Welcome
"So... that's the favor you're asking?"
"Yeah. They're going to find out anyway. If that's how it has to be, I don't want people saying I sneak around rolling in bed with some young man."
"I'd rather that too, but I'm not that young."
"You're young enough for me. And you're plenty of material for the hyenas who feed on gossip."
Han Gyeo-wool drove us in a top-of-the-line foreign sedan, and all the while Lee Hyesun fidgeted with my hand. When I pressed her, she answered, flushed with embarrassment. She had a point. Hyesun was no ordinary person, and the rumors were going to spread regardless. If it was inevitable, even I would rather steer them the way I wanted.
"Are you really all right with this?"
"You're the one who ought to be worried, not me. Don't be too scared. All right?"
"I'm not scared."
I scratched my cheek as I answered, and Hyesun carefully rested her head against my shoulder.
"If it's too much, should we just go home...?"
She kept fretting over me. I shook my head quietly, took her hand, and stroked the back of it as I whispered.
"No. Let's do it your way. I was only thinking, all over again, that you're no ordinary person."
"It'll be fine. This makes it easier for our PR team to step in, too. You won't be exposed. Not unless it's somewhere that actually wants a fight with me. I just hate being handled like a scandal. Like a piece of gossip."
"Then that's what we'll do. I don't want that either. There's no reason we shouldn't hold our heads up."
Once I'd made up my mind in the auditorium, retreat wasn't even a thought. Set beside all that agonizing over whether this relationship was even normal, this was simple. I'd do as Hyesun said. I was a little tense, though.
"...Thank you..."
"We're almost there. I won't place a separate call, then."
"All right. Thank you, Gyeo-wool."
"Of course. Please enjoy yourselves, both of you. And..."
Unusually, Han Gyeo-wool let the end of her sentence trail away, and Hyesun's face flushed red. I understood what she meant. In the rearview mirror, the gratitude in Gyeo-wool's eyes was unmistakable.
"...Thank you."
"Not at all. I'm only saying it because I find you cute, Ms. Hyesun."
"C-cute...? That word doesn't suit me anymore..."
"Doesn't it only matter if that's how I see you?"
"...Do you really think I'm cute?"
I let out a soft laugh and nodded. She'd just turned the compliment aside, but she must have liked hearing it, because she asked again. Then the car gradually slowed and came to a stop, and Hyesun began slipping back into her usual self, clearing her throat.
"Please wait a moment."
"All right. I'm counting on you."
"Yes."
"You just stay put."
"Ah. Okay."
Han Gyeo-wool got out, but Hyesun made no move to open the door. I watched her quietly. She only smiled, gentle—and in that moment the doors swung wide to either side, and the lights outside washed over us all at once.
"Thank you."
"Welcome."
A staff member in what looked like a doorman's uniform opened the door together with Gyeo-wool. Hyesun put on her sunglasses, stepped out, and waited quietly for me to follow. I'd nearly reached for the door on the other side.
"..."
I climbed out under her silent gaze, and the staff lined up in front of the hotel came into view. The curious stares of people who looked like ordinary guests were embarrassing, but I let out a slow breath and moved to Hyesun's side.
"Welcome."
"The president is waiting in the lobby."
"All right. Thank you."
"Yes."
The man opening the main entrance didn't look like a doorman at all. He looked like the hotel's manager—the crisp suit, the gold nameplate, the title of general manager. The atmosphere was awkward, the feeling entirely new to me, so I simply followed Hyesun without a word. Then a refined woman standing quietly in the lobby smiled with elegant grace, bowed from the waist, and offered us a greeting.
"Welcome, President Lee."
"Yes. I called ahead."
"Everything has been prepared."
"We have no luggage, so please send the staff back. This is a bit much."
"Understood."
Before the exchange between Hyesun and the woman who appeared to be the owner had even finished, the staff began withdrawing on their own.
"...Was the welcome show about enough at that level?"
"Yes. Not excessive. Just right. Thank you, unni."
"...When Gyeo-wool called, I thought I was dreaming. I was in the middle of a meeting—what is this?"
"We promised."
"I never thought you'd actually go through with it. Good grief. What were you going to do if the executive floor was taken?"
"I told you a suite would be fine."
"Enough. You're not some stranger. Now that you've come out this publicly, everyone will know this isn't an ordinary relationship. If the woman who calls herself your friend just tossed you some half-hearted suite, I'd be the one taking the heat, wouldn't I? Hello. So you're Hyesun's boyfriend."
"Yes. Hello."
"My. So fresh-faced and handsome. And young. However did you end up caught in this witch's grasp? If you need help, wave a carrot. This is your last chance to run."
"Are you planning to ruin the whole mood?"
She seemed to have a rather cheerful personality. Hyesun pouted and answered her easily, so they looked quite close. The woman who had been teasing her with bright laughter held a business card out to me and introduced herself.
"I'm Ji Hwa-ja. Unusual name, isn't it?"
I knew the face and the name without looking at the card. CEO of a famous domestic hotel chain, and owner of more than half the shares. Come to think of it, this hotel had been part of Hanseong, spun off more than a decade ago. So was this woman connected to Lee Chul-young, too?
"It seems like a name that would stick. I'm Lee Shinwoo."
"...My. A man with manners like yours, and yet somehow..."
"I told you to stop. He was uncomfortable enough already."
"Anyway, tomorrow morning's tabloid headline is locked in as you. Congratulations."
"You know I don't have a choice. I'm not going to be toyed with as material for some tabloid novel."
"Right. I'll send the photos to your PR team separately. Go on up. You're so lost in the person beside you, you won't even look at me."
"...Could you pretend not to notice, a little?"
