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[Jisung Oppa: I’m in front of your place.]
Having started a secret relationship that no one knew about, today was supposed to be their first date alone.
He wouldn’t tell her where they were going, just that she should dress nicely.
Thinking they might be going to a fine dining restaurant, Hayoung spent quite a while in front of the mirror having a fashion show.
“Where are you going on a Sunday?”
Dooyoung, seeing Hayoung, who had stayed out all night on Friday, getting all dressed up to go out on Sunday, asked suspiciously.
“To meet a friend.”
“Which friend?”
“Would you know them if I told you?”
“I would.”
“Soojin.”
“You’ve been meeting Soojin a lot lately?”
The day she slept over at Jisung’s, she had also used Soojin as an excuse. Dooyoung, who had let it slide then, seemed suspicious of Hayoung, who was dressed up too much for just meeting a friend.
“I get depressed staying home. Why are you nosy?”
“Where did you learn to be so rude?”
“Am I your student, Oppa? Stop acting like the discipline teacher.”
Hayoung feigned annoyance and left the house as if running away. Secretly meeting her brother’s friend while keeping it a secret from her brother was no easy task.
Perhaps it was because he was a physical education teacher who taught high school students going through puberty, but Song Dooyoung’s intuition was extraordinary.
Song Dooyoung’s ‘eagle eyes’ that seemed to stick to Hayoung’s back felt particularly eerie today. Only after the elevator doors closed did Hayoung let out a sigh of relief.
Hayoung walked to an alleyway a block away from her apartment. She felt uneasy, as if Song Dooyoung might be watching from somewhere, but the moment she saw Jisung standing in front of the driver’s seat of a car, all her distracting thoughts vanished.
“Did you wait long?”
“No.”
It was clear they were going to a formal restaurant. Her heart pounded at the sight of Jisung in a perfectly tailored suit.
Could she really be this nervous? It wasn’t like she was seeing a new face, but the thought of going on a date with Jisung made her chest feel like it would burst.
“Get in.”
Jisung opened the passenger door for Hayoung. It was a completely different kind of etiquette than when he treated Hayoung as ‘Dooyoung’s younger sister’.
“Where are we going?”
Hayoung asked, looking at Jisung who had walked around the hood and sat in the driver’s seat. Jisung didn’t answer but instead held her cheeks and rubbed his lips against hers.
Surprised by the sudden kiss, she blinked, and Jisung let out a long sigh. Hayoung unknowingly glanced down at his lower body and was startled to see something quite swollen.
“Oppa, get a grip. We’re in front of my house.”
“Hoo...”
She thought he had found the libido control screw he had lost last time, but it seemed he had lost it again. Hayoung recalled the magic words that had worked before.
“Oppa, I’m hungry.”
“Hungry?”
“Yeah.”
Was he really that fixated on food?
Surprised by Hayoung’s words that she was hungry, Jisung reached into the back seat.
“Eat this.”
“Pfft.”
Hayoung burst into laughter at the sight of Jisung mechanically handing her a snack. His lower body, which had become erect with a light kiss, had returned to normal at Hayoung’s words that she was hungry.
It was the basic posture of a K-boyfriend. Indeed, taking care of his girlfriend with food before her blood sugar dropped was a boyfriend’s virtue. Anyway, this man was something else.
“Why are you laughing? You like chocolate.”
“Yeah, I do. But aren’t we going to eat a meal?”
Hayoung asked, expecting a fine dining restaurant, but Jisung looked at her with a knowing glint in his eyes.
“No.”
“Then?”
“My junior prosecutor has a wedding today.”
“Wedding?”
Hayoung’s eyes widened at Jisung’s unexpected words.
“I pretended to be your fiancé last time, so today you pretend to be my girlfriend. There’s a lot of power play among lawyers. Since everyone’s older, many of them come with their spouses. And there are many senior colleagues who know I’m thirty-two and still unmarried, so they keep bothering me to introduce me to women.”
“Ah...”
Hayoung groaned softly.
They had agreed to meet secretly from their families for the time being, but they hadn’t agreed to meet secretly from Jisung’s colleagues, so there was no particular reason for her to refuse.
Even though Jisung and Dooyoung were old friends, they had different universities and completely different jobs, so they didn’t have any mutual friends other than their middle and high school classmates.
Since she had been indebted to him last time, Hayoung felt she should return the favor.
“Oppa, you’re really childish, aren’t you?”
“What?”
“A grown adult playing power games like that?”
“Your company is the same, isn’t it? People are the same everywhere.”
“But will your ego really be boosted just because I’m your girlfriend?”
Hayoung asked, tilting her head.
Most of the people at a prosecutor’s wedding would be socially successful. She worried that Jisung’s ego might be deflated by Hayoung’s own credentials among them.
“Of course, it will.”
“Aww.”
“Our Hayoung is pretty, you know.”
“Aww.”
Hayoung waved her hand dismissively, but secretly felt good at being called pretty.
“It’s up even now.”
“Your ego?”
“My dick.”
“Pfft.”
At Jisung’s words, Hayoung glanced at his lower body again. The cock that had barely calmed down was swollen again, surprisingly so.
“Oppa, get a grip. Where did your screw go?”
“Who’s been sneaking glances and staring at my dick since getting in the passenger seat and is now asking me where my screw went?”
He noticed.
I thought you didn’t see.
“Let’s talk while we go.”
Jisung chuckled, finding Hayoung’s embarrassed, flushed face cute.
She brought up the topic of food again, but his lower half remained stubbornly erect.
He needed to stand tall in front of others, but it seemed he had something else, something much bigger, standing very tall.
________________________________________
“You should have told me we were coming to a wedding. I would have dressed up more. What if I had worn a white dress? I’m glad I chose light blue.”
Hayoung looked around the wedding hall, set up outdoors at the S Hotel, and felt a pang of self-consciousness.
Just a little while ago, she had expected to be a June bride. The wedding preparations she had rushed into had fallen apart, and now she suddenly felt like a shabby guest.
