He put on fresh sheets, neatly arranged the blanket, and even shook out the pillows with his hands to organize everything like a hotel bedroom, and as he was leaving the room, he heard the sound of someone pressing the front door number key. Soohyun temporarily placed the bed sheet he was about to wash on the sofa and went to the entrance. It must be Jinwoo who said he’d come to the house.
“Welco… ah…”
But the person entering was an unexpected figure.
* * *
“Seojun came to the company today? What brings you here?”
“Ah. I was going to study and go exercise, but my PT teacher said he didn’t have time.”
“Really?”
On days without a schedule, Seojun mainly spent time outside. He exercised to maintain his body or sometimes received tutoring to study foreign languages. Though there were actors who called people to their homes to exercise or study, Seojun rarely invited people to his house.
“But where’s Jinwoo hyung?”
“He should be in the office?”
Seojun entered the office where Jinwoo would be and tapped his back. Jinwoo seemed to have just finished revising the standard contract received from the center and was putting the printed paper into a document envelope.
“Hyung?”
“Huh? Seojun-ah? What brings you to the company?”
Confirming that what was on the screen was a contract, Seojun subtly took the document envelope held in his hand.
“Is this that contract?”
“Yeah, since Lee Soohyun-ssi is at home now, I’m going to write it up right away. Why?”
Seojun took out the paper with a somewhat displeased face and looked over the contents. At the end of the relatively simple employment contract of several pages, along with clauses related to pheromone care that Seojun had tipped off to Jinwoo in advance, content about confidentiality was written.
“Want to check it? Is there anything you don’t like?”
Seojun’s eyes moved busily. Inside the contract, along with the hours Soohyun had to work per day, the corresponding hourly wage and even content about pheromone care costs were written in detail, so there seemed to be no lacking points.
“No. I’m going home now anyway. I’ll just go and do it myself. I just need to get a signature, right? And my signature.”
“Uh… huh? You? Now?”
“Should I give one copy to Lee Soohyun-ssi? Contracts usually work that way.”
Hearing that Seojun would go himself, Jinwoo made a face like it was hard to believe, but Seojun’s expression was full of leisure. Jinwoo inadvertently handed over the contract to Seojun, and Seojun even waved his hand as he leisurely left the office.
* * *
“Lee Soohyun-ssi, we meet again.”
“Yes, hello.”
Soohyun’s face hardened stiffly. Though Seojun became displeased at Soohyun’s appearance, whose complexion worsened the moment he saw him, recalling how he’d treated him the other day, he thought it wasn’t an unreasonable reaction and forcibly set aside his uncomfortable feelings.
“I received contact that Jinwoo-ssi was coming.”
“I had to come home anyway, so I just came myself. Since it’s my house.”
“Yes.”
He wanted to treat him gently, but his words kept flowing crookedly. Recalling how he’d had his penis in those prettily closed red lips, his face suddenly burned and he fanned himself with the document envelope he was holding.
“Is the house hot…”
“I ventilated for about an hour.”
“Yes. Well. Anyway, please sit for a moment. I brought the contract.”
At Seojun’s suggestion, Soohyun quietly sat on the sofa. Seojun briefly surveyed Soohyun’s appearance from head to toe. His outfit was no different from when they first met, and his face, where you couldn’t tell what he was thinking, was the same as always. Even his face, stiff with tension, was strangely beautiful. Seojun tapped the table with a pen to erase his distracting thoughts.
“Please check it. I’ve already read through it all. I’m the employer anyway. I just added a few special clauses to the center’s standard contract content.”
“……”
Soohyun received the contract Seojun handed him and read it slowly from the top. The basics were 4 days a week, 6 hours a day of work, and a special clause was added that working days could be adjusted flexibly.
Meanwhile, Seojun glimpsed Soohyun’s profile as he read through the contract without any particular change in expression, only to the extent that he wouldn’t notice.
The curve dropping from forehead to nose was gentle, and the line dropping from nose to philtrum was straight yet very—not too high and modest. The flow from the philtrum to the chin was natural like flowing water, and the line continuing from the tip of the chin to the neck was gently curved.
After carefully examining his face, Seojun had no choice but to acknowledge it. That at least his face was very much to his taste.
