Empty Penthouse
Empty Penthouse
His eyes were closed, but his mind was wide awake.
Maybe it was because he'd fallen asleep on the plush sofa, but the comfort was on a completely different level from sleeping on the floor at the condo.
'They say when your body's at ease, your mind's at ease too.'
He felt truly refreshed.
"Seong-hwan-a, are you awake?"
'Just how long was I out?'
When he opened his eyes, A-ra was looking down at him with a beaming smile.
Then, before he could even properly come to his senses, she pressed her lips to his
and began a deep kiss—forceful, intense.
By now, whether it was kissing or something more, he'd grown used to simply letting A-ra do as she pleased,
so he stayed still.
That was easier for both—well, for that and the other thing—and for A-ra too.
Watching her savor his lips, taking her time with him,
he figured she must have been really lonely and bored while he was gone.
Only after a long while did A-ra's lips pull away.
His mind jolted awake by a deep kiss the moment he got up,
he reached up and stroked her hair.
"What time is it now?"
"It's only 7 o'clock."
'She got here around 5, so it's only been about two hours.'
It was a bit late, but he still had to unpack and make dinner.
He yawned, got up from the sofa, stretched, and headed toward the kitchen.
Even though no one had been home for a while, there were traces of dishes being washed and used in the kitchen.
It looked like she hadn't eaten out—she'd made do with the side dishes he'd prepared in advance and left in the fridge.
When he opened the fridge, all the prepped meats and braised fish were gone too,
so he stroked A-ra's head again in approval.
"Good job, good job."
"Hehe... the food Seong-hwan makes is delicious even after sitting in the fridge."
"That's a relief."
He pulled back the blackout curtains on the kitchen side.
And then—sunlight came streaming in through the window.
'It's not like this is the land of the midnight sun.'
Flustered for a moment, he opened all the sliding windows.
"It's 7 in the morning."
"Ah... morning? Then just how many hours did I sleep...?"
"Just calculating it simply... 14 hours?"
He'd slept like a log in the car, come home, and then slept another 14 hours.
For someone like him who usually slept seven hours a day, it was a bit of a shock.
'Was my body that tired?'
A-ra burst out laughing, asking if he'd seriously thought it was 7 PM. Then she pulled him into a tight hug and dragged him over to the sofa.
Getting lifted and hauled around by A-ra, with her monstrous strength—
that didn't faze him at all anymore. No, at that moment, he was simply aghast at the fact that he'd slept for twenty hours in a single day.
She sat him down on the sofa and started her affectionate antics again.
Kissing his cheek, rubbing her own cheek against his,
with an energy that said she thought he was so cute she might lose her mind.
"Is sleeping for about 14 hours really that shocking?"
"Haah... it's shocking. What did you do for dinner last night?"
"I just made do with what was in the fridge."
Truthfully, he felt so sorry toward A-ra he could die.
He was mortified that he hadn't been able to cook for her himself during the three-night, four-day trip, and then on the day he got home,
he'd passed out and couldn't even make her dinner.
It was to the point where he doubted whether this could even be called a husband supporting his wife.
"I told you not to worry about stuff like that. I'm fine, really."
"But I'm not fine with it."
"Really...? Then Seong-hwan-a, will you do me one favor?"
"Anything. Even if you ask me to take you, I'll do it."
Because A-ra also enjoyed play where she was completely overpowered,
she sometimes made requests like this.
Their relationship wasn't one-sided; it was mutual.
Even though she liked that kind of play, she never did it without getting his permission first.
And maybe because she felt a little shy about it herself,
she didn't ask for it very often either.
"Th-that's fine too... No, the favor I want right now is a little different..."
"What kind?"
Finding it a bit hard to say, A-ra hesitated for a moment,
then suddenly started striking some kind of pose.
No matter how you looked at it, the gesture was unmistakably someone gripping a fishing rod and casting a line into the water.
"Fishing?"
"You guessed it in one try..."
"Wouldn't it be harder not to figure that out right away?"
On top of that, given how much A-ra loved fishing,
the nature of the favor was pretty obvious.
'She must mean she wants to go fishing.'
"I'm perfectly fine with it. Do you want to go this weekend?"
"Th-that's not it. Actually, I made plans to go with the group members..."
"To a fishing cafe? If that's it, you could've just gone without telling me..."
"No, we decided to go out toward Incheon."
"Huh?"
Wasn't A-ra incredibly busy with work this winter—so busy she couldn't go anywhere for fun?
That was exactly why he'd gone to the ski resort to hang out with Jeong-hwan and Lee Min-ho.
"Eun-ji managed to make some time, so we figured while we're at it, let's go fishing~ that's the vibe it turned into..."
