Chapter 8
“I don’t even know why I’m believing this right now, but… so is ‘In’ at twelve o’clock, or is ‘Out’ at twelve o’clock?”
Su-hyuk asked the shaman through the earphones.
― In! In! As long as you do it before twelve, that’s all that matters! Roll forward, slide, whatever—just make it into home base. Now, next…
“That’s enough. I can’t focus at all like this.”
Su-hyuk yanked the earphones out roughly, pressed the power button on his phone for a long moment, and then tossed it far away.
“Wait! You can’t do that!”
As Seol-ah reached out frantically toward the phone, Su-hyuk caught her hand in midair and pressed it down, pulling the earphones out of her ears as well.
“This isn’t some dictation practice for sex. Were you really planning to keep this up all the way through?”
“Give it back. We need the phone on.”
“Are you planning to produce atoms through sex or something? It feels like a threesome, I can’t concentrate. Study when you study, work when you work, sex when you have sex.”
“……We can’t!”
“Choose. Who do you want to rely on? The shaman’s not going to do it in my place.”
Su-hyuk tightened his interlaced fingers, gripping her hand firmly.
“But… it’s dangerous….”
“Then I’ll protect you.”
“……!”
For a moment, Seol-ah’s whole world seemed to stop.
‘I’ll protect you. I’ll protect you. I’ll protect…’
Everything else froze, and only Su-hyuk’s voice replayed in her mind.
Meanwhile, his hands were swiftly undoing the buttons of her blouse, one after another, without pause.
In an instant, it was open to the bottom, sliding off her shoulders and dropping to the floor with a soft thud.
Her pale breasts, pushing against the bra, revealed a graceful curve that drew Su-hyuk’s gaze naturally.
Under the bright moonlight, her skin looked smooth and dewy.
With a hunger that felt almost starved, Su-hyuk hooked his thumb under her bra strap and slowly slid it down.
Her chest swelled and fell with her shallow, quick breaths.
He felt the sudden urge to bite down.
As he leaned over her, her breasts, which he had just been coveting, pressed against him.
Her skin was even softer and warmer than he expected, and beneath it, her heart beat wildly.
“……Hhh.”
Su-hyuk’s lips grazed along her neckline.
Wherever he kissed, heat bloomed like fire, only to cool again, leaving her trembling.
The dizzying sensation made her vision go dark for an instant, as if someone had turned out the lights.
She felt like she was slipping into a vacuum, consciousness growing hazy.
“Uhh…”
His lips traced down past her collarbone and finally fastened around her breast, making Seol-ah clutch at his shoulder and stifle a cry.
Without hesitation, Su-hyuk yanked her bra away completely and took in what he had been aching for.
It was at that exact moment—
Bang!
The window, which had been firmly shut the moment they arrived, burst wide open.
The white curtains whipped wildly, looking eerily like a ghost.
Startled, Seol-ah instinctively turned her head toward the window—
“Don’t look.”
Su-hyuk gently turned her chin back toward him, forcing her gaze to meet his.
Seol-ah nodded slowly.
“Now it’s time to give you something that thing could never give a bride.”
A question mark flickered in her eyes.
“Something only a man with flesh can give. Call it… the peak of ecstasy.”
Ignoring her flushed face, Su-hyuk knelt up, unfastening his pants as he looked down at her.
Seol-ah turned her head away in alarm.
But then came the sharp sound of a zipper sliding down, making her lashes tremble as though she’d been jolted.
Her eyes darted everywhere, trying to find somewhere—anywhere—else to look. But inevitably, she caught sight of exactly the one thing she had been desperately trying not to.
“Cough! Cough!”
She choked on her own breath in shock. Concerned, Su-hyuk bent down toward her, but Seol-ah shot upright like a spring.
“Wait! J-just a second!”
Su-hyuk froze in place, confused.
“Is that… real? I mean, is it normally… is it supposed to be like that? I don’t think it’s even… possible…?”
“Then die.”
His cold gaze bore into her, sharp with genuine anger.
Fear. Unease. Tension.
As if she had no one in the world on her side, and now even he was telling her to ‘die’—the weight of it shrank her shoulders inward.
Her pent-up sorrow welled up, and with teary eyes, she looked up at him nervously.
“Wasn’t your life on the line? I get that you’re panicking, but you’re about to throw away something that someone else might desperately long for.”
His eyes—tinged with something almost sad—steadied her.
“…Don’t tell me, it’s your first time?”
“Of course it’s not! …Well.”
“Ah.”
Su-hyuk let out a short sigh, pressing his forehead as realization sank in.
He had never considered this variable.
He’d assumed her nerves came from the ghosts and the knowledge of her own death’s appointed time.
“You could’ve mentioned that earlier.”
An extreme situation, an extreme first night.
He knew this night would be unforgettable for both of them.
“What could I have said? If I’d told you…”
(‘In this crazy situation, it would’ve just been another burden.’) She swallowed the rest of the thought.
He sighed, thinking how virginity was nothing more than some relic valued only by old-fashioned ghosts.
At that moment, Seol-ah felt her body lift.
Su-hyuk had picked her up into his arms.
He laid her back down on the bed, his body covering hers in place of a blanket.
“If you had said it, things would’ve been different.”
Different—how? She found out in the next instant.
He clasped both her wrists in one hand, pinning them, leaving her no room to hesitate.
Then, like tracing paper, his lips and tongue sketched the lines of her body, tracing every curve.
“Ahh—!”
Neck, shoulders, waist, hips—each place his warmth touched made her melt like a marshmallow over fire.
“Haa…”
Her words dissolved into nothing, replaced by ragged breaths spilling from her lips.
When his knee pressed between her thighs, holding her down, and he continued with an unbearably intimate act, Seol-ah gasped as though struck by ice.
She twisted, struggling to stifle her moans.
“Mmhh…!”
As he kissed frantically at her earlobe, his large hand caressed her cheek, big enough to cover her whole neck.
With cheeks flushed like peaches, Seol-ah panted, locking eyes with him.
“You said this was your one last chance, right? Then put your life on the line and focus.”
Breathing hard himself, Su-hyuk glanced between her and the clock.
11:59.
“If it hurts, say so. I won’t go easy, but I’ll try to hold back.”
Tears welled in Seol-ah’s eyes, tangled with both fear and regret.
‘Will I still be alive a minute from now? Will I really be able to say it hurts, like he says? Or will I already be gone somewhere where no pain can ever reach me again…?’
Ten seconds to midnight.
10, 9, 8, 7…
The ticking second hand cut through the night.
But she heard nothing, saw nothing.
Only the man before her—Su-hyuk—filled her vision, bright as the moon.
“Be careful…”
In a daze, she whispered, her entire being focused on him.
“Right now, you’re the one who seems in danger.”
“…?”
Three seconds left.
“Three, two—!”
Dropping his sharp gaze from the clock, Su-hyuk plunged deep into her in one motion.
Seol-ah’s cry tore from her lips—
And at that exact moment, the clock struck midnight.
Beep――!
