Black Paradise Chapter 2.2

The white hand that was wiping the carpet stopped abruptly. The face turned towards Ilyeong was exceptionally blank. Yuto’s features, which he had never paid attention to, finally came into view. Ilyeong examined every corner of it, but no matter how much he looked, he had no memory of such a blank face. Yuto had a strong impression in a certain sense, so if he had encountered him even once, it would have surely remained in his memory.

Ilyeong rubbed his stiff eyes roughly with his hand.

“No, no. It seems I am not fully awake. Pretend you did not hear it.”

“Hyung, I……”

“I am going to get some air. Give me the key.”

“Wh, where are you going? You must be hungry since you slept without eating dinner……”

“My head just will not clear up. I think it would be good to go out on the deck for a walk.”

It was all an excuse. He just did not want to be trapped in a small space with an uncomfortable person when the drug was taking effect.

Yuto blinked his eyes meekly.

“He said not to go out…… on the deck.”

“Who did?”

“Director Seo Yoonseok……. Before dinner earlier. Ah, he said that from now on, all winners are required to attend dinner. I explained to Mr. Chen that hyung was sick today, and he said to tell you it would not be a problem.”

So he had already created one debt in this way. It was not hard to imagine Chen showing off and acting proud. Well, it was not bad. It meant he intended to pay the price properly.

“So why did he say not to go out on the deck?”

“The sea is an unknown territory, isn’t it……. He said it’s best not to go near it as much as possible, as there might be undiscovered viruses. That is why they do not open the ports in the evacuation zones. Especially people like us who have not been well-nourished have weak immune systems……”

Pfft. A laugh escaped. Yuto stopped speaking with a deathly pale face.

“Ah…… I really can’t listen to this. Seo Yoonseok said that? That not opening the ports in the evacuation zones is for our sake?”

“There was a report that the Jupiter virus also started from the sea at first……”

“All naive words.”

That innocent face that knows nothing of the world was absurd. If Yuto had taken Seo Yoonseok’s words at face value, then he really knew nothing.

“That is all an excuse. Why is it that they can build such a luxurious cruise ship and dash across the sea, but we cannot?”

“So, the immune system……”

“Stop with that ridiculous talk. The incidence and mortality rates of Jupiter are much higher in Paradise than in the 23 evacuation zones. By that logic, it’s a contradiction to say that only people from the evacuation zones shouldn’t go out to sea.”

He must have built things like the new drug research institute in the evacuation zone because he was scared out of his wits. The corpses sacrificed to Jupiter that poured out of Paradise every month, and the suspicious experiments…….

There were more than enough things to say, but Ilyeong just swallowed them back down his throat.

“The reason Paradise is closing the ports of the evacuation zones is because it is advantageous for governance. It would be a big problem if the evacuation zones were to unite and raise a rebellion against Paradise. So they cut off the channels of communication in advance. They do not even tell us what route this cruise takes to the evacuation zones, or on what schedule. They probably intend to make it difficult to guess the location. To think they would wrap it up and rationalize it in such a way.”

Ilyeong paused for a moment and gauged Yuto’s expression. His whole body was as pale as the corpses he used to see at the research institute. Ilyeong took out the final decisive blow he had prepared.

“And I certainly never thought there would be someone who believes such a foolish story.”

Yuto’s hand, which was holding the towel, clenched. Surely he would not act all friendly and clingy again after he had been this mean. Yuto’s unconditional favor was uncomfortable, but above all, his strange obsession with his bag was the most awkward.

Leaving Yuto, who he could not tell what he was thinking, Ilyeong calmly began to tidy up the room. The clothes scattered on the floor were folded and organized on the bed, and the duffel bag was also put inside the cabinet. Beep. Yuto’s gaze followed the electronic notification sound.

Ilyeong pretended not to notice and picked up the room card key that was on his bed. In his other hand, he took a bottle of mineral water.

“……like ……why only me……”

Before leaving the room, he heard Yuto’s murmuring voice, his head hanging limply.

What do I care. Ilyeong tightened his grip on the plastic water bottle and slammed the door shut.

*

Ilyeong wandered aimlessly. He had always known that he had no sense of direction, but he swore it was never this bad. Being dropped off in a completely unfamiliar place, he was no different from an idiot who knew nothing.

