The Gap Between You and Me
There are days when you just feel like wallowing in misery. For Uyeon, today was exactly one of those days.
The sky was exceptionally blue, the wind was just pleasantly cool, and for some reason, today’s morning drama was racing toward such utter makjang that it was beyond saving.
“That poor thing! Money is always the problem, I tell you!”
Crunch. Uyeon bit into a neatly sliced piece of apple while venting his frustration.
The omega on TV had an innocent and delicate face with a pitiful expression, tears streaming down profusely.
It was the most common cliché of morning dramas. An arranged marriage forced upon them because the family’s fortunes had declined. And the biggest victim of that marriage was precisely the role played by that omega actor.
[You bastard! We saved your parents’ failing business, didn’t we? You need to conceive an alpha as soon as possible! What can you even do!]
The actress playing the mother-in-law screeched shrilly on TV. As they say, the sister-in-law who pretends to stop the scolding is more hateful than the scolding mother-in-law herself—beside her, a sister-in-law with a venomous expression spat out lines that grated on viewers’ nerves while pretending to intervene.
The dialogue was as provocative and contrived as it was successful in thoroughly grating on Uyeon’s nerves.
[Mom, stop it! Do you think she wants to be incompetent? She’s still a dominant omega who can have a dominant alpha! Stop getting angry, you’re going to collapse at this rate.]
The mother-in-law in the drama huffed and puffed, then suddenly grabbed the back of her neck.
[Oh my, fine. Oh my! I’m only holding back because of my daughter’s face. An alpha—no, wait. Just try not having a dominant alpha! You and your child will both be kicked out with nothing but the clothes on your backs!]
Uyeon leaned forward more and more, as if being sucked into the TV screen, completely absorbed in the drama. He had even set down the fork he’d been using to eat apple slices.
The drama surged forward, racing toward its climax. After spending a passionate night with the alpha actor playing the husband, the screen showed the subtitle “2 weeks later…” And then the scene of checking a pregnancy test first thing in the morning… the omega’s eyes widened with a surprised expression in close-up, and…
[Coffee, my everything~~]
“Ah! What the hell!”
At the cheerful OST flowing with a completely out-of-context franchise coffee commercial, Uyeon hurled a sofa cushion.
It was always like this. That was the problem with morning dramas. Uyeon hesitated as he grabbed the last remaining cushion to throw it too, then stopped and placed it obediently on his lap. Then he started pummeling the cushion wildly, like Yuri from Crayon Shin-chan beating up her rabbit doll.
“Damn it, today’s Friday.”
Morning dramas only aired on weekdays. Those broadcast bastards were absolute masters at boosting ratings—they always dragged out the Monday through Thursday content, then cut it off at the climax on Friday. Even though he’d fume and wait all weekend, and even though he knew it would be nothing special come Monday, he could already picture himself waiting desperately all weekend long.
After venting all his anger, he wiped away a welling tear with the back of his hand. He needed to avoid over-immersion. Getting too absorbed in dramas wasn’t attractive.
Su Uyeon was the late-born child and youngest omega of Jaejin Construction. Above him were one alpha older brother and one beta older sister. His hyung had long since gone abroad to study and then jumped into company management, while his noona, who ran away from home saying she didn’t want to get married, was living well somewhere in the Mediterranean.
Just twenty-one this year. Uyeon was living a dazzling freshman life. The very small flaw was that he’d learned about the world through dramas because he’d been homeschooled from elementary through high school, but there was absolutely no problem with his college life. This was because he attended university together with Minji, a friend his same age.
He could have entered university last year. But due to his parents’ overprotectiveness, when his childhood friend Minji—with whom he’d planned to enter university together—ended up repeating a year for university entrance exams, Uyeon’s enrollment was also delayed by a year. Uyeon said whatever works, works, and spent that year-long gap playing around diligently. His naturally clever mind helped Uyeon take the college entrance exam without difficulty.
After studying hard for another year, Minji successfully took the exam and, though their majors were different, fortunately enrolled in the same school as Uyeon. It was a first-rate national university located in Seoul.
“I’m hungry…”
Friday was naturally a day with no classes. The only reason Uyeon woke up early in the morning was to watch the morning drama he was currently obsessed with, Be Strong, Golden Thread.
Because laziness overcame hunger, Uyeon crawled sluggishly into bed and curled up into a ball. As befitting a family from a fairly successful construction company, Uyeon’s room was spacious. There was a sofa, a table, and a TV. Even the bed was king-sized.
Uyeon turned on his phone and played highlights from past drama episodes. Then he giggled, screenshotted funny scenes, and sent them to Minji.
09:48 So funny lololol look at this
A reply came only after quite a while.
> Watching dramas again?
> lol watch them in moderation 10:12
10:12 I can’t help it if it’s fun lololol
10:12 You should watch it with me lol
> No thanks, I just woke up
> Is your mother home? 10:13
10:13 No, she went to work, come over
10:13 I’m hungry so
10:14 Bring something to eat
> ok 10:14
About an hour later, the sound of the garden gate opening came from beyond the window, followed soon by footsteps climbing the stairs.
