Chapter 29

“You want to see me dressed in a suit?”

“Yes.”

On a peaceful Sunday afternoon in their living room, Si-woon could only repeat the unexpected request aloud to make sure his ears were working properly. Across the sofa, Je-hee nodded without hesitation, his dark eyes shining with earnest anticipation.

It’s just a suit, though. To Si-woon, clothing had never been anything more than a practical necessity matched to the weather or the occasion. Then again, a couple of weeks ago Je-hee had asked out of the blue whether Si-woon would ever consider trying on a doctor’s white coat—which suggested a pattern was forming.

“Could it be that you have a thing for—” Catching himself before he could finish the sentence, Si-woon clapped a hand over his mouth. Asking his partner outright if he had a uniform fetish felt rude—until Si-woon briefly pictured Je-hee dressed in a crisp uniform with his hair swept back, and felt his own pulse skip a beat. Oh. So that’s how it works. Put in those terms, he couldn’t judge Je-hee at all.

“You’ll put one on for me, right?” Je-hee asked hopefully.

“Yes.” Standing up from the sofa—if putting on formal wear for ten minutes made Je-hee look that happy, it cost him nothing to oblige—Si-woon added with a touch of hard-won boldness, “If there’s anything else like this you want to see in the future, just tell me. I’ll go change into mine now.”

Since he owned only a single black suit reserved for weddings and funerals, there was nothing to deliberate over.

“Wait a second,” Je-hee called, catching his sleeve. “By any chance… could you try putting on one of mine instead?”

“I think yours might be a bit too tight across my shoulders, though…” The practical objection slipped out before Si-woon could stop it, and he winced inwardly; the last thing he wanted was to sound as if he were boasting about his broader frame.

“Just once—please?”

Unable to resist that comically fervent plea, Si-woon allowed Je-hee to take him by the hand and lead him into the walk-in dressing room, where Je-hee unzipped a garment bag and held out a tailored three-piece suit in deep midnight navy.

“How about this one? Do you like the color?”

“Uh, yes. It looks really nice.”

Even to Si-woon’s untrained eye, the fine wool fabric looked expensive enough to make him nervous about stretching a seam. Under Je-hee’s unblinking, smiling gaze, he pulled off his t-shirt and slipped his arms into the crisp white dress shirt. Because his shoulders and chest were broad while his waist tapered leanly below his ribs, off-the-rack shirts always pulled snug across his upper back—and buttoning Je-hee’s custom-fitted shirt left the fabric straining visibly over his pectoral muscles while barely reaching his belt line.

“…Isn’t this a size too small on me?” Si-woon asked, glancing down at the taut buttons across his chest.

“That’s how modern tailoring is meant to fit,” Je-hee replied with utter conviction, his smile widening by the second. “A suit looks sharpest when it’s fitted close to the body.”

“…Is that so?” Working at an office with a casual dress code for eleven years had left Si-woon rusty on menswear trends. Ten years ago, when his older sister had offered to buy him a custom suit for his first job, he had stubbornly insisted on a cheap, loose-fitting rack suit so he wouldn’t burden her wallet—a decision that had left his lone suit looking decidedly dated by comparison.

As he finished buttoning the left cuff at his wrist, however, something stitched inside the inner band caught his eye.

〈Kwon Je-hee〉

“…”

Staring down at the three neat cursive syllables embroidered inside the cuff, Si-woon felt a strange, sudden flutter beneath his ribs. It was only a tailor’s monogram on a bespoke shirt, of course, yet having another man’s name resting directly against the pulse point of his wrist made him feel, for one dizzying second, as though the name had been stamped onto him as well.

“…Should I put the vest on over it, too?”

“Yes—and this necktie, too.”

Accepting the matching vest and silk tie that Je-hee produced with suspicious speed, Si-woon stood before the full-length mirror and fumbled with the tie knot, his fingers growing clumsier under the heated gaze boring into his reflection from behind.

“Want me to tie it for you?” Je-hee offered, stepping close.

“…I just finished.”

“What a shame.” Sounding genuinely disappointed, Je-hee handed him the trousers and jacket next.

Once Si-woon had zipped up the fitted slacks and shrugged cautiously into the jacket, he looked down at his bare feet on the rug. “Don’t I need to put on dress socks?”

“Mm, no need for socks.”

A full three-piece suit with bare feet? Baffled by the omission, Si-woon shifted his weight self-consciously as the tapered trouser hems rode up just above his ankle bones—and noticed Je-hee’s dark eyes drop immediately to the floor, fixing with laser intensity on his bare insteps, neatly aligned toes, and the prominent bone of his ankle. When Si-woon curled his toes against the rug in embarrassment, Je-hee’s breath audibly hitched. What on earth is there to stare at on a grown man’s feet?

“Je-hee-ssi, now that you’ve seen it… can I take the suit off?”

