Mudoo - Chapter 44

The unplanned runaway ended just six hours after it began.

After chatting over tea with Hobun, Seula’s anger slowly cooled down, and before she knew it, time had flown. But maybe that deeply ingrained conservative mindset—that sleep should only happen at home—kicked in, because she ended up going back to Kang Tae-shin’s place.

As for Yeo-ok, she remained a mystery. Neither Kang Tae-shin nor Dong-gil showed any intention of explaining who she was. No matter how much Seula prodded, it was useless.

“I feel like I’m being left out in this house.”

The words slipped out from the frustration of being the only one who didn’t know something they clearly did.

Tae-shin and Dong-gil looked genuinely startled when she said that. After that, they seemed to go out of their way to make sure she didn’t feel excluded anymore.

But even so, whenever she tried to sneak in a question about Yeo-ok, they’d clam up again.

By this point, she no longer felt the urge to pry into something they so obviously didn’t want to talk about. People in horror movies always die first when they get too curious and break the rules, right? She wasn’t about to lose something precious over some silly curiosity. This peace, this comfort—she was perfectly happy with it.

“Job hunting going okay?”

It was while she was lying on the wooden floor, updating her resume. Tae-shin stretched out beside her and asked casually.

“I’m not really sure. I don’t know if I’m doing well or just floundering.”

“I wish I could help, but there’s not much I can do.”

His tone was so indifferent it almost felt half-hearted.

Seula pouted and nudged her head into his chest.

“You don’t sound like you care. You’re talking like it’s someone else’s problem.”

“Well, technically, it is someone else’s problem.”

“Excuse me? I ran all over the place treating your problems like they were mine, you know?”

“That’s because you were getting paid for it. Just your instincts kicking in, I’d say.”

Tae-shin pulled her closer and made her rest her head on his arm. She set her resume aside and gazed up at the wooden rafters.

“How old do you think this house is? Two hundred years? Three?”

“Older than I am, that’s for sure.”

“You said you were thirty-one.”

“That’s just my public age.”

So this house was built more than five hundred years ago? Amazing, it survived through wars and everything.

“By the way, are you not working lately either?”

“Seems like it. Haven’t heard from the messenger.”

They exchanged random small talk. Things like how long his dry spells usually lasted, how he felt about the instability of freelancing, whether he’d ever consider a full-time job, and what kind of qualifications he had.

When Tae-shin casually said he had thirty undergraduate degrees and ten master’s degrees, Seula rolled away from him.

“You’re so full of it. If you’re going to lie, at least make an effort.”

“There should be a bunch of thesis collections somewhere in the study.”

“I’ll go look.”

Seula jumped to her feet and headed toward the study.

Inside, bookshelves were lined up like in a library. The shelves near the door held fairly recent publications, while the deeper ones were filled with ancient texts.

Tae-shin followed her in and shut the door behind them, muttering under his breath,
“Still need to see it with your own eyes, huh?”

That one line brought back the memory of when she first got her ‘sight’ opened just because she didn’t believe him. But she shot back calmly,

“People are wired to make the same mistakes over and over again.”

“Well, you can stop repeating this one.”

“I still want to see the thesis you wrote.”

He sighed, like it was too much trouble, and walked to the back of the room. Past the last shelf, there was a large wooden chest that came up to her waist.

When he lifted the lid, it creaked like an old gate. Inside were neatly stacked hardcover books.

Rolling up his sleeves, Tae-shin started digging for the thesis collections. Each time he lifted a book, the veins on his forearms bulged and twisted like blue vines.

He pulled out all the hardcovers with black covers and gold-lettered titles and stacked them beside the chest. Seula squatted down and flipped through each one.

“I was going to ask earlier but forgot,” he said, around the time he’d taken out the eighth book. “Do you even understand what you’re reading?”

“…”

Seula slammed the one she was holding shut. The title was entirely in Chinese characters, except for a couple of Korean words like “and” and “related to.”

Don’t panic.

