#073
My steps stopped at the subtle question. Woo Dohwan, who had been walking half a step ahead, also stopped and turned to look at me. In our eyes that met in mid-air, I could glimpse a more peculiar expression than what I had seen earlier. The gaze layered with anticipation wasn’t dim enough to ignore.
“I like red better. But can I really stay over?”
“We’ll just hold hands and sleep.”
“…That’s not what I mean.”
“What?”
“Who are we kidding by just holding hands? We both know everything there is to know. And you said you studied.”
At my words that poured out without hesitation, Woo Dohwan’s face turned bright red. Even his neck, clearly visible through his V-neck knit, flushed red. What’s with that reaction? When did he shamelessly talk about studying, and why is he being so shy now?
“Honey, I’m not usually someone who holds back in situations like this, but I still haven’t received the most important thing.”
Woo Dohwan quickly mumbled, unable to hide his slightly trembling voice. As I thought about what he hadn’t received, I remembered the confession I had planned to make on Christmas. I didn’t think he’d be someone to care about such things, but apparently he does. Maybe he actually has quite a delicate personality.
“Ah. Right. That’s still left. But does the order matter? We’ve already kissed several times.”
At my blunt words, Woo Dohwan’s eyes narrowed then widened again.
“Ranho. I know how pretty I am in your eyes, but stop seducing me.”
The hand that grabbed the back of my neck instantly closed the distance between us. The eyes that met mine disappeared behind thin eyelids, and the face that looked even prettier up close changed angles. Our noses brushed and a sweet scent wafted over. Soft, plump lips lightly touched mine, then pulled away leaving behind a lingering sense of longing.
“I want to fall for you too because you’re so pretty.”
There’s one thing Woo Dohwan doesn’t know – I’ve already fallen.
***
As Woo Dohwan said, the braised short ribs were the most delicious I’d ever had in my life. The meat that crumbled like melting snow as soon as it entered my mouth was rushing down my throat before I could even properly chew it. The rice that had been piled high in the bowl revealed its bottom.
“It’s really delicious. You should open a restaurant. I’d buy food every day. This taste really can’t fail.”
“Did you eat a lot?”
“I ate so much.”
When I answered while looking down at the cleanly emptied bowl, Woo Dohwan smiled contentedly as if his own stomach was full. We exchanged brief conversation while clearing the table and moved to the living room. With movements that seemed quite unfamiliar, Woo Dohwan placed a plate of pre-prepared fruit and neatly cut cheese on the living room table.
“The helper isn’t here today.”
“They have to get off work. What time is it? How much am I supposed to make them work?”
He tilted his head as if wondering why I was asking something so obvious. Woo Dohwan seems to be an employer who observes legal working hours. His long, pale hands gripped a wine bottle and skillfully pulled out the cork. He filled the wide wine glass about halfway with the purple liquid and placed it in front of me.
“Can I ask now what I couldn’t ask during our phone call earlier?”
“What was it?”
“The Little Mermaid.”
“Ah.”
Why The Little Mermaid of all things? That princess is the only fairy tale protagonist who meets a sad ending by becoming sea foam and disappearing. But Woo Dohwan shrugged lightly as if he knew what I was thinking and said he preferred happy endings.
“That’s the ending for children.”
“I watched it when I was a child too.”
Somehow picturing the fairy tale and Woo Dohwan side by side, seeming both fitting and unfitting, I tried to recall The Little Mermaid from my memory.
“When I think of The Little Mermaid, I only remember that yellow fish and some line about ‘pay something.'”
“What would I pay to stay here beside you? Is that right?”
“Oh, that sounds right. How did you know?”
“I watched it a lot.”
When I clapped my hands and burst into giggles, Woo Dohwan put a small piece of cheese into my mouth and whispered a cheesy line.
“You’re the one, the one I’ve been looking for.”
“Is that also from The Little Mermaid? Actually, I discovered something today. I ate all the chocolate I had taken out before, so when I took out a new one, there was a card inside. I thought you had just written some cheesy words, but that’s not it, right?”
At my uncertain question, his head slowly nodded once, twice.
“I only vividly remembered the part about becoming sea foam and disappearing, so I didn’t know, but it was actually quite romantic.”
As I spoke while taking another sip of wine, a low chuckle rang out.
“I thought you’d lived completely cut off from books, but I heard you got the best grades. Among your siblings.”
“What else did Kim Yujin tell you?”
When Woo Dohwan met my eyes with a languid expression and tilted the glass in his hand, the dark red liquid smoothly flowed into his mouth, revealing the red inside. There probably wasn’t any intention behind that action, but he was always a man who caused misunderstandings. In other words, he was excessively seductive. My heart pounded like a drum. I swallowed dry saliva and forced myself to lift my gaze from his lips to meet his eyes.
