Episode 66: Choi Si-joon and Park Ha-ru Sweat Again
Episode 66: Choi Si-joon and Park Ha-ru Sweat Again
Chapter 66: Choi Sijun and Park Haru Sweat Again
"Haru, time to wake up."
My voice cut through the heavy, humid air in the room and reached Haru's ears, but the only response was a sleepy murmur. Haru clutched the blanket and curled herself into an even tighter ball.
"Mmmnn..."
"Haru~"
"Mmmnn, oppa, just a little more..."
"Really?"
"Mm."
Waiting didn't seem like it would change anything, but she looked so exhausted that I held her and actually let her sleep a little longer. After a bit more time had passed, it really couldn't be put off any longer, so I woke Haru again.
"Haru, you have to get up now."
"Just a little more... Just five more minutes... Okay?"
To say she'd collapsed from exhaustion would've been the perfect description. As if proving just how intense the time we'd spent together earlier had been, Haru's eyelids seemed impossibly heavy.
But time was ticking, and if I left her like this, she'd obviously miss her schedule today. Left with no choice, I decided to deploy my final weapon.
I lifted her slender body off the bed. The sudden sensation of being airborne startled her, and she clung to my neck.
"Whoa—? What the...!"
"You wouldn't get up, so this is mandatory enforcement. We're going to the bathroom."
In the short hallway leading to the bathroom, Haru's skin against my arms felt hot and sticky.
We'd finished our activities earlier, showered clean, and then fallen asleep.
We'd been too lazy to even put on clothes and had barely managed to slip on our underwear, so getting Haru into the bathtub now was no trouble at all.
But why another shower, you ask? That was entirely due to someone's awful sleeping habit.
While we were deep asleep, someone said she was cold and fumbled for the air conditioner remote, turning it off.
Thanks to that, the sealed room quickly turned into a midsummer sweatbox. I woke up late from the heat and turned the AC back on, but by then we'd already been sweating through our sleep.
The sheets were already soaked and clammy, and no matter how much AC air we blasted, I couldn't send her off in a sweaty state.
I carefully set Haru down on the closed toilet lid and took off her underwear.
"Hnn... don't..."
As I stripped her and touched her here and there to wake her up, her eyes fluttered open and she blocked my hands.
Once the underwear was off, I lifted Haru again and carefully set her down in the bathtub. The cold floor of the tub made her flinch.
I turned on the shower, adjusted the temperature, and slowly let the water run over Haru's body.
You'd think the water would have woken her up at least somewhat, but Haru was still out of it, leaning her head against my shoulder and nodding off.
"Still sleepy?"
"Mmhm."
"Open your eyes a bit, Haru."
"Don't wanna..."
My hands glided over Haru's body, washing away the sweat.
Soap bubbles foamed up softly, and in the warm water, Haru's skin flushed a light red.
Even as I washed her, Haru gazed at me blankly with half-lidded eyes.
Does she even know how provocative that drowsy gaze is? Not that it matters right now.
Around the time the shower was nearly done, I lowered the temperature slightly with cold water, and only then did a spark of life finally return to Haru's eyes.
Actually, I knew.
Sometime in the middle, even though she'd regained consciousness to some degree, she'd been quietly surrendering to my touch because it felt good.
But I deliberately pretended not to notice and brought Haru out of the tub.
I dried her body with a large towel and sat her down in front of the mirror.
"Ah, this is tough."
"Tough?"
"Yeah... more than I expected."
Not that Haru was heavy or anything, but lifting a whole person up and down and washing them was far from easy.
"Sorry. But it felt really nice."
"Then it's fine."
I brought a hair dryer and carefully dried her wet hair.
Amid the whir of the dryer, Haru quietly burrowed into my arms.
"Your hair's still drying."
"I'm grateful, so this is my payment!"
Since she still wasn't dressed, the warmth of Haru's bare skin was incredibly tender and comforting.
As if reluctant to let go, Haru hugged my waist the whole time I dried her hair, rubbing her face against my stomach and staying nestled in my arms for a long while.
Even after that little head of hair was dry and we'd gotten dressed, we held each other.
"I don't want to go... Can't we just stay like this all day today?"
"I'd like that too, but you have work, Ms. Park Haru."
I patted her bottom as she clung to me, soothing her. Only then did Haru finally pull away from my arms.
"I'll be back."
"Okay. Are you coming back again?"
A playful impulse struck me. Haru, on her way toward the front door, stopped short at my question and turned her head to look at me.
"Huh... wha?"
"Pffahaha, just kidding. Did that throw you off?"
