Chapter Text
Once the last of the little’s was picked up by their mother and Hao was able to finally usher them out of the dance studio, he allowed himself an exasperated sigh. Something he had been holding in since the time for pick up had come and gone and a little girl still sat with him for another thirty minutes before her mother showed up.
He held no qualms against the little girl; in fact she was one of his most promising pupils in his little’s class. But his body ached with exhaustion and he feels like he has spent a weeks worth of his introverted energy on a single class. So he was more than ready to have the class emptied on time so he could go home and soak his body in water that is an unhealthy heat.
He dragged his feet across the polished dance floor until he was close enough to his co-teacher, Kuanjui, to drop down unceremoniously to the floor and find solace in resting his head upon his lap. Gentle fingers pried sweaty hair from where it clung to Hao’s forehead, pulling it away from his flushed face.
“I think we should start charging for tardiness,” Kuanjui proposed half-heartedly, his hands still busying themselves with displacing his hair, “I’ve heard it’s standard to charge a dollar a minute.”
Hao let out a joyless laugh, turning his head so he could wipe his cooling sweaty forehead against Kuanjui’s thigh. In return, Kuanjui jostled his head by thrashing around his feet. Hao let out a noise of compliance turning his head straight once more to squint up at the blinding iridescence of the lights above.
“I think that’s only for daycares,” Hao corrected, “Even if we could, I think thirty bucks is nothing to someone as rich as the parents that enrol their kids here. Definitely still justifiable for that extra thirty-minutes of being childless.”
“If it’s going to happen either way, I would prefer it being paid,” Kuanjui knocked his knees up which caused Hao’s head to fall with a dull thud to the laminate floor. “Next time, I’m grabbing my bag and leaving you to wait alone.”
With a grunt, Kuanjui stood to his full height. He pressed his hands to the dips of his hips and stretched out his back. Hao watched from below him as his chest puffed and his back arched.
“You would leave me to fend for myself?” Hao put on an air of pathetic moaning, turning on his side to watch the feet of his retreating friend. Kuanjui moved to where their gym bags sat against the other side of the studio, sweat dirty towels discarded over them haphazardly.
“Especially on a Friday like today.”
“What if something terrible happens and you are not around to prevent it? Can you live with my blood on your hands?” Hao dramatized as he rolled over the cooling floor, flopping to his stomach and then onto his back once again so he could spread out his limps across the floor. A dull ache bloomed in the very base of his spine spreading like tickling fingers over the entirety of his back.
“Happily,” Kuanjui retorted, crouching down so he could begin to fold up their towels and place them within their respected bags, “I might even sleep better knowing someone wont be blowing up my phone at three am.”
Hao tsked at his friend. That had only happened once. And Hao had a really great reason; he deep dived into the flat earth discourse on one of his nightly YouTube binges and needed to desperately tell someone of the ridiculous things he heard. He was met with a very displeased sleepy Kuanjui who cussed him out with words Hao didn’t even know existed in his vocabulary before hanging up. Kuanjui was never someone who dropped things easily, especially when it came at the cost of his ‘beauty sleep’.
The door of their studio opened once more and in walked the tall blonde teacher that works in the studio adjacent in the hall to their own. Hao lifted his head to see whom it was, a groan of performance leaving his lips immediately once confirming who was there.
“Ricky,” He drawled out the name, “Kuanjui is being ruder than typical for even him.”
Ricky’s perfectly plucked brows arched in question, turning from the boy spread like a starfish on the floor to where Kuanjui was already looking at him with an exhausted expression. Ricky’s gums flashed as he smiled, completely entertained by the pairing that bickered like a married couple.
Somehow if you pointed that out, it would start an entirely new squabble between the two that was even more so marriage-like. Everyone else in the room would have an unconvinced look on their faces by the end. Next time, they would know to keep that specific comment to themselves to save from hearing them argue even more.
“Let’s go get some food I’m starving,” Came Ricky’s response, completely ignoring Hao’s mewling in favour of changing the subject. Hao perked up from his spot on the floor.
“Are you paying?”
“Don’t I always,” Ricky answered with a sigh, he was not actually displeased. Hao had come to learn that one of his love languages was gift giving as he was always the first to pull out his wallet when the three went out for food after work. Sometimes the two would make a show of taking out their own wallets but Ricky would insist and so their wallets would be promptly put away. Cue the end of that performance.
Hao listened to the tap of Ricky’s shoes echoing against laminated floor as he walked over to where he was still sprawled. His tall lanky body covered the light just above Hao’s head as he loomed over him, a manicured hand extending to him. “Get up. The cleaners will be here soon, help Kuanjui finish up so we can get out sooner.”
Their classes ended at eight and by nine it was expected of every instructor to be out of the dance studio so that the nightly janitors could come in. Uphold the pristine condition of each studio so every time Hao came in there was a gentle sent of lemon in the air and the laminate floorboards nearly shined back his reflection.
“It’s already done,” Kuanjui announced from across the room, rising to his full length with both stuffed bags in his hands. He slugged one over his shoulder so its strap fell across his chest before he dragged Hao’s across the floor to where the two were. “Let’s go for real though. I’m starved.”
Hao accepted the hand that was extended to him and allowed himself to be pulled up from the floor. The dull pain in his spine turned into something more urgent from the sudden movement after resting. It tightened in his lower back and he felt its phantom aches all over his body. He grimaced at the sensation.
“Is your back still bothering you?” Ricky asked as he studied the contorted features of Hao’s face, pulled into each other in visible pain as Hao rubbed at his spine.
Hao accepted the gym bag from Kuanjui, the ache still turning up his face as he lifted his arms to slip its strap across his chest. He let out a sigh as he twisted his back trying to stretch it out, “Mn, I think it’s gotten worse.”
“I told you to get it checked out weeks ago,” Kuanjui reprimanded, leading the way as he turned to make a beeline for the door. He pulled the studios keys from the small pocket of his bag as he spoke, “It’s not gunna go away just because you ignore it.”
Hao made a face at Kuanjui’s back. As if he sensed the distorted features that mocked him, Kuanjui looked over his shoulder and Hao straightened his face innocently. Slotting himself under the arm of his taller but younger coworker, Hao wrapped his arm around Ricky’s lower back. Ricky’s arm found its place across his shoulder.
