Episode 26: Choi Si-joon Is a Thief
Episode 26: Choi Si-joon Is a Thief
26Chapter 26: Choi Sijun Is a Thieving Bastard
"Oppa."
"Yeah?"
"Can't you drop the formal speech?"
"Sure."
This was my bottom line. A breakwater I'd built between Cha Nara and myself to maintain a boundary.
"Mwah! Mwah!"
Completely ignoring my resolve, Cha Nara seemed intent on crossing every line. She planted light kisses on my lips.
"I'm going to keep kissing you until you talk comfortably to me."
"Mwah! Mwah! Mwah! Mwah—slick!"
When I didn't answer, the kisses kept coming.
At the end, she pressed her lips fully onto mine and even used her tongue to lick them. If I hadn't tensed up at that moment, I would've let her invade.
"Too bad."
Cha Nara looked at me as if she'd planned it all, slowly licking her own lips with her tongue.
Normally... no, even normally, I can't guarantee anything. But today, I'd had a lewd dream and the demon inside me was currently winning.
"Nara-ssi... no, Nara."
I called her name and wrapped my arms around her waist.
"Yes? Okay..."
Nara was startled by my sudden use of her name.
"Once I start, I won't stop."
At my declaration, Nara swallowed hard and nodded.
"Even if you cry that it hurts and beg me to stop because you're scared, I won't stop."
"..."
"Do you still want to continue?"
That was my last shred of reason. If she backed down now, I could still suppress the demon inside me.
"Don't stop."
She had no intention of stopping my inner demon. In fact, she seemed to want it.
"Still..."
She paused mid-approach and opened her mouth.
"I want my first time to be a little romantic... is that not okay?"
"Hah..."
That was an insane thing to say, a sentence designed to set a man on fire. This must be why she's called the next-generation sexy queen despite her cute looks.
I grabbed hold of my reason and asked one more time.
"If I have you, I'm not letting you go. Whether I'm seeing other women or doing whatever, I won't let you see other men. I'll just hold onto you. I'll be the only one who gets a taste."
With a seriousness that didn't suit me, I lowered my voice as much as I could and spoke grimly. And it was also my conscience speaking.
I was subtly telling her that if she got involved with me, her heart would ache, and that I wasn't a man who only looked at one woman.
In reality, even if she started dating me right now, she'd have to share me with Sieun and Eunhwi, the two noonas.
Could a twenty-year-old really handle that?
It felt so awkward and contradictory for me to get this serious when I was with Cha Nara, but I still thought this was the right thing to do.
"I... I still like you, Oppa."
"..."
With a trembling voice, Cha Nara said she'd enter my enclosure.
"Even if you cheat on me... even if you play around with other women, it's fine."
"... Why?"
I couldn't understand. If Sieun or Eunhwi noona told me they were seeing someone else while dating me, just the thought would make my insides twist and drive me crazy. So why was this girl giving me a free pass?
"I don't know. I just... I just..."
"Hah..."
I let out a breath and carefully stroked Nara's hair.
"Let's not talk about it now. Let's talk later. Not right now."
I grabbed hold of the leash of my reason. Barely. The line I had set was already tossed far, far away.
"Really?"
She was this happy just because I suggested we talk.
"Yeah. Let's just do more dates and stuff like that."
My conscience pricked me, so I suggested a date at least.
"Okay!!!"
She might love me—no, like me—but I was still on the fence. So I planned to accept her only when my feelings for her were certain.
"I don't know either."
I genuinely didn't know, so I just flopped onto my back.
"I'll make you fall for me."
She was really perceptive.
"And that's the part of you I like. Any other guy would've just tried to bag me the second I said I liked them."
"What's an idol doing talking about 'bagging' someone?"
"So what? I'm an adult now."
Nara grinned and flopped right on top of me.
"Your arms feel nice. You can at least hold me, right?"
"Fine."
I placed my hands on her head and the small of her back and hugged her tight.
"Sneak..."
"Ah, it's not working..."
I spent a while wrestling hands with Nara as she kept trying to slip her hand into my waistband.
"Oh, Oppa."
"Yeah."
"What do you think about my chest?"
"Pfffft!!!"
The date with Nara that I was trying to wrap up as beautifully as possible ended with me spitting out the water I was drinking at her sudden, direct question.
"Why? Aren't they pretty? They're pretty nice, right?"
"Ah, um, your hands—"
I was dumbfounded seeing Nara cup and knead her own chest while talking about it.
'I kind of feel like an idiot.'
I was embarrassed for getting so serious about it this whole time.
I guess I really am not cut out for serious stuff.
---
"I'm home."
"You're back?"
"Welcome back."
It had only been a few months, but now if I didn't hear two voices answering me, I felt like I'd be disappointed.
I briefly grabbed Eunhwi noona, who had come to greet me, then slipped back out and into my room.
I tossed my grimy clothes straight into the laundry room, took a shower, changed into comfortable clothes, and came back out.
My hair was still wet, but cheering up a slightly sulky Eunhwi noona came first.
