“Ah… yes… I, I had no… ide…”
“Forget it. Why bother answering everything.”
Kyung Jiho rescued Geun-yeong from the crisis where he had to lie. Geun-yeong let out a sigh of relief, just small enough that no one would notice.
Bong Tae-hee, upset that the conversation about himself had been cut short, glared at Kyung Jiho and asked.
“Then Detective Kyung should try.”
“Try what?”
“The truth game. Tell us one secret.”
“Secret? I don’t have anything like that.”
Kyung Jiho spread both hands wide open. Showing that he had nothing hidden in his hands, nothing hidden inside.
Geun-yeong, who had believed for nearly two months that the man was a gangster, reproached himself for being deceived by a man who wasn’t even hiding anything.
But Bong Tae-hee wouldn’t let it go.
“Hmph. Then tell us about your most recent masturbation experience. When, where, and how you did it, in detail. Out of respect for your privacy, I won’t ask about your sex experiences. I already know you’ve been living the single life for more than three years.”
Glaring at Bong Tae-gu with eyes that seemed to say “thanks for your consideration,” Kyung Jiho turned his head away, only to be startled and lean his upper body backward when he met the eyes that were staring directly at him.
“Hurry up and tell us. Look, Geun-yeong is waiting too.”
Finding Bong Tae-gu annoying to look at, and feeling awkward about looking at Ji Geun-yeong who was blinking his eyes with inexplicable excitement, he looked at Baek Moonjong, who began his characteristic long speech that had become a natural physiological phenomenon with age.
“Masturbation, you see, is an extremely natural physiological phenomenon. There’s absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. Ah, those were the good days. Enjoy it a lot before you reach the age where you just wish you could take a good piss. As you get older, not masturbating might make you talk more. You’re expelling your desires through your mouth.”
Regardless of whether Baek Moonjong was proposing some unheard-of new hypothesis, Kyung Jiho, who was grumbling “what kind of conversation topic is this,” stood up from his seat the moment Baek Moonjong paused briefly to catch his breath, as he tended to have shorter breaths despite talking more than anyone else.
“It’s late, so let’s go home now.”
But no one stood up. The three just stared up at the person who had rudely stood up without agreeing to end the gathering. Kyung Jiho had to sit back down.
After resisting and resisting, he finally answered “the bathroom, three mornings ago,” and only then did the long dinner finally break up.
But the truth game wasn’t over. On the way to Baek Moonjong and Bong Tae-gu’s homes after leaving the restaurant, Bong Tae-gu, sitting in the backseat, pestered him, saying that he had told “where” and “when” but not “how,” insisting that he should also tell what position he had used.
In the meantime, Baek Moonjong had gotten out, and they arrived at Nurse Bong’s house. Bong, who had been leaning his head between the front seats urging an answer, stubbornly remained seated and refused to get out despite being in front of his own home. Kyung Jiho, looking like he was holding back curses, shouted, “I did it standing on my hands! Satisfied?”
Only then did Bong Tae-gu get out of the car with a satisfied expression.
Kyung Jiho hurriedly drove off with one innocent kid remaining in the car, whose face seemed to be asking, “Really?”
In the car heading home. The two didn’t say much. But just because they weren’t talking didn’t mean they weren’t thinking.
Especially Geun-yeong, who had many thoughts. Did he really do it standing on his hands? Is that even possible? Should I ask if he really did it that way? After pondering, he decided not to ask because it simply couldn’t be true.
Then naturally, he found himself thinking about a man masturbating in a normal position in the bathroom, and quickly pulled back from that thought. It was a very brief imagination, but his face heated up. He was hot. He thought it fortunate that the man probably couldn’t see his face, which had likely turned red, because of the night.
Geun-yeong tried not to imagine strange things about Detective Kyung ejaculating in the bathroom three mornings ago. He knew that healthy adult men get erections in the morning and do such things. He even knew the physiological mechanism—that the full bladder from overnight inhibits blood from flowing out of the penile cavernous bodies. Urinating resolves it, but in cases of prolonged abstinence from sexual intercourse, it’s also good to stimulate during morning erections to release accumulated semen. Detective Kyung was simply doing something extremely healthy and good for his body.
After thinking about textbook content, his consciousness, flowing on its own, began comparing with his own sexual experiences.
Geun-yeong had never masturbated. Most of the time, he was touched by that man’s hands and forced to ejaculate. If he didn’t ejaculate quickly, the act would be prolonged, so he hated that and found it painful to have to force it out. Having been made to release periodically like that, he had no reason to masturbate alone.
