Chapter 21

By the end of January, moving day had arrived sooner than Si-woon had expected—bringing with it the chance to finally leave behind everything the old villa had come to represent.

“…”

Before stepping out the front door with his last bag, Si-woon looked back across the empty rooms one final time. Stripped of his boxes and furniture, with only the built-in fixtures remaining, the apartment looked almost identical to the afternoon he had first signed the lease. I really thought I’d live here for at least four or five years. The abruptness of the farewell left a quiet hollow in his chest. Technically, the place had never belonged to him; it was only a rental. Yet after spending his twenties moving from one cramped gosiwon or windowless studio to the next, these two rooms had been the first roof that felt like a reward earned by his own two hands.

“…Not that any of it was the house’s fault.”

During the worst weeks of the auction crisis, he had taken driving calls until dawn just to avoid coming home to these walls. Looking back now, blaming the rooms themselves seemed foolish, though it showed just how deeply the loss had cut him at the time. There had been happy hours here, too—cooking for his sister, listening to Do-gyeom’s footsteps patter across the linoleum. Goodbye, then. Wishing quietly that the next tenant to cross this threshold would find better luck within these walls than he had, Si-woon pulled the door shut behind him.

* * *

“Um… should I unpack my things in the guest room I used at the beginning?” Si-woon asked once the movers had stacked the boxes in the living room.

“Huh? Why on earth would you unpack in there?” Je-hee stared at him in genuine bewilderment.

“…?” Apparently they had entertained very different assumptions about what roommate meant; in Je-hee’s mind, sharing the master bedroom was already set in stone.

“Is sleeping in the same bed with me still uncomfortable for you?” Je-hee asked, his expression falling.

“No, it’s not that—”

“If the bed feels crowded, I can move into the spare room and leave the master bedroom for you, Si-woon-ssi.”

“That wasn’t what I meant at all—I phrased it badly. We can use the same room.”

Si-woon hadn’t been asking for separate bedrooms; he had simply worried that crowding all of his belongings into Je-hee’s bedroom when a whole spare room stood empty down the hall might inconvenience the man. Even after he explained, it took another ten minutes of coaxing to soothe Je-hee’s wounded grumbling. Living under the same roof, Si-woon was discovering, came with its own lively brand of misunderstandings—not that he minded in the slightest.

“Did you sleep well, Si-woon-ssi?”

Waking up every morning beside the person he loved brought a deeper contentment than Si-woon had ever imagined possible. Having lived alone since his teens, he had felt an inexplicable shyness during his first few mornings in the shared bed; within weeks, however, Je-hee’s warmth beside him had become so essential that on the rare nights Je-hee had to stay overnight in the provinces for work, the empty half of the mattress kept Si-woon tossing until dawn.

Sharing an address also transformed their weekends. Monday through Friday, both of them had morning commutes to respect, which forced a measure of discipline after midnight; once Friday night arrived, however, Je-hee clung to him with a persistence that made Si-woon wonder how the man had ever survived their months of restraint.

“Ah, hnngh… kgh.”

However many times Je-hee whispered that he didn’t need to hold his voice back in their own bedroom, Si-woon still bit down hard on his lower lip out of habit, trying in vain to swallow the sounds rising in his throat.

“Haa… ngh!”

Each steady roll of Je-hee’s hips beneath him shook another fractured sob from Si-woon’s chest, his voice scraped so raw and hoarse that it barely sounded like his own—and from the dark heat in Je-hee’s eyes, that ragged sound was only spurring him on.

“Hii… nn, kh-aaah…!”

“Do you… hah, feel me right here?” Resting a warm palm flat against Si-woon’s taut lower abdomen, where the muscles contracted visibly with every deep stroke, Je-hee traced the slight, rhythmic movement beneath the skin as if endlessly fascinated by the proof of how deeply they were joined.

“Hold… ah, please hold my hand.”

Flinching every time Je-hee’s palm pressed lightly over his lower belly, Si-woon reached out blindly—the clearest plea for mercy he knew how to make. Instead of easing up, however, Je-hee laced their fingers tightly together and pulled Si-woon’s torso flush against his chest, his gaze drinking in Si-woon’s tear-streaked cheeks with even fiercer hunger.

“Like this?”

“Mm, ngh, just like that.” Nodding frantically against Je-hee’s shoulder, Si-woon squeezed his lover’s hand so hard his neatly trimmed nails bit crescent marks into the skin—though Je-hee scarcely seemed to register the sting, his breathing growing rougher by the second as he angled his hips upward.

“Ah—!”

When the blunt crown struck a spot deeper than the prostate Je-hee usually favored, Si-woon cried out aloud, his half-shut eyes flying wide as a unfamiliar jolt scattered every thought in his head.

“Can I… press a little deeper right here?” Je-hee rasped against his ear.

“Mm-kgh, ah, uh-ngh—”

“It feels like… ugh, your body likes this spot, too.”

“Ooh… kgh, hngh…” As Je-hee angled his thrusts repeatedly against that deep internal threshold behind his navel, Si-woon sobbed too hard to form a coherent word. Why is my body reacting like this? Even having his prostate rubbed near the entrance was overwhelming enough; this deeper pressure against the narrow opening at the top of his passage felt sharper, heavier, and almost frightening in its intensity.

“I want to push it… kgh… all the way in,” Je-hee murmured, his voice tender even as the heavy thud of his cock against that narrow inner ring betrayed how badly he was straining for control.