After walking for a long time, the place he arrived at was in front of a railing. Ilyeong placed his hand on it and looked down. In the main hall on the lowest floor, men and women gathered in small groups and passed by, bursting into laughter. They were all in a state of excitement, immersed in a kind of amusement they had never experienced in their lives. At a fountain located a little away from them, an ivory-colored angel statue sprayed water.

Watching the most vibrant and lively scene on earth, Ilyeong strangely thought of something else.

A few years ago, there was an accident where a 5-meter diameter patch of land in the slums caved in. It happened in the eastern residential area. As a result, three passers-by and soldiers died, and five were seriously injured. Even those who had barely managed to survive eventually died after suffering for two days.

The area was thoroughly controlled, so he could not see the site himself, but Ilye-ong found an old book about sinkholes after searching the research institute’s library.

An offset stratum barely supported by groundwater. The ground that collapsed due to the disappearance of its support. A marvelous natural phenomenon that provokes the desire for conquest in freedivers…….

The book described sinkholes as mysterious tourist spots created by nature. Upon researching the book, it was indeed a copy of a text written before the earth ended up in this state. Only then could Ilyeong understand the author’s positive thinking.

He did not know what it was like back then, but people living in the present era do not think of nature as something to be conquered. Of course, it is not an object of coexistence either. It is an absolute god to whom they must prostrate themselves and obey in order to be left a place to live.

However, was it because he had become too assimilated with the author’s point of view? By the time he closed the book, Ilyeong was also strangely fascinated by sinkholes.

Among the sinkholes existing on Earth, the largest one was said to have a diameter of over 50 meters and a depth of over 500 meters. A lot of time has passed since then, and the Earth has become tattered, so it is possible that there are even larger and deeper sinkholes now.

He stared at the black and white photograph of the sinkhole for a very long time. And he imagined himself inside it. A space of darkness where nothing can be seen or heard…….

He longed for a quiet and calm time where nothing in his head would run rampant. He wanted to go inside it someday. After facing this noisy and trivial place, he longed for that unknown space even more.

“What time is it now, by any chance.”

Ilyeong asked a soldier who was passing by. The soldier, who was suddenly asked a question, hardened his face menacingly, then glanced at Ilyeong’s face with a strange look.

“Nine o’clock. But I haven’t seen you before. Are you by any chance a new winner who boarded today?”

“I am.”

“Why are you alone?”

Is that a problem? When Ilyeong furrowed his brow, the soldier gestured with his chin towards the area below the railing.

“Look there. Everyone’s passionately trying to hook up, so why are you being all pathetic up here by yourself. You’re pretty, so I thought you’d be popular. Is there a problem getting it up?”

They were low and vulgar words that reminded him of the truck driver who transported the drugs. It was so familiar and he was so used to it that he did not even get angry anymore. Ilyeong did not answer.

The soldier, undeterred, narrowed his eyes and smirked.

“Or are you the one who gets pinned down? If that’s the case, I can pound you. What’s your room number?”

“I am looking for the deck.”

“If you have a taste for the outdoors, I can accommodate. But the deck is an exception. Haven’t you heard it’s off-limits?”

“It seems we’re both deaf. I asked where the deck is.”

The soldier suddenly wiped the playfulness from his eyes and looked Ilyeong up and down from head to toe. When there was no answer, Ilyeong turned around without any lingering feelings. And at the same time, his arm was grabbed.

“Tell me your name, and I’ll tell you the location. Though you’ll just waste your time since the door is locked.”

Ilyeong’s gaze, whose wrist was caught unexpectedly, naturally landed on the soldier’s crotch. A hollow laugh escaped. Who’s the one really in heat…….

The outline of his bulging pants zipper was distinct. The soldier grinned as if making an excuse.

“I like brazen and fearless guys like you. The guys from the evacuation zones, even if they have pretty faces, are all busy trembling when they see us. You should be glad you ran into me. If it had been someone else, they might have already beaten you up for being annoying.”

“Do the lottery winners get treated like this in Paradise?”

“Who knows? What do I, a mere soldier, know about what the winners do in Paradise. Anyway, what’s your name?”

Ilyeong flung the soldier’s arm away. The area felt unpleasant, as if a bug had touched it.

Suddenly, he thought of Nam Giyoon. The reason Nam Giyoon was obsessed with him, could it be because his taste was the same as this soldier’s?

