PHUW 84

“Me?”

“Then who else, should I call Gom-i?”

He said as if it were the most obvious thing, and Jeong Mok felt even more embarrassed.

“You can wash your back by yourself.”

“How, in this position.”

Ahn Haeri dangled the leg he had propped on the tub. The white thigh caught the light and shone even more.

There was nowhere for his eyes to rest. While Jeong Mok faltered, not knowing where to look, Haeri’s ripe-peach-colored lips jutted out.

“Are you going to keep me waiting like this?”

He had no choice. Jeong Mok sat on the edge of the tub, facing the opposite direction from Haeri. Staring at the bathroom wall, he lifted the shower head.

“Your pants are soaked, aren’t you going to take them off?”

“It’s fine. Don’t mind it.”

The tailored suit pants clung tightly to his legs. That, at least, pressed down on the swelling hardness in the center.

Ssshhh.

He turned the shower head to Haeri’s back. He meant to only rinse the slippery spots. But Haeri had no intention of cooperating. Suddenly, he slid his hips back into Jeong Mok’s line of sight and leaned against the tub wall. Which meant the two pieces of flesh that had been stiff from earlier were once again in plain view.

“Hold the shower head steady.”

With wet fingers, he guided Jeong Mok’s wrist upward. Finding the right angle, Ahn Haeri splashed his face and washed it with bare hands, then grabbed Jeong Mok’s other limp hand and pressed it against his back.

“The middle of my back feels sticky. My hand won’t reach, so rub it for me.”

“Uh…”

He didn’t even know what he was thinking, but Jeong Mok did as told, rubbing Haeri’s back. As his palm slid down the slightly lean back, his bony shoulder flinched.

“Ah, that tickles.”

Though he was the one who asked to be rubbed, Haeri twisted as if he couldn’t stand it, and suddenly grabbed the hand holding the shower head. The shock made him drop it. Water burst out from the flipped shower head, soaking Jeong Mok’s shirt sleeve. But that wasn’t the problem.

On the back of his trapped hand, something brushed against him, soft and raised. On a man’s chest, there was only one thing it could be.

“Ah!”

Startled, Jeong Mok roughly pulled his hand back. Haeri’s torso tilted backward, and his hips slid down.

Crash.

Haeri slipped inside the tub, barely managing to hook an arm onto the step he had been using as a chair. But as his weight pulled down, his leg propped on the edge lifted higher, spreading his groin even more blatantly. Barely keeping his balance, he looked at Jeong Mok and asked for help.

“My legs are about to split. Help me up.”

There was no time to think of embarrassment. Jeong Mok bent down immediately and grabbed him under the arms to lift him. Haeri reflexively wrapped his arms around Jeong Mok’s neck.

“Ha, I thought I was dead.”

The naked body pressed against his own. With his shirt drenched, the heat and pounding heartbeat transferred straight into him. The hardness that had been faintly asserting itself all along kicked like a racehorse about to reach the finish line.

‘Fuck’

It was a truly maddening situation. A dark, urgent feeling surged in Jeong Mok’s chest. If only it would end like a passing squall.

“I’m done bathing. Take me to the bed.”

Ahn Haeri threw a burning ember into that squall. Better to give him what he wanted quickly and then escape outside than waste time arguing. He was gathering Haeri’s legs to lift him properly when, like an octopus, Haeri spread them instead and wrapped them around his waist.

“How am I supposed to lift you like this?”

“Just hold me like this. I’m cold, hurry.”

If it were a child, or even just someone wearing proper clothes, cradling him with an arm under his backside would have been nothing. But Ahn Haeri was completely naked. His wet body clung to him, soaking the front of his shirt. Thin silk, heavy with water, was worse than nothing at all. Soft flesh pressed against his stomach. He realized instantly what it was. He was a man too, how could he not.

All the blood rushed to his abdomen and thighs, making him dizzy.

‘This is insane. It’s madness. This is madness.’

No thought came except that. Half-paralyzed, Jeong Mok slid his forearm under Haeri’s round, firm buttocks. When he bore Haeri’s weight, the flesh pressed against his stomach squashed, and the stiff hardness inside made itself felt.

“Mmh.”

The damned brat hummed with pleasure, burying his face in Jeong Mok’s neck. He should have known from the way Haeri humped in his sleep. At that age, his body was too sensitive.

And he was shameless. Who had the nerve to provoke his hyung-nim like this? His thick brows twitched. His jaw clenched, veins rising on his hand and temple.

