“I can keep my mouth shut, Manager-nim! I might not say anything for the rest of my life, mm…?”
Song Hanyeong’s hand, which had been gripping his chin, moved upward and pushed his thumb into Surim’s mouth. Jin Surim awkwardly rolled his eyes and called out to him.
“Managerh-nimh…?”
It sounded almost like “Master-nim.” Song Hanyeong let out a low chuckle and pressed down on Jin Surim’s tongue with his thumb as he spoke.
“What if I make it so you can’t talk?”
“Buh… Managerh-nimh…”
Surim, who had been trying to say something by wiggling his tongue, gave up speaking when all his pronunciation came out garbled and conveyed his opposition through fervent eyes instead.
Song Hanyeong quietly enjoyed the sensation of the fleshy thing that kept moving beneath his thumb, then slowly licked his lips. He was suddenly ravenously hungry. Not that fake garbage cultivated in the lab, but the real thing was right before his eyes.
“Don’t want to?”
“Noh…”
“Then what should you give me?”
As if telling him to answer, Song Hanyeong stretched out the corner of Surim’s mouth and withdrew his thumb. His finally freed tongue felt a bit tingly. Surim rubbed his tongue against the roof of his mouth a few times, then asked cautiously.
“My… blood…? If, if it’s just a little… you can have it…”
“A little?”
“N-no, then just… as long as I don’t die…?”
Hadn’t he said he was taking iron supplements these days?
Jin Surim trying so hard to negotiate until the very end was so amusing and adorable that Song Hanyeong ended up laughing. Surim’s expression brightened when he recognized that as a sign of agreement.
At the same time, Song Hanyeong’s face contorted. Unable to hold back, he leaned down and pressed his lips against Surim’s.
“Hh, hheup…?”
Song Hanyeong pulled out Jin Surim’s tongue, which had stiffened in surprise, and drew it into his own mouth. The eyes that went round with disbelief and the face rapidly heating up were entertaining.
Song Hanyeong, who had slightly separated their lips, whispered in a voice full of heat.
“Stay still.”
Jin Surim nodded his head shallowly. Song Hanyeong nibbled on Surim’s soft, pliant tongue, then bit down hard with his fangs.
“Haak!”
Startled, Surim flinched his tongue back. Song Hanyeong chased after the tongue that had returned to its own mouth and kissed him more deeply. Inside Surim’s mouth, blood flowing from his tongue had pooled.
Song Hanyeong began to drink it. The movement of his tongue, which had been gentle at first, gradually became more desperate. As if he had truly been terribly thirsty, Song Hanyeong roughly plundered Surim’s mouth.
“Hk… Uh, hheuk…!”
It wasn’t a kiss or anything like that.
It was a meal, an extortion, a pillage.
Whenever the bleeding tried to stop, Song Hanyeong squeezed and rubbed it with his tongue to force more out, and when that didn’t produce more, he bit down with his fangs again. He licked every corner of the mouth where blood had pooled and stole it with his tongue, stealing and drinking every last drop. Each time, obscenely lewd friction sounds wetted his ears.
After lapping at the inside of Surim’s mouth like that for a while, Song Hanyeong even carefully licked up the blood that had flowed from Surim’s mouth down to his chin near the end.
It was when Song Hanyeong finally sucked on Surim’s lips with a smack. Surim picked up a fragment of the past that had been sinking in one corner of his mind.
A panting breath escaped from inside Surim’s mouth. Surim, who had been swaying however Song Hanyeong moved him the entire time as if in a daze, trembled and raised his head.
“Manager-nim…”
“Mm.”
“This… this isn’t the first time you’ve done this to me…”
At that question, Song Hanyeong smiled with an amused expression.
“Why do you think that?”
“Why on earth… no, when on earth…”
At some point while asking through the haze, Surim heard a sound like something falling with a thud. Startled, he squeezed his eyes shut tight then opened them, and Surim was standing under a flickering streetlight. Each time he was swallowed by darkness and appeared again, Surim’s appearance kept changing.
To the Surim from before graduation, who had submitted resumes everywhere and walked anxiously around campus waiting for results.
To the Surim who hadn’t even washed properly because of assignments and just sat in front of the computer.
To the Surim who had participated in the festival and was in charge of cooking at the department bar.
To the Surim from that winter day when it snowed, who had been secretly watching Song Hanyeong passing by outside the library window. Surprisingly, that day Surim’s eyes had met Song Hanyeong’s.
When he blinked, the two of them were inside a narrow supply room. Song Hanyeong had pressed Surim’s hands against the wall with their fingers interlaced and sank his teeth into his neck.
Surim couldn’t resist.
* * *
His head hurt and he felt dizzy. And for some reason, his tongue was throbbing terribly.
