14.1 People Whose Every Day is a Birthday
Drenched in each other’s sweat, bodily fluids, and love, our bodies were swollen and heavy, but it had never felt better than it did this dawn. I had never felt this way in my life. Despite the violent movements, it felt as if all the fatigue in my body had vanished; the knot in my chest that used to make me choke on my food had finally slid down and disappeared. I felt that we had finally shared a proper love. Intoxicated by a feeling I wouldn’t mind experiencing forever, I fell fast asleep in Chu Gi-oh’s arms.
My whole body was slippery, but I slept soundly. Even though the sheets were damp and soggy, it wasn’t unpleasant at all. On the contrary, it was cozy. Now that we had shared true love, even if the place I lay were mud or a path of thorns, this would be my home and sanctuary for the rest of my life.
Clinging to each other as if we could never be parted, we didn’t realize it was already well past noon. It wasn’t that I had slept so mindlessly that I lost track of time. Our President, who would normally be up and moving with surgical precision, seemed unwilling to break this peaceful atmosphere and head to work today. Early this morning, he had made a phone call and canceled his entire morning schedule.
‘If the directors give me shit, tell ’em Chu Gi-oh is sick. Tell ’em he’s practically dyin’.’
In my half-asleep haze, the sound of it was so funny that I giggled. The President, slacking off. That was one thing, but who on earth would believe he was dying of illness? He was the kind of man that even diseases would avoid to keep from getting entangled with him.
After hanging up, Chu Gi-oh hugged me tight as I smirked. Then, he whispered into my ear.
‘It’s all ’cause of you.’
My mood was soaring from the get-go. Even though we were already pressed together without a single gap, I kept trying to wedge my body deeper into his embrace. If I could, I wanted to crawl right inside Chu Gi-oh’s body.
After waking up late and showering together, we sat across from each other at the dining table for lunch. Once [stolen content]we finished eating, I helped him get ready for work. While tying his tie, my gaze visit our sitefixed on his cheeks right in front of me. I stopped moving without realizing [stolen content]it. The handprints I had made were clearly stamped on both his cheeks.
What would his subordinates think when they saw these reddish marks?
‘Which son of a bitch dared to touch Hyung’s face!’
‘Just give us the word! I’ll go and kill them right now.’
Would they bark in excitement like that, or would they simply assume it was because of me?
I let go of the tie and placed my palm on his cheek. Since people would naturally stare, it was important that it didn’t hurt and healed quickly. As I pressed down gently with that intention, he grinned and rubbed his cheek against my hand.
‘I’ll just tell ’em you did it. That I got beat the hell outta ’cause I wouldn’t listen.’
“What? Ah, no, you can’t.”
“What do you mean, I can’t? That’s the only way people won’t look at me weird.”
“…I think they’ll look at you even weirder.”
Whether it was a husband beating his wife or a wife beating her husband, people would find it strange either way. As I shook my head, telling him not to, he chuckled. Then, he planted a kiss on my lips.
“I don’t wanna.”
And then he began a long kiss. After playing with my lips for a while, he pulled away, panting, and shouted with a solemn, excited expression.
“I can’t do this. You get ready too, quick! Fuck, I can’t possibly leave you behind and go alone!”
And so, I went to work with him. Today, without Jang-bae or Du-jik, Chu Gi-oh drove himself. Watching him climb into the driver’s seat, fasten his belt, and grip the steering wheel made my heart flutter for some reason. I don’t know if I was wearing rose-colored glasses, but… he looked incredibly sexy. As long as he didn’t open his mouth, he looked like a sophisticated city man, almost decadently so. The handprints on his face seemed to add to the atmosphere, like lipstick stains.
I wanted to hold the hand gripping the wheel. That rough hand with the blue veins bulging. That massive hand with fingers as thick and long as two of mine. The fierce hand that had slapped his own cheeks without hesitation last night. The erotic hand that had gripped and shaken my cock all through the dawn. The hand that had pushed into my mouth, pressing down on my tongue, demanding I suck it like a cock— holy shit.
I quickly tore my eyes away from his hand. I pinched my thigh hard and looked out the window as we left the residential area. Not just my face, but my entire body felt hot. I was sure I was flushing bright red.
