An Offer He Couldn't Refuse 2
Jung Taeyoung kept needling Kim Seojin, deliberately stoking the younger man's anxiety.
"You can't even manage this tiny bit of cooperation? Or is it that your mom's the kind of easy woman who spreads her legs for a guy like me without a second thought? If that's the case, well, nothing I can do about it."
"There's no way that's true!"
Even knowing the provocation was obvious, Kim Seojin still flared up.
He was certain of it—his mother, the very embodiment of self-discipline, would never fall for a man like that.
But certainty and anxiety could coexist just fine.
The man would clearly stop at nothing to bring her down, and that made Seojin afraid. Terrified.
And yet, somewhere deeper, a dark little seed of desire was beginning to sprout—the urge to watch his mother tumble into this man's filthy trap and be reduced to nothing more than a bitch in heat.
"Then you're not such a coward that you can't even ride the subway with your mom when it's packed with people, right?"
Jung Taeyoung's blatant taunting continued.
By now Seojin was almost curious what the hell the man was basing all this confidence on.
"In exchange, you have to tell me everything. While this is going on, every single detail related to my mom—nothing left out."
"That part's fine, but can you even trust me?"
The sudden jab caught Seojin off guard. He clenched his fists tight, trembling with humiliation.
He felt like he might throw up from his own stupidity.
You idiot. Why didn't you see it?
Tension and nerves had narrowed his vision; lust had made his thinking so pitifully narrow. He was only now realizing how far gone he was.
Just as the man said, Seojin had no real choices left—he couldn't even fully trust the information being handed to him.
All he could do was try to steer things toward the path that would hurt his mother the least and negotiate from there.
He never noticed that Jung Taeyoung had deliberately left that opening exposed so Seojin wouldn't start thinking about anything else. Instead he just snapped at whatever was right in front of him, burning with rage.
"Then even that one-month deadline..."
"Ah, don't worry about that. Whether I fuck your mom or not, I'll keep that promise for sure."
Jung Taeyoung drew a firm, unmistakable line, as if that much at least he would honor.
He seemed to know deep in his bones that corner a rat too hard and it will bite. There was a solid resolve in him to respect the final boundary that had to be respected.
"If you break that promise..."
At Seojin's cold warning, Jung Taeyoung's lips curled into a smile that sent chills down the spine.
"Don't worry, mama's boy. If your mom knows what chastity is and stays a faithful housewife, then a month from now she'll come back as the 'your-and-only-yours' mother you love so much."
The rest of the sentence—something about how she might end up a little more lewd and vulgar—went unheard.
His and only his mother.
Those words rang through Seojin and shook him hard.
Remembering the conversation he'd had with Jung Taeyoung the day before, Seojin finished getting ready to go out.
Since the excuse was a meeting with a university professor, he put on the formal suit he'd bought once he became an adult and stepped into the living room. His mother was already there waiting, fully prepared for work.
In the bright morning sunlight she looked, simply put, elegant and beautiful.
"If you're ready, let's get going."
She had gathered her hair—long enough to reach her chest—and pinned it up neatly behind her head, giving off the clean, mature air of a working professional.
She wore a crisp black suit jacket without a single wrinkle, paired with a white dress shirt that called to mind the first snow of winter.
A black H-line skirt that highlighted the full curve of her hips, and below it her healthy, well-toned thighs and calves wrapped in sheer flesh-toned stockings—his eyes were drawn there of their own accord.
And that familiar expression of hers, always a little sharp and severe, actually put him at ease.
Right. What kind of person is Mom? There's no way she'd fall for a guy like that.
What happened at the sauna had been a disaster only because she'd been unconscious, completely out of it.
This was a crowded morning subway full of people. Even Jung Taeyoung wouldn't be able to do much to her.
At worst he'd just cop a few pathetic feels like some low-life pervert.
Hell, he might even get caught right there.
He was definitely going to try something on the train. Knowing his mother's personality, if she ran into a molester she'd scream instantly and call the police to hand him over—and then Seojin himself might get dragged into it. That worried him more than anything.
"Come on, come on! Stop zoning out!"
