HPK 21

“Wow, you really are cheap.”

Taejung’s voice trembled with laughter. The feeling of endless amusement was so intense it was as if he had taken some kind of drug.

‘I can have fun just by drinking this barley tea.’

‘I won’t, won’t sell.’

That peculiar, flat tone, devoid of any high or low pitch. The way he spoke was as if he were reading from a script.

When he was not drunk, he was distant and awkward no matter how many times Taejung saw him, unable to shake off his reserved demeanor. But a little bit of alcohol in him, and he became a different person. And in a completely unexpected way at that.

No, on second thought, he had shown unexpected sides even when he was not drunk.

‘I, I have a place where water comes out.’

The vulgarity with which he had let his mouth hang open, so easily revealing the red, soft flesh inside.

Those were behaviors that did not match his innocent-looking face in the slightest.

“Why. Want me to touch you?”

Taejung could not hold back and reached out his hand. With the same habit he used when touching a woman’s full breasts, he spread his palm and cupped the chest from below. However, the lean chest had nothing for his hand to grab onto. He could barely feel some firm muscle and soft flesh.

“There is not much to touch.”

Taejung casually mumbled as he gathered the nonexistent flesh and kneaded it. Finding it utterly uninteresting, he let go and flicked the nipple. At that, the lean body curled up like a mimosa plant.

“Hey.”

Taejung called out to him, continuing to flick the nipple with his index finger.

“Hey, hey.”

As he touched the nipple in time with his calls, the bud gradually hardened. The pink color slyly turned red and then ripened like a well-grown fruit. It should have looked pathetic, but it was funny.

Taejung put strength into his hand and pinched the nipple hard.

“Ah!”

He pulled him straight toward himself. The body, like a shrunken mimosa, was pulled along powerlessly. Taejung rolled Wooseung’s nipple between his index finger and thumb, then pressed down on it firmly.

Wooseung placed a thin hand on Taejung’s wrist. But his fingers, which held no strength at all, could not even get a proper grip on the wrist and only fumbled.

“Why.”

“I, I…”

“Yeah, you.”

“I…”

“What about you.”

Wooseung barely managed to pull away the hand that was pinching his chest and slowly stared at the person in front of him. He saw a face that was blurred, as if it were kneaded from clay. His vision was hazy and clouded, so he could not see anything clearly. But he was drunk, and if someone was next to him, it was obvious it must be a customer.

“I, I will do it…”

Wooseung staggered as he reached out his hand. He found what looked like a hand and gripped what was below it. The wrist was strangely thick, but he did not mind.

He applied force and pressed it toward the backrest of the sofa. He thought he might have heard a faint laugh. Wooseung slowly got up and climbed onto the other person’s lap. He settled his hips on the thighs that were, as expected, unusually hard and grabbed the other person’s wrist with one hand. No, he tried to grab it.

“Uh…”

He managed to grab one wrist. But he could not grab the other one at all. The bone structure was too thick. It was a wrist of a thickness he had never held in his hand before.

Wooseung quickly gave up and, holding just the one wrist, pressed it toward the backrest as before. Then with his remaining hand, he slowly caressed down from the nape of the person’s neck.

“This is fucking hilarious…”

A voice tinged with a faint laugh tickled his ear. Wooseung paid it no mind and grabbed the person’s chest. Gently, as if cupping it from bottom to top.

“Ahaha!”

But what his palm grasped was a chest so firm it was hard.

Startled, he stopped his caress. It was the exact same feeling he had when he was surprised trying to gather and hold the wrists together a moment ago.

“Why did you stop? Keep going.”

Everything he touched felt strange. The warning lights in his head were blaring, telling him to stop here, but nevertheless, Wooseung continued his actions at the other’s urging.

He slowly squeezed and released his hand, gently touching the chest. His hand kept slipping on the flesh that was only firm without a hint of softness.

Eventually, he moved his hand down and slipped it between the hem of the clothes. The inside of the thick hoodie was lined with fleece, making it warm and soft.

The hand that slipped under the hem of the clothing snuck past the lower abdomen and crept up near the side. He was a little surprised when he touched the distinctly defined abs, which had no excess fat, but these days, working out was a trend for everyone…

Finally, his hand settled on the chest. When he cupped it from below, there was more to grab than when he had held it over the clothes. Though the flesh was still more firm than soft.

He brushed a thumb over the nipple and kneaded the chest with just the right amount of force in his fingers. When he tried to place a kiss on the temple, the other person turned his head to the opposite side, avoiding him.

“…”

So he does not like this kind of thing… Wooseung gave up on kissing and diligently caressed the chest with his hand. But he heard no moan, not even a shallow breath.

Instead…

The way the chest was lightly heaving, no matter how he looked at it…

“Keep going, keep going. I will not laugh.”

A large hand patted his rear, urging him to continue. His voice was laced with an undisguisable hint of amusement. There was not the slightest trace of arousal.

