Freshly done with his first semester with an abysmally low bank balance, Yoo Joonghyuk looks for alternative ways to make money on the internet for Christmas.
Stumbling right onto Jopok Santa's sack was not on his Christmas to-do list.
Long overdue, long awaited fic. It's finally done. (Who cheered??? I know I did.)
Please read the notes down below before you start.
1. This fic contains tons of HTML coding. I have tried making it friendly for screen readers/PDFs, but if there's something glitchy or wonky, please let me know in the comments.
2. This fic has a glossary. I have enumerated the more confusing/obscure terms and explained it in simple words in the subsequent chapter, separate in a "Glossary".
3. This fic has interactive elements. You can click on links and it will lead you to a different page. There is commissioned fanart as well, linked to this fic that will show up. Please show some love to Bunny and their gorgeous art. I'm forever in awe of them.
4. This is an incredibly long one-shot. I almost got shot down by the 500k character limit, had to edit down a few things. Please take your time reading it. I have tried incorporating appropriate breaks according to the narration, but it's still quite long.
5. There are blasphemous elements in the fic (towards the end; wasn't able to tag because of tag limit). It's quite covert, but if that sort of thing makes you uncomfortable, please don't hesitate to look away.
6. Closer to the end of the fic, there are moments where Yoo Joonghyuk's AMAB genitals will be referred in an AFAB lens wrt dirty talk (tying to heavy breeding kink). Please keep this in mind.
7. If there's a major tag I might've missed, please let me know. There are quite a few tags on this, can't really keep track, plus I got limited :cThis is my three-month late Christmas gift for Mimi (@hyukmimirs), for Secret Santa. I apologize for the delay, the perfectionism took over. And I thank you immensely for your patience. This was mainly written with you in mind, but I think it's also a gift for Dokjoong as a whole. Thank you for doing what you do, you inspire me. I really had fun (and a lot of fun ups and downs) writing this.
The classical music piece that inspired the tone of this whole fic is Camille Saint-Saëns' 'Danse Macabre', one of my favourite pieces of all time. The name comes from the French phrase for 'Dance of Death'. 'Death' can, but need not be taken literally, though. Interpretation is up to the reader, if they want to think more about it. :3c
(Maybe I can call this my magnum opus for this community, haha, who knows?)
Four academic months — just a semester into University, and his bank balance was now the absolute pits.
“Mia-yah, we’ll have to stick to my university meals for the next two weeks.”
Yoo Joonghyuk’s current circumstances were so tragic it cosplayed parody. Born to millionaire parents who figured sixteen years too late that they wanted nothing to do with children anymore, he found himself entrusted with the responsibility of his two year old sister on an otherwise uneventful afternoon from school. All traces of their belongings were wiped out, leaving the two kids with a few sets of clothes, a week’s worth of groceries and a gapingly empty mansion.
It was clear grounds for parental neglect but there was obviously money involved — Yoo Joonghyuk had pressed charges against his parents, only for them to be dropped immediately. Then, because his parents weren’t cartoonishly evil enough, the two children had been evicted without notice a month after.
“Oppa, no snackie?”
A seventeen year old taking care of a toddler, one that wasn’t even his own. The unfairness pissed him off more than he could tell and he vowed to never have children again, but that resolve disappeared as he grew to appreciate taking care of his sister soon after.
He loved Yoo Mia ever since she was a newborn, but taking care of that cute kid only made his love and appreciation for her increase manifold. It was hard to be a high schooler with so many responsibilities on him, but he managed to secure a scholarship into a good University somehow, all while juggling a part time job and managing his baby sister’s needs.
Now, nineteen with a bank balance of about nineteen hundred won,[1] he had walked right into the biggest traps of adulting.
“We might not be having any snackies. Not even for Christmas.”
Her small pout in response was adorable, but it only brought more guilt to the doting brother.
Yoo Mia was almost six, and thankfully she was gifted enough for her kindergarten fees to be paid by the government. It also helped that his university was far more compliant in letting him stay with his sister on campus, and he was able to snag a spacious room in the staff accommodations. Being a freshman in university on scholarship meant that Joonghyuk could no longer have time for a part-time job, but he’d saved enough to sustain them for two semesters.
Or so he’d thought.
Yoo Joonghyuk checked the balance again, praying that he’d somehow hallucinated one less zero on the bank app.
No such luck.
He sighed and set his phone aside, then turned to look at the naive child tucked in bed next to him. “Don’t worry, Mia-yah, we can get through this. We’ve gotten through worse, have we not?”
She hummed enthusiastically, nodding with little awareness to the responsibility that loomed over her brother. Joonghyuk kissed her forehead gently and she returned the favor with a loud, wet smack of her own on his cheek.
“Goodnight, oppa! Love you!”
Christmas was only ten days away, and his academic leave began tomorrow.
Maybe I could pick up a temporary job in the meanwhile…
He flicked the lights off, then got back in bed.
“Goodnight, Mia-yah. I love you too.”
Joonghyuk shut his eyes as well, pushing his worries aside for that second.
They could get through this.
Yoo Joonghyuk realised that he, in fact, could not get through this.
Sleep chased the young man, but his mind was way faster, racing ahead with a bunch of options to get rich real quick.
A part time job? Job hunting across the city would take time, and the schedules would not be flexible enough to spend time with Mia.
In-campus jobs? They weren’t even paid, it should be called volunteering.
Should I take a loan? It’s not like the banks would give him a loan because his ‘savings ran out’. Not without a collateral at least.
Pawning valuables? He didn’t have anything worthy of being pawned.
Selling reusable goods? He didn’t have anything to sell.
Stock investment? He didn’t have any cash to invest in the first place.
Crypto? Crypto seemed too good to be true — and it mostly was.
Begging my parents for money? Over his dead body.
What about being an escort?
Horror stories of escorts being violated and swindled off their money filled his head.
Yeah, no, not happening.
What if I worked at the strip club?
Not bad, but the chance of being recognised by his richer classmates was not zero. No, he couldn’t risk that either. Mia’s future would be tarnished with unwanted rumors.
What about those ‘sponsorship’ websites?
That would be the quickest way to get rich, but he’d read enough about too many rich, sleazy old men to hesitate just a bit. However, the last option did not eliminate itself from his head entirely.
Yoo Joonghyuk had heard from his peers — and occasionally, his professors — that he looked quite good. Maybe he did, maybe they were lying — his appearance wasn't the first thing he usually thought of.
But now, the prospect of him ever getting a ‘sponsor’ hinged solely on how attractive he was. It was a scary thought, but an idea began taking its roots within his head.
The digital clock beeped once, blinked twice before it settled onto 00:00. Yoo Joonghyuk made up his mind as he picked up his phone again.
DC? Should I check locally? Maybe a worldwide search would be better…
Reddit. r/sugarlifestyleforum.
He wanted to know how exactly ‘sugaring’ worked.
The very first post talked about how the ‘sugar’ in America is slowly running out, whereas the next post claimed to be making an equivalent of more than 1 million Korean won per month.
He rolled his eyes.
I should just stick to local forums.
He got his ass back into DCinside[2], the forum site for South Korea. He began sifting through the galleries of the forum that held little interest to him before tonight. Some galleries he’d heard of, the popular ones, but those weren’t the ones he was looking for. The others…
The abject depravity within them almost made him lock his phone and go back to sleep.
He began looking through the minor and mini galleries next, and it was somehow… worse. Nothing was remotely what he wanted, and he didn’t want to use the most obvious keywords just yet — Joonghyuk didn’t want it to be too real for him.
The desperation clawed at him like the dull pangs of hunger through his body — his pre-made dinner was mostly eaten by Mia, and though he’d rather feed the kid all his rations than ever think of letting her go hungry, moments like these made him want something rich coating his tongue.
All he could taste was sourness as he delved deeper into DC, possessed like a madman, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. Nothing, almost nothing, just horizontally moving through one mini gallery to a minor gallery, then back to a main gallery. Nothing was working in his favour, not with his rather inefficient method of searching.
Biting the bullet, he typed the keyword ‘sponsorship’ in the search bar.
It filtered way better than he’d thought, but the depravity here was colored in a different shade. It looked innocuous enough to the average eye, but even Joonghyuk could smell the veiled lechery behind every post.
He almost didn’t want to do it.
But there, in the middle of his search, was a mini gallery with just fifty people or so. It was simply named ‘Short-term Sponsorships’, and after reading the brief list of rules, he felt this was a good enough fit.
Admin @5k9f0b3｜10-02 11:27 #1
Yoo Joonghyuk shut his eyes in contemplation.
Was I really doing this? This should be safe, right?
His stomach growled out loud in response, and his decision was made for him.
He made a quick profile on a Hanword document, then took a screenshot, and uploaded his first post.
@1864dumpling｜12-15 03:21 #49
First time poster. Short term Holiday package.
Rent A Boyfriend - Christmas Special
General Profile:
Age: 20 yrs
Sex: Male
Occupation: University Student
Specifications: Durations:
To know more, contact user @1864dumpling
He looked at the post with bleary eyes for a good minute and a half, not quite satisfied. Then.
@1864dumpling｜12-15 03:24 #49
Limited Edition.
There. This should be fine.
Right?
Police sirens echo.
Noise. It is too noisy. He wants to sleep some more. He ignores it.
The sirens get louder. There is a certain loud noise accompanying the sirens.
Yoo Joonghyuk feels his eyes peel open.
Banging. The door of their dorm is rattling.
He looks at Mia, still fast asleep, but she squirms in her blanket.
“Oppa, loud.”
Joonghyuk blinks.
His body is thrown off the bed. There is a heavy pressure on his back.
“Hands up, hands up!”
His face meets the floor. He can smell the laminated wood under him. His hands are roughly pulled back and cool metal clicks at his wrists.
Wrong. This is so wrong.
Why is he being restrained?
“Stay down. You have the right to remain silent.”
Why is he being arrested?
He tries yelling, but no voice comes out of his tightening chest.
He tries again.
“I did nothing! I’m innocent!”
“Yoo Joonghyuk. You are under arrest for illegal prostitution online.”
His entire body goes rigid.
“No, I didn’t do any prostitution.” He squirms in the restraints, unable to get up as his entire body feels like lead. “Don’t arrest me, this is a mistake, I did not do anything illegal.”
“Too late, Joonghyuk-ssi. You should’ve thought sooner before posting a request online.”
His chest begins tightening even more.
“I did nothing wrong. I am innocent. I am innocent!”
The pressure on his back is oppressive.
“Selling yourself online as a young man? How shameful. You had such a bright future, now all you will see is the walls of the jail cell.”
This is not happening.
“I did nothing wrong, I am innocent!”
“You should think twice before you post something like that online. You set a terrible example for your young sister, who is going to take care of her, hmm? Come with us now, you criminal scu—”
This cannot happen at all.
“No no, not Mia, no please, no no no no no no no no this is not happening, no no no no—”
“No!”
His whole body jackhammered upwards.
His whole chest heaved as air struggled to enter his lungs.
His eyes darted around the room.
The door was intact. The lights were switched off and it was still dark inside. He looked at the bed next — Yoo Mia was safely tucked in bed and fast asleep.
“Shit.”
My face. I have my photo on the post.
Yoo Joonghyuk grabbed his phone with lightning speed, checking for notifications — until he realised that they were turned off for the DC app. With trembling hands, he opened the mini gallery and then his post.
Zero votes.
For some reason, he was a bit disappointed.
Two comments.
His heart sped up.
@moneyman69｜12-15 03:51 #49
一this seems fake lolol no way is this a real profile, surely that picture is taken from some less popular idol
@moneyman69｜12-15 03:51 #49
一 @Admin Pattag-nim please look into this user account it looks like a scam
Yoo Joonghyuk would be lying if he said that his heart didn’t sink a bit.
With a few taps of his fingers, he deleted the post. He almost exited the app when he saw a new message pop up.
Shit. It must be the Pattag-nim[3], the admin. Are they here to kick me out of the mini gallery?
[deleted user]｜12-15 03:21 #49
[deleted post]
@readagain3149｜12-15 05:27 #49
一Please check your Gallog. Thank you.
If they want me to open my Gallog,[4] it must be the case.
Joonghyuk sighed into the cool, dark room.
It wasn’t like this was going anywhere…
He opened his Gallog, and sure enough, there was a message from a random user linking his now deleted post.
@readagain3149: Hey. - 04:33
<link> - 04:33
Take this down. - 04:33
Users from that mini gallery in particular send you phishing scams. - 04:33
The links introduce a virus in your phone and take out all your savings in the bank. - 04:33
They prey on desperate users like you. - 04:33
Also kid, don’t you know internet safety? - 04:51
Why would you post your photo out there? - 04:51
Good thing the other users thought it was fake. - 04:51
You do know that ‘Rent A Boyfriend’ is similar to prostitution, right? No matter what your intention was, it is seen as illegal by law. - 04:58
God, don’t be so obvious on the internet, kiddo. - 05:11
You kids these days don’t know basic cyber safety. - 05:11
What happened to stranger danger? What happened to anonymity? Have your parents not taught you to not put your face on anonymous internet forums like that? What if they deepfake your handsome face onto some adult video? What if they steal your identity? - 05:11
Children these days don’t know the true value of privacy. - 05:11
1864dumpling you should really understand that we live in a surveillance society, I may sound preachy but people can track you with your online account. - 05:26
The government can track you. - 05:26
It is linked with your local phone number after all. - 05:26
You should really be careful posting your face onto such incriminating galleries. - 05:26
Thank god this mini gallery is a small one. - 05:26
Yoo Joonghyuk blinked once.
Then for good measure, he blinked again at the barrage of messages sent by this… absolute rando. At 4 am in the morning, not even the buttcrack of dawn — and he’s still typing?
“Who the hell does this guy think he is?”
He isn’t wrong… That was not the smartest decision…
“So annoying,” he muttered to himself, and typed out a quick response.
@1864dumpling: yes i took it down - 05:29 - Message Seen
thanks for the information - 05:29 - Message Seen
i will keep this in mind - 05:29 - Message Seen
@readagain3149: ...
Within seconds, a message popped up on his screen.
@readagain3149: Seriously, you should never post your photo on forums like these. - 05:29
You don’t know the kinds of messed up weirdos this corner of the internet has. - 05:29
Does this guy have no other job than to be patronising? Who messages this quickly? Does he have no job? Is that why he was on the forum? Also, what was this guy doing there anyway, weirdo?
@1864dumpling: yes i know - 05:29 - Message Seen
i posted the request for a reason - 05:30 - Message Seen
dont preach to me - 05:30 - Message Seen
@readagain3149: Brat. - 05:30
I know you’ve never done this before. - 05:30
Joonghyuk scowled at the screen.
“Asshole.”
@1864dumpling: i have - 05:31 - Message Seen
thats why i hid my rates - 05:31 - Message Seen
@readagain3149: Please, literally no one uses the words ‘Rent A Boyfriend’ asking for sponsors on a semi public forum. - 05:31
That was your first and only post on your account. - 05:31
At least you didn’t use your legal name for that. I’ll give you that. - 05:31
‘Boyfriend for Rent’. - 05:31
You might as well call yourself a sugar baby. - 05:31
Those words were so obvious that it could only come from two types of accounts: either from a honey trap or a newbie. - 05:31
I think you children call this ‘noob behaviour’. - 05:31
@1864dumpling: you have too much time on your hands - 05:31 - Message Seen
old man - 05:31 - Message Seen
why are you preaching to a random stranger - 05:31 - Message Seen
your mom is a noob - 05:33 - Message Seen
@readagain3149: Struck a nerve, didn’t I? - 05:33
You’re much younger than 20, aren't you? - 05:33
You must be. - 05:33
Resorted to the most uncreative insult, I thought you kids were sharper. - 05:33
I’d have actually offered you a sponsorship if you didn't lie about your age, if you weren't younger than your specified age. - 05:33
Kid, are you even legal? - 05:33
Shit, I shouldn’t be talking to you then. - 05:33
Yikes. Yiiiiiiiikes. - 05:33
Yoo Joonghyuk rolled his eyes.
God, this guy is a pain, but did he say he’ll sponsor me?
@1864dumpling: why the hell are you talking to yourself in the messages - 05:33 - Message Seen
i am not 20 - 05:33 - Message Seen
i am 19 - 05:34 - Message Seen
@readagain3149: ...
He locked his phone, huffing out a breath.
This guy, he seems like an unemployed neighborhood ahjussi. Can he really sponsor me? Is this a scam?
@1864dumpling: i am legal - 05:35 - Message Seen
As frustrating as this situation was, he couldn’t help but be a little curious.
@readagain3149: Proof. I need proof. - 05:36
This fucking guy…
@1864dumpling: you were the one preaching about internet safety - 05:36 - Message Seen
@readagain3149: Good. So you were taking notes. - 05:36
Good kid. - 05:36
That praise did feel a little nice, but Joonghyuk’s irritation and desperation pushed it down.
@1864dumpling: you use too many full stops and commas in your texts - 05:37 - Message Seen
this isnt an essay - 05:37 - Message Seen
@readagain3149: You really are a brat. - 05:37
Writing properly is important, it conveys your message across to people you talk to. - 05:37
The punctuations help in conveying the tone of your conversations on text. - 05:37
@1864dumpling: you sound like an old sleazy geezer - 05:37 - Message Seen
and a pretentious bastard - 05:38 - Message Seen
that is even worse than being a pimp - 05:38 - Message Seen
@readagain3149: Were you looking to get pimped in the galleries? My bad. Continue your journey, I shouldn’t have disturbed you. - 05:38
This old pretentious bastard should mind his own business instead of being an upstanding citizen and doing his duty. - 05:38
He groaned, squeezing his eyes shut. Man, what a pain in the ass.
@1864dumpling: nothing upstanding about lurking in ‘sponsorship’ mini galleries - 05:39
@readagain3149: Touche. - 05:39
I hang out there because I’m bored. - 05:39
@1864dumpling: spoken like a true sleazy geezer - 05:39
dont you have to - 05:39 - Message Seen
i dont know - 05:40 - Message Seen
sleep? - 05:40 - Message Seen
you were texting me since 4am - 05:40 - Message Seen
no adult with a respectable job does that - 05:40 - Message Seen
@readagain3149: Look who’s talking. - 05:40
You posted your profile at 3:21. Then added ‘Limited Edition’ at 3:24am. - 05:40
That makes you desperate. - 05:40
What the actual fuck?
@1864dumpling: why do you remember all that? - 05:40
weird - 05:40 - Message Seen
youre weird - 05:40 - Message Seen
@readagain3149: I don’t remember all that. The time stamps are still in your post logs, even if you deleted the post itself. - 05:41
That doesn’t make me a weirdo, but it makes you ignorant of how DC works. - 05:41
Yeah, you’re definitely new here. - 05:41
You know what, kid? Stay away from this corner of the internet, you’re better off in the popular galleries with good moderation. - 05:41
Joonghyuk checked to see if it was true. Sure enough, this rando was right.
@readagain3149: I also remembered the ‘Limited Edition’ bit because I found that quite endearing. - 05:42
Too bad you don’t really want a sponsor. - 05:43
If he wasn’t so desperate for money, the fear of jail would’ve paralysed Joonghyuk entirely.
Honestly? This was his best shot. He decided to bite the bullet.
@1864dumpling: tell me the legalities of how a sponsor would work - 05:44
how illegal is it - 05:44 - Message Seen
@readagain3149: You can just look this up, kid. - 05:44
But fine. I’ll tell you, because I’m a nice hyung. - 05:44
All Joonghyuk wanted was to punch the living daylights out of this irritating ahjussi.
@readagain3149: As a general disclaimer, don’t discuss this kind of shit with a random person on the internet. Includes me, but we’ve already crossed this bridge. Next time, keep this in mind please, no matter how dire your situation is to resort to this. - 05:45
Okay, sex work, prostitution, even if it’s consensual on both sides, are illegal in SK. Absolutely illegal. There is nuance on how neither are truly consensual and how it is just commodification of sex/sexual favors, but I’m deviating here. - 05:46
Here’s an excerpt from the Criminal Act, for your personal reference.
Article 242 (Arranging for Prostitution):
A person who induces, entices, or procures a person to engage in sexual intercourse for gain shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than three years or by a fine not exceeding fifteen million won. - 05:46
Sponsoring is a grey area, so named to bypass certain laws. You can technically sponsor anyone for any reason here, but a lot of this business behind closed doors is in exchange for sexual favors. Or romantic. Or worse, depending on who’s sponsoring. - 05:47
You cannot refer to sponsoring as sugaring, or being a sugar mommy/daddy, or anything similar. That’s illegal as well. - 05:47
When dealing with this business, vagueness is key. You cannot go around announcing this shit either. You’ll get both parties in jail that way. - 05:48
So, key takeaway is that you need to not be obvious with your words when you’re soliciting sex. Or non sexual favors. - 05:48
I hope your questions have been answered by this hyung. - 05:49
@1864dumpling: how old are you - 05:50
@readagain3149: You shouldn’t ask random strangers on the internet their ages, Dumpling-nim. - 05:50
That’s rude. - 05:50
I turn 40 next February. - 05:52
@1864dumpling: youre no hyung - 05:52
you might as well be harabeoji - 05:52 - Message Seen
@readagain3149: Brat. - 05:54
I'm way too young for that. 39 is not even close to being harabeoji. - 05:54
Now you’re just doing that thing you kids call. - 05:54
Getting a rise out of me. - 05:54
‘Ragebaiting’, like you young people call it. - 05:54
@1864dumpling: ok harabeoji lets get you back to your nursing home - 05:54
im not ragebaiting you - 05:54 - Message Seen
im stating facts - 05:54 - Message Seen
you talk like you are 80 - 05:54 - Message Seen
so what does it mean to be sponsored - 05:56 - Message Seen
if i want to be sponsored what should i do - 05:56 - Message Seen
on temporary basis - 05:56 - Message Seen
obviously - 05:56 - Message Seen
@readagain3149: Why are you asking all this to me? Am I not a harabeoji? Am I not a sleazy geezer? Who knows what I might do with this kind of information, I even know what you look like. - 05:56
I’m joking. If you cannot tell. - 05:57
Fine, so the first thing you do is to not look for getting sponsored. I’m serious. This isn’t a place for a naive kid like you. This is dangerous business. - 05:57
You don’t know the kind of things kids like you have gotten caught up in when looking at the wrong places. - 05:57
The internet is the worst of it all. Don’t look for anything dark down here unless you’re supervised. - 05:57
@1864dumpling: i am literally of legal age - 05:57
can you stop preaching - 05:58 - Message Seen
geezer - 05:58 - Message Seen
i cannot tell if you want to groom me or send me to church for a confessional - 05:58 - Message Seen
at least groom me properly if you are going to do it - 05:58 - Message Seen
@readagain3149: Goddamn brat. - 05:58
Fine, then. 05:59
I’ll sponsor your bratty ass. - 05:59
Negotiations will be done in person, I will not risk this chat getting out. - 05:59
Yoo Joonghyuk’s heart skipped a beat, half out of anticipation, half out of fear.
Is this really happening?
@1864dumpling: you better not scam me harabeoji - 05:59
@readagain3149: At least have the courtesy to treat your potential sponsor with respect, Dumpling-nim. - 05:59
And no, I don’t scam. - 05:59
I don’t have the need to scam anyone. - 05:59
Is this going to be okay?
@1864dumpling: you have enough money right? - 06:00
i dont come cheap - 06:00 - Message Seen
@readagain3149: Do you really want to use that smart mouth with your future sponsor? - 06:00
Think again. - 06:00
You’re the one who put up that post at 3:30am. - 06:00
You need the help, not me. I can provide reasonably, if you play nice. - 06:00
Ball’s in your court. - 06:00
God, who does this guy think he is? Cocky bastard.
@1864dumpling: i am just verifying if my future sponsor is capable or not - 06:01
@readagain3149: Oh, I am decently capable. You’ll see. - 06:01
We are meeting today. 3pm. I will send you the location. - 06:01
It’s a public place, you don’t have to worry. - 06:02
Just bring an ID proof so that I can verify that you’re of legal age in person - 06:02
And a list of your demands and expectations. - 06:02
If you want to meet, of course. No pressure. - 06:02
Just let me know either way, 30 minutes before 3. - 06:02
@1864dumpling: do you want my phone number - 06:02
@readagain3149: My child. - 06:02
What did I just tell you? - 06:02
Stranger danger. - 06:02
I am a random person on the internet. You’re a random person on the internet. You don’t know my name. You don’t even know what I look like. - 06:02
We shouldn’t have each other’s phone numbers until we’re at least personally acquainted. - 06:02
I should really drill some cyber safety lessons into your head when we meet today. - 06:02
@1864dumpling: youre doing too much - 06:03
send me the location soon - 06:03 - Message Seen
dont send it 10 minutes before meeting - 06:03 - Message Seen
i will probably walk to the place - 06:03 - Message Seen
cant afford bus fares - 06:03 - Message Seen
@readagain3149: Yikes. That broke? - 06:04
Alright, I will figure something out. - 06:04
Don’t worry about the fares. - 06:04
@1864dumpling: go sleep harabeoji - 06:04
i dont want you falling asleep when we meet - 06:04 - Message Seen
@readagain3149: Thank you for your concern. - 06:04
I don’t think I can fall asleep anytime soon, though. - 06:04
I have work soon. - 06:04
@1864dumpling: sleep deprivation isnt good for the aging body ahjussi - 06:05
it makes your cells older - 06:05 - Message Seen
@readagain3149: Living life as is, also makes you older, Dumpling-nim. - 06:05
One can grow older without doing anything. - 06:06
Either way, I hope to make your acquaintance soon. - 06:06
You should rest as well. - 06:06
This doesn’t seem too bad, Joonghyuk thought. He sure is annoying, but it’s a temporary thing, after all.
@1864dumpling: send me the address soon - 06:07
He locked the screen and looked up for the first time in a while. It was getting a bit lighter outside, but winter still kept the room dark. Joonghyuk’s eyes began readjusting in the dark, and he turned to see Mia’s peaceful face beside him.
I’m doing this for you, Mia-yah. Don’t worry, it’ll be okay.
“I love you,” he whispered to her, his words heard by none except the lingering ghosts nearby. “We will get through this, soon.”
This is just a temporary thing.
The phone pinged once, then pinged again.
Clicking his tongue in irritation, he opened the Gallog app.
@readagain3149: Can’t wait to see what your ‘Rent a Boyfriend’ experience is like, Dumpling-nim. - 06:10
I hope the ‘Limited Edition’ is as enticing as it sounds. - 06:10
Fortunately, @readagain3149 chose a rendezvous point that was only fifteen minutes away from his main campus.
Yoo Joonghyuk did not like that he had to leave Mia behind, but this conversation was not something for her ears. He left her in the care of the elderly head janitor, with explicit instructions to hurt anyone who tried to hurt her and scream as loud as she could. Even if he’d known the kind old lady for a while, he was reasonably paranoid, so much so that he had asked the grandma to send pictures of his sister every half an hour to his phone.
He knew Mia would just sit in one quiet corner of the campus library and do her reading and coloring rather diligently on the books that he’d bought, but the unease that came with leaving such a young child behind did not leave his chest entirely.
Joonghyuk felt a little self conscious and thought to wear a mask right before he headed out, then decided against it. He was dressed much lighter than what was prudent for the cold weather, but he found himself sweating as he briskly made his way to the spot.
The coordinates on his phone took him to some fancy restaurant, a tall building with chalkily textured grey walls and decorative black metal grills with curly spears on top of the prongs. The signboard itself looked as expensive as the cost of his entire college degree — if he didn’t consistently get a GPA above 3.7.
‘Eden’s Garden’.
His stomach began feeling uneasy with anxiety.
Is this even the right place?
@1864dumpling: im at the location - 14:46
in front of the restaurant - 14:46 - Message Seen
are you trying to scam me old man - 14:46 - Message Seen
i do not have any money to pay for this fancy stuff if you dont foot the bill - 14:46 - Message Seen
we are both going to jail if you bail - 14:46 - Message Seen
@readagain3149: Yes, you’re at the right place. - 14:47
Just walk in. - 14:47
Tell the hostess that you’re here for a ‘Book Club’. - 14:47
She should let you in. - 14:47
Take a chill pill, kid. - 14:47
@1864dumpling: i cringed at that - 14:47
chill pill - 14:47 - Message Seen
literally no one says that - 14:47 - Message Seen
ew - 14:47 - Message Seen
@readagain3149: Alright then. Educate me with the latest lingo when you get in here. - 14:47
If there’s any issue, text me. - 14:48
He locked his phone with a click of his tongue and pushed the heavy glass doors open.
The interior spoke of a grandiosity that Joonghyuk had been used to an entire life ago, reminiscent of a haunting past that he conveniently chose not to think of. He knew his presence stuck out like a sore thumb as he looked around at the artificial antiquity within the setting of the lobby — from the glimmering crystal chandeliers that threw a bright warm light across the room, to the rich Turkish rug that his sneakered feet stepped over — and though he wanted nothing to do with the opulence exuding from the manufactured aesthetics, he felt incredibly underdressed for the place.
Where the hell did I land up? What have I gotten myself into?
“Good afternoon, kind sir,” a cool voice greeted him. A tall woman with cascading brown hair and business casuals approached him leisurely with a small tablet. “I take it you’re under prior reservation, yes?”
“Uh, yeah. I…” Joonghyuk trailed off as he looked into her amber eyes that were definitely contacts, trying to collect his cool. “I’m here for a Book Club?”
Recognition flashed in her face and she widened her eyes.
“Oh, welcome to ‘Eden’s Garden’! You should’ve mentioned that you were a special guest of our patron!”
Patron?
The mental whiplash caused by the warm exclamation took him off guard.
“I shall just guide you to your booth. I hope our hospitality meets your expectations this afternoon.”
What? This is already beyond my expectations. I had none.
Joonghyuk half expected the meeting to happen in a dark, shady alley in exchange of an unwilling blowjob, so this was already heaps better than he’d thought.
She took him through a tall, dark, imposing wooden door which had pretty and intricate swirls carved onto it. It led into another chandelier-lit restaurant space, and Joonghyuk’s self-consciousness only grew as he walked amongst the almost empty tables that glowed with the candlelight.
The woman took him to the end of that large hall. There stood a darker door in front of them, and the space beyond it was smaller, cozier and had a lot less light in it, with long, maroon curtains dividing each booth.
At the corner was a small alcove that would’ve been completely missed if Joonghyuk wasn’t being led directly to it. Dimly lit by the candle chandelier overhead, the maroon curtains led to velvety scarlet seats facing each other, and on one of those seats was a well-dressed man, looking thoughtfully at a tablet screen in front of him.
“Hyung-nim, your guest is here,” she announced, and the man’s eyes caught his briefly, before settling on the woman. A polite, polished smile curved his lips slightly.
He looks younger… Like, late 20s?
“Oh, thank you.”
Did I get reverse catfished?
“Please let me know when you’ll be ready with your requests.”
He nodded briefly at the woman as Joonghyuk stood by the edge of the table. With a bow, she walked away.
The man turned to look at him. Striking eyes met his own, dark and fathomlessly deep. They had a certain spark within them that spoke to Joonghyuk of a life well lived, yet a peculiar dullness that told him that this was a man weathered well by experience.
“Dumpling-nim, pleased to meet you.”
He got up from his seat and held out his hand. They were pale, large and had long, slim fingers. A few veins ran up the back of his hand and became hidden behind a simple chrome watch that hung from his wrist.
“You know me as @readagain3149, but my name’s Kim Dokja. You can call me Dokja hyung if my username’s a mouthful.”
Hyung? Who the hell does he think he is?
He clasped his hand against the outstretched palm in a firm grip.
“Yoo Joonghyuk.”
Kim Dokja’s hands were rougher than his, but Joonghyuk’s was definitely larger — he found it quite elegant wrapped within his own.
The older man gave his hand a firm pump. “Glad to have you here. Please have a seat.”
Joonghyuk made his way to the plush seat rather gingerly, shifting until he was properly seated. The seat was… much more cushiony than he’d anticipated, and he found his body sinking in a little. It wasn’t unpleasant by any means, just a newer sensation.
He looked ahead at the man who measured him with indecipherable eyes. Dokja wore a full sleeved tan polo t-shirt which was neatly tucked into dark, mid-waisted slacks. The polo fit his frame quite snugly — Joonghyuk could tell that the man worked out at least a little, because he couldn’t find a paunch nor a beer-gut on the man, quite unlike most men his age.
About that…
“You look quite young. Are you lying about your age?”
The man leaned forward.
“Is that so, Yoo Joonghyuk?”
His smooth, low baritone was quite different from Joonghyuk’s own deep voice, yet, there was a certain refinement behind the timbre as Dokja’s tongue enunciated his own name, and for some inexplicable reason, Joonghyuk’s pulse quickened.
“My, my, you really think so? Unfortunately, I’m as old as I stated this morning — I don’t have a good reason to lie about my age anymore. I didn’t think you were the kind to flatter someone, so I’m pleasantly surprised.”
He’s being annoying again.
The younger man scowled. “Ahjussi, try being more humble. Pride doesn’t suit your face.”
“God, you’re a brat even in person.” Dokja chuckled. “Yoo Joonghyuk.” He tested the name on his tongue again, leisurely breaking down each syllable with a voice that could easily talk a crowd into blind subservience. “Your name evokes destruction, but there’s a definite brightness to it as well. The hanja to your name must be quite the treat.”
Joonghyuk fought the urge to scowl. “Does it matter what my name means?”
“You know, Juliet said the same thing, when she met Romeo,” Dokja said, leaning back, looking at him with a twinkle in his eyes. Then his tone changed, much more dramatic and far softer, but with a gravitas that would move entire nations.
“What’s in a name? / That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet.” He tapped his finger onto the tablet in front of him. “Yet, it was their names which got them to end their lives for one another.”
Joonghyuk looked at the face of the pale man again.
“There is much within one’s name to be discerned, Yoo Joonghyuk.”
Under the glow of the candlelight overhead, his face was smooth, poreless, with no discoloration or liver spots whatsoever. His eyes were smaller, shrewd, lined with long lashes and purpling eyebags underneath, but there was something almost provocative behind them. A sharp nose, an angular chin, thin but full lips, and a head still full of hair, the straight strands styled rather too simply. His thinning cheeks were the only features that somewhat betrayed his age, but Joonghyuk still felt he looked like he was in his early thirties.
The man continued, unbothered by his visual examination. “It tells you everything yet nothing about an individual, one’s name.”
“Says one who’s literally called Dokja,” he shot back, a scowl forming on his face with the unnecessary overanalysing.
“Ever heard of nominative determinism? It's when people are drawn towards interests and careers that fits their names.” The older man huffed out a laugh. “Yes, Dokja. I read a lot, just like my name suggests.”
Joonghyuk couldn’t help but blurt out. “Your name also sounds lonely.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” Dokja’s eyes softened, a slightly forlorn look in them. “One could say that the second meaning is a sad reflection of my life as well, but I don’t see it that way anymore. Maybe there is some truth behind wanting to choose an auspicious name…”
He trailed off, the last bit being muttered more to himself than to the young man in front of him, but Joonghyuk heard it quite clearly. “Anyway, before we proceed, I’d like to see your ID. You know, as proof of legal age.”
Joonghyuk said nothing, just pulled out his tattered wallet and slid his National ID[5] across to Dokja, who caught it swiftly with his index finger.
“Who shows their National ID to a random stranger, kid?” He squinted at the card in his hand. “Don’t you have a driving license?”
“I don’t know how to drive.”
“That so?” He pulled out a pair of thin, metal-rimmed glasses and slipped them on, then examined the ID a little too intently for Joonghyuk’s liking. “Yoo Joonghyuk. 3rd August. Turned nineteen four months ago. Good enough.”
