Chapter 19

“Uncle, today was so much fun!” Do-gyeom announced, bouncing on the mattress.

“Was it?”

“Yeah! Playing board games with you and Mom was the best!”

“Shall we play another round tomorrow morning?”

“Yeah! Let’s play tomorrow too! And the pizza and the peach smoothie we had earlier were super yummy.” Even with the bedroom clock well past his usual bedtime, Do-gyeom’s eyes were still shining from the day’s excitement.

“Gyeom-ah, it’s late—time to lie down and go to sleep now,” Si-woon said gently.

“Can’t I stay up just ten minutes longer?”

“If you don’t go to sleep early tonight, we won’t have as much energy to play tomorrow.”

“Okay!” Nodding with an earnestness that made Si-woon’s chest soften—for an eight-year-old, the boy rarely threw a tantrum once something was explained to him—Do-gyeom lay back and hugged his new remote-control car tightly against his chest, tucking the duvet up over its wheels.

“Do-gyeom-ah, are you really going to sleep holding a plastic car in your arms?”

“Yeah. I’m sleeping with it tonight.”

Since they had wiped the tires clean after testing it out in the living room, Si-woon figured there was no harm in letting him keep it.

“Uncleee,” Do-gyeom drawled, peering up from the pillow.

“Yes, Do-gyeom-ah?”

“You’re sleeping in here with me tonight too, right?”

“Of course I am.”

Do-gyeom beamed, showing his two new front teeth as white as grains of rice, before his eyelids finally began to droop. Smoothing the blanket over his nephew’s shoulders, Si-woon switched off the bedside nightlight and waited until the boy’s breathing turned slow and even.

When he stepped quietly back out into the living room and eased the bedroom door shut, Ji-woon was sitting on the sofa folding laundry. Sitting down across from her, Si-woon brought up the news he had been holding back for months.

“Noona, I’m thinking of moving soon.”

Ji-woon’s hands stilled on a folded towel, her eyes widening in surprise. “Moving? Already?”

Having celebrated his housewarming at the two-room villa less than two years ago, she naturally looked baffled by the sudden announcement.

“Yeah. Some circumstances came up.” Lowering his gaze to his knees—an old habit he still hadn’t broken whenever he wanted to avoid worrying her—Si-woon braced himself for a string of questions.

Instead, after studying his face in silence for a long moment, Ji-woon asked the simplest question possible, sparing him the third degree. “When are you moving?”

“Probably in about two months.”

A faint crease appeared between his sister’s brows; two months was sudden, and Si-woon knew she was wondering what had forced someone as steady as him to pack up before his lease even ended. “If there’s anything I can help with—” she began carefully, then stopped dead mid-sentence, blinking closely at his face.

Without meaning to, as he pictured where he hoped he might be moving in two months’ time—and the person who had once quietly asked him to consider living together—Si-woon had let the faintest smile cross his lips.

“Wait a second,” Ji-woon said slowly, leaning forward on the sofa. “Just so I’m clear… is this move a good thing?”

“Uh, um… I’m not sure yet.” Realizing he had just given himself away, Si-woon felt heat rush to his ears and knitted his brows in a clumsy attempt to look serious again.

Staring at her normally stoic younger brother blushing like a schoolboy on her couch, Ji-woon let out a quiet, relieved breath and shook her head. Apparently that flustered “I’m not sure yet” had reassured her far more than any solemn promise that his finances were fine ever could have.

* * *

Before Si-woon stepped into the bathroom on the night he returned from Naeju, Je-hee held out a neatly folded garment with an expression of studied nonchalance.

“Could you put this on after you finish showering?”

Looking down at the deep black fabric in his hands, Si-woon blinked. “A bathrobe?”

“Yes. That’s my Christmas wish.”

After agreeing to such a solemn request before he left, Si-woon couldn’t very well refuse something so simple, though he spent his entire shower wondering why a bathrobe qualified as a holiday wish. When he finally stepped out of the bathroom shaking the dampness from his hair, dressed in the plush black robe, he caught Je-hee staring fixedly at him from across the bedroom—and then trying, with zero success, to pretend he hadn’t been looking.

