The protector

Experiences men have to do (MM)

Warning: this chapter contains a pretty kinky part. I've tried to be as vague as possible, but if you don't feel at ease with backdoors, you can read till you see this sign "-" then skip and start again from the other "-"

I'll take you above the silence and patience.

We'll walk together through the streets that lead to the essence.

The scents of love will intoxicate our bodies,

The calmness of August will no longer calm our senses.

I'll weave your hair like the plot of a song.

I know the laws of the world, and I'll offer them to you.

I'll overcome the gravitational currents,The space and the light so you do not grow old.

I will save you from every melancholy,

Because you're a special being and I will take care of you

La Cura, F.Battiato

2027, September

After the nth lovely greeting to her son, Yoon-hee closed the heavy door and made her way back to the living room, where her husband was apparently engrossed in the reading of a newspaper he should have finished that morning yet. The old couple shared some moments of stillness, with the woman sipping her white tea from the fine porcelain cup, and Cheong-ryeol holding an eloquent, silent staring, until she quizzingly raised up an eyebrow.

"You've seen it, ah?" It was a statement, more than a question. Yoon-hee disapproved that conduct, and her husband was pointing out the reason why his opinion was, conversely, favourable. A long, defeated sigh escaped from her lips in response. It wasn't the usual one of who had been his devote, dutiful wife for almost half a century, though the quiet admission that he was right. Right for real, not just because he was the head of the family.

Jeong Hyeok had visited them soon after his comeback from Swiss. There were wide, dark circles around his eyes, the questions about which he had briefly skated over, attributing them to the long travel. But the white shirt was hanging on him, and he had refused to stay for dinner, and this couldn't be only because of the long flight, one doesn't get so thinner just for a flight. Worried, fearful, Yoon-hee had been on point to call the lift operator dong-ssi again.

Just a few weeks later - weeks spent with that woman, she was sure of it – and his cheeks looked slightly fuller, his skin smoother and healthier, as if he had spent more time outdoors. Plus: he had eaten with them. There was nothing to do: her son looked more cared when he was with her.

As Jeong Hyeok's mom, Kim Yoon-hee had nothing against the girl. The very opposite. To her mother's eyes, that person had saved her son. She would have been grateful forever. But as a person, the situation made her feel uncomfortable. The fact that they were living together without being married. Even worse: with her being married with another man. It was all too modern, to avantgarde, too western. And ultimately, disturbing.

"It looks like concubinage to me. In my day, concubines were more discreet."

"Yoon-hee ah." Cheong-ryeol's voice was flat, but there was a glimpse in his eyes.

"Oh?"

"Technically, the concubine is our son."

The bold joke had the woman covering her mouth with the left hand, a loud breath underlining her shock.