Chapter 103
“Of course, I can cover the work, but aside from company matters, what about Chairman Yoo and the elder council? What about the preparations currently underway? Managing operations from overseas will be extremely difficult.”
Yoo Siwoon had said he wouldn’t exploit the enormous gap. He’d said he would handle the illogical and irrational actions of the heretics in his own way—realistically and sensibly. Director Nam was among those risking their lives in this rebellion.
Yoo Siwoon didn’t answer Director Nam’s question. He focused on serving porridge into a bowl and neatly arranging sliced fruit and milk on a plate.
“I’m not feeling very well.”
Yoo Siwoon also brewed tea for himself. Director Nam recognized it as red tea.
Why that…?
Director Nam hesitated, puzzled, but pretended not to notice.
“I actually brought medicine. That… the one that reduces sexual desire, as you mentioned before.”
“I’m taking a few days off. Please handle things for me in my absence.”
Yoo Siwoon cut off Director Nam’s words as if he didn’t want to hear more.
“Ah… yes. I understand.”
“You don’t need to come here until I call you.”
At this blunt dismissal, Director Nam awkwardly said goodbye and hurriedly left the house.
Eunseong struggled to sit up, raising his upper body with difficulty. His entire body ached as if he’d been repeatedly beaten with a club.
Yoo Siwoon returned to Eunseong’s room with food, pulled out a bed tray and placed the tray on it. He brought a desk chair next to the bed, sat down, and handed Eunseong a water bottle.
Eunseong drank nearly half the water. The cool liquid down his parched throat made him feel like he might survive after all.
“…Did Director Nam leave? I thought I heard someone.”
“I told him not to come for a while.”
“Does my voice sound strange?”
Despite moistening his throat with water, his voice came out raspy and cracked. Yoo Siwoon shook his head at Eunseong’s question. He put a spoon in Eunseong’s hand, telling him to eat the porridge. Eunseong hesitated as if he had something to say, then took a spoonful. With each swallow, he winced slightly, his throat raw and painful from a night of groaning.
“You should eat too, ahjussi.”
Yoo Siwoon nodded and used a fork to pick up some fruit. The awkward sounds of chewing and swallowing filled the space between them.
Yoo Siwoon cleared away the empty porridge bowl and fruit plate to the desk, then lowered the tray toward the foot of the bed. Eunseong sat sheepishly, just watching him. He regretted not putting on clothes while Yoo Siwoon had gone to get the porridge; instead, he’d remained dazed, covering his naked body with the bedding. Fidgeting under the covers, Eunseong spoke.
“…I want to wash up.”
“Ah, sure. Do you need help? Can you manage alone?”
“Of course I can do it alone. I’m not that weak.”
Eunseong glanced at the door. Yoo Siwoon, who had been watching him with concern, finally noticed Eunseong’s embarrassed look.
“I should wash up too. Take your time then.”
Yoo Siwoon left the room. Only after he closed the door behind him did Eunseong stand up on trembling legs.
Thin liquid trickled down between his thighs. Eunseong’s face instantly flushed with shame. The wet, sticky sensation was overwhelmingly vivid now that he was fully conscious, enough to make his skin crawl.
He showered and thoroughly cleaned himself. His skin, sensitized by sensations he’d never experienced before, responded acutely even to his own touch as he scrubbed himself while sitting down. The area between his legs became erect, and Eunseong had to stay under the falling water for a long time.
After washing and changing clothes, he looked in the mirror and saw various marks all over his body. His skin was so delicate that bruises had formed on his wrists, neck, chest, abdomen, and even his knees and thighs.
The skin lesion that protruded below his buttocks, which never seemed to subside, also felt painfully sensitive to the slightest touch, unlike usual.
“…”
It must have looked strange.
If it was this noticeable to the touch, it must have been even more visible to the eye.
Yet he hadn’t been surprised seeing these marks.
Eunseong vaguely recalled Yoo Siwoon’s reaction last night. He had been happy seeing Eunseong’s lower body. Overcome with joy, his excited breath had erupted as he buried his face between Eunseong’s legs.
Eunseong changed clothes and left the dressing room. Walking was uncomfortable. Yoo Siwoon, who had already washed up, was anxiously waiting for him.
“You took a while. Are you in pain? Is something wrong?”
“Ah, just… I just enjoyed the warm water and wanted to stay longer.”
“…”
Yoo Siwoon led the hesitant Eunseong to the bed, sat him down, and used a towel to dry his wet hair. Though he had always been kind to him, this was the first time he had helped him so directly.
