Laci Pt. 05

-Laci, part 5-

Time to feed.

"Okay, Jae. I do look frickin' hot."

I found myself swallowing hard at a mirror too small for me, admiring the headless visage draped in the tightest, shortest black dress I'd ever dared to try on.

My pale, bare neckline looked endless on the way to a smooth collarbone, interrupted only by a pair of angel-hair straps, perfectly mid-shoulder. Two supports were attached wide near my armpits, coaxing the eye inward to my shapely bosom. The upper chest line swooped downward at the center, mimicking the plump valley of my cleavage.

The tight, velvety material looked like a dense brush swipe of jet-black paint under each 34C cup. My midsection resembled an abyssal ocean, with each crashing wave growing heavier from my abs to a tight grasp around my milky upper thighs. Turning on one knee displayed a stout, firm buttocks, protruding more than I'd ever noticed thanks to the tightness of the dress.

One particular drape below was blending my up-front bulge surprisingly well. The inky cascade from my wide hips to the lower hem was exactly 10.5 inches, giving my lower appendage one inch of cover if I went commando. I wasn't that brave, of course, but that exhilarating gap felt like my toe hovering at a cliff, reminding me not to be afraid.

Jae's voice from outside the dressing room door made me jump from my trance. "I told you, girl! Now let me see those long ass stilts you call legs!"

The most exaggerated gasp came from my friend when I creeped out of the small room, ducking under the low frame and twirling a 360 on my bare feet. "What do you think?"

"I think..." Jae whispered, almost dropping a pair of heels as she slowly approached, "...that Darth Vader himself would have to bow! Sweet Lord, Laci, you are SIZZLING!"

"Aw hyuck!" I squeaked with my best Goofy impression. "Why thank ya, sa-weetie."

My silly prancing ceased when she handed me the open-toed pair of statuesque, towering stilettos in her hand, just as glossy black as my attire. "Now try these on, 'cuz you are NOT wearing those lesbian sandals for a date!"

My insulted demeanor was short-lived once I strapped them on and briefly wobbled to my feet, a noticeable few inches higher from the marble floor of the cramped clothing store.

My calves trembled for a step or two before I inadvertently palmed the ceiling to lock in my balance.

"Hoooly cow, I feel huge! Hahaha!"

I had to be close to 6"2! Clacking down the dress racks, I didn't feel the least bit anxious about sticking out like a sore thumb even more. Instead, I spun a 180 on my toe with a commanding might. The thin straps at my ankle and toes were so form-fitting they looked painted on. My drawn-out legs felt weaponized strutting back towards Jae, her face blatantly ogling my dramatic hips and widened calves.

"Face it, Luke!" I growled, miming a lightsaber grip at my even tinier companion. "I...am your father."

Jae wiped hands across the back of her sundress, the yellow starkly contrasting my vacuous attire, as she slowly shuffled over and placed her ear on my belly, hugging me tightly. "Mommy? Sorry. Mommy? Sorry."

I cackled obnoxiously loud as I swaddled her into my embrace. Only a few days as friends, yet I owed her big time. I had never felt so seductive and uncensored.

The Seoul market was a constant hive of activity, especially buzzing on a bright sunny afternoon. Various flags of nearly every country were draped across the main walkway, adorned with vibrant, obscure shops, catchy music and pungent, steaming foods of every smell.

Our chatty stroll down the market was lazy but anxious. I was determined to overthink every detail for my date with Mark tonight, while Jae tried her best to calm my nerves.

"You could've at least let me pay for my dress.", I complained, shaking the wide blue shopping bag at my tiny friend. "You've done too much for me already, Jae. Seriously."

Her bangs whipped in my direction dramatically, mouth full of a sweet rice cookie. "You didn't tell me your flight had landed ON your birthday, big girl! I'm required to get you something." Jae smacked my 'Back To The Future' top playfully. "Besides, now I can guilt trip you into any favor I ask for."

"Besides reaching the top shelf, what could you possibly have me do?" I giggled, dodging a more vicious smack from her this time. I combed back my loose dark hair and flapped my shirt at a gentle summer breeze as we walked, grateful the temps weren't as sweltering as back home. "I won't agree to any weird favors, by the way."

"Well, Laci, you've got two options." I gulped at the suspense as Jae twirled her sundress to face me, starting another cookie while she backpedaled past a crowd. "Option 1: You promise me you'll be 100% honest when you see Mark tonight. Subtle hints, read his reaction, go from there."

