This was the content Sunjeong had learned from textbooks all along.
“I’m scared because my mind is too clear right now.”
Certainly, unlike Sunjeong, Taeon’s words were calm and relaxed as usual.
Sunjeong looked at such a Taeon and said.
“You don’t have to be scared.”
“Why?”
“We can just imprint today.”
“……”
At Sunjeong’s words, Taeon said nothing, but it didn’t matter at all.
It wasn’t an impulsive choice or decision.
Sunjeong thought, looking at the pitch-black darkness of the city that had already filled through the car window, that it was just that what the two of them were bound to arrive at had come excessively late.
***
From the time they parked in the parking lot, Taeon and Sunjeong were already in a hurry.
Whether he was really suffering from desire for imprinting as he said, Taeon’s gaze was continuously directed toward Sunjeong’s nape.
When they got on the elevator and were completely left alone, he roughly buried his face in Sunjeong’s nape and took a deep breath.
Only after smelling the pheromone scent that even suppressants couldn’t hide did he separate from Sunjeong with an expression that said he could live now.
Does Taeon right now have the courage to imprint on Sunjeong?
Sunjeong observed Taeon closely as always.
If Taeon’s mind, which had conversely become clear while suffering from the impulse for imprinting, and the two rationalities—one full of the existing consciousness that he shouldn’t imprint—opposed each other, the latter would surely win.
Now Sunjeong didn’t care when he imprinted with Taeon. It was good enough just that Taeon desperately uttered the words that he wanted to imprint on him.
However, it would naturally be good if it was today too.
Once they entered the house, they would cling to each other. Right now, Sunjeong’s thoughts were a bit confused because of his body excited by the heat, but soon Sunjeong would also welcome a mind cleared by desire for imprinting like Taeon.
Feeling overwhelmed at the thought of finally facing the day of the decisive battle, Sunjeong unknowingly clenched his fists tightly.
When he looked up at Taeon, his eyes met the gaze already fixed on Sunjeong.
The alpha before his eyes, the alpha who would soon become Sunjeong’s, no longer had difficulty meeting eyes with Sunjeong. Sunjeong looked at such a Taeon for a long time. The gazes that touched for a long time ultimately led to a kiss.
“Haa…… Yu, Yoon Taeon……”
As if asking when that awkward energy from earlier was, Taeon’s tongue persistently rushed into Sunjeong’s lips.
Because of the sensation that felt like his whole body would melt in front of the tongue movements that seemed to be exploring every corner of his mouth, Sunjeong unknowingly twisted his legs round and round.
When getting off the elevator, Sunjeong was already being held as if he’d climbed on top of Taeon. Taeon had picked him up on his own.
Sunjeong, whose view had suddenly risen, once again stared piercingly at Taeon’s pupils whose angle of gaze had become exactly right.
He recalled the times it took for these eyes to be able to properly gaze at Sunjeong. His heart throbbed. He was a little sad, and also overwhelmingly happy.
While holding Sunjeong, Taeon carefully reached for the keypad and pressed four digits.
“Ha, Go Sunjeong……”
Sunjeong buried his face in the nape that was at an angle away from him and kissed it. In that instant, startled Taeon called Sunjeong’s name with a sound close to a moan.
Sunjeong squeezed his eyes shut. Now really, truly with Taeon……
“Go Sunjeong!”
“Sunjeong-ah!”
It was the house where Taeon and Sunjeong lived.
Entering the space that should naturally be filled only with silence if the two weren’t there, he couldn’t understand why familiar voices were heard.
In an instant, Sunjeong, who had fallen from Taeon and stood on the floor, frowned and flung open the front door and entered the house.
Then his sense of smell reacted first. The strange cooking smell that hadn’t been encountered in this house for a while was vibrating.
After his sense of smell realized first, two people came into his view.
Jinhyeok and Yoonwoo were looking at Sunjeong and smiling.
At this important timing……
Even while thinking this, the reason Sunjeong couldn’t get angry or irritated asking why they came without even a word was because Jinhyeok’s face was in a terrible state.
Yoonwoo’s two eyes smiling brightly at Sunjeong were swollen.
“Did Father find you?”
Looking at Sunjeong who was taking off his shoes and asking in a cold voice, Jinhyeok nodded his head.
“Thugs…… thugs came……”
It was Yoonwoo who brought it up.
What had happened was obvious without seeing. Jinhyeok’s father must have thought that his immature child’s romantic game couldn’t be solved anymore by simply stopping it at his own level, and would have mobilized everything he could mobilize to frighten him.
