Free Web NovelAt my words, Do Yehyun scrunched his brows like he might snap, then settled down again. After a moment, he asked in a low, subdued voice:
“What else... are you going to do for me?”
“A lullaby?”
“Please sing one.”
“No.”
When I answered short, his eyes went wide on me. The look—somewhere between baffled and wronged—was pretty entertaining.
“What are you doing...?”
“I was just saying it.”
“......”
Does anyone put their whole heart into every single thing they say?
I lifted a brow like I didn’t get the fuss, and he narrowed his eyes at me.
That was the end of the talk, and a quiet stretch followed. He moved his lips like he was wrestling with himself, but I didn’t pry. Honestly, we were getting to the point where there wasn’t much he did that I couldn’t predict.
Maybe it was because the day had finally been busy for once, but sitting in the silence, the fatigue crept up. There was no reason to resist it, so I let my eyes drift shut.
Time passed, and just when I thought I’d slipped into a light sleep, his voice came.
“You don’t... like me, do you? Not that you hate me, but you don’t like me the way I like you.”
“...Mm.”
I answered halfway, still in a doze, and he went on.
“Then why do you keep treating me so well...? You don’t have to.”
“......”
“I’d keep liking you even if you didn’t... but because you do, I keep getting weird thoughts.”
“......”
“What else are you going to do for me?”
So that’s what he meant.
It felt like a good chunk of time had gone by, and he’d been stewing on that the whole time. Bold.
I cracked one sticky eye open and glanced at him. If “I want to watch you sleep” had been a joke, it wasn’t now—the way he was staring was pretty fervent. I looked back at him a beat, then asked:
“What do you want me to do?”
“......”
Whatever was running through his head, even here I could feel his face heating up.
“If I ask you to... will you do everything?”
“I’ll hear it first.”
“I might ask you to... kiss me.”
“I can do that.”
“......”
Maybe because I’d just woken up, my voice came out rough. I thought about clearing my throat and decided it wasn’t worth the effort. Even with my answer, he didn’t say anything for a while.
Then, after a long pause, he upped the nonsense.
“What if I want more than a kiss?”
“I’ll hear it.”
“What if I... say I want to sleep with you.”
“We’re already sleeping together.”
“You know what I mean.”
Hm. That does change the conversation a bit. Rubbing lips is one thing; rubbing cocks starts to become an issue.
Also, for someone who’d only just said he liked me, he’d sprinted through the bases all on his own. Impressive, in a way.
Maybe because of that absurdity, I laughed.
“Well... I’ll hear it, too?”
Apparently not the answer he wanted, because his voice cooled.
“...Why? Because there’s something you want to get from me?”
I mean, that’s not wrong, but isn’t the phrasing ridiculous?
It’s not that there’s nothing to gain from him, but if you put it like that, it sounds like some scummy gigolo move. I snorted and said quietly:
“You think I’d pay you back with my body because there’s something I want?”
“......”
“Yehyun... are you out of your mind?”
He flinched on reflex. Yeah, so even he knew that was bullshit.
“I paid your debt, gave you a home, found you a job, gave you purpose... dressed you in nice clothes.”
“......”
“And you think I’m cashing it in with my body?”
If you’d said I was exploiting your labor for cheap, I wouldn’t have had much to say.
“Then why did you say you’d do it?”
“Mm.”
“Was that a lie too?”
Hard to answer anything when he had this little patience.
I clicked my tongue inwardly and cut him off.
“Yehyun.”
“...Yes.”
“I’m not some sleaze. If we end up rubbing lips—or anything else—it’ll be because I want to.”
“......”
“Or because the way you asked sounded desperate enough and I decided to be kind.”
Either way, if I don’t want it, I’m not forcing myself through it—fuck, am I insane? The more I thought about it, the more his line of thought was unbelievable.
Then he popped my boring train of thought like a bubble.
“...What about now?”
“What about now.”
“Can I kiss you?”
You want a kiss right now?
“Well.”
“......”
His face stiffened at my answer. Does he think he’s good at hiding his expressions? If so, that’s laughable.
'You’re that easy to read.'
Half amused, I tapped his cheek. The reaction stayed within expectations, and the little bit of surprise made it fun.
