Suddenly remembering Binh, I quickly grabbed the kite from the table and jumped into the field. I forgot that whenever Binh got angry with me, it was also the times Thinh Van came to give him books or visit him. I had accidentally yelled at him earlier, so he probably wouldn’t even look at me now.
My guess was right. Binh flew his kite high in the air and tied the string to a stick stuck deep in the ground. Occasionally, he would tug the string to keep the kite from falling. In his hand, he held another stick, haphazardly poking it into the surrounding ground. He looked incredibly bored, not enjoying flying the kite at all.
Seeing me approaching from afar, he glanced at me a few times, then pretended not to see me, and picked up the stick again to poke more deep holes in the ground. I couldn’t help but laugh; at eighteen, when angry, he was just like a child.
I let out my kite and ran a short distance, only sitting near Binh again when it was high in the air. He immediately yelled, “Get out of here! You’re getting in my kite string!”
I knew he was sulking, so I just sat there and didn’t move. At most, he’d only chase me away once, but I knew he was afraid I’d actually leave. He sat there silently, his face sullen, not saying a word. I nudged his shoulder, but he pushed my hand away. I said, “You’re angry over something like that?”
He snapped, “So what? I’m grumpy like that, not as polite as your Thịnh Văn.”
I sat next to him, put my arm around his shoulder, and said, “You get angry every time he comes over. What did he do to you that you hate him so much?”
He yelled again, “And you too! What the hell is wrong with talking outside? What are you two doing in there? Touching each other’s genitals or something?”
I lightly hit his shoulder and said, “What nonsense are you thinking? Do you think he’s like you?”
What I meant was that Thinh Van wasn’t always eyeing my private parts like Binh did. But I don’t know what Binh thought of that, he hastily picked up a stick from the ground, grabbed his kite, and went straight to the top of the hill. I was too lazy to explain, so I just sat there enjoying the afternoon breeze.
But after a while, I felt down. Normally, except when we were sleeping, we would always chat about all sorts of things. It’s understandable that I felt suffocated and stifled when he was sulking like this. Binh probably felt the same way, but he was too proud, so if I didn’t apologize, he wouldn’t easily make amends.
The afternoon sun faded, and the wind grew stronger. The harvest season winds made one feel that nature could be more “aggressive” than usual. In the distance, there was a house threshing rice, and a strong gust of wind blew the sacks everywhere. The children scurried around picking up the straw, but when they finally got their hands on the sack and wanted to return to their original spot, a strong wind blew against them, forcing them to bend down and take heavy steps. But the radiant, carefree smiles on their faces still lit up the sky.
Binh, at the top, planted a stake and let his kite fly in the wind. The children playing “mock battles” nearby were captivated. Suddenly, from a distance, a group of little boys chased each other towards Binh. The group in front surrounded Binh, hands on hips, saying, “This is our boss! If you’re so tough, come out and have a one-on-one fight!”
It was a game played by country children during harvest season. They divided whatever they had in half, with the two leaders using the two largest straw mounds nearby as their “bases.” Then they competed to claim more straw mounds around them. Whenever they saw the “enemy” approaching, they either fought back or, if they couldn’t win, abandoned their belongings and fled.
Binh, having nothing better to do, quickly joined the others. While he was 18 on his birth certificate, I think his mind was probably only 13 at most. Back when he and I were 13, nobody wanted to play with us. Even in mock battles, each side only had one person.
With Binh around, the other kids were like tigers with wings. Wherever he stomped and ran towards a haystack, the others would just run for their lives. The leader, a rather clever kid, shouted, “Let’s go find the boss! He’s too strong, we can’t beat him!”
Another kid in the group pointed at me and yelled, “There! There he is!”
The kids all turned their eyes towards me and, without thinking, rushed towards me. They surrounded us, some grabbing our legs, others our arms, shouting loudly: “You thought you guys had a boss and we didn’t?”
Naturally, we were evenly matched, taking turns jumping up and down, “occupying” the haystacks, rolling and crawling all over the fields. That’s all there was to childhood, full of fun, laughter echoing across the sky. Binh and I didn’t see ourselves as outsiders either; we were responsible leaders. I can’t even remember the last time we played so carefree.
