“Are you going out?”
“I asked where my car is.”
Taeju hated saying things twice. Thanks to that, his expression became even fouler. The two eyes glaring sharply substituted for any answer.
“Follow me.”
Mr. Park, who had worked here for over 5 years, led Taeju to the parking lot without a word. And tactfully added.
“If you come back too late, it’ll be difficult to open the door for you…”
The man who was around his father’s age spoke almost crawling. Taeju got in his car without even acknowledging him.
The Levante showed off its heavy exhaust sound and shot out swiftly.
There were two choices. Go down to the downtown area below or go up to Seoul as is.
It was good that he’d boldly gotten in the car. But it took a long time to choose. Taeju decided on a raw fish restaurant near the beach, thinking he’d fill his empty stomach first.
Sitting alone at a raw fish restaurant near Jangsa Port felt fucking terrible. When the sun rose vigorously through the wide glass window, it felt even more fucking terrible. The sunlight was stinging and the ocean was brilliant.
On a day this nice, he was stuck in a remote place with no connection, supposedly to nurse a cousin hyung he barely knew. The most fucking terrible thing among all of it was the fact that he couldn’t drink soju because of his car.
Taeju gave up quickly. One bottle of soju was appropriate as an accompaniment to the assorted raw fish platter he ate for brunch. Thanks to that, Taeju could tilt back beer with the shimmering light spreading before him. Now going up to Seoul became distant.
Taeju glanced once at his car parked in the beach parking lot and looked at the messages from friends who’d replied. They all declined Taeju’s enticement that he’d buy all the alcohol and raw fish if they came to Sokcho right now, citing geographical limitations.
“Tsk, useless bastards.”
The words he said while gulping down beer were as bitter as the alcohol’s concentration. Regrettable, but it couldn’t be helped. He figured he’d just mess around nearby and go back around when Seok Iseo went to sleep.
Spending time until late at night wasn’t difficult. What was difficult was his strange feelings about Seok Iseo. When he saw Seok Iseo’s face, it was really hard to hide his true feelings.
Perhaps that was a bit different from it being hard to hide his true feelings. He wanted to see that quiet, well-behaved face, that white and dry expression become distorted. Being swept around by him in various ways while the tips of his ears turned red.
Thinking endlessly about him led to a very unseemly corner.
When he recalled the earlobes, wrists, and heels, the white, smooth arms came to mind in succession. Next was the shoulder line where bones could be felt, radiating hot heat.
When he even recalled the concave spinal line he’d felt when he first met and hugged him, it became uncontrollable. Right now he was preparing to mentally strip naked a man with delicate lines.
No matter how free-spirited his tastes and thoughts were, he couldn’t handle that. But the funny thing was, while mentally adhering to screening regulations, physically it seemed not to be the case as his lower abdomen became quite heavy.
He’d killed time roughly and had a few drinks. He’d hoped there might be a woman, but it seemed better to strip the pants off his cousin hyung at the villa rather than lift the skirts of the women here. And the moment he had that thought, the taste of alcohol dropped completely.
When the sun set, the night breeze felt cold.
He got in a taxi instead of his car and gave the villa address. In the taxi speeding along the night road, Taeju climbed the hill only after 11 o’clock. The taxi that stopped at the vehicle control gate pressed the intercom.
“How may I help you?”
When a voice flowed from the intercom, the taxi driver glanced at Taeju.
“…Yeon Taeju.”
His answer was late because he was thinking about Seok Iseo. As if they already knew it was Taeju, the control gate opened right away.
It was pitch black all around. Because there were no shops or buildings nearby, it felt even darker. The taxi dropped Taeju off at the front gate and went back down the way it came. Meanwhile, Mr. Park came out from the annex a bit away to greet Taeju.
“You’re here.”
“You sleep over there, I see?”
Taeju pointed with the tip of his chin at the annex near the villa. Mr. Park nodded that he did. He entered the front door lock password and held the door open for Taeju to enter.
“The auntie too?”
“Yes, only guests stay in the villa.”
“I see, you can go.”
“Yes.”
