As he pressed down hard and twisted his head, Song Hyunsoo’s lips parted on their own.
Yoon Jooho’s tongue impatiently slipped between the gap, sliding over Song Hyunsoo’s tongue as he invaded, the tip of his tongue scraping along the roof of his mouth.
“Mmngh, ngh. Mmph.”
His fingers, supporting the back of Hyunsoo’s head, dug through his hair.
Even the gentle stimulation on his scalp made his shoulders flinch.
Jooho curled his fingers, grabbing a fistful of hair.
The tingling sensation of his roots being tugged just slightly sent a thrill through him.
Before he knew it, Hyunsoo gripped Jooho’s waist tightly in his arms.
“Mm, nn. Mmm.”
It was as if he were being shoved all the way into the back of the sofa.
Yoon Jooho twisted his waist further, pressing Song Hyunsoo back with his upper body.
Creak.
The friction sound of the sturdy sofa leather, crushed under their strength, pricked at his hearing.
Saliva mingled and dripped thickly, sticky; the sounds of lips rubbing, swallowing, licking, of rough, desire-heavy breaths breaking apart.
In between all of that, heat flared up in an instant.
“Haa, mm. Mmn. Hm…”
Their eyes remained open, gazes locked, as they tangled passionately.
Jooho’s tongue filled Hyunsoo’s mouth, squirming inside, swelling more and more like a member inside a body after penetration.
He pushed his tongue deeper and deeper, so much that it was hard for Hyunsoo to take it.
“Mmn. Nn… mmph.”
Their lips and tongues, stuck together as if never to separate, finally pulled apart.
A thin thread of saliva stretched between his tongue and Hyunsoo’s.
Jooho deliberately opened his mouth, stuck out his tongue, showing off that glistening thread.
The very tongue that had just kissed him.
Song Hyunsoo gazed at that red tongue with eyes completely relaxed, as if after intense sex.
“Mm, mph. Mm…”
Yoon Jooho closed the distance again, swallowing down the dangling saliva, and pressed his lips to Hyunsoo’s deeply once more.
Smack, smack.
And then, with a stickier chuuuk.
Changing the angle of his head with each kiss, he twisted the hair in his fingers round and round.
Yoon Jooho pressed his forehead to Song Hyunsoo’s.
Their ragged breaths, unable to settle their excitement, filled their ears.
He spoke, sounding pained.
“There’s some other guy who wants to do this to you. Am I supposed to just endure that?”
Trying to calm him, Song Hyunsoo slowly stroked Jooho’s arm.
“I clearly turned him down. But you’re still that upset?”
Still twirling Hyunsoo’s hair, Yoon Jooho held his gaze for a moment.
Then he turned away, grabbed a beer bottle, and spoke bluntly.
“It’s just… my boyfriend doesn’t want to have sex with me these days. It’s making me all kinds of irritable from pent-up frustration.”
Irritable, huh?
“Even more so because of that?”
“……”
Hyunsoo’s teasing made him narrow his eyes in dissatisfaction and look back.
Hyunsoo giggled, hugging Jooho’s waist and resting his chin on his shoulder.
“We can’t help it.”
“My place…”
“No way. Didn’t we agree I shouldn’t go over until everything’s settled?”
Song Hyunsoo was firm, and though Yoon Jooho’s face showed his dissatisfaction, he didn’t push or insist further.
It had been hard enough to get back together, but they still hadn’t properly had sex.
It wasn’t as if they could do it in Hyunsoo’s own room at Seo Hae’s house, either.
He paid his share of the rent, sure, but in the end, it was someone else’s house.
And since it was clear Yoon Jooho’s parents had planted informants on set, sneaking between hotel rooms in Myeonghaeri’s lodging was too dangerous.
Their only dates lately were quick, secret ones in the car late at night, dodging people’s eyes.
He fiddled with the knit sweater around Jooho’s waist, trying to soothe him.
“It’s not just you who wants to do it so badly, you know.”
“……”
“Let’s just hang in there a little longer.”
“…Alright.”
He obviously didn’t like it, but Yoon Jooho still accepted Hyunsoo’s words.
They had dated before, and for the most part, Jooho had been good to him.
So sometimes it felt like nothing had changed, but at moments like this, Hyunsoo could feel the difference.
Seeing Yoon Jooho obediently listening made him want to laugh, both from how cute he was and from a ticklish feeling.
Somehow, these were the moments when he felt most keenly that they were lovers.
This time, Song Hyunsoo grabbed Jooho’s cheeks and turned his face toward him.
Smack—a kiss, and Jooho looked down at him with narrowed eyes.
“This again? So you’re just going to soothe me with kisses?”
Smack.
Though he didn’t seem to mind.
“Is it not working?”
From under lowered eyelids, Yoon Jooho gazed down at him and muttered in a softer tone.
“…I’m thinking about it.”
Look at him, pretending to be hard to get when he actually likes it.
Ah, so cute. So cute.