“I know you don’t like to be scolded but he’s sort of right?” Ricky spoke, his statement coming out like more of a question by the end. Like it was bizarre even for him to be agreeing with the other boy. It was Kuanjui’s turn to make a face. “You should get it checked out before it becomes something serious.”
It was nothing that was not manageable in the moment. And Hao was terrible when it came to evading things that he did not deem necessary in the moment. The pain did not stop him from putting his entire self into every one of his classes no matter the age group. And he could quell its lingering pain by nights end with a bath. He was managing it well enough.
It was just that each night came with a little bit more pain lately. The baths he required also happened to extend by an entire hour. He would actively have to drain water from his bath and refill it at least once with fresh hot water to completely satisfy his aches.
So maybe it was time to actually listen to their suggestions.
He was prideful enough to not admit it out loud. “Should we get jokbal tonight? I think I’m craving something fatty.”
His switching of conversation did not go unnoticed, the two other boys exchanged a look before they left it at that and walked out of the studio. Hao flicked the lights off as they left and Kuanjui locked up behind them.
They did not mention Hao’s back for the rest of the night as they ate the braised pigs feet and cheered their soju until each boy was pink in the face.
---
“Don’t you do anything other than study?” Hao’s voice was slightly slurred, evidence of the shots of soju and glasses of beers the three chugged consecutively during their night out. It turned his normally neutral cheeks a healthy shade of pink. The rising steam of the bath he lounged in intensified the pink in his cheeks, making them slightly blotchy with reds and purples.
He had just returned home, just a little bit past eleven pm and like routine work, he stripped of his sweaty garb and immediately ran himself a bath. When he was plunged beneath its heat, he felt himself sober up enough to remember that he still had to call his brother, Yujin.
They didn’t live in the same city anymore so they made sure to call each other every single Friday. Yujin had gone to Gwangju for university and Hao followed his dream to the heart of Seoul. Get another drink into him and his woes about being only a dance teacher would spill from the most inner corners of his soul. He was contented enough, but he yearned for so much more.
He held his phone in his hands, glossy eyes looking at the side profile of his younger brother. Yujin had propped his phone up against something off screen and turned back to the paper he was diligently working on before Hao’s call. Upon hearing his brother’s question, Yujin spared him a glance over the top rim of his wired glasses.
“Should I just flunk out like someone else I know?” Yujin goaded, the smile barely on his lips but it was enough to know that he was being teased.
“I didn’t flunk out,” Hao corrected with an incredulous tone, lip curling and eyes squinting dramatically due to his drunken mind.
He really didn’t flunk out. He learned that pre-law was actually not something he was terribly interested in and it spurred him to withdraw from its program. He was completely in control of his university journey. The one failed class that caused him to spiral just a little bit most definitely did not play an actively large part in his decision.
Either way he did not flunk out.
Hao sighed, leaning into the side of his tub so he could rest his cheek upon the cold acrylic edge. He held the phone in front of his eyes and watched his brother in silence as he worked on his assignment. Hao watched as he used his hand to push up the frames that slipped down his nose. Noticed the scrunch between his forehead when he came upon a problem that required a little more brainwork.
Hao sighed again and it earned him Yujin’s curious gaze. “I miss you. When are you coming to visit me in Seoul?”
Yujin rolled his eyes. Hao had a tendency to be even more needy when a drink or two was put into his system and Yujin was his typical victim during their night call. Sometimes, even when it was not their scheduled Friday night, Hao would call him in a drunken stupor to tell him how much he misses him. How much he is proud to have a brother like him. Scold him for not visiting more often.
“Reading week will be soon, I’ll come visit for a couple days then.”
“Only a couple days?” Hao suspired, his wet hair fell like string against his flushed forehead. He wasn’t actually disappointed to hear of his brother’s plans. More or less he just wanted to complain for the sake of complaining.
He settled further into the bath, his back twisting as he did his best to comfortably lean against the tubs wall. The sudden strain on his lower back caused his face to distort in evident pain. He would have gotten away with it too if he had not implored for Yujin’s attention just a moment before.
Careful brown eyes watched him, and then that same worrying tone that Hao became accustomed to sounded through the static of their video call, “Are you working too hard?”
When Yujin spoke like this he reminded Hao of their late father, even the troubled gleam in his eye was reminiscent of him. Even though he played up his annoyance when Ricky or Kuanjui concerned themselves with his state, Hao could not find it within him to be put off in the slightest when it came to his younger brother. Not when it was his father’s kind eyes watching him with their worry.
Hao abandoned his spot against the edge of the bathtub, the strain on his back was sharp and made breathing difficult. Instead, he sunk into the warmth of its waters until it tickled beneath his chin. He left his phone on his tubs corner so he would no longer have to worry with dropping it into the water. Or having to look into the depths of concerned eyes.
“Not too hard,” Hao assured him, delicate fingers playing over the surface of the still warm water, it rippled underneath his touch. “I think I just over exerted myself last month. You know Kuanjui was on vacation so I kind of had to step up for both of us in every class. It was just a little tiring.”
A hum was heard from where his phone sat abandoned, camera facing his water stained ceilings, “I remember the complaints,” Yujin mused, the sound of his pencil working over paper now entering the background noise once more. If Hao were to look, he knew exactly what he would find. A hunched back and framed glasses slipping down the slope of his noses bridge. “Why don’t you go get a massage?”
“I don’t have money for such novelties. I can barely keep the lights on!” It was twisted truth, both boys knew it but Hao was not himself if there were not dramatics involved. He truthfully lived quite comfortably with his roommate Taerae’s help of course.
“I’m not saying go to the most expensive ‘boujee’ place in Seoul,” He could practically hear the roll of Yujin’s eyes in his exasperated tone, “Any place with at least three and a half stars should do the job.”
Hao chuckled at the specificity. He lowered further into the water that was slowly turning lukewarm around his naked body until the water now sat just below his nose. Every exhaled breath rippled small waves over its surface. He closed his eyes. He was definitely sobering up and along with that came his bodies realization of how exhausting today truly was.
“Just do it,” Yujin pressed on when he received nothing but splashing water as a response, “A back massage will change your life. Maybe make you less of an annoyance as well.”
Hao did not respond though it was clear bait to get him to retaliate. Instead he slipped further until the water enveloped his entire head.
