After my only sister died, I met Jung Yeon when I was struggling with the guilt of not being able to protect her.

I saw Jung Yeon again at my sister’s funeral, dressed in mourning clothes, having lost her father. Even then, the only people who came to the funeral were the women she had lived with, working at the massage parlor. That was it.

My sister, who had never had a place to rest her heart comfortably in her life, was lonely even in death.

Feeling alone, I leaned against the wall with my eyes closed, and I sensed her silently standing beside me. At a funeral where no one else came, she willingly became a mourner. Her heart, which filled the empty funeral hall, was for me. For the one left behind.

We held hands without even knowing each other’s names. She had watched over this empty funeral hall for days. In this moment, we would be comfort to each other. We didn’t say it, but I felt it in her hand holding mine.

The tears I had been holding back flowed. My old man, who had disapproved of me holding my sister’s funeral, was her only father. A sister abandoned by her father, and me, who was everything to her father.

Why, even with the same father, did one have to live with the stigma of being the son of Cha Hyun-seok, a wealthy Gangnam landowner and a major shareholder, while the other was the daughter of a massage parlor woman? What was the difference between us?

He was just the old man’s bloodline, no more special than I was. A sister who had been abandoned for being her father’s child. A sister who couldn’t bear the pain and took her own life.

If I had known that the last time I saw her, when she turned me away with eyes that were trying hard to be cold and firm, telling me not to come anymore, was the last time, I would have never let go of her hand.

It felt like she was telling me not to leave, holding my hand so tightly. That’s how I gave it meaning.

I met Jung Yeon again at school.

“You’re the senior who joined our club this time, right?”

I watched her for two years. I even joined a club that wasn’t my thing.

She was someone who offered comfort even without being outwardly affectionate. She was a wonderful woman who understood people and could see into their hearts.

She, who had spoken to me so warmly at the funeral, had completely forgotten me. I still remembered her warm hand holding mine, but she had forgotten everything and was in love with someone else.

Over the years, my feelings piled up like layers of earth. Little by little, but continuously. Unstoppable, towards you. Adding emotion to emotion, heart to heart.

She didn’t have me in her memories, but I had her in mine, and I comforted myself that that was enough.

“Sunbae, are you okay?”

“Uh, uh. I drank too much yesterday.”

“How much did you drink? Can you get up?”

She held out her hand.

“Grab it.”

Take my hand and get up, she pulled me to my feet. Looking at me with a smile, she offered comfort without saying a word.

Without needing to explain in detail, this woman knew how to offer comfort. The proof of my existence originated from you. Back then, and even now as you look at me.

I had no choice but to let go of my sister’s hand, but I vowed to protect this one hand of hers. To give my heart for life only to you, who was the only one who filled my empty heart.

Even while watching you ride in the doctor’s car, my heart and all my senses were directed solely towards you.

That was the day I came back holding a naked Jung Yeon. When Jung Yeon’s mother’s client, whose defense she was handling, was highly likely to win the case, the opposing party in the legal battle held a grudge.

I gave up everything to protect you.

Even if you’re not mine, I am yours. So this time, I will protect you.

I will gnaw away at everything I have, grind it down if necessary, to protect you.

It doesn’t matter what happens to someone like me.

With just the thought of protecting you, the reason for all my actions was justified.

________________________________________

“Liar.”

Yeon, sitting across from Eun-song with the now cold coffee between them, rubbed her hollowed eye sockets with both hands.

“Yeon-ah.”

“So that’s why Sunbae left school?”

Yeon knew why the man had beaten someone half to death. Eun-song, who didn’t know the full story, only knew that he had beaten someone like that, but Yeon knew. Why that man had come after them and harmed them.

It was because of her. While he was waging a war to clean up the mess, she had been cowardly hiding. She hadn’t known. Because of that incident, his father had lost the election, he had been practically forced to leave for America, and she had met Myunghyun.

She covered her mouth with both hands at the uncontrollable surge of emotions.

“Yeon-ah.”

“I didn’t know. Like a fool. Like a fool.”

“And there’s one more thing I need to tell you.”

Eun-song hesitated and confessed to her, whose vision was blurred with tears. The feelings she had hidden, those childish and clumsy emotions.