Eunseong sat comfortably, letting him dry his hair. Yoo Siwoon meticulously dried his wet hair, behind his ears, and even his earlobes with the towel, then cupped Eunseong’s cheeks.
“Do you want to rest?”
Yoo Siwoon pulled back the fresh bedding—changed at some point—and covered Eunseong with it. Eunseong, who had been quietly allowing all this, looked up at Yoo Siwoon sitting beside the bed.
“Ahjussi.”
“Yes?”
“…Yesterday.”
Eunseong pulled the covers up just below his neck, holding them tightly, and looked at him.
“Yesterday, yesterday… what I couldn’t tell you.”
“…You mean the complex about your body?”
It would have been better if he hadn’t seen it, but that was impossible from the start. It was so noticeable, so vivid. Eunseong nodded in response, confirming that was what he meant.
“Why?”
“I thought you would find it strange.”
“I didn’t find it strange at all.”
“…You don’t think it’s strange?”
“Hmm.”
After briefly turning his gaze toward the window as if lost in thought, Yoo Siwoon looked back at Eunseong and said:
“I had a friend who was bitten by a dog when he was young and lost one of his testicles. That friend is now married with children and living well.”
He spoke as if missing a testicle was no big deal. Having no testicle meant having a disability. Despite being incomplete, the story of his friend living happily somehow reassured Eunseong.
“If you want, you can have children someday too. Don’t worry.”
Yoo Siwoon’s hand tenderly caressed Eunseong’s cheek as he spoke.
“That’s one thing, but also… I haven’t looked at it closely myself, but I have something like a skin condition down there. It’s probably not contagious. I’m not certain… but still.”
“It’s not a skin condition.”
“…Then what is it?”
He asserted it confidently, as if he knew Eunseong’s body better than Eunseong himself. Eunseong fixed a puzzled gaze on him.
“It’s just like how your face turns red when you’re hot, it’s just something like that. Not something strange.”
“It’s not strange?”
This statement completely contradicted everything Eunseong had believed his whole life—that it was strange, disgusting, a physical defect to be ashamed of. Yoo Siwoon continued, saying it wasn’t like a disease, treating it as insignificant.
“It’s not strange. I actually found it… mysterious. How it turns bluish when touched. Do you know animals like that?”
“What kind of animals?”
“When you touch them… touch their skin, the color changes. Sometimes they change to protect themselves, sometimes to threaten enemies, sometimes to seduce a mate. For reproduction. For some animals, it’s a completely natural phenomenon.”
“…But other people don’t have that. I looked it up online.”
“That makes you even more special because others don’t have it.”
“…”
Yoo Siwoon’s hand caressed Eunseong’s lips. He talked about how it was no different from how they turned red when touched now, how it was fascinating and mysterious, as if he was actually more attracted to that feature.
“When I told you I was scared… it wasn’t because I was afraid of you, but because I was embarrassed and hated showing that. It’s been a complex since I was young.”
“Is that why you hate hospitals too?”
Eunseong nodded embarrassedly, confirming that was true.
“There aren’t many situations at hospitals where you need to take off your pants and show your lower body.”
“…Still, you never know. I just hate the idea of anyone finding out.”
Yoo Siwoon smiled gently at Eunseong’s whining about how his complex was so severe that he even hated going to hospitals. His hand, which had been touching Eunseong’s lips, now held and caressed his cheek and earlobe.
“I didn’t mind it.”
“…”
“Even now, I want to bury my lips there.”
Eunseong’s cheeks flushed bright red. Yoo Siwoon pulled down the bedding that Eunseong was clutching tightly against his chest.
He lifted Eunseong’s top. As Eunseong hunched his shoulders from the coolness on his bare chest, Yoo Siwoon also removed his bottoms. Eunseong was helplessly naked before him. Climbing onto the bed, he pulled Eunseong’s body toward him.
Suddenly lying on his back on the bed, Eunseong felt Yoo Siwoon grab one of his legs and kiss the inside of his knee. He slid his tongue into the back of his knee, rubbing the ticklish area.
“…Ah, nngh, uh…”
With his eyes intently fixed on Eunseong’s face, his parted lips and tongue nibbled and sucked on the flesh of his white leg. He gently bit the tender flesh, then gradually moved lower.
Like adorning himself with brilliant protective coloring to seduce a mate, the most delicate skin between Eunseong’s legs became transparent, then raised into bluish scale-like patterns.
Yoo Siwoon groaned with desire just watching this. Despite having seen it last night, he again pressed his lips to Eunseong’s perineum with a dazed expression, rubbing his lips against it. He firmly held down Eunseong’s slightly rising lower body with both arms to prevent escape.