---
Later that night, after he had towel dried his hair and it now sat frizzy upon his head Hao dropped to his bed. His legs dangled off its edge from his knees as he kicked them in the air. His upper body supported by his elbows pressing into his wrinkled bedding. He did not have time to make it that morning.
Taerae would usually say he never had time if that was his excuse. Hao usually ignored him.
He scrolled aimlessly through his apps. Checked his messages, which had both Kuanjui and Ricky’s confirmation that they made it home safely, and then switched to another time consuming app. When an hour had passed and it was close to one am, Hao remembered his brothers suggestion.
He opened his Internet app and searched for massage parlours in his area. Many of the ones that were three and a half star or lower rated, as per his brother’s suggestion, were sketchy in nature. The outside was dingy and the reviews did not speak in favour of their customer service. Other than a few that spoke almost too highly. Either way, Hao did not feel comfortable delving into why some people really enjoyed those hole in the wall spots.
It had only taken a few minutes of scrolling and reading reviews before he found one that was conveniently down the street from his workplace. The outside was a clean white with many large windows and the reviews all praised its cleanliness and how good each massage therapist was.
“KJ Massage and Beauty Spa…” Hao murmured the name out loud as he clicked onto their website. It was a little out dated and hard to navigate but maybe that just added to the appeal.
Who was he kidding, it didn’t. Hao was cursing whoever created that website under breaths when it had taken way longer than necessary to locate where he could book his appointment.
By the time he had found its location he was already worn out and over stimulated. Maybe the reviews were so high because they stressed you out right before going in so the services seemed all that much better.
He settled that night into bed without a booked appointment. He vowed he would do it tomorrow, when he was more energized and a little less tipsy to figure out the intricacies that surely would be their booking process.
---
Sunday found him inside the white building that he had scoped out online, sitting on a white plastic chair in the matching white polished interior of the massage and spa parlour. Everything was incredibly spotlessly white. It felt abnormal to be inside of.
There was a mini fake waterfall on the corner table beside him. Its water flowed from four wooden bowls before pooling in the plastic black marble base. The gentle trickle and the tick of the walls clock were the only sound that filled the space. It was peaceful but Hao was also very grateful he had gone to the bathroom before leaving his apartment that morning.
He had taken it upon himself to book his appointment on Saturday. Surprisingly, navigating the website did not take as much time as it had the following night. Maybe he was accustomed to the weird layout. Or maybe it was thanks to the clarity of a mind that was not hazed with liquor. Either way, he booked his appointment for the following day and so here he was. Sitting in a waiting room alone, save for the receptionist that sat behind a tall counter. Every breath was clogged with the scent of lavender and eucalyptus that was expelled into the air by the small wooden diffuser that sat on the receptionist’s desk.
Hao had come close to twenty minutes early to his appointment. Spurred on by the anxiety that overtook his body whenever he was expected to be anywhere at a specific time. It was better to be early than late. The receptionist, who’s name was Matthew if his nametag was anything to go by, confirmed his appointment before pointing for him to sit in the empty waiting room until further instruction.
So that’s where he sat now. He busied his hands with the multitude of magazines that were always supplied in waiting rooms. Many were months out of date and held stories of celebrities that had come into medias interest before dying out, so there was nothing really interesting to read up on. Hao instead flicked through the pages and looked at the pictures.
When the pictures became boring, he passed the time by tapped his fingers rhythmically against his knees. His eyes moved over the white wooden panelling of their accent wall and caught on the bright greens of the plants, a stark contrast to the otherwise colourless interior. He turned to the one closest to where he sat, its stems scattered and held up by bamboo sticks. The sheen of the leaves reflected the warm lights that hung from the ceiling. Hao found himself wondering if it were real.
Without considering any further, Hao reached out to pinch the leaf closest to him between his thumb and pointer. He bent it and it snapped. The end still connected to the stem bubbled with a sticky milky fluid; curiosity was satisfied, the plants were definitely real.
“Zhang Hao?” He heard the voice of the receptionist, Matthew, call out and when he looked over he was just barely seen over the tall counter from where he sat behind. Hao scrambled to his feet startled by the sudden voice. He raised his hand in attendance and noticed the severed leaf still between his fingers, so he rushed to drop his hands and stuff the evidence of his nosiness away in his back pocket. Matthew graciously did not comment, instead gesturing Hao closer, “Come with me, we’ll get you settled in for the next available masseuse.”
Hao nodded in compliance. He scooped his backpack from the tiled floor and slung it over one shoulder as he moved to stand behind Matthew. The receptionist was sitting when Hao came in and spoke to him first but now he could openly marvel at the height difference of the two. Matthew was much shorter than he had first anticipated him to be.
Hao followed him down the dimly lit hallway that was set just behind the counter. They passed a couple closed doors as they went, “You’re booked in for a full body massage, so the masseuse that will be attending to you is Hanbin.”
Hao hummed noncommittally. “Is he the best you’ve got?”
“All of our masseuses are good,” Matthew replied with only a short glance over his shoulder, the toothy customer smile not once slipping from pink lips. “You’ll be in good hands.”
“Sounds like I’ll finish satisfied,”
Hao really did not mean for it to sound like it had. Didn’t intend for the double innuendo that snuck its way into his words. Hao watched in horror as the customer service smile that was a permanent fixture on Matthew’s face thus far faltered.
“That’s a really bad stereotype about this field of work.”
“No I know, I’m sorry.”
“It’s a very insensitive thing to joke about.”
“No I know, I’m sorry.”
After only a moment, Matthews smile reappeared to its fullest form as laughter bubbled out between his lips. He laughed. Hao was star struck from the situation he found himself in as they stopped by a single closed door. He didn’t know if he should laugh along, so instead he stood there stiffly.
“I’m just messing with you,” Matthew managed between his laughter. Hao managed to pull a few strangled laughs from his throat to try and fill his dread hollowed chest, “You should have seen your face, it was hilarious.”
When the receptionist raised his hand to gentle smack Hao’s upper arm during his laughing fit, Hao finally found himself slightly deflating. His shoulders lost their tightness and he managed to laugh even though his ears were still burning something embarrassingly bright.
“It definitely is a bad stereotype but you are aren’t the first nor will you be the last to make such jokes. At some point you’ve gotta find the humour in it,” Hao didn’t even have time to defend himself, to tell Matthew that he really did not mean for it to sound as it had, before Matthew was continuing, “I can guarantee your satisfaction though… With the services we do provide that is.”
