- [301×302] The Underwear Thief
“Perv.”
Unable to endure the scornful gaze of the man from 301, Jaehee averted his eyes, his sharp gaze sliding downward. His teary eyes passed over the small mole beneath his lashes, tracing the bridge of his nose and his sharp jawline before stopping there. He couldn’t bring himself to look any lower. Right now, Jaehee couldn’t even freely lower his head.
It was true that he looked like an underwear thief, caught holding someone else’s underwear on the man’s balcony. But Jaehee was genuinely wronged. His usually drooping eyelids, which always seemed to carry a smile, now trembled with unshed tears. He wanted to stammer out some kind of excuse, any excuse—if only this strange thing in his mouth would let him.
“You don’t look the type at all. Pretty bold, huh? Did you think morning was some kind of signal?”
At the man’s question, Jaehee could only manage a muffled uuuh. A ball gag was stuffed in his mouth, its leather straps pressed tightly against his cheeks and wrapped around the back of his neck. He tried not to move his tongue, afraid drool might leak out, but the large ball pressed against his tongue, stimulating his saliva glands. Even with his mouth stuffed, drool dribbled out. Drip. As he swallowed, his tongue brushed against the small, rough holes in the plastic ball. Huuuh, huuuh. Air passed through the holes with each breath, and drool seeped out with every exhale.
“Disgusting.”
Thud. The man’s toe pushed against Jaehee’s chest. The warm pressure against his chilled skin forced his back and head against the wall. His arms, bound behind him, pressed against the cold surface. His eyes, filled with fear and injustice, looked up at the man.
“Uuuh… huuuh…”
Frustration welled up inside him, and more drool dripped from his chin, landing on the man’s foot. Squirm. The man’s eyebrow twitched upward. His sharp features felt especially cold, and Jaehee flinched, averting his gaze. He had always struggled with others’ cold stares. He had always avoided them, smoothing things over with good connections and luck. But he had never endured such a prolonged, contemptuous gaze before. His stomach churned, waves of unfamiliar emotions crashing over him.
Why did this happen? Where did it go wrong? He had thought it was just a misunderstanding. That he didn’t need to clear it up since they weren’t close. That it would just be awkward. But he never imagined they would end up in such an intense exchange—let alone that he would climb over the balcony and make things worse.
***
It was a Saturday morning. Even after sleeping in, it wasn’t yet ten o’clock. Yawning, Jaehee picked up his laundry basket. His tiny bathroom couldn’t fit a washing machine, so he used the coin laundry down the street once a week. While the laundry spun, he planned to grab a late breakfast at the nearby fast-food joint. And that’s when he ran into him—the man from 301.
“What the hell are you doing?”
A slender finger snatched the underwear from Jaehee’s hand. Startled, he looked up to see an angry face. The man’s sharp, cold expression was even more intimidating when he was mad. Jaehee couldn’t meet his narrowed, piercing gaze and instead fixed his eyes on the small mole beneath the man’s eyelid. His hand, now awkward, clenched the empty basket’s handle with both hands.
“No, it’s just…”
He fumbled for words, but nothing he could say would make sense. There was no excuse for taking someone else’s underwear from their basket.
“Wait, are you—”
The man’s suspicious question cut off mid-sentence. What? Jaehee didn’t know what he was about to say, but the silence stretched on. Sweat trickled down his back. Under that cold, suspicious stare, his stomach twisted. The hum of the washing machines and dryers filled the silence.
He should have said he picked it up because it looked like his own. That it was a common mix-up at the coin laundry. But once he panicked, his words vanished. It was bad luck that the man was his neighbor, someone he occasionally nodded to. Would it have been less embarrassing if it were a stranger? Or would they have pressed harder? Jaehee, speechless and flustered, was skewered by the man’s sharp glare. The man snatched the basket and stormed out.
Only after the man left did Jaehee lift his head and silently protest in his mind: Same gender, no way. But then he thought, Maybe that’s why it’s even weirder. He groaned, frowning.
He had just taken his laundry out of the washer and put it in the basket in front of him, then loaded his own clothes into the empty machine. That’s when he noticed the basket below. The leopard-print square-cut briefs on top looked just like his, so he picked them up, thinking they might have fallen out of his own laundry. The damp texture told him immediately they weren’t his, but he was surprised to find they were the same size as his. Without thinking, he turned them inside out, stretched them… Fuck. He must have looked like a total pervert. Realizing this, he frowned even deeper. He stared at the door the man had disappeared through and sighed. The man had left because of him, even though he still needed to use the dryer.
