1:00 AM.
"Haah… Hic… Huh, uhng."
The sound of breathing.
In the darkened room, there's no need to see each other's faces.
Just holding each other and mixing each other's fluids inside.
Jin Dallae felt the huge manhood stirring inside her wet petals.
"…Kuhuhuuh."
The heat between the man and woman reached its peak.
2:00 AM.
"Haaang!"
It felt good.
"…Kyah, ahh."
"Hold on… Let's take a break…"
Grabbing Shiheon's arm belatedly, Jin Dallae grimaced, her labored breathing indicating her discomfort.
"…Keep… going. Kkhuahh. Ang! Again, again… again…"
The sensation of forcefully widening and penetrating her opening.
She wanted to keep it inside, but when it pulled out, his manhood stirred inside her.
When her interior returned to normal, his manhood forced its way back inside.
It might become a habit.
3:00 AM.
"Haa… Haah, hah. Haah."
No words now.
Only the sound of breathing crosses between them.
Rubbing and thrusting passionately. They look at each other with hazy eyes.
"Haak, keup, heuk, kut."
Moaning, unsure if it's a sigh mixed with pain, escaped from their lips.
Still… it felt good.
Their whole body heated up, sensitive to every touch.
At this moment, just watching each other made them hot.
More. More. More. Again.
-Burururut!
The feeling of a swollen rubber inside, fulfilling the interior.
Without a word, they fixed their gaze on each other's faces. They fumbled beside the pillow and took out a condom.
"…Haa, heuk. Eup."
Biting the tip of the condom.
-Tzzz.
Tearing open the package, she gently slipped it onto his manhood, covering it with her nectar.
Lee Shiheon kept staring at Jin Dallae.
No longer embarrassed.
It felt good.
Slowly, the obscene rift widened again.
Imprinting it clearly with its owner's mark.
A satisfying stamp.
"Heuk, eup…, huung…. Eut."
Her reddened thighs began to shake up and down again.
"Hik, hiit. Keup."
A smile spread on Jin Dallae's lips.
"…♡"
Her slender arms wrapped around Lee Shiheon's neck.
"Is it okay to be doing this at 4 AM?"
"...What's the big deal? Cough."
Lee Shiheon and Jin Dallae, wearing only wet outer garments, sat at the table.
A portable gas burner was placed on the table.
On it, a pan… frying something resembling pancakes.
"Seriously, you're making that just because I mentioned it?"
"Can't help it… made so much already. Cough."
After screaming all night, it's no wonder their throats were hoarse.
Jin Dallae skillfully flipped the pancakes with chopsticks.
"Cough… Still, it's lucky we had sugar at home."
"…What usually goes inside?"
"Something like chestnut filling. Red bean paste is good too. Ah, your voice sounds hoarse too. Hehe. Cough."
"Stop coughing and drink some water."
"Yes."
Kneading glutinous rice flour with salted water, lightly enough to hold it together, shaping it like a chrysanthemum.
Flattening it in the pan to make the pancake.
Jin Dallae talked about cooking with expertise.
"…Too many chrysanthemums make it bitter. They say lots of azalea flowers are good."
"Lots?"
"Yes, lots."
Lee Shiheon looked at the basket beside them.
The basket was filled with the fruits of their night's activities, gathered one by one during their lovemaking.
Jin Dallae took out the flowers and placed them nicely on the flower pancake.
Watching the pancake cook absentmindedly in the quiet night, a gentle atmosphere lingered.
Feeling tired made them feel languid.
It felt like stepping out of a bath.
Both of them were feeling this emotion.
Very mundane yet happy.
When recalling childhood memories, the moments when there was really nothing to do, lying on the floor and passing the time as a child.
That feeling can be felt when they are alone together.
Jin Dallae smiled unconsciously with happiness.
"Are we… dating?"
"Why ask?"
"Just because. I'm happy."
Living with the person who consistently talked to you, and who shared a drink during hard times.
Today, for some reason, emotions were overwhelming.
Being with this person made her feel she might not need medicine.
