Chapter 12.4

“Yeah. Why are you accounting for like three… eight people when it refers to the two of us? Where are there people who have a wooden horse vibrator at home? If you went along with that, you would have to visit the hospital every time. Be honest. You downloaded the bundle on the top chart, didn’t you?”

“… I thought that the material that had a high download count would be genuinely instructive to that degree.”

“The porn industry is built on people’s fantasies. I can’t believe you overlooked that. I don’t know how that would be different from boomers who believe you become a killer if you play a lot of FPS games.”

“Isn’t that too harsh?”

“You got it all wrong from the beginning, though. You and I are the only ones in our relationship and there is no one else who can join. And I don’t want to get hit and I don’t want to hit you either. That’s not it. I’m telling you that you were mistaken. Do you get it?”

Sangwoo, who was listening to the words that unexpectedly made sense, had nothing to say. As Jaeyoung said, even if he had researched a field he didn’t know that well, it seemed that he had failed to consider the nature of that field. Even so…

“Let’s say that the material I viewed is severely distorted. Still, I didn’t just study through the videos. In most of the texts that I read, the penis was inserted into the rectum…”

“Stop with the biology lecture.”

Jaeyoung shouted “Choi Yuna!” one more time to confirm that she was immersed in her music. He then leaned down a bit and whispered.

“Sangwoo.”

“…”

“If we agree on having sex, then my job.. in your…fuck…. Anyway, you don’t have to do that. Please remember that there are two people involved. If one person puts it in, the other person doesn’t have to.”

“Really? It isn’t something that is mutually done?”

“It’s not like getting punished. If you don’t want to put it in, just do the opposite. Well…. I’ve heard that one can feel great pleasure after receiving. Wouldn’t that be enough to relieve sexual desire?”

“What do you mean that you’ve heard that? You told me that you tried it yourself.”

Jaeyoung’s expression subtly changed. He stared at Sangwoo.

“How could it be? Try using your imagination.”

Sangwoo quickly racked his brain. Jang Jaeyoung had clearly told him that he had slept with a man. Intercourse between men had a pleasure mechanism that was connected to the prostate. Jaeyoung said that he hadn’t experienced it.

There were two conclusions. He didn’t feel it because of a lack of skills, or if that wasn’t the case, then…

“Oh… Then, is it perhaps sunbae…”

Sangwoo’s left thumb and finger naturally curved into the shape of a coin. His right index finger penetrated the circular space. Jaeyoung smirked at Sangwoo’s motion. He had to have got it correct seeing as he didn’t deny it.

“Then… me?”

Sangwoo vacantly stared at the okay sign on his left hand. Since he had never imagined it, his thoughts stopped.

“Think about that later, and…like hitting me like the video… anyway, we don’t have to use equipment. I also definitely won’t use violence against you. I promise.”

Jaeyoung rapidly finished speaking and sighed with a “phew.”

“And from now on, I’ll suggest an alternative, so listen carefully.”

“An alternative?”

Jaeyoung nodded and sat down again. He rested his elbows on his somewhat open knees, and he put his hands together and interlocked them. The position made it look like the cover of an adventure action game.

“I haven’t changed a bit. I still want to hold hands with you, kiss you, and have sex with you.” Jaeyoung casually said as if he was telling him that he wanted to eat pizza and chicken and naengmyeon1.”

“You seem to have a lot more complicated thoughts than I do, so I’ll wait for you.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“It means that we should go slowly. I won’t force you at all. I won’t do anything unless you’re willing to offer it.”

“Really? If we try and I tell you that I don’t want to, can you stop in the middle of it?”

“What could I do if you don’t want to? Do you think I’ll force you?”

Sangwoo nodded. He was always in a nervous state when he met Jaeyoung. What nonsense would he say, what unexpected actions would he take, how swayed would he be? However, it was different today.

‘It’s not a competitive relationship. Don’t forget to collaborate with me.’

He didn’t know what kind of change had occurred since three days ago when he had been so angry that they had stopped. Jaeyoung had displayed a very emotional attitude that day. Today, he used concrete language that was easy to understand, doing so in a relaxed state. Jaeyoung, who had been still for a while, got up from his seat to stretch.

“Then I’ll take it as that and I’ll rest my eyes for a bit. You’re welcome to work here and before you leave.”

“…….”

