4.4 – Between Night and Dawn

After arriving at the intercity bus terminal by taxi and taking a bus for about three hours, then transferring to another taxi and driving for a while, it was evening by the time they arrived, with the sun already set. Since it was summer with long days, a faint glow of sunset, like lingering heat, lingered everywhere, but the visibility was still dim.

Passing by the sight of high-rise pensions and hotels competing for space, the place the two finally arrived at was a quiet neighborhood of low, old detached houses.

Getting out of the car, Jae-min looked around with curious eyes. Since all the relatives he met occasionally, including his grandparents, lived in the center of the metropolitan area, and since Jae-min himself had lived only in urban apartment complexes since childhood, the old and secluded rural residential area felt unfamiliar and fascinating.

Seung-pyo cheered him up, speaking as if the goal was right before their eyes.

“We just have to walk a little bit. From here, it’s an alleyway, so it’s inconvenient for taxis to enter.”

“Okay.”

Was it just his imagination, or did even the weeds growing by the roadside and the wildflowers in bloom look quite different from those he had passed in Seoul? While diligently following Seung-pyo, who walked a few steps ahead, Jae-min carefully captured the surrounding scenery in his eyes.

He had said they only had to walk a little, and indeed, after not going far, Seung-pyo pushed open the gate of a house with a low wall. Perhaps it wasn’t locked from the inside, as the iron gate opened with a creaking, stiff sound.

“Halmae! I’m here.”

An elderly person was sitting on a wide wooden platform in the yard. As if they had been waiting since hearing the news that their grandson was coming, the person stood up abruptly.

“Goodness, you’re finally here. I was so worried since you said you were coming so suddenly!”

“Were you worried? I took taxis all the way from the terminal, so it wasn’t hard.”

Jae-min quickly bowed his head beside Seung-pyo.

“Hello. Nice to meet you.”

“Mm, is this the friend?”

“Yeah, my friend. His name is Jae-min. Ryu Jae-min.”

“My, you’re tall too. You’re handsome.”

Seung-pyo’s grandmother smiled as she looked up at Jae-min. To think he would hear that he was handsome the moment they met. Jae-min could only meet the grandmother’s eyes with a shy smile. Seung-pyo chuckled and teased.

“Starting with ‘you’re handsome’ as soon as you see him? He is a bit handsome, isn’t he?”

“Mm, a thousand times better than you.”

“They say even a hedgehog thinks its own baby is pretty, but what’s with you, Halmae?”

While the grandmother and grandson, meeting after a long time, shared an affectionate conversation, Jae-min glanced around the house. As Seung-pyo had said, it was a low, single-story house that showed its age, but the area was larger than expected, and there were two small buildings divided as annexes sharing the yard. Both had verandas attached, and there were several doors leading directly from the yard inside, making the layout slightly different from a typical home where one must enter through a single main entrance to reach each room.

Seung-pyo, noticing Jae-min’s curiosity, stepped closer.

“They used to run a guesthouse here. That’s why there are so many rooms.”

“Ah.”

“It’s too hard for Grandmother to run a guesthouse now, and you saw on the way, right? A lot of pensions have popped up on the main road, so people don’t really come all the way here anymore. When I was little, the rooms were packed with guests every summer when I came to Grandmother’s house.”

Seung-pyo gestured for Jae-min to follow. He slid open a wooden sliding door with translucent glass and tossed his luggage into the room.

“This is the best room. Over there, you have to shower outside, so it’s inconvenient.”

“Where is Grandmother’s room?”

“Over there. The house is completely separate, so it doesn’t matter if we play until late at night. Convenient, right?”

“What about your grandfather? Does she live alone?”

“Yeah, Grandfather passed away a long time ago.”

If the grandmother lived alone, she wouldn’t use all these rooms, but the room Seung-pyo chose was clean and didn’t smell musty. It seemed she had cleaned it in advance knowing her grandson was coming.

While looking into the empty room that had nothing but a small wardrobe and a shelf, Seung-pyo asked worriedly, as if he hadn’t thought of it before.

“By any chance, can you not sleep unless it’s a bed? There are no rooms with beds at Grandmother’s house.”

“No, I slept on the floor during a camp in elementary school, and it was fine.”

“Let’s spread out several thick blankets and sleep. Then it’ll be okay.”

“I don’t mind if it’s a bit uncomfortable.”

While they were checking the sleeping arrangements, the grandmother called them from the other annex.

“What about dinner? Do you want to eat now?”

“We’ll just go to the beach for a moment!”

“It’s pitch black now, so you can’t. Go tomorrow.”

“We’re not going to swim. Since we’re here, we’ll just walk on the sandy beach for a bit.”

Leaving behind the nagging to come back early, the two stepped out the gate. In the time it took to greet the grandmother and put down their luggage, the dim sky had turned completely black, and stars were beginning to show their faces one by one.

The night in the rural village was very quiet. Nothing could be heard except for the sound of insects. If it were inside the house, it might be different, but since it was desolate even outside, they became cautious, as if they had come to another world. With no sign of other people, the two of them also became quieter.

Under the white light of the streetlamps, on a narrow alley paved with cement, Jae-min walked with his mouth tightly shut, tracing only the long shadows of himself and Seung-pyo with his eyes. The rustling sound of brushing against weeds passed behind their steps.

Walking mindlessly after Seung-pyo without knowing the destination, Jae-min suddenly shrank his shoulders, surprised by a lukewarm body temperature touching his fingertips. Beside him, Seung-pyo was smiling.

“Since there’s no one here, let’s hold hands.”

Before he could even answer, the warmth that had brushed his fingertips covered his entire palm and wove through the spaces between his fingers.

Jae-min’s face flushed faintly. Even if it had become cool after the sun set, summer was still summer. The humid air enveloping his face felt like a spiderweb, yet why was the body temperature heating his palm so sweet?

Jae-min answered instead by slowly interlocking his hand. As Seung-pyo swung their hands back and forth, making a ‘hee-hee’ sound, Jae-min also looked at him and giggled along.

The rhythmic sound of their footsteps was the only thing audible, until a faint, mysterious, chilling sound began to linger in their ears. It took a few more steps before Jae-min realized it was the sound of waves. His eyes widened.

“I can hear the ocean.”

“I told you it was close. You can’t see it because it’s dark, but doesn’t the sound alone feel refreshing?”

Not just the sound, but the very air had changed. It had been still while they were walking through the alleys, but a breeze was blowing at the beach. Instead of the characteristic humidity of summer, the sea breeze carried a chill that swept away the lingering heat and fatigue accumulated from wandering all day in one go.

Swoosh, swoosh. The sound of the waves rolling in incessantly was powerful enough to make their ears feel muffled. Jae-min stared silently into the curtain of the pitch-black night. The dense stars twinkled far more vividly than they ever did in Seoul, but those tiny silver lights could not illuminate the overwhelming night. The streetlights standing helplessly along the coast were also insufficient to clear the darkness of the sea.

Enveloped in ink-black darkness and trapped in a steadily repeating sound, he felt strangely dazed, as if he might momentarily forget where he was, what had happened, why he was standing here, and even who he was. If he hadn’t been holding hands with Seung-pyo standing beside him, if Seung-pyo hadn’t spoken first, Ryu Jae-min might have truly become as small as a grain of sand and been swept away by the waves.

“If we come out at dawn, we can see the sunrise. Let’s wake up early tomorrow and watch the sun rise.”

“…Yeah, okay.”

Seung-pyo’s voice illuminated the darkness that the stars could not erase. Talking about the sun that would rise tomorrow, the two moved closer to the water’s edge. At first, everything was so black that it was impossible to distinguish the sea from the land, but as their eyes adjusted to the dark, the boundary where white foam broke became gradually clearer.

The two sat down on the finely dried sandy beach, stretching out their legs. While they enjoyed a peaceful moment, surrendering their ears to the wind and the waves, the faint sound of fireworks—pop! pop!—reached them. Jae-min looked around, but he couldn’t actually see any fireworks. Seung-pyo explained.

“You can’t see them well from here, but if you go straight down this way, there’s a big beach and a cluster of pensions nearby. The sound is coming from there.”

“Isn’t this a beach too?”

“It has a name, but people don’t really know about it. Maybe we should have bought some fireworks? I didn’t think of it because we came in such a hurry.”

“No, I like it because it’s quiet and dark.”

Seung-pyo laughed softly. He pressed his shoulder firmly against Jae-min’s.

“Why do you like it being quiet and dark?”

Because I usually spend my time in crowded, noisy places. Just as Jae-min was about to answer, he felt warmth touch his lips.

Mixed with the sea breeze, the touching of lips was so light and soft at first that he didn’t even know it was a kiss. Only after a supple tongue slid into his mouth did the lukewarm body heat and the temperature of the cold wind hitting his body become clearly distinct.

Jae-min, who had been immersed in the sound of the waves and felt as if he had become part of the ocean, was instantly pulled back into his physical body. The sensation of the tongue rummaging through every corner of his mucous membranes as if trying to melt the inside of his mouth tightened its grip on Jae-min more intensely amidst the wind and darkness. Exhaling hot, ragged breaths, Jae-min clung to his classmate who had ambushed him with whatever he could reach.

They had been apart for only a few days, but for the two who had just begun to cherish each other, it had been an agonizingly long time. A thin current of electricity tingled through the tips of their tongues touching for the first time in a while. Their flushed moans and breaths broke impatiently, but they were swallowed by the loud sound of the waves, so their voices barely reached only each other’s ears.

