Park Walk
"Whoa... there are seriously so many people here. Good thing we didn't come any later—we would've been screwed."
"Yeah, it was smart to leave early like you said, honey."
My wife and I finished lunch and arrived at the open plaza in the city center park where today's festival was being held. When we got there, a performance was already in full swing on the stage set up in the middle of the square. Luckily, it didn't look like the turn of the singer my wife liked had come yet.
Looking around, the plaza was already packed with people who'd come to watch the show. The seats arranged in front of the stage were completely full, and behind them, those who couldn't get a seat were standing and watching.
"Yujin, looks like we're going to have to stand and watch this."
"Hmm... can't be helped. Sitting would be nice, but standing has its own kind of vibe, right?"
"Won't it be tiring? The performances look pretty long. Your legs won't hurt?"
"I'm fine, honey. It's been so long since we've watched an outdoor show like this. I can handle it~"
"Then let's watch until the singer you like performs, and if your legs start hurting, we'll just head home."
"Sounds good."
We made our way toward the layers of people standing in front of us to watch the show. As we got closer, we saw countless people mixed together, watching the performance. From elderly seniors to people who looked like college students, and even little kids—people of all ages were packed in, creating a massive crowd. The noise they made was quite loud.
'It's more chaotic than I thought. Should we just go somewhere else?'
I've never liked crowded, noisy places, so the current situation felt pretty stressful. My wife must have noticed the look on my face because she slipped her arm through mine and looked up at me.
"Honey, since we're already here, let's enjoy it~ If it's too much, we can always go home."
"No, it's not that bad. Let's watch the show."
Thinking back on how we hadn't really spent much leisure time together lately, I felt a wave of guilt. For her sake, I decided to endure the situation and keep watching.
And so we pushed our way into the crowd ahead of us and began watching the performance from within it.
While watching, I turned my head to the side and saw that my wife was genuinely excited—smiling nonstop as she focused on the stage. Seeing her like that made me feel warm inside, but suddenly, a dangerous thought surfaced.
I wanted to touch her. Right here, in this moment.
'With this many people around, if I touch her, no one would even notice, right?'
Until now, whenever I'd touched her in public, it had always been in quiet places with almost no one around. I'd never tried anything in a massive crowd like this. But over the past few days, touching her body outdoors had started to feel almost addictive. Right now, the urge to do it was overwhelming.
'But if I touch her here, she'll probably get really mad... Before it was always empty spots, but now...'
My mind was torn between reason and instinct for a long time. In the end, instinct won. Maybe I'd secretly been hoping it would. Thinking any more about it would just be wasting time, so I finally acted on the thought dominating my head.
I turned toward my wife. She was still staring intently at the stage. Just to be safe, I glanced behind us. The people standing behind us were completely focused on the performance too. Only then did I move my hand, slowly lowering it to start groping one of her ass cheeks.
"Honey!"
As expected, my wife jumped in surprise at the sudden touch and quickly turned her head to look at me. Then she glared at me silently. I didn't even blink, continuing to knead her ass.
"Are you crazy? What the hell are you doing?"
She whispered sharply, her voice small because the situation clearly terrified and confused her. I whispered back just as quietly.
"What's the big deal... There are so many people right now. No one's going to notice what we're doing."
"Still... there are people all around us like this?"
"Yujin, just look. Everyone's completely zoned out watching the show. They don't care about us at all."
"Ugh... Honey, you know what? You've been acting like such a pervert lately."
"Please... it's fun, isn't it? I won't get us caught, Yujin..."
"I really can't stop you... But if someone else catches you, it's your problem, okay?"
Luckily, it seemed like she was willing to let it slide. I'd expected her to get angrier, so her relatively calm reaction caught me off guard for a moment. Maybe she was starting to get used to situations like this. They say people are creatures of adaptation... Perhaps she was adapting to this kind of "situation" too. With that thought, I kept massaging her ass.
"Mmm..."
As I continued touching her, she gradually lost focus on the performance. Her expression grew tense as she felt my hand. I wasn't sure if it was embarrassment or shame, but her pale face was visibly turning red.
