Korean-Style Bonding Activity (5)
Busy labor versus leisurely labor.
If forced to choose between the two, anyone would pick the latter.
But change the conditions a little.
Six hours of work that constantly demands your attention, versus six hours of simply standing still and waiting out the clock.
The pay is the same, yet the style is completely different.
At first glance one might still choose the latter. Anyone who has ever done simple labor, however, knows exactly how boring and agonizing that second option can be.
That was Kang Hyeona’s position right now.
Having a smartphone was at least some consolation.
The mountain’s back path. The sun had set, and the air was thick with the scent of trees. Even with a phone in hand, she had no desire to look at it. Not a single person came this way. If anyone had taken a normal route, they would never have ended up here. In practice she was little more than a security guard.
Then, while she was staring cynically up at the night sky, Kang Hyeona turned at the sound of footsteps.
A woman emerged from the darkness. She wondered who it might be, but the moment a familiar face appeared, questions rose instead.
Thinking about it, it wasn’t that strange. Han Sein and Jeong Ayeong had been the first ones to go in, so of course they would come out this way.
The problem was Jeong Ayeong’s condition.
Flushed cheeks. Sticky, heavy breathing that hung in the air. Her dazed gaze met Kang Hyeona’s. Hyeona looked her up and down. The more she looked, the stranger it became. The flushed face was one thing—but the fluid that had run down between her thighs glistened under the light.
A twitch.
Thoughts chained one after another. With every clue the situation offered, Kang Hyeona’s mind grew more tangled.
“Where’s Han Sein?”
“…He’s sitting over there.”
She voiced the first question that came to mind. Why? Why hadn’t they come out together?
Theirs was not a comfortable relationship. They were not bound by anything like friendship. Perpetrator and victim. Yet Jeong Ayeong was acting differently from usual. Questions piled up. Kang Hyeona’s voice rose as she repeated them.
“Why? You came alone?”
“…He asked me to bring something.”
“Fuck. Stop talking in circles.”
“Mind your own business.”
Kang Hyeona growled. Jeong Ayeong’s expression was complicated. The timid girl who should already have lowered her eyes was stubbornly holding her gaze. Various emotions mixed on her face, but there was little Kang Hyeona could read. The way she carried herself had changed too suddenly. Confusion came first.
They did not continue the conversation. Jeong Ayeong had something she needed to do, and Kang Hyeona still had to hold her post. They passed each other, crossing paths.
“…….”
A twitch. Kang Hyeona’s face crumpled. What was this feeling? Anger, maybe? It was an emotion she had never experienced in her life, and that only made her heart more chaotic. It felt like insects crawling through her brain—unpleasant, sticky, constantly grating. A twisting in her chest?
Jeong Ayeong walking out alone, leaving Han Sein behind. The flush blooming on her face, the breathing, and… the slick fluid running down her thighs.
From deep inside her, two emotions rose. One was anxiety. The other was anger.
She had always blamed herself for not being qualified. But emotions were honest, and eventually even reason was corrupted.
Jeong Ayeong. What did you do with Han Sein?
Kang Hyeona did not look back. More important than the bothersome girl was the boy she held in her heart. She wanted to see him right now. Even though she had no right to this relationship. Even knowing that worrying about him would only be another deception. Feeling her heart pound, Kang Hyeona took a step forward.
It had been while Kang Hyeona was in the middle of reading a novel—not a literary one, but a stimulating web novel meant purely for fun. A common story. Back then everything was entertaining, and she read whatever she came across. Patterns eventually became visible, yet she still immersed herself in the protagonist and explored that world.
She remembered it as a typical hero tale: the usual cliché of recruiting party members to defeat the demon king and overcoming one crisis after another. One episode had stuck with her. The female hero protagonist had seen the saintess heroine naked. A hot-spring episode, if she recalled correctly. Startled by the accidental glimpse of bare skin, the protagonist had apologized in a fluster and fled the place as if running away.
Kang Hyeona’s comment on that chapter had been this:
She was not a rapist. She was not some sex maniac who could not control her impulses and lusted after men. She had simply been an ordinary reader who got immersed in the story and threw out a line. Wasn’t that obvious? It wasn’t as if the narrative hadn’t been built. There was mutual affection; they simply weren’t lovers yet. They were a pair that would eventually get together. She remembered every comment on that chapter had been more or less the same.
And now, the Kang Hyeona who had once thought that way understood the protagonist for the first time.
“Ah…?”
A faint light. Was it because this was the back path? The poorly maintained lamp gave only a weak glow. Yet it was more than enough to illuminate a certain boy’s bare skin.
