Foot Worship Chapter 1

People say that when you meet your true match, a halo shines behind their back. That you feel some inexplicable certainty the moment you see them. But I never trusted those words. I just thought it was something people made up to make their spouse or lover seem special.

But why, of all things, did those words come to mind now? What on earth does that man have behind his back to be emitting such a brilliant light? I stared blankly at the man walking toward me with long strides while slumped over the table.

A short hairstyle that wouldn’t be at all strange even if he were a professional soldier, features with distinct contours, long and straight fingers, a brown trench coat with wide-legged black pants, and white sneakers beneath them. From head to toe, he was absolutely, maddeningly my type.

My brain was already stripping off his trench coat to see his lean, toned skin.

―Knock knock

The man made a fist and lightly tapped the table. Only then did I snap back to reality and stand up from my seat. I covered and rubbed my lower face with my palm and blinked rapidly.

What on earth was I thinking? I realized belatedly that I had just sexually objectified a man I was seeing for the first time, and I blushed from embarrassment. Because I spend my days and nights working myself to the bone managing a site that has plenty of talk and trouble, my brain had reacted hypersensitively to such a trivial visual stimulus.

“…How did you get here?”

“Because of the interview.”

“Ah! Please, sit over here.”

I licked my dry lips and gave the man a kind smile. If I don’t smile like this, people often misunderstand me, so I try to smile on purpose. The man’s face up close wasn’t just masculine; it was beautiful. Every time his mysterious, deep teal eyes disappeared beneath his eyelids, I felt as if someone was pressing my head downward. For no reason, I rubbed the top of my head with my hand and offered the seat to the man standing blankly once more.

He quietly pulled out a chair and sat across from me. I poured the warm coffee I had brewed in advance into a cup and placed it in front of him. As I returned to my seat and sat down, Jerome set down the coffee cup he was holding and looked at me.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Jin, the administrator of Foot Worship.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Jerome Lee.”

I put on the rimless glasses I had left on the table and rummaged through a thick stack of papers. Soon, I found the application form tucked into an L-folder and scanned it with my eyes.

Foot Worship was an SM community site that Kwon Raewon, Goo Jihoon, and I had put our heads together to create. Goo Jihoon and Kwon Raewon were responsible for the ideas and capital investment, respectively, and I was in charge of management and operations. As planned, the site was cruising along as a playground and sanctuary for people with kinks. However, as the number of members began to grow, problems arose in operations.

Foot Worship had a complicated registration process. It was a system where an administrator would check and approve an application after the user meticulously wrote and submitted answers to questions that were generated randomly every day. This mechanism was a defensive line to block the entry of “vanillas” (people without specific sexual kinks) who tried to join out of curiosity and to filter out troublemakers.

However, because we accepted member registrations after such careful deliberation, we became relatively negligent in managing the bulletin board. Especially as the number of members began to increase, the Foot Worship bulletin board became reminiscent of a battlefield without gunfire every single day. If one problem arose, dozens of posts would stem from it. There was so much talk and trouble that I could no longer handle it by myself.

It wasn’t as if Kwon Raewon or Goo Jihoon were actively intervening in site operations, so the operation was entirely my burden. Eventually, after much deliberation, I decided to recruit an administrator who could help me manage Foot Worship.

When I posted the recruitment notice on the Foot Worship announcement board, several applicants sent in their applications via email. After shortlisting people with site management experience and sending out first-round acceptance notices, I started conducting in-person interviews. But strangely, there was no one who caught my eye. If someone were to point out how great a person I was trying to hire just for a community administrator position, I wouldn’t really have anything to say. Still, since we would be spending a lot of time together, I wanted to pick someone I really liked. There were many things to consider: what their main job was, whether they had management experience, what their personality was like, etc. Of course, I did look at the interviewee’s appearance during that process, but that was just a small bit of self-indulgence for the sake of “self-welfare.”

The applicant who was supposed to come today had specs that were excessive for the position, so I was secretly curious about what kind of person he would be. But as it turned out, not only his conditions but also his appearance were perfect for satisfying my self-indulgence.

“…Your appearance is quite exotic.”

“My father is American and my mother is Korean.”

“Are you a professional soldier, by any chance?”

“Pardon?”

I had only cracked a joke to lighten the heavy atmosphere typical of an interview, but Jerome didn’t understand the meaning of my words and wore a bewildered expression.

“I asked because your hair is short.”

“I’m too lazy to groom it.”

That’s a refreshing answer. I kept glancing at Jerome while checking the experience listed on the application. Whether looking from the side, the back, the front, or even after doing a forward roll, he was handsome—no, he had a beautiful face. My eyes kept drifting toward the man’s face. I cleared my throat once and scanned the awards listed at the bottom.

“You also have a history of winning an international hacking competition.”

“…I fiddle with it a little as a hobby.”

“Winning awards as a hobby, that’s great. Then, what do you do for a living now?”

“I work at the service business headquarters of a major corporation.”

Perhaps because he was worried about outing himself, Jerome didn’t give the exact name of the company and used the term “major corporation” to reveal his job indirectly. From the start, when I posted the recruitment notice, I had asked for sensitive personal information such as education or job titles to be marked with initials.

Actually, Kwon Raewon and Goo Jihoon were very sensitive about letting people in. When I said I would hire a staff member, the two of them actively expressed their opposition. In the end, it was only after I threatened to shut down the site that they withdrew their opposition. This was all because we were living in the shadows. Feeling a bit bitter, I circled my tongue inside my mouth.

“By any chance, may I ask why you applied to be a Foot Worship administrator?”

It wasn’t a very important question if he just did his work well, but I suddenly became curious as to why a man working at a decent major corporation had applied, so I asked. It’s not like he would need a side job.

“I’ve had… an interest in this for a long time.”

He had an interest in it for a long time? It was a vague statement with no clear subject, but it sounded like a formal answer, so I decided to let it slide.

Above all, Jerome had the most excellent education and experience among those I had interviewed. Truth be told, it was becoming a bit overwhelming to keep conducting interviews alone, so I wanted to hire him if I could.

“When can you start working?”

“Excuse me, before that,”

“Yes, if you have any questions, feel free to ask.”

“Are you a Dom, by any chance?”

“Pardon?”

I was so flustered by the unexpected question that my voice cracked and came out at a high pitch. Ah, damn, how embarrassing. I cleared my throat quietly and adjusted my posture.

I had been a judo athlete since I was young and even wore the Taegeuk mark at one point. I’m not anymore, but since I was in the 100kg weight class during my active years, I still have a large build and a solid body. Because I have a needlessly good physique, people naturally assumed I was a Dom. But unfortunately, I was a submissive who enjoyed being masochistic and controlled. A sudden sense of gloom washed over me. If I told him I was a sub, would this man laugh at me?

“If it’s uncomfortable, you don’t have to answer—”

“You probably thought I was a Dom because of my appearance, but I have the opposite orientation.”

“…”

“I’m a sub.”

Jerome seemed lost in thought, rubbing under his chin with his long fingers and then moving up to his cheek, tapping it like he was playing the piano. His face was expressionless, so I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. I felt slightly offended by the silence, but I waited quietly.

If he said he couldn’t work with me because he didn’t like my orientation, I was ready to snap back and ask what my orientation had to do with his work. However, the words that came out of Jerome’s mouth after a long while were beyond anything I could have imagined.

“I know it’s rude to ask, but do you happen to have a lover or a play partner?”

“…Pardon?”

“If you don’t,”

“I told you I’m a sub. Not a Dom, a sub.”