A large hand caressed Jae-min’s face. A gentle touch swept down his left cheek, which had been swollen from a sharp pain. Even though he knew the hand had simply happened to touch the same spot, Jae-min’s heart wavered, and he let out a sigh.

Perhaps taking the long sigh as a byproduct of pleasure, Seung-pyo laughed softly again. Their locked lips finally parted. He caressed his face more meticulously and spoke.

“It’s good for kissing because it’s dark, but it sucks that I can’t see your face well.”

The cheek beneath Seung-pyo’s palm rose slightly. It was because Jae-min had smiled.

“I had my eyes closed anyway.”

Only then did Jae-min open his eyes. Contrary to Seung-pyo’s complaining, his eyes, now accustomed to the dark, could fully perceive a face.

Jae-min smiled, overlapping his own hand over the one touching his face.

“Let’s go back in now. Grandmother told us to come back quickly; she’ll be worried.”

Even though they couldn’t do anything more on the windy coast anyway, the two lingered for a moment as if reluctant, before shaking off the sand and standing up. From the moment they started walking back from the sea to the house, they held hands the entire time.

By the time they walked back the way they came and arrived, Grandmother had already finished preparing the meal. Scolding them for not listening when she told them to come early, she quickly placed the dinner table for the two of them on the wooden veranda.

It was a modest meal consisting of freshly cooked white rice, a few salty side dishes, plump braised fish, fresh wrap vegetables, and a mild soybean paste soup. Perhaps because it was late evening, or perhaps because of Grandmother’s skill, it looked even more delicious than the charcoal-grilled spicy chicken they had eaten for lunch.

“Thank you for the meal.”

As if the time they spent lingering at the beach, not wanting to return, had been a lie, the two began eating with gusto. When Jae-min asked if she wasn’t eating with them, Grandmother said she had already eaten roughly and pushed the table away for just the two of them, pulling the electric fan closer to herself.

“Is high school fun?”

“It’s going well. It’s going so well that I even came to visit with a friend.”

“I told you, when you were making a fuss about how you’d be miserable if you were split up from your buddies in school—see? Didn’t I say you’d make new friends?”

“No, why do you still remember saying things like that?”

Seung-pyo waved his hand as if embarrassed. Jae-min laughed, not wanting to miss the chance.

“Did you tell Grandmother that too? That you got split up from your middle school friends?”

“I said that while making a check-in call around the time I first entered high school. A long time ago.”

“I thought you were the type who didn’t worry about making friends.”

“Of course I wouldn’t say that to the other kids. It makes me look pathetic.”

Even while talking, their mouths and hands remained busy. This time too, Seung-pyo only finished his meal after emptying two bowls of rice.

Both stepped forward, saying they would do the dishes, but Grandmother insisted they leave it, saying that kitchen work becomes more troublesome when others touch it. Forced to retreat, the two eventually entered the room. Seung-pyo grumbled as he unpacked his things.

“Let’s shower first. We only washed roughly earlier because we planned to shower at the pension after playing in the water.”

“Yeah, you go first.”

“Why? Let’s shower together to save time.”

“Even so, how can we shower together at Grandmother’s house? Go one by one.”

“Why not? In Gapyeong, they made it so a dozen people could shower in a pack. What’s wrong with two friends showering together?”

“Stop talking and just go wash. So I can wash quickly too.”

“Ryu Jae-min is thinking dirty thoughts all by himself.”

Seung-pyo sneered and disappeared into the bathroom. Jae-min snorted. It was more ridiculous to believe that he could quietly just shower with a guy who had suddenly shoved his tongue into his mouth while they were peacefully watching the sea.

When he heard the sound of water from behind the door, Jae-min also began organizing his things. Since Jae-min had brought only a single backpack, there wasn’t much to organize. Just two or three changes of clothes and some personal toiletries.

By now, the things I told Noona must have reached my parents. He wondered what the two of them were thinking, knowing that Jae-min hadn’t just vanished suddenly but had run away of his own will. Whether they were jumping in rage, whether they regretted being too harsh, or what they were planning to do when he returned.

Lost in thought, Jae-min suddenly snapped out of it and stood up. When he clicked the switch on the wall, the ceiling light illuminating the room went out.

Once the light was off, the room quickly became dark. Thanks to the glass panes in the door, light filtered in from outside, so it wasn’t as pitch-black as it had been at the night sea. Still, it was to the point where the fine details of objects or people could not be seen at all. Relieved, Jae-min turned the light back on.

“Ryu Jae-min, you wash too.”

“Hey, you….”

Just then, Seung-pyo finished his shower and returned to the room. He was stark naked, without a single piece of underwear on. Seung-pyo smiled, drying his hair with a towel.

“There’s no one here. You come out comfortably too. The cooling is a bit weak, so it’s hot if you put your clothes on before coming out of the bathroom.”

Though it was clearly an old model, the room had a proper air conditioner, fitting for a place that once hosted guests. While the room didn’t turn chilly instantly, it wasn’t hot enough to be uncomfortable.

Perhaps because they had played under the blazing sun all day, Seung-pyo’s skin seemed a bit more deeply tanned than it had been in the morning. Wondering if he was the same, Jae-min turned his forearm this way and that to check.

“What’s wrong?”

“Did I get tanned too?”

“Hmm… just a tiny bit? I guess you don’t tan easily.”

Since they had spent the whole day rolling around outside, he wouldn’t have minded turning pitch black. His father and mother would be even more surprised if he returned home with a tanned face. He felt like he wanted to brag that he had run away from home and had a blast.

“I’m washing now.”

The bathroom light was bright, not much different from a typical fluorescent lamp. Jae-min quietly locked the door.

After finishing brushing his teeth, he stripped off his clothes and stood before the showerhead, lifting the lever. The pouring water had strong pressure, so just standing under it melted away the day’s fatigue.

From rushing to escape his mother early in the morning, exhausting every bit of strength he had, to immediately diving into the water and playing by the river all day, and then traveling for several hours to Gangwon-do due to a sudden change in plans. No matter how much energy one has at his age, it was impossible not to be tired by this point.

He wanted to wash quickly and rest. He hurried to wash his hair and scrubbed his body with the soap on the sink. While focused on rinsing his body here and there as a final step, Jae-min failed to notice that someone else had entered the bathroom.

“Ryu Jae-min.”

Only after hearing Seung-pyo’s startled voice did Jae-min look beside him in surprise. Seung-pyo was standing there, holding a few neatly folded new towels.

Startled, Jae-min straightened his body, which he had been bending slightly to wash.

“…I locked the door, how did you get in?”

“What? Ah, the door here is broken, so it doesn’t lock.”

Soon, only the sound of flowing water echoed in the bathroom amidst the silence. Seung-pyo’s brow slowly furrowed.

“What happened to your leg?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Let me see. Did you get hurt while playing in the water earlier? You should have told me if you did.”

Seung-pyo practically threw the towels he brought onto the shelf and strode forward, bending his knees to crouch down below Jae-min. Jae-min recoiled in disgust. He tried hard to hide his leg, but it wasn’t easy with a body that didn’t have a single thread of clothing on.

“Move! I told you it’s nothing!”

“What do you mean it’s nothing? If you really got hurt playing in the water, we might have to take it up with them. It looks like a proper bruise….”

As he complained and peered at Jae-min’s calf, Seung-pyo’s voice trailed off awkwardly.

Seung-pyo frowned deeper. Feeling that something was wrong, he blinked and looked at the straight leg in front of him, then looked up at Jae-min’s face with a look of disbelief.

The face he met was flushed bright red, like someone who had been caught in a shameful scene. Seung-pyo slowly stood up.

“Hey, who did this?”

His voice, a mix of bewilderment and anger, was muffled. Instead of answering, Jae-min lowered his head to avoid the interrogating gaze. When an answer didn’t come immediately, Seung-pyo guessed there was a sinister story behind it and asked more indignantly.

“Looking closely, this isn’t a bruise from playing in the water. Did the academy teachers hit you?”

“…No, I just fell on my own.”

“If you fell, your knee should be scraped. Why is there a bruise on your calf? Even if you fell backward, it wouldn’t look like this.”

“It’s no big deal, so stop it.”

“I heard some academies use corporal punishment to manage students; did you get caught up with one of those? At this level, it’s not corporal punishment, it’s abuse. This needs to be reported. Those bastards… do your parents know you were hit like this?”

At those words, Jae-min stopped the conversation and covered his face as if he had a headache. His breathing became ragged. While Seung-pyo hesitated at the unusual sign, Jae-min let out a powerless breath along with a trembling sigh.

“Just mind your own business.”

“How can I not mind it! Wouldn’t you be angry if I got hit like this somewhere and came back? Just tell me who did it, because I’m going to kill them!”

Seung-pyo shouted loudly, but when Jae-min ultimately didn’t answer, he also fell silent. After huffing with rough breaths, instead of questioning further, Seung-pyo took a dry towel from the shelf and stood before Jae-min again.

“You’re done washing, right?”

“Uh….”

Seung-pyo roughly dried Jae-min’s moisture with the towel he was holding, then took his hand and led him out of the bathroom. While Jae-min hurried to put on his clothes, wanting to cover his body quickly, Seung-pyo took a thick mattress pad, neatly folded, from the closet. Then, without even unfolding it properly, he patted the top of the pad with his hand.

“Put your pants on later and sit here. Let me see it properly.”

“See what? It’s all gone down now, so it doesn’t even hurt. It’s just a bruise.”

