5. A Kiss
2017.11.17.
trrrrrrrr-
- Hello.
Sejun answered the phone the moment the ringback tone started.
But now that he had picked up, Hawon was flooded with regret for having called him for no reason.
However, what could she do? The water had already been spilled.
“....”
- If you called, say something.
When Hawon hesitated, unable to speak, Sejun spoke as if frustrated.
“....”
- Hey. There must be a reason you called at this hour. What the hell... n
“H-help me....”
Ah, screw it. Just spit it out!!!
Hawon spoke in a thoroughly deflated voice.
- What is it? Does your back hurt? Should I call 119?
“No, it's not that...”
- Then what? Did a robber break in?
“No, that's not it either...”
- Just tell me what you need, briefly.
“....”
It's because what I need is absolutely not simple, that's why I'm like this!!!
Hawon squirmed, unable to spit out the word that was merely circling inside her mouth.
‘Are you some kind of Hong Gildong? It's not like I can't call my father “Father,” so why can't I say I need toilet paper...!!!’
- What. You. Need.
At Sejun's voice, which sounded ready to hang up if she didn't answer, Hawon squeezed her eyes shut and spoke.
“Toi...let paper.”
- What?
“Toilet paper... please bring me that damned toilet paper...”
Ah, she really wanted to cry. Sniff, sniff...
They had made a contract to help each other, yet her very first request for help was something like toilet paper!!!
Hawon's heart was in shambles.
She worked in the beauty industry!
Moreover, she was a cosmetics company president who sold beauty, yet here she was begging for toilet paper!
‘If my company employees saw this, they'd all be shocked.’
Repeating “I'm ruined, I'm ruined” internally, she spoke through the phone.
“You didn't... hang up, did you?”
At Hawon's words, Sejun was struck completely speechless.
- ....
The person on the other end of the phone was so flustered that not even the slightest breath could be heard.
Hawon's heart grew urgent.
“Ex...cuse me.”
- ....
“Hey... I'm asking you to bring me some toilet paper...”
- ....
Hawon vowed, over and over, that she would leave this neighborhood the moment her back healed.
* * *
At that moment.
Sejun was dumbfounded by the sudden, absurd phone call about toilet paper.
Toilet paper? Why on earth would she need toilet paper...
“Ah.”
A sigh tinged with absurdity escaped from between Sejun's smooth lips.
There was only one reason he could think of.
In this utterly ridiculous situation, Sejun, who had been silent for a moment, opened his mouth.
“Just get into the shower and wash up.”
- ...I laid carpets everywhere outside the shower because it's all dry out there...
Hawon whispered in a voice that grew smaller and smaller.
From the sink and toilet area excluding the shower, to the powder room connecting the bedroom and bathroom, she had laid carpets from her favorite brand.
‘I want to dash into the shower a thousand times too!!! But what if I fall onto the carpet doing that? Huh?!!’
Unconsciously imagining it in her head, Hawon shuddered and shook her head.
‘If I waddle around with this wet bottom and cause an accident, how would I handle that disaster? I can't just pull up all these carpets, can I?’
Hawon looked down at the soft carpet beneath her feet.
‘Do you know how hard I worked to buy these? This color is a limited edition; I can't even buy them again.’
At Hawon's words, Sejun let out a sigh laced with annoyance.
“The front door lock password.”
- ...1004.
Hawon answered frantically.
“I'll go, so wait.”
Having ended the call, Sejun threw on the shirt he had taken off.
Then he grabbed a roll of toilet paper from the utility room and stood in front of the next-door apartment's entrance.
‘The password is 1004... simple. This might as well be nothing.’
He lightly touched it with his long fingers, and with the sound of the lock disengaging, opened the door and entered.
The feminine atmosphere, so different from his own home, made Sejun slightly flinch.
However, as if accustomed to it, he turned on the light in the dark living room and went to the bathroom visible immediately beside it, knocking on the door.
Knock, knock.
But there was no answer.
“Hey.”
Was this not the right one?
Come to think of it, he didn't see the squirming lump of fur that was always stuck to Hawon's side.
Then it must be that way.
Sejun opened the room with the attached bathroom and turned on the light.
An atmosphere different from his bleak home.
Solid wood furniture and a bed covered with white sheets.
On the nightstand, a subtle aromatherapy candle was burning its last breath.
“Whine, whine-.”
Seeing the lump of fur whimpering in front of the bathroom door, it was certain the next-door woman was inside.
‘How urgent must she have been.’
Her rolled-up pants had been thrown haphazardly right in front of the bathroom door.
Knock, knock.
Sejun knocked and spoke.
“Hey.”
“...Y-you're here?”
From inside, Hawon's voice came through, clearly flustered.
“As you can hear.”
“The toilet paper...”
“In my hand.”
“Leave it in front of the door and get out of the room.”
“I don't know about that.”
“...Please. Please.”
“...I left it there, so take it yourself. Ah, I brought two rolls just in case, so use as much as you want.”
His desire to tease her by saying “I don't want to” was burning, but the voice coming from inside was so desperate that he placed the toilet paper in front of the door.