“You said this was your wish, Je-hee-ssi,” Si-woon said, his ears warming. “You can look properly if you want.”

“Are you sure you don’t mind?”

“Of course not. Being looked at won’t wear me out.”

“Then I won’t hold back.” Crossing the carpet with a bright smile, Je-hee stopped a step away and took him in from head to toe.

Under that unblinking inspection, Si-woon’s shoulders stiffened despite his brave words, his hand rising self-consciously to check the loosely knotted sash at his waist. Unlike the cotton pajamas he had finally grown used to, the heavy black velour parted at the slightest movement, exposing a long vee of his sun-browned chest above the tie and bare skin between the hem and his thighs whenever he shifted his weight. Seeing the way Je-hee’s dark eyes darkened as they traced that gap in the robe, Si-woon belatedly realized that this was the exact effect the man had been aiming for all along.

“My hair is dry now…” Sweeping his damp bangs back from his forehead, Si-woon looked at him expectantly, hoping the wish had been fulfilled so he could change into normal clothes.

Raising a hand to his mouth to hide a laugh, Je-hee shook his head. “You might as well keep it on a little longer so you get used to wearing it.”

“It’s not as though I’ll ever have a reason to wear a robe like this again…” Si-woon muttered, baffled as to why anyone needed practice wearing a bathrobe.

“Mm. Still, it’s my Christmas wish,” Je-hee murmured, stepping in to wrap both arms around Si-woon’s waist and bury his face against the crook of his neck. “Just five more minutes like this.”

Stiffening for half a beat, Si-woon relaxed into the hold as Je-hee inhaled the warm scent of soap from his skin. “This feels so good,” Je-hee whispered against his collarbone, before lifting his head to search Si-woon’s eyes. “This part goes beyond one wish, though… Can we?”

Si-woon had only just returned from a long bus ride back from Naeju, and he could tell Je-hee was trying to give him a chance to say he was tired. After two nights apart, however, Si-woon had no desire to refuse him either. Reaching down to untie the black sash himself, he slipped an arm around Je-hee’s neck. “…Yes. I wanted to, too.”

A few minutes later, sitting astride Je-hee’s lap on the bed while they faced each other, Si-woon clung to the man’s shoulders and fought to steady his ragged breathing. “Ngh…” Even though it wasn’t their first time, the sensation of Je-hee’s slick fingers pressing deep inside him from this upright angle felt startlingly intense, every slow withdrawal and push accompanied by a wet sound as warmed lubricant trickled down over Je-hee’s knuckles.

“Ah—!” When those long fingers curled deliberately against the firm, sensitive bundle of nerves along his front wall, a white-hot jolt shot up Si-woon’s spine, pulling a high whimper from his throat despite his clenched teeth. Desperate for an anchor before he lost the last shred of his composure and begged aloud, Si-woon leaned forward and sought Je-hee’s mouth. “I want to kiss you… please, hurry.”

“Mmh… ngh… hah—”

He had hoped a kiss might distract him from what Je-hee’s hand was doing below; instead, the hot tangle of Je-hee’s tongue inside his mouth and the rhythmic stroke of his fingers inside his passage amplified each other until Si-woon’s back arched like a bow, his inner walls clamping down hard around the intrusion.

“Can I… add one more finger?” Pressing a third slick fingertip gently against the stretched rim, Je-hee waited against his lips for permission.

“N-not all at once… just… loosen it a little more first.” Feeling how tightly Si-woon was clenching around his knuckles, Je-hee slowed his pace immediately, brushing his damp hair back from his forehead with his free hand as his own erection pressed hot and rigid against Si-woon’s stomach between them. Knowing how fiercely Je-hee was holding himself in check just to make sure he wouldn’t hurt him sent a fresh tremor through Si-woon’s thighs, his own cock twitching and leaking clear fluid against Je-hee’s skin.

“Ah—!” As three fingers finally slid deep and rubbed squarely across that swollen internal ridge, Si-woon felt a familiar, terrifying heat coil tight in his groin and grabbed Je-hee’s wrist in a panic. “No—wait!”

Je-hee froze on the spot, his eyes flying wide with concern. “Does it hurt? Should I stop?”