Seeing his mother as bold and decisive as ever, Seojin felt a wave of relief and headed with her to the subway station.
It was rush hour, and as they cut across the packed platform he was reminded all over again just how young she still looked.
Who would ever guess Mom is in her late thirties?
Armed with makeup on top of everything else, she was a beauty who pulled eyes without even trying.
Who could possibly imagine that this woman was a married housewife boiling with inferiority complexes, living only for her child?
Watching her stride through the crowd with that confident bearing and those proud steps, he could feel on a gut level why so many men wanted her.
"Son! What are you doing just standing there—hurry up!"
His mother's sharp scolding snapped Seojin's dazed mind back to reality.
The men around them who'd been sneaking looks at her startled at the word "son" coming from her mouth and stared back and forth between the two of them in disbelief.
Feeling his shoulders straighten a little with pride, Seojin began guiding her toward the specific platform as planned.
"Mom, we're running really late. I think we should get there as fast as we can. If we take the train from that platform over there, we can transfer straight through without any hassle. Can we board from there?"
"That's why I keep telling you to get ready faster!"
Without the slightest suspicion she hurried toward the platform he indicated.
What Jung Taeyoung had demanded was the rearmost car of the train, and the most out-of-the-way platform.
"You know I'm only going with you halfway, right? You still have to get to work."
"Of course. You'll get off first and I'll keep riding. I know. What, do you think I've never taken the subway before?"
"I'm just worried! This is a meeting with an actual professor you finally managed to snag—don't you dare be late. Be polite, and come back with lots of good information about admissions and interview tips."
Did she still think he was a little kid?
She kept fretting over him like he was a child who couldn't even run a simple errand.
Before long the train arrived. It was already so packed with morning commuters that people were having to force their way on.
Is Jung Taeyoung even here?
While Seojin hesitated, scanning the sardine-can interior, his mother pushed through the crowd with practiced ease and started boarding.
"What are you doing?! Get on already!"
She shoved people even harder, apparently trying to make space for him, and yanked him aboard by force.
"Uh? Uhh... ugh, ugh... i-it's tight!"
The moment her hand pulled him inside, the doors slammed shut.
The first things he felt were the stifling pressure of a packed rush-hour train—something he'd never experienced before—and then the expensive perfume rising from his mother, the familiar scent of her skin, and above all the soft, unforgettable feel of a woman's body.
"Son, turn around a little. We're going to be stuck like this for at least thirty minutes—might as well get a bit more comfortable, don't you think?"
Even his mother couldn't act completely according to her temper in a crush like this. Facing him the way they were, she asked him to turn so they could free up a little space.
If they stayed like this, mother and son would be locked in an embrace face-to-face the whole way—mortifying beyond words.
I just realized it again... I've gotten taller than Mom.
When was the last time he'd stood face-to-face with her like this?
The woman he used to always look up at—he could look down at her now. The thought left him strangely unsettled.
"Hurry up and turn around!"
"Yeah. Okay."
At her urging Seojin grunted and twisted around until he was pressed flat against the train door.
Then he felt her press close against his back, the soft give of her breasts vivid against him, and his whole body gave a single involuntary shudder.
"Hah..."
A small sigh of relief came from behind him—she must have felt a little more comfortable too.
Barely able to turn his head, Seojin desperately scanned their surroundings.
Not only was this the rearmost car, but they'd boarded at the very end of the platform, so he and his mother were crushed right up against the wall and the door.
And because it was peak rush hour, they were surrounded by so many people they could barely move an inch.
But why are there only big guys around us?
He looked again at the people hemming them in and felt something off.
Unusually large men stood with their backs turned, forming a ring around him and his mother.
A wall of male bodies like a fortress.
Even Seojin could only just get his head above their shoulders; his mother, a bit shorter, was completely buried among them, cut off from everyone else as if sealed away.
N-no way... coincidence, right?
His chest heaved with unease.
As the tension climbed, his body went rigid and started to heat up.
Every nerve stood on end so he wouldn't miss even the smallest change, and his heartbeat grew louder and louder, matching the rising roar of the train.
The subway carrying mother and son vanished into the darkness as if being swallowed whole.