The employees who confirmed Gi Siyoung’s vehicle number guided him not to the parking lot where regular customers entered, but to a separately prepared VIP-only parking lot passage. Unlike the regular parking lot, that place wasn’t crowded with vehicles and people.
Gi Siyoung got out of the car without even wearing sunglasses. As soon as he got out, the department store staff came rushing out barefoot to greet him. They probably heard the news in advance. The place they guided him to wasn’t the department store main building where he could look around with regular customers. They had to go through a separately prepared elevator.
“Oh my, it’s been so long since you’ve come. I’ve only been seeing you on TV all this time, I almost completely forgot what you look like in person.”
A male employee with a distinctive voice tone spoke to Gi Siyoung, acting friendly. Seungun silently followed behind them. As they engaged in light conversation, there was no awkwardness felt, as if they were acquaintances who had built a rapport before.
Following behind the employees in wrinkle-free suits and Gi Siyoung who, despite his casual attire, exuded a refined glow, Seungun suddenly thought that he was shabby enough to be unsuited for this place.
“I brought him today because he’s going on his first date in his life. He wanted to look incredibly good, so he whined to me so much. My ears almost bled on the way here.”
“M-me?”
Gi Siyoung wrapped his arm around Seungun’s shoulder and pulled him toward himself as he introduced him to the employees. The employees who had gathered together finally recognized Seungun’s existence and began to praise him in unison. The hairstyle and outfit he had criticized alone before leaving the house—they attached all sorts of flowery words to it, calling it a trendy vintage street style these days, making him want to hide in a mouse hole.
“We’ve arranged everything with the brands you mentioned. Please take your time looking, and if you tell us which models you like, we’ll help you try them on.”
The place they finally arrived at was no different from a spacious dressing room. Without needing to look around various stores, more than ten tops and bottoms each hung under hangers with famous brand logos. One employee calmly and kindly took Seungun’s bag. Gi Siyoung began walking between the hangers, pushing the hangers left and right to select clothes.
The team leader stuck next to him and explained every little detail about this season’s new products. Gi Siyoung, who had been flipping through them as if uninterested, would give a few more seconds of attention to something, and the team leader would notice like a ghost and pull out the hanger to take on the helper role so he could see it in more detail. When an outfit caught his eye and the team leader held it out to the side, the employees quickly took it and hung it precisely on the empty hanger on the platform. Everyone’s movements were smooth as if they had rehearsed.
“I think this should be enough… Since these are clothes I picked, it’s right that I see them directly on you.”
“Will you do that?”
The employees brought Seungun to the platform. If he tried on each of the clothes hanging there just once, it seemed like half a day would pass—there was that much. When Gi Siyoung came up to the platform, the employees went down with their characteristically kind smiles and drew the curtains. When the blackout curtains were drawn, the lights embedded in the full-length mirrors on all sides illuminated the enclosed space dazzlingly.
“Siyoung-ssi, what is all this?”
Seungun whispered toward Siyoung who was hovering in front of the numerous hangers.
“I don’t need all these clothes. I want to get out of here quickly.”
“Why?”
Seungun’s earlobes reflected in the mirror were slightly flushed with embarrassment.
“What do you mean why. It’s burdensome and…”
“A burden?”
Gi Siyoung stopped the hand that was pushing aside the hangers, as if to say what kind of nonsense that was. He didn’t think Seungun would feel burdened by buying him just a few pieces of clothing. When he turned around, there was Seungun groaning with a face that looked like he needed to go to the bathroom because he really was burdened, glancing around nervously.
“This might be everyday life for you, Siyoung-ssi, but it’s not for me. I don’t even come to department stores often. More than anything, these brands are all luxury brands. They’re too expensive!”
“Just come often from now on. You’ll need to get used to things like this too.”
“What?”
“Then what were you planning to do for fun while dating me? Anyway, I’ll take it as there being a lot of firsts with me?”
Gi Siyoung said with his eyes folding into half-moons.
“That’s not what I mean. I feel like I’m going crazy because this place is uncomfortable and awkward, you know? Those people outside are waiting for us right now, right? Don’t I have to show them how I look wearing them too? You might be natural at it since you’re a celebrity, Siyoung-ssi, but as an ordinary person, I’m just—”
“Shh, shh.”
Gi Siyoung pressed his index finger against Seungun’s babbling lips with a tap. Seungun’s eyes widened as his lips were pressed by the long finger.
“What’s the point of having a rich boyfriend? This is when you use him. Don’t regret it later after breaking up, beating the ground—just take everything when he’s treating you well.”
“……”
“Ah, joking, joking. It’s our first date and I misspoke. Right?”
