Geum-tae-yang Enters the Chat for Cigarette Education
The smoke drifted out the window in a long, thin ribbon. I stood there like that for a while, cigarette between my lips, elbow hooked over the windowsill, staring blankly at an evening sky that still held a smear of red.
The room where Park Daeshik had been standing only minutes ago was quiet again. On the kitchen sink sat a glass cup packed with cigarette butts. A delivery box lay shoved halfway across the floor. The hoodie I'd shrugged off that morning was still on the bed. The only thing that had changed was that this month's rent had somehow gotten taken care of. I took another drag.
"…I did solve something, didn't I."
The system didn't answer.
That number kept snagging on something in my head. The credit card bill, exactly the same. The overdraft account, exactly the same. Last month's rent, exactly the same. The state of this room, exactly the same. And there I was, smoking another cigarette with all of it left untouched.
Right. Fixing one thing doesn't fix your life.
I knew that in my head. I just didn't feel like having it confirmed in numbers right now. Clearing one month's rent had let me breathe a little, and the system had pretended not to see even that tiny gap.
"Fine, fuck."
Nobody had said a word to me, and I was cursing at thin air anyway. I raised my hand to flick the ash out the window — then stopped.
I could see the window one floor down. Daeshik's words from earlier came back to me too. Smoke outside, please. I leaned my upper body a little further out.
"This counts as outside."
Even by my own judgment, it was bullshit.
If I'm sending it out the window, that's basically the same as smoking outside, isn't it?
I could hear exactly how hard I was reaching, and the corner of my mouth twitched on its own. But today of all days, I had zero intention of being a reasonable person. So I smoked anyway. When my head got like this, nicotine was the fastest thing going.
One drag. Then another.
The evening wind blew harder than I'd expected. The smoke I exhaled started to drift forward, then bent sideways along the building's wall. I watched it for a moment. That white ribbon sliding straight toward the window right next door.
Fwooo…
I could see the smoke bending around the wall, but the next drag was already in my mouth.
No way he's got something to say about that too.
Less than a few seconds after I thought it.
"…"
Well. Once is whatever.
I put the cigarette back between my lips. That was when I heard a window sliding open next door.
Screech.
Then a man's voice exploded.
"Ah, for fuck's sake!"
I blinked. The voice was closer than I'd expected. One wall over.
"Cigarettes again?"
Cigarette still in my mouth, I looked sideways. Naturally, the wall hid his face. For no good reason, I was holding the smoke in. The man next door shouted again.
"Quit it with the cigarettes already!"
Oh, here we go again.
Just hearing his voice set my nerves on edge first. It felt like my whole day was being dug up to shove every one of my mistakes in my face, and a curse climbed my throat faster than any apology could.
For a second, my own temper flared. I'd spent the entire day doing nothing but getting lectured.
Stripped bare over debt by Taehyun.
Stripped bare over the state of my room by Daeshik.
And by the system, stripped bare as a human being, period. Now even the guy next door wanted a turn. I tucked the cigarette between my fingers and leaned further out the window.
"I'm smoking out the window, okay?!"
The answer came flying straight back.
"And all of that smoke is blowing into my place!"
"Go take it up with the wind!"
Even I paused for a second after saying it. By my own standards, that was a borderline brain-dead answer. Next door went quiet for a moment too. Then came a low mutter.
"Wow. Unbelievable…"
"What?!"
"No, seriously — do you not have common sense?"
That was the second common sense of the day. The word brought Daeshik's face rushing back.
Live with some common sense.
Common sense.
Remembering that out of nowhere just made me angrier.
"Why are you throwing a fit over someone smoking one cigarette!"
"One?"
The man's voice climbed next door.
"It's been coming in for a month now?"
"What do you mean, a month?!"
"Cigarette smell drifting in every single night — what, is a ghost burning incense over there?"
I shut my mouth. Every night. Come to think of it, I did light up every night. But admitting that here felt like losing.
"You have proof?"
"…What?"
"I said, do you have proof I'm the one smoking?"
Even by my standards, that was unhinged logic.
And still, I had no intention of shutting up. If I apologized now, it would feel like admitting I was wrong for the third time today alone.
I spat it out and was faintly impressed with myself. Garbage logic, top to bottom. The man next door didn't answer for a while. Convinced I'd won, I put the cigarette back between my lips.
I'd taken exactly one drag when—
BANG.
Something slammed shut beyond the wall. Cigarette still between my lips, I looked to the side.
"The hell."
A few seconds later.
Sound from the hallway.
Thud.
Thud.
With every heavy step that closed the distance, my head — hanging out the window just moments ago — drew itself back inside on its own.
No way. Is he seriously coming over?
Clack.
Footsteps. Not slippers. Bare feet or sneakers, I couldn't tell, but a heavy tread came straight down the corridor. I pulled myself back from the window.
No way.
Ding-dong.
The doorbell rang.
"…He actually came."
I pressed the hand holding the cigarette against my forehead. Why does everyone keep climbing up to my place today.
How long had it even been since Park Daeshik walked out.
Ding-dong.
Longer, this time. I carried the cigarette over to the sink and stubbed it out. I went to drop the butt into the glass cup, caught sight of the one Daeshik had taken out and left sitting there, and hesitated for a second.
"Aaagh, fuck it."
I jammed it in there anyway. I walked to the front door and tapped the screen beside it awake. He stood so close to the lens that nothing but his chest filled the frame. At first, I honestly mistook it for a wall.
Brown skin. The upper ridges of sharply carved abs. Slabs of chest muscle. No shirt.
"…What the hell."
I leaned in and studied the screen. The man took a step back, and only then did his face come into view.