“The thing about me saying I didn’t want to come to your hospital visit because it was annoying, that was a lie. Sunbae just told me not to say anything to you, but I made it up. I knew Sunbae liked you. I was jealous. I wanted you and Sunbae to fail miserably. I did. I hated you so much back then.”

Eun-song lowered her head, her eyes stained with tears.

“Actually, I hated you, Yeon-ah. I hated you. So, I...”

Back then, she had hated her, had been desperately jealous, so please forgive her. Eun-song clutched her swollen belly and finally burst into tears.

“You, who received Sunbae’s love... so much... When Sunbae said he was going to America, I thought it was a good thing. I was so awful.”

Yeon buried her face in her hands. The only one who knew why they had gone through so many twists and turns to meet each other was Cha Yi-hwan, that man. But worried that it would hurt her, hiding his feelings, hiding his wounds, he had hidden himself like that.

Hyunwoo, Myunghyun. While she had been foolishly lingering in the cycle of hurt from her past lovers, he had been...

“I’m the one who hurt Sunbae. I’m the one who was bad.”

I’m the one who should beg for forgiveness. But more than this snowballing guilt, what he wanted was her affection.

Leaving the cafe, Yeon barely managed to stand up her swaying legs and walked again.

The tree-lined path connected to Cha Yi-hwan’s house. Had the path to him always been this far? She couldn’t answer the question she posed to herself. It was the first time she was walking towards him on her own.

She hadn’t known what path he had walked, where he had driven his car, when he had come to her.

Slowly standing at the entrance of the villa, she pressed the doorbell. Unlike before, the firmly closed door from the entrance couldn’t be opened by herself. But.

“Jung Yeon!”

He was there, already opening it wide for her.

“Hey, you didn’t answer your phone, where were you... Jung Yeon.”

He reached out with a face full of worry. She pulled his tall frame down and hugged him. His scent, which had always been by her side since some point, the realization that her heart also belonged to him, she was sorry for realizing it only now, she promised, embracing the back of his head, that she would always be by his side from now on. To him, and to herself.

“Myunghyun was hospitalized. I went and ended things completely. I told him that no matter what he does now, I won’t go to him, I can’t go to him.”

“You went to see that bastard again?”

Rough words still tumbled out, but his voice was calmer than usual. There was no doubt that just holding her like this had soothed his heart. The man who should have been hers from the beginning.

“I’ll never go again.”

“...Did something happen to you? Did that bastard touch you?”

“Don’t say anything, just hold me.”

As soon as she asked him to hold her without asking anything, he pulled Yeon into a tight embrace. He warmly held her in his broad, firm chest. There was no reason for his embrace. Because Jung Yeon wanted it, that was all.

“My mom’s coming to Korea next week. Do you want to meet her? Oh, Mom’s in Canada. My maternal relatives are there, and my grandma’s really sick, so she put her work on hold and went there. The reason my maternal relatives are there is because my youngest aunt married a Canadian and immigrated there. So, my grandma...”

She chattered on, clinging to his neck, until she stopped breathing when his hand slowly stroked her back.

“I’m not going anywhere. Take your time. But why are you so out of breath? Do you want to touch my cock?”

“You idiot.”

Thwack, she hit his back. Don’t say things like that so seriously. Is his lower body part some kind of sedative? Come to think of it, she had slept with him every time she was confused. Unintentionally, she had been taking something similar to a tranquilizer. Still, really.

“I’m going to sleep over tonight.”

“Well, what, did you come all the way here just to leave? If you’re going to explain the situation when you went to see that bastard Shin Myunghyun in one-second intervals, the night will be long.”

He suddenly picked Yeon up. Yeon naturally wrapped her legs around his torso. Dangling from him as he went up the stairs, she sucked and kissed his neck.

The pleasant scent of Cha Yi-hwan’s skin. She licked below his neck with her tongue, then slowly moved up to his lips and kissed him softly. Automatically, his hand gripped the flesh of her buttocks.

“Why, is he saying he’ll die without you? What does he expect me to do about his pain? You’re already my woman, why is that bastard calling you?”

“It’s not like that... hold me tighter. My chest, not my butt.”

Smack, this time he initiated the kiss, his eyes turbulent. The front door opened. They went inside his house, filled with his scent. He carried her and swiftly lifted her shirt and bra. Her breasts, protruding and swaying heavily, were temptingly revealed before him.

