JKA 61

When Jiwoon, who was behind him, said nothing, Zeo turned slightly to look at him. With a strange expression, he turned his face away again as soon as their eyes met.

“Why do you keep looking somewhere else instead of at me?”

“I-It’s a lie, right?”

“What is? That I don’t remember? It’s true.”

“……”

“Hey, I’m telling you it’s true!”

Zeo shouted as if he had been wronged, but Jiwoon looked like he couldn’t easily believe him.

“You don’t believe me?”

“H-How can you n-not remember that? A-Aren’t wings i-important?”

“It’s because they’re important that I don’t remember. If they’re gone, the memories fly away with them.”

“……”

“For an angel, wings are time. It’s similar to counting age. Since you cut them, it’s only natural that the memories corresponding to how much you cut are gone.”

Despite Zeo’s explanation, Jiwoon’s tightly sealed lips would not part. He really wasn’t hiding anything on purpose, but seeing Jiwoon clam up and get lost in thought again was frustrating. In the end, Zeo snatched the showerhead from Jiwoon’s hand, turned on the faucet, and sprayed it directly at Jiwoon’s head.

Literally getting drenched, Jiwoon coughed as water got into his nose and eyes, and he blocked the gushing stream with his hands. Zeo giggled, finding something amusing, while Jiwoon, with his hair and clothes completely soaked, wore an expression of dumbfoundedness.

He coughed, his face turning bright red as he glared up, but Zeo’s face was lit up with a broad smile, finding it all so amusing. It was hard to believe it was just yesterday that he had been lying down, claiming to be in pain. Jiwoon was so dumbfounded that he frantically wiped the water streaming down his face.

Zeo was simply delighted. So this is what it feels like to be delighted, he thought. The fumbling lips, shy, were worth seeing, and the blush that spread across his face in embarrassment was nice too. The sharp glare, the peeved, resentful face—all of it was interesting.

Until now, he had only focused on the way Jiwoon’s lips would press together whenever he was flustered or cornered. He had only thought about how he could get that mouth to open. Because of that, he had missed so many colorful expressions, and a belated sense of regret washed over him.

Myeong Jiwoon wasn’t a blank-faced and frustrating person. It was just that there had never been anything to make him show such varied expressions. So perhaps, Zeo might be the only one who knew of these diverse expressions of Jiwoon’s. Zeo was only now realizing how heart-filling that was.

“D-Don’t laugh!”

And it was the same for Jiwoon. Though annoyance bloomed at Zeo’s playful face, it was also unfamiliar and fascinating. It seemed he was genuinely enjoying himself, not just putting on an act or faking it. Once he realized that, his sulky expression kept softening.

“I don’t lie to you.”

Zeo still wore a playful expression, but his words were serious and firm. Although Jiwoon was happy to hear that, his heart wasn’t completely at ease, so he deliberately glared at him and spoke.

“E-Even if you d-don’t lie, y-you probably have things you h-hide.”

“I don’t have anything like that.”

“……”

“I swear on you, I don’t.”

“Why are y-you s-swearing on me?”

Jiwoon asked, looking dumbfounded, but Zeo answered confidently.

“Because I have nothing else.”

“……”

“What am I going to swear on, my life? Even a god? It doesn’t mean much to me. If you want, I can swear on that.”

“Wow……”

Jiwoon was genuinely amazed by Zeo’s shamelessness. He was more clearly a being created by a god than anyone, yet he said the god who created him meant nothing, and that he would even swear on that if Jiwoon wanted. He truly felt like a stunning con artist.

“Swearing on you is swearing on everything.”

“……”

“Who was it that made me like this?”

Zeo could see it now. All his changes were because of Myeong Jiwoon. He hated to admit it, but he had to. It was because when asked if he would stay by his side, Jiwoon had answered that he would. It was because Jiwoon had given him a name.

Humans gave names not only to living things but to all things that were not alive. Weren’t they creatures who even gave names to sounds to distinguish them? He shouldn’t have let him give him a name. That was an act that shook his very existence, his very foundation. So how could he not have been in pain?

“Are you going to keep standing there like that?”

Zeo asked the dazed Jiwoon. Jiwoon, looking like a drowned rat, just blinked. At this, the corners of Zeo’s eyes curved up greatly.

“Take it off.”

He grabbed Jiwoon—who had turned pale and was whining “no” while covering his body—and stripped his clothes right off. Instantly naked, Jiwoon stood before Zeo with a woeful expression.

Hanging the showerhead back on the wall and turning on the water, Zeo, as if he had forgotten he’d asked to be washed, began to wash Jiwoon instead. As fluffy bubbles foamed up on his head, Jiwoon lost the will to resist any further and just squeezed his eyes shut.

