The two were already walking in the direction of Wooyeon’s studio apartment. Jeonghan looked up at the streetlights that were sparsely lit and spoke. In the narrow alley, there was no sign of people except for the two of them.
Jeonghan’s profile receiving the dim light stirred up Wooyeon’s heart like a scene from a movie. Wooyeon lowered his head for no reason to look at the ground.
“You said you had something to say.”
“Ah.”
Only then did Jeonghan stop walking as if he remembered. Wooyeon’s heart beat for no reason as he turned his body toward where Wooyeon was.
“How was today?”
“What?”
“I think it was probably a bit different.”
Jeonghan said that and smiled. For Wooyeon, there were only words he couldn’t understand. When Wooyeon looked up at Jeonghan with an expression that he really didn’t understand, Jeonghan couldn’t hold back and covered his mouth with his hand at the bursting laughter.
“Didn’t you feel something was strange?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Sunbae, you think your pheromones are really weak, right?”
There were only more incomprehensible words. Wooyeon looked up at Jeonghan with a flustered face and blinked.
At Wooyeon’s appearance, Jeonghan chuckled again and took something out of his jacket pocket and fiddled with it. And seeing it, Wooyeon’s long eyelashes trembling created a shadow on Wooyeon’s white cheeks under the streetlight.
“If you’re taking knockoff drugs like this, there’s no way you can properly control your pheromones.”
What Jeonghan was rolling in his hand was the knockoff drug Wooyeon usually took. When Wooyeon’s shoulders flinched, Jeonghan tilted his head crookedly.
“You, that, where did you……”
“Is that important?”
“It’s important to me.”
“I saw it on sunbae’s desk that day.”
Jeonghan answered as if it was nothing. Since Jeonghan already knew Wooyeon was an omega, it wasn’t a concern about his trait. However, taking knockoff drugs was strictly illegal, and if someone reported it or made an issue of it, in the worst case, he could even serve prison time.
Wooyeon looked into Jeonghan’s eyes while biting his trembling lower lip. Jeonghan was clearly cornering Wooyeon and enjoying it.
“Are you having fun?”
He felt wronged. Wooyeon also felt disillusioned with himself for feeling fluttering toward Jeonghan like this. Wooyeon’s body trembled as he tried to hold back the tears that seemed about to burst out at any moment.
“Is it fun for you to see me, struggling and looking like that?”
The tears that finally overflowed wet Wooyeon’s cheeks. His crying was mixed with resentment toward Jeonghan. Jeonghan withdrew his smile and approached Wooyeon, wiping away the tears from both of Wooyeon’s cheeks with an affectionate touch again.
“Honestly…… it would be a lie to say it’s not fun.”
Even while saying that, Jeonghan’s eyes were infinitely affectionate. Wooyeon just looked at Jeonghan, feeling more wronged and unable to stop his tears.
“But I’m not trying to blackmail sunbae. I want to help, that’s why.”
His eyelashes wet with tears trembled pitifully.
“Did I come to the wrong sunbae?”
His eyes filled with moisture were still directed at Jeonghan. Jeonghan seemed to like that very much as he continued to cup both of Wooyeon’s cheeks and stroke them with his thumbs.
“There weren’t any bastards clinging to you today, right?”
“……”
Wooyeon didn’t answer and kept looking at Jeonghan. Jeonghan already knew what the wavering gaze meant.
“My marking probably had an effect.”
What Jeonghan had embraced him at school in the morning came to mind. So that was marking. Only then did Wooyeon understand everything—why the gazes toward him had quickly withdrawn unlike other times, why the male student who tried to insult him in the lecture hall turned away, why the convenience store troublemaker didn’t cling to him—everything made sense. It wasn’t all coincidental luck that came to Wooyeon, but because of Jeonghan’s marking.
Even though Jeonghan had marked him as his omega without asking for consent, emotions other than displeasure rushed in like a tide.
“It was comfortable, right, today?”
He couldn’t deny it. Wooyeon had always lived not knowing if studying normally and earning money normally was such a good thing since manifesting as an omega. Wooyeon’s rippling eyes were still directed only at Jeonghan.
“I’ll get you real suppressants instead of knockoffs. If you need it, I’ll mark you too.”
Wooyeon felt a squeezing pain in his chest. It was a proposal too sweet for Wooyeon to refuse.
“Just, sleep with me sometimes.”
“……What?”
Wooyeon looked at Jeonghan as if he couldn’t believe it. Only then did it feel like he was coming to his senses. It couldn’t have been sweet—everything was a delusion. Wooyeon felt like he’d been hit with cold water.
Wooyeon backed away, avoiding Jeonghan’s hands cupping his cheeks. He couldn’t even tell if what he heard was real.
“What did you say?”
“Sleeping with sunbae was good.”
