Is This... a Date?
The first week came to an end, and the weekdays of the semester's second week drifted by in peace. Thursday morning's lecture, in the stretch before the professor arrived, had turned the classroom into a noisy little fair of everyone chattering about their own business.
"Haah..."
Choi Mi-na, student council president of the Programming Department, sighed as she stared at her phone. Hearing it, Park Yu-seong turned toward her.
"What's up? Something happen?"
"My little sister fought with Mom again. Why does she keep doing this... aagh..."
Mi-na folded forward onto the desk and let out an irritated sigh. She looked like someone carrying far too many worries.
And in that same lecture hall, there was one more person weighed down by worries of an entirely different kind.
Hmm... what should I do...?
That person was Hong Ji-hyeon. The substance of his worry was, in its own way, more serious than anyone else's.
What am I doing today? Should today finally be the day I try the vibration? Or is this still the stage where I just get used to the Aneros? Or do I just go for back-to-back jerk-off sessions?!
Or maybe it wasn't that serious at all.
Ji-hyeon was midway through this deeply solemn deliberation of his when Marcus sat down beside him as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Hello."
"Oh, Marcus, hello!"
By now, the two of them sitting together had become an ordinary sight.
Thanks to the start-of-semester general meeting the week before, more students had started coming up to Marcus, but he was so taciturn that the conversations never really lasted. In the end, the only person Marcus himself approached and stayed close with was Ji-hyeon. Even to everyone else, the sight of the two of them together already looked natural.
A routine had formed between them. They met in the lecture hall and said hello, walked together chatting about games, and at lunch tried a new restaurant every time for Marcus's sake. Once the afternoon classes were done, they parted with a promise for the next day.
Today they were supposed to say goodbye looking forward to next Monday. At least, that was what Ji-hyeon had thought.
But one line from Marcus began to change those plans.
"Are you busy tomorrow?"
"Huh? Uh... I'm not busy."
Aside from housework, all I've got is games and looking at porn, so no, I'm not busy.
"Want to hang out? Hanging out?"
Hanging out...? Hang out together...?
At the unexpected offer, Ji-hyeon's brain cells briefly quit what they were doing. And then, almost at once—
Bweee—baaa—!! Viva! Viva!
—they shot off fireworks.
Going out with Marcus! That's the best thing ever!
Inside his head, every last neuron threw a festival over this scorching piece of news.
"If you don't wa—"
"Yes! Let's hang out!"
Marcus, taking Ji-hyeon's frozen silence for a rejection and just about to walk the offer back, was cut off as Ji-hyeon accepted with his eyes shining.
The next day, Friday afternoon, Ji-hyeon left the house with a spring in his step.
"Hm-hm-hmm~"
The whole way there, his humming never stopped.
Hehehe~ I didn't even masturbate last night... I didn't even look at anything dirty! And the reason is today!
I'll get closer to Marcus while we hang out, right? I'll keep getting a close-up look at that superior body, right? Then I'll carry those memories carefully, preciously, all the way home... and let all the lust I've been holding back explode into a guilt-soaked black-worship masturbation session~
He had the whole plan worked out.
And so Ji-hyeon arrived at the meeting place cradling an ambition that belonged to him alone.
The spot Marcus had chosen was a big commercial district a fair distance from campus. It wasn't even evening yet, but true to a popular downtown strip, the street was already packed with people of every age and every nationality.
Friday only crushed it tighter. The usual Ji-hyeon would never have come out to a place like this, but today he didn't hesitate for a second.
But what are we even doing? I only heard the meeting spot and never asked what we'd actually do.
...Ah! Isn't that something I was supposed to look up?! Marcus doesn't know Korea that well!
Struck by the late realization, Ji-hyeon smacked his own forehead. He hurriedly lit up his phone and started searching for things to do nearby.
"Whoa, shit!"
"Did you see that just now?"
Just then, Ji-hyeon felt the air around him grow a little unsettled. He looked up, and down the long stretch of street ahead he saw Marcus walking toward him.
Black pants. A beige polo.
On a street drowning in flashy fashion, it was an outfit that shouldn't have stood out at all. But the muscles packing that shirt changed the story completely.
Eyes from every direction locked onto his unusual height and that rare, massive, muscular frame. For Marcus, it was a familiar occurrence.
"Sorry. I'm late."
Without so much as acknowledging the stares aimed at him, Marcus closed the distance in long strides.
"Not at all! I just got here early. It's not even the time we agreed on yet!"
Ji-hyeon answered the way he always did, with a bright, fresh smile.
"Oh, Marcus, um... so around here, there's..."
He was about to start guiding him with information he had only just searched up when Marcus pointed down one side of the street.
"Restaurant. I made a reservation. There's an arcade over that way."
Restaurant... that would mean a place to eat, and arcade...?
"Oh! An arcade!"
Marcus looked down at Ji-hyeon, who had understood him, and held out a palm as if he were guiding the way. Ji-hyeon stepped off after it—
and with that, the date began, each of them carrying a meaning he kept to himself.
The two of them arrived at a three-story arcade nearby. Just like the street outside, crowds were streaming in and out.
An arcade~ It's been a while. And I've never been in one this big... where do I even start?
Stepping through the entrance and looking around, Ji-hyeon found the first floor packed wall to wall with claw machines.
"Shall we look around first?"
"...?"
"Ah, I mean... um... looking around! Here!"
"Ah. Sounds good."
And so the two of them started walking, browsing the prizes lined up in the machines.
