Winter Season Chapter 72

Seunghyeok, who had thrown away his cigarette, firmly grabbed both of Yihyeon’s wrists. Then, before Yihyeon had any chance to speak, he tilted his head and lightly pressed his lips to the shell of Yihyeon’s ear.

“Wha—what are you doing.”

Flustered by Seunghyeok’s sudden action, Yihyeon stiffened his body and twisted his head away. He tried shaking his head from side to side to avoid the stimulation of his sensitive spots, but it was no use.

As a heavy sigh settled against his ear, a tingling sensation shot up his spine. He almost let out a moan without realizing it and bit his lip hard.

“Ha, h-heu, stop…!”

He had always been the type to be sensitive around his ears, but perhaps because of the temperature difference between the rim of his ear and the lips, the stimulation felt even greater.

Just as he thought soft lips were nibbling near his earlobe, a damp tongue licked along the curve of his ear.

A sticky sound leaked into his ear.

A thrill, like a bug crawling over his skin, wrapped around his entire body, causing Yihyeon to twist his torso and press his legs together. It was a level of stimulation where it wouldn’t be strange even if he got an erection right then and there.

The inside of his tailbone tingled just from the descending breath, and with the addition of lips, tongue, and even hard teeth touching him, he couldn’t keep his wits about him. Yihyeon, lifting his head, put strength into his arms and spoke.

“Gu, Gu Seunghyeok, stop it….”

It was a voice sufficient to provoke the half-drunk Seunghyeok. Letting out a snort like air escaping, Seunghyeok stopped licking the inside of the ear canal with his pointed tongue and pulled his lips away.

Having pulled his head back just enough for the tip of his nose to barely touch the ear, he saw Yihyeon trembling and curled the corners of his mouth upward. Then, passing the side of the cheek and the jaw below the ear down to the jawline, he lowered his head further, pressing and pulling his lips away as if marking dots.

“Heu, heuu, heu….”

He was just standing still, but his heart beat as fast as someone who had just finished a hundred-meter dash. With his head tilted back, he gasped for breath and tried to grasp the situation, but Seunghyeok gave him no such luxury.

Passing under the chin and burying his head in the neck area, Seunghyeok bit the edge of Yihyeon’s black turtleneck with his teeth and pulled it down. Then, parting his lips, he kissed the exposed Adam’s apple.

The sensation of the damp tongue licking his Adam’s apple was excessively vivid. When a cold wind swept over the spot where the lips had touched and left, a chill ran down his back.

When he opened the eyes he had been keeping tightly shut the whole time, he saw Seunghyeok stooping low because of their height difference. As he pressed his body even closer, Yihyeon felt something hard at the point where they touched at the stomach.

“Gu Seunghyeok, you, right now, heu, what are you, doing.”

Fweeeeet—

It was just as he managed to squeeze out those words in a choked voice that a long whistle sounded from the entrance of the alley. Seunghyeok, pulling his lips away from the Adam’s apple, turned his head askew.

“Wow…. I’ve lived long enough to see a scene of two guys screwing around in the street.”

At the end of the alley where light leaked in, there were men standing with their legs crossed, tattoos engraved all the way up to their necklines. Since it looked like they weren’t just passing through, Seunghyeok also slowly pulled his body away.

“Hey, you fucking homos. If you’re gonna do that, get a room, a room. Why the hell are you making a scene on the street, huh?”

Whether it was the arrogant way they walked, their rough tone, or their clothing, anyone could see they weren’t ordinary people, so Yihyeon unknowingly looked up at Seunghyeok. Seunghyeok looked at the men while twitching an eyebrow, then burst into a hollow laugh as if it were absurd.

“Hey, is this bastard mocking us right now? Wahaha, this guy’s crazy?”

The men, huffing as if offended, began to approach the side where Yihyeon and Seunghyeok were. The man standing at the very front picked up a wooden square bar that had been leaning in a corner as if to threaten them.

The man, who came tapping his own shoulder with the wooden bar, seemed to flinch when the distance narrowed and he realized Seunghyeok’s build was larger than theirs, but then he regained his triumph after considering their numbers.

“What, you bastard, what, what.”

The tattooed man raised the wooden bar and prodded Seunghyeok’s chest as if pushing him. When Seunghyeok, who had been rubbing his eyes as if annoyed, slapped the bar away with the back of his hand, the man’s eyes flashed with a peculiar light.

