Chapter 7

Let's have sex? Had he heard right? he wondered. But considering that she was now in the process of unbuttoning her jeans, maybe he had. In his life, he'd had his share of pushy, horny or gold-digging women but even they weren't this shameless. What was her deal? If he were married or in a relationship, he might have thought that it was a set up or some kind of test his wife had concocted to reassure herself of his faithfulness. But what was this?


He watched her pull down her pants and sucked his breath in. With a body like that, there was no way she was underage so he doubted it was some kind of blackmail scheme. What was wrong with her? She was obviously depressed so had she just discovered that she had AIDS and was trying to seek revenge against the world by taking as many people with her? No matter what the true scenario was, he wanted no part of it.

She was reaching for her panties when he stepped back, grabbed the shirt that had been hanging over his chair and threw it at her. "Cover yourself up," he ordered, looking away from her.

What the hell am I doing? Ji Won asked herself. It was like a scene from a really bad porn flick and she couldn't believe she'd actually stooped so low. But it will be all worth it in the end - she just had to push harder. She let his shirt fall to the ground then moved closer to him. "Don't you find me attractive?" she purred. She licked her lips seductively and smiled at him making sure he could see the twinkle in her eye.

He looked from her full breasts to her flat stomach down to the thong that was the only piece of clothing she still had on. If only he'd been made of steel. In a different time and place, he wouldn't have minded having those slim legs wrapped around him. But not today. Not like this. "No. I don't find you attractive. Just put your clothes back on and leave."

"Really?" she smirked. "I think you do find me attractive," she said, training her eyes on the rapidly increasing bulge in his pants. She took two steps closer and reached for the top of his pants. Before he could push her hands off, she was on her knees.



***



Ji Won struggled to keep the bile from rising up. She'd never been so disgusted with herself. Men were easy creatures and it wasn't difficult to get Shin to change his mind but now that they were about to have sex, she wanted to throw up.

She didn't even know what was wrong with him. Since they were strangers, why was he wasting time with all the foreplay? They'd been lying on the bed for about ten minutes and he was still trailing kisses all over her body. Couldn't he tell that every time she felt his spit on her body, she wanted to hurl? She should have been turned on, she should have been excited to finally be able to have the fling she'd been dreaming off. After all, underneath those clothes, he did have an impressive body --and she wasn't just talking about his abs-- so why couldn't she be more excited about this?

She already knew it was going to be the worst sexual experience of her life because even though they said that sex was half mental, her body wasn't even complying with the other half. She wasn't aroused, moist, wasn't turned on in any way but regardless, she was still going to do it. She had to.

He moved up and kissed her neck while caressing her thighs. Then he moved up even higher to kiss her mouth.

"Can you just get on with it?" she whispered. As soon as the words escaped her lips, a tear escaped her eye.



***

Crying? She was crying? Shin rolled off her and onto the other half of the bed. "Why are you crying? Wasn't this your idea?"

Panicked, Ji Won quickly wiped her cheek and climbed on top of him. "No. I'm fine. Where's the condom? Let's do this," she said, her voice getting shakier with every passing word. She found the pack of condoms on the nightstand and took one. She was going to do this even if it killed her.

Unwrapping condoms was something that she could do in her sleep but for some reason, the more she tried to tear the condom wrapper open, the more her hand shook. Every time she caught hold of the corner, it would slip out of her hand. She even tried to tear it open with her teeth but with no luck. What kind of adhesive had they used on it, anyway?

Shin felt an overwhelming sadness as he watched her struggling with the wrapper. He'd never seen anyone look so clumsy. Why was she acting like this? Was she an old virgin determined to finally lose her virginity? Is that what it was all about? He reached across and covered her hands with his. "Stop this, Alex."

She looked up at him with teary eyes. "What do you mean? I'm almost there. I'll soon open it."

He gently pushed her off him. "Let's forget it. We can do this another time."

"No. Let's do it now," she said, not bothering to hide her desperation.

He moved his legs off the bed and sat on the edge. "No. How about another time?"

"Please." She could barely see him as her eyes had become cloudy with moisture. "Please."

He looked over at her and watched her collapse onto the bed in sobs.



***

"Gone?" she asked the lady, pointing at the empty lobby.

"Yes, Miss. They've already left for the day but if you'd like to go into town, I'll gladly get a driver for you."

Ji Won only understood the first sentence but wasn't interested in what else the lady had to say. She thanked her and turned around. It only made sense that she'd miss the bus after all, the day had started off shitty. After waking up in a strange bed to find a slightly less strange man, sleeping next to her, she slowly remembered the happenings of the previous night and like a jet, flew back to her room.

After sleeping a bit longer, she woke up to discover that she'd missed breakfast and that room service wasn't included in her package. She grabbed three apples from the fruit bowl at the lobby and walked towards the elevators.

Her stomach growled with hunger so she wiped one of the apples against her shorts then bit into it. Her mind was intent on traveling to what had happened the previous night but she was fighting it because she knew that if she really thought about it, it meant that she'd never again be able to look at herself in the mirror.

She was still waiting for the elevator when she heard footsteps. She turned to look and her body stiffened when she saw who it was. Oh shi.t.

