#34
He took me to the Spider club on Hollywood&Vine
Long rays of sunlight tore through the curtains. Straddling the boundary between light sleep and reality, I frowned at the throbbing pain rising from below.
It felt like muscle ache after intense exercise, or like being unable to move when struck with a severe cold.
Unable to bear the pain any longer, I gently opened my eyes. The sunlight that had been persistently bothering me was seeping through the thick curtains. As my mind fully returned to reality, the pain that had seemed dreamlike became even more intense.
“Ah…”
As I turned my body halfway and let out a faint moan, I bit the soft flesh inside my mouth at the stinging sensation rising from my waist. A sudden rush of heat flushed my face and ears.
My whole body ached. Although I was lying in a cozy blanket, even its touch felt cumbersome. As I groaned, I recalled the events of last night.
The chilling sensation of bare skin touching, the excited breathing of another, soft kisses, penetrating inside….
My face burned even hotter than before. A bewildered moan escaped through my parted lips. As hot sensations spread from head to toe, I struck the bed with my fist in embarrassment, but screamed at the intense pain that shot through my body from the sudden movement.
“Aah!”
CHAPTER 04.
He took me to the Spider club on Hollywood&Vine 1)
: He led me into the adult world
It took quite a while for the tingling pain that started in my lower back to subside. The pain felt like I had been beaten, and the stinging sensation from below made me groan involuntarily.
I curled up on my side like a shrimp. Though the pain didn’t disappear, it seemed better than before. Thanks to the pain that almost brought tears to my eyes, I could feel myself fully waking up.
I was afraid to move even a finger. I had never experienced such severe muscle pain before. Groaning as I tried to find a position that hurt less, I lifted the bedding covering me, noticing the fabric texture between my skin and the blanket.
I was wearing unfamiliar clothes. A short-sleeved shirt and shorts – though not suitable for the season, they were easy to put on and take off. Considering this, I could easily guess that these clothes probably belonged to Saheon hyung.
Come to think of it, my body felt fresh and clean. Even trying to recall the hazy memories of yesterday, I hadn’t gone to wash up. I had fallen asleep, almost passing out, while listening to the sound of Saheon hyung showering.
I curled my waist a bit more and brought hyung’s clothes to my nose. They smelled of fabric softener mixed with a musty scent, probably from being stored in the closet for a long time, but even that was pleasant.
After sniffing the T-shirt for a while, I gently raised my head, aware of the stillness brought by the silence.
No matter how carefully I listened, I couldn’t hear any sign of another person. Had hyung gone out? I turned my eyes slightly to look at the dressing room connected to hyung’s bedroom.
Hyung had a bad habit of carelessly tossing his clothes around, and after finishing work, he would often leave his carrier, angular hat, and tie scattered here and there. On the visible dresser, there were only traces of someone having used hair wax.
Remembering that I had watched hyung prepare from the bed, I could easily imagine him getting ready for work there and then leaving.
It seemed he had already gone to work. I pressed my lips inward, pursing them. Although I knew rationally that I couldn’t hold back someone who needed to work, a feeling of disappointment crept up inside me.
I wasn’t expecting anything grand. It would have been nice just to see Saheon hyung’s face when I woke up, to exchange greetings like “Did you sleep well?” If I were to be a bit greedier, it would have been nice if he had held me tenderly like yesterday….
I curled up more under the blanket. The bedding wrapped around me had a faint scent of hyung’s cologne.
As I wiggled my toes, I felt the soft touch of the blanket. After staying like that for a while, I suddenly realized something and sat up abruptly.
“…Ack!”
Another pained cry burst out. The back pain that had seemed to improve a bit surged up again. Squinting my eyes that were starting to well up with tears, I got out of bed.
I had classes. My hand instinctively reached for my phone to check the time, but I soon remembered that it had been broken. I started to feel anxious.
The moment my feet touched the floor, a strange tingling sensation rose from the soles of my feet. Blushing once again, I supported my waist with my hand and hobbled out to the living room.