“Ryu Jae-min.”

Seung-pyo called Jae-min’s name in a tone where anger was surging, but he couldn’t immediately follow up with words. He closed his eyes tightly, took a deep breath, and only then opened his mouth.

“I’m sorry for keep getting angry, but I’m not scolding you. I’m just pissed off because I see your leg in that state. I was so excited and dragged you around all day without even knowing you were hurt.”

“Do you think I followed you around while enduring pain? I’m not hurt, it doesn’t hurt, and it’s not uncomfortable. It just looks like this, it’s no big deal.”

“If it’s no big deal, then don’t avoid it and show me.”

Seung-pyo’s attitude was firm. A staring contest ensued for a moment, but the premonition that it wouldn’t be easy to get away with it now that he’d been caught, combined with the fatigue accumulated all day, broke Jae-min’s will. He approached sullenly and plopped down on the blanket Seung-pyo had laid out.

Seung-pyo’s hand carefully lifted one leg. On the white calf, which was moderately firm and stretched long, there were several dark red marks drawn haphazardly, looking as if they were a few days old. Just looking at the way they connected like stripes across both sides of the calf, it was far from an injury caused by falling.

Around the marks that looked as if they were caused by being scratched by something sharp or hit with a switch, reddish-purple bruises had spread overall, suggesting that the force that struck the calf was not ordinary.

“You weren’t hit just once or twice.”

Seung-pyo’s voice simmered low. As anger surged inside him, he kept feeling thirsty.

Who did such a crazy thing? How much did it hurt while being hit this much? Why on earth? Why go this far? The thought of Ryu Jae-min enduring the pain alone in a place where he wasn’t present made him feel dizzy.

Seung-pyo knew that there were academies that implicitly tolerated corporal punishment while promoting strict policies under the phrase ‘Spartan-style management,’ but he couldn’t understand it at all. The Ryu Jae-min that Oh Seung-pyo knew was a guy with the ability and tact to live safely without receiving a single penalty point even if he went to such a place.

It was absurd that a guy who wouldn’t create a situation to be stupidly beaten in the first place had done something so terrible that his leg was made into this state, and it was baffling that Ryu Jae-min, while saying he wanted to escape the academy, hadn’t even mentioned being beaten.

Far from confessing the circumstances, judging by his attitude in the bathroom, hadn’t he intended to keep the fact that his leg had become a rag a secret from Seung-pyo until the end? Why would he be so ashamed and try to hide it when he’d been hit so hard his leg swelled up, as if it were his own fault? Just what on earth had he done?

“Are you really not going to tell me who did this and why it happened?”

“…….”

“Did you do something so wrong that you have to hide it from me?”

“…It was something that had nothing to do with you.”

“How do you think you’d feel if I got beaten up somewhere you didn’t know about, kept my mouth shut, and told you it had nothing to do with you?”

Faced with the logic of empathy, Jae-min could no longer insist and hesitated, dropping his gaze. Ryu Jae-min wasn’t so dim-witted that he couldn’t understand Seung-pyo’s meaning. Therefore, to Seung-pyo, his silence only meant that there were circumstances that could not be spoken of.

You didn’t do something sneaky behind my back again, did you? You’re not unable to speak because you did something you have to hide even from me, right? You didn’t get caught doing something reckless at the academy and that’s why you called me to run away, right?

Anxiety fuels suspicion. The questions blooming in his mind felt as though they were about to spill from his lips at any moment. His throat felt itchy, as if a feather were caught in it, but Seung-pyo swallowed both his thirst and his unsettling doubts.

If it had been the version of him from when he first noticed Ryu Jae-min’s secret, he would have intentionally been more sarcastic and spat out sharper words. And the Ryu Jae-min sitting across from him wouldn’t have been listening with an expression that looked as if he might melt away into water at any second.

Seung-pyo still remembered vividly the Ryu Jae-min who had remained consistently detached, his face as serene as glass, as if asserting that everything someone like him said simply passed through his ears and vanished.

“I’m just upset.”

“…….”

“I hate it even when just a few raindrops fall on your shoulder, so fuck, what kind of crazy bastard did this to your leg…?”

As Seung-pyo muttered in a state of desperation, Jae-min’s jaw tightened, the muscle beneath his ear bulging slightly. Without even knowing what the other was enduring, Seung-pyo bit the inside of his own lip.

It would be easy to scream and vent his frustration right now, but the sharp words that would fly from his mouth wouldn’t even reach the person who had battered Jae-min’s leg to shreds. It would only further wound Ryu Jae-min’s heart, which must have already been hurting.

As he pressed his surging anger deep down, only sadness remained atop the subsided rage, like clear serum. Regardless of the reason, the fact that he hadn’t known while Jae-min was being beaten until he was bruised made him realize the limitations of their young and clumsy romance.

“Are you kids sleepin’ yet?”

The cheerful voice of an elderly woman broke through the room filled with melancholy silence. Seung-pyo bolted upright. Jae-min, who had been exposing his lower half until then, hurriedly scrambled to find and put on his pants.

When he opened the sliding door, Grandmother was sitting on the veranda. Seung-pyo answered cheerfully, pretending nothing had happened.

“Not yet. Why?”

“At your age, if you only eat rice, you can’t handle the rich stuff. If I fry up some potato pancakes, would you eat ‘em?”

Still unable to completely wipe the awkwardness from his face, Seung-pyo looked back at Jae-min and asked.

“Grandmother says she’ll make potato pancakes. Do you want some?”

“Uh… ah, yes! Thank you.”

Though his throat felt dry, Jae-min answered quickly. It felt impolite to refuse a snack offered to him by someone who had suddenly welcomed him into her home.

Grandmother headed to the kitchen, telling them to wait a moment, and soon the savory scent of frying pancakes began to permeate the entire house. The sharp conversation and the savory smell of oil didn’t suit each other at all, and the complicated thoughts drifting through his mind scattered busily like pancake batter.

“Come here.”

Seung-pyo, who was sitting near the sliding door, beckoned. Jae-min, who had been sitting on the quilt unable to move either way, hurried to Seung-pyo’s side as if he had been waiting for the signal.

He tried to hold it back, but Seung-pyo let out a small chuckle. While keeping his mouth locked tight, the way he scurried over without hesitation at a single gesture and looked at him tentatively made him look exactly like a puppy that had caused trouble.

Seung-pyo shifted his gaze to Jae-min’s leg. The bruises on his calf were hidden beneath the clothes he had hurriedly thrown on, but Seung-pyo lightly stroked the leg over the fabric and asked.

“Does it hurt if I touch it like this?”

“No, not really….”

Jae-min trailed off. Seung-pyo moved his hand silently before speaking.

“Even if it doesn’t hurt now, it must have hurt like hell when you were getting hit. That’s what’s frustrating me the most right now. The fact that you endured the pain alone while getting beaten by some human I don’t even know, in a place I didn’t know about.”

“…….”

“Fine. You can tell me the reason later, but for goodness’ sake, don’t pretend it doesn’t hurt. I’d rather you whine that it hurts to death; then I’ll only tell you the things you want to hear.”

As Jae-min kept his mouth tightly shut, becoming so quiet it seemed he was trying to stifle his own breathing, Grandmother crossed the yard carrying a small tray table. Jae-min quickly pulled his leg away from Seung-pyo’s hand and adjusted his posture.

Seeing the two boys sitting close together on the veranda, Grandmother let out a hearty laugh and set the table down.

“Look at you two, stuck together like glue. Eat up and go to bed early.”

“Wow, looks delicious.”

The freshly fried potato pancakes glistened with a golden sheen. He wasn’t hungry, but Jae-min’s gaze was fixed on the tray. Grandmother handed them chopsticks and asked.

“Does your friend like this kind of thing too?”

“He does. I had potato pancakes at home last time, too.”

Jae-min answered, recalling the potato pancakes the housekeeper had fried for him on a rainy day some time ago. He remembered wanting to just scream and cry that day, but why was that?

Tracing back his memory, it was the day he had been anxious and distressed, thinking his mid-term rank might drop below Seung-pyo’s. The housekeeper, unaware of his inner turmoil, had made the crispy snack, saying that on rainy days, one should eat oily pancakes, and thanks to that, Jae-min had felt a small, secret sense of comfort.

Thinking back on it now that it had passed, even that anxious and nervous feeling felt like a memory shared with Seung-pyo. Jae-min smiled shyly to himself.

“You eat ‘em like this at home too?”

“It was a bit different. She sliced the potatoes thinly before frying them.”

“Here, we grind ‘em all up. It’s only got the real taste if you grind ‘em on a grater, not a machine.”

Grandmother tilted a glass bottle, pouring water—glug, glug, glug—into a stainless steel cup, then drank it down. Watching this, Seung-pyo narrowed his eyes.

“Is that not water, but alcohol?”

“Eeh, I felt good so I took it out to have a glass. Your uncle brewed it with ginseng.”

“Sam? Ginseng?”

Seung-pyo grimaced as if he were facing someone about to take bitter medicine. Grandmother poured a little of the liquor into two empty cups as well.

“People eat gumbi for their health, so how can you not drink ginseng? It’s precious, so you two have a glass each. Let your grandmother have some company.”

“Grandma, we’re still high schoolers. We can’t drink.”

“You can’t drink a lot. It’s medicine, so just have one glass. It’s fine if an adult gives it to you.”