"Ugh!" I groaned and threw my head back at her noble advice. "Gross. Are you gonna be like this when we're dorming in the states?"

Jae spun to face front, ignoring my question as we rounded the block to the hotel. "You just take it slow, and if he's not interested, you thank him for dinner and strut out with your chin up. Easy."

My spike of anxiety did drop a notch or two at her words. I knew people got rejected all the time, and it's really not that bad when it's over. Or so they say.

"Sooo what's option 2? I bitch out from the date, and you torture me with disappointment lectures forever?"

"Oh no! Option 2: I get to watch you pee."

"No, not happening! Geez!" I shoved her devilish smile away and picked up the pace for a few steps. I both loved and hated that she was even more weird than I was. "How about I just murder one person of choice? For my bestie?"

"Fine. Option 3!" Jae shouted as she jogged up next to me, yet another sweet rice treat in her hands. "I want you to kill whoever sold you those sad lesbian sandals you're wearing. 'Kay?"

"Will you leave my sandals al-Ooh!" I reached angrily with my free hand right for her head, just a hair too slow as she ducked and sprinted with a cackle. The little bastard was way quicker in her crocs than I'd thought, staying just out of my reach until the Orakai Hotel lobby.

Once the parental sun was tucked away, the city downtown was like a tireless kid under their blanket, with a flashlight and a good book. Such was the exuberant vitality of Seoul at night.

Every square inch of concrete, plant life, and glass skyscraper was drenched in neon luminescence. Intense pinks and blues of 'Drinks Here!' and 'Best Karaoke' were grouped at every vertical space the walls had to offer.

The mass of well-dressed night owls respectfully collected where they best fit. Wide avenues with nightclubs and arcades were packed shoulder-to-shoulder, while the puzzling backstreets showed a handful of couples mingling outside hidden cafes and wineries. You had to see it for yourself to fully appreciate the unspoken discipline.

After expertly sneaking past the high security of a snoring Mrs. Amos, I was certain I'd gotten lost. My stilettos clicked rapidly on the cobblestone at every pause, 180, and even 360, Mark's message both simple and unorthodox.

-Mark: So you keep it straight from the hotel, then hug the left graffiti wall until you can't see that mega skyscraper TV. Make that right, then zig zag until you pass through the abandoned looking double doors and BAM!

Bam? I had a few questions locked and loaded for Mark if I ever saw him again. My guardian angel took me on a totally different route through a fish tank-floored lounge with only 10 seats called 'Mikki', or bait. I bowed a quick "Sagwa(Sorry.)" to the bartender before ducking through another sliding glass door to the outside, and somehow behind my thick, curly-haired gentleman 30 feet up an alley.

"Zig zag, huh?!" I called out from the shadows as I fine-tuned my dress, persuading an "Oy!" and a quick spin from Mark, his glossy forest green dress shirt gleaming like the ocean's surface.

"Laci, you sneaky teleporter. But I deserved that. So, my phone autocorrected swing left...to..."

His voice trailed off once my heels and villainous attire emerged into view.

I had ditched the usual jet-black on my fingers and toes for a nail polish I couldn't resist from a local cosmetics stand. The deepest maroon I'd ever seen, blended with a swirling spatter of black, called 'Burnt Galaxy'. My brown mane fell straight like a waterfall to barely tickle my shoulders, curving inward towards dark-red lips. The last touch was a dark slash of auburn satin eyeshadow near each outer brow that ignited my hazel irises as they bored into his angelic blues.

For a drawn-out moment, the only sound was the dense click of each heel as I purposefully invaded his space to loom and tower over his 5"5 frame, my clutch clasped behind me in both hands, until I was close enough to smell his natural aroma beyond his cologne.

"Still found you."

Mark swallowed hard while craning his neck, both of us grinning like fools.

"Laci, you do have a permit for all this sexy you've brought, right?" he said softly, rotating to those abandoned doors as his hand slipped around my lower back. The gentle stroking of my hip already caused a stir from down below as we got moving.

We resembled a pair of secret agents entering a hideout as we approached. Past the shoddy wood doors was another set, except these were a good 10 feet tall and looked to be stainless steel. The written character above the door was Korean, but unrecognizable, which was strangely exciting to me. I simply threw my hair back as we approached, way too swept up in mystery and anticipation.

