Day 5
He hadn’t slept a wink all night.
Jiwon had literally been pinching his own thighs to keep his arousal in check.
He clenched his teeth, terrified he might grab his cock without even realizing it. The ointment he’d been given to apply around the tattooed, swollen nipples and areolae — he hadn’t even opened it. Even though it was his own body, he was a nervous wreck about what he might do the moment he started applying it.
It was the first time since arriving here that he’d slept in his shower robe. And even that didn’t feel reliable enough — he’d wrapped himself up in his blanket like a cocoon to keep himself still.
Am I really this weak? Was I this starved for sex that I’d get worked up over someone of the same gender?
Is this all because of those painkillers? And what about the booster I drink and take every morning — could there be something wrong with that?
He spun out every conspiracy theory he could think of, looking for something to blame, and in the end turned the blame on himself. He apologized to his younger sibling and his parents — sorry for being such a pathetic son, such a pathetic older brother.
Because he’d left the curtains open, he watched in real time as the sky brightened through the floor-to-ceiling window.
The garden was impossibly quiet and beautiful.
Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t stepped outside even once since arriving here.
Was the garden off-limits?
He made a mental note to check the rules later — and then drifted off to sleep without meaning to.
It wasn’t until the wake-up siren jolted him back to his senses that he let out a relieved, hollow laugh.
His whole body was damp. He’d sweated through his sheets in a well air-conditioned room.
Jiwon quickly untangled himself from the blanket and took off his shower robe. He’d worried he might have come in his sleep like he had in the pool, but it turned out to be an unnecessary fear. His thighs — which he’d half-expected to find stiff with dried cum — showed nothing but the bruises he’d made himself and Number 3’s fingerprints.
Still, today he’d at least be given a chance to relieve the frustration. Even if it was in front of the instructor. He smiled bitterly, thinking he’d probably be the first one to come.
He stepped into the bathroom to shower. The sight of his nipples, more swollen than yesterday, and the areolae enlarged by the tattoo, made him grimace.
Do people genuinely like this kind of thing?
He had a rough idea that the world of kinks was endless, but this was something he’d never heard of, let alone seen.
Honestly, it looked strange. No matter how much you colored the nipples and areolae and drew them larger, they would never look like a woman’s. The shape of the chest itself was different.
Sure, men who didn’t work out and had just put on weight might come close — but everyone gathered here was muscular. Anyone who’d actually seen their chests, especially their pectorals, wouldn’t bother with something this absurd.
Then again, they’d done it knowing exactly what they were looking at — so that’s what made them perverts, he supposed.
Will I get used to this like I got used to the briefs? Fuck.
He turned on the cold water.
Each time the water hit the tattooed area, it stung. The good news was that it was less stimulating than he’d feared. He must have been out of his mind yesterday.
Honestly, a chest is just a chest — what could it possibly do to him. Jiwon had practically no erogenous zones on his chest. Even when his ex-girlfriend had touched him there during sex, it had only tickled — nothing more.
Thinking of his ex-girlfriend made him feel a strange longing. And guilt.
If that one thing hadn’t happened, he’d probably be married by now with at least one kid. Maybe a second on the way. He’d be living a life of grocery shopping and doing household chores with her, his wife, raising their child, commuting to and from work. His mother, who was obsessive about education, would have already been researching kindergartens.
How had his perfectly ordinary life come to this.
That said, he didn’t blame that person.
He had been the one who chose to do this work. Every decision had been his own. No one had pushed him into it or threatened him. Even the detective who had first approached him with this job had asked him, over and over — please think it over carefully.
Jiwon finished grooming himself according to the manual, put on his sailor uniform, and left his room. Park Geonwu happened to be stepping out of his room at the same time.
But his eyes were swollen.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know. Maybe allergies?”
“With air this clean?”
The air really was clean. Not just clean — fresh. So much so that even without going outside, he never felt stuffy.
Every now and then he caught a thick scent of grass that you’d usually only smell deep in a forest — probably drifting in on the wind since they were surrounded by trees on all sides.
“I’m pretty sure it’s the pool. Every single person was coming in there — you think they weren’t pissing in it too?”
Park Geonwu shuddered.
“Ah. That’s probably it.”
“I’m going to go to the clinic later.”
Park Geonwu finished speaking and then stared at Jiwon.
“…Why…?”
“Just. Wondering if the one who’s in heat is doing okay.”
He said it with a playful grin.
“Come on, I’m not—”
He was so embarrassed his face flushed hot in an instant.
“What do you mean you’re not. You and Number 3 were incredibly close to the edge last night.”
“It wasn’t… it wasn’t that bad.”
“It absolutely was. If it wasn’t for oblivious Minjae, you two would’ve been all over each other.”
Jiwon kept denying it before finally asking quietly, “Was it really that obvious?”
“Yeah. But it looked good. You two suit each other.”
Park Geonwu gave him a wink. Somehow that was enough to take the edge off the embarrassment.
The more you got to know Park Geonwu, the more you realized he had a gift for putting people at ease. Jiwon had thought he was just laid-back and breezy about everything — turned out he just didn’t have a twisted bone in his body. In a place like this, that was an unexpected and enormous find.
“What about you? How was it with Kkwakchan?”
He quickly changed the subject before the conversation about Number 3 could go any further.