Gi Siyoung smiled to show he meant no harm. Having lost his words, Seungun let all the strength drain from his body. Finally pulling one from the hanger carelessly, Siyoung draped it over his arm and came to stand in front of Seungun. Then he unfastened Seungun’s shirt buttons from top to bottom, tap tap tap. He undid them so fast there was no time to stop him. His hand movements were very quick.
“Huk!”
When Gi Siyoung pushed the open-fronted shirt back over his shoulders in one motion, his bare upper body was fully exposed.
“I-I’ll take it off myself.”
“……”
Seungun took a step back and closed his collar. The belated action somehow had something about it that stimulated desire. The room had the air conditioning running coolly. Goosebumps rose on the suddenly exposed skin, perhaps from the cold. Like the risen goosebumps, his nipples also stood out pertly.
“Sure, then.”
With a pleased face, Gi Siyoung hummed a tune and turned his back to select bottoms. Seungun hurriedly took off his shirt and pulled the top he received from Gi Siyoung over his head. When the softly falling fabric touched his skin, it felt cool like ice touching it.
Gi Siyoung selected bottoms with the same careless touch as when he picked out the top. And before Seungun could stop him, he tore off the price tag. Seungun’s eyes widened as he said,
“What are you going to do if the size doesn’t fit and you already tore that off?”
“I touched it, so why wouldn’t I know?”
Gi Siyoung acted as if to say what kind of ghost-eating-sesame nonsense that was. His confident attitude was correct. The clothes he handed over all fit perfectly, size-wise, like a ghost had measured them.
How many people must he have met to know body sizes just by touching them with his hands? It was impressive. Wearing the straight-falling shirt and wide-legged white pants, Seungun’s lean and firm body looked even more lithe.
“I like this one. I don’t need to try on anything else.”
“Mm.”
Seungun made the first move. He stubbornly refused, saying he wanted to go out in the first outfit he tried on, that there was no need to look at other clothes. Otherwise, it seemed like Gi Siyoung would keep him here all day playing dress-up doll.
“Wait here for a moment.”
Gi Siyoung left Seungun, who was anxious alone, and stepped back a few paces to scan him from head to toe. Not satisfied with that, he slowly walked in a circle around Seungun. The last place he stood was behind Seungun’s back. Their gazes met through the mirror in front. That gaze was somehow eerie, slow and constricting like a snake coiling around his entire body.
“But Seungun-ssi.”
“Yes?”
“Did you deliberately not zip up your pants?”
“What? No, why is this…”
When he looked down, just as Gi Siyoung said, the pants zipper was loosely open. He had forgotten and only fastened the buckle. Then Gi Siyoung reached his arms around as if embracing him from behind. He placed his hand on the pants zipper instead, pulled it vertically, then pulled it up tautly.
Because of the touch that seemed about to touch but didn’t quite touch his center, he wanted to push his hips back, but then his body would touch closely against Gi Siyoung standing right behind him. Seungun froze in that state.
“Done.”
“……”
Gi Siyoung gripped Seungun’s hips and turned him to face himself.
“Seeing you dressed like this, you look like a completely different person.”
Gi Siyoung’s voice as he spoke with his eyes half-lowered was somehow ominous. That voice seemed to lick him all over, so Seungun tried to create distance. The important thing was that people were still gathered outside waiting for them to come out.
However, that didn’t seem to be particularly important information to Gi Siyoung. Gi Siyoung licked his lips and tilted his head closer.
“N-no. N-not here.”
“……”
Im Seungun barely managed to turn his head. Gi Siyoung’s moist and fragrant lips clung to the corner of his mouth. It was unlikely, but if someone opened the curtain without warning or if the curtain rod fell and the front became completely exposed, they would obviously be caught with two men stuck together kissing so that sounds came from their tongues.
“Haa, then it can’t be helped.”
Gi Siyoung spoke dully as he removed his lips that had been pressed firmly against the corner of Seungun’s mouth. With a regretful face, he pulled away and rubbed his thumb across the corner of Seungun’s mouth where a slightly sticky cream texture from the transparent lip balm he had applied remained.
Seungun straightened his disheveled appearance with a reddened face. Siyoung turned around. With not a single hair out of place, he opened the curtain. As expected, the employees stood below the platform in the same posture, waiting for them.
“Oh my, your friend looks like a celebrity too.”
“His face gives him wings.”
The employees uniformly spouted praise. Seungun, unaccustomed to compliments, didn’t know what to do with himself.
“Just wrap up all the clothes inside.”
Gi Siyoung said as he handed over his card. When Seungun, who was coming down from the platform, hurriedly tried to stop him, a department store employee blocked his way.
“You must be tired from changing clothes. That actually takes quite a lot of stamina. Your face is all red. Shall I bring you a glass of juice? Something refreshing?”
“N-no.”
However, despite the refusal, the employees bestowed the utmost kindness and completely entranced Seungun. In the end, he had to sip orange juice while watching Gi Siyoung’s card pay for those expensive clothes.