“Name. Nam Giyoon.”

“Nam Giyoon?”

So, he sold Nam Giyoon’s name with the meaning that whoever gets pinned down and pounded, those with similar tastes should get together.

The soldier, unaware of this, murmured the name Nam Giyoon, Nam Giyoon, a couple of times and then smiled satisfactorily.

“Good. The location of the deck is……”

Having decided on his direction, Ilyeong quickly left that place without any lingering feelings. The sound of people’s laughter followed him like a ghost.

Ilyeong ran in a hurry. In search of the small and desolate sinkhole that must be somewhere on this ship.

The hallway he arrived at, panting for breath, was dark as the lights were not on. No human from the evacuation zone would leave the splendid and bright place to crawl into this darkness.

Ilyeong found the door leading to the deck and staggered up the stairs. Low-intensity light poured through the round window on the door. He slumped down below it, leaned his back against it, and drank the water from the bottle. Whether it was a delusion or not, he could hear the sound of waves crashing beyond the door.

He was thirsty. He was so desperate for the drug that his hands were trembling, and he almost dropped the water bottle. He relaxed his muscles so that the drug that washed down his throat would quickly spread to every corner of his body.

The headache and tinnitus that had been raging for two days were gradually being eroded by the drug’s effect. The speed was slow, making him feel increasingly anxious. Should he have emptied two bags of the drug? But he did not know when he could make the drug again, so he had to save it…….

Ilyeong propped himself up using the door. Being able to stand properly, even if he was a little dizzy, was proof that the drug was insufficient. The son of a bitch and the winter wind also noticed this fact and barked more fiercely.

“Ah……”

Ilyeong, who had inadvertently turned his gaze out the window, froze.

The world was entirely black. The pitch-black sky and the surface of the water were darkness, perfectly close to nothingness.

The light cast by the cruise ship and the moon shattered into fine powder in the darkness. The sea, which had failed to evoke any particular emotion even in the bright light of day, was so beautiful only in a place where all light had died.

A sinkhole……. The utopia he had been searching for was right here.

It was a coincidence that he grabbed the doorknob. It was the work of the parasites in his brain. It was fate that the door was not locked. This was a sign to go out onto the deck. Ilyeong stiffly moved his legs and slipped outside.

The cold sea breeze shook him. The black waves ran dynamically as if in response.

The enormous being that was the only one maintaining silence in that scenery. The only being that could alleviate his pain now finally discovered Ilyeong.

The body, half-perched on the hull, turned towards Ilyeong. The loosely dilated pupils elongated. White smoke poured out from between his parted lips.

“I said not to come out on the deck, but what brings the Doctor here.”

A thrilling shiver ran down his spine. The parasites in his brain, which had been howling with hunger, all held their breath.

It was Seo Juhyeok.

*

Seo Juhyeok uttered that one sentence and then silently stared at Ilyeong. He was very relaxed, even after encountering a stranger in a forbidden area in the middle of the night. The sleek and sharp eyes he had seen through the screen and from afar seemed to pierce his throat.

Ilyeong forced strength into his weakened legs to barely support himself, trying not to collapse. Seo Juhyeok had only said one word, but his voice was so ecstatic that both the headache and tinnitus disappeared. It was a feeling similar to when he first encountered drugs. The feeling of pressure as if the earth was pulling his body towards it with all its might.

Get a grip. The Seo Juhyeok before his eyes was not a hallucination. It was reality. Ilyeong barely woke his dulled brain to answer the question he had been given.

“The door was open.”

It was a cracked and hoarse, unimpressive voice. It was not a lie, but a belated realization dawned that it was not a valid excuse for breaking a taboo. His cheeks burned under the intense gaze that seemed to pierce through him.

Seo Juhyeok raised an eyebrow and looked at the door Ilyeong had just passed through. He had never thought about it before, but those eyes resembled Seo Yoonseok’s quite a bit. That gaze drew a wide arc and once again landed on Ilyeong’s face.

“Because the door was open, you say. Since we broke the rule together, then we are accomplices.”

Seo Juhyeok chewed on that brazen excuse as if it were a very amusing joke.

The words he chewed and spat out clung tenaciously to Ilyeong’s entire body. He could not move, as if caught in a trap. Accomplice. The hair on his whole body stood on end at that attractive word. He did not speak informally at their first meeting like other soldiers, nor did he go wild trying to imprint the obvious hierarchy.

