#59
“No, it’s fascinating. You seem like the type who might… desert from the military.”
As Woo-kyung spoke with a suddenly sober face, as if amazed, Ha-min laughed softly.
“Actually, I got scolded a lot there…”
He continued, touching the nape of his neck with an embarrassed face.
“The seniors really disliked me for being slow.”
It was a typical military experience. His social anxiety hadn’t completely healed, so it was a time when he was extremely shy around strangers. No senior would like Ha-min, who lacked both friendliness and sociability. He was often hit for being slow to speak.
Ha-min’s mother had told him to delay his enlistment, but Ha-min was adamant. At that time, he constantly wanted to run away somewhere. While losing weight on his own was difficult, he also wanted to go somewhere unknown and live alone without thinking about anything. He went there and truly received training without thinking, spending the remaining time studying and exercising. When he was scolded, he was scolded, and when he was hit, he was hit. That level of light bullying was bearable. At least they didn’t push him to die, and it wasn’t severe or persistent.
“Were you hit too?”
Curious about Ha-min’s military life, Woo-kyung kept asking questions. Ha-min, who had been momentarily lost in old memories, nodded with a broad smile. He looked quite proud.
“Of course.”
Although things have improved a lot these days, it varied by unit, and getting hit as part of military discipline was common everywhere.
“I was always bowing my head and getting hit on the butt…”
Ha-min reminisced as if it were an amusing memory, letting out a deflated laugh.
“Ha, fuck, I don’t want to go…”
Hearing Ha-min’s words, Woo-kyung sighed with his head down. It was an unavoidable concern for all men in their early twenties.
“Where else did you get hit?”
Suddenly, Tae-rim asked. Tae-rim’s gaze, resting his chin on his hand as he asked, was quite serious. Faced with such a serious look, Ha-min thought seriously too.
“My butt and… arms? Sometimes they kicked my legs too.”
Ha-min said with a chuckle, as if it wasn’t even a funny story. Tae-rim’s brow furrowed.
If I had been a senior, I would have fucked him, those stupid bastards.
Tae-rim let out a silent sneer and smiled innocently.
“Didn’t it hurt?”
At the kind question, Ha-min shook his head with a flushed face.
“Not at all. Not at all.”
It was an innocent answer. His clear face looked truly sincere. Tae-rim felt irritated at the bright face but couldn’t help letting out a deflated laugh. He was about to ask if it really didn’t hurt, but suddenly changed his mind and spoke in a gentle voice.
“You’re brave, Ha-min.”
At the kind praise, Ha-min smiled with his eyes half-closed. You smile more when you’re drunk. He was already prone to smiling here and there, but it seemed to get worse when he drank. As Tae-rim was carefully observing this, Woo-kyung’s drunken voice came from across the table.
“It’s not bravery, it’s stupidity~.”
As Woo-kyung giggled and teased, the corners of Tae-rim’s mouth stiffened slightly.
“Jae-woo.”
“I think I’ve told you about five times already, hyung, my name is Woo-kyung…”
“You’ll get beaten a lot in the military.”
“What? Me?”
“Yeah.”
Tae-rim cut off the conversation with a bright smile. At those words, Woo-kyung burst out laughing and banged on the table. Finding it incredibly funny, he giggled and took a jab at Tae-rim.
“Hey, how would you know, hyung―. You haven’t even been there.”
At that, Tae-rim’s smiling face momentarily hardened. His eyebrows twitched unpleasantly at the words that hit the mark. Just then, a suppressed laugh burst out from beside him.
The sound of laughter made his head tilt involuntarily. Ha-min, sitting next to him, was covering his mouth and laughing softly with a reddened face. Realizing he was laughing, he quickly erased his smile and glanced at Tae-rim.
“Ah, sorry.”
Ha-min, startled when their eyes met, apologized. Tae-rim let out a deflated laugh and lightly hit Ha-min’s fallen bangs.
“No need to be sorry.”
As he responded playfully, Ha-min smiled faintly with a disarmed face. His neat eyes curved into half-moons, and his pink lips, swollen from alcohol, raised shyly. As Tae-rim quietly appreciated that profile, he just found it fascinating. That he wasn’t fucked in the military. Maybe it’s fortunate that he was only hit.
Moreover, if someone had begged Song Ha-min, he might have reluctantly given in. Tae-rim stared quietly at Ha-min with his chin rested on his hand. He was simply amazed that he survived in that den of men and suddenly felt unpleasant.
