77 – AC

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He picked up his phone again, which he had put down after checking the time, but there were no other messages. What was it…? If it was to the point where he couldn’t come home, he would have at least contacted him to say so….

The bewilderment that Cha Se-jin hadn’t returned shifted into worry. Unable to stay still in the room, he stepped out, and from the other end of the hallway—the direction of Cha Se-jin’s study and bedroom—he heard a small sound.

The situation, which had been unclear until then, was calmly sorted out in his head the moment Cha Se-jin stepped out of the bedroom wearing a robe.

“Oh? Why are you up so early?”

In other words, it wasn’t that Cha Se-jin hadn’t come home, but that he had slept in that bedroom—the one he had never used and said there was no need to use—rather than the bedroom they shared.

“…You slept in there?”

“Yeah, I came in during the early hours, but you said you were taking medicine and going to sleep. I couldn’t wake you. I thought it would be too noisy if I showered and moved around.”

It was clearly a consideration. He knew Cha Se-jin had intentionally slept in another room so as not to wake him… but for some reason, he felt disappointed. He said he didn’t use that room…. He said there was only one bedroom now….

Was it because he was sick? He knew it was nothing, and he knew he didn’t need to be so immersed in it, but unlike his head, his heart wouldn’t cooperate.

“Since when have you been sick? Were you okay when we had dinner outside?”

“…Yes…. I had a bit of a headache since yesterday afternoon, but it went away quickly, so I didn’t know it would suddenly hurt like that.”

“Can you go to school? If it’s too hard, take a day off.”

“I’m okay since I took medicine and slept….”

Though he said he was fine, his pale complexion still looked sickly. Cha Se-jin tilted his head slowly and touched Eun-won’s face. The fever seemed to have dropped, but a slight warmth still remained. He looked drained of energy and still had a faint fever, so it seemed pushing himself to go to school would be too much.

“I think you should rest. You’ve been overdoing it lately. Between the exams, the heat cycle, and then everything after that. Let’s go back to the room and sleep some more, for now.”

Moving behind Eun-won, Cha Se-jin grabbed his shoulders with both hands and lightly pushed him forward toward the bedroom. Just the fact that Cha Se-jin was behind him made Eun-won nervous. Though he couldn’t see his face, the hands gripping his shoulders and the warmth felt from behind caused his heart to tighten and release repeatedly, almost overwhelmingly.

“You don’t have any particularly important classes today anyway.”

The fact that Cha Se-jin knew his entire schedule made his heart flutter anew. After they decided to marry, Cha Se-jin had received his schedule and memorized it all, as if it were only natural. Usually, it didn’t show, but every time he spoke as if he naturally knew everything, Eun-won’s heart shook mercilessly. Eun-won climbed onto the bed and looked at Cha Se-jin while sitting with his back against the headboard.

“……Do you… have to go to work early today?”

“No, I don’t have anything particularly important today either.”

“…Then why did you wake up so early? Were you going swimming?”

“No. I was going to see if your fever had gone down.”

“What…?”

“How could I sleep when I was worried about you?”

Speaking with a smile, Cha Se-jin sat on the edge of the bed and met his eyes. He looked playful, but it didn’t feel playful at all. Worry was embedded in his pupils.

Was it because it was still dawn? Or had his heart grown weak along with his weakened body? At Cha Se-jin’s words, his heart tightened painfully and then slowly relaxed, making room for a small amount of courage. It could be called an impulse, but it was certainly closer to courage. He wanted to convey to Cha Se-jin words that should have stayed in his heart, words that didn’t need to be spoken… words that were close to complaining, or could even be felt as acting spoiled.

“…Executive Director.”

“Yes.”

“……It’s okay if I wake up while sleeping….”

“Huh?”

“That… that room… you said you didn’t use it…. In the future, even if you come home late… so even if I wake up while sleeping… it’s okay… it’s really okay….”

He had spoken leaning on the weak courage brought on by the slight fever, but once he actually voiced it, he became too embarrassed for the next words to come out. With his ears, cheeks, and neck flushed red, Eun-won, unable to finish his sentence, looked up in surprise at Cha Se-jin, who let out a sigh.

He wondered if what he said sounded too immature. He shouldn’t have said such a thing…. He worried if he had burdened him by saying something unnecessary. Seeing Eun-won’s frantic mind, not knowing how to fix it, Cha Se-jin spoke while suppressing his surging pheromones.

“Do you know how hard I struggled to stay out of here so I wouldn’t touch a sick kid, and here you are encouraging me.”

“…….”

“Seriously, ha…. Fuck, Darling. Do you know how much I endured? Huh?”

The heat that had finally calmed down after being suppressed all night through several bouts of masturbation shook his body once again. Leaning his head close to Eun-won’s face, Cha Se-jin cupped Eun-won’s warm, soft face with one hand and opened his mouth. The moment he was about to take the lips into his own, Eun-won’s hand slid between their lips, lightly covering Cha Se-jin’s mouth.

