Midday Guest Chapter 29

I placed the plastic bag on the sink and opened the refrigerator door. Only one of the water bottles that I usually keep filled three deep on the door remained.

Because it was summer, the speed at which water was consumed was fast, but since Cha Seokjoo arrived, it had become even faster. I thought I should boil a large pot of barley tea in the evening. It was just as I pulled out the last water bottle and turned around.

“…Ah.”

Cha Seokjoo was right there beside me. Startled, I took a step back and lost my balance, stumbling. Cha Seokjoo reached out an arm and firmly supported Yiwon’s back as he flailed.

“You should be careful.”

“I didn’t know you were so close…”

“Forget it, let’s stand up straight.”

A wave of heat washed over me.

Was this really something to be this surprised about? I felt embarrassed, thinking I had reacted too excessively on my own.

As Yiwon straightened himself and took a step back, he noticed Cha Seokjoo gripping two glass cups in one hand. He wondered how a person’s hand could be that large.

Cha Seokjoo set the cups down on the sink. Very slowly. My gaze was drawn to that simple action. Yiwon held his breath for a moment while watching the movement of the man’s fingers.

His breathing returned to normal shortly after, but his heart was still beating violently.

“What are you doing.”

“…Pardon?”

“I’m asking what you’re doing instead of pouring.”

“Ah.”

“Wasn’t that why you took it out?”

“…It was.”

“You’ve lost your mind. Did you get heatstroke?”

I didn’t think that was it.

“If you don’t feel like it, give it here.”

In the quiet kitchen, only the sound of flowing water was heard. The cups were filled with barley tea to the point of being precarious. Cha Seokjoo downed his in one go and set the glass down with a thud. Yiwon did the same.

The water was all gone, and there was nothing to say. Cha Seokjoo was still staring at Yiwon in the cramped kitchen. Searching for something to do, Yiwon put the ice cream into the freezer bag and all, then brought over the side dishes and stacked them neatly in the refrigerator.

In the meantime, Cha Seokjoo washed the glass cups the two of them had used and placed them upside down on the drying rack.

“Are you going to wash up?”

It seemed like I needed to do that to find my misplaced senses.

“Yes. Do you want to wash first?”

“You wash first and come out.”

Having finished speaking, Cha Seokjoo moved to the spare room. From beyond the sliding door, the air conditioner made a beep-beep sound. Yiwon, who had been standing blankly in a standby mode for a moment, headed to the bathroom. He had intended to just wash his face, but ended up coming out after taking a cool shower.

As he was about to go straight into his room, it belatedly occurred to him that there was no electric fan. If he went into the room at this time, he might boil to death. Yet, he couldn’t exactly go back into the spare room and sit down either.

Yiwon sat on the edge of the wooden porch with his legs dangling.

Three-thirty in the afternoon. It was that awkward time of day that felt too late to start something new and too early to wrap up the day, and it drifted by slowly.

During that time, he locked eyes with Cha Seokjoo, who was also coming out after washing up. In his hand, as he approached while drying his hair with a towel, was a plastic bag.

Cha Seokjoo walked over with steady thump-thump steps and sat down next to Yiwon with some distance between them. The items inside the plastic bag spilled out between the two of them.

Having put on black nitrile gloves and poured disinfectant onto an alcohol swab, he pulled on Yiwon’s forearm. Yiwon’s body, being dragged along, only came to a stop right in front of Cha Seokjoo’s nose.

Yiwon’s breath hitched at the event that unfolded without warning.

“Say, ah.”

“…Pardon?”

“Open your mouth.”

“Why my mouth…?”

“If I tell you to do it, just do it the first time.”

Cha Seokjoo’s hand supported the bottom of Yiwon’s chin. His hand was so large that it felt as if half of his face was being held. When Yiwon reflexively pulled his head back, the man pulled Yiwon’s face toward him with force.

The distance was too close. It felt like his flustered breath would be transmitted directly to Cha Seokjoo. Thanks to his effort, he managed to hold his breath, but he couldn’t manufacture his expression. Cha Seokjoo easily read the change in Yiwon.

“Why are you surprised every time?”

“…It’s because you come in without warning every time.”

At the sound of Yiwon’s grumbling, one corner of Cha Seokjoo’s mouth curled upward.

“We’ve shared a blanket and even slept together, yet you’re still acting shy.”

Words that shouldn’t go together formed a strange feeling. It was a remark that made him worry about who might hear. The man from the city didn’t seem to know how quickly rumors could spread in a rural village.

“If you speak like that, people will misunderstand.”

“So what.”

He said that and laughed lightly. The lips of Yiwon, who had been reflecting on Cha Seokjoo’s behavior, loosened. After he stared at Cha Seokjoo like that for a while, the man, seeing his chance, leaned his body toward Yiwon.

“There, stay still just like that.”

I wondered what he was doing putting on nitrile gloves, but it seemed he intended to check the wounds. Then he should have just said so; why didn’t he say anything?

