Passion: Diaphonic Symphonia Novel - Chapter 28

However, if Kyle had called, glossing over it was useless.

“If you knew, why did you ask?”

Jeong Taeui mumbled sulkily and snatched his foot out from under Ilay’s. Ilay’s foot, which had been pressing down on Jeong Taeui’s foot, lightly tapped the floor.

Ilay raised an eyebrow slightly. After a moment of awkward silence, Jeong Taeui quietly, slowly slid his foot back under Ilay’s.

“…Alright, fine. I’ll pretend I misheard my brother’s call. You said such a lovely, cute thing, saying you followed me, so I should believe it.”

“How kind of you.”

Jeong Taeui, again with a very serious face, muttered quickly with dry lips. It was a remark that sounded perfectly sarcastic, but Jeong Taeui had no intention of being sarcastic. If anything, it was flattery.

Ilay stared blankly at Jeong Taeui. Seeing that face, with only a faint smile at the corners of his lips but cold, heavy eyes, Jeong Taeui thought he was difficult.

A difficult face.

It was hard to know what he was thinking, and hard to know how he felt. However, he had never said anything pleasant after making that face. He often made such a face when thinking about a difficult problem.

He briefly thought he might be embarrassed or troubled, but he couldn’t imagine a situation that would make this uninhibited man feel embarrassed or troubled.

A difficult problem. What indeed was the difficult problem presented to him now?

Jeong Taeui had no way of knowing. He could only guess from what Ilay was about to say.

“Taeui.”

Finally, he opened his mouth. Jeong Taeui looked back at him silently.

“Go back to Berlin.”

He only said that. There was no additional explanation.

…Ah.

He didn’t know the reason, but he vaguely understood what Ilay was unwilling to do.

“But I’m already here?”

Jeong Taeui tilted his head, pretending ignorance, and asked.

But perhaps seeing right through his pretense, Ilay narrowed his eyes. He pressed down firmly on the foot on his instep. It hurt a little.

“Don’t you want to go back?”

His low voice echoed above his head. Surprisingly, that voice sounded more like genuine curiosity than an oppressive command to go back, so Jeong Taeui looked at him and tilted his head, “Hmm?”

He didn’t want to go back. There was no reason to be in Tartan, and no reason to want to be there. Both physically and mentally, he was more comfortable in Berlin.

However, he still hadn’t found Kyle’s book. This was a rare opportunity to help Kyle, and he wanted to find the book for him if possible.

Moreover.

“…”

Jeong Taeui glanced at Christoph, who was sleeping behind him. Seeing that, Ilay raised an eyebrow.

“I want to stay here a bit longer… Is there a reason I shouldn’t be here?”

Because this man looks so anxious.

He couldn’t do anything about it himself, but Ilay looked infinitely precarious and fragile, so he couldn’t turn his head away.

“Are you worried about Christoph?”

Ilay’s voice reached his ear.

Jeong Taeui flinched.

Just a moment ago, though their knees and feet touched, Ilay had been sitting at some distance, but when Jeong Taeui turned his head away from Christoph, Ilay had already moved away from the side table and was standing right in front of Jeong Taeui. As he stood up, more weight settled heavily on Jeong Taeui’s instep.

“Taeui. That’s enough. No further.”

A low voice touched his earlobe.

At some point, the weight on his foot disappeared. But at the same time, Ilay’s entire body leaned over Jeong Taeui’s.

“—Hey, wait, stop.”

Ilay pushed Jeong Taeui onto the bed and leaned over him, putting his weight on him. Jeong Taeui, who had been momentarily off guard and was pushed onto the bed, glanced sideways in embarrassment. Right next to him, less than a couple of hand-spans away, lay Christoph.

“Hey, hey, why here? Please, let’s pick a better place.”

Without any rhyme or reason, suddenly, Johann’s words about delicious grilled pine mushrooms, good anywhere, came to mind. Jeong Taeui quickly shook his head to clear that thought, whispering in a sweat,

“My room is right next door. Hey, hey.”

“I only left him because it’s Chris.”

But Ilay, as if he hadn’t heard Jeong Taeui’s words, continued what he was saying.

He slowly licked from Taeui’s earlobe to his cheek, then, without any warning, grabbed the front of Jeong Taeui’s pants.