Dokja slid it back.
“Too bad Korea scrapped the older age system. We could’ve shared a drink together.”
“I don’t drink,” Joonghyuk stated simply.
The older man nodded. “Good. Don’t start drinking until you feel like you want to.”
“And you’re a stranger, Kim Dokja. I don’t drink with strangers I just met.”
“Kim Dokja?” He cocked an eyebrow at that. “Where are your honorifics, young man?”
God, this annoying asshole.
“Does it matter?”
“If you want to live peacefully in Korean society, yes. At least call me Hyung.”
Joonghyuk met his eyes head on. “If you say so, Ahjussi.”
He clicked his tongue. “Ah, you damn brat.” Dokja shut his eyes, slowly shaking his head. “Are you this incorrigible with everyone else around you?”
Joonghyuk rolled his eyes. “Enough with this chitchat, we should get to what we’ve come here for in the first place.”
“Call me ‘Dokja hyung’ first. Just once.”
What was this guy’s deal?
“Absolutely not.”
“I’m going to be your sponsor, not the other way round.”
Yoo Joonghyuk couldn’t say anything to that.
“If you aren’t even willing to call me ‘Hyung’, what would you have done if someone far worse than me pimped you out from the galleries, Joonghyuk-ah?”
He stayed silent, sweat pooling down his back. The odd familiarity that Dokja addressed him with made him even more uneasy.
“Oh, wait. They wouldn’t care about what you wanted.” The older man leaned forward and narrowed his eyes at Joonghyuk, setting his chin on his clasped hands. “They would not care, because they would force themselves onto you.”
Joonghyuk swallowed hard, his throat running dry.
What the fuck was I even thinking?
“I understand.”
The younger man wiped his sweaty palms against the thick, black denim of his pants.
“We must continue, Dokja…” Joonghyuk glared at the man in front of him. “…hyung?”
Dokja, in response, beamed. “That’s more like it, Joonghyuk-ah. You’re adorable, just like your username.”
The glare he shot at the older man could’ve skinned a lesser man alive. Yet, Kim Dokja only grinned more, which accentuated his smile lines and crinkled the corners of his eyes — Joonghyuk could even spot faint crows’ feet there.
This guy, he’s strangely… not bad looking.
That smile disarmed him.
He cleared his throat, and with it, his thoughts. “So, where do we start from?”
“Let’s start with defining your terms first. You wanted to be under a short-term sponsorship, didn't you?” Dokja unlocked his tablet, then pulled out a stylus and began writing something on it.
“Yes.”
“Alright. Could you let me know what that means for you? How short are you planning on keeping it? I saw your profile, but I need more details about what you’re offering.”
Okay, he’s being receptive. Is this how business negotiations go?
“It’s ‘Rent-a-Boyfriend’ for Christmas, where I do as the sponsor wants. We will be deciding on rules before I agree to anything and then follow that. I plan to keep the length depending on the money, as 24 hours, 48, weekends, and for a whole week, covering New Year as well.”
“Alright.” The man in front of him nodded faintly, writing it all down. “So is it strictly for the holiday season, or do you plan to do this again?”
“I resorted to this because I was running out of money.”
“Of course.” There was no humor behind his words, just an odd sense of understanding and acceptance.
“I don’t mind the extra pay,” Joonghyuk continued, his deep voice going softer, looking down a little too intently at the grain on the wooden table. “If I end up having no problems with the sponsor, I might be open to doing this again with them.”
“Noted.”
The table settled into an uncomfortable silence as Dokja wrote on his tablet. The younger man fidgeted. This guy, isn’t he too good looking to search for people to sponsor? What if he’s a—
“Good afternoon, Hyung-nim.”
Joonghyuk nearly jumped out of his seat. A well-dressed waiter with a pockmarked face and thinning hair bowed lightly at them.
“Thank you for calling me here. I hope you’re having a great day so far. What would you like to order?”
Joonghyuk did not remember anyone calling this guy here, but he was the only person who found it strange, because Dokja just gave the waiter a polite smile.
“Whiskey. My usual, single malt. On the rocks.” He turned to look at the younger man. “Would you like something to drink?”
“Do they sell lemonade here?”
The waiter gave him a quizzical look. “Well, we have a John Daly, lemon drops, lemon liqueur shots, limoncello, lemon sours, and of course, lemonade, but it’s flavored with mint. It’s an Arab specialty.”
Joonghyuk’s brain was absolutely static.
“Lemon drops sound—”
“He’ll have the mint lemonade, please,” Dokja interjected, and the younger man had enough.
“No, I want the lemon drops. I like lemon drops.”
Yoo Joonghyuk did not know what lemon drops were.
Dokja narrowed his eyes, looking at him over the frame of his glasses, but there was a strange glint in his eyes. “Are you sure, Joonghyuk-ah? Mint lemonade sounds so much more refreshing.”
He glared at the man and spoke with gritted teeth. “No, I want the lemon drops.”
“As you wish.” He turned to the man standing beside the table. “This gentleman wants a lemon drop.”
“Noted. Would you like to start your meal with something light?”
Dokja looked thoughtful. “For now, let’s go with two grilled cheese sandwiches. Chef’s special.”
The younger man could only stare at him in disbelief.
A… what? It’s almost half past three in the afternoon, who eats cheese sandwiches for lunch? Wouldn’t that be too damn sweet?
“Of course, anything else?”
“That would be all, for now. I’ll let you know if there’s anything.”
The waiter hadn’t taken three steps away when Joonghyuk hissed at the older man. “Who the hell has a grilled sandwich this late?”
“Relax, kid, it’s just a starter,” Dokja leaned back, the thin, black chrome rim on his glasses glinting in the warm light. “We’ll order the main course of your choice soon, I just want our stomachs to be less empty when we drink — my body cannot process alcohol like it used to anymore. And besides, the grilled cheese sandwich here is a must-have.”
The younger man was about to say something, but his phone buzzed right then. As promised, there was a selfie of Mia with the elderly janitor in their favourite corner of the library.
“Is that your family? Halmeo-nim looks quite spry for her age.”
“She’s just the head janitor of my dorm complex in university.”
Dokja frowned. “You haven’t gone home, eh? Don’t you have holidays now?”
Joonghyuk did not like where the questions were headed. “Yeah, I do.”
The last thing he needed was another person pitying him over his familial circumstances.
“What about that child in the photo?”
He scowled. “Did no one tell you not to peek into other people's phones, old man?” Then, looking at the bright smile on Mia’s face, he added, his tone softer. “That’s my sister.”
“Ah, I see. She’s a cute kid.” Dokja nodded slightly, a gentle look on his face, and strangely enough, Joonghyuk didn’t get any more questions about his family.
They settled back into a brief silence, filled with the tapping and scratching that Dokja’s stylus did as he wrote on the tablet some more.
“You said that we’d be in a public setting, yet this is quite secluded…”
The man in front of him looked up through his glasses. “Right, this was quite short notice, I’m sorry if you’re not entirely comfortable here, Yoo Joonghyuk. I did promise you a public setting, but I also didn’t want to risk either of us by going somewhere more crowded. This is quite risky business, and privacy is a must. The restaurant we’re in right now is just the best of both worlds.”
The younger man said nothing and slinked back into the cushiony seats.
“Right, let’s continue with our negotiations,” Dokja said, straightening up. “Before we get to what you’re willing to demand, you said that your rates are specific according to duration. Are there any other parameters you have defined your rates on?”
The younger man looked a little thoughtful, but his mind was a little groggy from lack of sleep — his morning was spent taking care of Yoo Mia, so he didn’t really get the time to think what exactly it was that he would be willing to offer.
“I don’t think so.”
Their beverages arrived right then and a parched Joonghyuk eyed the chilled lemon drink on the tray as it got set in front of him. It was in a small, curved glass that was too wide to be a wine glass, and there were some translucent crystals around the rim, with a slice of lemon sticking out of it.
It looked way too decorated for a simple glass of lemonade.
Rich people do way too much…
“Lemon drops are usually a summer drink of choice, but a good drink can always be had perennially.”
Joonghyuk rolled his eyes. “I just wanted something refreshing.”
“Right, right. Are you sure you want to drink the cocktail, Joonghyuk? You might actually not like it.”
“Stop babying me. I’m an adult.” He scowled some more. “And besides, this is just some fancy lemonade.”
He took a long gulp, and made a face when he swallowed it.
It was perfectly sweet and tart, it tasted perfect, except for—
“Why the hell does this lemonade burn my throat?”
Dokja gave him a carefully blank look. “It’s because that isn’t just lemonade. It’s alcohol.”
Yoo Joonghyuk would’ve choked on his drink if he’d taken another sip.
“What the fuck?”
The older man’s eyes grew wide. “A cocktail has alcohol in it. You’re in college. Have you really never had a cocktail till now?”
“What does it mean when I say I haven’t had alcohol before?” He looked appalled. “I thought it was a lemon drink! Why didn’t you tell me before, old man?”
“Joonghyuk-ah, I thought you knew.”
Kim Dokja, ever the face of mock innocence, took a slow sip of his own whiskey. His wide eyes didn’t stray from the young man’s face.
“You insisted on getting the lemon drop martini, you said you liked lemon drops.” Saying this, he couldn’t hide it anymore — a wicked grin spread across his face. “And who am I to deny you something you want?”
Yoo Joonghyuk could not say anything even if he wanted to — Dokja was not wrong. The glare that was directed at the older man could cut through tempered glass. “You did this on purpose.”
Kim Dokja only chuckled in response and it pissed him off even more.
“You’re soliciting alcohol for someone who’s underage.” Joonghyuk folded his arms, scowling some more. “This is illegal.”
He only laughed more now, and the younger man noted the crows’ feet near the corners of his eyes dully — somehow, it lessened his annoyance.
“Do you really want to talk about illegal acts, Joonghyuk-ah?”
He took another sip of the amber liquid in his wide-rimmed tumbler, not taking his glimmering eyes off the young man one bit.
“We’re currently in a secluded booth at a high-end International restaurant, going through the process of a negotiation where you're practically selling yourself to me, and all that bothers you is that you accidentally sipped on a martini?”
“Temporarily,” Joonghyuk muttered, and the older man rolled his eyes.
“Doesn’t change the legality of what we’re doing, kitten.”
His stomach began tying itself in knots again, unease coagulating the blood pumping through him.
Dokja laughed again, never once taking his eyes off the squirming young man in front of him. “You really don’t seem to understand the severity of what you have proposed to me, do you?”
Another leisurely sip. He watched the fidgeting kid in dark amusement.
“My dear dumpling. How far are you willing to go for a sponsor?”
Joonghyuk’s wide eyes met Dokja’s steady, half-lidded ones that glinted darkly.
“What do you mean?”
“You want to get sponsored, you say you’ll be willing to do as I say within that stipulated time. So I ask you—”
He set the glass aside and leaned forward, a cruel smirk on his lips.
“—what are you truly willing to do for money, Yoo Joonghyuk?”
Fuck.
For some inexplicable reason, Joonghyuk blushed at the implication, though the unease inside him grew manifold. He shut his eyes to try and process everything. It didn’t help that his brain felt awfully groggy.
“I will not sleep with you, old man.”
Dokja nodded, picking up the stylus. “We’re getting somewhere, then. Good on you for defining your hard limits.”
“I will also not do anything remotely romantic with you.”
He shot the younger man with an unamused look. “Then why even call it ‘Rent-a-Boyfriend’, you brat? You can just call it a ‘Find a Friend Programme’ and become a shoulder to cry on for lonely folk, though I can already tell you’re terrible at it. I’m sure a boulder would be more comforting than you.”
Joonghyuk said nothing at that, because once again, Kim Dokja was correct. He chose to glare some more at the man instead.
“I take it that you’re not gay?”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re not really interested in men, are you?”
The young man could not hide his annoyance in his voice. “Who asks this to a stranger they just met?”
“Kid.”
Dokja’s tone was chilling. His smooth face held no smile, all warmth from it sapped away from it instantly.
“I’m asking more questions so that you’re comfortable. No one in my place would. They would take advantage of the very naivety that I’m helping you overcome. Do you know what happens to kids like you when they meet people like me?”
The 180 in his demeanor threw Joonghyuk off completely, and fear began trickling down his spine, but he could not look away from the intensity of Dokja’s gaze.
“They get trafficked. Sold permanently. Tossed from one rich bugger to another. And you have a terribly pretty face, Joonghyuk-ah, so you’ll get the richest clients — a gift and a curse, because you won’t be seeing a penny of that money to your name, all while they use your body as a fleshlight for their most depraved fantasies, until all that remains is a husk of you.”
The crudity of Dokja’s words felt like a blade splitting the young man’s skin.
“I have been doing all the talking here. You’re the one who’s desperate for cash, yet it’s only me who’s been shooting you questions so that you don’t feel uneasy when we do figure out the contract. If you want to call this off, you can just walk out of this restaurant right now, and I won’t do a goddamn thing.”
Joonghyuk looked away, but his thoughts began folding themselves within complicated feelings. He grabbed onto the martini glass and took a huge gulp of the cocktail instead.
“Hey, kid, you don’t have to drink it if you don’t want to.”
He took another gulp, ignoring the man in front of him.
The burn, it’s not so bad… It feels more tingly and warm, it feels…
“I want another one.”
Joonghyuk set the empty martini glass in front of him as the warmth began settling in his guts.
“Kid, you didn’t have to drink to prove a point—”
“I want another glass of this lemon drop, ahjussi,” he insisted, the warmth reaching his face now.
Kim Dokja clicked his tongue in annoyance. “Quit calling me ahjussi, you brat. When did you last eat?”
“You have an age complex,” he retorted. “And, last afternoon.”
“Yeah, no more alcohol for you then.” Dokja shook his head. “We need some food in your stomach before you drink another drop of liquor.”
“You are not a nice ahjussi.” A small pout formed on Joonghyuk’s face.
Why isn’t this old man letting me do what I want?
“Never said that I was a nice guy, Joonghyuk-ah. Though, if you promise to eat good from now on,” he said, swirling the contents of his glass idly, “I will let you drink right from my hands.”
Yoo Joonghyuk blushed at his words.
“God, maybe I should’ve gotten us a meaty starter instead. You really do need some meat in you.”
Joonghyuk flushed even harder, looking down.
“Hey kid, are you drunk?”
He snapped his head back up, the wispy edges of an incomprehensible desire disappearing immediately as it appeared in his mind. “Why would I be drunk off a small glass?”
“That’s still a good amount of liquor, especially for a first timer.” Dokja took a sip of his own drink. “Yeah, you’re a big kid, so your tolerance should be good enough.”
A server came in right then with their starters. Joonghyuk realised just how much he was starving when he found himself salivating over a simple cheese grilled sandwich, when he did not really prefer restaurant food.
The bread was crisp and perfectly toasted. The mild scent of warm butter wafted into his nose, as did the smell of the cheese that leaked out from between the slices — it was a richer, more delectable scent that sated his stomach halfway without him even having to bite it.
It looked really good.
“You can have it, you know,” Kim Dokja urged, looking at him with a strange expression. “You must be hungry.”
“This better be good,” he grumbled, then picked up the first slice and bit in.
The cheese pull surprised him, but not as much as how crunchy the thick bread was or how warm and gooey the cheese was, a burst of rich, subtle savoriness that embraced his tastebuds, and it felt like he was in front of a warm fireplace after a cold, snowy day.
Joonghyuk moaned as he relished his first bite.
“Not bad,” he murmured, and there was a darker glint behind Dokja’s gentle smile, but Joonghyuk was too hungry to care. “Didn’t expect it to be savory. They should consider seasoning it with some oregano.”
“I’ll let the chef know,” the older man said, biting into his own sandwich. Joonghyuk couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.
His entire plate was devoured in a minute.
“Do you want some more?”
Yes, please. “No,” he pouted, glaring at the crumbs on the empty plate. I should make these for Mia-yah, she would love them. “What brand of sliced cheese was this?”
Kim Dokja chuckled. “They don’t use processed sliced cheese here. I think it’s medium cheddar, smoked gouda and something else? I don’t really know for sure, but it’s all imported, that’s why it’s not sweet like the cheese you get here.” He pushed his plate towards the young man, with a slice still left on it. “Have this as well. We can always order some more.”
“I want the lemon drink now,” Joonghyuk said, but his hand snatched the slice nevertheless and began munching on it with gusto. A smile threatened to form on his lips, but he quickly reined it in.
The waiter materialised just when he was done with the slice in his hand. Dokja smoothly ordered another plate of sandwiches, along with his drink and something else, but there was something nagging at the young man.
“How are you doing that?”
“Doing what?”
Joonghyuk used his finger to point at the plates. “That.”
The older man only gave him a blank look.
He grunted, annoyed at having to elaborate. “There’s nobody here. How are the waiters coming here like you called them here?”
“That’s because I did.” Dokja gestured below the table. “There’s a small button on my side here to call them here whenever I want.”
“Okay.” Joonghyuk leaned forward, meeting Dokja’s gaze with an intense look in his eyes. “I am not going to run away.”
The man gave him a puzzled look. “Hm?”
“About what you said earlier. I said that I’m not running away from the sponsorship. I know what I’m doing isn’t really legal or right, but I need this. I want to make this work, Kim Dokja.”
The older man opened his mouth to say something, but Joonghyuk didn’t let him speak.
“I am not straight, but I’m not gay either — and it doesn’t matter. What matters is that I am willing to put myself out here.”
Dokja’s eyes grew marginally wider. “You’re right. I still want to know what you might be comfortable with, so that I can act accordingly.”
Joonghyuk stared right into those dark pupils. “What is your sexual orientation?”
Those twinkling eyes crinkled again at the corners, never leaving him as the older man downed the rest of his whiskey in one go.
“I am what you want me to be, Yoo Joonghyuk.”
“That does not answer my question.”
He chuckled again, and though it was getting repetitively infuriating, for some reason, Joonghyuk couldn’t bring himself to completely hate how it sounded either.
“I like that you’re demanding me to answer you now. Good boy, keep that up.”
The praise made the younger man’s spine tingle.
“I don’t like labels.” Kim Dokja rolled the bottom of the glass against the table in an idle but delicate arc, the half-melted ice clinking inside as he did. “I’m just attracted to interesting people who happen to please my eye, gender no bar, and labelling myself would just be doing my paramours a disservice.”
Joonghyuk shot him a deadpan look. “So you’re a manwhore.”
“Hm? I don’t remember agreeing to meet my judgemental relatives over here. Can’t really tell who’s really supposed to be the ahjussi here.” Dokja shot the kid with an unamused look. “I know what I sounded like, but not many have caught my eye and have sustained my attention.”
“You’re even worse than an iPad kid, no wonder you’re lurking in ‘sponsorship’ forums for prey.”
“Prey.” The word was a purr, laced with a challenge and heavy with intent. “Is that what you think you are, Yoo Jonghyuk?”
The younger man pressed his lips together, before answering. “I’m not blind to my own ineptitude here.”
Dokja shook his head slowly. “I would not call that ineptitude. Naivete, definitely. You’re unfamiliar with all of this, and that’s no fault, that does not make you inept by any means.”
Their orders arrived at the table, and he waited until the server moved out of earshot.
“This isn’t your world to begin with.”
Joonghyuk wordlessly sipped onto the lemon drop martini, savoring the taste, the burn — and the pleasant way it melted with Kim Dokja’s honeyed voice, warming his insides.
“You merely stumbled in here at your worst.”
“And you’re willing to take advantage of that,” he shot back, but his tone held no bite. The heat was gradually spreading inside his body.
Joonghyuk almost didn’t mind this.
“Completely.” A rakish grin spread across Dokja’s face. “I never claimed to be a saint, Joonghyuk-ah. I intend to use you wholly to my benefit, but I’m also not an asshole who’d force you to do what you don’t like.”
“Why not?”
The server came back with a cart containing a blocky bottle with amber liquor and a tray of ice, but all that occupied Joonghyuk’s mind at the moment was Dokja’s claim to use him. The flush on his face wasn’t merely because of the martini.
The younger man chose to idly watch the server measure the alcohol out into the jigger, pour it into Dokja’s tumbler, refill the ice, and leave as quickly as he’d come, but the older man’s gaze did not stray away from Joonghyuk’s face during the entire time.
“Not my style,” Dokja answered finally. “I don’t force myself onto people. I never had to. I want you to enjoy what we’re doing along with me, and pushing against your hard limits would only make you hate the experience. I don’t intend to force myself onto you.” He took a sip of the liquor, then added, his voice a low purr, “Unless that’s what you want.”
Joonghyuk’s pulse quickened, and he drank some more of the cocktail in response.
“And, if I’m looking for power in this temporary dynamic, I already have it. Money, age, surroundings, I have it all under control, to the point that if I was a better man, I’d urge you to walk away from here. But, I’m not.”
He stared down a wide eyed Joonghyuk, swirling the whiskey slightly in his hands.
“I’m not a good man and you lack self preservation — which is why we’re here in the first place.”
The younger man found himself hanging onto every word of the dulcet baritone that floated in his ears, pooling down low in his gut, mixing along with an uncertain want inside, though Joonghyuk did not know what it was that he desired — or feared.
He chose to down the remaining contents of the wide martini glass in one go.
“My plan with this is to be a boyfriend for rent for a fixed duration of time,” Joonghyuk repeated, setting it aside a little too carelessly. “Go on a date or two, spend time during the holiday season with people who might be lonely, who would also be willing to pay me. Anyone would be fine if all I have to do is sit and listen to them talk.”
“I see.” Dokja did not reach out to write anything, weirdly enough. His fixed gaze on Joonghyuk only unnerved him more. “Your intent and approach is still far too naive for this line of work.”
“I don’t intend to stick around. This is solely a one-time thing.”
“We’ll see about that,” the older man drawled, pushing the plate of sandwiches in front of the younger man. “Eat up.”
He couldn’t help it — he found himself pouting.
“I want the lemon drink.”
Dokja looked concerned. “Easy there, kid. No more alcohol for you.”
The pout grew even bigger. “I’m fine, ahjussi. I’m not a kid.”
Dokja looked concerned. “It’s your first time drinking alcohol. You’re already beginning to get tipsy, and you had it on an empty stomach. It will hit you quite hard if you don’t stop here.”
“Easier for you to take advantage of me then,” he muttered, which made the older man huff out an incredulous laugh. “Isn’t that what you want?”
“Quite the tempter, aren’t you, Joonghyuk-ah?”
Joonghyuk found his brain progressively melting as the seconds passed. “Prey for a day or two doesn’t sound that bad anymore,” he let out, a little too honestly.
“Goddamn brat.” The older man let out a pained groan, squeezing his eyes shut as he rubbed the bridge of his nose below his glasses. “Just eat the damn sandwich.”
When he saw that the young man hadn’t touched his plate, a sigh slipped out of his mouth.
“Do you want me to feed it to you?”
Before he could process the question, a slice hovered in front of his nose, the tantalising scent of savoury cheese dragging him closer, as did the lure of the man in front of him.
“Eat.”
With his wide-eyed gaze on Dokja’s heavy-lidded ones, he bit onto the corner of the sandwich. It tasted far better than the one he’d had earlier, and he shut his eyes, moaning as he chewed it slowly.
“Good boy,” the older man murmured. “I’ll assume that you liked the grilled sandwiches, Hyuk-ah?”
Joonghyuk wordlessly took another bite as his answer.
A slight smirk graced Kim Dokja’s face. “What else do you want to eat?”
“Lemon drops.”
He shook his head. “Silly boy. We need to stuff you with food before you drink any more liquor.”
Joonghyuk brooded over, and it didn't help that the buzzing thoughts in his melting brain had quietened down to a mellow static. The alien sensations he felt inside him were clouding his coherent grasp onto reality, and the teasing from this elusively attractive man in front of him just added to it.
He finished the first slice being fed to him in silence.
“For someone who brats as much as you do, you sure are good at listening to orders, Hyuk-ah.” Dokja’s smile was rogueish now. “Tell me what you want to eat.”
“Dumplings.”
Dumplings were his favourite. Joonghyuk would have never blurted it out under normal circumstances — nobody could make it the way he wanted it to be, which was why he never had dumplings from any restaurant.
“Of course, I should have guessed.” The older man chuckled. “What kind of dumplings? They have Korean mandu here, but they also have other international varieties.”
The words tumbled out of his pouting mouth. “I want mandu-guk, steamed.”
“Good choice, but I was thinking of something far less soupy. Why don’t we meet in the middle and have some xiao long bao?”
A slight nod. “Hm.”
He loved xiao log bao the most, but he was also a little hesitant to try it outside the confines of his makeshift kitchen back in the dorm.
He blurted out once again. “Can I trust it?”
Kim Dokja nodded solemnly. “The chef here is the best cook I know. The ingredients are first-rate, and his recipe is quite good — doesn’t feel like the sanitised, muted stuff I’ve had at other places.”
Joonghyuk gave him another nod, but his reservation did not disappear.
“Do you have any allergies?”
“I don’t.”
“Would you like it with chicken, or does pork sound good to you?”
Joonghyuk’s head slumped onto the table in a soft thud, his cheek flattening against the cool surface of the semi-polished wood. “Whatever ahjussi wants.”
There were no more thoughts inside the young man’s brain.
“Yeah, you’re definitely drunk,” Dokja stated, and he could hear the smile in his voice.
“No.” Joonghyuk closed his heavy eyelids. “Sleepy.”
“Cute, just like a dumpling.” Dokja reached out, poking the young man’s cheek with his index finger playfully. Funnily enough, he did not want to swat it away. “You’re far more adorable than your username suggests, Joonghyuk-ah.”
His eyes remained closed. “Are you flirting with me?”
“I have been for the past one hour.” A snort left the older man. “Glad you finally noticed.”
Yoo Joonghyuk mumbled something incoherent as his cheeks flamed some more, then added. “I’m fine, ahjussi, I just want to sleep for a bit.”
“Come on, now, don’t pass out on me already.” He tapped the side of the man’s drooping head. “We still need to negotiate your terms.”
Joonghyuk clicked his tongue out loud, frowning, but he did not get up.
“Get up, you brat.”
“There’s nothing to negotiate.”
Dokja cursed under his breath.
“I told you, I’m willing to do anything. Except fuck you.”
“Define fucking,” he said rather drily, taking a swig of his cooled whiskey.
“Hm? It just means that I won’t fuck you, or touch your butthole.”
There was a long pause, then the man in front of him broke into a real, throaty laugh. Joonghyuk lifted his head to see what was so funny, and he was thrown completely off guard.
Kim Dokja sounded real nice when he laughed. He looked even better, the rich sound of his laughter reverberating around the young man as he took in the scene — of the older man’s head thrown back, his glinting pearly whites, the crows’ feet around his closed eyes, the lines around the corner of his mouth, his—
“Joonghyuk-ah, what makes you think that you’ll be the one doing the fucking?”
The full implication of his words hit him three full seconds later, his eyes growing wide in realisation, and heat shooting straight down his spine, right into his groin.
Kim Dokja grinned viciously. “Alright, so you won’t top, but the rest is on the menu, right?”
A frustrated noise slipped out of Joonghyuk, but he could genuinely not think anything beyond the heat that had settled lower, down there. “I said no—” He made another incoherent noise from the back of his throat, his cheeks warming up again. “You’re annoying me.”
“Use your words, Hyuk-ah. Tell me explicitly what you want and what you don’t. There will be plenty of time for those noises to come out of your mouth later on.”
“You’re enjoying this way too much.” Joonghyuk scowled, refusing to look anywhere near Dokja’s smug face as his entire body felt way too hot for the cool room.
“It’s all your fault for being so easy to tease.” He cleared his throat. “Let’s get serious now. You don’t want to do anything sexual during your sponsorship, is that right?”
“No.” The next words tumbled out of his mouth before he knew it, lower, almost inaudible. “I could, for the right price.”
Dokja stilled, and Joonghyuk knew he was going to regret everything when he got back home.
“Name it.”
“I don’t know, I—”
“If this is what you want, if it’s really on the table, name your price.” The easygoing smirk was replaced by a steady, intense look.
“As long as my sister gets her Christmas snackie,” Joonghyuk muttered to himself, then said, “250,000 won.”
Dokja only stared at him in disbelief.
“I’m not going any lower—”
“You’re willing to sell your body for a measly 250k?” He huffed out incredulously. “This restaurant’s reservation cost me much more, do I really have to teach you basic consumer product evaluation?”
The only thing that occupied Joonghyuk’s mind was a looming ‘what the fuck?’
“Don’t you have an ounce of self preservation, Yoo Joonghyuk? Or do you really devalue yourself so much?”
“It’s a reasonably high price,” he argued. “Who even pays more than 250k for a restaurant reservation?”
“250k won’t even cover your expenses for a month.” Dokja rolled his eyes. “And money buys privacy, brat. Why else do you think there’s no one here?”
Joonghyuk’s eyes widened some more.
“What the actual—”
“Listen, kid, this is chump change for me.” He drank the rest of the whiskey in one go, grimacing a little when he did. “You have a sister, don’t you?”
“I do.”
“Think about her. She could live a better life with all the extra money. You could even start saving for her college expenses right now if you demand well. And I’m capable enough to pay much more than your 250k for 24 hours, just to spend some quality time with you, no sex whatsoever.”
Joonghyuk’s brain could not compute, and his rather laconic mouth was now rendered speechless.
Is this it? Am I really going to get a short-term sponsor this good? If it’s sleeping with him just once, maybe…
Everything was going way too fast for his liking.
“I need another drink, ahjussi.”
He needed time to think, but there was nothing in his head — his mind felt weirdly stretched, each thought forming agonisingly slow in the vast empty of his consciousness. It felt strange, this hazy emptiness, but Joonghyuk knew that he needed some time to think.
“What you need is more food, and a glass of water.”
As if on cue, the waiter arrived. Dokja stated their orders off in short, clipped commands, but there was no whiskey — two lemon drops replaced them instead.
“You need more food to think this through.”
Joonghyuk’s phone buzzed again. Another selfie, this time a video of Mia.
“Oppa, I colored so much today. My tree has green apples but I colored one red apple for you because you don’t like green apples because they are sour. I want to meet oppa’s friend. I ate kimchi rice today, it was very tasty. Har-meo-ni gave me choccy, it is tasty just like snackie. Oppa don’t bring me snackies, this choccy is very nice. Okay, bye, I love you, Joonghyuk oppa!”
The video ended with a loud smack of her lips on the screen, then went back to the message screen.
Guilt and grief washed over him, albeit in muted waves because of the buzzing hollow in his head created by the alcohol. This whole meeting was for her, him selling his dignity was for her happiness, her comfort.
And he knew he’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.
“Your sister, how old is she?”
“Five. She got into a public kindergarten[6].”
“Oh, smart kid.” A gentle, almost fond smile graced Dokja’s lips. “I’m sure my children would love to meet her.”
“You have children.” The younger man’s eyes almost bugged out. ”Plural?”
“Mmmhmmm? Yes, children, plural.”
Joonghyuk blinked. “You have kids of your own?”
“Adopted, but yes, I take care of them. I’m their father.”
He shook his head in disbelief. “You have kids of your own and you approached someone who could be their brother in age? Do you pull this shit with the—”
“Are you accusing me of being a nonce?” Kim Dokja cut him off with a smile on his face, but one that didn’t reach his eyes. “I want you to think of what you just said right now, and repeat them if you still have the guts to do so.”
Whiplash again. His tone held none of the warmth that Joonghyuk had gotten accustomed to. A chill went down his spine, and he chose to be quiet, looking down a little too intently at the wood grain instead.
“That’s what I thought.”
The older man leaned forward, and grabbed onto Joonghyuk’s chin in a firm grip, tilting his head to meet Dokja’s cold, hard eyes. His throat dried up.
“You’re lucky that I find you adorable, brat. I am despicable, but I’m not bottom barrel scum who’d touch his own kids.”
Joonghyuk swallowed hard, his wide eyes consuming the frigid, impassive man in front of him. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Good boy. You learn quick.”
He released the younger man from his grasp, then gave him an angelic smile like nothing happened, which scared Yoo Joonghyuk even more.
Why is this guy so hot and cold?
The food arrived right then. The moment he was served water, Joonghyuk gulped it down his dry throat like he’d been out in the sun on the hottest day of the year — though it did nothing to quench the inexplicable urge to get closer to the older man in front of him.
The feelings within him grew complicated once again as they opened the bamboo steamers for their xiao long bao in silence. Kim Dokja divided them equally, carefully putting the soup dumplings on the younger man’s plate first, then set his glasses aside before plating his own.
The sharp stab of fear Joonghyuk felt earlier began settling in his bones like the aftermath of a radioactive blizzard, while the heat from their interactions warmed them, resulting in a murky slurry of emotions he could make no sense of, as his eyes snagged at every action of the man in front of him.
Sure, Yoo Joonghyuk was taller and marginally bigger in terms of body proportions even if he was a broke and perpetually starving university student, but something told him that Kim Dokja could easily haul his ass if he actually managed to piss him off — a mere glimpse of the hidden edges within this random stranger on the internet was enough to get his guard up.
And yet, in the presence of Kim Dokja, the young man did not find himself to be in true danger.
Joonghyuk reached out to take the glass of one of the two martinis, but the older man snatched it away from his grasp.
“Nuh uh. Not until you finish all your dumplings, Joonghyuk-ah.”
He scowled.
“Oh, looks like you’re sobering up a little,” Dokja said, picking up the metal chopsticks in front of him. “Eat up, and maybe I’ll let you have some alcohol at the end of it.”
“I am old enough to know what I want.”
“Not old enough to know better.”
“Quit patronising me.” He watched as Dokja’s chopsticks picked up the bao on his own plate, eyebrows scrunching in confusion. “Why are you eating from my plate?”
The soup dumpling floated in front of his nose.
“Open your mouth.”
A random stranger from the internet was feeding him. Kim Dokja was feeding him his favourite kind of bao.
Without a protest, the entire thing went in his mouth.
The rich flavors within the dumpling almost made him weep. The savory meat broth enveloped his tongue and caressed his tastebuds like an old lover, while the meat within was cooked to seasoned perfection, and for the third time that day, Joonghyuk moaned out a satisfied hum.
“This is decently made,” he mumbled out, and Dokja let out a small breath, looking almost relieved.
It was one of the best dumplings Yoo Joonghyuk had ever eaten.
Dokja wordlessly fed him some more of the delicious dumplings, until the younger man broke his silence.
“Your baos will get cold.”
He waved his hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about me, let me feed you.”
Joonghyuk picked up his own chopsticks, slowly realising how intimate the entire thing really was. A slow blush crept up his face. “I can feed myself the rest.”
“Alright, then.”
Is it me, or does this ahjussi look… disappointed?
They ate leisurely in peace, and Joonghyuk’s mind began to get a little clearer.
Kim Dokja broke the silence first. “The reason why I approached you was because I wanted a plus one for the Christmas event that’s being hosted by a…” He looked up, trying to find the right words. “…friend, let’s just say.”
Joonghyuk nodded, plopping a dumpling in his mouth.
“I was looking for short term escorts, but none of them caught my eye.”
He frowned. “Isn’t prostitution highly illegal?”
“Yes, and?” Dokja looked at him with his eyebrow cocked. “What about it?”
“Nothing.” He picked up another bao. “Continue, ahjussi.”
“At least call me hyung, you brat.” The older man grabbed onto the martini and took a sip. “I was going through the forums because I was bored. I wasn’t looking to sponsor anyone.”
“Why did you pick me then?”
“Your face,” Kim Dokja stated simply. “You looked great in that photo.”
Joonghyuk found it equally flattering and insulting. How could one be so shallow?
The older man grinned, before adding, “What sold me was the ‘Limited Edition’.”