“I’ll do it.”

“Let’s do this the easy way.”

The conversation, barely held together, was as one-sided as a gangster extorting money. Even so, it wasn’t unpleasant, so Yiwon obediently offered his face.

Cha Seokjoo, seemingly pleased with the now-docile Yiwon, examined the external injuries with a smiling face.

Perhaps it was because I had become used to a life of eating alone, sleeping alone, and going to the hospital alone even when in pain… the touch of another person was so awkward that my fingertips and toes curled.

“Stop moving.”

Cha Seokjoo gripped Yiwon’s chin tight and then let go. Then, he directed his gaze toward the nape of the neck. The wounds from being stepped on and scraped by Kim Sunwoo started from the mouth and chin, went around the nape of the neck, and continued down to the spine.

Checking Yiwon with a dry touch, he thump, dabbed on some ointment. The amount was greater than that night, making his lips feel very heavy.

“The face is done, so now turn around.”

Yiwon moved as instructed. As he sat there blankly, Cha Seokjoo’s large hand grabbed the nape of Yiwon’s neck and made him lean forward.

Beyond the paper-thin nitrile gloves, the body heat was felt clearly. It was also from that moment that the fingers tracing from behind the ear along the neckline began to be strangely conscious.

A ticklish sensation poured down his back. Yiwon, startled by a sensation he had never felt in his life, jerked his body around.

It felt as if a beeeep sound was ringing in his ears.

“… .”

“You wiped it off again.”

Cha Seokjoo peeled off the nitrile gloves while maintaining eye contact with Yiwon. My nerves were on edge at the sound of the gloves that had been clinging to his hands being stripped away.

From then on, Yiwon breathed consciously. This much when inhaling, and that much when exhaling. While performing the calculated actions, he stole a glance at Cha Seokjoo. The smile had vanished from the face of the man who had been talking nonsense all morning.

Yiwon looked down and watched Cha Seokjoo’s fingertips as they rubbed his lips. It was far too slow to be called applying ointment. He hadn’t even put on gloves.

“This is troublesome, truly.”

The words had the beginning and end cut off, but the meaning was clear enough. Even the fact that Cha Seokjoo’s current behavior was not simply applying medicine.

The tip of a thumb touched the closed lips. When he looked up again, Cha Seokjoo was in the process of pushing his finger into the mouth.

The touch that had been moving shallowly at the entrance gradually became more bold. Then, at some point, it entered deep and subtly pressed down on the tongue.

The unfamiliar touch made the muscles of his entire body tense. A feeling of something hardening deep within his body and trembling with a prickle.

Yiwon moved his mouth to try and swallow the saliva pooling under his tongue. At that, the head of Cha Seokjoo, who was rummaging through the tender flesh under the tongue, tilted askew.

The moment their gazes intertwined, Yiwon trembled as he gulped down the saliva that was about to flow. He felt as if he knew what this sensation was—one that was insufficient to be described as mere ticklishness. Hot breath flowed out from his parted mouth.

“You’re not avoiding it.”

Cha Seokjoo withdrew the touch that had been reaching Yiwon. The finger that had been rummaging inside Yiwon’s mouth was now sweeping past his mucous membrane. After sucking on his finger with a shloop sound, he asked lightly.

“Should I apply it again?”

It was before he could even answer the question.

Cha Seokjoo, with his head tilted sharply, sucked on Yiwon’s lips as if swallowing them. When Yiwon clamped his mouth shut, surprised by the relentless movement, a thick tongue licked across the split area.

It was an unfamiliar sensation, enough to give him goosebumps. In his fluster, his mouth opened and a stifled sound leaked out.

“…Ah.”

Cha Seokjoo did not miss the opening. In an instant, the tongue that had invaded the territory coiled around Yiwon’s tongue and pulled it hard.

It was a stinging sensation that almost brought tears to his eyes. While continuing the kiss with a body full of tension, Cha Seokjoo took away all the saliva that had pooled in his mouth as well.

Between lips joined without a single gap, their tongues intertwined hotly. While stimulating each other, the sound of newly flowing saliva mixing and simmering was heard.

Yiwon grabbed Cha Seokjoo’s shoulders and pushed. It was an action intended to try and slow the pace, but Cha Seokjoo did not budge and rushed at Yiwon regardless. Thick arms wrapped around his waist.

“…Ugh.”

It wasn’t even easy to inhale due to the escalating excitement. When he tried to tilt his face slightly to breathe, Cha Seokjoo grabbed the nape of Yiwon’s neck to prevent him from moving.

Their lips meshed even deeper. Hotly wet pieces of flesh intertwined as saliva mixed, and once he barely swallowed, they repeated the process of entangling again.

“Hng, nngh…”

Yiwon’s breathing grew increasingly ragged. Thinking he might suffocate and die at this rate, he forced his head to turn. He gasped for breath like a person who had been holding their head underwater.