The company readily provided a corporate card, but unfortunately, the amount they were allowed was only 200,000 won. Thanks to the president’s generosity, spirit, and capacity not being large enough to spend more than the monthly rent and maintenance fees on a group still full of deficits.
Still, in a capitalist society, where else would they not disband a group this unprofitable? It was a somewhat insufficient amount for five adult men to eat well, and due to chronic financial difficulties, even daily necessities at the dorm were barely hanging on. Ryu Geon held the card Jion had received and pondered for a long time before deciding.
“Should we buy pork belly and grill it at the dorm?”
“Wow! Great! I love pork belly so much! Should we film from the shopping?”
The members, who had grown accustomed to 2 years and 6 months of nobody life without settlements, just applauded and said it was good even at the leader’s modest proposal. Ryu Geon, who had been anxious that the members might be disappointed, was relieved to see Eungi happily turning on the camera.
And the members who entered the large mart with confident steps frantically swept things they’d wanted to eat, daily necessities, ramen, etc. into the cart. Of course, at the end there was filtering work by Ryu Geon and Jinyeong due to budget overruns, but it was still meat after a long time.
“Wow, look at the oil! Jinyeong hyung, garlic here quickly!”
“Let’s grill kimchi too!”
Eungi placed the camera on Ryu Geon’s shoulder as he grilled the meat and filmed the pork belly cooking while splattering oil on the gas stove. He realized the sound of swallowing saliva was included when he saw comments on the uploaded video. Jion smiled watching the members noisily enjoying themselves with the grilled meat in front of them.
If it were the old days, no, since it’s the current present, if it were before the regression, he too would have mixed in there, thrust his chopsticks in, and been happy. But the aged instructor teacher didn’t get excited even at the pork belly he was seeing after a while, just going “heh heh” and watching the kids eat.
Is this what they mean by being full just from watching? It was pitiful yet pleasant to see these young kids in their early twenties suffer so much and not even be able to eat out, barely grilling meat at home and being happy.
“Jion hyung, eat quickly too!”
“Yeah, Jion-ah! There’s lots of meat!”
“Okay, got it. I’ll eat too.”
Watching the kids moving their chopsticks frantically without taking their eyes off the meat, should I try a piece too, it was when Jion picked up his chopsticks. Suddenly something dark green was thrust before his eyes. It was a perilla leaf wrap. Jion looked to the side in surprise. The one who had presented the wrap to him was none other than Seonwoo Jin.
Seonwoo Jin, who had become extremely well-behaved, saw that while other members were combatively eating meat, Jion was just smiling and sitting still, and became anxious that he might have all the meat taken before eating much, so he couldn’t help but provide this wifely support.
Even showing the care of using a perilla leaf in case the lettuce was too big to fit entirely in Jion’s small mouth, and turning it inside out in case the rough side would scrape the roof of his mouth.
“Huh? Woojin-ah, you eat, eat. It’s okay. I’ll eat too.”
But Seonwoo Jin stubbornly held the wrap in front of Jion’s mouth without backing down. Jion eventually had no choice but to open his mouth and eat the wrap Seonwoo Jin had made.
Ah, this feels awkward somehow.
Was it because of what happened with Park Homin that made his heart flutter once? Since then, Jion had felt subtle emotions about the goodwill and skinship Seonwoo Jin showed him. Discomfort? Should he say he became conscious of his every action?
Jion suddenly realized that because he was sitting too close to him, even moving his arm slightly would make his elbow touch Seonwoo Jin’s body, and one arm froze up.
“Why?”
Seonwoo Jin, who immediately noticed Jion’s strange movement, asked.
“Hm?”
“No, you started to reach out then stopped……”
“No, no. No……”
Jion shook his head vigorously and made a lettuce wrap. Two pieces of pork belly on lettuce, a bit of ssamjang, one clove of garlic. The wrap neatly made in one bite-size was delivered as is to Seonwoo Jin. Seonwoo Jin looked at Jion in surprise.
“You eat.”
“You made me one too. Eat.”
“No, well, you weren’t eating so……”
At the sight of Seonwoo Jin blushing and pulling back, Jion smiled gently. Is this something to be embarrassed about after doing it first? Jion pushed the wrap to Seonwoo Jin’s mouth once more.
“I’m grateful to you for things too. Eat.”
“Ah……”
“Eat it, okay?”
At Jion’s light aegyo, Seonwoo Jin’s face reddened and his mouth opened. Jion didn’t miss the opportunity and pushed the wrap into Seonwoo Jin’s mouth, and Seonwoo Jin with bulging cheeks lowered his head and chewed the wrap.
“Tastes good when I make it for you, right?”
“……Yeah. Delicious.”
“I’ll make you one more.”
“No, you eat, you eat.”
“Here, ah.”
As Jion kept making wraps and feeding him, Seonwoo Jin’s face turned red without drinking a drop of alcohol. Jion didn’t know, but since becoming aware of his strong attachment to Jion, Seonwoo Jin had been reacting somewhat to skinship with Jion.
What is this, he doesn’t know a man’s heart and why is he so full of aegyo.
Seonwoo Jin’s head went blank watching Jion’s delicate jade hands making the wrap. Thinking that these long, pretty hands were moving for him made him suddenly both embarrassed and feel good. If he said excited, it would seem too perverted but…….
Even while reflecting like that, Seonwoo Jin’s tailbone tingled when he saw Jion’s wrap delivered once more to his mouth.
“Ah—.”
Why is his voice so seductive when he makes a person’s heart flutter…….