Embarrassment made Joonghyuk want to crawl under their table and never come out. He groaned, shutting his eyes as the urge to cringe at his desperation threatened to take over.
“Don’t worry, it was cute. I messaged you with the intent to warn you about posting your photo online that way, but there was a part of me that hoped you would accept my offer.” His tongue slowly licked the sugar off the glass’s rim, before he drank some more. Joonghyuk could feel his pulse quicken. “Came for the face, stayed for the bratty kid and the fun banter I’m having with him. And you look far more stunning in the flesh. It would’ve been a shame if I let anyone else beat me to the line to sponsor you, Yoo Joonghyuk.”
Joonghyuk’s parched throat reached out for some water, only to find his glass empty. “You’re looking for a date for your event, then?”
“My initial idea was to get someone eager in my arms for the event, then relieve my stress after with a good fucking.” He paused to eat the bao, the silence letting his words marinate inside the younger man’s mind, as wanton visions of sex with this older man began occupying it.
Kim Dokja holding him, kissing him, touching him, fucking him—
Heat pooled down in his groin, right into his dick, and Joonghyuk looked down at the last dumpling remaining on his plate way too intently.
“But now I might have to change the latter half of the plan, since I’m planning to take you there. If you accept my offer, of course.”
Inexplicably to him, Joonghyuk felt a twinge of disappointment inside.
“I want to drink the lemon drop, ahjussi,” he said instead.
“You’ve had quite a bit to drink today, don’t you think?”
“I’m fine.” He glared at the man, who had a slight smirk on his face, and the urge to punch him grew. “I can handle it.”
“You really think you can?”
Joonghyuk bristled in irritation. “Just give me the glass.”
“Call me hyung, and I’ll probably let you drink.” Kim Dokja’s half-lidded gaze watched him, the darkened eyes doing nothing to hide the indecent thoughts that were running in that older man’s head.
“Perverted old man.” Joonghyuk’s tone was not as bruising as he’d like.
A lascivious grin spread across his face. “Try me, Joonghyuk-ah. I’ll show you just how perverted I can get, I promise.”
More blood surged down the young man's groin. He gulped, his cheeks flaming hot.
“Let me drink, Kim Dokja.”
Dokja clicked his tongue, though he looked quite amused. “Did no one teach you how to speak to your elders? Don't address me in banmal,[7] brat.”
“I am not calling you ‘hyung’ then.”
In response, the older man got out of his seat. An uneasy trepidation clouded Joonghyuk’s mind as he watched him make his way to where he was seated. Dokja braced his arms against the table and his seat, caging the young man in the booth completely.
Joonghyuk’s pulse roared in his ears at the proximity as he twisted his torso to look at the man looming over him.
“Come on now, Hyuk-ah,” he purred, his eyes glinting with wicked promise. “Don’t be difficult.”
Dokja picked up his own half empty glass and drank a mouthful. “This tastes pretty refreshing, goes surprisingly well with the bao we just had. I can see why you like it so much.” He looked down at the younger man, who glared at him some more.
“Ahjussi, can you stop teasing me?”
“Where’s the fun in that?”
Joonghyuk closed his eyes and huffed out a sigh, his cheeks warming up even more. Then, he turned to face Dokja completely, and looked up, straight into the eyes of the man.
“Give me the drink, Dokja hyung.” His eyes flickered from the older man’s dark eyes, to his mouth, then back, before he added, “Please.”
Joonghyuk wanted to bury himself in sheer embarrassment.
“Now, how can I refuse?”
Gently, he grabbed onto the young man’s chin, and the burn from his touch made Joonghyuk’s eyes go wide. “What—”
The sugary rim of the martini touched his lips.
“Drink up now, Joonghyuk-ah.” The older man’s voice was soft, almost gentle.
Yoo Joonghyuk could barely register the cool fluid in his mouth, nor could he appreciate the refreshing citrusy flavor mixed in with the booze, or the sensation of the sugar crystals pressed against his lips. All that occupied his mind were the eyes of this ahjussi and the stars that seemed to glint from within them.
“Good boy.”
He drank slowly, one purposeful gulp after another, his nose basking in the faint scents of sandalwood, cardamom, oud, and something far more exotic from the man. His thundering heartbeat was almost too loud, but his eyes were trained solely on Kim Dokja’s face — the sensual curve of his lips, the slight stubble on his chin, the fine lines of age on his skin, and those eyes, those eyes that were heavy-lidded with raw desire, now darkened to a black that reflected nothing back as they stared right into him, consuming every thought that threatened to germinate from his mind.
“You’re being so good for me right now.”
All doubt and static dissipated from Joonghyuk’s brain, replacing it with an empty that was slowly beginning to fill itself with a newly found swirl of emotions.
The rim of the glass left his lips, which made him realise, rather detachedly, that he’d finished drinking the whole cocktail. He did not know whether it was the alcohol or the looming presence of the older man over him, but a heady sensation clouded his mind.
“Do you want some more, Joonghyuk-ah?”
Mia. I’m doing all this for my Mia-yah.
A last ditch attempt to grasp at his sanity, he shook his head, still wide-eyed and reeling.
“Aw.” A look of mock disappointment spread on Dokja’s face. “I really thought you wanted more.” He leaned in, reaching out to cup his chin. He rubbed the sugar off the younger man’s lips with his thumb, then brought it to his own mouth, licking it. “Sweet.”
Yoo Joonghyuk was almost certain that he had ruined his boxers at some point during this meeting. Every little action tantalized him, slowly building a strange want for this elusive stranger in front of him. Though his motivations were to give his sister a better life, this concoction of anxiety and desire was what solidified his decision.
His dazed eyes still on the thumb in Kim Dokja’s mouth, he said, “I agree to be your date for Christmas.”
“Is that so? You haven’t even heard my terms.” Yet, a sly smirk grew on his face.
“I don’t care. It’s one day. I’m willing to be paid anything.”
“You should be more demanding, kid.” Dokja narrowed his eyes. “You’ll have to wear some fancy stuff, sit still and look pretty in my arms while I talk to people that might be unsavoury. Are you going to be okay with that?”
“Just pay me to buy the clothes, I don’t care for the rest.” Joonghyuk looked down, not sure how to word his next statement without sounding too needy. “If you want us to have sex, get me a good custom PC.”
Without a moment of hesitation, Kim Dokja nodded his head. “Alright, that’s a deal.”
“Do you even know what that is, Kim Dokja?” Yoo Joonghyuk gave him a deadpan look. “Do you know how much those cost? Do you know how much each individual part costs?”
“Not at all.” He shrugged. “But I’m sure I can pay for it.”
Dokja's tone held no arrogance, nor did it sound overconfident — there was a certain self-assurance within his frankness that cooled Joonghyuk’s bristling demeanor down a bit.
“I’m scared that you are lying.” Joonghyuk blurted out, a little too honest. “About any of this. I don’t care that you’re taking advantage of me, I’m literally asking for it. I just don’t want it to be for nothing.”
“I might be taking advantage of you, but I don’t want you to do something that you’re not ready for.” The young man could not see the guilt that flitted through Kim Dokja’s eyes for a moment, and maybe it was for the best. “This hyung won’t be too rough on you, I promise.”
“You better not scam me, old man.” The ends of his words got slurred out, his mind getting hazier with the warmth that spread across his body.
“I’m more afraid you might run away after today.” Dokja chuckled. “It would be understandable if you did. You still have time to negotiate, renegotiate, or outright reject this sponsorship if you don’t want it, until I send the contract over to you.”
“Contract?”
“Yes. It won’t be traceable. But a contract, stipulating what’s to be expected out of the day-long sponsorship.” He chuckled, looking down at the clueless expression on the younger man’s face. “Whether you sign the contract or not, I’ll still send you an advance by tonight, for humoring me today.” He reached out to pat the younger boy’s head, ruffling his hair. “You’ve been very good today, Hyuk-ah.”
The praise only got his head much murkier.
“Don’t worry about anything else, Yoo Joonghyuk. I’ll handle everything from here.”
Worry flooded Joonghyuk’s mind the moment he found himself back in his bed with zero recollection of how he got there.
Bright sunlight streamed in through the singular window in the room. It made his eyes hurt, and he walked over to draw the curtains. A heaviness pressed into his head like a boulder was precariously balanced on top of it. His mouth felt sandpaper-dry and he could make no sound when he called out his sister’s name.
Yoo Mia was asleep and clutching onto her favourite bunny plushie, sprawled beside where he had laid not a minute ago, surrounded by a bunch of crayons and papers filled with doodles.
A pang of guilt went through him as he tried remembering what had happened earlier, before he’d passed out in the same clothes he’d gone out in.
What day is this, why is it still light outside?
Nothing came to him initially, except the distant, honeyed voice of a certain ahjussi calling him a good boy. A warm blush spread through Yoo Joonghyuk’s face.
“You’re being so good for me right now.”
Those eyes, sucking him in, half-lidded and heavy with wanton desire…
“Try me, Joonghyuk-ah. I’ll show you just how perverted I can get, I promise.”
That smooth baritone that laced a dark promise within the fabric of his silky words…
“Joonghyuk-ah, what makes you think that you’ll be the one doing the fucking?”
All those smirks and teasing smiles, those lips that curved like they knew how he affected the young man—
Then it came crashing back at him.
The drinking. The flirting. The touching.
The desperation, the rash decisions.
The contract. The goddamn contract.
He raced back to his bed, quickly grabbing his phone and unlocking it.
16th December. 10:28.
They were well into the next day.
He was in the same clothes that he had worn last afternoon. His throat was dry, head throbbing with clear memories of every embarrassing reaction he’d had for a random ahjussi from the internet, and absolutely no memory of how he got to his campus after, or how he ended up back in their dorm room, or how Mia was, or what happened with Mia when he was gone and when he wasn’t.
If this was what a walk of shame felt like, he never wanted to do this again.
Cursing, he checked his notifications. There were quite a few, and all from a new contact mysteriously named ‘Whiskey Dickja’.
YESTERDAY
You added ‘Whiskey Dickja’ to your contacts.
You can now chat with ‘Whiskey Dickja’
Whiskey Dickja: Don’t you carry your University ID card when you go out of the campus? - 21:18
I couldn’t find it in your wallet either. Nor were they in your pockets. - 21:18
I apologise for searching you, I had to look through because they weren’t allowing me in. - 21:18
I didn’t want to leave you alone when you passed out, you would’ve hurt yourself. - 21:18
Don’t worry too much about it, I spoke to some people, and it went smoothly. You aren’t in any trouble. - 21:20
Your sister came with the janitor when I left you in the dorm room. - 21:20
She seemed tired. Don’t worry, she seemed okay too. Though I think she doesn’t like me too much. :( - 21:20
For a starving kid, you sure are quite heavy. - 21:22
Don’t let that stop you, though. You should eat more. Get some more meat inside you. You’re still a growing boy. - 21:22
Today was fun. I haven’t enjoyed myself as much in a long time. - 21:25
I think it’s quite late, so I’ll be sending the contract over to you tomorrow. - 21:33
Make sure to read it thoroughly. - 21:33
You might be the ‘eul’, but you shouldn’t hesitate to assert yourself. - 21:33
I sent you the advance. Check your bank balance and let me know if you got it. - 23:21
Drink plenty of water. I have kept a Hanyak[8] hangover cure for you on your table. Swallow the pills, you’ll be better in a few hours. - 23:22
I cannot wait for the Christmas event. I hope you enjoy yourself too. - 23:39
Goodnight, Yoo Joonghyuk. Hope you sleep well. - 23:39
TODAY
Whiskey Dickja: Good morning, Yoo Joonghyuk. - 06:46
I hope the hangover treats you well. Keep yourself hydrated like I told you earlier. - 06:46
I’m sending over the contract for you to sign over. An e-signature is good enough. - 06:46
[Attachment: 1 file – 3MB | Download] - 06:46
Kindly read through. - 06:46
Though I’ll be expecting your reply at the earliest, you can take your time till tomorrow. I still need to make arrangements in case you reject the sponsorship. And prepare your clothes in case you do accept it. - 07:05
Joonghyuk slowly figured out who it was, but he had absolutely no recollection of how Kim Dokja caught hold of his personal number for him to bombard him with a wall of messages.
Yoo Joonghyuk: who is this and how did you get my number - 10:33 - Message Seen
and why are you talking to yourself in my chat - 10:33 - Message Seen
Whiskey Dickja: ...
Within seconds, a text popped up.
Whiskey Dickja: Good morning. I hope your morning has been well. - 10:33
It’s Kim Dokja here. - 10:33
I assumed you’d saved my number, Joonghyuk, after practically demanding it from me last night. - 10:33
You were demanding a lot of other things as well, but I wanted to hear those demands out of you when sober. - 10:34
And fulfil them to the best of my abilities. - 10:34
For the life of him, Yoo Joonghyuk could not remember anything after agreeing to the contract — there was a wide chasm where the later part of the rendezvous should’ve been.
What did I even do last night?
Yoo Joonghyuk: i have saved your number - 10:34 - Message Seen
its just under a weird name - 10:34 - Message Seen
i cant remember anything from last night - 10:35 - Message Seen
Whiskey Dickja: Weird name, is it? - 10:35
Now I want to know what cute nickname I am saved under. - 10:35
If you tell me what my contact name is, I’ll fill you in on what happened. - 10:36
We should drink together more often, even when the sponsorship is over. - 10:36
I haven’t had that kind of fun in ages. - 10:36
What the fuck did I do last night?
Yoo Joonghyuk: you better tell me - 10:36 - Message Seen
your name is under ‘Whiskey Dickja’ - 10:36 - Message Seen
Whiskey Dickja: ...
A minute passed. Then two. His message was read, a 'typing' bubble kept popping up, but there was no reply from the other side.
An ominous feeling loomed over him.
Whiskey Dickja: Whiskey Dickja. - 10:40
Yoo Joonghyuk: ??????????????????????????? - 10:40 - Message Seen
tell me what i did yesterday - 10:40 - Message Seen
Whiskey Dickja: Son of a bitch. - 10:40
Change the contact name. - 10:40
Immediately. - 10:40
As playful as this ahjussi was, Joonghyuk did not want to get on his bad side — intuition told him it wouldn’t be very wise.
You changed the contact name to ‘Kim Dokja’.
Yoo Joonghyuk: i changed it to your name - 10:42 - Message Seen
now tell me what happened - 10:42 - Message Seen
Kim Dokja: On second thought, let’s not get into what you did last night. - 10:42
Maybe I need to show you what this whiskey dick is capable of. - 10:43
In person. - 10:43
Joonghyuk gulped, the memory of this ahjussi’s thumb on his mouth coming unbridled in his mind.
Yoo Joonghyuk: i hope you die - 10:43 - Message Seen
Kim Dokja: Then you won’t be getting any of the money either, kiddo. Including the advance I sent you last night. - 10:44
You didn’t tell me if you got it, though. - 10:44
Did you check your bank balance? - 10:44
Yoo Joonghyuk, did not, in fact, check his bank balance.
He exited the messenger and logged into his banking app, then checked his balance sheet.
He blinked at the numbers on his screen once. Then twice. Then he logged out, refreshed the app and logged in once more for good measure.
What the fuck?
Yoo Joonghyuk: hey why is there over 500k won in my account - 10:47 - Message Seen
did you send more money on accident - 10:47 - Message Seen
how much did you send - 10:47 - Message Seen
Kim Dokja: About as much as you’re seeing in your account. - 10:47
It’s an advance. A token of my appreciation, if you will. - 10:48
Yoo Joonghyuk: is this a joke - 10:48 - Message Seen
i havent even signed the damn thing yet - 10:48 - Message Seen
what the hell kind of advance is 500k won - 10:48 - Message Seen
isnt this coercive - 10:48 - Message Seen
are you doing a money laundering scheme and using my account - 10:48 - Message Seen
also how did you get my bank details - 10:48 - Message Seen
Kim Dokja: ...
Okay. How exactly did this man get access to his bank account for a transfer? How did this man know where he lived? How did this guy know where his dorm was?
Kim Dokja: You told me last night. - 10:49
You gave me your number as well, after you begged me for mine. - 10:49
If you could remember better, you’d know. - 10:49
This is harabeoji behavior. - 10:49
I have other ways of laundering money if I really wanted. I won't be involving your account for it. - 10:50
Using your account would be stupid and it would be flagged for suspicious activity. - 10:50
Especially when you're as broke as you are. - 10:50
Won’t look good for either you or me to get you involved in this kind of business. - 10:51
Yoo Joonghyuk: why do you know any of this - 10:52 - Message Seen
kim dokja just tell me what happened yesterday - 10:52 - Message Seen
and what am i going to do with 500k - 10:52 - Message Seen
Kim Dokja: I know all this because I’m older than you. I have the experience, you don’t. - 10:52
Don’t hurt your pretty little head with the details, kid. - 10:52
Especially not with the hangover you’re sporting right now. - 10:53
I bet you didn’t even take the pills I left on your table. - 10:53
Bad Hyukkie, bad. - 10:53
Take it now. Drink some water. I don’t care if you haven’t washed your mouth, you need hydration. - 10:53
As much as Joonghyuk was annoyed at the nagging, there was a weird comfort behind the bossiness — it felt oddly nice to be told to do something nice.
He went over to his table, and sure enough, there was a nondescript black box with a bottle of mineral water beside it. Joonghyuk popped in two of the pills and gulped down the entire bottle, when his phone pinged again.
Kim Dokja: Looks like you’re listening to me. What a good boy. - 10:55
This ahjussi is so—
Yoo Joonghyuk: you are very frustrating kim dokja - 10:55 - Message Seen
you are not my parent - 10:55 - Message Seen
Kim Dokja: I am your hyung. - 10:55
Close enough. - 10:56
You should really call me hyung. Or daddy, if that’s your preference. - 10:56
This motherfucker.
Yoo Joonghyuk: die - 10:56 - Message Seen
i hope you choke on kimbap - 10:56 - Message Seen
Kim Dokja: I don’t know about me, but I know a few things you can definitely choke on, Joonghyuk-ah. - 10:56
Joonghyuk balked at his screen for a while, then let out a long groan in exasperation, his face turning bright pink.
This rotten ahjussi.
Kim Dokja: Rendered you speechless at the mere mention of it. - 10:57
It will be fun to see when it has the same effect on you in person. - 10:57
Ah, maybe that’s going to be my solution to your brattiness. - 10:57
Yoo Joonghyuk: i will kill you - 10:57 - Message Seen
Kim Dokja: Wow. Scary. - 10:58
I’m going to die by the hands of a brat with a hangover from his first drink. - 10:58
Kim Dokja will be a dead man the next time I see him.
Kim Dokja: All jokes aside, I really want you to read the contract thoroughly after you’re well rested. - 10:59
Sign it and send it over, preferably by tomorrow night. - 10:59
If you have any doubts, feel free to text or call me. - 10:59
Yoo Joonghyuk: cool - 11:00 - Message Seen
anything else - 11:00 - Message Seen
Kim Dokja: Nothing in particular. Have fun, spoil yourself. - 11:01
Send me the exact specifications of that custom PC you wanted when you send the signed contract over. - 11:02
Kim Dokja’s intent was clear, and Joonghyuk did not know if his pulse quickened in fear or anticipation.
Either way, he had one last thing he wanted to do before he really began his day.
You changed the contact name to ‘Sleazer Geezer’.
Yoo Joonghyuk: cool - 11:00 - Message Seen
With a lump sum of over 500,000 won now in his account and the promise of more, Yoo Joonghyuk had nothing to lose, save for his virginity and what was left of his dignified morals.
“I don’t want to see chaebol ahjussi.”
It was Christmas Eve, the fateful day of his contract fulfilment. For some reason unknown to Joonghyuk, Yoo Mia insisted on calling Kim Dokja ‘chaebol ahjussi’.
“Why is that, Mia-yah?” He narrowed his eyes. “Did he hurt you? Did he touch you anywhere?”
She shook her head, her pigtails swishing around. “He was nice to me. He carried oppa home. He gave me a snackie.”
Joonghyuk was somewhat relieved. “Okay, then why don’t you want to see him?”
“Because he is ugly,” she stated simply, drinking the strawberry smoothie he’d made from her sippy cup.
Kim Dokja was rather good looking for his age, far too attractive in Joonghyuk’s opinion and one of the reasons why he didn’t mind fulfilling the ‘additional’ terms of his contract, but he couldn’t exactly voice that out — it was rather embarrassing and inappropriate to admit that he found his temporary sponsor hot out loud to his five year old sister.
“Maybe,” he replied instead, though there was a frown on his face. “Kim Dokja looks fine to me.”
“Oppa is beautiful. Chaebol ahjussi has a naughty smile when he looks at oppa.” She wrinkled her button-like nose with all the disgust a five year old was capable of. “Ugly.”
Yoo Joonghyuk choked on his spit. That perverted—
Recovering, he sputtered out, “Mia-yah, it’s not nice to be mean to other people. We should keep our inside thoughts to ourselves.”
Of course, he was partly responsible for her brusqueness — his straightforward expression of his feelings wasn’t what was socially polite, but it had nothing on Mia’s bluntness, probably because she was still quite young.
“I am not mean, I am telling truths.”
He sighed. “He has two children, you can play with them at ahjussi’s house when I’m out with him.”
She perked up. “Are they nice?”
“Very.” A faint smile adorned his face. “They are a few years older than you, one girl and one boy. Ahjussi told me his kids are sweet, but if they are not, you need to tell oppa.”
“I am strong, don’t worry oppa.” Mia pouted. “I will hit them if they are bad.”
He stared at his sister with mildly growing concern. “Don’t do that.”
Joonghyuk took an extensive shower afterwards in preparation for the night, covering all the bases that his brief search on the internet had told him — he was annoyed that Kim Dokja himself hadn’t informed him anything about it, but it would be far more mortifying to ask the older man about bottom etiquette — not to mention, quite incriminating. He was not too keen on losing his virginity to a man he’d just met.
He dressed Mia in a cute but warm outfit he’d just bought for her, while he slipped on a plain hoodie over a printed oversized t-shirt and jeans and called it a day — he had a custom tailored suit for the event anyway. Packing the essentials in their individual bags for the night, they hopped into the metro to reach the suburban neighborhood Kim Dokja’s residence was at.
The coordinates he’d sent led them to a cozy looking, two storeyed villa — quite a nice place, if the young man was being honest. They rang the bell and Joonghyuk’s hands began getting clammy.
The door opened to reveal a lanky young boy with ruddy cheeks, huffing out of breath like he’d just run. He looked up, straight at Yoo Joonghyuk with a scrunched up nose.
“And who are you?”
“I am Yoo Joonghyuk.” The young man realised that this wasn’t the best introduction for the child. He tried again, a second later. “I am your—”
“Appa said not to open the door to strangers,” the kid retorted, and slammed the door in his face.
Rude brat.
“That boy is not very nice to you,” Mia said, voicing his own opinion out loud. “I don’t want to be his friend.”
“His Appa told him not to talk to strangers,” he replied, patting her head. “He’s being a good kid because he’s just listening to his Appa, Mia.”
He sent the older man a short text before he rang the doorbell again. The door clicked open, revealing a somewhat disheveled looking Kim Dokja giving Joonghyuk a sheepish grin, while carrying the same rude boy with just an arm.
“Joonghyuk-ah, you should’ve just called me sooner,” he said, a tired smile on his face. “Come on in.”
They entered wordlessly, and Joonghyuk idly noted the immaculately styled interiors — glossy wood panels on the walls, interspersed with inlays of pots fused to the walls with lush and leafy plants that looked quite real. The shelves and racks looked like solid wood, and his freezing toes practically sang when he felt the rich, plush rug under his feet.
The entire house was bathed in cozy, warm light, unlike the harsh fluorescents from the single tubelight back at his dorm. The home smelled good too — he could make out the scent of roasted coffee beans and caramel for some reason, along with a warm vanilla within, but he could still smell a hint of the familiar woodsy sandalwood from the older man’s perfume.
“I apologize on behalf of Gilyoung here, this one didn’t tell me you were here until I caught him in his lies.”
The Gilyoung in question was pouting, cheeks ruddier than before, refusing to meet the younger man’s eyes.
“Young-ie, apologise.” Dokja’s voice was stern. “Joonghyuk-ah is our guest and Appa's friend. You should be nice.”
Gilyoung, in turn, glared at Joonghyuk for no fault of his own.
“Sorry hyung.”
He did not sound a bit sorry, and Joonghyuk was even more confused as to what he did to earn this kid’s ire.
Kim Dokja let out an exasperated sigh. Then, he bent down, looking at Mia with his eyes crinkling at the corners. “Hello, young lady. What’s your name?”
She straightened up and prattled off stiffly. “Yoo Mia. I am five years old. Yoo Joonghyuk is my oppa.”
“Ah, I see.” His smile was gentle as he held out his hand to her. “I am Kim Dokja. Happy to meet you, Yoo Mia.” They shook hands briefly, then he added, “Your oppa is a good friend of mine. He has told me nice things about you.”
He turned to look at Joonghyuk, who watched the exchange with an impassive look on his face, but internally he was just relieved that things were going smoothly so far. This ahjussi seems like a nice, doting father—
“Chaebol ahjussi is very ugly.”
Dokja’s eyes widened, then he let out a short huff of laughter.
“I see. The brattiness is inherited.”
Joonghyuk wanted to dive into an active volcano in sheer mortification.
“Don’t call my Appa ugly,” Gilyoung glared down at the young girl from the safety of Dokja’s arm, who returned with a staredown of her own. “He is not ugly.”
“You were mean to my oppa, so I am mean to your Appa.” She stuck her tongue out, punctuating her point even further.
“Oh.” He looked down, as if in deep thought. “Sorry. I shouldn't have.” He brightened up, eyes shining, still clinging onto his Appa’s neck, who had a fond expression on his face. “Do you like bugs?”
“Scary,” Mia said, her voice low, looking down. “Bugs are scary.”
“Awh, but they are so cool!” He slinked down from Dokja’s arm, and reached out to Mia’s hand. “Let me show you.”
“Young-ie, nobody wants to see your stupid critters,” a disembodied voice yelled out. “Stop scaring the baby.”
Gilyoung looked puzzled. “What is a critter?”
“Your favourite creepy crawlies, stupid.” A girl came out, almost the same age as Gilyoung but wearing a huge helmet styled like a shark’s head. “Don’t scare the baby away.”
Gilyoung scowled at the girl. “Stop calling me stupid. Bugs are cool, Seung-ie. You won’t get it.” He turned to Mia, a shy smile on his face. “Don’t listen to her, Mia. All bugs are not scary looking,” Gilyoung insisted. “I’ll show you cute ones today.”
She mumbled out a hesitant ‘okay’, before being dragged inside the house by an excited Gilyoung. Joonghyuk watched the tiny, retreating back of his sister disappear, before he turned to find Dokja looking at him rather intently.
“Is there something on my face?”
“No, I’m just admiring you.” He looked up at the younger man with a small, sincere smile. “You’re doing a good job raising that kid on your own.”
The compliment warmed Joonghyuk’s insides, even though he’d only known the man for about ten days. “What, like that’s hard?”
“Quit your humble bragging, kid.” Kim Dokja looked unamused, resorting to pulling the younger man’s cheek really hard. “Come in, don’t just stand there. This is as much your home as it is mine now.”
They made their way into the spacious living room and he noted that, like the rest of the house he’d seen, the living room was tastefully styled, but it had a lived-in quality to it that felt far different from the sterility in his childhood house — now a distant memory he barely thought of. This felt more like a home.
Joonghyuk idly noted the physical distance between him and Kim Dokja as they sat on opposite ends of the loveseat. Their bodies didn’t touch — they never touched, not even casual caressing from the older man that he’d initially expected, or even the occasional brushing of their bodies against each other. For someone who was under a dubiously consensual sponsorship, Yoo Joonghyuk hadn't been touched with any questionable intent, except for the handful of times that Kim Dokja crossed over to ensnare him in his hands, just to prove a point…
He did not know whether it was the older man extending basic courtesy towards him by not pouncing on him, or if it was deliberate power play — and he did not know whether to love or hate the anticipatory itch that steadily built inside him.
Is he not that interested in this anymore…?
“Did you sleep well, Joonghyuk-ah?”
He turned to look at the man. “No,” he replied rather truthfully. He was up all night, anxious about the contract, the event — and if he was ready for what would come after. “I couldn’t sleep.”
Dokja only nodded.
“It doesn’t matter. This will be over in a day.”
“It does to me, Joonghyuk-ah.” Dokja’s eyes shifted to look at the patterned maroon rug in front of them. “I just want you to be comfortable while going through with this. Even if it's for a day.”
Beggars can't be choosers, Joonghyuk thought to himself, but it didn't feel like his predicament was that unfortunate — it surely helped that the older man was easy on the eyes and easier on the metaphorical palate, however unsavoury his intent may be.
“You have quite a few burdens on you, and you're still quite young. I just don't want to be one of those burdens.”
“I can always run away and call the police,” Joonghyuk joked, his expression deadpan as always.
Dokja snorted. “What makes you think that the police will do anything?” He leaned in, a slow smirk curving his lips. “You're free to run away all you want, as long as you don’t look back after, Yoo Joonghyuk.”
The heady scent of sandalwood and oud clouded Joonghyuk’s mind.
“And if you choose to run, run for your goddamn life.”
Kim Dokja didn’t have to touch him to assert his power over Yoo Joonghyuk.
He straightened up, the intensity in his expression vanishing almost instantly. “You can nap for a bit in the guest room, I’ll wake you up when it’s time to get ready.”
Joonghyuk could only shake his head, still reeling from the whiplash in the man’s switch in demeanour.
“We still have quite a few hours before the event.”
“I’m fine,” he managed out, his pulse still hammering away behind his ears. He was almost certain he couldn’t fall asleep even if he wanted to.
“Sit here then,” Dokja said, patting at the empty space between them. “I’ll go make some hot chocolate for the kids. You don’t mind hot chocolate for yourself, do you? Or do you want coffee?”
“I don’t want anything, but I’ll help.”
A genuine smile spread across Kim Dokja’s face, enhancing the smile lines and the crows feet on his face. “I would love that, Hyuk-ah.”
A slow blush spread across Joonghyuk’s face as he was led into the spacious but cozy kitchen, his mind still replaying the smile and the way his tongue caressed the ‘Hyuk-ah’. Under brighter lights, Joonghyuk could make out the purpling eyebags, the harsher lines and planes on Dokja’s face when he looked closely, but he still couldn’t believe that the man was pushing forty.
And, he would rather die than ever admit it, but the fine lines and wrinkles just made Kim Dokja much hotter in his eyes.
“I was just done with my final batch of pecan pralines when you came. I’ve had my hands full trying to recreate some recipes the kids loved, back from our trip to New York this summer,” the older man said, putting on a plain black apron. “They’re on the other side, there. The first tray on the left must’ve cooled down enough to eat, you can try it out.”
Joonghyuk walked over to the large counter, half a dozen trays spread across it. He picked up one of the small caramelised nuts, sniffing it first, before taking a small gingerly bite.
The praline’s thin but hard exterior crunched away to a not-too-sweet chewy interior, soft and buttery, enveloping the perfectly roasted pecans within them. Joonghyuk found himself shoving the rest of the praline in his mouth, savouring the way the airy flavors of vanilla and butter melted in his mouth.
“They need rock salt as garnish,” he said, frowning.
“Ah, right, I forgot about that before I kept them aside to set. Let me just…” He grabbed onto a small jar from the cabinets above, then moved beside Joonghyuk and sprinkled some rock salt onto the candied nuts. “...yeah, this should do it.”
“They’re decent,” he muttered, as he grabbed another one from the tray. “Mia-yah will like these.”
“Glad you love them,” Dokja beamed. “The recipe was straightforward, but I forgot how finicky caramel preparation really is.”
“Temperature-based,” Jooghyuk nodded, reminiscing his experimentations with caramel temperatures and their end results. “If you’re a degree off, you end up with something different from what you had in mind, inedible.”
“Tell me about it,” the older man huffed. “You seem to know quite a bit about cooking, is your degree related to the culinary arts?” He moved away, setting aside the necessary ingredients for the hot chocolate. “Come to think of it, I never asked you about your schooling before.”
“No, I got into a Biological Sciences programme.” He savoured the small bite of the praline, before adding, “I just like to cook.”
“I’m assuming your first semester is done. How did you find it so far?”
“It was fine. Botany finals were challenging, but it’s only there for another semester so I’m not too worried.” He reached out to place the empty saucepan on the stove. “Where do you want me to help here?”
“Don’t worry, I have it all covered here, Joonghyuk-ah.” He took out cold milk and dark chocolate from the fridge. “Relax, you’re my guest, I only called you to the kitchen because I enjoy your company.”
His words warmed Joonghyuk up from the inside, a welcome respite from the wintery chill.
“Were you always interested in this field?”
Joonghyuk shrugged. “It’s interesting, but I picked it because it was easier to get a scholarship in Biological Sciences than in engineering, and I didn’t want to leave Seoul or leave Mia alone here.”
Dokja hummed in response. “Would you choose something else if you were given another shot?”
“I’m studying so that I can give my sister a good future. I’m doing all this to make sure she’s better off. Everything else is irrelevant.”
The older man began chopping the dark chocolate, quick and efficient with his knife. “I get it.”
“If things were better, I don’t think I’d care what I chose in the end.”
Kim Dokja did not look up from his chopping board. “Is that also why you haven’t pursued a relationship yet?”
Joonghyuk did not usually like divulging the details of his personal life with just anyone — he was known to be quite calm, reserved and quiet by the rest of his peers. Which was why it surprised him even more when he slipped into ease as he spoke to Dokja about himself.
“Not really, I just haven’t thought about it.”
Dokja set the tray aside, turning to face the young man at the other end of the kitchen. “Surely, someone as handsome as you would have admirers back on campus, Joonghyuk-ah.”
“Maybe.” Joonghyuk walked over and picked up the box of cocoa powder with an empty bowl and a sieve, then began sifting the cocoa into it, loosening the clumpy powder. “I just had no interest in anyone on campus so far.”
“Is that so? Then I am honored to be the one who piqued your interest, even if it’s for a day-long contract.” Kim Dokja hummed out, pouring milk slowly into a bowl of cornstarch. “I hope you have as much fun as I will tonight.”
Yoo Joonghyuk said nothing, the tips of his ears tinged red as he sifted the cocoa more rigorously.
The rest of their time in the kitchen was spent in silence, except for the occasional admonishment from the older man who insisted that he didn’t need any more help, and the clattering of the utensils as the younger man retaliated.
It felt almost natural, like they’d done this before, a million times over.
“I hope the kids are getting along well,” Dokja broke the silence by wondering out loud. “I was worried before, Yooseung-ie and Gilyoung-ie can be a handful sometimes. Sorry about what happened earlier.”
“He was just listening to instructions,” Joonghyuk replied. “Mia shouldn’t have said that either.”
“Ah, she’s still too young to know better, you see?” Kim Dokja poured out the thick, hot chocolate into the ceramic mugs. “Kids always say the damndest things.”
The young man couldn’t help but agree.
Together, they carried the trays of hot chocolate and pralines to where the kids were. Quiet, muffled voices were heard as he got closer, and a momentary worry of Mia getting bullied flashed in Joonghyuk’s head, but he decided to push it away with the door to their room.
The three kids were seated at a small, round table at the centre of the room. Gilyoung was in an iridescent green metallic helmet with fuzzy yellow antennas, Yooseung was in a blue shark one, and they’d put Yoo Mia in a pink, sparkly tiara and tiny fairy wings. The children were sipping from imaginary cups, talking in hushed voices.
“Princess Mia, would you like some more tea?”
