And then he took a large gulp of alcohol.
“Do you want to drink too?”
Kwon Yujin shook his head. Though I couldn’t see what expression he was making, he was probably wearing an annoyed look.
“Are you done with all that unnecessary fussing now?”
“Ah.”
“I have weight training in an hour. So don’t dawdle and finish this quickly.”
At his sarcastic tone, I nodded. At the same time, Kwon Yujin snatched the bottle from my hand and placed it on the table beside the sofa.
Then he grabbed my face and pressed his body close to mine. I could feel his hot breath right there. Since he wasn’t wearing a top, our bare skin touched directly. When I felt his body temperature, much higher than mine, my body flinched and stiffened involuntarily.
“Let’s do it.”
It was an extremely businesslike tone. So much so that I felt foolish for being nervous.
To Kwon Yujin, all of this was just a series of processes to restore and maintain his condition.
“Okay.”
As soon as I answered, a large hand covered one side of my cheek. And then soft lips touched mine.
“Mmph.”
This is strange. It’s too soft. I’ve never had something this soft and warm touch my lips before—it feels unfamiliar.
That surprise at the unfamiliar sensation was brief, as I was flustered by the pheromones rushing in so intensely I could get drunk on them. All the complicated thoughts tangled in my mind came to a complete stop.
The pheromones transmitted directly through the mucous membranes in my mouth without any interference were raw and explicit. An immediate sensation spreading rapidly through every corner of my body via my sensory organs.
“You taste like alcohol.”
Kwon Yujin, who had briefly separated his lips, whispered in a sunken voice.
Well, of course—I drank alcohol. I wanted to answer like that, but my voice got swallowed back down my throat as my lips were taken again.
“Mmm, ngh.”
“Don’t just suck like that.”
“Haah.”
Kwon Yujin pointed out that I was clumsily licking and sucking his lips and tongue. It seemed like he meant I should do better, but I didn’t know how at all, so I was stuck in place.
On the other hand, Kwon Yujin stirred up the inside of my mouth as he pleased, ravaged my lower lip and tongue, and even stole my breath away.
I, who had been sitting awkwardly on the sofa, had somehow ended up in a position where I was half-pinned beneath Kwon Yujin. He knew how to move skillfully not just his lips but other places too. The hand that had been braced on the sofa had somehow come up to my waist and was groping around.
As soon as his cold hand touched my side, I flailed pathetically.
“Ah! Kwon Yu…jin.”
As far as I could remember, this was the first time anyone had put their hands on my body, except when my father hit me.
“Don’t move.”
Kwon Yujin warned in a low voice. Even without him saying so, there seemed to be no way to shake off the hands firmly gripping my waist and shoulders.
I shrugged my shoulders slightly and nodded. This situation was starting to become a little scary, but soon my thoughts grew hazy from lack of oxygen due to the relentlessly continuing kisses.
“Haah, wait. I can’t breathe… mmph.”
Without giving me any time to rest, my lips were covered over and over, suffocating me, so I tried to turn my head little by little or pull my body back. But each time, Kwon Yujin would notice like a ghost and bind me even more tightly.
“Heukhk…!”
I thought he’d give me a brief moment to breathe, but our lips met roughly again right away. As our tongues tangled again and our lips were crushed together, hot breath spread throughout the mucous membranes. It was as if a fierce battle for dominance was unfolding inside my mouth.
No matter how many times we competed, I was the loser. Unlike before, Kwon Yujin, who had grown much taller and whose hands were much bigger than mine, now even overwhelmed me with his strength. No matter how much I struggled, I could feel an irresistible force that left me feeling powerless.
Even when I tried to breathe through my nose, it wasn’t easy to fill my labored breathing as it got caught on Kwon Yujin’s nose tip, cheeks, and philtrum. Following strength, I was at a much greater disadvantage in cardiopulmonary capacity as well.
When I reached my limit and pushed him away with all my strength, only then would he create a little gap for me to breathe. At those times, I gasped and gulped in rough breaths as much as possible.
“A little, why do you keep… haah, putting so much force… ngh.”
