FLIA 89

“…Ah!”

Yohan’s breathing began to hitch again even though he wasn’t crying anymore,. It felt like he was being caressed by dozens of tongues and lips. Even his fingers flailing in the air were sucked in one by one. His body temperature rose, and his heart pounded rapidly.

“H-Hyunmook-hyung….”

Yohan was panting, unaware that he’d already drifted far from the Eternal Stone where he had just read that dreadful memory. What is this? What is happening? It was so strange, really strange… but it felt good. His exhausted body was being squeezed with just the right amount of pressure, making him feel as if he were floating.

Before he realized it, a soft and squishy end slipped inside his clothes. It licked down from his trembling chest, which rose and fell with each breath, to his lower abdomen, then slid into his pants. When it slurped between his legs, Yohan’s thighs recoiled.

“Ugh, ngh…”

The stimulation was so intense that it brought tears to his eyes. But it felt too good for him to protest. Instead, he just clung to the tip that was stroking his fingers, he let out out strained groans. He moaned as it licked from his lower belly to his groin again.

“Hah, mm, it’s… good….”

Yohan trembled all over as it slurped noisily between his legs, and lifted his hips. His vision flashed white. The sensation felt so unreal, and the stimulation too overwhelming. Was he having some sort of erotic dream?

It sucked the tip of his cock with the right amount of pressure, and pressed gently on his perineum and the base. As he squirmed from the pleasure, the warm tip, with human-like in temperature, rubbed against his rear. It slowly pushed in, as if testing his reaction.

For a moment, he felt some resistance. But Yohan didn’t push it away or reject it. He was only breathing hard, scared of this experience he had never gone through before, but also excited. He moaned softly. Ah, ah, ah… He twisted in pleasure as it stretched and sucked his insides. The thing pushed in a little deeper.

“This is, too mu..ah!”

It entered with a volume and depth just short of painful, then slowly stirred inside. It slid out at a similar pace, then pressed along his inner walls. It was a kind of pleasure he had never imagined.

“H-Hyun…mook-hyung… ah, ah, ahhh…!”

It felt amazing. Was it even allowed to feel this good? By now, Yohan had almost completely forgotten what had happened just earlier. As he was repeatedly licked and penetrated inside and out, again and again, he reached a climax that felt like his entire body was melting away.

“Haah, haa…!”

He shuddered as the cloudy white fluid was sucked out without a drop left behind. It licked away his sweat too. In the aftermath, Yohan let his body go limp. His already tired eyelids sank shut completely. Half-asleep now, he heard a strange lullaby drifting through his fading consciousness.

Rock-a-bye, a pitiful smiling face, a campfire on the field, drifting twinkling stars, silent dawn, marbles rolling, a mouse’s nest, grains of sand being counted, whispering rose bushes…

Yohan’s body collapsed gently, lulled by the nonsensical lyrics. Soaked in the afterglow, he soon forgot even the memory of Lee Hyunmook he had glimpsed earlier and fell into a deep, deep sleep. Around his unconscious body, a faint light shimmered and spread out in all directions.

From the darkness, something immeasurably far away, endlessly black and eternally solid, wriggled toward him. It clung to the only bright, luminous thing it could find, and licked and licked again. As if reluctant to let go, it licked every last edge. Finally, ‘Lee Hyunmook’…

***

Yohan, who had fallen into a deep sleep, groaned and woke up. His body hurt. It wasn’t just a dull ache, it felt like he had the flu. Then a worried voice called to him over and over.

“Yohan-ah, are you awake?”

He barely opened his eyes to see Seo Yakrin looking down at him with a worried expression. When she realized Yohan had come to, her dark face brightened. As Seo Yakrin stepped back, Yohan saw Lee Hyunmook’s face too. He was lying on a soft bed, practically in Hyunmook’s arms. Nearby, Lee Chanha sighed and said,

“Yohan-gun, you were unconscious for a whole week….”

“A… a week?”

