VDN Ch 31
by STAR“..Are you still not over your rut?”
At Namwoon’s words, Seo-oh, who had been just looking at the sink, turned his head slightly.
“What are you talking about?”
“Ah, no, it’s nothing. But why all of a sudden…?”
It was embarrassing enough to have a face-to-face conversation with Seo-oh, but the word “underwear” was too much to come out of his mouth properly. Seo-oh began to urge him.
“Hurry up and take off your pants.”
“What are you saying.”
“Quickly.”
“Ah, no, I don’t want to.”
For some reason, Seo-oh, who had been hesitating in front of the sink, strode over and grabbed the waistband of Namwoon’s pants. In response to Namwoon’s fierce resistance, the rice plastic bottles that had been nearby began to fall like dominoes.
Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump!
“Hmmm.”
The noise seemed to almost wake Se-han, who frowned. The two stopped moving and quietly watched Se-han until the child started breathing evenly again, then they fought in a hushed voice.
“Are you crazy? Why are you curious about someone else’s underwear!”
“I’m not curious, It’s just a quick check.”
“That’s the same thing.”
“Just stay still for a bit.”
“Put down the knife and talk!”
With a soup-stained knife in his hand, Seo-oh grabbed Nam-woon’s waistband and pulled it forward, revealing Nam-woon’s underwear.
“…It’s striped.”
Seo-oh muttered softly. Nam-woon struggled to calm his pounding heart. As expected, he made the right choice to change his clothes!
Early in the morning, after Nam-woon encountered Seo-oh’s grandfather, Nam-woon headed to the supermarket to purchase new underwear. It was an action born out of concern that Seo-oh might remember his underwear.
“It’s so strange. It’s not even the afternoon, why are you suddenly buying underwear?”
“Shouldn’t I buy underwear?”
“Who said you shouldn’t? That’s thirty thousand won for one!”
After haggling with the grandfather, he bought underwear for five thousand won. It turned out to be a very excellent choice. Nam-woon pulled up his grabbed waistband and said,
“You pervert. Satisfied?”
“It’s tacky.”
“Hey, what about your underwear? Why only show mine? You should take off your pants too.”
Nam-woon, who was eyeing Seo-oh’s pants, immediately changed his mind when he saw the center that was coming into view without him even forcing it.
“Nah, never mind. You don’t have to take them off.”
“I wasn’t going to take it off.”
Seo-oh muttered quietly and returned to the sink.
That through bastard, checking his underwear first thing in the morning. But this time, Nam-woon was a step ahead. While struggling to pull up the stretched waistband, Seo-o-oh asked,
“Did anything strange happen yesterday?”
“…….”
When Nam-woon didn’t answer for a while, Seo-oh lowered his gaze to the floor.
“Something strange? Like what?”
When I asked, Seo-oh nervously stuck out his tongue and pressed his lips together. Nam-woon’s gaze fixated on that red tongue.
“Was I drooling or something like that?”
“There was nothing like that, why?”
“Nothing, forget it.”
“Did you dream yesterday?”
“…….”
Suspicion turned into certainty. Kwon Seo-oh doesn’t remember what happened yesterday! Nam-woon felt his heart pound with unexpected luck.
“You slept really well yesterday. You were snoring and grinding your teeth.”
“I don’t snore or grind my teeth.”
He breathed a sigh of relief internally. He didn’t see the money underwear. He suppressed the urge to cheer with joy.
Well, even if he thought something like that did happen, how could something like rubbing his lips, tongue and buttocks on the Hyung he hated be real?
If Kwon Seo-oh had remembered everything, he might have plunged his nose into the dishwater. Moreover, he fell asleep forcibly while not in his right mind, which made it even more unrealistic for it to be real. Nam-woon, feeling relieved, approached Seo-oh and asked as he took out a bowl from the drying rack.
“When did Se-han come in?”
“In the morning.”
“Was he up late with his friends yesterday? Did he fall asleep right after coming in?”
“Yeah. We have to feed him lunch later.”
“Let’s leave some food for Se-han. Should I stir-fry the kimchi?”
Nam-woon reached out with the plate and moved his hand closer. Seo-oh’s hand stopped suddenly. Nam-woon, who didn’t realize it, asked again if he should stir-fry the kimchi. Seo-oh nodded silently and discreetly moved a little further away from Nam-woon. Then he asked a question out of nowhere.
“When was your first kiss?”
Nam-woon was so surprised that he dropped the plate from his hand. He managed to catch it just before it hit the ground, but it was difficult to hold onto his pounding heart.
