Chapter 115
“The way you talk about it makes me really want to play hide-and-seek, ahjussi.”
“I just realized I probably don’t like that sort of thing.”
Yoo Siwoon meant it sincerely, but Eunseong took it as a joke.
“And we could get a puppy like Seolgi. I looked up New York, and there’s this huge park there. It’s called Central Park, and we could go running there and walk the dog—wouldn’t that be nice? Since we can’t name the dog Seolgi again, how about Baekseol? Seolgi’s little sibling, Baekseol.”
“Yes, Baekseol. I like that.”
Yoo Siwoon smiled brightly as if he’d heard something truly delightful. His smile, though rare, was pleasant. Eunseong’s face brightened in response.
“We could go running with Baekseol, take walks, and visit famous bagel places too.”
“Let’s do that.”
“Look at this. Isn’t it sparkly?”
Eunseong dipped his hand into the bathtub, then lifted his palm with water. His white palm sparkled as if sprinkled with pearls. Finding it fascinating and fun, he repeatedly immersed his hand and lifted it out of the water.
“I don’t like the color. I didn’t know Director Nam had such taste.”
“I didn’t use it at first either, but once I tried it, I found I liked it.”
“I hate this kind of thing.”
Eunseong burst out laughing when Yoo Siwoon, who rarely expressed dislike for anything, frowned.
Eunseong took Yoo Siwoon’s hand and dipped it into the purple water in the tub, then pulled it out. His hand was covered with a gleaming sheen. The cross tattoo shimmered as if embedded with jewels.
“The water’s warm.”
“…”
“Would you like to come in?”
Eunseong deliberately wet Yoo Siwoon’s cheek with his hand. He caressed Yoo Siwoon’s face with his wet hand as he asked.
Yoo Siwoon, gazing at Eunseong, stood up without refusing. He undressed slowly. He removed his clothes one by one, as if showcasing himself. Just as Yoo Siwoon was sacred to Eunseong, Eunseong was sacred to Yoo Siwoon.
He knew that Eunseong stared at his naked body with particularly intense focus. Especially with eyes that admiringly observed what he himself didn’t have.
After hanging his clothes on the bathroom hooks, Yoo Siwoon soon became completely nude and entered the bathtub where Eunseong was sitting. As he immersed himself in the purple-colored water he disliked, the water level rose instantly.
Yoo Siwoon slightly turned the hot water faucet, adjusting it so that warm water trickled out. The sound of flowing water refreshed their ears.
As he sat back against the tub, his joints, tired from the day’s activities, seemed to dissolve in the hot water. A groaning sigh escaped from his lips.
“Ahhh…”
Eunseong looked at Yoo Siwoon as he exhaled deeply.
“You really sound like an old man, ahjussi. Does it feel good?”
“Yes, it feels good.”
“It just feels hot to me.”
“Wait until you’re ten years older. Then you’ll understand how refreshing hot water can be. Don’t try to know everything so hastily.”
Yoo Siwoon suddenly lifted Eunseong’s weight and seated him on his thighs, facing him. His hands didn’t hesitate to slowly caress Eunseong’s buttocks and the area below, as if massaging them.
He liked Eunseong’s imperfect lower body. Not despite it being imperfect and having a disability, but because it was imperfect and had a disability. Eunseong liked that Yoo Siwoon loved his imperfections. He liked how Yoo Siwoon particularly adored and treasured that part, spending time caressing it, always wanting to touch it, acting anxiously as if desperate to touch it.
With a taciturn and seemingly cold face, his hands caressed the parts Eunseong had been ashamed of his entire life with clear intent. It was a touch that made his deficiency no longer a deficiency.
Eunseong actually pulled Yoo Siwoon’s hands back up, telling him not to touch that area too much. Yoo Siwoon’s arms wrapped around Eunseong’s waist and pulled him closer.
Eunseong poured the purple soapy water, which Yoo Siwoon didn’t particularly like, over his shoulders and chest. He brushed back his wet hair with his wet hands to see Yoo Siwoon’s face better.
“…Ahjussi, you had lovers before, right? Like girlfriends.”
“I did. What about you?”
“This is the first time I’ve liked someone, I told you.”
“If it’s your first time liking someone, why me of all people?”
“You said it was like the pull of blood. That we’re drawn to each other because of blood…”
“…”
Yoo Siwoon was not related to Eunseong by blood, and Eunseong’s family could be considered enemies of his household.
