I curled up my body slightly and buried my face in the pillow. Without even looking, I knew my face was already dyed bright red.
“Then that’s fine.”
Won Dogyeong answered brightly and instead of kissing me, placed his chin on my shoulder and pressed down firmly.
“…It hurts.”
At my needless whining born from embarrassment, he gave a small snort.
“Then let it hurt.”
“Should we head out soon? Everyone must be waiting.”
I squirmed out of his embrace and sat up. I glanced outside the window and subtly pushed him away. My insides kept tickling, and if I stayed attached to him any longer, I felt like my face would burst.
“Can you get up?”
“Yeah. I’m hungry.”
“Let’s go out right now.”
At my words about being hungry, Won Dogyeong jumped up and instantly put on the shirt that had fallen on the floor. He also picked up the t-shirt I’d thrown and helped me put it on. I pulled my head through and stuck my arms in as he guided them.
I stretched and followed Won Dogyeong out the door. Perhaps because we’d been covered with blankets and stuck together, the hand pulling my wrist was warm.
“You’re out already? Daun isn’t even here yet, so rest more if you’re struggling.”
“Are you feeling better?”
“Oppa, are you okay…?”
As we went outside, the family gathered in the living room all turned to look this way at once.
Ah, this is embarrassing in its own way. Haha.
“I’m okay now. You should have eaten already.”
I smiled awkwardly while looking at Mom, Uncle, Noona, and Doa in turn. As I leaned against the sofa, Won Dogyeong settled in next to me.
Doa, who was sitting nearby, didn’t seem to like the pheromones emanating from him at all and subtly covered her nose with her sleeve.
Doa was also an alpha. When she was young, she was a cute younger sibling who used to whine that she was going to marry Jeongwon oppa. What marriage—I’m about to give her a niece or nephew instead.
“Daun said he’ll arrive soon, so we were going to call you guys and eat together when he comes.”
“Did Dad go to pick him up?”
“Yeah. I don’t know what he was doing running around, but apparently he was still sleeping when Dad got there.”
“He probably went out drinking somewhere again.”
Hyung being late to family events was always a thing. Seeing him still working at his company despite loving alcohol and partying so much is nothing short of amazing.
“What about your brother-in-law?”
“Business trip.”
“That’s rough.”
Noona just shrugged without answering. Soon she grinned wickedly with gleaming eyes and casually brought up the topic no one else dared to mention first.
“So you really are pregnant.”
Mom smiled menacingly and hit Noona’s back, but Noona didn’t care. Uncle just laughed heartily and sipped his coffee.
“Or should I say you guys?”
Noona was the type who had to say everything she wanted to say to feel satisfied. It wasn’t like she had any malice. She just had no filter.
Sometimes I can’t believe she’s eight years older than me. Her brother-in-law is basically raising a child, honestly.
“Uh… that’s how it turned out.”
“If you need anything, tell me. I’ll send it to you.”
“Why send anything, it’s fine.”
Won Dogyeong waved his hands from the side. Ah, but I was going to accept it.
Though, even if left alone, Won Dogyeong would probably buy everything on his own, even things I tell him not to buy.
“Tell me if you change your mind.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
“But how did you guys decide to date?”
That was the second bomb. Everyone must have been curious about this too, because no one tried to stop her and they all looked at us with sparkling eyes.
What should I… what should I say…
I frantically poked Won Dogyeong’s side repeatedly.
With a troubled expression that said “Me?”, he glanced at me once and then stammered as he opened his mouth. I could clearly see the series of events up to now rapidly flashing through his head and being filtered.
What finally came out skipped most of the process and was this:
“Just, uh… um… I confessed? I confessed.”
More accurately, it was closer to something that flowed out in anger while we were fighting.
The full story of us was that we accidentally had a child because our heat and rut overlapped, then fought about how I didn’t need to take responsibility or whatever, and then I received a confession. Laying it all out like this, it’s really… haphazard.
“Wow, you held out for a long time. Won Dogyeong, what kind of training are you doing?”
“…Actually, I thought I’d already confessed and been rejected.”
“Me too.”
“Me too.”
Following Noona’s exclamation, Mom and Uncle expressed their agreement one after another at Doa’s comment that slipped out quietly.
So really, I was the only one who didn’t know.
Won Dogyeong sat there with his lips pursed sulkily, looking like he wanted to leave right that instant.
“Congratulations on winning over my little brother, Dogyeong. Noona is so moved she’s tearing up.”
“Noona…”
I gritted my teeth and stopped Noona. I couldn’t stand to hear any more because of my own embarrassment.
“Yeo Areum, please…”
Won Dogyeong also rarely called Noona by her name and squeezed his eyes shut.
