HRB 91

“Eddie.”

Eddie, who was coming out of the convenience store with a bunch of things, snapped his head up at the sound of Ketron calling him.

Ketron was on the stairs leading down to the inn’s basement, heading towards the convenience store. It seemed he had been waiting for Eddie to come out.

Ever since he found out that there was a basement space that only Eddie could enter, Ketron had never gone further than the entrance to the basement. This time, too, Ketron didn’t come inside but waited patiently for Eddie on the stairs before approaching him.

“Ah.”

While Eddie was making a blank face, Ketron snatched the shopping basket from Eddie’s arms. Even though the basket was quite heavy, it looked weightless in Ketron’s hands.

“Oh, ah, it’s okay, really!”

Eddie belatedly came to his senses and tried to dissuade him, but Ketron had already bounded up the stairs. Eddie quickly followed Ketron, who naturally placed the basket on the kitchen table.

Gerold wasn’t in the kitchen, as it happened. Neither was Ebon, nor Sebastian!

Why were they having so much time alone together these days?

Having received such a desperate confession not long ago, Eddie couldn’t help but feel awkward.

He had said that he didn’t want to leave Ketron’s side, but that didn’t mean he was going to accept his confession. Ketron was obviously aware that Eddie’s heart was leaning towards him, which made things a little awkward, and more than anything!

More than anything… these days, Ketron was a difficult presence for Eddie in another sense.

“Th, thanks.”

Eddie thanked Ketron and avoided his gaze, not knowing what to do.

“But I can carry that much myself… Of course, I’m glad you helped, but there’s no need for you to waste your time waiting for me.”

As Eddie was rambling, Ketron naturally moved closer to him.

From the experiences of the past few days, Eddie could easily guess what Ketron was about to do.

“Ket…”

Before Eddie could even say, “Wait,” their lips met.

In an instant, Eddie was trapped between Ketron’s arms and the table. There was nothing to grab, so he had no choice but to grip Ketron’s firm, rock-solid arms tightly.

“Mmm.”

A shallow moan involuntarily escaped from between his lips. Their breaths mingled hotly, and their tongues were instantly entangled in a sticky mess.

“Wait, not here…”

Eddie protested as much as he could when their lips briefly parted, but Ketron didn’t seem to hear him and kissed him again. The embarrassingly wet sounds relentlessly pierced Eddie’s ears.

This was it. This was the problem.

Ever since that confession, Ketron had been actively throwing himself at Eddie, as if he had lifted all the limits that had been holding him back.

Especially when they were alone, he would kiss him at every opportunity, so now Eddie was learning through experience that if he was ever alone with Ketron, things would inevitably end up like this.

Thanks to that, Ketron’s kissing skills were improving day by day.

‘Is this that thing? Is this surpassing the master?’

Eddie was the one who taught him, but Ketron was now much more skilled than Eddie. It would be nice if he could be a teacher who was purely happy with his student’s excellent achievements, but sadly, that was impossible.

The younger man who had confessed his feelings only knew how to move forward. It was clear that things like reversing or making a U-turn didn’t exist in his mind.

The day after that confession, or rather, non-confession, Eddie didn’t realize that he had received a confession from Ketron. It was far from a confession; if anything, they had fought, or at least had something similar to a minor conflict.

Of course, Ketron had revealed his feelings in the meantime, but Eddie hadn’t accepted those feelings, so he arbitrarily thought that their relationship wouldn’t change after all.

He even cut off the conversation by falling asleep in his arms, so Eddie thought he should apologize to Ketron when he saw him.

However, when Eddie apologized with that thought in mind, Ketron gave him a dumbfounded look and kissed him for the first time since that day.

“Since you seem to want to keep pretending you don’t know,”

Ketron growled at Eddie, who was making a blank face as his lips were suddenly sucked on.

“I have no choice but to make sure you can’t pretend you don’t know.”

Only then did Eddie realize with his whole body that the exchange of emotions he had carelessly taken lightly was a desperate confession for Ketron.

To be clear, it wasn’t that he had taken those feelings lightly. However, Eddie had conveyed his intention that he couldn’t easily accept Ketron’s feelings, so he had vaguely thought that their relationship would be the same as before.

The problem was that Eddie’s thoughts were very displeasing to Ketron.

Thus, the ‘Ket bastard’s’ rebellion began.