Seo Juhyeok cast his gaze back over the sea as if uninterested. The sea breeze languidly swept through his hair. The fabric covering his firm skin created a wave-like movement. Not only were his shirt buttons undone, but his pants were also disheveled, and there was a faint smell of alcohol. As if he had been rolling around at an orgy and had just been dropped onto this deck.

Only then could he understand his strangely loose thinking. In that respect, alcohol and sex have similarities to drugs.

“You did not attend the banquet this evening.”

Suddenly, he parted his lips and exhaled a breath so low it was startling. Ilyeong even stopped breathing and listened to that voice. There was another fact that had been scratching at his nerves from before.

“……You know me?”

A moment ago, he had clearly called him Doctor. That meant he knew his identity precisely.

Instead of giving a direct answer, Seo Juhyeok tapped the hull he was leaning on with his fingertips. Naturally, Ilyeong’s gaze slid down to it. A white stick held between his fingers was emitting a long stream of smoke.

Seo Juhyeok brought the end of it to his mouth. As he lightly inhaled the end of the stick, a hazy smoke poured out from between his lips. He, who had been watching the smoke scatter into the night sky, slowly licked Ilyeong’s features with his gaze.

“I do not know if you are aware. But you have an impression that is not easily forgotten once seen.”

Seo Juhyeok’s coolly open eyes narrowed. Ilyeong swallowed dryly. An impression that is not easily forgotten once seen. The phrase he had constructed was reassembled in his mind. A voice that is not easily forgotten once heard. Was it a similar meaning to that?

In the meantime, Seo Juhyeok continued to speak once more with a husky voice.

“This is my personal opinion, and in fact, everyone on this cruise knows you. Because you are the unprecedented fourth winner.”

“……I roughly know what kind of rumors are circulating on the cruise. But that was not something I intended.”

“I know. That it was something no one expected. My father whined about it for a while, so I had to suffer too.”

Unlike his words that he had suffered, Seo Juhyeok’s expression was drenched in a sense of satiation. The growl-like laughter gradually subsided.

“Welcome to Paradise. Mr. Kwon Ilyeong.”

“Ah……”

A slow gasp escaped. A shiver ran through his body at the sticky feeling, as if it were licking all the wrinkles and blood vessels of his brain. The fake Seo Juhyeok in his head lurked, trying to steal the resonance, pronunciation, and tone of that voice.

He still did not know the reason. But that voice had the power to calm his headache and tinnitus, and he was powerless against it. Even the son of a bitch and the winter wind, which had only responded to drugs, succumbed to that voice.

Seo Juhyeok had a strange look in his eyes as he watched Ilyeong’s dazed reaction. And he once again put the white stick to his lips.

Ilyeong stared at those lips and the stick as if he would devour them. Seo Juhyeok savored that gaze and sucked on the stick until his cheeks hollowed, then once again blew hazy smoke into the air.

“Is there something on my lips?”

It was accompanied by a voice mixed with laughter. Ilyeong once again, with a slow gasp of ‘ah’, awoke from his reverie. The acrid smell hit his lungs.

“Ah, no. It’s just……”

“Just?”

I want to steal your voice and hide it away in my head.

The desire that flashed through his mind was, no matter how he thought about it, abnormal. Ilyeong pressed his eyelids firmly and turned his attention to something else.

“……I’m just a little out of it.”

“You do not seem drunk.”

“I have not had a drop of alcohol.”

“It seems you are not the type to enjoy alcohol.”

“Not particularly.”

Hmm, Seo Juhyeok smiled briefly and flicked the thing in his mouth. The white stick faintly resembled a cigarette. In the slums, cigarettes were a luxury item that was not easily seen, but Ilyeong had seen them a few times through the truck driver who came and went from the research institute. The blouson jacket he always wore also always smelled of that pungent odor.

However, this…….

“It does not smell like a cigarette.”

Seo Juhyeok’s eyes hardened slightly.

“As far as I know, cigarettes are not supplied to people from the evacuation zones, so how does Mr. Kwon Ilyeong know that?”

“……I am professionally acquainted with the driver who procures supplies for the research institute. He is a heavy smoker, so I have borrowed and smoked a few times myself.”