Rather than teasing her younger brother who was being no fun, Noona, who loved to tease Won Dogyeong when he got all worked up and angry, would be particularly mischievous, and his habit of yelling “Yeo Areum, you’re annoying!” had solidified into “Yeo Areum, please” as he passed through puberty.
However, even on the verge of turning thirty, it seemed unlikely Won Dogyeong would ever beat Noona.
Could this also be considered Noona’s seniority? In any case, my noona’s direction is always peculiar.
Just then, I heard the sound of the passcode being entered, and soon Dad opened the inner door and came in.
“Dad’s here~ Jeongwon! Dogyeong too!”
Behind Dad, who came in laughing cheerfully, I could see a figure slowly taking off their shoes. How can every single gesture look so delinquent—that’s a talent too.
Yeo Daun trudged toward the living room with a face worn from fatigue, then raised his eyebrows crookedly when he saw Won Dogyeong.
“Long time no see?”
“Yeah. Long time, hyung.”
Won Dogyeong desperately avoided his gaze.
Hyung hated alphas. For a simple and intuitive reason. Since they tended to be tall and well-built, there were often guys with strange privilege complexes.
On top of that, Yeo Daun just had a nasty temper to begin with. He was someone who had more dislikes than likes.
Won Dogyeong wasn’t the pretentious type, but the problem was that he was next to me.
While the era of omegas being socially scorned had long passed, there weren’t many of us, so I often received annoying attention. Among them, there was occasionally malicious attention, and there were still incidents where people tried to do something to omegas using pheromones. Rare as they were.
After witnessing an alpha instinctively following me on the street when I belatedly manifested as an omega in high school and was poor at controlling my pheromones, Yeo Daun watched every alpha around me with wide eyes.
As a beta, things like pheromones were types he couldn’t relate to, so he seemed to view them with even more wariness. He seemed to think of pheromones almost like biochemical weapons.
No matter how many times I explained that it was the guys who used them for strange purposes who were bad, and that it was just having one more peculiar communication organ attached, he absolutely wouldn’t listen.
So Yeo Daun consistently disapproved of Won Dogyeong.
More precisely, he disapproved of Won Dogyeong being attached to my side.
Hyung had also vehemently opposed it alone when I decided to live with Won Dogyeong. When he said if it was because the company was far, I should just come live at his place instead, this time I was the one shaking my head.
What kind of hell would I see living with him?
Thinking about it now, maybe it was because he knew Won Dogyeong liked me.
Anyway, if I tried to guess what was in Yeo Daun’s head, the alpha he’d been monitoring so closely had ultimately caused the exact trouble he’d been worried about.
Won Dogyeong was scared because he knew he was Yeo Daun’s surveillance target number one.
“What were you doing that you’re only coming now?”
“Ah, it hurts.”
Mom smacked hyung’s forearm repeatedly and dragged him to the kitchen, telling him to help prepare the food.
Won Dogyeong had suddenly become extremely polite in his posture since hyung arrived, sitting with his mouth firmly shut. He’d been scared before, but now he acted like a mouse before a snake.
“…Hey.”
“Yeah?”
“You don’t need to be that tense. What’s he going to do?”
I secretly whispered my complaints in his ear while glaring at Yeo Daun’s back as he slowly moved back and forth in the kitchen.
“No, but still… hyung didn’t like me much to begin with, and now…”
“He doesn’t like anyone to begin with.”
“It’s okay, even if hyung wants to hit me, I’ve decided to just take one punch.”
Won Dogyeong clenched his fist with a determined look. I scrunched up my face and grabbed his sleeve, shaking it frantically.
“Why would you get hit?”
“Hyung is doing it because he’s worried about you… I’m okay with it.”
“You don’t look okay at all right now.”
“Nng. No, I’m not…”
Won Dogyeong mumbled weakly and was about to drop his head on my shoulder when he locked eyes with Yeo Daun, who was standing in front of the table holding a pot, and froze stiffly.
Yeo Daun stood still, looking this way with an enigmatic expression that made it impossible to know what he was thinking. He’s not really planning to drag him somewhere secluded later and punch him, is he…?
I quickly grabbed Won Dogyeong’s face and turned it away, narrowing my eyes to tell him to just finish what he was doing. Hyung snorted, put down the pot, and disappeared into the inner kitchen to bring out more dishes.
“If Yeo Daun tries to drag you somewhere, scream, okay?”
“…What should I say? Please spare me?”
“Good. Just do that.”
Noona, who was sitting next to us, looked at us with eyes that said we were really funny. What, why.
“You suit each other well. May you live happily together for a hundred years.”
“…We’ll manage on our own.”
