Chapter 110: A New Phone [R-18]

The mountain morning was surprisingly quiet.

The sun rose directly in front of them, and a warm, red light poured through the floor-to-ceiling glass. The air had grown chilly overnight, and it seemed Rio had covered her with a few towels.

He was still sitting beneath her. Seojin was cradled in his arms, breathing softly.

Not yet fully conscious, her eyelids fluttered open slightly before slowly closing again. Startled awake for a moment by the light, she was drawn back to sleep by his warmth and quietly rubbed her cheek against his chest.

“Mmm…”

The space where people had been drinking with him was now silent. Most of them seemed to be asleep, leaning against the living room sofa or the walls.

In this stillness, poised between the warm sunlight and the lingering chill of dawn, she quietly mingled her breaths with his.

A warmth enveloped her entire body. They were both nearly naked, but she felt neither ashamed nor cold.

Just the feeling of being alive, in this moment, in his arms.

Seojin finally managed to open her heavy eyes for a few seconds. With her face still resting on his chest, she murmured softly, as if in a dream.

“…I want to… something…”

She wanted to leave something on him, too. A mark. Something no one else would know, but she would remember.

It couldn’t be somewhere he would feel enough to wake him, but a common place like the nape of his neck felt too embarrassing.

In a relationship where she didn’t know what would happen after this dawn passed, she wanted to leave a tiny, unnoticeable trace.

Seojin carefully lifted his hand. One of the two arms that had been wrapped around her. On the back of his hand, where a vein stood out slightly.

She gently pressed her lips there. Then she left a small but lingering kiss.

At the touch, Rio’s eyebrow twitched faintly, but his eyes remained closed.

Seojin flinched, but then the corners of her mouth curled into a small smile.

Her own little stamp, unseen by anyone. Unspoken, unseen, but in this moment, this morning, he was hers.

She quietly threaded her fingers between his.

After staying like that for a long while, she gently, so very gently, brought his fingertips to her lips.

The kiss on the back of his hand hadn’t been enough. She wanted to get closer in a way only she knew, a way that wouldn’t wake him.

With her lips against his skin, Seojin slowly took one of his middle fingers into her mouth and sucked.

“Schlup…”

As his finger slid between her wet lips, a small sucking sound escaped.

Gently enveloping the single finger, she slowly traced his knuckle with the tip of her tongue. As if learning something, as if conveying an emotion that words could not express.

Slowly, luxuriously, she took him into her mouth, as if indulging in a childish whim.

“…Hah…”

Seojin’s face flushed slightly, but she didn’t stop.

It was something she could only do while he was asleep. Her own very secret, private expression of affection.

After taking one finger from her mouth, she took another into her mouth with a soft suck. Then, she murmured softly.

“…Or maybe not…”

This was a relationship where she couldn’t know what was permitted, not for herself and not for him.

But in this moment, he was definitely inside her. In her hands, and she in his arms.

Seojin gently placed his fingers back on his chest, let out a small breath, and buried her face in his chest again.

She closed her eyes, pretending nothing had happened after her small, secret caress, but her heart was pounding.

*

Seoul.

Late afternoon, with the sun high in the sky. The quiet room was filled with a familiar scent and an unfamiliar silence.

Though daily life had resumed not far away, her body and mind seemed not to have fully escaped the lingering feelings of that dawn.

Seojin, who was waiting for him on the sofa, looked up at the sound of footsteps approaching from the window.

It was Rio.

He approached without a word and quietly placed the familiar rectangle he was holding on the table in front of her.

—A phone.

It was white. Clean, as if newly bought, it looked, more than anything, like it was entirely for her.

“…”

Seojin stared blankly at the object for a moment, then slowly raised her gaze to look up at him.

What filled her eyes wasn’t surprise, but a sense of gratitude and emotion that couldn’t be put into words.

Rio met her gaze without any particular expression. After all, he was just keeping his word.

Seojin picked up the phone with both hands and placed it on her lap. A strangely fluttering feeling bloomed inside her.

“Thank… you.”

