Peeling the Blue Layers
It wasn't some freckle or stain stuck to the skin.
His entire leg might as well have been one solid, rock-hard blue spot.
I pressed with everything I had. There was the tiniest bit of give, but measured against the overall outline, the effect was no more than a speck of dust.
Gu Somin traded a few words with Gu Byeonghwon and soon headed home. When I checked the time, four full hours had already slipped by since I'd started the massage.
My body was plastered in sweat. Good thing I'd brought spare clothes.
Whenever the nurse stepped into the room to set out meals or swap hospital supplies, I could snatch a short break. Outside of those moments I threw every scrap of strength into working Gu Byeonghwon's legs.
I kept at it until the sun went down and finally managed to peel away one layer of the hard blue spot near his foot.
Holy fucking shit.
I'd peeled one layer.
I'd peeled one layer! Fuck! The blue spots had been stacked on top of each other.
The blue spots that marked diminished function had piled up like pancakes, layer after layer, until they turned that deep, dense color.
Was I supposed to think of it as stripping animal hide?
The problem didn't stop there. The price of removing that blue spot was Gu Byeonghwon's body heating up to a dangerous degree.
"Ugh... something... feels off..."
From Gu Byeonghwon's side it made sense. His body felt like it was burning, yet it didn't feel particularly bad.
The real issue was that a sudden spike in temperature would send an immediate signal to the attending nurse.
I quickly dabbed a wet towel all over him, trying to knock the heat down.
That still didn't feel like enough, so I pulled ice from the freezer, dumped it into a plastic bag, and started rubbing him down hard with it. Even then Gu Byeonghwon never registered the cold.
Luckily, as time passed the temperature eased. No call went out to the nurse.
"Haa..."
Anyone watching would have called it insanity.
How long am I supposed to keep doing this shit before he actually gets better?
Curses sat ready on my tongue.
Yet even as the swears rose, my eyes never felt tired. My mouth never went dry. That told me I was throwing real heat into this massage. Hell, maybe I was even enjoying it.
A doctor would have called his condition a complex illness born from multiple factors. If it could have been fixed, it already would have been.
But I held a rock-solid conviction that simply repeating this work could cure a man with lower-body paralysis.
Walking a dead-end road and walking a road where a bright beam of light already shines ahead are two completely different things.
I pictured Gu Somin's fat, chicken-drop tears and started massaging again.
I kept going even while Gu Byeonghwon lay sleeping.
Sleep never came for me either.
Sweat poured until an entire set of clothes was soaked through, and still I didn't stop.
Gu Somin had started going to dawn prayer a few years earlier.
She'd been non-religious, but once Gu Byeonghwon was hospitalized she began attending church steadily and made the quietest hour of the morning—kneeling alone in the sanctuary—part of her daily routine.
"You're here again today."
The sister who usually came with her was about Gu Byeonghwon's age. She already knew exactly why Gu Somin showed up.
"How's your father these days?"
"The same as always."
"Am I imagining things, or does your face look different from before?"
"Pardon? Mine?"
"Mm. The second I saw you I thought something good must have happened."
Gu Somin said goodbye to the sister and went straight to a mirror.
Her expression really did look brighter. A soft light had begun to gather in eyes that used to stay dark.
That much, at least, came from trusting Junhyun.
She knelt in the middle of the still sanctuary and began to pray.
By coincidence, the passage she'd heard that weekend was the one where the apostle Peter took pity on a lame man and raised him to his feet.
God, please. Have mercy on my father and help him rise from that bed.
In the Bible the apostles who raised the lame were Peter and Paul.
In Christianity that kind of power is called a "gift"—an ability God grants to special people.
When Gu Somin heard how thoroughly Junhyun already understood her situation, she decided he must be one of those gifted people. If the God she believed in had a plan for her, then Junhyun was surely the one He had sent.
He had sent a special person to drive back hardship and deliver her from evil.
Gu Somin thought back over her past and the wrongs she had done. Every human lives with sin. There is a vast difference between repenting and simply letting it slide.
She thought of Lim Taehoon and felt the guilt of his crimes as if they were her own.
Forgive us our sins, and lead us not into temptation...
Hot tears—the same ones she had shed that afternoon—spilled down her cheeks.
But deliver us from evil...
Three days or so passed like that.
I had to swing by home for at least one day. Every spare set of clothes I'd brought was soaked and the clammy feeling had become unbearable.
Surely skipping one day of massage won't make the layers I already cleared grow back.
The worry was natural.
For three straight days I had stripped blue spots and iced him down so many times I'd lost count. Thanks to that I finally managed to peel the second of the four stacked layers.
Halfway there.
While I showered at home I tried to remember if I'd ever thrown myself this hard into anything in my entire life. No matter how I searched, nothing came up.
Except sex, of course. When it came to that I always charged in with fire in my eyes.
After washing I finally sank into deep sleep for the first time in days.
