Chapter 30
Having bought the desired item, it seemed best to return to the inn for the day, so Yun-seo headed straight there. But when he stepped into the alley approaching the inn, he noticed men blocking the middle of the passage.
Two men were showing a piece of paper to a woman—clearly a wanted poster at a glance. And those holding the poster didn’t appear to be ordinary men.
The moment he witnessed this, he felt the hair on the back of his neck rising one by one with chilling dread. He learned there was a different level of coldness that swept over you when facing not just a simple premonition but a truly ominous reality.
Yun-seo swallowed dryly and slowly turned around. The more urgent, the more you should take the long way. The more urgent, the more you should take the long way. He suppressed the urge to run immediately and repeated the words of the ancients.
After taking a few steps away…
“Excuse me.”
Even though the call was clearly directed at him, Yun-seo didn’t stop walking. He moved on calmly, pretending not to hear, but his pupils facing forward trembled aimlessly.
“Excuse me!”
“Goodness, is he deaf?”
The sound of the two men’s footsteps followed behind him. Moving with deliberately moderate strides, neither too wide nor too narrow, he could feel the men rapidly closing the distance.
This won’t work. This won’t work.
His heart was beating so wildly that he couldn’t even hear his own voice in his head. His fingertips, curled and hidden in his palms, trembled uncontrollably.
He prayed inwardly for them to turn back, but just as he exited the alley and was about to turn the corner, a man’s hand touched his shoulder. Yun-seo immediately shook off the man’s hand and dashed forward.
“Hey…! Hey!”
“What’s going on? Catch him!”
He couldn’t be caught here like this. Not so futilely without even saying goodbye to Hwi. He had promised himself to do everything he wanted before being caught, but there was still so much left undone. The desperate desire not to be dragged away like this rose like a flame, propelling Yun-seo’s feet.
After passing through various long and short alleys to reach the marketplace, he glanced back. Both men, with fierce eyes, were still pursuing him. Yun-seo weaved through the crowded throng with his nimble body.
I’m sorry, I’m sorry… As he bumped into people’s shoulders and bodies here and there, Yun-seo muttered apologies with a contorted face. Behind him, the men seemed to be roughly pushing through, causing screams and curses to erupt.
Yun-seo looked back once more and confirmed that the men had been delayed, widening the gap. Not missing that opportunity, he turned right and exited the marketplace.
As he ran straight down a quiet path and heard footsteps following from a distance, he turned right again. With many side paths everywhere, it seemed possible to shake them off with effort. Embracing this faint hope like clutching a cracking porcelain vessel, Yun-seo turned onto a side path leading left.
“Ah…!”
Unfortunately, he saw a wall blocking the end of the path. It was a dead end. He nearly fell over as he abruptly stopped, but managed to regain his balance by bracing against the wall, then immediately turned around and ran toward the opposite path.
“Stop right there!”
With just that one misstep, the men had significantly closed the distance.
Ripened sunlight caressed Yun-seo’s cheeks through the spaces between houses, coming and going. Sweat poured down, breath reached his chin, his legs no longer felt like his own, and his run was visibly slowing, bringing tears to his eyes.
Rising despair soaked his clothes, weighing him down. Even with a firmly resolved mind to never be caught, his body wouldn’t easily comply. Yun-seo gritted his teeth and turned onto a path leading left.
Just as he rounded the corner, a hand suddenly emerged from the open doorway of a house on the right side of the path, grabbing Yun-seo’s arm and pulling him in. Yun-seo was helplessly dragged inside by the unfamiliar touch.
“Mmph…!”
After colliding into someone’s embrace, he was gently pushed back and looked up. A strong jaw and firmly closed lips, a straight and prominent nose, and sharp eyes extending to the sides…
It was Hwi. It was him.
As soon as their eyes met, Hwi quickly scanned Yun-seo’s face and took him deeper inside.
The space, more like an empty lot than a house, had red, yellow, and blue dyed cloths hung on lines attached to long poles. The fabrics swaying with the gentle breeze touched and fell away from the two men.