“I didn’t fail to get into grad school—I just chose not to go. And I still graduated from a four-year university.”

When she said it proudly, Tae-shin gave her a smirk that felt like a suppressed laugh. So she added,

“In Seoul.”

“Wow.”

Zero sincerity.

After what felt like a solo mission, Tae-shin finally pulled out ten full thesis collections.

“Read them all and submit a review.”

He said this while she was still holding a book whose title she couldn’t even read. And now he wanted a review?

The fact that he had gone to grad school ten times made her realize just how far apart they really were.

“These hardcovers are actually really high quality.”

All she could do was run her palm over the cover and make a useless comment.

Tae-shin sat on the closed lid of the chest.

“So, how do you feel seeing all my thesis collections?”

“You seem insane.”

Not even a second of hesitation.

He let out a laugh full of disbelief.

“You’re the one who insisted on seeing them, and now I’m insane?”

“I meant it in a positive way.”

Seula gave up trying to understand the contents and sat beside him instead.

Tae-shin leaned back on both arms, clearly a bit flushed from rummaging through all those books. His warmth reached her skin.

She watched him quietly as he grabbed the collar of his shirt and gave it a little shake. When he noticed her gaze, he glanced over and smiled.

It was a clean, boyish smile—one that seemed both fitting and unfitting for someone like him. Thinking back to her first impression of him, she never could’ve imagined him smiling like this.

Then Tae-shin slipped one arm around her waist and kissed her. A light kiss, just brushing and pulling away—over and over again.

“So, how does it feel to kiss someone with ten master’s theses?”

“You keep asking me for my thoughts like you’re fishing for praise. Am I right?”

He chuckled softly and buried his face in the crook of her neck.

“Busted.”

Seula giggled and ruffled his hair.

“You did great. Super impressive. Wow.”

“Put some actual sincerity into it.”

She cupped his chin and pulled him in again. Her lips locked onto his, gently sucking his lower lip and rolling it with her tongue before slowly letting go.

“Like that?”

“More.”

He answered quickly, then turned his head to press a long kiss to her lips. Gently, he lifted Seula’s hips and settled her onto his lap. With the slight decrease in distance between them, Seula naturally wrapped her arms around his neck.

Their lips kept meeting in a frenzy—again and again, barely giving each other time to breathe. Their breaths tangled, growing more uneven with every second. Hot, damp exhales scattered against each other’s mouths.

“That enough for you?” she asked.

“No,” he murmured. “A kiss isn’t gonna cut it anymore.”

She could feel his restless hands fidgeting with the hem of her T-shirt—gripping, then smoothing it out again in a desperate kind of way. His large hand, which had been hovering near her waist, eventually slipped beneath the fabric, easing its way upward.

As Kang Tae-shin’s lips wandered endlessly along the nape of her neck, a ticklish sensation made her twist her body slightly. Then, his long, firm fingers slipped inside her bra, brushing against her softly ripened n1pple.

A soft moan slipped from Seula’s lips—just a quiet ah—as a strange tension gathered between her legs and a taut pull tugged at the pit of her stomach.

In one swift motion, Tae-shin pulled off her T-shirt and tugged her bra down. Her full chest, generous for her frame, was bared, and he immediately pressed his lips to it.

He let his tongue out, coating her skin with slow, wet strokes, then bit down on her ripened n1pple like it was something too tempting to resist. The way his tongue teased her was vivid and unrelenting.

Seula wrapped her arms around his head and gave a little lift of her hips. When she rubbed herself against the bulge straining in his pants, that ticklish sensation bloomed into something undeniably pleasurable.

“Ah… haah…”

His tongue swept broadly over her n1pple, then narrowed to a point, circling and teasing her for a long moment. Then, without warning, he scooped Seula up and stood.

He sat her on the windowsill and pulled down her pants. The center of her white panties was already soaked through, revealing the shape of her beneath.

The arousal was overwhelming—impossible to hold back. He slid her underwear to the side with his fingers and buried his face between her thighs.