First Experience at the Jjimjilbang
The country's the real enemy, I swear.
The last night of a short-timer's leave always had a maddening kind of magic to it. Tomorrow I'd be back in a steel helmet, standing night watch, staring at the first sergeant's ugly mug — and that knowledge sat on my chest like a weight. Walking back into the unit like this felt so unfair I could have lost my mind. I'd thrown myself into the nightlife district, determined to burn through whatever spark of leave I had left, but the results had been pathetic.
At a pickup bar glittering with flashy lights, I'd waited out a long line only to get coldly turned away at the door. At a club where the bass thudded hard enough to leave my ears ringing, I'd wasted an expensive cover charge just to lean against the wall like yesterday's leftovers before walking out. My shoulders had slumped, my wallet had lightened, and my pride had hit the floor.
"Ah, goddamn it..."
In the end, the only place left to go was the 24-Hour Large Jjimjilbang. I trudged in against the cold wind, and the lobby was as hollow as the dawn air itself. The shop clerk at the counter was nodding off, and the floor was already so packed with middle-aged men snoring spread-eagled that there was barely room to put a foot down.
Don't tell me there's nowhere even to lie down.
Gritting my teeth, I headed down the inner corridor where the sleeping rooms were clustered. Lined up along the walls were the so-called "rabbit holes" — cozy two-person private sleeping cubbies carved into the wall, just the right size to duck your head, crawl in, and curl up alone. But apparently everyone else had had the same idea. Every rabbit hole in sight had a leg or a bag sticking out of it.
Ah, fuck. Guess I'll just crash in a corner of the lobby.
Irritation surged up as I started to turn back — and that was when a sharp noise cut through the darkness at the farthest, dimmest end of the sleeping-room corridor.
Bang—!
A sound like someone slamming a wall, and then a man and a woman's voices came slicing out, sharp as blades.
"You're the worst! How can you treat a person like that?!"
"Oh, here we go again! What did I even do? You're the one who killed the mood, so why are you mad at me?"
"Forget it, I'm going home! Don't you dare follow me!"
It was a woman's voice, fierce and cutting, yet thick with hurt. A man's ragged breathing followed, then dull footsteps fading away. She strode off toward the emergency exit on the opposite side; he stood there fuming for a long while, and when it seemed she was truly gone, he stormed off toward the lobby, stomping as if the anger had nowhere else to go.
Both of them had been wearing the baggy ochre short-sleeve shirts and shorts that were the jjimjilbang uniform. And in the wreckage of that completely broken atmosphere, the rabbit-hole sleeping cubby the two of them had been using like a sealed-off room — fighting in it, fiercely, until a moment ago — sat empty, as if it had never been occupied at all.
Even in the dingy lighting of the jjimjilbang, the woman's face — the one I'd only glimpsed in passing — stood out with a striking, doll-like prettiness. Beneath a pale, smooth forehead, her slender brows were faintly drawn together; her straight, delicate nose still trembled with anger; and her full, reddened lips stirred a strange protective instinct even as they radiated a dizzying kind of allure.
A woman that pretty, and the guy couldn't even hold it together... well. His loss.
There wasn't a scrap of morality left in the head of the man clutching his leave-return bag. Survival instinct came first — the survival instinct of a pitiful short-timer who had to report back tomorrow. I nearly cheered as I shot into that rabbit hole at the speed of light.
The inside was far darker than the corridor, and a peculiar warmth brushed my nose along with a peculiar perfume. The thought that another man and woman had been pouring their emotions out in here until a moment ago was a little unsettling, but with exhaustion rolling in, none of that registered. The instant I laid my head on the thin mat spread across the floor, my eyes slid shut.
How long had I been out cold, dead to the world?
A rustling at my ear finally made me crack my eyes open to slits. It was the sound of the dark blackout curtain covering the rabbit hole's entrance being drawn slowly aside.
Ah. Did the guy come back for his stuff?
Annoyed, I curled in deeper and rolled onto my side. A presence in the shabby jjimjilbang uniform swept in — and without a hint of hesitation, something pushed itself firmly into the space in front of me.
Before I could even freeze in shock, a sweet perfume — the same familiar scent that had been on that woman — tickled the tip of my nose, thick and close.
It wasn't the man. It was her. That pretty woman from before.
