Chapter 49: Unexpected Confessions and Lingering Aches

“Shall we head to the bathroom now?”

“We still need to do the other side. If only one side is relaxed, you’ll feel even more tired.”

Han Do-hoon’s ulterior motive was painfully obvious. He spoke with a sly grin, his hand gripping Sa-yoon’s buttocks.

With one leg pressed to the floor and the other draped over his shoulder, he traced his fingers along the exposed skin between them.

“Are you going to do it again?”

“If Sa-yoon-ssi wishes.”

Sa-yoon swallowed a curse. Han Do-hoon seemed intent on driving him wild today, clearly having made up his mind.

He couldn’t fathom why the man, who usually indulged his every whim, was acting like this.

“I don’t wish for it. I’ve enjoyed myself enough. Now, I simply want to sleep.”

“Then I’ll just finish the massage.”

Han Do-hoon, whose hands had been pressing into Sa-yoon’s inner thighs, moved to cup his buttocks and spread them apart.

A rush of cool air brushed against his sensitive skin. Sa-yoon instinctively tried to close his legs, but Han Do-hoon held them firmly, then began to work on the muscles beneath his perineum.

Sa-yoon knew it was merely a massage, working on his tense muscles with varying pressure, yet he instinctively covered his mouth with his hand.

The sensation that a mortifying moan might escape caused him to hold his breath.

“Your muscles are quite tight.”

“Ugh… Ah…”

Even as his thighs were being massaged, his hips twitched involuntarily. The calves, which had been thoroughly loosened, now felt on the verge of cramping.

He pulled the discarded pillow into his embrace and buried his face in it. Sa-yoon stifled his sounds, determined not to give Han Do-hoon the satisfaction he sought.

The hand working below his buttocks grew more explicit, stimulating the area between his anus and genitals. His firm palm pressed and released his perineum.

The lower part of his genitals swayed as if being penetrated, and the sensation of his prostate being pressed from the outside made Sa-yoon tremble.

Even without insertion or direct genital stimulation, he felt on the verge of climaxing. He could feel his own member slowly stiffening. He really didn’t want to give Han Do-hoon what he wanted…

“…Just do it…”

“What did you say?”

“Damn it, just do it. Put it in, now.”

He absolutely refused to climax from a mere massage. Han Do-hoon gazed at Sa-yoon, whose eyes were pooling with tears, before rising.

The leg draped over his shoulder spread wider, and Han Do-hoon’s formidable glans, glistening with massage lotion, already touched his slick opening.

“You clearly wanted this, Sa-yoon-ssi.”

‘You’d better prepare to wear a cast on your arm tomorrow, Han Do-hoon.’ Sa-yoon silently cursed Han Do-hoon’s brutish member as it plunged in without hesitation, clutching the pillow tightly.

Sa-yoon, who typically woke late, always kept the thick blackout curtains drawn. He would roll around in a room where it was difficult to tell if it was noon or dawn, undergoing a long ‘boot-up’ process before finally rising.

Today, however, an unfamiliar sensation of birdsong and dazzling light prompted Sa-yoon to open his eyes into slits.

“……”

The neatly tidied bedding and bedroom, along with the aroma of coffee, presented a novel experience. A pleasant breeze drifted in through the wide-open window.

Sa-yoon sat blankly, gazing at the shadows of the curtains swaying with the wind. Last night, seeing Han Do-hoon, he had felt a certainty.

Even Sa-yoon, who was slow to pick up on hints, could no longer be oblivious. Han Do-hoon liked Jin Sa-yoon.

He didn’t know if it was profound love or merely an affection tinged with possessiveness, but Han Do-hoon definitely harbored feelings for him.

He would act dry and reserved elsewhere, yet melt in front of Sa-yoon, and then lash out if Sa-yoon became entangled with anyone else. Looking at his actions so far, the answer was obvious.

With nothing left to ponder, Sa-yoon scratched his cheek awkwardly. He had dismissed the thought as mere overconfidence, fearing what others might think.

But now, it was becoming impossible to pretend ignorance. The real question was whether Han Do-hoon himself was aware of these feelings.

Sa-yoon suspected Han Do-hoon was still unaware of his own heart. Since becoming an adult, Han Do-hoon had been on the battlefield and, due to side effects, had never intimately engaged with another person while in his right mind.

He likely had no experience with a normal relationship. Dr. Jung Hyun-woo had cautioned Sa-yoon, warning that when people first enter an intimate relationship, they often drift without knowing the direction of their own emotions.

Though Jung Hyun-woo’s words were meant for Sa-yoon, they applied equally to Han Do-hoon.

“Oh, goodness. He’s only big in size…”

What good was it to be physically large and an adult in age? Oh, of course, *that* was big too, but regardless, Han Do-hoon seemed to lack crucial experience and maturity.

Sa-yoon brazenly evaluated Han Do-hoon without considering his own position. Now, all that remained was his own response. What should he do next?

