CRANK 22

“Isn’t it natural? At this level, the fans won’t tell you to throw your phone away.”

Does this guy have some kind of pride when it comes to taking selfies? I just nodded vaguely at his look, which seemed like he was overly desperate for acknowledgment.

“Yeah, you’re good at it. You happy now?”

Woo Dobin’s expression brightened as if he’d heard the answer he wanted.

“Right? You like it, don’t you?”

I didn’t exactly like it, but since he had the kind of face that would force an answer out of me if I didn’t say so, I just nodded.

“Yeah.”

“Then I’m going to post this.”

“Post it? To where?”

“On my SNS.”

“What? Are you insane?”

I reached out reflexively. I tried to snatch the phone this time, but Woo Dobin was faster at pulling his body back.

“Hey. Hand it over, won’t you?”

Woo Dobin reached his arm way back, almost lying down.

“You said it came out well. You said you liked it. I’m going to post it.”

“Are you crazy, seriously.”

Woo Dobin looked like he was about to launch the SNS app any second. Showing my yellow pajamas to Woo Dobin was one thing. But SNS was absolutely off-limits. I moved between Woo Dobin’s legs, who was sitting cross-legged, and overlapped my body with his. All I could see was Woo Dobin’s phone.

“…Sunbae?”

To grab the hand Woo Dobin had stretched back, I lowered my body even further. No matter how much I reached, Woo Dobin’s arms were several times longer than mine, and the more I reached, the more I had no choice but to dig further between Woo Dobin’s legs. Before I knew it, Woo Dobin’s face was almost touching my chest.

“Su—, Sunbae.”

A troubled voice drifted up. Does he find it heavy, perhaps? That was none of my business.

I knew that if he posted the picture on SNS, it would be chaos in the comments again. It might even hit the news after the awards ceremony. I had to prevent that at all costs. Was it because I was drunk? My gaze was persistent and tenacious.

“Sunbae, wait a second….”

“Hand it over!”

I stretched my hand out.

“I—I won’t post it!”

“How can I trust you?”

I lifted one knee. I was thinking of getting my hands on the phone even if I had to trample over Woo Dobin.

“Wa—, Sunbae!”

Huh? I froze in that position, blinking. Something… made contact. My right knee, which I had pointed sharply, hit something hard.

Woo Dobin was wearing cotton sweatpants. The only hard things he had were his car keys, his wallet, and his phone. The first two were sitting right there on the living room table, and the latter was in Woo Dobin’s hand. So, there was no reason for something this hard to be where my knee was touching.

I lowered my gaze slowly, as if in slow motion. What… is this…. There was some hideous thing where my knee touched. A tumbler…? Is that what it is? Why would he have something like that in his pocket…. Unconsciously, I moved my knee. My knee rubbed against the tumbler.

“Ugh.”

A low sound escaped him, and that tumbler grew even larger. No, Fuck…. Why is the tumbler growing….

“Arghhh!”

I screamed and fell backward. That was, well, it was that. Woo Dobin’s that.

Woo Dobin stumbled and pulled his legs together. He propped his knees up and scrambled backward in a sitting position.

What the Fuck is this…. Sitting on the bare floor, I couldn’t bring myself to look at Woo Dobin’s crotch, so I dropped my gaze. The sensation that had touched my knee was still vivid. I wanted to brush it off as if it were dust, but at the same time, I was terrified to touch it.

An awkward silence followed. Even though I opened and closed my mouth several times, nothing came out. At first, I intended to spit out some curses, but I couldn’t even do that.

The Woo Dobin I glanced at had a face flushed bright red. It was an expression I’d never seen before. Embarrassed, awkward, apologetic, and yet… dangerous. I felt like if I said something carelessly, I could never go back to how things were before.

“I….”

My body flinched at the voice flowing from Woo Dobin’s lips, which was lower than usual.

“That….”

“The bathroom is that way.”

Since it was obvious that this awkward atmosphere would continue if things stayed this way, I muttered quickly, like a machine gun. I pointed with my eyes to the bathroom, which I was sure Woo Dobin already knew the location of. Woo Dobin’s face, his earlobes, and his neck all turned bright red. Even his fingertips.