After a while of fighting until we were exhausted, we competed to “build houses” in our haystacks. Each of us dug a hole in the stack and crawled inside; if we ran out of straw, we’d go to another stack to pull some back. The kids got more and more enthusiastic as they pulled, scrambling for straw and shouting. Green and yellow straw scattered all over the field.
As evening fell, the families out there had finished threshing their rice and were driving their carts.
They dragged the child towards the embankment, pulled it up, and carried it home. A couple passing by looked at us and called out, “Bí Bo, come home! You should come home with Auntie Ba too, otherwise Mom will be looking for you!”
The three children emerged from the crowd, their smiles still lingering, but their faces were filled with sadness. A woman in a boat was rowing past, pulled up to the embankment, and called out, “Nhí, come home, it’s getting dark!”
The little boy grumbled, “Mom, you go home first! I’ll come back later!”
His mother threatened, “Go home quickly, it’ll be dark soon and the bogeyman will catch the children and eat them! Right, Auntie Ba?”
Auntie Ba nodded, “Yes, you children hurry home, if everyone else leaves, the bogeyman will come and catch you and there will be no one to save you!”
The children looked bewildered after hearing this. They had never seen the Bogeyman’s face in their lives, only knowing that he had blue eyes and a red nose, and that his favorite pastime was eating children. They all started squealing and giggling, one little boy shouting, “Uncle Tư, please take me home!”
The other children also clamored, and finally, they all crammed into a boat and followed Uncle Tư home. The scene on the empty field was dim and dark, leaving only me, Bình, and the kite that had lost its wind and landed far away. I called out to Bình, “Let’s run home quickly, or the Bogeyman will be here!”
Bình yelled, “You don’t need to run! The Bogeyman is here!”
With that, he dashed towards me. I laughed heartily and started running. Luckily, we were both quite playful; the children’s battle was over, but the battle between me and him had just officially begun.
I quickly climbed onto the haystack, but it jumped and grabbed one of my legs. I screamed in terror, as if I’d encountered a real bogeyman. It pulled my leg down to the foot of the haystack, and we wrestled, each of us pinning the other on the shoulders, neither willing to give up.
But it was stronger than me, and it had the advantage of being on top, so I couldn’t do anything. Desperate, I freed one hand and reached down to squeeze its groin. Binh saw this and yelled, “Damn! Can’t beat me, so you’re squeezing my dick?”
I retorted, “And you still won’t let go?” Normally, someone would recoil defensively when someone’s squeezed in a sensitive spot, but it didn’t.
Binh still held me down, replying, “Why should I let go?”
I said, “If you don’t let go, I’ll squeeze again?”
Binh chuckled, “Go ahead and squeeze, if it bites you, you’ll have to bear the consequences!”
He dared to challenge me, so I dared to squeeze. One squeeze after another, each time I felt his dick harder than the last. And so, Binh’s dick started to grow bigger in my hand, but he absolutely didn’t flinch.
His dick was big and long, and he wasn’t wearing underwear, so I could almost feel his dick even though I was only squeezing it through his pants. When it was fully erect, I teased him: “Damn, why does it get so hard after someone squeezes it?”
Binh replied: “I’m not impotent, so why would I get hard just from someone squeezing my dick? If you’re so good, why don’t you show me?”
With that, he slipped his hand under my pants and grabbed my crotch, which was already hard from the moment I touched his dick. He squeezed, felt, stroked, and caressed it in every way, then teased me again: “You’re talking back to me? I haven’t even squeezed it yet and you’re already hard! Does squeezing my dick make you horny?”
I was hit right, my face flushed bright red, but because it was dark, Binh didn’t see it. I retorted sharply, “No! It’s just that it’s itchy and I’ve been scratching it for a while now! Get your hand off me!”
Binh replied, “Why would I take it off? If I don’t squeeze it, someone else will!”
Binh greedily shoved two fingers into the gap in my underwear, then reached up my penis and pulled it out of my pants. Even though it wasn’t the first time he’d seen my penis, and it was dark so he couldn’t see anything, I still felt inexplicably embarrassed. I grabbed his hand, yelling at him but not daring to shout loudly, “Damn! People will see!”
