TTOA Chapter 88

“Seo Eui-woo. When cooking, fire.”

“I know.”

Instead of moving away from Jae-jin, Seo Eui-woo used his ability. The piece of meat, perfectly cooked only on the bottom, floated up on its own and flipped in the air. That wasn’t all. The cutting board and cherished knife he had used lined up in the sink and washed themselves. It was a ridiculously convenient ability no matter how you looked at it.

“Skinship. That’s a word I’m hearing for the first time.”

His lips were touching his ear as he spoke, making it stimulating. His low, languid voice vibrated.

“Yes, well. I figured you wouldn’t know, Seo Eui-woo.”

“But I understand it.”

“Yes?”

“What it means. I understand without having to ask.”

“……”

“Is it what I’m thinking?”

Reaching out, Seo Eui-woo then touched the nape of Jae-jin’s neck. Because his palm was wet from cooking, he pressed down gently with the back of his hand. His hand traced up the neck, brushing against his cheek.

“This…”

“……”

“Is this it? Huh…?”

Seo Eui-woo bit Jae-jin’s earlobe with his teeth. He pressed down with his canine tooth, leaving a crescent-shaped mark on the soft flesh. Jae-jin gasped and lowered his eyelids. It felt like the fuse that had been cut short in the study was about to be reconnected.

“Since you’re not denying it, Jae-jin, I guess that’s right.”

“…That’s right.”

Kwon Jae-jin, holding his breath, quietly replied.

Hearing the answer, Seo Eui-woo gently chewed on Jae-jin’s earlobe. As if engraving a mark with a tattoo, he left his mark deeply. In his deep gray eyes, a steadfast longing resembling metal was projected.

“Do it with me.”

“……”

“Don’t end the date, do it with Eui-woo.”

“Seo Eui-woo, don’t be so impatient. Dinner first.”

“Ah, right. After dinner…”

Seo Eui-woo stared intensely at the frying pan. A plate floated over smoothly, and the nicely browned steak left the frying pan and landed on the plate. He also added the grilled garnish to complete the plating.

“Do it after dinner. Shall we go?”

“Wait, just a moment.”

“What is it now? What.”

“Not yet.”

Jae-jin looked at the neatly prepared plate and let out a shallow breath. A slight tremor was mixed into his breathing. He didn’t know why he was so nervous when he had been intimate with Seo Eui-woo more than once or twice.

“Wine… Let’s have a bottle of wine with it.”

“Wine?”

“Aren’t you well-versed in alcohol, Seo Eui-woo? Bring anything. It’s just to set the mood.”

Seo Eui-woo complied without complaint. A bottle of red wine floated smoothly from the wine cellar downstairs. Wine glasses were also taken from the cupboard and floated over silently.

“Is that all?”

“…No, not yet.”

Jae-jin reached out and grabbed Seo Eui-woo’s waist. He pulled on the black apron strings and untied them. The apron that had been wrapped around his waist throughout the cooking fell to the floor, sliding down his muscular body.

Jae-jin declared with complex emotions.

“Yes, that’s all now. Let’s go eat.”

“Yes, Jae-jin. Let’s go together.”

*

The steak Seo Eui-woo made was delicious. Even though he had been distracted halfway through cooking, it was perfectly cooked. The medium-rare, moist beef tenderloin split apart as softly as tofu as soon as a knife touched it.

The wine Seo Eui-woo brought was also excellent. Kwon Jae-jin felt that the taste of expensive alcohol was all the same, but strangely, today, the heavy flavor of the dry and profound red wine seemed to vividly come to life and hit his mouth with force. Just like how the paintings looked different in the exhibition room, even the taste of the wine felt special.

Seo Eui-woo sat next to Jae-jin and poured wine for him until Kwon Jae-jin finished his meal, or took a bite of the piece of meat that he held out to his mouth. Jae-jin tried hard to ignore it, but Seo Eui-woo was already erect at that time. The sleek suit pants, glimpsed under the dining room table, were swollen as if they would burst, thickly bulging.

“Jae-jin, how’s the taste?”

The voice that asked so affectionately stuck to his ear like syrup, sweet and cloying. The gaze looking at him was also no ordinary gaze. While looking at Kwon Jae-jin as if he were the most precious treasure in the world, a chilling, glistening lust was clearly revealed.

“…It’s delicious. The texture of the meat is tender.”

“Eat a lot. Drink a lot of wine too.”

“Yes, I’m eating my fill.”

“Haha, that’s good.”

At this moment, Seo Eui-woo was realizing and experiencing firsthand that the affection and lust he had divided into two could manifest at the same time.

He was dying to go on a date, and he also wanted to touch Kwon Jae-jin just as much.