Jeong Taeui gasped.

Even though he grabbed it over his clothes, that large hand precisely gripped Jeong Taeui’s member and gently pressed down.

Looking down at Jeong Taeui from a distance where their noses almost touched, Ilay spoke coolly, in contrast to the hand that was slowly moving below, beginning to heat up.

“I know that the face you like isn’t a sharply chiseled one like his, so even if you were beside him, taking his side, I didn’t say anything.”

Yes, and besides, he also happens to have severe contact aversion, Ilay added, then sucked on Jeong Taeui’s lips. A fiercely painful sensation scraped his lower lip, but the problem was what was below.

The rough grip that had begun to squeeze and shake over his clothes was painful. But the problem was that it wasn’t just pain. Even if he tried to push him away, this man, who seemed to have made up his mind, wouldn’t budge. In the midst of it, gasps were about to escape his mouth.

This is bad.

Jeong Taeui glanced again to the side. Someone who had been covered with chloroform wouldn’t wake up so quickly, but the reality that someone else was lying right next to them hadn’t changed.

“So, only go that far. Don’t try to go any deeper.”

Ilay said in a low voice. Then he sucked hard on Jeong Taeui’s lips again. As if competing with what was happening below, which stimulus was stronger.

Roughly kneading Jeong Taeui’s member over his pants, Ilay looked down at Jeong Taeui’s expression from directly above.

Feeling that piercing gaze, Jeong Taeui frowned and turned his head away.

This guy’s bad habit had surfaced again.

He couldn’t remember when this habit started, but when Jeong Taeui was stimulated and excited, Ilay would stare intently at his expression until he became completely overwhelmed by the stimulation. And sometimes, he would even stimulate him almost to the point of climax, then grab his member, preventing him from coming.

When Jeong Taeui trembled, unable to do anything, having been stopped just before climax, Ilay would narrow his eyes, as if very pleased with that expression, and stare for a long time. That gaze was probably the cruelest in the world.

For now, it was just the stimulation of being brushed over his clothes, and his mind was distracted by the surrounding situation, so it didn’t escalate to the point of Jeong Taeui recalling it later and suffering greatly, but it was still uncomfortable to be stared at intently with an obviously aroused face.

“Stop looking…”

“What’s wrong with me looking at what’s mine?”

When Jeong Taeui turned his head and raised his arm to cover his face, Ilay pushed his arm away. And then bit the cheek beneath it.

“Ilay, please, that, uh—”

“Go back, to Berlin.”

As Jeong Taeui tried to lower his arm again, Ilay whispered, his mouth close to his ear.

At that moment, Jeong Taeui closed his mouth and looked at Ilay.

Ilay looked at him, his expression satisfied by Jeong Taeui’s flushed face, yet with a trace of coolness remaining somewhere.

Suddenly, a question, similar to a sense of incongruity he had felt briefly before, flickered through his mind.

Ilay, who had unusually told him to stay quietly at home, unlike usual. The repeated confirmation calls. The cold expression that followed the surprise when they met here.

…If he were to draw the easiest conclusion from that, it would be that this guy had set up another household in this neighborhood… Damn it. He wanted to think properly, but that hand kept distracting him…

Looking resentfully at Ilay’s pale hand, which was persistently caressing his groin, slowly arousing his penis, Jeong Taeui flinched, pulling his legs up, but tried hard to think. He threw away ridiculous thoughts like “another household.”

…But it’s too hard to organize his thoughts amidst this physical ordeal…

“Is the problem that this isn’t Berlin, or that it’s Dresden?”

That was the question Jeong Taeui barely managed to ask between ragged breaths.

Then suddenly.

The hand kneading Jeong Taeui’s groin paused momentarily.

The face that had been pressed close, sucking his lips or licking his cheek, pulled back slightly. Ilay looked down at Jeong Taeui from about a hand-span above.

Facing that expressionless face, Jeong Taeui only blinked, staring at him during that short, sudden pause.

…Uh?!

A question briefly flickered in his mind.

“It’s not always good to have a good hunch, you know…”

His voice, a low whisper like a monologue, was faintly audible. It was at the same time.

“…Ah!”