Hao’s ears felt like they could ignite into flames by how warm they burned. He was grateful for the mood setting lights that were dim enough to hide away the evidence of his horror.
Matthew finally brought attention to the door they stopped beside, his hand gripping the brass doorknob so he could push it open. It took a moment for Hao’s eyes to adjust to the dark interior of the small room, only few strung lights and fake candles lit up its insides. He could make out the single white massage table in the center of the room, with grey towels folded neatly atop it.
Matthew did not cross the threshold but he urged Hao to. Once Hao was through the door he was struck with the scent of burning sandalwood incense that permeated the room. Somewhere the sounds of calming nature noises were being playing from a hidden speaker.
“You’re free to change in here,” Matthew peaked his head in from the hallway and gestured to a large cabinet that hugged the furthest wall, “There are drawers in there where you can place your clothes and a robe is hung within if you desire to wear one.”
As he spoke, Hao wandered further into the room’s ambience. He pulled at the cabinet’s doors and saw the light coloured fluffy robe hung as Matthew said it would be. It was soft and warm under his touch, like it was recently plucked from a dryer.
“You can strip down and-“
“Naked?”
“Some people prefer that,” Matthew’s smile was sweet and his answers were routine. Like everything Hao had ever said was something he had heard before, “If you’re not comfortable with that, you’re free to wear your underwear.”
After instructing him to strip, to whatever level of bareness he preferred, Matthew told him to lay on the table with a towel over his lap. For decency purposes when the masseuse came in, Matthew pointed out. Hao wished he could slink down under the laminated floors he stood on, knowing Matthew only made that point so obviously emphasized because of his pervious blunder.
Once he got the confirmation that Hao understood, Matthew gave him another one of his bright smiles before he shut the door and suddenly Hao was alone.
He stood dumbly for a moment, listening to a bird curb over static riddled speakers. Breathed the scent of sandalwood in deeply. And then finally turned towards the cabinet to begin changing.
In the end, Hao decided to keep his underwear on. They were briefs and would not get in the way of the massage. So he didn’t see any reason to be bare naked in front of a stranger; much less for one that would be rubbing his hands over every expansion of his body.
He took his time folding his shirt and pants before placing them within the cabinet’s drawers. And just because he could, as a paying customer and all, Hao plucked the warm robe from its hanger and donned it. It was soft against his skin and it smelt like fabric softener. Hao couldn’t stop himself from tugging it tight around his body and grabbing the neck of it so he could bury his nose into it to smell its freshness deeply.
He wasn’t sure how much time had passed. The small room felt like it was in a space where time halted with its speakers on repeat and the ever burning incense filling each lung full of breath. He did not consider that his movements were sluggish when he was undressing nor that he had spent too much time marvelling at the scent (was that Downy?) and it had taken much more time than the workers deemed necessary.
Suddenly, he heard knuckles rap on the closed wooden door before it was being pushed open. Hao was still deeply inhaling the necks hem. Eyes locked between the small space between them, both equally as shocked. Hao’s shock blossoming from not expecting someone to enter the room so soon and the worker’s from not expecting the client to still be standing unprepared.
There was a beat of silence. A cricket chirped over the speaker.
“Um...” The deep voice of the unnamed man came first, his hand still on the brass knob of the door and his body still half way out of the room, “Should I come back?”
Hao has been mortified more times in this massage parlour than he has this entire year. This is something you get drunk and call your brother crying about.
“No! No…” Hao was quick to interject. When his hands moved out to gesture, the robe slipped loose around his body, exposing his chest and tight black briefs. God he was so thankful he chose to keep them on. He scrambled to pull the fabric tight over his chest once more.
He heard the masseuse stifled laughter before he was pulling back the one foot that crossed the doors threshold, “I’ll give you a few minutes to settle in.” And then he was gone, and suddenly the dark room was not as comfortable as it once was before.
Mentally he picked himself apart for making such a foolish first impression. His movements were suddenly void of all sluggishness his body once moved with as he stripped the robe from his shoulders and rehung it. Closing the cabinet quickly, the bang of its doors loud in the otherwise quiet room, Hao then turned to the table. He made quick work of unfolding the towel, and because he wasn’t sure what was expected of him, he laid down on his back and draped the fluffy towel over his hips and thighs.
That might have been the quickest Hao had ever accomplished anything in his life. He could not risk another embarrassing encounter when he is still stuck here for another hour.
It wasn’t long before the door was creaking open. Hao lifted his head to watch as the hallways light filtered into the shadow cloaked room. “Are you decent?” The voice sounded, no face in sight as the masseuse made sure to just open the door enough that his voice could be heard.
“As decent as a man in only his underwear can be,” Hao responded. Laughter filled the room and for the first time, since Hao’s embarrassment no longer clogged his mind, he recognized its sweetness.
The door opened further and in walked the masseuse, who Hao could only assume was Hanbin. He was tall and his build was strong with broad shoulders atop a slimmer waist. Hao managed a gulp in his cotton dry mouth. When did it get so dry?
Only once a closing door snuffed out the light of the hallway could Hao’s adjusted eyes make out features of his face. In the orange hue provided by fake flickering candles, Hao could make out strong brows that framed large eyes. Upon the tops of his cheeks were elongated shadows of his naturally long lashes. Even in the harsh lighting, Hao could make out the muted pink of his heart shaped lips. He did not need proper light to know that the man that stood before him would be considered entirely too handsome in a normal setting or situation.
Hao dropped his head back onto the table with a dull thud that was muffled out by the nature noises that suddenly felt too loud in such a small room.
In no means was Hao a virgin. He would go as far as to say he was actually quite skilled in that regard if not anything else. So why was his heart thumping in his chest like a virgin awaiting their first intimate touch. It felt like it was breaking through ribs at the mere thought of someone even vaguely attractive massaging his body for an entire hour.
Hao made a mental note to call Yujin and cuss him out without any explanation. Because you simply don’t tell your brother his ideas are bad because you are an entirely too horny adult man that cannot handle another’s touch.
Maybe he should have gone to a three star and a half rated parlour. Maybe then he wouldn’t have someone as attractive.