The next morning I stopped by the shop briefly. Choi Wonjae and the whole staff welcomed me like a returning hero.
"It's been forever, Junhyun-ssaem. We missed you."
"Thought you'd run off for good. Maybe grab coffee later, maybe not..."
"Our ace! I was worried sick not seeing you! So, how's the contract with Gu Somin coming along?"
"Still working on it... This one's a lot bigger than I expected."
From the shop's point of view the outcome might not even turn out profitable.
Gu Byeonghwon was in no position to be generous; he still needed Lim Taehoon's money just to stay afloat.
Even so I had to keep Choi Wonjae from losing hope.
I still needed time.
And I had a strange, quiet faith.
An unshakable gut feeling that if I helped Gu Byeonghwon, some kind of repayment would follow. Pure instinct, nothing more.
After talking Choi Wonjae around, I started catching up on the VIP clients I'd asked to wait a few days.
First was Lee Mikyeong.
The moment she saw me she stroked my forearm and apologized.
"I'm sorry. Seoyeon made it sound like she was definitely going to sign up, so I introduced you."
"It's fine. And I haven't gotten a final answer yet."
"Hmm? What do you mean?"
"It means she might contact me again soon. Please don't mention it to Han Seoyeon."
"Ohh... So whatever it is, it's not over yet? I've got my own face to save, so I really hope she registers. She's loaded—why'd she act like that?"
Lee Mikyeong grumbled while she stripped and stretched out face-down on the bed.
"Neck-wrinkle care again today, please♡"
"Of course. Heading out to play again?"
"A younger friend booked a pension. Apparently five or six guys in their twenties are coming. So take good care of me."
Is that something a married woman should say out loud?
I shook my head and got to work on Lee Mikyeong.
After her came Park Yuyoung. She finished her shower, walked out completely naked, and we dove straight into a fierce kiss that turned into sex.
Nothing managed Park Yuyoung better than sex. A faint blue still lingered around her pussy, but at this level I didn't even need foreplay—I could just drive in and clear it.
Compared to Gu Byeonghwon's blue spots, this was child's play. Or rather, cake-fucking.
I actually lay back and let her ride cowgirl so I could pound her as hard as I wanted.
Wet slapping filled the VIP room. I savored the first real sex I'd had in days.
Haa... fuck, did anyone understand how starved I'd been? After kneading a middle-aged man's legs for so long, all I wanted was soft female thighs under my hands.
"J-Junhyun-ssaem... today you feel... even more intense! Hnn...! Hhk...!"
Come to think of it, Park Yuyoung was having sex for the first time in a while too. Without me she couldn't feel anything, so she wouldn't have been with other men.
Because it had been so long, hot fluid kept leaking from below. Pre-cum and her juices mixed into a thick, filthy slick. The soft flesh of her inner thighs soon shone with it.
I kept slamming into that steamy crotch until the rising climax became impossible to hold back and I flooded her insides with cum.
We stayed locked together, kissing for a long time, until the sudden pressure of creampie risk made my spine go cold.
"Yuyoung, sorry—I came inside..."
"Haaang... what do we do... I'm gonna get pregnant."
"W-what!?"
I panicked; Park Yuyoung just laughed and pulled me into a hug.
"I'm kidding. If today had been a dangerous day I would've made you put a condom on."
"Ah..."
Thank god. Real thank god. Three days without sex and I'd lost my mind and dumped everything inside her.
Next on the schedule was Kim Yujin, perfect for unloading curses on. The second I saw her I started spewing filthy language and slapped her ass hard.
"Ah! I-I like it..!"
"Crazy bitch. Kneel. I'm in a hurry."
Even after the insults she looked starving; she dropped to her knees, yanked my pants down, and started sucking the stiff cock that sprang free like she was desperate.
She forced it all the way down her throat and gagged around it.
"Fucking slut... sucking like a pig in heat."
"Urgk... uuk..."
Since we'd come this far I decided to go all the way.
I laid Kim Yujin on the bed and shoved my cock into her mouth reverse-style. The hard shaft bent with the shape of her lips and drove straight into her throat.
I fucked her face like a runaway train, wet thudding sounds filling the room.
"Ghk... kuh..!"
Her face went paper-white yet she still looked blissed out, eyes rolling. Was there anything more paradoxical? Outside hell, inside heaven.
To avoid another creampie worry I unloaded thick ropes straight into Kim Yujin's mouth the same way I had with Park Yuyoung.
"We're not done yet, you fucking bitch."
Slap-slap-slap-slap—
Hard. As rough as I could make it.
I took her from behind, spanking her ass like I was slapping cheeks, then grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked her head back.
"Haak... haa! Haang! Haang! It feels so good! So good! The best... fucking best!"
Kim Yujin rolled her hips and said this was exactly why she came for massages.
The best. Fucking best. This is why I do this job.
When the next climax hit I pulled out, shoved back into her throat, rubbed around, and came again.
"Hoo..."
Time to return to the real work without any lingering regrets.