To the point where that thought didn't seem like a delusion, Jin Dallae found this time precious.
"You."
"Hmm?"
She just wanted to say thank you.
She was about to speak but felt it was too much, so she closed her mouth.
Pop.
An azalea flower popped out immediately.
"Hey."
"..."
Jin Dallae's cheeks reddened.
"If more come out… when will we eat this again?"
It's too precious to throw away.
At Lee Shiheon's following words, Jin Dallae quietly puffed out her cheeks.
"…This is really rare to eat."
She wondered if it might be a burden.
Feeling conflicted between it being too easy and wanting to complain a bit.
Lee Shiheon chuckled and nodded.
"Yeah… it's difficult to keep eating flowers that are hard to bloom even once in a lifetime."
A woman who felt happiness bloomed a flower.
It was said that when love reached its peak, the flower bloomed. Couples who tasted that flower even once were said to live a happy life forever.
Such folklore existed not only in Korea but in other countries as well.
A place where people lived, it was all the same everywhere.
Flowers signified love. Fruits signified pleasure.
In the society of the Tree people, flowers that came from their bodies were considered very precious.
"If there are fruits in a marital relationship… every day will be joyful. If there are flowers in a marital relationship… every day will be happy."
"What's that?"
"It's a proverb. Left by a famous celebrity… But due to the nature of Tree people, there are exceptions where some cannot bear fruit."
Listening to her words, Lee Shiheon looked at Jin Dallae's hair.
"Dallae, don't you have fruits too?"
"…For now, yes."
"Then why don't they come out?"
"It varies with each person."
Even if one genuinely felt happiness and pleasure, sometimes their body didn't respond, so they couldn't produce it.
Surprisingly, there were many such cases.
"I see."
Honestly, people who couldn't bloom flowers were a bit pitiful.
Jin Dallae drank lukewarm water, recalling the sensation when she bloomed a flower.
A feeling of something bursting out from her head and spreading happiness throughout her body.
The emotion at that moment was indescribable.
'Fruits… would they be similar?'
Some cases bore fruit late, after growing up.
It's still worth looking forward to.
-Sizzle.
At that moment, Jin Dallae placed the fully cooked azalea pancake on a small plate and handed it over.
Lee Shiheon took it, dipped it in sugar, and put it in his mouth.
The clean sweetness with the scent of azalea.
Pausing chewing and inhaling, the scent that could only be felt when sticking close to her filled his nose.
Jin Dallae, watching Lee Shiheon eat her flower, felt a ticklish sensation.
Her heart pounded.
Fast enough to hurt. Strongly.
It wasn't unpleasant. Rather, the faster it beat, the more she realized how much she liked this person.
-Drop.
At that moment.
A very old scene flashed in Jin Dallae's mind.
An incident from her childhood, when she didn't know anything.
The sight young Dallae witnessed in her mother's bedroom.
-…Don't. Please. Ah. Ah.
Her deceased stepfather and mother engaging in a frantic relationship.
The dirty scene of an affair.
But contrary to her pleas to stop, the fruits falling from her mother's head…
Jin Dallae gripped the chopsticks tightly.
'…Different.'
It's different. Jin Dallae repeated to herself.
Her relationship with this person was incomparably pure and precious.
Yet, she found herself mixing it with trauma and making comparisons.
"What's wrong all of a sudden?"
Startled by Lee Shiheon's voice, Jin Dallae flinched her shoulders.
"Ah… Ah? Oh my, I lost track of my thoughts… Luckily, it didn't burn."
Lee Shiheon narrowed his eyes slightly and reached out to stroke Jin Dallae's cheek.
"Still feeling that way?"
"…A little. No, it's much better now."
"You've had a hard time."
Though his words were casual, they were incredibly warm.
"Let me know when you go to the hospital. It's faster if I take you."
"But you have to memorize the coordinates… By plane, it's quick."
"Can you compare the speed of that and this?"
Even while seemingly indifferent, he was attentive.
She knew that.