From enormous crane games down to tiny ones, the prize corner held every kind of machine and merchandise. Being the first floor, it was crowded enough that the aisles had narrowed with people playing and people passing through. But—
"Oh."
"Ah."
They shifted aside.
Marcus's impossible-to-miss bulk made people open a path all on their own.
The Red Sea! I'm looking at a human Red Sea!
Even with the way clearing itself, Marcus drew his shoulders in and kept to one side so he wouldn't block anyone trying to pass. Ji-hyeon tried to copy him, but whether he hunched or stood up straight, Marcus's broad frame hid him completely. It made no difference at all.
He was scanning for anything worth a second look when one machine caught his eye.
"Oh! They have this?"
It was prize merchandise from an anime he loved. Goods from the series were common enough in arcades and gacha shops, but what startled him was that a high-quality figure was sitting in there.
"I know this one too."
"It's famous, right~ I love it. Even though the creator just threw the ending away... tch..."
Marcus, who hadn't caught the tail end of that, only blinked, face blank. Ji-hyeon, too busy staring at the figure to notice, hesitated a moment and then pulled out his wallet.
"All right. Should I try?"
And so he took on the figure machine—and
"Haa..."
thirty dollars hit the floor in a blink.
Seeing Ji-hyeon rue the wasted money, Marcus took out his own wallet.
"Let me try."
Ji-hyeon stepped aside, and Marcus paid by card. He bent that big body in close to the machine while Ji-hyeon watched with shining eyes.
That heavy, dead-serious attempt—so cool! A total testosterone guy! God, this is too much! I keep ending up wishing Marcus were gay~
Under that privately fawning gaze, Marcus said nothing—and sent fifty dollars straight up into the sky.
"I-it's fine~ It's supposed to be hard~"
In truth, Ji-hyeon had started trying to stop him once it crept past thirty dollars, but Marcus had already entered a pride match with the machine and didn't quit until he'd burned all the way through fifty. Only then did his hand finally stop.
"Let's head up to the second floor!"
Ji-hyeon said it brightly, trying to revive the mood, and led him upstairs.
Compared with the first floor, fewer people were up here, and the games clustered together were things like darts and basketball. The first place the two of them approached was a dart game that looked relatively empty.
Pree-leep~
The machine chimed, and their match began.
"Haht!"
Ji-hyeon's dart stuck in cleanly enough.
"..."
Marcus's dart stuck in awkwardly.
"Haht!"
Ji-hyeon's dart landed with exquisite precision.
"Ah..."
Marcus's dart sailed clean out of play and decorated the outfield with a home run. Ji-hyeon won so overwhelmingly it was almost rude.
Darts... are fun!
The first darts of Ji-hyeon's life.
"Next... how about that?"
Marcus, pride slightly bruised, suggested the basketball game.
"Sounds good!"
And so their shoot-the-basket showdown began.
Of the three brothers, the eldest had occasionally taught his younger siblings basketball ever since they were little. It was one of the few reasons the three of them—whose tastes and personalities had split so sharply—ever gathered and played together in peace.
This time Marcus took up the ball meaning to beat Ji-hyeon. The moment he went to throw, he remembered a line his eldest brother, always kind to him, used to drop whenever they played.
Tonk!
Marcus's ball hit the rim and collapsed to the floor. The match was close, but the win was Ji-hyeon's.
"Yahoo!"
Ji-hyeon, who had thrown himself into the contest with everything he had, rejoiced out loud at his victory.
"I won! Ah...!"
Still riding the high, he turned around—and froze at the look on Marcus's face.
Marcus wasn't exactly angry, and he wasn't annoyed either. He was just a little sunk in gloom over his own skill. But his face was usually set hard, and with that distinctive height, the way he ducked his head cast a shadow across it, so the look came off a little frightening, as if he were mad.
The moment Marcus noticed Ji-hyeon flustered by his expression, he flustered even harder.
"Ah, oh...! Congratulations...!"
Misreading it as Ji-hyeon getting scared because of him, Marcus flailed a hand in the air and blurted the words out in a rush. But Ji-hyeon wasn't scared.
That face just now...
So fucking sexy, shit♡ They say a handsome man looks good even when he's angry, and it's true!
Even this round-eyed look is handsome! A sexy, handsome, superior Black man! Enough to turn a perfectly normal guy gay!
A ruined brain had no negative interpretations to offer.
Ji-hyeon's foolish little grin left Marcus puzzled, but it also set him at ease. The mood loosened, and as they headed for the third floor, one machine caught both their eyes.
A punching machine.
"Wanna try?"
"Ah, no. I'm not really the type for something like... ahem—!
Marcus, do you want to try?"
He wanted to see it. Just how hard a punch those enormous muscles could throw—curiosity swelled up in him.
"Okay."
Marcus agreed lightly, paid, and the punching machine came to life. People nearby stopped to watch. And then—
WHAM!!
Marcus's solid fist slammed into the pad.
Diriririri!
The numbers climbed and climbed—and
"Oh, ooooh!"
the onlookers got loud.
Ding!
Then the number stopped. Or rather, it had no choice but to stop, because it couldn't go any higher.
The machine was displaying the highest score it had.
"Heh..."
Only then, satisfied, did Marcus turn toward Ji-hyeon, the corner of his mouth lifting before he even noticed. Ji-hyeon, frozen by the force of that punch, saw that small, soft smile—and
A smiling face... is the sexiest of all♡♡
The bitch inside him stirred.