“Thank you, unnie,” Mia whispered back, wide eyed, delicately holding out her invisible cup as Yooseung poured out tea from a non-existent teapot.
Gilyoung bent forward. “Princess Yooseung, can I get some tea as well?”
“Prince Gilyoung, you have too much tea already.” Yooseung’s face was severe. “You should not drink too much. That is how you become an alcoholic.”
The young boy pouted, and Yoo Joonghyuk couldn’t help but snicker a little, his heart melting at the entire interaction.
“Young-ie can have some hot chocolate instead,” Dokja announced, grinning as he came in with the tray of cups. “As should my girls. Too much imaginary tea is not good for your health, after all.”
Gilyoung beamed.
“The tea is very real, Appa,” Yooseung insisted, a small furrow between her sparse brows.
“Of course it is, Seung-ie.” He set two cups in front, while Joonghyuk placed one in front of Mia, along with a plate of the pralines. “Here you go. Careful, the chocolate is quite hot.”
They watched as the kids’ faces lit up with the first sips of the thick beverage.
“Appa, it’s so good!”
“Yummy!”
“Oppa, you make this choccy? I like this so much,” Mia said, a toothy grin on her face.
He shook his head. “Dokja ahjussi made all of it.”
“Oh.” Mia’s expression wilted instantly. “It is okay taste.”
“Your oppa helped me a lot with the hot chocolate, Mia,” Dokja said, a smile on his face, and Joonghyuk almost snorted out at how funny the whole scene was.
“That is why it is tasty,” she nodded vigorously. “Oppa makes food delicious. Oppa is the best.”
“I would love to taste more of Joonghyuk-ah’s cooking someday soon,” Dokja beamed, then leaned in closer to the younger man, a sly smile as he looked up at him, his voice low and filthy. “And I’d love to taste Joonghyuk-ah even more.”
“Shut the hell up,” he muttered, scowling as the apples of his cheeks grew warmer. “Don’t say stuff like that in front of the kids.”
“Not like I’m loud enough for them to hear,” he murmured back, then turned to watch as the kids happily chatted and drank the hot chocolate. “Looks like I was worried for nothing. They should be getting along well for the rest of the night. I have my best friend coming over to watch them tonight, so it should be fine.”
“Are they trustworthy?”
“Depends on what you call ‘trustworthy’, Joonghyuk-ah,” he said, as they made their way out of the room.
“That does not sound reassuring.”
“Ah, she can be a handful. She’s usually the one indulging and spoiling the kids, I’m sure she’ll be the first to include herself in their wicked shenanigans, but I can trust her with their lives.” He turned to the younger man, a faint smile on his face. “We’ve been through far worse. Don't worry, your sister will be taken care of quite well.”
Ever the worrying guardian, Joonghyuk's anxiety did not completely dissipate.
Kim Dokja led him to the sparsely furnished guest room and he spotted a long box placed on the bed, over the pink floral bedspread.
“Your suit came in this morning,” the older man said. “Do you want to see it?”
Joonghyuk only shrugged in response.
They’d met up just a few days after he’d signed the contract, a brief rendezvous at a private tailoring hidden in a corner of the city. Kim Dokja said something about getting a suit sewn on a time crunch being challenging, so it surprised him that this one came in on time.
“They work quite fast,” Joonghyuk murmured, as he tapped his fingers over the ‘Ariadne’s Threads’ embossed over it in gold. “Isn’t this hand tailored?”
“Made to measure,[9] yes,” he replied, opening the thick card box to reveal a simple charcoal three-piece made of cashmere. “I would’ve loved you to have a bespoke[10] suit, but we don’t have that kind of time right now.”
The younger man said nothing, running his fingers over the finely-knitted fabric. The suit was understated, yet, it exuded a quiet luxury that was somewhat reminiscent of the few moments he used to get to see his biological father as a child — he had divorced himself from that side of his life a long time ago, but maybe tonight was a glimpse back into what could’ve been.
“You can wear it to see if it really fits,” Dokja said, picking the hangers up and placing each article on the bed carefully. “It’s about time we start getting dressed anyway. I’ll leave you to it then.”
He left shortly after, and Joonghyuk got his overnight bag back into the room before he locked the door. He perfumed himself, then undressed and dressed in quick, efficient steps — the stark white twill shirt, the navy blue tie, the soft pants with the vest, and finally, the coat.
Yoo Joonghyuk looked at himself in the mirror when he was done. A tall, tan man with faint eyebags looked at him, unruly wavy hair flopping above his eyes, immaculately dressed in what was undoubtedly an expensive outfit — the way the suit hung on his shoulders, the craftsmanship behind every stitch, the striking silhouette it gave him…
I should ask Kim Dokja if I can keep this after the contract.
A pang of guilt stabbed through his peppy mood, but before he could dwell more on it, a knock was heard.
“I came to give you the shoes and—”
He swung the door open.
“—fuck.”
For the first time since he’d known the man, Kim Dokja was caught by surprise — if his wide eyed, awe-filled staring was any indication. He stood there for five seconds with his eyes on Joonghyuk’s face, then at the sixth second, began raking his eyes down the length of his body.
The younger man began fidgeting, blushing harder with every wordless second that passed by after, overwhelmed by the attention he was getting.
“Are you… are you done, Kim Dokja?”
“Not in the slightest,” he replied, closing the door behind him, his eyes still mapping out everything. “I don’t think I could get tired of looking at you, but the suit just makes it so…”
“My eyes are up here, old man.” Joonghyuk was clearly flustered, his deep voice turning more husky. “Haven’t you seen men in suits?”
Dokja finally stopped staring, and kept the shoebox in his hands aside on the floor.
“None as fine as you.”
Joonghyuk got a real good look at the man in front of him. He had changed into navy blue suit pants and a powder blue shirt that fit him immaculately, enhancing the sturdy, fit frame of his body underneath — not for the first time, Yoo Joonghyuk wondered what he looked like underneath all those clothes, but he questioned if it would be a good idea to really know.
“You don’t look half as bad yourself,” he replied, watching as the older man approached him. “I don’t even know how to style my hair, it’s—”
“It’s perfect, leave it as it is.”
They were toe to toe now, and Joonghyuk could definitely smell the sharp scent of the cardamom and pepper over the warmth of the sandalwood and the oud. The air was thick and turbid with unnamed heart and undisclosed longings, yet, there was a chasm to be crossed first.
Kim Dokja looked up, their noses almost meeting.
“May I touch you, Yoo Joonghyuk?”
Joonghyuk realised that the anxious feeling inside was not his instinct trying to tell him to get away, nor was it a fear of the unknown — at least, not completely. No, it was a certain feeling that he was slowly coming to terms with, from the moment he laid his eyes on the older man in front of him.
It was lust.
“I have sold myself to you for a night, is that not permission enough?”
“I bought your time, not your willingness.” There was clear desire behind those starry eyes, but there was also an odd reverence that Joonghyuk couldn’t quite get. “So, may I?”
His reply was but a whisper. “Yes.” Please.
Yoo Joonghyuk expected a kiss, but instead, Dokja pulled out a sparkly brooch, an intricate design with roses, peonies and four-pronged jeweled stars on delicately braided metal stems. Gently, he held the younger man’s lapel between his large, slim fingers, and pinned it on the fabric.
“Perfect,” he murmured, straightening up. “I almost don’t want you to come with me anymore.”
Yoo Joonghyuk was so close to asking this man to close the distance between them, to hold him at the very least. “The suit will go to waste then.”
“It’s your suit, Joonghyuk-ah, you can wear it whenever yo—”
“Oi, dingbat brain, who leaves the door to the house unlocked like that?” A loud, feminine voice called out from the outside, and Dokja stepped away from the younger man instinctively. “You really have no sense of self preservation, do you? Think about your children, you bitch, especially when you’re in the fucking Jo—”
The guest room swung open.
“—wait, did I miss a fucking memo?”
Joonghyuk found himself being scrutinized by a chic, petite woman with an elfish, smooth face. She looked quite young, but her slightly peppered black hair in a razor-sharp bob put her around Dokja’s age.
“Did you just adopt another poor stray with your bleeding heart? Now where is this kid from?”
“That’s not…” Kim Dokja trailed off, scratching the back of his neck, before sighing. “This is Yoo Joonghyuk, my date for tonight.”
“Right.” The seconds ticked by painfully, as the woman looked back and forth between the two men, her cherry red lips progressively thinning. “Kim Dokja, are you itching to finally get charged with something? Is this kid even legal?”
Irritation bubbled inside the kid in question. “Of course I’m legal.”
Dokja added, “He’s legal, and I’m much more likely to go behind bars for smoking pot here.”
“Which you do, in spite of me telling you not to.” She speedwalked towards the younger man until her short frame was right under Joonghyuk’s nose. “Dr. Han Sooyoung here.” She stuck her small hand out, her eyes glinting like the pearl earrings she had on, and he could not take his eyes off the beauty mark below them.
“Yoo Joonghyuk,” he replied gruffly.
“Kid, blink twice if you need help, or if this stingy squid has held you hostage for ransom.” Han Sooyoung did not bother lowering her voice, and he heard Dokja groan from the side. “Trust me, this noona will protect you.”
“Sooyoung-ah, you couldn’t even save me from myself,” the older man grumbled, but there was a playfulness that Joonghyuk recognized was a result of a long-standing familiarity between them.
“I don’t give a rat’s ass about you.”
Dokja winced, rubbing on his sternum dramatically. “I’m hurt, doc. You shouldn’t be talking about your patients that way.”
Joonghyuk watched as she wrinkled her nose in disgust at the older man. “Former patient, Kim Dokja. I can’t imagine being a psychiatrist to someone as incorrigible as you anymore.” She turned back to give Joonghyuk a dazzling smile. “Hey, if this old man tries anything, just tell this badass noona, I’ll save you from him.”
The younger man in question looked at Sooyoung impassively. “Ahjumma, you look like the most you can save is a fake 100 won note from a scammer at Namdaemun market.[11]”
Kim Dokja let out a guffaw, but was silenced by the doctor’s glare.
“I have been haggling since before you were born, child.”
Joonghyuk shot back, deadpan. “Yet you couldn’t haggle out of being fun sized, ahjumma.”
She narrowed her eyes at the younger man. “I'll take it back. Beat this brat’s ass for me, Dokja. I want him screaming.”
The older man gave her a look of mock innocence. “Why? He said nothing wrong.”
“He called me a ‘fun sized ahjumma’ when I was trying to be nice!”
“Too bad.” He did not sound sorry at all. “At least he didn’t say that you spoke like a harabeoji.”
“He’s not wrong,” she replied. “You are a pretentious bastard and you sound even worse.”
“You’re joking.” Dokja shook his head in disbelief. “Why am I getting flack here? This kid talks like he’s lived about a thousand lives.”
Sooyoung blinked. “Is that your way of saying that he’s mature for his ag—”
An icy cold cold glare silenced her immediately, chilling the entire room down a whole ten degrees.
“I would not complete that thought if I were you, Dr Han Sooyoung.”
She gulped, smoothing down her expression to something far more serious. “Understood.”
Dokja turned to the younger man, warmth shining within his eyes as it thawed Joonghyuk’s paralysed senses. “I bought new shoes for you for the event, check if they fit you.”
Like on autopilot, the younger man wore the brand new socks and shoes kept aside for him, and they fit perfectly.
“Black was the safest option for shoes, since it goes well with everything.”
“Kim Dokja, I need to ask you something.” Joonghyuk felt like his brain was still lagging. “Did a thermostat give birth to you?”
The doctor chortled, while the older man shrugged in response. “It’s called being versatile and adaptable, Joonghyuk-ah. Some call it being mercurial.”
“It’s called having an unmedicated personality disorder,” Sooyoung retorted drily. “Some would call it being a pain in the ass.”
“Han Sooyoung, God shall not forgive you.”
“I would be a little more threatened if you actually believed in a God.” She grinned back. “But do you really want to hex your cool babysitter for the night?”
“Get the hell out of my sight.” His tone was lighthearted. “I’ve kept pralines and hot chocolate for you and Joonghyuk-ah in the oven. Help yourselves while I get ready.”
“I’m going to say hi to the kids first.”
She left, and Dokja shot the younger man a meaningful look. “Go on, have some, I even dusted yours with some cinnamon when you weren’t looking.”
He nodded brusquely and gave the man one last glance before he headed towards the kitchen.
The small beige tiles shone dully under the lights, colder than the rest of the house as he stepped in. Even the socks didn’t do much to insulate him from the chill as he padded his way towards the oven. He picked up the mug of hot chocolate with cinnamon on top.
It was still warm when he took his first sip — rich, buttery, the perfect amount of sweet and chocolatey, and the thick consistency made him want to replicate the recipe when he went back to his dorm. It felt like drinking liquid chocolate and went smoothly down his throat.
A sated feeling grew within Yoo Joonghyuk as he slowly drank the delicious beverage. His mind kept going back to the owner of the home, his sponsor who had only been uncharacteristically nice to him so far — especially for a self proclaimed terrible person who was supposedly taking full advantage of his vulnerable self.
This isn't so bad now, he found himself thinking, as he took another sip.
As much as Kim Dokja was suggestive with his jokes, his actions were far more restrained, reserved, and he was almost certain it was on purpose — whether it was the man’s one act of selflessness, or an exploit of pure selfishness, Yoo Joonghyuk was too naive to know.
He could hear the muffled voices of the adults get louder.
“—really think this is okay? You have way too many enemies for—”
“—can protect the kid. You know me well. I won't—”
“—knowing who he is—”
“—of it? It's not like they didn't abandon their—”
“—caught up with this bull—”
“—illing two birds with—”
“—the code from your burner—”
Joonghyuk inched closer to the door.
“—'re worrying too much, Sooyoung-ah. I can handle it.”
The younger man heard a tongue click discontently. “Just don't scare the kid with your guns. Or your reckless flippancy.”
“Nothing of that sort is going to happen.” He could hear the grin from the older man's voice. “When have I been reckless, ever?”
Are they talking about… sex?
“The kid, does he know about—”
“I don't think so.”
…erectile dysfunction? Is that why he's hesitating to touch me?
Joonghyuk shook his head, dispelling those thoughts.
If that guy had erectile dysfunction, he wouldn't be this cocky.
“He'll figure it out, he seems quite smart for a kid his age.”
“I don't think I'd mind that anymore.” A brief pause. “Why do you look surprised?”
“Is there any way that you're—”
The empty mug thudded louder against the counter than Joonghyuk had expected. The conversation stilled, and he cursed himself inwardly.
He gave himself some time by heading towards the sink to wash the mug, but realised that he couldn’t afford to get his suit wet.
“Hey, leave it in the sink, I’ll wash it up,” Sooyoung said behind him, and it took everything from him to not jump. He found her opening the door to the oven. “You didn’t eat anything, the sweets still look untouched.”
“Not very hungry.”
“All done, Joonghyuk-ah?” Dokja called out from outside the kitchen. “Do you need anything else?”
“I’m good,” he replied, walking out. “Should we leave now?”
Yoo Joonghyuk was almost certain he’d have run into the wall if he had just kept walking. Undoubtedly, the man was good looking, but clad in a navy three-piece suit and his hair slicked back with just a hint of gel, Kim Dokja looked distinguished and absolutely ravishing.
This guy, why does he keep looking better each time I look at him?
The older man frowned when he saw Joonghyuk and walked closer. His breath hitched, but he didn’t move back.
“There’s some—”
Dokja reached into his pocket, and with a plain handkerchief, began wiping his lips and the corners of the younger man’s mouth gently.
“—yeah, chocolate. There was some chocolate there.”
For the second time that day, Joonghyuk was disappointed that he wasn’t being touched — not in the way he had anticipated.
“Wait.”
Dokja was about to turn away, but the younger man grabbed the first thing he could see — the dark grey tie, patterned with a simple, satiny grain. He pulled it out and began readjusting it, loosening it first, then tightening it again, running his finger between the powder blue collar and the smooth skin of the older man’s neck, then readjusted it again, before tucking it neatly behind the dark vest. He patted his fingers against the navy blue vest a few times, straightened Dokja’s suit up by the lapels, fiddled with the matching brooch he wore, then stepped back, finally meeting his eyes.
“Your tie,” Joonghyuk said. “It wasn’t straight.”
He just wanted an excuse to touch Kim Dokja.
“Thank you, Hyuk-ah.” The older man’s voice was uncharacteristically soft.
“You—” The younger man cleared his throat. “You clean up well.”
He shook his head, a stray strand flopping forward as he did. “Can’t beat you.”
They left the house after saying their goodbyes to the children — and Joonghyuk giving Mia explicit instructions to be a good kid. They drove in silence, before Dokja broke it.
“You can choose not to answer if you want, but what happened to your parents?”
Way too many people had asked the younger man a variation of the same damn question over the years. Most times, Joonghyuk gave them the same bare bones of an answer.
“They abandoned us.”
However, for the first time in his life, he wanted someone else to bear witness to his story.
“They thought my birth was inauspicious, so they tried for another kid to save their nearly bankrupt business. After Mia was born, their debt only piled up. I barely saw them home anymore. A nanny took care of Mia and I helped, until they kicked us out of the house.
“They were successful in the corporate world — both were co-owners of their firm when I was younger. They have grown to assist several government projects now.”
Joonghyuk watched impassively ahead at the traffic in front of them, his vision filled with red from the taillights.
“‘Yoo Industries’. That’s their company, not that I have been keeping track of them.”
He turned to look at the man in front of the wheel, who watched ahead wordlessly. Bathed in red from the lights, the planes of his face shone harsher, and the slicked hair only made Kim Dokja look more severe, melancholic, older. For the first time, Joonghyuk could see the years of tenure on his striking profile.
“‘Yoo Industries’, huh.”
Their eyes met.
“The owners might be there at the event tonight.”
His eyes widened.
“What kind of event is this?”
Dokja looked back ahead as the cars began moving. “I mentioned it in the contract, it’s a gala of sorts. A Christmas party, but for snobs.”
Joonghyuk scowled, knowing he didn't read the contract too closely. “Do you really want to be there?”
“What do you think, Joonghyuk-ah? Does it look like I want to be there?” He snorted, a small frown on his face. “I’m with you, so it should be bearable at least.” He turned the wheel with one hand, the other tapping at the gear idly. “Do you want to be there? We can call it off, if you don’t want to.”
“I don’t mind.”
“But your parents—”
“I don’t care. They’ve been dead to me for a long time.” He turned to look at Kim Dokja again. “I’ll have you there.”
He shook his head slightly. “Don't go along with it just to humor me, kid. You'll still be paid well, whether we go to the event or not.”
“It doesn't feel right if I don't earn it myself.”
“There are other ways to earn it if you really want to, Joonghyuk-ah.” He didn't have to turn, he knew just the kind of look the older man was giving him.
“Sleazy geezer.”
“I'm giving you options, no sponsor would be this generous.”
“Your generosity intends to put me in compromising positions." Joonghyuk realised that his phrasing was off a second before he heard the warm chuckle.
“You sound quite eager to be put in said compromising positions, kitten.” He heard the blinker clicking on, as the older man steered the car right with confident ease. “Do you have anything in particular that you want to try tonight?”
You, I want to try you.
Of course, that sounded quite pathetic to Joonghyuk, so he just grunted in response, heat flooding his cheeks as he fixed his gaze at the car in front of him, a little too intently.
“I’m suggesting so much, but I just want you to call me ‘hyung’.”
What is with this guy and his ‘hyung’ obsession?
“Absolutely not.”
“At least speak respectfully to me, brat.”
“I am speaking respectfully to you.”
“If I was like any other Korean man my age, I’d have whooped your ass by now.”
Silence filled the car and unbridled thoughts of him getting spanked by the older man filled Joonghyuk’s mind, heat pooling lower down his body.
“Maybe you need a good spanking to get your bratty ass in line,” Dokja mused, voicing out the younger man’s racy thoughts.
He blushed harder but said absolutely nothing. From the corner of his eye, he could see a slow grin spread across the older man’s face.
“You’re so goddamn easy to tease, Hyuk-ah.”
Do something about it then, Joonghyuk thought to himself. Don’t leave me hanging, you bastard.
They reached the swanky hotel where the event was held. Dokja handed his sleek car over to the valet, before they stepped onto the plush green carpet at the entrance.
The older man held his arm out. “May I have the honor of having you in my arms tonight, Yoo Joonghyuk?”
Wordlessly, Joonghyuk slipped in, interlocking their arms together as he grabbed onto Kim Dokja. His heart thundered within. Dread and anticipation bubbled inside, but the scent of Kim Dokja’s spicy, woodsy perfume and the warmth radiating from his arm was a welcome pacifier.
Their eyes met, and a gentle smile spread across the older man’s face.
“I don’t think I can get tired of looking at you tonight.”
“Then keep looking,” Joonghyuk replied, feeling too warm in spite of the winter chill. “I’m yours for the night.”
Dokja took his other hand, and with a slow, deliberate press of his lips against his large knuckles, kissed him tenderly.
“I shall hold you to that, then.”
They walked through the all-glass doors, gaudy crystal chandeliers greeting them. Dokja whispered to another valet besides the entrance, who then guided them to the corner of the lobby and into a hidden, dimly lit passage.
There were two body scanners and an x-ray machine in front of them. Joonghyuk's confusion only grew when Dokja nudged him to remove his arm from his grasp.
“Relax, Joonghyuk-ah, this is just protocol.”
The older man made his way to the beefy guy in a bulletproof vest manning the baggage x-ray.
“Name and Affiliation. Sponsors. Guest details.”
His tone was clipped. “Kim Dokja. Erebos and Associates. Self sponsored, affiliated to Hades. Guest is Yoo Joonghyuk. Civilian.”
Erebos and Associates… Why does the name sound so familiar?
Recognition washed over the personnel as he looked up. “Dumo— Sajang-nim, good evening, it is an honor to meet you here.” He bowed deeply, far deeper than one would do for a mere civilian.
“Finally recognized me, eh? Great seeing you work away from us, Seonwoo-ssi. Did your brother come back from the military?”
“A year ago, Hyung-nim. He is waiting to get married next year.”
Joonghyuk watched the interaction with growing confusion — Sajang-nim? How do they know each other then? How is Kim Dokja associated with the most elusive group of companies in South Korea? What on earth is any of this?
“He’s all grown up now, isn’t he?”
“They all grow up so fast.” He held his hand out. “Guns, weapons, poisons, drugs, and anything flammable you have, please, Hyung-nim. For IDing purposes, of course.”
Joonghyuk did not know what surprised him — the fact that the guy asked Kim Dokja (an upstanding citizen like him, of all people) for contraband, or the fact that Kim Dokja (an upstanding citizen like him, of all people) began pulling out three daggers from hidden holsters on his calves, a vial of some mysterious clear liquid, two guns, an extra magazine, a speedroller, a metal lighter and a box of cigarettes.
That is a fucking gun, what the—
Yoo Joonghyuk had never seen a bonafide gun before, leave alone two distinctly different looking ones, nor had he seen anyone handle them the way the two men did in their hands.
Are those fucking bullets? Why—?
The large personnel snapped the magazine out of the pistol, then inspected it. “Glock .45, Hyung-nim? Looks new.”
Kim Dokja looked far too calm for a Korean citizen who owned two guns. “Mmhmm, imported from the States. The revolver too, though I’m sure you recognize it.”
Is that what Han Sooyoung meant earlier when she…
The man smiled, his gaze downright worshipping as he picked up the revolver. “Hyung-nim’s infamous S&W, the 7-shot.” He clicked the cylinder open, checking the bullets inside. “I always prayed to God I never get to see the barrel end of Hyung-nim’s revolver. I cannot believe I’m getting to touch it this way.”
The older man only chuckled, while Joonghyuk’s eyes had grown as wide as saucers.
The personnel briefly glanced through the other weapons, then held the small vial. “Is this what I think it is, Sajang-nim?”
A polite smile stretched across his lips, eyes glinting. “Guess.”
“Thought so.”
Yoo Joonghyuk’s brain was left bluescreening at the scene in front of him.
Who the actual fuck is Kim Dokja?
He was about to pull out his phone to really look him up on Naver, but two huge men dressed in black and tight bulletproof vests approached him and began patting every bit of Joonghyuk’s suited body.
His mind grew even more convoluted as he looked at the dark, gleaming metal of the 7-shot revolver, as he watched Kim Dokja put back every weapon on him — the extra bullets and lighter in the pocket of his pants, the sheathed daggers up his calves, the vial round his neck, the Glock down a holster near his ankles, and the revolver in a hidden pocket inside his suit.
One look at the older man now, and nobody could tell he held deadly weapons on him.
A very tangible fear began growing inside Yoo Joonghyuk.
“Keep the cigarettes, as a token of my appreciation for your services so far.”
All the men bowed deeply to Kim Dokja, who turned to beckon at a wide eyed young man behind him.
“Come on, kid, let’s head inside.”
All Yoo Joonghyuk could do was follow his sponsor, because there was a real possibility of his head being blown off if he didn’t — and no, not remotely in the way he wanted.
He was led into a corner that led into another corridor, one that was far more ornately decorated with abstract paintings spread at regular intervals on cream colored walls, while long garlands of fresh pine and holly were hung across the entire length of the way, scenting the air quite pleasantly. They walked in silence, but dread filled his gut in leaden heaviness.
“Joonghyuk-ah, is there something bothering you?”
“No,” he lied, but the cracks of an evident schism had already begun to form.
Dokja turned to face the younger man, a slight furrow between his defined brows.
“Is it about the weapons?”
Joonghyuk said nothing and looked away, but a cool hand grabbed onto his chin, forcing him to look into Dokja’s earnest eyes.
“Look at me, Joonghyuk-ah.”
His voice was a gentle croon, cradling the trepid man within his warmth and honeyed baritone.
“Remember when I’d told you that this gala was going to have some nasty people? I wasn’t joking.”
“Then why did you—”
“I have the weapons on for our protection.” His gaze was intense, assertive. “For your protection. I will not let anyone hurt you tonight, and I will not hurt you until the end of the contract either. I promise.”
He knew he shouldn’t be believing the promises of a man he’d met just ten days ago.
“How do I believe you, Kim Dokja?”
And yet…
Kim Dokja’s arm snaked around his slim waist through his coat, bringing their bodies flush together. Joonghyuk’s breath hitched, but before he could say anything more, firm, soft lips were on his.
Yoo Joonghyuk recovered from his initial shock and melded his mouth against the older man’s, slowly testing the waters as desire combined with fear, settling into a murky mixture inside him.
“Kept a spare dagger in your hidden coat pocket,” Dokja murmured against the younger man’s mouth, his hot breath tasting like cloves. “Use it freely.”
Joonghyuk almost whined when the older man pulled away, but his face held nothing but a slight blush and a frown.
“Are you telling me I should—”
“Joonghyuk-ah, if anyone thinks of hurting you tonight, give them hell.” There was nothing but severity on Kim Dokja’s face. “I will take care of everything else.”
The declaration reassured the young man as much as it unsettled him.
They stepped inside a large, warmly-lit banquet hall. Joonghyuk faintly reminisced about his time attending similar parties as he scanned the room indifferently, back when a life in opulence had been obligatory. Everyone in the room was swathed in luxe, yet, as the knowledge of the weapons on Kim Dokja solidified in his head, he couldn’t help but see everything else in the gilded hall through the overcast lens of dubiousness.
Yoo Joonghyuk held onto his sponsor’s arm tighter, a tether to some semblance of safety.
Meet and greets commenced almost immediately, and Joonghyuk performed his role to the best of his ability — looking pretty, the designated arm candy to Kim Dokja’s refined regality.
“Kim Dokja sajang-nim, it is wonderful to make an acquaintance of you!”
“Ah, sajang-nim,” Dokja gave them a polite, practiced smile, giving the stocky man a slight nod. “Pleasure to meet you here. How is D&J Electronics doing these days?”
“Never been better, it’s all—”
The rest of the conversation slipped right past Joonghyuk as it went into business territory, but a certain feeling nagged at him, latching right onto the ‘sajang-nim’ again.
He surreptitiously took out his smartphone, typing in his query.
‘Erebos and Associates’ CEO Kim Dokja Inaugurates new Park near…
‘Erebos and Associates’ — A Rising Star amongst Megacorporations…
CEO Kim Dokja, Beacon of Hope in New Age Industrialisation
Mysterious Ties to a Darker Underbelly: Why ‘Erebos & Associates’ boasts exponential growth
Sure enough, his doubts were confirmed.
Kim Dokja was no ordinary citizen — he was the CEO of the enigmatic ‘Erebos and Associates’, the rival conglomerate of ‘Yoo Industries’, and the reason why his parents’ company had nearly called for bankruptcy all those years ago.
The irony of Mia calling him ‘chaebol ahjussi’ wasn’t lost on him.
He snapped out of his daze when he found Dokja looking at him, but there was no sign of the other businessmen who’d approached them.
“Are you good, kid?” There was concern in his voice.
Joonghyuk couldn’t contain himself anymore. He let go of the man’s arm. “Kim Dokja. Why did you bring me here?”
“Joonghyuk-ah, I told you.” An exasperated sigh left the older man. “This is an important event—”
“You brought me on purpose, didn’t you?”
The older man narrowed his eyes in confusion. The rupture between them cracked further open.
“Kim Dokja.” Joonghyuk stepped closer, unbothered about his language, uncaring about where he was and the least concerned about who saw them. “You knew who I was from the very beginning, didn’t you?”
“What do you mean, Joonghyuk-ah?” There was a wicked gleam within the man’s eyes, but he hid behind the thin veneer of a polite smile. “How can that be possible? We met through the internet, didn’t we?”
“You knew what I looked like,” he hissed back. “You knew my parents. You sunk them into bankruptcy, all those years ago.”
“We met by sheer chance, but I only knew what you looked like because you were being a dumb, naive kid.”
The crudeness of Dokja’s words took him by surprise — it stung.
“And don’t accuse me of something you know little about, kid. I didn’t sink them into anything.” Kim Dokja shrugged, uncaring. “They reaped what they sowed. Their shoddy projects yielded pathetic results and they had the gall to suggest that my company was involved in business that it wasn’t, all because they were at risk of being kicked out of the Dongdaemun Rehabilitation and Redevelopment Project.”
The older man snorted, derision coloring his face. “Those gaetol[12] thought they could cross me on our nawabari[13], they thought they could get away with disrespecting our hospitality. I just showed them how the real world worked if one bit the hand that fed them while having shit smeared all over their asses.”
The younger man was used to a politely articulate — if not highly suggestive — ahjussi, who he saw as a gentle father of two kids. Now, he had been replaced by a viciously cold, calculating man with a rapier for a tongue.
“It had been my generosity that I let them do their work without any hiccups in Dongdaemun, and then they chose to reward that by acting a fool.” He turned to look at Joonghyuk, a mean grin on his face. “So what if I use you tonight to drive a message home, little dumpling? Wasn’t that part of our original agreement?”
He couldn’t say anything even if he wanted to, because the older man was right — the agreement was for Yoo Joonghyuk to be used that night, however Kim Dokja deemed fit. Yet, the betrayal stung him more than anything else.
Dokja’s gaze softened and he reached out to touch the taller man’s face.
“Look. It’s not—”
Joonghyuk couldn’t help but flinch. The older man’s hand crumbled away almost immediately, and they stayed there, two unfamiliar people locked in each other’s gaze, thundering skies to a field long burnt, a tourniquet to a pulsing mortal wound, and before old hurts salvaged fresh papercuts, they were interrupted by the world bustling around them.
“Kim Dokja sajang-nim.[14]” The stout, sallow faced man had an eager presence to him that irked Joonghyuk. “Sajang-nim, it would be an honor for us if we could talk about this, my proposal for the upcoming merger—”
His saccharine tone did not sit well with the younger man, and a slight scowl contorted his face as he watched Kim Dokja listen to the man lay it on thick with occasional nods of his head.
“Hwejang-nim,[15] under normal circumstances we’d be overjoyed to have your company under us, but I might have to refuse at this moment, on account of—”
“Sajang-nim, surely you, as a risk taking young man, see the potential in merging with an establishment as old as ours, yes?”
The Hwejang’s desperation rolled off him in pungent waves — even Joonghyuk could smell it off him, his brows scrunching together as he tried not to glare at the pudgy man.
Kim Dokja gave him a smile — polite, clipped at the corners, and one that didn’t reach his eyes.
“I might be a risk taker, but my risks are quite calculated, Hwejang-nim. And, according to my calculations, there is a high chance that this may blow up in my face.”
“Nothing of that sort will happen, I assure you, young man.” The man shook his head vigorously. “I’m even planning to step down as Hwejang soon, and we could speed up the process if you agree for the merger within this January.”
“This really isn’t the right place to discuss all this, Hwejang-nim, not out in the open,” he insisted.
“You’ve seen our growth, you know our long standing reputation, you must’ve heard of our latest asset evaluation. Think about it, sajang-nim. It’s always going to be a win-win deal for you.”
“Not right now.” Joonghyuk sensed Dokja’s smile becoming more taut. “We at Erebos already have our hands full with quite a bit of private and government projects. I had to tell my busajang[16] to reject all the offers until July of next year for efficiency reasons. Financing would be the biggest hassle, Hwejang-nim, but it’s also going to burden the current workforce, so I’ll have to politely decline your offer at the moment.”
“Hah.” The Hwejang huffed out a laugh. “You’re one of the biggest companies in Seoul, and you’re worried about funding? Is the government not paying you enough, or are you not happy with leeching off just them, Dokja-ssi?”
The insincere smile on Dokja’s face never faltered, but it was accompanied by gritted teeth now. “There’s no need for you to use such harsh language in public.”
“Harsh language? So the son of kkangpae[17] scum will lecture me about my harsh language?”
Kim Dokja’s voice was low but sharp. “You should do the wise thing and learn to hold your tongue, so that you don’t insult your potential benefactors, you know.”
The man sneered, looking up at Dokja’s unwavering expression, and Joonghyuk watched the entire exchange with newly growing discomfort rooting him. “I know those rumors about you, Kim Dokja. Everyone in this room knows exactly how you rose to power rivalling that of the chaebols, and you talk about not having funds for a measly acquisition?”
“You’re the one desperate to sell the company you inherited from your hard earning forefathers to a man who you claim to be kkangpae scum.” Dokja grinned openly now, derision dripping from his words. “Stop creating a scene, you rusty geezer. You're hurting your own credibility.”
“Anti-nationalist manwhore, is this what the government is funding you for? Is this what the Jopok[18] stands for?” He pointed at Yoo Joonghyuk, indignantly raising his voice. “Another trafficked male prostitute for you to sodomise, you—”
The harsh sound of a slap resounded across the entire hall, and the muted chatter ceased almost immediately.
There was nothing left of his polite smile anymore. It had twisted into something far more chilling, a lip curled up with frigid contempt and disgust as Kim Dokja slapped the stunned man again, this time with the back of his hand.
“Who are you preaching your self-righteous nonsense to, when your entire ploy stinks of deception?”
Yoo Joonghyuk could feel the eyes of every single person on the scene unfolding in front of them — and inevitably, on him. As much as he wanted to go back to the unease of a few minutes ago, he knew that the knots in his stomach would not let him go back to holding the older man’s arm.
Dokja stepped closer to the Hwejang, his voice loud and clear for everyone within earshot to hear.
“You accused me of a whole lot of bullshit with no tangible proof, but what if I reveal who exactly you had to bribe to get your latest reevaluation so high? What about the piling debts you had because you gambled all the company shares away two years ago, what happened to those? Does the world know that for all your contempt towards the crime syndicate, you practically sold your own daughter to get married to a gomun[19]?”
