"That is..."
Mina's question was, in a way, natural.
Perhaps the initial goal was simply money. But the role of a stand-in involves considerable sacrifice. If all the anxiety and complaints she had just poured out were false, it wouldn't be wrong to view her counterpart not as a Korean exchange student but as an actress.
Mina's eyes sparkled and lit up.
The erratic attitude and speech patterns. Jenny felt confusion along with excitement. Was this her original personality? Or perhaps, just as she herself had changed after experiencing life at the bottom of the Hostel Chain, the once ordinary college student Mina had also changed. Either way, Mina seemed very unstable. Just like Jenny had been when her teeth hurt.
"...Is it something you can't tell me? Like with the manager?"
"No, it's not that."
Mina's voice dropped low.
Her neatly trimmed eyebrows twitched. Jenny hurriedly shook her head. From watching Mina's expression up close, a danger signal had come. An attitude that had suddenly turned friendly could just as easily work in the exact opposite direction.
"Of course, I can tell you. It's not some great secret. And, Ms. Mina, you are fully qualified to hear it."
"Yes. I'm really glad you said that."
A smile quickly spread across Mina's lips.
Jenny continued her facial acting while carefully selecting words in her head. Of course, she couldn't spill all the truth to the stand-in. If she did, even if she were the real Ina-kyung, she would receive no respect from the other party.
She could just make something up appropriately. Things like her shabby clothes could be glossed over. That had been Jenny's plan from the start. It had gotten tangled from the beginning when the pickup driver hadn't recognized her. Although there had been numerous twists and turns in the process, she could get back on track even now. Even though the stand-in Mina, whom she was meeting for the first time in months, seemed mentally unstable and was disconcertingly similar to her past self beyond imagination.
That was clearly Jenny's new plan.
"...It's true, as you heard, that I'm working as a receptionist."
"Mmm."
Mina nodded her head slowly.
Undercover employment. Hiring a Korean exchange student as a stand-in, that was the very reason all this had started.
"For our group's re-entry into the Japanese market... the leisure business is key. In the past, we withdrew without achieving significant results, but this time, the top brass has a firm resolve. We analyzed the reasons for the failure. The obvious conclusion was that we were too ignorant of the local Japanese culture. Especially the executives leading the business, at the CEO level, their understanding of Japanese society and business was too shallow."
"..."
Jenny's voice was calm and seemingly logical, except for a slight tremor at the end.
The actual content was obvious generalities. It couldn't be helped. Now, Jenny knew almost nothing about the circumstances of the Seongbon Group. The things she had heard before going undercover. It was already a story from months ago, and she wasn't even sure if it was true. Moreover, Jenny had no idea how much internal information the stand-in knew.
For some reason, the other party was silent.
Her expression was ambiguous. She sat still with a beautiful face where her features were in perfect harmony. It was similar to the mask Jenny had consciously used in the past to hide her emotions and thoughts.
"The plan is progressing well. It hasn't been a long time, but I've learned a lot... But Ms. Mina, I heard you made a request. For authority or something, that you wanted something. When I first heard, I was puzzled. I didn't understand why you would ask for such a thing. But now I get it."
Jenny whispered in a soft voice, leaning her body forward.
The distance between the two women was already close enough.
Jenny made a gesture filled with understanding and empathy. The primary goal was to convince Mina and obtain group-level support, namely a ticket to Korea for the implant - even if via Vietnam. The second goal was to see Mina more closely. The latter was a desire stemming purely from Jenny's twisted sexual appetite.
Snow-white skin. More than anything, skin as white as the snow that had just fallen captivated Jenny's gaze. After pondering the skin tone so starkly contrasting with her own current one, she next checked the facial features so similar to her past self. Just shifting her gaze soaked Jenny's secret inner self thoroughly.
"You must have felt very stifled..."
"Wait a moment."
Mina cut her off sharply.
In the excessively narrowed gap, Jenny also easily witnessed the stand-in's black pupils taking on a strange light.
"Something's... a bit strange."
"Huh?"
Strange?
Jenny flinched, her shoulders trembling.
Am I remembering the meaning of 'strange' wrong? For a moment, such a thought flashed through her mind. 'Strange' spoken in Korean, not Japanese or Vietnamese. Why would that expression come out suddenly? Jenny's blue pupils trembled finely. Ah, clearly she wasn't misremembering the word-
"What's... strange? Ms. Mina."
"You don't know what's strange?"
"Well, of course... unless Ms. Mina tells me..."
"Mmm..."
The other party tilted her head to the side.
Glossy black hair cascaded like a waterfall. Even as her heart pounded wildly at Mina's ambiguous expression, Jenny couldn't take her eyes off the black hair contrasting with the snow-white skin. Originally, well-maintained, glossy black long hair had been Nakyung's trademark.