While accepting the glass as if he couldn’t help it, Seung-pyo seemed quite accustomed to such suggestions. However, Jae-min, who had never once tasted alcohol in his life, could only blink, not knowing what to do. Seung-pyo, who emptied his glass in one go, whispered with a distorted face.

“Ryu Jae-min, if you don’t want to, don’t drink it. You don’t have to.”

“No, it’s not that I don’t want to… I’ve just never had alcohol before.”

“It tastes bad. It’s really bitter.”

If he had encouraged him to drink, Jae-min might have set the glass down without hesitation, but for some reason, curiosity was piqued, and he brought the glass to his lips. Tilting his head back, he swallowed the contents in one gulp just like Seung-pyo. The bitter scent of ginseng filled his nasal cavity, and his tongue tingled from the stinging sensation of the alcohol.

Honestly, it tasted terrible. As someone experiencing alcohol for the first time, Jae-min couldn’t tell if alcohol was naturally tasteless or if it was this bitter because it was ginseng liquor. He tried to smooth out his naturally grimacing face and quickly grabbed a pancake to wipe the taste of alcohol from his tongue. Because the liquor was so bitter, the potato pancake tasted even more savory.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

Jae-min learned that he wasn’t so weak to alcohol that he would get drunk from a single glass. Along with some meaningless chatter, the wide plate was quickly emptied.

Setting down his chopsticks, Jae-min bowed his head.

“Thank you for the meal.”

“Me too.”

Grandmother looked at the empty plate and the boys with a satisfied expression and lifted the tray. Seung-pyo stood up with her.

“I’ll clean this up.”

“Nothin’ to clean.”

“Still.” Seung-pyo insisted and took the tray from her. As Jae-min also stood up, Seung-pyo gestured with his head for him to sit.

“I’ll be back after cleaning up quickly, so wait here.”

Normally, he would have insisted on going along, but right now, he didn’t feel like contradicting Oh Seung-pyo. Jae-min obediently stopped and bowed only to Grandmother.

“Goodnight.”

“Alright. I’m goin’ to bed now, so you two get to sleep soon too.”

“Yes.”

Left alone, Jae-min sat on the edge of the veranda and looked up. From the veranda, the moon and stars were visible, filling the air with the rustic charm of the countryside. The weather had been clear during the day, and the night sky was lucid. Looking up at the night sky, which stretched out with a heartless beauty, his complicated mind seemed to clear a little.

While he was gazing endlessly at the sky, Seung-pyo crossed the yard.

“What are you doing there?”

“Just… looking at the stars.”

Seung-pyo glanced up at the sky for a moment, then passed the veranda and strode into the room. He unfolded the quilt that was still bunched up, took out a thin blanket and pillow to prepare the bed, and then disappeared into the bathroom. The sound of brushing teeth leaked out.

Jae-min hurriedly stood up and followed him into the bathroom. Standing next to Seung-pyo, he put toothpaste on his toothbrush and their eyes met through the mirror. Seung-pyo chuckled and ruffled Jae-min’s hair. Jae-min twisted his head and grumbled.

“What.”

“What.”

Exchanging a conversation that wasn’t really a conversation, the two finished getting ready for bed and left the bathroom. Seung-pyo, who took his place on the quilt first, called Jae-min.

“Lie face down here.”

“Why?”

“To put some medicine on.”

“Medicine? It’s not an open wound, so there’s no need for medicine.”

“Medicine for bruises. I asked Grandmother, and she said she had some at home.”

Seung-pyo was holding an ointment. Since he didn’t have the energy to refuse further, Jae-min obediently rolled up his pants and lay face down.

Perhaps the exposed calf looked mottled once again, as Seung-pyo let out a sigh. Soon, a careful touch reached him, and the slippery ointment glided over his skin. Jae-min buried his face in the pillow and let out a small breath.

“Does it hurt?”

The hand applying the ointment was so careful, as if afraid of pressing too hard, that almost no pressure was applied, and no pain was felt. It had already been about a week since he was hit on the calf by his father, so while the marks remained loud, the pain had mostly vanished. He had almost forgotten that his leg was covered in bruises.

Seung-pyo had told him not to pretend to be okay, but he couldn’t bring himself to fake pain when it didn’t hurt. Jae-min nodded.

“It doesn’t hurt.”

Seung-pyo applied the medicine in silence. Since his anger hadn’t subsided yet, it wasn’t the time for this, but the touch of the fluffy quilt enveloping his body and the affectionate, soft touch stroking his leg made Jae-min’s eyes keep closing. Sensing his drowsiness, Seung-pyo asked.

“Are you sleeping?”

“No….”

Jae-min blinked slowly, fighting off the sleep. The temptation of rest wrapping around his exhausted body was sweet, but it would be a shame to end such a pleasant day on an unsettling note. He wanted to somehow cool down Oh Seung-pyo’s scorched heart—the one that was trying to soothe him despite being furious—before falling asleep together.

‘My father did it.’

Confessing that would be a relief, but he didn’t have the confidence to handle the shame that would follow. Even without other circumstances, it would be embarrassing, and Oh Seung-pyo believed that he lived being meticulously cared for by his parents and the housekeeper, like a prince made of porcelain. Jae-min didn’t want to break that brilliant illusion.

Even if it wasn’t Oh Seung-pyo, most people assumed that Ryu Jae-min was a child dearly loved by his family. Wealthy grandparents and successful relatives, parents who were university professors famous for their expertise in children’s education, an expensive house, an expensive car, and being ranked first in the entire school. Various elements describing Ryu Jae-min naturally led people to the same conclusion.

That’s why people sent him favorable looks for no particular reason, expected a certain image from him, admired him even when he didn’t brag, and repeatedly felt disappointed even when he did nothing wrong. Confessing pain in front of others felt less like being honest and more like revealing a shameful flaw. Even though no one had ever embarrassed Jae-min, a certain sense of shame was like an instinct.

“Sleep if you’re sleepy.”

Having finished applying the medicine, Seung-pyo closed the cap of the ointment and placed it roughly on the shelf.

“Sleep without your pants. The medicine will get all over your clothes.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll turn off the light.”

The room suddenly went dark. However, a bluish light filtering in from outside the glass door lingered faintly, so it didn’t become completely pitch black.

Jae-min, who had been lying face down, rolled onto his side, and Seung-pyo lay flat on his back next to him. Jae-min quietly watched Seung-pyo, who was staring up at the ceiling in silence, before speaking.

“Are you still angry?”

“Yeah, but I’m not angry at you.”

“Sorry.”

“I told you I’m not angry at you, so what are you sorry for?”

“I’ll definitely tell you later. I’m just not mentally prepared right now.”

“How serious is it that you have to be ‘mentally prepared’?”

Seung-pyo turned his head, seemingly curious at Jae-min’s words. Jae-min hesitated and made an excuse.

“Because it’s embarrassing.”

“Did you actually cause some kind of trouble? What could you possibly be embarrassed about?”

As if his barely calmed heart had flared up again, Seung-pyo’s voice grew intense. When Jae-min quickly shut his mouth, Seung-pyo also took a few deep breaths as if trying to discipline his mind, and then softened.

“I’m sorry too. For shouting.”

“It’s okay.”

An awkward silence stretched between them once more. Jae-min blinked and gathered his courage one more time.

“Oh Seung-pyo.”

“Yeah.”

“If you’re not angry… can you kiss me…?”

The number of times he had pressed his lips against Oh Seung-pyo’s must have been several hundred by now. The time for being nervous about asking for a kiss had passed, but right now, Jae-min’s heart was pounding like a boy facing his first kiss. Since Seung-pyo was in a bad mood, he might coldly reject Jae-min’s request today; he thought that was possible, but if he were actually rejected, he felt he would be shamelessly disappointed.

Ha, Seung-pyo let out a scoffing breath, openly displaying his feeling of absurdity.

“You’ve developed a fucking funny habit.”

“…….”

“You think everything gets solved just by asking for a kiss even when the other person is pissed?”

Jae-min couldn’t deny it and lowered his gaze. If it’s a no, then it’s a no. Just as he was becoming sullen while answering internally, a large hand touched his cheek.

“It’s all my fault, so what can I do.”

In the blink of an eye, their lips met. They locked together with small smacking sounds, then gradually deepened.

The kiss that had started abruptly at the beach had made his face and neck tingle, but the tongue now slowly exploring his mouth stroked somewhere deep inside his invisible chest, like the hand that had caressed his swollen cheek.

The heartbeat that had been violent enough to make his whole body tremble instead slowed down. Mmm, Jae-min finally let out a moan of relief and wrapped his arms around Seung-pyo’s shoulders.

“Mmph, hng, mm.”

“Huu.”

Every time the tongue brushed slowly and stickily inside his mouth, Jae-min let out a small moan, and Seung-pyo’s breath grew ragged and hurried in response. While Jae-min held onto those broad shoulders, Seung-pyo’s hand fumbled along Jae-min’s nape. Perhaps because the performance of the old air conditioner on the wall wasn’t very great, just overlapping their bodies and kissing made them heat up and grow hot quickly.

Both of them paused to catch their breath and pulled their faces apart. Their breaths poured onto each other’s wet lips. As a damp heat filled their bodies, the clothes they were wearing felt clammy.

Jae-min already knew that his lower abdomen was becoming tight. He also knew that the thing attached to Seung-pyo’s lower body had swollen hard. As if wanting to hide the fact that he was erect, he awkwardly lifted his body to create distance from Jae-min, but it was not a size that could be hidden by simply moving, so it was of little use.

“Is Grandmother really asleep?”

