The Nursing Hospital
As I drove my hips hard into her, the wet, squelching sounds from where Myeongsuk and I were joined grew loud and shameless. I could feel that something more than just her juices was spilling from her sex. Myeongsuk had her arms locked around my neck, head thrown back, surrendering completely to every thrust. I kept moving and spoke to her through labored breaths.
"You... hah... when you go home... you still do it with your husband... huff huff..."
Myeongsuk lifted her head and looked straight at me.
"I don't. These days I only do it with Jusin-nim. My husband is Jusin-nim."
I had no idea why those words, coming from a woman so much older than me, struck me as oddly cute—but they did, and the thought itself became a strange new spur. A sharper jolt of pleasure shot through my cock. Myeongsuk felt it and cracked the whip on a galloping horse.
"It's been more than a week since Jisin-nim last held me. Of course Jusin-nim would put the young ones first—that bony woman and the shaman bitch. Even so, I waited."
I sealed her mouth with mine. Her tongue immediately began to thrash inside me again. I was right at the edge. I crushed Myeongsuk against me and stopped moving. She clung just as hard and cried out.
"Aaaah... ah!"
Semen tore out of me with such force it almost hurt. Myeongsuk's sex fluttered and clenched around my cock as if trying to wring every last drop. We stayed locked like that, doing nothing but dragging air into our lungs.
We remained that way for a good five minutes or more. Gradually the empty space inside my head filled with thought again. I figured Myeongsuk was probably the same. Once my breathing settled a little, I climbed off her soft body. She sat up with effort, took my cock into her mouth, and cleaned every trace of her juices and my semen until it was spotless. When she lay down beside me again I pulled her into my arms. Myeongsuk curled against my chest.
Nestled there, she spoke.
"I came in because I had something to tell you, and then I completely lost my mind."
I turned and smiled at her. I kissed her again, but this time her lips stayed closed—probably because she had just finished licking me clean. When I drew back she said,
"It's about this building..."
Right. She had said she wanted to talk about that. I made myself focus.
"This building belongs to someone I've known for a while. She found out I was looking for a large space and told me she had an abandoned building I could clean up and use if I wanted. So we started using it. The interior renovations were done with her permission too, of course."
We had been living here for quite some time, yet strangely no one had ever mentioned the owner or how we had come to rent the place. Even at our regular meetings Yongjin never once brought up rent. I had never thought to question why.
"Yeah... I was curious. We're using this place for free, right? Shouldn't I at least go thank her? Is she one of our regulars?"
Myeongsuk raised her head and looked at me. Her eyes held a great many stories, but none of them flowed into my heart.
"Yes, she's one of our believers. One of the people who used to visit the shaman's house. I first met her years ago at an investment seminar that was handing out free toilet paper."
I let out a short laugh.
"Building owners go to places like that?"
I had meant it as a joke, but Myeongsuk didn't play along.
"Her husband is elderly and sick. Because of that she used to go to all kinds of religious gatherings—fortune-tellers included. She was looking for her husband's recovery and for her own peace of mind. She said the big established groups never felt sincere, and once word got around that she had money they started pressuring her for donations. She hated that, so she started seeking out pure, small congregations instead."
I pushed myself up on one elbow and looked at her. Myeongsuk turned slightly toward me. I watched her breasts sway and closed my hand around one. Soft, yielding flesh—perfect. I kneaded it while I spoke.
"Small groups are full of cults, though. Wouldn't that make it easier to get hurt?"
Myeongsuk shifted so I could fondle her more easily, offering her chest to me.
"Even so, she believed that somewhere among them there might be people with genuine hearts. That tells you how desperate she was."
She laid her hand over mine as I continued to work her breast, and went on.
"Anyway, she wants to meet Jusin-nim privately. I don't know what she wants to talk about. But she's an original believer—never missed a single gathering. Meeting her isn't a problem, and it would also be a chance to thank her for letting us use the building free of charge. That's why I'm telling you."
I nodded.
"All right. I'll meet her whenever. I've got plenty of time these days."
It was true. Lately I barely went to school, and neither did Yunchae or Yongjin. Idle afternoons I helped with the renovations or supervised the work; evenings I spent with Yunchae or Miryeong. Whenever Yunchae sensed I wanted Miryeong, she quietly made herself scarce, and on nights when no one else was around she would slip into my room naked.
A thought struck me and I asked Myeongsuk,
"Are there more people like her who want to see me? Are you the one keeping them away?"
Myeongsuk stared at my face for a moment before answering.
"Yes. Plenty of people want a private audience with Jusin-nim. And yes, I've been blocking most of them. But once we're a little more prepared, the time will come when you'll have to meet them."
She pulled me into her arms.
"Until then, make do with me, the shaman, and that bony woman."
I smiled and kissed her. This time her mouth opened. The scent of chestnut blossoms rose from her. We tangled together again and began a second round. Once more Myeongsuk worked hard to take her own pleasure, and I finished inside her a second time, thoroughly satisfied.
Afterward Myeongsuk washed lightly and stripped the sheets from my bed. The place where we had lain was soaked through. She never said a word, but I was fairly certain she had released something like urine while we were fucking. She left the room. A little later Yunchae came in carrying fresh sheets and remade the bed. When she turned to go I caught her wrist. She looked at me with a completely blank face.
"It would be better if you slept alone tonight."
Yunchae left. Sulking? I considered going to her room, but my body suddenly felt as heavy as lead and sleep claimed me before I could move.
A few days later I went with Myeongsuk to meet the building's owner. I had expected to visit her home; instead we arrived at an unexpected place. It was a nursing hospital on the outskirts of Seoul—large, immaculate, and unmistakably luxurious. Anyone admitted here, I thought, had to be extremely wealthy. The fact that the woman I was about to meet owned our building suddenly felt very real.
On the first floor Myeongsuk spoke to the reception desk, and a nurse led us into a bright, spotless room she called the visitors' parlor. Warm sunlight poured through wide windows, and classical music played so softly it was almost inaudible. We had barely sat down when the same nurse returned with tea, set the cups before us, bowed at a precise ninety degrees, and withdrew. The nurses here were nothing like the ones I was used to.
The atmosphere left me nearly speechless. Myeongsuk, by contrast, sipped her tea with perfect composure. Bathed in that clear light she looked like someone else entirely. Normally she was just another middle-aged woman in cheap clothes and cheap makeup, nothing more. Sitting here drinking tea, she projected an entirely different image. I watched her with a faint sense of surprise. Perhaps the Myeongsuk I knew was not the real Myeongsuk at all. The tattoo on her womb suddenly floated into my mind. What kind of life had this woman lived?
A moment later the door opened and an elderly woman pushed a wheelchair inside. Seated in it was a grandfather whose face already looked as if he had very little time left. As soon as he entered he looked at me and tried to offer a kindly smile, but the effort only twisted his features into a grimace.