The hand gripping him below suddenly tightened. His fingers precisely found and rubbed the underside of his member, a sensitive spot for Jeong Taeui. Rubbing against the fabric, the sensation became increasingly acute.

“Wait, Il, Ilay…”

Unable to keep up with the fiercely painful friction, Jeong Taeui stopped speaking.

His lower body was already swollen to its fullest. Cupped snugly in Ilay’s ample hand over his pants, the tip began to dampen.

There was no time to think that the feeling of his underwear getting damp was unpleasant.

Just as Ilay, who had been annoyingly biting his lips, sucked Jeong Taeui’s tongue into his mouth and tasted it, Jeong Taeui reached his climax.

“…! …!!”

Ilay held Jeong Taeui tightly, who was trembling intermittently, once, twice, and whispered something to him.

It was too quiet a voice.

At the moment of climax, his mind momentarily fading, it was too low to understand.

—But, yes, now that we’ve met like this, I’ve become reluctant to send you back. Even though it’s only for a month.

Jeong Taeui, with blank eyes, stared at Ilay’s lips, which were moving in front of him. He felt as if something important, something he should have heard, had been said, but he hadn’t heard it.

Jeong Taeui, who had been momentarily dazed by the unique feeling of exhaustion after coming, as if his soul had completely gone out, unconsciously mumbled,

“You’re not going to?”

Only after the words left his mouth did his mind clear.

He flinched. His heart instantly turned cold.

Wait, wait, not only did I do something I shouldn’t have in someone else’s bed—with the bed’s owner conspicuously lying right next to me—but what nonsense did I just utter?

No, it’s not that, it’s just that this place isn’t ideal, and what I meant was just, Jeong Taeui thought, fumbling frantically, while Ilay, who had been quietly looking down at him, suddenly got up from above him. As if he had sensed something, he went to the window and looked outside. Jeong Taeui looked at him awkwardly.

What’s with him… Jeong Taeui thought suspiciously, then soon heard the sound of a car approaching from outside. Headlights flickered and passed across the window.

He wondered who would be arriving at this hour of the night, then realized. Come to think of it, Richard, who had gone to the hospital, was due back.

Ilay stood by the window, silently looking outside. The way he tapped the window pane with the tip of his index finger made it seem like he wouldn’t answer if spoken to.

The sound of the car receded, and Ilay’s gaze followed it until it completely disappeared from sight. His eyes, which had been coolly observing something, lingered outside for a moment even after the car vanished, and only turned away from the window after complete silence returned.

Jeong Taeui sat up in bed and looked at Ilay.

Something subtly bothered him. Something unsettling remained in a corner of his mind, gnawing at him.

He tilted his head and thought for a moment, but in the end, he couldn’t even figure out what it was, so he sighed. And then he looked at Ilay again.

“…”

Come to think of it, he had been squirming on the bed just moments ago.

Somehow, the natural progression that always followed seemed to be missing, and he felt uneasy. It was as if his daily life had suddenly been flipped upside down and he had fallen into an unknown place. This man isn’t like this, he thought, and his contemplation, bordering on suspicion, deepened.

At this rate, he thought it would be better to just get it over with and finish cleanly.

“… …”

If he were honest, he didn’t want to say it. For his safety, for a vibrant tomorrow, he truly didn’t want to say it.

But it felt unfair to relieve his own desires alone, and besides, he had just brought up the topic a moment ago—even if it was a slip of the tongue—so subtly letting it pass seemed a bit cowardly.

“…You’re not going to? …But not in this room, if you do.”

After saying it, he added a condition, just in case.

Yes, he was prepared to die anyway. With his current state of mind, he felt he could do it anywhere, as long as it wasn’t in this room, on this bed, next to the sleeping owner of the room.

Actually, he was so tired he felt like he would die.

Today, he had been overworked both physically and mentally all day, so his whole body felt like waterlogged cotton.

He would have been utterly happy if he could just collapse and fall asleep like this.

Still, he put aside such minor regrets.

Ilay stood by the window, silently looking at Jeong Taeui. He seemed lost in thought, but his gaze never left Jeong Taeui.

