Submission
Only the sound of Choi Deok-hun’s footsteps echoed through the air. My own steps trembled, yet I could not stop.
The cold evening air brushed my face, but nothing could cool the heat rising from deep in my lower belly—nothing except Choi Deok-hun himself.
A chill silence hung between us as we reached the door of his house. In such a short time I had already visited three times; the place felt familiar now.
Standing before the front door, a strange anticipation welled up inside me.
Click—
The sound of him turning the key in the lock rang out unnaturally loud. The metallic echo spread down the quiet corridor like a ripple.
It felt as though that sound alone was locking me away.
Still gripping the doorknob, he slowly turned to look back at me.
“Come in.”
My gaze was drawn into the open doorway.
The unlit interior lay drowned in darkness—not merely the absence of light, but something deeper, something that had settled and thickened. It yawned open like a bottomless mire, ready to swallow anyone who took a single step inside.
Standing on the threshold, my feet refused to move easily.
I knew it was dangerous. I knew that the moment I crossed this door, there would be no going back to the way things were.
If I stop here… I can still turn around.
Yet strangely, that thought held no power at all. My body was already leaning the other way.
The heat rising from deep in my abdomen grew sharper, more distinct. The sensation I had barely been holding at bay until now seemed to flare even hotter simply from standing in front of this door.
That heat did not become discomfort or revulsion. Instead it hardened into a certainty: this was the only place that could end it.
The open front door no longer looked like an entrance I could never escape—it began to look like an exit from the state I was in.
The thought that I ought to go home flickered past, but something else rose first.
I had to end this state right now.
So my feet moved—far more naturally than I expected, without hesitation.
The moment I crossed the threshold, the air changed.
The cold from outside was cut off; the heavy, closed-in warmth of the interior wrapped around my body.
Behind me the door shut. Then came the sound of the lock sliding home.
Click—
With that single short sound, the path back was completely severed.
I stood there a moment, then lifted my eyes and looked around the house.
The layout was familiar. I had been here enough times to know roughly where everything was. And yet today it felt different—quieter, narrower, as if it were pulling me deeper inside.
Through that space Choi Deok-hun moved as if nothing were amiss.
He took off his shoes, walked in, switched on the lights, straightened his clothes.
“You planning to just stand there?”
I came back to myself a beat late.
“…Ah. Yes.”
I slipped off my shoes and stepped inside. The instant my bare feet touched the floor, everything felt hypersensitive. Even the smallest stimulus made my body want to react first.
He headed toward the kitchen. I simply stared after him.
…What is he doing?
I stood frozen for a second, then naturally followed him in.
“It’s evening. We should eat first.”
He asked it so casually. For a moment I was speechless. In this situation, I had never expected a question like that.
“Why…?”
His attitude was starting to make me frantic. He opened the refrigerator as if nothing were wrong.
“Dinner first.”
He said it as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. I remained standing right where I was.
…Eat what?
I couldn’t understand how anyone was supposed to eat in this state.
He truly began preparing dinner—pulling out a pot, lighting the stove, taking out ingredients with practiced hands.
I could only watch.
Time passed.
Longer than I expected.
“….”
My breathing grew steadily more ragged.
The sensation that had been with me since earlier refused to subside; it simply stayed. The longer nothing happened, the clearer and sharper it became.
…Why isn’t he doing anything?
I muttered it inside my head. I couldn’t bring myself to say it aloud. Instead I drifted closer for no good reason.
From the kitchen entrance I took one more step in—right up beside him.
“Something you want to say?”
His words stopped me. But I didn’t step back.
“Dinner… is fine.”
I said it quietly.
He glanced at me, then turned his eyes away again as if nothing had happened.
That only made me more impatient. I couldn’t just stand still; words slipped out on their own.
“Couldn’t we… do something else first?”
“Is that so? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Choi Deok-hun feigned ignorance. And that was the end of it. Nothing more followed.
I could see the way he was savoring my restless state.
I closed my mouth. My hands clenched. Continuing to do nothing like this was becoming harder to bear.
“…You know.”
I couldn’t force the words out myself; I wanted him to take the lead. He didn’t.