He listened to the taps of Hanbin’s shoes against the tiled floor as he approached the table. Hao tore his eyes away from the speckled tile of the ceiling when Hanbin entered his line of sight. Even from below, Hao could tell he was beautiful. Attractive people with no bad angles really piss him off. He vaulted that feeling for later, for when he gives Yujin an earful maybe.
“Are you comfortable?” Hanbin spoke suddenly, his eyes regarded where he lay for a moment before he was turning to pull a cart towards the table’s side. Within it sat multiple different clear bottles, filled with different scented body oils.
Hao shifted against the padded table before offering a meek nod. Hanbin smiled above him, slender hands busy with sorting through the bottles as he talked absently. “We’ve got an hour together. Are there any specific places that you want me to focus on?”
It was only in that moment did Hao register the strain on his back from laying down on the hard surface. He was much too focused on calming himself down to recognize anything else. “My lower back is my biggest concern.”
Hanbin hummed, eyes drifting away from his bottles to meet Hao’s gaze. Hao could see every flicker of the candles light on his wide brown eyes. It was a little unfair, Hao thought. To look that good but also for Hao to be having such indecent thoughts about a man just trying to do his job.
“What kind of pain would you say it is?”
“Like a tightness?” Hao answered as best as he could, brows pulling together in consideration, “Right now I can feel it like a dull tedious pain in the base of my spine. Sometimes if I move in certain ways, it’s more of a sharper pain.”
Hanbin nodded in contemplation, taking out a bottle of oil he had decided upon after the short consultation and setting it aside. “Let’s start there then. Can you turn for me?” With great effort, Hao began to turn himself on the small table. Hanbin assisted by lifting the towel just enough that it would not slip from where it rested on his thighs and now over his bottom.
Once Hao settled back in, his face now in the hole of the table and his only sight being the black tops of Hanbin’s shoes, he felt a little bit more at peace. It was much easier to not think about how attractive his masseuse was when he was not forced to look upon his face.
That conviction was very, very short lived. His falsely instated confidence began to unravel itself when he felt the towel being adjusted further down so it sat just before the starting swell of his bottom. Felt nimble fingers tuck the towels edge within the hem of his brief. Hao closed his eyes. Maybe what he needed was the darkness his eyelids provided.
Behind them were flashes of pink lips and blissfully blown out brown eyes. Hao opened them once more. He thinks he could count the scuffmarks within the tiles instead for the next hour.
Hao heard the clinking of glasses and then felt cool oil being poured over the expansion of his back. His body reacted to the sudden cold with a shiver that shook his entire body. He felt the warmth of an open palm press against the center of his back. Heard mute laughter that was expelled through flared nostrils from above him. “Sorry. Should have warned you.”
“S’okay.”
“I’ll start now,” He warned, a little too late, in a soft voice akin to the gentle ambience of the room. Suddenly there were two warm hands spreading the oil across his back, soft and so, so large. Hao could think of nothing else.
His hands were first gentle in their touch, heels of his palms dragging down his back following the natural path of his spine until they reached the dip of his lower back. A trail of heat and rosy skin bloomed under every touch. All ten fingers dragged deliberately back up his skin until they curled around his shoulders. A gentle squeeze followed and earned him an exhale of relaxation from Hao’s parted lips.
His hands were skilled, gentle in spots that needed it and heavy handed where necessary. Hao’s lashes fluttered as he felt gentle hands turn up the sides of his neck, thumbs pressing into its nape before dragging back down to splay over his shoulder bones. Every move was laboriously slow and he felt its heat bloom in his chest in flushed skin.
As much as Hao tried to focus solely on the relief he felt with every press of heel against his lower back, he could not stop the fleeting thoughts of splayed fingers opening him up and relaxing him in other ways. Hanbin’s hands took their time with every part of his upper half but were especially attentive to the spot just above his bum. Every time he felt fingers trail along the hem of his briefs and earn exhales of breaths through his parted lips he had to remind himself that there was absolutely nothing intimate about his touch. Hanbin was professional and Hao was a very, very despicable person for having so many dirty thoughts.
Still, it was kind of exciting to pass the time within his own imagination.
Hanbin’s hands curled around his sides, tickling him just so as his fingers splayed across his belly and thumbs worked into the flesh of his side’s muscles. Hao thought about how those same hands could hold him there, bruising him under their desperate riddled touch. How he would drag pleas from Hanbin’s kiss puffy lips by simply staying stagnant with his cock nestle inside of him; unmoving, unwilling to allow Hanbin to move and drag out his own orgasm as well. Hao would grind his hips down once before stilling again. Maybe Hanbin would lull his head back and tears would clump his long lashes together unshed. He would make Hanbin come undone without allowing him to come at all.
When Hanbin moved to massage the muscles in his leg, Hao’s mind was quick to follow in vivid imagination. He imagined teeth biting marks into his previous unscathed skin of his thigh, just enough to bruise him. Trailing his open mouth over the swell of his bum until hands opened him up and hot breath fanned over his most sensitive area. He wondered if Hanbin would tongue fuck him until he was begging for something more substantial. If he would tease him with the warmth of his tongue until he couldn’t help but press back into it. Needing more.
Maybe then, because of his defiant rocking of hips, Hanbin would-
“We’ll turn now,” Hao all but jumped from the sudden spoken words. His eyes opening quickly to take in the ambient space he was still in. He had lost himself in Hanbins touch and his own imagination that he had almost completely forgotten where he was. That he was definitely not at home thinking about these things in privacy. And even worse, the very man that inspired such thought was in the room with him.
Well, Hao thinks he could probably find one more thing worse than that. It was evident in the noticeable tightening disturbance of his briefs. He had gone and thought himself into visible horniness.
“Um…” Hao started, his mind fuzzy as he tried to come up with any excuse as to not turn around. He ran through his options.
One: he could turn around and have his entire bulge on display and hope that in the dark and beneath the towel was enough to not make it so evident to Hanbin’s eyes.
Hao thought it could work but Hanbin has proven to be nothing but diligent in his craft. He mapped Hao’s entire back with his hands and watched as the skin reacted to his touch, where it bloomed red and the muscles spasmed beneath skin from bliss he pulled from it. Hao did not think he would be unwise enough not to notice something as glaringly obvious.
He mentally crossed that from his options.
