NUTMEG 27

It was a relationship with a set time limit, anyway. A three-month, limited-time friends-with-benefits deal while they filmed the movie. Naturally, it was a relationship that would end when filming ended. Of course, it could also end anytime Wonoh wanted to stop before then.

Perhaps Wonoh’s recent, constant questions about his relationships with women were a sign. A sign that he wanted to stop. Of course, Minje could accept that.

Could it be that it bothered him that Minje had said he wasn’t gay, yet didn’t seem to have ever been with a woman?

“You look like you have something you want to say, so just say it.”

Minje asked in a calm voice. Wonoh, without any lingering attachment, turned off the game he had been playing for a long while and put his phone in his pocket. Then, he leaned his upper body forward and whispered in a small voice.

“I really think I’m going to get addicted to doing it with you, hyung. Aren’t you?”

Minje hurriedly looked around. Although it was just the two of them inside the tent, they were in the middle of the film set, and the tent was open. He raised his hand to cover Wonoh’s mouth, but Wonoh was faster, grabbing his wrist.

“There’s no one here.”

Then he whispered in his ear again. He was so close that his breath touched the shell of Minje’s ear.

“I was just curious because you seem so used to doing it with men, hyung.”

“…”

The shell of his ear burned. It seemed he had jumped to the wrong conclusion again. Wonoh hadn’t brought it up because he wanted to stop, but apparently just to tease him. Wonoh gently stroked the inside of the wrist he was holding.

“Why? What did you think I was going to say?”

When Minje clammed up like a shellfish, Wonoh gently pulled his wrist toward him. Because of that, Minje’s seated upper body wobbled and leaned toward Wonoh. He was forced to face him.

“I like that you’re good at sex, hyung.”

“…”

His cheeks, already flushed from the heat, finally turned as red as a fully ripened tomato.

The truth was, Minje had recently had the thought that he might actually be gay.

Because… he found himself hoping this relationship would last a little longer, that it would continue. But, just like any other thought he had, this too was an inappropriate one, so he had no intention of ever letting it show.

Just then, the closed tent flap was lifted and the assistant director poked his head in. The face under the straw hat was as red as Minje’s.

“Guys, it’s too hot, isn’t it? The setup is taking longer than expected. Do you want to go rest in the van for a bit? I’ll call your manager when we’re all set.”

“Ah. We’ll do that. I’m fine, but look at how flushed Minje hyung’s face is.”

Annoyed with Wonoh for teasing him while still holding his wrist, Minje kicked him squarely. Only then did Choi Wonoh let go of his hand, feigning pain.

While Wonoh went to find their manager to get the key, Yoo Min-kang, the youngest member of the planning team, approached Minje, who was standing around blankly outside, holding a golf umbrella. He was the one who always held an umbrella for Minje during outdoor location shoots. It seemed he was purposefully looking out for Minje, who, thankfully, didn’t have a manager following him around. After Minje told him not to do it out of awkwardness, they had gotten a little closer and had even started to exchange joke-like banter.

“Minje hyung.”

As he was killing time with Yoo Min-kang, his name was called right away. When he turned around, he saw Choi Wonoh waving the hand that held the key high in the air. Minje gave Yoo Min-kang a brief farewell and ran over to him. Wonoh only rolled his eyes to look behind Minje.

“Who was that?”

“Min-kang from the planning team.”

“Hmm.”

Wonoh didn’t seem to remember him. The lingering cool air from the air conditioner inside the van hit his face. While Wonoh started the ignition from the driver’s side and turned on the A/C, Minje sat in a seat as far as possible from where Wonoh usually sat.

“Hyung, are you going to sit there?”

“Yeah.”

The van Wonoh rode in was a 7-seater with a raised roof so they could change their outfits while standing up. This meant it was very spacious and had many seats. However, Wonoh hopped to the back and sat down next to Minje. Minje, who had been pretending to read his script, bit his lower lip hard.

If Wonoh started teasing him while waiting for filming like he had earlier, it was truly difficult to manage his expression. Besides, because he’d had abnormal thoughts, like hoping this kind of relationship would continue for a long time, he felt even more awkward looking at his face. If he really didn’t want to see him, he could have just stayed behind in the tent by himself, but he had insisted on following him. Because he didn’t really want to be far away from him. Then what are you supposed to do? Minje wanted to ask himself.

Wonoh’s bare leg touched Minje’s knee. Both men were wearing short, wide-legged boxing shorts. Minje tried his best to read the highlighted letters in front of him. But he was so conscious of their touching knees that he couldn’t properly read a single letter.

Wonoh, who had been flipping through the script next to him, also seemed to be having trouble concentrating, as he started playing a game on his phone again. Minje glanced at him out of the corner of his eye and sighed without being obvious. He could understand himself, but why, in this spacious van, did Wonoh insist on sitting right next to him? When he was next to him, he often felt as if the air around him thinned. It was because he would get needlessly short of breath and his heart would beat fast.

“Being next to you, hyung, keeps making me think of other things.”

Wonoh, who had been playing a game on his phone for a while, flipped the screen over and placed it on his knee.

“I want to kiss you.”

“…”

Minje knitted his brow slightly and looked at him. Wonoh was just smiling innocently. Anyone hearing him would think he had said something like, I want to eat pizza. But thinking about it, it wasn’t that different from that. To Wonoh, it was probably about that level of importance.

It seemed he was the only one whose head was a mess. What if they started kissing here and he got an erection? They would have to be on standby soon. But it wasn’t just that it was troublesome. Wonoh must think doing it with me is pleasant and fun. Is that why he wants to do it so often? Inwardly, he didn’t feel bad.

“Can I?”

