Romantic Gangster

#75

“If you’re here, come inside.”

“I’ll just be a bother since you’re busy.”

“Who? You? How can you be a bother? There’s a place to wait inside. Let’s go in.”

Ji-woo, who followed Hyun-joon into the store as he gently held his hand, passed a short hallway next to the counter and entered a quiet room. Unlike the brightly decorated hall, this room was furnished a bit more formally.

“There’s no reservation here today. Make yourself comfortable.”

“Okay. Hurry and go out. They’ll look for you.”

“Yeah. See you later.”

Watching Hyun-joon leave the room after ruffling his hair and even kissing his cheek, Ji-woo pulled out a chair and sat down. The place Hyun-joon touched and left felt hot.

These days, this kind of thing happened very frequently. Just by Hyun-joon bringing his face close, his heart would thump and sink, and sometimes his underwear would get soaked from Hyun-joon’s hand habitually stroking his hair while resting.

“……”

Hyun-joon quickly noticed most of these changes in him. At those times, he would lower the hand that was stroking his hair and gently caress his body here and there or press his lips here and there. After their second time joining bodies, this happened almost every day.

So perhaps because of that, there were times when a strange sensation would gather in his inner thighs just by looking at Hyun-joon’s face. Just like right now.

…Why do I keep having these thoughts?

Ji-woo shook his head to scatter his thoughts and quickly took out his cell phone. It seemed better to look up anything and think about other things. Then, with a knock, the door opened and Hyun-joon came in again. He was holding a light green drink in his hand.

“Drink this while waiting. It’s called melon cream soda, a new product, and I thought you’d like it.”

“It looks delicious. It smells like melon.”

Ji-woo, who sipped the melon-colored drink through the straw, smiled. As Hyun-joon said, the sweet and soft taste was just what he liked.

“It’s delicious.”

“It is? That’s a relief. Then I’ll really finish work quickly and come.”

“Yeah, don’t worry and go.”

This time, Hyun-joon, who kissed his lips a bit longer, grinned. Ji-woo’s heart surged at that smiling face. Without realizing it, Ji-woo grabbed the arm of Hyun-joon, who was about to turn around and leave.

“Hyun-joon…!”

“Yeah?”

He grabbed him, but he couldn’t immediately answer “why” he grabbed him. His rapidly beating heart, the churning sensation in his lower abdomen, and feelings like not wanting Hyun-joon to leave all combined to make him feel very strange. He felt like he needed to calm down a bit.

“…I want to smell your scent.”

He needed Hyun-joon’s pheromones. He felt like he could relax with that.

Hyun-joon understood those words at once. Without any hesitation, he approached and embraced Ji-woo’s body, releasing his pheromones. His body temperature rose with the seeping pheromones. Ji-woo buried his face in those shoulders, liking the warmth that was a bit hot beyond just being warm.

As he inhaled deeply, Hyun-joon’s pheromones, which felt refreshing but somehow cozy, entered deep into his body. Feeling his heart calm down to some extent, Ji-woo slowly detached his body.

“Sorry, you have to work…”

“What are you sorry for? Don’t say you’re sorry. If you apologize for that, I’ll be sad.”

“Okay. I won’t.”

“Drink this while waiting. Call me right away if you feel a bit weird or something.”

“Yeah. Okay.”

This time, Hyun-joon, who kissed him twice with a smack, waved his hand and left the room. Ji-woo took a deep breath, holding Hyun-joon’s lingering pheromone scent in his body. Somehow, he felt like his body was all tangled up. His heart had calmed down, but his body wasn’t calming down at all. It felt similar to when Hyun-joon rubbed his tongue all over his body for a very long time.

“Ji-woo. You’re so hot, what should I do?”

He remembered being entangled with Hyun-joon for a long time on the weekend. The moment he vividly recalled the face that had been between his legs and looked up at him, his body became hot and he felt like pheromones were leaking out. Even when he tried to suppress it, his body became hot here and there as if something was broken. Ji-woo quickly took out a suppressor from the inner pocket of his bag, put one in his mouth, and swallowed it with the drink.

“……”

The drug effect slowly spread through his body that had been curled up, trying hard not to recall Hyun-joon’s sensation that remained vivid on his body.

“…Haa.”

Ji-woo, who let out a long sigh, sat up straight again, took a few sips of the melon cream soda, and put one of the mango jellies the owner gave him in his mouth. Just getting rid of the feeling that his body was boiling seemed to make him feel alive.

When he put the third mango jelly in his mouth, Hyun-joon opened the door again. It seemed that more than 30 minutes had passed while taking the suppressor, waiting for the drug to take effect, and eating the drink and jelly.

“What are you eating so cutely?”

Hyun-joon approached, watching Ji-woo munch, tilted his head and slid his tongue between Ji-woo’s lips. Ji-woo, who pressed his lips tightly together, thinking it was absurd to kiss while eating, even if it was jelly, shook his head.

“No, not now.”

“Oh, this smells like that jelly from last time.”

“That’s right. Mango jelly. The owner gave it to me. Want some?”

Ji-woo, who swallowed the jelly, put his hand in his bag. Hyun-joon quickly tilted his head again and put his tongue into Ji-woo’s empty mouth, stirring the inside where the sweetness remained as if tasting it with the tip of his tongue.

“This is enough.”

When he detached his lips, he saw a face that had already turned reddish. Hyun-joon, who put Ji-woo’s bag on his shoulder, grinned.

