FC 00

Prologue

<There is not even enough room to set foot in Bosingak right now, as countless people have gathered! Everyone has come together to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new one with the ringing of the New Year’s bell………………>

Amid the bustling noise, the reporter raised her voice.

The sight of people checking their wristwatches while waiting for the bell to ring heightened the excitement of the New Year.

Families, friends, lovers. Everyone on the screen was eagerly waiting for January 1st.

Before long, the countdown began. The reporter raised her voice once more.

Three!

Two!

One!

Happy New Year!

In a cramped, shabby room, we welcomed the New Year together with an old television.

Our eyes met in silence.

“Happy New Year.”

Seong Ji-won’s voice was different from usual. She wore an expression that seemed like something an innocent girl might make when looking at the man she liked.

For a moment, I almost misunderstood it, but I pushed the expectation away.

Expectation? Did I want this girl to like me?

Did I really like this girl?

My feelings were still confused. So I shouldn’t complicate things with unnecessary thoughts.

“Want to have a drink?”

Seong Ji-won’s fingertips pointed toward the tacky dining table.

She had only become an adult a minute ago, so she was hesitant to point directly at the bottle of alcohol.

That was so like her.

And suddenly, I felt like trash.

If this house hadn’t been empty tonight, if there hadn’t been alcohol sitting openly in the refrigerator…

She wasn’t the kind of girl who would fall for an invitation to do something like this.

“Seong Ji-won, if you don’t want to, tell me even now.”

Her eyes wavered beautifully as she downed the drink I had poured for her.

Those plump cheeks I had always only dared to glance at from the side.

“No. ………………I want to try it.”

The lips that courageously uttered words so unlike her were even prettier.

We were drinking together, but I didn’t want to tell her that you were the only one getting drunker and drunker.

It would be troublesome if you became overwhelmed and I had to push you away.

“Joo Sung-hyun, is my face red?”

“No.”

“Are you dizzy too?”

“Yeah.”

With a blatant lie, I reached out and touched Ji-won’s flushed face.

Those plump cheeks I had only ever stolen glances at.

“Sung-hyun… ……………Should we turn off the lights?”

The lips that had been chattering so innocently.

“No. I want to see everything.”

The chest I had wanted to hold in my hands like this at least once.

“Hmm.”

“Can I?”

I touched her shamelessly, without restraint.

“W-wait, just a moment. Lie down, haa………………”

The little game of fire we played on the first day of that year, when we were too immature to truly be called adults, was clumsy.

We hurriedly took off our clothes and pressed our bodies together.

Yet the woman’s body, which had barely been undressed at all, was more provocative than mine. Every time I pushed against her thighs, the hem that rode up was even more dizzying.

Breathing heavily, I lost myself and moved against her.

I pressed my lips against her soft breasts wherever they had slipped free. I tightly embraced her small shoulders as she struggled, worried that her clothes would tear.

Seong Ji-won clung to me helplessly, and I touched her over and over like a madman.

No matter how much I touched her, it wasn’t enough. Even with our skin pressed together, I remained thirsty.

Because I was just as lost and helpless as she was.

The movements of bodies that had never been taught to us were unruly and instinctive. I held and caressed Seong Ji-won without knowing what I was doing.

When she reached her peak and shook her head, she even let out an ugly sound.

I was too intoxicated by her to even think of it as ugly, too busy tasting her pale skin.

“Seong Ji-won.”

“Slowly, slowly.”

“Ji-won……………… Ji-won.”

How many times did I call your name that night?

As I lost myself in the wetness, buried my face against her soft curves, mixed our tongues roughly, and tangled our bodies together, I kept calling you.

“Ah, it hurts. Slowly, haa!”

“Ha…………… Seong Ji-won.”

I don’t know how many times I called your name.

The woman’s body I held for the first time in my life was soft and moist, like pudding. I had never imagined that something so sweet could exist beneath those worn-out clothes.

Under the harsh fluorescent light, we, newly turned adults, became passionately entangled.

Clumsy and impatiently.

That was the memory of my first experience.

The soft flesh filling my hands, the dizzying taste that touched the tip of my tongue, the breathless sounds that escaped her every now and then because she couldn’t hold them back.

The thing I had wanted to do most on the day I turned twenty.

And Seong Ji-won.