Chapter 137: A Tedious Combination [R-18]

All that remained in the aftermath of the heat was dizzying breath and the slick scent of flesh.

Lying collapsed on Rio’s chest, Seojin was doing nothing but breathing, not even a twitch.

Sweat trickled down her spine. His semen slowly seeped from between her thighs. The breast milk that had leaked from her chest had spread onto his forearm.

Rio’s fingers slowly stroked her back. Sweat soaked the strands of her hair, and with every pass of his hand, Seojin flinched almost imperceptibly.

“Hnngh…”

A pained sound escaped through her shallow breaths, her mouth barely able to open.

It wasn’t unpleasant. She just… had no strength left. As if seeking comfort from that single caress, Seojin buried her cheek deeper into his chest.

Rio, showing no signs of fatigue, stroked her waist.

He had come inside her sensitive depths several times, and now she had no energy left to move. If she shifted even slightly, the wet, churning sound from within her echoed in her ears.

The bed was, quite literally, a battlefield.

Traces of them were tangled together on the sheets and on the floor.

It had been a more ferocious act of sex than anything she had experienced in the half-year they had been together; she had heard more expressions of love on the bed tonight than in all that time combined.

To be precise, she had never once told him she loved him. That word, always too much for her to handle, belonged to Rio. It was a reward he could choose to bestow.

But in this relationship, the only person who could truly speak of love was Seojin.

Rio reached back and picked up a cigarette from the bedside table. With the click of a lighter, a faint flame briefly illuminated his face.

Seojin remained draped over him, her eyes closed. From her chest to her thighs, her entire body was a mess of Rio’s semen, her own fluids, her milk, and her sweat.

She was listening silently to the sound of his heart, but Rio, in that state, picked up his phone and spoke in a low voice without even looking at the screen.

“Clear my schedule for tomorrow.”

“…What?”

The word was a reflex. Seojin weakly lifted her head from his chest.

But Rio didn’t even look at her, simply putting the cigarette back to his lips.

“This was pretty damn good. I want to do it until I’m sick of it.”

His life’s rules and priorities were different from others’. So many things could change for the simple reason that he was in a good mood.

Rio had expected her to agree, perhaps feigning reluctance as she always did when she got emotional over him saying he loved her. But instead, Seojin gave a tiny shake of her head.

“You have to go to work…”

Her voice was submerged in a hoarse breath, but she knew what she was saying.

She couldn’t help it. It felt as if she had to say at least that much to prove she hadn’t been completely broken.

Rio blew a plume of smoke right at her.

“What kind of executive is this diligent about showing up to work? It’s bad for employee morale.”

Seojin didn’t answer.

Begging him to love her, climaxing at his words, and now hearing him ask to clear his schedule. If she focused on the joy of having satisfied him, it should have been a proud moment, but that wasn’t how she felt.

The one who had ordered it, and the one who had to process it—it was all her.

The crash back to reality was brutally sharp, scraping her raw from within.

Even in the early hours of the morning, Seojin was gasping for breath beneath Rio’s body.

“I love you.”

That one phrase. The words Rio uttered during sex were like a well-honed blade, plunging into her body without mercy.

Hot, smooth, and fatal.

Sometimes, it felt like the words pierced her heart before they even touched her skin. She had been the one to beg for them, but now, those words terrified her more than anything.

In the bathtub, the dawn deepened.

“I guess I can’t go swimming today.”

She hadn’t even slept and woken up, yet every muscle in her body was already screaming. Seojin leaned her back against Rio, soaking her body in the hot water.

Rio held her from behind, his hands either kneading her breasts or stroking her wet thighs.

She quietly opened her mouth.

“You know… what’s it like? To live like you?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean… you’re the kind of person who lives for today, not tomorrow.”

Most people who knew Rio envied his free-spirited side, but they also called him a piece of trash who contributed nothing to society.

Being by his side, Seojin understood what they meant, but to her, who saw him up close, that was just how he was.

“…If I lived like that, I don’t think I’d have the confidence to survive the next day.”

Instead of answering for a moment, Rio squeezed her breast once more, then tugged her nipple long and slow.

“Ngh…”

“Thinking of it as something to ‘survive’ is where you’re wrong.”

Rio brought his lips to her hair. His hand moved again, this time stroking beneath her nipple instead of the peak itself as he spoke.

“You live in a way that you’ll have no regrets, even if you die tomorrow.”

His hand moved down her waist, tracing the line of her hip.