"What the heck."
Haru clutched her chest and grumbled. I adjusted my joking expression a bit and added seriously,
"No, it was a joke. If you can come back afterwards, then come. Got it? Because I'll miss you."
Finally, color returned to Haru's face.
"Really? Okay, then I might just show up out of nowhere in the middle of the night! Kiss! Mwah! Mwah!"
Haru stood on her tiptoes and puckered her lips.
Without hesitation, I pressed a short but deep kiss onto her lips.
With a light yet suggestive smooching sound, Haru smiled a satisfied smile and vanished out the door.
After Haru left, I looked around the now-quiet apartment.
The living room and master bedroom were a complete mess, as if a typhoon had swept through.
Especially the master bedroom—going back in, a faint smell of sweat was rising. Needless to say, the sheets that were the source of the smell were completely ruined.
"Sigh, first things first, I need to strip these sheets."
It started out as a simple straightening of the bedding.
But after pulling off the sweat-soaked sheets, the mattress cover underneath seemed damp too. Then the underwear on the floor and scattered items began to catch my eye.
Picking up one thing after another, before I knew it, it had turned into a full-blown deep clean of the entire place.
"Aw, fuck. Why did I even start this, Choi Sijun, at this hour..."
I was in the middle of running the washing machine and vacuuming when it happened.
I heard the sound of the front door's keypad being pressed, and Eunhwi-noona walked in.
She was back a little earlier than expected.
I went to greet her with the cordless vacuum still in one hand. Noona looked at me, let out a small laugh, walked up, and melted into my arms to kiss me.
"Slurp, slurp, slurp, slurp."
It was a bit of a deep greeting for a welcome kiss, but that wasn't important.
"What kind of cleaning are you doing at this hour?"
"Ah, noona, you're home? I just... After I woke up, the place seemed way too messy."
I scratched the back of my head and brushed it off vaguely. But sharp-eyed Eunhwi-noona glanced toward the bedroom and gave me a sly smile.
"Hmm, I thought I smelled a little sweat, too? Did you have a good time with Haru?"
"Well, it's always a good time, whether it's with you, noona, or Haru."
"So who's better?"
"That's not something you compare."
I lightly pinched noona by the nose and warned her as she tried to subtly make comparisons.
"So? Why the big cleaning spree?"
Maybe she hadn't really planned on getting an answer, because noona backed right off and changed the subject.
"Well, the thing is..."
When my boring, pedantic explanation of why I'd started this cleaning was over, noona laughed loudly and put her bag down.
"You're really something else... No wonder Auntie keeps giving you more work."
"Let's not talk about that."
Eunhwi-noona suddenly threw a counterpunch without me even attacking her.
"I'll help you, so let's finish up quick and rest."
"Thanks."
"What's there to thank? It's my house too."
Noona changed into comfortable clothes and joined me in the cleaning.
With both of us tackling it, the cleanup was done in no time.
We dusted, wiped the floors, and spread the freshly washed, crisp, and fluffy sheets onto the bed. As the scent of air freshener and fabric softener filled the room, my mood felt instantly refreshed.
"Phew, now it finally feels livable. Good work."
Noona wiped the sweat from her forehead and flopped down onto the taut bed.
I also leaned against the headboard and caught my rough breath. A sense of freshness and the languor after a thorough cleaning washed over me at the same time.
A strange silence hung in the air.
The clean room, the soft lighting, and noona's breathing, slightly ragged after the cleaning. Her gaze naturally drifted toward me.
Normally, my body should have definitely been tired, having just sent Haru off and finished cleaning.
"Now that we've changed the sheets... they look really plush. Right?"
Noona stroked the sheets with her hand and whispered in a low voice.
Her voice was tinged with a different kind of allure than just moments ago.
Memories of the intense time I'd spent with Haru a few hours earlier flashed through my mind. Physically, there was no denying a slight feeling of unease. A nagging worry about whether my stamina was depleted. Not that kind of stamina... I mean, physical energy.
But as noona's touch stealthily grazed near my thigh, my body reacted far more honestly than I'd thought it would.
As if it couldn't care less about its owner's worries, my still-vigorous alter ego began to assert its presence proudly, showing no sign of refusal.
"Oh? Looks like you still have some energy left?"
Noona checked the state I was in and smiled a peculiar smile, bringing her face close. Her scent pricked at my nose.
The heat from the cleaning hadn't even fully cooled yet, but there was no stopping the new heat from blooming on the spotless bed.
I pulled her waist toward me and whispered in her ear.
"We literally just finished cleaning..."
"Ah."