Episode 10 — The Female of the Most Superior Male, Part 1
The cheesecake served that day at the dining restaurant of ONYX Palace Seoul was exceptional. It had baked so beautifully that even the executive chef was thoroughly satisfied, and the blueberry jam crowning it was perfect. He felt certain that if any single dish were to linger longest in his guests' memories, it would be that cheesecake.
But—
Ah. I can't even remember whether that last bite of cake went in through my mouth or up my nose.
That certainty was crushed flat. Hong Ji-hyeon's head was so packed with anticipation and worry over everything still to come that he never truly tasted the cake at all. Even now, following Marcus down the corridor, his thoughts were such a tangle that he walked with his mind half switched off.
Marcus, a few steps ahead, was busy messaging his eldest brother.
The truth was, Marcus had told Hong Ji-hyeon a small lie. Small to Marcus—though if Ji-hyeon had heard it, he would not have called it small at all. It was about the restaurant bill.
Marcus had told him that his brother let them eat for free at the hotel restaurant. That was the lie. All his brother had done was secure a quick reservation and keep the extra service charges off the check. The base cost, Marcus had paid himself.
Once he had confirmed the room number his eldest brother had booked, Marcus switched the screen off. He swallowed the faint bitterness those last words had left sitting in his chest.
They collected a key at the first-floor lobby, climbed the stairs once more, and stopped in front of the guest-room door. To Hong Ji-hyeon, the moment Marcus unlocked it with the key card and slowly pushed it open seemed to stretch on without end.
Calm down, Hong Ji-hyeon.
You came to watch a movie. You did not come to have sex...
You came to rest for a bit. You did not come to have sex...!
You just came to kill time. You did not come to have sex!
Fuck! I want to have sex!!
Marcus stepped into the room, and the Ji-hyeon roaring all of that in perfect silence went in with him.
A standard room—just the right place for two people who only meant to pass a little time and leave. There was, however, one thing Ji-hyeon had failed to consider.
Huh? Why is there only one bed?
...There's only one bed?!
The number of beds.
Ah, no. We're not sleeping here tonight. So it doesn't matter how many beds there are!
Wait. Are we sleeping over? After we stop by that club at ten, what time will it even be? Are we going to miss the last train?
Are we actually... staying the night tonight?!
Unlike Ji-hyeon, frozen stiff with his head full of noise, Marcus strode to the refrigerator and took out a bottle of water. Leaving the door hanging open, he turned to look back at him.
"Want some juice?"
"Ah, yes... one, please."
Marcus pulled an orange juice from the fridge and pressed it into Ji-hyeon's hand. The brief brush of that hot hand set Ji-hyeon's heart hammering, his blood breaking into a run.
In truth, Marcus was no calmer. The easy manner was pure performance; he had reached for water the instant they came in because his own body had already run hot, and he needed to cool it. He took one large swallow, picked up the remote, and sat in the chair beside the bed.
"Umm... uh... should we watch a movie?"
"Ah, yes! R-right! We said we'd watch a movie!"
Ji-hyeon, who had been staring a hole through the orange juice in his grip, scrambled to sit at the very edge of the bed, right beside Marcus.
They logged Marcus's streaming account into the television and went looking for something worth watching. With both their heads snarled up in other thoughts, they simply put on some passable title from the rankings, and the result was less than good.
This... isn't fun...! It's not quite a disaster, but it's not interesting either...
His focus was already in pieces, and the movie itself refused to help. Ji-hyeon glanced down at his phone, meaning to check whether they still had plenty of time.
"...Hah!"
And in the middle of that, his eyes met Marcus's. Marcus had turned to look at him.
"Ah, ahaha~ I-I'm watching!"
"Well... it's not that fun, is it?"
"Ah, yeah... a little... haha. I guess I'm just not really into this kind of detective stuff."
Marcus's brow creased. He hadn't caught it.
"Ah! I mean... mystery genre? Anyway, the genre is not my style, I think."
He had been trying to fold in English so Marcus could follow, and what came out was a thoroughly wrecked sentence. Embarrassed, he decided he might as well keep the conversation going while he had the chance.
"Marcus, what's your favorite genre?"
"Action. I like action."
"Action's great~ It hits you right in the eyes and the ears."
"And you, Ji-hyeon?"
"Hmm~ Me, I..."
Favorite films and anime flickered one after another through his head.
"Hard to pick. Comedy's good... action's good too..."
"BBC?"
"Oh, come on, that one's my favorite, not even worth saying...!"
"..."
"...Huh?"
A chill shot up Ji-hyeon's spine. His mouth went bone-dry, and a prickle crawled through his skull. He needed to be sure he hadn't misheard.
"Uh... what did you just... say, Marcus?"
"BBC. Blacked. BNWO."
"...Sorry. Back then, I saw your phone."
"Eh...?"
"When you came to my place."
"Ah..."
Ji-hyeon's fogged brain forced itself to turn. At last he remembered the day he had passed out drunk on Marcus's bed. And though he had forgotten it in all the time since, he remembered that he had been looking at something on his phone then, too.
Back then... the screen never went dark...
The moment he understood that all of it had already been seen, his whole body began to tremble like an aspen leaf.
"I-I'm sorry! I absolutely... that's not...! I wasn't trying to be racist...!"
Shame at having his tastes exposed, and bewilderment, and worse than either of those the fear that Marcus might be disappointed in him—or angry—bore down on him hard.
"Ji-hyeon."
"I ab~solutely don't have any bad intentions!"
"Ji-hyeon."
"...Yes..."
"Don't worry. I'm not blaming you."
His head still wouldn't work, and he couldn't properly take in what Marcus had said. But the tone that reached his ears was gentler than anything.
"If that had bothered me, I wouldn't be here with you today."
Still speaking softly, Marcus rose and walked slowly over until he stood in front of him. Unable to get hold of the situation, Ji-hyeon dipped his head and watched nothing but those legs as they drew nearer.
"I don't know much about any of that, but... if it's really something you like—something you truly want—"
Srrk.
A sound like cloth sliding reached his ears. At the very edge of his vision he caught a glimpse of what was making it, and he lifted his head, eyes wide.
Thump.
Marcus's shirt hit the floor. Ji-hyeon's ears heard it fall, but the sound never made it as far as his brain. His brain was already full of what his eyes were sending.
What opened in front of Hong Ji-hyeon's eyes was a sight he could not bring himself to believe.
Trapezius muscles reared up in thick ridges, joining his neck to shoulders so broad they had passed wide and become vast. Arms loaded with muscle, swollen and packed solid all the way through, veins crawling over them in crooked lines—and a stomach segmented with a precision even those arms could not match.
A huge, finely wrought body no one could imitate, the kind of body you only ever got to dream about. Perfect—no. Superior. Superior past the point where any description could cover it. And it was right there, in front of his eyes.
"Eh... ah..."
Marcus's thick, burning hand settled lightly atop the frozen Ji-hyeon's head.
What is this... is he actually human...? I'd gotten used to the height, the size of him, but what is this body?
Can muscle even get that big? Can lines be that sharp? This is impossible...
Something someone like me could never compare to. Something I wouldn't even dare to try. Real... no, past real...
The body of the most superior male in the world...♡♡♡
The tension in him melted clean away. A superior being was cradling him so gently, and by instinct he submitted to that flesh, that existence, those genes—and felt safe.
It was only natural. It was what he was supposed to do, and what he had no choice but to do. Before an existence like this, it was only right that someone like Hong Ji-hyeon become the female—
And he—no, she—had wanted it more than anyone.
