I was a bit nervous about moving out-of-state after finishing my Masters degree in computer science, but the offer I got to work in IT and software development with an insurance company in California was just too good to pass up. I wasn't the most outgoing person, so I was a bit worried about making social connections in a new city. I wasn't ugly or unlikable or anything like that, and I'd dated here and there in school—I just had my nose glued to the screen and buried in code too much of the time.
It wasn't long after I started work before I met Mark. He was having issues issues with the company's proprietary app on his smartphone, and we got to chatting while I helped him figure things out. Even as a straight guy I recognized that Mark was good-looking, and he had loads of charisma. He was about 6 feet tall, blond, with a lean, athletic build (later on I found out he was a varsity swimmer in college). I could see why he did well in sales, but his friendliness seemed genuine, not just an act he was putting on to impress me or to sell me something.
An OS upgrade and a few other tweaks later, I had the app running smoothly.
"Peter, you're a lifesaver. They're expecting us to cut down on all sorts of paperwork by tracking things in the app instead and..." He cut his explanation short. "I'm sure you know what it's supposed to do better than I do. Thanks."
"No problem, Mark. You're not the only one who's had a few issues with the app, and you won't be the last. It's still new, and there are always a few bugs to work out with new software."
"I appreciate it man. So you're new in town, right? Me and a couple guys from sales meet up to watch football at my place on Sundays. Why don't you join us sometime?"
Football wasn't really my thing—typical computer nerd working in IT, I guess—but I thought it was a good opportunity to meet some new people at the office. Mark seemed like a nice enough guy, so I figured his friends would probably be too.
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The next weekend I made the trip out to his place in the suburbs. Mark greeted me at the door and led me downstairs to the den, where his big-screen TV was tuned into the sports channel, waiting for the game to start. A plate with some nachos and a bowl of salsa along with a few bottles of beer sat on a coffee table in front of a couch, and a pair of comfortable-looking recliners sat on either side.
"This is Peter, the new whiz from IT." Two men stood up to greet me and we shook hands. "Pete, meet Jeremy and Todd."
Todd was tall, maybe 6'3", with brown hair and a neatly-trimmed beard, and wore a Packers jersey. Jeremy was about 5'10 with short, stylish black hair and a calm, almost calculated demeanor.
"And that's my girlfriend, Mina". Mark gestured to the far side of the couch, where a very pretty Asian woman smiled and waved at me.
"Hi Peter!" she spoke. I smiled and waved back. "Hi, nice to meet you."
After grabbing me a beer, Mark sat down in the middle of the couch beside Mina, with Jeremy on his other side. Todd sat down in the chair closest to us, and so I made my way over to the other recliner, which was near Mina's side of the couch. Mark used a remote to dim the lights—must have been a smart-home setup—and turned on his surround sound system for us to enjoy the game.
The group of us chatted and got to know each other during the game. The guys asked me about my hometown, how I was liking it here—basic stuff like that. I learned that Todd grew up in Wisconsin and was the biggest football fan of the three. He was friendly, but was mostly focused on the screen, watching highlight clips and trying to follow along with what the commentators were saying about the game.
Jeremy was sharp and witty, and had a bit of a sarcastic streak. I could immediately see how his quick wits would help him out in sales. He made occasional gibes at our expense, but it was all taken in good humor.
I learned that Todd also had a girlfriend, Samantha, but she had zero interest in sports and the couple were happy to have Sunday afternoons to themselves. Jeremy dated around but hadn't been in a steady relationship for quite a while.
And this brings me to Mina. Even though she was hanging out in casual clothes watching a football game on the couch, she radiated beauty. She wasn't trying to make a show of herself, she just had a natural appeal that was difficult to ignore.
Apparently her father was a Chinese-American venture capitalist hoping to land a big intercontinental trade deal, and her mother was Korean. She grew up in Korea but her family had recently moved to the States as part of her father's business plans. She'd met Mark when he was involved in an insurance deal with her father's business, and the two had been dating now for about 8 months. Her English was quite good overall, but she spoke with a bit of an accent—enough to suggest that she had grown up overseas.
Since we were seated close-by, Mina and I got to chatting during the game. It turns out she wasn't a huge football fan either, but enjoyed the company of Mark and his friends, and listening to the game on TV was a good opportunity for her to brush up on her English skills and her accent. It turns out she was something of a math whiz while she was in school and was dabbling in learning programming herself, so we were able to converse in the universal language of numbers and code. She was younger than the rest of us, maybe 20 or 21, and if her family stayed in the US she was thinking about going to college for a programming degree.
As enthusiastic as I was to talk about computers, I couldn't deny that Mina was smoking hot, and a few times I lost focus and just stared at her while we chatted. Her complexion was pale, which made a striking contrast with her shiny black hair (tied back in a loose bun) and her large, dark eyes. She was petite, probably only about 5'0" or 5'1", with the slender figure you might expect from her Asian heritage. Despite that, she also had some great curves, possibly owing to that bit of North American blood. She was dressed pretty plainly in some sweatpants and a t-shirt, but you could still tell she had a great body underneath. (It turns out Sunday was her laundry day—she occasionally bounced back and forth between the couch and the laundry room during the game—and that meant she was washing all of her nicer outfits.)
Over the next month and a half I kept joining the guys for the games on Sunday, and I became pretty good friends with both Mark and Mina. Mina was sweet, smart, and beautiful—but she was happy in her relationship with Mark, and she was probably a bit out of my league anyway. I know I didn't have Mark's confidence, and if I ever were to date Mina I'd probably be too nervous about losing her and would mess it up somehow. It was nice having her as a friend though, and from time to time she'd shoot me a text when she needed help with her programming.