I only said that out of desperation; at this hour, even if someone in the fields didn’t shine a flashlight, they wouldn’t see two guys doing something shady down here. Binh grinned mischievously and replied, “At this hour, only the bogeyman will see, who else would!”
Unexpectedly, as soon as I finished speaking, several flashlights flickered from the top of the dike. The lamp was still about twenty yards away, but voices could already be heard in the night. A male voice asked, “How many bushels did you get, Uncle Chin?”
A middle-aged voice replied, “31 and a half bushels, a little more.”
The other man said, “That’s a great catch, Uncle! Mine was only a little over 30 bushels. So many rats, Uncle! After the whole afternoon, the guys from Co’s gang chased them, and the baby rats were all so big and plump, the size of a fist or bigger!”
Seeing the lamplight getting closer, I hesitated, wondering whether I should run away or not. Running now would surely get me seen. Binh was quicker; he shoveled straw right behind me, at the spot where I’d dug the hole for the house earlier that afternoon. I asked him, “What are you doing, Dad?”
He yelled, “Give me a hand!”
His two hands shoveled straw rapidly; the straw was fluffy, and very quickly he had dug the hole twice as big. Without thinking further, I quickly crawled in. The hole was big enough for both of us. I lay underneath, Binh shielded me from the top, his head, neck, back, and buttocks supporting the straw above, creating space for me underneath. He also didn’t forget to cover the mouth of the straw hole with straw to seal it, the smell of earth and straw still wafting into my nose.
Me, along with the smell of sweat on him.
I lay still, not daring to breathe, while Binh, in that position, still managed to reach into my pants and pull out my penis. He stroked it a few times, and I got aroused again like before. Uncle Chin’s voice rang out close to my ear, and the headlamp’s light shone through tiny gaps in the straw. They finally passed this place, and Binh quietly shushed me, signaling me not to rush out lest he shine the light on me.
I waited for the other two to leave before I could come out, but Binh didn’t seem in a hurry at all. He leisurely stroked my penis, the lubricant continuously dripping from his hand. He stroked the lubricant up and down, making my penis wet and sticky. His strokes were smoother, the squishing sound strange but still quite stimulating.
Binh said again, “So much fluid!”
At this point, I just didn’t want to admit it yet, but I didn’t want to pretend to avoid it anymore. I asked again, “As if you don’t have any?”
Binh said, “Yeah, not as much as you!”
I didn’t believe him. I thought that the slippery fluid that came out when I masturbated, Binh would have too. I reached down and grabbed his penis; it was already erect even though I hadn’t touched it. I slipped my hand into his pants, grasping his hot, fleshy penis. I stroked him the way Binh stroked me. The tip of his penis started to leak fluid, and I exclaimed, “You have some too! Tell me!”
Binh replied, “Just that much! Not as much as you!”
I didn’t believe him, and my hand continued to stroke his penis. Binh still gently stroked my penis, but he propped one hand on the straw, his head lowered to rest on my shoulder, inhaling the scent of my sweat-soaked shirt. In the blazing hot straw heap, both of us were drenched in sweat, our clothes soaked and growing increasingly wet. Added to that was the intense heat of lust that couldn’t be extinguished.
Binh whispered in my ear, “Do you know how to make me cum as much as you?”
I asked, “How?”
He replied, “Just thrust faster, and I’ll cum naturally!”
My mind was no longer mine; I just grabbed his dick and thrust faster and faster. He breathed heavily, his breaths sounding like wind whistling in my ears. He gently pulled down my collar, licking along my collarbone, down my neck, and to my Adam’s apple. I immediately recoiled, asking him, “What are you doing? That tickles!”
He replied, “But I’m enjoying it! Since we’re already here, let me enjoy it a little more!”
Seeing how aroused he was, I didn’t want to spoil his mood, so I endured the tickling while continuing to thrust his dick. Unexpectedly, it latched onto my neck and sucked hard. I felt ticklish and a little pain, but I couldn’t pry its head off.