Bleached-blond hair. Skin roasted a deep bronze by the sun. Thick brows under hair cropped short. Mid-to-late twenties at the oldest. And his body was outright insane — the kind you could paste straight into a gym advertisement without touching a single pixel.
Hold on. Why is that coming out of next door?
The fact that this was my first thought upon seeing a man who'd come to yell at me was, in itself, proof something was wrong with me. My gaze slid from his shoulders to his chest, down the ridges of his abs, then belatedly snapped back to his face.
The line from shoulder to waist was razor-clean, and there was hardly an ounce of softness anywhere on that bare torso. Nothing on him but black shorts.
That had been living next door this whole time?
I couldn't tear my eyes off the intercom screen.
And in that exact moment, my lower belly pulled heavy and tight. My knees were still sore. My inner thighs were still damp.
Something thick and salty still lingered somewhere in my mouth. It hadn't even been thirty minutes since Daeshik left.
A body still soaked in that afterglow started reacting the instant I saw the man on the screen. My pussy tightened, slow and deep.
Squeeeze…
Deep inside, I clenched once all on my own, then let go.
No. Don't.
Daeshik had barely left — why was my body already carrying on like this the second it saw the next man? I couldn't understand it.
No. I didn't want to understand it.
Once. Twice.
No reason, no stimulus — just clenching over and over. My nipples went hard inside my T-shirt. It was so absurd all I could do was blink.
"…Fuck."
The man on the screen just stood there. Arms crossed, waiting at my door. Doing absolutely nothing.
But the moment those veins standing out on his forearm came into sharp view, my already-raw clit throbbed once. I clamped my thighs together through a low, rolling orgasm — and the inside of my panties was already soaked.
Whether it was what remained from getting wet over Daeshik earlier, or whether I was getting wet all over again because of this man — I couldn't tell. Didn't need to. My body already knew the answer. And outside, a man was knocking on my door.
Maybe I shouldn't open it.
Even as the thought formed, my feet were already carrying me toward the front door. My brain said stop; my body, apparently, wanted to check exactly how big the man on that screen really was.
Knock knock.
Far calmer than the doorbell had been. His voice, on the other hand, was anything but.
"Nam Tae-oh, from next door. Open the door."
I swept my eyes over the tanned blond on the screen one more time — and my hand was already on the doorknob. Cold metal met my palm. My pussy parted its lips one more time.
Crazy bitch.
My grip on the cold handle tightened for no reason. The fact that I was this wound up from the very first second of opening my door for a neighbor whose face I didn't even know just annoyed me more.
Click.
The door opened and Tae-oh stepped in. He'd looked big even from the hallway; inside the room, the space itself seemed to change. Like the ceiling had dropped a foot. I took a step back. Tae-oh swept the room with a single glance.
The cup of butts on the sink. The delivery box on the floor. The hoodie on the bed. And me.
"You want the smell gone, the window stays open all day."
"I said I got it."
My voice shook more than I expected. Tae-oh hadn't even touched me — all he'd done was look — and my calves were already trembling faintly, my heels lifting off the floor. The afterglow was still living in my body.
The feel of a cock sitting in my mouth. The memory of my own fingers working over my clit. A body that hadn't recovered from a single bit of it was standing in front of this man right now. Tae-oh came one step closer. I didn't move. He walked past me toward the window.
He didn't even brush against me.
And in that instant, I felt his body heat anyway. A ribbon of warmth trailed across my side. My nipples stiffened inside my T-shirt and dragged against the fabric.
Swoosh…
Nothing had actually touched me. And yet that passing heat alone made the inside of my shirt feel unbearably rough against my skin.
Why is even THIS going straight to my nerves?
My body was reacting so fast that my brain felt like it was lagging a beat behind, scrambling to keep up.
"Open this window too."
Tae-oh took hold of the window handle. Veins stood out sharp along his forearm. The instant I saw them, my thighs drifted apart and pressed shut again, arousal stringing sticky between them. I flexed and forced them back together. Tae-oh pushed the window open, and the evening air poured in.
He turned around and looked at me.
"What're you staring at like that."
"…It's nothing."
Tae-oh walked toward me. I started to back away, then stopped. Backing off felt like losing.
He stopped right in front of me — close enough that a single breath pulled his scent in.
Fresh-out-of-the-shower clean. With something darker, thicker braided underneath. The moment that smell hit the back of my nose, my head gave a faint spin — and my pussy pulsed.
Once. Twice.
"Ms. Seo Yerim."
Nothing but my name, said properly, and my ears went strangely hot. From the instant the neighbor who'd been cursing me out minutes ago turned out to know my name, this stopped feeling like some random quarrel.
"What…"
"Your face is red."
"It's hot."
Tae-oh looked down at me for a moment. Then he raised a hand. It came to rest on my shoulder — barely more than placing it there. He wasn't even gripping. And at that touch, the strength poured out of my legs.
He barely touched my shoulder, what the fuck…
One hand on my shoulder. That was all it was. And yet the weight of that broad palm felt like it was pressing down on my entire body. Even the timing of my breathing slipped a beat.
My knees buckled and I sank straight down to the floor. The floor was cold. My thin jeans were soaked through with arousal, and the chill climbed right up to the entrance of my pussy. Tae-oh looked down at me.
"…What is—"
The words wouldn't come out. He'd only touched my shoulder, and my thighs were already slick. My clit dragged against the inside of my panties, throbbing.
My hips kept lifting off the floor and sinking back down in shameless little rolls. Tae-oh stared down at me for a moment, then muttered.
"What is this… aha!"
A brief silence — and then his hand hooked into the waistband of his shorts.
"It's a toilet, huh!"