When Jae-min whispered, Seung-pyo also lowered his voice to answer.

“My grandmother always sleeps early.”

“If we’re quiet, she won’t find out, right?”

“She’s hard of hearing, so she probably won’t….”

Even in the darkness, the conflict was clearly visible in Seung-pyo’s eyes. As Jae-min stared up at him, Seung-pyo shifted his gaze away with an uneasy expression.

“I don’t really want to.”

“Why? You were the one waiting for the right timing to do it.”

“With someone who has bruises on their leg, it’s a bit….”

“You can’t even see them because it’s dark.”

“I feel like it’ll hurt.”

“I told you it doesn’t hurt!”

Jae-min intentionally slapped his own calf. He was trying to show that it didn’t hurt, but Seung-pyo was horrified and grabbed Jae-min’s wrist.

“Don’t do that.”

Their eyes met again at close range. Seung-pyo was faintly frowning. It was as if no matter how much he said it didn’t hurt, he couldn’t believe it, wearing an expression as if he were the one in pain.

However, contrary to his modest words, the volume of the lower body, which was vividly felt because they were overlapping, only grew thicker. After taking several deep breaths to control his mind, Oh Seung-pyo, who usually thought of rubbing bodies at every opportunity, was trying to imitate a sage who had transcended desire.

For some reason, Jae-min’s state today was the exact opposite. His body, ignited with urgency, was simmering from the inside, and even while sweating lightly from the heat, the warmth of the pressed bodies and the scent emanating from him were so welcome that he wanted to dive deep into it.

It was absolutely unbelievable that Oh Seung-pyo, who had coaxed him into a one-night trip, had intended to spend the night of the actual trip quietly. As Jae-min buried his face in the strong line of Seung-pyo’s neck, he could feel the Adam’s apple twitching vividly.

A person cannot achieve enlightenment overnight. Seung-pyo’s heat hadn’t vanished; if he was merely enduring it for a reason, Jae-min wanted to tell him that there was no need to do so.

“Seriously, you never listen.”

A few seconds after Jae-min pressed his lips to Seung-pyo’s neck and began nibbling the skin like a goldfish, Seung-pyo whispered his complaint. He grumbled as he pulled Jae-min into an embrace.

“Why do you always do the exact opposite of what I say? You won’t tell me when I ask out of curiosity, and when I tell you to hold off until you’re healed, you cling to me and seduce me.”

Left with nothing to say, Jae-min awkwardly rubbed his lips and gauged Seung-pyo’s mood. So, doesn’t that mean you like me? he asked inwardly, but he didn’t bother to say it out loud.

Laying Jae-min flat on his back, Seung-pyo lifted his upper body from where he had been leaning over. As Seung-pyo pulled his t-shirt off in one motion, Jae-min hurriedly stripped as well. As the heat trapped inside his clothes escaped, a pleasant sigh escaped him, feeling as though the stifling warmth had lifted slightly.

Seung-pyo leaned down carefully. His soft lips slid slowly across Jae-min’s straight collarbone. His feverish body was already excited just from the sudden contact with the outside air, and as Seung-pyo’s lips touched his bare skin, he jumped, his fine hairs standing on end.

“Ha, ngh.”

As Jae-min’s shoulders twitched and trembled, Seung-pyo smiled broadly. The playfulness that usually defined him returned to a face that had been heavy while pretending to be a monk. When Jae-min smiled back, welcoming that expression, Seung-pyo used his teeth to nip at the area around the nipple.

“Ah.”

“Why are you suddenly grinning? You know you look pretty when you smile…”

It was strange. Normally, he wouldn’t be this off-kilter, but today, just as Seung-pyo complained, Jae-min moved in the exact opposite direction of what was expected. When Seung-pyo teased him for smiling, it only made Jae-min laugh more, causing him to cover his mouth with his hand. Even then, the giggles leaking out wouldn’t fully subside.

“Fine, keep laughing. Let’s see how long you can keep it up.”

Seung-pyo growled in a mock-threatening manner and bit Jae-min’s earlobe. As he gripped the outer rim of the ear and shook his head slightly, it became even more ticklish. While Jae-min let out whimpering, laughter-laced moans, Seung-pyo stuck out his tongue and licked his entire ear. Only when the tip of the tongue slid deep into the ear canal did Jae-min’s laughter finally fade.

“Hng, ah, ngh…”

Seung-pyo’s fingertips obsessively traced the stiffened nipple. Meanwhile, the mouth that had been biting his ear slid down to the neck, the collarbone, and finally to the slightly swollen nipple, crushing it thickly with lips and tongue. The red areola became damp with saliva.

“Hah, haa…!”

“Why’d you stop laughing? Keep laughing.”

Seung-pyo sneered. As the nipple trapped in his mouth was scraped by his tongue and sucked hard with loud popping sounds, Jae-min’s member became fully erect. Gripping the rigid shaft, which was beaded with transparent pre-cum like dew, Seung-pyo was now the one laughing, as if amused.

“Your cock looks like a flower.”

“…Are you, hng, crazy…”

“The color is pretty, and the glans looks like a flower bud. If I keep touching it like this, will it bloom?”

“Ngh, ah… haa, aaah!”

Between the whispers that blurred the line between dirty talk and compliments, the touch that squeezed and stroked his sensitive member, and the caresses raining down like droplets across his body, Jae-min quickly lost his senses.

He let out moans that sounded like sobbing, and whenever Seung-pyo used his teeth or applied pressure to rub the glans, his voice would burst out loudly. Each time, Jae-min covered his mouth with his hand. As he whimpered while receiving Seung-pyo’s devoted kisses on his tender bare skin, he would eventually be entranced by the pleasure, his hand slipping away, only to scream again when a violent wave of pleasure struck like an ambush, repeating the cycle of covering his mouth.

Aside from the light sweat permeating his body, there was no moisture in the room or on his skin. However, as Oh Seung-pyo’s touch and lips awakened every pleasure nerve one by one, Jae-min felt as if he were becoming drenched in water.

“I also…”

I want to kiss you too. I want to kiss your body and make you wet with me.

He wanted to say that, but as Seung-pyo’s hard teeth bit into the soft flesh of his inner thigh as if taking a chunk out of it, the end of Jae-min’s words were drowned out by a moan. He pressed his lips tight and endured until his face turned bright red, trying to keep his voice from escaping.

Only after the area around his groin was mottled with red marks did Seung-pyo lift his head. He slowly stroked the member that had grown even harder, licking the shaft as he spoke.

“I wonder if I can make a hickey here too?”

“…I don’t think so.”

Despite the weak answer, Seung-pyo didn’t give up and pressed a loud, wet kiss to the member. This was only the second time Jae-min had received oral sex. His erect cock was long and hard, but the skin covering the shaft was thinner and more fragile than other parts of his body.

Feeling strangely nervous, Jae-min lifted his upper body slightly and looked down silently at Seung-pyo, who was resting his face between Jae-min’s thighs. Starting from the root, he licked the entire shaft several times before pressing his lips to the fragile skin just below the glans, sucking it with loud, wet sounds.

Despite his nervousness, it was ticklish. Jae-min chuckled lowly again, but as Seung-pyo continued to nip and graze the shaft, he could no longer laugh and instead let out ragged breaths.

After sucking and licking for a while, Seung-pyo lifted his head. He frowned as he tried to check if the hickey he’d attempted had remained on the member.

“It’s too dark to see.”

Seung-pyo reached for his phone and turned on the flashlight. The sudden bright light illuminated Jae-min’s groin from a close distance. As the member was clearly revealed under the spotlight-like beam, Jae-min also leaned his head in, curious about the result.

“Did it work?”

“No, cocks are already red, so I can’t tell if there’s a hickey or not.”

“I told you it wouldn’t work.”

Seung-pyo seemed convinced; he pushed the phone aside and this time swallowed the heated member entirely. Stopping his prank of trying to make a hickey, he began to suck it up as if he wanted to melt Jae-min’s member away, just as before.

“Nng, ngh, hng.”

Ripples spread across his entire drenched body. The pleasure radiated outward in concentric circles from wherever Oh Seung-pyo’s lips touched.

Overwhelmed by the pleasure sweeping through his entire body, Jae-min could do nothing but pant. As his body twitched, the blanket he was lying on crumpled with him. The feeling of the hard floor supporting his back, rather than a mattress, felt slightly unfamiliar.

Before long, the sensation of impending ejaculation rushed over him, and Jae-min instinctively grabbed Seung-pyo’s hair and pushed him away.

“Stop, haa, stop.”

“Why?” Seung-pyo asked with muffled pronunciation, his mouth still around the member.

“I think I’m going to cum…”

“Then cum.”

Seung-pyo acted as if there were no problem, but Jae-min shook his head.

“I don’t want to right now… I want to cum while we do it together.”

“You can just cum twice.”

Jae-min just shook his head without answering. Oh Seung-pyo had said that the more he ejaculated, the duller his senses became, allowing him to go longer, but for Jae-min, it was the opposite. Repeated climaxes made his body increasingly sensitive, leaving him completely drained. Sex felt great, but he was still a bit embarrassed by the idea of becoming a mess on his own.

“Actually…”

Finally stopping what he was doing, Seung-pyo spoke with an awkward expression.

“I forgot to bring them this morning.”

“What?”

“Condoms and lube… I had them packed, but I was rushing this morning. Ah, I thought only Oh Seung-yeon made stupid mistakes like this. I was going to stop by a pharmacy later, but I was too busy getting to Grandmother’s house.”