She had come to the wedding to boost Jisung’s confidence, but she worried that she might end up deflating it instead.
“If I had told you beforehand, you wouldn’t have come, would you?”
“You know me like a ghost.”
“How long have I known you that I wouldn’t know that?”
“Still, I should have paid more attention to my outfit. Look at those women’s bags. It’s like they brought all their designer stuff from home. Only I’m wearing off-the-rack.”
“Really? Let’s go to the department store later. I’ll buy you a bag.”
“No, I’m not asking you to buy me one, I’m just saying. You shouldn’t look inferior.”
“Don’t worry. The guys are already sneaking glances at you.”
“Really?”
Hayoung looked around, but she only saw women glancing at Jisung in his perfectly fitted suit; not a single man was looking at Hayoung.
“This is annoying.”
“Why?”
“I brought you to show off, but now that I see the guys stealing glances at you...”
Hayoung scoffed in disbelief.
“Who’s stealing glances? They’re probably looking at you.”
“Don’t you know? Ever since you were in middle school, there was a line of guys after you.”
“Guys?”
Who said there was a line? Not only Song Dooyoung from the sports club with his big build, but even Kwon Jisung took her side and dealt with the guys who hung around Hayoung as if he were a knight in shining armor.
If she thought about all the dating she missed out on back then... Oh, her tearful youth.
Of course, she was incredibly lucky to have met Jisung, who was incomparably cooler than those awkward middle schoolers.
“You’re pretty. You’ve been pretty since you were little.”
Since when had this man become so smooth?
When he knew her as ‘Song Dooyoung’s younger sister,’ he never once called her pretty, but now that she was his secret girlfriend, Song Hayoung heard the word ‘pretty’ until her ears were sore.
She had just thought of him as her handsome, taciturn older brother’s friend. But Jisung seemed to be a sweet guy, but only to his girlfriend.
“Oppa. And just in case, don’t call me ‘jagi’ in front of people.”
“Why?”
“I was so embarrassed I almost died last time. Just be natural.”
“I am being natural.”
Jisung put his arm around Hayoung’s shoulder smoothly. Hayoung forced a smile and removed Jisung’s hand.
“If I don’t call you ‘jagi,’ what should I call you?”
“Just use my name.”
“I’ll do that if you want.”
“And you know. It’s fine to act, but why are you touching me so much in front of people?”
“Can’t I even hug my own girlfriend?”
“Not in public.”
“Can I do it inside later then?”
“Inside?”
“This is a hotel, you know.”
At Jisung’s following words, Hayoung’s neck flushed bright red. Jisung put his lips to Hayoung’s earlobe and whispered ticklishly.
“I booked a suite, baby.”
Jisung’s sly intentions were absurd, but his new side was refreshing, and she couldn’t help but laugh.
She told him not to call her ‘jagi,’ and now it was ‘baby.’
What was she going to do with this man?
“Excuse me. This is our first date, Mr. Kwon Jisung.”
“That’s right.”
“Who goes to a hotel on their first date?”
“Can’t you go to a hotel on a first date?”
“Of course not.”
“Is that so?”
She somewhat disliked the way he spoke as if going to a hotel on a first date was a normal thing. It was too much information that she didn’t need to tell Jisung, but Hayoung had never even seen a hotel suite before.
He would probably be natural, right?
A man as great as him had no reason to delay sex.
“Why? Don’t tell me you brought me here just to go to a hotel?”
“No. I like home better than hotels. I just thought we could set the mood since we’re here.”
“I’m not an easy woman, you know? Were you an easy man, Oppa?”
They had agreed to get to know each other carefully for the time being. Was he already trying to make her jealous?
Emotions were mysterious.
Even though she couldn’t yet define their relationship, was she already trying to claim some exclusive right to Kwon Jisung?
Hayoung tried hard to suppress the jealousy that was slowly rising within her.
“Wasn’t I an easy man?”
“You, Oppa?”
“I’m easy.”
“What are you talking about? Who’s as difficult as you?”
“You grabbed my dick and fondled it even before we started dating, so I thought I was a really easy guy.”
Hayoung frantically looked around, worried someone might have heard. But Jisung didn’t stop teasing her, as if deliberately trying to provoke her.
“Oppa, someone might hear.”
“Exactly. Why did you do something to me that others shouldn’t hear?”
“Why are you talking like that again?”
“It’s because I’ve been throwing gangster bastards in jail. Why? You don’t like Oppa’s way of speaking?”
Hayoung felt a twinge of guilt because of what she had done, but she couldn’t have a casual physical relationship with Jisung.
Hayoung spoke seriously, her playful expression gone.
“We agreed to get to know each other slowly, without our families knowing.”
“Wasn’t getting to know each other’s bodies off-limits?”
“We already know everything about each other’s bodies.”
“What do you know? We’ve known each other for 24 years. I even fed you milk when you were a baby. After 24 years, how can you not know Song Hayoung?”
“I don’t know Oppa.”
Jisung frowned, not understanding what she meant.
“Was I that uninteresting to you?”
“No, I was very interested. But the Kwon Jisung I’ve known for 24 years and the Kwon Jisung I’ve gotten to know recently are so different.”
“What do you mean?”
“Kwon Jisung, Song Dooyoung’s friend, is taciturn, but the man Kwon Jisung is...”
As Hayoung trailed off, a woman with a high ponytail approached Jisung.
“Prosecutor, hello.”
“Yes.”
Jisung, who had been playfully looking at Hayoung with a deep gaze the whole time, replied to the woman, who seemed to be an acquaintance, in an excessively cold voice.
The sudden change in his expression was so chilling that it made her spine tingle.
“Who, are you?”
The woman asked warily, looking at Hayoung, who was affectionately close to Jisung.
Why did she feel so nervous? Anyway, Kwon Jisung. Women had lined up for him since his school days. And it was still the same even as an adult.
“My girlfriend.”
At his short, curt answer, the woman looked embarrassed and gave an awkward laugh.
