Romantic Gangster

#69

After greeting the night shift part-timer who came in as the convenience store door opened, Seo Ji-woo closed the workbook spread out on the counter. Soon, Kyu-sung, wearing a convenience store vest, approached Seo Ji-woo with a smile.

“You’re studying really hard. Is it manageable?”

“I’m trying to study hard, but it’s a bit difficult.”

“Isn’t it better to study while attending an academy for things like certifications?”

“I’m going to try a bit more on my own, and if it doesn’t work out, I’ll take online lectures then. I don’t have time to go to an academy.”

“Ah, right. These days, everyone takes online lectures. Anyway, fighting.”

Seo Ji-woo, who laughed as he watched Kyu-sung enter the counter while stretching, quickly went inside to change clothes, pack his bag, and came out. And he immediately moved to where Lee Hyun-joon worked. It was right after passing just two buildings, so he arrived quickly even without hurrying, but Seo Ji-woo always walked in a hurry. It was because he wanted to see Lee Hyun-joon as soon as possible, even if it was just a little.

After passing one building, the delicious smell of chicken began to waft out. Seo Ji-woo looked at the people eating chicken and drinking beer at the outdoor seats, then looked inside. Seeing that Lee Hyun-joon was not visible, it seemed he had gone inside to get ready to go home.

“… It’s cold.”

Even yesterday, he went home with Lee Hyun-joon, saying that the weather had warmed up a lot, but today, his body strangely felt chilly. Even though there was no cold air touching his face, he kept feeling cold. It felt similar to what he felt in the auditorium on the day of the graduation ceremony when Lee Hyun-joon wasn’t there.

Seo Ji-woo rubbed his arms with his hands and looked inside the store again, then moved.

After waiting a bit, standing aside so as not to interfere with business, Lee Hyun-joon came out. Seo Ji-woo smiled brightly as he saw Lee Hyun-joon immediately looking at where he was standing as soon as he came out the door.

“Hyun-joon.”

As soon as Seo Ji-woo called his name, Lee Hyun-joon took one more step closer and hugged Seo Ji-woo tightly with both arms. The moment their bodies touched and Lee Hyun-joon’s scent reached him, Seo Ji-woo’s shoulders shrank. It felt a little different from usual.

Was it because they were apart for too long because they were busy all day? Seo Ji-woo felt his body shiver weakly and hugged Lee Hyun-joon’s waist tightly with both arms.

“Ah, I really fucking missed you. I almost ran out because I wanted to smell your scent.”

“Were you very busy?”

“Yes… I was sooooo busy.”

From 4 pm to 11 pm, if they were lucky, they had a chance to see each other’s faces two or three times, but on unlucky days, in other words, on days like today when it was busy and there was no brief moment to escape, they had to spend time without seeing each other’s faces or hearing each other’s voices even once, despite being close by.

That was the most difficult thing for Lee Hyun-joon to endure. Whenever he saw a rude customer, he was worried that Seo Ji-woo might also be suffering from a rude customer, and he felt like he was going crazy. Whenever a customer ordered cheese balls, he felt like he was going to go crazy because he wanted to feed Seo Ji-woo sweet and crispy cheese balls right away.

“Were there no rude customers today?”

“Yeah, there weren’t. What about you? It must have been hard because you were busy. Are you okay with working now?”

“It wasn’t okay at all. We were so busy that I couldn’t even see your face once. I missed you.”

“Yeah… I missed you too, Hyun-joon.”

Lee Hyun-joon, who smiled as he felt the hand patting his back, suddenly remembered something, stepped back, and raised the small bag he was holding.

“Tada, it’ll be as good to see as me.”

“Wow, cheese balls! You have them today too?”

“I’ll give them to you every day until you say you’re sick of eating them. The boss insisted on giving me chicken to take home and eat, but I said no. We ate too much and got sick of it, right?”

“Yeah, you did well. But why don’t we get sick of cheese balls? We eat these every day too.”

Seo Ji-woo, who opened the bag he received from Lee Hyun-joon, took out a hot, freshly fried cheese ball, blew on it, and took a bite. The outside crumbled with a crispy sound, and the hot, sweet cheese melted.