As there was no reply, Wonoh quietly prompted him again. The boundary of the adjacent seat had already been crossed, and his upper body was leaning toward Minje. No matter how small the act, Wonoh always asked for his consent. He had never thought deeply about the reason, but he vaguely assumed it was because Choi Wonoh was smart, and he wanted to make it clear that this was a consensual relationship.

Minje gave a small nod. Wonoh smiled and pressed their soft lips together.

He sucked on Minje’s upper and lower lips once each before his tongue slowly slid toward the inner membrane, and Minje slowly accepted it. His mind, which had been exhausted from waiting in the sweltering heat all day, felt like it had completely melted into a thick, sticky liquid.

A pained-sounding moan escaped through his teeth on its own, and at the same time—thump—their tongues tangled mindlessly, making obscene sounds, until the back of his head was pressed against the window. Minje, who was now half-lying on the back seat, had his arms wrapped around Wonoh’s shoulders. Wonoh, who had been gripping Minje’s waist and chin, slowly pulled his lips away and spoke in a tone of pure admiration.

“Hyung, you’re a really good kisser.”

Minje wiped the saliva from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand and said nothing.

“Did you learn from Soohyuk hyung?”

“…What?”

“You didn’t know? You called out that man’s name the first time we did it. I was hurt.”

Minje’s brow hardened. If it was the first time, he might have done so since he had thought it was Soohyuk hyung in his dream. But he remembered that all this time?

“What’s your relationship with that person?”

Suddenly, a handsome, smiling face appeared before Minje’s eyes. Minje, who had been momentarily lost in other thoughts, took a little time to understand the meaning of the question before answering.

“…We’re nothing to each other.”

“Really? I thought he was your ex-boyfriend. Then why did you call out his name back then?”

“…”

There was no way he could answer that. Minje pressed his lips firmly together. Wonoh sat next to him and slowly stroked the short hair at the nape of Minje’s neck.

“Clamming up again. You never say anything when I ask a question that’s hard to answer. Well, I like that you’re a good kisser, too, hyung. That’s why everything with you feels good.”

The beautiful face smiled at Minje.

His words made Minje think that if he had been bad at kissing or sex, Wonoh would not have considered continuing this relationship. It’s a relief I can make him feel good. It might sound funny, but he was sincere. To think that his experiences with Soohyuk hyung, which he had only ever hated, would be of help one day.

Wonoh picked up his script again and sat up properly. As if in a good mood, he hummed a song and flipped through the script—flap, flap. Minje stared blankly at Wonoh’s side profile.

“…Aren’t we going to do it?”

“Do what?”

“…”

As if suddenly realizing, Wonoh raised his eyebrows and then laughed out loud. Minje just sat there awkwardly. With a leisurely smile, he whispered.

“I think you’re hornier than me, hyung. Do you only think about having sex when you’re with me?”

Then he poked Minje’s cheek with his finger. Flustered by his teasing tone, Minje didn’t know how to respond and picked up his script to hide his face. He could hear laughter from above it. How embarrassing. It seemed he’d jumped the gun again, all by himself.

“We’re working right now. Besides, you hate doing it in places like this, hyung. We do it to feel good, so we should do it somewhere we can both enjoy it.”

Minje hesitated for a moment before asking what he had been curious about all along.

“You… why do you do it with me? I’m sure there are a lot of women who want to be with you.”

“How can I do it with just anyone?”

Wonoh’s eyes widened as if to say, what kind of obvious thing are you saying, and he slowly added.

“I do it because it’s you, hyung. I think acting with you is fun, talking with you is fun, and having sex with you is fun.”

“…”

“Teasing you is fun, too.”

Wonoh smiled mischievously, then turned his head back to the script.

Minje almost replied, Me too.

That I also find acting with you, talking with you, and… in truth, kissing and having sex with you so good that my head melts every time. But he knew better than to say such a thing. Just as Wonoh was the only one who could freely come and go through the small door called ‘friend’ from the very beginning, it was the same now. His role was to sit there quietly in that small room waiting for him, and to nod his head if Wonoh said he now wanted to close this door and leave.

Minje bit his lower lip hard and stared out the window at the parking lot. If he didn’t, he felt he would make a strange face.

Minje had never liked sexual acts. Even less had he ever thought of them as a fun game.

Soohyuk had said the reason Minje got hard and spread his legs at the scent of an Alpha’s pheromones was all because he was an Omega, that he was made that way, and Minje had agreed with him.

He had never dreamed that he would come to feel his heart flutter at such acts, that they would feel so good he would want to do them more often. Even this was all thanks to Wonoh. If his acts with Soohyuk had been composed of pain and resignation, his acts with Wonoh were much closer to joy and happiness.

“Ah. I’m getting a call from Younghoon hyung. I guess we’re about to start filming.”

Wonoh took out his vibrating cell phone. “Yeah. Uh-huh. Ah—got it,” he said, and the phone, which was hung up quickly, went back into Wonoh’s pocket.

“Hyung. Filming’s been delayed by two hours.”

Wonoh’s script was closed with a snap.

“What should we do?”

There was one more thing to say.

About his earlier statement that he had never thought deeply about Wonoh’s intentions in always asking for his consent.

It was because Minje liked it very much. Kisses, sex—he always asked Minje first. He had never once refused, but he knew that if he were to say no, Wonoh probably wouldn’t press him further. That trivial bit of trust held a very great meaning for Minje.

The leader had always ordered Minje. If he said no, the leader would make him listen, even if he had to slap his cheek. So, Wonoh’s words, asking for his consent every time, couldn’t help but feel gentle. It was because he wanted to think of it that way that he hadn’t thought deeply about his intentions.

Minje stared quietly into his light-colored eyes. He worked his throat to swallow dryly and then parted his lips to say first what he had been inwardly hoping Wonoh would say. He felt the nape of his neck flush with heat.

“…Should we, stop by the dorm for a bit?”