Chapter 6: East Pavilion

Ji-hwan did not ask the General what was on his arm.

He got up off the blankets and walked across the cold floor in his bare feet and stood beside him at the window.

The General's hand stayed where it was.

Through the gaps between his fingers, Ji-hwan saw a patch of scarred, puckered skin, dark and shiny, the size of a coin.

Then the General wound the black cloth back around it, quickly, and tied it off with his teeth.

"I'm going to the east pavilion," he said, roughly.

"I always go when I can't sleep.

"Will you come?"

"Is that an invitation?"

"It's a bad idea."

"Then yes," Ji-hwan said.

The east pavilion stood at the end of the garden over a frozen pond, an open wooden room with a roof and no walls.

The morning wind came through it from every side.

A thick quilted mat and a brazier waited there.

The General sat down on the mat and drew Ji-hwan into his lap.

Ji-hwan's back was against the General's chest.

The General's arms wrapped around him, and his beard brushed his ear.

"I want to ask you something," the General said.

"Ask."

"Play for me."

Ji-hwan laughed softly.

"I've been playing for you for four nights, General."

"No."

The General's voice dropped, and it did something to the base of Ji-hwan's spine.

"Play for me now.

"Like this.

"And don't stop."

A servant had left the gayageum on the bench by the rail.

The General reached out with one long arm and set it across Ji-hwan's knees, and Ji-hwan understood.

His blood went hot.

"You are a very strange man," he whispered.

"Play."

Ji-hwan laid his fingers on the strings and began the boatman's song.

He knew it by heart now, and it was the one the General wanted.

He felt the General breathe.

He felt a big hand slide down his chest, over his belly, under the silk of his robe.

The warm palm closed around his hard cock, not stroking, just holding.

Ji-hwan's fingers stumbled on the second phrase.

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