“And if you live… you just live.”

The words sounded so light that, paradoxically, they made Seojin want to cry even more.

Her life felt like a string of powerlessness and hardship, a life without possessions, a life pickled in the gazes of others. She could never live like Rio. And Rio, who refused to be caged in anyone’s frame, could never love like her.

It meant that even if tomorrow never came for him, he wouldn’t be with her. So, if his capricious self was going to decide his own end someday—

“…If you’re going to die tomorrow, come see me.”

When Seojin turned her head, her wet hair brushed against Rio’s shoulder. Then, she placed a kiss on his lips.

Rio responded to that fragile, sweet kiss with one of genuine feeling.

As if painting over the remnants of emotion inside her with a breath deeper than words. He lifted her into his arms and held her for a long time.

This must be what it means to be loved by him, she thought.

Time flew by, and soon it was winter.

Seojin’s twentieth year was passing quietly, and even as the new year approached, her body was still that of a ‘woman.’

She no longer thought about turning back into a man. It was better not to think about it. It allowed her to feign defeat and stay by Rio’s side.

Rio was even busier in the new year.

Work kept piling up, and he clicked his tongue, fed up with his packed schedule.

“I never thought I’d be taking reports in bed…”

Seojin quietly watched him from the side as he tapped irritably at his tablet.

Like a married couple, they sat together on the bed in his master bedroom, she with her long hair swept to one side.

That gesture, which once felt so awkward, had now become a familiar habit, something she could do without a mirror.

“—Thanks for the ride.”

Her daily routine was to get out of Rio’s car after he finished his work at the company and head to the center. Now that her schedule had shifted from morning to evening, she no longer swam alone but with friends.

In this way, things were similar, but much had also changed.

She had lost some of the baby fat on her cheeks, and when she smiled, a small dimple had begun to appear below her left cheek.

And—

She had, surprisingly, become close with Lee Woo-chan.

He was also a member of this high-end fitness center. He swam in the evenings. At first, it was awkward to keep running into him, but as they saw each other every day, their greetings and conversations became familiar.

“Kang Seojin-ssi, your hair. It’s sticking out.”

“Ah, thank you.”

Woo-chan said nothing more.

Most men would have smiled and added some unnecessary comment, but he seemed to have no interest in such things.

A cup of coffee with him after swimming was a surprisingly pleasant respite.

At first, it was simply a matter of returning a favor.

When she had come out of the locker room and bowed to him, a button on her new blouse had popped off. As she fumbled on the floor, unable to even get up properly, he had held out his jacket to her.

“Wear this and go.”

Not knowing how to repay him, she had been caught while trying to return the neatly cleaned jacket with her thanks.

In the end, his initial reluctance to get involved had given way to an adult’s pity for a poor soul so unlike him, a pity that deepened into compassion over time.

He figured that keeping her away from a guy like that, even for a little while, was the best medicine.

They didn’t talk much.

Seojin learned from him how to drink espresso, moving beyond the cheap but tasteless Americanos she used to drink.

If her relationship with Rio was one of sticky, carnal possession and domination, Woo-chan was simply a person who didn’t stir her heart into chaos.

When she was with Woo-chan, there was no need to ‘smile prettily.’

Just when she was tempted to let everything go at Rio’s side, Woo-chan’s quiet presence made him an adult she wanted to emulate, someone who possessed a center she lacked.

Her heart, which had grown closer to admiration, meshed well with his sympathy for her.

“So… he said you have to look at this part differently. The conversion structure…”

Seojin was speaking softly, leaning against Rio’s arm on the bed as she recounted the advice Woo-chan had given her.

Since Woo-chan was an internal adversary of Rio’s, Seojin never hid his existence, trying to maintain only as much distance as Rio would permit.

“…Hmm—”

But as time went on, Rio’s presence in her stories about Woo-chan diminished. Their meetings were more like a mix of professional and personal tutoring, and Rio never drew a line.

Seojin’s eyes would sparkle as she talked about all she was learning from him, acting like his star pupil in her hope that it would help her better understand the company.

Letting her enjoy what she enjoyed was his way of cherishing something.

But from his perspective, listening to their upright, wholesome stories was unavoidably boring.

Letting out a long yawn, Rio lowered his head toward her and brought his lips close to her ear.

“Honey,” Rio called softly.

“Yes…?”

“Don’t you have anything more interesting than that?”

Translated By: Meher (RaidenTL)

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