Chapter 28

Which is harder—falling in love with a slut, or falling in love with a hopeless romantic?

Gong Jio considered this the greatest conundrum of the century.

And yet Cha Gyuhan, while a hopeless romantic, wasn’t a slut, but was nonetheless hopelessly loose. In a very bizarre, entirely malice-free way.

Gyuhan’s younger brother, Cha Gyuwon, was quite a headache in Jio’s eyes. Born as the late-born child of a wealthy family with formidable backing, he could have thrown his weight around and caused all the trashy trouble everyone might expect; instead, he had been pushed around and bruised by scumbags until he chose to isolate himself. Not that doing so hid his presence at all, but he had spent his days cowering, walking on eggshells around others, without friends or lovers, until one day he suddenly asked Jio to run a background check on someone.

“I don’t do that kind of thing.”

Jio had refused without hesitation. Even if they had known each other since the moment Gyuwon was born, what’s out of bounds is out of bounds.

“Order some underling to run petty errands, Gyuwon-ah. Hyung‘s busy as it is.”

Seeing Gyuwon’s crestfallen face, Jio had asked one more time out of consideration for their shared history, “Who are you so curious about?”

It had been a terrible mistake.

Gyuwon had blurted out without taking a single breath, “He’sanextremelyhandsomehyungwithareallygreatvoiceandhe’smatureandcoolbuthecan’tcookatallwhichmakesforthisinsanelymoegapdifference… Ah, right. There’safitofanagedifferencebetweenushe’salittleyoungerthanGyuhan-hyungbutsinceI’mjustakidIfeelIneedtoknowwhohe’sdatedbeforeinordertoeventryandmatchuptohim.”

He had literally not taken a single breath.

Jio had stopped paying attention after hearing “He’s an extremely handsome—“. No, he had simply given up. Only after pouring out a torrent of chatter and catching his breath did Gyuwon murmur at a speed Jio could actually comprehend, “B-But his past might be a little—no, maybe a lot more than a little—actually, massively… complicated. The people around that hyung call him a s-slut… but from what I see, it looks like a huge misunderstanding. That’s why I want to look into it myself. The fact that the misunderstanding is that severe means his surroundings are complicated, right? What if someone holds a grudge against him and is spreading malicious rumors?”

Jio had put a cigarette to his lips. Smoking was permitted since they were on the terrace.

A virgin falling for a slut, of all things…

“Gyuwon-ah.”

He hadn’t intended to bring up such a topic at first. But seeing Gyuwon fret over the possibility that his crush might be a slut, the words slipped out of his mouth unbidden. “Between someone who seems like they’ll only ever love one single person their entire life, and someone who seems like they’ll never love a single soul their entire life, which do you think is worse?”

Gyuwon’s expression had turned dumbfounded. It was a question that could be answered with whatever sprang to mind, yet Gyuwon seemed so deeply immersed in agonizing over it that Jio couldn’t even fathom his depth.

Having dropped such a heavy boulder onto Gyuwon, Jio simply smoked his cigarette, ordered another coffee, and waited in silence, thinking of nothing.

“Both sound truly terrible, but I think I’d still bet on the latter. Because with someone who will only ever love one person, there doesn’t seem to be any chance at all. I’d at least like to run as a candidate…”

“Is that so?”

“What about you, hyung?”

At Gyuwon’s question, Jio had smirked and replied, “For me, well, there’s nothing to even ask.”

Because by the time he realized what kind of worst-case bastard he had fallen for, it had already begun.

Jio murmured, stroking Gyuhan’s sweat-drenched back. “I almost wished you were a bastard obsessed with women instead.”

With his wrists still bound, Gyuhan was groaning face-down on the mattress. His solid back rose and fell, making the celestial maiden tattooed across it writhe and ripple.

His family had washed their hands of the underworld a long time ago. Nor did they exchange sake cups with the yakuza like in the ancient past. Yet when asked why he got an irezumi tattoo, Gyuhan had answered, “Gyuwon said it looked pretty. He said he wanted to do it. But I was worried if he did it alone, he’d regret it later and feel self-conscious around the family. If at least one family member got it with him, wouldn’t he feel a lot lighter about it?”

And when asked why it had to be a celestial maiden of all things, he had replied, ”They say this is like a mother figure or something. If I’m getting ink anyway, I can show some filial piety too, huh? Isn’t that great? Cool, right?”