But still, fuck, you hit the kid for that? Fucking bastards. Tae-rim frowned as he followed this train of thought. No matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t find a single place on Ha-min he would hit, even in jest. Damn bastards.
Tae-rim silently clicked his tongue and nervously popped peanuts into his mouth. The crunching sound rang out harshly.
**
Ha-min was definitely in a good mood, as he seemed to get drunk more easily than usual today. Although he had only had about two bottles of beer, an amount that would usually be moderate felt a bit excessive today. The tipsy feeling warmly enveloped his entire face. Ha-min went to the counter to pay, focusing his eyes hard, but the clerk said the bill had already been settled.
Ha-min’s dazed eyes widened, and when he asked who had paid, the clerk reluctantly tried to remember. That tall, extremely handsome… Ah, even before the answer was finished, Ha-min seemed to know who it was and sighed deeply.
Ha-min stumbled out of the bar. Not far away, Tae-rim was smoking a cigarette and talking on the phone with someone.
“Give them some money and scare them a little.”
His voice, casually giving orders into the phone, was cold and firm. His brow was furrowed as if it was an unpleasant call, and he was smoking the cigarette roughly.
“Or say I’ll come myself.”
Not understanding what was being said, Ha-min stared at him with a blank face. Sensing the gaze, Tae-rim stopped mid-drag and turned his head. As soon as his eyes met Ha-min’s, his creased face relaxed. As if his business was done, he hung up the phone and discarded the half-smoked cigarette. Then he immediately cupped Ha-min’s face and rubbed the reddened area around his eyes.
“Are you drunk?”
At the sugar-coated voice, Ha-min quietly shook his head. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he jerked his head up and fumbled in his pocket.
“I was going to pay…”
Finding it amusing that Ha-min always cared about such things, Tae-rim let out a small laugh.
“Forget about the bill.”
Tae-rim said quite firmly, stopping Ha-min’s fidgeting. At his tone that seemed to want something more, Ha-min raised his rolling eyes in confusion.
“Now let’s have fun with hyung.”
“……”
“Just the two of us.”
His red lips came close to Ha-min’s ear and whispered. Within Ha-min’s dazed vision, he saw the beautiful smiling eyes curving.
**
“Haa…”
A deep sigh, whose it was unclear, escaped between the tightly pressed lips of the two men. The car that had been driving along the Han River for a drive suddenly turned onto a deserted road and pulled over to the shoulder. Ha-min, who had been struggling with drunkenness, was enjoying the wind coming through the window when he turned to look at Tae-rim as the car stopped moving. Tae-rim abruptly unbuckled Ha-min’s seatbelt and grabbed his waist.
He pushed his own seat back as far as possible and placed Ha-min on his lap. Even with the high car body, it was difficult for two adult men to sit together in one seat. So their bodies overlapped in an even tighter position. As soon as he sat Ha-min on his lap, Tae-rim pressed their lips together. He had wanted to suck those bright red lips, wet from alcohol all evening. Tae-rim sucked on the moist lips with a smack and licked them quickly with his tongue. Ha-min shuddered with a dazed face. His eyes showed he didn’t know why he was sitting here or why his lips were being sucked. After a series of short kisses, suddenly remembering Ha-min’s brightly smiling face at the bar, Tae-rim asked teasingly, almost in a whisper:
“Did you have fun today?”
He stared intently while holding Ha-min tightly on his lap. Unlike his persistent gaze, his voice was light. Ha-min unknowingly stared blankly at Tae-rim’s moistened lips. Whenever he kissed Tae-rim, his heart always tingled. It felt like someone was poking him, or like being hit with a hammer. Moreover, having experienced sexual pleasure, even his lower body throbbed. He felt embarrassed and ashamed, feeling like he had become a person who craved it.
Ha-min, made more docile by the alcohol, quietly nodded. His flushed, heated cheeks were clearly visible even in the dark.
“…What about hyung?”
Ha-min asked with alcohol-soaked eyes. Hanging out with good friends and the hyung he liked, watching a movie with hyung, it all felt too good. It was like a dream. Plus, with the rising intoxication, he felt like he was floating.
“Me too.”
Tae-rim smiled brightly and quickly kissed Ha-min’s plump lips before pulling away. By this point, Ha-min, who should have been embarrassed, just stared blankly at Tae-rim. He only thought that Tae-rim’s face right in front of him seemed like a fantasy. Suddenly, his heart swelled at the fact that hyung was right here in front of his eyes. Ha-min rolled his eyes, reeking of alcohol, then suddenly started fumbling in his pants pocket as if something had occurred to him.