Faced with this unexpected explanation, Jae-min fell silent, feeling awkward. He hadn’t had “real” sex many times yet, but since Oh Seung-pyo had always prepared everything—whether condoms or lube—Jae-min had completely stopped thinking about those things.

“So today, I’ll just make you come with my mouth. Since you really want to.”

“Was that why you didn’t want to do it? Because there were no condoms?”

“It’s not just because of the condoms. You’re hurt, and you’re not prepared. That’s basically a sign that we shouldn’t do it.”

Seung-pyo seemed intent on wrapping things up simply, but as Jae-min chewed over the situation, he couldn’t quite accept it.

Since he had left everything regarding supplies to Oh Seung-pyo, he had never thought deeply about it, but was a lack of preparation really such a critical issue that they couldn’t even try?

“Can’t we do it without them?”

“What?”

Seung-pyo’s eyes widened. Jae-min looked at him as if to ask if he was wrong.

“We’re both guys, so we don’t have to worry about pregnancy. I think it would be okay to do it without a condom just once.”

At the nonchalant explanation, this time it was Seung-pyo who looked bewildered, as if he’d heard something unthinkable. Though he soon let out an “Ah” and nodded with a mock-arrogant air.

“I guess you don’t know because I’m the only one who’s studied this, but condoms don’t just prevent pregnancy. They prevent accidents, like internal injuries that can happen if things go wrong.”

“We can just do it gently so there are no injuries.”

Faced with this airtight logic, Seung-pyo fell silent again. Jae-min took the opportunity to reach for Seung-pyo’s groin.

“You want to do it too. You’re completely hard.”

“Of course I want to. Fucking badly…”

Seung-pyo’s Adam’s apple bobbed. Just as he had when he first bit his neck, Jae-min lowered his head and pressed his lips to the protruding Adam’s apple.

As he nibbled the line of the throat, the heat surging from Oh Seung-pyo’s body was transmitted fully. Along with a pleasant scent of skin.

Sliding his face down, Jae-min left hickeys on the sturdy collarbones and firm chest. Listening to Seung-pyo’s breathing grow rougher above him, feeling his own lower half grow hotter in response, and unconsciously stirring the memory of a sensation that filled his insides heavily—even though not a single finger had entered him from behind yet.

“Haa…”

Seung-pyo let out a sigh that sounded like a declaration of surrender. Mimicking Seung-pyo, Jae-min caressed various parts of his upper body with his mouth, then traveled down his body to bury his lips in his groin. As he brought his face close, the thick, erect member tapped his cheek.

Oh Seung-pyo had already taken Jae-min’s member in his mouth twice, but this was a first for Jae-min. He had always thought his own cock wasn’t that small, but facing something of a size that was visibly different, he worried whether he could even fit it all in his mouth.

Seung-pyo likely had similar concerns. He stroked Jae-min’s hair back.

“Don’t.”

“I want to try too.”

“Do it next time. When you’re not in pain.”

“I told you I’m not in pain, how many times do I have to say it? Really. And having a sore leg has nothing to do with sucking a cock.”

Jae-min felt a surge of stubbornness. Without giving Seung-pyo a chance to argue, he opened his mouth wide and took the glans.

“Ugh.”

As the member actually entered his mouth, Seung-pyo let out a surprised moan, perhaps due to the unfamiliar sensation. As the foreign object filled his mouth, a gag reflex instinctively rose, but Jae-min, though his throat and chest heaved, forced the member deep into his mouth.

However, the clumsy fellatio soon hit its limit. By the time the glans touched the back of his palate, he finally gave up on swallowing it all and began to caress Seung-pyo’s member inside his mouth, moving his head up and down. The feeling of the thick shaft pushing near his throat and scraping the mucous membrane was agonizing yet erotic, enough to bring a slight tear to his eye.

“Hey, ah, hng.”

Hot moans instantly mixed into Seung-pyo’s breathing. His hands lightly gripped Jae-min’s temples. It was a touch that left Jae-min confused as to whether he wanted him to go faster or to just stop.

Either way, it didn’t matter. The act of doing it for the first time and Oh Seung-pyo’s excited reaction both left Jae-min’s body completely flushed. A single drop of sticky pre-cum dripped from the tip of Jae-min’s glans, which neither hand nor mouth had touched.

“Stop.”

Seung-pyo, who had been holding his temples, now applied a bit of pressure to stop Jae-min. Jae-min didn’t insist on continuing; he spat out the member and obediently lifted his head.

“Lie face down.”

Despite the commanding tone, Jae-min didn’t complain; instead, he quickly lay flat on the blanket. Seung-pyo let out a sigh behind him and then placed both hands on Jae-min’s outstretched calves. At the sliding touch, goosebumps already rose on Jae-min’s back, and he gripped the edge of the blanket tightly.

Chu. After the hands came the lips. On the calves that would be mottled with bruises, Seung-pyo was slowly pressing kisses. Jae-min just blinked, for some reason holding his breath and quietly receiving the kisses.

Like when he applied ointment, Seung-pyo’s lips meticulously caressed Jae-min’s legs. Starting from the ankles, moving up the calves where ruthless red lines would be drawn, through the plump hollows of the knees, and finally reaching the smooth thighs, only then could Jae-min let out a small moan and breathe.

“That’s enough now…”

When Seung-pyo’s lips, having reached the thigh, touched the ankle of the other leg, Jae-min instinctively looked back to stop him. But instead of answering, Seung-pyo returned to the beginning and started the kisses again. Jae-min’s waist twitched.

“Hng…”

Seung-pyo’s lips slid softly up the calf. That sweet and soft sensation, conversely, reminded him of a week ago when he and his father had been at odds.

By the time he had been dragged into the study, whether or not he was enrolled in the boarding academy was no longer a matter of importance. His father, infuriated to the point where the blood vessels in his eyes stood out, raged that after the effort of bearing and raising a child, how dare he compare his father to other parents to his face.

Honestly, he thought he was in the wrong. Even if he was angry, how could he say such abusive words to his father? Anyone he stopped on the street would have blamed Jae-min. Just as his mother had muttered beside them. Though he had spoken out of impulse, he had to admit to himself that he had intentionally spat those words out, determined to hurt his father.

But his father had hurt him as well, so why only him? When he fell silent out of a sense of unfairness, his father told him he would be forgiven if he knelt and apologized, and Jae-min held out with a silent protest. When his father, after a battle of wills, finally ordered Jae-min to stand on the antique table in the corner of the study, Jae-min chose to pay with his body without hesitation. That was far easier on his mind.

Nevertheless, when the well-trimmed wooden switch appeared from the desk drawer, he couldn’t look at it directly. Facing the beating, his knees trembled, and he grit his teeth, fearing he might lose his reason and kneel.

With the sound of the switch cutting through the air, it flew, and he grit his teeth as the intense pain made it feel as if his legs were being torn off. Throughout it all, Jae-min neither cried nor let out a single proper scream.

Keeping his mouth shut and eyes closed, he stubbornly recalled only the time he had spent with Oh Seung-pyo in the study. The day they had played erotic games and giggled while spilling bodily fluids everywhere on the very table his father had forced him onto to assert his authority.

Even while being beaten painfully, recalling those feelings made the depths of his heart feel a bit triumphant. By the time his legs were shaking from the pain, it was hard to endure the impulse to tell his father what he had done there. If he did, it wouldn’t end with just bruises on his calves.

“Mmm, ah, haa, ah…”

Oh Seung-pyo’s lips covered the marks where the switch had landed, one by one. The sensation of past anger and sadness, and the remembered pain, being slowly sealed and overwritten was different from simple physical pleasure.

A tremor that started in his chest spread through his entire body. It was clearly his own emotion, his own body’s sensation, but he couldn’t tell if the name of this trembling was sadness, joy, relief, or anxiety; his mind was dizzy and clouded.

Jae-min shifted his body slightly, letting out moans that surged from within like sobbing, and only after Seung-pyo’s lips reached his thighs again was he finally able to compose his voice.

While he panted, swallowing an unnamed emotion, Seung-pyo’s chest touched Jae-min’s back. He wrapped one arm around Jae-min from behind and brought his lips close to his ear.

“I don’t know why this happened or who the bastard was, but I’ll never let you go through something like this again.”

“……”

“I kissed you so I wouldn’t forget. The only bruises on your body should be the ones I make by sucking.”

It was a bold declaration, making hasty promises without even knowing who the culprit was. What do you think you know? Normally, Jae-min would have scoffed and responded with such cynicism.

But now, before he could even weigh whether Seung-pyo’s whispers were effective or not, Jae-min tightly gripped the arms that held him. Unable to accurately explain what he was feeling and not knowing how to answer, he responded only with that gesture.

Lips descended upon the nape of his neck. Indifferently ignoring Jae-min’s rising voice at the sudden resumption of foreplay, Seung-pyo let his lips slide down the line of his spine.

“Haa, ah.”

His waist bucked, and lips touched the small dip of his tailbone and his buttocks. Soon after, Jae-min’s body stiffened with a flinch.

“Wha—what was that just now…?”

If he wasn’t mistaken, it felt as though a large hand was pulling his buttocks apart. Even if he opened them, it was too dark to see anything, so what was he trying to do?

Lying face down, Jae-min turned his head. It felt awkward as the hole, which had been hidden deep between the rounded mounds of flesh, was forced open by sheer strength and exposed to the outside air. Seung-pyo replied.

“I told you I didn’t bring any lube.”

“Uh….”

