38-52

Chapter 52: The Orchard Tree 

My wife smiled as she placed her hand on Ho-cheol’s chest. 

“That’s a relief. I feel the same. And what else did she say?” 

Ho-cheol lowered his head again and said, 

“She said today is another mating day, and asked if we needed help again. She said if we wanted, we could come find her.” 

My wife grabbed Ho-cheol’s wrist and asked, 

“What do you think, Ho-cheol? What do you want to do?” 

Ho-cheol looked into my wife’s eyes and replied, 

“For me… of course… but…” 

As my wife held his wrist, her hand moved down and slipped inside his loincloth. 

“What’s this… you’re hard again? You still have energy?” 

She took a step closer and said, 

“Then let’s do it… let’s do it. I want it too. I want to.” 

She withdrew her hand from his penis and said, 

“The body is honest. No need for a hundred words.” 

She took his hand and slipped it inside her own loincloth. 

“No need to ask for opinions. You can tell right away by touching.” 

Ho-cheol nodded. My wife, gazing at him with hazy eyes, took a step back. Ho-cheol’s hand, coming out of her loincloth, glistened with her fluids. 

“For now… we have to work, right? We need to pull our weight, too.” 

Ho-cheol nodded, turned around, and the two of them started picking fruit again. 

My legs gave out as I crouched there. What I saw last night wasn’t a dream or illusion. It was all real. The slender hope that it had just been a dream was shattered. It felt like a mountain that had been teetering dangerously just collapsed all at once. What should I do now? 

It was awkward to get up and go out now. I just sat on the ground, blankly watching the two of them work. My wife, picking fruit within reach, pointed to a higher one for Ho-cheol. He tried to reach it on tiptoe but couldn’t. Looking around, he brought over a thick branch and wedged it under a lower branch of the fruit tree, making a sturdy step. The height was about waist-high, not too high-just right. 

Ho-cheol pressed down on the branch to check its safety and gestured for my wife to climb up. She carefully stepped onto it and said to Ho-cheol, 

“The height is perfect, but it’s a bit wobbly. Hold me from below.” 

Ho-cheol moved behind her and held her legs. This put her buttocks right in front of his face. She reached up to pick the fruit, and Ho-cheol stared at her bottom. After a while, he suddenly buried his face in her buttocks. My wife turned around in surprise. 

“Ah… what are you doing? Hahaha, it tickles.” 

Ho-cheol rubbed his face against her buttocks, then spread them apart. 

“Ho-cheol, I went to the bathroom this morning.” 

But Ho-cheol paid no attention to her words. He moved his face closer and spread her buttocks wider. Sensing his intention, my wife bent over a little. As her anus and vulva came into view, Ho-cheol dove in and started licking madly. My wife closed her eyes and felt his tongue. 

“Mmm…” 

Ho-cheol buried his face in her ample buttocks, licking and licking as if he were going to disappear into them. My wife clung to the tree, feeling his stimulation. Ho-cheol’s penis was lifting his loincloth. 

After a while, my wife gently pushed him away and got down from the tree, a bit unsteady. She wiped his mouth with her hand and said, 

“Later…” 

Then the two of them each slung a basket full of fruit over their shoulders and walked side by side back toward the village. After their voices and presence disappeared, I slowly stood up from the bushes. Now it was certain: what I’d seen last night wasn’t a delusion or dream, but reality. The despair I’d felt last night returned and enveloped me. 

I staggered toward the village, my legs giving out. My wife’s behavior felt unfamiliar, like she was a different woman. Her words from last night came to mind-she said she’d never reached climax during our marriage. Was that true, or just something she said in the heat of the moment? Objectively, I couldn’t have sex like Ho-cheol. I’d never done it more than once a night, and never lasted as long as he did. Had my wife been building up sexual frustration living with someone weak like me? 

I stumbled to the village entrance and went to our house. No one was there. My legs gave out and I collapsed to the floor. My mind wasn’t working properly. The scene I’d just witnessed, and the confirmation that last night’s “dream” was real, left me reeling. Thoughts swirled endlessly, but I couldn’t organize them, let alone plan my next move. I just sat there, dazed, when Soo-hyuk came in and saw me. 

“Ah… there you are.” 

Apparently, he’d been looking for me. 

“I thought something happened when you went to the bathroom. This is the jungle, after all. Everything okay?” 

I shook my head at him. Soo-hyuk grabbed my hand and pulled me up. 

“If nothing’s wrong, let’s get to work. We need to pull our weight, too.” 

I took his hand and struggled to my feet. Soo-hyuk smiled. 

“Still hungover? Me too. But if you sweat and work, you’ll feel better.” 

We went outside to cut wood. Some villagers were already chopping trees. But it wasn’t what I expected-of course, there were no chainsaws, and not even saws. They used hand axes to notch the tree, then hammered in wooden wedges to fell it. 

This place is famous for its many large, tall trees. Small trees were hard to find, and most were massive in girth and height. Even for the villagers, felling trees wasn’t easy-they could only cut down a few a day. 

Soo-hyuk and I struggled to bring down a tree. Of course, it wasn’t easy. In the hot weather, sweat poured off us, and eventually I got dizzy. Soo-hyuk was right-after working and sweating, my hangover faded, but the better effect was that my mind cleared. Or, more precisely, I couldn’t think of anything else except how hard the work was. 

By evening, Soo-hyuk and I managed to fell just one tree. The villagers working with us praised us with bright faces. We all worked together to haul the tree into the village, and Soo-hyuk and I collapsed, exhausted, on the ground. 

As I lay there, I heard someone approaching. Opening my eyes, I saw a woman standing next to me. I couldn’t see her face in the sunlight, but I could see the pubic hair under her loincloth. I quickly sat up. It was the shaman. She held bamboo cups in both hands and offered one to each of us. It was water. We were thirsty, so we drank it down in one gulp. When we thanked her, the shaman said something to me. I looked at Soo-hyuk. 

“She’s asking if you now feel like living as a member of the tribe.” 

“What does that mean?” 

I asked, and Soo-hyuk frowned. 

“You said there was a debate about family and marriage last time, right? I think it’s a continuation of that.” 

Apparently, when I talked about marriage with the shaman before, she concluded I had no intention of integrating into the tribe. I told Soo-hyuk, 

“Of course not. No matter how long we stay, we’re going to leave eventually. We just want to pull our weight while we’re here.” 

Soo-hyuk hesitated, then relayed my words to the shaman. She looked at me with a blank expression, then left without a word. Soo-hyuk looked like he wanted to say something, but honestly, I wasn’t ready to listen, and he didn’t seem to have the energy for a serious conversation either.