Two: he could refuse to turn and even throw a little bit of a fit if Hanbin tried to turn him himself. He would lose all face and make an embarrassment out of himself but what was one more humiliating experience when he already has two to speak of just from this visit.
Unfortunately, that was his only option. “I’m quite comfortable as I am.”
He heard a surprise laugh sound from above him; it was loud and shocked both of them from its suddenness. Hanbin had probably never had clients refuse to turn to finish their own massage. The one they were paying for at that. “How do you expect to finish the massage then?”
“Maybe just focus on my back since it’s the trouble spot?”
“I’ve already been working through those muscles for the better half of forty-five minutes,” Hanbin laughed, his voice was airy with his amusement. Hao did not find this funny at all. “You paid for a full body massage so I thought the last fifteen I could focus on the other side. To get your moneys worth of course.”
Hao shook his head, his cheeks squishing against the hole it laid in, “I’m really fine if we only focus on my back. I’ll even leave a very good review despite the massage not being completed.”
Hanbin’s hands moved idly over Hao’s oil slicked back, just to busy them and continue providing his services while they had this ridiculous back and forth. “Are you unsatisfied with the massage?”
“No I’m more than happy with it,”
“Then turn over and let me complete my job.” There was no tone of annoyance in his words but the way he spoke them, demanding and with finality, was evident of him wishing for the conversation to finish in his success. Hanbin didn’t even know that it did opposite of what he intended. The cock that was growing increasingly harder to ignore found arousal in the way Hanbin spoke to him.
There was definitely a very specific place in Hell for him.
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
Hao was going to say it. He felt it overcome him like word vomit that he didn’t react quickly enough to choke back, “There is a very glaring problem that will become hard for us both to ignore if I am on my back.”
The ‘oh’ that fell in a shocked whisper from Hanbin’s lips nearly had Hao laughing. Nothing was funny, in fact his chest was burning from its embarrassment, but it was his nervous reaction when he didn’t know what to do with himself.
Instead of laughing, Hao found himself nervous babbling. Which somehow is even worse, “I’m sorry, it must be really inconvenient for you. I’m sure things like this happen all the time though right? You’ve got a procedure for it… Right?”
“No,” Hao felt the forced laughter die in his throat from that single word. The embarrassment muddled in his chest and felt like it was going to choke him until he was purple in the face.
“For customer service purposes Hanbin, you should learn to lie a little.”
The laugh that Hao heard from behind was airy and maybe it was a good sign that he hadn’t completely left Hanbin mortified by the situation.
“Let’s just ignore I said anything. We’ll finish off with the back massage and then I will head home. And we can both forget this ever happened,” Hao would never forget this even if he went to therapy specifically for this newfound trauma. He’s sure his mind would store this story away for nights where he was falling into a comfortable slumber only to be roused from it when his brain plunges its memory to the front of his conscious.
“Are you…” Hanbin’s voice trailed off, like he was calculating the right way to go about it, “Will you be okay?”
“Yes.” No. Hao’s cock will throb and he’ll have to painstakingly spend the next fifteen minutes thinking of anything else than the massage he’s receiving to will it to calm down. It won’t work, and he will probably be in a whole different kind of pain by the end of their session. But he would not say that.
“Okay,” Hanbin breathed. The hands that sat dormant on his back hesitated for only a moment longer before they began to knead at the muscles of Hao’s lower back once more. If Hao focused on the touch alone, he could sense nothing new in his movements. They were calculated and completely professional. Hao exhaled the collection of breath that he had been unknowingly holding, thankful for Hanbin’s graciousness about the entire situation.
Hao kept his eyes open this time around. He would not allow himself to get too self indulged within his own thoughts that it would escalate things even further. He thought about anything that might cool down the problem in his briefs. He thought about his best friend Kuanjui, pictured him naked. It definitely worked to some degree as his face contorted into something of disgust by the mere imagery that briefly passed his mind.
It was working, for the most part, until Hanbin’s palms pressed heavily to the dips in Hao’s lower back and it jostled Hao’s body from the sudden pushing pressure. Hao’s mouth opened a gape as his clothed cock found friction against the table he laid upon.
He felt slight panic at the sudden pleasure that emanated from his cock. It was irritated from lack of attention so the sensation of the small touch of friction was overwhelming to the point he felt his toes curl. Hao was sure it was just a slight mistake on Hanbin’s part, not considering the consequences his actions would have when applying the right amount of pressure that Hao would feel it in his cock.
At least, he considered it to be a mistake, until the same amount of pressure was applied once more. His body jerked with the sudden push and his cock dragged along the table with his bodies movements. Hao’s mouth gapped further, eyes wide with panic. He wished he could see anything other than Hanbin’s feet right now. Look at his face and see if there were any hints of acknowledgement for what he was doing.
By the third time, Hao could not stop the audible exhale of breath from his spread lips. “Um…” He tried to find his words but his mind was muddled with the feeling of Hanbin’s thumbs soothing over the muscles of his lower back.
“Mn?” Came Hanbin’s only response, the small upturn of its tone sounded like it was teasing the boy lying below him. Hao considered lifting his head from the hole in the table to look up at Hanbin but he withdrew that idea quickly. He could not trust the face he was making now. Was positive if he were to look up at Hanbin, his cheeks would be flushed a glaringly obvious red and Hanbin would see just how effective his massage has been. In completely different ways than just kneading relief into Hao’s tight back muscles.
Hao could not accept that form of humiliation, so he stayed as he was. When he could not find words to say (because how do you ask your masseuse if he’s intentionally pushing you so your cock may have some release from its tension?), Hanbin’s hands dragged up his spine and found its place curling around his shoulders once more.
“Just relax,” Hanbin breathed out his words, Hao was not sure how close he was but the heat of his breath was felt against the nape of his neck. Hao shivered from its presence. “Let me take care of you, okay?”
Even if he were sound of mind right now and able to come up with one of his usual snarky remarks, what could Hao possibly say to that? His open mouth gaped like a fish out of water as he tried to process what he said. Understand what the under tones of it meant.
He was only allotted a short amount of time before Hanbin’s hands left his shoulders, his fingers curling around his sides tickling their way back down to Hao’s lower back. Once more, with his palms pressed into the dips of his back, Hanbin pressed into him and Hao’s cock rocked against the table finding little solace in the small friction that rubbed at his achingly hard head.
