By Zephyria 
The next day, Jae-gyeom didn’t wake up until the sun was high in the sky. It was the aftermath of having stayed awake all night.
Last night, for the first time in a very long while, Jae-gyeom had a wet dream. It was undoubtedly the result of reading Sassy Girl’s R-rated column at the hair salon yesterday, combined with seeing Yoon Tae-hee’s naked body at the gym.
Though he couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason, Jae-gyeom had rarely experienced wet dreams since attaining immortality. Therefore, the experience from the previous dawn was something he hadn’t felt in ages.
Back when he lived with Myo-jeong, there were a few times he woke up to find his bedding soaked. At the time, he had been mortified, wondering if he had had an accident in his sleep despite no longer being a child, but Myo-jeong had explained that it was natural for a man and taught him what a wet dream was.
Then, for some reason, he stopped having them once he became immortal. He could only guess that it might have been an effect of his physical growth coming to a halt.
Looking back, though he didn’t know if there was a connection to the lack of wet dreams, Jae-gyeom had spent the intervening years feeling almost entirely devoid of sexual desire, to the point where it felt as if it had been castrated.
Perhaps that was why Jae-gyeom had tended to view erotic or sexual things as taboo. Even when explicit scenes appeared in the many movies or dramas he watched, he remained indifferent; he felt no particular spark of interest.
Of course, he had been curious when he was younger. When he followed Myo-jeong to the marketplace, they would occasionally stop by a rental bookstore, and Jae-gyeom would secretly peek at erotic art books while Myo-jeong was choosing his books.
However, after becoming immortal, his heart felt like a living hell, so such things were the furthest thing from his mind. Whether it was because his heart had stopped along with his physical growth, or because he felt such things were irrelevant to him, he lost all interest. That was the case until he met Yoon Tae-hee.
If there had been a time when he felt almost no sexual desire, meeting Yoon Tae-hee felt like opening his eyes to a whole new world.
‘Imagine rolling around with me like dogs.’
‘We only kissed.’
‘I did it in places other than your lips.’
Through experiencing kissing, hugging, and various other things, Jae-gyeom realized the charm of physical touch. He learned that pressing his skin against another person and sharing warmth was far more pleasant than he had imagined.
Still, at first, he couldn’t believe he had had a wet dream. He touched himself and even smelled it, worrying he might have simply wet the bed, before he could finally be certain it was a wet dream.
In the past, because he was sexually ignorant, he often had wet dreams without any accompanying dreams. Once he grew a bit older, the contents of the erotic art books he had secretly peeked at in the marketplace would appear in his dreams. In terms of years, that period had lasted only a few years.
But now, Yoon Tae-hee had begun to appear in his dreams.
‘Then you’ll be thinking of me from now on.’
Those words must have remained in his mind, acting like some sort of spell. This was a change that occurred as he returned to having a normal body.
Jae-gyeom found this change strange and embarrassing. While he was relieved that his bodily functions(?) seemed to be working fine, he felt that he should try to avoid such situations in the future.
When he opened his eyes, not only his pants and underwear but even the duvet were a mess. After regaining his senses, Jae-gyeom tiptoed to the bathroom, quickly washed himself, and then headed to the laundry room with the clothes and bedding.
It was a relief that it was the early morning when everyone was asleep; if he had been taking a nap or if it had been an awkward hour of the night, his family would have definitely caught him.
First, he ran the laundry through the washing machine, and second, he put it in the dryer. Since moving in with Yoon Tae-hee, the amount of laundry had increased, and a few weeks ago, a new dryer had been brought in following Jeong-ju’s strong insistence.
At the time, he had reacted indifferently, thinking, ‘Why spend money to buy something when we can just hang it in the yard?’, but today, Jae-gyeom felt the necessity of the dryer acutely. Without it, it would have been very difficult to clean up while avoiding the eyes of his family.
Jae-gyeom stood guard with wide-open eyes in the laundry room until the dryer finished. Only after the cycle ended, the dry laundry was folded, and the bedding was tidied did he go back to sleep.
Since he fell back asleep around dawn, it meant he had endured the laundry room for over half a day throughout the night. After all that chaos, it was only natural that he woke up later than usual.
“Did you sleep well?”
When he went out to the living room, Yoon Tae-hee was sitting on the sofa wearing glasses and reading a book. Jae-gyeom scratched his bedhead and answered, “Uh, yeah…” Yoon Tae-hee spoke to him with a beaming smile.
“You woke up late. Didn’t you go to sleep right away yesterday?”
“Huh? Ah, uh… yeah… I fell asleep while studying yesterday…”
Jae-gyeom made a clumsy excuse and looked around. For some reason, the house felt empty, and Yu Nam-saeng and Jeong-ju were nowhere to be seen.