His sallow face crumpled in rage, and he raised his voice in indignation. “Y-you liar! I earned my place in the corporate world, you fucking twat! All you did was hop from crime to crime—”
“At least I don’t go around and pretend to be virtuous.” Dokja clicked his tongue, scanning the room briefly, whose eyes were all hooked on him. “Aren’t you ashamed of being slapped by me in front of your shareholders?”
The Hwejang lunged at him. “You son of a bitch—!”
A delighted, almost maniacal laugh rang out, and Dokja sidestepped the uncoordinated attack too easily. He grabbed onto both arms of the stout man, then twisted them behind his back, earning a pained yelp.
“How incredibly stupid.” Dokja’s voice was a low whisper colored by derision. “Senility must have taken over all your senses for you to attack me outright in public.”
If Joonghyuk wasn’t so close, he would have missed the soft but chilling admission from his sponsor.
“You should know better than to strike the Jopok on our own turf.”
Agitation and pain shone in the eyes of the Hwejang. Kim Dokja contorted his arm behind even more.
“Who the fuck are you to call my date a prostitute, when you sucked the cocks of the Sangye sect for more money? Gwanjjagi,[20] syuking,[21] you must be so familiar with these words by now, aren’t you?”
Horror rooted Joonghyuk to where he was, as he watched everything unfold. The probing eyes of the hall did not matter to him anymore.
Those guns, the knives…
“Shitting on my lack in jokbo[22] when you’ve done nothing to honor yours.” He spat. “The only reason why you were made to inherit the position of founder instead of sajang was because your father pitied what a load of nothing you would amount to without your forefathers’ legacy.”
This man is really from the Jopok.
“Don’t embarrass yourself in front of your favourite shareholders’ son, at the very least.” The Hwejang looked at Joonghyuk, realisation dawning on his face, but before he could say anything else more, Kim Dokja finally released the older man, a cruel sneer on his handsome face.
“Save your face, before I fillet what remains of it with the rest of you."
Their eyes met, and Yoo Joonghyuk knew from within the marrow of his bones that the threat was very real.
What did I get myself into? Why the hell am I here?
“Joonghyuk-ah,” Dokja cajoled gently as he approached the fear-stricken young man, though he knew now it was all a pretense. “We should leave, we have somewhere else to be.”
An act. It was all an act. The safety, the warmth, the comfort he felt with Kim Dokja might have just been a projection of a naive optimism inside Yoo Joonghyuk. A mirage that shattered as soon as it was glimpsed, a hope that bloomed within plucked out cruelly.
The dagger inside his coat burned through him like a phantom brand.
He blurted out the first thing that came into his mind.
“I need some water.”
What Yoo Joonghyuk needed was to get the hell out of there.
“Joonghyuk-ah—”
Turning right on his heel, the younger man sped off, not waiting to hear anything from his sponsor for the night.
He walked through a crowded area, then zipped his way past the cocktail lounge at the far end of the hall, moving erratically but with the sole purpose of putting as much distance as he could between him and the man heavily tied to the Jopok, with whom he’d naively set up a contract with.
I was a fool, I was a goddamn fool for thinking things could be this easy.
Joonghyuk’s thoughts spiralled deeper, and a surge of panic shot through him as his legs moved, guiding him in a direction of their own.
Mia-yah. Mia is at his house.
He scrambled to get his phone out, but realised he had absolutely no way of contacting her. Not without getting through the doctor first — who was a friend of that man.
“Idiot,” he muttered to himself, a slight tremor in his hands as he looked for her name through the ‘Recently Saved’ contacts, before pressing ‘Call’.
The call went through at the second ring.
“Kid, didn’t expect you to call so early.” Han Sooyoung’s snappy voice gave him both relief and a surge of anxiety. “Did Dokja’s geriatric ass bore you already?”
“No, I—” Joonghyuk paused, smothering down the evident panic in his voice. “How’s Mia? Is she there? Can I talk to her?”
“Didn’t take you to be such a devoted brother.” A chuckle was heard from the other side of the call. “She’s eating right now, I reheated the kimchi rice that Dokja had made for the kids earlier. Don’t worry, it’s quite mild in spice.”
Joonghyuk clicked his tongue, impatient. Then he heard Sooyoung call out, “Mia? Your Oppa says hi. Do you want to say something to him?”
“Oppa! I am happy here! Today is good, my new friends are very nice.” The wide grin he heard from her voice eased some of the knots inside his gut. “Food is tasty. I miss oppa. Come home soon, oppa, I love you! Bye!”
Joonghyuk’s heart calmed down considerably, which was when he realised that he was in a very unfamiliar part of the hotel, with no sign of the hall he’d come from.
“Okay kid, you heard her. Come home soon, whenever that guy lets go of you. Speaking of which, why hasn’t he snatched the phone away from you to tell me off? He’s there with you, right?”
“Uh—”
“Whatever you do, kid, stay with Dokja at all times.” Sooyoung’s voice was far more severe than he thought was warranted. “Is he there with you?”
He could hear faint footsteps behind him. Joonghyuk did not look back, just sped his way deeper into the non-descript corridor — dimly lit, with plain white walls and none of the fanciness he had seen from where they'd first gotten in.
“I came to the cocktail bar, he's talking to someone,” he lied, walking faster as the steps threatened to get closer. Whoever it was, he did not want to be seen by them.
“Kid, I'm pretty sure you're not old enough to drink, at least not on your own. Just go back to him and stick by his side for the rest of the night.”
Joonghyuk slipped into the first nook beside the short corridor, which led into a small restroom.
“Cool. Found him.” His voice bounced off the walls in a dissonant echo.
“This is for your own good, stay with Kim Dokja. You know what, just give it to—”
“Bye.”
He disconnected the call and switched his phone off, went in and locked the door to the stall, then sat himself on the closed lid of the commode and let out a long drawn groan.
What the fuck did I just land myself into?
Yoo Joonghyuk needed time to think.
So the old geezer he randomly met from the internet just happened to be the sajang of one of South Korea’s biggest growing conglomerates. The man who offered to be his sponsor is the very guy who was indirectly responsible for his miserable life. The alluring ahjussi who he was willing to lose his virginity to was actually some bigshot criminal in the goddamn Jopok.
Right. Right. Yes. Very normal turn of events for a nineteen year old to experience. Extremely normal set of revelations for an inexperienced college student to be thrust into.
At least Mia is safe. For now.
The dagger in his coat felt infinitely heavy now. There was a non-zero chance that it hadn't been part of violent bloodshed and the mere thought tainted his already unsettled mind.
He couldn't bring himself to touch it.
Footfalls echoed outside the restroom. Joonghyuk heard them get closer, and the anxious knot only grew more convoluted inside him. He heard shuffling in front of his cubicle, then the running tap for a few seconds, some more shuffling, then stillness again.
The quiet stretched on again, yet, Joonghyuk did not want to get out. He did not want to see that ahjussi for a while, at least not until he processed the evening so far and set the record straight in his head.
Kim Dokja really didn't look like he was going to hurt me…
Joonghyuk cursed himself mentally. Get a goddamn grip, he's a fucking criminal.
Time felt like it was going on forever, but the boy’s mind was still convoluted. He knew his parents had shady dealings before, but he didn't know that they had deep ties to the crime syndicate, nor that they messed with the powerful Jopok.
At least that ahjussi was upfront about using and abandoning me, he thought quite bitterly. Shameless geezer, now these bigwigs will know who I am.
He knew that he couldn't outrun Kim Dokja — not when that guy must've already anticipated him running away. The young man didn't intend to abandon his contract, he just wanted a breather. After all, Mia was still at this man's home.
Yoo Joonghyuk just didn't expect any of this to get so personal.
Staring at the pine green door of the cubicle, he resolved to get back to the hall — even if it meant seeing Kim Dokja again.
This is gonna be over by tonight. Just a few hours longer.
And besides, some part of him still wanted to see him.
The door clicked and he slowly swung it open, before padding his way outside. Silence met the younger man's bated breaths as he looked at the empty sinks.
“There you are.”
Alarms blared inside the young man’s head. That was not Kim Dokja.
His head whipped back towards the source of the gravelly voice, and was met with a man as tall as him, but far stockier.
“I have been looking for you for a long time.”
“Do I know you?” Joonghyuk's voice was calm, but he could feel his unease rising.
“Does it matter?” The strange man had a jagged scar disfiguring his pale, almost ghostly cheek. An unsettling grin gave Joonghyuk a good look at the world's most tobacco stained teeth. “What matters is that I know you, Yoo Joonghyuk.”
Fear spiked through his entire body, and Joonghyuk stepped back instinctively. Absently, he saw that the man had two of his fingers missing from his right hand.
“To think that the heir to ‘Yoo Industries’ was right under my nose all this time.”
The man only grinned wider, taking two steps towards him.
"Who are you?”
Yoo Joonghyuk inched away, but his back hit the wall.
He had effectively boxed himself into a corner with no way to escape. The man bridged the gap between them in two more strides.
“Why are you running away, pretty thing?”
Panic surged with the adrenaline through his blood.
“Leave me alone.”
Joonghyuk willed his voice not to shake.
“Get out, you fucki—”
He was met with a stinging blow that whipped his head to the side. It almost knocked him off balance.
“What a feisty little bitch. Fitting, really.”
Joonghyuk’s ear rang. The man roughly grabbed onto his jaw.
"It's going to be so much fun hearing you scream when I break you in. Me, and then all my men.”
Cloudy, rheumy eyes leered over him, and terror filled every cell of Joonghyuk’s being.
“That cocksucker Kim Dokja kept a pretty treasure like you all to himself, didn't he?”
His breaths began getting shallower.
“Motherfucker, he didn’t even let those ‘Yoo Industries’ chaebol pimp you out to us. What a greedy bastard, now I will make sure to ruin what's his.”
All Joonghyuk could smell was the cloying stench of cheap cigarettes and acrid halitosis, but the stinging pain throbbed along with his jackhammering heart.
“Oh, he’s not going to find us tonight. And when he does, you will be unrecognizable.”
The grip on his jaw was agonising, and a small yelp escaped the young man's mouth.
“Now be a good boy and—”
A deafening crack split the air apart. Yoo Joonghyuk recoiled at the sound, and another rang across the confined space.
The burly man crumpled down in front of him. Before he could process anything else, Joonghyuk found himself face to face with the hollow muzzle of a revolver.
Wielding it was a man incandescent in his rage. Kim Dokja stood before him, with derision dripping down the nasty grin he wore and a steaming gun aimed right at Yoo Joonghyuk now.
“Found you.”
Joonghyuk’s face felt wet. He made the mistake of looking down.
The man's bloodshot eyes stared straight ahead.
Yoo Joonghyuk watched the life quickly die out of them, mouth agape and face warped in a grotesque grimace. A huge wound yawned at his forehead like a vicious wax seal. Nestled within its ragged edges was dull, flattened remains of the bloody bullet that had almost passed through.
A bullet that seemed to have barely missed the young man's own head.
Joonghyuk mutedly watched the blood ooze down from the dead man's forehead. The adrenaline in his body was at an all time high.
Another shot rang out and the body jerked on impact, blowing the corpse's entire jaw off. More blood splattered on Joonghyuk, but he didn't flinch this time. He couldn't, because terror had long petrified him.
“And where did you think you were going, brat?”
Joonghyuk did not look up, could not look up. His eyes were trained on the exposed flesh, blood everywhere around it.
Slow, leisurely steps echoed in the nearly empty restroom, until Kim Dokja was right in front of him.
“You made me miss an important meeting, you little shit.”
Yoo Joonghyuk did not look up, did not dare look anywhere near the older man’s severe face. He stiffened even further when he felt Dokja’s hand reach out into Joonghyuk’s suit, pulling out the hidden dagger given to him.
“You slipped away without telling me, but couldn’t protect yourself against that harebrained sleaze even with a weapon on you.”
Dokja clicked his tongue, then purred low and viciously.
“Now how do you expect to save yourself from me, Hyuk-ah?”
Frigid metal kissed his chin, forcing him to meet the older man’s intense, stormy gaze. Joonghyuk's wide back broke out in a cold sweat as the barrel of the revolver pressed firmly into his soft flesh, his heart pulsing in his mouth.
“I told you to run for your life when you escape, didn’t I?”
The sharp smell of gunpowder laced itself with the oud and spice in the air from Dokja’s perfume. Those dark glimmering eyes were black holes now, with no sign of the constellations he’d seen within them before.
“This is what happens when brats don't listen.”
The revolver left Joonghyuk’s jaw, and the older man aimed it at the corpse in front of him. Without looking away from the younger man’s face, Kim Dokja pulled the trigger.
BANG—!
Joonghyuk flinched. Dokja’s face was impassively cold.
BANG—!
The corpse’s chest bucked up. More blood sprayed on the petrified younger man.
“Still, I will protect you tonight, Yoo Joonghyuk.”
A shaky whisper slipped out of his mouth. “Why?”
“I promised you, didn't I?”
Dokja kept the revolver inside his suit and began searching for something.
“People in my line of work don’t go back on their word without good reason, kid.”
He took out a handkerchief and inched closer to Joonghyuk, holding Joonghyuk's bloodstained face with one hand.
“Red looks good on you,” Dokja murmured, his gaze softening as he began wiping the younger man’s face clean. And for some godawful reason, Joonghyuk’s taut body finally relaxed in his touch. A shuddering sigh escaped his mouth as he slumped against the wall.
“That prick touched what was mine,” Kim Dokja muttered darkly to himself, but the low baritone rang clear in Joonghyuk's ears, clearer than the gunshots he heard less than a minute ago. “He should've known he'd pay with his life.”
Yoo Joonghyuk did not dare shut his eyes — the sight of a Jopok bigshot meticulously wiping clotting blood off someone like him was not something one saw everyday.
“I didn't plan on telling you about this side of things,” the older man continued, going lower, rubbing the splattered blood off the expensive dark cashmere of Joonghyuk’s coat and pants like it was their routine. “It was a contract for a night, I didn't think it would be relevant.” He looked up as he knelt beside the younger man, an almost fond smirk on his face. “Unfortunately, my Hyuk-ah happens to be a magnet for trouble.”
In spite of everything that had happened within the past ten minutes, Joonghyuk found it within himself to blush at the endearment.
“Did he hurt you?”
His jaw throbbed where it had been nearly crushed by the huge guy, but Joonghyuk decided not to tattle — after all, how much more can a dead man be punished?
Instead, he wrinkled his nose. “His breath stank.”
A snort left Kim Dokja as he straightened up. “Yeah, that bandal’s[23] entire personality was a stinker. Loose cannon. Gave our faction so much trouble, but I didn’t have a real excuse to knock him out of the picture without getting into another jeonjaeng.[24] Until now.”
He stepped over the fallen corpse like it wasn't there in the first place.
“You’re welcome,” the younger man deadpanned, moving away from the wall to follow the ahjussi while actively trying to avoid the blood that pooled on the floor.
“Think you’re so funny, don't you?” Dokja gave him an unamused look, but his tone was light and way too calm for someone who'd just killed a man. “Did you forget about your contract? You were supposed to stay by my side at all times.”
“I wasn't running away,” Joonghyuk mumbled out with a slight frown as they made their way out of the small restroom. He kept staring back at the lifeless body on the floor, before Dokja grabbed onto his waist and pulled him closer.
“Don't worry about it.” The older man's warm breath fanned across his cheeks as he whispered. “This might be your first body, but it isn't for me. It will be taken care of.”
The words sent a chill down Joonghyuk's spine, but their proximity replaced it with a trail of sultry longing in its wake.
“I was not running away,” he insisted, a slight blush forming on his face as they walked slowly ahead. “I have my sister at your place. I'm not stupid.”
“And yet, it was your stupidity that got me to use my prized bullets on that twat.” Kim Dokja shook his head slowly, a disappointed look on his face. “Do you know how hard it is to get decent ammo in Seoul?”
Yoo Joonghyuk looked at him incredulously. "You cannot be serious.”
“I'm definitely cutting them out of your final compensation.”
This fucking guy.
“Brats like you need to be pinched where it hurts the most, else you'll never learn.”
“Wage thieving capitalist,” he muttered, and a chuckle was heard beside him. Dokja pulled him closer by the arm that was still on his waist. Joonghyuk’s breath hitched when their bodies bumped flush against each other.
“Say that again, kitten,” he purred in his ear, and a shiver went through the young man. “Louder this time.”
Yoo Joonghyuk knew it was wise to keep his mouth shut — as far as he knew, Kim Dokja was Danger personified, straight from the innards of South Korea's crime syndicate. He wasn't someone you messed with, and he was definitely not someone you mouthed off.
But Yoo Joonghyuk never claimed to be wise in the first place.
“You’re stealing from my stipulated wages,” he voiced out, his eyes straight ahead on the desolate corridor they traversed, the irregularly spaced dim tubelights giving the endless stretch an eerie atmosphere. He could feel the heat emanating, both from the older man's warmth pressed against him and his intense gaze on his taller, younger prey. “That makes you a wage thief, Kim Dokja.”
“That’s another penalty for you. Keep this up and you'll soon be doing this night for free. Does it hurt your mouth to use honorifics with us respectable elders?”
“Nothing respectable about you,” Joonghyuk shot back, still looking ahead as they walked slowly, their echoing footsteps the only sound. “You just killed a guy in front of a civilian, then shot at his dead corpse multiple times. That's overkill.”
He did not know why he was attempting to rile the man up, but the urge to poke the armed man consumed him like a perpetually increasing itch that he just had to scratch, even at the cost of bleeding out.
“Overkill, huh?” Dokja reached out to pull at his cheek, hard. “And whose fault is that, you punk?”
A pained whine escaped out of Joonghyuk as he swatted the pinching hand away quite harshly. “Not my fault you put a target on my back, you damn geezer.” He turned to glare at the older man whose eyes glimmered in murky amusement, but there was steeliness behind them. “Did you have to reveal who my parents were back there?”
“Again with the fucking banmal. It's almost as if you're itching to be punished.” Dokja sighed, and his face grew more serious. “And I didn't slap on any target that wasn't already there, you know? It was only a matter of time before someone malicious got to you as a way to get back at your parents — like just now. They've made themselves enemies of quite a few powerful people over the years. The sooner the world knows you're under my protection, the better it is for you.”
He felt the older man's hold on his waist get tighter.
“I had full grounds to shoot that bastard Hwejang down in front of everyone right as soon as he disrespected you, but then, I'd risk you getting tangled up even further with my business. Still, my date being insulted in public needs to have tangible repercussions, and it will.”
Joonghyuk's body chilled down a few degrees with the frigid statement.
“That pig will be squealing to be put down when I'm finally done with him.”
The finality within Kim Dokja’s tone left no room for any doubt in his mind — that Hwejang was doomed for the rest of his short life.
“As for the scumbags that are your parents, I didn't have a choice. I knew you wouldn't like it, but more people should know how they failed you and Mia. Even if they weren't my rivals, I'd have not acted any differently than I did tonight. No parent who abandoned their children this way deserves any peace.”
The young man grew silent. A strange feeling spread through his chest as he took the words in.
“Of course, your ungrateful ass returned the favor by running straight into trouble and wasting my precious bullets.”
There he goes being an annoying hardass.
“Not this nonsense again,” he grumbled, frowning.
“You even made me miss out on a crucial meeting, kid. Honestly, this is enough grounds for punishment.”
Joonghyuk shot a glare down at the older man again. “Quit getting off on this situation, you perv.” Truth be told, so was he, but he wouldn't be caught dead saying that out loud on his own. “You're just finding excuses to do what you want now.”
“Call me a perv again, so that I have another excuse to punish you.” Dokja sounded stern beside him. “I dare you.”
Joonghyuk did not skip a beat. “You're a pervy man who's tak— nnmmfg—!”
Kim Dokja had stopped walking and grabbed onto the boy's face, his fingers digging painfully into the flesh of his cheeks as Joonghyuk was forcefully turned to meet a glare matching his own.
“You speak like you're the one who holds power in this contract,” he sneered, and Joonghyuk could smell the sting of fresh gunpowder from his viselike hand. “I don't know what gave you that impression, but I call the shots here. You're being paid so that I can do as I please with you, yet I'm being quite generous with you right now.”
Joonghyuk's eyes widened as fear slowly trickled down his spine, but the growing desire to be consumed was threatening to take him whole.
“Watch your tongue, kid. Do you want me to demonstrate what happens when this hyung gets really mad?”
His grip on the younger man's face tightened as he yanked him closer down, the air between them tasting like torrid want and minty cloves.
“Don’t force my hand, else I'll have to get real nasty with you.”
Dokja released the young man from his grasp. Joonghyuk's cheeks throbbed as blood rushed back into them again, but the absence of the older man's arm around him somehow felt worse.
“As punishment, I'm not letting you out of my sight anymore tonight.”
A muted groan of frustration left Joonghyuk.
“Do not even think of protesting. You brought this upon yourself.” He continued. “You're coming with me as I socialise with the beomteol[25] of the other factions. It's dangerous for you to be with me, but I cannot trust you to be safe alone.”
“I was fine,” Joonghyuk grumbled, earning a small thwack behind his head from the older man.
He whipped his head towards Dokja, only to find him with a smug look and a dark glint in his eyes, but there was no hint of a smile anywhere.
“Zip that sass and do what you're told. Stay put. Look pretty. I'm paying you for this.”
With a quick shift of his hands, Kim Dokja pulled out the same revolver that had ended a life not long ago.
“If you don't comply, I have a better way of disciplining that mouth.”
“Fuck you,” Joonghyuk spat out unthinkingly, but before he could take it back, cool metal touched his forehead.
Wide, bewildered eyes met furiously icy ones.
“The only reason why I haven't just put a bullet through you and fucked it raw, is because I find you mildly amusing,” he spat. “I like a feisty, mouthy little plaything. All the more fun for me when I get to break them and render them incoherent.”
The implication made the young man's throat dry up as heat shot into his groin. Dokja stepped closer, pressing the barrel between his eyes.
“My toys should also know the difference between being a cute brat and blatant disrespect.”
Yoo Joonghyuk recognized that an endless stream of blood drenched those hands that had held him, he realised that Kim Dokja's tongue had talked countless souls towards their deaths, and he knew that those weathered, starry eyes had watched the light die out within plenty of others. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, that only made his thirst increase manifold.
“And it looks like you're about to cross that line, child.”
Yoo Joonghyuk wanted more, for the first time in his life. Even if it meant certain danger.
Even if it meant uncertain death tonight.
“You wouldn't,” the young man murmured as he eyed the darkened steel barrel between his eyes. His voice did not waver.
“Try me, Yoo Joonghyuk. I've been holding onto the last threads of my restraint to not punish you the way I truly want to.”
A faint click echoed through the room as Dokja cocked his revolver, and with it, the entire room chilled down a few degrees.
“But if you want just that, be my guest.”
The older man's lips curled in a knowing smirk as he looked down to where the younger man's slacks had a visible strain on them.
“You’ve been egging me on because you wanted this, didn't you?”
Joonghyuk wasn't sure if he really wanted this, but he knew that he'd be disappointed if this ahjussi did nothing after. The raging boner he sported didn't help clearing his mind out either.
“Look at this damn brat. He watched me kill a man, he's being held at gunpoint by a criminal, but he cannot stop that mouth from running.”
He prowled even closer, and Joonghyuk took a step back, then another. With each step towards him, Dokja's gaze darkened further, like the hollow found within the barrel of his gun.
“To think that I was being patient with you, because I thought you didn't want this in the first place, that you were forcing yourself to be with a dirty old man like me, all for the sake of money.”
The young man inched back until he sensed the wall behind him. His heart was hammering inside him, body pulsing with adrenaline and torrential lust as he eyed the menacing smirk on the armed man, threaded with the very real fear of possible death.
“Turns out, you love it when I'm nasty.”
Yoo Joonghyuk's head finally hit the wall in surrender.
“A whore so fucked up, he wants me more at gunpoint.”
Like a cobra about to strike on its prey, there was tautness behind Kim Dokja's sultry rasp. The proximity got his pulse roaring in his ears.
“I should've known that my Hyuk-ah loves the idea of being punished by me.”
Yoo Joonghyuk did not dare take his eyes off the ahjussi — his own carnal yearning was reflected within those half lidded eyes, now black with want.
“You’ve been asking for this from the very start, haven't you?”
The scent of gunpowder lingered between them, punctuating their sharp craving for each other. His pants felt constricting, uncomfortably tight as they stood almost nose to nose, so close he could smell the cloves on the older man's breath once again.
“Then it is my responsibility to oblige.”
The cool metal at Joonghyuk’s forehead felt hot, branding him anew.
“Kneel.”
Like a marionette under the spell of his handler, Yoo Joonghyuk readily knelt down on the ground. The revolver moved down along with his head. He looked up, dazed eyes trained on Dokja's steady, lustful ones.
“You have quite a bit to make up for tonight, brat.”
The yawning chasm between them had steadily shrunk tonight from the moment Kim Dokja asked to touch him deliberately. It had narrowed so much that at this moment, on his knees in an abandoned corridor of a Christmas dinner, all he could think was of bridging whatever little gap remained between them.
Yoo Joonghyuk pushed his face towards Dokja's crotch, nudging his nose at the base of the evident tenting on the pants. He took a long, hard sniff, and the clean, soapy smell mixed with the earthy musk made the young man dizzy with want.
Dokja's hand cupped the face planted next to his hard-on, almost too gently as he purred out. “God, what a pretty little thing, all for me to do as I please with right now.”
Joonghyuk's head cleared up of all thoughts right then, the praise undoing every single reservation he had so far. No words came out of him, for all that occupied his mind was the looming presence of the man in front of him, heavy like the revolver trained on him.
He took another breath in, letting the tantalizing scent of the man settle deep inside.
Kim Dokja tapped the younger man's cheek lightly with the flat of his fingers, then unbuckled and unbuttoned his pants with quick, efficient flicks of his hand.
“Remember, you're being punished here. I won't be gentle.”
He released his hard member with another tug, and it took all of Joonghyuk's will to not squawk in fear right there. Dokja looked down, a hint of amusement in his darkened eyes.
“A fully loaded gun at your head doesn't scare you, but my dick is what does it. How absolutely adorable.”
Cock in his face, he was left gawking at the sheer length and girth. “Too big,” Joonghyuk managed out, staring too intently at the meaty, veiny thing that was supposed to go inside his mouth somehow. “It won't fit.”
How the fuck is this thing going in any orifice?
He was yanked back by the roots of his hair, and what remained of the younger man's doubts dissipated with the rest of his thoughts as Dokja's grip tightened.
“Oh, don't worry, it will. I will make sure of it.”
The older man tugged Joonghyuk behind again, then touched the head of his cock to his plush lips.
“Open up. Pull your tongue out.”
Kim Dokja didn't have to tell him twice — he complied, his face heated up and the boner he sported got more uncomfortable. Wide eyed and tongue out, he looked up at the ahjussi through his long lashes with wanton yearning.
“Just like a fucking whore.”
With his gaze half lidded with carnal need, the older man tapped the tip of his cock against the wet tongue repeatedly, while the gun shifted to the side of the young man's empty head.
“Let me give that unruly mouth some real work to occupy it.”
Without a warning, he thrust himself into the open mouth.
“Hrkgh—!”
“You said you wanted to be used.” Dokja grinned, watching almost gleefully as the boy gagged around his large girth, his dick only a quarter way in. “Weren’t you begging for this, sweetheart?”
“Khrkk—!”
It was too much, everywhere, stretching his mouth out, suffocating him as his eyes prickled with panicked tears.
“All bark, no bite, that's what you really are. So much for running your goddamn mouth all over the place.”
Fat tears rolled down Joonghyuk's half closed eyes as Dokja jerked his dick even further inside, before pulling it all the way out.
“Should've shut you up with my dick much sooner.”
Yoo Joonghyuk took a gulping breath in as his eyes bulged out, before choking on his own spit. The revolver next to his head clicked again, reminding him of its presence.
“Is that all you can take? Come on, now, you can do better than that, right?”
Dokja's hand gently combed through the gasping man's hair, a stark juxtaposition to the steely gun kissing his head.
“Breathe, Hyuk-ah. We've got the entire night.”
Joonghyuk's heart boomed within while his lungs caught up, breathing in the air saturated by gunpowder, oud and earthy musk.
“I'll try again,” he mumbled, not wanting to give up.
Kim Dokja said nothing, did nothing as the younger man leaned forward willingly, licking a fat stripe from the base of his dick to the tip, his teary eyes not moving away from the man's pale, flushed face.
“You can punish me,” Joonghyuk breathed out low, his back arching as he gave kitten licks to the engorged tip. He'd come prepared with techniques he'd learnt briefly from an online tutorial, but for his first time with a dick this massive, it was definitely quite daunting.
Feeling braver, Joonghyuk grabbed the long shaft with one hand, then began flicking his tongue against the underside of the man's glans.
“Tease,” Dokja hissed through his teeth, his grip onto the younger man's hair twisting cruelly. “Need to discipline that mouth just for this, fuck.”
The pain somehow incited him to do more. Joonghyuk took the head in his mouth slowly and flicked his tongue against it, looking up for approval.
“Good, good job, kitten.” Kim Dokja bit his lip, a content grunt escaping his mouth as he squeezed his eyes shut for a second. “Keep doing that, yes, play with your tongue like that, sweetheart, take me in deeper, yes,” he purred out, spurring the younger man on as his head bobbed in and out of his length, slowly inching more of it inside his hot, wet mouth.
Tears sprang to Joonghyuk's eyes as the girth eventually overwhelmed his mouth. The tip was beginning to hit the back of his throat with quite a bit still left to the base, and he gagged a few times.
“Krhk—!”
“Breathe, breathe through your nose.” The older man carded his hand through the soft, wavy hair, lightly scratching his nails against the boy's scalp to soothe him. “You're being so good for me, Joonghyuk-ah.”
When he couldn't go down any further, he looked up again, but Joonghyuk could barely make anything out with how his vision blurred.
“Is that your limit, Hyuk-ah?” The gentle cooing felt almost mocking to the young man, but try as he might, he couldn't go any further tonight. He felt Dokja's hand cup his cheeks, wiping the tears that threatened to fall again from each eye. “I promised to discipline you, but I'll only fuck your mouth till where you have it now.”
With his eyes clearer, Joonghyuk watched as the flush on the older man's face deepened. A rough hand reached for his nape.
“Don't think I'm letting you off the hook for all that you've done so far.”
With a snap of his hips, Kim Dokja shoved himself in again.
“Pervy man, huh? Look who's sucking this pervert’s dick like the good fucking bitch that he is.”
He began thrusting into the young man's needy mouth, rough but agonisingly slow, though he didn't cross the limit set by Joonghyuk. Drool and tears fell on the floor, but Joonghyuk found himself enjoying this rough display of possession by the older man, his head strangely floaty and devoid of all thoughts except of the thick, long cock that pumped in and out of his needy mouth.
“Being mouthfucked by this old hyung in public,” Dokja grunted, clutching onto his hair. “How depraved, but it turns you on, doesn't it?”
The older man tapped the steely barrel against his temple.
“Does it turn you on that I'm a murderer? Does it also turn you on that I can just kill you too?”
Joonghyuk's dick twitched in his already constricting pants.
“Does it turn you on that you're sucking me off at gunpoint? One slipup, and you die with my dick inside you, sweetheart.”
The young man only groaned in response, taking the relentlessly slow rhythm set by the cock in his mouth without protest.
“After all this, you still want to be mindlessly fucked by this nasty hyung, don't you?”
He felt something nudge at his hard-on as he tried his best to suck on that rigid girth. Joonghyuk looked down, only to find the hard tip of Dokja's tan Oxford at his crotch.
“Filthy little slut.”
The foot pressed firmly against Joonghyuk's tented slacks, earning another muffled groan from him, his hips twitching at the slight friction.
“You're going to show me that whore mouth of yours when I cum in it. No swallowing.”
Shame and arousal burned inside him, but the degradation only lit his desire ablaze. Kim Dokja's grip over his curls tightened, and his eyes rolled above, heady from the sheer lack of control over what was happening to him.
“You look so pretty on my cock,” Dokja panted out, a wicked smirk on him as he punished Joonghyuk's plush mouth with harder snaps of his hips. “Your mouth was made just for this, Hyuk-ah.”
There were tears, drool and sweat all over Joonghyuk's tan face, but the strange pool of want only deepened further inside him.
“You like being treated like a cocksleeve in public, don't you?”
The older man ground his foot against his hard-on and brought a much sought relief to his need.
“You want everyone to see how well you take my dick? I know I do.”
Joonghyuk's eyes rolled up again, the humiliation and friction overwhelming his already dulled senses.
“I want to show everyone what my Hyuk-ah is willing to do, just for me.”
All he could think of was how much he wanted more, more, more from the man, how he wanted so much more as he jutted his hips upwards.
“Rutting your hips against my shoe like a bitch in heat, look at that.”
Joonghyuk moaned against the thick shaft in response, as the foot rubbed his clothed dick in tandem with the pace of the older man's hips.
“Fuck, that feels good, moan louder for me, Hyuk-ah, let everyone hear you.”
They shared a torrid look. A wide, lazy grin curved Dokja’s lips as he leered over Joonghyuk's stuffed face some more.
“So needy for my cock inside, aren't you?”
Kim Dokja regarded him with a need that bordered on obsessive filth, a raw, animalistic drive that urged him to mete out punishment that was essentially Yoo Joonghyuk's ravagement.
And the young man loved every bit of it, his cock-hungry mouth devouring more of that pumping, hot length inside him, moaning and drooling as overwhelming pleasure cleared out everything else from his head, including the presence of the revolver at his temple.
“Good, just like that, be nasty for hyung.”
Dokja's pace became faster as he cruelly chased his own pleasure, short grunts and pants escaping him in staccato.
“Hah— I'm close, fuck, so good—”
A shudder went through Joonghyuk as he came, his crotch involuntarily twitching against the heavy shoe. His eyes squeezed shut in pleasure as he moaned out loud.
“My Hyuk-ie, mine.”
Kim Dokja bit his lower lip, stifling a groan of his own as he pulled himself out of Joonghyuk’s mouth slightly, only for him to climax as well. Warm, thick fluid hit his palate and filled his mouth up in jets, with some dribbling out of the corners of his overstretched mouth. Instinctively, he swallowed the first load until fear kicked back in, but the warm cum only spurted out more inside.
The older man slowly ground the tip of his dick against Joonghyuk's hard palate, riding out the rest of his orgasm, filling his mouth up, his dark eyes still on the young man whose thoughts were currently mist. He popped his softening dick out of Joonghyuk's mouth, and the gaping absence made him instinctively move closer to the ahjussi’s crotch.
“Joonghyuk-ah,” Dokja crooned, his voice rough but uncharacteristically gentle for what had transpired between them. “Did you swallow?”
He looked up, and shook his head slightly a second later when the question registered.
“Open your mouth for me. I need to see you.”
Post-nut, embarrassment burned through Joonghyuk as he reluctantly opened up, his tongue and lower half of his mouth completely covered by the salty but slightly bitter spend of the man he had been thirsting over for more than a week.
“You make for a gorgeous sight,” he murmured rapturously, cradling his face with one large palm. Dokja's cock twitched again, but he paid it no mind. “Keep it in there. Don't swallow until I tell you to.”
Joonghyuk's eyes widened in surprise at the order, a frown on his face as his mouth snapped shut.
“What, you thought you'd be let off the hook so easily?” Kim Dokja snorted, highly amused. “How naive. Your punishment for running that smart mouth is for it to be my personal cumdump for the rest of tonight.”
Joonghyuk flushed in utter mortification, but he managed to shoot the older man a protesting glare, which was met with a menacing staredown.
“No swallowing, no matter what.” He tapped the long forgotten barrel at the side of his head twice. “Else you'll just be digging yourself further into your grave.”
