The smell, the smell pierces his nose. When heat approaches, the nose notices first. The smell that surges up from under his armpits, from his forearms, from his waist, from his groin—he can’t stand it.
Woonghee buried his face deep into the hollow of his arm.
“Ugh…!”
This disgusting peach smell…. During puberty, he’d rather have just chomped through all his limbs, crunching them down. If he didn’t leave a single piece of flesh, maybe he’d find himself a little less repulsive.
“…Fuck, this is annoyingly uncomfortable.”
It’s still dawn, so the humans should be asleep. Woonghee reluctantly grabbed the blanket. It was a rag he’d use instead of a towel.
He quietly headed toward the valley. Squelch, squelch. The damp grass clung to his ankles.
Now reaching the valley, he slowly pulled his pants down.
“Ah, ah…!”
At that moment, a strange sound echoed from somewhere. Woonghee blinked his eyes in his underwear.
‘What’s that sound?’
It sounded exactly like someone’s lower belly getting repeatedly punched with a fist. Just as he was tilting his head, a high-pitched moan rang out all around.
“Aaang! You fucking bastard, there, there, ram that dickhead in properly, fuck!”
Abruptly, Woonghee’s body froze like a log. His cheeks flushed bright red in an instant.
“Aah, ah, hyaaak!”
Moreover, this high-pitched moan growing increasingly steep—as far as he knew, it definitely belonged to Lee Ijun.
‘Cra-crazy…!’
He tried to run away quickly. As he hurriedly turned his body, his foot got caught on a tough vine. Woonghee’s body tumbled forward with a crash.
“Kugh…!”
The smell of mud and moisture rushed to the tip of his nose. His chin thudded! against something hard. Whether it was a log he’d crashed into, it was hard as a brick and hurt enough to bring tears to his eyes.
Yet even more urgent than that was this situation right now. I, I have to run. Woonghee reflexively got up and fled.
Or tried to. If only he hadn’t discovered something and frozen solid on the spot.
“Wh-why are you…”
What he saw before his eyes were broad, solid shoulders half-submerged in the valley water.
Steam rising faintly above the water’s surface. And beneath it, Managing Director Gi was slowly turning his gaze as he leaned back at an angle.
So what Woonghee had crashed his chin into was his shoulder.
The Chinese character tattoo carved out as if with a knife along his spine breathed vividly even beyond the rippling water.
“Shhhit.”
With a thin white stick between his lips, he muttered unclearly.
“Who’s being so loud. While people are fucking.”
He was a big body even when wearing a suit. It was shocking, and he couldn’t help but admire. He had to feel jealousy that made his bones ache and tingle.
However.
However, actually seeing him expose his entire body in its primordial state changed his thoughts completely.
The muscles embedded in every detail rippled smoothly, flexibly, undulating with each exhale. He seemed like a beast breathing out rough breaths, yet also like a sculpture dancing languidly. He was seductively alluring to a sickening degree.
Woonghee stood frozen in place. The tips of his ears, perked up like fairy ears, turned bright red.
At a time like this, of all times….
Of all times, Woonghee was in just his underwear. Blue-striped underwear. Something he’d bought at a night market in Cebu, Philippines—three for 2,000 won. It couldn’t tightly wrap around his groin or support his soft scrotum.
It was just gaping open, shamelessly about to show his bare skin or not.
W-would it be better to pick up his pants and put them on now…? Woonghee tightly rolled up the hem of his underwear in his fist. It was a pathetically cheap rag.
“Showing off for me?”
He could feel the gaze drilling into him. If you grabbed those eyeballs in your hand and squeezed them, oil would probably drip out. The man smiled slowly, tearing the corners of his mouth. Pressing his reddish tongue firmly with his molars, he asked.
“Thanks to you, I’m enjoying my cigarette. Want one too, Woonghee-ssi?”
That stickily melting voice…
Woonghee shook his head vigorously. Soon, Managing Director Gi, with a slight snicker, slowly emerged from the valley water.
As if a killer whale were swimming inside, huge waves spread out. The waves surged and drenched between Woonghee’s ankles and toes.
…Splash, the stream of water rushing in like waves.
Woonghee deliberately fixed his eyes only on his feet. Because he absolutely didn’t want to make eye contact with that terrifying body. Squelch, squelch. Those feet, large as a battleship, approached him. Feeling an arm extending long above him, Woonghee squeezed his eyes shut.
“I was wondering what that smell was.”
Amidst the moaning sounds, a low rumble stuck together damply. The man had a habit of clicking his tongue at the end of his words, and his diction was incredibly precise. Even amidst all this clamor and noise, his voice stabbed right into his ears. Like chopping firewood with an axe.
“Apple?”
When he heard the voice from above, he slowly opened his eyes to find Managing Director Gi picking up the suit pants and briefs hung on a tree. He soon frowned. With such deeply defined features, even a slight change in his expression was immediately noticeable.
