The House of Three
Our home is a perfectly ordinary one—my wife, who will soon turn forty, my twenty-year-old son who has just begun his university life, and me, a forty-six-year-old man. We form a tidy little triad, nothing flashy, nothing out of the ordinary.
I work as a regular salaryman, and my company was founded by my partner Kim Dae-pyo and me. We are college seniors and juniors, the kind of relationship that feels like family—big brother and little brother in every way that matters.
We started a trading company that deals in Korean goods across Southeast Asia, and for years we’ve been digging our own deep well in the same patch of ground. Kim Dae-pyo is the cheerful one, the heart of the company. His talent for saying exactly the right thing in exactly the right tone has created an enviable network of business contacts.
I take the opposite approach. I’m the one who runs the numbers, who asks, “What exactly does this deal bring us?” and weighs every possible outcome before we move forward. Every profit-and-loss statement he closes, I review and discuss with him until we’re both satisfied. That careful math is why, in five short years, our trading company has grown into a hundred-billion-won enterprise.
Now that we’re past the grind of daily operations, Dae-pyo and I have slipped into the quiet rhythm of managers who still understand every corner of the business.
After lunch, when the clock struck three, Dae-pyo strolled into my office with that familiar grin.
“Boss Kim, how long has it been since we shared a drink after work?”
“Oh, I appreciate the invitation, sir, but yesterday was already quite a night. Today I want to get home early and play dad for a while.”
“Hahaha… makes sense. No one could be happier than the beautiful wife and handsome son. Enjoy your evening, boss.”
“You do the same, Dae-pyo. Make sure you’re home early tonight—devote yourself to your family, to your wife and son. A change of pace will do you good.”
“Understood! I’ll pass that on to my boss!”
A few minutes later I was wrapping up my day, heading home a little earlier than usual. Along the way I stopped at the flower shop I’d avoided for months. The same bright red gladiolus and soft, misty cosmos my wife loves. My steps felt lighter than they had in weeks as I pictured her face when I handed them over.
Our apartment building was brand new, so the hallway to our front door stretched quite far. Our son’s room sat right at the end, closest to the entrance.
“Ah… good… soon Dad will be home. Hurry… hurry…”
Adrenaline surged through every vein, every nerve. I pressed my ear to the closed door of the boy’s room and let the sounds wash over me.
“Ah… ah… ahhaaa… it feels so good… Jin-yeong’s cock is buried so deep inside Mom’s pussy…”
“The scent of orange still clings to your skin, honey. I could stay like this all day…”
“Jin-yeong, you have to finish soon. Mom has so much to do… ahhaaaa…”
“Okay, okay, I’m coming right now—full storm piston!”
“Aaaaaah—Jin-yeong—Mommy loves you!”
“Aaaaah—gonna cum—storm launch!!!”
After that the room fell silent. I heard the soft rustle of tissue being used to clean my son, then my wife’s voice again, playful and a little teasing.
“Ugh… who’s going to stop this little troublemaker? If Dad saw us doing this…”
“Heehee, don’t worry, Mom. Who am I? Your loving son who adores you and Dad both. It’s just a little different, that’s all. I’m still your son, but I’m also your husband now.”
“Oh my… Mr. Kim really is something. So does that mean you have two husbands now, Mom?”
“I hadn’t thought of it that way, but… yes, I guess I do.”
“Hahahahaha!”
“I love our Jin-yeong more than anything, but our secret must never leave this house. Never, ever. Understood?”
“Of course I know. Our relationship isn’t normal from the outside.”
“Jin-yeong’s voice is so sweet and his face is gorgeous. Girls would melt if they saw him. But Mom loves him more than anyone.”
“Haha… yeah. Kiss.”
Deep, hungry kissing sounds filled the room again.
“Jin-yeong, time to get ready for your after-school tutoring. You’ve only been in university a short while and you’re already giving lessons to exam students—that’s amazing! Anyway, Dad will be home soon.”
“Yes, I know. I’ll finish tutoring, eat dinner, then come home. Mom.”
“Mmm.”
The son-husband relationship had ended. The mother-son intimacy was over as well. I slipped out quietly, back into the hallway, before they could hear me.
At the entrance, the familiar chime of my wife’s KakaoTalk chat with the name “Heavenly Angel to Me” rang out.
“Honey, when are you coming home? You said you’d eat dinner at home tonight. I prepared beef brisket and gochujang jjigae—your favorite.”
While standing at the café across the street, replaying the exact moment I’d overheard, I answered immediately.
“I’m almost there. Probably another thirty minutes.”
“Good, hurry. I miss you.”
The message was perfectly ordinary, the kind of thing any wife would send. No hint of what had happened moments earlier.
When I reached our apartment, I saw Jin-yeong carrying his bag, walking toward the students he tutored. His cheeks were slightly flushed, and the memory of what he’d just done with his mother made my pulse race. I fought the urge to say hello and hurried inside.
“Didi-didi-dik.”
I entered the password, opened the front door, then the inner door. The faint scent of sex and the rich aroma of the beef brisket jjigae greeted me as I approached our son’s room.
In the living room my wife greeted me with a bright smile. Only the faintest touch of lipstick remained on her lips, and the flushed glow of recent pleasure had vanished completely from her face.
“I passed by a flower shop on the way home. These are for you.”
“You’re home, honey. How pretty the bouquet is. Go wash up quickly. The jjigae is ready and smells delicious.”
“Mm, that sounds wonderful.”
“Of course it does. I made it myself.”
“Then the food is delicious and you’re even more delicious.”
“Honey, you always say the sweetest things. Go wash up now, hoho.”
“Okay.”
After a quick shower I joined her at the table. We ate dinner together in the warm evening light.
“Man, the food you make is the best in the world, honey. You’re incredible.”
“Hoho, stop the airplane. One day you’ll climb too high and fall.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll catch you safely. By the way, has Jin-yeong gone out yet?”
“Yes, he left before you arrived. If the timing had matched, you might have run into each other. Did you see him?”
“No, we just missed each other by a hair. Such a cute guy.”
Actually I had seen him, and the image of my son leaving my wife’s room still sent a fresh wave of heat through me, but I couldn’t bring myself to speak the truth. Jin-yeong, who now stood taller than me at 185 centimeters, still turned heads on the street. I smiled beside her, quietly proud of my son’s powerful frame and the gentle way he treated both his mother and me.
“Dad, I heard there’s a new game out called Into the Window. Want to play later?”
“Sure. I’ll install it the second I get home.”
“Wow, Dad, you’re coming home early.”
“Got it. I love you, son.”
“Ugh… Dad always says he loves you… now that I’m a university student too… heehee.”
“But we’re still proud of our son, right? Believe me, son.”
“Okay. See you later.”
We talked often, sometimes playing late-night multiplayer games instead of studying. Such a loving son… having an affair with the mother who gave him life.