“Haah. Kkwakchan. How does someone even end up with a name like that? You saw his dick, right? But it’s not just his dick that’s full — the more we talked, the more I realized he’s just absolutely full of warmth inside too. It was a real struggle to hold back.”
As he said it, he rolled up his left sleeve to his forearm.
Just like Jiwon’s thighs, the soft inner skin of Park Geonwu’s forearm was clearly marked with pinch bruises.
So it wasn’t just me.
He let out a small, deflating laugh.
“Oh, laughing now? How well did you hold back, then?”
“About the same as you.”
He mimed pinching his own thigh.
Park Geonwu snickered.
“We’re really in heat, aren’t we. Last night I almost came just from applying the ointment to my chest. Who knew nipples could feel like a cock.”
It was a light, crass joke — but they were in the same boat, so they laughed looking at each other.
“By the way, this does come off, right?”
Park Geonwu stuck his chest out.
“Well, they said it would, so I guess it does.”
“No, I didn’t think about it yesterday, but single-use tattoos that last about two weeks are usually only drawn on with a brush. No machine. It’s just dye applied to the surface of the skin.”
That’s strange, he tilted his head.
“Maybe they did a cover-up because the nipples and areolae are already dark? So the pink would show up better? That’s probably what it is. They did use a brush too.”
Jiwon, who knew nothing about tattoos, couldn’t follow even half of what Park Geonwu was saying.
“Hyung! Jiwon!”
A sudden force grabbed them both from behind mid-conversation, sending their bodies lurching forward.
“Ugh, this bastard. Full of energy first thing in the morning.”
“Full of energy? I was seriously losing my mind.”
Kim Yunho was complaining of the same symptoms, but he looked remarkably bright.
“But we get to do it today.”
He smiled with quiet anticipation.
“That’s the only thing I’ve been waiting for.”
“Same! Me too!”
Kim Yunho said the outdated catchphrase and poked Park Geonwu.
Then he turned to Jiwon and asked, “You too?”
Jiwon burst out laughing at the silly joke.
“You too?”
Kim Yunho asked again.
“…Me too.”
Jiwon swallowed his laughter and barely managed to answer.
“But aren’t your nipples killing you? Is it okay not to put the ointment on?”
“Funny you say that — that’s exactly what we were just talking about.”
Park Geonwu linked arms with Kim Yunho, glad to have someone on the same page.
“No, when I got my arm tattooed, I had to keep the wrap on for like three or four hours. And for two weeks after — no saunas, no swimming. Only light showers, make sure to apply the ointment. There were a shit ton of precautions. But this one they tell you to apply the ointment just once, showering is fine, and we’re about to do a workout on top of that.”
Kim Yunho picked up right where Park Geonwu left off.
They were both genuinely skeptical about whether this really was a single-use tattoo.
“How long have you had your tattoo?”
“Mine’s been over two years. You?”
“Three years for me.”
“Hmm. We have been at it a while, I guess.”
At Kim Yunho’s words, Park Geonwu seemed quickly convinced.
“Right. The machine they used was brand new too, now that I think about it.”
“And the way the tattoo artist moved their hands — it was an art form. I seriously wanted to ask them to do it on my dick too.”
Kim Yunho reached out toward the air, as if to himself.
“Why didn’t you just ask, then?”
Park Geonwu deadpanned.
And just like that, the conversation fizzled out.
Their back-and-forth had been so fast that just trying to keep up had drained Jiwon of what little energy he had left.
“By the way, Kim Jiwon, you look like you’ve put on some weight.”
Park Geonwu looked Jiwon up and down.
“You’re right. Did you fill out a bit?”
Kim Yunho sized him up with his eyes too, then reached out and started touching Jiwon’s forearm, back, waist, and hips.
“For real though. Have you checked your weight?”
“No, not yet. I don’t think I’ve gained anything.”
Jiwon looked down at himself and trailed off.
“Your pants have basically turned into leggings and you’re saying you haven’t gained weight?”
He hadn’t noticed at all since there had been no real discomfort putting on his clothes. Honestly, the T-string briefs were already so constricting that he hadn’t had the bandwidth to pay attention to how his pants felt.
“Well, I’ve been eating well, so of course I’d gain a little.”
He answered plainly.
Honestly, gaining weight made sense. After struggling so hard while eating so poorly, now he was having three balanced meals a day made from quality ingredients — if he didn’t gain anything, that would be the real problem.
“Are you serious. You know your ass got bigger too, right?”
“Don’t exaggerate. How would my ass get bigger in just three days.”
“It did get bigger. Your cheeks are about to bust right through your pants.”
Kim Yunho openly grabbed and kneaded Jiwon’s ass.
“What are you doing, old man.”
He joked and gently removed the hand, and Kim Yunho laughed cheekily, saying “This guy, you’ve gotten funnier.” Then —
“Number 3’s not here, right? God, that bastard. I can’t even casually call you a bastard anymore without feeling like I’m being watched.”
He grumbled.
“Like you’d ever actually hold back.”
Park Geonwu scolded him, and Kim Yunho just grinned back, “Fair enough.”
“I think I’ve gotten a bit bigger too — let’s measure ourselves later.”
Kim Yunho, already arm-in-arm with Park Geonwu, looped his other arm through Jiwon’s.
The three of them walked side by side, all linked together.
It was no wonder people on the team had started calling them the Three Musketeers.