After trying and failing to speak a few more times, Woo Dobin finally stood up abruptly and headed for the bathroom.

“…Fuck.”

Left alone in the living room, I covered my face with both hands. Right? That… that thing… it really stood up, right? So he was aroused… because of me, right?

Woo Dobin confessed to me. He even said he wanted to kiss and have s*x with me. To think I brought such a kid into my house. I was too defenseless. I think I finally understand why Woo Dobin had that brazen expression earlier.

But for some reason, I thought it would be fine if it was Woo Dobin. And that’s because Woo Dobin was so understated. His face, his expressions, his actions. How should I put it? There were no common pickup tricks.

Words-wise, he seemed loose enough to do all sorts of things, but he never secretly crossed the line. Meaning, if I showed even the slightest bit of rejection, he seemed like he would back off easily. Just like how he instantly dispelled the suggestive atmosphere from earlier.

Splish— I heard the sound of water running in the bathroom. It looked like he was taking a shower. A shower, of all things. Woo Dobin, stark naked and showering in my bathroom…. Even though I tried to forget, I kept thinking about it. About that thing of Woo Dobin’s, that thing that had suddenly grown. Its shape, its size, its texture….

“Argh! Fuck.”

I poured the sake from the table into my mouth. If I didn’t drink, I didn’t think I could endure it. What am I supposed to do now? When Woo Dobin comes out of the bathroom. Should I act like nothing happened?

How would Woo Dobin react? Woo Dobin seemed as flustered as I was. That face, which hadn’t reacted at all even when his embarrassing past as a model was dug up, had flushed like that. Well, anyone would be, but still….

I thought that if it were Woo Dobin, he would’ve used his smooth face to say something like, “I told you, I wanted to have s*x with you, Sunbae.”

Would he apologize? I could easily imagine Woo Dobin apologizing. Woo Dobin was really good at apologizing. I’m sorry, I apologize, I’m sorry but…. How many times had I heard him apologize in such a short time?

I emptied about half a bottle of sake. Finally, my head was spinning, the room was swaying, and heat was rising to my face, but the sensation that had touched my knee still hadn’t faded. It was when enough time had passed that it went beyond awkward and I started wondering if he’d fallen into the toilet and died.

Finally, the bathroom door swung open. Because I had been focusing all my nerves in that direction, I flinched, but I stared at the table, pretending that nothing was wrong. I felt like the sound of me swallowing hard was deafening.

Woo Dobin approached. Because I kept my gaze fixed on the table, I could only see his legs, but I knew Woo Dobin was hesitating. I squeezed my eyes shut once, then whipped my head around to look at Woo Dobin. And without realizing it, my mouth fell open.

“…Oh….”

Woo Dobin was wearing nothing but a towel. He was standing there just fine, without a hint of shrinking back. I thought he’d be embarrassed, so what was this confident posture? On top of that, that excessively well-toned body….

“Hey…. What about your clothes….”

“They’re all soaked. I was so flustered that I poured water on myself like that.”

“What?”

Woo Dobin licked his lips. With that erotic tongue he had used to lick his own lips just a few hours ago, after feeling up my face at will.

“Your clothes won’t fit, and… what should I do?”

“W—, what do you mean what should you do?”

Drops of water fell from Woo Dobin’s hair as he tilted his head, and it suited him so well it was like a photoshoot. Is that… what they call wet hair or something….

“I have no choice but to stay like this.”

No, why is he being so brazen? I had intended to apologize, say I’d be careful from now on, and yeah…. If it went well, I was going to use this as an excuse to say we couldn’t meet at my house anymore and steer the conversation that way. Where did that innocent-looking, bright-red-faced Woo Dobin go, and why did that brazen Woo Dobin appear again?

Since he came at me like this, I had no words. What was that earlier, did you get… an erection because of me? Isn’t that embarrassing to ask?

“Hey. Go out… and buy some clothes.”

“Go out looking like this? Wouldn’t I freeze to death?”