In the mirror, every movement he made pulled the tailored navy fabric drum-tight across his thighs, buttocks, and broad back, while the snug vest pressed the outline of his chest against the white shirt until he felt more exposed in three layers of wool than he did standing naked in the shower.

Taking a slow, quiet breath, Je-hee stepped up behind him. “Yes, of course you can take it off. Actually… may I be the one to take it off you?”

“If you were just going to take it right back off, why did you make me put the whole thing on—” Hearing the answer in his own question a beat too late, Si-woon took a hasty step backward—only to realize he had walked straight into a trap as Je-hee’s eyes curved into a wicked, triumphant smile.

Guiding Si-woon out of the dressing room to sit on the edge of the bed, Je-hee dropped to his knees on the carpet instead of reaching for the jacket buttons, lifted one of Si-woon’s bare feet in both hands, and pressed his hot, wet tongue flat along the inside of his ankle bone.

“Ah—where are you licking—ngh—!”

Jerking his leg back in shock, Si-woon stared down as Je-hee held his ankle fast, trailing wet kisses across the arch of his foot before slipping the tip of his tongue right between Si-woon’s curled toes. Never in thirty-one years had Si-woon imagined a person’s feet could be an erogenous zone, yet the ticklish, wet heat sent an unmistakable shiver racing straight up his calf to his groin. “Seriously, kh… what is with your tastes lately? Ah-hngh!”

“I wonder,” Je-hee murmured shamelessly against his instep, inhaling the clean scent of their shared body wash from Si-woon’s skin as though it were rare perfume.

Does being with me really turn this composed man into someone like this? Bewildering as it was, seeing how thoroughly every inch of his body captivated Je-hee sent a quiet, traitorous rush of pride through Si-woon’s chest—until the ticklish sensation grew too sharp to sit through. “It feels too weird on my foot, ah-hngh, please stop…!”

To his surprise, Je-hee released his ankle at once and looked up from the floor with a slightly crestfallen expression. “Did you really hate it that much?”

“Th-that’s not what I meant, it’s just—”

Rising from his knees until their faces were inches apart, Je-hee glanced pointedly down at Si-woon’s lap, where a heavy erection was tenting the tailored navy trousers to the bursting point, and let out a low, amused hum. “And here you just told me you hated it.”

“Ngh…!” Caught red-handed by his own body’s honesty, Si-woon couldn’t utter a single word in his own defense.

“Sit right here on the edge—I’ll use my mouth to help you out,” Je-hee said, dropping back to his knees between Si-woon’s parted legs and reaching for the trouser clasp—before his hand froze midair as a sudden inspiration lit up his dark eyes.

“…?” Si-woon tensed warily.

Looking up with a deeply suggestive smile, Je-hee held both of his own wrists out together in front of Si-woon’s knees. “Si-woon-ah, tie my hands up.”

“What? Tie… tie what? Why would I—”

“Come on, tie my wrists together,” Je-hee urged, nudging his joined hands closer as if asking for the most reasonable favor in the world. “Use the necktie you’re wearing.”

Had Je-hee asked to tie Si-woon’s wrists, Si-woon wouldn’t have been half as shocked; having his partner eagerly volunteer to be bound himself left Si-woon’s mind spinning. Unknotting the silk tie from his own collar with unsteady fingers, he wrapped the length loosely around Je-hee’s wrists. “I’m still not sure I should be doing this…”

“Don’t worry—if it hurts, I’ll tell you to untie me,” Je-hee assured him, before glancing up at Si-woon’s flushed, conflicted face and letting out a low breath. “…That troubled look on your face right now is turning me on even more.”

He really has no shame left at all. Looking down at the man kneeling between his legs with his wrists bound in silk while Si-woon sat above him in Je-hee’s own monogrammed suit, Si-woon swallowed hard as Je-hee leaned forward. “I’m going to suck you off now, so don’t be startled.”

Without the use of his hands, Je-hee caught the metal tab of Si-woon’s trouser zipper between his teeth and tugged it straight down—zzzp—before nosing aside the cotton of his briefs to free the aching, pre-cum-slicked shaft with practiced ease.

“Hngh—!”

At the very first warm sweep of Je-hee’s tongue under the sensitive ridge of the crown, Si-woon’s hips jerked off the mattress. Hollowing his cheeks as he took the thick length deeper into his hot mouth, Je-hee worked up and down the shaft with wet, rhythmic suction until rough gasps tore between Si-woon’s gritted teeth.

“Right there, kh… it’s too intense, ah-hngh.”

Suddenly, a fierce, primal urge to grab the back of Je-hee’s head and thrust straight into that wet heat surged through Si-woon’s hips, terrifying him with its force. Digging both fists into the mattress behind him to lock his pelvis in place—he would never forgive himself if he lost control and choked the person he cherished most while Je-hee’s hands were tied—Si-woon panted as his vision blurred white at the edges.

“Haah, ngh, I… I’m going to come—please, hngh, let go of it!”