Side Story 1

Side Story 1

“Ah, ngh…!”

A sweet, broken moan rose from deep in Lee-yeon’s throat as her body arched. Heat and urgency swallowed them whole.

“Hah…”

Kwon Chae-woo crumpled his plan to enjoy her slowly like a piece of paper and suddenly grabbed her hips. He couldn’t hold back any longer.

Heat surged to the very tip of his head, and his entire body ached as if it were going to explode.

“Ngh…!”

When he drove himself harder, her head tipped back. Drawn to the taste that gathered on her lips, he bit down in a hurried, desperate kiss.

He didn’t drink, he didn’t smoke, he didn’t even touch drugs, but this was the first time he felt like he might die from not having her. The longer he’d been forced to hold back, the more he wanted to devour her, cruelly, breath by breath.

He clenched his jaw and kept moving, pressing in, pulling back, again and again. Lee-yeon’s voice broke into a soft cry as she rubbed the back of her head into the pillow. The room, already overheated, filled with thick, wet warmth.

“Hah… Miss Lee-yeon. It feels so good.”

He didn’t stop. The slick sound of their bodies meeting made him wet his dry lips.

“I feel like I’m going to die.”

Still holding her hips, he put more of his weight into the tangled mess of their legs. As the rhythm deepened, Lee-yeon writhed beneath him.

“Even with you right here, I can’t do this, I…”

Mid motion, he captured her mouth again. He drank in her breath like he’d lost his mind, kissing her until she trembled, until the edge came crashing close.

He gripped her b*ttocks as if he might break her, right as he was about to lose control.

Then a sharp sound tore through the dark.

Beep, beep, beep. Beep, beep, beep.

“…!”

An alarm blared.

Kwon Chae-woo lifted his eyelids and glared murderously at the digital clock. His gaze burned, far too sharp for a man who had just woken up.

“…Fck, what the hll.”

He let out a hollow breath and pushed himself upright. He did not need to throw back the blanket to know exactly what state his lower body was in.

Kwon Chae-woo yanked off the sweat stuck shirt and scrubbed both hands down his face. “…Fck, what the hll is this?”

He let out a frustrated sigh and stood up. Even without lifting the blanket, he knew what his lower body looked like.

Kwon Chae-woo nervously threw off his sweat-soaked shirt and rubbed his face with both hands. His er*ction was so strong he couldn’t stand up anymore, and it was painful. It was a source of frustration.

He swallowed the pang of misery that surged up inside him and looked at the empty seat next to him. His eyes, groping for the spot that had grown cold with the loss of its owner, felt quite empty.

“Aww. Oww.”

At that moment, a whimper like a puppy made him turn his head. The self-mockery vanished, and the corners of his lips instinctively turned toward the crib.

“Is my son awake?”

“Baaaah, oww.”

The smile was directed at the baby, shining brightly even in the darkness. Kwon Chae-woo pressed down on the thick, bulging groin area with his palm and lifted the baby, who was oozing anger.

“Mommy, let’s eat and take a bath with Daddy.”

“Gyaaaaa.”

He pressed his lips to the baby’s forehead, who simply smiled innocently, oblivious to everything.

“My poor, pretty baby.”

Feeling sorry for both his own son and his own dick, Kwon Chae-woo patted Nam-woo. The baby then burst into a hearty laugh, revealing pink gums and two seed-like teeth.

“Who do you take after to smile so well?”

“Squeeze. Squeeze.”

As if unable to hold back, he continued to shower the baby with kisses, wearing down his delicate skin. He continued to kiss the baby’s temples as he walked to the kitchen.

Kwon Chae-woo, crossing the house adorned with plants, finally entered the kitchen, selected a fluffy, sterilized bottle, placed it in the formula maker, and pressed a button.

While holding the baby by the bottom, Nam-woo lapped his father’s collarbone and cooed. His voice was as clear and pure as a baby bird.

“Yes, yes. Mom left us alone. I can’t even contact her, and I’m going crazy.”

He roughly kept pace with the baby’s babbling.

“Bbae-bye-ahng.”

“Haa… Whoever that baby is, he’ll be so cute. Daddy’s so worried because you’re so cute. What if the boy, who’s going to be all furry, takes after Mom and becomes so gentle?”

“Kyaung!”

He swallowed the surge of misery like a thorn and stared at the empty space beside him. His gaze traced the cold, abandoned spot where someone should have been, and the emptiness hit harder than it should have.

“Awoong. Oooong.”

A whimper like a puppy’s made his head snap around. The self mocking look vanished, and his mouth lifted on instinct as his eyes went to the crib.

“Did my son wake up?”

“Baaah, awoong.”

Even in the dark, the baby’s skin looked glossy with sleep. Kwon Chae-woo forced himself to ignore his own body, then scooped up the baby, who smelled sweet and warm.

“Let’s eat first, then you and I take a bath.”

“Kyaa oo.”

He pressed his lips to the baby’s forehead, and the baby only grinned back, innocent and bright.

“My pretty boy. My poor little thing.”

He rocked Nam-woo gently, full of a tenderness that made even himself feel pathetic. Nam-woo flashed pink gums and two seed sized teeth, then giggled.

“Who do you take after, smiling like that?”

“Jjujju. Ppuu.”

Like he could not help himself, Kwon Chae-woo kissed him again and again until the soft skin must have felt it. Even while he walked to the kitchen, he kept planting kisses on Nam-woo’s temple.