Lee Shiheon looked closely at Jin Dallae's face and spoke softly.
"Is nothing going on with you?"
"A lot is going on."
"Like what?"
"I'm quite happy right now. A lot. This much."
Stretching her arms to show, Jin Dallae took a bite of the pancake, and a bittersweet sweetness spread in her mouth.
It tasted like honey.
It's still 4 AM.
It felt like only 30 minutes had passed, but it was already 4 AM.
Yet, morning was still far away.
Having eaten all the food and resolved the hunger caused by intense sex, Jin Dallae grabbed Lee Shiheon's hand again.
"…The sun hasn't risen yet."
Plants photosynthesize when the sun is up.
They breathed at night.
…Still haven't breathed enough.
Need to exhale more roughly.
Absorb water below the roots.
8:00 AM.
"Wow."
This was a disaster.
What was this on the first day of living together?
I looked at Jin Dallae lying prone on the bed in the neatly organized room.
I healed all the scars that had formed in the meantime, and even the bed that had become a honey bed instead of a regular bed was somehow magically fixed.
'Later, I might need to make a honey jar instead of a flower basket.'
After tasting it, it was incredibly sweet and delicious.
Mixing it with warm water or milk might be good for recovering from fatigue.
Fruits, flowers, or honey from women are strangely never tiresome.
Usually, I would nibble at sliced fruits and leave them, but not this.
"Dallae."
"…Yes."
When I called Jin Dallae, who was lying down, she answered a bit late.
Her completely cracked voice sounded cute.
"Can you move?"
"…No."
I only healed the scars and left the rest.
Jin Dallae seemed to oddly like that fatigue.
"My back… pelvis, and crotch hurt."
"I see… Doesn't your neck hurt?"
"My neck hurts too."
Of course, it would hurt after screaming so much.
Jin Dallae screamed that the world would end, saying it felt good.
With her face buried in the pillow, Jin Dallae turned her red cheeks and glanced at me with her right eye.
"…You beastly person."
"You asked for it."
"Who said I didn't like it?"
Still whining that her thighs hurt.
Not that she really disliked it, just teasing me.
It was just her way of emphasizing how much sex we had.
"Do you want porridge?"
With a sore throat, making other food didn't seem right.
Moreover, I didn't let her sleep yesterday, so she looked very tired.
She must have been busy preparing for the move, studying at the academy, and handling work at the company for a week… It wouldn't be strange to sleep all day.
"Are you making it?"
"Yes."
"Yes, yes. I want to eat."
"Wait a bit."
Making porridge wasn't hard.
Entering the kitchen, I quickly cooked it, and when I entered Shiba's room, she was hugging her dolls and sleeping.
Our daughter didn't disturb our lover's time…
As I approached to stroke her head, she opened her eyes suddenly.
"Bee!"
Shiba sensed my presence and opened her eyes before my hand even touched her.
Did she have some sort of dad detection ability in her head?
Shiba, who got up throwing aside her plush toy, spread her arms to show her determination.
"Did you sleep well?"
"Slept well! Daddy?"
"Yes, Daddy… slept well too."
Should I mix some tuna to make it suitable for Shiba to eat?
Along with tuna vegetable porridge, I found honey bought from the mart in the fridge, mixed it with milk, and placed it in three cups on the table.
Just as the porridge was being finished, Jin Dallae came out to the kitchen, moving sluggishly, and sat down.
-Nyum nyum.
Shiba was eating the porridge deliciously.
She was overjoyed when told she didn't have to go to kindergarten anymore.
-Slurrrp.
Jin Dallae first drank the milk mixed with honey, then glanced at Shiba in my arms and smiled slyly.
"Did you eat a lot yesterday too?"
Honey….
We did eat a lot.
I coughed and turned to Shiba beside me.
"Ahem, Shiba is here."
"Bee?"
"Hehe, sorry."
Jin Dallae giggled at my sensitive remark.
While looking at the porridge, she seemed to be lost in thought. Then she took a bite of the porridge, holding the spoon in her mouth, and smiled bashfully.