Actually, there was something more distressing than having no reason to masturbate himself. After they started proper penetration, the man had said there was a way to ejaculate from behind too, and he would insert a phallic-shaped tool and repeatedly thrust at one spot. If Geun-yeong tried to grip and stroke his own penis to finish quickly, the man would stop him, saying he needed to learn how to ejaculate from anal stimulation alone. That was really painful.
While thinking about this, his flushed face had cooled down. Missing the heated feeling from earlier, he tried to think about Detective Kyung in the bathroom, but couldn’t bring himself to. Whenever he tried to recall anything, all he could think of was himself in that house, on that bed, bent over in an obscene position.
The man, who had been glancing at the kid leaning his forehead against the window and lost in thought while watching the rapidly changing scenery outside, asked.
“What’s with that expression? Was work hard?”
Geun-yeong straightened up from leaning against the window and answered.
“Huh? No. Work was really fun. Thank you for introducing me.”
Come to think of it, he realized he hadn’t properly thanked the man who had done so many things he was grateful for. He felt sorry and ashamed for his lack of manners. Just as he was about to formally express his gratitude again, the man asked.
“Then. Did Bong Tae-gu bother you? Did he annoy you by asking you to talk about, you know, stuff like that too?”
“No. Not at all. Nurse Bong was really kind and treated me well.”
After answering, Geun-yeong smiled. Just thinking about Nurse Bong was funny. Aside from his speech and behavior, it was also amusing that he could talk so much about men and still think others didn’t know he was gay.
And Baek Moonjong too. Geun-yeong smiled a slightly different kind of smile when thinking about him. Mr. Baek Moonjong told many good stories. Above all, he had evaluated insignificant Geun-yeong positively, which was embarrassing but also greatly encouraging.
Both of them were really good people.
Geun-yeong was able to cheer up by recalling Boramchan Clinic, and for a moment, he could avoid thinking about that house, that bed. It seemed best to keep talking about something else. Geun-yeong let out a small laugh and said.
“Actually, I didn’t know you were a detective.”
“What? Why? Didn’t I tell you?”
Kyung Jiho asked back with a face that seemed to say how could you not know. And seeing the kid subtly nodding his head as if to say he hadn’t been told, he thought. He had made several work-related calls next to the kid and had even met with his police colleague Lee Dongjae together. He probably hadn’t specifically said, “I’m a police officer,” but he hadn’t particularly hidden it either. The traffic light turned red and the car stopped. Putting the gear in park and relaxing his body, the man asked.
“Then what kind of person did you think I was?”
Not having anticipated this question would come back to him, Geun-yeong thought, “oops.” He slightly turned his face, which had been facing forward to avoid looking at the man who was facing him, toward the window.
The man, who had definitely seen Geun-yeong’s head turning slightly, raised one corner of his mouth. He felt mischievous.
“Tell me.”
“I just wondered what kind of person you might be.”
“You’re lying. But why didn’t you ask? What kind of work I do?”
“I just didn’t ask.”
“Hmm. Really? Just didn’t?”
Muttering, “if you say so,” the man shifted the gear back to drive and stepped on the accelerator. Then he said.
“You thought I was a gangster, right?”
Since he was in the middle of lying, Geun-yeong’s unnaturally blinking eyelids abruptly stopped.
Just as his eyes were starting to feel dry, he blinked quickly about three times and then glanced at the man. The man, focused on the road ahead, was smiling.
The man already knew about his misunderstanding. Since it probably wasn’t the first misunderstanding he had received from others, he couldn’t have not known.
After it was revealed that the man’s occupation was a detective, not a gangster as he’d misunderstood, Geun-yeong felt quite apologetic for the misunderstanding. Thinking he should apologize, he tried to move his reluctant lips when he heard, “I get that misunderstanding a lot because of Lee Dongjae.”
Ah…?
After being momentarily dazed, Geun-yeong barely managed to squeeze out a “Yes…” in time. But he didn’t say that it wasn’t actually because of Lee Dongjae, but because of the detective himself—because of the tattoos on his body, and the way he talked and acted—that’s why he had misunderstood.
Nurse Bong’s misunderstanding that others didn’t know he was gay was no longer amusing. Geun-yeong decided to accept that the image one has of oneself can be quite different from how others see you.
While thinking about this, he became curious about what Detective Kyung thought of him. When the man looked at him, what image formed on his retina? Geun-yeong wanted to know.
“Don’t I give off a venture company CEO vibe? Or like a coffee shop owner? Something like that?”
“Yes… well…”
While Geun-yeong had become quite serious thinking about how he appeared in the man’s eyes, Kyung Jiho started making comments that were hard to distinguish as jokes or sincere remarks, and Geun-yeong had to force out responses.
“You know, like an IT company or pharmaceutical company representative? That kind of image.”
“Ah… yes…”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