He crossed the house, threaded through all the plants, and finally reached the kitchen. He picked a bottle that had been sterilized and dried, slid it into the formula machine, and pressed the button.

Cradled against his chest, Nam-woo drooled on his collarbone and babbled. The sound rang clear and bright, like a tiny bird.

“Yeah, yeah. Mom left just the two of us and went off somewhere. I can’t even reach her, and I feel like I’m losing my mind.”

He matched the baby’s babble with lazy, half serious replies.

“Bbyah bbyah.”

“Hah… You’re so pretty it’s a problem. I’m worried because you’re too cute. What am I supposed to do if you grow up into some boy with hair everywhere and you stay this gentle because you take after your mom.”

“Kyaoong!”

“Yeah, you’re insanely cute. Because I see Miss Lee-yeon in you.”

As he said it, Kwon Chae-woo’s gaze slid back to the empty sofa. The image of his wife, always sitting there and letting him fuss over her, wavered like heat haze, then vanished.

His eyes did not blink once as his expression sank, heavy and severe.

“Do you think they really lived happily ever after?”

Gyu-baek closed the fairy tale book and stared at the baby eating his puree.

Every time he looked at Nam-woo, who had celebrated his first birthday a few months ago, Gyu-baek, now a third grader, felt a strange sense of time passing. It felt like just yesterday the baby had been a round belly, and now he was wriggling around, growing up like this. His self proclaimed big brother mouth fell open.

“What kind of fairy tale ends with a question like that?”

Kwon Chae-woo, spoon feeding the baby, suddenly frowned. He tossed a baby towel over one broad shoulder and lifted the end of his sentence in a slightly delinquent drawl. He clearly did not like Gyu-baek’s storytelling.

“Even a ten year old doesn’t believe marriage automatically means forever happiness. That’s outdated and tacky.”

Kwon Chae-woo only deepened his frown at the ten year old’s sharp, ruthless way of speaking.

Even while he spoke in a flat, emotionless voice, Gyu-baek could not take his eyes off the baby’s apple like cheeks. Nam-woo also seemed familiar with the face he had seen since the moment he was born. He did not act shy at all, meeting Gyu-baek’s gaze directly.

Smiling wide, Nam-woo timed it perfectly and chewed down the puree that had landed in his mouth. Then he made cute little grabby hands, clapped softly, and patted the fairy tale book. At that signal, Gyu-baek, without a hint of fatigue, opened another book. It was already the third reading.

The baby liked the forest stories best out of all the series, and Gyu-baek quietly analyzed why. Maybe it was because there were so many trees. Maybe it was because his own name sounded like the word for tree when you said it fast, or because the baby took after Teacher, but Nam-woo also really liked green and leaves.

Gyu-baek draped a gauze cloth over one shoulder, then watched the male steadily as he muttered, “Does it taste weird?” every time the baby suddenly spit up puree, and actually slurped a bit of what got on his own hand to check.

“…A single dad who always does his best.”

“Lee Gyu-baek, stop right there.”

“Da!”

The baby’s babble grabbed the cut off line and finished it for him. Kwon Chae-woo’s eyebrow twitched.

Sensitive to the atmosphere around him, Gyu-baek had picked up, even if only faintly, on the emotional swings the male started showing after the baby was born.

When he did not sleep enough, his temper turned several times nastier. Some days he fell silent and sank into gloom. Sometimes, for no reason that fit him, he only stared out the window. Aside from how sharply he reacted to the baby’s cries, he seemed mostly hollow.

All of it started after the director of the Fir Tree Hospital left the male’s side. That was when the neurosis began.

Today again, Gyu-baek stared at that shadowed half of his face and recited in a flat voice.

“Postpartum depression includes low mood, severe anxiety and insomnia, nightmares, loss of motivation, guilt, and…”

“I’m not the one who gave birth.”

“Then why did the male get morning sickness when the male wasn’t even pregnant.”

“…”

Kwon Chae-woo had no comeback, so he only clicked his tongue. Having a kid who was too smart came with its own problems. He scraped the last of the puree clean and fed it to the baby, then sprang up from his seat.

He walked into the kitchen, pulled out a pill bottle he had hidden in the upper cabinet, and chewed the tablets without water. Each time he crushed the tiny pellets down to powder, like they were candy, his jaw flexed hard.

Gyu-baek’s eyes wavered.

“…The male can’t keep relying on drugs. The male needs to get it together.”

“You call this drugs without even knowing what it is?”

Kwon Chae-woo lifted one corner of his mouth, cynical.

“I take it to survive. To survive.”

“No. The male is rotting away.”

“I’m not.”

Kwon Chae-woo braced both hands on the sink and let out a long breath. Like this kid even knew what these were. Where else could you find a husband as devoted as him.

When a couple has a baby, change was inevitable. Kwon Chae-woo went through his own series of changes with Lee-yeon, big and small, and he found himself suffering under a nameless sense of loss. Lately, his vision kept going dark, and he felt like he had wandered off and gotten lost.

Because So Lee-yeon was not here.

He was shaking apart.

F*ck, but still…

The doctor’s cursed advice, never make your wife suffer, still sank into him, sharp to the bone.

What Lee-yeon needed right now was someone who could be a steady caregiver for the baby, and someone who could hand her freedom back. So Kwon Chae-woo clenched his teeth and controlled himself.

But did they really live happily ever after.

Gyu-baek’s flat, toneless voice scraped at the man’s ear.