The younger man blanched, finally remembering the gun still trained on him. As if he'd read his mind, Dokja chuckled but said nothing and put the offending weapon back in his suit, then tucked his shirt in, hastily pulled his pants back on and buckled himself.
“As much as the sight of your messy face intoxicates me, we have places to be and things to do. I'm sure you’ve got to clean yourself up too.” He held out his hand, which Joonghyuk accepted readily and got up, but wobbled as a numbing pain shot through his legs.
“Lean into me,” Dokja said, a steady arm snaking across the younger man's slim waist. “Your legs must've fallen asleep from all that kneeling.”
The stark difference in Kim Dokja's behaviour made Joonghyuk's head dizzy with confusion.
Slowly, they made their way back into the restroom, the soles of their shoes getting wet with congealed blood. Joonghyuk excused himself into one of the cubicles, quickly wiping the jizz off his now ruined fancy underwear the best he could.
Damn it, these were brand new too… And quite expensive…
His mind began coming back to a state of normalcy — or whatever remained of it, with his dignity left in tatters while his desire for the ahjussi burned like embers ready to be stoked again.
What the fuck was that?
He could still feel the phantom tautness around his mouth, the restriction in his breathing, the heaviness of Dokja's cock in his mouth, the bruising rhythm that ensued…
Did I just suck off a Jopok criminal?
The salty load in his mouth affirmed his grasp on reality. Surprisingly, it didn't taste as bad as he'd expected it to.
I am so fucked.
A small, frustrated whine escaped Joonghyuk. Humiliation seared through him now, but it was mixed with an odd arousal at the perverse intimacy of it all — it was the first time he'd sucked another man off, and having a near stranger's spunk in his mouth to shut him up was far more lewd than anything the pornos online could even conjure.
If anyone ever got to know about this, Yoo Joonghyuk would have to flee the country and assume another identity altogether.
Maybe I should really consider becoming a terrorist then…
He composed himself before getting out of the cubicle. The middle aged man was waiting for him, leaning on the sink counter with folded arms. Wordlessly, Joonghyuk walked over, eyeing him warily.
Dokja's perceptive eyes caught on.
“Are you scared that I'll kill you?”
Joonghyuk shot him a withering look, then shook his head slowly. Dokja chuckled.
“Good. I don't plan to kill you anytime soon either.”
A soft grunt of annoyance left Joonghyuk, and the older man laughed harder as he turned to the sink to wash his bloodied handkerchief.
“Do you feel scared of me?”
The sound of running water filled the space between them, but Joonghyuk didn't truly know the right answer to that question.
He stole a glance at the sheet-white body. Joonghyuk could very easily be the next recipient of Kim Dokja's bullet, even if the bastard promised not to kill him tonight. Yet, that wasn't what scared him.
He hesitated, then nodded ever so slightly when the older man glanced back.
“That’s how it should be.”
The flowing tap resonated within the unease that washed over Joonghyuk — an unease that came in with a slow realisation that he was only at the cusp of.
“But lately, I have begun to despise hearing it too often.”
The tap snapped shut, only for the silence to coagulate like the blood on the floor.
“To get what you want, fear is paramount.”
Kim Dokja didn’t turn to face him now, his knuckles pale as he gripped onto the handle of the faucet a little too hard.
“There’s something addictive about the terror within the eyes of a desperate man. Holding their insignificant lives over them within my hands, watching them squirm and plead and beg for death as I realise their worst fears for them. I won’t lie, it makes me giddy, it gets me going. Most will call it a sick perversion, but it’s merely Machiavellian virtù where morality has no role — it’s the simplest way one attains power.”
He stared at the wide back of the older man — the solitary back of a Dokja that beckoned at the loneliness Joonghyuk felt within himself.
“Sure, money brings in power considerably, which is why everyone in this building performs opulence to their detriment.”
Kim Dokja stepped away from the sink, turning to face the younger man.
“It is why you were desperate enough to suck me off at the cost of your otherwise sound morals and dignity. Everyone yearns to attain control of their own lives and over others, but money can only do so much.”
He realised he didn’t want the money that desperately, no, Joonghyuk’s motivations weren’t purely monetary anymore, even if he wanted to deny it. He was about to open his mouth to protest, but he couldn’t — the briny cum in his mouth didn’t allow him to just yet.
“And love? It may seem like love holds power over the masses and individuals alike, but humans are rotten animals, governed solely by their self-interests.”
Dokja walked closer, the weight of his gaze heavy on Joonghyuk’s stained face.
“Love is fickle and driven by the ego of man, who, in the face of his self interests at peril, will do what it takes to feed that ego at the cost of that love.”
They were mostly undecipherable, but a muted melancholy was still palpable to Joonghyuk who’d just known the man for about two weeks. He’d begun to realise that the loneliness was as much a part of Kim Dokja as were his sharp, steely edges and burning forges.
“The power that fear wields, neither money nor love can replace, and if one cannot be loved, then it is safer for them to hold command with fear.”
His bitter disdain stained the congealed air between them, but Joonghyuk felt as if Dokja didn’t quite believe what he was saying.
“Because unlike love, that dread will never fail your purpose.”
He gave the young man a nonchalant shrug, like he was dismissing everything he’d said earlier.
“Or so I thought. Now that I’ve lived and frolicked in this muck for too long, watching it infect the ones I care about doesn’t sit well with me. But it is the consequences of my sins — I desired a reign by terror, I thrived within it, so now I must watch every bit of what that embodies.”
Dokja looked away from him, a disparaging curve on his lips.
“That Hwejang was right back there, you know? I joined the Jopok because I only knew crime as a way of life, not because of any sense of honor binding me. I killed my scumbag father, took his place in the kkangpae to pay off all his debts with blood, then brought them to death with my own hands.”
Joonghyuk felt an uncanny sense of déjà vécu as the older man reached out to smoothen his charcoal suit.
“When my Gomun recruited me into the Jopok, I was desperate, I wanted power over my life and everything that had happened to me.”
His hands readjusted Joonghyuk’s loosened tie, but Kim Dokja refused to look at his face.
“That desperation turned into hunger, and my actions turned into deeds I can neither name nor bring myself to regret.”
The fluorescent tubelight overhead cast harsher lines over Dokja's already severe countenance, and the weight of his wrongs aged the older man closer towards an eternity lived.
“Like every other human driven by the pursuit of power, I decayed into the rot I am today.”
Joonghyuk frowned in mild protest. He didn't know of the sins that the man in front of him had committed, but surely, a raw confession preceded some pardonment, didn't it?
“That bastard there, I let him get away with hurting you with a quick death. If you weren’t there tonight, he’d have realised the true meaning behind why they call me ‘Salvation’ around here.”
The older man finally looked at him, his gaze boring into Joonghyuk as his face inched closer, the scent of cloves in his breath cutting through every single thought in the young man’s mind.
“They call me Salvation, but all I bring is ruin, it's all I've stood for.”
Kim Dokja closed the rest of the distance between them and pressed his warm lips against the young man's, a pure, honest display of tenderness behind the kiss.
“And you,” he whispered against Joonghyuk's unparted lips, “Part of your hanja means destruction, to kill, yet all you've been is a breath of fresh air.”
He did not know if he was worthy enough to hear such a confession, nor was he anywhere close to being divine mercy, yet, Yoo Joonghyuk was the closest Kim Dokja would come to an absolution. But as it was, the hand of Divinity rarely made itself known in the moment.
“As far as I can tell, nothing about you is inauspicious, Yoo Joonghyuk.”
The older man began wiping Joonghyuk's face up with the wet handkerchief, steadily ignoring the corpse right beside them, but the young man's eyes kept snagging against the scarred, grotesque countenance of the exsanguinated, as Dokja's words of contrition rang clear in his head.
“You did so well, kid,” Dokja murmured as his fingers lingered over the young man's swollen lips. “Just a few more hours, hang on until then.”
Something in Yoo Joonghyuk got him to pull the lean man closer still, arms wrapping around him with an impulsiveness that he was beginning to realise was all this rotten ahjussi's fault.
Dokja stiffened at the embrace, then slowly, his shoulders relaxed, returning the hug.
“For someone who's supposedly scared of me, you sure are quite bold.” He laughed softly. “What a goddamn player.”
Joonghyuk pushed him away and rolled his eyes in response, which only made the man laugh some more. Still, his eyes followed the lifeless body on the floor as they walked out not shortly after, the thickened pool of blood clinging onto his id like an inescapable shroud.
They walked quite a bit to reach their destination, the gilded entrance of which had a doorman of sorts. Dokja barely had to whisper his name before they were met with a deep bow.
The large doors were opened for them, leading into a smaller hall with dimmer lights. Cream colored walls and intricately engraved moulding with gold detailing gave it an illusion of grand opulence, all glinting under the light of the crystal chandeliers that were evenly spread out across the stretched room.
Dokja nudged the young man beside him.
“Remember, no swallowing. No speaking even when someone provokes you to. Your job here is to wrap yourself onto my arm and look pretty. The people inside are far more dangerous than the ones we saw at the main banquet.”
Joonghyuk took his arm hesitantly, frowning, which only made Dokja tut.
“People prefer to look at armcandies that are pleasant to look at. Give up that sour face, kid. Smile a little.”
He was met with a murderous glare from the young man.
“Alright, then.” Dokja’s voice was way too cheerful. “Maybe not.”
The dim hall was larger than he'd thought, with quite a few semi-hidden alcoves interspersed at regular intervals and various nude bronze sculptures in between. The centre of the room had a large fountain that Joonghyuk thought stuck out like a sore thumb, but aside from the alcoves, that was where most of the people were chatting up with acquaintances, all in their finery.
In spite of there being no visible lounge, alcohol flowed freely along with the hors d'oeuvres through the room, supplied by waiters masked in sequins and clad in jet-black tuxedos. There was muted chatter and the occasional clinking of glasses, but all of that ceased abruptly when the two men stepped in.
Countless eyes were on him, prickling Joonghyuk’s back. The jizz in his mouth tasted acrid as the unrest inside increased manifold — the atmosphere here was far murkier than the main hall.
“Don’t think about them. There’s only me and you in this room.” It was as if Dokja could read his mind as he whispered low in his ears. “Focus on what’s in your mouth.”
Joonghyuk’s face turned beet red at the explicit reminder, but he could do nothing but helplessly stare ahead.
Arm in arm, they slowly made their way into the hall. The odd sense of trepidation didn’t completely lessen, but the fluid occupying his mouth gave the young man enough to think about.
The majority of the people bowed as the pair passed through, some reverently low, some out of mutual respect, but many in sheer fear that the younger man understood all too well now. Dokja nodded at some, acknowledging their presence, while Joonghyuk mutedly observed every action.
As if his mind wasn’t already buried inside the older man’s crotch, Dokja leaned in and whispered, “I’m still thinking of your mouth wrapped around me.”
Shut the absolute hell up, Kim Dokja.
He shot the grinning man a withering look, blushing to the roots of his hair. Joonghyuk’s grip on him tightened when a few people approached them, all bowing low and deep in synchrony.
“It’s good to see familiar faces in unfriendly territory,” Dokja said to the three.
“Good evening, Dumok-nim,[26]” the tall woman in the middle greeted him, dressed in an emerald green off-shoulder gown that accentuated her slender stature. “We’ve been waiting eagerly for your presence here.”
Her chestnut curls tumbled down her bare shoulders as she remained bowed, glinting rosily under the dim lights of the chandeliers.
“Rise, all of you.”
He vaguely felt like he’d seen the lithe woman in the middle, with her doe eyes and sharp, angelic features. The tall man sported a smart-looking tuxedo with an equally clean crew cut, while the blonde woman’s lean but well-built self was clad in a violet suede suit dress with simple gold detailing embroidered at its edges. They looked considerably young to be involved with the Jopok, but Joonghyuk had gotten a first hand taste of how looks could very well be deceiving.
“I hope you’ve noted down the minutes of the meeting, Sangah-ssi.” Dokja nudged him slightly. “I had something important preoccupying me before now.”
The woman nodded briefly, before her gaze went over to Joonghyuk. Recognition flooded inside him as he realised where he’d seen her.
This woman, wasn’t she the one at the lobby of that restaurant?
A small, knowing smile spread across her glossy lips, but it smoothed out to a neutral, almost professional facade instantly.
This old man, who else does he have under him?
“Of course, Dumok-nim.” Sangah’s gaze stayed on Joonghyuk, her sharp eyes scrutinising him even more as it latched onto his white collar. “Has there been an incident earlier?”
“You’re too perceptive, Budumok-nim,[27]” he nodded, appreciation clear in the way he spoke to the sharp woman. “There has been some trouble regarding, ah, boundary encroachment. Nothing I couldn’t handle, but Heewon-ssi and the saekki[28] under her might have a small task in their hands tonight.”
“Should I let her know, Hyung-nim[29]?”
“Don’t have to, Hayoung-ssi. I already did before I took care of it, but we might have something serious in our hands pretty soon.”
The atmosphere grew tense, evident by the way Dokja’s arm stiffened unconsciously against his own body, trapping Joonghyuk’s in between.
“Either way, we’ve come here to socialise. Try having a good time, but keep watch. There could already be trouble stirring.”
“Dumok-nim.” The beefy man spoke up, his voice rumbly but soft and polite. “Could there be a possibility that—”
Joonghyuk did not catch the rest of the conversation, because something else stole his attention. At the far end of the room were the silhouettes of two people he hadn’t seen in years.
For the second time that evening, his world turned upside down.
The long, cascading waves of black hair he recalled was now sheared short, styled in evidently fake hair and a tackily opulent updo with an ornately jeweled comb holding it in place, whereas the peppered combover that haunted him with its glaring absence for years was now quite silvered.
The profiles had turned as grotesque as their presence in his head, a slow, morphing reflection of beings for what they have always been within — though objectively, they hadn’t changed much since he last saw them. The finery that draped their backs would never hide their inherent hideousness to Yoo Joonghyuk, for it was those very backs that had turned and left him with nothing but a feverish toddler with him and nary a second glance.
They look happier.
He watched impassively as they chatted with a group of equally wealthy-looking people, toasting celebratorily over something that was no longer his concern as he knew it, their postures restrained but still different from the tense desperation that he remembered. He zeroed in onto the muted laughter of the couple he once called his Eomma and Appa with his own mouth, the very mouth that now held the seed of their sworn enemy.
As if she could sense his presence, the woman who’d birthed him turned back, only for their gazes to lock together. Her eyes widened in recognition.
You still remember me.
She turned to whisper something to her husband, who craned his neck back towards him.
Yoo Joonghyuk did not look away from them.
He did not look away even when the arm he was holding onto moved to bring him closer to a comforting warmth.
“—know about Yoo Joonghyuk here, who’s been gracious enough to be my date for tonight.”
He did not look away even when the present conversation had steered towards him.
“Though he’s shy at the moment, he’s quite the company once he opens his mouth.”
Kim Dokja’s words did not quite register within, until he snapped out of his daze when he felt his right hand being taken. Joonghyuk tore his gaze away from his estranged parents, only to find himself wrapped inside the warm, admiring one of a Dokja he was only beginning to figure out.
“Regardless, he's a company that I’m growing to appreciate with every minute passing.”
Kim Dokja held his hand and kissed each knuckle slow and gentle, with a restrained fervor that took Joonghyuk by surprise.
He could feel numerous probing eyes over him and the strong arm that tethered him back to the present, especially the four that threatened to burn right through, but now he welcomed it — Yoo Joonghyuk cared not of the world seeing him held by a Jopok head, but of the two people who had forsaken half of the family that they willingly brought into the world, as they watched him fraternise with the man who nearly brought them to their ruin.
He did not look away from Kim Dokja, who beheld his presence with the adulation he did little to earn so far. Yet, realisation washed over him as the older man’s soft lips touched the back of his fingers one last time.
Yoo Joonghyuk wanted more, so much more than the earthy taste of this man inside his mouth.
He wanted to earn more of that adoration that Dokja saw him with, even if it was illusory. He wanted more of that warmth he felt from the older man, he wanted to be considered good company by someone like Dokja, he wanted to be used and rendered mindless by the ahjussi, he wanted to be held, he wanted to lean in and rely, just depend on someone for a little while longer.
Yoo Joonghyuk did not want this night to end. He did not want the contract to end tonight. And that was what scared him the most.
“Thank you for being with me tonight, Yoo Joonghyuk.” Dokja’s low, dulcet baritone lulled him into temporary comfort. “I hope your evening is as memorable as it was mine.”
This was the most memorable his evenings had been so far. As troublesome as it was, Joonghyuk didn’t hate it in the least — for someone as forsaken as he was, being desired by someone as dubious as Kim Dokja was anchoring, because it affirmed to a certain disillusioned hope within Joonghyuk’s own hunger for the man.
Thus, he decided to truly allow himself the luxury of wanting and being wanted, even if it was only for a night. Maybe Kim Dokja was using him to his own benefit, but at that moment, he was doing the same, wasn’t he?
Joonghyuk could only nod in response, a slow blush creeping up his tan skin as his words warmed him up, and it reminded him of the spunk in his mouth, the essence of which had begun to lace itself within him through his tastebuds.
All he hoped for was Kim Dokja to read his eyes, to see that he was desired back, to know that his evening by his side was as memorable as it was for the old man.
I hope you still remember me after tonight, Kim Dokja.
His eyes went back to where his estranged parents were, but they were nowhere in sight — it almost felt like they were cruel spectres conjured up by the worst places inside his mind, but he knew what he’d seen. Still, the discomfort gradually dissolved inside as the night progressed, replaced by a strange quiet that came from being held by one of the most powerful men in the room while he socialised.
“—a company that rivals the chaebols but you still came in a sedan, Dokja-ssi?”
“—know me, Gomun-nim, there are better ways to spend money than on unnecessary flashiness, and—”
It was a heady sensation, being in the arms of a Dumok that held half of Seoul within his hold.
“—involved with the good stuff these days, we’ve branched out—”
“—my cup of tea, it’s not part of the operations that our terf—”
He watched the way Kim Dokja charmed everyone in the room that he spoke to. It was clear that the formidable man knew power intimately, with the way he wielded command over every interaction with his cool demeanour.
“—Dongdaemun? It’s still going on? What the hell are those parliament bastards—”
“—outsourcing it to us now would be a waste of time and money—”
At some point during the conversations, Dokja’s hand left the younger man's waist, but he did not need it to anchor Joonghyuk to him anymore.
“—fuckers can’t keep their geondal[30] in check these days, these new age Dumok aren’t doing their jobs—”
“—must’ve heard about those rat bastards selling their gao[31] just to suck some jjapse[32] cocks—”
“—what happens when you disgracefully kick your wonno[33] out of your faction—”
“—incident, they encroached into our turf last month Dumok-nim, and we gave them hell—”
“—they should know their place.”
Kim Dokja didn’t have to threaten him, didn't have to touch him — the power he held over Yoo Joonghyuk was downright intoxicating.
Joonghyuk obviously refused to have the alcohol and the starters served to them — he didn’t trust the food, but he also wasn’t allowed to swallow just yet. Yet, to his surprise, Dokja didn’t touch them either, and after what seemed like an eternity of Joonghyuk’s mind being liberatingly devoid of complex thoughts, he felt a nudge at his side.
“Joonghyuk-ah, should we retire for the night?”
He shrugged a little, but a small twinge of disappointment pinched at Joonghyuk.
“You must be hungry,” he urged, looking at him intently. “We’ll grab something before we head back home.”
Joonghyuk frowned, before he pointed at his closed mouth.
“Oh, you actually obeyed me?” The older man’s eyes glimmered with dark amusement. “I was really looking forward to punishing you if you hadn’t.”
He shot him a deadpan look, which only made Dokja chuckle some more.
“Keep it in for a while longer.” The smirk on his face was downright wicked. “You’ve held out for so long, after all.”
Before a flustered Joonghyuk could gesture something rude in response, they were interrupted by a familiar soft voice.
“Dumok-nim, a word with you?”
Dokja’s budumok had a frown over her usual calm, and he shot Joonghyuk an apologetic look before he turned to her.
They began speaking in hushed tones, and the younger man figured that it was better if he gave the Dumok some privacy with the woman named Sangah — not every shady business should be discussed in front of a one-time date, after all. He stepped closer to the doors nearby, assuming that it would be better if he waited for the man beyond the exit.
The moment he stepped out into the bright ornate corridor, he knew he'd made a mistake.
“Don’t you think you're overdoing it by showing up here?”
He didn’t have to turn to see who followed him from the hall. Yoo Joonghyuk would know that gratingly presumptuous voice from anywhere.
“Finally done with stabbing us in the back?” The man that was his father sounded stern, disappointed.
Like always.
“Must have lost all the virtues we taught you if you had to suck up to a criminal like him.”
Talking about being virtuous like you didn’t abandon your own toddler in superstition, just to get more money…
Joonghyuk shut his eyes, then exhaled a long sigh out. The rage he used to feel for the two people behind him had long died out, replaced by cynical jadedness. Conveniently, the insides of his mouth were also generously creamed at the moment, which gave him even more incentive to keep his mouth shut.
“Is this how you choose to disgrace us even more?”
He turned to meet their eyes head on.
Under the brighter lights, his eyes flit over the changes on his estranged parents during the period of their separation — he could see the evident liver spots, the sprinkle of barely-concealed spider naevi, the evident signs of aging that were starkly different from that on Kim Dokja. His mother’s face was stretched too thin, too tight, and the knuckles on her bony hands looked raw and angry, while his father looked less threatening and more pitiful than he used to, with the rheumy eyes and bloated face he now sported.
Yoo Joonghyuk felt absolutely nothing looking at them.
“Whoring yourself out to that demon for some quick cash.” The man in front of him spat, but it had no effect on Joonghuk. “Did we spend our hard earned cash on you to become a Jopok gigolo?”
“Tell me, did we not give you enough?” His mother sounded frantic, borderline hysterical. “We did all we could’ve for you, we gave you everything we had, but you weren’t satisfied by that. No, you had to bring us bad luck for all we did for you, you had to file a case against us to defame us and drain us at our worst, and now you’re parading yourself in the arms of that lowbred on purpose? Did your greed finally drive you immoral?”
Yoo Joonghyuk’s eyes widened in sheer incredulity.
With what audacity are you lying so much, you piece of shit?
“He chose money over family. No son of mine would emasculate himself for some loose change.”
Joonghyuk raised an eyebrow at the absurdity of the whole declaration.
You bastards, didn’t you choose money over family?
“Even with that court case you tried filing against us, you did that just for more money, you greedy leech.”
What in the absolute fuck are you talking about?
He shook his head in pure disbelief and decided to walk back into the hall — more bullshit would only make him lose his mind.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going? Running away again, like you ran away from us after trying to steal our assets?”
Delusional lot.
Without a word, he went past them.
“Let him run, let him get kicked down by that slimy sewer scum. He’ll have to crawl back to us anyway.”
Like hell I will.
Their words still hurt, but it wasn’t anything he’d not already prepared himself for. Yoo Joonghyuk didn’t need to be kicked away — his time with Kim Dokja was finite, it would last only until the first sign of daybreak tomorrow.
“You’re not saying anything, because it’s all true.” The self-righteousness radiating from the man’s voice was infuriating. “Don’t you have an ounce of shame? What are you doing, setting such a terrible example for your sister? Think about Mi—”
Krrk!
Joonghyuk felt the nasal bone crunch under his fist before he could process what he’d truly done. He heard a wail beside him.
“Aargh! You fucking—”
His knuckles hit the man’s cushiony jaw next, then he swung again at the side of his father’s face.
“What happened to your filial piety?” The woman cried out as she grabbed her husband away from the fuming young man. “Have you lost your goddamn mind?”
“His filial piety died the moment you abandoned him with your infant three years ago.”
Before he could stop his swinging fist, Joonghyuk was yanked back by his waist. He punched at the air instead.
“Don’t fight the pitiful, Hyuk-ah. Talking with your fist only counts when your opponents are smart enough to understand the meaning behind it.”
With the arms that now circled him, the scent of sandalwood and oud enveloped Joonghyuk in their warmth, calming his rage considerably.
“They should be worthy enough to hear you out."
“This is a family affair. We are not talking to the likes of you.” The woman shook like a leaf in anger. “Who are you to speak on behalf of our son, you lowlife?”
“You made your family affair my problem by being loud public nuisances, spewing your bullshit in front of me about my beau, no less.” Kim Dokja snorted, contempt dripping from his voice. Joonghyuk’s ears felt hot at Dokja calling him his ‘beau’, but he also knew that he was just doing the young man another favor. “And Joonghyuk isn’t talking to you because he doesn’t owe you a won of his attention.”
Dokja leaned in closer to him. His voice was softer, praise meant only for Joonghyuk’s ears.
“Kitten, you were so good for me, obeying me even when you didn’t have to.”
The Dumok’s hold around his waist tightened. The fragrant cloves in his hot breath tickled against his skin, sending a shiver of anticipation down the younger man’s spine.
“Swallow.”
His father’s eyes bugged out. “Who are you to speak on behalf of our son, you slimy rat?” The beaten man roared nasally, but it only made him wince in pain at the pain in his jaw.
“Who the hell are you?”
Yoo Joonghyuk’s voice rang low, menacing. He felt the brine go down his throat and settle within his bitterness.
“I don’t have any parents, nor am I anyone’s son.”
His mother looked indignant. “Have some respect for the family that kept you alive, Yoo Joonghyuk!”
He was not phased. “The only family I have is my sister. Your daughter, who you abandoned.”
“Heard it from the kid himself, didn’t you?” Dokja’s hands slipped away from him, leaving a burning ache in its wake. “You are not welcome here, not around Joonghyuk or around his sister. Drop this disgraceful behaviour and go back home. Need I remind you that you’re in public?”
“The sajang undeserving of his position dares to tell me how I should behave in public? Do you know who you’re talking to?”
Dokja snorted in response. “I don’t care about the spineless factions backing you. Go squeal to them if you want. Cry more. It will be fun to watch them turn on you when you do.”
“Don’t you have anything better to do with your life? You tried destroying our lives, now you’re going after my son?” There were tears rolling down his mother’s eyes with the mascara streaking down.
Joonghyuk only felt more deadened.
“Quit making this about me. You cornered that kid alone because you thought that he would still take your bullshit.” The Dumok stepped forward and cracked his knuckles. “I might be sewer scum, but I still wouldn’t kick my own children down and leave them to fend for themselves. You worms should’ve just killed yourselves in shame."
His father lunged at them in retaliation, but before Joonghyuk could react, he heard a very familiar click beside him.
“Down.”
There was no smile, no warmth to be seen in Kim Dokja’s eyes — just an eerie resolve as his revolver aimed right at the beaten man he used to call his own father.
“Take another step, and I won’t hesitate to blow your head off. And then hers.”
Their fear was as palpable as their offended rage, as the couple raised their hands up slowly.
“You will pay for this—”
“We’re pressing charges for Aggravated Bodily Injury,” the woman spat, glaring at Joonghyuk. “Injury on a Linear Ascendant? Your imprisonment is going to be indefinite, son. And as for you, Jopok scum, we have so many charges we can pick from, you will be hung like a—”
“For that, you should get out alive first.” Dokja cracked his neck, his posture way too relaxed for the very real threats he was making. “Let's see who’s faster — your tongue, or my bullets.”
“You would not,” she hissed back, but she pulled her husband a step back.
“Try me. I just need an excuse to pull the—”
“Ahjussi. Stop this.”
For the second time tonight, the revolver was now pointed at Joonghyuk as he deliberately stepped in the line of fire. He met his steady gaze with the Dumok’s narrowed ones as he covered the couple behind his broad back.
“Son, look at this man, he’s threatening to kill us now! Your parents!” The woman cried out, sounding more pathetic in her desperation.
It disgusted Joonghyuk.
“You see this here? This is the man you chose to stand by, Joonghyuk.”
His father’s voice was as stern as it was presumptuous.
“This scumbag, who leeched his way into the Jopok after he destroyed his own kkangpae base. Such a weasel holds no loyalty to the people around him, leave alone the people of this city.”
Joonghyuk said nothing, only watched as his ahjussi’s jaw tightened, the steady barrel still pointed at him.
“He does not hold the respectability that someone from the Jopok should, he’ll only destroy everything he wants in his greed. He’ll do the same with you, like he’s—”
“Like how you’re doing with me right now?” Yoo Joonghyuk did not turn to look at his estranged parents.
“Are you defending that fucker? He’s literally pointing his gun at you right now!”
Joonghyu’s voice was a frigid calm. “At least he didn’t threaten me with a fucking criminal charge to destroy the rest of my life alive.”
“Joonghyuk-ah, get away from the gun.” Kim Dokja urged, his tone a little too even. “I really do not want to hurt you.”
The young man grunted in annoyance. “I won’t move. You can shoot me if you want.”
This has gone on for too long.
Slowly, he walked closer to Kim Dokja, drawn to the ominously mystifying man like a moth drawn to an incinerator. Their gazes never wavered, and neither did the revolver from his chest.
“I know you won’t hurt me too much, Hyung-nim.”
The filth within, the cataclysm that the man brought forth, nothing fazed Yoo Joonghyuk anymore — the desolate hollow inside him only grew, it called for the cool kiss of the barrel against his forehead once more, it clamored on for the sanguinary embrace of the man in front of him, it sucked him further in, as Yoo Joonghyuk willingly took part in the macabre dance of two.
He heard his father roar behind him. “Do you think he’s going to save you?”
“I don’t need anyone saving me.”
The stars within Kim Dokja’s eyes might as well be a whole galaxy — countless constellations within, old and forming, new and dying, all revolving around a black hole that consumed his rapidly numbing emotions.
“I have survived well without your help so far.” He spoke levelly. “Mia is happier without you in our lives.”
The single barrel of the gun now scraped against the metal brooch that Kim Dokja had pinned with his own hands only a few hours ago. They had been sharing pralines, they had been drinking the hot chocolate that the man had prepared for him, stealing glances and teasing each other, unsure and testing the waters, unaware of everything that would happen to mutate their lives into something unrecognisable only mere hours later.
Joonghyuk's hands reached out and traced the scars on Dokja’s, caressing the calluses on the pads of the tense fingers that held the revolver a little too tightly.
“What—”
Yoo Joonghyuk raised the barrel to his lips, and, with his eyes solely on the Dumok in front of him, placed a firm kiss at the cooled muzzle.
“And hyung has done so much for me since I’ve known him. Much more than you ever did.”
His eyes did not stray away from the darkened, glimmering ones of Kim Dokja. Unnamed emotions flitted through those onyx irises, but the revered desire encompassed within was all consuming.
“You must have lost your goddamned mind!” His mother screeched, distraught. “You’d pick him over us? Your own parents?”
“Hyung hasn’t abandoned me like you did.” Joonghyuk’s lips were still on the gun as he spoke loud and clear. “I also wouldn’t pick the people who wanted to get me incarcerated for life not a minute ago.”
“That man is a criminal. He will kill you when he’s finally done using you for what he wants.”
“And I would let him.”
Joonghyuk got down on his knees, guiding the revolver down with him as Dokja held it with a conflicted look in his eyes. He kissed the tip again, deliberately slow this time, in the line of sight of the couple that watched the spectacle aghast.
“Cry over my cold, dead body when he eventually does. Or don’t. I wouldn’t care enough either way.”
Yoo Joonghyuk turned towards the couple, sparing them a glance from the corner of his eye.
“We’re done here. Never bother me or Mia again. You’re not wanted around.”
He wrapped his mouth around the frigid metal for good measure, looking back up at the Dumok.
“You fucking—”
“Not another word.” Kim Dokja seemed to have regained his composure, a smug smirk now playing on his lips. “You heard him, didn’t you? He doesn’t need you anymore.”
“I bet you played your tricks again, Kim Dokja. You turned him against us! Did you make him take a blood-oath, you dirty pig?”
“Blood oath? Maybe the call is coming from inside the house, because I don’t need to coerce people to do anything, nor do I need to hold their lives against them, unlike you. Certainly not with Hyeolju.[34]”
For emphasis, he glanced pointedly at their son, whose mouth was sheathed around his gun, then looked back up at the duo rather gleefully.
“You kicked your children out, bribed their lawyers off the case when he pressed charges for parental abandonment, left them with nothing to their name, and now you still expect to hold some kind of filial authority over him?”
Dokja let out an exaggerated sigh, and Joonghyuk wondered idly if this ahjussi had done more than just a cursory background check on him, because none of this was public anywhere.
He continued. “I have no hand in any of this, it’s all been your doing. Take some damn responsibility, at least.”
“You only took advanta—”
“Haven’t you been insulted enough tonight?” The Dumok guffawed. “What, not convinced yet? Do you want to watch him suck on my cock next?”
As if to prove his point, Joonghyuk’s mouth took the entire length of the revolver’s barrel inside, his eyes impassively on the two people who might as well be strangers to him.
“You hold no power here.” Kim Dokja’s gloating was palpable within his jeer.
Joonghyuk could taste the metallic tang of the steel, the smoky sulphur and char from the spent gunpowder. From the edges of his peripheral vision, he watched the faces of the pair curdle in disgust at the show he was putting on — it still wasn't enough to cut through the miserable feeling that was rapidly spreading inside him.
“Come, let's leave from here, this is pointless.”
He watched on impassively as they shuffled away.
“This isn't the end of things,” he heard the man he used to call his father yell out. “You will all pay.”
“Well, don’t insult yourselves when you try to get back at me!” The Dumok called out rather cheekily. “Unlike you lot, the Jopok don’t take kindly to dishonor.”
It should've been a moment of triumph for him. He should've been relieved about how things turned out, he ought to have felt better about confronting his parents and snubbing their sanctimony. This should've been catharsis for Yoo Jonghyuk, yet all he felt was an odd sort of numbness.
The revolver inside his mouth felt leaden and heavy.
“You know,” Kim Dokja said after a long pause. “You really didn’t have to go this far.”
Joonghyuk blinked, confused.
“You do know that it’s pointless to threaten someone like me with a silly criminal charge like that, right? They were just trying to scare you into listening to them, those rotten fuckers. They won’t be able to lay a finger on me without it affecting their business massively, and as an extension, they won’t be able to do anything to you or Mia either. Now that they’ve given me the perfect excuse, I will take immense pleasure in ripping them apart.”
A soft laugh escaped his lips as he looked down, his eyes darkening at the sight that beheld him.
“Who would’ve thought that a confrontation with your parents would be what finally gets you to call me hyung?”
He shot Dokja a glare, but it was half-hearted at best — the gun stuffed in his mouth did not help either. The older man wiped the gleeful look off his face and cradled Joonghyuk’s head with his hand, concern laced within the furrow between his eyebrows.
“Are you okay, though?”
He said nothing because he didn’t really know the answer to that question, and the hollow metal that sat on his tongue felt oddly comforting. He could only look up and hope Kim Dokja could read whatever he couldn’t discern for himself.
“You did really well today, kid. Didn’t expect you to do all this.” Dokja resorted to combing his fingers through the younger man’s hair, patting him gently as he did. “Fellating a gun in front of your father? I wish I’d thought of that before killing mine. Good job, Hyuk-ah.”
It felt good to be praised by the older man, but at the moment, it did little to soothe Joonghyuk. The numbness only grew more within the hollow of his marrow, amplified with the knowledge that the night was ending and with it, his time with Kim Dokja.
It scared him.
“We should be heading home, though. I’ll drop you and Mia back to the campus after our dinner. It should be quick, don’t worry.”
He finally pulled the revolver out — or tried to. Joonghyuk’s hands clamped down on his wrist, stopping him.
“What—”
With his narrowed eyes on Dokja’s questioning ones, Joonghyuk began moving his head slowly, the barrel shifting deeper inside his mouth.