The way it controlled the atmosphere was astounding.
“No, is it peach…”
He wondered what he was talking about, but he was babbling about his pheromone scent. Woonghee’s plump cheeks tinged slightly red. He shoved that thick lower body into his bottoms.
Through the open zipper gap, the jet-black drawers had a sleek sheen. Should he say it looked exactly like something made from sharkskin? Even the brand logo was stamped on it boldly. From start to finish, it was completely different class from his cheap underwear.
He muttered as he zipped up.
“I usually recognize pheromones right away once I smell them. But Woonghee-ssi is so cheap.”
He smiled softly.
“I didn’t realize. Should I say this is what they call being mismatched in class?”
Woonghee clenched his fist. Why did even his pheromone have to be this kind of fruit? If only it had been at least luxurious, wouldn’t his life have entered a slightly easier course? Instead of being covered in this hardcore life like filth.
“You’re talking like you’re grading pigs.”
Woonghee clenched his fist.
“Isn’t that kind of thing problematic these days?”
“Why? You want to make a problem with me?”
Wet grass clung damply to his grasp. Soon Woonghee stood up from his spot, panting. Wet droplets splattered damply in all directions, and he even staggered once in between.
“If Woonghee-ssi is fine with it, I’m not opposed.”
It’s fun, isn’t it—his eyes muttering that were fixed on Woonghee’s chest. His nipples, trembling and tinged with a reddish salmon color, were fully swollen.
“Where exactly are you looking right now? Even if this is an island, your humanity right now…”
Woonghee flushed bright red as if he’d been slapped. He hurriedly clutched his chest with his forearms.
“Woonghee-ssi, you know what?”
“…I don’t want to hear it.”
“You get excessively nervous whenever you see me.”
Anyone watching would think I’m going to eat you up. That’s how he muttered again.
But most people get nervous around you. Even Director Hwang, whose shoulders rise to the sky as he walks with his hands behind his back, reads your mood and atmosphere.
“Woonghee-ssi’s heat cycle is coming soon, huh.”
Yeah, fuck. As expected, you noticed too. How could you not, someone like you who seems to have swallowed hundreds of cunning snakes.
“What does that have to do with you? I have suppressants.”
“Ah, do you?”
The man even muttered “That’s too bad” in a tone that didn’t sound disappointed at all.
“How many?”
He twisted his lips. Trembling, he glared wide-eyed at that bastard.
“Can’t tell me?”
…Son of a bitch.
Now he grabbed the shirt from the tree branch and picked it up. As he slowly buttoned it up one by one, that brown skin that looked hard as stone gradually disappeared inside the shirt. A damp sound cut through the humid air. Woonghee’s lips twitched.
No. I should shut up now.
Even though he knew he should clamp his mouth shut, looking at that white shirt, there was something he desperately wanted to ask. Woonghee, whose danger detection center reacted faster and more sensitively than anyone else’s, felt like he absolutely couldn’t let this moment pass without asking.
“You did it on purpose, didn’t you.”
“What?”
The man’s thick eyebrows twitched. Woonghee slowly extended his arm diagonally. He pointed to one side with his finger.
“Putting that corpse with the huge build there.”
But the man didn’t give that direction a single glance. Inside his eyes that looked as if someone had torn them open deeply with a knife tip, only his pupils moved swiftly. He was looking directly at Woonghee.
“Ah, you saw that?”
His tone was utterly peaceful. He didn’t admit it, but it was essentially an affirmation. It was a leisurely tone like saying, I think kimchi stew would be good for dinner tonight.
He hated that airtight peace, that monotony, that languidness so much it made him shudder. Because it felt like physiological disgust was surging up from his core.
“Why did you do it?”
Managing Director Gi stared at Woonghee. Darkness pooled deeply in his sunken eye sockets. He couldn’t actually tell if those pupils were still directed at him.
However, wasn’t that man’s entire body directed at him? With his chest wide open as if about to pounce on him at any moment.
“Why shouldn’t I?”
He whispered.
“It’s already dead anyway.”
Woonghee stared at him. The thoughts that had been scattered here and there slowly pieced together.
And finally completed a single puzzle. Not just people, but animals also need to drink water. You deliberately chose this place. So it would be more visible to the wild boar that came to quench its thirst.
…Just.
Just as a proper human being, you shouldn’t do that.
Woonghee bit his lower lip firmly. The tender flesh swelled plumply, showing new red blood.
And yet he’d thought this side was closer to being human than Director Hwang.
This man, not content with being a beast, even went so far as to use a person. Like a tool. Goosebumps rose on Woonghee’s smooth thighs.
Would he readily use anything if necessary?
“I just explore mutually convenient methods and take the most favorable one first.”
The man slowly turned his body. The shirt was tight on his thick forearms. While buttoning the cuffs one by one, he approached closer to the river. The dawn light reflecting and bursting from the river water shattered and flowed over his entire body.