Looking around for a clock, I let out a sigh of relief when I saw it was just before 11:50. Since I only had afternoon classes today, it seemed I could wash up leisurely and still arrive on time.
I bent forward slightly, groaning. Even standing was stiff and painful. My legs were trembling, and my lower parts stung from the rough movements of last night. Stumbling, I barely made it to the sofa and carefully lay down.
I was shaking like a newborn animal with each step, and I wondered how I would manage to go to school in this state.
Once again, silence. It was clear that Saheon hyung wasn’t home. No matter how much I strained my ears, I couldn’t hear any signs of life. I bit my tongue slightly and made a sullen face.
It was disappointing not to see hyung’s face when I woke up after what happened yesterday, and it was also disheartening to be left alone in this unexpectedly immense pain.
Having someone around wouldn’t necessarily make the pain go away, but just having someone ask if I was okay would have made it much more bearable. I had to try hard to ignore the lingering regret.
Cutting through the heavy silence came a gurgling sound. It was coming from my stomach. I was incredibly hungry, as if all my energy had been drained. But in a situation where I was worried about whether I could even go to school, there was no way I could perform the simple act of eating.
Suppressing the desire to fall back asleep, I got up from the sofa, cradling my aching waist.
Stumbling to the bathroom, I showered, focusing the warm water on my waist. Although it seemed hyung had wiped my body clean of bodily fluids, washing myself felt much more refreshing.
Perhaps thanks to the hot water compress, my body condition seemed better than earlier when I could barely walk. The throbbing pain was still unavoidable, but it felt manageable if I tried to ignore it.
Since Saheon hyung wasn’t around, I came out with just a towel around my waist and naturally headed to my room. But what I encountered there were empty traces.
I bit my tongue and looked at the room. The neatly folded blanket and the room devoid of any traces looked desolate even to me. I could guess how Saheon hyung had immediately realized that I had left home.
But then I remembered that I had also left my suitcase at Choi Hyun-oh’s place. I had put all my belongings in it, so I didn’t have any underwear or clothes to wear.
I went back to Saheon hyung’s room to wear the clothes I had on yesterday, but all traces of yesterday had already been tidily cleared away. The fact that hyung’s room, with his bad habit of throwing clothes anywhere, was clean meant that they had already gone into the washing machine or laundry basket.
In the end, muttering “Hyung, I’m sorry” about ten times, I borrowed Saheon hyung’s clothes. Without a phone, I couldn’t even tell him I was borrowing them. When I put on hyung’s underwear, I repeated “I’m really sorry” about twenty times.
Hyung’s clothes, being about a hand span bigger than me, were a bit loose on me. The arms and legs were longer, giving a slightly dragging feeling. The shoulder line that would have fit hyung perfectly came down a bit when I wore it.
Since the bag I usually took to school was also at Choi Hyun-oh’s house, I ended up leaving the house empty-handed. Fortunately, I had put my wallet in my padding jacket.
The cold temperature further aggravated the muscle pain that had just started to ease, but as I began to move little by little, it felt better than when I first woke up. Quietly furrowing my brow each time a sharp pain rose, I found myself arriving at school before I knew it.
Never had I resented the campus situated on a gentle hill as much as today. With each step, my private parts stung. I regretted not checking while showering, but when I tried to reach back with my hand, memories of yesterday came flooding back, and I gave up.
Groaning, I finally reached the lecture hall and made eye contact with Choi Hyun-oh. Sitting in a spot neither too far nor too close to the professor’s seat, Choi Hyun-oh jumped up as soon as he saw me. Next to Hyun-oh’s seat was a familiar suitcase.
“Hey, Lee Cheongmyeong!”
Walking briskly to stand in front of me, Choi Hyun-oh looked at me with a face half worried, half angry. Biting his lips tightly and exhaling roughly through his nose, Hyun-oh opened his mouth.
“Are you okay? Yesterday….”
Although there was no way Choi Hyun-oh could know about what happened between me and Saheon hyung yesterday, I blushed, feeling guilty for no reason. I deliberately hardened my expression belatedly, worried that Hyun-oh might find it strange, but he seemed to have already misunderstood as much as he could.
