After dropping the boxes in the recycling area, I turned around to see Lee Heon standing there. He still had that stiff expression as he placed the box he’d brought next to the one I’d set down. His box was filled with square plastic cases—CD cases, it seemed. Maybe he was into watching movies. I glanced at the movie posters peeking out from the cases and muttered to myself. There had to be dozens of them.
“By the way, you’re tall.”
“……”
“Our department is recruiting freshmen, and being tall is an advantage. It’s the basketball club. You could even be a starter…… Well……”
“……”
“Right…… I guess not. No interest, huh. Okay……”
Maybe it was better not to talk at all.
“Nice meeting you, then.”
I gave him an awkward smile, and he furrowed his brow. I bowed my head and turned to walk past him.
Lee Heon took a step to block my path.
I thought he was trying to pass by, so I moved to the left, but he blocked me again.
Confused, I looked up at him.
“First time.”
“……What?”
I didn’t understand, so I asked again. After a brief silence, Lee Heon’s stiff expression softened, and he suddenly smiled brightly.
“Hyung.”
“……?”
“I’ve never been recruited to a club before.”
“Ah.”
“I just transferred in. Today, I was unpacking.”
“Ah, I see.”
“You live in 501, huh. Let’s get along from now on.”
“No…… I mean…… Oh, okay.”
“Since you’re my hyung, let’s talk casually.”
“Ah, sure.”
“Then can I talk casually to you too?”
I felt strangely swept up in the moment, but I nodded absentmindedly at his sudden friendliness.
Lee Heon smiled warmly and started up the stairs first. Then, he grabbed my hand and pulled me along, saying,
“Then introduce me to the club tomorrow.”
“Seriously?”
“Isn’t being tall an advantage?”
The basketball club was always looking for freshmen, but I hadn’t expected him to be so enthusiastic. I was taken aback as he dragged me up the stairs.
“Do you like basketball?”
“……Yeah.”
Well, it would be strange for someone so tall to dislike basketball.
But as I’d said before, even if I didn’t discriminate, knowing he was Hae-joon sunbae’s lover—and gay—made his physical contact uncomfortable. I awkwardly tried to pull my hand away as naturally as possible, so as not to offend him.
“Let go. I got it. Okay, let’s go together tomorrow.”
***
“Dominoes collapse if you touch them wrong.”
That’s why you have to be careful. Only then can you complete them.
The man brought out an old box from the pantry next to the kitchen.
Inside were palm-sized domino pieces.
They were unusually large, square wooden blocks, the kind rarely found in stores. The paint on them was crude, as if someone had hastily slathered on oil paint rather than it peeling off.
I picked up a red block from the scattered dominoes and examined it closely. The rough surface felt like it could prick my fingers if I touched it wrong.
I picked up another domino and inspected it. Each one was rough, as if hand-carved. I tried to stand one up, but it wobbled and wouldn’t stay upright.
It was hard to even call this a domino.
The man approached me and expertly set up the first block. He chose a blue one. Then, he handed me a yellow block and said,
“Continue.”
“……”
He called it a “domino game.”
A game implied winning and losing, but I didn’t understand how simply standing up wooden blocks could be a game. I took the domino he offered with an uneasy expression, feeling around for the flattest spot.
Then, I carefully placed the next block about three centimeters away.
The man placed the next block beside mine. Then, he handed me another domino.
He didn’t say to stand it up, but I realized he was ordering me to keep setting up the dominoes.
I placed the next block as he instructed, then placed another beside the one he’d set up. I held it steady with both hands to keep it from falling, turning it in another direction if it wouldn’t stand. We repeated this silently about ten times. When it was my turn again, the yellow block I picked up had a rough edge, making it difficult to stand upright. After several attempts to balance it, the domino I’d just placed wobbled and fell after a few seconds. I reached out to catch it, but it was too late—the crisp clatter echoed as all the dominoes we’d set up collapsed.
I stared blankly at the sound, then suddenly looked up to gauge the man’s reaction.
He didn’t seem angry at the fallen dominoes. He just clicked his tongue briefly and gathered the fallen pieces, then left the kitchen and went into the hallway.
I sat down on the kitchen floor and stared at the spot where he’d disappeared. The light flickered and buzzed. Even with the light on, the room was dark.
The dim bulb flickered again.
I pushed myself up from the table and took a few steps. The shackle around my ankle was heavy, and my legs gave out.
I managed to keep from falling by gripping the table, but I realized I wasn’t even allowed to leave the kitchen with these legs. Just as I collapsed, the man returned with a black box in his hand.
He knelt in front of me and said,
“The loser has to follow the winner’s punishment. You knocked over the dominoes, so you lost this game.”
“I lost……? You never said that.”
“Didn’t I?”
The man tilted his head. I didn’t know what was in that black box, but he had brought it. I didn’t want to look inside. After a pause, the man flicked his finger and tapped the lid of the black box, then added,
“I think I said I wanted to be the person you need.”
The man opened the black box with a disappointed tone.
Inside were white, pink, and black wires tangled together. The man tilted the box to show me the contents—it was filled with similar-looking vibrators.
My eyes widened. Without thinking, I pulled my legs together and recoiled. He saw me trying to distance myself and smirked. As he rummaged through the box with his finger, he picked out a black vibrator. Its head was smooth, large, and elongated. The man crawled toward me on his knees, holding the vibrator.
“Don’t.”
“Do you know what this is?”
“I don’t like it. I don’t like that. You never told me about this.”
“You’re not supposed to say you don’t like it.”
The man’s voice turned icy.
I was going to get hit again.
I raised my hands to cover my face and bowed my head.
The man didn’t hit me. Instead, he spread my legs and forced me to lie down between them. My loose, rubber-banded blue pants were pulled down effortlessly. Cold fingers traced my buttocks, familiar with the path to my hole.
He held the black vibrator to my mouth and, as he pushed his thumb into my back hole, commanded,
“Suck.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
