NHL 36

“Here, shall I touch you?”

As soon as he confirmed that he was aroused, the front of Dylan’s pants, which had been touching his buttocks, grew even harder. Because he was subtly moving his hips in a circular motion, the parts that were touching were thoroughly rubbed together.

“…You have to go to work.”

“There’s still an hour left.”

“…You didn’t get enough sleep yesterday either. You must be tired….”

“That’s strange. Far from being tired, I feel like I’m overflowing with more energy. Could it be because of the protein drink?”

The face of the one who realized what he meant turned bright red. As soon as he whipped his head away, Dylan pressed his lips to his. In that instant, the pants, with the zipper now fully undone, slid down to his ankles with a rustle. His bare legs in black underwear were starkly exposed to the air, and he was even caught with the front disgracefully and darkly soaked. The hand that went inside them took out Joeon’s white, straight penis, taking him into its grasp and expertly kneading him.

The other hand was still pressing down on his red, swollen nipple, as if to imprint a fingerprint on it. Joeon felt like his legs were about to give out, so he grabbed onto Dylan’s arm and clung to him. At that moment, the hand paused. Unlike himself, who was practically naked, the stiff fabric of the suit he felt beneath his palm was unfamiliar.

Joeon slightly turned his head and glanced at the mirror. There was a man who looked like a model in a perfect suit, not disheveled in the slightest, and himself, with his unbuttoned shirt barely hanging on his shoulders like a rag, his lewd, bite-marked naked body exposed, having his erect penis masturbated. Because Dylan, standing behind him, kept thrusting his hips forward as if they were having sex, looking at their reflection in the mirror made it seem as if the two were having intercourse while standing.

Joeon’s flushed face was full of anticipation, wanting Dylan to touch him more intensely, to wreck him from the inside with rough hip movements and take him to climax. He himself didn’t know when he had changed into such a lewd body. Perhaps he hadn’t changed, but Dylan had discovered what he was originally like and brought it out into the world.

The hand he reached behind him fumbled over the zipper of Dylan’s pants. After unfastening the buckle and pulling down the zipper, he hesitantly pulled out Dylan’s penis. Joeon pushed the underwear, which was caught on his thighs, downward, then brought Dylan’s wet tip between his own plump flesh and rubbed it. Dylan’s penis dug in between his pressed-together thighs.

Perhaps because of the pressure from his thigh muscles, Dylan narrowed his brow and let out a pained sound. His furrowed face, drenched in arousal, gave off a more decadent aura than usual. With his eyes sharpened, he soon began to move his hips in earnest, holding Joeon in a tight embrace. To keep from being pushed back by the weight of him pressing down on his entire body from behind, Joeon grabbed onto the full-length mirror to support himself.

The wet, slapping sound of flesh, like when they had sex, became more frequent. The faster his hips moved, the more strength he put into the hand gripping Joeon’s member. The moment Dylan stimulated him by probing the urethral opening with his fingertip, Joeon bent his body like a shrimp.

“Ah, ugh, hngh, ugh!”

Joeon’s thighs and buttock flesh strongly squeezed Dylan’s penis. In front, his penis, unable to hold back the feeling of ejaculation, rubbed its tip against the surface of the mirror and let out a stream of white, thin semen.

Dylan thrust his hips up hard just like that, burying the end of his penis as if to tear Joeon’s scrotum apart. From the scrotum to the thighs, he was smeared with the whitish liquid.

With his gaze fixed on his own legs reflected in the mirror, Joeon reached a hand back and pushed Dylan away, who was standing behind him, to prevent the dirty traces of their affair from staining the expensive suit.

As soon as Dylan released the hands that were forcibly holding Joeon, the trembling body collapsed to the floor. At that moment, Dylan’s semen, which he had not finished ejaculating, splattered slightly on Joeon’s cheek.

“Oops.”

Dylan’s hand approached his cheek to wipe it for him. However, his fingers, even after wiping away the semen, lingered there for a long time as if reluctant to leave.

Joeon raised his head and glanced at Dylan. In his darkly colored, wavering eyes, an unspoken, dark demand seemed to flicker. Joeon, sensing the silent desire, leaned his body toward Dylan’s penis as if drawn to it.