Hayoung waited for Jisung to introduce her, but he glared at her as if she wasn’t even worth introducing.
“Hello.”
Unable to watch any longer, Hayoung greeted the woman first.
But the woman looked at Hayoung warily, as if Jisung had betrayed her.
The woman’s expression as she scanned Hayoung from head to toe, as if evaluating her, was a sight to behold. She seemed very interested in Jisung.
“Hello. I’m Attorney Hwang Shiho. I’ll go say hello to Attorney Jung now, Prosecutor Kwon Jisung.”
The woman named Hwang Shiho blushed and disappeared from their spot. She looked displeased that her crush had a girlfriend.
“Who is she?”
“My superior’s daughter. A partner attorney at the law firm LJ.”
“That woman seems to like you, Oppa.”
“That’s enough.”
Jisung frowned as if he didn’t want to hear any more.
Anyway, that’s how he was. He was oblivious to how popular he was and acted nonchalant.
“It was so obvious that she was flustered when I said I was your girlfriend.”
“Nonsense. Anyway, answer me.”
“Answer what?”
“Kwon Jisung, Song Dooyoung’s friend, is taciturn, but what’s the man Kwon Jisung like?”
“Ah, that.”
Just as she was about to finish the sentence that had been interrupted by the appearance of Attorney Hwang Shiho.
“Oh, Pro Kwon. You’re here?”
“Good afternoon, Deputy Chief.”
A seasoned middle-aged prosecutor approached Jisung. Hayoung was newly struck by the authority emanating from the Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office and the dignity radiating from Jisung.
“I heard Pro Kim is preparing for a press conference?”
“Yes, that’s what I heard.”
“I had a drink with Reporter Kang Dong-soo until late last night. It would have been good if you were there too. Who’s next to you?”
This time as well, Jisung’s superior asked, glancing at Hayoung, who stood by his side as always.
“My girlfriend.”
At Jisung’s firm answer, the Deputy Chief Prosecutor’s eyes widened in surprise. A moment of awkward silence followed, and then the Deputy Chief Prosecutor cleared his throat and spoke.
“You had a girlfriend? I was trying to set you up with my Shiho, thinking you’d be a great son-in-law. I made a wild guess, not knowing you had a girlfriend.”
Jisung smiled silently, and the Deputy Chief Prosecutor patted his arm and laughed along. He seemed to be that woman’s father.
“Then I’ll see you later.”
“Yes, Deputy Chief.”
Watching Jisung’s superior turn away, Hayoung spoke.
“Oppa, it seems you’re not just popular with women, but with men too.”
“He’s just saying that.”
“Who just says things like that? I’ve never seen anyone say anything like that to my brother.”
Jisung raised his eyebrows as if he wasn’t interested.
“It’s tiring attention.”
“That’s just how social life is.”
“We have company dinners at least three times a week.”
“Oppa, you also work a lot of overtime. Isn’t company dinner better than overtime?”
“I’d rather work overtime. Just thinking about the meaningless time wasted at drinking parties...”
So that’s how it was.
While on their date, Hayoung learned one new thing about Jisung.
“But Hayoung-ah.”
“Yeah.”
“Song Dooyoung is ‘our’ Oppa, but whose Oppa am I?”
“Huh? Of course, you’re our Oppa...”
Jisung, so sensitive to even a single word, looked so cute that she couldn’t help but smile.
Since when had this man become so cute? A handsome man being cute too was just unfair.
“Why are you smiling?”
“I feel like I’ve discovered a new side of Kwon Jisung. It’s interesting.”
Jisung chuckled dryly and took Hayoung’s hand.
Even for couples, going to an acquaintance’s wedding together was something usually done after the relationship had progressed quite a bit.
She understood Jisung’s intention to avoid his superiors’ blind dates, but somehow she felt a little closer to him.
*** Yoon I-ah
[Senior Park Jooyong: How are you doing?]
Hayoung’s steps felt light today.
She had decided to submit her resignation to the company she had barely managed to get into, but she hadn’t been able to bring herself to do it. Then, she received a job offer from a university senior she hadn’t heard from in a while, for a position at an IT startup.
Senior Park Jooyong was someone who had helped Hayoung since she started preparing for a job as a developer, a field different from her major.
[I’m doing well.]
[Senior Park Jooyong: Our company is urgently hiring developers, so I was wondering if you could recommend anyone. You could come too.]
Having stubbornly pushed for a marriage against her parents’ wishes and ended up with a broken engagement, Hayoung couldn’t bring herself to submit her resignation in front of her family.
However, at the unexpected job offer, Hayoung immediately handed in the resignation letter she had been carrying in her heart. She had been thinking she would have to find a new job as a rookie, so being scouted due to an urgent shortage of personnel was an unexpected stroke of luck. Senior Jooyong’s company was a startup, so the work-life balance would be worse than now, but it was much closer to home, and more importantly, her salary would have a different leading digit, making it a condition well worth enduring.
Her team leader, who had politely tried to dissuade Hayoung a few times, seemed to decide that it would be better for her to leave the company before using the annual leave she had 맞춰 놓았던 to her honeymoon dates, so he quickly moved up her resignation date to a week later.
The people at the company, who didn’t want to contribute to the wedding gift of a new employee who had resigned before even completing a year, no longer mentioned Hayoung’s wedding as if it were a taboo word.
Kang Semi, who had been feeling self-conscious since her meal with Jisung last time, also didn’t press Hayoung for a wedding invitation.
Hayoung stopped by the supermarket and bought groceries, her hands full. She couldn’t show her family that she was depressed about the broken engagement. In fact, thanks to everything with Jisung, she had easily forgotten Choi Jaehyung and was even happy, far from depressed.
They say you forget a person with another person. A smile lingered on Hayoung’s lips all day thinking about Jisung. Like a ripe spring day, Hayoung’s heart was also sweetly colored.
“I’m home.”
Opening the front door and entering the house, a pair of unfamiliar men’s shoes caught her eye.
His feet are really big.
