Lick Me Up If You Can Novel (Completed) - Chapter 49

“Hmm hmm hmm, hmm hmm hmm hmm.”

A customer, who was also the owner’s friend, watched Koi suspiciously as he hummed and organized the display case.

“Did something good happen today?”

“Huh? No, why?”

The customer, with his arms crossed, uncrossed one arm and pointed at Koi’s face.

“You keep smiling. And even humming.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

The customer scanned Koi up and down, then fixed a suspicious gaze on his face. As if finding him suspicious. But Koi just smiled brightly and tilted his head, saying, “That’s strange.” The customer watched his back with disapproval as he continued humming and doing his work.

10 minutes left.

Koi glanced at the clock and barely managed to suppress the urge to jump. He had never closed the store even a minute early, and in fact, always worked overtime. The reason was that although the store closed at 10 PM on weekdays, after closing, organizing, cleaning, and taking out the trash, it took at least an hour, no matter how fast he was.

Whenever he tried to clean or take out the trash in advance as closing time approached, someone would always come in right before closing and make the store dirty or throw trash. Moreover, if he cleaned and organized beforehand, he would get scolded that customers would feel burdened entering, so he had no choice but to finish up only after the full time was up.

These days, he was at least taking a break from his weekday part-time job because of skate practice, but on Saturdays, he had to come at least an hour earlier than the scheduled time to finish the cleaning and trash disposal that hadn’t been done the day before.

Of course, there was no extra pay, but Koi silently did as the store owner told him. After all, he was grateful just to have a part-time job.

5 minutes left now.

I’ll meet Ash soon.

It was when he couldn’t contain his joy and perked up his ears.

“Did you take the college entrance exam?”

Suddenly, the customer spoke. Koi paused and mumbled softly.

“Ah, yes… well…”

“Really? What was your score?”

“…I didn’t do well.”

He tried to gloss over it, but the customer didn’t let it go.

“So, what was your score?”

“Uh…”

Koi was infinitely weak to such pressing. When he finally confessed, intimidated, the customer’s expression, which had been stern until then, softened.

“I see, you didn’t do well.”

The owner’s friend had a son who was in the same grade as Koi. He would often come and compare his son to Koi, picking fights about everything. Of course, it wasn’t like that from the beginning. Naturally, he consistently ignored Koi, but his attitude changed abruptly after he accidentally found out that Koi was in the same grade as his son and had better grades.

At first, he subtly tried to find out Koi’s scores or study methods, then one day, he started openly saying unpleasant things to him. Asking about scores like this was common, and if Koi didn’t answer, he would cling to him until he did.

The customer, who was in a good mood because his son had better scores than Koi, placed items on the counter, and just as Koi, who was organizing the display, hurriedly turned that way.

Suddenly, a bell rang, and a cool breeze was felt. Koi, who had unconsciously turned his head, stopped dead, saying, “Huh?” The customer standing at the counter also widened his eyes.

The man who opened the door and entered was incredibly tall. He bowed his head to pass through the door, and when he straightened up, the not-so-large store seemed to be filled.

The customer craned his neck to look up at the man’s face, but he paid no attention, scanned the store, and fixed his gaze on one corner. Koi, who had been watching in surprise until then, belatedly called his name.

“Ash?”

He smiled, taking off his sunglasses.

“Koi.”

The customer hurriedly looked back and forth between Ash and Koi, as if he had no idea Koi had such an acquaintance. Ignoring his reaction, Ash readily took a step and strode towards Koi.

“It’s closing time, isn’t it? I came to pick you up.”

“Uh, it is, but…”

There were still two minutes left. Ashley looked back at the wall clock, following Koi’s gaze, and smiled sweetly.

“It’s all done. I’ll wait.”

“Uh, oh.”

Koi nodded and looked up at him. His lips unconsciously softened into a smile.

“Thank you, please wait a little.”

“Okay.”

Leaving Ashley, who readily answered, behind him, Koi hurried to the counter. The customer, who had been standing there watching Ashley, asked,

“What, who is he? Do you know him?”

“Huh? Yes.”

Koi answered unconsciously, then his heart swelled. He had to take a deep breath before speaking his next words.

“He’s my friend.”

“What? Friend?”

The customer visibly flinched and looked back at Ashley again. Ashley was standing with his hands in his pants pockets, looking at the display that Koi had been organizing. Just then, he raised his head, and his eyes met the customer’s. The customer then startled and hurriedly turned his head away.

“He’s, he’s very tall. Is he in the same grade?”

“Yes, he’s the captain of our school’s ice hockey team.”

“What…”

Koi offered the items in a plastic bag, but the customer didn’t even think to take them and exclaimed in a raised voice,

“Is he that kid? Ashley Miller? The one who got a perfect score on the college entrance exam and takes all AP classes?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Koi nodded with pride.

“He lives in the country, just up ahead.”

“Huh…”

The customer sighed with a complicated expression, a sigh whose meaning was unclear, then listlessly pulled out his card and offered it. After Koi finished the transaction and returned the card, the customer, holding the plastic bag with the items, opened the door but paused.

“Um, kid.”

His cautious tone was completely different from when he spoke to Koi. As Ashley, who was looking at his phone, raised his head, the customer pointed to one side and asked,

“That car over there, is it yours?”