His face burning, Jaehee briefly wondered how to clear up the misunderstanding, but he quickly decided it wasn’t worth the effort. It was inevitable that things would be awkward between them, but since they weren’t close to begin with, it didn’t matter. It was easier to avoid than to resolve.
He tried to shake off the morning’s incident as he ate a hasty breakfast at the fast-food place and returned to the laundry room just as his load finished. Only to realize the dryer prices had gone up. He was short by 500 won.
Grumbling, he hoisted the heavy, damp basket and trudged up the three flights of stairs. Damn it, just 500 won. He racked his brain, then remembered the man from the second floor he often saw at the villa entrance. They had never spoken, but Jaehee was shameless enough to consider asking for spare change. But of course, today of all days, no one was there. So he ended up hanging his laundry on the open balcony without a screen.
The old drying rack, installed during construction, was caked with dust from disuse. Only after hanging a shirt did he realize. Shit. He cursed at the black dust clinging to his laundry. He ended up spending his precious Saturday cleaning the filthy rack, shaking out the laundry, and hand-washing the blackened shirt. Exhausted, he fell asleep and didn’t wake until it was dark outside.
A loud vibration jolted him awake.
“Uh… who…”
Half-asleep, he fumbled for the phone. Loud music and a familiar voice chased away the last of his drowsiness. Here… Saturday… club… The words buzzed in his ears, fully waking him.
“Yeah, I’ll be there soon! Go ahead!”
Rubbing his eyes, Jaehee dashed to the bathroom. Right! Can’t waste a precious Saturday! After a quick shower, he shook out his hair and glanced at the balcony. Shit, it’s supposed to rain tomorrow. He didn’t know when he’d be back, and he worried about his laundry getting soaked.
Creak. He stepped onto the balcony and checked the laundry. Most of it was dry after half a day, but some parts were still damp. The small items, like underwear, were completely dry. As he gathered his dry underwear, he thought he should wear something nice for his rare night out. And then he remembered the leopard print. It’s gone. No matter how many times he counted, one of his seven pairs of weekly underwear was missing. He leaned over the balcony, but it was too dark to see. Where did it go? It was expensive!
He had never needed clothespins since he usually used the dryer, and that oversight was now biting him. But it wasn’t his fault the wind had carried his underwear to the neighbor’s balcony. And it was just a coincidence that it was the same design as the man’s underwear he had fiddled with earlier.
That’s why he felt wronged. He never expected to get an electric shock from climbing over to the neighbor’s balcony.
***
Swish. The man’s toes slid down Jaehee’s abdomen. Drip. More drool fell onto the man’s white instep. The man rubbed his foot against Jaehee’s spread thighs, the soft flesh tingling. Bound and naked, Jaehee had climbed over the balcony naked, thinking it would only take a moment. He never thought he’d fall. The neighbor’s balcony was dark, so he assumed no one was home. He thought he could just grab the underwear and climb back. What was the big deal? It was just a club. Just a brand-name underwear. But now, here he was, tied up like an idiot. Regret crushed his mind, but it was too late.
“Stealing underwear naked is your hobby? You must have been so disappointed all this time with nothing hanging on the balcony, huh?”
Jaehee desperately tried to shake his head, but something tugged at the back of his neck, making it hard to move. The gag in his mouth and the leather straps around his ankles were connected—when the rope pulled, the ball gag pressed deeper into his mouth. To keep his lips from being crushed, Jaehee stopped struggling and looked up at the man with fearful eyes.
“You like leopard print? You climbed over just to steal this?”
The man waved the leopard-print briefs. Jaehee’s eyes followed the movement, filled with injustice. Uuuh, uuuh. His muffled protests were swallowed by the gag. The more he tried to swallow, the more drool leaked out. The man, who had approached, wiped Jaehee’s drooling chin with the briefs.
“Filthy trash.”
Jaehee, who had been struggling weakly so the ropes wouldn’t dig in, froze. Under the cold gaze and contemptuous words, the familiar churning in his stomach grew worse. And something stirred below. The strange sensation confused him. Amid the chaos, the man stuffed the leopard-print fabric between Jaehee’s lips and the gag. As his lips were forced apart, air rushed through the multiple holes. Huuuh, huuuh. It was harder to breathe than before. The sound of his own ragged breathing filled his ears.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