Yoo Joonghyuk wanted to fill that hollow up with something more substantial than the numb within, before it rotted within him even more. He yearned for their waltz into destruction to go on a little longer.
“Kid, what is this, are you punishing yourself now?”
In response, Joonghyuk only bobbed his head along the length of the revolver. Realisation hit the older man and a glint sparked within those starry eyes.
“You really don’t have to do this,” Dokja murmured, but his voice sounded rough, clearly affected by the sight of the young man blowing his gun. He patted and scratched Joonghyuk’s head soothingly, whose mind became a staticky empty buzz, occupied only by the warring numbness within his desire and the length of the gun pulsing up and down the back of his throat. “You’ve been so good for me, Hyuk-ie. So good. I don’t want to punish you any further than this, you know?”
The conflict within Kim Dokja’s eyes was plain to see.
“You deserve better than what I can give you, Joonghyuk-ah.”
It snapped him out of his reverie, and Joonghyuk finally dragged his mouth off the slick revolver.
“I don’t care about being deserving of anything. Not from you, not from the world.”
Joonghyuk’s voice was low and husky, determined to finally close the distance between them. He got up, uncaring about the little bit of drool that had dribbled down the corner of his mouth. That numb feeling scared Joonghyuk. He wanted none of it anymore.
“I’m not doing any of this out of compulsion.”
His hands left the older man’s wrist and went to cup his face.
“Nor am I doing this to get better compensation.”
If he didn’t make the most of their contract tonight, he knew he’d come to regret it for a very long time.
“I want this. I want you.”
Yoo Joonghyuk’s hands held one of the most dangerous men in the building, but all he could see was salvation in the convoluted yearning that shone through. He saw within the depths of those weathered eyes a glimpse of the unfathomable, and just for a little longer, he wanted to bask under the starlight that was Kim Dokja.
“I want you to make use of me completely, for the rest of tonight.”
Even if he couldn’t make complete sense of it, Joonghyuk wanted to revel in his presence just for another night.
“Kim Dokja, I want you to kiss me.”
He wanted to be a little selfish, just for tonight.
“I need you— mmfgh—!”
Yoo Joonghyuk was cut off by a warm pair of lips pressing against his. A low groan ripped out of his mouth as he felt Dokja’s hands grip the back of his neck almost possessively, while his mouth worked its way inside slow and firm.
“Hyung,” he breathed out, finally tasting the cloves on his tongue he so desperately craved for. “Don’t hold back.”
Dokja’s response was a groan against his lips, grinding his crotch flush against the young man. “Don’t plan to. Not if you’re asking for it like this.”
The embers within him burned fiercely anew, stoked by the fervor with which the older man kissed him back. Joonghyuk’s large palms roamed the broad expanse of the man's firm, sculpted back, while he felt a greedy hand kneading his ass and a greedier mouth nipping at his lower lip, eliciting a soft mewl from the younger man as heat pooled lower inside him.
This wasn’t like the brief, hesitant peck they shared earlier that evening, still toeing the boundaries of a new territory. No, this was a kiss that seared through Joonghyuk, branding him with deliberate lips, teeth and tongue that claimed him tenaciously.
They kissed, caressed and devoured the other, neither of them noticing the fresh and pearly twigs of mistletoe that hung above and around them.
“You really have an oral fixation, don’t you?” Dokja chuckled, trailing wet kisses up the young man’s neck.
“I like your cock,” Joonghyuk murmured against his mouth, the boldness in his filthy statement surprising even him.
“That so? Would’ve surprised me.”
A large palm surrounded Joonghyuk’s neck, squeezing it mildly.
“I really liked it when you obeyed me even when you didn't have to.” He left a short but red-hot kiss on Joonghyuk’s swollen lips. “Facing your scumbag parents with my cum in your mouth, oh.”
Dokja pressed on the sides of his neck harder, and Joonghyuk’s senses floated.
“Oh, kitten, you entice me like no other.”
Slowly, Dokja pushed the dazed young man down by his neck, a salacious grin on him as he drank in Joonghyuk’s glassy-eyed expression.
“I know just the fix for your oral needs,” he said to the kneeling man, and he pulled out his gun again. The metal gleamed dully under the lights overhead. “This revolver needs polishing, especially since I had to use it just for you tonight.”
Dokja tapped the barrel against Joonghyuk’s lower lip.
“Open up, Hyuk-ah. Convince me.”
His eyebrow curved higher in dark amusement as he released the younger man from his chokehold.
“Show me how bad you want me to use you.”
Without missing a beat, Joonghyuk’s mouth wrapped around the hollow metal, eyes unwaveringly on the older man.
“Gorgeous.”
Dokja unbuckled himself and pulled his rigid length out, palming himself roughly with a beatific smile on his face. His torrid eyes glimmered with lech, all reserved for Joonghyuk at the moment.
“Fucking hell, you look ravishing with my revolver in your mouth, Hyuk-ah.”
Lust spurred him on. His mouth worked on the slim barrel slowly, relentlessly. Joonghyuk didn't care about the open corridor around him, nor did it bother him that people might walk in on their unconventional tryst.
Nothing mattered to him now except pleasing Kim Dokja.
The cold edges warmed up inside him eventually, and Joonghyuk slowed down his pace, arching his back as his tongue circled around the hard metal lewdly.
“So eager for me, kitten?” Dokja’s wrist moved quickly and the wet sounds from the precum spilling down only made Joonghyuk ache more for the man’s heavy cock inside him. “So eager that you trust me with a loaded gun in your mouth? One mistake, and I might blow your brains out with it.”
A faint click reverberated through the gun and into his needy mouth.
“Even harder to not fuck up when something as pretty as your mouth is at the other end of the barrel.”
The thought did not bother Yoo Joonghyuk as much as it should’ve, whose eyes rolled back as the heady sensations of danger and losing control took over.
“That, wow, that turned you on more?” Dokja panted, a wild look in his eyes as he watched the younger man fellate his revolver with renewed gusto. “Good gods, Hyuk-ah, you really like pleasing this sleazy hyung so much?”
Joonghyuk moaned with the barrel stuffing his mouth, looking up at Dokja jerking himself off in front of him. The urge to show the older man that he was wanted only drove him further, as Joonghyuk got drunk off the depravity within their act.
“So much so that you’re risking your life for my cock. So much to prove how much of a slut you can be, all just for this filthy man?”
The very real chance of death did not faze Joonghyuk too much. It wasn’t because he was unafraid — no, Joonghyuk feared dying this young and frivolously. He also realised how easy it was for Dokja to just pull the trigger and end it all for him, especially when the older man was as delirious as he was in the midst of chasing his own pleasure.
“I’m quite envious of my revolver now, such a pretty mouth polishing it clean.”
Yoo Joonghyuk just trusted Kim Dokja enough to not pull the trigger. He trusted the man enough to hand him utter control over his life at the moment, because he knew it was in the right hands.
“Wow, you’re really putting on a show in public, Hyuk-ie. So fucking hot, all for me.”
He just had to get Kim Dokja to trust him the same way for the rest of tonight.
“Don’t forget me after this, Joonghyuk-ie,” Dokja huffed out, biting his lip as another quiet groan left his lips. His hand moved briskly, edging him closer to his release, and Joonghyuk noticed the too-pale knuckles gripping tightly onto the heavy gun.
“Consider this your first reward for tonight.”
With a sharp intake of breath, Dokja thrust himself into his tightened grip, cum spilling down his shaft in thick jets.
“Fuck, Hyuk-ie,” he ground out, giving himself a few pumps as more cum splattered on Joonghyuk’s cheeks and down his pants. “You’re too goddamn perfect.”
The revolver slipped out of Joonghyuk's mouth with a wet pop, and he shifted to face the older man’s softening length.
“Let me help you with that,” he muttered, his voice thick with desire, and Joonghyuk began licking the spend off Dokja’s wet cock.
“Fuck,” Dokja hissed and bit at his lip so hard it could draw blood. “Need to fuck you so good for this.”
His pale face was now flushed rosily, a ravenous sheen to his eyes as he watched the younger man lave at the thick cum dripping down.
“What a good boy,” Dokja panted, sighing contently. “Nice and good, clean it up like that whore mouth is supposed to.”
Joonghyuk reveled at the degrading praise, lapping the salty spunk up like a junkie to an aphrodisiac, unaware of the world spinning around him. All he saw was Kim Dokja and the rest of the night filled with him.
“Let’s continue this somewhere cozier, kitten.”
Time might’ve stood still after that, or it was passing at breakneck speed — Yoo Joonghyuk did not know. His thoughts were currently floating amongst the scents of pepper and clove that threaded within sandalwood, cardamom and oud, as he mouthed dark, blooming marks against Dokja’s neck while the man made a few phone calls. It did not help that he was being held and caressed in the older man’s arms so intentionally during.
“Hyung.”
Dokja’s baritone that greeted the unknown caller lulled him into a heady and mellow state as Joonghyuk murmured reverently. “Hyung,” he breathed out, nipping at the hard cartilage down Dokja's throat. “Hyung,” he mouthed, sucking slow kisses along the delicate skin on Dokja’s neck, earning a heated look from him as the man bit on his own lower lip to stifle a groan, still on call. Joonghyuk kept whispering the honorific, spurred on with the tightening grip on his body, feeling more wanted than ever.
An eternity and a moment later, the call disconnected and Kim Dokja’s hand found his hair at the nape, yanking Joonghyuk back and off the pale and bruising neck.
“You fucking tease.”
The older man did not smile, but his blown out pupils told him a different story. Joonghyuk looked at the gorgeous man in a wide-eyed lustful daze.
“Did I allow you to mark me, child?”
He blinked once, then replied with the first thing that came to his mind.
“Hyung?”
“You’re so far gone already,” Dokja huffed out an amused laugh, his grip on Joonghyuk’s hair getting tighter. “So drunk off my cum and I’ve barely begun. What’s going to happen when I really ravish you the way I want to, the way you’ve been begging me to, hm? Can you really take it, Hyuk-ah?”
Yes, he wanted to be taken in whatever way the old man saw fit. Joonghyuk nodded eagerly and a little too vigorously.
In response, Kim Dokja leaned closer into the young man enveloped in his arms, mouthing hot kisses up from the young man’s throat, until he reached the soft lobe. He bit into it, earning a slight yelp of pain, then eased into softer nibbling that did nothing to help Joonghyuk's twitching boner.
“Dumb kitten,” he whispered hotly against his ear. “I need you to use your words here. Will you be able to keep up?”
Trying to collect his wispy thoughts, Yoo Joonghyuk squeezed his eyes shut. “Yes. I want this. I want more.”
As remerciement, Kim Dokja's warm mouth bit into the hollow of the young man's neck, making him whine and groan with all the suckling and nibbling until there was a deep cherry mark on the tan skin.
“That's one,” he murmured against Joonghyuk's skin. “First of many to come.”
Yoo Joonghyuk did not know what, when or how — he did not know if it took them ten minutes or two hours, he did not remember if they walked all the way groping each other or drove to their destination in restrained silence, he did not know if they made out while pressed against a staircase or the metal doors of an elevator, but somehow, he found himself pinned beside the door to their hotel room, tan cheeks against the cooled wooden door while the older man pressed against him fondled every inch of his clothed torso.
“Last chance to back out, kitten.” Dokja's growl contained restraint that was on its last leg. “You’ll be compensated well even if you don’t want to go through with this.”
“I want this. Whatever happens, I’ll be fine.” Joonghyuk turned to look down at the man, the need for him only growing. “And don’t pay me for this.”
“The contra—”
“I told you, I am not doing this for the contract or the money. I’m doing this because I want you, Kim Dokja.” Desire overpowered the embarrassment from his brazenness, but he had to get it through the old man somehow. “I want you to fuck me, I—”
The door beeped once, then hissed open as Joonghyuk stumbled in head-first, before he was pulled back by his wrist by Dokja’s steady grip. Lights flooded in the room the moment he heard the door click shut, and Joonghyuk’s floaty daze evaporated the moment he saw his reflection in the full-length wall mirrors that surrounded the large bed and the ceiling.
He looked disheveled, his wavy hair sticking out messily, a feverish look on him as he peeped the littering of bites and hickeys on the exposed flesh of his neck. The older man holding him was no better, and their profanely heated gazes met within their reflections in the mirror.
Am I really doing this? Is this how I lose my virginity? Are we really going to—
“Thirsty?”
Joonghyuk could only nod, his throat drying up almost instantaneously. He watched as Kim Dokja left his side, walking over to the large wooden table at the side that overlooked the extensive glimmering skyline of Seoul.
“Water or liquor?”
Joonghyuk did not want to regret this, but he was getting the first chills of cold feet.
“Liquor.”
He watched as the older man poured what seemed like whiskey into two crystal glasses. He stepped towards the man hesitantly, and noticed a large, black, non-descript leather box that was too big to be called a briefcase.
“What would you like to start with?”
Before a confused Joonghyuk could ask for clarification, the older man clicked the locks open, then folded the box open by its handle.
Dildos. Buttplugs. Vibrators. So much leather. Duct tape. Ropes. Paddles. Some tube-like thing, obviously freaky. A huge bottle of lube. And for some godforsaken reason, there was also a pair of fuzzy cat ears on top of the long, thick braided whip.
This was quickly turning too real for Yoo Joonghyuk, his lusty haze truly broken by the reality of everything that might happen tonight at his own insistence.
Kim Dokja looked at him with an amused expression on his face.
“Calm down. I won’t be using most of these on you tonight. It’s your first time, kid.” Joonghyuk only blinked as Dokja picked out the smallest buttplug from the lot. “This should be fine for tonight. I don’t want to scare you.”
He shook his head slowly.
“What, you want bigger?” The older man clicked his tongue. “Joonghyuk-ah, I love your ambition, but you gotta take things slow, you know? Anal needs extensive prep, and for a virgi—”
“I prepped.”
The silence that followed right after was as deafening as it was increasingly awkward. Joonghyuk looked at the frozen reflection of Dokja on the window, hauntingly austere as it stared right ahead.
“I prepped myself for tonight,” he reiterated, the pregnant pause making his nervous jitters worse. “I cleaned up, I’ve been using some toys to ease myself into tonight, I— fuck, what the f— oof—!”
Joonghyuk’s head slammed onto the table. The wind got knocked out of him as his entire torso was pushed down by an oppressive hand.
“You damn vixen,” Dokja bent down, pressing himself flush against the young man's back. “If you’d have told me this at the start of the night, we’d have skipped the entire pain of attending that fucking event.”
Joonghyuk mustered up all his sass, the fumes from the whiskey tumbler beside his nose getting him brave. “Well, you never asked.”
Dokja nipped his earlobe in response, earning him an involuntary groan from the younger man as he arched his butt into the large bulge. “Well, I am now. Remind me, what was it that you were saying earlier?”
For some reason, Joonghyuk felt the need to snark again. “Saying what, old man?”
“Where are your manners, kid?” Dokja huffed out a laugh. “Are you only well behaved when there's a gun to your head?” He ground his growing hard-on slowly against the young man's pert butt. Joonghyuk bit his lip at the tantalizing friction. “Old age must be catching up to me, I can't quite remember the demands you were making before you stumbled in.”
His mind was slowly growing vacant again, and Joonghyuk shook his head, as if in protest — he wanted to take charge at least a little bit.
“I said that this is not going to be under contract.”
“Hm? And what would it be, that you’d refer to as ‘this’ so elusively?”
“This,” Joonghyuk ground out, trying not to lose his mind when he felt nimble hands unfasten his belt while groping his crotch. “Whatever we’re doing.”
“Oh? And what are we doing, Joonghyuk-ah?” Kim Dokja sounded highly amused with the game they were playing. “I want you to say what you mean, explicitly. What do you want us to do?”
“Fuck,” Joonghyuk groaned, shutting his eyes at the punishingly slow humping, embarrassment making it harder for him to say the next words out. “I want us to fuck tonight. I want you to fuck me, Kim Dokja.”
Cool air kissed his bare ass at that answer, and he heard a low, appreciative whistle over him.
“Fuck, kitten.” He felt warm, slim fingers thumb the band of the underwear he'd chosen to wear. “Darling Hyuk-ah went all out for tonight, didn’t he?” Dokja playfully tugged at the lacy elastic of the thong, then let it snap against his tan skin with a satisfying sound. “All for this hyung?”
“Told you I was yours for tonight,” Joonghyuk grumbled, shutting his eyes as the extra attention got him feeling a little shy. “Stop playing already.”
“Patience,” Dokja said, as he heard some ruffling on the side, one hand still caressing his soft, plump ass. “Patience always precedes a good time, kid. Maybe I should teach you some tonight.”
“Get on with it, old man.” He rolled his eyes, earning him a harsh smack on his asscheek.
“Ahhngg—?” Heat shot down his spine and into his groin at the smarting skin. “The fuck—?”
“Oh, it looks like you liked that.” He felt the hand caress the same area some more, before landing there in another spank, making him moan and push his ass outward unconsciously. Joonghyuk's hard dick strained from the lace he wore onto the sleek, hard surface of the table. “You might be a slut for some pain after all.”
Yoo Joonghyuk grunted some more in mortification, but he couldn't deny it either — the spanking felt oddly good.
“We’ll keep these on if I can help it, Hyuk-ah,” Dokja murmured, his hand running on the tan skin under the lace appreciatively. “Blood red and black. Truly your colors.” He traced the underwear down the cleft of his cheeks and Joonghyuk went rigid when those fingers reached his hole.
“Relax,” Dokja urged and pulled his fingers away. The younger man heard some more shuffling beside him. “It won’t hurt if you ease yourself into the moment, okay?”
Joonghyuk nodded, his cheeks still squished against the cool surface of the table. The older man leaned onto him and kissed the outer shell of his ear. “You looked stunning tonight, kitten.” He nipped into the soft lobe, and Joonghyuk mewled a little as the man trailed kisses and tiny licks down his bronze skin. “So gorgeous, all pretty and dressed up, just for this hyung, yes?”
“Yes,” he breathed out, heady with the attention given to him by that mouth. “Only for you.”
“You looked so good Joonghyuk-ah, that I almost didn't want to touch you tonight.”
Kim Dokja’s teeth sank into the hollow of his bare neck and a pained groan slipped from the young man's lips. As if to soothe, Dokja began flicking his tongue against the soft, perfumed skin, and Joonghyuk moaned, bucking his almost bare ass against the older man as sheer pleasure from the flicking sensation overrode his mind.
“I didn’t want to touch you,” Dokja breathed out in intervals of biting and licking on the delicate skin. “Because I didn’t want to ruin you.”
Bite. Joonghyuk’s eyes rolled back at the pain.
“You looked divine, absolutely angelic. It would be a shame if someone touched you, defiled you the way I wanted to.”
Flick. Lick. He mewled out Dokja’s name as he felt warm, wet fingers play with his pucker.
“If someone got you down on your knees the way I did.”
Suck. Kiss. A shudder went through him at the gentleness, the massaging at his rim only soothing him further.
“Someone trying to ruin such prettiness with their grimy hands? Better off dead, if you ask me.”
Bite. Another groan shot out from Joonghyuk’s mouth, the reminder of bloodshed somehow making him harder.
“But if I didn’t touch you, Hyuk-ah, all your preparations would’ve been wasted. Can’t have that happen, now, can we?”
Without another warning, two fingers thrust themselves inside Joonghyuk’s rim, punching out a gasp from the younger man.
“Since you’ve prepared so diligently for me, two should be fine for your first time, right?”
Joonghyuk only moaned out a plea as rough, leisurely thrusts hit all the good spots, his lacy underwear still on and at the risk of becoming dirtier than it already was. He vaguely observed Dokja picking up his glass of whiskey, then setting it down empty beside him a few moments later.
“Feels good,” Joonghyuk breathed out, sighing in pleasure as he pushed his butt out more against the slow pumping inside. “Good.”
“What an eager whore, tempting me with all that ass.” He paused the thrusting, then wriggled his fingers inside, dragging them firmly against the wall where the prostate was.
“Nnngh— Ahjussi, haaaahhnnnnghh—!”
“There it is.” Cruelly, he jerked his fingers in again and began massaging the same spot.
“Aahhnghh— Ahjussiii, yes—!”
“I love hearing you like this,” he said, leaning down to kiss the younger man on his nape again. “Love making you squirm and moan for me, Hyuk-ah.”
“Hah— hah-jussi— s-so good, yes.” Joonghyuk sighed blissfully as the dexterous fingers rubbed at the firm tissue some more, now scissoring and coaxing his walls open. “Like this.”
“Of course you do,” Dokja retorted cheekily, reaching upwards to kiss the younger man on his feverish face. “Of course you like this, you were made for this.”
Joonghyuk felt something foreign poke at his already filled rim.
“Your greedy ass wanted something bigger, right? This is my biggest one here.”
Without any warning, he felt the two fingers retract, replaced by something far more filling.
“Ouunnghh—?”
“Well, would you look at that. You sucked it in so quickly.” He could hear the grin on the older man’s voice, the stretch of the heavy buttplug giving him an oddly pleasant tingle. “You weren’t lying about wanting bigger, eh? My Hyuk-ah has been quite the nympho these days.”
Dokja grabbed onto Joonghyuk’s rock-hard dick, giving it a lazy pump through the fabric of the lingerie.
“Let’s see how much my cute nympho can take tonight.”
Joonghyuk heard a click, and the next thing he knew, his insides felt like jelly.
“Ouuunnnnnghhh—?” He bit his lip at the onslaught of sensations, brought by the large vibrating plug fluttering against his prostate in ways he had never experienced. “Shit, shit, aaahhjussi—?”
A few more spanks had the young man mewling on the table, arching his back and shutting his eyes in wanton rapture, while the older man watched on with barely contained lust.
“You want more?”
Click.
Shuddering gasps escaped him as the vibrations inside got more intense. “Ahjussi, this— good, fuck me—”
“Call me hyung, little one.”
Dokja’s body pressing against him, the girthy fullness of the oscillating toy, and the warm scents of whiskey, sandalwood and cloves — all sought to overwhelm the young man as a loud moan slipped out of his mouth.
“Hyunnnnggghh, fuck me— ahhrghhh—!”
With a single motion of his arm, Kim Dokja flipped the tall man on his back.
“You look so pretty,” he murmured, cupping Joonghyuk’s flushed face with one hand as the other worked swiftly to unbuckle his own pants. “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of looking at you, Joonghyuk-ah.”
“Hy— haahnngh— Hyung—!”
The young man could only watch in his dreamy haze as Dokja lifted and pushed Joonghyuk onto the wooden table with ease, then pulled the thin band of the black lace down to free his hard cock straining through the sheer fabric.
“Mmm, what a pretty little thing, this dick of yours.”
Dokja’s eyes were solely on the young man’s member and his leaking tip. He swiped his thumb across the wet, sensitive head and licked it clean, earning another shudder from Joonghyuk who watched the lewd act with wide eyes.
“You taste so sweet, Hyuk-ie.”
“A-ahjussi, stop it,” Joonghyuk grumbled, looking away as blood and molten lust coursed through his feverishly trembling body. “You’re doing too much.”
“Not even close.” The old man grinned as he bit into his own thumb, grabbing his dick and sliding it against Joonghyuk’s smaller one. “In fact, I’m not doing enough.”
He slipped his slick, bitten finger into the younger man’s mouth, and another hand deftly pulled the rest of Joonghyuk’s pants off him.
“Suck on it.”
The order was soft, but there was a force behind it that Joonghyuk could not resist. He began swirling his tongue around the bitemarks, his eyes locked onto Kim Dokja’s, that had now turned black with desire, threatening to consume him the closer he got to the elusive man. He felt a cool wetness drip down his own dick. The weight of something warmer and larger pressed against his belly.
“What a good boy.”
Yoo Joonghyuk looked down. He eyed the man’s massive size next to his own covered in lube, and it took all his will not to just bury his head in mortification — the taste of that thing in his mouth was still too fresh, and there, in all its glory, Kim Dokja’s dick was far too huge to be considered human.
How is that going inside…?
“You look pretty with your mouth like this,” Dokja smirked as he pushed his thumb deeper into the needy orifice. Spit and drool dripped down the corner of his mouth, and Joonghyuk gagged around the intruding digit.
Dokja began thrusting himself against his lube-covered cock languidly. The friction wasn't nearly enough, but the sight of the older man rutting against him got Joonghyuk too close to his second orgasm of the night — almost untouched with a vibrator in his ass.
“Hyung, I want more,” Joonghyuk breathed out as the thumb played with his wet tongue. His eyes were pleading, now wide as saucers.
More, please.
“I love how demanding you are, pretty thing,” Dokja groaned out, holding and palming their cocks together. The difference in their sizes got Joonghyuk reeling, but it only spurred his lust further on. He thrust himself into Dokja’s hand, frotting against the larger dick. “Joonghyuk-ah’s dick looks so cute.”
“H-hyung!”
He shut his eyes as he yelped in embarrassment — he didn’t know if he wanted the man to stop, if he wanted more praise or more fucking, but he needed more.
“More, please.”
“Choke me then,” Dokja replied, eyeing their slick shafts pumping steadily in his hand. Yoo Joonghyuk had to blink twice before he realised that the offer was not a joke.
“Why the, hahhh— hell?”
“You must’ve resented me a lot, yes?” A wicked grin spread across his face as he pulled his thumb out of Joonghyuk’s mouth. “I’m offering you some catharsis tonight, for ruining your life so far.”
You didn’t ruin anything, was what Joonghyuk wanted to say, but all that he could manage was a sharp gasp when another hand gripped their dicks firmly together — the added friction from Dokja’s thumb rubbing his wet tip sent him close to the edge of his climax.
“Now’s your time to get that off your chest.”
Dokja bent down and watched Joonghyuk pant with want, his half-lidded eyes looking a little too gleeful at his own suggestion.
“Choke me, Hyuk-ah. I’m practically begging you to.”
Joonghyuk scooted closer until they were nose to nose. His tan hands wrapped around the pale man’s neck, marked heavily with the purpling hickeys that his mouth had left earlier.
“Hah— like this?” He pressed the sides lightly, and a dark look flit past Dokja’s eyes.
“Press harder, kid,” the older man demanded, his shallow pumps getting slower. “That won’t do shit.”
“Nnnghh—” Joonghyuk squeezed harder, biting his lip as the friction at his cock grew more intense. “Hnngh— this much?”
“Are you scared you’ll hurt me?”
Dokja’s head dipped down to leave a short, searing kiss on his mouth, the taste of bitter vanilla whiskey strong on his tongue.
“I’m far more resilient than you think, kitten.” His breath was hot on his lips. “Give it all you got, put all your anger into it.”
The sensations all around his body was compulsive — the deep whirring inside his hole, the tantalising friction at his dick, the overbearing weight of the older man pressed against him, the fragrant clove and oud in the air mixed with their own musk; every single breath he took contained a bit of the man on top of him, and all he wanted was Kim Dokja to consume him and his senses even more.
Joonghyuk wrung his neck. In response, the man’s hips and hands stuttered instantaneously.
“T-that’s more like it.”
Dokja palmed along their lengths with quicker, rougher strokes of his hands, now thrusting with a vigour that took Joonghyuk off guard, but that was only until he looked up to the man’s face — Kim Dokja looked elated, cheeks ruddy and a maniacal glint in his darkened eyes.
“G-god, yes, just like that, g-good boy Hyuk-ie,” he choked out, grinning wildly as he rutted his hips harshly against Joonghyuk’s slick shaft. “Want to f-fuck you so good, kitten.”
Joonghyuk bit his lip, strangely wanting more of this shift in the man’s demeanour.
“Nnngh— Hyung, yes—”
He squeezed harder and Dokja’s breathing grew more laboured, but his hips only picked up the already brutal pace.
“Y-you want this filthy hyung to breed your ass tonight?”
Kim Dokja wants to breed me, he’s hot, that’s so hot—!
Joonghyuk’s hips twitched upwards involuntarily, pumping himself into those rough hands. “Hnngh— Hyung, c-close—!”
“Then I’ll do just that.” Kim Dokja leaned closer, panting deliriously as he jerked the two slick cocks off. “I’ll fuck you until you’re full with my cum, my little slut.”
“Cumminggghh, hyung—!”
Pleasure spiked in Joonghyuk’s body. He shuddered, his spend splattering on both of them. His hands slipped off from Dokja’s neck, body still trembling from the orgasm and overly sensitive with the buttplug still oscillating mercilessly inside.
“My Hyuk-ie came already?”
His hips stopped moving. Cum trickled down Joonghyuk’s thighs, and Dokja watched it pool down onto the delicate lace with a fascination that bordered on obsessive. Ignoring his own rigid length, he bent down until his face was between Joonghyuk’s thighs.
“Ahjussi—?”
“Can’t have this go to waste,” Dokja muttered and ran his tongue along the sensitive skin of his inner thighs. Joonghyuk bit his lower lip, mortified but equally aroused as he watched the older man lap up his seed like a madman.
He trailed more kisses upwards, then met Joonghyuk’s eyes with a craving so lecherous, it added fuel to the burning embers inside him.
“You taste so good, Hyuk-ah.”
The praises soaked in his honeyed baritone lulled Joonghyuk closer to insanity with his red-hot want for the man, a want that was slowly growing into a necessity.
“So goddamn good.”
Without taking his eyes off the younger man, Kim Dokja licked a fat stripe along the cum-soaked lace and relished in it, earning him a low, guttural moan from an overstimulated Yoo Joonghyuk.
“A-ahjussi, so lewd,” he muttered low, looking away from those all-consuming eyes, feeling way too bare and vulnerable at once. “Too much.”
“We’re just getting started, kitten,” Dokja replied, lapping it all up slowly. “You asked for this, didn’t you?”
Tempted, Joonghyuk turned to watch the racy act, his heart hammering against his chest as arousal began to fill his cock out yet once more.
“You wanted this dirty hyung to fuck you. I’m doing just that.” The wetness from Dokja’s wanting mouth seeped into the lace. Joonghyuk could feel his whole body tremble, under the spell of the man whose face was buried in his crotch. “I want to take my time with someone as exquisite as you, I want to savor you for as long as I can.”
Dokja laved the lube and spunk off his semi-hard cock, making Joonghyuk shudder again.
“I want to take my time to unravel every inch of you, Hyuk-ie. I need to utterly ruin you for anyone else who comes after me.”
Saying this, the man popped his entire length into his mouth.
“Nnnnghh—!”
“Mmmmfgh.”
Joonghyuk felt a tongue swirl up from the base of his dick right to the head. He was still too sensitive after his orgasm, and the tongue playing with his tip only drove him further to madness.
“Hah— haaahnngghhh— Too much, too much, too— ouuuuughh—!”
Dokja’s appreciative groans reverberated down the lube-slick shaft and resonated with the fluttering plug inside.
“Hyung— hah— your mouth, so good— aughhhhh—!”
“Mmmmhmm?”
As if the warm tightness of his mouth wasn’t maddening enough for the young man, Dokja's tongue now began flicking against the base of his head.
“Ahhnngh—! Hyuuuunghhh— Pleaaseee—!”
Joonghyuk squeezed his eyes shut, moaning needily as he gripped the edges of the table a little too hard in overstimulation.
“Hannghh—? Ahn— ahn— aangh— Yes, hyungg— ahngh—!”
The continuous onslaught quickly drove Joonghyuk off the edges of ecstasy.
“Haah— hanghh—? I— I’m cummingghhh— nngh— hyuuunghhhh—! Hngh— Kyaaaaaah~!”
He bucked his hip wildly into the older man’s mouth and released his load again, his vision blacking out in sheer pleasure. Dokja let him thrust some more until he ceased to move, ragged breaths dragging themselves out of the young man’s lips.
“Mmmngh, hyunghh,” Joonghyuk mumbled out something incoherent, thoroughly spent and floating in his orgasmic bliss. The vibrator buzzing inside made his whole body quake. He threw his head back, eyes fluttering shut.
“Hyuuung, want me.”
He felt everything and nothing at the same time, mind vacant and intoxicated, the only sure thing he knew being the heat of Kim Dokja’s mouth still wrapped around him.
He felt those lips pull away from his now-flaccid cock, only to crash against his own swollen ones. Warm salty fluid trickled into his open, wanting mouth and he let out another moan, swallowing his own cum as he sloppily made out with Dokja.
“Hyung,” he moaned against his lips, his arms wrapping around the man needily as all semblance of pretence and reservations left his mind. “Want you. Want you so much.”
“Need you,” Dokja panted back, returning Joonghyuk’s soppy kisses with sure swipes of his own tongue. “So much, Hyuk-ie.”
Their mouths melded together as they explored the other, the sultry air around them flavored by staccato grunts, needy moans and the sweet rapture they found within each other.
“Need you all to myself,” Dokja said, his lips finding the corner of Joonghyuk’s jaw as he peppered kisses where the scarlet marks had begun blooming on the tan neck. Deftly, Dokja’s hands loosened the young man’s tie and set it aside, then shed the remainder of Joonghyuk’s clothes until his bronze skin was illuminated by the dim lights overhead.
His eyes raked over Joonghyuk’s entirety, who was too inebriated with lust to feel self conscious anymore.
Feeling brave, the young man’s bare foot playfully traced a path on Dokja’s body, from the base of the man’s stiff dick up to his suit lapel. He spread his legs further apart and leaned back, the buttplug pulsing inside Joonghyuk now in full view.
“Hyung, use me.”
Blood rushed into every capillary of his exposed skin with the relentless roaring of his heart.
“I am yours.”
Every inch of Joonghyuk’s smooth, tan skin was flushed red. His eyes were trained solely on Dokja, who loomed over his body looking painfully bewitching.
“Mine.”
Kim Dokja tested the single syllable on his tongue, a severe look on his face.
“Yoo Joonghyuk.”
He sounded the name out slowly, his tongue caressing each syllable deliberately like one would a fated inamorato’s, and a strange pang went through Joonghyuk that caught him off guard.
“Is this only for tonight, or do you want more?”
Joonghyuk did not like the sinking feeling inside, he wanted it gone.
“Maybe just for tonight,” he breathed out, but before he could think any further, Joonghyuk blurted out. “Maybe more.”
“More?”
He felt self conscious again, but if he wasn’t this needy for the man, he wouldn't be anywhere within the vicinity of exposing his plugged hole to someone he’d met just ten days ago.
“You know, I intend to take full advantage of you with that.”
He pulled out the same plain dagger that he’d given Joonghyuk, who watched silently as the older man unsheathed the blade. Uneasiness washed over Joonghyuk as Dokja brought it closer, whose eyes were trained on the foot that was splayed against his thumping heart.
When the tip touched the skin of his ankles, Joonghyuk squeezed his eyes shut in anticipation. Only, the pain never came. Instead, the edge of the blade only kissed his skin, dragging itself up his bare leg without breaking skin.
“You have no idea how much I want you right now," Dokja said as he held the large foot, folding the young man’s knee as he got closer. “Your parents, they were right about one thing though.”
The trailing dagger slipped under the ruined black lace of his underwear and with a single nick, sliced it off him.
“I destroy in my greed. I ruin what is good, and I know I am simply too wretched for you.”
The dagger’s edge found respite between the space where his thigh met his crotch. Joonghyuk flinched as the blade dug in, and a bead of blood quickly formed where the skin had broken through.
“This hyung is no good for you, but I’m too goddamn selfish to step away on my own.”
The haziness in his mind dissolved with the momentary pain. Dokja pulled the bloodied tip away, only to lick it clean without blinking away from Joonghyuk’s gaze.
“And you’re too naive to trust me with your life like this.”
Unflinching, Kim Dokja sliced his palm open.
“Ahjussi!”