“In that case, I cannot deny it. This is no ordinary cigarette.”

Seo Juhyeok smiled as he took the white stick, which was shorter than before, from his mouth. A red light flashed at its end.

“It is something better than that. Marijuana. Do you know this too?”

Ilyeong closed his mouth. He could not quite judge what answer to give to the sudden question.

A plant herb, hemp. Depending on the part, the type and degree of the components it contains differ slightly, so its uses are just as diverse. Among them, the part containing cannabidiol CBD is not widely used now, but it can be processed into medicine, and Ilyeong has also encountered it several times as research material.

However, what was in Seo Juhyeok’s hand was clearly marijuana intended for its narcotic effect. The flower buds and leaves, which contain the highest concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol THC, a component that stimulates hallucinations, are rolled in paper and smoked.

Ilyeong wet his dry lips with his tongue.

“A drug…… is it not.”

Seo Juhyeok’s eyes now glinted irrationally. It was only then that he clearly felt that he was high on drugs. The sharp gaze, so sharp it made his skin tingle, viscously melted the boundary between the night and the sea that surrounded him. What resided within it was clear curiosity.

“Is it natural for a doctor who researches drugs to know.”

“Because some parts of hemp were also used as medicine. However, this is the first time I have seen it rolled and smoked like this.”

“Usually, an appropriate amount is put in a pipe and burned. I dislike cumbersome things, so I prefer it rolled in paper like this.”

It was strange. What was a man who had everything lacking, that he would resort to drugs? It was a question he had never had even when he heard that his drug was being sold to the executives of Paradise.

Just as he could not rid himself of the headache and tinnitus, was Seo Juhyeok also suffering from something? Was he unable to quit drugs to escape from it, just like himself? The unquenched curiosity multiplied, leading to one question after another.

Unaware of Ilyeong’s inner thoughts, Seo Juhyeok raised the corners of his mouth and smiled smoothly. The smoke rising from his fingertips blocked the space between them.

“But usually, everyone finds this smell repulsive?”

Ilyeong took a deep breath. The unfamiliar scent stung his lungs, but the feeling was not so bad.

“It is fine.”

“Mr. Kwon Ilyeong, you keep overturning my expectations.”

A different kind of pleasure filled Seo Juhyeok’s eyes. It seemed he had begun to feel genuinely interested in the current situation. The back of his neck grew a little hot under that blatant gaze. Ilyeong avoided his gaze and turned to a more realistic problem.

“Drugs should be strictly forbidden in Paradise.”

If he was Seo Yoonseok’s son, the current situation made even less sense. Lately, Paradise was said to be in an uproar over a drug of unknown origin, ‘BLACK,’ and its substitute, ‘WHITE.’ And according to Ilyeong’s ominous intuition, the drug with the strange name BLACK was one he had manufactured himself.

Ilyeong stared at Seo Juhyeok with distrustful eyes. Seo Juhyeok gave a short laugh.

“You are well-informed. In Paradise, drug dealers and manufacturers are immediately executed. Taking it is also a serious crime.”

“……”

Seo Juhyeok spoke so calmly about such things while smoking marijuana. The story, which had not felt real when he heard it from Chen, seeped painfully under his skin when heard in Seo Juhyeok’s voice.

Immediate execution.

The end for drug manufacturer Kwon Ilyeong was nothing but a dog’s death. What was the death penalty system like in Paradise? Hanging? Firing squad? Or…… being torn limb from limb?

At the thought of all kinds of death flashing through his mind, sweat pooled in his palms. He had no idea what kind of expression he was making right now. He stared at Seo Juhyeok as if he were a mirror.

This time too, he had a strange expression. His black eyes were so clear they seemed to pierce through him. As if he would question Ilyeong’s sins at any moment.

Was this also an illusion created by his broken brain? He inadvertently took a step back as if to flee, and staggered as if he would fall. Before it was too late, a firm arm coiled around his waist.

“You have to be careful on a ship. Or you will be easily devoured by the water below.”

His voice, without warning, dragged Ilyeong’s consciousness out beyond the sea.

After finishing his words, Seo Juhyeok neatly pulled his body away. He did not know if it was a delusion, but it felt like his lips had brushed against his ear. Heat gathered around that spot. Fearing the heat would spread to other places, Ilyeong held his ear firmly and stared up at him blankly.