The darkness was too complete to make out the fine lines of her face, but the scent rising off her clear, translucent skin, and those doll-like features I'd glimpsed in the corridor, overlapped vividly in my mind. She must have assumed the man she'd just walked out on was still holed up in here, that he hadn't left the sleeping cubby at all. She'd stormed off in anger, then changed her mind and come back looking for him. She was still in the jjimjilbang's short-sleeve uniform, exactly as before.
"......"
I froze, not daring to make a sound. If our voices mixed here, if my identity came out, I'd be branded a pervert and thrown out of the jjimjilbang — or, if my luck was worse, they might call the military police. And more than that, in the twisted mindset of a short-timer sergeant on the eve of returning to base, a strange curiosity reared its head.
Just as I was, lying on my side, the woman settled in at an angle and nestled her soft back comfortably against my solid torso.
The press of her body heat made me flinch and go rigid. Through the thin cotton of the jjimjilbang shirts, a warmth like bare skin passed between us, unfiltered. She seemed certain I was that man; she fitted her body naturally to the shape of my arms and breathed in short, quick bursts.
"I'm still not over it. But did you think acting that pathetic would just make me more stubborn? No... I don't want to be angry either."
The razor edge of fury from before was gone from her voice, replaced by a heated, lingering sadness. Still leaning back against me, she reached behind her, took my forearm carefully in her hand, and stroked slowly upward. Past the sleeve of the jjimjilbang uniform, the cool tips of her fingers touched my skin.
The sensation was so electric every hair on my body stood on end. But she seemed to take it as the reaction of a man who was embarrassed, or thrown off.
"Earlier... I was too reckless. The mood wasn't there, and I wasn't ready at all. You pushed so suddenly I just bounced off you on instinct."
Her breath drifted faintly toward me in the dark. She pressed her back even more tightly against my chest and reached behind her again, her fingers carefully tracing up my chest. Over the jjimjilbang shirt, her fingertips moved in slow circles — and the motion was growing bolder by the second.
"But right now... it's okay."
Her voice, dropped low, filled the narrow rabbit hole to the brim.
Warning lights flashed like crazy in my head. The second I opened my mouth, my usual tone of voice would give me away as the wrong man in an instant. I absolutely could not speak.
But my body was already betraying reason.
She leaned all the way back, putting her full weight into my chest and arm. With only a single thin layer of cloth between us, our body heat and heartbeats passed through unfiltered. My heart was pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears. Fortunately the rabbit hole was dark, my build was close enough to that guy's, and we both smelled of the same soap and shampoo the jjimjilbang provided — so as long as I kept my voice hidden, it didn't seem like I'd be found out easily.
"Why aren't you saying anything? ...Are you still mad?"
She poked my arm, as if the silence were driving her crazy. Then she shifted, turning her head slightly as if to look back at me. In the dark, her soft hair and her cheek brushed the point of my chin. The mere knowledge that those pretty, delicate features and that full, voluptuous body I'd seen in the corridor were right there beyond the darkness sent a dizzying jolt through me.
"Won't you look at me? Don't pull away like you did before... hold me properly."
The thought that speaking would be the end of me kept my mouth shut tight; I didn't let a single word out. Instead, under the pretext of not letting her hear my voice, I swallowed my ragged breathing and reached out with both arms — carefully, and firmly.
One hand found her waist; the other slipped behind her neck like a pillow and wrapped around her chest, drawing her deeper into my arms. Instead of words, the hot press of my body and the depth of the embrace were the answer.
At that silent, lingering touch, her breath hitched, then trembled, thin and fine.
"......"
The woman didn't ask another word. Instead, still misunderstanding my intent, she drew a faint, peculiar smile to her lips and pulled the arm I'd wrapped around her neck down, folding it over her own chest.
Hhh— it's so soft. So this is a woman's breast... nngh, I'm already leaking pre-cum... I can't hold back anymore, I really can't...
I strained with everything I had not to make a sound, and she only came at me more eagerly.
She seemed to notice the hard, heavy presence of me against her, and her touch grew bolder still. The air inside the narrow rabbit hole turned completely thick and feverish.
Keeping my silence to the end, surrendering my body to her misunderstanding, the two of us sank deeper and deeper into a night of pleasure neither of us could stop.