Mr. Park even bowed his head in greeting. Taeju, who’d been about to enter the villa, stopped in place.
“Ah, ahjussi, can you bring my car tomorrow? I drank so I came by taxi.”
“Ah…”
“It’s in the beach parking lot near Jangsa Port.”
Taeju rummaged through his pockets and tossed him the keys, then went inside as is.
The inside of the house was pitch dark. There was only indirect lighting that came on just enough to see the floor, emitting an orange glow, with no sign of people.
Instead of going up to his room, Taeju crossed the first floor corridor and pushed open the workshop door.
Beyond the wooden door that opened smoothly without sound was equally dark. Taeju stood at the top of the landing and looked down. Because there were many large structures, particularly thick shadows were cast sparsely. The space had a deep blue tint.
It was the color of the ocean’s deep hue coming through the glass window, absorbing and emanating the blue light of the aquarium. Taeju gripped the stair railing once and left that place without lingering.
Going up to the second floor where his room was, the alcohol finally belatedly rose up. He became pleasantly tipsy.
He hadn’t drunk much. But his tension seemed to have released in the house’s silence and darkness.
He was pushing open his room door when this time the door at the very end caught his eye. It seemed he was sleeping from this time. No light leaked through the door crack either. In this vast space, there were only Seok Iseo and himself. A strange sense of isolation warmed his lower body.
Taeju rolled the flesh inside his mouth in a circle. Instead of entering his room, he moved his feet with long strides.
Of course it wasn’t out of worry for his cousin hyung whose fever had risen to 38.9 degrees in the morning. Taeju’s face contorted enigmatically. Was he groaning in pain, or was he sleeping deathly pale like his original appearance?
He stood in front of Seok Iseo’s door. The long door handle was caught under Taeju’s palm.
Should he just casually open it and go in to ask if he was okay? If he brazenly said he came in because he was worried, what reaction would he show?
The handle turned slightly. If he just applied a bit more force here, the latch would turn and the door would open. His heart beat fast from the alcohol and his mouth went dry.
Soon Taeju chuckled in front of Seok Iseo’s door and removed his hand from the handle without hesitation.
He washed and lay on the bed. His whole body relaxed languidly and his lower body ached numbly. Even though he exhaled long enough for his stomach to become hollow, the arousal that had risen wouldn’t subside at all.
But he didn’t want to grab his lower part here and shake it obscenely. He was drowsy enough to fall asleep as is from the alcohol he’d drunk moderately.
The excitement pooling moderately in his lower abdomen was sucked into sleep and faded.
Taeju woke from sleep because he was thirsty. With his eyes closed, he was debating whether to just sleep again like this or go down to get water when he heard a sound from beside him.
Goosebumps rose all along his spine. Thud thud. In the room where only he should be, the sound of walking echoed.
Once again he heard the sound of thud thud approaching. His hazy mind snapped awake. At the footsteps heard right next to him, goosebumps rose sharply to his scalp.
“Ah, shit. What the…!”
Taeju opened his eyes and simultaneously raised his upper body from the bed. And the shout he’d let out at the towering silhouette he saw subsided.
“Seok Iseo?”
He furrowed his brow fully and asked irritably. He immediately threw off the blanket and pressed against the mattress. He raised his upper body more. The outline he glimpsed was indeed Seok Iseo.
“What the hell are you doing? You scared me.”
A tightly locked voice came out scratching his throat. When the goosebumps that had risen along his spine settled as a chilling coldness, Seok Iseo took one last step forward.
“What are you doing, hyung?”
He raised his head toward Seok Iseo standing right in front and snapped fiercely.
What the hell is this bastard doing right now? Because of the slight hangover and drowsiness, he furrowed his brow full of wrinkles and scrunched his face mercilessly.
The room was pitch dark so he couldn’t even see well what expression Seok Iseo was making. The movement of his greatly heaving chest was more visible.
When Taeju turned on the lamp on the side table, a low exclamation flowed from someone’s mouth. A puddle of yellow light pooled between the two.
“Ah…”
He was confused. Whether it was a sound he made or a sound Seok Iseo made.
