Don't Take That Bet
Mina's body collapsed down onto mine.
I wrapped my arms around her warm frame. Her hot breasts, pressed flat against my chest, were throbbing with a racing heartbeat — though for all I knew, it was my own pulse I was feeling.
It didn't matter either way.
Against the nape of my neck I could feel her ragged breathing, and mine was ghosting back against hers. My cock, slowly losing its strength, slipped out of her pussy of its own accord.
The wet fluid leaking from her tickled my shaft and my balls, trickling slowly down into my crotch. Left alone, it would run along the crease of my ass and stain the bedsheets — but it didn't matter. We stayed locked together like that, gasping for air, savoring the lingering heat.
I had imagined my first time countless times, and there was one thing I'd sworn I would never say. In the end, it came out anyway.
"Was it good?"
And Mina, her lips at my ear, murmured back,
"It was so good. And for you, Jiu?"
Her tone was as demure and gentle as ever, but there was something new mixed into it — a coquettish edge I'd never felt from her before.
"Me? Obviously it was amazing."
The words I'd blurted out right before I came — that cry of 'Mom' — I couldn't tell anymore whether I had truly said them to her, or whether they'd only lived inside the fantasy in my head.
When our panting had finally begun to settle, I was the one who asked.
"Um... Mina, that thing I said earlier. Right before I came... the thing I said to you..."
I got that far and then stalled, unsure how to finish. The moment I confronted the fact that I had called a woman 'Mom' while sleeping with her, my whole face burned red, and I found myself wondering why I'd even brought it up.
I felt Mina chuckle softly against me.
That alone confirmed it — it hadn't been a fantasy.
"It's fine. I said the same thing to you, remember?"
She had called me 'Son. My son.'
So that hadn't been a fantasy either.
Mina's body, still straddling me, slid off to my side in one smooth motion. She hooked one leg over mine and nestled into my flank. When I opened my arm, she pillowed her head on it and held me.
"They say men never hold anything below the belt against each other," Mina said.
"You're not a man, Mina."
"So what if I'm not? Everyone has their fantasies."
She said it breezily, but I couldn't quite manage the same coolness — not when my fantasy was the kind society had a hard time tolerating.
I wished I could have asked, 'Do you ever fantasize about doing it with your son, Mina?' But I couldn't muster the courage. Asking a mother that felt like crossing a line far too far.
Lying on my arm, she idly traced a fingertip over my nipple. We stayed quiet for a while. Then Mina asked me,
"Are you really going to do it? That bet?"
The same question she'd asked earlier. When I'd told her I didn't know yet, she'd said I sounded like I was going to go through with it.
"I think I probably will."
That was how I answered this time. It was the honest truth.
Mina was silent for a long moment. Then, as if she'd made up her mind about something, she spoke.
"Don't take that bet."
I turned to look at her face, but her eyes stayed fixed on my chest.
"Why not?"
"Because you'll definitely lose. Why make a bet you're guaranteed to lose?"
If I lost, it meant my mother would fall to Jinwoo.
"And why do you think I'm definitely going to lose?"
I hadn't meant it that way, but there must have been a trace of anger in my voice, because Mina lifted her eyes to mine. She seemed to choose her words carefully for a moment before answering.
"What I know is this: your mother is forty-two, and very beautiful. Her husband passed away, and her son went off to the army. It's not even about desire. It's loneliness."
I couldn't find a single word of rebuttal.
"Jinwoo is young, handsome... he's a charming man. If he clings to her and pursues her relentlessly, any woman would fall. Put yourself in the other position for a second. You believe your mother would never give in — but what exactly is that belief built on? Your mother is single right now. Dating a man is no crime. This isn't the Joseon dynasty. She's not living in an era where a woman whose husband has died is expected to know only one man for the rest of her life and guard her chastity until the grave. Because he's too young? Honestly, from a woman's point of view, if a young man starts coming on to me, it doesn't feel bad. Quite the opposite. It's definitely better than some old man doing it. And if it's someone as good-looking as Jinwoo making the approach, curiosity alone would make her give him a chance at least once. And Jinwoo will never let that one chance slip away."
