RCKS 41

It was his first kiss. It was the first kiss he had ever had, and he thought he had done it for quite a long time, but he felt like he was being laughed at to his face. He was embarrassed, resentful, and also angry. As if he didn’t know Lee Yoonsan was growing colder and colder, Hwang Haekyung kept chuckling, unable to hold back his laughter. Lee Yoonsan wanted to grab Hwang Haekyung by the collar, but for now, the distance between them wasn’t right, so he raised both his arms and wrapped them around Hwang Haekyung’s neck instead.

Although, because the distance between them was too close, it ended up looking like he was choking him with both arms. Only then did Hwang Haekyung raise his head, and Lee Yoonsan put strength into his arms, tightening them so that Hwang Haekyung couldn’t escape. Hwang Haekyung obediently allowed it, his eyes slowly scanning Lee Yoonsan’s face. Then he spoke, his voice still unable to erase the hint of laughter.

“What were you just doing, Yoonsan?”

“…Expressing affection.”

Lee Yoonsan stared at Hwang Haekyung with a sulky expression and deliberately answered bluntly. It was an effort to offset his embarrassment. But because their faces were so close, he didn’t look very intimidating. Hwang Haekyung took in Lee Yoonsan’s gaze completely, then held back another burst of laughter and turned his head, bringing his lips close. Only when their lips were about to brush did he speak in a slightly husky voice.

“When you’re expressing affection, you have to open your lips, bunny.”

“Hap…!”

As soon as Hwang Haekyung’s words ended, a hot breath and a warm tongue pushed into his mouth. Lee Yoonsan, who had relaxed his lips, gasped as the tongue suddenly pushed in, and he frowned, not knowing what to do with Hwang Haekyung’s tongue moving inside his mouth. Lee Yoonsan knew that what he had done wasn’t a real kiss.

It was just something he had done because he wanted to show something through action, right after hearing Hwang Haekyung’s unbelievable confession. He knew that a kiss involved tongues moving in each other’s mouths, but it felt strange when Hwang Haekyung’s tongue actually entered his mouth.

The tongue filling his mouth was warmer than his skin, and he became conscious of the mucous membrane of his inner cheek being pressed by the tip of the tongue. And a thrilling excitement welled up. Lee Yoonsan carefully touched Hwang Haekyung’s tongue, which was tangling in his mouth. He tried gently sucking on the tongue that had entered his mouth, and then gulped down the saliva that came over.

He had never even imagined swallowing someone else’s saliva, but Hwang Haekyung’s saliva going down his throat felt ecstatic. Hwang Haekyung supported Lee Yoonsan’s neck with one hand, as he kept trying to lean back, and tilted his head further. Then their lips, which had been touching with a slight gap between them, overlapped even more deeply. Lee Yoonsan now pushed his tongue into Hwang Haekyung’s mouth as well.

Because they were kissing so deeply, their high nose bridges kept pressing against his cheek and cheekbone. Lee Yoonsan, who was kissing him breathlessly, suddenly became aware of it and chuckled, but soon he tried to drop his head as if he were out of breath. Hwang Haekyung kissed him persistently, as if trying to steal every last bit of Lee Yoonsan’s breath, and wouldn’t let him go.

Only when Lee Yoonsan, who had had all his breath taken, was forced to start breathing through his nose did he let go of his lips for a moment. Then he smiled like a mischievous boy. As if telling him to keep using his nose like that from now on.

“Your pheromones are leaking.”

Then, suddenly smelling a faint, soft scent, Hwang Haekyung pressed the tip of his nose to Lee Yoonsan’s neck. The neck wasn’t a part of the body where pheromones were directly emitted, but it was an area where the scent collected well because the skin was thin and dry. And since it was also an unfamiliar area of skinship for Lee Yoonsan, his body flinched slightly.

“Let’s go home.”

Hwang Haekyung buried his head between Lee Yoonsan’s neck and collarbone and took a deep breath. To feel the leaked scent of Lee Yoonsan a little better. And Lee Yoonsan, forgetting that his hands were covered in sand, gently stroked the back of Hwang Haekyung’s neck. It was the result of his neck being ticklish and not knowing where to put his gaze and hands.

Hugging was something he often did with his mothers or relatives, but hugging Hwang Haekyung at this moment felt completely different. He was definitely harder, heavier, and bigger. So it felt strange. At some point, Lee Yoonsan, due to his considerable height, had stopped having occasions to hug someone bigger than himself like this.

Of course, Lee Jungwon was slightly taller than Lee Yoonsan, but it didn’t feel like this even when he hugged her. She was now definitely smaller in build and frame than Lee Yoonsan. It was a change he felt because he had grown that much.

“…Okay.”

So Lee Yoonsan replied meekly, leaning his cheek against him as if he were holding a large, gentle dog in his arms. Now that he and Hwang Haekyung had confirmed their feelings for each other, there was no reason not to go to a place where they could be alone.

Lee Yoonsan, who had come home in Hwang Haekyung’s car, said he would wash up first and went into the bathroom. He hadn’t gotten up from where he fell, so he had overlooked it, but when he got in the car, he saw that his condition was worse than he thought.