His red lips stopped in front of the penis. He stole the semen on the tip with his tongue, and when he took the glans into his mouth and sucked on it like a piece of candy, a hot breath descended from above his head.

While Joeon performed oral sex, Dylan caressed Joeon’s smooth, soft cheeks that fit in his hand for a long time. Joeon, who had pulled his lips away, looked up and said.

“If I put it back in your underwear just like this, no one will know. Shall I do that too?”

At that moment, Dylan’s penis, which had calmed its excitement, suddenly grew in size at a frightening speed and became erect. Joeon’s eyes widened in surprise at the enlargement that occurred right before his eyes.

“…Ah, I can’t do it yet. The bottom is swollen.”

“Mmm, I know.”

At the end of his upturned gaze, he saw Dylan with a contorted face. He was holding onto his sanity with superhuman patience. After letting out a pained sound, he eventually pressed his taut member down and barely managed to stuff it into his underwear. Even though the bulge was evident over his pants, once he zipped up the fly and fastened the buckle, it looked rather neat. Dylan, with a composed face, extended his hand to help Joeon up.

“Be careful. You’ll get something dirty on your nice clothes.”

“It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine. You’re going to wear them on your way to work. Can you just take me to the bathroom? I’ll wash up quickly and come out.”

Because his partner kept pushing him away, Dylan had no choice but to hold his hand and lead Joeon to the bathroom. While the sound of water was running, he neatly folded Joeon’s messed-up clothes and laid out his own. It contained a small wish that his own scent would permeate Joeon during the two weeks he was away on a business trip.

⛸️

In the afternoon, when the sunlight is the hottest of the day, light poured in through the front window of the south-facing office. At this time of day, the blinds are always drawn all the way to the floor. Still, there were gaps, and the light that penetrated between the blinds often created slanted rays, splitting the monitor diagonally.

Joeon was sitting with his monitor tilted at an angle to prevent errors in data entry due to the bothersome rays of light.

Perhaps because it was early afternoon, just after lunchtime, the electronic sound of security being disarmed was constantly heard from the entrance. People were returning one by one.

As if the tide that had gone out was rushing back in, the people who returned to the office went to their own desks and resumed their work. Just as everyone was slowly finding their focus, the sound of a vibration that suddenly rang out in the quiet space felt quite loud. Joeon, realizing that it had originated from his cell phone placed behind the computer, quietly left his seat.

The caller’s name was not displayed, but there was also no indication that it was suspected spam.

‘Could it be….’

Joeon, who had found an empty conference room, answered the phone with a bit of anticipation.

—Hello. This is a Toronto air duct cleaning company. We are calling because we are running a really good promotion right now. You have a home, right?

A man with a strong Indian accent poured out words at a high speed. The strength drained from his tense shoulders, and at the same time, Joeon leaned his body against the glass window. He reflected that he had been living with an overly naive mindset lately.

—Hello? Are you listening? You have a home, right?

“No. I’m homeless.”

—…….

A brief silence flowed from over the receiver, and then the call disconnected with an electronic beep. It was part of the usual spam calls. It looked like an outbound telemarketing call for a special promotion, but in reality, it was a known scam method where they charge double the price they quote, claiming you need to solve a nonexistent problem.

At any other time, he would not have answered a call from an unknown number, but now that the situation had changed, he couldn’t afford to miss any calls. This was because the results of the job applications he had previously submitted were starting to be announced one by one.

Some places conducted a simple phone interview through the HR team, and some notified him of his rejection via email. However, since it was standard for proper in-person interviews to be announced mostly by phone, he was in a situation where he had no choice but to answer incoming calls. Of course, the number of spam calls he received was overwhelmingly higher than notification calls.

Joeon, on the contrary, believed that the reason for the increased frequency was because he had put his phone number on his resume and sent it out to various places. Otherwise, there was no way that the spam calls, which had been quiet for a while, would increase so rapidly.

Hiding his disappointment, he was returning to his desk when he happened to spot Michael from the IT department walking by. Michael, who often wore a hoodie and jeans, was for some reason dressed in a neat office look.

Tyler, who was sitting at the edge of the hallway, greeted Michael playfully.

“What’s with dressing up? You have an interview today or something? You look great.”