Having his kiss rejected while he was desperate to taste the feverish tongue and hot, sweet saliva caused his sensitized nerves to prick all over his head. Licking between the fingers of the hand blocking his mouth, Cha Se-jin looked at Eun-won with eyes that had lost their composure, asking while pretending to be relaxed. It was a momentary leisure that he didn’t know how long would last.

“Why, do you hate it?”

“…I think it’s like a cold… you shouldn’t catch it, Executive Director….”

“You want to sleep with me, but you don’t want me to catch a cold? That doesn’t make sense.”

“…That’s….”

Realizing the contradiction in his words and actions, the tips of Eun-won’s ears burned even more. Cha Se-jin laughed playfully out loud, rubbed his tongue more slowly between Eun-won’s fingers, and then bit them gently. He was so anxious that he could no longer bear it.

“Check it then, whether it spreads or not. And since I’m a Dominant Alpha, if I catch it, I can confirm that too this time.”

“…….”

“Lower your hand.”

Their gazes became frantically entangled. It wasn’t something physical, nor was there any force, but they were entwined in an instant, making it impossible to escape. As if possessed, Eun-won followed Cha Se-jin’s words and lowered the hand that had been blocking his mouth. He waited for the man who was about to touch him.

“Open your mouth.”

And closing his eyes, he opened his mouth. The feverish breath that had touched his fingers and a tongue even hotter than that entered his mouth. Eun-won’s body flinched at the sudden surge of hot sensation. It was a sensation with a temperature higher than the heat warming his body.

As if he had been waiting, Cha Se-jin gently gripped and tilted Eun-won’s chin, pushing his tongue deeper to explore. The wet sound of mixing saliva echoed through the quiet room of the early morning.

As he swept over Eun-won’s even teeth one by one and persistently wrapped around the soft tongue inside, Eun-won held that breath and rubbed his own tongue against the tip of Cha Se-jin’s. It was a movement without any skill or technique, but every time Eun-won’s tongue moved, Cha Se-jin’s breathing grew heavier. That stirred Eun-won’s heart.

Entwining their tongues deeper, Cha Se-jin pressed Eun-won’s shoulders to lay him on the bed, and Eun-won’s hair scattered across the white pillow. Covering Eun-won’s body, Cha Se-jin deeply bit into the lips that had briefly parted due to his movement. The motion of rubbing and pressing everywhere inside the mouth was incredibly sensitive and persistent.

“…Nng… mm….”

Between the bursts of breath, the tongue that pushed in gently scraped the roof of Eun-won’s tender palate. Eun-won tightly gripped the hem of Cha Se-jin’s robe as if it were overwhelming, but Cha Se-jin instead cupped Eun-won’s face with one hand and pressed his body closer. Cha Se-jin’s body was hotter than Eun-won’s, which still held a slight fever.

“Ha, hauh…. Nng, Executive, Director….”

Every time their lips parted for a moment, the lacking breath entered sweetly. But before the breath could be filled, Cha Se-jin dove back in. He swallowed Eun-won’s breath and blew it back in, and while holding the panting breaths, he touched every part of the inside of the mouth with his tongue. Eun-won panted heavily, unable to even open his eyes. Every time the tip of the tongue rubbed, a tingling pleasure shot down his spine to the tips of his toes.

“…Haa…. Ah… hauh, hng….”

After a long time of frantically rubbing against each other, the tongues parted, and Eun-won’s chest heaved. His feverish lungs could not withstand Cha Se-jin’s heat and weight. Eun-won exhaled short breaths without opening his eyes. He was out of breath, his body felt weak… and it felt good.

Looking down at Eun-won’s white, erotic face as he breathed with his eyes closed and mouth slightly open, Cha Se-jin inserted the tip of his tongue into the open mouth and poked shallowly. The tip of Eun-won’s tongue, which touched and rubbed slightly once in a while, was excessively erotic. It was even more so because he knew it wasn’t an accident, but that Eun-won was moving his tongue to touch. Every time he touched the tip of the tongue and pulled away, saliva stretched long and broke repeatedly.

“I might be like this because I woke you up, but do you still want to sleep only here?”

Eun-won, who was catching his breath, nodded slightly and opened his closed eyes to look up at Cha Se-jin. His hazy, unfocused pupils were filled with sleep. Licking Eun-won’s wet lips, Cha Se-jin smiled and licked the corner of his eye, causing the eyelids to slide down again. A sweet scent wafted from his flushed face.

“It’s still early, so sleep a bit more. Think about school after you wake up.”

This time, his head nodded a bit more weakly. As he watched Eun-won fall asleep, he tried to move off his body, but he couldn’t leave his side because of Eun-won’s hand gripping the hem of his robe.

Ah, I guess I can’t go to work today. I should keep Darling from going to school too.

Having easily reached a conclusion, Cha Se-jin lay down beside Eun-won and closed his eyes. As the steady sound of breathing, which he hadn’t heard all night, reached him, strangely, the strength left his body and the sleep that hadn’t come easily all night rushed in. He could feel the chaos between his legs, but he decided to ignore it for now. If he left it alone, it would eventually subside.

Only when the blue hue of dawn faded and the early morning sun began to shine did the two of them’s real night finally begin.