Chapter 188: Ilio concludes.

Hayeop obediently knelt before him. Metal clinked. Yoonwon pulled down his zipper, revealing black underwear.

“Open your mouth.”

Hayeop opened it like a baby bird. His reddened eyes shone, moist as though he were about to cry.

Then Yoonwon tugged down his underwear. His cock sprang free and slapped Hayeop across the cheek. It carried a strong male scent. It looked nothing like Hayeop’s own: thick and large, its tip glistening like a dog’s drooling mouth.

Hayeop’s was neatly covered by its skin, like a freshly picked peach. This one was exposed, its opening gaping like a puppy rolled onto its back. Hayeop could die and be born again and still never have one like it.

“Want a taste?”

Hayeop brought his hands together, took hold of Yoonwon’s hard cock, and parted his lips.

His reddish lips opened, and the tongue within, moist as the flesh of a plum, slid over Yoonwon’s tip.

Then he sucked at it with relish. His mouth felt as though it might split, but he kept licking it like an ice cream.

“You have to do a good job. Here too.”

Hayeop obediently followed his instructions, licking up the clear fluid that seeped from the opening.

“Hah... ah...”

Yoonwon pressed the back of his head against the wall and breathed hard. Whenever his combat boots shifted against the floor, Hayeop moved his hips too.

Lick. Suck, suck.

Wet sounds filled the room, along with the low moans rising slowly from Yoonwon’s throat.

“Here too.”

He tapped his testicles with his middle finger. They were taut and heavy, each almost the size of a baby’s fist. Hayeop buried his nose there, then put out his tongue and licked gently.

“Ah...”

For all Hayeop’s inexperience, Yoonwon moaned, the corners of his eyes flushed red. He looked unbearably erotic. Hayeop opened his throat wide and sucked harder, his lips pursed like a bird’s beak and his rounded cheeks hollowing deeply.

“Fuck...!”

At last Yoonwon threw his head back and came. A hot, salty taste flooded Hayeop’s tongue.

With his head tipped so far back, the Adam’s apple in the middle of his long, graceful throat stood out. It moved sharply up and down as he swallowed, a sight so erotic it made Hayeop’s pulse race.

“Well.”

Yoonwon swept his disheveled hair back with one hand. Sweat had darkened his already jet-black hair.

He looked down at Hayeop with eyes as dark as the sea at night.

“It got all over you.”

Semen was spattered across Hayeop’s pale face. Yoonwon pulled him close and sucked at his lips without hesitation. Though it was his own semen, he seemed entirely unbothered, licking Hayeop’s lips thoroughly. ℴ

“You’re not allowed to do bad things with anyone else.”

Hayeop said it because he felt hurt. Yoonwon had told him he wasn’t allowed to have s-sex with anyone else. It was terribly unfair.

At that, Yoonwon let out a low chuckle, as though he were keeping a mischievous secret.

“I don’t think that’ll happen again.”

“Why?”

“Everyone will be too busy avoiding me.”

What did that mean? Hayeop couldn’t make sense of it. Why would anyone avoid him? He’d simply done that with Younghwa, and it was over.

The very next day, he learned what the young master had meant.

People said a rumor could travel a thousand miles without feet. Overnight, word had spread through the entire nightclub: the great Jeong Yoonwon couldn’t even get it up. After breaking so many women’s hearts, he must have been punished by the ghost of a virgin.

...And apparently he’d started going around with some lackey.

Someone claimed to have heard a sweet-faced, dim-looking boy call him “young master.” From there, a baseless rumor spread that Yoonwon was using his father’s money to run a loan-sharking business.

The story had traveled in such detail that Hayeop wouldn’t have been surprised if even the toothpicks the customers used after eating dried squid knew about it.

“Is it true?”

“Oh, come on. How could it be? Jeong Yoonwon, of all people!”

Whenever people gathered, that was all they talked about. Yoonwon was the nightclub’s superstar.

Women saw him as a tempting prize worth trying their luck with, while men envied him. Of course everyone had something to say.

Before long, the rumor had grown so wildly that people were saying Yoonwon had gone in for a vasectomy and a quack doctor had accidentally cut off one of his testicles.

Thanks to that, Younghwa had failed to seduce the young master but managed to save face. Apparently she’d started dating a foreigner who had come to the club as a customer.

It seemed everyone had their happy ending. The trouble was...

“Hey, you tell us!”