“Just… that you were popular. She laughed so teasingly when she looked at me that I thought she liked me. But she didn’t. The noonas liked you. I’ve never seen you take a break from dating.”
“I’ll have to go fight her. Kim Yujin is banned from now on.”
The eyes that had been filled with anticipation, as if hearing praise, quickly lost their light. At his words spoken with a sullen expression, I shrugged, then suddenly remembered that I was supposed to meet Kim Yujin-ssi on Saturday.
“I just remembered, you don’t need to arrange a meeting.”
“Why?”
“Kim Yujin-ssi is coming on Saturday.”
“Where? To the flower shop?”
I nodded. Should I take Woo Dohwan to the flower market or not? If I sleep here and go home early tomorrow morning, it might be a bit tiring…
“I’m going to the flower market tomorrow. While I’m there, Kim Yujin-ssi said she’s never seen the flowers she ordered for the bouquet in person, so I ordered them to show her. Sandersonia – I told you about it before, but that flower looks like this, like this, you know?”
Without realizing it, I grabbed Woo Dohwan’s hand sitting next to me, pulled it over, flipped it palm-up, and drew bell shapes several times with my index finger to explain the flower shape of sandersonia.
“It’s shaped like a bell, see? What’s even cuter is that this flower’s name in English is Christmas bell. Sandersonia is a flower native to South Africa, and there it blooms around Christmas time, so that’s what they call it. Really cute, right? It hangs its head slightly like this. The stem seems like it would be weak, but actually the stem isn’t that weak either-.”
The moment I lifted my head while explaining the flowers, my lips were pressed down with a soft peck. Huh, what?
“You’re right, it’s cute. The name too.”
“No… yes, it’s cute but…”
“You know you look really happy when you talk about flowers?”
“…It’s just… because I like them-.”
As I trailed off, Woo Dohwan’s lips gently pressed against mine again. Hot breath came across through my naturally parted lips as I was speaking. Ah, at my sensual breathing sound that came from my throat, Woo Dohwan pulled my waist and naturally seated me on his thigh. My mouth opened a bit more and a deep kiss continued. Each time the wet sounds became explicit, heat spread throughout my body. Each time the smooth flesh penetrated deeply, my shoulders instinctively hunched.
When strength went into the hands gripping my shoulders, Woo Dohwan, who had been embracing my waist, loosened his arms and moved my hands from his shoulders to behind his neck.
“Hug me properly.”
At his low voice, I put strength into my sliding arms and pulled his neck close with all my might. And when I came to my senses, I was lying lengthwise on the sofa. My lips felt swollen and puffy. My bottom lip, which had been sucked and licked so much that it was plumply swollen, even felt a faint heat. Moreover, the hard thing that kept pressing against my thigh area was bothering me.
“W-wait, hah… this thing-.”
When I loosened the arms that were embracing his neck and pushed his shoulders away, Woo Dohwan seductively licked around his lips that were slick with saliva.
“What’s in your pocket-.”
“Nothing’s in it.”
The moment the flesh that had slipped into my parted mouth was gently stirring inside, my mouth closed and I bit down on a tongue that wasn’t mine. At the moan of “Ouch” that sounded not painful at all, my closed eyes immediately opened. Crazy…
“……”
“What?”
“Isn’t this level like a weapon?”
Even at my dumbfounded question, light kisses like feathers continued to fall – peck, peck.
“Earlier you said we were both adults. You acted like you wouldn’t stay still if we just held hands and slept.”
That’s because I didn’t know it would be like this, crazy… My eyelids naturally trembled and closed, and Woo Dohwan’s lips fell on them too. I studied too…!
“Were you surprised?”
“No, a little… just… aren’t you heavy?”
At my random question, Woo Dohwan burst into laughter. He earnestly answered my absurd question, saying he had never felt that way. When I couldn’t hold back a sigh that burst out while glancing at each other face to face and let out a puff, Woo Dohwan rubbed his lips against my forehead and whispered softly.
“I won’t hurt you. I told you I studied.”
He mentioned it before too, but what exactly does he do in bed that he keeps saying he won’t hurt me? Of course it wouldn’t be ordinary, but hearing him say this twice made me strongly think it could be related to that.
The studying I did and the studying Woo Dohwan did seem to be somewhat different. With the thought that there’s no way I won’t get hurt, I nodded in a state where I couldn’t feel reassured at all. Right, he won’t kill me. There can’t be people who die doing that. No, wait, maybe there are. Why else would there be related terminology? It must have been created because people die doing it sometimes.
“I told you not to worry. I’m good at everything once I learn it.”
Right, hearing that he’s good at everything gives me some reassurance. Fuck…
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
