PHUW 85

‘What, why is his pulse slowing down?’

The heart that had been beating wildly loudly his ear was settling into a steady rhythm. It was supposed to be his big counterattack. Haeri chewed on his lips and pressed his ear tightly to the thick chest. He could barely feel any breath.

‘Did I make a fool of myself? Did that kill the mood?’

He lowered his eyes slightly. Even beneath the thick bath towel, the “new human” that had been so boldly showing its presence looked a little different now. But not in the way he feared.

‘…It looks bigger.’

Maybe it was his imagination. Either way, it definitely wasn’t cooling down.

‘What is this?’

His reaction was so different from his heart, it confused him. Carefully, he lifted his head to look at his face. Jeong Mok’s features, with everything sticking out or sunken in the right places, were stiff like a mannequin. His gaze was fixed on the huge mirror behind Haeri. Unconsciously, Haeri followed that gaze into the reflection.

Behind the slim figure in just a thin T-shirt was the broad torso of a muscular man, showing off its weight and mass. His pale limbs, lacking in color, looked sickly like boiled chicken, while the skin under that man’s healthy tone was packed solid with muscle. The difference in both color and silhouette made the presence radiating from him of another level entirely.

‘Isn’t this just too much? How is this even possible? He doesn’t even follow a diet or work out.’

He was genuinely impressed when he suddenly remembered he had just been desperately trying to seduce him. And the gaze that had been wandering idly through the air was now fixed on him. His heart, already racing, stumbled over an invisible stone and went tumbling.

Gulp.

The emotionless gaze was so fierce he couldn’t dare meet it. Had he just fanned the wrong flame and lit a fuse he never should have touched? The eyes glaring at him looked ready to snap his neck at any second. Ahn Haeri regretted what he had done.

‘Shit. What the hell did I just do?’

He gulped hard.

The truth was, his provocation came mostly from a childish desire for revenge, “let’s see how you like it for once.” But that wasn’t all.

He couldn’t stop thinking about it. With Jeong Mok, every day was a roller coaster. Without him, he spiraled into fantasies, bouncing between heaven and hell. He was confused, unable to define his feelings. Meanwhile, Jeong Mok dismissed it as the desperate thrashing of an orphan who didn’t want to be abandoned.

That pissed him off.

Because it wasn’t that. There had to be a better reason. So even if it meant doing something against nature, he wanted to prove his judgment wasn’t wrong. To put it simply, his heart was such a restless mess that he thought, Screw it, just close your eyes and sleep with him once. Then they would either end up in a real relationship, or he’d see it was impossible to overcome the wall of nature and walk away without regret. One way or another, he expected an answer.

Only now did he realize how foolish and reckless that was.

‘He’s already scary enough as he is. You’re insane, Ahn Haeri. You’re out of your mind, dying to get yourself killed.’

He’d always known that when his hyung-nim’s lid blew off, he could half-kill someone with his bare hands. But because his everyday habits and behavior were so gentlemanly, he had naively believed he would also be gentle and tender in this area too. If he had known how easily that lid could blow, he would never have tried such a reckless plan, or no-plan.

What he thought was “Let’s cut the circling and just do it” was in fact “I already reserved my grave, so go ahead and kill me.”

His urvival instinct kicked in, scanning for escape routes. He racked his brain frantically, but the only option was to brazen it out and then pull away. Pathetic as it was, it seemed better to look like a coward and live than to open the lid of a human-shaped beast and die on the spot.

“Um… if you don’t… want to, we don’t have to…”

He stammered as he tried to edge back. That was when Jeong Mok’s long, thick arm, which had been hanging limply, suddenly whipped around his waist. The space left open while he had glanced toward the mirror vanished as their torsos pressed together.

“Ugh.”

The arm holding him was so firm and hot, it felt like a steel beam fresh from the mill.

Tension crawled over his skin, making Haeri instinctively twist his waist. But the man allowed no gap at all. Against his bare lower body, the reborn “new human” came closer.

It had looked impressive enough to the eye. Feeling the massive bulk and hardness directly against his crotch made him dizzy.

He was insane. Truly insane. What had he been thinking? No, he hadn’t been thinking at all.

