A Perfect Day to Be Eaten

"Philosophy topics always look easy, right up until you actually have to unpack them. And they want the two of us to work this out as a debate."

What he had suggested they do together after class was a group project. Seo Jian had no idea when she and Gam Dou had ended up on the same team, but since it had happened anyway, she decided to take it as a blessing. Work on the assignment together, and surely we'll eat, drink, and sooner or later end up in bed.

Set on finishing the project first, Jian shoved her hunger for sex aside for the moment and turned her mind to the topic.

"What if we build it around quotes from Plato and Maslow?"

"Maslow? The American psychologist?"

"Yes. Plato thought a truly human life meant not being ruled by sensory desire or instinct, but gaining spiritual maturity and wisdom through reason. Maslow argued that higher desires—the growth motives that drive self-actualization—are exactly what make us more human. I think the two of them would play perfectly against each other in a debate."

"That's a good idea. The top of the department really is in a different league."

Impressed, Dou started typing her points into his laptop.

And here I thought looks were the only thing he was good at. Back at school after two years away for military service, Dou was far easier to talk to than she had expected—easy enough that studying felt fun for the first time in ages.

They wrote for three straight hours without noticing the time, and only after they set down the final period did they realize the sun was going down.

"Thanks to you, we knocked out something that would've taken days of suffering. You hungry? Come on. I'll buy you something good."

Finally!

Color rushed into Jian's blank face. She nodded and scrambled to clear their things, and the sight pulled a soft laugh out of Dou. It was only a light smile, and still his face was beautiful enough to make her dizzy.

"Anything you feel like eating?"

"Can we drink? I want to try a little Japanese-style bar. I hear the atmosphere's lovely, and the fish cake and highballs are supposed to be incredible."

A beer hall or a street-tent bar would be too loud, and a wine bar would demand too much formality—the mood might turn stiff. Somewhere cozy, and just rowdy enough, was perfect.

"Oh. There's a decent place right by my apartment, actually. We'll drop the car off at home and walk over."

So he wants to drink, then do it at his place? Smooth. Just as expected.

Jian turned her head and yanked her mouth into a wicked grin, then smoothed it back into a bright smile before she answered.

"That sounds perfect."

They walked out side by side, taking their time across a campus that had already emptied. The air was good, the sun was sliding down in a slow blush, and the sky was pretty. Jian swept her wind-tossed hair back with a light hand and told herself again.

A perfect day to get eaten.

Beep.

Before she knew it they had reached the parking lot, and Jian watched him start the car with a remote. Elegance practically dripped off him, so she had already assumed the clothes and the watch were expensive. So he really is rich.

Even Jian, who knew next to nothing about cars, recognized the famous badge planted across the nose of the big sedan. It gleamed even in the dark.

"Get in."

"Thank you."

She dipped her head at the way he opened the passenger door for her himself, then climbed in carefully. The cabin was spacious and spotless, and it even smelled wonderful—wonderful enough that she caught herself thinking they could just do it right here in the car.

"I'm not going to eat you, so you don't have to freeze up like that. It's not far."

"...Sorry?"

Why aren't you going to eat me?

"You're joking, right?"

She asked it dead serious, as if he had just dropped a thunderbolt on her, and he tilted his head with a flustered huh, like a man who had no idea what he had done wrong.

Honestly. Of all the jokes to make. Is he a master of the push-and-pull too? Working me up on purpose so I'll want it even more?

Gravely impressed by what she took for considerable skill, Jian nodded and looked at him with open admiration.

"You really are incredible."

She shot him a thumbs-up, and his expression only grew more bewildered.

"At what?"

"Everything."

"I have no idea what you mean, but... that's a compliment, right?"

"Of course."

At her perfectly earnest reply he smiled faintly, shifted out of park, and started driving. Jian had been about to stare out the window when her eyes snagged on the hand wrapped around the wheel.

Even his hands are big, long, beautifully drawn out. And unlike her pale, skinny classmates, his skin was just sun-warmed enough, the muscle of his forearm cut clean, veins rising taut and faintly green from the back of his hand all the way up his arm.

Sexy enough that I want to lick every inch of it. Jian swallowed the saliva pooling in her mouth and studied him more thoroughly.

A well-built upper body showed its outline well enough, but she had not expected the lower half to be this solid too. Her eyes went dark with satisfaction as she admired thighs that looked more than twice as thick as her own.

And the thing neatly packed away in there—how big and sturdy is that? She turned her gaze toward the window and leered, shameless, at his body reflected in the glass.

What would happen if I just reached over and touched it? If I undid the buckle and put it straight in my mouth...

"What are you thinking about?"

"Just that something looks delicious...!"

The answer slipped out before she could stop it, and Jian snapped her mouth shut in sudden alarm.

"You must be starving. We're here. Let's get out."

Fortunately, he seemed to think she meant the food she was about to eat. He finished parking with a short laugh and got out of the driver's seat first.

Whew. Jian tapped her own lips with a finger and let out a breath of relief. People said her image was aloof as a cat; she needed to pull herself together and protect it. If he decided she wasn't what he had pictured, he might change his mind, and that would be a disaster.

Keeping her face blank, she opened the door and stepped out of the car with all the hauteur she could muster.

She had thought the parking garage was impressively large, but when the elevator opened onto the lobby, the grand space and its luxurious interior made her eyes go wide.

"This is your place, Oppa?"

"Yeah. The top floor."

"The lobby looks like a hotel."

"Does it?"

Marble tile stretched wall to wall beneath an enormous chandelier, and there was even a separate information desk. A home like this.

He'd said he was in and out of hotels all the time. Of course he chose a place that basically is one. As expected of the face of campus—he was different in every way.

"This way. It's less than a five-minute walk."

"Okay, Oppa."

Jian followed Dou toward the bar.

The round wooden door and the yellow light hanging above it had her before she had even stepped inside. The interior was warmer and cozier still, and every table was partitioned off on its own—private enough that you could get up to all sorts of things and no one would ever see. Once again, Dou's choice was exactly what a master would have made.

"I love it here."

"The food's good too. Mind if I order the tasty stuff for us?"

"Please do."

Jian was greedy about food and agonizingly slow to decide, so his offer suited her perfectly.

The dishes arrived one after another, and a sweet, bright highball laced with green plum settled onto the table. The pairing was excellent. The alcohol went down, quite literally, smooth as anything.

If only Dou and I fit together that well, and he slid in just as easy! Jian hid the filthy thought and sipped.

Then again, when is he planning to get to it? This seems like plenty. Wondering if she ought to fake being drunk, she let her eyes go heavy and smiled at him, loose and silly.

That was when she caught Dou's lips moving, as if he were about to speak.

"If there's something you want to say to me, just say it, Oppa. I'm good with anything."