"Cute. Then the two of you, enjoy yourselves. We'll talk later."
"Don't worry. Let's go, darling."
"Aigoo. What a scene."
"Unni."
"I know, I know. Our Hyesun is a woman after all. Here's the key."
With that, Ji Hwa-ja handed over a single black card, smiling, watching Hyesun as if she were still teasing her. Hyesun, who had been glaring after the woman as she withdrew in a peal of laughter, grabbed my hand in a hurry.
"Sorry. My unni's jokes go a bit far."
"It's all right. She actually seems happy, doesn't she?"
"...Yeah. We're pretty close. She went through the same thing I did."
"...I see. I've heard a little, though. She doesn't have any children, does she?"
"That's right. It was never made public, but she had three, and all three died when they were small."
"...I see."
"Yes. There was so much stress on the mother's body that every one of the children was in serious condition. She was Lee Chul-young's toy."
"...A toy?"
After hearing about Valhalla, I'd already thought this world had far too many madmen. A toy. And enough to leave the children impaired? What on earth. No. I don't want to think about it. Nothing good was going to come of that story, so even if Hyesun started in, I ought to stop her.
"Yeah. It's not a good story. I-if you want to know..."
"Later. Right now, we're what matters."
"Yeah..."
We boarded the elevator that arrived at an unhurried pace, and I felt Hyesun's hand—fidgeting as it held mine—grow wetter and wetter with sweat. The feeling wasn't bad at all. If anything, it was moist and soft, as if she'd smoothed on hand cream. I wanted to keep touching it.
"Are you nervous?"
"O-of course I am... It's my first time..."
"Don't worry. Just leave it all to me."
"...I'm going to do what I want to do, too."
"And what would that be. Now I'm curious."
"I-is it all right if I do it...?"
"Mm. We'll see."
"...Okay. I studied a lot, too, you know."
A soft laugh escaped me at the sight of her, but what spread through my chest was pity. A woman of forty, enduring for decades without ever properly sating the tremendous desire the women of this world carried. Why were there so many people around me who had spent their lives holding back? People who had lived that way, telling me not to.
"But exactly how old are you?"
"D-don't say it like I'm some elder... Please... I'm asking you..."
She pouted, almost pleading, and I caught myself. Lately I'd been disliking it too, being treated like I was already so grown.
"I'm sorry. It slipped out. How old are you?"
"...F-forty-three... That's too old, isn't it...?"
"No. You don't feel that age at all. Not your face, and not these soft hands."
So the moment she'd barely turned twenty, Hyunji. A surge of pity began to fill my chest. I reached out, wrapped an arm around Hyesun's waist, and drew her in as she was.
"Hahp..."
"...This waist, too. You've taken incredible care of it."
The firm figure in my hands, the feel of her flesh, didn't feel that age at all. And the abdomen resting against my waist hadn't an ounce of spare flesh. My throat grew drier and drier. I was desperate to see her with her clothes off. How hard must she have worked to maintain this? The thought of mussing a body she'd tended so carefully sent the stimulation rushing in harder.
"...O-of course... Do you know how frightening it is, getting older..."
"...These days I think I'm starting to understand."
"You? Thirty is truly your prime..."
Face flushed, she leaned carefully into my arms with no intention of pulling away, and went on.
"...I'm not strange, am I? Really...?"
"No. I want to touch you more. I want to take your clothes off. I'm curious how pretty you'll be."
"...D-don't get your hopes up..."
"What's this, losing your confidence all of a sudden."
"Y-your body... It's so firm..."
The rest dissolved into a hard swallow.
"Do you want to see it?"
"Yeah... I want to touch it..."
"You can."
"Ah..."
I quietly drew her hands over and had her wrap them around my waist. Her pupils trembled as if she didn't know where to put her eyes, and she carefully stroked my waist, my back, my stomach. Then her warm thigh pressed in and wrapped around mine.
"...Ah... It's hard..."
"Don't you like it?"
"N-no... Your body... I like it so much..."
"I like yours, too. Soft, and warm."
"Mmh..."
"You can touch my chest, too."
"...R-really...?"
"Of course."
I watched her eyes go round as she swallowed, then guided her hand up onto my chest. The moment it met my shirt, strength flooded into her fingers.
"Ah..."
"Do you like it?"
"...Yeah... It's so firm..."
At the dazed look in her eyes—swallowing hard over contact this slight—I smiled softly and whispered.
"Then I can touch you too, right?"
"Yeah...? Aht..."
I reached for her breasts all at once and took them in my hands. In that instant a fullness I couldn't help swallowing over filled my palms.
"Th-they're too big, aren't they? Th-they weren't like this before, but lately, all of a sudden..."
"...I like them so much..."
"...Really...?"
"Yes. They're just right. Truly..."
"Ahh..."
The sensation was maddening. A D cup at the very least. Her figure wasn't as willowy as Hyunji's, but with a waist that settled this neatly into my arms, maybe a 32D, or a 34C. I'd have to get her clothes off to be sure. I'd thought a chest like Kang Rahee's—firm, packed full—was what a real chest was. This feeling, yielding and crushing soft in my grip, was enough to shake that thought and leave me parched. I clenched my jaw and fought the strength gathering in my hands at that absurd softness, that plush give. I could feel my own excitement climbing.
"...Let's go. I can't hold back anymore."
"...Me neither... Mmh... B-but I want to wash first... I sweated a lot today..."
"I know. So did I."
"...Yeah... Hah..."
I held her quietly as she nestled into my arms, and before I knew it the elevator had reached the top floor. Hyesun grabbed my hand in a hurry and led me out. We hurried toward the only door there was.