Hanbin continued with his actions, pressing down once before gently soothing over the skin with dancing light fingers before repeating the process. With every press, Hao’s body jerked with the sudden pleasure that raked through his entire body. The skin of his chest an irritated red from the constant friction, his nipples ached from their sensitivity but his cock relished in every press of Hanbin’s hands.
“Ah...” Hao sounded on a particularly rough touch, his cock catching on the small stitching of the table’s leather fabric, a small patch of wetness blooming in the black material of his briefs. It felt so painstakingly slow, every movement of Hanbin’s was just enough to make Hao’s body shake from its pleasure but it was not enough to completely relieve him of his problem. It was too short and far between, the teasing tickle of Hanbin’s fingers between each press becoming longer each time. Like he was edging him on, extending his orgasm for as long as he possibly could.
“We encourage our clients to not be too loud during their sessions,” Hanbin remarked as his hands drag up Hao’s sides, fingers gently brushes just beside Hao’s irritated pink nipples before they were dragging back down his body. “The walls are not soundproof and we do not want to disturb others. Right?”
“Sorry,” Hao breathed out a response, his voice was strained and he felt a moan itching the back of his throat with his efforts to speak. He snuffed it out by biting at his bottom lip, only a muffled mewl was heard instead. Another rock of his hips had Hao exhaling a loud sigh instead of all the noises he wishes to expel.
The unhurried movements of Hanbin’s touches seemed to drag on for an hour. Small beads of sweat pooled at Hao’s temples as was slowly and deliberately brought closer to his edge. It was only when he could physically not stand the throbbing pain of his cocks desperation, that Hao grinded himself down against the table. The sudden pressure caused him to exhale a loud audible breath, his hips becoming frantic as he continue to grind down into the table again and again chasing his own orgasm.
“Impatient,” Hanbin noted, but there were no tones of displeasure. His hands started to match the speed the Hao’s hips provided, pressing in with every rocking of hips so the pressure against Hao’s cock was even greater.
Hao’s body shook with its exertion, his fingers curled around the beds edge as he dry humped himself into the table. Every concern of humiliating himself in front of a stranger thrown to the wind as his mind was completely overshadowed by his own cocks desire to come.
He could not stop the sudden yelping moan that left his mouth as he finally was brought to orgasm. The bundle of nerves that were tight in his stomach unravelled and his body shook violently as he came into the confinements of his briefs. Hanbin’s hands stopped their incessant prodding, the warmth just a gentle reminder of his presence as he gently stroked over his back. Calming him down from his sudden high.
Hao breathed heavily as his body began to slump against the tabletop, completely exhausted from the exertion of energy. It was worse than doing a double class with his youngest clients, Hao thought. He had never experienced such an exhaustion where it ached in in his hips and joints with such intensity that it fogged his mind.
“It looks like our hour is up,” Hao could hear the man above him busy his hands with closing oil bottles and shoving the cart of various things back to the side of the room.
Hao was too blissed out to respond, his chest still heaved and his eyes were still coming in and out of focus as he willed himself to calm. Once he was sure that he had his head on straight, Hao lifted his head from its hole and turned to look at Hanbin.
What he found was an empty room. Hao looked around to find the masseuse but he must have excused himself without Hao noticing the sounds of his retreating footsteps or the opening and closing of the door.
He pushed himself up with his palms pressed against the table, neck craning this way and that way to every corner of the room like he was just missing where the tall man was standing. He really was nowhere to be seen.
Hao sighed slightly as he sat himself up onto his knees. He looked down at the briefs, sticky with his own release and felt a new wave of embarrassment come over his body as clarification dawned on him like a massive wave. Hao hid his face in his palms and muffled his own embarrassed screams within them. He dug the pads of his fingers into his eyes, scrubbing until they swirled with black smudges when he opened them. Sure enough, when his eyesight cleared, he was still within a room that smelt of sandalwood and his own humiliation.
He cannot believe he just came in front of a stranger – a hot stranger at that – untouched. Completely untouched! Hanbin not once reached for his cock directly and yet he was able to pull out one of Hao’s most brain numbing orgasms to date. Was able to drive him mad with the desire to come that he began to rut dementedly against the table to fulfill his own completion. Hao muffled another scream into his hands.
He could never show his face in the massage parlour again. God forbid his back continue to ache. Hao would rather die from its pain than have to see Hanbin again.
---
“You came?” Kuanjui reiterated.
Hao painstakingly nodded his confirmation.
“On his table?”
“In my briefs!” Hao’s voice was raised as he corrected him. A couple heads turned at the suddenness of his strange exclamation. Hao hung his head further into the alcohol sticky table, resting his lips on the lip of the cup of beer he held in both of his hands. “Oh god, I need to leave Seoul.” He moaned into its foamy top, ripples broke out on its surface from his breath.
With his elbow propped on the top of the table and his chin resting in his open palm, Kuanjui examined his sulking friend across the table from over the rim of his own chunky beer cup. He took a small sip before responding, “You’re too dramatic. I’m sure people get horny all the time during massages.”
“They don’t!” Hao whined, lowering his beer cup down to the table’s top with a loud thud. He removed one hand from its dewy glass so he could frantically gesture as he spoke, “He even said that! He said it doesn’t happen often! I will go down in history as a very pathetic man who came on his table during a massage!”
Kuanjui only caught his laughter at the very end, stifling it to save Hao from having another breakdown right in front of him regarding it. He had already heard too much of his whining over the phone after it happened.
Hao gathered his stuff as quickly as he could and got out of the massage parlour without so much of a look back at the receptionist that was speaking his goodbyes behind his retreating body. Once he was down the street and around at least two corners, near a shop he did not frequent, Hao pulled his phone from his pocket and called Kuanjui in a complete panic.
That’s how they found themselves at their little hole in the wall bar that they usually frequented with Ricky. Hao swore he would castrate Kuanjui if he invited Ricky this time though. He didn’t have enough courage to admit to everyone of his days defeats and Ricky was not the type of person you want knowing these things about you. He was very, very good at teasing you about any small thing until you were practically on your knees begging for mercy.
Ricky did not know mercy unfortunately. He would only allow it to sit untouched for a couple of months (if you’re lucky) before he is bringing it up at the most unexpected of times.
So it was just the two of them.
