May I Call You Noona?

As soon as they slipped through the crowd, the young man’s hand fell away from Eunju’s wrist. He stepped back immediately. After catching his breath, he spoke in a low voice.

“I’m sorry. It was urgent.”

Eunju looked down at her wrist. There were no marks from being gripped hard. The first feeling that came wasn’t one of having been dragged, but rather of having truly escaped.

Up ahead, the other young man was scanning to make sure no one else approached Eunju, carving a path for her. When a member carrying a drink glass passed, he subtly shifted his body aside, and if a chair jutted into the aisle, he quietly pushed it back with his hand.

Eunju watched them with a detached air. Their tone and movements were cautious. She couldn’t tell whether they were people who hadn’t yet secured a place in the club or simply those with manners ingrained in them. One thing, however, was clear. They were different from the men at the earlier table. They didn’t treat the space as their own, nor did they handle Eunju like a woman they could consume at will simply because they had seen her once before.

They moved first to ensure she wouldn’t feel uncomfortable. If anyone showed signs of approaching, they naturally stepped between them. When Eunju slowed her pace, they silently matched ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her speed. Strangely, it made her feel secure.

The reason they had come to this gathering was obvious. It was out of desire for Eunju. These were men who had imagined her most intimate places and, unable to hide that imagination, had already offered up their own bodies first.

Yet strangely, she didn’t feel only that desire in their touch now. There was clearly a man’s strength in the hand pulling her toward them. But within that strength lay a carefulness not to handle her roughly. Boys who could not hide their desire yet could not push a person aggressively. Boys who wanted a woman’s body yet moved first to rescue someone in trouble.

Eunju could not explain it. But she felt it with a woman’s instinct.

The two chose a slightly empty table between the inner part of the bar and the entrance. It was not completely tucked away. It was a spot visible to Minjun, and one from which Eunju could slip away immediately if she chose.

The first young man pulled out a chair for her.

“Please sit here.”

Eunju looked at him for a moment. He could not hold her gaze for long. When their eyes met, he looked down at once, and even when he tried to look again, he awkwardly glanced toward his glass. His face had looked tense in the photos, but seeing him in person made the impression sharper. Like someone unaccustomed to receiving a woman’s direct gaze, he was careful and clumsy.

His body was already that of a man. The body she had first seen in the photographs was unmistakably a young man’s. Yet the person before her still seemed like a boy. While he could not hide the desires his body harbored, he could not properly receive even one glance from Eunju.

Desire had grown first in the man’s body, but the heart seemed not yet able to catch up with it.

In that moment, Eunju thought of her youngest brother. Having become pregnant young and left home, she had not watched him grow properly. He too was now a man old enough to feel desire for women. Just as her youngest brother had reached that age, the boy before her had grown up as someone’s younger brother and now found himself conscious of a woman’s body.

And by chance, the woman that desire was directed toward was herself—someone’s older sister, someone’s mother, and one man’s wife. That fact made Eunju feel even more ashamed.

Yet the desire did not feel merely sordid. It felt like a natural desire that had bloomed in clumsy, heated youth and happened to reach her.

The second young man was slightly different. He was scanning the surroundings. He looked in turn toward the table Eunju had escaped, where Minjun sat, and toward the entrance. His face was still youthful, yet he behaved like a sentry guarding her. His shoulders carried a little tension, and his eyes moved busily. That clumsy alertness felt reassuring to Eunju.

But when he looked at her, it differed from the first man. The first could not hold Eunju’s gaze long. When their eyes met, he looked down immediately and awkwardly turned to his glass when trying again. The second man did not avoid it. When their eyes met, he paused briefly and kept looking at her. It was not a blatantly scanning gaze. Yet he did not retreat. It was as if he were carefully storing the Eunju before him inside himself.

Eunju sensed a good heart in those eyes as well. A carefulness not to approach recklessly. An attitude that suggested he would withdraw at once if she felt uncomfortable. Yet strangely, it made the inside of her chest tremble with a tickling sensation.

The moment she met his eyes, Eunju recalled a very short scene. The desire that had stood firm toward her in the photograph overlapped with the sensation of it actually pressing into her body. As if that sensation heavily filled the depths of her lower belly, Eunju swallowed a breath.

