Afterglow
The bell above the door chimed.
"Welcome."
By midday the cafe had been restored to immaculate order, as if the violent sex Jeongun and Suhee had shared the night before had never happened at all.
After taking an order, Jeongun let out a small yawn. The shop was clean and intact. His body was not. Possessed, he had come inside Suhee again and again, then tangled with her all over, and he had barely slept at all.
"Boss, you look good today."
"Do I?"
"Hmm... something nice happen? You seem different from usual."
"Hmm. Well..."
The vitality of sex had outweighed the exhaustion, apparently. A regular customer had noticed how much softer, how much gentler his expression was than usual, and had actually struck up a conversation. Even so, that was as far as it went. The woman who'd started it didn't have it in her to keep talking to a man who simply turned his head without answering. Considering his usual demeanor, even this much was enormous progress.
"Aigoo."
She just sighed softly, took her coffee, and turned away with a this-is-better-than-nothing kind of feeling. Jeongun registered her retreating back and felt nothing. Instead, every time he stared blankly around the crowded cafe, Suhee's image superimposed itself over everything. There — on that table where a customer now sat sipping coffee and tapping at a laptop — Suhee had been panting. Over there, in that chair, she had sat spraying her juices like a fountain. The images kept overlapping, refusing to leave.
The bell chimed again.
"Welco—"
Jeongun's reflexive greeting caught in his throat. It was Suhee.
Unlike Jeongun, who'd had to open the shop, she looked unusually bright and luminous — whether from a proper night's sleep or, as the saying went, from having sucked the yang right out of him. Of course, it was possible she only looked that way to him.
"Hello."
"Did you get some sleep?"
The familiar polite speech — so different from last night — made Suhee let out a little laugh. This other side of him was attractive. It was precisely because he was so well-mannered during the day that the brutality of the night hit so much harder.
"I slept just fine. But you... what are you going to do, not having slept?"
"Hah... nothing I can do about it."
Suhee glanced around at the other customers, then whispered.
"I'll help you later. So we can close up faster."
"Hm?"
"And then we'll get something good to eat. Ah... or would you rather just go home?"
"Ah, no. Well..."
"We didn't get to eat yesterday."
"...Alright."
He was definitely different from a few days ago. How to put it. Even though he'd been somewhat unreserved with Suhee specifically, there had still been a wall. But after last night — after the two of them had spent that sticky, clinging time right here...
"Heh."
The man who'd ordered her, in that low commanding voice, to do all those filthy things last night was now oddly avoiding her eyes, as if he were the one who was embarrassed. She couldn't help but laugh. The stares from the people around them were plenty sharp, of course — but what did that matter? Yesterday, right here inside this very shop, they'd done things the other women around them couldn't even imagine.
Suhee took the coffee Jeongun handed her, smiling brightly, and went to find an empty seat.
A creak.
"Ah, what's wrong with this? Excuse me. Boss?"
"Yes?"
"This chair and table are a little... off?"
It was the chair and table the two of them had used most of the night, tangled together. He'd thought he'd heard an uneasy creaking. Sure enough. He'd cleaned up the filthy fluids that had been splattered all over them, but there was nothing he could do about the compromised structural integrity. He couldn't exactly hammer nails into them, and wrapping them in tape would look even worse. And honestly, he hadn't thought it would be this obvious.
Creak. Creak.
"Look at this. It's going to break."
"...Why don't you move to another seat."
"Ah, but I like this spot. What's the deal."
As the customer left the spot where the two of them had played, Jeongun caught Suhee giggling behind her. What was so funny? What was so delightful? It wasn't much, but the slight tension he'd felt at the customer's complaint melted away. The more he looked at her, the more captivating she was.
He kept looking at Suhee, and last night's memories kept rising. Those lewd moans. That lush body hidden beneath her clothes. He'd been with plenty of women and this had never happened. It was a little disconcerting, but he didn't particularly want to hide what he was feeling. For him, that was extremely unusual.
But right now, he didn't even register that he was going through something extremely unusual.
That night.
As usual, after closing up the shop, the two of them remained. The cafe at night carried a peculiar atmosphere — perhaps because of the memory of that violent night. When Jeongun closed up alone and turned off the lights, it was just a silent, hollow space. It was nothing like that now.
"Haa... ah."
"Hah..."
They'd promised to get something to eat, but today Suhee was the one who came at him first. She no longer needed to camp out at the cafe — only the practical portion of her license exam remained — but there were plenty of excuses. She could study for job applications. There was no reason to give up a place this good.