To think the day would come when I’d be acting this pathetic over Chu Gi-oh. Even I couldn’t believe it, and it made me laugh. How disgusted had I been at first? The guy who almost gagged and threw up during phone sex was now having erotic thoughts on his own. There really are many unpredictable things in the world. Just like the song title, ‘The World is a Kaleidoscope.’
As I leaned my head against the window, which was hot from the sunlight, he suddenly grabbed my hand resting on my [visit our site]thigh. When I looked back, his handsome face was grinning at me.
“Wanna suck my cock? The mood is fuckin’ perfect right now.”
…Of course. What did I expect to change? Even if he died and came back to life, he’d still be a pervert.
I turned my head away, pretending not to hear. In response, he pulled my hand over his cock. It was slightly erect. If it were touched even a little, it would expand instantly like a parachute.
Honestly. What I wanted wasn’t this cock that caused a scene by growing and shrinking constantly, but your hand, which was always massive.
Thinking he would use my hand to massage his cock without knowing my heart, I expected the worst, but Chu Gi-oh just left my hand there and continued driving. At one point, he let go of my hand to switch his left hand to the steering wheel. Now, only my hand remained on his crotch.
Was he saying he wouldn’t force me, so if I wanted to, I should do it myself? I wondered if it was because I had screamed, ‘Why force something I hate, you pervert!’ yesterday. When I glanced at Chu Gi-oh, he spoke calmly while looking straight ahead.
“It’s my birthday today, Min-jo.”
“….”
How happy must he be to say something like that? For a moment, my heart swelled, and I felt [visit our site]as if I might burst into tears. This dawn was probably the first time in his life someone had confessed their love to him. He [Read on Read BL Novels]might have heard ‘Please save me’ a thousand or ten thousand times, but I must be the first to tell him ‘I love you.’
I felt sorry for not doing it sooner. I should have realized my feelings earlier, hugged this man tight, and told him. Why did I drag it out and hurt each other over something so simple…?
I gripped his cock firmly, as if my hand were his. Regardless of whether he flinched with a “Hng, fuck,” I gripped it even harder. While blatantly teasing him by kneading the cock that was swelling like a wriggling snake, I opened his zipper and roughly reached inside to pull it out. The moment I leaned over and lowered my head over his lap, the car came to a sudden stop.
“I just said it. You don’t have to do it. Alright?”
Then why the hell is his cock erect? Ignoring whatever he said, I used both hands to undo his belt and buckle. I took the member, which sprang out as if it had been waiting, into my mouth in one go. He smelled of a pleasant, masculine scent. A delicious taste hit the tip of my tongue. I was glad the road was deserted.
“Haa, fuck! I told you it’s my birthday, you—!”
My hair was grabbed. His rough breathing hit the back of my head like hail. While sucking his cock, I wanted to stroke my own, but I endured it, trying to focus solely on Chu Gi-oh. For the man who said today was his birthday, I could endure my own desires as much as needed.
With his member still in my mouth, he thrust his hips. In this moment, Chu Gi-oh wasn’t a pervert. Because he didn’t force something I hated. This was entirely my own will. I was doing it because I wanted to. In other words, it was love.
“Hng, I—I could die now—! No regrets—! No regrets, Min-jo!!”
To think those old-man-like remarks could sound so sweet.
“Go ahead and set the most lavish birthday table for a 70th or 80th birthday! Just one bit of your aegyo is nirvana and heaven to me! I don’t need anything but you! Seriously! Fuck, seriously!!”
Even though he had a long way to go before his 70th or 80th birthday party, he expressed his joy in a way that was perfectly him. That’s why my heart felt ticklish. I was definitely wearing rose-colored glasses.
“Huu, just suck the head. Don’t put it all in. It’s fine even if you don’t. Alright?”
Since it was his birthday, what did it matter if my jaw got a bit strained? I opened my mouth wide enough to make a cracking sound and swallowed the member to the hilt. At the same time, I tried to gather his balls with my hand and shove them into my mouth. Since one was about the size of my fist, it was obviously impossible. I was just pretending so that Chu Gi-oh would be driven crazy with pleasure.
As I moved my head up and down, he gripped the base of his shaft with his left hand. He began to shake it in time with the rhythm of my sucking. Thump, thump, thump, thump.