“Wow, look at this guy acting tough in front of his lover.”

The man seemed heated by the sight of Seunghyeok and Yihyeon standing there without any sign of being cowed. Seeing him turn his head busily and making sounds like “Ha, ha,” Seunghyeok sighed and swept back his bangs.

“These bastards aren’t patrolling the territory properly….”

The tattooed man, who frowned at Seunghyeok’s mutter, tried to lift the wooden bar once more to shove Seunghyeok’s shoulder. However, Seunghyeok was faster, snatching the end of the bar and lifting his foot to kick the man in the stomach.

Seeing the tattooed man roll away in a single blow, the men nearby exchanged looks as if flustered. But they soon grasped the situation and, with eyes flashing, rushed at Seunghyeok and Yihyeon.

“Hey, get those bastards!”

Before the words could even finish, Seunghyeok snatched Yihyeon’s wrist and ran toward the opposite side of the alley. It was a speed unbelievable for a drunk person. Behind Yihyeon, who was being dragged along without knowing why, the sounds of shouting “Hey, hey!” while chasing echoed out.

“Heok, heok…. Hey, Gu, Seunghyeok…!”

Around the time his tightly gripped wrist started to hurt, the two hid themselves in the gap between buildings at the end of a deserted alley. It was a space just large enough for two people to enter while facing each other. Yihyeon, whose shoulders were heaving as he gasped for breath, looked up at Seunghyeok with an expression of absurdity.

“You, heuu, you… a gangster is running away from punks like that?”

“There’s no champion against a mob.”

The broad chest across from him was also moving up and down heavily. When he burst into a hollow laugh at the absurd answer, Seunghyeok also let out a light, meaningless laugh.

“…….”

Silence arrived quickly. His entire focus began to shift to their legs, which were tangled closely together, and the body right in front of his nose. Even breathing in and out felt precarious. He was nibbling the inside of his cheek, wondering where to look, and was just about to twist his body to get out of the gap between the buildings when it happened.

“Where the hell did these bastards go?”

At the voice suddenly heard from outside, his body stiffened. Seunghyeok pulled Yihyeon’s arm, which had been trying to go out, toward himself.

“Hey, look further over there. I’ll try this way.”

Yihyeon rolled his eyes while keeping his body frozen. Because of his held arm, he was in a posture as if trapped within Seunghyeok’s embrace.

While he held his breath, unable to do one thing or another, the presence of people outside the alley was felt and then vanished. The moment he lifted his head while letting out a sigh of relief, he locked eyes with Seunghyeok.

“…….”

An unreadable gaze—neither cold nor hot—was fixed on Yihyeon. Suddenly, the memory of what Gu Seunghyeok had done to him in front of the shop earlier came back, and his heart sank.

“I… I think we can go out now.”

Seunghyeok suddenly gripped both of Yihyeon’s wrists as he hurriedly turned his head to avoid the gaze. Yihyeon bit his molars hard, then slowly tilted his head up to look at Seunghyeok.

In the narrow gap between the alleys, only the sound of the two of them catching their breath echoed lowly. The white breath coming from between their lips mixed into one in the air.

Thump, thump, thump, he couldn’t tell if the heart beating rapidly in every place they touched was his or Gu Seunghyeok’s. Even while knowing it was a pointless act, he slowly stepped backward.

“Kwon Yihyeon.”

A voice that had sunk deep broke the silence of the chilly dawn air.

“I’m saying this because it seems I’m fucked either way.”

“…….”

“Let’s just check one thing.”

His lowered gaze was staring just below Yihyeon’s nose. While he was unable to answer and only his lips were flickering, Seunghyeok continued.

“Since I’ll believe you when you say you didn’t leak information to Gu Jinhyeok.”

A low, husky voice resonated between their lips.

“Kiss me.”

Thump, with a feeling as if his heart were dropping, the pulse began to beat in his temples. Yihyeon, his mind going blank, looked at Seunghyeok with shaking eyes. Seunghyeok, who had been looking down only at the lips the whole time, raised his eyes and locked them with Yihyeon’s.

“You won’t?”

Then, without hesitation, he tilted his head and added.

“If you won’t, I will.”