Ashley, who had followed his hand with his gaze, replied,

“No.”

“Oh, really?”

Just as the customer’s expression relaxed, Ashley added indifferently,

“It’s my father’s.”

The customer stared intently at Ashley’s face without a word. Koi looked back and forth between them, flustered, when just then, an alarm sounded from Ashley’s phone.

Ashley looked at his phone, then turned the screen to show it to the customer and said,

“Closing time, sir.”

Koi quickly checked his phone, and it was exactly 6 o’clock. The customer hurriedly fled as if escaping, and in an instant, only the two of them were left in the store. Ashley readily walked over to the counter where Koi was standing and asked,

“Are you done now? Let’s go quickly.”

“Uh, uh.”

Koi, who had answered in a daze, belatedly looked down. He was still wearing his shabby uniform. He could clean tomorrow morning, but he had planned to change his clothes, and now he didn’t have time.

“Why did you come so early? We were supposed to meet at 6:10.”

“Just because.”

Ashley answered with a smile.

“Because I wanted to see you quickly.”

At those words, Koi’s mouth naturally opened, and he chuckled, “Hehe.” Ashley also smiled back and extended his hand towards Koi.

“Come on, let’s go.”

“Okay.”

Koi was about to readily take his hand but flinched and stopped just before. Ashley frowned, and seeing that, Koi, flustered, quickly said,

“J-just a moment. Can you wait just 5 minutes? I’ll quickly change my uniform and come out. Um, I don’t know where we’re going, but going like this is a bit…”

As he mumbled and lowered his gaze, Ashley’s eyes followed him. The heavily wrinkled, old-stained, dirty uniform made the person wearing it look even more unappealing.

But it was Koi standing in front of Ashley right now. He wouldn’t care even if Koi was wearing a trash bag. Though it would be best if he wore nothing at all.

“It’s fine, though?”

Koi was happy at Ashley’s words, but the thought of upholding what needed to be upheld stopped him. Ash is just saying that because he’s my friend. I shouldn’t just believe him and put Ash in a difficult position.

As he thought that, Ashley suddenly bent down. Without time to evade, he grabbed Koi’s arm and buried his nose in his neck. A loud inhaling sound, “Swoosh,” was heard right next to Koi’s ear.

Suddenly, his mind cleared. Koi almost flinched and pulled back in surprise, but his arm was still held by Ashley, so he only twitched. His heart, which had been so fluttering just moments ago, pounded rapidly for a different reason.

“Do I, do I smell?”

Koi stammered, asking Ashley, who had raised his head. Ashley answered nonchalantly,

“Of course.”

And he added, as if it were obvious,

“Koi’s smell.”

“I smell?”

Koi’s voice rose in startled surprise. Again, Ashley readily nodded.

“Yeah.”

Koi, flustered, quickly asked,

“Uh, what kind?”

He waited, tense, and then Ashley, who seemed to think for a moment, “Hmm,” answered,

“A delicious smell?”

“Huh?”

As Koi blinked blankly, Ashley smiled. His stiff mind slowly began to move, and belatedly, Koi realized that Ashley had been playing a trick.

“What was that?”

Only then did Koi laugh comfortably, and Ashley frowned, then said seriously,

“It’s true. I always want to eat Koi.”

Koi still laughed and shook his head.

“You can’t, I’m not. I don’t taste good.”

Ashley tilted his head to one side and looked down at Koi.

“Really? I think you’d taste good.”

Ashley bent down again. This time, his lips touched the spot where his breath had touched earlier. As Koi froze in surprise at the unexpected situation, Ashley opened his mouth and bit his neck.

“Ouch.”

It didn’t actually hurt at all, but a small scream reflexively escaped him. Rather, the spot was so ticklish that he wanted to pull away quickly, but since Ashley still held both his arms, Koi could only hunch his shoulders.

“Don’t do that.”

As Koi spoke urgently, Ashley subtly bared his teeth. He bit Koi’s neck gently, as if taking a bite of soft marshmallow, and remained still for a moment. Koi, feeling both ticklish and somehow embarrassed, wriggled, trying to push him away.

“Stop it, really. It’s ticklish.”

It was too easy to grab the hands pushing his shoulders and make them immobile. If Ashley put his mind to it, he could embrace Koi right there. Koi wouldn’t even know what was happening to him.

But Ashley suppressed the impulse and raised his head. Of course, he couldn’t resist sucking hard with his lips before pulling his teeth away.

Ashley looked down at the red mark he had left on Koi’s white neck with satisfaction, then shifted his gaze to Koi’s face. Koi was just blinking his eyes with a dreamy, dazed expression. As expected, he seemed to have no idea what had just happened. Ashley deliberately smiled and asked,

“Can I have more?”

Hah! Koi belatedly came to his senses and quickly answered with a bright red face,

“No. I’m not food.”

He hurriedly pulled away from Ashley’s hands and scurried into the storage room, which also served as a changing room. He didn’t even say “wait a moment” or “I’ll be right back.”

Bang! Ashley looked at the loudly slammed storage room door and slowly stroked his lips with his thumb. The sensation he had just felt vividly returned.

“Ah…”

Still with his finger on his lips, he sighed.

“I want to eat more.”