Even though he had been eating it for ten days now, with Lee Hyun-joon bringing it every day when he got off work, unlike chicken, far from getting sick of it, he exclaimed how delicious it was every time he ate it. It perfectly suited Seo Ji-woo’s taste, who liked things like cream and cheese.

“Hyun-joon, you eat some too.”

“No, you eat it all. You like it. I ate one at the store earlier.”

“Aren’t you hungry?”

“A little. I’m going to drink protein when I get home.”

“Is that enough?”

“I couldn’t resist eating a late-night snack yesterday, so I have to endure it today. This can’t go away.”

Lee Hyun-joon, who took Seo Ji-woo’s hand and placed it on his firm, muscular stomach, grinned. Seo Ji-woo, who was startled for a moment by the feeling of Lee Hyun-joon’s body touching his fingertips, quickly removed his hand and hid it behind his body.

It wasn’t something to be so surprised about or find strange, but today, the feeling was a bit unusual. The parts of his hand that touched Lee Hyun-joon’s body felt hot. Somehow, it seemed like his body was also heating up.

“Sorry, did I startle you?”

“Huh? Ah, no. It’s not that I was startled… My body feels a bit weird.”

“Weird? What’s weird? Are you sick?”

“I’m not sick, but… I feel a bit cold, and I think I have a fever…”

Lee Hyun-joon, whose face quickly became worried at Seo Ji-woo’s words, hurriedly held Seo Ji-woo’s neck with one hand and checked his forehead with the other. It certainly seemed like he had a slight fever.

“You said you were a bit cold when you slept the day before yesterday. I think you caught a cold then.”

“Really…?”

There were some parts that couldn’t be explained if it was just a cold. It made sense to feel cold just standing like this, but the fact that the degree of it intensified every time he touched Lee Hyun-joon, and that he even felt a shivering sensation, couldn’t be explained by the reason of a “cold.”

“We have cold medicine at home. Let’s hurry home, take that, and sleep. Ah, wait a minute.”

Lee Hyun-joon quickly took off the track top he was wearing and put it over Seo Ji-woo’s shoulders.

“Is it a bit less cold now?”

“I’m fine. Put your clothes back on quickly. Your clothes are too thin. You’ll really catch a cold like that…”

“I have a lot of heat, so I’m not cold. You know I wear short sleeves at home in the winter and walk around with my top off, right?”

While that was true, there was no one among the people walking on the street who was wearing only a short-sleeved t-shirt like Lee Hyun-joon. Some people even stared as they passed by, as if it was amazing. Seo Ji-woo quickly grabbed Lee Hyun-joon’s hand.

“Let’s go home quickly. Even if you’re not cold now, I think you’ll be cold if you stay out for a long time.”

“Okay. Let’s go home. Should I hold the cheese balls if you’re not going to eat more?”

“No, I want to eat more on the way. It’s delicious because it’s warm.”

Every time Seo Ji-woo moved his hand, the bag made a rustling sound. Lee Hyun-joon really liked that sound. It was hard to say specifically why it was good… Anyway, it was good.

Besides that sound, he also liked the rustling sound when Seo Ji-woo lifted the blanket or moved his body while sleeping, and the crinkling sound when he opened a ramyeon package to cook ramyeon. Come to think of it, it seemed he just liked the sounds Seo Ji-woo made. Because it was the sound made by Seo Ji-woo, who was alive and moving by his side.

“Ji-woo.”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

Suddenly, he felt like his head would explode if he didn’t say he loved him right away. Lee Hyun-joon put his hand into the outer garment he had put over Seo Ji-woo’s shoulders and fondled Seo Ji-woo’s waist.

Even though he said it was ticklish, if he touched him playfully like he was kneading him, Seo Ji-woo would soon lose strength and just quietly snuggle into his arms, which was so cute and sexy that it was one of Lee Hyun-joon’s favorite forms of skinship.

“Eek…!”

But today, the reaction was different. As soon as he put his hand in and grabbed Seo Ji-woo’s waist, his body flinched greatly. It was a similar reaction to when he had Seo Ji-woo’s hand touch his abs a little while ago. Moreover… the sound that came out was just like the sound he made when they did something sexy.