Blood dripped onto Joonghyuk’s bronze thighs. Dokja grabbed onto the liquor glass and let the rest of it flow, snapping the young man out of his sated state entirely.
“Fuck, what the hell is all this for?”
Dokja only squeezed his oozing palm tighter. Sanguine seeped within the scanty amber inside, settling down and readily spreading itself in hypnotic harmony. The two men watched as the blood dissolved itself in the alcohol.
“You want more and so do I, but it’s not right for me to claim you without giving you a choice, Yoo Joonghyuk.”
He cradled the younger man’s face, his bloody palm leaving a warm, wet trail on Joonghyuk’s cheek.
“This,” he said, swirling the modest concoction lazily. “This represents my sworn fealty to the one who consumes. This is the blood of our covenant,[35] which I’m pouring out for my own redemption.” There was a rueful curve to his lips as he eyed the settling hazy liquid. “This is all I can give you for now, Joonghyuk-ah. A choice.”
“A choice,” Joonghyuk echoed out. He understood what was being asked of him. “Do I officially become part of the Jopok when I drink this?”
“If we performed the ritual in front of the rest of the organisation during our Haengsa,[36] then yes, you would become associated with me, but only in part. It’s only when I drink your blood in return that you are sworn in completely.”
Dokja’s bloody thumb caressed Joonghyuk’s lower lip with a bleak look in his dark eyes.
“Within the confines of these walls, though, this blood represents my own life. I’m giving this to you in selfish atonement,[37] Joonghyuk-ah. Should you choose to drink this, even if you walk away from me at daybreak, I will be yours in every capacity you demand. No one will come after you or Mia after tonight. You can live freely, or come to me as you please.”
The metallic air infected the phantom pains gripping Joonghyuk’s chest. An odd sensation of melancholy went through him as another bout of realisation washed over.
“I wish to stake my claim on you tonight, but I will only take as much as you’re willing to give me for my sullied blood.”
This wasn’t just carnal desire fuelling a night’s worth of thrill, no, what Joonghyuk felt was far more insidious than that. It was not just a need for Kim Dokja — Joonghyuk ached to be wanted, to be needed as much as he did the bleeding man.
Within Kim Dokja’s selfish atonement, Yoo Joonghyuk saw salvation.
“Hyung.”
Joonghyuk looked him straight in the eye, every emotion that he felt within now laid bare.
“I didn’t lie when I said that you could use me.”
He licked the blood that had begun trickling down Dokja’s thumb, savoring the iron that coated his tongue.
“I was also not lying when I told you that I wanted to be yours.”
His hand caught Dokja’s wrist, bringing the ensanguined liquor closer to him.
“If that means your life in blood, then I will take it even if it damns me.”
The cool glassware touched his lips and Joonghyuk drank the metallic bitterness slowly, his face scrunched in a grimace as he did.
“In return, unburden yourself onto me tonight.”
With the same blade that made Kim Dokja bleed, Yoo Joonghyuk sliced through the skin over his annulary.[38]
Wound for wound.
“I can take it, Kim Dokja.”
He watched idly as a thin stream flowed into the empty glass that the older man held.
“Let me bear some of your sins.”[39]
Joonghyuk picked up the blocky bottle of liquor. He tipped the whiskey into the glass of blood before it could coagulate, and poured until the pooled crimson dissolved to become mahogany.
“Joonghyuk-ah,” Dokja chuckled out, his eyes boring into the generously portioned liquor with barely restrained amusement. “I couldn’t possibly burden you if I was in my right mind.”
Kim Dokja downed the filled glass in one go, with nary a grimace or a hint of hesitation.
“Fortunately for you, I'm one greedy motherfucker.”
Blood for blood.
“Absolve me of my sins all you want, kid, but let me teach you how to pour out a drink first."
The older man took the bottle from him, then tilted the crystal glassware towards it with the hand that still bled fresh.
“When you hold a whiskey glass, kitten, you hold it at the bottom so that your fingers don’t warm the liquor up before you drink it. You tilt it and then pour it a little into the center of the glass. Like this.”
Dokja filled it up to about a breadth of his fingertip, far less than what Joonghyuk had poured out for him.
“This is about as much as you need for your drink.”
He handed the blood-coated glass over to a very perplexed Joonghyuk, who was still reeling from the intensity of whatever had just transpired between them.
“Let the aroma reach your nose before you begin. Drink it in slow sips, let it sit on your tongue a little, then swallow.”
Dokja leaned in closer, grabbing onto Joonghyuk’s bleeding fourth digit. He thumbed the deep cut that still oozed, earning a slight hiss from the younger man.
“Though, I’m sure you know all about that from earlier, don't you? This should be easy for you.”
As if he wasn’t already naked in torn and dirtied underwear, Joonghyuk blushed even more at the raunchy reminder. Wordlessly, he accepted the liquor and did as he was instructed. The aroma was strong, but Joonghyuk could smell the vanilla and honey he’d tasted on the man earlier. Slowly, he sipped on the alcohol, welcoming its bitterly stinging burn along with the hints of spices and fruits that waltzed on his tastebuds. It went down his throat quite smoothly, so much so that he didn’t realise that the tumbler had soon become empty.
“My turn,” Dokja whispered, and began sucking on his bleeding finger. A low groan went through the older man as he sucked on the thick digit, tongue gently swirling and lapping against the fresh wound. It stung Joonghyuk for a few seconds, but the comforting warmth and firm pressure from the mouth then soothed his pain, aided by the liquor that was beginning to dissolve inside him.
Dokja took the finger in deeper and bit hard at the base, earning a pained grunt from Joonghyuk whose dick was beginning to stiffen once more. When he pulled away, a thin strand of saliva threaded the space between Dokja’s lips and the wet digit.
“There you go, now you’re not bleeding,” he said, kissing the softened nick.
For better or worse, the two men were bound by the flowing blood in their veins.
“Our contract,” Joonghyuk breathed out, eyeing the deep indents that had formed a ring around his annulary. “Is it extended indefinitely?”
Am I really yours?
“Do you think a measly contract compares to what we just did? We’re bound by Hyeolju. My honor won’t let me live if something were to happen to you now.” Dokja let out an incredulous huff. “I don’t bleed for just anyone, Yoo Joonghyuk.”
His wounded palm caressed the naked man, leaving a fresh trail of blood behind on the tan skin.
“How do you want me to reassure you, Hyuk-ah?”
Without waiting for an answer, he picked the bare man up, cradling him close to his firm body. Joonghyuk felt weightless in his arms, heady with desire as he felt the heat of Dokja’s bare shaft at his already stimulated butt.
“I know this is nowhere enough for someone as eager as you.”
Dokja’s lips captured his in a hot, wet kiss. It consumed the young man from the inside, rough and unrestrained in his want as Dokja pressed Joonghyuk even closer to him.
Burn for burn. A willing desire that burned so hot, it branded the two embracing men.
An animalistic urge to stake his claim washed over Joonghyuk and he returned Dokja’s fervor with a searing passion of his own. He felt the cushiony bed dip under him, and the older man pressed himself further onto Joonghyuk.
“I’ve sullied you with my blood as much as you’ve cleansed me with yours, Hyuk-ah.”
Joonghyuk wanted to prove him wrong, and the only way he knew how was with reciprocation.
He stripped Dokja off his dark coat. His arm snaked around Dokja’s slender waist and pulled him close.
“Hyuk-ah,” Dokja groaned into Joonghyuk’s demanding mouth, grinding his length against the young man’s lubed crotch. “Gorgeous, how do I show you how much I want you?”
Joonghyuk responded by groaning back into his lips — words were beginning to fail him, but he knew Kim Dokja would understand, he would have to understand exactly how much he was needed. Joonghyuk’s fingers fumbled around the buttons of the dark vest, the other arm pressing the man on top closer to him.
“How do I show you I’m yours, Hyuk-ah?”
Joonghyuk let out a protesting whine when the older man dragged his lips away. Kim Dokja pushed himself off the needy embrace, only to kneel between the young man’s bare thighs as if in penance.
Dokja peeled the vest off himself, then his pants, until all that remained was the powder blue shirt. Joonghyuk only watched intently, appreciating every inch of his pale skin, every bead of precum that dripped down his thick, rigid length, every ripple of firm sinew over the thighs and calves dusted lightly by hair.
“Love what you see, kitten?” Dokja fiddled with his chrome watch, clicking the buckle open. “Look up.”
Yoo Joonghyuk obeyed. His breath hitched. His eyes widened as they met his debauched reflection overhead. Disheveled hair, a lecherous look within wide eyes, a lithe, tan body flushed rosy — all covered in scarlet blooms and wet streaks of crimson left by Dokja's bleeding palm. Marked as his in more ways than one, his gaze flitted over every imprint left by Kim Dokja.
“That is how I see you right now. Sublime, so utterly delectable, my Joonghyuk-ah.”
Marked, branded, soul set ablaze, Yoo Joonghyuk truly belonged to Kim Dokja in that moment. And, if one considered the taste of blood still heavy on their tongues, their stakes were claimed for the rest of their days.
“I want you to watch what we do, Hyuk-ah.”
The girthy plug pulsed inside, amplifying the need he felt for the man in front of him.
“I want you to watch me prove it to you. Time and again, for the rest of tonight.”
Joonghyuk looked back and took a sharp intake of breath. His eyes drank in the older man unbuttoning his shirt stained in blood, peeking at the intricate designs inked all over the toned torso.
“I want you to watch yourself, kitten.”
Swiftly, Dokja took his shirt off, the muscles on his chest rippling as he did. His torso was covered almost completely in ink. Bold, black lines juxtaposed with soft shading in grayscale, a snake winding up around a field of peonies on his right, while stunning linework of large chrysanthemums cradled kitsune masks on his left arm.
“I hope this is enough. This is all I can give you.”
The man in front of him prowled closer until they were only an inch apart.
Lean but sinewy arms caged Joonghyuk but their bodies didn’t touch just yet. Bated breaths were exchanged within the air of their aphrodisia, heat and need emanated from them as they beheld each other within this moment. Time crystallised as Joonghyuk looked up, right into the eyes that had held him captive from the moment they first met.
“This wretched man is all yours, Yoo Joonghyuk.”
The glimmering stars within were long consumed. A black hole stood in their stead, darkening Dokja’s eyes as ravenous hunger threatened to take over every last bit of his sanity.
“I promise you that.”
Kim Dokja was right there, bared to him and only for him.
“Watch yourself as I ravish you completely.”
When their lips met again that night, there were no holds barred, no restraint remaining.
Their bodies went down with the kiss, a white-hot affair that left no breath for Yoo Joonghyuk. He devoured while being consumed. Tongue against tongue in slick embrace, teeth clashing against each other, Joonghyuk hungrily drank in each grunt and groan that he could coax out of the older man, while whorish moans spilt out of his own lips.
“Kim Dokja,” he gasped out, gripping the sheets as the man’s teeth sank into his ear. “More.”
“Greedy little kitten, we have the rest of tonight.” Hot breath tickled the shell, and the low, guttural rasp got Joonghyuk shutting his eyes. Dokja’s hungry lips travelled lower, licking, biting, sucking, leaving more scarlet marks behind.
Stripe for stripe,[40] as if the older man hadn’t claimed enough of him.
Joonghyuk bit his lip and grunted as he felt a hot mouth latch onto his dusky nipple. A sharp yelp split out of his mouth as Dokja deftly kneaded his pecs, teasing the stiff nubs with a hand and an eager tongue.
“Hyung, your mouth,” the young man whined, squeezing his eyes shut even tighter. The plug pulsing in his ass only felt more intense. “Feels so— nnghh—!”
“That so?” He tugged at the nipple with his teeth, earning a sharp mewl from Joonghyuk. “Open your eyes, sweetheart. I want you to watch.”
Their smoldering gazes met again before Dokja flicked the nub with his tongue. The black snake etched over the curve of his shoulder felt like it watched Joonghyuk knowingly, a silent witness to their perversion.
Feeling bolder than ever, Yoo Joonghyuk groaned out another plea. “Do your worst, hyung.”
“Worst?” The older man chuckled in dark amusement. “I plan to do my best, kitten.”
A sharp tug, then a pinch at the other nipple got Joonghyuk gasping out his name again. His body hummed with spikes of pleasure, a buzzing that took over like the ends of a live wire as the man continued toying with his body. Dokja’s mouth roamed further south, and Joonghyuk looked up at their reflection.
The ceiling mirrors painted a raunchy sight straight out of a wet dream, something so carnal that it surpassed pornography — Joonghyuk was sprawled across the bed, knuckles whitening as they clutched onto the sheets, body blood-stained and messy with a smattering of lovebites, but the real work of art was Kim Dokja.
His broad, tattooed back was draped over Joonghyuk’s bare body. Every inch of skin was covered in black ink meticulously etched, of a fierce dragon ascending heavenwards as it nestled beautifully rendered skulls in the curves of its twisting body. At the centre of it was a severed head being strangled by the dragon. The only splash of color within the entire piece set in grayscale was the dark blood that dripped from the grotesque head.
Every inch of the man was exquisite. Everything about Kim Dokja was deliberate. Every bit of their reflection was a masterpiece.
“Enjoying the view?”
Joonghyuk looked down, only to watch as Dokja licked the lube off his stiff cock. Hickeys and finger imprints mottled Dokja’s pale throat, a claim of ownership made in the heat of passion. Something feral glinted in his eyes as his tongue flicked over the sensitive tip of Joonghyuk’s dick, earning a pleasured hiss from the younger man.
“Eyes on the mirror, kitten.”
Joonghyuk looked up once more.
Click.
The muted vibrations that Joonghyuk had gotten used to were now amplified.
“Ouuuhghhhh—?”
The thick toy buzzed right against his prostate, the intensity now mercilessly sending him over the edge. Joonghyuk’s entire body jolted in pleasure and he watched himself come so easily undone, mouth open in a ragged gasp, hips jutting right into Dokja’s greedy mouth that consumed every drop of his spend.
“Hyuuuunnngghg—!”
His hands clutched onto silky hair. His hips moved on their own accord, his whole body quivering as his mind went blank in white-hot rapture.
“You taste so good.”
Heated gazes met within their sultry reflections. Dokja crouched closer to his quivering hole. Joonghyuk was not capable of another word in his heady bliss, still holding onto the older man’s hair.
“Bewitching. I want more, Hyuk-ah.”
His large, slender fingers played with the base of the buttplug that still buzzed inside the overstimulated ass. Slowly, agonisingly, Dokja pulled the thick toy out.
“H-hyung—”
With just half of it out, the plug was shoved back in.
“Cumminnngggghhhhgg—!?”
What remained of Yoo Joonghyuk’s mind melted instantly. His back arched off the bed as he came dry, legs giving way for another mind-numbing climax that was longer and far more intense than anything he’d ever experienced.
“I love watching you come apart,” Dokja murmured, and pulled the plug out entirely. A lewd, wet sound echoed in the room as he did. “Can’t get enough of it.”
Joonghyuk’s dopey brain could only comprehend one thing.
“Empttyyy, hyungggg—”
“I know, kitten.” Dokja only stared at his hole, transfixed. “Gods, look at that pretty gape, trying to close itself.”
Joonghyuk’s desperate hands only brought the man’s head closer to him.
“Insatiable little slut.” Kim Dokja huffed out a laugh. “Who knew you’d be so eager to fuck this old man?”
He reached out for something in the corner. Joonghyuk didn’t care, he was too far gone to realise what was going on.
“So eager to claim me as yours, aren’t you?”
Dokja pulled out what looked like a permanent marker from thin air and uncapped it.
“You’ve been so good for me, Hyuk-ie,” he cooed. “Such a pretty little thing for this hyung.”
The praise only made Joonghyuk grunt in satisfaction. Waves of euphoria lapped every corner of his mind, his thoughts now mere seafoam. He felt lighter for the first time in his life, neither a burden tonight nor burdened.
It was safe for Yoo Joonghyuk to fall, just a bit, as they willingly partook in their tango tonight.
“This greedy hyung wants just a little more from you, alright?”
An odd ticklishness went through him as Dokja began scribbling something on his thigh, then moved on to write some more on the other.
“Something more tangible to prove what we’ve done tonight.”
The marker moved northwards on his stomach. Bold, black lines adorned his tan skin, but Joonghyuk couldn’t make out what was written just yet.
“This hyung is quite a selfish lover, Hyuk-ie.”
He leaned over the young man and wrote something else on his chest.
“And yet, you’ve asked for more, and it’s on me to listen to what my cute brat wants from me.”
Dokja placed a tender kiss over his swollen lips. Swiftly, he turned the younger man to his side and pressed his hot, hard length against Joonghyuk’s ass.
“You’ve been such a good boy for me, Hyuk-ie,” Dokja murmured in his ears. Joonghyuk’s eyes fluttered shut at the praise, a low groan slipping out of his lips as he felt the massive cock slowly grind between the cleft of his cheeks. “So needy to be used by me.”
He grabbed Joonghyuk by the hair of his nape and yanked him behind.
“So needy for my cock inside, aren’t you?”
The man’s grip on his hair only twisted more. A pained yelp ripped out of Joonghyuk with that, soon turning into a whimper when Dokja bit at his ear.
“Answer me, Hyuk-ie. What do you want right now?”
The only thought that occupied Yoo Joonghyuk was the need for this hyung’s dick inside him.
“You,” he rasped the single syllable out with all that he could muster.
“Well, you already have me here,” Dokja breathed back in his ear, equally affected. The friction on his puffy rim only made him push his hips behind, his back flush against the older man’s pounding heart. “I’m already yours, Hyuk-ie. At your service until the end of my life.”
He felt wet fingers reach between his cheeks, further toying with his pucker with the prodding and the teasing.
“Yours,” Joonghyuk repeated back dumbly.
Before his mind could catch up with everything else, he felt three slippery fingers enter him slowly.
“H-hyung—”
Eyes squeezed shut at the gentle intrusion, the digits inside him made him moan again as they spread his walls open.
“Nnnggh— Hyung, please—”
The fist in his hair released him, only to grab onto his jaw. With a rough twist of Dokja’s wrist, Joonghyuk’s face was now turned completely away from his lover.
“Open your eyes. Look in front of you.” Dokja’s breath was hot against the back of his ear, his low, honeyed commands an aphrodisiac. “Listen to what I have to ask of you, love.”
Joonghyuk obeyed, and his hazy vision sharply came into focus as he got a glimpse of himself in the full-length mirrors next to their bed.
“What does my Joonghyuk-ie want from this hyung?”
Joonghyuk looked thoroughly ravished, and he wasn’t even fucked by the man just yet. His bronze skin was covered in a sheen of blood, sweat and spunk, with countless lovebites all over his torso. The fresh writing on his body was flipped, but he could read it quite easily.
Thick, black strokes of ink on his thighs spelled out ‘Hyung’s slutty kitten’, along with tally marks that currently went to ‘five’. Higher on his belly, there was an arrow pointing down to his crotch with the words ‘To be milked and bred’ above it.
His eyes scanned the cute hearts drawn in randomly between the filthy inscriptions of ‘Fill me up!’ and ‘Prettiest brat’. On top of his chest, right where Yoo Joonghyuk’s heart thumped against his ribs, there was a single word written in clear, bold lettering.
‘Mine.’
Every mark left behind was undeniable proof of Kim Dokja’s ownership over him.
“What do you want from this hyung, kitten?” Dokja cajoled, dragging his fingers against Joonghyuk’s prostate. The corners of his mouth was wet with drool, a glassy shine to Joonghyuk’s eyes as the thick fingers scissored inside him. “I need you to be loud and clear.”
“Hnngh—”
He met Dokja’s lustful gaze within their reflection. There was a dark flush to the older man’s face and the elated look on his face was Sin itself.
“Your, nnghh— your cock,” Joonghyuk groaned as the thick digits deliberately rubbed against that spot again. “I want your cock inside me.”
Dokja chuckled cruelly. “Be polite.”
If Joonghyuk wasn’t well within the bliss of his many orgasms, he would’ve glared at the older man.
“Hah— I want your cock inside me, please?”
For good measure, Joonghyuk pressed his ass harder against the fingers pumping inside him.
“Nicer, Hyuk-ah.” A wicked, feral grin split Dokja’s lips. “Ask nicely.”
Joonghyuk shut his eyes, his head getting floatier.
“Please— ahhngh— please, fuck me, hyung. I need hyung’s cock inside me, please.”
Dokja’s hand left his jaw, only to grab onto the dip above his hip. A single word was drawled out next.
“Perfect.”
Without another warning, he pulled his fingers out and thrust his dick inside the lax entrance.
“Haaahhhghh—??!”
A yelp tore through Joonghyuk as he tried comprehending the sudden fullness inside him. It felt good, so goddamn good to have a—
“Be my filthy whore tonight.”
Dokja plunged himself in with another snap of his hip, punching a sharp gasp out of Joonghyuk’s lips.
“My Hyuk-ie really likes it when sleazy hyungs put him in his place, eh?”
The sensation of being stretched drove him to tears. It was too big, far too big, he could feel it everywhere, the massive length and girth overwhelmed his senses as Dokja slowly ground his hips against Joonghyuk’s.
“Are you like this with other men? Do other hyungs get you this needy?”
Dokja’s territorial growl drove him close to insanity.
“Hyuk-ie must love it when disgusting old men want to use him for his tight virgin hole.”
Joonghyuk wanted more of it, he wanted more of the man that consumed him from the inside.
Dokja began to move his hips in shallow thrusts, grunting in need as his hands possessively coiled around Joonghyuk’s body.
“Haangh— H-hyung—!”
“Has any other hyung made you feel this good?”
The grip on Joonghyuk’s hips was punishing. Claiming.
“Has anyone made you moan like I have?”
Large, slender fingers wrapped around Joonghyuk’s neck.
“Answer me, love. Has any man fucked you like I have?"
“N-no,” Joonghyuk managed out, trying to form a coherent response. “Hyunngg—”
The man squeezed firmly, and Joonghyuk’s vision began to double with the lightheadedness.
“Good,” Dokja grunted back. “Let’s keep it that way then.”
With a rough jerk of his hip, Dokja thrust himself in completely.
His girthy length morphed Joonghyuk from the inside. It didn’t just hit all the right spots, it crushed them into mindnumbing pleasure. Joonghyuk’s body jolted up as every thought dissipated in the throes of another dry orgasm that wracked through him.
“H-hyuuuuunngg—!?”
It went on, his body quivering as pleasure stretched into something almost painful. Dokja began mercilessly pumping inside him in rough, unrestrained strokes, gripping his neck tighter, bruising his hips as greedy fingers dug in the dip of his waist.
“I’ll get you used to my dick, Hyuk-ah.”
Tears flowed freely down Yoo Joonghyuk’s heated cheeks. His body still spasmed with the orgasm that didn’t want to end. Incessant moans and unintelligible wails spilled out from him, while Dokja’s grip only tightened further, more possessively.
“You feel so fucking good, wrapped around me so tight, fuck!”
Dokja’s pace was unrelenting. Teeth found its way to Joonghyuk’s nape, biting into the flesh as Dokja’s loud groan reverberated through his quivering body.
“Fuck, Hyuk-ie, such a tight cunt.”
It didn’t register in Joonghyuk's mind at first.
“Hah— hah— hah— ahn— ahn— ahn— ahhnngghh—”
“Taking it all in like a good little bitch,” Dokja panted out, and Joonghyuk’s glassy, teary eyes met his within their lewd reflection. The calm, well-mannered ahjussi he’d first met that day was nowhere to be found, replaced by a feral man with a rapaciously satisfied smirk, eyeing him like fresh meat being consumed, fucking into him like a man possesed, Lust personified.
“So perfect, my Hyuk-ie. Need to fuck you so good.”
He bit into Joonghyuk’s ear again.
“I’ll breed you tonight.”
Breed?
“Hhangh—?”
“I won’t stop until I fill you with my cum.” With every grunt in staccato, Dokja added. “Such a tight pussy. Needs to be bred.”
Pussy?
“Hyung—? H-hyunghhh—!?”
“Be mine, Hyuk-ie. Let me knock you up.”
Huh—?
The mere thought of being filled with cum, getting bred like a broodmare drove him nuts — plausibility be damned. Wailing, Joonghyuk came again, his hole clenching against the hot length pumping inside.
“F-fuck, you’re squirting,” Dokja panted out ravenous desire. “So tight, I’m c-close Hyuk-ie.”
In the wake of his twitching body, Joonghyuk realised too late that there was thin fluid running down his torso, wetting the sheets under him.
With another rough thrust of his hips, Dokja groaned out his name, spilling himself inside Joonghyuk’s warmth.
“Your pussy is perfect, so tight,” he sighed out contently. “My Hyuk-ie squirts. Like a cute girl.” Dokja rode out the length of his climax, pumping roughly into the younger man’s ass who lay there sated and immobile, moaning incoherently in pleasure.
Kim Dokja held him close. Time had long stopped ticking for Yoo Joonghyuk, who was wrapped in strong arms and pleasured vacuousness for an indefinite duration.
“Hyuk-ie,” Dokja purred out, caressing the man’s wet torso reverently. “Let me fuck some more babies into you tonight.”
Delirious in his blissful need for more, Joonghyuk only nodded. Biology be damned, he wanted to be knocked up by his hyung.
“I need the world to know you’re mine, Hyuk-ie.”
The rest of their night slipped away enraptured between wrinkled sheets. Joonghyuk’s senses only floated higher amidst the taste of whiskey and carnal, fleshly vows.
“Fuck, you feel so good,” Dokja groaned, pounding into him relentlessly.
“Hyung— mine— mine— mine— aahhnnghh—!”
Yoo Joonghyuk had been rendered into a crying, leaking, incoherent mess, taking the wild, insatiable man on in every way, every position imaginable. His mouth went dry, his mind broke entirely, and only one name echoed inside.
“Hyuuuuuunnnnngghh—!”
“Look at that,” Dokja panted out. His breaths grew increasingly laboured, every word was punched out in staccato. His hand touched the bump in Joonghyuk’s belly. “My cock. Inside you.”
Joonghyuk could only watch their reflections, the ability of coherence had long dissolved. He had watched the swelling pulse inside him with every thrust of Dokja’s dick, while the cum in his belly leaked out and onto the sheets. With a firm press of his hand over the bulging belly, Dokja had let out another possessive rasp.
“My Joonghyuk-ah, mine.”
Yoo Joonghyuk had come yet again, wetting himself with a silent moan.
Skin slapped against skin, words had long melted into moans as Kim Dokja went on to fulfil his promise.
There had been several gaps in Joonghyuk’s memory of the night. Several lapses where the only thing ingrained in his mind was the sensation of Kim Dokja all over him. Giving into bitter liquor and the onslaught of pleasure, Joonghyuk had drifted in and out of consciousness, only to find himself pretzeled into a new position whenever he woke up.
“Your pussy was made just for me, Hyuk-ie,” Dokja sighed into his neck contently, slowly fucking into Joonghyuk as he suspended the rousing man in a full Nelson. “So pretty, so perfect for me.”
Yoo Joonghyuk had lost count on the number of times he’d cum. After Joonghyuk’s thirteenth orgasm, Kim Dokja did too.
When he had regained his consciousness once more, he found himself on his back, mercilessly being eaten out from his cum-filled hole.
“Hmm—? Hah—? Hah— hah— ahng— aahhnghh— hhnnghh— hyungg—!?”
Joonghyuk did not know where he ended and where Kim Dokja began. All he could comprehend was the devotion within every touch of the man whose name had made his throat go hoarse. All he understood was the raw need that seeped through every honeyed word from Dokja.
“Hyung— mine—”
A choice that Joonghyuk had made that night. A choice that might’ve been predetermined from the start, puppeteering him into the final act of hedonistic abandon.
“I cannot get enough of you, Hyuk-ie,” Dokja mumbled, before his tongue spoke for him once more, devouring the young man.
The taste of Kim Dokja had long seared him from within, while the bitterness of the liquor and iron coated the back of his tongue.
“H-hah— hah— haa— Hyung—” Joonghyuk’s lips moved against Dokja’s fervently. “Dokja— hyung—”
Desire raged further on, burning every little doubt for the future he had. The night solely belonged to the two men, embracing in their waltz to the end as they took and gave everything in kind.
“Mine— hyung— ahhngghh— mine—!”
Would it truly matter, the weight of what Yoo Joonghyuk had chosen? Binding himself to a man soaked in blood?
“I’m all yours, Joonghyuk-ah.”
In the end, none of it mattered except the arms of the man that held Yoo Joonghyuk tight. None of it mattered, except his ready surrender to the son of the rich night.
—
He woke up to soreness and the sensation of something soft on his face.
Joonghyuk pretended to be asleep, irritation seeping back in with how every bone in his body ached. Gentle kisses fluttered on his face, but he persevered in his pretense.
“So adorable,” he heard the older man rasp out, and more kisses followed. From a distance, he could hear faint rattling, chimes ringing out. Joonghyuk felt the arms around him wrap tighter.
The stickiness from—
His eyes flew awake and he pushed himself off Kim Dokja’s embrace.
“Did-didn’t clean up,” Joonghyuk croaked, as he blinked the exhaustion and crustiness away. “I'm not clea—”
“I took care of it all, don't worry about it.”
Dokja only pulled him closer, drawing their bare bodies flush together.
“I was waiting for you to wake up.”
A frown marred the space between Joonghyuk's brows as he looked at the man in front of him. Purpling eyebags looked harsher against his pale skin. The ink on his torso was stunning up close and sober, but Dokja’s body was marked and clawed with various bruises and hickeys Joonghyuk had little memory of leaving behind.
Still, the older man’s face held an indulgent grin, looking beatifically sated as the stars within his gaze shone bright.
“Time?” Joonghyuk's voice cracked at the single syllable.
“It's close to 8am. You passed out on me at 5.”
“Not my fault you decided to—” The events of the past many hours flitted back in his mind like the pages of a flipbook. “Goddamn old man. What possessed you last night?”
Dokja let out a chuckle, replying by caressing the dip of his hips.
“You fu— you went at it like it was your last time,” Joonghyuk muttered, blushing to his roots. It was quite embarrassing, especially when
“Was it not?” Dokja looked serious. “Was it not my last time with you?”
He frowned, confused.
“The contract ends today, doesn’t it?”
Joonghyuk’s heart sank.
“I’m joking, I’m joking.” The older man huffed out a laugh, raising his palm that had a raw, open gash on it. “See? Not going anywhere.”
This fucking—
“Bastard.” He shot Dokja a glare, who laughed and brought him close to his chest. “Don’t pull another stunt like that.”
Don’t hurt yourself. Don’t leave me.
“I won’t, Joonghyuk-ah.” Dokja’s smooth voice reverberated through his chest and into Joonghyuk’s ear, soothing him. “I mean, look at you.”
“What—” Joonghyuk looked up at the ceiling to where Dokja was pointing. The mirrors overhead showed him two men unclothed, lying on crisp linen sheets that were definitely changed since the last time he was awake. He eyed Kim Dokja first, covered partially with the blanket they shared, who laid casually with an inked arm tucked behind his head, while the other held loosely onto Joonghyuk’s waist. Even in his exhaustion, the man looked unfairly good.
And then…
“Kim Dokja. What did you do to me?” Yoo Joonghyuk was deadpan.
“Hm?” Dokja looked over at him, while Joonghyuk’s eyes didn’t leave his own reflection. His wavy hair was tousled like he’d just lost a fight against a tornado, while the rest of his body looked far worse than it felt. Several bite marks, hickeys and bruises littered all over his body, while the filthy lettering left behind by the bold marker left Joonghyuk blushing yet again. “You look great, I don’t know what you’re talking about. You look very 'Limited Edition' to me.”
“Asshole. I look like a wildebeest mauled me.”
“Language, Joonghyuk-ah,” Dokja tutted, but he looked far more amused than annoyed. “You used me like a cat's scratchpost last night, you’re not blameless. And what did I tell you about using your honorifics, hm?”
“Absolutely not.” Joonghyuk shot him with a death glare. “You’re not getting anything out of me this time.”
“Not what you said last night.”
“I—” He realised he had no counter to that. “Fuck you.”
“I did, last night.”
Joonghyuk whipped his head towards the older man, who was grinning mischievously now.
“Are you up for another demonstration, kitten?”
Yoo Joonghyuk’s tone was too even. “Do you want to die?”
“I’d like to see you try,” Dokja retorted drily, bringing the young man flush against him. Joonghyuk could feel the man’s hardening length poke at his thighs. “Would be fun if you really tried killing me this time.”
Didn’t we just—
“Hunt me down, until I hunt you back.”
He’s hard again? How is this guy even human?
Joonghyuk blanched, spluttering at the suggestion, only to drive Dokja to another bout of laughter. The younger man watched, transfixed, irritation cooling down as he noted the slight crows feet and the smile lines on Dokja’s face. He would never admit it, but Joonghyuk quite liked the sound of Dokja’s real laughter.
“You’re taking responsibility for this.”
Dokja gave him an amused look. “Consensual sex requires two or more parties to be willing participants in the—”
“Shut up.”
Another warm chuckle reverberated through the air. “Call me hyung once more, and I’ll stop teasing you.”
“Don’t bribe me with promises you cannot keep, Kim Dokja.”
“Well, you got me there.” Ruffling Joonghyuk’s hair even further, Dokja smiled. “I don’t usually break my promises, though.”
“That better be true.” And, with a smaller voice, Joonghyuk added. “I don’t want you disappearing, hyung.”
Dokja’s tone was solemn. “I told you. I’m not going anywhere.”
Joonghyuk let out a breath he didn’t know he had held, curling into the hearth of Dokja’s pulsing heart as the cold around them nipped at him.
“I won't leave you. I gave you my word in blood.”
Tears threatened to spring to his stinging eyes, but Joonghyuk shut them. The wind chattered on outside, and the rattling only got louder with the chimes, almost mocking.
“Yours, Joonghyuk-ah. Bound by blood, life and death.”
Christmas and the real weight of their deeds could wait. He decided to stay just a little longer within that warmth.
This fic was a labour of love. Not from me, but from all the people around me in this wonderful community. I couldn't have done it without you. I will get cheesy in the next few lines so... feel free to skip.
Thank you Mimi for your patience and love. You're far too kind. I loved hearing all your reactions when I first showed you just bits and pieces. I hope you love the end result. Hehe. <3
Thank you to Dabber/DD and Bim, for conducting the whole Secret Santa. It was hella fun! Thank you to Bim, especially for helping me with sorting out the ending. The 'rich night' reference is too fucking good.
Thank you Sammie, for patiently reading all my snippets, correcting me, answering all my silly doubts and cheering me up. For encouraging me, so goddamn much. For being the one who inspired me to first start writing for ORV. And helping me not go insane.
Thank you Dan, for all that you've done wrt information (and also keeping me sane). For answering every little query I had. For indulging with my silly requests. I couldn't write half the shit on here without your expertise.
Thank you Brit, for your suggestions and all that you've done for me (and this fic). Thank you for commissioning Bunny for the gorgeous art. Indebted. Don't think I could have half my breakthroughs in here without talking to you. Your smut betaing was necessary.
Thank you Bunny, for making something so exquisite for this fic. I am forever in awe of your art and your artstyle. I have been staring at your art and blushing like a virginal maiden every time.
Thank you Soer for listening to me yap, and for inspiring me to write more. You've kept me from completely quitting this whole project out of frustration; as has everyone else above.
Thank you to Nuriko for listening to me ramble in your DMs. Istg you leave me lighter than the weight of my stresses each time I talk to you.
Thank you everyone else, for being here, even if I haven't mentioned you by name. You all make me want to go on with your kindness.
And thank you dear reader, for reading more. I hope this was a fun ride.Additional note:
Bunny's artwork for this fic. Show some love please <3
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