"You missed breakfast too?" Shin asked.

"Hmm," she said, not looking at him. Her body was on the verge of turning bright red and she hit the elevator call button repeatedly, hoping that would somehow make one arrive quicker.

In all his life, Shin had never seen a woman fidget so much. At least, not one that he'd seen naked. Not that last night had been one of his shining moments. It wasn't like he thought he was a super stud in bed but he'd never had any complaints. It was his policy to try to pleasure the woman as much as he could, while pleasuring himself. But with her…. He'd never in his life been with someone so unresponsive yet so desperate. He'd perfected the skill in touching women in certain places that he was sure would make them moan but apparently, she was immune to his skills. It had almost been like trying to make love to a block of wood and it was such a turn off that he'd constant struggled to retain his hardness. But seeing that tear drop from her eye was like poking a balloon with a needle – he'd never deflated so quickly.

But yet, as he saw her wringing her hands in nervousness, he couldn't help but feel pity for her. His brain was telling him to run as far away as possible yet his lips said, "This lift is a taking a long time to arrive, don't you think?"

As she stood there, trying to ignore his presence, she'd been silently praying for the ground to swallow her up. But now he was talking to her? She took a deep breath and said, "Yes."

"Maybe there's something wrong with it."

"Hmm."

After a few more excruciatingly awkward seconds, the elevator finally arrived. They both walked in and hit the buttons for their respective floors and waited for the door to close.

"You missed today's outing too?"

She nodded.

"Did you sleep well?" he asked just as the elevator doors shut.

Her heart sank the moment the lift started to move up. Not only was he still talking to her, he just had to refer to their previous night. More embarrassed than she'd ever imagined, she waited for a few beats then said, "About last night… I'm sorry. I don't know--"

"Forget about," he interrupted, smiling at her. He didn't exactly want to spend time thinking about it, either. "What are you doing today?"

"Ehm, sorry?"

"Since you couldn't go out with the group. Are you going into town?"

She shook her head and kept her eyes trained at the elevator doors.

"It looks like we are at my floor," he said as the elevator halted to a stop. As soon as the doors parted open, he put his foot out to act as a barricade then turned to her. "Since we've been left alone, we can hang out together. Meet me in the lobby in thirty minutes and," he said, looking at her feet, "change your shoes."

Ji Won was still in shock as he walked out of the elevator and towards his room.



***

Ji Won held onto Shin as he helped her up the last rock. She'd initially decided against meeting him but ten minutes after their scheduled time, curiosity got the best of her so she went to the lobby and found him waiting for her. She really didn't know why he was still being nice to her but she chucked it up to him being just as lonely as she was and not wanting to be alone. Besides, why think about it so much? It was just a vacation and they'd be parting ways soon enough.

Over an hour later, she was on top of a mountain. Throughout their ride, he'd been friendly and personable and that, coupled with what had happened the previous night, she was sure he couldn't possibly have any sexual interest in her, which was good because she was sweating and probably looked like a pig.

She wiped off some sweat with the back of her hand then turned to him. "What is this again?"

"You might have seen the sign when were driving here. It's Arikok National park. I didn't pick any of the tourist locations so we should be alone."

He put down his backpack and sat on a smooth rock. Then she staggered forward and did the same. "If I'd known that you were taking me hiking, I'd have stayed in my room."

He unzipped his back pack, pulled out two plastic bottles of apple juice and handed one to her. "It's good exercise. I usually like to go hiking when I have a lot on my mind or I just need to think. Something about the serenity, crisp air and coolness has a way of clearing your mind. "

"I see."

"I hope it works for you too," he said, sending her a knowing look.

Ji Won took a swig of the now warm apple juice and stood up. She walked over to the grassy area and towards a steep edge. "What's the name of the ocean?" she asked, pointing to a water body a few hundred feet below.

He stood up and walked up to her. "I don't think it's an ocean – I believe it's a river."

"Okay, what's the name of the river?"

"It's called Intotok. Local lure claims that hundreds of years ago, when a native girl called Intotok came to take her bath on the banks of the river, she met a lost sea god. She was very beautiful with her eyes, body, hair, you know how it goes."

"Sure."

"Anyway, before long, they fell in love and the sea god no longer had any interest in returning to his homeland. On the day he planned to propose to her, he waited and waited and waited for her to show up but she never did. It turned out that she'd been forced into a marriage with the village chief. The sea god, as you can imagine, was devastated. The story is that on very stormy nights, you can hear the wind whistling, "Intotok, Intotok," as the sea god searches for his long lost love. In fact, sometimes, when the waves crash against the banks of the river, you can still hear him calling her name," he said dramatically.

"Really?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"The water crashes and makes a 'tok-tok" sound? Not like a 'whoosh-whoosh' sound?"

He thought about it. "You think Inwooshwoosh would sound more believable?"

"Yeah," she said, watching as a wave crashed against the side of the rock.

He nodded. "Cool. I'll use that one next time."

She gave him a sidelong glance. "Next time? You made it up again?" She shook her head. "Are you like some kind of pathological liar?"

He immediately adopted an innocent look. "If I say no, will you believe me?"

For some reason, that made her burst out laughing.