He turned off the gas range, sat me down at the table, then dropped heavily into the chair opposite.
“A-yeong. When you ask for something,”
he continued in a slow, measured voice,
“you have to say exactly what you want… and you have to ask with real sincerity.”
He looked at me with an expressionless face.
…Just…
For a fleeting second I struggled with how to put it into words.
“…Um.”
My mouth finally opened. Without even turning his head he asked,
“What.”
If I said it directly, it would be over. I knew that the moment I did, I would have crossed completely.
So I spoke around it.
“…Back then… that thing…”
I couldn’t finish. He gave no reaction at all, simply kept staring straight through me.
That only made it more unbearable. In the end I pushed one step further.
“…Aren’t you going to do more?”
I had meant to be careful, but it came out more direct than I intended.
Only then did a faint smile touch his lips—barely there.
“Do what.”
He asked as if he truly didn’t know. I looked at him, then shut my mouth. There was no retreating now.
After coming this far, after saying this much… I couldn’t go back.
“…What you were going to do… more of… back then.”
My voice sank low. My gaze dropped to the floor. My hands clenched tight.
For a long while he said nothing.
The silence stretched. I finally couldn’t endure it; I stood and took one step toward him.
“…Please do it.”
Quietly, but clearly.
In that instant something inside me collapsed completely.
I no longer hid it.
I no longer held back.
I simply said exactly what I wanted.
And I stood there in front of him, unable to lift my head.
Choi Deok-hun, who had been watching me blankly, rose from his seat.
“It seems you don’t want it that badly yet, A-yeong.”
He walked past me toward the bedroom. My heart plummeted.
He’s going to stop now? After all this?
That… was no longer possible. The thought barely formed before I desperately grabbed after him.
“Wait…!”
The word burst out in a rush. Before his footsteps could fully stop, I was already moving.
I caught up and seized his arm. My grip tightened.
My body already knew that if I let go, it would be over.
“…Don’t go.”
He slowly turned his head. I could no longer hold myself up; right there on the spot I bent my knees.
They touched the cold floor. No thoughts came. Only the need to end this state remained.
Trembling hands climbed onto his thighs. There was no real strength in them. Still I didn’t stop.
“Please…… Uncle.”
A voice laced with pleading slipped out.
“Do something… to me.”
Misery and pride had long since crossed that line. Unable to raise my head, I simply stayed there.
Choi Deok-hun slowly turned his body and looked down at me. The moment our eyes met, my breath caught once.
A silent gaze.
In it was the unconcealed superiority of someone who no longer needed to hide anything, mixed with the leisure of a man who already knew the outcome.
“What exactly do you want me to do? Ask for more part-time pay? Or help with the work?”
His voice was calm to the point of cruelty. He knew precisely the place that would shame me most, and he drove straight into it.
“You know. Back then, in the room…… in the storage room……”
Before I could finish, a strong hand seized my chin and forced it up. The eyes of Choi Deok-hun that I was made to meet were filled with a victor’s ease.
He radiated the presence of a predator ready to devour me at any moment, and murmured low,
“Say it properly with your own mouth. What you want from me right now.”
Then his hand stroked down over my chest.
“Ask with a more sincere posture, A-yeong…!”
My heart constricted. The certainty that I had already crossed a line from which there was no return rang through my head.
I squeezed my eyes shut and cast away the last remaining shards of reason.
I stripped off the thick outer clothes, slipped my hands under the thin T-shirt and undid my underwear. Then I slowly pushed down my pants until I was nearly naked.
Still on my knees, I pressed my breasts against his thighs.
“Touch me. Like back then… no, more than back then……”
I confessed in a low voice.
“Put it in……”
In that moment everything that had been holding me up crumbled. I admitted it: without his hands I could no longer endure even a single second.
A deep smile settled on Choi Deok-hun’s lips. His large hand wrapped around the back of my neck and pulled my face flush against him.
Through the fabric, the massive shape of him pressed against my cheek.
“That’s right. You should have been this honest from the beginning.”
Wherever his hot breath touched, fire spread. Trembling at the strange sensation he gave me, I willingly sank deeper into the mire.