Getting an irezumi tattoo of an image symbolizing one’s mother across his back while searching for a spouse? This went beyond naive—it was outright deranged.

If he had inked a celestial maiden because he loved women, that would be one thing, but that wasn’t even the reason. Bearing an indelible mark on his back just because his younger brother might like it. And on top of that, trying to embrace and love it rather than hating it.

To Jio, it was completely incomprehensible. Yet his heart churned regardless.

You’re always like this. Just how many things do you love? You already devote your entire body and soul to more things than you can count, and yet you spend your whole life searching for the absolute greatest, the ‘Only One’ among them. What a godforsaken choice I made. If he could turn back time, he would beat the shit out of his past self. He would advise him to live even more recklessly, to live like the absolute worst piece of trash so that even Cha Gyuhan would wash his hands of him.

But even that is in the past now.

Jio drove his hips upward.

“Uh-huk…!”

Gyuhan was now moaning quite lewdly. Not that his previous martial-arts-style grunts hadn’t been a turn-on, but a slightly exhausted voice like this was even more to Jio’s taste. Likely because the person who had worn him down was none other than himself.

Tracing upward along Gyuhan’s colorful back, Jio pressed down firmly on the nape of his neck.

“Hey, y-you fuck, don’t do…!” Gyuhan caught on first and shouted.

Jio smiled quietly. “How do you know what I’m about to do that you’re so tense? Well, you’re right, though.”

The fact that Gyuhan was now so familiar that he could anticipate what Jio would do next was remarkably commendable. Ever since they were young, Gyuhan had always mastered anything involving the body in no time at all.

Is that why he’s so good at getting off from behind without even touching himself?

His mood pivoting from commendable pride to sudden irritation, Jio pressed down hard on Gyuhan’s neck. With his face buried into the pillow, Gyuhan thrashed his bound wrists against the sheets. It wasn’t as if Jio actually enjoyed doing this. But since Gyuhan had probably been engaging in stiff, log-like sex all this time, it was an inevitable choice.

“That’s why… you should have let me… huu, train you to come from behind,” Jio murmured, tightly shutting his eyes at the relentless clenching around him.

The inside was disgustingly erotic. He had always thought the word ‘chewy’ or ‘snug’ was ridiculously stupid when used for sex, but no other description fit. It was resilient, elastic, and never seemed to tire. Just like Cha Gyuhan. It carried the exact qualities of the muscles throughout Gyuhan’s body.

Timing it with the moment the strength in the fists pounding the mattress began to fade, Jio released his hand pressing down on the nape of Gyuhan’s neck and the back of his head.

“Pfft, haa…!”

Gyuhan lifted his face from the pillow soaked with sweat and drool.

Seeing his palm slick with Gyuhan’s sweat, Jio abruptly pulled his cock out. At that, Gyuhan unconsciously arched his hips higher and clenched his wet, swollen rim. He had clearly done so because Jio’s cum was leaking out. It was utterly astounding. Jio let out a dry chuckle, grabbed Gyuhan by the shoulders, and flipped him over. Gyuhan’s sweat-drenched bangs looked inkier with a bluish sheen, his eyes were wetter than usual, and his face was flushed crimson as if he had just finished an intense workout.

“Fuck.”

Jio let out an honest curse.

“How many people have seen you like this?”

“What?”

“You look filthy hot.”

“A guy being fucking ‘hot’? It’s just disgusting, is what it is.”

Even while panting for breath, Gyuhan refused to concede a single word.

Smirking lazily, Jio slapped Gyuhan across the chest—specifically around his areolas.

Since Jio had already come inside him twice, Gyuhan no longer fought back, but he still gritted his teeth and endured whenever his chest was stimulated. He seemed to believe it made no sense for a man to feel pleasure from his chest. Jio meticulously evaluated Gyuhan’s body, weighing its potential for further development and setting concrete targets. Under his current blueprint, he’d need to fuck him every day for the next ten years—or at least once every three or four days. If Gyuhan still wanted to start a family after that, let him try. By then, same-sex marriage registration might even be legal.

Seeing that Gyuhan’s expression met—no, exceeded—his expectations, Jio grabbed his thighs and hauled them up. Thighs hardened from years of athletic training offered a satisfying grip to knead and squeeze. Yet the skin itself was delicate, bruising and leaving marks wherever he rubbed and sucked. Jio mercilessly kneaded the backs of Gyuhan’s thighs before seating his cock against the still-parted entrance.

