By Zephyria 
The hand that had stopped began to pat his chest again, and the lips that had been sucking his cheek moved to his ear, whispering sweetly.
“Who are you meeting for the blind date?”
“I don’t know. Who cares who it is. I’m not going.”
As he buried his face in the chest while whining, Kwon Yi-kang hugged him tight. Resting his chin on the crown of his head, Kwon Yi-kang let out a soft “Hmm” and slowly stroked down his back.
“Do you not want to get married?”
“How can I marry someone I don’t even know? Besides, I’m only twenty. I haven’t even lived my own life properly yet.”
“Is the age the problem, or is the partner the problem?”
Was that even a question? Meeting a stranger, introducing himself, and heading straight to a wedding hall made no sense, and looking for a marriage partner through a blind date at the age of twenty was equally absurd.
“Both. Father probably wants to sell me off as soon as possible, but I have absolutely no intention of being sold. If push comes to shove, I’ll grab some gold bars and run away.”
“Then what about me?”
“What about you what?”
“If you run away, how am I supposed to live?”
How is he supposed to live? He can just live.
However, the thought of running away and leaving Kwon Yi-kang behind weighed on his mind a bit. If he ran, should he take Kwon Yi-kang with him? But Kwon Yi-kang had no reason to run. Maybe he should just run away alone and come back to visit him secretly every now and then.
“Shall we get married?”
The fingers that had been playing—pinching, rubbing, and teasing the nipples on his chest—stopped dead at Kwon Yi-kang’s question. Not quite realizing what he had just heard, he slowly lifted his head to meet his eyes, and Kwon Yi-kang, looking down at him, asked, “Hmm?”
“Let’s get married, Soo-kyung.”
“……Uh, um…….”
He was flustered because he never expected to hear a marriage proposal in a place like this, in a situation like this, and at a timing like this; he had never once imagined that someone would ask him to marry them.
As he just blinked his eyes, Kwon Yi-kang released his hold on his body, reached out, and opened the drawer of the nightstand to take something out.
“I bought this to give you as a gift, but I didn’t think I’d use it for a proposal. It’s not bad, though. I wanted to get couple rings too, but it looks like the engagement ring comes first.”
Opening the case and showing it to him, Kwon Yi-kang repeated, “Let’s get married.” The massive gemstone inside the case stole his attention. A rock so large it felt burdensome just to look at it was asserting its presence.
“Give me your hand.”
Taking advantage of the moment he was dazed by the giant gem and the proposal, Kwon Yi-kang grabbed his hand and slowly slid the gemstone ring onto his finger.
His finger felt heavy. Not heavy in the metaphorical sense of a proposal ring, but the actual physical weight of the ring was heavy. He felt as if his finger would droop if he relaxed his strength.
“What is this?”
Is it a cubic zirconia? As he looked at the gem on his finger with a suspicious gaze, turning it this way and that, a low chuckle sounded in his ear.
“It’s a diamond. Not bad for a proposal ring, right?”
“Why a diamond? It’s uselessly heavy…….”
“Soo-kyung.”
Why on earth would he give him a rock that was just bulky and heavy. Cutting off his rambling, Kwon Yi-kang quietly called his name.
“It’s more expensive than gold. You can get a lot for it when you sell it later.”
“……Now that I look at it, it is pretty.”
The cleanly cut gemstone sparkled brilliantly every time it caught the light.
Truthfully, he didn’t know exactly how expensive it was. Still, seeing that it was larger than his thumbnail, it must be incredibly pricey. He heard that small ones cost less than a million won, but one of this size would probably cost quite a bit.
“Of course, the moment you sell it, you should be prepared to be scolded even more than you were today.”
Fuck, it’s a white elephant.
Even as he pouted, he felt strangely good knowing there was a lump of money on his finger.
“Is it more expensive than a gold bar?”
“Much more.”
“More than three gold toads?”
“Even more than that.”
Three gold toads would be similar to three gold bars, so if it was more expensive than that, it must be immensely valuable. The weight pressing down on his finger felt even more real now.
“You’ll marry me, right?”
“……I never thought I’d be proposed to in a situation like this.”
“Why?”
“To receive a proposal while being covered in semen is just…… there’s no atmosphere.”
“I think this is the best atmosphere. Should I have called an orchestra to a restaurant, played the piano, sung, and given you a bouquet while proposing? Is that what you expected?”
He had seen scenes like that on TV many times, but that also seemed like something that would make him lose face. Come to think of it, the current situation wasn’t too bad. Still, looking at his legs spread open limply, it really lacked atmosphere.
“I also never thought I’d be proposed to by a man.”
“You have sex with men, and you date men. Now you should receive a proposal from a man and try marrying a man.”
Why did it always have to be a man? Why on earth was Kwon Yi-kang born a man? Regretting it and feeling sorry now wouldn’t change anything.
“You’ll marry me, right?”
“Do you…… like me that much? Enough to marry?”
“I love you. Enough to want to keep you by my side for the rest of my life. I will be by your side until your very last moment.”
