Lying on the bed, Jae-min crossed one leg over the other and wiggled his foot meaninglessly. After doing that for a while, his phone vibrated. Jae-min glanced at the screen. A call was coming from Yun-ji.
Jae-min’s eyebrows twitched. Yun-ji preferred texting over calls, so seeing her do this made him think his guess was correct. Jae-min answered the phone while lying sideways.
“Hello? You could have just replied, why a call?”
—I called because I’m dumbfounded. I’m wondering what you saw to suddenly say that.
“Mm? What I saw?”
Jae-min, who had slightly sat up, laughed emptily. Yun-ji’s tone felt somehow strange. It was suspicious that she wasn’t denying it outright but was curious about why Jae-min said such a thing.
“Do you have something you feel guilty about?”
—I don’t.
“Why does your voice sound weird?”
—What about it?
“It seems a bit shaky.”
Actually, Yun-ji’s voice wasn’t particularly shaky. He was just probing. When Jae-min asked gently, he heard Yun-ji snort over the phone.
—There’s nothing wrong with our relationship, okay? Can you mind your own business?
What kind of couple monitors their ex-boyfriend’s account together when there’s nothing wrong. Jae-min furrowed his brow and let out a laugh as if dumbfounded.
“Never mind then. I’m hanging up.”
Although it was Jae-min who said he was hanging up, Yun-ji hung up the phone first after hearing those words. Listening to the call ending tone ringing decisively, Jae-min pouted his lips. It was suspicious, but since she said no, he didn’t want to deliberately find fault or question her.
“If they didn’t break up, did they fight or something? Why is she so irritable?”
This time Jae-min entered Yun-ji’s account. When he refreshed the screen, a new post appeared on the feed that wasn’t there before. At the photo that popped out conspicuously, Jae-min frowned and brought the screen closer.
It was a photo of a sexy designed bikini swimsuit. It was a style with the center cut out so the cleavage was clearly visible, and at a glance it just looked like underwear. There was a string in the center so a ribbon could be tied. If you untied the ribbon, it seemed like it could open left and right.
There were even two photos. When he swiped to the side, there was a photo of Yun-ji wearing the bikini, taking a picture of herself reflected in the mirror. Besides the arm holding the phone, her other arm was under her large chest.
It was a pose where her left arm supported her chest, making her already heavy chest look even heavier than usual.
[♡ picked out the bikini #wanttogorowaterparksoon #whenwillsummercome]
Hyun-woong’s ID wasn’t even tagged and there was no name, but it was a quite irritating caption.
“What? She went swimsuit shopping with Kang Hyun-woong?”
During their first summer dating, when Jae-min said he’d pick out and gift her a swimsuit himself, Yun-ji had been disgusted and refused. The reason Jae-min and Yun-ji fought was also because Jae-min had been picking out Se-na’s swimsuit.
But to think she went shopping for such a sexy designed bikini with Hyun-woong made his insides turn upside down.
Jae-min let out a hollow laugh into the air, swiped past the photo of Yun-ji wearing the swimsuit, and stared intently at the photo of just the swimsuit again. As he stared at it like that, somehow, it seemed like someone other than Yun-ji appeared over that swimsuit.
That man with a chest as big as Yun-ji’s—no, perhaps even bigger than Yun-ji’s.
‘No, isn’t this something he should wear instead of giving it to someone else?’
Thinking of Kang Hyun-woong, who came to the hospital because he couldn’t handle his chest that had become heavy from filling with milk, Jae-min touched his dried lips.
‘His chest is bigger than most glamorous women.’
He pictured forcibly putting the tight black bikini on Hyun-woong in his mind. He tried to imagine a ridiculous sight, but strangely, only scenes where it suited him oddly well were drawn. Although its purpose was a swimsuit, it was practically no different from a palm-sized bra and panties.
Lying down obediently with his eyes covered, he would deceive Hyun-woong by saying it was for treatment, pretending the bikini was medical fabric, and put it on his chest. Gathering from the side of the chest to make the already bulging chest even more rounded, then putting on the swimsuit and tightly pulling the center string to make the cleavage deeper would be worth seeing.
Having thought this far, Jae-min unconsciously peeled off the skin that had dried hard on his lips. At the sudden sharp pain, Jae-min scrunched up his face.