No matter how much Eddie said no, his usually well-behaved cat, who would have stopped immediately at the sound of ‘no,’ now didn’t listen to Eddie at all in situations like this. No, he pretended not to hear him at all!

His well-behaved pet had become a terribly disobedient Ket bastard.

He had to somehow reason with the exemplary cat who had suddenly become a troublemaker of the century, telling him that he shouldn’t do that.

“Mmm…”

The problem was that once the dam broke, Eddie was going crazy too.

The tongue that was digging into his lips was hot. The sticky, tangled sensation was intoxicating.

He shouldn’t, he still didn’t know anything and couldn’t be sure of anything, but if he kept giving Ketron leeway because he was being swayed like this, and if he ended up hurting Ketron against his own will.

If he became an existence that couldn’t exist in this world at some point, and ended up hurting Ketron again.

It was obvious that Ketron would never be able to get back on his feet.

So, rather than getting involved with Ketron rashly now, it would probably be better to keep his distance until the ending, when the interference of this world would weaken, and until he reached the ending of Part 2—

The problem was that every time this happened, he completely forgot about those thoughts and couldn’t push Ketron away at all.

Holding him as if he were trapping him in his arms, sometimes biting his lips as if he couldn’t stand it, acting rough as if he were going to devour him whole, and then immediately licking his lips soothingly when Eddie was struggling.

Who could hate receiving actions that felt like affection in every way? No one would be able to push this away and hate it.

Besides, it felt a little thrilling because it seemed like they were secretly doing it away from other people’s eyes…

“Ah!”

Eddie, who had been having slightly lewd thoughts in Ketron’s arms, was startled and pulled away when Ketron’s large hand, which had been slowly sliding down, squeezed his butt as if it were about to burst.

“Ah.”

It seemed that it was more of an instinct than Ketron’s will, as he also looked surprised and immediately pulled away. Of course, he quickly removed his hand that had been squeezing his butt, as if he had been burned.

Only then did Eddie feel like he had been doused with cold water.

“…”

“…”

For a while, the surroundings were silent.

Eddie was aghast when he realized that he was sitting on the kitchen table and that Ketron’s large body, which had slipped between his legs, was causing him to spread his legs wide.

Holy cats, when did he get on the stove first?

And it wasn’t just Ketron who had climbed up, but Eddie had also climbed up with him, happy to do so.

Eddie looked up at Ketron’s face with a dazed expression, but when he saw that Ketron’s lips were bright red, plump from the continuous friction, and glistening with moisture, he couldn’t help but avert his gaze again.

Crazy, Eddie. You’re really crazy.

He was troubled by the fact that he liked Ketron’s skilled kissing, which he had first taught him, the way he diligently used what he had learned on him, and the way he made a sexy face when he kissed him, even though he usually looked aloof, but the biggest problem was something else.

The biggest problem was that the person he had only thought of as cute was now kissing him like this every time he saw him, so he couldn’t help but gradually recognize him as a sexual object.

If Ketron was aiming for this, it could be said that it was all too effective.

“I…”

Eddie reflexively opened his mouth, but he didn’t know what to say, so he hurriedly swallowed his words.

“Um, I need to go to the bathroom.”

Eddie pushed Ketron away after blurting out a nonsensical excuse. He saw the man, who would never have backed down if he had tried to resist, being pushed away with a flustered expression, and Eddie quickly left the scene.

Ah, I’m going crazy. I’m really going crazy.

Of course, it was a random excuse, so Eddie headed not to the bathroom but to his room on the second floor.

I’ve hardly ever dated younger men, so I don’t know. Are they usually this aggressive? No, before younger men, I’ve never even done this with a man in the first place. Is this how it usually is?

Eddie muttered questions to himself that no one could answer, and as soon as he entered the room, he leaned against the wall and slumped down.

His heart was pounding recklessly.

When he looked in the mirror, he saw that his face was flushed red, so much so that it wouldn’t be strange if a tomato called him ‘bro.’

“I’m going crazy…”

He was literally going crazy, so these days, Eddie couldn’t think about the fate of the world or anything like that at all. All he had in his mind was his cat, who had been going through a terrible adolescence lately.

No, it would be more accurate to say that he was now recognizing him as someone he could no longer simply see as a cute pet.

Eddie groaned and buried his face in his hands.

Unbeknownst to them, a ‘welcome guest’ was preparing to visit after finishing their busy work.