“Just the head, suck it hard. That’s, haa, the best part.”
I did as told and gently scratched his balls with my hand. I also used the tip of my tongue to stimulate the urethral opening where fluid was leaking. As I poked and rubbed the slippery spot with my tongue, a salty taste exploded in my mouth. If it came from here, I felt like even urine would taste delicious.
At some point, the hand gripping my hair tightened, and the balls I was rolling began to harden. He was about to ejaculate.
“No need to swallow. Just take it, haa, just take it.”
The hot gush of semen felt as if it were scorching my tongue, the roof of my mouth, and my throat. As I gulped it down, my esophagus and stomach felt the same. I wouldn’t have cared even if I had suffered burns and my skin peeled off. This too was a trace of love, and the intensity of that trace meant the affection was burning hot.
I couldn’t believe that reality had returned to peace in just one night. The days of constant, precarious tension had vanished without a trace, leaving only peace and love. It was natural since we had confirmed each other’s feelings, but it still felt like a miracle. It might actually be a miracle. If so, I must never let it go.
Sucking the glans a few more times, I slowly spat out the member. “Spit it out,” he said, pulling out tissues and holding them to my mouth, but I had already swallowed it all, so there was nothing to spit. Licking my sticky mouth and lips with my tongue, I looked at Chu Gi-oh and smiled.
“You—.”
His eyes and the corners of his lids were red; he seemed deeply moved. Seeing that, I realized he was a man who didn’t know how to hide his inner feelings. Despite that, he had held his position firmly while cutting through all sorts of betrayals, which meant Chu Gi-oh was a man who was generous only to me, ‘Woo Min-jo.’
He suddenly pulled me into a tight embrace.
“This is killer! I’m fuckin’ dyin’ here!!”
My body naturally vibrated against his wildly beating heart. More than vibrating, I felt as if I were floating. I felt like I was flying toward the sky, toward the universe. It was amazing.
When we arrived at the Gimun Office, the yard was filled with heavies. Among them, I saw the directors I had seen before and a few employees from Headquarters. If I had stolen contentknown, I [visit our site]would have worn something more modest. A white T-shirt and jeans, for example. I had declined the option to dress normally and volunteered to become a bright yellow pickled radish.
Looking at me in my yellow T-shirt and yellow shorts, Chu Gi-oh had worn a satisfied smile.
‘Older Sister said she’d get you a gold necklace and bracelet soon. As a wedding gift. While she’s at it, I asked for a ring, earrings, and a pair of gold toads. I told her I wouldn’t accept them unless they were over a hundred don each, so let’s just wait a bit. I’ll take this chance to bankrupt that household.’
And then, when he asked, ‘But are you really okay with this? You don’t have to wear it if it’s because of me,’ what had I replied? Had I said, ‘I want to eat gimbap. The kind with two pickled radishes. And two hams’?
“Stay there. I’ll open the door for you.”
“No, it’s okay. I can….”
Just as I was about to open the door and get out, he grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward him. He gave me a quick kiss and spoke firmly.
“I’m doing it because I want to. Just let me.”
“…Okay,” I whispered with a small nod, and he replied, “Thank you.”
As he stepped out of the car, everyone greeted him thunderously. I watched him receive the greetings with a simple nod while I sat quietly in the car. His face, touched by the sunlight, was sparkling. He was incredibly fierce, yet incredibly handsome. In that instant, I realized my [visit our site]radish-like clothes weren’t the problem. The handprints on Chu [visit our site]Gi-oh’s cheeks. [stolen content]His face, which clearly showed he had been slapped, was the biggest problem. Sure enough, everyone was shocked by the sight.
Jang-bae, Du-jik, Jeong-sik, and many other nameless heavies and directors were all staring at Chu Gi-oh with wide eyes. Perhaps because no one could imagine he had been slapped, their expressions all seemed to say, ‘What’s that? Did he get a tattoo?’ That made sense. Who would dare slap Chu Gi-oh in the face? Out of all of them, only one person—Hwang Cheol-jung, who had once possessed Chu Gi-oh—was smiling warmly as if he understood the whole story.