“Where are Ggaeng-al and Jeong-ju?”
“In Seoul. They said something came up.”
“Ggaeng-al went too?”
“Yeah. He said he’d go along to get some fresh air.”
That’s great. Jae-gyeom nodded.
“Then are they coming back today?”
“He didn’t say, so I’m not sure.”
“…O-oh, really?”
Of all times, to be alone with Yoon Tae-hee after having such a dream made Jae-gyeom feel inexplicably awkward. He was acutely aware of Yoon Tae-hee’s presence. When Jae-gyeom, who would normally have come to sit beside him, just stood there blankly, Yoon Tae-hee looked at him curiously.
“What’s wrong? Did something happen?”
Startled, Jae-gyeom blurted out an excuse.
“Huh? Ah, no. Nothing happened!”
“Really?”
Yoon Tae-hee blinked and nodded. Then, he closed his book, stood up, and brought over a mat, spreading it in the center of the living room. It was the mat Jae-gyeom and Jeong-ju usually used for stretching.
Yoon Tae-hee said,
“Want to come lie down here? I’ll help you loosen up.”
“Why all of a sudden? I do that with Jeong-ju.”
“Yeah. Jeong-ju asked me before he left. He told me to help you stretch once you woke up. Let’s stretch before we eat.”
Honestly, Jeong-ju’s meticulous personality was a problem. To think he’d ask Yoon Tae-hee to do it in his stead while he was away—he really was overly attentive.
“We could just skip one day, why bother…”
“He told me to make sure you don’t forget.”
At Yoon Tae-hee’s words, Jae-gyeom scratched his cheek.
“You don’t even know how to do it.”
“I know because I’ve seen it a few times.”
Jae-gyeom had no choice but to go and lie down on the mat. There was no way to refuse further. As Jae-gyeom lay down, Yoon Tae-hee began to loosen his body step by step, starting with his arms and legs.
Yoon Tae-hee followed exactly what Jeong-ju used to do. Jae-gyeom had thought he would only be imitating it superficially, but he clicked his tongue inwardly. To remember it so accurately after seeing it only a few times.
Yoon Tae-hee bent one of Jae-gyeom’s legs up toward his chest and pressed down using his body weight. It was a stretch to loosen the hip joint. Due to the heavy pain, Jae-gyeom grimaced and squeezed his eyes shut.
“Kgh…”
Because Yoon Tae-hee was pressing down with his weight, his face was just a handspan or two away from Jae-gyeom’s, facing him closely.
“One, two…”
Yoon Tae-hee began to count slowly while maintaining the position. As the numbers increased, the stiffness eased. As it became more bearable, Jae-gyeom relaxed his expression and opened his eyes. He immediately locked eyes with Yoon Tae-hee, who was looking down at him right in front of his nose.
Six, seven, eight.
The weight of a body suppressing him, as if pinning him down with everything. The large hands and firm arms gripping his ankle and knee tightly. The eyes watching him from a distance where they almost touched. The scent and the breath…
Jae-gyeom suddenly felt a surge of heat gathering in his lower abdomen.
‘No!’
Jae-gyeom turned pale. This is insane! Why on earth is my thing reacting right here, right now? He had to stop this disaster somehow. Jae-gyeom pushed Yoon Tae-hee away with all his might and gave him a sharp kick.
“Ugh!”
Caught off guard by the sudden kick, Yoon Tae-hee tumbled backward with a crash. Startled by his own action, Jae-gyeom rushed over to him.
“Hey! Are you okay?!”
Yoon Tae-hee groaned softly, lying face down on the floor, as the kick had been quite painful. Jae-gyeom hovered around him, fidgeting anxiously. In his panic, his crotch had instantly calmed down.
The pained Yoon Tae-hee asked,
“Was it that painful?”
Knowing nothing, Yoon Tae-hee seemed to think Jae-gyeom had kicked him because he was in pain. He didn’t even get angry about being kicked.
“Huh? No, that… well… I mean…”
Jae-gyeom couldn’t bring himself to continue and stammered, before quickly nodding and taking back his words.
“Y-yeah! It hurt so much I did it without thinking. I’m sorry. Let’s just stop here for today. You don’t have to do this for me in the future.”
After saying that, Jae-gyeom hurriedly turned his back.
“Then I… I should go study.”
Jae-gyeom muttered to himself loud enough to be heard and hurried toward his room. He felt that escaping the situation was the best option right now.
“…”
Left alone in the living room, Yoon Tae-hee blinked and stared at the closed bedroom door.
And on that day, Jae-gyeom spent the entire day avoiding Yoon Tae-hee.