An awkward tongue entered his mouth. And it began to lick like a cat. Gi Siyoung grew impatient. He couldn’t bear it anymore. He wished all the clothes in the world were designed with velcro for easy removal.
Even undoing the buckle of Seungun’s pants that tightened his waist appropriately felt like a waste of time. He shoved his large hand right into the pants. Seungun’s shoulders curled up like flower buds. When he put strength in his waist, the muscles in both buttocks that he’d grabbed also tensed as they wriggled and burrowed through the pants.
“Haa, haa….”
Between their separated lips, hot breaths of unknown ownership merged. Aah, who cares. Seungun’s brain became distorted. Seeing Gi Siyoung’s face with eyes loosened defenselessly, no one would be able to refuse. He faintly understood the feelings of gambling addicts who couldn’t quit once they’d had a taste.
Seungun made a groaning sound and collapsed into his arms. The pants would easily come down if only the buckle was undone, but as he just kneaded the buttocks inside the tight pants, the back pocket seam of the summer pants began to rip apart stitch by stitch.
Once these pants came off, it would be over. But he didn’t want to rush through things like roasting beans in lightning. He wanted to put in effort until Im Seungun was knocked down with an even more exhausted face than now and begged him.
Im Seungun scanned the silently laughing Gi Siyoung with anxious eyes. He was someone who stripped down to his underwear shamelessly in front of others. If such a person didn’t reveal his inner thoughts and laughed like that, it surely wasn’t a good sign.
“Haa, um….”
Beep-beep-beep! Beep-beep-beep! Beep-beep-beep! Beep-beep-beep! Beep-beep-beep! Beep-beep-beep!
Beep-beep-beep! Beep-beep-beep! Beep-beep-beep! Beep-beep-beep! Beep-beep-beep! Beep-beep-beep!
That’s when it happened. A fire alarm loud enough to make his heart drop rang from the ceiling. It felt like his eardrums would burst. Gi Siyoung pulled both hands out of Seungun’s pants and covered his ears. As if that wasn’t enough, the electricity was cut off in an instant. Red flashing lights spun endlessly in the pitch-black interior.
Gi Siyoung grabbed Seungun’s wrist and hastily got up from the sofa. Everyone knew that using the elevator during a fire was even more dangerous. Gi Siyoung moved at a very fast speed. Seungun was dragged along while covering his ear canal with his other hand. It felt like his eardrums would burst from the alarm ringing throughout the room.
“Gi Siyoung-ssi! What is this—!”
“Duck down! This way!”
Gi Siyoung discovered the emergency exit light shining in the dark corridor. They descended the stairs at a fast pace. With each floor they went down, the number of times they bumped into guests using the stairs increased. People in a panic didn’t know order.
Gi Siyoung pulled the lagging Seungun close behind his back. Seungun’s heart was pounding. In the dark, scream-filled space, a large back stood like a wall before him.
When they left the hotel, numerous guests had gathered outside searching for the cause of the fire alarm. People who rushed out and those who hadn’t yet entered the hotel all gathered in one place, making the vicinity a mess. People separated from their playing partners began calling each other’s names, stretching their hands here and there above their heads.
“Siyoung-ah! Gi Siyoung!”
“Seungun-ssi!”
“Over here, here!”
The two discovered company members waving at them. Only then did Gi Siyoung quietly release Seungun’s wrist that he’d been gripping tightly. Seungun rubbed his wrist while looking elsewhere. Wrist aside, both buttock cheeks that he’d gripped still tingled. His heart that had shot up to the ceiling began to beat back in its proper place.
“Seungun-ah, are you okay? You’re not hurt anywhere?”
“Yes, I’m fine. Is everyone else safe?”
“Yeah. I’ll go check on the situation and come back.”
The guests were each making a fuss trying to ask the staff who appeared to calm the situation what had happened. Following that, the hotel manager appeared with a microphone and bowed apologetically, saying it was a machine malfunction. He said he would somehow pay something as an apology, but such things couldn’t possibly enter the ears of people already frightened.
“Let’s go back in. That’s a relief. They said there was no fire.”
“How can we sleep feeling anxious?”
“I want to go to Korea. I miss Mom, Team Leader-nim.”
“This won’t do. Let’s all gather and sleep together tonight. How can we sleep scattered when we’re anxious? Siyoung, do you know how nervous I was when I couldn’t see you?”
Myeongwoo said to Siyoung while rubbing his chest. The other staff members also nodded in agreement with Myeongwoo’s opinion.
“Sunbae-nim! You’re safe! Manager Seungun-nim too! I’m fine too!”
Patrick announced his survival from far away. Gi Siyoung licked his lips and ran his hand through his hair. The last night in Bali was coming to a futile end.