I sat on the sofa and hugged her, even though she was looking away with her head turned completely in the opposite direction.
"What's this?"
"No, I spilled coffee on myself on the way home..."
Part of it was getting splashed with water in the Department 4 bathroom, but for real, on the drive home, I'd gone over a speed bump a little too hard because Nara's coffee wasn't seated properly in the cupholder, and it spilled all over me.
"Really?"
"Go smell my clothes. The coffee stench is overwhelming."
Eunhwi noona's expression relaxed, and she settled sideways onto my lap, rubbing her face against my chest.
"Mwah!"
Just as I was soothing Eunhwi noona, Sieun noona came out of the bedroom, grabbed my face to plant a kiss on my lips, and then sat down next to me.
"But Sijun-ah."
"Yeah?"
Eunhwi noona, who had been rubbing her face against me for a while, spoke up.
"You only spilled coffee, but your shirt was all wrinkled too."
She was sharp. To pick up on that in that brief moment. This is why I can't lie to the noonas... no, I mean, I don't lie to them.
"Ah, that's..."
I summarized the incident at Department 4 for them.
Of course, the stuff with Nara too... I wasn't going to say anything, but I felt kind of grimy, so I just came clean.
They'd find out in no time anyway. It's not something I can hide just because I try to.
"Hoh~ our Sijun is a popular guy~"
Eunhwi noona teased me, rubbing her face on my chest again, while Sieun noona just stared at the TV as if it was nothing.
I fooled around, playing with Eunhwi noona's hands. We got to talking about the post-finals administrative work since finals were coming up. We were deep in conversation for a while when a familiar song started playing on the TV.
"Huh?"
It was the Cosmos stage video that Cha Nara had shown me in the Department 4 practice room earlier.
"She's pretty."
Sieun noona pretended not to care, but it looked like she was paying attention after all. But the way she was looking at Cha Nara wasn't like a woman eyeing her boyfriend's girl—it felt more like a mother looking at her son's girlfriend.
"Pretty, right? Cute too?"
Eunhwi noona chimed in from beside me.
"She is. Hmm... and her chest looks pretty big?"
"If she grows up well, she'll be the next-generation sexy queen. That's actually what people in the industry say about her."
"You're right. Her eyes have a weirdly alluring quality. They're the kind that mesmerize people."
Before I knew it, the two noonas' conversation had turned into an evaluation of 'Cha Nara' as a person—no, as a celebrity.
"Is she not interested in acting? Her face is great."
"I'm not sure..."
Just as you'd expect from actresses, they were even matching her to roles that would suit her.
"But how old is she?"
"Twenty."
At Eunhwi noona's answer, Sieun noona shot me a sharp glare.
"Wh... what?"
"You little punk! You thieving bastard! You seduced a twenty-year-old kid?!"
"I wasn't the one doing the seducing..."
"Then you should've brushed her off!"
Eunhwi noona was sitting on top of me, so I couldn't dodge and just had to take the hits.
"No, but... you two also seduced a twenty-year-old guy..."
My counterattack didn't land at all.
"Look at this guy! 'You two'?! To your noonas? Are you crazy?!"
"Exactly! He's trying to act like he's our equal these days, you see?"
"Sorry... I'm sorry."
The only words I could muster were an apology.
"Treat her well for me. Don't let her get hurt. I know she can't completely avoid getting hurt, but if you've made up your mind, explain things to her properly. If it gets tough, your noonas will help you too."
"Yeah..."
Once the light and playful mood ended, Sieun noona gave me some sincere advice and encouragement.
"We could be the ones to tell her, but that's not what you want, right?"
Eunhwi noona also asked a question that tested my resolve again.
"Yeah, I'll do it."
I sometimes felt bewildered by how naturally these noonas accepted another person into the fold, but I was also grateful.
It was also kind of exciting. My relationship with the noonas had been somewhat one-sided. There were occasional exceptions, but in most situations, the noonas took the lead.
Even now, over time, I do speak up a bit more actively. But the noonas still did the bulk of the leading.
'It was comfortable because they handled things themselves...'
But now I had to make an effort too. Though the age gap was ten years, and I wasn't sure how mature I could really be since my mental age seemed stuck at twenty.
"Look at this guy."
"Huh?"
"He's smiling while thinking about another woman right in front of us two."
Sieun noona grabbed the corner of my mouth and pulled it down.
"So us forty-something noonas are obsolete now, is that it?"
"No, why is the conversation going there..."
That night,
We didn't go all the way to sex, but I had to prove my statement that 'I love my noonas' with my entire body, taking turns holding one while continuously kissing the other.
'These people are forty? Why?'
And watching the noonas, I realized once again that just because you age physically doesn't mean your mental age keeps up.
"Ah! By the way, what about Haru?"
"Haru?"
"Oh, come on, you know, Park Haru."
"What about her?"
"I think she likes Sijun too."
""What??""
"What? Why are you surprised, Sijun?"
I was startled too at the name that came out of nowhere.