Even so, it was still a horrendously embarrassing thing to admit and talk about even if it was with Kuanjui, who he has known since he was a child. They have always been the type of friends to tell each other everything. Hao knows all of Kuanjui’s horrible sex stories and same for Kuanjui with Hao’s. But this one has to take the cake. It has to be the worst story, topping even that time Kuanjui allowed his ex-boyfriend to experiment with toys on him. He would not go into detail on what kind, but Hao has an inkling it had some sort of tentacle like shape.
“I mean,” Kuanjui started, taking a tentative sip from his beer before he continued, “He kind of helped you out, didn’t he? It probably isn’t as bad as you’re remembering it to be.”
Hao sipped idly at his own lukewarm beer. It’s his fourth glass since they sat down, his cheeks were flushed from the alcohols presence at this point and he felt it swirl in his brain. He lost his momentum after swigging back the first three in under an hour when they first arrived and now he’s been nursing this one for the better half of forty minutes. All he really needed was alcohols confidence to talk more in depth about this with his friend.
Hao shook his head after a moments thought, “I don’t – I don’t even know if he was meaning to help me through it.”
“I just feel like if a man is massaging you in a way that has you rubbing against the table with its motion-“
“Quieter!” Hao hissed even though Kuanjui wasn’t even speaking loud enough to be heard over the muffled conversations of every table.
Kuanjui looked around and sure enough no one was paying any mind to their little table but none the less he lowered his voice, “Then he probably was doing it purposefully. Especially since it only became that way once you told him about… Your problem.” Hao felt his face burn, this time not influenced by the alcohol that seeped into his veins.
“He was fully aware of what he was doing,” Kuanjui continued, leaning back into his chair as he took a large gulp of his beer, foam residue coating his top lip, “I’d even go out on a whim and say he probably enjoyed it as well.”
“Absolutely not,” Hao immediately began to deny his theorizing, shaking his head as if it was the most ridiculous thing he’s ever heard. And it was! Hanbin had been nothing but completely professional the entire time. He just doesn’t seem like the type that would take pleasure in something like that. “He was definitely just doing his job.”
“How do you know? Did you see?”
“See what?”
“His crotch,” Kuanjui spoke like it was obvious, like whatever he was hinting at before was something Hao should have easily caught onto. Hao nearly choked on the sip of beer that he took, only barely managing to not spit it back up over the table in between them. Kuanjui raised an amused brow, “Did you not see if he was turned on afterwards? It would have probably been pretty obvious.”
“My head was in a hole of course I didn’t,” Hao said incredulously, hand waving off his friends stupidity like it took physical form in front of him, “And he was gone by the time I sat up. There was nothing to see.”
“Probably went to go jerk one in the bathrooms,” Kuanjui took great pleasure in watching Hao sputter once more at his inane conjectures. His smile was near devious.
“You’re disgusting you know that,” Hao curled up a lip at his friend and turned his body away in his chair so he could face to look out at the crowd within the bar, “Really disgusting,” He said over his shoulder before he turned away pointedly, taking another sip of his beer. The buzz of his last three were beginning to fade away and his tongue began to taste the disgusting bitterness of the lukewarm drink.
Kuanjui let out a small sigh, leg crossing over his other as he also turned out to look at the crowd. There were various ages that came to this bar and all walks of lives and they all came to mutually appreciate this specific bar every night. It was kind of amazing to see human beings form relationships, seeing those that normally would not cross paths find each other within a dingy bar and finding that they are more compatible than first glance would ever hint to.
“You said he was hot?” Kuanjui questioned as they both looked into the crowd.
Hao spared him a short glance before he was nodding, taking a short swig of alcohol, “So terribly hot.”
“Maybe you should just feel lucky a hot guy made you come,” Kuanjui tilted his head to finish off the rest of his beer before he was putting its empty foamy glass back on the sticky table, “You haven’t been fucked for years,”
“It’s only been a couple months,” His correction was ignored.
“You should just be grateful.”
It really has only been a couple months. Hao has probably complained about it enough to Kuanjui that it felt like years to his ears though. He complained so much that sometimes his friends would yell at him to just get on dating apps so he could shut himself up. Hao always was adamant about not ever joining those apps though. He was past his prime for doing one nightstands (he was only twenty-four but even so, it felt icky to be pumped and dumped by men that wouldn’t have even reached his standards if he were in a sober state).
He wanted to be fucked but he also wanted to feel loved during it and maybe that was asking too much of this generation. Maybe he should just feel happy with being seen as hot enough to spend a night with, seeing as it has been even longer since his last proper relationship. The thing was, he wasn’t.
And maybe that’s what was weighing on his mind so heavily after his mornings situation. Putting aside all the linger embarrassment of it all; it felt something akin to a one nightstand. He was brought to pleasure and when he sat up there was emptiness awaiting him. Maybe it was a silly thing to dwell on. It was Hanbin’s job after all. There were no intention of making him feel that way nor promises of anything more after the massage.
Hao felt himself sulking anyways. Because why couldn’t someone handsome want him in a loving way? Hanbin was handsome and Hao had lots of love to give. It didn’t even have to be Hanbin in specific, any handsome man would do! Hao just had Hanbin’s image in his head because he was the first good-looking man he has chanced upon in a while. It also helped that he could pull an orgasm so mind numbing out of him without even properly touching him. Hao was not a strong enough man to not consider what real sex would feel like if he were taken care of by Hanbin.
Hao tilted his head back and chugged back the rest of his beer before slamming it down onto the table, it rattled with his sudden exertion of strength. Kuanjui only reacted with wide eyes, more or less accustomed to Hao’s outbursts.
“Two more rounds!” Hao yelled to no one in particular. They were not sat by the bar tender and no one was around to take their order. Kuanjui rolled his eyes at his friend, pushing back his chair so he could go and grab them another two glasses of beers.
Once Kuanjui was away from the table, Hao slumped his side into the chairs backrest, resting his arm on its top and his cheek upon the bend of his elbow. He watched people mingle before him; caught snippets of conversations he was not apart of and would never know the context of.
He sighed deeply. Who cares if Hanbin is not the handsome man that Hao was meant to settle down with. Hao had already vowed to avoid him at all costs so they would ultimately just become a funny story to tell other people when years have passed and both could find humour in humiliation. There were many other men out there. Seoul was a big city after all.