The owner of the shoes, much larger than even the bulky Song Dooyoung’s, would undoubtedly be Kwon Jisung.
Her heart thumped pleasantly at the thought of Jisung being home, but then she became anxiously worried that their relationship might be discovered.
He wouldn’t call her ‘jagiya’ or ‘aegiya’ in front of her parents, but lately she had been witnessing unexpected sides of Jisung, so she couldn’t quite relax.
Why didn’t he contact her before coming? If he had given her a heads-up, she would have at least checked her reflection in the elevator mirror before coming in.
By the way, do they even sell shoes like that in Korea?
Hayoung neatly took off her heels next to Jisung’s shoes, which looked, to exaggerate, 1.5 times bigger than her own. Even when she glanced up at him from the side, he was a really physically large person, but seeing their shoes side by side from a third-party perspective made the difference in their sizes feel real.
If people saw them, they would think she was a little kid holding her dad’s hand. Suddenly, Hayoung resolved to always wear higher heels when meeting Jisung.
In the living room, her parents were sitting side by side for once, peeling fruit and talking to Jisung.
Her mother, Kim Hyeran, who had been bedridden for a while, even had a smile on her face, which lightened Hayoung’s heart.
“Dad, you’re home early? Jisung Oppa is here too?”
Hayoung greeted them casually, as if she hadn’t seen Jisung in a long time, even though they had gone on a date together yesterday.
“What’s with you talking informally to our Prosecutor? He’s seven years older than you, it doesn’t sound good.”
Hayoung’s mother, Kim Hyeran, clicked her tongue and scolded Hayoung. Since when had she been calling Jisung ‘Prosecutor’? It felt strange to see her mother suddenly using honorifics with her son’s friend, who had been coming and going from their house since elementary school.
“Right. You’re not talking informally to Jisung in front of other people, are you?”
To make matters worse, Hayoung’s father, Song Wonguk, also joined in scolding her. She wanted to retort, asking why they were suddenly like this, but she had shown a lot of childish behavior lately, so she swallowed her words.
“Why would I ever meet Jisung Oppa in front of other people?”
Even though she had met hundreds of Jisung’s colleagues at the wedding just 24 hours ago, it was a story she didn’t need to tell her parents.
“You sit here too. Our Prosecutor Kwon is the best, as expected.”
Hayoung sat down and looked through the documents scattered on the table in front of the sofa. She wouldn’t understand even if she read the documents filled with difficult legal terms, but judging from the atmosphere, it seemed to be the lawsuit sent to her ex-fiancé.
“I heard that the opposing lawyer said there was no hope after seeing the lawsuit sent directly by the partner attorney of ‘Law Firm Jipung.’ They said that even if they proceeded with the lawsuit, they would be completely cleaned out, so they agreed to your apartment demands without objection.”
Jisung had personally come with the lawsuit materials he had received from a lawyer who was his classmate from the Judicial Research and Training Institute and was explaining it to her parents in an easy-to-understand way.
Wonguk excitedly told Hayoung the story he had first heard from Jisung.
“It seems he hired a sole practitioner, but he must be a lawyer with some conscience. Or maybe he just lacks motivation. Jipung will try to drag out the alimony as much as possible. This is just the beginning. Anyway, you can either get the apartment back in cash, including the increased market value since the contract date, or you can pay the remaining balance and take it.”
At Jisung’s explanation, her father clicked his tongue regretfully.
“It’s going to go up a lot more because of the GTX, it’s a shame.”
Her father, who had been against the marriage all along, had still wanted to get his youngest daughter a house when she got married and had taken out a full company loan to do so.
Thinking that if she missed out this time, it wouldn’t be easy to buy her own house in the future, Jisung said to Wonguk.
“Then shall I lend you the remaining balance?”
The eyes of the three people sitting together widened simultaneously at Jisung’s words, offering to lend such a large sum of money without a moment’s hesitation.
“That’s a huge amount of money. It’s out of the question.”
“Investing isn’t really my thing anyway, so all I do is put money in the bank. If I just lend it to you, there might be tax audit issues, so I’ll write up a promissory note with bank interest and lend it to you.”
“Ah, no, thinking about the apartment value going up, I could pay back several times the bank interest... but that’s out of the question. I can’t be greedy for money that isn’t mine.”
Wonguk waved his hands dismissively, tempted by Jisung’s offer but unable to accept such a favor from his son’s friend.
“You were planning to get Hayoung a house someday anyway, weren’t you? In a few years, it will be difficult to get an apartment of that size with this money. And if you just leave it in the bank, only the bank benefits. You don’t need to feel burdened.”
“No, Oppa. Don’t do that. It’s my fault for rushing things from the start.”
Hayoung refused Jisung’s excessive offer. Hyeran, who had been listening quietly, slapped Hayoung’s back.
“You! I told you to use honorifics with the Prosecutor!”
“Mom, it hurts...”
Hayoung flinched and hunched her shoulders, wincing at her back where her hand couldn’t reach, and Jisung gently stroked her back and lowered his hand. The moment Jisung’s fingertips touched her, her heart pounded reflexively, and her neck grew hot.
The skinship felt natural, but she was worried that her parents might notice. Fortunately, her parents, engrossed in the documents, didn’t seem to see Jisung’s hand touching Hayoung.
“That’s right, Hayoung-ah. Use honorifics with Oppa.”
Then, as if he had been waiting, Jisung met her eyes, urging her to use honorifics.
If he were just any adult man seven years her senior, Hayoung would naturally use honorifics, but since he was her brother’s friend, she had been naturally accustomed to speaking informally since she was very young.
There was a time in her adolescence when she briefly used honorifics with him, but it felt awkward to speak informally to Dooyoung and formally only to Jisung.
Jisung also hadn’t minded Hayoung’s informal speech, so it was absurd that he was asking her to use honorifics now, after 24 years.
He clearly intended to use her parents as an excuse to hear her speak formally to him.
“...Yes.”
Strangely, it hurt her pride.