When his fingers tightened hard around the blanket, I added, like it was nothing:
“A little?” freewebnoveℓ.com
The moment I said it, his face came in. I spread the hand that had flicked his cheek and cupped it, then parted my lips.
Since I was lying down and he’d pushed up to kiss me, the angle was awkward. I slid the hand from his cheek to the nape of his neck, then sat up and came over him.
“...Haa.”
Our mouths broke for a second, and a thin breath slipped out.
Clumsy at everything he did, I expected him to squeeze his eyes shut, but he stared straight at me.
Conscious of the gaze so close, I closed my eyes on purpose, and felt his hands clamp hard around my arms.
When his tongue slid into my mouth, I sucked it hard enough to hurt, making his whole body jolt.
“Ah... mm, ngh.”
When I let go, maybe because it hurt, his tongue retreated back into his own mouth. I tilted my head and pushed into him again; the air turning in his mouth brushed the tip of my tongue.
I licked gently, teased along the palate, and at last he broke our lips apart.
At a distance where our faces nearly touched, catching his breath, he said:
“...That hurt.”
“Did it? Sorry.”
“You knew it would.”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“I figured if I hurt you and then licked it better, you’d like it more.”
Watching his face go blank, I curled my mouth. He parted his lips to say something, and I stole another quick kiss.
I sucked his lips too, then slowly drew back and looked at his dazed expression. freeweɓnøvel.com
“Did you like it?”
“......”
Judging by his face, I didn’t really need an answer.
I chuckled, pressed a brief kiss to his cheek, and pulled away.
“Good night.”
It was late enough that we actually needed to sleep. I eased back and lay down again.
Lying right beside me, silent for a long time, he finally spoke in a low voice just as I was about to drift off:
“Don’t... have good dreams.”
What kind of curse is that? Instead of answering, I let out a small laugh.
After that, I fell asleep quickly and remembered nothing.
***
January 16, 6 a.m., Shanghai, China.
We pushed out of the crowded airport, and cold air nipped my nose.
“Cold.”
When I voiced the simple review, Joo Seowon answered in a drained tone.
“That’s not the problem. I want to sleep.”
“Sleep in transit.”
“I don’t like sleeping in moving vehicles.”
“You sleep fine.”
For someone who “didn’t like it,” he passed out the second a car or plane started moving. Ridiculous, but I didn’t point it out; instead I checked my phone for the rideshare plate number.
'There it is.'
As we headed to the car waiting just outside the airport, we traded a few words.
“Can you speak Chinese?”
“I picked a driver who can do English.”
“You any good at English?”
“You can manage too.”
With that, I dropped a translator into his palm. Same model SH uses—pop it in your ear and it translates both what others say and what I say.
'Nice tech.'
Seowon slipped it in like it was nothing and, the moment we got in the car, told the driver our destination.
“Please take us to the Grand Karman Hotel.”
“Okay.”
I watched him and asked:
“You asked me if I could do English just to say that?”
“......”
He looked sheepish, said nothing, and turned to the window.
Anyway, the place we were headed was the hotel hosting today’s auction.
'Do they always hold auctions in hotel basements?'
Normally I didn’t pay any attention to auctions, but somehow I’d been racking up these odd experiences lately.
Whatever. The point was to bring back the sword Tae Hyunjin used at today’s auction.
But, of course, not everything went smoothly this time either. Not that I’d expected it to.
The confirmed list of auction items wasn’t revealed until the last possible moment. Which meant we didn’t even know the order things would appear.
The auction ran for three days total. And the invitation Seowon had managed to secure got us in for one day only—the first.
“That was the only ticket money could buy.”
“What about offering more?”
“I went up to eight million yuan. Nobody even tried to negotiate.”
In other words, if Tae Hyunjin’s sword didn’t show on day one, we were fucked.
“Still, I heard the thing you’re after might open the show.”
“Odds?”
“It’s advance info, so I can’t say a hundred percent... but it’s meaningful. Came from an insider.”
That made it worth a measure of hope.
But there are far too many variables in the world you can’t control... and the biggest one is the delightful mess that is my life.
'Fucking hell.'
Bottom line: on day one of the auction, Tae Hyunjin’s sword didn’t even show up.
