By Zephyria 
==
“Uh….”
In the meantime, the counter had become crowded with various items in addition to the wine the man had placed there earlier. Eun-won had worked part-time at convenience stores for several years since his student days, but this was the first time he had seen a customer buy this much. The counter was completely packed.
“…Are you buying all of this?”
“Yeah. Ring it up.”
“…Yes….”
Lifting a plastic basket from inside the counter, Eun-won moved the items into the basket one by one as he scanned the barcodes.
Beep, beep, beep….
The sound of the barcode scanner echoed through the quiet convenience store. Cha Se-jin, watching Eun-won work with his gaze cast downward, gave a thin smile.
“Can I ask now? Since I bought so damn much.”
“…Just because you bought a lot doesn’t mean you can ask me personal questions.”
“It’s not like I asked something hard to answer. It’s not like I asked what my sexual preferences are, or where I like to be touched the most.”
Startled by words that could only be interpreted as harassment no matter how he heard them, Eun-won stopped scanning and looked up at Cha Se-jin. He felt that he had been right to categorize the man as a perverted nuisance.
“Do you go to college?”
As the man said, what he was asking wasn’t actually hard to answer. There was simply no reason he had to tell him. However, there were still dozens of barcodes left to scan, and it felt like the man would keep saying perverted things if he didn’t answer. He decided it would be better to treat it as small talk and share some mundane details of his life.
“…Yes.”
“Do you have a partner?”
“…No.”
“Any thoughts on marriage?”
Beep….
Scanning a bottle of wine, Eun-won looked up at Cha Se-jin again, wondering if he had heard correctly. He had already mentioned he was twenty, that he was in college, and that he didn’t have a partner; he couldn’t understand why the man was suddenly asking if he had thoughts on marriage. Especially with an expression that looked genuinely curious.
It was a question he could easily answer with a ‘no,’ but honestly, he was so flustered because he had never once thought about marriage. It was even more so because it was a question coming from a strange customer at a convenience store, someone he had met only twice in his life.
“No.”
Is he an employee at a marriage agency…? Eun-won thought that if he had such a job, he might be curious due to occupational habit. The problem, of course, was that no part of the man looked like he belonged in that profession.
“I guess no one gets married at twenty these days.”
“…….”
…Then why did he ask?
Glancing at the man, whose thoughts were completely inscrutable, Eun-won scanned the barcode of the most expensive liquor last. The total, which had already been 200,000 won before the liquor, jumped well over 700,000 won with a single beep.
“Pay with this.”
“Would you like bags for these?”
“Yeah.”
“I think you’ll need several….”
“Just ring up as many as you want.”
Adding several plastic bags—enough to fit the items—Eun-won took the card the man handed over, inserted it into the reader, and said something he had rarely said before.
“Would you like to pay in installments?”
“Instal… what?”
“…It’s a credit card company promotion period, so interest-free installments for up to five months are available.”
“Five months interest-free?”
“Yes….”
Cha Se-jin, momentarily bewildered by the first-ever offer of installments he had ever received, suddenly burst into laughter. To be offered installments for 700,000 won—not 7 billion, 700 million, or even 70 million. Cha Se-jin shook his head, rubbing the corners of his eyes where tears had welled up.
“No, I don’t need installments.”
“Yes…. Then I’ll process it as a lump sum…. Please sign here.”
Unable to hide the laughter and tears that kept leaking out because it was too funny, Cha Se-jin signed haphazardly, his laughter mixing with his breath.
“Would you like a receipt?”
“Yeah, give it to me. It’s the first thing Darling is giving me, so I should take it.”
“…What?”
“Yeah, nothing. I said give me the receipt.”
Soon, a long receipt, folded three times, was placed in front of Cha Se-jin along with his card. Eun-won had definitely heard the word ‘Darling,’ but perhaps thinking there was no way that was possible, he didn’t ask again and focused on carefully packing the items into the plastic bags. Watching him, Cha Se-jin tilted his head as if amused.
“I think I’ll get married within this year.”
It was a statement just as strange as the question about marriage. Eun-won pondered the man’s words while carefully packing the wine so it wouldn’t break.
