With Eyes Full of Hatred and Resentment

"Hurry up."

Body and mind worn thin, I simply closed my eyes.

As if clinging to me all night hadn't been enough, Kwon Hyun-jin had kept at it into the morning, let me sleep a little through the afternoon, and still refused to let me go until early evening. The place that shameless weapon of his had been thrusting in and out of burned past rawness until, by the end, I couldn't feel a thing. We'd used plenty of lube so I hadn't torn, but it still felt as if I were left open down there. My whole body ached like I'd been rolled up in a straw mat; I just wanted to rest.

Click. The seatbelt came undone. Kwon Hyun-jin wrapped an arm around my waist. As if a kiss needed to be some grand production. His tiresome intentions were written all over him.

"……Kwon Hyun-jin."

Sure enough, the lips that had brushed my cheek drifted lower. Rubbing his face against my neck, he drew a deep breath and climbed over into the passenger seat.

"Haah, Na-hee. Just once—your chest."

"What……"

"Just let me suck on them once. We won't see each other until Saturday, yeah?"

Of course we couldn't meet on weekdays. But since when had that become such an ordeal? I was speechless.

"Kwon Hyun-jin. We're outside right now."

No matter how dark the night, no matter how black the tint on the car windows, this was still a street. I caught Hyun-jin's hand as it burrowed in.

"Want to go to a hotel?"

"You can't be serious."

"Just an hour."

"Are you insane?"

"Nuna."

Struck dumb with disbelief, I shut my mouth—and Hyun-jin grinned. Then he buried his face between the open panels of my blouse. When had he even undone the buttons?

No matter how I looked at it, I was the problem. I was far too weak to that smile of his.

"Haah…… That smell is driving me crazy."

Nose buried in the valley of my breasts, Hyun-jin panted like someone who'd just broken the surface of the water. It was a little embarrassing, watching a guy twice my size hunch his upper body and cling to my chest like that.

"What smell do you keep talking about?"

"You don't know?"

"I don't……"

"How the fuck don't you know? You smell so goddamn much like milk."

Hyun-jin's high bridge of a nose crushed roughly between my breasts. As if that weren't enough, he started licking right up to the edge of my areola. His parted lips worked as if searching for my nipple, traveling lower. After being sucked on all night, my chest was raw and stinging.

"That hurts…… Why do you suck so hard?"

"I'll be gentle. Promise."

It was break, so no one was walking this road anyway. Still—I was embarrassed.

"No. Stop it. Not here……"

When I finally managed to push him off, Hyun-jin's thick chest heaved. Thankfully he pulled back soon enough, but his eyes stayed locked on my breasts, still glittering. The eyes of a beast about to pounce.

Hastily straightening my clothes, I opened the door.

"See you Saturday. Go on home."

"Lee Na-hee."

From the driver's seat, Kwon Hyun-jin ducked his head to meet my eyes through the window.

"I'm picking you up at night. Friday night."

"……"

"Call me once you're inside."

I didn't hear the car leave until I was climbing the stairs of the villa. Ji-yul wasn't home. Only when I flipped on the light in the dark room did the rumble of an engine finally rise from outside.

Rubbing my gritty eyes, I checked the week's schedule written on the calendar. There was the morning TOEIC class, but the most urgent thing was prepping for tutoring. When it had only been Chan-hee, I hadn't needed much preparation—but now I was taking proper pay for two students, so I had to be ready. Even during break, the academic society met once every other week, and my library work-study was fixed at three days a week—weekdays were no joke. In a department drowning in assignments, I was the only one who also held a part-time job.

"Mom's birthday is this month, too, right……"

I was an ordinary college student. Afraid of finding a job, afraid of preparing to find one. I only hustled because I was so scared—always crushed under a vague, formless anxiety.

Kwon Hyun-jin, on the other hand, was a boy without fear. His future was already set in stone. Everyone knew that after graduation he would join Kwonjin Electronics and walk the broad, paved road.

When I was with him, I forgot reality. That dreamy fabric-softener scent of his made me forget my chronic anxiety and fear. Especially whenever he looked at me with a smile—my heart pounded so hard that no thought could form. It felt as if the owner of my heart were no longer me.

And then, when he vanished from before my eyes, I came back too late to a gray reality. Left alone.

Whenever Kwon Hyun-jin suddenly forced his way into my tight-packed daily life, what I felt was less joy than a bitter edge. The gap between the fantasy of him and my reality made a person miserable. That tar-like, unpleasant feeling dredged up before my eyes the fact I worked so hard to ignore.

Could we, really—

How long could Kwon Hyun-jin and I stay together……

The news of Kwon Hyun-jin's acceptance to S University turned Hannam-dong upside down.

"Don't even get me started. The chairman is going completely nuts."

"He's that happy?"

This was Chairman Kwon, who used to find any outside engagement a nuisance. Now he was suddenly showing up to distant nephews' weddings, attending gatherings of group chairmen—his public appearances had spiked.

"He's going out just to brag about the young master, that's all. They say he's even going back to Wolyeong Temple."

That was the temple Chairman Kwon had stopped visiting because he didn't care for the new head monk.

At his age, as the chairman of a major conglomerate—what else was left to brag about? Maybe a grandfather's heart was the same whether you were a chaebol or an ordinary person. Imagining Chairman Kwon going around the neighborhood crowing that his eldest grandson got into S University, I felt a touch of humanity from him for the first time.

"Mom, where should we meet for your birthday? Want me to find a nice place and make a reservation?"

"Why bother? You're busy enough. Just come home. The madam and the vice president won't even come into the house—they're always running into the young master."

"Is Kwon Hyun-jin going to Hannam-dong a lot these days?"

"Yeah, pretty much. The chairman keeps calling him over to drag him around everywhere."

The madam was so sick of it her insides were practically rotting with resentment, Mom said.

"Mom, I'll bring a cake for your birthday. Share it with the ladies. Is there anything you want?"

Over the phone, Mom gave a dry little laugh.

"Does my little puppy even have that kind of money? You gave Chan-hee allowance, too, I heard."

"He told you that? I barely gave him anything."

Just then, a long blast of a car horn sounded outside.

Kwon Hyun-jin, who didn't have so much as a speck of patience. Good thing Ji-yul wasn't home. He'd shown up way earlier than we'd agreed, and now—

"Mom, I'll call you later. See you on your birthday."

"Okay. Take it easy with the studying. Don't work yourself too hard, Na-hee."

"Yes."

I was on my way to Busan with Kwon Hyun-jin for an overnight trip. Hearing that from Mom pricked my conscience.

I hurriedly packed my things and went down; Hyun-jin, waiting at the entrance, took my bag and opened the passenger door.

"Your assignment. You finish it?"

"Yeah. I pulled all-nighters in the design studio……"

"Of course you did."

I'd turned him down when he wanted to see me starting last night because of the assignment. The Busan trip itself had been postponed several times for my schedule, and we were only going now. There was still some residue of resentment in him; he was being snippy.

While I was buckling my seatbelt, my phone chimed. A message from Chan-hee.

I clicked the portal-site link he had sent, and an article loaded. The headline alone was dripping with clickbait.