Chapter 46
[Hyung, where are you right now?!]
My body tensed instinctively at the urgent voice that came out of nowhere.
[Wait… I came outside. Why, what’s going on?]
[‘Wellmade’ contacted us!]
‘Wellmade’ was the production company for <Eternal Night>. Running my hand through my hair carelessly, I sat up.
[Well, I mean, that is, it’s not a call saying I passed yet! They’re going to send another scene’s script and want me to film an acting video and send it…]
[Jaewoo, calm down and explain slowly.]
The production company contacted the agency. They said they wanted to see one more scene of acting. They requested that I study the new script they’re sending and submit an acting video by tomorrow. That was the summary of the content.
[I’ll go home right now, so could you send me the script and materials by email?]
[The video… will you film it by yourself, hyung?]
[Yeah, I’m more comfortable doing it that way, so I’ll do it like that.]
[The CEO thinks it would be better if the director supervised it…]
[After I film the video, I’ll send it to the director for review. For now, I’ll film it alone.]
After ending the call, I finally became aware that my heart was pounding as if it would burst. The situation of having to sit idle and just wait for results had been frustrating, but the fact that I was given one last opportunity to try something seemed to give me hope.
“Ah…”
But the very next moment, I remembered my promise with him. After rubbing my face with both hands, I gathered courage and turned around.
He was sitting with one knee up, his elbow resting on it, loosely propping up his chin. His eyes behind his glasses were looking at me, but his large hand covered most of his lower face, making his expression hard to read.
In the screen he had paused, Jung Jiin from <Tomorrow’s Diary> was confronting his father.
“Uh… um… what should I do…”
He didn’t ask what was wrong. He probably guessed roughly from listening to the conversation. He just silently looked at me. Scratching around my cheek with my index finger, I rambled out excuses.
“The audition result I mentioned earlier that I was waiting for. The production company wants to see one more scene. They want me to film it and send it… so… I think I need to go…”
“Can’t you just do that here?”
“……”
“No, just pretend you didn’t hear that.”
He turned his head away while rubbing his mouth, looking as if he was surprised by his own words. At least he seemed to regret letting those words slip out.
Why does my heart feel so unpleasant when he shows this kind of behavior?
To say it was because affection gradually built up through our few meetings would be insufficient, since I had felt similar emotions even in Bangkok. His face when he sat on the edge of the bed and looked back at me after all the sex was over.
At that time, I felt his eyes were transparent like an innocent animal. If there was a place where his emotions were hurt, I wanted to soothe it with gentle words or kisses. Although I ultimately didn’t act on it, using the excuse that it was just a one-night relationship, that feeling remained as a unique sensation.
He seemed confident and bold, but I could tell he treated me carefully. The occasionally dejected look in his eyes made him feel vulnerable.
I grabbed his wrist as he turned his back to me to get off the bed. I did so without realizing it. When I pulled with a little force, he could have easily shaken me off, but he obediently turned back toward me. I pulled him closer and approached on my knees, narrowing the distance.
I held both his wrists and gently rubbed the insides with my thumbs. After catching my breath, I carefully opened my mouth.
“Really. I’m really so sorry. For it turning out like I’m standing you up multiple times like this.”
“……”
“I know I’m not the only one who’s busy. You even made the difficult effort to free up your holiday…”
Hmm. A sigh filled with resignation tickled my forehead.
“I know you’re not doing it on purpose, so it’s okay. Anyway… I can’t ask you to prioritize me over work.”
Even though disappointment was clearly evident on his face, he graciously showed understanding. He was like a child trying to act mature in front of parents who canceled weekend outing plans, and I almost wanted to laugh. In case I laughed and he might doubt my sincerity, I held back my laughter, making the corners of my mouth and cheeks twitch.
Ahem, clearing my throat and barely shaking off the laughter, I let go of his wrists and moved up his long, firm arms. I stroked his broad shoulders from one end to the other, then slowly kneaded them like giving a massage.
Because I thought he was someone I couldn’t meet twice, I hadn’t been able to place my hands on his shoulders in Bangkok, but now it was different. I didn’t need to turn away from him.
“Actually, I’m very disappointed too. That we can’t spend time together.”
“……”
He, who had been touching around my elbow area while looking down, met my eyes. The moment I thought his previously stiff pupils softened gently, he whispered with a hint of laughter.
“Then give me a kiss.”
This time he didn’t take back what he said.
The person who had been pestering for a golden shower was trying to waste such a perfect opportunity on just a kiss. Even if he was just pretending to be a gentleman to score points, I couldn’t help but give him points for it.
I moved up his firm neck and cupped both his cheeks. Lifting my thighs slightly to straighten my body, I pressed my lips to his. Feeling the soft texture, I pressed my lips firmly. I alternately took his upper and lower lips into my mouth and released them.
The sound of dry lips that weren’t yet wet with saliva touching and separating was ticklish. Smack, smack. That sweet rather than sensual sound was somehow pleasant to hear, so I kissed various parts of his lips several times.
He was gazing at me from under his loosely lowered eyelids. The hand that had been rubbing my arm moved from my side to my back, wrapping around my waist and pulling lightly. My body pressed closer as if leaning into him. I pulled the cheeks in my hands closer. Adjusting the angle to avoid touching his glasses, I overlapped our lips deeply.