“I don’t want to come by myself before you’re even inside,” Si-woon panted, his chest heaving against Je-hee’s as he reached with a shaking hand for the foil wrapper on the nightstand and looked him straight in the eye. “Together. Please.”

“Oh.” Realization dawned across Je-hee’s flushed face, softening his alarm into a look of dark satisfaction. “My fingers nearly made you come again, didn’t they?”

“Because you kept… ah, pressing right on that spot… hah, ah…!”

Once the condom was rolled down over Je-hee’s shaft, Je-hee slid the thick length between Si-woon’s slick buttocks without entering right away, letting the hot friction glide over the sensitized rim. “I know you’re impatient, Si-woon-ssi, but we still need to take this slowly so you don’t get hurt.”

“I’m ready enough now.” Reaching behind himself with one hand to steady the blunt crown against his opening, Si-woon exhaled shakily and began to lower his own weight onto it an inch at a time. “Just help guide me… ngh, so it goes in smoothly like last time.”

“…I’ll do my best.” Jaw clenching with fierce concentration, Je-hee gripped Si-woon’s waist with both hands to support his descent.

“Nngh… ah—!”

As the slick inner walls parted around the heavy shaft and Si-woon sank all the way down to the base in this seated position, the sheer depth of the penetration stole the breath straight from his lungs, forcing him to freeze with his hands braced on Je-hee’s shoulders.

Looking up at his pale, wide-eyed expression, Je-hee stilled beneath him. “…Is it too deep like this? Should I help move you?”

“Ah… it’s so deep… ngh—!” The moment Je-hee lifted his hips slightly and let him sink back down, the drag of the thick shaft across his sensitized walls sent sparks bursting behind Si-woon’s eyelids, another spurt of cloudy fluid spilling from his untouched cock between their stomachs.

Glancing down at the place where their bodies were joined, Je-hee smoothed a thumb coated in fresh lubricant around the taut, stretched ring of flesh, a look of unmistakable hunger crossing his features. “Look down here, Si-woon-ssi… hah… you’re stretched so wide around me.”

“Hic, ngh… you don’t… have to say things like that out loud, ah…!”

“There’s still… hah, a little left before I’m all the way in… Is this already filling you up, Si-woon-ssi?”

“Stop… ngh, pressing your thumb right there, please!”

Taking mercy on him, Je-hee removed his thumb from the stretched rim and wrapped both arms securely around Si-woon’s back, easing him down flat onto the mattress without slipping out of him. “I don’t mind at all if you scratch my back tonight, so just wrap your arms around my neck and hold on as tight as you need.”

Bracing himself above him, Je-hee drove forward in a long, wet thrust that struck straight against the deepest spot inside Si-woon’s passage, sending a violent shudder all the way to the crown of Si-woon’s head.

“Ah, this… hic, I can’t… nngh—!”

Throwing his head back into the pillows as the heavy shaft dragged nearly to the rim and plunged deep again, Si-woon locked both arms around Je-hee’s broad shoulders and held on for dear life, his nails digging unconsciously into the tense muscles of Je-hee’s back with every roll of their hips.

“Si-woon-ssi, you’re squeezing me so tight inside…” Gritting his teeth as sweat dripped from his brow onto Si-woon’s collarbone, Je-hee gasped, “I want to go deeper… hah, if you clamp down on me like that… ah—!”

With a sharp, full-body shudder, Je-hee buried his face in the crook of Si-woon’s neck and came hard, a low, frustrated groan vibrating against Si-woon’s throat as though he had wanted to make it last longer before giving a final, involuntary thrust deep inside. Even as Je-hee’s weight settled heavily atop him, Si-woon’s oversensitive walls continued to flutter and contract around the softening length.

When Je-hee finally lifted his head after several ragged breaths, his dark eyes still looked strangely feverish—caught somewhere between lingering desire and concern for the man beneath him.

“Si-woon-ssi, hold me tight… please, hurry,” Je-hee whispered, burrowing into Si-woon’s embrace almost like a child seeking shelter. Tightening his aching arms around Je-hee’s shoulders, Si-woon stroked the damp hair at his nape until their racing hearts finally slowed together.

* * *