JKA 33

The moans that were close to screams, the pathetic thrust of his hips into the air. All of it was reaching only him. It was a side of Jiwoon that, until now, no one but him knew. He couldn’t understand why that felt so delightful, why he felt a strange ecstasy when Jiwoon cried and clung to him.

Finally, the thing in his hand twitched and spurted out a whitish fluid. As if it had already been wrung dry and there was nothing left to cum, Jiwoon’s lower half trembled pathetically, just like Jiwoon himself. With that as the last, 1129 pulled his hand out of his pants. Then, he licked his hand, wet with bodily fluid, as if to show it off in front of Jiwoon.

Jiwoon watched 1129 with teary eyes. Despite having cum a lot, including the wet dream, the heat left in his body showed no signs of leaving. On the contrary, at that erotic and obscene sight, his lower abdomen throbbed.

“The end.”

1129 said that and got up. Jiwoon then came halfway to his senses and looked up at 1129 with a vacant gaze. You’re stopping here? He stared at 1129 with eyes full of that question. However, 1129, without any lingering attachment, stood up, leaving Jiwoon lying on the bed.

“Think about it some more.”

“…”

“Why I’m doing this to you.”

Jiwoon was crouching in front of the barbecue restaurant where Hanbyeol worked, watching an ant crawl in a long line across the asphalt.

‘I’ll tell you in advance, this is homework you gave me. Not something I gave you.’

After suddenly kissing him, interrogating him about what kind of dream he had, and touching his front as he pleased, only to run away without doing the important part in the end, 1129 had added that to a dazed Jiwoon. Then, he had wet a towel with warm water and wiped his messy lower half. At that touch, Jiwoon flinched and looked at 1129, but again, nothing more happened.

It was the first time something like this had happened, so Jiwoon was seized by an indescribable feeling. It was because he could not understand why he had done that to him. That must be why 1129 told him to think carefully. But no matter how much he thought, nothing really fell into place.

He had answered 1129’s questions honestly. If you asked if everything was honest, that wasn’t the case. He had persistently asked what he had said in the dream, but Jiwoon had not answered. It was because there was nothing to answer. He thought he shouldn’t say things like, ‘You called me a pervert’, ‘You said all sorts of dirty jokes’.

It was partly because 1129’s gaze was scary, but at the same time, it also felt like he was craving something. What does 1129 want from me? When he thought about it, only one thing came to mind. 1129 was an angel who came to prevent him from dying. So, if there was something he wanted, it would be for him to not file strange civil complaints. And more ultimately, for him not to die.

But he could be sure that wasn’t the answer to the question. Moreover, it couldn’t be the reason why he stopped what he was doing in the middle of it.

“This is my best…”

1129 had definitely said that. He had asked him if that was his best, and if so, then this was his best right now. If it was ‘this’, that meant he wouldn’t engage in any further acts, but that didn’t make sense either. In the first place, the reason 1129 and he had started a sexual relationship was because he didn’t think of death when he desired it.

“Then what, does that mean it doesn’t matter if I die now…”

Jiwoon muttered with a frown. Even if he thought something was wrong, it didn’t immediately lead to the right answer. He felt like he knew why on earth 1129 was doing this to him, but he kept stopping his thoughts right before that point. It was because it seemed like something absurd. From one to ten, it didn’t align with the reason he had come to him, and at the same time, he could only think that such a thing couldn’t be.

Because 1129 wasn’t human. And it wasn’t as if he could become an angel either, so all assumptions and the results of those assumptions repeatedly became no different than scraps of paper.

“Even if I say he likes me, why would he stop if he likes me.”

Jiwoon grumbled in annoyance. To be honest, Jiwoon liked his relationship with 1129. His relationship with him was so addictive that he used it as a refuge. He liked how his mind went blank, and he liked how he became breathless to the point of death. The feeling of their skin against each other was the same. 1129 had no body temperature, but he liked how when they stayed close for a long time, the heat would gradually transfer and his body would become lukewarm.

When they hugged like that, a sense of relief would wash over him. The feeling of being safe. That was right. Jiwoon felt safe when he was with 1129. In fact, being naked, he was in the most dangerous state if he were to be thrown outside right then, but the certainty of being connected gave him a strange sense of reality.

“You’ve been waiting long?”

It was then. Hanbyeol, who had been working inside the barbecue restaurant, finished his shift, slung his bag on, and called out to Jiwoon, who was sitting in a corner. Only then did Jiwoon emerge from the swamp of his thoughts and jump to his feet.

“Ah, no.”

Jiwoon answered out of habit, and Hanbyeol walked up to Jiwoon and smiled.

“Sorry. I thought I’d finish on time, but the group of customers didn’t leave.”

“I, it can happen.”

“I’m an hour late for our appointment, what should we do. The cafes nearby will all be closed by now.”

Hanbyeol looked at Jiwoon, who was answering as if it were nothing, with a sorry expression. And for good reason, as Jiwoon had come to help Hanbyeol with his video editing. His part-time job was until 10 PM, so he had asked him to spare just an hour after that, and that was why he had come all this way, but it was already 11 PM.

“If I knew this would happen, I would’ve just told you to go. The last bus will be gone soon too.”