His head stopped working. All that remained was regret, he had just recklessly hurried his own death.

When the gentlemanly, patient hyung-nim had been warning him again and again to stop, he should have backed down. What was pride worth, that he had dared to provoke him, even marching into the tiger’s den himself? Worse, he had rubbed himself with sweet-smelling juices and crawled willingly into the predator’s jaws.

“Uh, h-hyung-nim?”

“Quiet.”

At the low, curt word, the hair on his body stood on end. And at the same time, the arousal that had been burning him up flickered and died.

Jeong Mok’s large hand stroked Haeri’s waist. If only it had ended there. But the unhurried touch slid down, lifted the hem of his T-shirt covering the top of his rear, and seized the trembling flesh of his buttocks beneath.

‘Shit.’

He panicked inside.

Like a frightened animal, Haeri unconsciously tightened his rear to protect his most sensitive place. His buttocks clenched together, but that only pushed his crotch closer against his partner’s raging arousal, jutting under the bath towel. Fuck!

This time he tried desperately to pull his hips back. But the hand on his rear cleverly shifted into the cleft, so the farther he withdrew, the deeper the long fingers pressed in.

He should have just shut up and put on underwear when told! If he had, no one’s hand would be pushing into a place he hadn’t even touched himself except while washing.

‘Aaah.’

He froze, unable to move forward or back, caught halfway in his arms.

Holding him firmly with nothing more than an embrace, Jeong Mok explored him at leisure. One hand tested the firmness of his rounded buttocks, squeezing and releasing as if gauging their elasticity, while the other slipped under his T-shirt to stroke the skin of his back. Like a predator before a feast, deciding where to take the first bite, he made Haeri’s fear well up in bursts.

It was frightening, but not enough to make him faint. After all, wasn’t he the one who had pushed them into this plunge into the unknown?

What truly scared him wasn’t the man’s darkened eyes but how his own body, after just a moment of panic at the unfamiliar sensation, was already starting to feel good. Even with the thick towel between them, he could feel the hardness pressing against his crotch. Each time his back was stroked, something inside him sparked. Specifically, just below his navel, at the triangle formed by anus and testicles. Every man knew what was there. Along with the penis, it was the surest erogenous zone, and it was welcoming the stimulation.

‘Ah.’

His face flushed. He hadn’t even been touched in earnest, and already he was like this. Anyone seeing it would mock him as a born homosexual. But if he felt nothing after deliberately seducing him, that would be awkward too. Still, just for some groping, did he really have to roll out a red carpet, beating all the drums by himself? How open-minded could one cursed lower body be!

Too embarrassed, he dropped his red face against Jeong Mok’s neck.

He had always been weak to physical stimulation. A single flick of his nipple had made him writhe, a hand on his scalded thigh in the hot bath had made him spring up. So it was no surprise he would crumble quickly under real caresses.

His cock grew harder, rising stiff. The head lifted his thin T-shirt hem and tapped against the bath towel. The glans rubbed on the towel’s rough surface, sending a shover up his spine.

“Huhh.”

A moan slipped out by itself.

Jeong Mok answered with a low sigh. He gripped Haeri’s buttocks with both hands and pulled him close. Haeri’s flimsy impulse crushed against the overwhelming presence throbbing from Jeong Mok beneath the towel. His reason popped and cracked like corn in hot oil.

“Ah… mm.”

Seduced by the indecent sweetness that replaced his lost reason, he let out a nasal whimper. Clutching the broad shoulders, he twisted his hips, desperate to get closer.

Standing firm, Jeong Mok embraced him again like before. Haeri naturally wrapped his legs around his waist, his inner thighs pressing against the hard muscles of his midsection.

With softened eyes, Haeri stared at him.

Lifted high, he looked down into Jeong Mok’s gaze, clouded with lust. His flushed cheeks, his nose twitching with heavy breaths, were no different from his own. And below them, those lips.

He wanted to kiss. That was all it was. But supposedly they weren’t allowed. Yet if they were already doing more than kissing, would a kiss really make it worse?

His pale arms tightened around the broad shoulders. Drawing his neck gently closer, he tilted his own just a little. That was enough. The man was already right there.

The two lips met, spilling heat like a smokestack connected to a roaring furnace.