My Brother's Friend Wasn't a Guy - Chapter 21

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

21.

“We never promised to meet here, and you never said you were coming. How did you know?”
When Lee Jin asked, Kang Hyun shrugged as if it were nothing and replied.
“Just a feeling.”
He shook the beer can as he spoke, dangling it like bait.
Lee Jin, perched uncertainly beside him, accepted the beer. The crisp pop of the tab punctured the hushed serenity of the Garden.
The two of them sipped their beers under the amber glow of the lamps.
The oppressive heat of midday had settled into a cool evening—not cold, but just cool enough to temper the warmth in their faces.
They drank in comfortable silence, neither seeming to need words.
Then Kang Hyun’s gaze drifted to the nape of Lee Jin’s neck. She had her hair pinned up, and the delicate curve of her pale throat kept drawing his eyes back, again and again.
The stray wisps of hair and the hint of her small ear fueled thoughts he shouldn’t be having.
‘I’m losing it.’
He exhaled long and heavy. He’d cared for Lee Jin for quite some time, managing to hide it well enough, keeping things smooth.
But the moment he’d tasted her lips—or rather, the moment he’d held her soft, yielding body in his arms—his restraint had begun to crumble with each passing second.
He hadn’t known it would come to this. He’d believed he could wait patiently until she opened her heart completely, but he’d reached his limit.
He’d convinced her that staying at the Cheongchuk Kiln would help her understand the ceramics that belonged there.
Looking back now, he’d fallen into his own trap.
Whenever he let his guard down, he found himself mentally undressing her, tracing every curve, tasting her skin.
His everyday life was unraveling. Desire was suffocating him.
Yet despite it all, you’re beautiful and innocent—so much so that now even brushing your fingertips against me makes me hesitate.
“Kang Hyun.”
At the sound of Lee Jin’s voice, Kang Hyun cut through his tangled thoughts and met her eyes.
The raw, churning emotion he couldn’t quite hide settled deep beneath his gaze, dark and smoldering.
“Mm.”
The rough, dry response was nothing like the smooth, glib Kang Hyun of before.
…….
So her voice caught, as if her throat had closed. When Lee Jin fell silent, Kang Hyun took a sharp breath and asked with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“What is it? You called me over and now you’ve got nothing to say? Are you playing games with me?”
Lee Jin saw through him—he wasn’t genuinely amused.
Maybe that’s what gave her courage. Her trembling hand reached out and settled on his thigh. The moment it did, Kang Hyun’s eyebrow twitched sharply.
“You said I’m a woman to you, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, and you said I’m not a man.”
His answer came too fast, as if he were trying to cut off what might come next.
But Lee Jin, unfazed, pressed on with what she needed to say.
“So what if I’ve started seeing you as a man now?”
There was no way he didn’t sense the shift between them. The way he was deliberately trying to maintain distance was obvious.
It had all changed that past weekend when they’d nearly crossed a line.
Since then, she’d locked herself in the Workshop, pouring all her focus into her pieces, and the only feeling that came back to her when she thought of him was:
Longing.
Surprisingly, the ache came most sharply from how he’d stopped brazenly approaching her.
When Lee Jin met his eyes again, her hand still resting on his thigh, he let out a stifled groan.
“Lee Jin, you don’t understand men yet. Do you know what happens when you do this?”
His voice was low and grinding, menacing enough to make her falter—she squeezed her eyes shut to hide the tremor in her pupils as she whispered back.
“What, what happens?”
“I lose my mind.”
A man pushed to the brink by nothing more than her clumsy provocation seized her wrist and pulled.
Her center of gravity vanished in an instant, and Lee Jin tumbled into his embrace.
He settled her easily onto his lap, then gripped both her cheeks and kissed her—raw desire unmasked, devouring her without pretense.
There was no point in feigning composure anymore, no reason to hold back.
“Hah, mmph…….”
Lee Jin gasped against his rough invasion. The sensation of tender flesh brushing and swirling inside her mouth sent a sharp, electric thrill down her spine.
Her lips burned under his attention, her tongue tangling with his. In the white-hot haze of her mind, pleasure—the only sensation that remained—consumed everything.