It would be easy enough to just use honorifics. Jisung’s behavior of teasing her in front of her parents was clear as day.
Seeing Jisung smiling incessantly, as if he really liked hearing her use honorifics, made her feel annoyed. Annoying. Annoying, but... even amidst the annoyance, his face, serious about the situation, was truly handsome.
“Then I should hurry up and prepare dinner. What did you buy so much of?”
Her mother asked Hayoung, getting up from her seat.
“I thought I’d cook something for the first time in a while.”
“No, it’s okay. What cooking? You’re tired from work. Just keep talking with Jisung until Dooyoung gets here.”
Hyeran treated Hayoung like a child, yet she wouldn’t let her daughter even wet her hands. Knowing her mother’s heart, she could guess how upset she must have been about her daughter’s broken engagement.
“Okay. I’ll go out for a smoke, so you two keep talking.”
Following her, Wonguk stood up, and Hyeran scolded him.
“Why do you bother going outside to smoke? Just quit. The neighbors gossip that you look pathetic.”
“I’ll smoke this one and then quit.”
Her father, a natural homebody, never kept his promises when it came to cigarettes. Suddenly left alone in the living room, Jisung said, tidying up the documents.
“Should I put this in your room?”
“Yeah. I’ll do it.”
“It’s quite heavy.”
She reached out to take the stack of documents, but Jisung led the way to her room.
She should have tidied up her room if she had known this would happen.
Fortunately, the pajamas she had shed on the floor after waking up 10 minutes late this morning seemed to have been thrown into the laundry basket by her mother.
There didn’t seem to be any particularly messy things, so she felt relieved, but Jisung, having placed the documents on the desk, subtly closed the door.
“Why are you closing the door?”
Hayoung asked warily, noticing the change in Jisung’s eyes, and he took a step closer.
“I told you to use honorifics.”
“I don’t want to.”
For someone who simply wanted to hear honorifics, his expression looked impure. She resisted, not wanting to readily give him what he wanted, but Jisung took another step closer and pinned her against the wall.
“Say it.”
“N-no...?”
Before she could finish the sentence saying she didn’t want to, a strange sensation spread in her lower abdomen. This man, again...
“Hoo... You using honorifics got me hard. I was hiding it with my suit jacket because I was worried your father would see.”
What a crazy pervert!
Getting hard in front of her parents. It was absurd, yet Jisung’s sudden stimulation of her lower body made a groan escape Hayoung’s lips.
“Heeut, ha, don’t.”
Swallowing even the groan that told him not to, Jisung sucked on her lips. Hot breath spread through their thickly intertwined lips.
Jisung, holding Hayoung in his arms, pressed himself closer to her body without any space between them. Overwhelmed by the sudden heat, Hayoung couldn’t move.
In front of Jisung, she always felt like an ignorant child. Subdued by the fully mature male’s sensual atmosphere, she helplessly accepted his kiss.
“Heeut, Opp, Oppa, Mom’s here... don’t...”
“Use honorifics. Then I won’t.”
Jisung whispered ticklishly, his lips pressed against Hayoung’s lower lip. His lewd act of moving up and down, rubbing their lower bodies together, made the area between her legs soak.
“Heeut, Oppa, stop... please...”
With the single thought of needing to get out of the room, regardless of jokes or anything else, she used honorifics, but to make matters worse, he opened his zipper.
“Wh, what are you doing?”
“You need to use honorifics properly.”
His menacing cock bobbed in front of Hayoung’s lower abdomen. The tip, glistening with pre-cum, looked lascivious. Facing his manhood at such an unexpected moment made Hayoung feel embarrassed yet a strange excitement crept in.
“Please don’t... Mom’s outside, you know.”
“Your mother is cooking. Hoo, Hayoung-ah. Let’s just rub on the outside.”
“No, you can’t.”
She kept blurting out informal speech without realizing it, but each time, she added an honorific ending, startled by Jisung’s eyes that flashed as if he had lost his mind.
While her head told her no, she felt strange at how she was getting wet from Jisung’s actions.
“I’ll only do it for one minute. I won’t put it in. I don’t have a condom anyway. Let’s just rub.”
“Oppaah, why, wha, heeup.”
Before she could stop him, Jisung’s hand suddenly slipped under Hayoung’s skirt. He swiped his hand under her panties, checked the fluids that had thoroughly wet his fingers, and chuckled softly.
“You’re all wet, but you say no.”
“We agreed to get to know each other, heeut, so why are you doing this...”
“It’s because Oppa can’t stand it.”
Jisung pulled Hayoung’s panties down. He rolled up her pencil skirt above her waist and stroked her dark pubic hair with his hand.
“Hoo, I want to put it in.”
The sight of his magnificent shaft with its pulsing veins was vivid. Even in Jisung’s unusually large hand, his overly large cock stood erect and menacing like a weapon.
Jisung stroked Hayoung’s crevice with his hand and pressed his cock against the space between her legs. The hard sensation pressing against her clit made her head go blank.
“Heeut, Opp, Oppa. Hoo, we’ll be in big trouble if we get caught...”
“It’s okay, Hayoung-ah. Oppa will take care of everything.”
Jisung coaxed and soothed Hayoung, beginning to rub his cock against her parted opening. As his moist manhood moved up and down her sensitive area, a tingling sensation shot through her loins as if she would immediately reach orgasm.
“Heueung, haeu.”
“Hoo, Oppa’s going crazy, Hayoung-ah. Even while working today, just thinking about you made my dick throb so much I thought I’d go insane.”
Jisung acted as if it had been days since they had sex. The thought that with his stamina, he could probably do it five times a day without a problem flashed through her mind.
Squish, squish.
The speed of his cock rubbing against her labia increased. Her vulva, where fluids and pre-cum had mixed and foamed, became a mess and fluttered.
“Heeut, euung.”
Thud, her knees buckled, and she almost collapsed, but she barely managed to stand thanks to Jisung’s strength holding her waist.
