Right when Jukyung came out of the bathroom in his robe, the bell rang. What Jukyung ordered was chicken and beer, and coincidentally the buldak arrived at the same time too.
We roughly set everything on the table and sat side by side on the sofa, unwrapping the packaging. From the chicken box came a savory oily smell, and from the buldak came charcoal aroma and spicy scent that hit my nose sharply. Seeing the glossy red sauce, saliva automatically gathered in my mouth even though I didn’t know the taste.
After neatly arranging the rice balls and steamed egg, I picked up a piece of buldak with chopsticks. I already knew the taste of chicken since I’d tried it before, and I was really curious about the buldak taste. Was it really as delicious as the color and smell suggested?
“Aren’t you eating?”
I noticed Jukyung wasn’t moving and asked, and he was staring at me observantly before deliberately looking away as if it was nothing. Jukyung opened a beer can, took a sip first, and picked up a piece of chicken, not buldak.
“You eat first. I’ll start with this.”
Somehow I felt suspicious.
“Can’t you handle spicy food?”
“No. I just like this more, so I’m eating it before it gets cold.”
Jukyung said while taking a crispy bite of the chicken piece he was holding. Watching that, I looked down once more at the red meat piece at the end of my chopsticks. The spicy aroma entering my nose somehow felt more intense than before. Well, it should be fine, right? It’s all sold for people to eat, isn’t it?
That day at the jjimjilbang, among the young group eating this, about two people seemed to struggle with the spiciness, but they all ate it deliciously to the end. None of them collapsed or were carried away with stomach pain until the next morning.
I boldly put a piece of buldak in my mouth in one go. The first taste was, as expected, an intense seasoning flavor. Salty, spicy, and sweet. The seasoning flavor was so strong that aside from the chewy texture, there wasn’t much else to feel about the meat taste itself. But I was satisfied with how the smoky charcoal aroma filled my mouth. It was a bit spicy, but this much was nothing.
“How is it?”
Jukyung asked with narrowed eyes, probing. How is what?
“It’s fine? The seasoning is really strong, but it’s delicious.”
I answered while chewing diligently. Then I suddenly clamped my mouth shut. Something hit me like a punch and my mouth burned. Heat rushed red to my face. The back of my head rang with a thud and I felt sweat rising on my scalp.
I urgently swallowed what was in my mouth and scanned the table. I grabbed the beer closest to me and gulped it down my throat. No, this wasn’t it. The fire in my mouth wasn’t extinguished. I picked up the beer again and held it full in my mouth, enduring. Tears welled up.
Pfft.
A sound of suppressed laughter came from across. It was Jukyung. When our eyes met, he quickly put on a serious expression, but I’d already seen it. How both corners of his mouth had been pulled up.
When I glared at him with my cheeks puffed like a fish from holding beer, Jukyung shrugged.
“Why are you looking at me like that? I clearly asked if you’d be okay.”
That’s right. I was the one who ignored the subtle warning. But he could have given me proper information while stopping me! Or at the very least, he shouldn’t laugh like that!
I gulped down the beer I’d been holding. Then the fire I thought had gone out came back to life. I made slurping sounds as I filled my mouth with beer again. I emptied one can in one go.
“It’s better to eat this. Rather than cold stuff.”
Jukyung pushed the rice balls and steamed egg toward me. As told, I grabbed a rice ball and shoved it in my mouth, then scooped a spoonful of steamed egg and put it in. It was definitely better than beer. But that didn’t mean the spicy sensation completely disappeared.
“Don’t tell me you’re giving up after eating just one piece?”
Kwon Jukyung asked while scooping up the soft steamed egg with a spoon and slurping it. The mocking expression revealed in that tone and face stirred my competitive spirit. Of course, if I said I couldn’t eat it, it seemed like I’d get nagged about wasting money ordering it for nothing, and there was also a strangely appealing aftertaste that made me reluctant to back down after just one bite.
“I’m going to eat it.”
I scraped off as much seasoning as possible and picked up another piece of meat and vegetable together. Just earlier, the red color seemed to stimulate my appetite, but now it looked like a devil’s tongue flickering.
With a determined expression, I put the buldak in my mouth, chewed, swallowed, poured in beer, and repeated the process of eating rice balls and steamed egg. In the middle, Jukyung told me to quit if I couldn’t eat it, but half out of stubbornness and half drawn by the strangely addictive taste, I kept panting while demolishing the buldak.
When I’d eaten about half the buldak, I was in a considerably hazy state. Whether I was drunk or my mind was confused from the spicy taste, even I couldn’t tell well. Maybe it was because of the heat I’d forgotten about. Even during my first heat, I hadn’t thought about the fact that alcohol made me lose control of my body even more.
“Hey, seriously stop eating now. You might die from a stomachache tomorrow.”
Jukyung, who at first had just been watching like it was entertaining, finally snatched the chopsticks from my hand. Then he folded the box again, put it in a plastic bag, tied it tightly, and put it in the refrigerator.