Han Sein’s flustered eyes. They trembled as if he could not believe what was happening. They also looked filled with fear and anxiety. Yes—perhaps they were familiar eyes. The kids Kang Hyeona had beaten used to look exactly like that. But whenever Han Sein wore those eyes, she always had to face her own guilt. The person she loved looking at her that way made her chest feel heavy of its own accord.
It was a complicated emotion. Simply being shaken and distressed was not enough—because the visual Han Sein presented was far too fatal.
His upper body was no different from usual; he still wore his school uniform. The problem began the moment her gaze dropped. His skin, looking even more delectable in the night, was like a pure white fruit. Smooth legs, and the bare body revealed without a single scrap of underwear. How flustered must he have been? In that instant he had not even thought to cover himself with both hands; he simply stared at Kang Hyeona with a frozen expression.
Less than three seconds. That was how long it took him to react properly—and that was more than enough time for Kang Hyeona to look at Han Sein’s cock. The oversized dress shirt had fallen in an attempt to cover it, but the length was ambiguous and only teased a woman’s heart further. The place glistening wet with liquid sat far more prettily than anything she had ever seen in media. And more than anything…
There was no hair.
“D-Don’t look!”
“S-Sorry…”
Han Sein finally came to his senses. He belatedly covered himself with both hands, but he could not hide the shame written across his face. His cheeks burned so hot they looked ready to burst if poked.
“P-Please… d-don’t look…”
“…Okay.”
How humiliating it must have been. Only then did Kang Hyeona hang her head low. In that moment a scent drifted along the tip of her nose—a smell no woman could ignore. It stimulated instinct, mixed with pheromones, and bewitched reason. The scent given off by that kind of liquid.
Only then could she make sense of the dizzying situation. The fluid on the ground was semen. Panties clutched in one of his hands, pants left on the bench. She swallowed hard. Here, the risk of being discovered was low. But Kang Hyeona, just like the protagonist she had once read about—just like the girl who had once mocked someone as a eunuch—whipped her body around and opened her mouth.
“Sorry. Take your time.”
“…….”
If silence counted as an answer, then it was an answer. Kang Hyeona left the place with quick steps. Her heart pounded. Once free of the unreal situation, she could think clearly again. She walked back to the spot where she had been waiting. The emotions that had been writhing and surging began to settle into sharper shapes.
The situations she had seen. Reality. Relationships. The puzzles the confusion had scattered now gathered together. Jeong Ayeong heading off alone. Han Sein left behind changing clothes.
Throb. Throb.
She did not want to imagine it, yet her thoughts kept tilting toward the worst possibilities. Even knowing she had no right to think such things, Kang Hyeona drove herself deeper. The heart that liked someone. The heart that loved someone. Controlling either was difficult; when it was first love, it was even harder. It felt like sinking into a deep swamp.
What pulled her out was the sound of footsteps.
“…….”
A black envelope with something inside, and wet wipes. Jeong Ayeong appeared before her eyes. Facing her, the spark in Kang Hyeona’s chest burned hotter.
Jealousy? Yes—it had to be jealousy. Kang Hyeona wanted somehow to relieve the stifling lump. The thing lodged in her chest that tormented her—she wanted to pull even a little of it out and make it disappear. Maybe that was why she approached Jeong Ayeong with emotion for once, why she began to wield “violence” that carried feeling for the first time.
“What did you do with Han Sein?”
“…….”
Silence. What stimulated Kang Hyeona even more was Jeong Ayeong’s reaction. She was not cowering the way she usually did. She was not lowering her eyes and trembling in fear. A cornered rat, for the first time, talked back to the cat.
“Mind your own business.”
“Fuck… what did you just say?”
Kang Hyeona stepped right up to her. Under normal circumstances it would have been a situation where even bowing her head low and apologizing would not have been enough. But Han Sein occupied Jeong Ayeong’s mind. She had promised she would come back. She had to fetch the things he asked for and return to him safely.
A fist flew straight away—same spot as always. But the pain was greater, and Jeong Ayeong sank to the floor. Still the rat bared its teeth. Small but sharp, those teeth wounded the cat.
“Ugh, cough… a-are you… done hitting?”
“What…?”
“If you’re done hitting, move.”
The rat’s attack did not kill the cat. But it was enough to startle the predator and freeze her in place. Jeong Ayeong walked past, ignoring Kang Hyeona completely. Her retreating back seemed to say: You’re just that kind of person. Someone who throws fists and gives pain to others. The one who can go to his side is me.
Jeong Ayeong’s back was saying exactly that.