Suddenly, his gaze seemed to linger around Jeong Taeui’s cheek. As if something was on it, or a bug, Ilay’s eyes, which had been staring intently at his cheek, seemed to turn cold for a moment. Following that, he heard a click of his tongue. He frowned slightly in displeasure.

But that was only for a moment, then he returned to his usual expression and moved away from the window. And he walked straight towards the door.

Uh…?

Jeong Taeui looked at him blankly, as if caught off guard. Ilay grabbed the doorknob and glanced at Jeong Taeui.

“If you’re going to be in Berlin for a while, it’s fine if we don’t do it right now. Your face looks like you’d just pass out if I lay you properly in bed and take off your clothes, and I’m not in such a hurry to have sex with someone sleeping like a corpse.”

You liar, you satisfied your desires with me even when I was exhausted and half-asleep from roof repairs, I remember it clearly because I almost died from muscle aches the next day along with the roof repairs, such words surged up his throat, but Jeong Taeui clamped his mouth shut.

It was unbelievable, but could it be…?

As Jeong Taeui stared at him with a look of disbelief, Ilay looked at Jeong Taeui just before opening the door. And with a completely humorless face, he spoke with genuine sincerity.

“Let me tell you, if you stick your neck into a dangerous place one more time, I’ll make you think it would be better to die by my hand instead.”

“…Uh. I won’t.”

He had no intention whatsoever of risking his life for someone else’s business, but Jeong Taeui chose to nod obediently instead of arguing.

However, perhaps because he found it so unlike the man to say such a thing, he still stared at him with a skeptical heart.

Ilay seemed to have finished speaking, opened the door, and stepped outside.

“Just go to sleep. …Not there, go back to your room.”

He left only those indifferent words, then closed the door.

“…Uh…?”

Jeong Taeui sat alone in the suddenly quiet room—not counting the unconscious person—staring at the closed door.

Well, it felt like he had fallen into a new world or something…

Jeong Taeui tilted his head. Then he tilted it the other way again. Even after tilting his head several times, he still couldn’t quite comprehend this reality.

Had he suddenly had a change of heart? Or had he become a different person, or did he think it was better to refrain from overly reckless behavior since it was someone else’s house… No, that last one probably wasn’t it.

Even after forming several hypotheses, he couldn’t figure out why Ilay had retreated relatively meekly, without any particular violence. He had been prepared to die, or half-die.

“That’s weird. …Maybe I looked a little pathetic.”

Jeong Taeui tilted his head and scratched his cheek vigorously. Then he stopped, muttering, “Ow, ow…”

His cheek was swollen on the outside, and the inside of his mouth was torn. It was so numb that he felt like his bone might have shattered, so he couldn’t even touch it.

He had forgotten about it for a moment, being preoccupied.

Come to think of it, he meant to grumble a bit, but he forgot.

Earlier, outside, he had been hit so hard with that ignorant brute strength that the inside of his mouth was torn and one side of his face was badly swollen. He’d probably look unrecognizable by tomorrow. …Christoph, who got hit several times, must be even worse.

Jeong Taeui briefly looked down at Christoph, feeling a pang of pity that this sculpted face, more than his own, might be ruined.

But in truth, he didn’t really intend to argue, and considering the situation at the time, given that personality, it was merciful that he hadn’t just thrown a punch and said, “If you want to die so badly, just die by my hand.”

“…”

Jeong Taeui sat up on the bed and looked up at the ceiling. The heavy, dark-colored wallpapered ceiling was far above him.

—Just go to sleep. Not there, go back to your room.

Suddenly, the last voice he heard came to mind.

Jeong Taeui sat idly, then scratched the back of his neck.

—Your face looks like you’d just pass out if I lay you properly in bed and take off your clothes, and I’m not in such a hurry to have sex with someone sleeping like a corpse.

That voice, which seemed to contain a hint of mocking laughter, also came to mind.

Jeong Taeui scratched his head this time.

“It seems easy to understand, but it’s really hard to understand…”

He unconsciously mumbled to himself. He let out a sigh.

But his mouth, after letting out a sigh, was smiling faintly. He kept chuckling, letting out airy laughs, and finally burst into low laughter.

Then he gasped, “Ow, ow, ow,” clutching his cheek and frowning, but then he chuckled again.

[To be continued in Volume 2]