He liked that Kwon Jae-jin was eating the food he made so deliciously, and he also wanted to grope that indifferent mouth that was chewing and poke his finger into his mouth to rummage around.

He didn’t want to interrupt this meal, imagining that the piece of meat would go into Jae-jin’s body and become Kwon Jae-jin’s soft muscles in the future, but he also had the urge to grab and knead those soft muscles right now.

Seo Eui-woo thought to himself.

‘So that’s why I wanted to feed him while fucking him back then.’

In the past, he didn’t know why and only felt that he wanted to do it vaguely, but now he could clearly analyze the source of the conflicting desires. Seo Eui-woo smiled, having gained enlightenment. The gracefully curving corners of his mouth looked resilient and refreshing, like the wing feathers of a bird taking flight.

“I like you.”

Seo Eui-woo confessed casually. It was as if he was laughing because he liked him so much, and the intense emotion in his heart overflowed, causing the words to leak out on their own.

“I like you, Jae-jin.”

At those words, Kwon Jae-jin’s expression softened slightly. Even the words “I like you,” which he had heard hammered into his ears hundreds, thousands, or perhaps even tens of thousands of times, sounded different.

Following the genuine painting and the expensive wine, which had previously left him indifferent, even the common words that Seo Eui-woo often uttered were different today.

Why does this keep happening? What’s so different? It was like starting Act 2, a new life, in a play. All sorts of evidence kept popping up from all directions as if to say he should never even think of doubting again, so he couldn’t help but have a truly new mindset.

“Seo, Eui-woo, if you say things like that during a meal, it’s embarrassing.”

Jae-jin stammered slightly. He was already worried about Seo Eui-woo’s erect lower body. If it were the Seo Eui-woo that Kwon Jae-jin knew, it wouldn’t be strange if he had already thrust his dick at him, but he was on edge because the format of the date was still barely being maintained.

“What’s wrong with saying I like you? I’ve always said it.”

“That’s true, but…”

“Or what? Is it because I’m watching you eat and getting a hard-on?”

“……”

“I like you. Enough to get a hard-on watching you eat, Jae-jin. Enough to endure until you finish eating, even though I have a hard-on. I like you, Jae-jin.”

He was thirsty. Kwon Jae-jin picked up the wine glass and drank the dark red wine inside. The wine warmed his body just right. The inside of his stomach was warm.

“If you empty that plate, Jae-jin, I’m going to have skinship with you. I think I’ll feel a very different feeling then.”

“…A different feeling?”

He had drunk all the wine in the glass, but he was still not quenched. Jae-jin bit the edge of the wine glass that touched his mouth with his front teeth and asked.

“Yeah, if I touch you now, Jae-jin, it’ll definitely be different from before.”

“……”

“I’m sure of it. It’ll be different. Completely.”

Kwon Jae-jin took the empty glass that he had been needlessly chewing on out of his mouth and placed it on the table. The wine bottle floated up on its own, even though there was no waiter, and filled the glass.

He glanced at Seo Eui-woo, and their two-sided eyes and gazes met. His gray eyes were blazing as he knew them. But on the other hand, they were calm.

He felt a static excitement from him.

Seo Eui-woo was like a retriever who had learned to wait. It seemed that he had gained the conviction that if he endured this short time, there would be an even greater reward afterward.

Did Seo Eui-woo also feel the new Act 2 that Kwon Jae-jin felt? Or did he realize with his animalistic intuition that Kwon Jae-jin’s heart had been opened wide to that young Seo Eui-woo, even though Jae-jin hadn’t said anything yet? He didn’t know which it was. But it didn’t matter which it was.

“Yes… I’m sure it’ll be different if I touch you now, Seo Eui-woo.”

Jae-jin, stopping his thoughts, picked up the full wine glass and drank it. This time, he emptied the glass without leaving a drop and placed it forcefully on the table with a thud. Then, without cutting the remaining steak on the plate with a knife, he stabbed it hard with a fork and chewed it roughly and swallowed it. He also quickly stabbed the few remaining asparagus and sweet pumpkin, put them in his mouth, and swallowed them.

“You’ve finished eating.”

Jae-jin, who had quickly emptied the plate, picked up the napkin on the table and wiped his mouth roughly. He threw the napkin on the plate and looked straight at Seo Eui-woo. Now, the two of them were making proper eye contact.

It was the proper way that Seo Eui-woo had been clamoring for.

Guiding properly, dating properly, that proper way.

“Eui-woo.”

Kwon Jae-jin called Seo Eui-woo. In the way that he liked to hear.

Then he said this.

“Shall we do it on the dining table? I’m tired of the bed.”