“I-it’s okay, hic—”

The instant Si-woon breathed permission, Je-hee eased him onto his side, lifted one of Si-woon’s thighs high over his hip, and drove forward in a long, wet glide that stole the air straight from Si-woon’s lungs. Was he always this big? Every time the thick shaft dragged back to the rim and plunged deep into that newly opened depth, clear fluid spurted in sharp, involuntary jets from the tip of Si-woon’s untouched cock, his entire frame shivering uncontrollably in Je-hee’s arms.

“Right there… ah, it feels so good, aah—” Si-woon gasped, wrapping both arms tightly around Je-hee’s neck.

“Ooh… I, hah, love how it feels inside you, too…” Je-hee groaned against his throat, rolling his hips to grind squarely across Si-woon’s prostate on the way in until Si-woon’s passage and cock contracted in simultaneous spasms.

“Hic, ngh… wait, mm, kgh—n-no… hngh…!”

As another clear stream leaked over his stomach, a sensation fundamentally different from an ordinary ejaculation—something hotter, heavier, and almost violent—coiled tight in the pit of Si-woon’s belly, convincing him that one more stroke would make him shatter on the spot. Wild-eyed, he twisted his hips in a desperate attempt to pull back.

“Did that hurt?”

Je-hee halted on the spot, the hunger in his face giving way to instant alarm as his eyes swept over Si-woon’s flushed chest, ribs, and trembling thighs to check for any sign of injury.

“No, it didn’t hurt, it’s just… too intense all at once.” Seeing how instantaneously Je-hee stopped whenever he thought Si-woon might be in pain sent a warm, ticklish rush through Si-woon’s chest, making him curl his toes against the sheets.

“Ah…” Burying his face against the damp curve of Si-woon’s neck with a relieved smile, Je-hee let out a long breath. “You scared the life out of me—I thought I’d hurt you. Then I’ll just stay still inside you for a minute until it settles.”

“…Thank you.”

With the relentless friction paused, the overwhelming pressure in Si-woon’s lower belly slowly receded to a manageable warmth—until Je-hee wrapped both arms around his torso and began murmuring every detail he loved about Si-woon’s body straight into his ear: the dense, sun-browned muscle built from years of honest labor, the clean, earthy scent at the nape of his neck, the pale pink of his nipples, even the darker flush of his erection when he was aroused.

“Why do you always… exaggerate like that…?” Si-woon protested weakly, his ears burning hotter than his groin.

“Hngh—” Worse still, listening to Je-hee whisper those shameless praises while buried deep inside him reawakened the restless, itching ache low in Si-woon’s pelvis. Without his consciously willing it, his hips gave a tiny, involuntary roll backward to seek the friction that had just stopped.

“…You’re the one who moved first just now, Si-woon-ssi,” Je-hee whispered, a quiet laugh vibrating against his back.

“Ah, ngh, yes, I moved first—I know, so please hurry—”

The laughter vanished from Je-hee’s breath at once. Catching Si-woon firmly by the hip, he drove back in with a single deep stroke that sent a blinding jolt racing straight up Si-woon’s spine.

“Ah…! You don’t have to hold back anymore, hngh…!” Si-woon cried out, wanting Je-hee to lose himself just as completely.

“…Really?”

“Yes… ngh, kh—”

For a split second, Je-hee’s dark eyes narrowed on his face, as if confirming that Si-woon truly understood what he was inviting. That look alone sent a shiver of belated caution down Si-woon’s back—had he just said something reckless again?

“Then… can I try going all the way in right here?” Pressing his broad palm flat over Si-woon’s lower abdomen just below the navel, Je-hee angled his hips upward.

“Ah…! If you… ngh… only push in a little bit… it’s okay.”

“Yeah. I won’t force it too deep.” Pressing grateful kisses along Si-woon’s jaw and temple as though sealing a solemn vow, Je-hee began to withdraw and press forward in slow, deliberate increments—before the intoxicating heat of the passage gradually eroded his restraint, his thrusts picking up speed until Si-woon’s cries echoed off the bedroom walls.

“Ah-ngh… khh—!” Held pinned against Je-hee’s chest as the thick shaft pounded relentlessly into that deepest inner ring, Si-woon felt a terrifying, unfamiliar pressure build in his lower belly—wait, if he keeps hitting there, I feel like I need the bathroom—and terrified of humiliating himself on the sheets, he clamped his inner walls down with everything he had to bring Je-hee over the edge. “No… hic… no more, ah…!”

“Ah, Si-woon-ah, I’m going to come—khh—!”

With a hoarse groan, Je-hee buried himself to the hilt and shuddered through his release. As they lay tangled together catching their breath, Si-woon discreetly checked the sheets beneath his hips without letting Je-hee notice. Aside from the usual slickness of their sweat and pre-cum, the disaster he had feared hadn’t happened. Letting out a silent sigh of relief, he glanced over at Je-hee—and felt a brief, foolish flash of pride that he had kept up with his lover’s stamina tonight.

“…?”

Then Je-hee rolled an inch to the side and slid open the nightstand drawer.

Si-woon’s eyes flew wide as he propped himself up on one elbow, staring at the fresh foil wrapper in Je-hee’s hand—and at the unmistakable hardness already stirring between Je-hee’s thighs again.

“I want to do a little more…” Je-hee murmured, before pausing with the condom between his fingers and offering a sheepish smile at Si-woon’s horrified face. “…Probably asking too much, right?”

“H-how many more times?” Si-woon’s voice trembled despite himself.

“…You aren’t supposed to count things like that.” Sidestepping the question with a slow kiss that pushed Si-woon flat onto his back again, Je-hee settled between his parted knees before Si-woon could muster a single word of protest.

* * *