Chu Gi-oh, having opened the car door, reached out his hand. I felt shy and embarrassed because all eyes were on me, but since this was the result of my own choice, I had to endure it. I took his warm hand and stepped out.
Jang-bae stepped forward as the representative of the group. He looked at Chu Gi-oh with a worried face.
“Hyung, what happened to your face….”
In that moment, I saw it. Chu Gi-oh gave me a subtle tilt of his chin. And his expression? It said, ‘Yesterday was fuckin’ wild. I said one wrong thing and he beat the hell outta me. I almost died, but I begged for my life and barely survived. Don’t you lot mess around either. You’ll be fucked if you get caught.’
At Chu Gi-oh’s tattling, Jang-bae’s gaze shifted to me. Jang-bae opened his mouth, “Ah…,” then quickly shut it and swallowed hard.
Timing was also a skill. By the time I tried to explain that there was no way I had done it, Jang-bae had already turned his back to me. He was probably signaling everyone with his eyes. That this was the Head Merchant’s handiwork.
Three elderly directors simultaneously scanned me from head to toe. They stared intently at my hands, and for some reason, they nodded.
Chu Gi-oh put me in his office and went straight to the conference room. Before leaving, he kissed and hugged me, saying tenderly, “I’ll go make some money. Think about what you want until I get back.”
I had no intention of refusing. A car. I planned to boldly demand a car exactly like the one Chu Gi-oh drove. I’d also tell him that I’m quite a good driver and that I could be his chauffeur if he wanted. I knew he wasn’t the type to actually hire me as a driver, but based on what I’d heard on the way here, I wanted to try acting cute one more time. To make ‘our Gi-oh’ feel so good he’d go to nirvana and heaven.
After lounging on the sofa for a while, I went to the desk where he sat every day to work. Sitting in the plush chair, I picked up a pen and played with it, pretending to be him. On a yellow legal pad that looked like my clothes, I wrote my name. Next to it, I wrote Chu Gi-oh’s name. Woo Min-jo and Chu Gi-oh.
I almost left it as it was, but then I felt embarrassed thinking about Chu Gi-oh seeing it. He would surely get excited and huff and puff seeing our names written side by side. It wouldn’t be good for him to get excited too often. Thinking it was for Chu Gi-oh’s health, I ripped the paper. I folded it neatly and put it in my pocket. The pocket containing the names of two people felt heavy. And reassuring.
I leaned back in the chair and closed my eyes. I recalled the words I had heard in a daze just before dawn.
‘I’ll give you your Hyung exactly as you want. Not just that bastard, but the one who wrote me that shitty letter, and two others. I won’t cut off their toes or whatever; I’ll tie ’em all up and hand ’em straight to the police. I’ve already settled everything. That way, whether it’s a month or a year, they’ll definitely rot in prison, and those bastards can be punished like humans. But Min-jo, let your curiosity end there. From the moment you heard this from me today, don’t give it another thought, just forget it from your heart. Whether that Woo Min-soo bastard dies in prison or you get a call later that he committed suicide somewhere.’
In other words, even if he didn’t cut off toes immediately, he intended to execute Woo Min-soo in his own way eventually. He said he would do so. Since it was what Chu Gi-oh wanted, why would I stop him?
I opened my eyes after the brief recollection. Regardless of someone like Woo Min-soo, a smile formed on my lips.
‘But how did you know? That Oh Tae-cheol is Woo Min-soo and that Woo Min-soo is my brother. You don’t look alike at all….’
‘It’s me, Min-jo. Fuckin’ Chu Gi-oh. There’s nothing about you [visit our site]I don’t know. I won’t let [Read on Read BL Novels]myself not stolen contentknow. How many siblings you have, whether your father is alive or dead, where your mother is rolling around—do you think I’d say I’d live with you without knowing those things?’
‘Ah. Yes….’
‘Is marriage a joke? Is dating just mixing bodies? Marriage is when souls mix, not just bodies.’
‘That’s true…. But the President tried to break something that important today. Divorce isn’t a joke.’
‘That’s…. Fuck…. I’m sorry. I’ll apologize with my head on the ground until the day I die.’
‘If you don’t have a family, you just make one, and I’ve already made one with you. Now I only have you, and you only have me. Let’s live remembering only that. I won’t bring up that bullshit ever again. If that day ever comes, just know I’ve gone senile and I’ll just go ahead and drop dead.’