Surim groaned and opened his eyes.
“Are you awake?”
Surim was so startled he plastered himself against the car window. Song Hanyeong was sitting in the seat next to him with his arms crossed. The image of him gulping down blood from test tubes overlapped with that sight.
“Hh, hheuk…!”
Terrified, Surim frantically shook the car door handle, but the door wouldn’t open. Song Hanyeong, who had been watching quietly, operated a button to unlock the door. Surim flung the door open and tumbled out of the car as if rolling out.
The moment he tried to run around the car toward the alley, Song Hanyeong grabbed his wrist.
“Let, let go…!”
Without a word, Song Hanyeong pressed an umbrella he’d been holding in his other hand into Surim’s grip. Only then did Surim realize it was raining. He stared blankly at Song Hanyeong getting hit by the drizzling rain, then at some point flinched at the sound of raindrops hitting the umbrella and turned to start running. The sight of him running desperately without even getting tired was like a rabbit fleeing from a predator.
‘I’m scared…!’
What on earth had just happened? He understood the act itself intellectually, but he couldn’t understand what it actually meant in the end.
No, did he really understand the act itself?
The moment the question arose, Surim stopped hesitantly and looked back. Song Hanyeong’s car, which had been standing at the bottom of the alley, had disappeared in the meantime. Had he left?
“……”
His head was completely chaotic. As he fumbled through his memories in confusion, a splitting headache came crashing down.
“Urk…!”
Surim clutched his forehead and groaned, then soon began walking up the hill slowly yet hurriedly. It was because an inexplicable fear pushed at his back.
He didn’t know why he was moving his feet so desperately, so frantically, but an instinct surged up that he had to move. Dispelling the headache with trembling sighs, Surim hurried his stumbling steps home.
It had started to rain. The rainfall wasn’t heavy, but looking at the humid air and the rumbling clouds, heavy rain might come soon.
Having returned home without being able to end the confusion, Surim discovered a welcome visitor.
“Kkamang…!”
Surim, who had called out in surprise, covered his mouth and endured the pain for a moment. His tongue hurt terribly. It was all because of Song Hanyeong. He was the one who had said he’d give blood, but did it have to be like that?
But Surim, who was more concerned about Kkamang than his resentful feelings, rushed to the front door. Kkamang, sitting quietly in front of it while dampened, meowed as if asking why he was so late, then moved aside from the front door.
“You came… Ugh, it hurts…”
Surim groaned as he opened the front door to welcome his guest. The long-awaited guest entered the house before Surim and meowed as if telling him to hurry.
Let’s lock all the windows today and confine Kkamang in the house. It should be okay to do that for just one day. It felt like if he could hold that warm, soft bundle, he could endure this unidentifiable fear.
“Kkamang…”
Surim went inside, quickly changed from his suit into casual clothes, and came out. When he sat on the floor and spread his arms, Kkamang, who would normally have pretended not to notice, walked into his embrace.
“You always come whenever I’m having a hard time. Isn’t this a divine revelation that we should live together?”
At the playful whisper, Kkamang meowed prettily and licked the top of Surim’s lips.
Lying on the living room rug, Surim stroked the black cat and soon closed his eyes. Perhaps because he was tired and his head felt heavy, Surim instantly fell asleep.
Kkamang—Song Hanyeong—who had been sitting next to Surim waiting for him to fall deeply asleep, began to wander around the house. He checked the refrigerator and recycling bin to see if Surim had been eating properly these days, checked the piled laundry and remaining dishes to see if there were any problems with his daily life, and went to the bathroom to check if the running shoes were still in the bathroom.
Fortunately, Jin Surim seemed much better than when he’d last seen him. The neatly organized interior, the laundry that wasn’t piled up much, the clean sink, and the clean running shoes proved it.
Then the only problem was what he had done today. Would Jin Surim be able to handle it?
After making a round of the house and returning to quietly look at Surim’s face, Song Hanyeong soon curled up his body and closed his eyes with his rear pressed against him.
“Mmm…”
Perhaps sensing the warm body temperature in his sleep, Jin Surim fumbled across the floor and pulled Song Hanyeong into his embrace.
Meow… Song Hanyeong, who let out a low moan, didn’t push away Jin Surim who was hugging him rather tightly, but just let out a deep sigh.
* * *
Surim, who had pitifully curled up and fallen asleep last night, woke up to the beep of the door lock. He groggily raised his upper body and looked at the entrance to see Kkamang going out the front door.
“Kka…”
The moment Surim reached out, click, the front door closed.
“…mang…?”
Surim was confused about whether what he’d just seen was real. It seemed like Kkamang had opened the door lock, gone out, and kicked the door closed with his hind legs…
