James is infatuated with an influencer. That infatuation soon spiral out of control as he seeks out Thai black magic potion in order to make her his. When you make a deal with the dark side, things don’t always turn out the way you expect it to.

The reel had been up for hours and James had watched it close to a hundred times.

He was alone in the flat with the lights off and the aircon set to 23 degrees. On the screen Joan was at a tennis court he had already identified, the public courts off Kallang.

She was wearing a white pleated skirt that lifted a quarter inch when she reached for a serve. She was not actually serving. The racket was a prop. The camera was the point. She knew this and her followers knew this and none of them minded, because the pretence was part of what they were paying for, and James was paying more than most.

He was also wearing the skirt.

Yes, it was the same tennis skirt she wore on the reel.

It sat high on his hips. It did not close at the back. He had left the zip open and safety pinned a length of ribbon across the gap, and in the dark of the bedroom, with the phone light on his face and the skirt cool against his thighs, it almost felt like he was embraced by her.

He tapped the heart on the video. It was already red. He tapped it anyway, watched it bloom and settle, and started the reel again.

The Carousell account was called @sportybabe_declutters123 and it had a few hundred listings and no profile photo.

James had found it by accident a month ago.

Joan had posted a haul video, a sponsor had sent her a box of activewear, and in the corner of one shot, a laptop screen had been open behind her, and on that screen had been a Carousell listing page.

On that listing page had been a photograph of the exact sports bra she was wearing in another reel a few days ago.

He had paused. He had zoomed. He had squinted at the seller’s handle in the corner, trying to make out the number of characters there were. He saved the screen shot because the video was edited again 5 minutes later with the laptop scene removed.

It took him a while to do a bit of digging and search before finding the page with the same listing as the one on the screen shot.

James grinned.

It was like stumbling on a secret level in a RPG game. One that does not exists on any game guide.

To be sure, he double checked all the listings, they matched all the sponsored kits and stuff Joan gets. After wearing them and taking pictures of them, she puts them online for sale.

There were more than 200 listings of Bikini tops, Skirts, Compression shorts and leggings. A pair of Nike socks, worn, priced at $10. The listings were curt and direct.

‘No lowballers, mailing only, perverts will be ignored’

Sponsors sent her the clothes for free. She wore them once for the camera. Then she sold them here, for cash, to men who did not know her name and to one man who knew everything.

He bought carefully at first. One item a month, from different addresses, his own, his parent’s place, even from his office.

He did not want her to notice a pattern. He did not think she looked at her buyers’ handles but he could not be sure. He wants to remain discreet.

Now he owned more than 30 items. He kept them in a suitcase under the bed, folded the way she folded them in her wardrobe organisation reels, and once a week he took them out and laid them on the sheets in the order she had first worn them, and he sat on the floor and looked at them, and sometimes he did more than look.

Tonight was one of those nights.

The reel played. Joan reached, laughed, lowered the racket. The skirt lifted its quarter-inch. James, in the skirt she had worn three weeks ago, moved his hand and watched her mouth and did not close his eyes, he wanted to look at Joan as he touched himself.

James: arhh…arghhh..Joan…Joan arhhhh…

In his head it had been her hands. Her voice. He had constructed it carefully, assembling her from the archive of reels and posts. He knew the way she tucked her hair behind her left ear. He knew the small sound she made when something surprised her, a short breath pulled in through the nose. He had used all of it.

James pictured Joan above him.

That was how he had arranged it in his head. The tennis skirt still on, the way it looked in the reel, and she had looked down at him the way she looked directly into the camera sometimes, that flat, half-amused look that her followers loved.

James : gasp! Joan…arnghh…oh Joan..gasp! ernghhhh!

He finished into a handful of tissues.

Not just any tissues, it’s the brand sold by Joan during her livestream. It didn’t matter it cost twice as much as the one you get from NTUC. To James, it was worth it.

After that, he lay very still on the bed, the skirt folded on the pillow beside him like a sleeping partner.

He was satisfied now, at least for a while.

The phone buzzed on his chest. He turned it over so fast he almost dropped it.

@joanplaysss has posted a new story.

He opened it. Joan, in her car, sunglasses pushed up into her hair, mouth open in mid-laugh at the camera balanced on her dashboard. Text across the bottom: SUNTEC FAN MEET ROUND TWO?? DM ME UR VOTES BABES 🎾💗

He voted.

He was going of course.

James saw the notification from his boss about the work trip to Thailand the next day. He will be taking a later flight because he has a last minute meeting. James was to head over first and link up with the supplier.

He replied promptly.

James went on to send out a couple of email to notify all stakeholders regarding the change of arrangements, and saw a window he left open from the previous night.

It was a fan site of Thai Magic oil. A redirect from his app after buying Joan’s worn clothes. The site for amulets and oil just popped up and it was an intriguing read. The more he read, the harder it was to stop.

And on it was an address for a small stand selling them. An address less than 5 minutes away from the factory James will be visiting.

‘Guaranteed to work!’

And it came with a list of raving reviews of how men got the women of their dreams with the oil.

James spend 5 minutes reading the reviews again when he saw the vote closed on Joan’s page.

SUNTEC FAN MEET CONFIRMED!

The date will be a day after he comes back from Thailand.

He smiles.

If it works, it works. If not, he still gets to see Joan.

Either way, it was a win for him.

Coming soon