Not forgetting the sense to close the bedroom door tightly as well.
* * *
Hearing the bedroom door close, Hawon quickly opened the bathroom door and snatched the toilet paper.
“Hah, to think that after all my life, I would be so happy to see toilet paper...”
Having waited so long, her bottom had already been tingling.
With Sejun's help, she finished up diligently and groaned as she exited the bathroom.
Eojju, who had been waiting outside for a long time, wagged its tail and kept licking Hawon's ankle.
“Ah, I really almost died and came back to life.”
Hawon's face was haggard and pale white.
Having fought a fierce battle in the bathroom for a while, her throat was parched and she was thirsty.
“I should drink some water.”
Having exerted herself greatly, Hawon's back was even more hunched.
“Ah, I'm drained. After pouring everything out, I can't recover. Haack!!!!!”
The moment Hawon staggered out of the room, her eyes met Sejun's, who was sitting boldly on the sofa looking at her.
“What, why are you still in someone else's house?!!”
When Hawon asked with wide rabbit eyes, Sejun answered.
“I was planning to see how yellow your face turned before leaving.”
“What?”
Ah, seriously, does this guy have a problem in his head?!
“Put something on first. It's completely empty down there.”
“Uwaaack!!!”
Hawon had naturally assumed Sejun had gone home, so she had come out in just her panties.
When Sejun pointed at Hawon's lower body with his chin, Hawon screamed and hid her body in the room.
‘Even now, my back hurts so much I can't move quickly... Ah, I really want to cry.’
Entering the room with an awkward posture and the speed of a sloth, barely pulling up her pants, Hawon tilted her head and fell into thought.
But this seems like a scene I've seen somewhere?
This not-unfamiliar feeling. What was it?
Meanwhile, while Hawon was making a frantic commotion inside the room, Sejun waited leisurely with his arms crossed.
“Ahem, ahem...”
Hawon came out wearing pants as if nothing had happened and headed to the kitchen.
Calm down, Gu Hawon.
It was just a minor mistake, so don't panic.
Haven't you handled bigger mistakes at the company easily?
“Would you like some... water?”
At her question asked with a nonchalant expression, Sejun turned his head toward the kitchen and looked.
“If you don't like water, I have juice too.”
Perhaps burdened by Sejun's gaze, Hawon averted her eyes and spoke.
“...Give me anything.”
Seeing Hawon struggling to take a cup from a high shelf, Sejun rose from his seat and approached her from behind.
‘Oh my!!! What is he doing right now...’
Startled for a moment by the warmth she felt from behind, before Hawon knew it, the cup was in Sejun's hand.
“Ah, thank you.”
His kindness popping out from an unexpected place bewildered her, but Hawon thanked him politely.
‘Look at me. Why on earth am I blushing and making a fuss?!!’
After pouring water into two cups, she handed one to Sejun and downed the other herself, sending it down her throat.
Gulp, gulp.
Haah... I think I'll live.
Hawon, who had greedily emptied the cup to the bottom, looked puzzledly at Sejun standing blankly beside her and asked.
“Why aren't you drinking? I'll change it to ju... mmph!”
This time, it wasn't an accident, but a real kiss.
* * *
The next-door woman was the exact opposite of women who tried to look pretty and show only their beautiful sides to win his favor.
He was familiar with the type of women who were desperate to catch his gaze and didn't hesitate to use blatant temptation.
Among women who clung to him asking to be held, spending a night with one whose interests aligned was an ordinary, extremely common daily occurrence for Sejun.
A relationship faithful to the instincts of adult men and women.
Spending nights faithful to human sexual desire while excluding romantic feelings was a satisfying affair for both Sejun and the women he spent nights with.
He believed it was a misconception that mixing bodies without emotions was an absolute minus for women.
He thought it the foolish thought of people who didn't know that these days, there were more women who enjoyed such things.
He thought it a far more ideal relationship than being cumbersomely bound by emotions, restraining and obsessing over each other.
To such a man, the appearance of the next-door woman was truly an enormous shock.
The next-door woman who nagged at him like a machine gun with an appearance that would make one's jaw drop.
He had thought she was an annoying woman, but she was someone who painstakingly dragged a stranger collapsed in the hallway into her home.
Last night, after Hawon returned to her home and Sejun was about to lie back down on his bed, he discovered towels piled like a mountain beside the bed.
The thought that she had taken off his wet clothes and wiped away the moisture made him feel strange.
Because it had truly been too long since he had felt someone's care.
Moreover, the next-door woman was incomparably simple.
He found it amusing to see her various expressions that changed from moment to moment according to her emotional state, and he kept feeling the urge to tease her.
But the sensation of their accidentally touching lips was so hot and soft that he couldn't forget it.
He thought about their brushing lips all day and couldn't get anything done.
In the end, after returning from the hospital, Sejun sat at his desk and wasted the day unable to do anything.
And that wasn't all.
A woman who called at dawn asking him to bring her toilet paper.
It was so absurd that even a hollow laugh came out.