When the long fingers passed through the strands of his hair and brushed against his nape, goosebumps inexplicably rose all over his body. The touch that grazed his ears and neck felt sensual, and receiving such a feeling from Zeo, who had seemed on the verge of dying from pain, somehow felt sinful.

Whether he knew this or not, Zeo, under the pretext of washing his hair, thoroughly massaged Jiwoon’s head and then turned on the water with satisfaction. The bubbles washed away in the pouring stream. Now he was about to use the same excuse to touch his body, but Jiwoon quickly secured the shower towel, whirled around, and shouted at Zeo.

“I-I’ll w-wash my b-body myself.”

“Is this the first time?”

“……Pardon?”

“Do I have to say it again and make my mouth hurt?”

Why was he being so coy today? He should have been clinging to him, saying how good it felt. He was about to enjoy touching him to his heart’s content, but Jiwoon was acting disgusted and being stubborn for no reason.

“Y-You’ve never w-washed me w-when I was sober.”

“……”

“I-I wasn’t in my right mind. I don’t remember either. And I-I have no intention of d-doing… that with s-someone who’s sick.”

“Doing what?”

“……”

“What do you have no intention of doing?”

Annoyed that he was asking when he already knew, Jiwoon ignored him and squeezed a long line of body wash onto the towel. When he scrubbed it vigorously as if doing laundry, white foam and a sweet fragrance quickly rose. Zeo watched the scene and let out a dry laugh.

“If you have no intention of doing anything, try singing the national anthem.”

Zeo had no intention of backing down, so he simply snatched the towel from Jiwoon’s hand.

“H-How do you know about that? A-Anyway, give that b-back.”

“If you just stay still, nothing will happen.”

“……”

“Not confident?”

He wouldn’t be, Zeo smirked confidently. What a body it was, one that he had so painstakingly caressed and soothed. Zeo could now draw Jiwoon even with his eyes closed. The prominent shoulder blades, the flat chest with its pouting nubs, the slightly sunken lower abdomen, and the small, plump buttocks. He even knew the shape of his intimate insides.

He knew better than anyone that Jiwoon stood no chance if he caressed every nook and cranny. Zeo held Jiwoon, who was twisting and turning, firmly in place and rubbed his body with the lathered towel, making a tsk sound with his lips. The hand that had once moved with the sole aim of making Jiwoon feel was now moving for his own complete satisfaction.

It was a thin and light body. He was displeased that he didn’t gain weight easily, no matter how much he fed him. He was so thin everywhere that if he wore a T-shirt on his bare skin and bent over, couldn’t you see right inside? Of course, that also made the bruises he left here and there more satisfying.

Every time the soft towel and foam glided over his body, Jiwoon felt like he was dying. Funnily enough, he diligently sang the national anthem in his head, just as Zeo had told him to. But to hell with the East Sea, the moment Zeo’s hand brushed past his groin, Jiwoon unknowingly gasped for breath.

The hot, humid air was suffocating. It might have been because he was tensing his body so tightly. Zeo moved his hands over the stiff, rigid body, moving it this way and that, and sometimes he would deliberately sweep his bare hand across Jiwoon’s chest.

Then, a hard nub would catch on his palm, and Jiwoon would squeeze his eyes shut and tremble. It was the same when the towel brushed between his legs. Eventually, he pressed his legs tightly together and trembled so much that Zeo threw the towel on the floor and grabbed his semi-aroused front with his bare hand.

“Hk!”

“You said you had no intention?”

“……D-Don’t touch me.”

“Then just don’t get hard.”

“H-How is that possib…le? Ah, Nngh! Heu!”

“I’m just washing you.”

“……”

“This part needs to be washed cleanly too.”

It was true, but to Jiwoon, it felt like a sophism. Who on earth washes someone’s penis like this? Soon, the thing, fully erect in Zeo’s large hand, was throbbing as if it would cum at any moment.

“Don’t just wash the shaft, you have to wash the inside too.”

As he said this, Zeo pushed his finger under the retracted foreskin, exposing the head completely. A startled Jiwoon flailed his hands, trying to block him.

“N-No, don’t!”

“What do you mean, don’t… Stay still. I’m telling you, you have to wash it by putting a finger inside like this.”

“Agh…!”

The clear fluid that seeped from the glans mixed with the foam, making the tip glisten. Zeo deliberately and persistently rubbed it with his thumb while probing here and there inside the thin, rolled-back skin. At the dizzying sensation on the sensitive skin, Jiwoon could no longer tense his body and let out a moan, leaning against Zeo’s chest.