And then there were the stares she felt whenever she showed even a hint of affection with Jeongun. A sense of superiority. Suhee had thought she didn't care about that kind of thing, but this time was a little different. All those women looking at her with jealous eyes. And him, who had no interest in any of them, staring only at her. She felt, quite clearly, that she had him.
"Nngh... ah."
"You said you wanted to eat."
"Haa... you don't want to?"
"No."
Jeongun's hands — the ones that, strangely, dropped into informal speech the moment they started having sex — groped roughly over Suhee's body. Thoroughly, meticulously, as if last night's memories had been wiped clean and he were touching her for the first time. Every time those coffee-scented hands swept up her body and squeezed, lewd sounds spilled from Suhee's mouth whether she wanted them to or not.
"Will ramen be okay?"
"Sure, I don't mind. But I have a question."
"What is it?"
The two of them, having thrown on the bare minimum of clothes, had slipped into the little kitchen behind the counter as if hiding. Jeongun had pulled out a burner and was cooking ramen. Suhee sat in a chair, watching him and chattering away.
"Why do you drop the formalities when we're having sex, but go back to being polite now?"
"Hmm..."
Without answering, he stared at the furiously boiling ramen, quickly lifting the noodles and dropping them back a few times.
"Is it a secret?"
"No, not really a secret. Do you not like it?"
"It's not that I don't like it... it's just a little unusual, you know?"
It was unusual. It wasn't as if Suhee had never done Master-and-slave play before, but with this man the informal speech came out so naturally. And it suited him.
"Well. It's because of my inclinations."
"Then the polite speech?"
"That's just how you function in society."
"What's that supposed to mean."
Suhee dangled her legs, slippers hooked on her toes. Jeongun's gaze flicked once to those smooth, clean calves and thighs.
"Inclinations. Like, you like tormenting people?"
"Mm. Let's just say I like giving orders."
"I don't really get it..."
"Egg?"
Suhee nodded, and Jeongun took an egg from the fridge. He cracked it lightly in one hand and let it slip into the boiling ramen.
"We have plenty of time."
"Nngh..."
She made a nasal sound at the vague answer and looked at him, but nothing more came. Still, looking at his style in bed and all the rest, she could more or less guess. Just imagining what she'd have to do on his orders was already making her body heat up.
"Let's eat."
"How many did you make?"
"Two."
It was rare for Suhee to have this much personal conversation with someone. Most of the time it was sex, and then it was over. Or rather, there were more people she never ran into at all unless they were having sex. People who just passed through. People she met by chance. Even with the teaching assistant or the professor, they almost never talked like this except when they were having sex.
"Eh... I don't think that's going to be enough."
He smiled faintly at her little complaint and brought out an empty bowl.
After that, Jeongun really did become Suhee's driving instructor, diligently and in earnest. At first they went back to the school athletic field they'd used before. Suhee's nerves had loosened a little, and she practiced far more properly than the first time — well enough that she even started to get the hang of it.
"You seem to be getting used to it."
"Thanks to you."
The car stopped in the middle of the field, and Jeongun got out first. Suhee naturally turned off the engine and followed him out. In the dark athletic field, only the car's headlights shone bright. Suhee stood beside him as he seemed to be thinking about something. As if he'd been waiting, his mouth opened.
"Take it off."
"Right now?"
"Yeah."
Suhee scanned the surroundings from beside the car. Here, if she stripped, no one would see. The calmly settled night air wrapped around them like a curtain. She stepped forward, stood in front of Jeongun, and took off her clothes one by one.
"Hmm."
No matter how many times he saw it, her body was like a sculpture. Even more so now — outdoors, in the moonlight. Her white skin seemed to glow faintly in response to the moon. It was dark, but the curves of her body were plainly visible. Knowing just how soft, how supple, how springy that body was, he felt the blood rush to his cock as a matter of course. Feeling it rise with a heavy weight, he leaned his back against the car and admired Suhee's figure.
An obedient, lewd, beautiful woman. Perfectly his type.
"Come over here."
"Th-that way? In front?"
The direction Jeongun's finger pointed was where the car's headlights were blazing. Suhee, naked except for her sneakers, hesitated. Here, only he could see her, so stripping was somewhat safe — but standing in a place that bright...
"The security guard..."
"He won't be looking. He's probably asleep."
"Nnh..."
Even as she hesitated, a faint heat rose from Suhee's body. Outdoor exposure. The tension of the risk that someone might see — the thrill. And the pleasure. She hesitated a little, but the bait he'd dangled in front of her looked far too delicious.