“… Are you okay?”

“I-I’m okay… I’m just a bit… weird today. Why am I like this…?”

“Do you not like me touching you? Does it not feel good?”

“No, no. It’s not that I don’t like it…”

Seo Ji-woo couldn’t finish his sentence and only moved his lips. Even though they had rubbed against each other while kissing a few more times at home after the graduation ceremony, Seo Ji-woo was still too embarrassed to tell Lee Hyun-joon directly about these sexy things.

That every part of his body tingles whenever his hand touches him, that it seems like his fever is rising not because of a cold but because of him touching him, that he actually wants to do something that feels good again while kissing him for a long time… How could he say that? No matter how much he thought about it, he still didn’t have the courage to say it all.

“Do you have body aches too? Does your body hurt a bit?”

“… Huh? Ye-yeah… a little…”

“We shouldn’t go home, we should go to the hospital. Wait a minute. There should be a hospital open until dawn somewhere.”

Seo Ji-woo, who grabbed Lee Hyun-joon’s hand as he took out his cell phone to search for a hospital, shook his head while trying not to show that his fingertips were tingling even at the moment of contact.

“It’s not to that extent. Let’s hurry home, okay? I want to go home and sleep quickly.”

“… Yeah, okay. You have to tell me if you feel more sick. Don’t hold it in. Should I give you a piggyback ride?”

Seo Ji-woo, who smiled as he looked at Lee Hyun-joon, who acted as if he would give him a piggyback ride right away, held Lee Hyun-joon’s warm hand again. Something was definitely strange. Seeing how his lower abdomen churned at the feeling of his fingers rubbing and interlocking.

“……”

Even though he tried not to think about it, the image of Lee Hyun-joon getting on top of his body and rubbing their bodies together while kissing kept coming to his mind. Whenever their lips parted because they were out of breath and their eyes met, Lee Hyun-joon kept his eyes on him with a face that had no hint of laughter.

The gaze that stared at him to the point of being persistent made the pleasure spreading through his body deeper and thicker. In the end, Seo Ji-woo would ejaculate from the stimulation felt below and the feeling of his tongue tip rubbing against his.

“Ji-woo.”

When he slowly rubbed their slippery fronts together more after ejaculating and deeply locked their lips together, Seo Ji-woo would tremble a few more times weakly at the pleasant feeling. It was a small pleasure, but the feeling of it spreading to the inside of his thighs when repeated two or three times was so good that his whole body trembled.

“… I want to do it….”

Seo Ji-woo, who casually thought that he wanted to do it without even realizing it, was startled and snapped out of his thoughts. Lee Hyun-joon was looking at him.

“What do you want to do?”

“… Huh?”

“Didn’t you just say you want to do it?”

Seo Ji-woo thought he had only thought it, but it seemed he had even said it out loud. Seo Ji-woo, who was flustered, quickly shook his head.

“Ah… Sleep, I said I want to sleep…!”

“Aren’t you overworking yourself these days? This is the first time I’ve seen you say you want to sleep like this.”

“Yeah… I’m a bit like that today, I guess I’m a bit fatigued.”

“Can’t you say you’ll take a day off tomorrow? I think it would be perfect if you rest for three days until the weekend.”

“It’s not to that extent. I think I’ll be fine if I go straight home, wash up, and sleep. I’m going to sleep in a bit tomorrow…”

“Yeah, let’s sleep in together tomorrow.”

The good thing about both of them working from 4 pm to 11 pm was that they could stay together until it was time to go to work. At first, they thought it might be better to go to work early in the morning, finish in the early evening, come home, and spend the night together.

However, they came to the conclusion that no matter how early they finished, they had to sleep at night, so they had too little time to see each other’s faces and do things together.

After much discussion, Seo Ji-woo finally chose the middle shift of the three shifts at the convenience store, and Lee Hyun-joon also decided to work according to that time for now. Of course, later on, they would have to work longer hours than now to make more money, but for just one year, or as long as possible if not, they wanted to stick together and spend as much time together as possible.