“Since there’s no lube, I have to wet it with something else.”

Before he could even understand what that meant, something moist touched the inside of his buttocks, the exposed hole.

“Ah, hng, ngh…? Ugh, ha… ah, aaat, ah!”

Moaning from the haphazard onslaught of pleasure came first. A beat later, Jae-min realized what Seung-pyo was doing. The moist piece of flesh caressing his hole was none other than Seung-pyo’s tongue; he had buried his handsome face between Jae-min’s buttocks and was meticulously licking the closed hole, much like how he kissed his lips.

Jae-min was someone who had shamelessly exposed his naked body and erect penis to people whose identities he didn’t even know. He had never felt particularly ashamed of revealing his body, but he was overwhelmed by the unfamiliar act of having his backside caressed by a mouth. Unable to even think of composing himself against the pleasure racing to his fingertips, he let out moans as they came.

He had grown somewhat accustomed to the foreplay of fingers rubbing the inside and the insertion that stretched the narrow entrance as if to tear it while pressing against his stomach, but this was an act Jae-min didn’t know. There had been no mention of this in the position charts he had looked at with Seung-pyo or the short snippets written about sex.

“Wait, ngh, hold on, Oh Seung-pyo, hol….”

Even as Jae-min weakly twisted his body and called out to Seung-pyo, Seung-pyo silently continued what he had set his mind to. He gripped Jae-min’s pelvis firmly so that his objective wouldn’t be disrupted even if Jae-min moved his waist.

When the tongue poked the perineum and slowly licked up the twitching, tightening folds, Jae-min’s vision went black regardless of the darkness of the room with the lights off. While his waist shifted, he did his best to gather his senses and called Seung-pyo.

“Oh Seung-pyo, this, haa, this isn’t… I don’t think this is right, hng-ah!”

“What do you mean it’s not right?”

Seung-pyo, finally pulling his lips away, spoke nonchalantly as he felt the hole he had been diligently licking with his fingers. As his fingers touched the entrance that had been loosened by his mouth for a while, a jolt of pleasure slid down Jae-min’s spine and reached the back of his neck in an instant.

“Ngh, hng, eu…!”

“It loosened up a lot since I licked it.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Seung-pyo’s face was buried in Jae-min’s buttocks again. The sharp bridge of his nose poked near the tailbone. When the moist breath that had been wandering all over Jae-min’s body tonight touched such an unbelievably private place, Jae-min stopped trying to stop him and tightly hugged a nearby pillow, burying his face in it. Mmph, mmph, he struggled to stifle the uncontrollable moans using the fluffy pillow.

Oh Seung-pyo, who loved kissing, was also good at sucking the bottom hole. At first, he just licked sloppily like a dog, but as he grew more accustomed, he began to poke the hole and suck it firmly with his lips.

As the hole opened slightly due to the suction, Seung-pyo pushed his tongue inside and circled the interior. Feeling as if his body were floating as if he had a fever, Jae-min suddenly arched his waist. His eyes closed involuntarily, and his body shook.

“Mmph! Mmm, hng! Hng, hng-eu.”

“Haa….”

His hips, pulled up by the sticky kisses, were raised high, just like when having sex in doggy style. His knees, which had been supporting the weight of his lower body, and his legs, which had been straight, were now bent in half. Seung-pyo, who had been burying his nose in the round buttocks, let out a long breath and grabbed Jae-min’s ankles, slowly pulling him back to lie flat as he had at first.

This time, long fingers touched between the flat-lying buttocks. As Jae-min’s waist trembled, Seung-pyo brought his lips close to his ear and whispered.

“Your legs will hurt if you stay like that. Just lie flat and be comfortable. Okay?”

“Ugh, yeah….”

“I’m going to put my fingers in now.”

“Ugh, hng, hng-ah…!”

Today, too, Seung-pyo moved as he spoke. By the time the word “now” ended, long fingers pushed in, parting the moist entrance. The middle and ring fingers, two in succession.

The entrance, loosened and twitching, easily swallowed the fingers, and every time the fingers moved inside, they made a faintly squelching sound.

Jae-min felt the heat rise to the top of his head. Although it was his first time receiving kisses in the back, he should have been used to receiving fingers by now, yet the pleasure was far more distinct than usual. To the point where he could visualize the shape of the fingers stirring his insides.

While he kept his head down and moaned softly, Seung-pyo, who had now lain down behind him, whispered repeatedly.

“Make noise. It’s okay.”

“…N-no…. Ah, they’ll, hear us outside, ah….”

“When I get a house later, I’m going to pick a place with fucking great soundproofing.”

Seung-pyo’s hand, which had been slowly rubbing the inner walls, suddenly pressed firmly against the inside. It was a spot where Jae-min often jumped when weight was applied.

“Ah-ngh!”

“So you don’t have to hold back your voice like this.”

“Haa, ngh… nng, ngh!”

“When we love each other, we’ll never care about other people’s eyes. Seriously….”

Seung-pyo muttered as if it were an injustice and put strength into his wrist. His thick, long fingers rummaged through the narrow inner walls. At the feeling of the inner walls being scraped as if catching on each joint of the fingers, Jae-min flinched his waist and bit his lip.

Monitoring Jae-min’s state through his quickening breath and the moans leaking out in between, Seung-pyo moved his hand carefully yet boldly. He slid the fingers that had reached deep inside far out and then pushed them back in, stroked the soft mucosa, and slightly spread his fingers inside to widen the hole.

With the finger-play added to the hole already heated by kisses, the pleasure was unbearable. Jae-min panted as if on the verge of tears, and only when the movement of the fingers subsided slightly was he able to barely regain his breath.

But even that didn’t last long. Once his breathing became relatively comfortable, Seung-pyo shook his wrist strongly, mercilessly crushing the area around the swollen prostate, and when the pleasure that made his cock tingle finally rushed in, Jae-min ended up raising his voice.

“Oh Seung-pyo, I think, haa, I’m going to cum again, ah-hng!”

“I told you to do as you please.”

“No, I don’t. Ah, I don’t want to…! It doesn’t hurt… really, ah, it doesn’t hurt, so you do it too…!”

Because Jae-min was shaking his head wildly and floundering on the blanket, Seung-pyo had no choice but to pull his fingers out. He lay down, placing his legs alongside Jae-min’s legs stretched out on the blanket, and aligned his erect penis, standing like a stake, with the hole.

As he rubbed the surface, where veins were bumpy like a bas-relief, a few times to signal that he was about to enter, the panting hole instead shrank narrowly. Seung-pyo precisely poked the thick glans into the entrance where the folds were densely gathered and announced.

“I’ll put it in slowly.”

“Uh, uh….”

While Jae-min answered frantically, Seung-pyo pressed his waist firmly. The hole, moistened by the tongue and stretched by fingers, opened slowly and faithfully swallowed the glans, which was about the size of a small fist.

Jae-min let out a trembling breath. It was a bit tight because there was no lube, but perhaps thanks to the diligent loosening, it didn’t hurt. It was just that the heavy pressure pushing up his internal organs was taxing.

Ugh, ugh, as Jae-min swallowed pained breaths, Seung-pyo listened carefully and pushed in the thick shaft of flesh that followed.

“Hng-ugh….”

Seung-pyo, who had been continuing the insertion cautiously, stopped his movement only when Jae-min, who had been breathing heavily, gasped as if he had been hit in the stomach.

The penis, not even halfway inserted, slowly slid back out. As the heated inner walls were deeply scraped by the bumpy irregularities, his lower body already melted hot and liquid, and Jae-min’s groin and thighs trembled violently. Fearing that this might be a signal for Seung-pyo to give up because his reaction was lackluster, Jae-min spoke urgently.

“Hng, no, don’t, don’t pull it out….”

“I’m not pulling it out.”

Seung-pyo, who had pulled his thing out just enough for the glans to be perched inside, immediately pushed his waist. The thing that had slid out long disappeared between the buttocks once more.

The thick penis filled his stomach stubbornly, then stopped at the point where Jae-min had gasped and pulled back again. Every time the penis entered and retreated the same distance, the hole holding it and the inside of the stomach repeatedly widened to the volume of the penis and then became cramped again.

“Haa, hng, nng-uh, ngh, hng.”

While the relatively short thrusting continued, Jae-min had no time to close his mouth. Even though he couldn’t see properly because the room was dark, he could feel his vision spinning dizzily.

While Seung-pyo’s thing was moving shortly inside like pouring priming water, the tightly constricted inner flesh gripped the penis with all its might, just as it had swallowed the fingers. The shape of the object opening up his body felt vividly, as if imprinted on the inner walls.

The weight when it pressed inside was suffocating, and the sensation of every single vein scraping the inner walls as it withdrew was dizzying. The pleasure that seeped out like fruit juice from the place where the bumpy friction passed spread endlessly through his body; he felt as if he would lose consciousness if this continued.

“Hng, ah, ah, aaah….”

Seung-pyo’s lips touched the lips that were dropping moans without a chance to hold them back. After a light kiss—mwah—Seung-pyo’s breathing was equally irregular and shaking.

“You, today, ugh, feel like you’re tightening more….”

“Haa, I, I like it….”

“You like it?”

“Ah… yes, hng, so… much….”

The answer flowed out as slowly as the slow thrusting. Seung-pyo’s breath suddenly became rough. The penis that had been sliding slowly continued past the point where it used to stop and poked deeper inside.

“Haaaa!”

Jae-min’s body trembled violently in an instant. It felt as if electric sensations were sprouting all over his body like thorns. The difference from thorns was that it was pleasure instead of pain.