‘I’ll make sure a day like today never happens again. I really will, Min-jo. Alright?’
‘But did I really seem like such a pervert to you? I mean, you’re not wrong, but your expression was just so sincere. I’m starting to wonder if I should tone it down a bit.’
Recalling that made not only my chest but my entire stomach feel ticklish. It felt as if only true happiness remained from here on. Since neither he nor I had decided to deceive one another, we would wisely overcome whatever hardships came our way.
With a much lighter heart, I looked around the room. I missed Chu Gi-oh. He said it would be over in an hour, but perhaps because my longing grew so great, the wait felt like torture. I tapped my fingertips on the desk and repeatedly opened and closed the drawers. Then, in the second drawer, I saw something familiar. It was the letter Woo Min-soo had forced [stolen content]an accomplice to write. Disgusting words written in a perfect imitation of my [Read on Read BL Novels]handwriting on rose-patterned stationery. Even knowing I hadn’t written it, I had kept it until now. Why? It was unlikely I had simply forgotten to throw it away.
Suddenly, I felt uncomfortable. I took the letter out of the drawer and unfolded it. The writing was far more organized than what I had read before, written in an utterly perfect version of my handwriting. Only the sentences had become smoother; the content was the same. A list of words intended to hurt Chu Gi-oh, including attacks on his age, was laid out without fail.
Anger surged within me. If I felt this angry, how much worse must Chu Gi-oh have felt reading this? Just as I was about to rip it to shreds, the door swung open. It was Chu Gi-oh.
The smile on his face as he entered froze the moment he spotted the letter in my hand. He approached the desk and tried to snatch the letter away. Naturally, I didn’t let him. The moment I pulled my hand back, I ripped the letter in half. Raising an eyebrow, I questioned him as if firing a gun.
“Why are you still keeping this filthy thing?”
“I didn’t mean to keep it; it just happened to stay there. Why the hell would I want to keep this?”
Chu Gi-oh spoke as he gathered the two halves of the letter. Then, like a man finally doing what needed to be done, he ripped and ripped it again until it was in pieces.
“…I didn’t write it. I really didn’t. You know that.”
He looked at me as if wondering why I was even saying it.
“Not only did I not write it, but I don’t think that way at all. I [Read on Read BL Novels]told you before, right? That I actually like it that you’re older, Boss. Back when I [unauthorized copy]mentioned that Noona, Kim Eun-jin, who works at the coffee shop. You remember, right?”
Perhaps this letter was one of the reasons he had told me to leave. Since it was essentially a text that objectively pointed out the gap between us, it must have been hard to ignore.
Chu Gi-oh blinked, and with a look of sudden realization, he rushed toward me. He sat in the chair, pulled me onto his lap, leaned my shoulder against him, and patted my back.
“Who said that? Of course I remember. I didn’t put the letter there on purpose; I just forgot to throw it away for a bit. And I knew you didn’t write it even before I read it. Even before those punks confessed. Right?”
Even if he pretended otherwise, Chu Gi-oh must have been hurt. He probably imagined dying early and leaving me behind, just as the letter described.
“I never once read it thinking you wrote it, Min-jo. Don’t look at me with those eyes, alright? I ain’t hurt one bit. Fuck, you could kill me right in front of me and I wouldn’t even blink an eye. Right? Right?”
I felt sorry for him all over again. If only he hadn’t had that filthy bastard as a blood relative, this wonderful man would never have been hurt. I lifted my face from his broad shoulder and sought his lips. I slid my tongue into his lips, which were parted from his repeated “Right? Right?” Chu Gi-oh accepted the kiss while his mouth remained twice as busy trying to soothe me.
“Who knows if we’ll die on the same day, even if there’s a big age gap between us? Huh? You live to a hundred, and I live to a hundred and seven.”
I can’t live longer even if I wanted to, and I shouldn’t live any longer than that! Let’s just go then without greed. On the same day, at the same hour! Preferably by dying of pleasure during sex!
“If I die with my cock buried in you, they’ll probably bury us together! Then you’ll be my grave, [Read on Read BL Novels]Min-jo. And I’ll be your grave! Fuck, just thinking [visit our site]about it is so fucking touching! Dammit, one body even in death!”