He took him to the bed as requested and laid him down. Clamping his lips shut, he turned away, but Haeri grabbed his arm again.

“The towel. Water’s dripping from my hair.”

He gave him the towel, but it didn’t stop there.

“Dry my hair. Where’s my pajamas? I don’t know where my things are. Or should I go wandering naked on this leg through this huge house?”

The demands didn’t end. As he wanted, Jeong Mok found his luggage and took out clean underwear, a T-shirt, and shorts. He almost feared Haeri would ask him to dress him. And in fact, Haeri only put on the T-shirt, fiddling idly with the briefs and shorts.

“I’ll go wash up.”

Using the excuse that his shirt and pants were soaked, Jeong Mok retreated to the bathroom. There, under ice-cold water, he forced himself to calm his desire. He tossed the wet clothes into the laundry bin managed by the regular cleaning service, then wrapped a large hotel-style bath towel around his waist. While towel-drying his hair, his eyes met Ahn Haeri’s, who was sitting on his bed.

“You showered longer than I thought.”

With his brown curly hair messy like a bird’s nest from only a rough towel rub, Haeri, for some reason, still hadn’t put on his shorts. His briefs were crumpled on top of the shorts lying on the floor beside the bed.

His half-cast leg was stretched out across the bed while the other dangled off the edge. If not for the loose hem of his T-shirt, everything would have been exposed.

“Why… are you sitting like that?”

“What do you mean?”

It looked like a scene carefully staged for an adult magazine, the “half-naked lover on my bed” concept, but saying it out loud seemed pointless. Pretending to see nothing, Jeong Mok opened the mirrored cabinet in front of the dressing room and pulled out a hair dryer. Maybe the cold shower had been too much, because his fingers trembled, almost dropping it. The goosebumps starting from his inner thighs suggested it wasn’t the cold but excitement.

He had taken a step back earlier, holding his breath so nothing could be heard outside, but that meant he hadn’t found relief. Now the visual stimulus was too much. The bath towel wrapped twice for stability brushed against a sensitive place.

When he turned on the dryer, Ahn Haeri limped toward him.

“Me too.”

“Here.”

He held it out.

“It’s hard to stand on one leg.”

His injured leg made for an all-purpose excuse, but it worked. Jeong Mok stopped drying his own hair and turned the dryer to Haeri’s bird’s nest curls. As he dried the scalp carefully, the curls puffed up like a fluffy puppy’s fur.

“Now it’s warm.”

Haeri grinned, then suddenly wrapped his arms around Jeong Mok’s waist.

“Why do you keep doing this.”

“No reason. Just because I like it.”

Jeong Mok’s heart plunged into a freefall. At the same time, his conscience clawed to hold him in place.

The tip of Haeri’s nose touched his sternum, then the soft cheek brushed his chest muscle. Next, the delicate ear curled against his left chest.

“Wow. Your heartbeat’s loud. Is it big because your body’s big too? Feels like an eight-cylinder engine.”

“…Don’t cling.”

Dropping the dryer, Jeong Mok tried to push him away by the upper arms, but Haeri refused to let go.

“It’s fine. I’m doing it just because I like it.”

“No matter how much you like it, you can’t… do this carelessly.”

“What’s wrong, we’re both men.”

That was when Jeong Mok realized. This was deliberate revenge.

“You.”

“What?”

“I told you not to do this.”

“That’s just what you think.”

With every reply, his hot breath tickled Jeong Mok’s chest.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Why else. To seduce you.”

It was getting out of hand. Unable to look him in the eye, Jeong Mok covered his face with one hand to block his vision.

“Ahn Haeri.”

“Why, am I not allowed to seduce you? You openly seduced me before, remember.”

Haeri brought up the incident at the restaurant. Never had Jeong Mok imagined his own sins would return to him this way.

“That time, it was just because you were cute.”

“I’m not cute now?”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“Then that’s fine. I’m just doing this because I purely like you too.”

“If this goes too far and I really… what then?”

“What exactly do you mean by ‘really’?”

The wordplay dragged on. Jeong Mok’s patience frayed by the second, his nerves stretched taut like the thinnest piano wire.

“…It’ll be hard. So hard you’ll want to die.”

A moment later, the lips pressed to his chest whispered,

“Hm… I read before that if you prepare properly, it’s manageable.”

Ping.

The taut string of his nerves snapped. His flimsy patience tore to shreds, and his mind spun around in a dizzy rush.