A Sudden Stirring
After the reunion ended, and they came home that night, not a single word passed between them.
Seojin sat at her dressing table and removed her makeup, staring at her reflection in the mirror for a long while.
Yunsu’s brazen gaze. The men’s persistent stares.
It should have been offensive, something to resent without hesitation, and yet she couldn’t deny the thrill that came with being noticed as a woman again—a sensation she had long since forgotten.
She pressed a hand to her face and let out a deep sigh.
Taehyun lay in bed and couldn’t sleep.
Yunsu’s cruel words, the looks and the photos that had been poured over Seojin, would not leave his mind.
He shot upright and rushed to the bathroom, splashing cold water over his face. But every time he closed his eyes, the fantasies only rose more vividly.
His body burned with shame, and the instincts he had kept buried began to writhe in a grotesque new shape.
Taehyun buried his face in the pillow, wracked with guilt, but the darkness that had awakened within him no longer seemed willing to let him go.
The morning after the reunion, Taehyun finally got out of bed after ten, his head pounding with a hangover.
The vile fantasies that had tormented him all night, along with the smell of alcohol, still seemed to linger in his skull.
His stomach burned and his head throbbed. Groaning, he hauled himself up from the bed.
When he stepped out of the room, sunlight was pouring in between the balcony doors. From the kitchen came the sound and smell of bean sprout soup simmering.
Seojin, wearing an apron and absorbed in cooking, looked as gentle and calm as ever from behind. But perhaps because of the hangover, her shoulders seemed stiff, and last night’s awkwardness still hung in the air.
It was Seojin who broke the awkwardness first.
“You’re up? Come sit here.”
Seojin set a bowl of bean sprout soup on the table for him.
“Nothing happened yesterday... right?”
“Probably?”
Seojin smiled, her expression calm and untroubled.
“How’s your stomach? You drank quite a bit yesterday.”
“...Yeah... sorry... I got too drunk yesterday, didn’t I?”
“You were meeting old classmates after so long. That can happen.”
Seojin seemed kind and composed. Taehyun lifted his spoon, trying to eat the soup, but his mind was still crowded with the words Yunsu had spoken last night.
Other guys would be itching to fill you up.
New stimulation
Wouldn’t you be curious about that kind of excitement too, sis-in-law?
Disgusting words. They should have risen from his gut all the way to his head in outrage, and yet strangely, every time he recalled them, his lower abdomen felt heavy.
“Honey.”
“Hm? What?”
“Why are you so spaced out? Your soup’s getting cold.”
“Yeah...”
Taehyun hurriedly slurped down the soup. The hot broth slid down his throat, but the obscene fantasies in his head never cooled.
The brazen stares in the restaurant. The words meant to provoke Seojin.
“About yesterday... you must’ve felt bad that Yunsu acted so rudely?”
Taehyun asked cautiously. Seojin, who had been eating, froze.
“Yunsu? Well, he was drunk and spouting nonsense, so what can you do...”
Seojin tried to laugh it off with a smile.
“Still, talking about swapping and all that... he was saying insane things.”
“...Yeah... they were all so full of themselves, and the men were all together like that...”
There was a tremor in Seojin’s voice. She placed a fried egg over his rice and added,
“Maybe we’ve been living too quietly. Sometimes those kinds of provocative stories are kind of refreshing.”
The moment the words left her mouth, Seojin was shocked by herself.
Why had she said something like that without thinking?
She had clearly found the men’s stares unpleasant, and yet the way they had looked at her kept coming back to mind in a strange way.
Trying to push the needless thoughts away, she stared down at her rice bowl.
Taehyun couldn’t say anything. His wife had mentioned stimulation.
The thought of the duty they had stopped carrying out on the bed for more than a year made his chest feel tight.
After finishing breakfast, it was past one when Taehyun lay blankly on the sofa.
A variety show was playing on the television, but he could only hear the sound; nothing of it registered in his mind.
That bastard Yunsu’s photos...
Men and women entangled in the dark. Over their exposed bodies, Seojin’s face kept superimposing itself again and again.
If it were Seojin...
He imagined rough hands belonging to strange men violating Seojin’s soft skin.
He should have been seething with anger and shame, but his body was betraying him, twitching in response.
Seojin carried some fruit into the living room.
All at once, the words she had heard at the reunion surfaced in her mind.
New stimulation... curious?
She frowned in spite of herself. It was unpleasant, and yet somehow impossible to forget.
“Honey... I brought some fru—”
Seojin, who had come over to him after cleaning up, stopped short.
At the point where Taehyun’s gaze had frozen, the outline of a clear bulge showed through the thin shorts.
“Honey... right now...”
“Ah, no... no... it’s just...”
Taehyun’s face turned bright red, like it might burst. Seojin moved closer and sat beside him. The instant her eyes fell on his pants, they widened.