“If you’re planning on kissing me, wake me up and do it.”

“No, I won’t!”

He walked past Sangwoo with a smile. Sangwoo watched Jaeyoung’s back lying down on the cot, as he closed the blinds on the window of the work studio and turned off the lights. When Yuna then removed her headphones, Sangwoo became nervous.

return 0;

The project, which he thought had been scrapped, had arisen and proceeded more smoothly than ever. After finishing up some of the basic resources, Jaeyoung began to engage himself in the animation part. At first it was difficult for Sangwoo to adjust himself to qualitative vocabulary such as ‘a little, more, too much, enough,’ but he got the hang of it after some trial and error.

For example, if he heard the words ‘a little bigger,’ he increased the scale to 109%, and if he heard ‘it’s too small,’ would increase it to 134% etc., creating a mental manual. After that, he did adjustments after listening to detailed feedback from Jaeyoung.

On Friday, Sangwoo entered the work studio at 6:31 p.m. and got coached by the designer and worked on all the parts that needed to be revised. The basic motion of the characters had all been modified and the animation of weapon usage had been changed.

Yuna looked at it and said that one of the characters resembled Sangwoo. She also said that another character resembled Jaeyoung even more, but she wasn’t sure of that either. Sangwoo thought that for a designer, the girl had a dull eye.

At 9:03 p.m. the three of them ordered chicken and wasted time chatting, so they weren’t able to work after that. As he left the work studio at 10 p.m., Sangwoo realized that Jaeyoung hadn’t touched him once with the exception of when he had touched the back of his hand while handing over a chicken leg.

They didn’t schedule a meeting for the weekend. On both Saturday and Sunday, Jaeyoung called him at 10.01 p.m. when he was on his way home after his part-time job. On Saturday, he asked about the game’s learning capacity , and on Sunday, he asked about how the images differed on different devices. Sangwoo replied in detail because he felt proud that Jaeyoung cared about the optimization. On both days, Jaeyoung didn’t hang up immediately.

‘By the way, where were you born?’

Why on earth was he asking him such a thing? When he replied that he was born in Daejeon, he asked him where he grew up and which school he went to, and when he responded that he grew up in Gokmun District in Daejeon until he was 19, and that he had gone to Gokmun Middle School and Gokmun High School. He asked him about his shoe size and his eyesight. When he respectively answered 270 and 1.0 in both eyes, he also expressed his distress over sometimes wearing size 270 and 275, and even that his eyesight was 0.7, so both putting on and taking off his glasses made things blurry.

After they hung up, they surprisingly talked for 29 minutes and 34 minutes respectively. They didn’t exactly talk about just one thing, but it was still amazing that so much time had been wasted.

On the first Monday of May, Sangwoo went to his classes and studied in the library. After dinner, he went to the work studio and ran into Yuna, who opened the door at that moment. It seemed like she had been wearing furry clothes not long ago, but she was wearing a sleeveless shirt now.

“Oh. Hi, Chu Lettuce.”

“Yes.”

“I’m planning on grabbing dinner and then going to have fun. Wanna join?”

“No.”

Sangwoo passed her and entered the work studio. It was hot enough inside for him to understand why Yuna was dressed as if it were in the middle of summer. Sangwoo took off his jacket, hung it on a chair, and headed to the window. When he fully opened the window, lukewarm air hit his body. Without realizing, the weather had gotten quite hot.

The door suddenly opened. After Sangwoo turned his head and looked back, he made eye contact with Jaeyoung, who arrived carrying a white plastic bag. He was wearing a navy blue baseball cap on his head. The bright jeans with ripped knees disrupted his view.

“You’re here?”

“Yes.”

“Why is it so hot today?”

Jaeyoung entered while swinging his arms and put the plastic bag down on the desk. Sangwoo looked outside again.

“It’s May, but it feels like the middle of summer.”

“It’s because reckless usage of fossil fuels accelerates the greenhouse effect.”

“Did you eat?”

“Yes.”

Behind him, there was a rustling sound of a plastic bag. Sangwoo glanced down at the bright view of the school despite it being evening, and then returned to his seat. Jaeyoung was mixing the contents inside a paper bowl. Sangwoo didn’t even ask, but Jaeyoung let him know that it was rice with fish roe. When he pulled the Styrofoam container from the plastic bag and removed the rubber band, six large dumplings appeared.

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