While opening his mouth in a daze, Seonwoo Jin’s gaze touched Jion’s fingertips. If he didn’t get a hold of himself, it seemed like he’d put Jion’s fingers into his mouth along with the wrap. While thinking that, Seonwoo Jin opened his mouth wide to receive the wrap, and Jion’s fingertips that narrowly pulled back grazed Seonwoo Jin’s lips as they moved away.
“……!”
“Ah, I touched you. Sorry.”
Jion saw Seonwoo Jin’s eyes widen and waved his hand with an awkward smile.
“I washed my hands?”
Even though they’d hugged under one blanket and slept several times, strangely these days even such trivial skinship felt excessive. His fingertips that touched Seonwoo Jin’s lips felt hot, so Jion unconsciously bit his fingertips lightly between his lips. It wasn’t to act cute or imply an indirect kiss.
However, to Seonwoo Jin whose lips had been touched, that small, trivial gesture came across with tremendous sexual meaning.
He puts the hand that touched my lips to his own lips, and, like, licks it (no), sucks it (no), huh? Is he doing it for me to see? Huh?
In the middle of over-attributing meaning to three consecutive lettuce wraps, Seonwoo Jin saw this stimulating scene and felt it as seduction? Enchantment? Something like that, and was flustered. Seonwoo Jin, with his mouth bulging from the lettuce wrap, turned bright red and pointed at Jion.
“Hey, that, that……”
“Hm?”
“……It’s nothing. I, just, just need to go to the bathroom……”
Seonwoo Jin suddenly felt a heavy feeling between his legs. It wasn’t a feeling he was experiencing for the first time. Arriving at the bathroom with a slightly waddling walk, Seonwoo Jin quickly checked inside his underwear. As expected, like when he was hugging sleeping Jion, the bottom had become reddish and firm with strength.
“Wow, shit. If he’d really sucked his finger I would’ve gotten hard.”
Seonwoo Jin turned on cold water to wash his face and looked at the mirror. Though the redness had subsided somewhat, if Jion made him one more wrap, it seemed like there’d be chaos down below. Seonwoo Jin, who unconsciously recalled Jion’s smile and white hands, hurriedly gathered his wits and sang the national anthem.
“……The East Sea’s waters and Baekdu Mountain…… may they wear away and dry up…… no, what’s touching, crazy bastard.”
Seonwoo Jin slapped his own cheek trying to steady his mind with patriotic spirit, but Seonwoo Jin’s brain, already exposed to too stimulating a situation, couldn’t escape from Seong Jion’s finger play. In the end, Seonwoo Jin came out of the bathroom after the members had eaten pork belly until their stomachs burst.
* * *
Ah, fuck. The quality of the reverse gift is shit.
Hayeon, who ran the fourth largest fan account in the fandom of the five-member idol group Venom, cursed inwardly the moment she saw the reverse gift items the fan manager distributed.
Venom had recently become an official ambassador for a global beauty brand. While writing a congratulatory tweet, she’d been somewhat hoping they might give at least one lip gloss at the next pre-recording, but what came out as a reverse gift was just one cup of Americano from a nearby franchise and one cookie. Not even a set, just one palm-sized thing wrapped in plastic, hanging there. And the fan manager even boasted that the special cookie with nuts had a high unit price.
Did you spend your own money, fuck.
Venomless Venom @vnm_no_poison
Pre-recording reverse gift from oppas! Oppas’ fan love is so sweet♡
Entering a comment opposite to her serious face, Hayeon became briefly depressed.
A female idol group that recently became a model for a bingsu chain brand gave out one bowl of bingsu for takeout each. Even Korean male bastards who don’t spend money on idols got to eat special bingsu worth 17,000 won each, but here she had to be grateful for a 3,500 won coffee while burning through thousands per activity, which was suddenly a reality check.
As it was, Venom had recently become prey for other idol fans with their insincere 1st place acceptance speech. On top of that, with member Homin’s three consecutive fuck-ups exploding, this insincere reverse gift to the Venom fandom, already exhausted from fangirling, was like pouring cold water.
Still, I should be grateful for what’s given. In the previous album, they gave one bottle of water and that was it.
A car stopped in front of Hayeon, who was waking up while drinking warm coffee. Since famous groups had already finished arriving, Venom fans weren’t paying them much attention and were focused on their phones. Those getting out of the car also didn’t seem to expect that the gathered people were their fans.
Hayeon looking at them also just happened to not be looking at her phone, so she only recognized them, but had no particular interest in those men.
Oh, handsome. This one’s handsome too. This one’s not bad either. They’re all tall.
It was when she was watching the men passing by in line while thinking that. The last man to get out of the car was following the members ahead, discovered Hayeon looking at them and made eye contact. And he bowed his head slightly with a bright smile, and the moment their eyes met and she read the man’s lip movements, sound disappeared from Hayeon’s world.
It was a trivial lip movement. Not even a greeting said loudly, 5 AM. The pink lips just moved slowly through the dim air, but to Hayeon’s eyes his lips appeared in close-up. In slow motion at that.
‘Hel—lo—.’
……No, his face is pretty and he’s polite too.
Hayeon, who had grown accustomed to Venom who, far from greeting, quickly ran inside ignoring waiting fans with that fast-paced fan-avoidance attitude, unconsciously lifted her phone at that one kind greeting and took a picture of that man.
Though it was a side profile passing by, developed AI search technology informed Hayeon that he was Seong Jion from the recently talked-about BNCZ. Hayeon wanted to search for more pictures of Jion, but the searched images showed the last page in just three scrolls.
“……”
A strange emotion rose in Hayeon’s heart as she alternately looked at the half-eaten cookie piece and Jion on the screen.
Seong Jion bit Venomless Venom!
