SLC 35

“Aya! This one’s even more handsome. Are all Seoul kids that good-looking?”

Kim Jinkyung smiled awkwardly and tugged at Mok Seongha’s hem.

“Let’s go that way.”

Mok Seongha followed behind him.

“If there are too many apple fruits on the tree, the good ones can’t ripen.”

Kim Jinkyung, who stopped in front of an apple tree about his height, continued explaining while cutting off all the small fruits with scissors.

“You have to leave just one per cluster and cut all the rest. That’s how it has to be.”

“…….”

“Want to try?”

Kim Jinkyung handed over the scissors. Mok Seongha took them and held them. Then Kim Jinkyung told him to wait a moment and tried to put one glove on his hand.

“It won’t fit.”

When Mok Seongha wiggled his fingers caught in the glove, Kim Jinkyung muttered, “Yeah.”

“Your hands are really big….”

Their eyes met. Because of the apple trees, the scent of unripe apples was strong. Kim Jinkyung turned his head.

“Give it a try.”

Mok Seongha sighed and thinned the apple fruits as Kim Jinkyung instructed. After a few snips, it quickly became familiar, and he could cut the branches.

“You have to cut the branches close. That way, even if they grow, they won’t touch the one remaining apple. You did well.”

Even for trivial things, Kim Jinkyung always praised with all his sincerity. Like he was taking care of a child.

Mok Seongha cut off the underdeveloped apple fruits. Countless fruits rolled and fell at his feet. Kim Jinkyung also snipped beside him. Later, a strange competitive spirit kicked in about who could cut more, and they moved the scissors without any conversation.

The ground underfoot looked like a mound of unripe apples. From far away, a middle-aged man and woman who recognized Kim Jinkyung approached with quick steps.

“Jinkyung-ah! Jinkyung-ah!”

“Mom.”

Kim Jinkyung put down the scissors and ran over. His mother opened her arms wide and hugged her son.

“You’re supposed to be studying, what are you doing here?”

Even while saying that, the father couldn’t hide his delighted expression. A smile appeared on the sun-tanned man’s face.

“I had a bit of time, so I stopped by.”

“Then come greet us and eat before going. Why are you doing field work?”

“I wanted to help. Ah, over there, this is the student I teach.”

Unlike before, he was introduced as a student. This introduction was better, and Mok Seongha relaxed.

“Hello.”

Mok Seongha put down the scissors and greeted Kim Jinkyung’s parents.

“Is the student perhaps an actor or something? How is a guy so handsome and tall?”

“Hahaha.”

Kim Jinkyung laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck. On his white and long neck, dust remained in the shape of fingers.

“You’re staying the night, right?”

“No. We have to go back later.”

“How can that be? You have to stay. You came all this way.”

“I can’t. I’m not here alone….”

“I’m fine.”

Mok Seongha interjected.

“What?”

Kim Jinkyung turned around with eyes wide open as if he hadn’t expected it. The mole under his eyelashes was visible. Mok Seongha felt his insides churn again, and his stomach tickled.

“Let’s stay. It’s late.”

“Wait a moment.”

Kim Jinkyung hurriedly took out his phone and checked the precipitation probability. Tomorrow’s precipitation probability was less than 5%. It was a probability where he didn’t need to worry about rain, but for Mok Seongha, it was different.

“It’s fine.”

Mok Seongha immediately replied upon seeing Kim Jinkyung’s clouded expression.

“The student says it’s fine too. Let’s eat dinner together, have watermelon too. I’ll steam some corn.”

Kim Jinkyung’s mother, excited at the thought of feeding her son, held her son’s hand and eagerly spoke. Kim Jinkyung was a filial son. That was a fact Mok Seongha could tell without seeing. There was no way such a decent and bright young man wouldn’t have filial piety.

Even a flawed human like him was weak to family.

“…Then….”

Kim Jinkyung trailed off while looking at Mok Seongha.

“I’ll call Secretary Kang.”

Only then did Kim Jinkyung’s expression brighten. Mok Seongha took the phone from him and called Secretary Kang. In the meantime, Kim Jinkyung conversed with his parents. Mok Seongha looked at his face, smiling with crinkled eyes while looking at his parents.

–What did you just say? Staying overnight? Where? Why? Are you out of your mind?

A loud voice came from the other end of the phone, but it escaped through his other ear. Mok Seongha’s gaze remained on Kim Jinkyung.

–You can’t. Staying out two nights in a row, where is that coming from? With the chairman’s condition? How are you going to eat? Come back right now. No, put the teacher on. I’ll talk to him directly.

“Don’t.”

–What?

“Don’t say anything.”

Kim Jinkyung was laughing and chattering about apples. Useless, strange, uninteresting stories. But strangely, his ears perked up without him realizing.

Things like the relationship between Jupiter and Earth that he had heard from him before, or the other name for nails, or the reason to cut branches close when thinning apples.

–Young master. What are you saying. I’ll head over there right now….

“Don’t come. Don’t contact him. If you contact Kim Jinkyung, I’ll never go back to Seoul.”

–What? Young….

Mok Seongha hung up.

“What did he say?”

“Have fun and stay long.”

Mok Seongha handed the phone back to him. Kim Jinkyung’s expression became much brighter.

Because he’s full of fear.

Mok Seongha picked up the scissors he had thrown down earlier.

“What are you doing?”

“Thinning.”

Mok Seongha replied while snipping the fruits with the scissors. Snip. The sound of the scissors closing echoed among the lush trees.

“Aren’t you tired?”

“Hot.”

Kim Jinkyung, as if he knew it, smiled and handed over the hat he had brought out earlier. Mok Seongha thought for a moment and then bowed his head forward.

“ …Put it on yourself.”