Yohan murmured blankly with a hoarse voice. That meant he had rested for a whole week, but his purification energy was still only faintly sloshing at the bottom. He was completely drained, squeezed dry. Maybe that was why everyone’s faces and eyes looked worn and dim. Red glints flickered now and then. They looked like battered soldiers barely recovered after Yohan’s collapse.

“Come on… let’s get some food first.”

Yoon Seungryong had barely beaten his own fatigue, he trudged over and handed Yohan something like bland, slightly salty rice porridge. As he sipped it, his head started to clear a little. But his body still felt limp and refused to move. Yohan groaned and flopped over on his stomach. Ju Hoyoung, who had been sullenly staring at his game console, asked,

“Yohan-hyung, are you crying?”

“N-no…”

He tried to deny it, but his voice was already breaking. He was still trapped in the Abyss. Their hard-earned progress had ended in total failure, and now there was no second chance. Thinking about it, the grief and frustration overwhelmed him. Without caring about his pride, Yohan burst into tears.

“Ah, hngh… I should’ve tried a little harder…”

Maybe if he had just pushed a little more, he could’ve gone home. The image of the core fleeing as the heart of the Abyss crumbled flashed in his mind. Seo Yakrin, flustered, sat beside him and gently patted his back as he sobbed.

“What are you saying, Yohan-ah? You already tried hard enough.”

“But… I, I wanted to go home…”

Sick and aching from the fever, Yohan cried even louder, unable to hold it in.

“I really… wanted to go home… I hate it here… I was so close…, ngh, almost there…”

“I just wanted all of us to get out…” he mumbled in a broken voice, then started wailing. Lee Hyunmook held him quietly and let him cry it all out. After sobbing for a long time, Yohan calmed down with a sniffle. He didn’t even have the strength to cry anymore. He just pressed his face against his lover’s firm, warm chest, sniffling. Still, after crying his heart out for the first time in a while, he felt a little lighter. Just as he was catching his breath, he flinched.

“You just licked my cheek, didn’t you?”

“No?”

Then Lee Hyunmook licked his puffed-up cheek again. Yohan groaned, defeated.

“You’re not even pretending anymore…”

“That’s right.”

“What do you mean, that’s right…”

After whining a bit, he started to feel embarrassed. Yohan buried his face in Hyunmook’s chest and played dead. Lee Hyunmook patted his back and said,

“But it wasn’t completely ineffective, Yohan-ah.”

Only then did Yohan lift his head. When he looked up, the sky of the Abyss was still the same swirling, black-red storm as always. But something had definitely changed. The air felt lighter, fresher.

If he had to describe it, it was like the difference between the toxic smoke from a factory chimney and regular car exhaust on a busy road. The thick, oppressive malice pressing down on his lungs had thinned. Yohan murmured blankly.

“It really… does feel different.”

“Right? It wasn’t a pointless effort. That’s why it was worth trying, and it wasn’t a failure.”

Was it? Was it… really? He still felt frustrated and disappointed, but after hearing Hyunmook’s words, he began to think maybe so. The core had escaped, but it wasn’t unscathed. Yohan knew he had landed a critical blow on the Abyss.

Of course, the situation wasn’t all positive. Yohan’s purification energy was nearly depleted, and the other team members who had suffered in the Abyss weren’t in great shape either. They huddled close around him, as if warming themselves by a small campfire, barely holding on thanks to the faint purification he emitted.

Lee Chanha had pulled a blanket over himself and wouldn’t show his face. Yoon Seungryong, limp like he had no bones, barely moved except to offer food now and then. Ju Hoyoung sat staring at his game console, which wasn’t even powered on, his face pale. Seo Yakrin breathed hard through gritted teeth, she was clearly furious. Lee Hyunmook was in the best shape. Yohan was in the worst.

Yohan was bedridden for another full week. Only after that did his purification energy recover enough to tend to the others, one by one. But even as their color returned, the mood never really brightened. None of them cried out like Yohan had, but clearly, they had all been hoping this mission would be the one.