Even Hayeop, who had been diligently serving customers while pretending not to hear the rumors, got dragged into it.

“Is it true? Has Jeong Yoonwon become impotent?”

“Well, there’s no way...”

Hayeop’s round eyes darted about. It wouldn’t be a lie to say that was impossible, that the young master got hard perfectly well and was as capable as ever.

But what if telling the truth brought all those women flocking back to him?

“I don’t know!”

In the end, Hayeop’s face reddened all the way down to his neck. He hid behind his tray and fled.

Everyone had their happy ending. The one flaw was that the young master had publicly become an impotent man who’d lost a testicle.

“Well, look who’s here. Our vasectomy casualty.”

The moment Yoonwon entered the nightclub’s private room, Yangcheol burst into raucous laughter.

Yoonwon looked impassively at him, sprawled there chuckling with liquor bottles spread across the table.

He already knew the gruesome rumors about his mutilated lower half and {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} supposed impotence had spread all over Seoul.

That was what he’d intended in the first place, so there was nothing to be surprised about.

“Enjoying yourself that much?”

Yoonwon gave a lazy smile and sank deep into the sofa. He took out a cigarette, lit it, and let out a quiet laugh.

“Why is everyone so obsessed with my testicles?”

“Hey, Yoonwon. Can you really not get it up anymore? All the girls here are so upset, the place feels like a funeral.”

As though the question didn’t deserve an answer, Yoonwon exhaled a long stream of acrid smoke.

“Lee Hayeop.”

“Y-yes? Young master!”

The way Hayeop came over, startled and rolling his round eyes, was rather suspicious.

Yoonwon tapped the ash from his cigarette, then caught Hayeop’s thin earlobe between his fingers and pinched it.

“When the others asked if I’d become impotent, what did you tell them?”

Hayeop glanced around at Yoonwon’s languid whisper. Yangcheol, right beside them, didn’t seem to hear. The nightclub music was too loud.

“I—I said I didn’t know anything...!”

“What do you mean, you don’t know? Whose cock did you spend all last night stuffing down your throat and sucking?”

Yoonwon’s low, filthy remark turned the back of Hayeop’s neck bright red.

“...Enjoy yourselves!”

Hayeop hurried away. A smile had spread across his face before he realized it, but it gradually vanished when he spotted someone.

“...”

“...”

Standing at the end of the corridor beneath the dim lights was Taehee. The air seemed to turn cold.

So much had happened in such a short time.

The young master had dumped Younghwa and ended up rumored to have lost a testicle. Meanwhile, Hayeop had grown awkward with Taehee, his one and only best friend, and they had drifted apart.

“Taehee.”

Hayeop approached him first. Taehee was outgoing and had plenty of friends, but he was the only friend Hayeop could truly confide in.

Taehee alone knew the secret Hayeop couldn’t bring himself to tell even the young master, and all the pain of his terrible unrequited love.

“Yeah, Yeop.”

Taehee scratched his head awkwardly. He looked deeply uncomfortable.

He couldn’t meet Hayeop’s eyes and kept scuffing at the old dust on the floor with his shoe. Then, as though frustrated with himself, he roughly raked his fingers through his hair.

“Fuck, I...”

He punched at the empty air, at a loss for what to do. He couldn’t settle down. Tteokbeongi always acted like that after eating a big meal, right before he pooped. What was wrong with Taehee? What could be so hard to say?

“I hated that bastard.”

“...Yeah. I got that impression.”

“It felt like he was playing with your feelings.”

Taehee looked Hayeop straight in the eye. His gaze held genuine affection and worry for his friend.

“You’re kind, you’re good at your job, and you’re good-looking too... I wanted you to meet someone better. Someone who wouldn’t hurt you, who’d cherish you with his whole heart.”

“Mmm.”

So that was it. Taehee had been angry for Hayeop’s sake. Hayeop was grateful for the kindness hidden beneath his friend’s rough language.

“Thank you.”

He nodded to show he understood. So he really had been on my side.

“I understand, Taehee. We’re best friends, after all.”

“Best... what?”

Taehee’s button-sized eyes widened as though he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. When he asked if Hayeop had really called them ball buddies, Hayeop declared proudly:

“I’ll buy you soju and grilled intestines.”

He put on a swagger and proposed they drink until they were thoroughly drunk. Taehee said he liked the sound of that. They bumped fists and made up.

Hayeop had been afraid he might lose his friend. Now relief rose in his chest, warm and soft.