‘I see, so that's how it is.’
He thought the dawn kiss that had given him so much anguish was just an accidental collision, and the reason he kept thinking about it was because he had a fever.
Otherwise, there would be no reason he couldn't forget the lips of a woman who only did things he hated.
She looked pitiful stretching out her hand with groaning sounds, so he had just intended to get the cup from the shelf for her.
But the moment he saw the glistening moisture on the next-door woman's lips after she had emptied a glass of water in front of him, his reason snapped cleanly.
The instinct that had tormented him endlessly all day sprang back to life like crazy and overlaid his lips on those glistening lips.
“I'll change it to j... mmph!”
He closed his eyes, but he could fully feel Hawon's gaze as she stared at him with wide round eyes.
I know. You must be flustered. Because I'm confused too.
But for now, I think I need to taste your lips once more.
Because only then will I know why I feel this impulse.
Sejun raised his hand and covered Hawon's eyes.
And then remembering that Hawon's back hurt, his free hand wrapped around her waist and held her firmly in place.
“Hngh...”
When he tried to delve between Hawon's lips, Hawon let out a shallow moan and tried to pull her body back.
In response, Sejun pressed forward without yielding.
When he lightly bit her cotton-like lower lip to open Hawon's mouth, Hawon raised her hand and pushed against Sejun's chest.
But indeed, she couldn't match a man's strength.
“W-wait, hngh.”
The moment Hawon opened her mouth to stop Sejun's actions, he inserted his tongue inside as if he had been waiting.
He stirred the inside of her mouth, incomparably hot and soft, and entwined with Hawon's tongue, which was desperately trying to flee here and there, then sucked strongly.
“Hngh.”
When a strange sound came from Hawon's mouth, Sejun kissed even more aggressively.
“W-wait... k, hngh.”
He pulled at Hawon's lips, swept them softly, and explored every corner of her mouth.
It was then.
“Urk!!!”
When Hawon struck Sejun's shin, Sejun let out a scream and separated from Hawon's lips.
“Guaack, haah, haah, I said just a moment... I said just a moment!!!”
Hawon spoke with an expression of injustice along with a loud belch.
‘Does this tactless man not know about the human physiological phenomenon of burping after downing a drink?’
She twisted her body to hold back the belch that kept seeming to surge up her throat.
In the end, having reached her limit, Hawon had to push Sejun away with tears of regret in her eyes.
Because she couldn't gift her partner a fragrant belch aroma.
‘If only he'd waited about ten seconds before pouncing, why did he rush in so quickly...’
How nice would it have been if he had pressed his lips a little later?
Sejun's kiss was absolutely ecstatic.
Even at this moment, his lips glistening, covered in their sticky fluids, made Hawon's heart pound.
‘No but why are a man's lips so red like that?’
“Still, how can a woman be this violent?”
When Sejun made a stern face, Hawon retorted.
“I said wait, but you wouldn't let go! I kept going 'ue-ue'!”
I wanted to keep going too if I could... all the way!
Sejun snickered and said.
“Ue-ue?”
“Ahem, anyway... kissing right after gulping down water or a drink like this is against the rules. How hard it is to hold back the physiological phenomenon that naturally follows...”
Sejun passed through the kitchen, crossed the living room, and headed toward the front door.
“Uh... where are you going?”
Where are you going without finishing what you started?
If a man draws his sword, he has to see it through!
She ended up asking a foolish question like “where are you going” out of regret.
“To my house.”
“....”
“Ah, I'll say it again, don't forget the contract between you and me.”
“I haven't forgotten?”
“I thought so. You looked like your head was in pretty bad shape.”
“Stop calling me 'you.' I have a proper three-letter name too, you know?”
“I don't really want to know it.”
“Ah, really! Are you deliberately trying to make me angry?”
Sejun asked as he opened the door and went out.
“What is it? Your name.”
“Gu Hawon. Ha as in summer, Won as in beauty.”
‘If he was going to ask eventually, why is he playing hard to get. Huh? Are you a rice puff? Always puffing yourself up!!!’
“It seems like too good a name for you.”
Slam.
Sejun spat out only what he had to say and disappeared into his own house.
“What? Too good?”
Which part exactly?
I really should have kicked his shin one more time.
I guess one wasn't enough?
“Why is it that while he only spouts such nasty words every day, he kisses so well?”
Why does he always set fire to this ripe virgin's heart?
Does he pour oil straight over it?
You bad arsonist!
“Still, it's a shame. Argh!”
A chicken instead of a pheasant...
Hawon picked up Eojju and showered it with kisses.
* * *
Sejun, having returned home, touched his lips with a face full of confusion.
He still felt as if Hawon's lips were overlaid on his own.
If Hawon hadn't kicked his shin, he himself wasn't confident how far he would have gone.
“I'm crazy. I've completely lost it.”
Sejun entered the bathroom, turned on the faucet at the sink, and was about to splash cold water on his face when he saw one of his uncomfortable arms.
“Damn it.”
He muttered lowly, then flung open the tightly locked bedroom door and went inside.
#Private collection