It was an even more arousing act than insertion. A strong pulse beat above her clit from the rubbing friction. Her tightening inner walls involuntarily repeated contraction and relaxation.
Her vulvar flesh, red and swollen, gaped open like a flower, panting for entry.
“Haeut, Oppa, this feels, strange...”
“Hoo, it wouldn’t feel strange if I put it in.”
“No, that’s...”
“I know. I’m not the kind of bastard who does it without a condom, so stop it.”
While teasingly rubbing her entrance, he never attempted insertion. If only her parents weren’t home, Hayoung herself would have run to Song Dooyoung’s room right away to see if there were any hidden condoms.
“Heueung, eup.”
Hayoung covered her own mouth, swallowing the moans that erupted from her climax.
But even if she blocked above, there was nothing she could do below, and fluids poured out of her open passage.
“Damn it, this isn’t going to work.”
Jisung suddenly sat down, burying his face between her legs. His lips, pressed directly against her tender membrane, sucked on her clit, and a strong urge to urinate surged.
“Heeut, ah, no, heeut.”
“It’s okay. Oppa will only put his tongue in. Okay? It’s okay to put my tongue in, right?”
“Haa, aah!”
Lost in a pleasure that made her unable to even answer, Hayoung wriggled her hips. She felt embarrassed at her own appearance, leaning against the wall with her panties halfway down, letting a man lick her intimately and thrusting her hips as if fucking. But she couldn’t control the instinctive movements of her body with reason.
Slurp, slurp.
She became dazed by Jisung’s lips, which were diligently sucking her intimately. He flicked his tongue, stirring the crevice, rubbed the labia majora with his lips, and ceaselessly flicked her clit with his fingers.
At the gluttonous probing of his tongue, Hayoung grabbed Jisung’s hair as if to tear it out and leaned on him. Without realizing it, she thrust her hips back and forth, grinding her vulva against Jisung’s tongue.
“Haeung, eu-eut.”
“Thrust harder, Hayoung-ah.”
Hayoung spread her legs like an animal mating and lifted her hips. She was embarrassed and ashamed, but her whole body reacted instinctively to the bursting excitement.
She felt like she was constantly turning into a femme fatale in front of this man. Jisung looked at her naked state with cloudy eyes and pushed his tongue deep into her vulva.
“Hey, even so, how can you lend money to Jisung? Anyway, that’s how he is. He doesn’t calculate.”
“Exactly. I told him that wasn’t right either.”
It was then. The sound of the front door opening and her father and Dooyoung’s voices were heard.
“Oppa!”
Hayoung pushed Jisung’s head away. Even though his lips were gone, a vulgar liquid streamed down between her legs. She felt embarrassed by her still-wriggling labia. Her hips still twitched reflexively.
Jisung also stared blankly at Hayoung for a moment with unfocused eyes. Hayoung was startled and quickly pulled up her panties and smoothed her clothes.
Only then did Jisung, who had been sitting, get up and barely manage to control his swollen cock. The moment he lifted his suit jacket to cover his lower body, the door opened and Dooyoung suddenly poked his head in.
“Were you in here?”
Hayoung, 미리 startled, grabbed the documents and spoke incoherently, pretending to be busy. Jisung, for someone who still had an erection, looked at Dooyoung with a nonchalant expression.
“Yeah. We were just talking about the lawsuit.”
“Ugh, what’s that smell? Hey, Song Hayoung. Air out your room. What’s that sour smell coming from a girl’s room...?”
Dooyoung wrinkled his nose as if he had smelled something unpleasant.
He probably couldn’t have imagined it was the smell of their intimate bodily fluids, but Hayoung’s face turned bright red like someone caught doing something they shouldn’t have been.
“Let’s eat. Mother has prepared a real feast because you’re here now.”
Dooyoung then gestured for Jisung to come out with a nod of his chin, and suddenly his brow furrowed. Dooyoung, a high school physical education teacher, was nicknamed ‘Bear Eagle’ at school. A bear’s face with an eagle’s eyes, they said. He looked easygoing but would catch students with his sharp eyes and discipline them.
That Dooyoung was now staring intently at Jisung’s face as if he suspected something. Jisung met Dooyoung’s gaze without flinching. Hayoung, standing beside them, nervously chewed her lip at the tense staring contest between the two.
“Hey, Jisung-ah.”
Breaking the suffocating silence, Dooyoung finally spoke first.
“Yeah?”
“Have you been wearing makeup lately?”
At Dooyoung’s words, Jisung frowned as if annoyed.
“What nonsense are you talking about? Who would wear makeup?”
“No, it’s just that lately even the guys put something on their lips. That shiny stuff, you know? Lip balm?”
Jisung wiped his lips with the back of his hand and walked past Dooyoung.
“You’re talking nonsense.”
“Ah, why are you getting annoyed?”
Dooyoung scratched his head, following Jisung.
“Hoo...”
Left alone in the room, Hayoung let out a long sigh. The image of Jisung’s lips, glistening not with lip balm but with Hayoung’s fluids, flashed in her mind, making her heart pound as if it would burst.
Hayoung couldn’t move a step from her room until she heard her mother’s voice, like a shout, telling her to come eat.
________________________________________
“Song Hayoung, where are you going?”
As she was about to get up from her seat after finishing the meal, Dooyoung, using his characteristic teacher’s tone, made Hayoung sit back down.
“Let the two of us brothers talk.”
“Is that how I taught you?”
“Who taught what? When did you ever teach me anything?”
“Where did you learn to talk to your older brother like that? Sit there.”
Even though she frowned at Dooyoung acting like a drill sergeant when they weren’t even in the army, Hayoung had no choice but to sit down in a corner of the table, mindful of her parents’ eyes.
Her parents naturally sat down in the living room and started watching a drama together, and Dooyoung took out three cans of cold beer from the refrigerator.
“Let’s have a drink.”
Hayoung sat alone, picking at dried squid, amidst the two friends who were sitting across from each other, chatting and passing beer. Afraid of making another mistake while drunk, she didn’t even look at the beer cans.