Because he kept talking while dodging this way and that, the kisses were constantly interrupted. Deciding that wouldn’t do, I gripped his face tightly with both hands. I sucked on his lower lip repeatedly so he couldn’t pull away. He groaned and gripped my buttocks with both hands. I rubbed against him, making the chair creak over my beginning-to-swell cock. I shook myself, lifting off the seat.
“Haa, Boss.”
“Yeah, I’m right here. I ain’t going anywhere, I’m stuck right by your side!”
Wherever had the man who extremely disliked mixing bodies in the office gone? I felt like I was dying from an itch in my rear. Even after doing it yesterday, it wasn’t enough. He panted, kissing the nape of my neck.
“You gonna pound me from above today? Fuck, you gonna pound me like a mortar! Should I book a trip to the moon or what!”
“Hng, book it. But clothes first, hurry.”
“But you, haa, why have you been so tough since yesterday! I lose my mind when you’re like this!”
“I’ve always been like this. Until now, I was just pretending to be modest.”
“Is that so!”
Since I had beaten Chu Gi-oh yesterday, my way of speaking had become less formal. Hadn’t he said it felt like I was wearing his clothes? I didn’t want to take them off. Chu Gi-oh probably wanted that too. He was the kind of person who would get excited and love it even if I called him a fucking bastard or a piece of shit. Sure enough, Chu Gi-oh went wild with excitement. He nodded his head frantically and then suddenly shouted as if he had realized something.
“Don’t tell me! From the start, you were trying to look good for me! Right? You played the quiet act to seduce me and make me yours! Right? Right!!”
“Well, yes. I probably was.”
I gave a vague answer and was about to strip off Chu Gi-oh’s pants as if I were starved for sex when the door opened with a loud bang without a knock. I gasped in surprise, and my entire body froze stiff. As if protecting me, Chu Gi-oh wrapped his arms around me in a sudden embrace. His eyes turned sharp and he shouted fiercely.
“Do you want your fucking wrist cut off for not knocking!! Who the fuck is it! Today, I’m gonna cut your fingers off and make some pickles—”
The shouting stopped abruptly, and silence fell from Chu Gi-oh’s mouth. Immediately, the sound of clapping was heard from behind.
“Wow, amazing, just amazing. Life should be lived like my uncle. Fuck, what’s the difference between public and private? You just live however your cock feels. Compared to my uncle, I’m not even a youth. Not even a beast.”
Uncle?
Driven by anxiety, I stole a glance back. The guy I had [visit our site]seen before, Cha Mu-gang, unauthorized copywas giving a stolen contentthumbs-up in this direction.
Chu Gi-oh, having straightened his clothes, stood up while still holding me.
“You brat, what are you doing here? Weren’t you supposed to be in the joint?”
Knowing that the bastard who had the nerve to open the door without knocking was his nephew, he now wore a smile. He hugged me tightly as if to show off. It was useless even if I struggled to be let down. “Alright, alright. I’ll let you down,” he said, carrying me preciously like a child toward the sofa.
From behind, I heard Cha Mu-gang’s indifferent voice: “I wanted to go back in, but they wouldn’t let me. Even after I beat them that much, I only got two years probation. 120 hours of community service. Those fuckers only gave me that much. Because of you, Uncle.” Not only his appearance, but his voice was also a spitting image of Chu Gi-oh. With the sound of footsteps, that voice grew closer. Even so, that crazy human, Chu Gi-oh, had no intention of letting me down. He eventually sat down on the sofa while still holding me.
Only after sitting on the sofa did Chu Gi-oh let me go. Even then, as I hurriedly tried to slide off his thigh, he pulled me back to sit tightly beside him.
“So, did you come to say thank you?”
Thanks to his tall height and long legs, Cha Mu-gang reached the sofa in just a few steps. He flopped down opposite me, while I couldn’t even lift my head out of embarrassment. I stole a glance and our eyes met; fortunately, he didn’t have the fierce expression he had the first day we met. No, he was grinning at me as if seeing something fascinating. Judging by his expression, he didn’t seem to know yet that we weren’t strangers.
“Thank you for what. Family doesn’t do that kind of thing.”