This time he also opened his lips and took my lips into his mouth. Our upper and lower lips completely overlapped at different heights. In that state, we savored each other’s lips for a long time without using our tongues. We gently brushed each other’s lips, lightly scraped with teeth, and rubbed them left and right. Not just our lips, but we rubbed the tips of our noses and shared eye contact.
This… this kind of kiss… wasn’t a lewd act exchanged for enjoying sexual pleasure. It wasn’t foreplay to heighten excitement before sex either.
I briefly separated our lips and pressed my forehead against his. I caught my breath to calm the unfamiliar tingling in my chest. With the hand that had been holding his cheek, I broadly caressed his ear and neck. I stroked his bare chest with both hands.
Under his healthy skin, his heart was beating vigorously. That unusually fast rhythm told me that his emotions at this moment were no different from mine. We didn’t need to express in words that we were intensely and sweetly drawn to each other.
He, who had thrown his glasses somewhere on the bed, lowered his head. His lips touched my forehead. He pulled my waist closer and embraced me as if wrapping me in his two arms. Kissing my ear and jawline as he moved down, he burrowed deep into the collar of my robe and buried his face at the base of my neck.
I also wrapped my arms around his back. I rested my cheek against his head as he buried his face in my neck. Embracing each other like that, we only felt each other’s stiffly erect members.
Just someone I meet for sex. I could no longer make such excuses even to myself.
■
The weather was extremely clear. It was difficult to drive without sunglasses. Although I couldn’t properly feel the temperature since I was only moving between the comfortable temperature-controlled interior and the air-conditioned car, looking at the color of the sky, summer was properly ripening.
When I came in his car at dawn, I thought it would be a mansion with few units, but his house was actually a detached house. Coming out through the garage’s overhead door and looking up from the alley side, the building with gray exterior walls was mostly hidden by high walls. It was a structure where the scale was difficult to grasp from the outside.
I turned my eyes from the building receding behind us to look at his profile.
“I keep canceling appointments, and now you’re even giving me a ride, making me feel even more sorry.”
“It’s my day off today. This much isn’t anything special.”
He shrugged as he spoke, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. Watching him sit in front of the steering wheel wearing sunglasses, I felt like I was driving along the coastal roads of Paeli. Maybe it was because of the clear summer weather.
I had certainly been thinking of home more often lately. It was probably proof that I had become more tired and weak.
After watching him in an uncomfortable twisted position with the back of my head against the car window, I straightened my body. I looked around various parts of his SUV interior, which I had ridden in before and where we had engaged in intense caressing in the back seat.
“I haven’t driven at all since coming to Korea, but I’m considering buying a car soon.”
“Well… taking taxis must be concerning too.”
“Actually, most drivers don’t recognize me. More than that, even if you’re not in this industry, most people around my age have cars… and it would be nice to go for drives when I feel frustrated sometimes.”
The words that having a car would help us meet in the future since neither of us had much free time couldn’t quite come out of my mouth.
While exchanging stories about cars and what models might be good, we were soon near our destination. Although the atmosphere was completely different from the affluent area where he lived, it was still the same district. Despite some traffic, it took less than 20 minutes.
He stubbornly got out to follow me after parking in the public parking lot closest to my accommodation. He insisted that since I had invalidated his entire holiday schedule in an instant, I should at least concede this much… and I was someone who had nothing to say even with ten mouths when it came to that part, so I couldn’t refuse to the end.
Saying it would be better to cover my face even a little, he gave me his sunglasses. Then he excessively watched the surroundings like imitating a manager. When three or four middle and high school students walking toward us from over there got closer, he put his arm on my shoulder. When he unnecessarily pointed somewhere far away and started talking to me, I couldn’t help but laugh.
He seemed displeased with my laughter.
“At that age, they have the courage to rush at celebrities, so it’s dangerous. Didn’t you see them staring at Jung Jiin-ssi while coming up from the corner?”
“Maybe they were looking because Lee Han-ssi stood out. Like, ‘Wow, look at that ahjussi, he’s huge!’ That’s probably what they were talking about.”
Unlike other men his age, he didn’t react sensitively to the word ahjussi. That was proof that he was far from being an ahjussi. In fact, dressed like this, he looked four or five years younger than when wearing a suit. It wasn’t just the clothes, but his attitude and posture had changed, making him look even more so. His expressions were much more varied too.
The residential area on Sunday was quiet.
Walking and exchanging silly jokes in the summer temperature that made sweat bead slightly on my nose bridge and temples wasn’t bad either. The tension about having to film an audition video seemed to ease somewhat.
I had thoroughly studied the original webtoon, the script and synopsis provided for the first audition multiple times to research the character. If external factors like the actor’s popularity or background influence were excluded, honestly I was somewhat confident. All that remained was fully showing what I had prepared. From my standpoint, there was nothing more I could do besides that.
It took about 3 more minutes on foot from the roadside to the alley where my accommodation was. It wasn’t that deep an alley, but it included a quite steep uphill section along the way. Wiping away sweat that trickled down from my temples with the back of my hand, I lightly pushed his back toward the inside of the alley extending to the right.
“Do you see that house with the white-painted wall over there? Just one more turn from there… and…”
I trailed off, and he looked back at my face wondering what was wrong.
At the end of my gaze, Hyunsoo was just turning around the corner.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