Inside, the unnamed eatery was set to the perfect brightness, dark enough to feel private, but light enough to see who you were dining with. Our table was a high, redwood oval, with an egg-shaped cushioned seat for each of us that wrapped above our heads like a rounded awning.

"...I mean if a massive meteor was aiming for us right now,", Mark explained between bites of dark, glazed chicken, "and I were any creature of nature? I'd wish to be deep in the ocean for sure."

I pulled my glass of gold-colored white wine back, placing it down softly. "I get it, I get it. There are probably a few ancient sea monsters still doing their thing down there. You think they ever come to the surface at night?"

Mark then leaned forward on his elbows, his brown curls just hidden by shadows, and exhaled at my question, but didn't respond. He simply chewed slower than I'd ever seen him, his warm smile dropping, then reactivating around each bite. His glossy green top clashed with the electric blue of his eyes as they flicked over me, downloading every visual they could. The man was just comfortable down to his soul, like he would still be relaxed if the room were underwater and upside down.

I took another sip as I re-upped my own poker face to his level of cool before he tore the stillness.

"You are quite dangerous, Laci."

My attempted stiff expression disintegrated at that, a soft giggle escaping my lips. "Mark, I'd leap out of the window at a printed image of a spider. Dangerous?"

"Not what I mean." His decelerating pace of speech was pulling me in with each word, the next more weighted than the last.

"I think you bought this outfit very recently,", he said as his bright eyes pierced into mine, "and I bet you seldom wear heels. Yet here you are, assembled on a whim, tearing through the very definition of beauty like a knife through wet paper."

I froze as both my dick and my own head rose gently, straining to fully process. "That's...thank you, Mark. But I'm not talking to you until you tell me exactly how long you've been working on that line."

He laughed heartily with his lips closed, then shrugged, going for another bite on his plate. "Either way, you wouldn't believe me if I told you."

I swallowed a mouthful of glass noodles, then seized up at a sudden tingle down my spine. That shrug. I could not pinpoint why, but I felt I had missed something he had unsheathed. Like some anime samurai cut-through, I was feelings the effects moments too late.

My heart, among other parts of me, began surging with blood. I was not losing this unspoken game of passion.

"You wouldn't believe me if I said...what I want to do to you, Mark."

Without looking up, he inhaled his noodles while raising an eyebrow.

"I've quite an open mind. Try me."

I felt a now familiar surge of involuntary dirty-talk creep up my esophagus, but this time I pulled it into my embrace and shoved it speeding forward. Challenge accepted.

"I want to take you, in every essence of the word. Grasp the very soul of your G-spot, then unearth what you didn't know was hiding. Break into that chamber of pleasure your own psyche hides from you, and make you drown in satisfaction."

Did I really just say all that? My intense auto-pilot kept my face flat while my thoughts ricocheted, so much that I couldn't recall the initial moment he had looked up, dropped his hands and stared back. That surge was now accelerating on its own. The fear and lust dancing on his retinas guided me.

"I want to overwhelm your expectations."

My chest was beating like a freight train and the brakes were long gone. I could only hold on for dear life as my hand moved on its own, sliding under the table curtain to gently grab his as my thighs spread open.

"Unleash myself on you,"

I was guiding his hand over my knee, like a hunter luring a predator.

"with a strength you wish you were ready for,"

I couldn't even blink if I tried, my commands disabled by pure passion. I felt I had already gone too far, but we were soon caressing my long inner-thigh, no loss of momentum in sight.

"and the tools you never thought you needed."

His expression was still frozen solid as we crashed between my legs, my fingers encasing his around my pulsating, confined hard-on.

Like a violent implosion, I sucked in my breath at his touch, short-lived from his hand reeling out of my grasp like a venomous bite.

The restaurant unpaused as both of our systems regained control, mine causing me to blink rapidly with a persevering smile, and his to purse his lips and furrow his brow tightly.

"I am...sorry, Laci."

"No, that was on me, hun! I wasn't...planning to go that fast."

I mentally kicked myself and promised I'd take it easy as Mark and I progressed, then my smile dragged down my cheeks at his still locked expression, finally understanding his words.

"I...please don't hate me, Laci. You're so admirable."

Mark's compliment was really an attempt at some consolation prize. That was it? I was scrambling for that inner-passion to rush through and say something, but came up empty.

