Track and Field
Anxiety had climbed all the way into my throat; I would have done anything she asked, even if it meant tearing out my own heart. I nodded and spoke.
"I'll give you whatever you want."
Only then did Miryeong smile. She lowered her hand and guided my cock against her entrance. I found myself wondering why Yunchae, Myeongsuk, and this woman, too, all insisted on speaking to me with such deference—why they seemed so desperate never to hear me use casual speech with them. Being treated well wasn't something I disliked, not in the least, but deep down a slow guilt was rising: the knowledge that someone like me, with nothing to my name, was being handled like some kind of demigod.
Miryeong slowly lowered her hips and began to take me into her body. Even then her expression barely changed—until I saw her brow crease, just slightly. My lower body felt as if it were being cut away. It was strange. It was as if she had teeth inside her.
I snapped open eyes I had half-closed. Miryeong was watching me with an unreadable look. I wasn't doing anything; she was the one slowly working her hips. The motion itself was ordinary enough, but it was nothing like the slick, soft give-and-take of Yunchae's or Myeongsuk's bodies. It was as if she were raking her nails along my cock—an intense, scraping stimulation.
"H-hey… if you clench that hard…"
Miryeong paid my words not the slightest attention and kept rolling her waist. Her eyes were drifting shut. Even a woman as cold and stone-like as she was couldn't feel nothing in a situation like this. But her feelings weren't what mattered. I was already on the edge of coming at any second.
The inside of her body seemed to hold a pressure far lower than the air around us. She was sucking me in like a vacuum. I couldn't hold back any longer; I seized her waist. Her skin was already slick with sweat under my hands. I looked down at the body I was holding. In the room's light her figure gleamed. Miryeong's sweat-sheened body laid out the architecture of human muscle with merciless clarity. To put it crudely, it was like looking at an anatomical chart—or one of da Vinci's studies of the human form.
It was wondrous. I thought, So a human body can be this beautiful. I felt again how every person carries a different kind of allure. The style most men generally prefer is probably something like Yunchae's—pretty features, balanced proportions, breasts a little on the generous side. That was the look a great many men went for. Myeongsuk was older now, but with her rich experience and that thick, ripe quality she still held a woman's charm. The slight swell of her belly and the pores that no amount of makeup could fully hide—none of it mattered against a body that made you forget those things entirely. That, too, was a beauty that belonged to her alone.
And Miryeong, short on soft feminine curves but built like a Greek statue, all dense, hard muscle—she had a charm that was purely her own as well. I was looking at her shining body the way one looks at a work of art, with something close to awe. Once I did, the urge to come eased a little, and the tension that had been wound too tight in me began to settle. Miryeong's mouth parted slightly, and a rough breath escaped her.
She cracked her eyes open and looked at me. Thinking she must be struggling, I took her in my arms, rolled us over, and came out on top. Miryeong's face said she had never imagined such a thing. I moved my hips slowly, watching her. In a small voice she said,
"I'm not very attractive, am I? My chest is small. That's why it's hard for you to finish, right?"
I smiled and shook my head.
"No… you're beautiful. Like a sculpture. I'm holding myself back on purpose."
Miryeong's body gave a small shudder as she spoke.
"I did track and field when I was little. I built muscle early, so I guess I never developed properly."
Now that she said it, her body did look like a sprinter's. I rocked my hips very slowly and said,
"I think everyone has their own kind of charm. Who's better-looking than whom, who's worse… I don't believe that kind of thing exists."
Miryeong's expression hardened. Honestly, hers wasn't a face that struck me as particularly pretty—but this subtle, complicated look, thick with mixed feelings, was beautiful. And at that, my heart started hammering again, and a fierce stimulation surged up through my lower body.
When my face went taut, Miryeong pulled me into her arms.
"It's a safe day for me. Just do it. And… I want to feel Jisin inside me."
Even without her permission, I no longer had the strength left to do anything deliberate. I felt something I had been gripping with all my might slip free at last, and against my will I began to come. My body convulsed as if I'd been hit by electricity. I wasn't sure I had ever felt stimulation like this in my life. I held her tight in return. There was none of that soft give against my chest the way there was when I held Yunchae—but in that moment my heart was telling me I found this woman unbearably dear.
When it was over, I slowly pushed myself up. My cock was still hard, and Miryeong's sex still had no intention of letting go. My cock pulled free of her with a reluctant, labored slide. The moment we separated, Miryeong rose from the bed in one strong motion. The room I was staying in had an attached bathroom. She walked toward it. I watched the solid lines of her back. Looking at that cool, indifferent retreat, I felt a strange, unnameable ache of regret.
After a quick wash, Miryeong came out and began gathering her clothes, piece by piece. I spoke to her as she dressed.
"Have you… ever been married…?"
Still pulling on her clothes, Miryeong answered.
"No."
"Then someone you're seeing, or…"
Miryeong finished dressing and looked straight at me.
"There isn't anyone. Why do you ask?"
I swallowed hard and tried to say something, but the words wouldn't come easily. Miryeong stepped closer and spoke.
"This is something else you'll need to be careful about. Among the women you sleep with going forward, there may be some you grow fond of—but Jisin does not belong to you alone. So you must not show obsession over any one person."
She began collecting the things on the table as she continued.
"Besides, if you want them, you can have them whenever you like."
I got up from the bed and said,
"Still—at least Miryeong, I want only for myself…"
Miryeong turned to look at me.
"Pardon?"
I threw caution to the wind and said it.
"I want you to only sleep with me. I don't want you doing it with any other guy."
Miryeong stared at me. Well, I've ruined it, I thought, and I wanted to crawl into a hole from sheer embarrassment. Then Miryeong nodded and said,
"That's a good idea, actually. Anyone who has shared a bed with Jisin may not do so with anyone else… I should put that into the precepts I'm drafting."
She packed the printouts and the tablet into her bag and bowed her head in farewell.
"I'll be going now. There's a great deal to prepare. And I'll come as often as I can—every day, if possible."
Miryeong started toward the door, then stopped and spoke again.
"You're the only one who's ever told me this lowly body of mine was good. I have never wanted romantic feelings for anyone else—not before, and not now. Including sex. I don't think I ever will."
Miryeong opened the door and went out. Even after she was gone I sat staring blankly at the doorway she had vanished through. I was already missing her body.
I decided then to let everything simply flow as it would. Whether I willed it or not, my kingdom was being built around me, and my heaven was taking shape. The people near me were certainly thinking of their own gains, running their own calculations. Using me was part of those calculations. I didn't care. As Yongjin had said, if I stayed the course of an ordinary life, that was all I would ever have—and whatever meager talent I possessed would be buried with it. I would leave it to the current and see how far it could carry me. An uneasy feeling still sat in my chest, but somewhere under it was the thought: How long am I really going to keep this up, anyway?
Work on our building went on almost every day; the interior and exterior renovations advanced bit by bit. After each gathering, Yongjin would call me, Yunchae, Myeongsuk, and Miryeong together in the evening and settle the offerings that had been collected. I wasn't especially interested in money, but more was coming in than I had ever imagined. Yongjin said that for the time being the funds would go toward remodeling the building. Some of the construction had already begun on deferred payment, so there were bills that had to be paid. None of us raised any objection to his decisions, and no one questioned his handling of the money at all.