Does he mean they should stay together until they grow old and die? How can he say such embarrassing things so nonchalantly? His face flushed for some reason at the ticklish whisper.
“You can’t leave my side. There is no Alpha other than me in your life. Before that happens, I’ll kill them with my own hands. You’ll be with me until the day you die.”
……He’s a lunatic. The emotions that were touching, ticklish, and heart-fluttering vanished in an instant. He glared at Kwon Yi-kang with cold eyes.
“Mood killer.”
“I should be this honest before we get married.”
“That’s not being honest, that’s threatening. You jerk. I haven’t answered yet, you know? I might dump someone like you.”
“It doesn’t matter whether you marry me or not. Try marrying another guy. See if you can even make it into the wedding hall. Either you or the guy you’re marrying will disappear from this world. I guarantee you that much.”
Now he was openly and confidently threatening him. He wondered if these were words that should come from the mouth of the man who just put a proposal ring on his finger, but it was definitely not normal. After frowning and contemplating, he finally managed to speak.
“……I don’t want to disappear. Let’s make the guy I’d marry disappear instead.”
“Right. Just stay by my side.”
“Okay.”
Yeah, well, why overthink it? As long as he lived well, that was all that mattered. Since when did he ever consider other people’s circumstances? How could he survive in this harsh world while worrying about a potential marriage partner he might have?
“But, I’m not sure.”
“About what?”
“That…… love stuff. I like having sex with you, I like being with you, and I think living with you would be good, but isn’t marriage something a bit more special? I feel like there should be something special, rather than just the concept of it not being bad or being good.”
“What special thing? Do we need a prophecy? Or should I have a precognitive dream? Should we check our compatibility?”
He couldn’t argue with that, but he didn’t know if it was okay to marry simply because he liked someone and wanted to be with them.
Why do other people decide to marry? Is there some special occasion or reason?
“For me, it has to be you or no one. And I cannot tolerate any other guy being attached to you. I want to possess everything from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. I don’t want to show or share even a little bit of you with anyone else.”
“I get that you like me incredibly much.”
Anyone would be an idiot not to know when someone confessed this passionately. Giggling, he pulled Kwon Yi-kang’s head down to give him several pecks on the lips, imagining the opposite situation.
A situation where Kwon Yi-kang meets someone else, sleeps with someone else, and says he wants to marry someone else……. Hmm, that definitely wouldn’t be good. No, it would feel incredibly bad. He would be very seriously annoyed.
As he gave a sharp bite to the lips he was sucking, Kwon Yi-kang let out a shallow moan. He released the lips he had been nibbling on as if throwing a tantrum and fixed his gaze on the face he was holding tightly with both hands.
“Let’s get married.”
“…….”
“Marry me. Right now. Let’s go greet people so there’s no more talk of blind dates, and notify them that we’ve decided to marry. And let’s go talk to your father again.”
“That’s an answer I like.”
The corners of his mouth deepened into a satisfied smile. Tracing the curved eyebrow with his thumb, he sucked on the lips that had swollen from being bitten.
“Father said us getting along like this was just playing around. That’s why he told me to wrap things up quickly and go on a blind date. He’ll faint if I bring you back saying we’re getting married.”
“Shall we set a date for when to go greet him?”
“Since I technically left home, let’s hold out a bit longer. He’s already set up blind dates as he pleases, so I should endure until then. Let him handle the cleanup himself. Let’s go when he starts getting anxious.”
Imagining his family’s shock made him feel strangely good. They probably spent twenty years raising him, wondering when they could sell him off; how bitter would they feel if he just bolted? Not that he had any intention of repaying the grace of being born and raised, since he’d only gained a couple of months of freedom. They should have wished for something more realistic.
“I’m sleepy.”
“Shall we wash up and sleep?”
“Washing is a hassle. I have no strength left.”
He had rested for a bit, and although he had chattered away quite a bit, his depleted stamina had not yet returned. As he sighed, looking down at his legs that felt like they didn’t belong to him, Kwon Yi-kang suddenly scooped him up in his arms.
“Go brush your teeth. I’ll change the sheets and be right back. I’ll come and wash you.”
The hand supporting his buttocks to hold his body up became slightly wet with the leaking semen. Realizing the situation from the dampness on his rear, he pressed his forehead firmly against the shoulder. He didn’t know why he had to be the one feeling embarrassed when someone else was the one who had come inside him.
“Be careful not to fall.”
The culprit, with a completely nonchalant face, sat him on the edge of the bathtub and personally squeezed toothpaste onto the toothbrush and put it in his mouth. The wet palms glistened under the bathroom light.
“Get out. Go change the sheets already.”
Once Kwon Yi-kang left, he needed to deal with the semen pooled inside his hole. As he spoke, lowering his eyelids to avert his gaze, the other man laughed lowly.
“I’ll take care of it for you, so don’t push yourself to move. Just brush your teeth.”
“I told you, I got it.”
He didn’t need an explanation to guess how the other intended to “take care” of it. As if he’d let that happen. Watching Kwon Yi-kang’s back as he left the bathroom, he brushed his teeth with combat-like intensity.