“You should’ve used it in advance. At least while I was away in the military.”

“Uh-huk… Fuck, seriously, please, g-go easy…! You son of a bitch, it feels like my stomach’s gonna burst…!”

“Now that handsome dick of yours won’t even get used.”

Ignoring Gyuhan’s threat-laced plea, Jio clicked his tongue and fondled Gyuhan’s cock.

Since coming solely from behind was already established, it was time to teach him something else. It wouldn’t be easy to reach right away, but it could certainly be incorporated into the ten-year plan. Jio intended to make Gyuhan squirt something other than semen. That way, even if he gave up in despair and tried to belatedly use his dick somewhere else, he’d be too mortified that something else would come spraying out to ever use it.

Jio took hold of Gyuhan’s cock, rubbed it, and began stroking. Gyuhan ground his teeth and threw his head back. Even more than when he let out moans, Jio liked it best when Gyuhan struggled desperately to hold back, especially when it looked utterly impossible.

Jio watched Gyuhan with barely a blink. Having once resigned himself before yearning for this moment once again, Jio didn’t squander a single second. His already delicate eyes easily welled with tears from the dry air.

“Ngh, fuck…!”

Overwhelmed by unbearable pleasure and bizarre sensations, Gyuhan was about to bring his bound fists together to smash Jio across the face, but the moment he saw Jio’s eyes brimming with tears, he swallowed his curse.

How the hell can I hit that face?

It was a face he had punched countless times, yet despite Jio’s dry eye syndrome making him tear up easily, not a single drop had ever fallen when they fought. And right now, it didn’t even look like dry eye syndrome. At least, that was how it appeared to Gyuhan. To him, this version of Gong Jio wore a face he simply could not strike.

His throat choked up, and words failed him. Gyuhan chose instead to endure it himself.

Jio felt not an ounce of shame despite the tears streaming down his cheeks. The shame belonged entirely to Gyuhan. The backs of Gyuhan’s knees trembled violently as his legs began to convulse. No moans escaped his lips at all. Straining so hard that the veins in his neck bulged and his face turned beet red, Gyuhan’s body finally arched violently as he ejaculated.

“Ugh, hngh, hnnn, ngh… Fucking hell…”

There were no words left to say besides curses. Driving the utterly exhausted Gyuhan to the absolute edge, Jio licked Gyuhan’s cum coating his hand. And pushing Gyuhan’s knees down so his lower body pressed against his chest, Jio came as well.

Jio’s groans were extremely low, almost imperceptible. Yet unlike his stifled moans, his hips held nothing back. Even while climaxing, the power behind his upward thrusts was formidable. Completely drained, Gyuhan could only be tossed back and forth.

Jio pulled his cock out. Panting raggedly, Gyuhan shifted his body with faint twitches. Having never done it without a condom before, the sensation was profoundly strange. He wanted to close his entrance, but because Gong Jio’s dick—a previously unknown lunatic in its own right—resembled its owner to a tee, it proved far from easy.

“Go ahead and run wild. Do your worst.”

In a raspy, hoarse voice, Gyuhan endured Jio’s fingers rummaging around inside him. He had known he would do that.

Moments later, Jio shoved his fingers into Gyuhan’s mouth. Whether from the semen or from Jio’s fingers pressing down on his tongue, Gyuhan felt a wave of nausea as he looked up at Jio’s face.

By all rights, this should feel alien, yet it was so damn familiar. Except that familiar face was shedding tears Gyuhan had never seen before. Regardless of whether those tears stemmed from emotion or a physiological reaction, the sight of Jio’s tear-streaked cheeks was the very definition of a beauty capable of toppling nations. It was one of the few four-character idioms Gyuhan had accurately memorized because it related to gorgeous maidens, and it fit Gong Jio to perfection.

“How does it feel to become brothers who share semen instead of blood, Gyuhan-ah?”

“Like dog shit. Are you done now?”

To Gyuhan, who fired back without a heartbeat of hesitation, Jio shook his head. Still with an expressionless face, a flat voice, and wet cheeks.

“No. We’re just getting started.”

That’s why you should have broken my bones sooner. Rubbing his wet cheek against Gyuhan’s, Jio offered that belated piece of advice.

✦ ✦ ✦