The guy scanned me intently and placed something he was holding on the table.
“Here. Lunch box. Mom told me to bring it. But why does your face look like that? Did something happen? Looks like you got beat up a lot somewhere.”
“Why a lunch box? What for?”
Chu Gi-oh ignored his nephew’s rude manner of speaking and only asked his own question. I wondered if he would gesture toward me with his chin like he had with Jang-bae, but I was grateful he let it slide. Cha Mu-gang didn’t ask further, though he continued to look at me strangely until the end.
“I heard you had bean sprout soup today. Since it’s your birthday, she said you should eat seaweed soup properly. Your uncle’s Noona.”
“How did she know that?”
“Mom probably called the lady who works there. Inside, there’s pan-fried meatballs, japchae, braised short ribs, and a lot of other stuff for you. I ate well thanks to that too.”
“Is that so. There aren’t any kimbap inside, right?”
“Why kimbap?”
“Just because. I want to eat some.”
Birthday? Seaweed soup?
At Cha Mu-gang’s words, I snapped my head up from its lowered position and looked sharply at Chu Gi-oh. So when he said, ‘It’s my birthday today, Min-jo,’ it wasn’t just something he said because he liked it. When I asked with my eyes if today was really his birthday, Chu Gi-oh blinked and said,
“Why? Didn’t I tell you?”
“No, I didn’t know it was for real…. How am I supposed to understand when you say such an important fact like that….”
“What are you talking about? I let you suck my cock when you came, didn’t I? As a gift! You said you’d do it again when you go home? Didn’t you understand everything?”
Oh, for fuck’s sake! I hurriedly covered Chu Gi-oh’s mouth. There’s a limit to acting vulgar in front of a nephew!
Haha, I laughed awkwardly and looked at Cha Mu-gang. I offered a late greeting and babbled whatever came to mind: “Ah, oh my, you brought a lunch box…. I should have boiled it for you in the morning…. Th-thank you….” By the time I felt like I wanted to die, it was already too late.
Cha Mu-gang tilted his head, looking back and forth between the giggling Chu Gi-oh and my flushed face. He narrowed his eyes and made a clicking sound with his tongue.
“But who are you, sticking so close to my uncle. Looking at your clothes, [unauthorized copy]you unauthorized copydon’t seem like a Secretary….”
Then, he suddenly glared and pointed a finger at me, shouting, “That’s it, fuck!”
“Sucking on cigarettes! In front of my house! That’s right?”
“Ah…. Yes. Sucking…. But it was in front of our Boss’s house—”
“I knew it! This guy, this guy looked so familiar.”
Cha Mu-gang spoke while rapidly repeating a gesture of wiping his face with his hand. His way of speaking and acting was incredibly vulgar, just like his uncle. Chu Gi-oh asked him curiously,
“You two have met before? When? But why am I the only one who didn’t know.”
“You know, that day. The day we rented the hotel for the event. I saw him coming out of Uncle’s house, so I just thought he was one of Uncle’s employees. But what happened in the meantime? Your clothes are way different from then. Back then you were damn sexy, but now… you’re like, what, a pickled radish…. What is this?”
As he spoke, Cha Mu-gang scanned me up and down. He frowned as if dazzled by the loud clothes I was wearing, his expression asking what on earth this concept was. Actually, I was glad he reacted that way. Being teased for my outfit was a hundred times better than talking about the white sedan I had been in that day. I didn’t want to bring up what happened that day even as a joke. It was a memory I hated so much that I wanted to carve it out of both my and Chu Gi-oh’s minds if I could.
Perhaps sensing my feelings, Chu Gi-oh [stolen content]got angry at Cha Mu-gang for no reason. He shouted harshly, pretending to throw the lunch box.
“You fucking brat, how dare you speak to your aunt like that! Get over here and greet him properly! Huh? This is my nephew, Cha Mu-gang. I told you before, right? He looks just like me, so people think he’s my son.”
Cha Mu-gang, eyes wide, interrupted Chu Gi-oh with, “What aunt?” Then, as if remembering something he had heard, he looked into the air and nodded, “Ah….”
“I heard you were living with a change of heart, and I guess it wasn’t a lie. I’ll be fucked, I didn’t believe a single word. I thought some crazy bastards were just shouting their wish list after taking drugs….”