As I was pouring out complaints, I suddenly realized only when I noticed the thick pheromones coming from me. The fact that every time I was driven to the limit of suffocation, pheromones flowed out strongly as a physical reaction.
Kwon Yujin was deliberately inducing such moments. Like choking my neck and then releasing it just before I passed out.
Once I realized that fact, the whining about letting me go because I couldn’t breathe no longer came out of my mouth. Because it seemed Kwon Yujin actually wanted me to suffer.
Instead, I decided to somehow adapt to this relentless kiss.
But less than a minute after making that resolution, another problem suddenly intruded. I started to feel something hard from below.
“Ngh, huu… Wait, ha. Just a moment.”
I feel like I’ve sobered up completely. I urgently twisted my body to pull away and called out to Kwon Yujin.
Just then, Kwon Yujin’s phone started vibrating. From the way it rang continuously, it seemed to be a call.
Fortunately, Kwon Yujin, reacting to that sound, pulled his upper body back. Then he stretched out his arm and picked up his phone. Even after checking the caller on the screen, instead of answering the call right away, Kwon Yujin stared at me persistently.
He was making an expression I’d never seen before. He seemed surprised, but also angry, and somewhere he looked dazed. It was strange.
I too, still not recovered from the shock I’d received moments ago, looked at him blankly with a vacant expression. Various thoughts confused my mind. I really kissed Kwon Yujin. With that kid who was just so much smaller than me. How could something like this happen?
“……”
“……”
The damp sounds of our breathing took turns piercing my ears. A strange sensation as if time had stopped covered me, mixed with indescribable trembling, elation, and bewilderment.
Had I ever seen Kwon Yujin this close before? Facing his face covered in shadows in the dark interior, I was confused because there were almost no similarities left with the child I’d seen when he was young.
How long had we been staring at each other with vacant expressions like that? I suddenly realized that I wasn’t wearing my mask.
At the same time, Kwon Yujin’s gaze, which had felt indifferent, dug into my skin like sharp shards. I was startled and only after fumbling around on the sofa was I able to pick up my mask and put it on.
“Yes, Coach-nim.”
Kwon Yujin answered the phone belatedly. Unable to find a place to rest my gaze, I wandered before hurriedly getting up.
A large hand caught me as I tried to head toward the entrance.
Come next week.
He covered the microphone part of the phone he was on and whispered quietly enough that only I could hear.
When I silently bowed my head deeply, Kwon Yujin didn’t release the strength from the hand gripping my arm.
“Hyun Taeyoung.”
Then he called my name in a low voice. With an attitude that suggested he wouldn’t let go until I answered, I had no choice but to nod.
“Got it.”
Only then did the strength drain from his hand. Thanks to that, I was able to escape from Kwon Yujin’s house safely.
As I opened the front door and came out as if fleeing, a fact I’d forgotten came to mind.
“I forgot to return the card.”
***
I shouldered the last of the bags that needed to be transported from today’s site and climbed the stairs. Though it was early spring and the weather was still chilly, after moving heavy things without a word for several hours, I was starting to sweat a bit.
“Tough bastard. So you really moved all that without even resting.”
Park Seongwoo, who had been lounging around leaning against the wall of a building that wasn’t finished yet, discovered me and clapped. I placed the last bag in its spot and then gulped in rough breaths.
“Is that the end?”
“Yeah.”
“Ah, finally we can catch our breath. I’ll help you more later. Today my back hurts.”
“Okay.”
“Honestly, if those ahjussis hadn’t just dumped everything on us and left, we would’ve finished ages ago, fuck. Doesn’t it piss you off?”
I nodded to appropriately agree with Park Seongwoo’s words. The laborers who were much older than us had dumped all the work of moving luggage on Park Seongwoo and me just because there were two people in their twenties at the site. It’s already been almost an hour since they went off to eat lunch.
Actually, it happens often enough that I wasn’t that angry, but Park Seongwoo’s thoughts seemed a bit different. He must have felt quite wronged as he cursed several times, chewing it over.