Soohyun’s eyes, which confirmed the content about pheromone care, trembled finely, but Seojun didn’t notice. If it had been Chaeho, he might have noticed Soohyun’s change.
When the employer requests pheromone care, the employee shall make efforts to cooperate unless there are special circumstances.
Pheromone care costs shall be paid separately according to the center’s standard amount.
“If there’s anything… strange or you don’t like, please say so now.”
Soohyun looked at Seojun’s face very briefly before writing his name on the contract. Above where Lee Soohyun was written, Seojun’s name was written.
“I’ll be in your care.”
“I’ll also… be in your care.”
Seojun stuttered with a surprised face as if he didn’t expect Soohyun to say such a thing to him. In fact, Seojun had something he wanted to ask Soohyun today. He wanted to ask why there was absolutely no pheromone scent from him.
“Um… Lee Soohyun-ssi?”
“Yes.”
“That… ah… never mind. But is your expression always like that?”
Another odd remark popped out of Seojun’s mouth. It seemed like on the bed at least his expressions were varied, but now he couldn’t read any emotion on Soohyun’s face. Though expecting that he couldn’t have good feelings toward Seojun who had looked down on and even disdained him, Seojun wanted to see even a faint smile on his beautiful face.
“…He’s shy around strangers, and he’s just naturally like this.”
“Shy around strangers?”
Seojun crossed his arms with an incredulous expression. Even though he had no intention of treating him badly, sarcastic words kept slipping out of Seojun’s mouth.
“Yes. So it’s a little…”
“Someone who’s shy around strangers has sex with someone they just met?”
For a moment, Soohyun’s eyes wavered. Seojun found himself smiling unconsciously at seeing Soohyun’s change, finding it pleasant.
Seojun’s surroundings were always teeming with people trying to seduce him. Even if he just wiggled a finger, even if he just looked at them once with affectionate eyes, they would approach him with faces that said they’d die of happiness. But Soohyun was different. An indifferent face that didn’t waver even while looking at him, and even though he’d been treating him badly, Soohyun’s attitude remained the same as at first.
“…Because it’s work.”
“……?”
“I thought of it as work. That’s all.”
Seojun furrowed his brow deeply. Work. How long had he been rolling around at the center to be able to so cleanly categorize sex with an employer—which was just nicely packaged as pheromone care—as work? Seojun handed one of the two contract sheets to Soohyun and twisted his lips.
“Lee Soohyun-ssi, it seems like you roughly finished the housework, is that right?”
“That’s true. Though the sheet laundry is left.”
“Then can I ask you to do something?”
Soohyun, who had been looking down slightly at only the table, finally raised his head upon hearing Seojun’s words. Seojun wanted to see his pure white, neat face become disheveled again.
“I’d like to receive pheromone care. Right now.”
Seojun didn’t take his eyes off Soohyun’s face. He hoped he would be greatly shaken like before, but Soohyun didn’t. However, Seojun failed to notice that Soohyun’s earlobes had turned red.
“I’ll… prepare.”
Soohyun neatly folded the contract, put it in his pocket, and stood up. Seojun sat crookedly watching him enter the bathroom, then spat out a harsh word quietly.
* * *
‘Hoo….’
Inside the bathroom, Soohyun let out a long sigh. Since that incident five years ago, sex was still a frightening thing for Soohyun. But approaching thirty years old, Soohyun was desperate to somehow blend into the world. Repeating to himself that last time’s sex wasn’t bad, Soohyun slowly took off his clothes.
Having lived a life of celibacy—not really celibacy—for so long that he couldn’t even remember well when his last intercourse was, Soohyun had tried very hard to act naturally when Seojun requested it the other day. Just as he’d seen in the pamphlet from the center, he first satisfied him with his mouth, asked if he wanted to do more, and proceeded to penetration.
It was difficult to understand why Seojun showed a hostile attitude toward him when he was doing everything according to what was set, but he didn’t want to think deeply about it.
“…….”
The voice of ‘that man’ who had pressed his lips to his ear and whispered lewdly that he gets wet easily suddenly came to mind, and Soohyun shrank. Even though it should have faded by now, the memories from that time still remained in his head, popping up day and night without distinction to torment Soohyun.