TAKE 9
Myeongwoo cleared his throat while loosening his tense neck. As soon as he returned from Bali, he had to be dragged to a matchmaking meeting arranged by his mother. Blind dates were always nerve-wracking and anxious. A message came to Myeongwoo, who had arrived first and was taking deep breaths.
Do well this time, she’s the niece of the gwonsa who’s close with Mom. I happened to see her once too, and the young lady couldn’t be more well-behaved and gentle.
Checking his mother’s text full of excitement made him more nervous. Myeongwoo fixed his hair and properly adjusted his tie. Ding-a-ling, with the sound of a bell, the cafe door opened and a young lady in a neat two-piece suit entered.
Myeongwoo’s intuition pointed out that that person was his blind date partner. That made sense, because the young lady had been looking at people here and there since entering.
Myeongwoo sprang up from his seat.
“Hello. I’m Lee Myeongwoo.”
“Yes. I’m Song Mihui.”
As he always did, he personally pulled out the lady’s chair for her.
Sitting back down, Myeongwoo opened the menu. The woman chose a simple menu with Myeongwoo.
“A junior of mine told me about this place, and they said the tea is delicious. After having tea here, how about going to a nearby Western restaurant for our second round to eat steak and pasta? Mihui-ssi, do you like Western food?”
“Yes, I eat it well.”
“I see. Haha, I also eat anything well. Whatever’s given. I’ve never complained about side dishes since I was young.”
“Ah, yes.”
Soon tea brewed at the right temperature came out for each of them. They poured the tea water into small teacups and slowly let it flow down their throats, giving their tongues time to adjust. The young lady named Song Mihui was well-behaved and gentle as his mother said.
“I looked into it and the Western restaurant offers free parking for up to two hours. So after the meal, how would it be to casually watch a movie…?”
“Then wouldn’t we exceed the free time?”
“It’s only an hour at most, you know. Haha.”
After speaking, Myeongwoo regretted that he shouldn’t have mentioned the free parking time. After that too, as he expected, there was no particular progress. When Myeongwoo asked what about this movie, she said she’d already seen it, and when he asked about that movie, she said it wasn’t her taste.
“What did you say you do for work?”
“I work at a design company. What about you, Myeongwoo-ssi?”
“Ah, I work at a management company.”
“A management company, you say.”
“I’m working as an actor’s manager.”
“What company is it?”
“Chinmil.”
“Chinmil? Huh? I know that company. It’s quite famous. Whose manager are you?”
“An actor named Gi Siyoung…”
“Gi Siyoung?”
Song Mihui’s indifferent gaze transformed. He was tired of this reaction now. It wasn’t once or twice, so he’d become immune. Myeongwoo, who had become bitter, gulped down his tea.
The rest continued only with conversation about Gi Siyoung. Myeongwoo only then realized that Mihui was someone with this much curiosity who asked questions without reservation. As expected, the blind date ended without much gain. There was no time to use the free parking at the restaurant across the street either.
When he tried to get up after simply finishing the tea, Song Mihui suddenly said she got an urgent contact from work and promised to meet next time. Myeongwoo, who had become dejected, pondered whether he should get plastic surgery after all, or lose weight before that, and got up from the cafe where he remained alone.
That’s when he saw a familiar back on the opposite road.
“Seungun?”
As soon as they returned from Bali, Seungun had taken time off for reserve forces training. Gi Siyoung, who heard that story today, said, “Oh my, you can even lift a gun with those arms?” Myeongwoo had come straight to the blind date location after Siyoung’s schedule ended at 3 PM. Now that the blind date was over, it was past 5 PM.
“Hmm. It’s not time for reserve forces to end yet.”
Even if it had ended early, he was in casual clothes. There wasn’t even the crossbody bag he always carried around for him to have changed clothes in that short time. As he exited the cafe, the crosswalk signal happened to change. It wasn’t that he was trying to interrogate him; with the blind date having fallen through, he was just glad to meet someone he knew. Myeongwoo immediately crossed the crosswalk.
‘You want to go back to the life of jumping in front of cars and getting settlement money like before? You know all too well that this job is easier than that, right? You eat meals regularly every mealtime, don’t you? Your coworkers who don’t know anything about what kind of bastard you are. After eating with those guys, you even have cozy coffee time, don’t you? Is a bastard like you even qualified for that?’
He was summoned as soon as he arrived in Korea. He had to pay the price for the news that he’d gained nothing even after going overseas.
‘This is why people shouldn’t ride airplanes. This bastard came back with his lungs just full of air.’
He agreed with President Gu’s words. After riding an airplane that wasn’t in his destiny and dreaming futile dreams, the road back to reality was even more harsh. His overworked body was shivering cold. Seungun hastened his steps with his head buried to the ground like a withering flower. He wanted to hurry home and rest. That’s when someone grabbed his shoulder, calling Seungun’s name.
