“Oh, Hae-som!”
“T-Team Leader Jae-geon!”
Without so much as a proper greeting, Jae-geon followed the workshop owner, an old man, towards the liquor room.
How could the two of them be here together? Was the rumor true? Any other chefs would have been buzzing with questions, but Woon-seop just rounded his eyes.
“Team Leader, what brings you here?”
“That’s what I’d like to ask you.”
“Yes?”
“This is my family home. The person who disappeared with the chef earlier is my father, and the one making daechu-go by the cauldron is my mother.”
Hae-som, without time to be surprised, tidied her disheveled appearance. Then, using Woon-seop’s clear eyes as a mirror, she checked herself over.
Woon-seop blinked, as if asking what on earth she was doing. Hae-som chuckled with embarrassment.
“I’m greeting your parents, Team Leader, and I look like this. You’ll understand, right?”
Woon-seop laughed, “Ah-ha-ha,” as if he finally understood. Jae-geon, turning at the prolonged laughter, frowned slightly. The two, feeling a strange nervousness, immediately headed towards the kitchen.
“The chef told me to come learn how to make daechu-go. Are you here for that too, Som?”
“I only knew it was an experiential learning session. By the way, why daechu-go all of a sudden?”
“How should I know? Do we need it for next quarter’s dessert ingredients? If so, why did they bring you along, Som?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
Hae-som abandoned the pointless speculation and offered a pretty smile on her young face. Then, she approached the elderly woman stirring the cauldron with a large ladle.
“Hello.”
Woon-seop, playfully snatching the ladle from her, added with a smile,
“This is Seop, and this is Som. She’s a junior I’m fond of.”
“Chef Jeong told me. You’re here to learn how to make desserts with daechu-go, aren’t you?”
It was an unfamiliar term, but Hae-som nodded yes. She didn’t know what the connection between daechu-go and figs was, but she figured it wasn’t a losing proposition.
“If you boil fruits for a long time, they naturally develop this kind of color and texture.”
The daechu-go, a thick, dark brown jam-like substance, gave off a subtle herbal scent. It was said to be used as medicine for colds or when one’s body was weak.
The explanation, whose meaning she didn’t grasp but seemed useful to know, continued at length.
Woon-seop yawned, showing his boredom, but Hae-som listened closely, her ears perked.
The demonstration involved desserts made using daechu-go: yakbap, daechu seolgi, and dasik.
“The biggest advantage of using daechu-go is that it’s naturally sweet without added sugar. The aftertaste is clean, too. The downside is that you can’t stop eating it because it’s not cloying.”
Woon-seop patted his plump belly as if to attest to the truth of her words. Hae-som, unusually, didn’t agree with him and remained lost in thought.
A sweetness that wasn’t artificial, yet left a subtle lingering aftertaste… It felt like a homework assignment to find a new sweetness similar to this, using daechu-go as a reference.
Then why figs…?
Her eyes, now sharp with focus, turned towards the elderly woman.
“If you boil other fruits for a long time, do they also become jams like daechu-go?”
“The sweeter the fruit, the better. Pears, yuzu, quince, figs. You can also make it with root vegetables like ginseng or ginger. And…”
The elderly woman’s excited words were cut short. Her gaze was fixed on Jae-geon, who was leaving the liquor room with a bottle of moju.
“Why seaweed soup? They serve meals at the postpartum care center.”
Moon-jeong, who was pouring a pile of oysters into a large pot, looked back at Hae-som. Her daughter’s face, after being away for a few days, glowed with a radiance that had banished her insomnia.
Had she chosen the wrong place to build their home? In her haste to move, she hadn’t considered things carefully…
Moon-jeong suppressed the rising thoughts and forced a smile.
“You know how picky your sister is. She won’t eat anything but mom’s seaweed soup.”
“She’s a mom now, you shouldn’t be so spoiled.”
“I need something to rely on, too.”
Moon-jeong shrugged as if it were no trouble at all and scooped a large ladleful of seaweed soup into a bowl. The plump, ripe oysters looked just like a baby’s bottom.
“Let’s have breakfast.”
“Breakfast? I have to go to work early today.”
“It won’t take long to eat. Come and sit quickly.”
Come to think of it, it had been a while since she’d had her mother’s breakfast. A sense of unfamiliarity washed over her.