Not only were his clothes sandy, but his legs, which had touched the sandy beach, were also covered in sand, and even though he had thoroughly dusted himself off before getting in the car, sand was still falling off. He couldn’t make a mess in the car and then the house in this state, so he felt rushed.

Hwang Haekyung brought Lee Yoonsan some waterproof tape, and since Lee Yoonsan had already taken off his clothes, he barely managed to stick his hand out and grope for the tape. Then he carefully taped up the wound on the sole of his foot and took a shower. The wound from falling on the sandy beach was thankfully not large, so he didn’t pay much attention to it. It wasn’t bleeding, and it was just a scrape where the skin had been thinly pushed back.

When he peeked the door open after his shower, no one was in sight. Hwang Haekyung’s room was on the second floor, so he was probably upstairs washing up. Lee Yoonsan stuck his head out a little further to look around, then, while constantly glancing at the second floor, he ran into the room he was using. His injured foot was a hindrance, so it was almost a hop, but he still succeeded in getting into the room safely.

‘Clothes, clothes…!’

Lee Yoonsan crouched in front of his luggage bag with his clothes and hurriedly looked for his underwear to put on. He had been having fun on the beach right up until he hurt his foot, so the line between his tanned skin and his inner flesh was distinct. He hadn’t paid much attention to his body until now, so he had just accepted it, but after seeing it again in the shower, covering his body was his first priority.

Regardless of his skin tone, he didn’t want Hwang Haekyung to see his body as it was now. Not only his arms, but his thighs right below his buttocks were a tanned chocolate color, while the parts covered by clothes above that were a wheat color, which was very strange. Recalling Hwang Haekyung’s skin, which was so pale it looked like it had never been tanned by the sun, made it even more so. So Lee Yoonsan was engrossed in hurriedly finding something to wear, and just as he found a short-sleeved boxy T-shirt from his clothes pile and threw it on, he was startled by a knock on the door.

“W-wait a minute!”

He hurriedly put on the T-shirt and, grabbing a pair of pants, headed towards the door, but his body tilted as he tried to walk while putting his legs through the pants. Fortunately, he didn’t fall because he planted his other foot firmly on the floor with a thud, but it was a dangerous moment. But he was so flustered that in that moment, he didn’t even feel the pain in the sole of his foot. And as he was pulling up his pants and about to grab the doorknob, the door unexpectedly opened.

“Are you okay?”

There was a loud noise just now. Standing at the door was, of course, Hwang Haekyung with his hair half-wet. He looked much more comfortable, as if he had washed up on the second floor and changed into comfortable clothes. Lee Yoonsan looked at Hwang Haekyung with a mixed expression of bewilderment and tension, and awkwardly replied, “Uh-huh.” At the same time, he grabbed the waistband of his pants, which were awkwardly hanging, and pulled them up properly. But Hwang Haekyung had already noticed that the skin color of Lee Yoonsan’s hip was distinctly different from the skin color of his long legs exposed below it before the pants were fully pulled up.

“You hurt your foot. Be more careful.”

“Uh…”

“You need to put medicine on it.”

It was Hwang Haekyung who averted his gaze first. Hwang Haekyung washed his face with his dry hands to hide his somewhat complicated expression and turned his gaze into the room, but he couldn’t hide his reddened ears, which was awkward. Lee Yoonsan stared blankly at Hwang Haekyung, then made way at the words about applying medicine, and as Hwang Haekyung entered the room, he grabbed his arm and led him to the bed.

Hwang Haekyung, just as he had in the morning, took off the waterproof tape, looked at the wound on Lee Yoonsan’s sole, and wrapped it with an elastic bandage. While he was doing that, Hwang Haekyung’s hand, which was holding his calf, was so big and warm that he couldn’t take his eyes off it. For twenty-year-old Lee Yoonsan, this situation was very awkward and strange. Things like the fact that he was sitting on the bed while Hwang Haekyung was sitting on the floor, making their eye levels different, or the distinctly different atmosphere and tension from the morning, despite the similar situation.

Hwang Haekyung had changed his bandage in the morning too, but he hadn’t held his calf like this. The current Hwang Haekyung hadn’t placed the medicine pouch on his thigh, and his hands wrapping the bandage were much more careful. If in the morning it felt like he was focused only on Lee Yoonsan’s foot injury, this time it was a carefulness that seemed focused on Lee Yoonsan himself. As if worried that Lee Yoonsan would be uncomfortable if he wrapped the elastic bandage too tightly.

It was a very ticklish realization, and Lee Yoonsan 괜히 raised his hand and scratched his neck. He couldn’t seem to calm the hot flush on his face. Hwang Haekyung hadn’t raised his head because he was checking the bandage wrapped around his foot, but strangely, the atmosphere seemed to be getting more and more tense.

No, at least Lee Yoonsan felt that he, for one, was definitely feeling a subtle tension. Perhaps because of that, he was even conscious of the position and movement of his hands. He wanted to move his hands because his palms felt ticklish, but he hesitated, thinking he would be caught acting awkward. So Lee Yoonsan chose to hold onto something instead.