He had reconfirmed it yesterday, the contract explicitly stated a clause against developing feelings for each other. Until now, this clause had posed no problem, but now it was a bit awkward.

Han Do-hoon, unaware of his own feelings, wouldn’t bring it up first, and if Sa-yoon did, Han Do-hoon could simply deny it, saying, ‘I have no personal feelings,’ and that would be the end of it.

Yet, Sa-yoon wasn’t so thick-skinned as to directly ask, ‘You like me, don’t you? You’ve developed feelings, haven’t you?’

‘Perhaps I should pretend not to know for a while…’

This must be a first for Han Do-hoon too. Should he wait for his somewhat more mature self to figure things out? Later, when Han Do-hoon realized his feelings and confessed to Sa-yoon, he could then maturely pat him on the shoulder and sort things out.

Sa-yoon, younger than Han Do-hoon, crossed his arms and nodded. As his thoughts settled, his eyes fell upon the fragrant, cooling coffee beside him.

Sa-yoon picked up the note placed beneath the coffee and sandwich. This, too, must be Han Do-hoon’s doing, leaving food every morning as if to convey his satisfaction from the previous night.

He should have noticed something was amiss when Han Do-hoon had been so keen on feeding him well. He picked up the note, which bore a short, neatly written message: ‘You overexerted yourself. Please rest well.’

“Overexerted myself, my foot.”

To be laid up with a bad back just from a night of passion? The pride of Jin Sa-yoon would never allow it. Sa-yoon stretched widely and triumphantly placed his feet on the floor.

And simultaneously, with a soft grunt, he collapsed to the floor. Sa-yoon, sprawled absurdly like the Little Mermaid, blinked his large eyes.

“……”

It was truly preposterous. Even the first time he had slept with Han Do-hoon, he’d only suffered from muscle aches for a few days, but this was the first time his legs had completely given out.

Sa-yoon instinctively looked around. Han Do-hoon must have left the accommodation entirely, as no one came in despite the loud noise.

Sa-yoon breathed a sigh of relief. He could easily imagine how proud Han Do-hoon would be if he saw him in this state. Still, he had his pride as a man.

He didn’t want anyone to know that his back had given out because he couldn’t keep up physically. Sa-yoon, patting his back like an old man, finally managed to pull himself up by gripping a shelf.

The mirror on the wall reflected his reddened, bruised upper body. As summer approached, he needed to tell Han Do-hoon to restrain himself from leaving marks.

Sa-yoon tapped his desk, rhythmically drumming with his pen. *Tap. Click. Tap.* He was twirling the pen like drumsticks to the rhythm of a radio song when his eyes met Kim Chae-jun’s, who was staring intently at him.

Chae-jun blinked his round eyes, then pouted.

“……Why?”

“It’s really strange. Team Leader-nim seems to be in an exceptionally good mood, and usually, when Team Leader-nim is happy, I’m happy too. But why do I feel so bad right now?”

“What are you talking about? I’m the same as always.”

Chae-jun’s expression twisted further. He pulled his head back as if he’d seen something unpleasant and pouted again.

“You kept snickering, and just now you were even humming. Like a boy with a crush?”

“If it’s a crush, I should be miserable, not happy, right? And what’s with ‘boy with a crush’? It’s so cringey.”

“Ah, our Team Leader-nim… that’s right. He’s always been single.”

At Sa-yoon’s reply, Chae-jun finally sighed deeply and shook his head. Sa-yoon, about to flare up at the slight against his exalted team leader’s dating history, calmed himself.

Kim Chae-jun didn’t know what he was talking about. ‘Boy with a crush,’ indeed. Sa-yoon was diligently serving as the object of someone else’s crush.

“That’s not it. My life is always tiresome from being too popular. What…”

“I really want to refute that. But I can’t.”

Even at Sa-yoon’s self-praise, which would make others squirm, Chae-jun readily agreed and nodded.

“…Why are you agreeing so readily for once?”

“It’s true, isn’t it? Team Leader-nim is popular.”

Sa-yoon’s self-admiration was an everyday occurrence. It was a phrase he habitually repeated. He hadn’t noticed when he said it himself, but hearing someone else readily agree pricked his conscience slightly.

Chae-jun casually asked Sa-yoon, “But why are you really in such a good mood?”

“It’s not like that.”

“What do you mean, ‘not like that’? Did you really get a confession? Well, flowers used to arrive at the office almost daily back then.”

As an S-class Esper with a handsome appearance and a good family background publicly known, Sa-yoon had no shortage of admirers. When he first joined the military, he received confessions every other day.

Of course, all those suitors had eventually given up due to Sa-yoon’s impenetrable rejections. Sa-yoon smiled faintly at the long-forgotten memory.

“There were times like that, weren’t there? Isn’t it a bit quiet these days?”

“That’s because you heartlessly rejected all of them. You even rejected them without making eye contact. You were so cold back then. If they saw that, they wouldn’t even dare to step foot near you now.”