The image of herself losing her breath beneath that young body, swallowing a low moan. The imagination flashed past too briefly. But after it vanished, it lingered like a small ripple.

“Drink some water first.” The first young man brought a glass. Eunju accepted it. The moment the cold glass touched her palm, the imagination that had just brushed by was pushed slightly back toward reality. His face showed he knew nothing. He was simply handing her the water with a worried expression.

Yet Eunju knew. From that single short imagination alone, she was already wet. The fact embarrassed her deeply. At the same time, it made her burn hotter.

Eunju barely managed to say, “Thank you.”

At those words, the first young man’s face softened just a little.

Minjun joined them a little later. It seemed to have taken time to push through the crowd. The moment he arrived, he looked at Eunju first. His eyes asked if she was all right. Eunju gave a tiny nod. But Minjun did not miss the subtle heat in his wife. Her face was slightly flushed. It was not merely the tension of someone who had escaped an unpleasant situation. Her hand holding the glass was modest, yet her breathing was subtly rough. Beneath the thin t-shirt, her chest rose and fell a little faster than usual.

He could not know exactly what had happened. But he could tell his wife’s body had already reacted somewhere. He could not know what glances had passed between them while the young men brought her over, or what imaginations had swept through her. Yet as her husband, there was one thing he could know. His wife would be wet right now.

The moment he thought that, hot pressure surged below Minjun’s waist. For an instant it felt as if his body would rush to the end, but he swallowed the impulse with an unaffected face.

He wanted to know. What had made Eunju like this. Whose eyes, what touch, what imagination had soaked his wife’s body. But he did not ask. He knew this was not the moment to ask.

Only then did Minjun look at the two young men.

“Thank you.”

The first young man quickly bowed his head.

“It was nothing.”

“Sorry for bringing her so abruptly,” the second young man added.

“The atmosphere was a bit much.”

“We hesitated for a moment on whether it was right for us to intervene.”

Minjun nodded briefly.

“No. Thank you.”

“Thanks to you, Eunju could escape that difficult spot.”

At those words, the two men’s shoulders relaxed a little.

Eunju listened to the short exchange. Minjun’s single phrase had eased the tension in the place somewhat.

The middle-aged men had not fully withdrawn. Before long, one of them approached with a drink glass.

“Sister-in-law, our table is still waiting.”

“You’ve said your hellos over there, so now you should come back.”

He was smiling.

“We were in the middle of talking about the photos earlier.”

“We need to discuss the modeling too.”

Eunju lifted her head slightly while holding the water glass. Modeling. They spoke as if she were a woman whose intimate places they had already seen once, someone they could someday stand before the camera again and strip.

The second young man answered first, smiling.

“Senior, we’ll look after sister-in-law a little longer.”

“Young friends, you’ve seen her for a moment. Now you should return her to us.”

He smiled.

“We’ll look after her a little longer. We haven’t even greeted her properly yet.”

His tone was polite. But he did not retreat.

The middle-aged man’s face stiffened briefly. He did not like the appearance of having Eunju taken away by the young ones. Yet he knew that turning stern here would only make himself look ridiculous. He forced a smile.

“All right, keep her a little longer then.”

“But not too long.”

With only those words, he returned to his table with his glass.

Similar incidents happened two or three more times. Someone came using snacks as an excuse. Someone came using a drink as an excuse. Each time, the two young men would rise slightly from their seats or turn their bodies to block them naturally.

The first young man said carefully, “You were quite uncomfortable earlier, weren’t you?”

Eunju did not answer right away. Minjun also looked at her. Eunju set down her water glass.

“A little.”

At that, the first man’s expression darkened.

“We should have gone sooner…”

“No, it’s all right.” Eunju shook her head. “I was able to leave because you two came.”

The second young man spoke lowly, “I’m glad.”

The second young man hesitated a moment.

“Um…”

Eunju looked at him. He could not continue at once and only fidgeted with his glass.

“I know it’s right to keep calling you sister-in-law, but…”

The first young man glanced at him from the side.