Seo Juhyeok had stood up to catch Ilyeong. He had looked extraordinary even when sitting in a languid posture, but seeing him face to face like this, his body was even firmer and larger than he had imagined. So, even though he was definitely not short, he had to tilt his head back to look up at him.

Ilyeong, submerged in a dazed feeling, took another step back. Seo Juhyeok’s dark eyebrows twitched.

“I told you not to do that.”

He nonchalantly stubbed out the fire on the hull and sat down. His tone made it clear that he was not pleased. Seo Juhyeok, who had relaxed his body again, swept back the black hair that had fallen over his forehead.

For a moment, the scar on his face caught Ilyeong’s eye. A long horizontal scar was crossing his left cheek. At a glance, it also looked like an Indian dimple. Even so, it was faint to the point of being incomparable to Nam Giyoon’s scar, but because it was the only crack found on a face that had seemed flawless, it felt novel.

What kind of life had Seo Juhyeok lived? That question suddenly reared its head.

“Mr. Kwon Ilyeong.”

When he came to his senses, he was staring intently at his scar again. A belated realization that he had committed a rudeness struck him.

“Now that you know all my secrets, I will have to make another accomplice.”

“……”

Seo Juhyeok, on the contrary, revealed his straight teeth and smiled playfully.

“Want to try it?”

Seo Juhyeok was drunk. That was why he was making such a strange and sweet proposal to him, who was nothing but a mere researcher. When he woke up the next day with a sober mind, he would regret this moment bitterly.

So, he knew that it was the wisest thing for him to back down as well. But…….

Ilyeong, as if bewitched, accepted the joint of marijuana that Seo Juhyeok offered. When a proposal was made with such a voice, there was no way to refuse.

While he was exploring the tip of the joint with his tongue, Seo Juhyeok took out a Zippo lighter and lit it. The strange smell of burning leaves filled his nose. The same smell came from Seo Juhyeok, who had invaded Ilyeong’s personal space.

“Slowly……”

His dark eyelashes cast a shadow on his cheekbones as if unfurling an awning. Ilyeong used that as an excuse to look at his face to his heart’s content. The perfectly curving eyelids, the sharp line of his nose, and the corners of his mouth that drew a long, gentle line like a crescent moon.

The voice that scattered from there clung to Ilyeong’s eardrums and controlled his body at will.

Relax, breathe. Inhale, wait a moment, then exhale……. His mind melted into a daze.

At that moment, Seo Juhyeok’s deep laughter rang in his ear.

“Did you not say you have smoked a cigarette before.”

Seo Juhyeok, who had pulled away his body that had been close, watched Ilyeong with questioning eyes. It was impossible not to know what that meant. Ilyeong’s earlobes caught fire. He felt exactly like a child pretending to be an adult. He took what was in his mouth and held it out to Seo Juhyeok.

“……I will just not smoke it. I do not particularly want to.”

“That will not do. I was in the middle of making an accomplice.”

He laughed low in his throat and unhesitatingly put what Ilyeong had been holding in his own mouth. His red tongue flicked out, licked the white joint, and disappeared. It was an obscene scene, so much so that the back of his neck was stained with heat.

“Here. Watch what I do.”

He closed his mouth, which was curved into an arc, and deeply inhaled the joint, then exhaled more smoke than he had held in. A smell so strong it made his head spin enveloped his brain. Ilyeong very slowly, inhaled that smoke.

For a moment, Seo Juhyeok raised his other hand, the one not holding the joint, and straightened his index finger.

“Mr. Kwon Ilyeong, you are not opening this.”

His fingernail, aimed like a gun barrel, scraped straight down Ilyeong’s neck. Like a machine with its switch turned off, Ilyeong stopped breathing. Only his tense Adam’s apple quivered beneath it.

Their gazes collided heavily. He did not know how long they had been looking at each other like that. The expression on Seo Juhyeok’s languidly relaxed face also slowly disappeared.

The sea breeze drove away all the intoxicating smell of the drug. From his exhaled breath came the smell of the night, the sea, and fire.

It was Seo Juhyeok who first broke the tense silence, which was like a tug-of-war.

“You. Every time I say something from a while ago, you twitch as if you are about to get hard and come……”

At the unexpected words, Ilyeong’s whole body stiffened. Only then did he realize why he had been observing him with strange eyes from before.