Jeonghan answered calmly. It was such a casual face and tone. He was so calm that Wooyeon wondered if he had heard wrong. The paper bag and plastic bag in both of Wooyeon’s hands trembled.
“Sunbae seemed to like it too. Isn’t that right?”
His heart that fell with a thud seemed to have stopped just like that.
‘Do you like me?’
‘You like me.’
The voice of Jeonghan who had asked before they mixed bodies that day came to mind. Although it was an answer given while drunk on pheromones, he also remembered that he had agreed to it.
Jeonghan was playing with Wooyeon’s heart. Wooyeon stood still and looked at Jeonghan’s shameless face, then slowly shook his head. This really didn’t seem right.
“You, is this what you were waiting for me to talk about?”
“Yes.”
As soon as those words left Jeonghan’s mouth, Wooyeon threw the paper bag at Jeonghan. The paper bag that hit Jeonghan and bounced off fell to the floor, scattering all its contents. Thickly sliced raw fish and rice grains rolled pitifully on the gray cement floor.
“Crazy bastard…… You eat it yourself.”
As Wooyeon glared at Jeonghan and tried to pass him, Jeonghan stopped Wooyeon with one arm. Jeonghan’s face was coldly hardened as if displeased about something.
“That’s a bit too much, when I bought it with sincerity.”
“Too much? Don’t you think you’re being too much to me?”
Wooyeon struggled desperately to pull out the arm caught by Jeonghan, but Jeonghan didn’t let go. Wooyeon fumed while caught by Jeonghan. Jeonghan looked like he really didn’t understand. He also seemed annoyed.
“I bought you food, rushed over at dawn to let your mother have surgery, marked you because all sorts of idiots were clinging to you, and now I’m even going to get you suppressants, so what’s too much?”
That’s why it was even more too much. It was difficult to explain clearly, but Wooyeon felt more hurt by Jeonghan because of that, and it felt even more excessive. Even the flutter he felt toward Jeonghan—everything became regrettable.
“Then don’t do anything anymore, nothing.”
Whether it was because of the pheromones Jeonghan released, or because of the feeling like betrayal that kept raising its head, his heart kept pounding. Wooyeon continued speaking while looking at Jeonghan with resentful eyes.
“I’ll definitely repay the surgery費.”
“Ha……”
Jeonghan turned his head as if dumbfounded and let out an empty laugh. Wooyeon tried to pull his arm out, but the hand holding Wooyeon was still firm.
“Does sunbae even know how much that is before spouting off?”
“……Kwon Jeonghan.”
“Do you know how much it costs for that vice director to personally stand at the operating table, how much that hospital room costs per day?”
Thud.
Though he had guessed, Wooyeon’s eyes shook at the weight of that suddenly confronted amount. Jeonghan’s fingertips caressed Wooyeon’s chin.
“It was wrong to make a proposal in the first place. Shall I change my words?”
“……”
“Spread that pretty hole and repay it, sunbae.”
Smack!
A bursting sound echoed through the narrow alley. Wooyeon’s arm that slapped Jeonghan’s cheek trembled. The plastic bag that fell to the floor rustled pitifully, trampled by someone’s foot.
His thin body was pounding as his heart beat. Even in the midst of that, the hand holding Wooyeon’s arm still transmitted the same grip strength. Jeonghan raised one hand and caressed his mouth and reddened cheek. Blood was coming from his burst lip.
“Ah, fuck.”
Marking a bloodstain on his palm, Jeonghan’s coldly cooled eyes turned toward Wooyeon again. It was Wooyeon who slapped his cheek, yet it was Wooyeon who was trembling. When their eyes met, Jeonghan even smiled slightly instead.
“Should I let this slide too because it’s pretty?”
It was an instant. With a thud, Wooyeon was pushed by Jeonghan and hit the wall. He was no match at all in terms of weight class. Jeonghan’s body bent over Wooyeon’s body that was swung around pitifully, and Jeonghan, who cupped Wooyeon’s cheeks again, immediately devoured his lips.
“Close your eyes and open your mouth.”
When Wooyeon held out without opening his lips, Jeonghan bit his lips hard enough to draw blood. With the grip strength of the hand forcibly opening his jaw, Jeonghan’s tongue ruthlessly dug in between the lips releasing a moan.
“Hngh, ugh, hng……”
Unlike his refusal, lewd sounds burst from deep in Wooyeon’s throat. Jeonghan’s rough breathing also poured into Wooyeon’s ear. Jeonghan’s tongue, erected stiffly as if having sex, stabbed into Wooyeon’s mouth, and tears dripped from Wooyeon’s eyes. Jeonghan roughly grabbed Wooyeon’s waist that had gone limp and kissed him more deeply.
“Haah!”
Jeonghan’s hand caressed Wooyeon’s chest and sides. At the amount of pheromones that seemed to be poured in, Wooyeon was already out of his mind.