“You need to fill your stomach to have energy when you go out. Being a chef isn’t an easy job, is it?”
Hae-som couldn’t resist any longer and sank into the dining chair. Moon-jeong, looking with affection at her bewildered daughter taking her first bite, placed side dishes one by one onto her spoon and asked,
“Weren’t you scared, living alone without your mom and dad?”
“I stayed at a friend’s house, so what was there to be scared of?”
“Still.”
“I slept well, though.”
“Did you really sleep well at that house?”
“Yes.”
And it wasn’t just that. Perhaps it was because the sleep routine that had lasted for several consecutive days had become a habit, but she slept soundly even after coming to her family home.
Without nights with Jae-geon, her deep sleep had continued for ten days straight. It was the longest record she had ever set.
So she didn’t need Jae-geon’s help anymore, but still… Hae-som wanted to continue their unconventional relationship.
Because his embrace was as vast and warm as the sea, because her body melted at his cold yet affectionate gaze, because he was reliable, seeming to solve any problem with ease.
Greedy, excessive desires kept surfacing.
She wanted to fall asleep in his arms, she enjoyed the time spent with him, and she felt resentful of him for not cleaning up traces of other women…
However, to declare that she liked Jae-geon, her feelings were quite different from how she felt about Eun-ho.
Unlike with Eun-ho, for whom she had worried with all her heart, giving him everything, with Jae-geon, she was entirely on the receiving end.
Perhaps that was why her heart leaned towards him. Not because she liked him, but because she liked the affection he gave.
Her rather troubled expression brightened instantly at the cheerful chime of the doorbell.
[Stop by the house before you go to work. I have something to show you.]
This man is a player.
“Let’s go to the farm tomorrow morning. Meet me at the house at 8.”
He captivated her with a tempting offer.
“You need to practice with ingredients other than figs, too.”
He predicted a training session, making her heart flutter without reason.
“This is the recipe notebook I used when I was studying. Refer to it.”
He made her heart pound by handing her a worn notebook.
The two were pressed together in the secluded shade created by two pine trees. Every time Hae-som swayed her hips, the patio chair creaked, scraping against the wood grain.
“Is this why, ah, you called me here?”
“Yeah.”
“Hh, really, haaang!”
“You don’t like it?”
Looking at the crumbling debris that fell like sawdust, Hae-som shook her head.
With a creaking sound, the foam that squeezed out from the joint wet his penis completely. It was a pale, lewd sight that almost blinded her.
Hae-som paused her thrusting and rested her forehead on his chest, catching her breath. Jae-geon, who had been adjusting the blanket draped over her shoulders, kissed her forehead.
“We shouldn’t be doing this here.”
Although the high walls blocked her view and muffled the noise, this was clearly outdoors. Hae-som shivered every time the rather chilly late summer breeze brushed against her bare skin.
Jae-geon laughed without care.
“You were the one who took out the condoms first, Seong Hae-som.”
“Well…!”
Something was tucked like a bookmark between the recipe notes. Taking it out was a mistake.
The man, his eyes crinkling full of seduction, pulled his pants open just enough for his erection to free, put a condom on his erect penis, and then sat Hae-som on top of him.
“So lewd, tsk.”
Jae-geon, who echoed the thought, tucked Hae-som’s hair behind her ear. Hae-som’s heart leaped at his suddenly affectionate gesture.
Using the abundant lubricant as power, Hae-som began to rub her hips. She pushed in until the glans head caught, then deep to the base of his penis.
Finally, as the man neared his climax, he began to thrust his hips. Despite the height of his thrusts, the sensation of release was very deep.
Silent screams escaped her mouth, which she had been covering to avoid making a sound, one after another. The sticky fluid splattered onto her chest.
The man licked the fluid from her nipple and laughed, more than usual.
“You’re so delicious, even this makes me go crazy.”
“Why! Haaah! J-just a little more!”
With a straight line forming between his brows, he roughly thrust into her. He pushed his penis as far as he could, to a place she couldn’t possibly reach, yet still fondled the tender flesh as if it weren’t enough.
Finally releasing his lust, leaving his pale skin flushed with blood, the man groaned in agony.
“How am I supposed to last two weeks without eating Seong Hae-som?”
