana rank.
That was undoubtedly why she was still conscious after a blow that would have killed an ordinary person on the spot.
But that didn't mean she was in any condition to fight.
She was barely holding onto her fading consciousness, running on pure desperation.
Meanwhile, the rider was completely unscathed. Not a single scratch on them.
And while Seo-yun was bare-handed, the rider was armed with an iron pipe.
If this continued, she was going to get beaten to a pulp.
It wasn't hard to figure out why this was happening.
I was the reason Seo-yun was bleeding and stumbling like this.
The guilt was already eating at me, and letting her take any more of a beating for my sake was out of the question.
I had to face the consequences of my own actions.
It was an absurd world where common sense and decency didn't apply, but even so, I wanted to hold onto them.
So, ignoring her warning, I stepped in front of her, shielding her with my body.
"Huh?"
The rider tilted their masked head, seemingly amused by my actions.
I spoke to them in a resigned voice.
"I'm the one you're after anyway. I would've gone quietly without all this fucking bullshit."
"Su-hyeon...?"
I gave Seo-yun's arm a reassuring pat, just like I always did, and walked toward the rider.
The moment I got close enough, the bastard delivered a sharp, brutal blow to my stomach. A violent wave of nausea washed over me instantly.
After that, everything went black.
How long had I been out?
When I finally managed to open my eyes, I found myself in a dingy basement.
The low hum of a ventilation fan grated on my ears, and the only light in the room filtered through its spinning blades.
The room was bleak, with stained, bare concrete exposing the floor, walls, and ceiling.
The only piece of furniture was the metal chair I was currently bound to.
When I shifted, handcuffs clinked against the metal. Unlike zip ties, there was no way I was breaking these with raw strength.
"Fuck."
I muttered a low curse, my throat dry and hoarse, and leaned back. I stared blankly at the stained ceiling, waiting for something to happen.
Before long, the heavy iron door opened with a loud metallic clank. I turned my head to see a woman standing in the doorway.
She wore nothing but a bra on her upper body, fully exposing the intricate tattoos covering her skin.
With one hand shoved deep into her pocket, she dragged a wooden chair over with the other and sat down directly in front of me.
Leaning forward with her legs spread and her elbows resting on her knees, she exuded a dangerous, intimidating aura.
"Do you know who I am?"
I nodded.
Her name was Irina. She was the boss of the gang that controlled our district.
I'd heard she was of Koryo-saram descent, which explained the Russian name.
Seeing my nod, Irina skipped the introductions and got straight to the point.
"I didn't want to do this either. But what choice do I have? If we don't retaliate when our people get hurt, the whole organization looks like a joke."
Despite her words, her snake-like eyes gleamed with a strange, dark excitement.
I let her empty excuses go in one ear and out the other, giving a half-hearted nod.
"...So."
Irina, who had been rambling on with whatever justification suited her, fell silent. She stood up and unlocked my handcuffs.
Did she think someone like me didn't even need to be bound?
Well, considering how powerful someone of Irina's caliber was, she wasn't wrong.
After freeing me, she stretched and leaned lazily back in her chair. Crossing her legs and resting her interlaced fingers on her knee, she scanned me up and down.
"Stand up."
The command was delivered in a tone that was paradoxically both gentle and threatening. I stood up awkwardly from the chair.
"Let's start by getting you naked."
Right, I'd heard of this. It was standard practice to strip a prisoner naked before the torture began.
Supposedly, it stripped away their humanity, making them feel like nothing more than livestock.
I shed my clothes one by one under Irina's watchful gaze. Once I was completely naked, I stood straight again.
"Stand at ease."
I spread my feet shoulder-width apart and clasped my hands behind my back.
Once I was in position, she rose from her chair and approached me.
"From now on, if you break that stance, you'll be punished."
Irina whispered the warning as she slid off her loose gray pants.
Beneath them, she wore dark, coffee-colored pantyhose.
She grabbed my chin with one hand and gripped my cock with the other.
"Mmm..."
Tilting my face up, she kissed me deeply. At this distance, her perfume was overwhelming. She actually wears perfume, of all things.*
Inhaling her scent during the deep, tongue-tangling kiss while she stroked me, I quickly grew hard.
Once I was fully erect, Irina pulled back and slid my cock between her thighs.
The texture of the nylon was soft and unfamiliar, but I didn't feel any aversion. If anything, it was the exact opposite.
With my cock sandwiched firmly between her stocking-clad thighs, Irina wrapped her now-free arms around me.
She pulled me flush against her, skin pressing to skin, and began to grind her thighs together.
For a long time, the only sounds in the basement were the hum of the ventilation fan, the wet squelch of our tongues, and the friction of my cock rubbing against her stockings and thighs.
At the unfamiliar, intense pleasure, my cock twitched, swelling to its absolute limit.
Feeling the shift between her thighs, Irina suddenly pulled away.
As my semen spilled into the empty air, my knees buckled slightly from the sudden rush of release and the wave of exhaustion that followed. The heavy perfume had left my head feeling fuzzy, too.
Seeing my stance falter, Irina's snake-like eyes gleamed with triumph.
"I'm pretty sure I said I'd punish you if you broke your stance."
Sure, I had failed to hold it, but hearing that from the very person who had forced me to break it felt incredibly unfair.
Irina stepped close again, whispering in my ear as I finished coming.
"So you have to take your punishment, right? Just like I said. Despite how I look, I'm a woman of my word."
At the word 'punishment', a shiver ran down my spine.
Feeling the tremor through her hand on my body, Irina smirked.
"Oh? You're trembling. Are you scared?"
"..."
I didn't answer, so she pressed further.
"Or are you just excited for what's coming next? How dirty."
Sure, believe whatever you want. I simply closed my eyes, ignoring her teasing.