“Give me the medicine pouch. I’ll put it away.”

“You don’t have to.”

“You put it here in the morning.”

At the sound of Lee Yoonsan’s voice, who was speaking as if nothing was wrong with a forced smile, Hwang Haekyung’s head lifted. And the moment their eyes met, Hwang Haekyung opened his mouth.

“If I sit here, I can see all of your thighs.”

“……”

“That’s why I put it there. Because I felt like I was sinning.”

At Hwang Haekyung’s words, spoken like a calm confession, Lee Yoonsan’s face flared up once again. His reddish cheeks and his eyes, which had grown large as if frozen, were a sight to behold. Hwang Haekyung looked at Lee Yoonsan’s face, then lowered his gaze slightly and fixed it on Lee Yoonsan’s thigh, where nothing was placed.

This time too, he was wearing comfortable, short shorts commonly worn as beachwear, and because he had sat down carelessly, the hems were slightly rolled up. The bed was high enough, but Lee Yoonsan’s height was by no means short, so his flesh was slightly visible inside the hems that drooped down. The deep, shadowed skin was the same chocolate color as his legs. He must be tanned all the way up to there. And exposed up to there. The hips I saw earlier were white.

Meanwhile, Lee Yoonsan quietly watched Hwang Haekyung’s face as he looked at his thigh. The movement of his masseter muscle, as if his jaw was clenched, came into his view completely. So Lee Yoonsan opened his mouth without realizing it. Because it seemed he wasn’t the only one feeling this strangely stiff and tense atmosphere.

“Do you… feel that way now, too?”

“No, right now.”

Hwang Haekyung, who was answering Lee Yoonsan’s question, paused as if his throat was dry. Then he moved the hand that was holding Lee Yoonsan’s calf up and gripped his knee. As if his voice wasn’t coming out as he wanted, Hwang Haekyung, after swallowing dryly, smiled with a troubled face and said self-deprecatingly.

“I’m at the point where I feel pathetic for who I’ve been until now.”

“What is?”

“You have no idea how much I’m begging you in my head right now.”

And how nervous I am that you might allow me to get on your bed now. Because I really don’t think I’ll be able to hold back then. Hwang Haekyung said that in a slightly tired, self-deprecating voice and buried his forehead in Lee Yoonsan’s knee. Then his broad shoulders slumped, and Hwang Haekyung’s hand that was holding Lee Yoonsan’s knee moved to the back of his knee and wrapped around his skin.

It was a sensation that was both warm and tense. At the same time, he realized why Hwang Haekyung had insisted on sitting on the floor to bandage his foot. He had wanted to avoid the ‘bed spot’ as much as possible. Because they had shared a kiss just an hour ago.

Lee Yoonsan didn’t ask the foolish question of what Hwang Haekyung was holding back. Lee Yoonsan was also a man and had spent his teens being curious about the opposite sex, so he could tell that what Hwang Haekyung was holding back was sexual impulse. Since he was in the same state right now. He was barely holding on and preventing his pheromones from leaking, but he couldn’t guarantee it if this atmosphere continued any longer.

“Why are you holding back?”

Still, he couldn’t help being curious. So Lee Yoonsan asked, and from his knee, he heard the sound of Hwang Haekyung laughing with a sigh. Then he raised his head and looked at Lee Yoonsan, and seeing Lee Yoonsan’s expression, which was clear without any other intention, he smiled as if troubled. Because it was a question that was clearly asked out of genuine curiosity, not with any other intention. Hwang Haekyung liked Lee Yoonsan’s straightforward attitude, but he also felt a little sad about it. And this feeling of sadness was definitely something he had felt in the past. Clearly, during the time he was exchanging messages with Lee Yoonsan.

Wow, I was really stupid. Hwang Haekyung once again mocked himself at the familiar sense of déjà vu.

“Because I don’t know if I’m safe for you, yet.”

“Are you saying you could be dangerous to me? We’re adults now?”

“We just learned how to handle pheromones, they didn’t disappear.”

At Hwang Haekyung’s answer, Lee Yoonsan made a face as if he didn’t understand, but since it seemed he had no intention of explaining further, he just nodded vaguely. It wasn’t an entirely unbelievable statement, since Hwang Haekyung was sensitive to pheromones.

The conversation had been cut off at an awkward timing, so Lee Yoonsan, who had just been looking at Hwang Haekyung’s face, slowly let his gaze drift downwards. His gaze, which had been meeting his eyes, wandered over his comfortably disheveled hair, then past his eyes and nose, past the jaw where the masseter muscle was prominent, and finally reached his lips.

Hwang Haekyung left Lee Yoonsan’s slow gaze that was scanning his face as it was and focused on releasing the strength that was about to go into his hands. Otherwise, he felt like he would lay Lee Yoonsan down and get on top of him right away. But Lee Yoonsan seemed to have no intention of helping Hwang Haekyung’s efforts.

“…But that was my first time kissing earlier.”

“Me too.”

“That…”

Do you want to do it again?