By that point I wanted to ask whether she and Jinwoo had ever done it, but I bit it back — it would have made me look like such a slob. Either way, nothing she said was wrong.
Mina, as if a dam had finally burst, kept going.
"Think about it. Say a man's wife dies and he's raising his daughter alone. He's forty-two; the daughter is twenty-one. Then some woman starts seducing him — a woman the same age as his daughter, twenty-one. Do you really think he'd push her away thinking, 'I have to stay faithful to my wife,' or 'I can't date someone my daughter's age'? Sure, some men would. But if he did give in to that temptation, would you condemn him? If a man marries a younger woman, as long as it's not an affair, no one blinks. It's the same for women. Women prefer young men to old ones too. If your mother falls for a young man's advances, there's nothing immoral about it — which means your belief that 'my mom would never fall for that guy' has nothing standing underneath it."
Had she always been this articulate? I couldn't come up with a single counterargument.
She was right. When Jinwoo first proposed the bet, I'd been certain my mother would never give in.
But why, exactly? First, Jinwoo and I were the same age. Second, Jinwoo wasn't the type I thought Mom would like.
And yet — if she did start dating Jinwoo, was there anything about it that would actually make me feel betrayed? There was no law against a mother liking younger men. I was certain she'd never go for Jinwoo's type, of course. But that was just my belief, nothing more.
In the end, I asked Mina.
"Have you and Jinwoo... ever done it?"
Surprisingly, she answered right away. "Of course we have."
Figured. It was the obvious, entirely predictable answer, but hearing it out loud didn't feel great. I suppose that's just male instinct.
And then I asked another childish question.
"Which was better — with Jinwoo, or with me?"
Mina looked into my eyes. There was a hint of laughter in her face — a playful expression I'd never seen on her before.
"You're seriously curious about that, right now?"
Her voice had a bit of amusement in it too, but there was no mockery in it at all.
"I just want to know. It's... my first time having sex."
At that, the humor drained from her face, and her gaze drifted back toward my chest.
"It's just... you and Jinwoo feel completely different. Yes — completely different flavors."
Her answer had the air of someone who'd finally landed on the right expression. Strange, but coming from her voice, the word "flavor" didn't feel lewd at all.
"How are they different?"
"How should I put it... if Jinwoo is spicy, numbing malatang, then you're sweet tanghulu."
Fiery malatang and sugary tanghulu. Somehow it felt like I'd lost the comparison — but the fact that Jinwoo and I were simply different, neither better nor worse, was enough to leave me reasonably satisfied.
"Mina, you said you have a son in high school, right?"
"That's right."
"Then if your son's friend — obviously not now, he's a minor, so of course that would be wrong — but later, once your son and this friend are both adults... if the friend seduced you, do you think you'd give in?"
I asked it without thinking much, but Mina lifted her head off my arm, propped herself up slightly, and looked down at me with a serious expression.
"I would never give in."
"See? And yet you say my mom would?"
"Does your mother know that Jinwoo is your friend?"
At those words, I felt — once again, though I'd been knocked over the head plenty of times today already — like I'd taken a blow to the skull.
Mina spoke to me as I sat there blankly.
"That's a completely different thing from everything we just talked about. A woman like me, with no husband, no one whose chastity I owe anyone — if an attractive young man pursues me relentlessly, maybe I could give in. But if that man were my son's friend? In your eyes I'd be nothing but a filthy whore. And even a filthy woman like me would never fall for my son's friend. What would my son think of me if he ever found out? What would that boy — my son's friend — think of me? And how would I feel about myself? Jinwoo told you that 'all women are the same, they all fall if a man pursues them.' And no, I can't speak for every woman in the world. But here's one thing I can say with certainty: any normal woman will not fall for her son's friend."
My head was spinning.