Neither Friends Nor Lovers
When February arrived, everything happened at once.
First, Jieun's family moved away to her relatives' place in Daejeon. I'd wanted to help them out myself, but things refused to go the way I'd hoped. Like mother, like daughter — her mom turned down my offer of help.
The reason was that her dad had landed a new job in Daejeon, so leaving Seoul was unavoidable. For me, it meant watching neighbors I'd spent ten years with simply vanish. The disappointment sat heavy.
In their place, her mom entrusted Jieun to me.
"Dojun, take good care of our Jieun. She gets terribly lonely when she's on her own."
"Don't worry about it, ma'am."
I'd never felt a heavier sense of responsibility.
"I'll come up once before she starts school, so don't go causing trouble. And don't fight with Dojun."
"Waaah, Mom!"
The thought of being apart from her parents for the first time sent Jieun into a flood of tears. They snapped and bickered on ordinary days, but they were still parent and child. In a moment like this, no one in the world could deny they loved each other more than anyone.
And just like that, Jieun's family left Seoul.
Meanwhile, with a fire under my feet, I hurriedly bought two luxury apartments right in front of Seongun University — one that was already on the market, and the unit next door. For the record, the neighboring place cost an extra fifty million won to cover moving expenses and interior work.
The move itself was a simple affair. Neither Jieun nor I had much in the way of belongings, and we were planning to buy all the bulky furniture and appliances new anyway, which made it even easier.
"Dojun, isn't this place way too big?"
"So what? I'm living right next door."
"...This must've been expensive."
Jieun's eyes went round as she looked around the fourteen-hundred-square-foot apartment we were moving into. She'd probably been picturing a studio nearby at most. Figuring I might as well overhaul her frugal sense of money while I was at it, I decided to go on a full-blown spending binge.
We went from store to store, filling the place with a TV, a bed, a washer, a dryer, a clothing steamer, a laptop, a new phone — enough to rival a newlywed couple's first home. Once I got going, spending money felt so good I started buying things we didn't even need.
The good news was that Jieun wasn't entirely overwhelmed by it. She'd start out looking uncomfortable, then quietly slip something she needed into the cart.
If I kept training her like this, she'd eventually become a little pig perfectly tailored to my tastes.
"You must be the new neighbor? Pleasure to meet you."
"Cut it out. That's just weird."
"Doesn't it bring back memories? When we first met, your mom came around with rice cakes."
And so began our lavish independent life at twenty, and it was nothing but good. I blasted music whenever I wanted, watched TV naked after a shower — I soaked up every ounce of freedom with my whole body.
But the best part, the one that outstripped every other advantage, was being able to have sex whenever we wanted. Honestly, holding back was getting difficult.
I went over to Jieun's place at every opportunity.
"P-put your fingers in."
"Where?"
"...In my pussy."
The fortunate thing was that Jieun had changed a lot too. The girl who'd whined that her pussy hurt, that a late-learned habit was the scariest kind — that version of her was already hard to remember. She'd gotten used to sex astonishingly fast.
No — she'd gone past getting used to it. She actually enjoyed it. Sometimes she was the one who came to me first. In a way, it made sense. She'd been holding it in for twenty years too.
"Hngh! Hhhnk!"
Thanks to that, I was enjoying her springy, tight pussy every single day. Each day was happier than the last. Before we knew it, sex had gone from a weighty ritual to something light — just another leisure activity.
"Does it feel good?"
"Mmh! I-I'm gonna come!"
Mornings like this, when our eyes met and we just knew, had become routine.
I savored her reactions and picked up the pace with my fingers, rubbing rapidly at that ridged spot inside her pussy — the so-called G-spot. Most women were sensitive there, but for Jieun it was her most devastating weak point. As expected, her reaction came soon enough.
"Nngh!"
Jieun arched her hips and clenched down hard. I quickly grabbed the towel beside us and pressed it against her pussy. Shameless as ever, she squirted a flood right there on the bed.
"Hah, hah, hah."
Then she went limp, panting as if she'd just sprinted a hundred meters. I stroked her breasts and her pussy for a while before climbing on top of her. Without a word, Jieun spread her legs wider.
"Haaah! Don't you have to go out? Nngh!"
"You know that, and you still came at me first thing in the morning?"
I felt her wrinkled walls coil around me like a snake as I pushed my cock in deep. The thought that I had to get to cram school was nowhere in my head.