It continued to suck on my neck intensely, moaning “um… um…” from its throat. Its penis was fully erect, its hand gripping mine tightly, its whole body tensing up. And it began to ejaculate, powerful streams shooting onto my clothes. It breathed in and out with each ejaculation, its body trembling just like me the first time I learned what masturbation was.
After ejaculating, it finally let go of me to catch its breath. But its hand on my penis began to move. More lubricant dripped from the tip of my penis, and when it touched it, it chuckled with delight. Suddenly, it sped up its hand movement, then lowered its head to suck on my nipples. I was enjoying it but still couldn’t help but giggle: “Hey, that tickles, that tickles!”
It softly replied: “It tickles the first time, but it’ll be more pleasurable next time!”
It sucked on my nipples for a while before finally letting go. After the tickling stopped, all my attention was focused on my dick below. Binh spat on my dick, and when I heard the sound of him spitting, I jumped and cried out, “Damn, that’s dirty!”
Binh replied, “Dirty my ass! I only use my saliva to masturbate you, you little brat!”
The slurping sound returned, my dick was drenched in Binh’s saliva, both sticky and warm. He masturbated my dick faster and faster, and I was so aroused I could only close my eyes and endure it. One hand held his dick, which was still erect, or maybe hard again, I don’t know. With my other hand, I had nowhere to hold on, so I just clung to the straw floor below.
Binh tensed his arm muscles and stroked my dick as fast as he could. I unconsciously squeezed his dick, arched my back, pushed my dick up high, and started to ejaculate. Binh used his hand to lift the head of my dick a little higher, and because my dick was curved, the semen shot right into my mouth. I sputtered and puffed, and Binh laughed heartily. I cursed, “Damn you! You’re so disgusting!”
He replied, “It’s yours, not anyone else’s, so why would it be disgusting?”
I said, “Damn, why wouldn’t it be disgusting?”
He said, “It’s not disgusting at all! You can even swallow that!”
I made a loud “gag” sound and said, “Who’s going to swallow it? You swallow it, huh?”
Binh nodded, “Yeah, I’ll swallow it for you tomorrow!”
I cursed again, “Damn you, you pervert!”
The two of us stuffed our dicks back into our pants and crawled out of the haystack. The wind in the field was gentler now than it had been in the afternoon, but it was still blowing strongly. We went up to the edge of the field to retrieve the kite. Even though it was only moonlight, we walked steadily as if it were daytime. Every day we walked in this field; even with our eyes closed, we weren’t afraid of tripping or falling into the ditch.
Now that I’d calmed down, I asked, “Hey, why didn’t we crawl out earlier? If those two guys saw us, they could have just said we were catching rats, right?” Binh replied: “Then you just run away.”
“So you’re going home already?”
I was silent, pondering that statement for a moment before realizing what he meant. I slapped him on the shoulder and exclaimed, “Damn it, you dog! You tricked me into this to molest me! And you even shot at my stuff!”
Binh, winding up the kite string, replied, “If you didn’t like it, you’d let me molest you, right? I wouldn’t let you molest me, but Thinh Van would, huh?”
I scoffed, saying, “He’s not as perverted as you!”
Binh, now finished winding up the kite, said, “I know he has something else that’s even worse than mine!”
I immediately asked, “What?”
Binh replied, “His dick isn’t as big as mine.” “I can tell just by looking at him!”
I could only sigh in exasperation; his persistence was truly incurable. I warned him, “Don’t say ‘this’ or ‘that’ in front of my mom!”
He replied, “If you don’t let me touch your penis next time, I’ll tell Aunt Hai about what happened in the haystack!”
I yelled, “Damn you, you’re tired of living!”
With that, I lunged at him. Binh, carrying his kite, ran off laughing, his laughter carrying an undeniable sense of satisfaction. I really didn’t know why I had done that to Binh. But now that it was over, we were both still the same, without a hint of embarrassment.
I didn’t know what kind of relationship we had. But anyway, we hadn’t even settled down to make ends meet, so why think about such things?
In that fleeting moment, I suddenly thought that if we were to become something more than just friends in the future, it wouldn’t be so bad for me!