“I’m holding scissors in my hand.”

It was something he could just put down for a moment. Yet Mok Seongha stubbornly kept his head bowed and waited. Kim Jinkyung brushed off the dust on his hands. Then he slowly put the hat on him.

“The strap.”

This time, Mok Seongha lifted his head and demanded the strap be tied. Since Kim Jinkyung was also wearing work gloves, tying a knot with the thin strap wasn’t easy, and he fumbled a few times.

“Wait a moment.”

Kim Jinkyung bit the end of the work glove with his mouth and took it off. His pale hand entered his sight. Mok Seongha’s gaze stopped on Kim Jinkyung’s hand. Jinkyung tied the knot with the glove in his mouth. Every time his finger joints moved, the sound of flesh colliding rang out. It was a sound no one else could hear.

“…All done.”

After finishing the knot and putting the work glove back on, Kim Jinkyung muttered.

“Here.”

Mok Seongha said and tapped his own mouth area.

“Yes?”

For some reason, Kim Jinkyung’s face turned bright red. Perhaps tapping lips had another meaning.

“You have dirt on you.”

“Ah, yes.”

Kim Jinkyung roughly rubbed his mouth area while wearing the glove. The dirt around his mouth smeared even blacker.

“Not like that….”

Unable to watch anymore, Mok Seongha wiped Kim Jinkyung’s mouth with his own hand.

“……!”

His face turned incomparably redder than before. The corners of his eyes, earlobes, nape. If stripped, probably up to his shoulders would be red.

Like a ripe apple.

Mok Seongha enjoyed eating apples. He always ate them with the skin on. He preferred the moderately rough, crisp texture.

But, if Kim Jinkyung were an apple.

…He thought he wanted to try eating him peeled. Even back then, when he rubbed against his naked body, it felt much better.

“Ah, I, I’ll….”

Kim Jinkyung turned his face away. In the process, his lips touched Mok Seongha’s hand. Thanks to working under the burning sun, the slightly dry texture of his lips remained on his hand. Mok Seongha’s mouth went dry, and heat rose from his fingertips.

He felt a strong urge to touch him more.

However, before Mok Seongha could move his hand, Kim Jinkyung first wiped his own mouth. Mok Seongha didn’t feel good. He felt regretful. No, more than regretful, it felt like something in his hand had been taken away.

It was unfair and frustrating.

Fuck, annoying.

Mok Seongha silently started thinning again. Along with the scissor sounds, unripe fruits piled up numerously at his feet.

“You can take it slow.”

Kim Jinkyung tried to stop Mok Seongha, but in the end, he single-handedly finished the work on over 100 enormous trees that day.

“Are you okay?”

Kim Jinkyung, sitting on the veranda, glanced at Mok Seongha and asked. This was the guest house his parents had built for their son’s studies. Though it was an independent space with the yard between it and the main house, he was worried about Mok Seongha.

“What?”

“The smell or something…. Isn’t it hard?”

“It’s fine.”

After finishing the farm work, both had showered. Since he was sensitive to scents, all products Mok Seongha used at the mansion were unscented by default. But here, he had no choice but to use the products his parents used. So every time he moved, the strong shampoo scent from the market wafted.

“…Did you dry your hair?”

“Yeah.”

Mok Seongha answered while running his hand through his hair.

‘How do you wash?’

When they shared a room, Kim Jinkyung couldn’t contain his curiosity after seeing Mok Seongha come out after showering and asked.

He turned into a panther when wet, so how could he finish showering and come out in human form? It didn’t make sense.

‘Wash everything else and then shampoo my hair, then turn on the water.’

‘You don’t change before that?’

‘I said I change only when soaked to the head.’

Kim Jinkyung imagined a black panther waiting under the running shower until the shampoo foam was gone. …Cute.

‘Then how do you transform back?’

It seemed difficult to operate the dryer in leopard form. Then Mok Seongha showed him the entrance to his exclusive bathroom. He saw warm air blowers installed all around. In other words, just flick the switch, and the moisture would disappear in a few minutes.

The rural house naturally didn’t have such facilities, so Kim Jinkyung dried his fur. He didn’t think much of it when he was a black leopard, but the moment the grown man appeared before him, Kim Jinkyung was so surprised he dropped the dryer in his hand.

The dryer whirred on the floor, blowing air for a while. Mok Seongha slowly got up. Kim Jinkyung quickly picked up the dryer, put it in Mok Seongha’s hand, and stood up.

‘N-now do it yourself.’

In the end, Kim Jinkyung had to shower once more. In that short moment, his whole body was soaked in cold sweat.

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“Aren’t you hungry?”

Since their son came home after a long time, the parents set a dinner table heavy enough to break the legs. Kim Jinkyung’s father personally brought fresh vegetables he picked, washed in underground water cold enough to numb the hands, and his mother cooked all kinds of meat from land, sea, and air and placed them on the table.

However, when their son appeared alone, the parents were concerned.

‘The student isn’t eating?’

‘Yes. He said he’s not feeling well and wants to rest.’

‘Should I make porridge for him? It’s because he was working too hard. What to do?’

Kim Jinkyung felt a bit sorry. He couldn’t explain to his parents that Mok Seongha doesn’t eat food given by others.

However, he was also concerned about Mok Seongha being alone in the guest house, so he couldn’t eat much more than usual, and his parents’ worry doubled. He insisted he was fine, but his mother made porridge and handed it over, and his father, thinking they must have gotten heatstroke from helping in the fields, picked an armful of watermelon and plums and put them in his son’s hands.

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“I’m hungry.”

“Then should I bring the porridge I brought earlier? Or something else….”

Kim Jinkyung asked with a brightened face.

“I’m not eating .”

“…….”

Is this how it feels to raise a picky eater child?