"Fuck, this is so good."
"Hngh! Hnnngh!"
The silky texture wrapping around my entire cock and Jieun's moans stripped away my reason in seconds. Crude, unfiltered words spilled out of me before I could stop them.
"Hahh, you fucking slut! This feels so goddamn good."
That dazed expression she only ever showed me, her huge breasts rolling like waves, her skin flushing red, her pussy drooling slick — all of it drove me insane. No matter how many times we did it, I never got tired of her.
I fucked her like an animal. Jieun rolled her hips and rode the rhythm with me. There was nothing snail-slow or vanilla about it anymore.
"Get on your stomach."
"Mmh."
We switched positions as naturally as breathing.
"You're so pretty."
Personally, Jieun — with those wide hips of hers — was at her most beautiful when she was face-down. The huge ass, the cinched waist, those full breasts hanging and pooling beneath her: it was the perfect crystallization of beauty.
I lingered over the sight, wishing I could take a picture, then pushed my stiff cock into her hole. Her small opening stretched elastically, and before long it had swallowed me whole.
"Haaah! Haaaah! Haaaah!"
The wet slap of flesh on flesh filled the room for a long time. I reached forward and grabbed her breasts as they swung back and forth; the soft flesh spilled out between my fingers.
It was satisfying in every way. Except one. If only we'd had more time.
Goddamn cram school!
If there was a single obstacle in my life, it was retaking the exam. That goddamn retake year. Promising myself the evening, I drove into Jieun even harder.
The wet, slapping sounds of sex rang out roughly through the room.
Jieun, having already come once before we even started, didn't last long. Before I knew it she was curling her toes and writhing like an animal.
"Hnnngh! I-I'm gonna come!"
"Hold on just a little longer!"
I wrapped my arms tight around her from behind as she thrashed, helpless, then went into the final stretch. Jieun couldn't hold it and came first. The already-tight squeeze of her pussy clenched down even harder, wringing me out.
I yanked my cock out of her depths. Her tender inner flesh clung and followed. At the same time, another gush of squirt burst from her urethra along with my white cum. This time there was no towel to catch it, and it soaked the bed.
"Fuck, I'm wrecked."
I splattered my cum across Jieun's ass and flopped onto my back. In the space where the pleasure drained away, a deep exhaustion welled up. Going that hard first thing in the morning had wrung me completely dry.
This girl's completely out of it again.
When I looked over, Jieun was trembling, completely gone. I carefully pulled her into my arms and stroked her, trying to let her enjoy the afterglow a little longer. She burrowed into me like a newborn puppy. It was a peaceful moment.
"You okay?"
"Mmh."
I only got out of bed after Jieun came back to herself a little later. I checked the time on my phone. Even if I rushed, I was going to be at least an hour late.
"I'm running late. I think I have to go first."
The implication that I couldn't stay to help clean up put an embarrassed look on Jieun's face. She never seemed to care while we were going at it, but the second sex was over, she always got shy.
"It's fine. Don't worry about it. Just go."
"You going out this afternoon?"
"...No. I think I'll stay in."
"Got it."
Before heading to the bathroom, I stole one more kiss from her lips, reluctant to leave. Jieun parted them for me naturally. It was a short kiss, but deeply satisfying.
After that I hurried into the bathroom. As I quickly washed myself off, a thought surfaced.
What even are we?
The question that had suddenly occurred to me left my head in a tangle.
Even when we'd had our first time, Jieun and I had been friends. We'd slept together, but that much had been certain.
But after moving out together and spending about two weeks in each other's beds, our relationship had changed considerably. No — it had mutated.
How to put it. We weren't friends, and we weren't a couple either. We'd become something very strange.
That last kiss, for instance. It hadn't been the kind that lit a fire under our usual lust. It had been a kiss that set desire aside entirely — one that simply confirmed and exchanged what we felt for each other. After a kiss like that, even I couldn't help being confused.
Ah. So this is that "thing" people always talk about.
The realization hit me so hard I actually slapped my palm.
Holy shit!
Goosebumps ran over my entire body. The saying that the body rules the mind wasn't wrong after all. It occurred to me that Jieun was looking at me as a man now.
Then again, after getting fucked that much, it'd be weirder if she didn't see me as a man.
Whatever it was, one thing seemed clear: something meaningful was happening between us.