I also had many more opportunities in that time to enjoy Mina's looks and body. Sure, she was dating a friend, but I still couldn't help checking her out when I had the chance. She had enough of a chest to provide her with some nice cleavage when she wore the right bra—her tits weren't huge by any means, but they looked great on her small frame. Her hips, legs, and ass were some of her best features. Apparently when she wasn't hitting the books in school she'd trained as a dancer (this involved a long story about being scouted by some K-pop agency, and her dad realizing that the contract they were offering her was way too restrictive, but that's another story for another time). The effort she'd put into keeping her lower body toned had definitely paid off.
For most of our game days she was dressed pretty plainly, but one Sunday she was wearing a pair of tight black yoga pants in place of her usual sweats, and I could barely tear my eyes away from her. I was worried that Mark might have noticed me staring, but I think he was mostly focused on the football. If he did notice, he didn't say anything about it, and I still have the memory of her legs in those tight pants etched into my brain.
Along with being so sweet, Mina was maybe a bit... naive. I think it was mostly a cultural thing. Korean society is apparently quite strict, and she'd spent most of her time there dedicated to her studies and her dancing, so she wasn't very exposed to the outside world. North American culture was much more liberal than what she was used to, and she was making an effort to fit in. The contrast in social mores didn't seem to bother her, but she didn't always have a clear grasp on what was acceptable in day-to-day living versus what she saw on TV or in movies.
She was especially interested in North American fashion, and the few times I did see her outside of Sundays she looked fantastic. She seemed to have developed a good sense of style; she looked sexy without looking smutty. She'd been following a lot of fashion accounts on Instagram, and started making "outfit of the day" posts from time to time herself. I'm sure that Mark helped her out with some of her photos and with ideas on what to wear.
Jeremy sometimes cracked jokes about Mina's lack of cultural awareness, often in the form of a prank to convince her that some silly behavior was 'normal' and was something she had to try—often while Mark was out of the room, so that he'd have a laugh at her actions when he got back. After a while Mina caught on to the fact that Jeremy's suggestions were intentionally ridiculous, but she would play along anyway and have a good laugh with us. Usually it was all pretty harmless—mixing up her understanding of words to make her say something outrageous was pretty common—but a few times Jeremy seemed to push the limits.
I certainly wasn't the only one who had noticed how hot Mina was, and I'd definitely caught Jeremy and Todd checking her out a few times as she walked to and from the laundry room. I couldn't really blame Jeremy for trying to encourage a bit of sexy behavior with a prank here and there. Todd never took part directly, but he never did anything to warn Mina either, and was always keen to watch. I took my cues from Jeremy and Todd, not spoiling the fun, and generally Mina seemed to enjoy herself anyway so I didn't see any real harm.
Even if some of these pranks were a bit sexy, they were pretty innocent overall. One of them involved Jeremy being her "accent coach", and he encouraged her to make some near-orgasmic sounding moans. Another had her bouncing up and down as quickly as she could to learn a new "dance craze", which had a predictable effect on her chest under the cropped tank top she wore that day. I heard from Todd that one time, before I started showing up on Sundays, Jeremy had Mina prove to the guys that Asian girls could twerk. Because of her dancing background she actually took that challenge seriously, and from the way Todd talked about it I was sorry I missed out on the performance.
Todd also told me how at one point Jeremy tried to convince her that chugging a beer as fast as she could was an American rite of passage. Apparently this got Mina talking about how important alcohol is in Korean culture, and she started teaching all three of them Korean drinking etiquette over a series of shots. Todd didn't remember any of the gestures or Korean words to use, but apparently the "elder" was supposed to serve a drink to the younger person first, and the younger one would serve them back. Todd and Jeremy practiced pouring half-shots for Mina a couple of times each, meaning she was drinking twice what they were... and that's when they learned what a lightweight she was. Mark made sure to pace her drinking much more carefully after that.
Jeremy's latest prank, however, definitely went a bit too far. Last Sunday he had convinced Mina that it was bad luck to bite into a popsicle he'd brought for her to eat, and so she had to keep licking it all over to make sure it didn't melt and drip. Watching Mina work her tongue all over the popsicle was somehow even hotter than I expected it to be. Her cute playfulness combined with the inherent sexuality of her gestures had Jeremy, Todd, and me completely captivated.
Did Mina understand what this all looked like? Was she intentionally putting on a show for us, or was she just naively playing along with the prank? I couldn't say for sure.
I noticed Todd shift a bit in his chair, no doubt making room for the hardon he was developing, and I had to do the same. Mina let out a giggle as a drop fell down onto her hand, which she quickly lapped up with her tongue before she could be chastised by Jeremy.
Then, Jeremy pulled out his cellphone and started recording a video of Mina going at the popsicle. This encouraged her to ham it up even more, giggling and smiling for the camera as she kept licking away at the frozen treat. It seemed more and more like she was just playing along for fun, unaware of the effect her display was having on us. The presence of the camera was bringing out the performer in her—maybe owing to those early K-pop aspirations.
And then Jeremy started to give her more direct instructions.
"You can't lick too fast or you might break the popsicle. You've gotta go nice and slowly, up and down the whole length... that's right."
Mina complied with his suggestions, smiling and playing along with the 'prank'.