“Why are you suddenly asking that?”
“Just curious.”
“…I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Please tell me.”
It was yesterday. But he couldn’t bring himself to answer and just mumbled with his lips. Nowadays, doesn’t everyone have their first kiss during their school days?
“…During high school.”
At Nam-woon’s hurried response, Seo-oh’s eyes gleamed with curiosity. After gazing at Nam-woon for a moment, Seo-oh put all the kimchi from the cutting board into the frying pan and turned on the gas stove with a rough clank. Nam-woon, feeling uncomfortable, hesitantly spoke up.
“What about you?”
“…….”
“I answered, why don’t you?”
Seo-oh looked at the spatula in his hand with great interest and then blurted out,
“Kindergarten.”
“Huh?”
A moment later, Seo-oh continued,
“At a kindergarten birthday party, I took a picture with the girl.”
“…….”
“…….”
“It was a kiss.”
“That’s not the same.”
Nam-woon realized. Kwon Seo-o: Kiss experience 0+ 25 since yesterday.
But wait. Nam-woon furrowed his brow. If yesterday was the first time, that didn’t make sense. Considering how Seo-oh’s kiss seemed very skillful, it was persistent, moist, and sticky.
Seo-oh stirred the kimchi frantically. With that strong force, the kimchi splattered everywhere, creating red streaks on the walls and sink. Seo-oh swung the spatula as if he were going to break it and asked again.
“Who was it with during high school?”
“Just someone I knew.”
“Well, obviously it’d be someone you knew. Do you kiss people you don’t know?”
Seo-oh answered Nam-woon with a rush that he would kill him. As he was feeling perplexed by his momentum, Nam-woon heard a faint voice.
“So, you kiss strangers?”
“It’s not like that…”
He was at a loss for what to say. Nam-woon awkwardly stroked the back of his neck. Seo-oh asked in a tone that seemed like he was offended.
“When was the last time you did it?”
“Can we stop talking about this now?”
“If only you just tell me this. Is it recent?”
Nam-woon neither confirmed nor denied it but vaguely answered, “Maybe?”
Thunk.
Seo-oh threw the spatula into the sink and turned around to face Nam-woon. His handsome forehead was furrowed, resembling the slightly twisted figure from last night. Nam-woon unknowingly took a step back.
“Does that make sense? You’ve been at our house these days.”
“Well, just because I was at your place doesn’t mean I didn’t go anywhere else.”
Nam-woon answered with his head lowered and staring only at his toes. After a while of silence, when Nam-woon glanced up, Seo-oh was staring down at him with a chilling gaze. After stir-frying the kimchi, there was a splash of kimchi broth on the corner of Seo-oh’s lips.
Nam-woon was distracted. Kimchi broth… Next to Seo-oh’s nicely shaped lips.
Thump, thump, thump.
In an instant, memories from yesterday floated to the surface. His heart began to race, and he felt a rush of heat throughout his body. Oh, this shouldn’t happen.
Quickly, Nam-woon grabbed his shirt and pants from the corner and stuffed some random items into his pockets. Seo-oh widened his eyes in surprise at Nam-woon’s sudden actions.
“Hey, I’m leaving.”
As he brushed past Seo-oh without saying a word, the dazzling sunlight flooded into the room. Seo-oh, surprised by the sudden action, followed after him. Nam-woon quickly slipped on his shoes and headed for the yard.
“What about breakfast?”
In response to Seo-oh’s shout from behind, Nam-woon replied,
“Not eating.”
Nam-woon was walking through the yard when he suddenly stopped. Hanging on the clothesline was a pair of black underwear.
“Huh?”
It was Kwon Seo-oh’s underwear.
“Hyung, why suddenly…?”
Before Seo-oh’s voice could finish, Nam-woon tore his gaze away from the clothesline and turned around. Seo-oh stood by the door with a spatula in hand, staring at Nam-woon. His ears were noticeably red.
Why are his ears so red, and why is his gaze like that?
Seo-oh looked like a pitiful protagonist in a tragedy story. So much that he felt guilty for not having eaten a meal. In the end, Nam-woon walked back toward Seo-oh. And he reached out his hand toward Seo-oh’s face. Seo-oh slightly leaned back with a surprised expression.
Swipe.
Nam-woon’s thumb wiped away the red kimchi broth from the corner of Seo-oh’s lips.
“…You had a kimchi stain.”
Nam-woon turned around again, heading towards the door, and glanced briefly at Seo-oh’s underwear.
I should get something like that too.
The back of his head felt stinging, as if Kwon Seo-oh were still looking at him.