I pretended to lose and let go of the buldak, then was truly restless because my mind wasn’t clear. It was really a new experience. My mind was clearly fuzzy, but it was different from being completely drunk or when heat hit. Rather, it seemed like the spicy taste was pounding and waking up my consciousness that was becoming hazy from alcohol and heat. To erase the spicy taste, I shook the only beer can left in my hand into my mouth, but the can was already empty.
I threw down the empty beer can and stuck out my tongue like a dog exhausted from the dog days of summer, restlessly going up and down the sofa. My face was cooked red, hot and seemingly sweating. It was just when the thought of going to the bathroom to wash my tongue with water flashed through my mind.
“Kang Doyun.”
Jukyung grabbed me as I couldn’t pull myself together. Slurp, I inhaled air and exhaled again while sticking out my tongue. And I looked at Jukyung who was holding my face. Our eyes met. Tears that had pooled trickled out along the corner of my eye. I thought he’d laugh openly at me. It was torture to stay still, so I grabbed his hands overlapping to remove them. I was about to say I’d go to the bathroom to wash. That’s when it happened.
“!”
Suddenly Jukyung bit down on my tongue. And then he pulled it in as if swallowing, sucking it into his mouth. My tongue wasn’t long like a chameleon’s, so naturally our lips touched too. At the soft, heavy touch of flesh bumping together, my body shivered.
Jukyung wrapped one hand around the nape of my neck and tilted his head slightly, pressing his lips deeper. I stared wide-eyed in a frozen state, just watching what Jukyung was doing. With Jukyung’s eyes closed, his long eye shape and eyelashes stood out even more. His distinctive perfume smell wafted thickly. My heart, which was already racing from alcohol, pounded like crazy.
“Mmm….”
Jukyung’s tongue intertwined with mine and I let out a moan without realizing it. As if to put out the fire on my tongue, Jukyung’s tongue rubbed, licked, and gently sucked on mine. The feeling of wet flesh tangling was so explicit it even felt obscene.
At the slurping sound, my ears burned. Nerves throughout my body started twitching and responding, to the point of being flustered. I thought I should push him away, but my body wouldn’t listen. The slippery sensation felt so good I was going crazy.
No, not going crazy—was I already crazy? Why on earth am I doing this? The other person is a man! It’s Kwon Jukyung!
Only when I started running out of breath did I finally put strength in my arms and push Jukyung’s shoulders. Jukyung’s lips separated more easily than I thought, but my body was still trapped in Jukyung’s arms. Hot heat was transmitted between our touching skin. As I panted to catch my breath, looking flustered, Jukyung wrinkled his nose as if displeased while looking at my face.
“Spicy and salty. The seasoning is too strong.”
Jukyung grumbled. While I just stared in disbelief, Jukyung pressed his lips to mine again. It was such a natural action that I couldn’t even think to avoid it and had my lips stolen again.
No, is saying “stolen” too cowardly? I could have pushed him away if I tried, but my arms had no strength. No, my brain was refusing to apply strength. Even though my body was being pushed back by Kwon Jukyung and falling completely backwards, there seemed to be no intention to issue any commands.
This can’t be me. I’m not succumbing to an alpha’s pheromones, nor am I drunk on heat, so why am I doing this? It was absurd. This was clearly a collaboration of alcohol and heat. The suppressants I’d carefully taken were clearly completely ineffective. The medicine was fake. That quack doctor. I should change hospitals next time—that thought mixed and melted together with the thought that I was going crazy because every part of my body touching Jukyung was thrilling.
“Ugh.”
Thud.
I was dragged to the middle of the bed and my shoulders were pressed down. Jukyung mounted me and glared down from above with a beast-like face showing teeth.
“Don’t wake up tomorrow and regret doing something unnecessary again, Kang Doyun.”
I panted and looked at Jukyung with hazy eyes. I don’t know how we got this far from just one kiss. It’s the alcohol’s fault. It’s the buldak’s fault. It’s the heat’s fault. It was all the fault of those fake, bogus suppressants.
After the long kiss, it was me who grabbed Kwon Jukyung trying to separate completely and pushed him back onto the sofa. I grabbed his collar, kissed him again, pushed my thigh between his legs, and blatantly seduced him to do it.
Whatever the problem is, who cares? Tomorrow is another day, the sun will rise tomorrow—didn’t Scarlett O’Hara leave behind that famous saying?
I grabbed Jukyung’s nape and the back of his head and pulled him down.
“Mm…”
The flesh stirring inside my mouth was hot. I clung to Jukyung’s lips as if I’d die immediately if I separated our mouths now. His saliva was sweet. I wanted to chew and swallow his soft lips and living, moving tongue.
What on earth did those suppressants do to me? The sensation of every single cell boiled up like crazy. I couldn’t tell what exactly they suppressed. The only difference from my first heat was that my mind was clear. No, was it really clear? Even then I thought I was fine at the time, but maybe all my memories were erased the next day.
“Ah, no, a little more….”