Clear saliva flowed unconsciously from his open mouth. Since it had entered deeper, the pleasant time would last longer. Even in his daze, Jae-min thought this and pushed his waist back, as if wanting to swallow the penis even deeper, using his toes to push against the blanket.

“Want me to put it all in?”

Seung-pyo asked from above the prone Jae-min. His voice was filled with a heat that felt like it would burst. Jae-min nodded clumsily.

“Uh… all, put it all in….”

As soon as the answer ended, weight was placed on his hips. Jae-min gasped and inhaled, but this time Seung-pyo didn’t stop. The shaft that hadn’t fully entered yet pushed deeper and deeper—thump, thump, thump—with every movement of Seung-pyo’s waist, finally filling the deepest part until his solar plexus felt tight.

“Ugh, ugh-hng, hng….”

“I thought… it would hurt, if we didn’t use a condom.”

Seung-pyo’s chest pressed against Jae-min’s back, which was trembling as if electrified. Jae-min, who was already panting, breathed even more heavily. Seung-pyo muttered low, as if chewing his words.

“I can feel your hole exactly as it is, fuck, it’s driving me crazy….”

Seung-pyo wrapped his arms around from behind and gripped Jae-min’s chest firmly. As if wanting to taste every bit of Jae-min’s inner flesh with his fully inserted member, he shook his waist violently up and down, with his pelvis pressed tight against the buttocks beneath him. Jae-min raised his voice.

“Ah, me too… hng-ah, aaah, me, too…!”

“You too? Hng, you too? Is it driving you crazy too? Haa, can you feel my cock fucking well?”

“Haa! Ah-ngh! Yes, your cock, I can feel it, ugh, hng, nng-ugh!”

The hard penis, buried to the root, swayed and shook his body while filling his back. Every time Seung-pyo twisted his waist haphazardly, the angle of the penis changed slightly, recklessly poking and scratching the inner walls. The mucosa, sensitive to contact, convulsed as if screaming, unable to withstand the pouring stimulation.

Only then did Seung-pyo begin his original thrusting. The sound of the hard pelvis and elastic buttocks colliding echoed with a slap-slap. Even in the darkness, the sight of the penis sliding in and out, glistening between the white buttocks, was fierce.

The penis, striking deep, crushed the depths of his stomach and mercilessly hammered the ripe inner walls. At the raw pleasure of the wet inner flesh and the bare skin without a sheath rubbing together, Jae-min’s eyes quickly grew hot. Jae-min, who was panting more and more roughly, shook his head, which was buried in the blanket.

“Ah, ah, at, driving, driving me crazy, ah, no, no.”

His toes curled instinctively. It was then that a sob entered the voice of Jae-min, who was shaking his entire body with his shoulders heaving.

“St-stop, ugh-hng, stop, ah-uuu, hng-ugh…!”

“Haa, kkh, aaah!”

Tears flowing down his cheeks and the cloudy fluid expelled by the cock burst out almost simultaneously. As Jae-min’s stomach contracted strongly upon reaching a rapid climax, Seung-pyo also immediately met the moment of ejaculation.

There was no time to pull away to avoid cumming inside. At the unfamiliar feeling of hot semen pouring directly into the hole and soaking his insides, Jae-min trembled even more.

“Ngh, ngh, hng, hng-eu, hng-ah….”

“Ah, huu….”

The two, tangled together like one body, panted like beasts without a word. However, Seung-pyo quickly noticed that the body beneath him wasn’t calming down easily and kept shifting, and while unable to shake off the languid pleasure of the climax, he carefully felt Jae-min’s shoulders, nape, and face.

Moisture clung to Seung-pyo’s fingertips. He frowned and leaned in close to face Jae-min. Even in the dim night light, the water pooled in his eyes reflected and sparkled slightly.

“Hey, did you cry?”

As Jae-min blinked, the pooled tears flowed down toward the bridge of his nose. When a surprised Seung-pyo widened his eyes, Jae-min met his gaze.

“I didn’t cry…. Tears just came out.”

“That’s called crying.”

“I don’t know. I just felt strange… and like I was going crazy, and then tears came.”

Questioning now filled Seung-pyo’s widened eyes.

“Then you’re saying you cried because you liked doing it with me? Because it felt good?”

“I think so, maybe….”

Jae-min gave a small sniffle and tried to wipe the tears with his hand that was sprawled on the blanket. But Seung-pyo was faster in sticking out his tongue. Looking pleased, he grinned and gently licked the tears that had flowed down Jae-min’s cheeks and eyes, finishing the cat-like washing with a kissing sound—mwah.

“I guess condoms don’t suit you. You seem to feel it better without a condom.”

Maybe so. Just as Jae-min dazedly agreed in his mind, the penis that had been buried deep until then began to slide out.

“Hng….”

As the fullness became emptiness, the afterglow of the climax became clearer. Seung-pyo laid Jae-min flat on the blanket as he trembled once more from the chilling sensation. The semen, which hadn’t overflowed thanks to the prone position, flowed out of the panting hole. Jae-min looked down.

“Hey, the blanket….”

“It’s fine. I’ll just wash it. Your cum is all over it anyway.”

The cock that had just ejaculated was standing tall as at first, and Jae-min’s was no different. Seung-pyo spread the legs of the flat-lying Jae-min, rested them on his own thighs, and pressed his penis close to the wet hole, shaking his waist lightly.

Just the friction of Seung-pyo’s thing against the entrance caused a sob-mixed moan to leak out, and Jae-min, flustered, covered his own mouth. Seung-pyo gently gripped Jae-min’s wrist, pulled it toward himself, and told him.

“Ryu Jae-min, let’s cry more today.”

“…Huh?”

“You can cry more.”

After rubbing a couple of times, the penis, which had intentionally missed the entrance, slid deep inside. Unlike the first time, the hole, which was drenched and softly loosened, gently led the shaft, standing like a piece of wood, inside. Jae-min’s pelvis and thighs immediately convulsed and shook.

“Ah-uuu…!”

Seung-pyo’s vision also grew dizzy at the suffocatingly sweet pleasure that seemed to envelop the entire body. After steadying his rough breathing a few times, he grit his teeth and pushed his waist forward with a thud.

Jae-min’s insides were still twitching from the afterglow of the climax immediately following the ejaculation, and he tightly gripped and nibbled at the member that had sunk heavily into his body as if diving deep. With his wrists held fast, Jae-min couldn’t exert any strength; he could only arch his neck back and sob.

“Ah, not yet… no, ha-eu… aa, eu, hng…!”

The gentle insertion suddenly deepened. For a while, neither of them spoke; the only sounds echoing through the quiet night were the squelching noises of the cock sliding in and out of the tight junction and the wet slapping of flesh against flesh.

The humid breath escaping in hot gasps filled the small rural room with heat. The failing air conditioner was not enough to cool the heat radiating from their two bodies. The blanket beneath them was crumpled beyond recognition, soaked with bodily fluids and sweat, making it feel more clammy than when they were wearing clothes.

“Hng, hng, eu-ut!”

As the inside became lubricated, the member slid in deeper than before. Pleasure struck him in surprisingly deep places, causing Jae-min’s entire body to shudder several times.

“Do you like it here?”

Seung-pyo murmured as he thrust his hips upward with heavy thuds. When he pushed deep and gave a slight twist, there was a spot that narrowed even further, as if sucking in the glans.

“Augh! Ah! Heua, aaat, ah, ah…!”

Every time he aimed for and pierced that spot, Jae-min shrieked, his hips bucking. When the pleasure that surged from some unknown depth of his lower abdomen spread to the tips of his limbs, his mind went blank, making him feel like a fool. Having lost his reason, tears easily welled up again, dampening his face.

Only then did Seung-pyo release his wrists. Slowly leaning down, he wiped away the fresh tears with his lips and pressed his tear-moistened mouth against Jae-min’s lips, which were continuously moaning.

Jae-min flinched like a child exhausted from crying. Seung-pyo stroked Jae-min’s cheek.

“I want, haa, you to cry more.”

“Ugh, hng, why on earth….”

“Because you must have been the most heartbroken.”

“Eu-ut, ah-huk…!”

While kissing softly as if to soothe him, Seung-pyo did not ease the weight pressing deep inside. As he arched his hips high, Jae-min sobbed repeatedly and clung to Seung-pyo’s neck.

“If you won’t talk… then if you just cry, hng, you might feel better….”

“I’m, fine. Now….”

When Jae-min shook his head, Seung-pyo gave a smirk and slowly put more power into his thrusting.

“And, crying while having sex is erotic.”

“Ah, ah, hng…!”

“I want to make you cry more. Ugh, you’re fucking beautiful. Seriously, so beautiful it makes me want to swear.”

“You, hng, that’s your real intention, isn’t it, aaat, ah, aa…!”

Instead of answering, Seung-pyo picked up the pace for the next climax. He thought that if Ryu Jae-min could see for himself how beautifully the moonlight filtering through the translucent glass illuminated his face, he wouldn’t be able to criticize him.

“Oh Seung-pyo, I love it so much….”

When Jae-min, shaking beneath him, burst into tears and called his name like that, Seung-pyo felt a sudden surge of tears himself.

Ryu Jae-min might have just been saying it because the sex felt good, but it sounded like a declaration directed solely at him, making the bridge of his nose sting. Swallowing Jae-min’s sobbing with his lips, Seung-pyo trapped his first love in his arms and hugged him tightly.