Her body went limp, breath coming in ragged pants. Yet Kang Hyun’s intensity only mounted.
It blazed higher, consuming her entirely.
“Open your mouth.”
He spoke in a low, filthy murmur, his hand sliding down her back. Even through the fabric, the heat of his touch made her skin burn.
“You said you’re beautiful just by sitting still. So what do you think happens when you do more? My mind goes wild, doesn’t it?”
He bit her exposed earlobe with one hand cradling the nape of her neck, chewing it gently.
“Ah, mm…….”
She was swept up by Kang Hyun, who seemed to have become a different person entirely, helpless to resist.
Her body grew hotter with each breath mingling chaotically, each hand gliding across her skin.
The thin Knit Sweater she wore was pulled down by his hands, baring her shoulders. He began to kiss the nape of her neck and collarbone.
A pleasure incomparable to before crashed over her. This time his hand slipped inside the sweater, traveling along her bare skin.
“Ah, ah, hm…….”
When he gripped her tender flesh, Lee Jin shuddered with a soft whimper, her whole body trembling.
Damn. He muttered a low curse under his breath before growling at her.
“Push me away now. Tell me to stop.”
But Lee Jin stubbornly shook her head.
Kang Hyun had no confidence he could stop if she didn’t push him away. His body, brakes shot, moved of its own accord.
Honestly, urging her to push him away felt ridiculous. When what he truly wanted was for her not to.
Breathing out a long breath, Kang Hyun lifted her into his arms and stood.
“Don’t regret what happens today.”
He spoke in a voice that sizzled like oil in a pan, stepping forward, when a thin voice caught at his ankle.
“But…….”
Like an animal caught in a trap, Kang Hyun stopped abruptly.
Right—she must have realized this was wrong. She’d trusted him, and he’d shattered that trust, gone mad with desire, and she’d been frightened. Even Kang Hyun himself thought it was pathetic, exhaling roughly.
Yet Lee Jin didn’t blame him, didn’t draw a line and say this was wrong.
Instead, her voice trembling, she said this:
“I want to… wash. I want to wash up.”
Her face was entirely flushed as she spoke. After sweeping his gaze across her reddened ears, cheeks, and neck, Kang Hyun exhaled another long breath.
“Fine. Do as you like.”
He strode forward in quick steps, crossing the arched bridge in an instant and entering the interior in a flash.
Even carrying Lee Jin and walking swiftly, his breathing hadn’t wavered as he set her down in front of the Bathroom.
Drained of all strength in her legs by Kang Hyun, Lee Jin stumbled for a moment, unable to find her balance.
“Want me to wash you?”
“No, no! I’ll wash myself. I can wash myself!”
Flustered, Lee Jin spoke in disjointed bursts before fleeing into the Bathroom like she was running away.
Kang Hyun stood staring at the closed door, then belatedly wiped his face with both hands in a dry wash.
“Madman.”
Every nerve in his body was literally maddened. As if mocking all the self-control he’d maintained so carefully until now, his senses ran wild, ungoverned.
To make matters worse, when he heard water running from the Bathroom, Kang Hyun covered his eyes with one hand and sighed.
His patience had shriveled pathetically, as if he’d become a child.

Moments later, when Lee Jin emerged from the Bathroom, she saw the room’s lighting had dimmed and swallowed hard.
Kang Hyun sat on the sofa beside the Bed, his wet hair tousled carelessly, as if fresh from a shower.
Between the gaping Robe, his chest was glimpsed briefly. The languid posture made him look decadent.
With an artful smile erased, he radiated a predator’s dangerous, keen edge.
“Come here.”
As his low, settled voice struck her as exceedingly sexy, Lee Jin moved toward him as though entranced.
Seeing her draw near, he narrowed his eyes slightly.
“You washed up and got fully dressed again, just now?”
Unlike him, who wore only a Robe, Lee Jin still had on the same clothes she’d worn before.
“There was no Robe in the Bathroom. I—I couldn’t exactly come out naked, could I?”
To her faltering protest, tinged with embarrassment, Kang Hyun couldn’t bring himself to say she should have, and sighed instead.
Interpreting his sigh however she chose, she hesitated before speaking.
“But… I didn’t put on underwear anyway…….”
“Is that so?”
At Lee Jin’s surprising confession, Kang Hyun cast aside any semblance of conscience on the spot and curved his lips into a smile.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————