“Let’s go home.”

“…Yeah.”

Ji-woo, who left the room with Hyun-joon, exchanged greetings with the store staff on the way out. The owner, who knew him as the kid who liked cheeseballs, was a very pleasant person. It was a relief to see that he liked Hyun-joon a lot.

“Ji-woo. Go out first. I’ll just quickly grab the cheeseballs and come out. If you wait here, the owner will fucking talk a lot. He really talks a lot.”

“Yeah, I’ll wait in front of the door.”

“Yeah, it’ll take about 3 minutes.”

Ji-woo, who smiled watching Hyun-joon naturally carrying his bag and entering the kitchen, exchanged farewells with the owner who said he could come and eat as much as he wanted whenever he craved something, and went outside the store.

Although he had heard that Hyun-joon’s working environment was good, now that he saw with his own eyes that he was really working with good people in a good atmosphere, he finally felt relieved. He felt like he had finally completely escaped from the dangerous and pitch-black world.

Even the 3 minutes of waiting for Hyun-joon felt too long, so when he peeked inside the store, he saw the customer who had said something to Hyun-joon earlier near the entrance coming out. The customers didn’t leave as if waiting for something and wandered near Ji-woo.

“Is he really getting off work?”

“Yeah. I saw him changing clothes and coming out.”

“Will he really give it? He has a lover.”

“Still, I think I’ll regret it if I don’t give it. You never know.”

Ji-woo, who was listening to the conversation right next to him, understanding it and not understanding it at the same time, soon turned his body to approach Hyun-joon, who was coming out of the store, noticeably taller than the others by a head.

“……”

But the customers who were standing next to him also simultaneously turned their bodies towards Hyun-joon. Ji-woo, a little startled, watched from about three steps away as the customers approached Hyun-joon and surrounded him.

“Are you getting off work?”

“Ah, yes.”

“This is my number.”

“I told you I have a lover.”

“I know. But I think I’ll regret it if I don’t give it. It’s okay to just meet sometimes to eat and hang out, not date.”

The customer who handed Hyun-joon a tissue with a number written on it smiled brightly and placed her hand on Hyun-joon’s arm. Ji-woo’s gaze precisely touched that hand on his arm.

…Why is she touching him as she pleases?

He felt a bit strange. His mood sank… to the point where he wondered if he could feel this bad. Hyun-joon twisted his body to obviously avoid that hand and swatted it away with his arm. Then he roughly returned the tissue to the customer who seemed startled.

“Why would I eat with you? I don’t even have enough time to see my own, it’s fucking annoying.”

Still, he tried his best not to lose customers, but it was the limit. Hyun-joon, who took his gaze away from the dumbfounded-looking customer without any lingering feelings, moved his steps regardless and strode towards Ji-woo standing behind. The face that had been cold was now filled with eyes dripping with love.

“Baby, cheeseballs.”

“…Huh?”

“Eat it before it cools down. Say ah.”

Ji-woo, surprised by the word “baby”, blankly looked up at Hyun-joon. Hyun-joon, who grinned at Ji-woo like that, took out a cheeseball, blew on it, and fed it to Ji-woo’s mouth. And as if to show off, he wrapped his arm around Ji-woo’s waist, firmly hugged him, and left the front of the store. He didn’t forget to blatantly kiss Ji-woo’s cheek as he ate the cheeseball blankly.

“…Do you know them?”

“No. Just customers.”

“Earlier too… it seemed like they were saying something to you…”

“Ah, yeah. Asking if I have a lover. Ah, there really should be a law that catches anyone who asks such things to a working person.”

“…They were like… grabbing your arm earlier too…”

“Ah, I know. Why are they touching me and being ridiculous?”

Ji-woo, who swallowed the cheeseball, glanced and took in the sight of Hyun-joon’s arm that the customer had touched earlier.

“…Do things like earlier happen often?”

“I’m busy working, but every day I get so annoyed because of that…”

“…Every day? You get numbers every day?”

Only then did Hyun-joon notice Ji-woo looking a bit sullen. He thought he was just annoyed like him or simply asking out of curiosity, but the atmosphere was a bit… different from what he had thought.

“Even if I get them, I throw them all away every day. I have no interest at all, and when someone asks if I have a lover, I just think ‘Fuck, here we go again’ and don’t listen well.”

“…Yeah.”

“It’s true. It has no meaning at all. No matter what bullshit anyone says, I only have Seo Ji-woo. You know that.”

“…Why are you calling me Seo Ji-woo? You really seemed distant just now.”

“Who? Me? Did I say Seo Ji-woo just now? No, I said Ji-woo.”

Although he had jokingly said it before, it was the first time Ji-woo spoke quite seriously about calling his name with his surname. Hyun-joon, feeling cold sweat, examined Ji-woo’s face that seemed a bit sulky.

As Hyun-joon traced back one by one to figure out at which point Ji-woo’s mood turned bad, he recalled Ji-woo saying that he saw him talking with the customers. The fact that Ji-woo, who saw all of those customers waiting for him, talking to him again, and even grabbing his arm, was in a bad mood meant…

…Huh?

Hyun-joon, who thought of a certain word, looked at Ji-woo’s face again. The pretty face that wasn’t eating any more cheeseballs and wasn’t looking at him, only looking ahead as he walked, still looked a bit sullen.

…Could it be that you’re jealous right now?