While I secretly kept groping her ass in the middle of the crowd, more and more people kept pouring in from behind to watch the show. The crowd grew so dense that bodies were brushing against each other. My wife seemed to notice too—she kept turning her head back and forth between me and the stage in a daze.
"Honey... shouldn't you stop touching me now?"
"Yeah... there really are a lot of people. But that just means no one will see what we're doing."
"Seriously... you too..."
She seemed to have completely given up. With a sigh, she focused her gaze on the stage even as I continued touching her ass.
Right then, the singer she'd been waiting for finally took the stage. The artist she always listened to began performing, and my wife poured all her attention onto the stage.
'Maybe I should step out for a smoke...'
I'd been standing outside for a long time, sweating a lot, and my legs were starting to ache. I thought about slipping away to the nearby smoking area for a cigarette, then picking up some water and snacks from the concession stand for both of us while I was at it.
I was about to tell her, but her favorite singer's performance had just started, and she was clearly completely absorbed in it. I didn't want to interrupt her this time. So I quietly pulled my hand away from her ass, squeezed through the tight gaps in the crowd, and finally made it out.
I had a smoke in the smoking area, then went to the concession stand, bought some bottled water and a few of her favorite snacks, and headed back toward the stage. There were even more people than before. I squeezed through the narrow gaps again and finally managed to get back to her side.
I let out a tired breath and looked at her. It must have been the highlight of the performance because she was barely even breathing as she stared at the stage. Not wanting to disturb her, I stood beside her and focused on the show too.
Some time passed. After my wife's favorite singer finished, the final act—an extremely popular idol group these days—began performing. People started surging in from behind like a wave.
'Hmm... way too many people coming from behind. Her favorite singer's done, so maybe we should head out soon?'
I was just thinking about saying something to her when she suddenly poked my side with her finger and glanced at me.
"What's wrong?"
"Honey... you can stop touching me now..."
"What are you talking about? What do you mean..."
"Doesn't your hand hurt? How can you keep touching it all day long?"
"All day? What are you..."
I understood what she meant right away. She thought I'd been groping her ass the entire time. But I'd stepped away for a smoke and gone to the concession stand, leaving her side for quite a while. And when I'd returned, her favorite singer had been performing, so I hadn't touched her at all so I wouldn't disturb her.
'What the hell is going on right now?'
Part of me felt wronged, but I turned my head to look around her, trying to understand the situation. That's when I saw it—a man's hand, the back of it pressed so closely against my wife's ass that it looked glued there.
My heart started pounding wildly as I looked at the face of the man who was molesting her.
'That bastard...'
From what I could see, he looked quite young. I'd expected someone like this to be older or have an obviously sleazy appearance if they were bold enough to do something like this in a crowded public place. But the man in front of me didn't look sleazy at all. If you saw him on the street, you'd think he was just an ordinary guy.
I was standing to my wife's right, and he was positioned slightly behind her. His eyes were fixed on the stage with a completely blank expression, as if nothing was happening. But the back of his hand stayed firmly pressed against the firm, round curve of her ass that rose beneath her dress.
With the performance in full swing and people packed so tightly that bodies were touching, it must have given him the courage to try something so bold. Looking around him, it seemed like he was alone, without any companions.
I stared at him for a long time, lost in thought, when my wife's voice snapped me out of it.
"Honey, should we head out now?"
"Uh... yeah, let's go."
"Yeah. My favorite singer's done performing... Let's go home."
"Alright, let's go home."
If she found out that some other man—not me—had been touching her ass, she'd be devastated. So I decided to act like I'd been the one doing it the whole time. I took her hand and pulled her toward me as we started making our way out of the crowd.
As she moved with my hand in hers, the man's hand naturally slipped away from her ass. Once we were out of the crowd, I turned my head back to look for him. Bold as ever, he hadn't moved from his spot. He was still there, pretending not to be interested while secretly watching her.
The sight of him was so absurd I almost laughed.
'Isn't he nervous at all...? Anyone could see that was straight-up sexual harassment...'
I couldn't just let this go. I told my wife I needed to use the restroom quickly and asked her to wait for me at the parking lot first. Then I strode after the man who was slowly starting to leave and called out to stop him.
"Excuse me. Hold on a second..."