“Hey, Su Uyeon!”
It was Minji who flung open the door without knocking. This happened often enough that Uyeon greeted Minji without taking his eyes off his phone.
“You’re here?”
Minji was a sturdy male beta who had considerable complaints about his own name. However, because his older brothers’ names were Minchul and Minsu in succession, he was living with it, unable to really complain. For Minji, who had a mohawk hairstyle and enjoyed working out—obsessed with masculinity—his name was quite a sensitive topic.
“What did you bring?”
Even though he could go downstairs and open the refrigerator to find food overflowing, Uyeon found even that bothersome and just waited for Minji to come without getting out of bed.
“Cake.”
Uyeon clapped for Minji, who had thoughtfully brought forks along on his way up to the second floor, and squirmed down from the bed. Then, as if it were natural, he sat on the floor instead of the sofa and leaned his back against it. Minji clicked his tongue once at Uyeon and placed the box containing the cake on the sofa table.
“Wow, awesome.”
Inside the box with a famous bakery logo were delicious-looking cakes of various types. Uyeon carefully took out the carrot cake. He planned to substitute this for both breakfast and lunch today.
Minji had the idle thought that Uyeon, nibbling the carrot decoration on top of the cake with his front teeth, looked exactly like a rabbit, and pushed the box toward Uyeon. His childhood friend liked sweets.
***
“What? A matchmaking meeting?”
“It’s more like a blind date, but since it’s something the families discussed, I just called it a matchmaking meeting.”
In Uyeon’s head, the words Mrs. Min added afterward had long since stopped being heard.
A matchmaking meeting.
His heart sank.
A matchmaking meeting at the tender age of twenty-one! The scenes of Geumsil from Be Strong, Golden Thread that he’d watched this morning, suffering to death, flashed through his mind like a panorama.
“With… who…?”
His voice asking about the other party trembled mercilessly.
“You know, that person. You’d know him too. He’s the hyung of Jiseok, who you’re close with—he went abroad to study and now he’s apparently settled into a position at the company.”
Gong Jiseok was someone Uyeon had known since childhood. Jaejin Construction and SG Group had fairly close family ties.
SG Group was such a major conglomerate that its chairman had been firmly holding the number one position in the business world for several years now. Gong Jiseok was the grandson of SG Group’s chairman and the second son of the vice chairman, and he had one older brother with a significant age gap. Jiseok’s hyung was a dominant alpha and, despite his young age, had tremendous business acumen, making him a prominent candidate as the next successor. His name was… Gong Jiwook, wasn’t it?
Mrs. Min’s tone as she answered was casual, as if it were no big deal. Now Uyeon felt like he was going to cry. Am I being sold off? How can she tell her twenty-one-year-old youngest omega to go to a matchmaking meeting so nonchalantly? Wait, was I adopted? Is this really my mom?
Anxious questions arose chaotically in his mind. He felt tears welling up as he finally understood his noona who ran away from home saying she didn’t want to get married.
“If you’re uncomfortable, don’t do it. I heard about it and thought it would be a bit much not to mention it at all, so I’m just asking. If you don’t want to, Uyeon-ah, I’ll just politely decline on my end.”
His mother’s words had already been automatically filtered out in Uyeon’s head long ago.
Having learned about the world only through makjang dramas, Uyeon heard those words as if she were pressuring him to go to the matchmaking meeting while she was still being nice about it.
Seeing the top of his head trembling as he hung his head, Mrs. Min shook her head. She could already see right through what thoughts were going through that small head of his.
Mrs. Min gestured quietly to the household helper standing behind her.
“Auntie, what drama is Uyeon watching these days?”
“It’s called Be Strong, Golden Thread—I watch it too.”
The title alone reeked of makjang. Mrs. Min let out a deep sigh and whispered again.
“What’s it about?”
“Well, um…”
After hesitating for a moment, the auntie answered in a small voice.
“It’s about the youngest omega from a completely ruined family being sold off in an arranged marriage to the eldest son alpha who’s a chaebol heir, and suffering through life with the in-laws…”
As soon as she heard that story, Mrs. Min put her fingers to her temples and closed her eyes. The auntie looked at Mrs. Min with concern and stepped back.
Mrs. Min thought she needed to correct Uyeon’s misunderstanding. Despite having explained enough, it seemed proper communication hadn’t occurred. Her youngest son always had the useless talent of picking out only what he wanted to hear and reassembling the information however he pleased.
“Hey, Uyeon-ah?”
But when she opened her eyes again, Uyeon’s seat was already empty.
Mrs. Min looked at her husband, who was just now coming down after washing up and taking his seat, and asked in bewilderment.
“Honey, did you see Uyeon?”
“Uyeon ran out with both hands covering his face.”
“When?”
“Just now.”
Mrs. Min let out another sigh. It was the deepest sigh among all the sighs she’d let out today.