“Come here.”
As all the eyes of our classmates in the lecture hall focused on us, Hyun-oh grabbed my wrist and led me backwards.
With about 20 minutes left until the lecture, the hall was relatively empty. Hyun-oh heaved a deep sigh and asked in a whisper.
“What did hyungnim say? Did you get scolded?”
I smiled awkwardly and racked my brain. I did get scolded, but the end…. Feeling my face redden once again, I quickly opened my mouth so that Hyun-oh, who was close to me, wouldn’t notice.
“I did get scolded… but we made up. It’s okay.”
“It’s okay?”
Hyun-oh repeated in a voice tinged with doubt. Well, from Hyun-oh’s perspective, I had suddenly come to his studio apartment, and then an angry man had come and taken away his neighbor’s younger brother. I felt a surge of guilt and gratitude towards Hyun-oh, who had let me stay at his place without even asking the reason for my running away.
Hyun-oh seemed to have a lot to say, but he just let out several deep sighs instead. I looked at Hyun-oh with an awkward expression.
“…Anyway. I’m glad it ended well. Hey, you could have at least contacted me, you know. I was worried.”
Hyun-oh’s large hand playfully smacked my waist. In normal circumstances, I could have brushed it off as a teasing rebuke, but the problem was that my body condition was far from normal.
“Agh!”
Caught off guard by the sudden attack, I bent my knees, almost collapsing forward. Fortunately, I didn’t fall, but the pain I had momentarily forgotten came rushing back. I could feel cold sweat beading on my forehead.
As I grabbed Hyun-oh’s arm and lurched forward, Hyun-oh looked genuinely alarmed. In a faster tone than before, Hyun-oh urgently asked.
“What’s wrong, does it hurt? Don’t tell me hyung hit you? That f*cking bastard…!”
In Hyun-oh’s mind, Saheon hyung’s existence seemed no different from a demon, but it was more important for me to deny it hurriedly. I waved my hand and said in a dying voice, “No, it’s not like that!”
“Then what is it? Let me see.”
Hyun-oh grabbed my top as if in a tussle. Right now, Hyun-oh seemed to want to check if there were any signs of being hit, even if it meant lifting my clothes. I felt the warm air heated by the heater under my slightly raised top.
There were no marks from being hit, not even bruises, but I had checked while showering and seen my chest covered in red marks as if bitten by bugs. If Hyun-oh saw it, he would immediately know what kind of traces they were. I desperately tried to stop Hyun-oh by grabbing his arms and shoulders.
“W-wait! It’s not like that, Hyun-oh!”
“Why can’t you show me? Are you really…? Why can’t you tell me!”
Just then, we heard a gasping sound from the side. Hyun-oh and I turned our heads simultaneously towards the sound. Min Iseo was standing there with her eyes wide open like a rabbit, covering her mouth with both hands.
A moment of silence passed. Min Iseo hurriedly turned her head and made an incomprehensible apology.
“S-sorry…. I didn’t know… um….”
[Footnotes]
1) Hollywood&Vine: A restaurant inside Disneyland.
The subtitle “He took me to the Spider club on Hollywood & Vine” is literally translated as “He took me to the Spider club in Hollywood&Vine (a restaurant inside Disneyland),” but since the subtitles of “Sweet Sugar Candyman” are taken from the lyrics of Christina Aguilera’s song “Candyman,” if we bring in the lyrics before and after and interpret them, it becomes as follows:
He took me to the Spider club on Hollywood&Vine
We drank champagne, and we danced all night
We shook the paparazzi for a big surprise (a big surprise)
The gossip tonight will be tomorrow’s headlines
He’s a one stop shop, makes my cherry pop
Here, the speaker went to Disneyland (a place where children play) and had fun (drinking and dancing), but had sex with the other person (who is older) for the first time there.
The subtitle implies “The young, innocent partner thought they were just going to have fun at Disneyland, but ended up having sex in a children’s domain,” so the interpreted translation “He led me into the adult world” was used.