And then, as if she couldn’t believe it, delight she could not suppress burst forth.
“Honey, this... how long has it been?”
“Seojin, that’s not—”
“You’re hard! My God, you really...”
Seojin’s voice trembled faintly. As if possessed, she reached out and groped at his pants.
The hot, rigid throb of him traveled through her palm.
“Ahh... it really is. You’re really hard.”
“...I’m sorry. I don’t know why this is happening all of a sudden.”
“Why would you be sorry? I’m so happy. So...”
Seojin’s hand slipped without restraint toward his waistband.
She pulled his pants down and gently stroked the cock that had been neglected for so long. Every time her fingers brushed his skin, his body shuddered as if convulsing.
Seojin gripped it carefully, but with aching need.
“Ah... ahhh...”
Taehyun tipped his head back and let out a low groan.
“Honey... look at me...”
Seojin pulled his face down and kissed him.
Taehyun swept her up into his arms. She felt light enough that the year-long absence between them seemed meaningless.
“Eek!”
In the warm bedroom flooded with sunlight, the bed gave a pleased little cry under their weight.
Taehyun laid Seojin down and, like a starving beast, devoured her lips.
Her breathing roughened under the violence of his kiss. He hurriedly peeled off her T-shirt.
Her soft skin, revealed in the sunlight, shone dazzlingly.
His hand brushed her thigh. The sensation severed the last thread of his reason.
“Mmm...”
Seojin let out a moan. Taehyun’s fingertips found her already slick pussy for the first time in ages.
At that moment, the reunion scene once again seeped into his mind. Seojin laughing with another man, Yunsu’s hungry gaze as it devoured her.
He was startled by the fantasy, but he could not control his body. If anything, the image only fueled his arousal further. He pulled off her panties and spread her thighs.
He teased her most sensitive spot with gentle pressure.
“Ahh... honey...”
Seojin’s voice trembled with pleasure. She surrendered everything to Taehyun’s heated touch.
But some corner of her heart was tangled. Her husband’s passion after so long should have been enough, but the strange madness flickering in his eyes left her confused.
She thought of Yunsu’s brazen stare.
It had certainly been offensive, and yet at the same time it had awakened some sensation she had forgotten existed as a woman.
She squeezed her eyes shut against the rising guilt.
Taehyun stripped off his own clothes. His cock stood thick and hard.
Seojin looked up at him, stroked it softly, and then drew him into her mouth.
The moment her lips closed around his most sensitive place, Taehyun sucked in a sharp breath.
“Baby... feels too good...”
He whispered, running a hand over her hair. Seojin climbed over Taehyun and slowly took him inside herself. Wet friction and mingled moans filled the room.
Her naked body glistened with sweat beneath his fingertips. He clutched her thighs hard.
When Taehyun squeezed her forcefully, Seojin felt a sudden sting of pain. And yet, at the same time, the pressure he had given her after so long brought such pleasure that without meaning to, she trembled at the waist and moved with him, matching his rhythm.
“Ahh... honey, it’s so, so good...”
Surprised by her husband’s changed hunger, she nevertheless let her body sway willingly. But the unfamiliar shadow in his eyes made her uneasy.
He wasn’t looking at her now.
What drove his pleasure to its peak was the fantasy of Seojin as she had appeared in the photos, overlapping with the moment he had seen her among the men at the reunion.
After a few minutes of pounding, Taehyun cried out,
“Baby... I’m gonna come...”
“Haah... haah... today’s a safe day... inside is... fine...”
Seojin whispered, after so long. Taehyun spilled his semen inside her.
The two of them lay there drenched in sweat, breathing hard.
The feel of Seojin’s soft breasts against his arm was warm, but her heart felt heavy.
“Why are you so strong today?”
Seojin said with a laugh as she lay there. There was playfulness in her smile, but also a note of curiosity.
That bastard Yunsu was looking at you.
I was going crazy imagining other men wanting you.
The filthy truth he could never say aloud rose to his throat.
Taehyun felt ashamed of his own desire, of this disgusting craving aimed at his wife.
You crazy bastard... why... would you even imagine something like that...
But he still couldn’t bring himself to admit that the reason for his erection was tied to the obscene fantasies from that day.
At the same time, seeing Seojin’s pale body stretched in his arms made his lower half feel heavy again.
“Well... maybe because you’re extra beautiful today.”
Taehyun lied and gave an awkward smile. Seojin climbed atop him and kissed him.
She tried to hold on to the happiness of this moment.
In the early hours of that night, Taehyun lay staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep.
The sex had been a success, but the provocative words and fantasies kept circling in his head. He turned to look at Seojin, who was sleeping soundly beside him.
Could we really... live happily like this?
As he tossed restlessly in the darkness, he watched her sleeping face.
The sight of her left him writhing all night between deep guilt and forbidden arousal.