Michael, who was close friends with Tyler due to their similar age, joked back at Tyler that he had an interview with his girlfriend.

Joeon, feeling unnecessarily guilty at the word ‘interview’ being mentioned repeatedly, hurriedly left the spot. The one who had an interview was not someone else, but Joeon. Because he always came to the company neatly dressed, it wasn’t obvious that he had specifically worn a suit, but the clothes he wore today were more crisply tailored than usual.

He had planned to leave work early on the pretext of a dental appointment to go to the interview, so he had also come to work earlier than others. That was why he had skipped lunch and focused only on work to get all of today’s tasks done.

Joeon, who had been fidgeting in his seat, killed time by repeating the expected interview questions in his head, and then packed his things at a reasonably late hour. The interview location was in the heart of downtown, just three or four blocks away from where Joeon worked.

Joeon, who had stopped in the middle of Adelaide Street, scanned the windows that went up endlessly along the building with his eyes. He could see the sky, narrowed as if trapped in a well. And around it, the buildings standing close together boasted their long, slender bodies, looking down on Joeon.

“This is it.”

A familiar sign was visible in a corner of the lobby, indicating it was connected to the underground PATH. At least during the winter commute, he wouldn’t have to shiver in the cold. Other than that, he passed through the empty lobby without anything else to see and headed for the elevator, asking the security guard to call an elevator to the 18th floor.

When the elevator finally arrived at its destination, Joeon rubbed the area around his mouth with the back of his hand to relax his stiff face.

“Hello, I’m here today for an interview. My name is John.”

When he approached the reception and explained his purpose, a friendly-looking employee pointed to a sofa.

“Could you please wait a moment? The person who will guide you will be out shortly.”

Joeon glanced at the glass door, following the employee’s gaze. He could see a small office packed with people. His heart began to pound as if it would burst from nervousness.

Was it because of that?

Joeon would later recall the scenery of the unfamiliar office and reflect on the short and intense failed interview.

That he didn’t like the company atmosphere anyway.

“One hot Americano, please.”

Since he got off work early, Joeon decided to take a seat at a cafe with a view of Nathan Phillips Square, which is surrounded by the Old and New City Halls, and look through the rest of the job postings. His email was exploding with job postings sent by headhunters and recruiting agencies.

“This one seems to require a lot of experience, so I guess not.”

Although they also put in their own effort and trouble, they didn’t always send postings perfectly optimized for Joeon’s career, so he needed to carefully review whether the job was really a good fit for him.

“The duties seem perfect, but it’s in a completely different region….”

In the end, Joeon selected only a few out of the numerous postings and sent out his resume in reply. Although the company where he had his interview today seemed to have no chance of proceeding further, this was just the beginning.

He was not disappointed.

Failure is a valuable lesson. Everyone experiences failure anyway. It means it’s something that happens to everyone. If you just fear it, you can’t learn anything.

Although this interview ended in failure, it was good practice and an experiment for Joeon. It had been a long time since he had worn the mask of someone other than himself, so he had needed time to adjust. It wasn’t a dream company he had desperately wanted to get into anyway.

In that case, he could build his skills through experience and then go all out when a place he truly wanted to work for appeared.

Perhaps the Joeon of three years ago would have been different, but the current Joeon did not feel as anxious in the face of uncertainty as he used to. His mind had become much stronger and more stable. Perhaps this is what they call the process of becoming an adult.

It wasn’t that there was a surprising moment of enlightenment, like when you level up in a game, that made him realize he had finally become an adult.

Growth happens without warning or notification, slowly over a long period of time. Then one ordinary day, you suddenly look back at your past self and realize it. Your own change, how you can have such a different mindset about the same thing.

Even in calm waters without rough waves, over a long period of time, the pebbles on the shore are worn down to be round without any sharp corners. And to that extent, the grains of sand carried by the current pile up layer by layer, creating a solid ground on which to stand.

Joeon suddenly realized that the miracle of time had come to him as well.

Unlike in the past when he didn’t know what kind of person he was, now he could clearly see his true self.

Unlike how others saw him, the not-so-delicate and blunt Song Joeon was not a very planned person, and was a rough man who had lived life as it came, pursuing only stability without a firm vision.