She wanted to avoid the awkwardness of being with Jisung in front of her family, but Song Dooyoung wasn’t letting her do anything.
“Is work manageable?”
Jisung acted indifferent, barely listening to Dooyoung’s question about his well-being.
“Should I order some tteokbokki?”
Ignoring Dooyoung, who was waiting for an answer, Jisung asked Hayoung, who was chewing on the tasteless squid, if she wanted tteokbokki.
“Huh?”
Before Hayoung could even answer, 미리 startled that he might sense the strange tension between them, Jisung was already scrolling through a delivery app and ordering tteokbokki.
“Hey, that’s okay. Why are you even bothering with Song Hayoung’s tteokbokki? You never even eat snacks. Song Hayoung, go get some ramen.”
“What ramen after eating a meal!”
“Then what tteokbokki after eating a meal?”
Dooyoung reached for Jisung’s smartphone, trying to stop him from ordering, but Jisung stubbornly finished ordering the highest level of spiciness tteokbokki that Hayoung liked, along with tuna mayo rice balls.
She wasn’t interested in the trivial conversation between Dooyoung and Jisung, but the thought that her favorite tteokbokki would arrive soon gave her the will to stay seated.
“How about you? Is your girlfriend doing well?”
At Jisung’s words, Hayoung’s eyes widened as she looked at Dooyoung. Her brother had a girlfriend? She felt embarrassed at her own lack of interest in her blood relative’s personal life, but she was also quite curious about who Dooyoung was seeing.
“Shhh. Be quiet.”
Dooyoung glanced at their parents, who were engrossed in the drama in the living room, and shook his head.
“Why? Who are you seeing?”
Hayoung lowered her voice as she asked, and Dooyoung flicked her forehead, telling her to mind her own business.
“It’s none of your business.”
“How can you flick the head of someone who’s all grown up?”
It was then. Jisung frowned, scolding Dooyoung.
“It wasn’t her head, it was her forehead...”
“Head or forehead.”
Dooyoung also seemed a bit embarrassed that he had flicked his twenty-five-year-old sister’s forehead, and he tilted his head, watching Jisung’s sudden outburst.
“Since when have you thought of Song Hayoung like that?”
“Hayoung’s already feeling unsettled, don’t you be like that too.”
When Jisung sided with Hayoung, Dooyoung retorted, twitching his lips, “The more it’s like this, the more you have to act normal so it doesn’t feel weird.”
While they chatted and spent time, the tteokbokki arrived before they knew it. As Hayoung, her fighting spirit ignited by the spicy tteokbokki, prepared to eat, Jisung beside her put on disposable gloves and began to carefully make rice balls.
Dooyoung watched the scene with an incredulous look, but he was also hungry, so he dipped the rice balls Jisung made into the tteokbokki sauce and ate them bit by bit.
Hayoung and Dooyoung, like baby birds, deliciously accepted every rice ball Jisung made.
The maker and the eaters were separate, but Jisung didn’t seem particularly interested in snacking.
“Oppa Dooyoung, anyway, how old do you think I am that you still treat me like a kid? It’s a professional habit. You always try to teach people something even with just one word, as expected of a teacher.”
Hayoung mumbled, her tongue flicking from the spiciness of the tteokbokki, and Jisung chuckled, pulling out a tissue and handing it to her. Seeing this, Dooyoung rolled his eyes again, looking incredulous.
“Jisung-ah. Don’t spoil Song Hayoung too much. She hasn’t done anything right.”
“Ah, why are you like this! I’m really going to tell Mom?”
“Ha! Did you hear what she said? She’s going to tell Mom? Who’s acting like a kid but telling me not to treat her like one?”
“Oppa! Don’t you tell Mom on me? You always tell Mom I don’t throw out the trash!”
“So have you ever thrown it out even once?”
Watching the siblings bicker and have a childish argument, Jisung started chuckling again.
Hayoung was about to explode with anger at Dooyoung’s petty teasing, but she was bewildered by Jisung, who was laughing so hard his neck turned red.
“Why are you laughing?”
Dooyoung also found Jisung strange and asked seriously, and Jisung rubbed his dry face with one hand and shook his head.
“You guys are being too childish.”
“Seriously.”
“Seriously.”
At Jisung’s answer, the siblings simultaneously exclaimed, “Seriously.” Jisung chuckled again, as if even the telepathic language of the siblings was funny.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing. I must be drunk.”
Jisung suppressed his laughter alone, acting like he had seen something funnier than a comedy show.
He had put on a method acting performance when kissing her in front of his colleagues, so why was he being so obvious in front of Song Dooyoung?
Hayoung pouted but eventually sat down and dipped the rice balls in the tteokbokki sauce, eating every last bit.
*** Yoon I-ah
“Since you’re going out to throw away the trash, why don’t you see Jisung off?”
Dooyoung handed Hayoung the bag of recyclable waste and pushed her back.
“You throw it away, Oppa. Why me?”
“I always throw it away. You do it this time.”
She had been trying not to go out, worried that being with Jisung any longer would make their relationship obvious to her family, but Dooyoung, oblivious, chased Hayoung out to throw away the trash.
“Thanks, Jisung-ah.”
“I told you to stop saying thank you.”
“But you.”
“What again?”
“Did something good happen?”
Jisung frowned, wondering what nonsense he was talking about again, and Dooyoung nudged his shoulder.
“You little rascal, you keep smiling like a fool. It makes you look dumb.”
“Who was smiling?”
“You were cracking up all by yourself at Song Hayoung’s lame jokes, don’t pretend you weren’t.”
Dooyoung watched Jisung’s expression and suddenly looked at Hayoung. In times like this, she had to admit Song Dooyoung’s observational skills. Hayoung also agreed that Jisung had been smiling more lately. Though it probably wasn’t because of her.
Anyway, under the intense gaze of the bear cub with eagle eyes, Hayoung pretended to look at her phone, feigning disinterest.
“Then I’ll be going now.”