“…Is it really that bad?”

Given his age, he was not without experience. He had done what he always did, so why was the reaction like this? He always became full of confidence when he was drunk, but now, he felt strangely discouraged.

“I said keep going, did I not?”

Wooseung removed the hand that was kneading the chest. He grabbed the hem of the hoodie and lifted it. Then he brought it near Taejung’s lips.

“Why.”

“…”

“What do you want me to do.”

Seeing him just stand there holding the hem of the clothing to his lips, Taejung asked what he should do.

“This… bite on it.”

“What?”

Taejung let out a scoff, finding the situation ridiculous.

“Ha.”

He had started this to see how he behaved in the rooms, but unexpected things kept happening. He became just a little bit curious about what other side of him he would see next. He obediently opened his mouth and bit down on the cloth.

“Thif?”

His pronunciation was terribly slurred, like when he spoke with a cigarette in his mouth. Pfft, it also seemed to be because laughter kept leaking out.

As Taejung asked if that was good enough, Wooseung did not answer and sluggishly went down to the floor. Then, he placed his hands demurely on the thighs and brought his lips to the chest.

He stuck his tongue out long and licked the nipple stickily from below. He took the still-soft bud into his mouth and rolled his tongue. The clearly defined abs twitched and trembled. Wooseung gained courage from this distinctly different reaction and began to suck on the nipple.

“…Hah.”

Taejung spat out the clothing he was holding in his mouth. The hem of the hoodie fell over Wooseung’s head, half-covering the back of his black hair.

He reached out without hesitation, grabbed a handful of hair, and pulled it back.

“Why!”

Along with a short scream, a chill came over his damp, wet nipple as it cooled. The sensation was extremely unfamiliar. In the first place, he had never had his chest sucked like this before. The more he thought about it, the more absurd it became.

“I-It hurts.”

He stared intently at the slightly parted lips, then suddenly caught a familiar scent. He instinctively focused on his sense of smell. His ribcage swelled up large, then deflated.

“Haaa.”

Taejung let out the breath that filled his lungs and smirked. He stared intently at the face with the skin under its eyes flushed red. When he put strength into his hand and shook it lightly, the man flopped back and forth pathetically, like a puppet with its strings cut.

“It hurts…”

The scent carried on the increasingly ragged breaths was blatant. Just like that day a while ago, there was no need to sniff like a dog.

Melted caramel, a faint oak aroma, well-toasted almonds. But overwhelming all of that was the potent scent of…

♡

“Ugh! Gack…”

His hands and feet trembled along with a pain that felt like his eyeballs would pop out. Wooseung barely held onto the toilet as he threw up everything in his stomach. A dark brown liquid poured out, following his churning esophagus.

“Huuu… Ugh, urp.”

Sticky saliva pooled at the corner of his lips before succumbing to gravity and dripping down. Tears welled up in his eyes, blurring his vision.

When he came to his senses, he was in the bathroom. His hand, gripping the toilet bowl, kept slipping powerlessly because of the sweat drenching his palm. He had almost pitched forward and smashed his head.

He grabbed the sink to stand up and rinse his mouth, and the face reflected in the mirror looked just like a corpse. A face drained of all color, pale and white, and the skin around his eyes red and puffy. But there was a wound he had not seen before.

He raised his hand and slowly touched the corner of his mouth. A stinging pain shot through every time his finger made contact. There was only one reason a wound would appear in a place like this.

He washed his face and hands and rinsed his mouth. Then he opened the bathroom door and went outside. The empty room, smelling of damp alcohol, greeted him.

A half-empty bottle of whiskey, an overturned shot glass that had spilled its alcoholic contents, pieces of fruit that had dried up without being touched, and the table, noticeably pushed to one side. The scene of a wild party’s aftermath tightened its grip on his solar plexus.

Wooseung roughly rubbed his face with his hands as if washing it dry.

Again.

He could not remember a single thing.

‘For you, one of these glasses is one choice.’

A glass filled to the brim with shimmering liquor.

‘Someone paid one hundred and fifty and is still pouring your damn drink. Huh? This is so fucking unfair, is it not.’

A voice that had grumbled while spitting in an ashtray.

His memory, which had been clear up to that point, became sporadic and patchy afterward, and then at some point, it went completely black.

“Ah…”

Wooseung buried his face, which was crumpled as if he were about to cry, in his palms. He leaned his back against the door and slid down to the floor. A chill rose from the cold floor, but the breath that touched his palms was hot enough to burn. It was the heat radiating from the alcohol that had not yet fully left his system.

After some time had passed, Wooseung slowly got up. He wiped his warm eye area with the back of his hand and turned around. He had thought a very long time had passed, but it was still dawn.

Before leaving the room, he looked at the whiskey bottle. Seeing the half-empty bottle, he hoped that Taejung would keep his promise. And he found himself, for thinking such a thing, to be more pathetic than ever.