“W, won’t there be a 24-hour ca, cafe or something nearby?”

“Probably not. I looked for cafes that stay open late while I was working earlier, but there weren’t any. I should have told you to go then. I was just too busy.”

“It’s okay. Well, it can happen…”

“It makes me feel too bad to make you wait for an hour and then just send you back. Especially since I was the one who called you for help.”

It really didn’t matter to Jiwoon if he went back like this. Since waking up in the morning, 1129 had been treating him as if nothing had happened, but Jiwoon somehow couldn’t do that, and it was uncomfortable being at home alone with 1129. It was to the point where he resented the studio apartment where he couldn’t just run away and lock the door to hold out.

So, under the pretext of doing homework before class, he had taken out his laptop and wandered aimlessly, then attended his afternoon lecture and left the school around 6 PM. After grabbing a quick dinner, he killed time at a nearby cafe, and came to the neighborhood where Hanbyeol lived in time for the end of his part-time job.

It was about a 40-minute bus ride from the school. It was a longer distance than he thought, so he thought it must be quite tiring for Hanbyeol to commute this distance every day for his part-time job. Wasn’t the pharmacy in a bustling area near the school?

“Ah, do you just want to come to my place?”

Hanbyeol was quiet for a moment as if thinking, then asked in a bright voice. But at that question, Jiwoon froze and just blinked his eyes.

“My house is over there. The road is a bit steep, but it’s not far.”

He said, pointing towards the hill. It was a residential area packed with buildings, and at the tip of Hanbyeol’s finger, an old apartment complex was visible. Jiwoon was just opening and closing his mouth, not knowing what to say.

“I don’t see the devil these days. It seems like he doesn’t want to be seen by me, so he doesn’t show up at home much either.”

“…Th.”

“Even if he does show up, you can just ignore him. You said you have that, angel, so I don’t think he’d bother you.”

Don’t angels usually beat devils? Hanbyeol said jokingly and laughed, but Jiwoon couldn’t even laugh along. Going to Hanbyeol’s house. That was an option he hadn’t even considered. It was something he could just think of as a normal thing, just going to a friend’s house, but Jiwoon had never experienced such a normal thing.

“Y, your, uh, mother is, is sick, and for me to come this, this late at night.”

“Ah, my mom doesn’t care about things like that. If I tell her I brought a friend, she’ll actually be happy.”

“…”

“I’ve never brought a friend home.”

At Hanbyeol’s words, Jiwoon was surprised again. It was because he had rashly assumed that while it might be a first for him, it wouldn’t be for Hanbyeol.

“When I was young, it was because of my dad, and when I got a bit older, I never brought friends over because I was taking care of my younger brother. So my mom thinks I don’t have a single friend.”

“…Th, that can’t be true.”

“So, go and tell her you’re my friend. Help me with the video editing too… uh, just stay the night.”

“…”

“Would that be a bit uncomfortable?”

But I think the last bus will be gone after we finish with the video. Hanbyeol muttered that and hummed as if in thought. For Jiwoon, the last bus or things like that weren’t what was important. The problem was that things were moving too fast. Going to a friend’s house, meeting a friend’s mother, sleeping over at a friend’s house. The difficulty level was impossibly high.

“Ah.”

“…”

“Then maybe I could go to your studio apartment…”

“I’ll stay the night.”

Jiwoon had never spoken so quickly in his life. Letting Hanbyeol into his studio apartment, that was something that could never happen. Even though an angel was cohabiting with him, for some reason, for Jiwoon, it felt like he was letting a sacred being into a profane space.

Hanbyeol burst out laughing at the sight of Jiwoon, who had been hesitating one moment and then changed his tune in an instant at the suggestion of him going to the studio apartment instead. It was because his reaction was so completely within his expectations. Jiwoon and Hanbyeol slowly climbed the hill, following the light of the sparsely placed streetlights.

“I, I think we should go to a convenience store or something.”

Since staying the night at Hanbyeol’s house was not an option, he had nothing with him. He felt like he had to buy things like a toothbrush or underwear. Buying underwear at a convenience store was something he had never done before, so Jiwoon’s vision went dark for no reason.

“You’re right. If we go up this way, there’s only a small mart, so let’s take a little detour before we go. It closes at 11.”

“Okay.”

Jiwoon nodded in agreement and followed Hanbyeol, who promptly turned around. There weren’t many people walking around in the residential area, which was already late at night, so it was just the two of them, Jiwoon and Hanbyeol, on the way. A quiet silence settled between them, and Jiwoon was worrying about things like whether buying underwear would seem strange.

“What’s that angel’s name?”

It was Hanbyeol who broke the silence. He asked Jiwoon what he hadn’t had a chance to ask when they were talking while walking around the campus, as he had only been talking about himself.

“Name… Ah, it’s 1129.”

“1129? That’s just a number.”

“B, because he’s not human, maybe?”

“That could be, but the devil had a proper name.”

“…”

“Aegis, that’s what he said.”

Aegis. Jiwoon muttered and nodded his head. Now that he heard it, that was true. If the devil had a name, then 1129 should have a name too, but he had never heard anything about a name from him. Actually, it could be because he hadn’t asked.