As noisy footsteps were heard from outside and the door was about to be flung open, Hwi pulled a red cloth from the line, draped it over Yun-seo’s head, and pressed their waists closely together. Then, as he tilted his head toward Yun-seo, their noses nearly touched.
Yun-seo couldn’t exhale even a single breath, and he didn’t know if it was because of the footsteps that had entered and then hesitated, or because they were so close that he could see all the subtle shades in Hwi’s black eyes.
Hwi raised the hand not wrapped around Yun-seo’s waist and properly arranged the red cloth covering his head. Realizing that from behind, this cloth would look like a mongsu—a veil that high-ranking women used when they didn’t want to reveal their identity—Yun-seo’s lips parted in unspoken admiration.
The approaching footsteps brought Yun-seo back to reality. If the man didn’t turn away now, if he was caught right in front of Hwi…
As his lower lip trembled finely, Hwi’s gaze fell upon it. Thud—when the man took one step closer, Hwi’s lips suddenly descended onto Yun-seo’s.
The moment something soft touched and pressed firmly against him, Yun-seo tightly closed his eyes. Though startled by the unexpected situation, he could do nothing but clench his fists and stiffen his body.
When Hwi sucked Yun-seo’s lower lip into his mouth, a moist sound flowed faintly. His lips were warm and soft. As he sucked first the lower lip and then the upper, saliva naturally pooled under Yun-seo’s tongue, causing him to unconsciously part his lips.
Hwi’s movements came to a complete stop. Just as Yun-seo was about to lift his trembling eyelids, Hwi tightened his grip on Yun-seo’s waist and thrust his tongue between the parted lips.
“Mmh…!”
Unlike the gentle way he had sucked on his lips, Hwi’s tongue probed inside Yun-seo’s mouth with voracity and ruthlessness. Gasping for breath, Yun-seo could only use all his strength to accept the brazen intruder.
The pointed tip of Hwi’s tongue pressed against the moistened flesh, traced up to the roof of his mouth as if leaving a mark, and stirred his trembling tongue. Though it was his mouth being toyed with, the area between his thighs tingled and itched as if he needed to urinate. Yun-seo clutched Hwi’s body as if it were a lifeline and moaned through his nose.
The sound of a throat being cleared followed by receding footsteps echoed from behind, but it didn’t register in Yun-seo’s ears at all. The cloth placed over his head slipped down, and Hwi’s thumb caressed Yun-seo’s exposed cheek and ear. The protective energy pooled in his lower abdomen surged, and his toes curled.
Hwi stole Yun-seo’s breath and saliva hurriedly, like a predator tearing into meat for the first time, or like a newborn child inhaling air after leaving its mother’s womb. In this kiss, devoid of his usual composure and consideration, Yun-seo shuddered, gasping like he had hiccups.
“Hnn, mmh…”
Though it was incredibly difficult to breathe properly, Yun-seo’s body seemed to melt as if losing its bones. His mind went blank, and a strange sensation he had never experienced before enveloped his entire body. He wished to remain in Hwi’s embrace like this forever.
Unconsciously, as he pressed his legs closer to Hwi, something hard poked him below. And at that moment, Hwi suddenly pulled his head back as if pushing Yun-seo away.
Warm breaths intermingled, moistening the lips of the two men. When Yun-seo slowly lifted his eyelids, his eyes, immersed in a dreamy afterglow, met Hwi’s. The intensity drawn in Hwi’s pupils seemed deeper than before.
Belatedly exhaling a deep breath, Yun-seo stared blankly at Hwi until the children’s loud voices from outside startled him, causing him to step back.
Hastily looking around, he realized there was no one else here besides Hwi and himself. Before the relief of having shaken off his pursuers could settle, Yun-seo became aware of the state of his lower body and hunched over, lowering his eyes.
His cheeks were flushed red, and his lips, swollen from frequent friction, glistened. Through his parted lips, excited breaths still poured out one after another. Unaware that Hwi’s gaze was openly scanning him, Yun-seo fidgeted with the cloth that was about to slip off his body, not knowing what to do.
Why, why did he kiss me?
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