Hyunsoo stuck out his tongue and licked over Jooho’s lips.
Those thin lips gave off an intellectual sexiness, but they stayed stubbornly closed.
When Hyunsoo pressed his tongue in between, Jooho, unable to resist, parted his lips, eyes still locked on Hyunsoo.
He slipped his hand under the sweater, caressing Jooho’s rough stomach, enjoying the solid muscles of his broad chest.
After that deep, messy kiss, as he fiddled with the area around Jooho’s navel, he asked,
“Jin… you’re not still hung up on him, are you?”
“……”
Yoon Jooho’s gaze trembled violently, as if shocked.
“What, did kissing me make you think of him?”
It was a careful question.
Jooho’s expression looked incredibly anxious.
Hyunsoo thought he understood why.
『At first, I tried to just get over it. But after I found out, I couldn’t even kiss anymore. Every time I tried to, I just kept thinking of that hyung’s face…』
He had said something like that before.
Seeing Jooho so afraid of losing love was unfamiliar, but this time, it wasn’t just cute or lovely—it actually hurt.
Hyunsoo shook his head firmly.
“No, I just… always wanted to ask. But it was never the right time.”
Yoon Jooho’s arms pulled Hyunsoo tightly to him, brushing his hair aside, thumb stroking his cheek as he made his feelings clear.
“If I were still hung up on the past, why do you think I clung to you so desperately?”
“……”
Hyunsoo dropped his gaze.
He had been angry with Jooho for hiding his past with Jin, but that past had been painful for Hyunsoo too.
When Hyunsoo didn’t answer, Jooho’s arms tightened around his waist.
“Yeah, sure, I was bothered, enough that hearing news about him would get me down.”
“Ugh.”
“I mean, that’s how it was when I first met you.”
“……”
“But you’re the one who made all of that go away. You made me forget.”
Hyunsoo believed him.
Jooho wasn’t the type to say such things just to sound nice.
Resting his hand on Jooho’s chest, he played with the impossibly soft knit.
“To be honest, since then I’ve been kind of avoiding contact with him.”
“……”
“And jealousy… I can’t say I don’t feel any.”
“Hyunsoo.”
“But it’s not like I’m jealous that you loved him more than me or anything like that.”
“……”
“For what it’s worth, I’m pretty confident in your love for me.”
He looked up from where his gaze had lingered on Jooho’s chest, forcing a smile.
“But separate from that, it’s still hard, you know? Knowing your lover had someone before you… It’s just different when you know exactly who it was, not just vaguely.”
“I know. I know what that feels like.”
“You do?”
“Of course I do. Even just hearing Jung Sungwon say crap to you is enough to make me see red.”
Yoon Jooho swept Hyunsoo’s hair back from his forehead as he continued.
“If I ever found out which neighborhood hyung messed around with you, I’d probably be even worse than you.”
Then he kissed Hyunsoo on his now-bared forehead.
“Beotton still gives off smoke, right? Didn’t you say that?”
“……”
“Yeah, that’s right. There was a little smoke, and I did cough a bit.”
Hyunsoo pinched his cheek, hard enough to sting.
“And you say that to your boyfriend now?”
“Let me finish.”
Even as his face twisted in pain, Jooho obediently let his cheek be pinched, then spoke again.
“But, a beotton can’t kill anyone. In the end, I came right back to where I belong.”
His hands that had been holding Hyunsoo’s waist now cupped Hyunsoo’s cheeks, as if asking him not to avoid his feelings at all and to accept everything just as it was.
He fixed Hyunsoo’s face toward him and looked straight into his eyes.
“I won’t sugarcoat it by saying it meant nothing. But this much is true.”
“……”
“You’re the siltan.”
“Didn’t you say… I was Bibitan before?”
“If it’s a Bibitan that can kill, then that’s already a siltan.”
If only Yoon Jooho had talked about his past like this from the beginning.
Maybe they wouldn’t have had to go through all that.
For a moment, Hyunsoo regretted the time they’d spent apart, but quickly changed his mind.
That time had only made their bond stronger.
It had been the time that proved they couldn’t be separated, didn’t want to be, and that no matter what obstacles or risks, they couldn’t give up on each other.
It hadn’t been wasted.
“It’s because I experienced the beotton that I realized—ah, this is different. I’ve been hit by a siltan.”
Still holding his cheeks, Yoon Jooho rubbed his nose against the tip of Hyunsoo’s.
“Just look at me. Only think about how much I love you.”
A pitiful plea.
“Don’t ever say something like… you just can’t take it anymore.”
Yoon Jooho’s eyelids quivered, then closed.
Hyunsoo wrapped his arms around Jooho’s trembling back.
He rested his chin on Jooho’s shoulder, pressing their cheeks, ears, chests firmly together.
“I won’t. I won’t say that.”
He could feel all his anxiety and pain slowly melting away in Jooho’s arms.
Even if it wasn’t visible, even if people still walked the streets in padded jackets and coats, somewhere out there, spring was surely coming.