…Should I congratulate him? Since he’s getting married, maybe that’s why he was thinking about it and asked me…?
While wondering how to react as he filled five bags, Eun-won opened his mouth slightly while rustling open a new plastic bag.
“…Uh… congratulations.”
“Congratulations?”
At the word ‘congratulations,’ the man leaned his long body forward, folding over in laughter. While a sound that was neither a laugh nor a sob flowed out, Eun-won filled the third plastic bag to the brim.
“Ah, I’m losing it. Yeah, thanks for the congratulations. But want me to tell you something funny?”
“…….”
“I know who I’m marrying, but the other person doesn’t know who they’re marrying.”
“…What?”
“I wonder when they’ll find out. I hope it’s soon…. Though maybe it’s okay if they don’t know for a bit longer.”
Looking down at Eun-won, who was listening without knowing a single thing, Cha Se-jin picked up the five full bags with one hand to leave, but then remembered something and set them back on the floor. He then turned back toward Eun-won and scanned the counter.
Picking a strawberry-flavored lollipop from a tower of candies plugged into one side of the counter, Cha Se-jin held it out to Eun-won. Bewildered, Eun-won looked at the candy, then at Cha Se-jin.
“Payment.”
“Ah….”
It was an action he never expected from someone who had been making strange noises and behaving oddly before trying to leave. Eun-won stood there blankly, unable to even form the basic thought that he needed to charge for it, before searching for and pressing the lollipop button on the POS system.
“How much is it?”
“Five hundred won.”
“Just ring up ten million won.”
“…I’ll charge five hundred won.”
Taking the black card Cha Se-jin offered with both hands, Eun-won completed the payment for exactly one lollipop and returned the card to Cha Se-jin along with the receipt.
“This is my first time buying something for five hundred won. Thanks to you, there are a lot of ‘firsts’ today, huh?”
From the installment offer to the cheap liquor shopping and the five-hundred-won candy purchase.
Putting his wallet in his pocket, Cha Se-jin picked up the pink candy on the counter. Then, he slowly began to peel the wrapper.
His movements in peeling the plastic tightly adhered to the candy stick were not very skillful. Eun-won, who had been intentionally looking elsewhere to avoid watching, eventually found his gaze returning there.
“…….”
A man with a tall stature, large hands, and a deep, heavy pheromone scent that was far removed from a lollipop, concentrating so hard because he couldn’t even peel a small candy wrapper right away was somehow….
Just as Eun-won was about to think it was a slightly cute scene, he shook his head. ‘Cute’ was a word suited for the tuxedo cat that often visited the front of the convenience store, not for the large man in front of him.
As he shook his head again to scatter the thought, he heard the rustling sound of the wrapper being peeled. Looking at the candy as if he had achieved something great, Cha Se-jin looked at Eun-won and smiled brightly. Then, he pressed the pink candy against Eun-won’s closed lips.
“I thought you’d like it.”
“…….”
“Ah, I have to.”
Pressing the candy firmly against the lips while making eye contact with Eun-won, Cha Se-jin lightly kicked the wall beneath the counter with his foot. Startled by the sound, Eun-won’s lips parted slightly. Cha Se-jin didn’t miss that moment and popped the round candy into the small mouth. He was still holding the white stick.
“…….”
“…….”
Cha Se-jin moved his hand slowly. The white stick went deeper into Eun-won’s mouth and then came out. Watching the stick grow shorter and then longer, Cha Se-jin felt the sensation concentrate in his lower abdomen. The scene reflected in his eyes was excessively erotic.
Every time the round, hard object entered and exited the mouth, he could feel the soft tongue. Even though he wasn’t touching it directly with his hand, the faint sensation transmitted made a pleasant feeling pool, as if he were about to get an erection. Forget the candy; he wanted to let the tongue bite his finger, rub against it, and suck until the tongue, steeped in sweetness, melted away.
But this situation was also quite amusing. He really liked Eun-won, who congratulated his marriage without even knowing that the person he was marrying was himself. He liked how Eun-won easily became wary but then unconsciously relaxed and answered his questions docilely, and he liked how he acted indifferent, completely unaware that he was a beautiful person who did quite cute things.