She touched his eyebrows as he focused on fondling her breasts and licking her entire areola. His handsome eyes, always directed at her. Every time her nipple was bitten and nipped by his teeth, an unmistakable gasp escaped her lips.

“Ah-ahng... do you want to touch my cock now?”

“Come here. I’ll let you touch it comfortably.”

Yeon went between his legs as he sprawled on the sofa, legs wide open, telling her to touch him comfortably. Seeing him still in his suit and dress shirt, it seemed he had just returned from work. Then he must have run into his father in front of the house.

As he unbuckled his belt and pulled down his drawers, his hand reached her lower lip.

“Huh?”

“You clearly said nothing happened, you.”

“...Yeah. Oh, is that woman okay? It looked like a lot of coffee spilled on her.”

“She’s okay. No, actually, I don’t remember. I think she said she was okay. I was too busy worrying about you saying you’d go home first. Why do you make me worry so much?”

“You’re the one who told me to go home first.”

Thwack, his erect cock, which had already popped out, pressed against his chest. Yeon pulled the cock covering her navel towards her and sniffled. She shouldn’t cry. Anxiously, she widened her eyes and fixed her gaze on him, afraid her resolve would crumble.

When she reached out again, he understood perfectly and lowered his head, their tongues intertwining deeply.

The warmth of their shared body temperature comforted each other. Yeon fumbled with her hand, lifted her skirt, and pulled her panties down to her ankles, kicking them off with her toes.

“Instead of with my hand, can you put it in down there? Touch my pussy.”

“Climb on slowly. Spread your legs.”

He completely pulled up her shirt and bra, revealing her privates, and naturally drew Yeon’s waist closer. Resting her hands on his broad shoulders and spreading her legs, her chest finally welled up with emotion.

She buried her stinging nose near his collarbone. With her hole being probed by his hand, Yeon rubbed her nose roughly against his shoulder. It was an attempt to hold back her tears, but her coquettish gesture seemed to arouse him again, as he immediately picked her up and headed for the bedroom.

The bedroom, white and cozy, but surrounded by his scent. Yeon herself opened her thighs wide and parted her labia.

As she held the throbbing glans that tapped at her entrance and rubbed it against her vaginal opening, enjoying the strange sensation, his lust-filled gaze fell upon her nakedly. It was the glans, long in diameter and deep, that he had meticulously taken into his mouth and rolled and sucked when they had oral sex.

“Do you like my glans, Yeon-ah?”

“...It’s not just that, it’s because it’s Cha Yi-hwan, that’s why I like it.”

At her cautious expression of affection, he didn’t know what to do and ran a hand roughly over his dry face.

“Ha, damn.”

She knew that even his rough curse was accompanied by affection. As his massive glans pushed past her vaginal lips, Yeon moaned and groaned.

Holding her thighs wide open with both hands, she immersed herself in the pleasure of his thrusting. Already feeling the urge to pee and the sensation of climax, Yeon had to endure his pounding cock, even biting her lip.

“Ah! Ang! Ah, Cha-i, hwan, ah-ah!”

Feeling like she couldn’t take it anymore, she used both hands to widen her opening, but the sensation of climax wouldn’t be controlled. Yeon closed her eyes, which had already gone hazy, and focused on feeling the entering and leaving cock as much as she could.

As she held her own vagina open with her hands, the thrusting cock felt incredibly sensual. A strange sense of fulfillment, the tight passage full of throbbing flesh, the firm and fierce cock that felt like she might even get pregnant from it.

“Ah... ah-eung...”

Her whole body was pushed and pulled, rising and falling by his cock alone. Even amidst the passionate frenzy, she reached out her hand to his face. He readily pressed his cheek against her small palm and scattered kisses on her hand.

When Yi-hwan touched her, it felt like she had endured the cold winter and finally become the life of spring, shaking off the soil.

“Yeon-ah.”

As he called her name, the tears she had held back finally spilled down her cheeks like a broken dam. Instead of saying sorry, she decided to replace those complicated feelings with words of love.

She would love him even more in the future, she felt like she would, now that she knew the words he wanted to hear weren’t apologies but her affectionate words, she wanted to do as he wished.

Looking into his eyes, she realized how unnecessary her worries about their future had been.