My eyes felt warm. "So..." was all I could let out as I leaned back. That obvious chance of 'Not his type' I'd tucked away was suddenly engulfed in flames, setting off my sprinkler system against my will.

Mark reached over to touch my arm, seeing the tears before I felt them. "Laci. Hey. It's just..."

I suddenly whipped my egg chair to the side, my purse bending in my grip as I stood without a word, spiraling to the exit in just 5 long steps.

"Laci..."

My stilettos raced back through the late-night streets, occasionally stumbling like a newborn elk. What the hell did I expect? Idiot. When you throw yourself like that, you fall. Common sense. Both of my hands were jammed in my eyes as I groaned through tears, not caring how my makeup suffered.

When I pulled my head back, I was sitting at the Orakai Hotel bar. My thoughts were so crushing that the trip back was just a depressing blur. I don't even drink like that. The glass of wine that evening was maybe the fifth or so of my entire life.

I sniffled hard at the bartender approaching his only customer, an older man who's jovial face softened at my solemn display.

"What can I get you, madam?"

I paused with my hand on my ID at his relaxing tone. I knew this stuff happened. I knew this feeling was natural and not permanent. But I needed it to dissipate right damn now.

"Two shots of, uh, vodka. Thank you."

By the time I started believing my own words, he'd placed both long, thin shot glasses in front of me. I stared at the clear substance, feeling another tear build rapidly.

A buzz from my purse revealed a message from the last person I wanted to let down.

-Jae: Yooo, having fun?-

I cleaned a teardrop from the screen before I replied hesitantly.

-Me: Yup! Never forgetting this night!-

Seeing Jae's face in my head brought a wave of remorse, and I downed one of the glasses too quickly to even taste.

The immediate, cascading burn had me certain I'd wake up with welts on my chest. My nose singed and a single cough catapulted the burn throughout my body before...numb. My eyelids became heavy and the roulette of emotions in my chest rotated towards bliss.

I was right where I needed to be, but also curious where I would go, so I downed the second blurry vial and waited. Before I knew it, my consciousness was just floating, followed by an abrupt shove inside my forehead. I had half a moment to ponder it before something pushed me deeper into darkness, taking my place.

***

Finally.

With impeccable timing, I had crept my way to the front of Laci's awareness, grasping the controls she'd abandoned.

I was done witnessing from her subconscious. Watching Laci doubt, hesitate, and fail. Her weak synergy with our needs progressed like molasses and occasionally rolled backwards, more often than not.

Even through the flirtatious eruptions and fantasies I spawned. Nothing. No attempt to feed from that stubborn erection. Not a move made to fluster and captivate a man with the gifts he would build an addiction for. Uncertainty and inexperience were no longer a viable excuse for me. For us.

Breathing in deep, I pried her eyes open and wiggled her toes, scanning the bar and lobby for potential.

I took in the massive first floor of the hotel, its walls striped with wood and glass, with enough vertical space for two more floors before reaching the ceiling. The outer perimeter was all glossy, marble floorspace, guiding foot traffic past the numerous service desks along each wall. Centered in the room were 3 gold carpeted steps descending into a sort-of lounge bucket, adorned with a handful of soft chairs and low tables, all circling a glass and ivory staircase that spiraled above and out of sight.

Set a good hundred feet from the front entrance, past that lobby, was the giant rectangle of the bar. Draped in ivory and glass like the spiral stairs, it currently housed the one elder barkeep, arranging bottles around the metallic gold centerpiece, and me, adjusting to Laci's form like a kid in a new Halloween costume.

The barkeep approached before I halted him with a raised palm.

"Deo isang naleul wihae (No more for me)", I choked, rising from my stool and turning away. I couldn't explain the experience of using a voice you already sounded like, but still came out alien and unfamiliar. Nor did I waste time trying as I planted my heels toward the crowd at the front lounge, like a starved tiger approaching a busy watering hole.

There are ways to spot a man who wants to be...gotten. The ones who unconsciously stop to avoid walking in your path, afraid that your very womanhood will set them ablaze on sight. Confident in conversation until they melt and buckle as you say, 'What if I kissed you?'

As I scanned the various bystanders for someone to sink my teeth into, I felt the slightest tinge of Laci's sorrow at my lower spine. Mark. She was still clutching her first real rejection like a childhood boyfriend, pointless yet everlasting.

Get the fuck over it already. Even after mentally swapping places, her stagnation got on my nerves.

"Aw girl, you gotta -hic- let it go!"