"You don't know? Really?"
"...Yes. I don't know mind-reading or anything."
To the question clearly laden with doubt, Jenny attempted to deflect with a sly joke.
It was a tactic that had often worked in the past. Even after coming to Japan. Because whether as Ina-kyung or Jenny, she was generally someone who gained the favor of those she conversed with.
But the counterpart Jenny faced now was not like that - or rather, her attitude changed too rapidly to grasp.
"You don't know, you don't know... Ms. Nakyung. I'd like to ask one, no, a few more questions. Is that okay?"
Tap, tap-tap-
Mina's delicate fingers tapped the armrest of the chair.
Questions? It was an all too ominous demand or request. It was not a situation where she could possibly refuse. Jenny swallowed dry saliva. Because the distance had narrowed, every minor gesture and physical change of each other was visible - to Jenny, it was clearly noticeable that Mina had begun to harbor suspicions again, and from the opposite side, surely...
"Ms. Nakyung?"
"Ah."
This time, Mina leaned her head forward, coming closer.
The cheap-looking blue fake irises, unable to hide their fakeness, shook greatly. Her back felt damp. Embarrassment and excitement, because of such emotions, too much water was flowing all over her body.
"...Yes, as you wish."
Jenny pulled her body back slightly.
Mina was staring straight at such a Jenny. Tap, tap-tap. The white noise of tapping the armrest. The thought flashed that if Mina raised her hand now, the bodyguards waiting outside would swarm in.
What if she subdued the off-guard opponent? No, that would be meaningless. Unlike a man, there were no exposed vital points, and above all, with no way to escape, she would have to stage a hostage situation. Of course, Jenny was an extremely powerless weakling in the world of violence, incapable of handling even one ordinary adult male physically.
"That outfit."
"Yes."
Finally, that question.
Jenny's heart, her lower abdomen, sank with a thud.
Both top and bottom clung tightly to her body and were too short. The breasts and buttocks, the attractive curves of a woman, but a style that emphasized them so blatantly lowers a woman's value. Both Jenny and Mina knew that fact well.
"By any chance, is it something like a uniform Ms. Nakyung wears to work?"
"No, it's not that."
The answer came out excessively fast and immediate.
Even Jenny herself felt the strangeness, but words once uttered cannot be taken back. She tried nodding her head, but it only added awkwardness. Jenny had to squeeze out effort just to manage her expression.
"Then."
On the other hand, Mina asking the question was relatively calm. At least outwardly.
"It's Ms. Nakyung's casual clothes, right? Casual clothes chosen to match your taste."
"Yes, that's right."
"It doesn't seem like an outfit suitable for the time, place, or situation."
"That is..."
The sharp observation pierced her chest like an awl.
Her back felt cold. In stark contrast, her lower abdomen bubbled and boiled. Now she couldn't deny it. She shouldn't deny it. Jenny, Mina's gaze sweeping over the provocatively dressed call girl from top to bottom. She had no choice but to acknowledge the suspicious look contained within it, the fact that she was being doubted.
Especially following the stand-in's gaze lingering around her breasts and pelvis, Jenny's nipples stiffened erect. The sensation of hot liquid overflowing from below wetting her thighs was also vivid.
Not now-
"Ina-kyung. Ina-kyung?"
"Yes, yes?"
Mina called that name again.
Jenny jerked her head up. Had she lost consciousness for a moment? Before she knew it, Mina was sitting with her legs crossed. The suspicion had disappeared from her expression. So Jenny's heart sank once more. Because what had taken suspicion's place was not relief or respect, but a certain conviction.
"...It's really strange. More than one or two things are strange. You said it was okay to ask a few more questions, right? First... mmm, that hotel where Ina-kyung worked undercover. You naturally know where it is, right?"
"Of course..."
"You worked there under the name Jenny, right? As a staff member? There should be a staff member named Jenny registered at the hotel."
"Ah, no. That's not the case."
It sounded utterly obvious, but in reality, it wasn't obvious at all.
Jenny's lips trembled faintly. She quickly shook her head.
"Because it's undercover, it means all identities were hidden and it was disguised employment, so it's not like that. The higher-ups pulled strings, and that, that's not such a difficult thing to do."
"Ah. Is that so."
It was a lame excuse.
Mina tilted her head to the side again. Unlike Jenny's lips trembling with bewildered fear, the stand-in was thinking about which of many, many things to choose to say.
The answer came quickly. Mina reached out her hand. As if to calm the finely trembling Jenny, or perhaps to preemptively block any potential escape attempt by the Vietnamese call girl, the stand-in Mina grabbed Jenny's wrist.
"Then, what I want to ask now is... Ina-kyung, the part I find most incomprehensible and puzzling... this pungent, sour smell stinging my nose, who is it coming from?"