"Ah... so you're saying you're going with just the members?"
"Yeah... is it not okay?"
He finally thought he understood why A-ra had had such a hard time saying it.
It wasn't just that she was going off to have fun without him—there was also that time he'd gotten a little gloomy
when he heard he wouldn't be able to go with her on this ski trip.
A-ra was probably feeling twice, maybe three times, as sorry right now.
"It's not that it's not okay..."
"Really!?"
"In exchange, there's something I'd like to receive too."
"What is it? I'll grant you anything too."
"Really?"
What he wanted was one thing.
He wanted the same thing A-ra did.
"One voucher for the right to take you..."
"N-not even the lead-right?"
"Come on, it's on a completely different level."
"St-still... a woman getting taken by a man..."
Perhaps it was a little hard for A-ra's pride to accept,
because she began mulling it over for a long time.
But still, she must have felt she had no choice.
Her face flushed bright red, she nodded slightly.
***
He set the cooler bag and the bag stuffed full of fishing rods down in the front entrance.
'I didn't even know A-ra had this kind of stuff.'
"Seong-hwan-a, I'll be off then."
"Be careful. And absolutely do not climb up on things like tetrapods."
Even A-ra, who seemed so mature, was ultimately just an energetic 22-year-old woman.
When she got excited, she might do something dangerous without realizing the risk,
or even do something that could lead to really serious trouble.
"Okay, I won't do anything Seong-hwan tells me not to do."
"You really have to be careful."
"Seong-hwan worries about me even more than I do, huh?"
Telling him not to worry, she spread her arms, hugged him, and stroked his hair.
Still feeling worried, he buried his face in A-ra's chest.
"In the first place, the place we're going doesn't even have tetrapods. There's only a dock."
"Ah, really?"
'Geez, I was worrying over nothing weird.'
Maybe because he'd watched a documentary related to tetrapods recently,
it seemed his head had been full of random, off-the-wall worries.
"But still, it makes me feel really good that you're worrying about me."
Smiling bashfully, she slung the cooler bag and the fishing bag over her back and opened the front door.
She looked a little precarious, like she might topple over.
"Then, Seong-hwan-a, I'll borrow your car for the two days."
A-ra's Boxster had a really narrow trunk—it absolutely couldn't fit four fishing bags.
In contrast, his trusty Cayenne was so spacious it could swallow all of that and more,
so they'd decided to swap cars for two days.
"Take care."
"Okay, give me a kiss before I go."
He gave a wry smile as he looked at A-ra, who had closed her eyes and stuck out her lips.
Then he quietly approached, pressed his lips to hers, made a soft smacking sound,
and pulled away.
After A-ra left, he stood alone in the emptiness of the front entrance
and let out a long sigh.
During vacations, he was often home alone, but for some reason, today felt different from usual.
*
"Oh... as expected of the Cayenne..."
"Did you drive over in Seong-hwan's car?"
Seeing A-ra step out of the Porsche Cayenne,
everyone cheered.
"Yeah, there's no room for the fishing bags otherwise."
"Right, I totally forgot about that."
Hwa-young scratched her head, as if the thought genuinely hadn't occurred to her.
The fishing bags and cooler bags they'd all brought were absurdly large,
so until A-ra arrived, they'd been worrying about how to transport everything.
"You guys would've been in big trouble if it weren't for me, huh?"
"For real. But that wasn't your idea either, was it, A-ra?"
"Tsk... caught me."
The person who'd suggested taking the Cayenne was her husband, Yoo Seong-hwan.
Seeing right through it in an instant, Yeji smirked and began loading the bag she was holding into the trunk.
"Ah, should I switch to an SUV too..."
"Yeji unnie, didn't you just change your car not long ago? You switched to a Ferrari."
"I did, but looking at this trunk space makes it so tempting, you know."
The chronic problem with sports cars was the trunk.
They had to be light and nimble, which meant the trunk ended up practically useless—
some cars had trunks so small it was hard to fit even a single box inside.
"But why an SUV for a guy like Seong-hwan?"
"Yeah, don't guys usually not like this kind of car?"
From what they knew, men preferred small, cute compact cars.
The women couldn't help but tilt their heads in puzzlement at Seong-hwan's taste.
"A-ra probably picked it out for him."
"Nope, he said himself that SUVs are the best."
She didn't remember clearly, but she thought he'd said that spacious, big, sturdy SUVs were the best.
Back then, A-ra had simply assumed he liked SUVs because he wanted to haul cargo or something.
"Shall we head out soon, then?"
"Should we grab coffee to go?"
"An Americano for me."
The four of them, excited to go out and have fun together as group members for the first time in a while,
walked into the cafe, laughing and chatting.