Seeing how foul-mouthed he was even in front of his uncle, it seemed they usually had an informal relationship. I felt I understood exactly why Chu Gi-ok said the two were the same. Whether this one or that one, in her eyes, they were nothing more than beasts imitating humans. Still, he didn’t disobey his uncle. He stood up and bowed deeply to me.
“Well then. Hello, Auntie. I am Cha Mu-gang. I was very rude back then. Please understand generously. By the way, what is our aunt’s name?” he asked.
Because Chu Gi-oh was holding me tight, I had no choice but to receive the greeting while sitting. Despite that, Cha Mu-gang acted affably. Contrary to his scary first impression, his smile was bright and his tone was sly. It seemed something unpleasant had happened back then. Perhaps he had been hit by Chu Gi-ok or lectured until his ears bled…. Also, true to being Chu Gi-ok’s son, Cha Mu-gang didn’t seem to care at all that I was a man. In any case, I felt much more at ease. I introduced myself to Cha Mu-gang, who was waiting for my answer with a smile.
“U-Woo Min-jo. Ah, you can stop sitting.”
“Wow, your heart is as kind as your looks. ‘You can stop sitting.’ My, are you always this considerate? You’re not trying to seduce me in front of your lover, are you?”
“….”
“Yes?”
“Ah, well…. Yes.”
Beside me, Chu Gi-oh praised me, saying, “He’s always like that. Can’t you tell from the fact that he made me settle down? His nickname is the Angel who lost their wings. Sometimes people call him Jesus.” To think he would attach my nickname to his own wife—he was a known fool for love. My face felt like it was burning to death because of Chu Gi-oh’s fussing.
Cha Mu-gang’s eyes sparkled as he looked at his uncle. He seemed to be wondering if this was the same person he knew.
“Does he treat you well? That man is usually damn fierce.”
“Fierce my ass. Tell anyone who’s as gentle as me to come forward. Right?”
When I nodded, Chu Gi-oh said, “Hear that?” But Cha Mu-gang, who had been grinning at us, suddenly frowned. He scanned my face and asked in a suspicious tone,
“But you look incredibly young. How old are you this year? I’m twenty-four. Honestly, don’t lie.”
“Ah, I turned twenty-three this year….”
It was before I could even finish. More accurately, the moment I said ‘twenty-three.’ Cha Mu-gang looked at Chu Gi-oh as if he were a madman and snapped,
“What age?”
“T-twenty-three.”
“Twenty-three?”
“…Yes.”
Although he hadn’t asked me, I answered everything. At his nephew’s question, Chu Gi-oh pretended to look at a distant mountain and then lit a cigarette. With the letter incident earlier, and even without it, questions about age were bound to be uncomfortable.
“Are you crazy? Have you lost your mind? How could you get a kid younger than me!”
Cha Mu-gang spoke aggressively to Chu Gi-oh, who was puffing out smoke. Chu Gi-oh nodded in agreement.
“Think for yourself. I won’t deny it.”
“This man has no conscience. Should I report you? Want to try on some silver bracelets?”
Eventually, he even brought up ‘silver bracelets,’ meaning handcuffs. Since his cherished nephew was saying such things, Chu Gi-oh responded with a laugh.
“What are you gonna report me for? He ain’t a minor.”
“Wow, how fair and square. Do you even know how many years the age gap is between you two?”
“Of course I know. We already agreed to live until a hundred. Your aunt is a hundred. I’m a hundred and seven.”
Cha Mu-gang looked at Chu Gi-oh with an expression of utter disbelief. He let out a short, breathless laugh.
“You’re talking nonsense. Did you fall off the bed while sleeping? Go to a hospital. Get a full check-up!”
“What do you know about love? Love is about winning over the age gap. It’s romance. Ah, enough noise. I don’t want to hear nagging from you too.”
“Twenty-three. Uncle is forty. Romance should be sought in the right places. Far…”
It was a situation similar to when I was with Chu Gi-ok, except no one’s neck was being throttled. I really felt he was Chu Gi-ok’s son. It was time for me to step in. I hated the conversation about age even more. Just then, Cha Mu-gang asked me.
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