Blood smeared on his fingertip.
“Shit!”
The pain broke his fantasy. Jae-min licked his lips with his tongue and then lightly bit them with his front teeth. Anyway, he was annoyed that that damn sexy bikini should be worn by the guy himself, not picked out for Yun-ji.
“…Even though he gets hard from my touch.”
Hyun-woong had even gotten an erection today while receiving a breast massage from him. He saw it clearly with his own eyes and even confirmed with his uncle, the expert, that there was precedent.
Recalling that fact, the soft texture of Hyun-woong’s nipples seemed to be felt on his fingertips again. That feeling like marshmallows, like the paw pad jelly of a young animal.
“Ugh!”
Jae-min thrashed about and then threw the pillow placed above his head onto the floor. He tore at his hair, then jumped off the bed to pick up the pillow again and lay right down. Irritation and confusion that he couldn’t explain to anyone made his head dizzy.
⁕⁕⁕
“How do you feel? Don’t you feel shitty?”
On Monday, when everyone’s mood turned more negative, these were the first words Jae-min said to the other person when he appeared at the meeting place. Hyun-woong, who had been about to drink the coffee he’d placed beside his open laptop, turned to look at Jae-min with a dumbfounded face.
“What?”
The place they had arranged to meet in advance was a cafe near the school’s main gate. It was a different place from ‘Coffee Bear,’ the cafe decorated with bear dolls that had become the worst place in his life since that day he met Yun-ji and Hyun-woong together.
Jae-min threw his bag down and plopped into the seat across from Hyun-woong. Then he stared intently at Hyun-woong. Hyun-woong looked back at Jae-min with a clearly “manly” face, frowning.
From his thick eyebrows to his prominent nose bridge to his tanned skin color, and even the achromatic clothes he wore. Everything looked hard and imposing.
So, stories about bikinis or big breasts or “milk” coming out didn’t match his appearance at all. Letting out a troubled sigh, Jae-min pressed his forehead.
“Hah… Really. To have to see you again as soon as the week starts, what kind of situation is this?”
At his attitude of being truly vexed, Hyun-woong’s eyes widened, then he wrinkled his nose bridge as if feeling wronged.
“What are you talking about? You’re the one who said let’s meet here for the team project meeting.”
“Yeah, I know. I know. Welcome.”
At Hyun-woong’s reaction as if looking at a crazy person, Jae-min replied in a sarcastic tone and rolled his eyes. No matter how he looked at it, he wondered why Hyun-woong had been checking out his social media account when he was acting like he found him disgusting.
He thought maybe Yun-ji had shown it to him by chance, and seeing his feed full of pretentious style unlike himself, his disgust had deepened. Even thinking about it himself, it made sense. It was true that he put on airs, and Hyun-woong was in every way the opposite type of human from himself.
Jae-min let out a deep sigh and spoke again.
“Before we start, let me ask you one more time.”
“What?”
“Don’t you feel shitty about doing a group project with your current girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend?”
Whether he liked it or not, it was a combination the professor had put together anyway, so they had no choice but to work together until the assignment was finished. Still, Jae-min really wanted to ask once. He was also curious about just how much Hyun-woong disliked him.
Jae-min propped his chin and tilted his head, waiting for the other’s response. Just then, a ray of afternoon sunlight came through the cafe window and shone onto Jae-min’s face. The light happened to pass over his eyes, so Jae-min lowered his eyelids.
In the moment his eyes were closed, Hyun-woong answered.
“Honestly.”
Unexpectedly, it was a very calm voice.
“It’s not shitty.”
Jae-min turned his head and slowly opened his eyes. The ray of light that had just passed his face flowed down his neck, avoiding his eyes.
Hyun-woong had just answered “it’s not shitty.” He’d naturally expected to hear an answer like “it’s shitty” or “I feel shittier than you” along with swearing.
Jae-min looked at Hyun-woong with an expression that couldn’t hide his bewilderment. Because he’d heard it with his eyes closed, it felt like he’d heard an auditory hallucination.
“I-Is that so?”
Jae-min unconsciously stammered as he asked back. Hyun-woong had no intention of answering twice and kept his mouth firmly shut as he lowered his gaze. Jae-min, who had been glaring at him as he casually typed on his laptop, clicked his tongue and opened his bag.
