Walls And Doors

Chapter 6

JULY 31, 2019

I was back in Seoul. Unlike my trip last year, this was just a week-long stay. I had just come from a four-week business trip in Hong Kong and since I had some "use it or lose it" vacation leaves, it sounded a lot better to spend some of those vacation days in Seoul and just have my flight back to San Francisco from Incheon.

An unexpected work load prevented me from going to Seoul in July. Like the British gentleman who owned the other unit at my floor, I had been asking a housekeeper to clean my apartment. Back in early July, I had asked her to stock my fridge with the essentials. Unfortunately, those essentials included some perishables and the housekeeper's agency did not have anyone else free to take out the expired food until September.

The task took longer than expected, lasting me from the moment I entered the apartment at 2 pm, all the way up to 10:45 pm. The garbage chute was at the end of the L-shaped hallway at my floor. I had just thrown the final bag of rotten eggs and produce when the elevator pinged open and I heard an all-too-familiar giggling but this time, paired with teasing from a deep, baritone voice.

I froze in my tracks and frantically looked for a place to hide. Luckily, the British dude's apartment had a faux privacy plant which was placed strategically before his door as though to hide whichever needed to be hidden. Or in this case, myself that needed to hide.

And hide I needed, indeed. In as much as my religious upbringing taught me not to stare or to at least avoid placing myself in awkward situations, I could not help but glance at what was unfolding ten feet away from me.

News reports from earlier indicated that both had just come from the first script reading of their next project. "Crash Landing Of Love"* was a dream project he once said was what he wanted to have with her because "The Negotiation" only allowed them to act on one scene, together.

He was quoted as saying, "... I wanted to try acting with her in the same space, making eye contact, and breathing the same air, and that opportunity came quickly."

Breathe the same air they did. And more.

She was wearing a black satin kimono wrap top and he, a plain white cotton v-neck tshirt. The knot that had kept her top secure was already untied.

As her lips were being passionately ravaged by his kisses, she was caressing, tracing the muscles on his back until her hands settled into each of his jean back pocket, effectively pulling his body closer to hers.

Groaning at her bold act and the effect it had on him, one of his hands made its way from her cheeks, down to her neck, onto her collar bones and inside her untied kimono wrap. His other hand had already deftly undone the button on her jeans and was slowly making its way down to just what's beneath her lace undergarment.

I saw her pull away her lips from him. He then got on to exploring what seemed like a sensitive part behind her ear. I honestly did not know if that was what made her moan out loud only to bite her lower lip to suppress another sound threatening to come out of her.  After all, his long fingers seemed to be busy going in and out of what lay beneath the piece of lace she wore.

The scene could make anyone blush, CCTV cameras be damned. Situations like this explained for the steep homeowners association fee: They were paying for privacy.

I had a full 45 seconds of the two ravishing each other when I decided to turn away and close my eyes so tightly I feared the veins on my head would burst. I was no Peeping Tom (or Tina). But I'd be damned if I said I was not affected, physically, by what I saw. Luckily, I heard one of them  -  whoever that was  -  punch in a code. As soon as the moans that filled the common area of the 35th floor could be heard no more, I hurriedly walked to my apartment door, opened it and avoided going to my workstation. But life had other plans as a work e-mail marked urgent popped up in my phone notification. It needed my immediate attention.

True enough, as I entered my home office where my work laptop was and fully intending to just grab it and go, I ended up rooted where I was. The sound of flesh meeting and groans evident of pleasure descended from my famous neighbor's bedroom all the way onto the workspace I called my home office.

"But since when had this been happening? Probably since my LA grocery encounter of the two of them? Maybe even before?" I thought to myself as I struggled with the idea that I was actually intruding on something beyond the borders of decency both as a fan and as a human being.

Sure, Son Ye-jin's indeed an impressive actress. She was also a combination of beautiful, cheerful and confident. Thus, it did not come as a surprise that the equally beautiful and talented specimen of a human being in Hyun Bin fell hard for her. From that moment in August of 2018 when I'd first learned about them, curiosity got the best of me as I spent some of my free time finding out what their works were and who they were projected in public. Whatever they presented outside, the media and the public lapped.

But this? This was clearly a moment that's to be shared only for and between the two of them.

And then suddenly, sounds of release from the other side made me feel I was that door  -  no, that fly on the wall who felt the need to cover its big, bulging eyes. At the same time, I was that blush-colored wall that warped and caved each time it heard cries of desire and pleasure from the two lovers.

Whichever effect it had on my senses, I could only be sure of one thing:
The two's relationship was already on another level.
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*"Crash Landing of Love" was a working title for what we would later come to know as "Crash Landing On You".