The end of her word was quiet, but her lips clearly held her sincerity, and her gaze lingered on his face.

Rio looked down at her, then smiled affectionately.

“The first call is to me, right?”

He pointed at the phone, which wasn’t even turned on yet, and playfully tilted his head as he mimed holding a phone to his ear.

As he pretended to answer a call, Seojin blinked, watching his playful act, and then let out a short laugh.

She wrapped her arms around his waist.

“Even though you’re right here.”

Before long, the two were sitting side-by-side on the sofa as sunlight from the window settled quietly over them. Rio sat next to her, helping her turn on the phone and go through the initial setup.

“The address is here. This house. And—”

He called her new phone from his own.

“This is my number.”

“Okay.”

The first call received, the only number registered. It was a way of firmly embedding his presence.

And then—

Ping.

An AirDrop notification suddenly popped up at the top of her screen.

[Rio] would like to share 5 photos.

When Seojin hesitated, Rio crossed his legs and swiped the screen with a practiced hand.

“Now you can take pictures with your own phone, too.”

The first photo was of Seojin tying her hair under a long, hanging light. The second was a picture he’d taken of them in front of a mirror, holding her.

These were moments when she knew she was being photographed.

But as he swiped further, the next pictures showed her neckline and shoulder, faintly revealed in the light, and then her face with her eyes closed…

“When did you take these…”

“Who knows.”

Rio chuckled and placed a light kiss on her cheek. She turned her head to hide, embarrassed, but her fingertips, clutching the phone, tightened slightly.

The arm behind her back naturally pulled her closer. The warmth of his body against the back of her neck, the smooth movement of his hand as he changed her phone’s wallpaper.

It was one of the photos of them together.

It wasn’t that she disliked it or felt uncomfortable. It was just that the thought of seeing that affectionate, intimate picture of them every time she turned on her phone somehow made Seojin feel awkward.

“…Mmm…”

Seojin rubbed her lips with her finger and averted her gaze.

Rio’s gaze followed hers. He smirked and reached his hand out in the direction she was looking. His hand was already opening the camera app.

“This mood isn’t bad either.”

“Huh?”

Click.

The sound of the camera shutter lightly disturbed the room’s silence. He wrapped an arm around her as she leaned languidly against the sofa and took another shot.

“Stop taking pictures. Why would you take pictures of me like this…”

“If you don’t like it, we can just take a bunch and pick one.”

“That’s not the point. I don’t really like having my picture taken.”

She tried to twist her body away and hide, but Rio reacted quickly to her small movement.

“Awkward?”

He grinned and tickled her with the arm he had around her.

“Eek! Stop it!”

“Then I’ll have to make you get used to it.”

Another click. He showed her the picture he’d just taken, thrusting the phone toward her. Seojin hurriedly covered her face with her hands.

“See? It looks weird.”

“It’s pretty.”

“…”

In that moment, she couldn’t say a word. The camera shutter kept clicking—whether she laughed or got angry, every moment was being recorded.

Rio looked at the phone again and said playfully, “Ah, but there was a time you liked being filmed.”

At Rio’s teasing words, Seojin turned her head to glare at him, but stopped herself. He watched her leisurely, then casually reached out a hand.

Thump.

He picked up her phone from the coffee table. Then he quickly set it back down, propping it up like a stand.

Video mode. And selfie mode, at that.

“What are you doing?”

“Creating a similar environment?”

Rio said, pulling her a little closer. The screen captured the two of them, half-reclined on the sofa.

Like a small mirror.

“This angle is good.”

Looking at the screen over her shoulder, he nonchalantly stroked the hem of her t-shirt.

“Don’t mess around…”

“That’s your phone. If you don’t like the recording, you can delete it.”

He smiled and lifted the hem of her t-shirt. His hand was inside in an instant.

His long fingers touched her soft lower belly. And—

“Ngh…!”

She flinched.

His hand moved upward, slowly winding around her waist. He cupped her breast, his palm full, and kneaded it with a very slow rhythm.

Translated By: Meher (RaidenTL)

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