“Okay, there’s no one like our Jisung.”
“Prosecutor, please drive carefully.”
Her parents waved goodbye to Jisung until the elevator doors closed, as if they were seeing off a VIP.
Only after the elevator doors closed did Hayoung feel relieved. The crazy things they had done in her room earlier flashed in her mind, and her heart was still pounding.
“I thought I was going to die from the suspense.”
Hayoung mumbled, and Jisung chuckled, touching her cheek.
“You’re so cute I could die.”
“Don’t ever do that again.”
“I want to take you home with me.”
“I almost fainted from shock when the door opened earlier.”
“Should I just kidnap you?”
“What are you always saying?”
“I like you, Hayoung-ah.”
“Yeah. I know you like doing that, Oppa, but still, when the adults are around...”
“Not that.”
“Huh?”
“I like you a lot.”
“……!”
At that one unexpected phrase thrown out so casually, Hayoung completely disarmed.
As the elevator doors opened, the fragrant spring breeze permeated her heart. The fluttering, pleasant scent of pink blossoms made her feel like her feet were floating, as if she could fly into the sky.
“I want to hold your hand.”
Jisung snatched the trash bag from Hayoung’s hand. A warm hand that touched hers briefly and then let go. That affectionate hand that she couldn’t hold because of who might be watching. Hayoung also wanted to hold tightly onto Jisung’s cozy hand.
“I can hold it.”
“I can’t stand seeing you holding trash.”
“…….”
Her heart melted at his small act of kindness.
Was this what dating was like?
She had dated before, but she had never felt this way.
The feeling of being completely respected by someone was intoxicating. It felt like insignificant her had become the most precious person in the world.
Could she become that kind of person to him?
How wonderful would it be if she could be everything in someone’s world. She might even be able to escape the emptiness of existence and find the true reason for living.
If she could feel these emotions in the stage of just getting to know each other, how happy would her days with Jisung be?
She wanted to know more about the man named Kwon Jisung, who gave her a kind of affection she had never received before.
“Hayoung-ah.”
Jisung, having put the trash in the bin, turned around. He began to walk along the promenade towards the parking lot again and opened his mouth.
“Huh?”
“I’ll carry the dirty stuff, so you only carry the good things.”
Jisung placed something in Hayoung’s hand.
A jewelry case with a large orange designer logo printed on it.
What was this?
Could it be... a ring?
She, who had been a bride-to-be until just ten days ago, knew better than anyone that this brand was famous for its proposal rings. She had wanted one so badly because it was so beautiful, but she couldn’t bring herself to buy a ring more expensive than her annual salary, so she had only gone to the store to look.
Even though she thought it was too early for a proposal, the shape of the case in her hand was unmistakably a ring case, making her heart pound.
She was at a loss for how to respond, yet she didn’t dislike it, making her realize she was indeed a sucker for love, and she couldn’t help but laugh.
Giggling like someone with a screw loose, she opened the case...
“Ah...”
Inside the case was a necklace.
What?
Why was the necklace case here so small? She thought it was a ring.
Of course, she was happy it was a necklace and relieved it wasn’t a ring...
Goodness gracious. Why make the case so small? Couldn’t they make it bigger? It got her hopes up.
“And Hayoung-ah.”
“Huh?”
At Jisung’s low voice that followed, Hayoung looked up. Jisung was staring at her seriously, like someone about to say something important.
Hayoung bit her dry lip. Only she was reflected in Jisung’s deep eyes.
Why was he hesitating so much to speak?
Hayoung’s heart pounded again as she waited for his words.
Jisung finally fastened the necklace in Hayoung’s hand around her neck and rubbed his lips against her forehead. Then, in a pleasant low voice, he whispered in Hayoung’s ear.
“Why aren’t you using honorifics?”
“You son of a—”
Psh, the air went out of her like a deflated balloon, and Hayoung burst into laughter.
Of course, a proposal made no sense. They had agreed to meet secretly for a while and get to know each other, and even if time passed, how could she possibly think about marrying someone so soon after her engagement was broken off?
Thinking that, she still found it absurd that she had mistaken the case he gave her for an engagement ring and felt her heart flutter.
But if she didn’t dislike it...
“Oppa.”
“Yeah.”
“I think I like you too.”
Even if she didn’t know about marriage, she knew her own feelings of liking him.
Jisung smiled brightly and caressed her cheek. With his gentle touch, her cheek ripened as completely as the changing seasons.
As if handling something precious, Jisung’s fingertips, which had been carefully caressing Hayoung’s cheek, lips, chin, and earlobe, trailed down to her neck. The moment he pulled her closer, their lips softly met.
In the breeze, the pure white flower buds of the snowbell tree swayed as if welcoming their kiss. The scent of May blossoms welled up in her chest.
Under the yellow streetlight, Hayoung’s eyes grew moist at the radiant kiss. Intoxicated by overwhelming joy, her heart softened like a young girl’s.
“Oh my, you startled me!”
It was past midnight on Monday night, and a neighbor lady suddenly appeared on the quiet apartment walkway. She glanced at Jisung and Hayoung kissing and grumbled as she passed by.
Hayoung lowered her head like a criminal and asked Jisung in a low voice, “Do you think she saw my face?”
“Do you know her?”
“Yeah. She’s the lady who lives downstairs. She came up a few times to say hello because of the balcony construction.”
Hoping that the streetlight’s shadows had obscured her face, the two started walking again.
“It was dark, she probably didn’t recognize you.”
“Then that’s a relief.”
“Don’t worry.”
“Hoo, it smells so good. What’s that scent?”
“Hmm. There’s a strong floral scent. Could it be Song Hayoung’s scent?”
Hayoung chuckled at Jisung’s smooth talk.
“Since when have you become so smooth?”
“Old guys are naturally smooth.”
Hayoung, who had intended to see Jisung off to the parking lot, couldn’t stop him from walking her back to her front door.
“Go in carefully.”
“Bye, Oppa.”
The spring night, with its lingering feelings of longing, deepened.