Seo Juhyeok’s finger continued to scrape at his Adam’s apple, as if testing him. The drug’s effect, which came late, made all his senses stand on end. His heart trembled as if it had jumped up to his throat. He tilted his finger to find that pulse.

“You keep trembling your lips as if you are begging for something……”

“Ugh……”

His mind, which had been fine when he inhaled the drug and when he smoked the marijuana, completely crumbled at that one word.

“……Do you have a fetish for my voice or something?”

Seo Juhyeok tilted his head to the side, muttering as if to himself. He blatantly looked at his face, and then at his lower body, as if searching for Ilyeong’s reaction. Following that gaze, as if by a lie, heat really swirled rapidly in his lower abdomen. He almost cursed.

Ilyeong chewed on his lip. The thought of his secret being suddenly revealed was coldly frozen. What should he do now? What should he say? Ilyeong, who had clenched his fists and stepped back, put on a composed expression like a mask.

“That kind of thing……”

“Your face is not very believable right now either.”

Seo Juhyeok, who had cut off his words, had by now regained his composure and smiled mischievously. The silence, which seemed like it would not back down until he admitted it, was a little hateful.

Ilyeong bit his lip hard and then counterattacked with sharper words.

“You, Mr. Seo Juhyeok, are also…… hard.”

Ilyeong’s gaze fell to his heavy lower body. Since when had it been? Since he started talking about the drug? Since they were face to face? He did not know. He was so preoccupied with which part of him Seo Juhyeok had gotten turned on by, that he had no time to care about the marijuana or anything else.

“That is right. It was like this when I first saw you too. I guess I have a weakness for Mr. Kwon Ilyeong’s face.”

Seo Juhyeok, confessing his raw desire, was overly honest. So much so that his body flinched and his lower body stiffened. He savored that sight and smiled, his eyes shining.

“Then are we accomplices this time too?”

Just as he had not cared about his disheveled clothes at first, Seo Juhyeok did not seem to have any intention of hiding his center, which had become fierce enough to pierce through his zipper this time either. The first impression of him being flawless and proper was long shattered. Maybe, just maybe, this was the real Seo Juhyeok. The image of him aloofly observing other people in the promotional video and at the restaurant was just an outer shell. The image of him getting turned on by him, and confessing that desire so nakedly was the real Seo Juhyeok…….

His five senses ran wild under his skin. The encounter with the unexpected impulse might be because of the man who acted as if only this moment was important. Ilyeong tensed his neck.

“Mr. Seo Juhyeok. There is a sure way to make me an accomplice.”

“I am intrigued. What do I have to do.”

Ilyeong lowered his eyes and bit his lip hard. And he took another step closer to Seo Juhyeok. As Ilyeong, who had only been backing away, voluntarily approached for the first time, Seo Juhyeok watched him with interested eyes.

He reached out his hand. Ilyeong took the marijuana held between his smooth lips as he pleased. With his fingertips, which were trembling slightly from the drug, he fumbled with Seo Juhyeok’s lips. Until the remnants of the smile there had completely dried up. He wanted to taste all the voices, the words, that flowed from here.

“……A kiss. Can I……”

As soon as their eyes met, Seo Juhyeok pulled him in instantly, as if he had been waiting all along.

For a kiss that started so hastily, Seo Juhyeok’s tongue slowly swam over Ilyeong’s face. He licked Ilyeong’s lips, which were tightly closed with tension. It was a gentle movement, as if to soothe him.

“Open your mouth. No one counts this as a kiss.”

Seo Juhyeok caressed the back of Ilyeong’s neck with his fingertips. With his other arm, he pulled his waist in and pressed their legs tightly together. As their lower bodies, which were full of heat, rubbed together, goosebumps quickly shot down his spine. Ah, he swallowed Ilyeong’s groan, which had come out like an instinct, whole. A hot piece of flesh dug into the gap between his parted lips.

The inside of Seo Juhyeok’s mouth was like a pit of fire. The words he threw out were all neat and polite, but the inside of his mouth was messy and rude to no end.

His tongue recklessly stirred the inside of Ilyeong’s mouth without any caution. It licked all over his teeth, then without warning, it poked and rubbed the roof of his mouth and the inside of his mouth like a grate. Then, it drew an unknown line on Ilyeong’s stiffly hardened tongue.