He believed that when Eunseong grew older and mature enough to understand this situation, there would be an opportunity to explain. But not now. In the current reality where they needed to escape from the family, he didn’t want to create unnecessary conflicts. Moreover, it was a very old incident that happened shortly after Eunseong was born, when Yoo Siwoon himself was young.
“I thought you liked me because I’m handsome. This is disappointing.”
“What? I can’t believe you’d say that about yourself.”
Eunseong said it was absurd but looked at Yoo Siwoon with fresh eyes. Indeed, he had thought him exceptionally good-looking from the first time he saw him. Whatever life he had lived, his face lacked the toughness that remains like an indelible stain from life’s ups and downs. He had an aura that was hard to find in the environment where Eunseong had lived.
His straight face was infused with the elegance peculiar to someone raised seeing good things, hearing good things, and receiving a good education. That’s why Eunseong refrained from swearing in front of him, which he had habitually done before, fearing Yoo Siwoon might find him frivolous and vulgar. Yet Yoo Siwoon covered his seemingly noble appearance with rough and dirty tattoos. He gave the strange excuse that he wanted to look delinquent.
Eunseong’s hand slowly caressed the wolf that extended from his shoulder to his neck.
“But why a wolf? Do you like wolves?”
Eunseong played with Yoo Siwoon’s face, wetting his hair, parting it this way and that, and brushing it back. He let Eunseong handle him like a toy. Yoo Siwoon answered Eunseong, who was making his wet hair stand up in spikes.
“Did you know? Wolves love only one mate for their entire life.”
“Really? But people often say lecherous men are like wolves. Is that all lies then?”
“They say when a wolf’s mate dies first, it chooses to starve to death beside them.”
“…That doesn’t sound cool at all.”
“That’s not why I got a wolf tattoo, but now I think it was a good choice.”
Yoo Siwoon grabbed the busy hands touching him, kissed them, and let them go. Eunseong carefully examined various parts of Yoo Siwoon’s upper body as if exploring, caressing each tattoo and rubbing his skin, and asked:
“But tattoos hurt, don’t they? Did it hurt a lot when you got these?”
“With numbing cream, it doesn’t hurt that much.”
“Then I want to get one too. Of an animal that would rather starve to death when its mate dies.”
“Where?”
“Hmm… here?”
Eunseong vaguely pointed to the area above his left chest and below his collarbone. Yoo Siwoon poured water on the part Eunseong indicated. The purple stream of water flowed opaquely down his white skin, areola, and nipple.
“Isn’t that too risqué?”
“But you have one there too.”
“It will hurt a lot here. It’s an area where numbing cream doesn’t work well.”
He flicked Eunseong’s small nipple. Eunseong’s upper body flinched. Soon, his thumb circled around the areola, lightly touching the nipple. Eunseong, flinching and hunching his shoulders, bit his lip slightly.
“…It’s too sensitive. It will hurt like hell. Do you think you can handle it?”
“I’ll do it. I… I want to do it too.”
“You react like this just from being touched, but if needles were to stab here… You might cry from the pain.”
It felt like a merciless stab. There was an illusion that the low, soft voice sounded threatening, as if piercing the sensitive skin. The way Yoo Siwoon described it made it seem like it would really hurt, like the pain would be unbearable.
“Still, still…”
“You’ll end up doing it while sobbing loudly from the pain. Because it hurts so much. Do you want to do it even if you’re crying?”
The thumb circling the nipple increased in pressure enough to knead the flesh, and Eunseong’s spine trembled. Eunseong buried his forehead against Yoo Siwoon’s shoulder and leaned on him.
“Ahh… mmm, ahjussi. If it hurts too much, ugh, if it hurts too much there, I’ll get it somewhere else.”
“Where else?”
“Somewhere else… somewhere else.”
“It’s better not to get one at all. Why mark such beautiful skin with something so hideous? Just like this…”
Yoo Siwoon drew in a slight breath. Unable to finish his sentence, only a sigh escaped between his lips.
“If you really want to get something, how about my name?”
“What?”
“How about just my name? Like ‘Yoo Siwoon’ right around here.”
His hand gently rubbed below Eunseong’s collarbone, saying it would look pretty tattooed there.
“They say couple tattoos are the stupidest thing in the world.”
“…Hmm.”
He raised his eyebrows slightly, responding to Eunseong’s words with an ambiguous expression that was neither agreement nor disagreement.
“Don’t you know that being in love means being so childish you don’t know what to do with yourself?”
“It’s really funny to hear that from someone who told me not to cross the 38th parallel.”
“Want me to show you something really funny?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