“How were you caught?”
Having naively said they’d keep in touch occasionally, Jinhyeok and Yoonwoo hadn’t sent even a single message until now.
Probably they realized reality as soon as they left.
“We had no money…… I made a bank transaction.”
In front of Yoonwoo’s sobbing voice, Sunjeong ended up feeling a faint headache.
“Um……”
From Jinhyeok’s hesitating voice that would have had much more playfulness normally, Sunjeong could already tell the main point Jinhyeok was trying to say.
“We have to live in Seoul again, so it seems like we’ll need to use the room……”
Jinhyeok’s gaze saying this ambiguously went back and forth between both Taeon and Sunjeong.
“I’ll vacate the room, whatever.”
An indifferent voice of a different texture from the calm voice earlier.
Did Taeon easily accept this situation? When Sunjeong looked at Taeon, from the expressionless face that came into both his eyes, he could tell the fact that Taeon wasn’t exactly pleased with this situation.
However, Taeon was just not the type of person to stubbornly stand for long in a position he should leave.
“It was originally your house, and Go Sunjeong suggested living together because of my circumstances. I don’t have much stuff anyway, so I can take it all out right now……”
“What are you saying, Yoon Taeon. You paid November’s rent.”
He spoke recalling the money of about two hundred thousand won that Taeon faithfully deposited under the name of rent.
Sunjeong was deliberately having that money deposited into a bank account he didn’t use. He was prudently saving it to use when traveling with Taeon after the Suneung ended.
“From now on, Yoon Taeon will also live here together. Is there anyone with complaints?”
Firmly holding with his arm the arm of Taeon who was trying to answer this question first, Sunjeong stared intently at Jinhyeok and Yoonwoo.
The two people slowly shook their heads with bewildered expressions.
“We think it would be so great if even Taeon lived with us!”
When did he cry from when to when? Yoonwoo, whose two pupils were still moist, spoke while trying to smile brightly.
“Life with just the two of us was a bit hard……”
“I liked being alone with you though.”
“That and this are different, Hyeok-ah.”
Sunjeong quickly stopped the two people who were using Sunjeong as an audience to display affection again.
“Today Yoon Taeon came back from taking the Suneung and needs to rest well, so today you guys sleep in the living room for now.”
At Sunjeong’s firm words, Jinhyeok and Yoonwoo looked at each other with dismayed expressions.
Sunjeong didn’t know about other things, but he had no intention of conceding on this part. Even if it was originally three people’s house, today’s Taeon needed comfortable rest more than anyone.
He had absolutely no intention of making Taeon sleep outside or making him sleep on the sofa.
“Um, Sunjeong-ah……”
“Yeah.”
Jinhyeok stopped Yoonwoo who was reading Sunjeong’s mood. And he spoke with a sobbing expression that could only be seen when he was young.
“Go Sunjeong, my herniated disc is severe, so I can’t sleep on the floor. The sofa is too small for me.”
“Herniated disc?”
“Yeah.”
Only then did Sunjeong’s eyes take in the appearance of Jinhyeok who kept his hand on his lower back.
“Why do you have a herniated disc?”
Now it wasn’t a problem of who slept where. They ran away, were caught by Jinhyeok’s biological father, thugs came, and so they returned to Seoul. As the two people’s friend, he became curious about the events permeated in the things summarized by these short sentences.
“It’s a long story…… while looking for a place that would give daily wages in cash, I twisted my back while working at a construction site.”
In that instant, Sunjeong let out a deep sigh. How clumsy Jinhyeok, who was just close to a bookworm once all external elements were removed, must have been at the workplace.
“I wasn’t badly hurt then though……”
“The thugs beat him.”
Instead of Jinhyeok who kept trailing off his words, Yoonwoo spoke in a clear voice.
Watching his lover explain the situation awkwardly probably didn’t sit well with him.
“Did you go to the hospital?”
“……Well, since we were caught anyway it didn’t matter, so I did go. The card wasn’t blocked.”
In front of Jinhyeok who spoke as if slightly embarrassed, Sunjeong felt a sense of defeat.
They ran away, were found out, and returned to Seoul.
What kind of ending will the love these two people before my eyes have? Will those kids be able to endure the days ahead well?
Questions whose answers Sunjeong couldn’t know even if he worried about them confused his mind. Shaking his head very slightly back and forth, Sunjeong tried to make these thoughts retreat from within him.
He could only watch and be with them, but it wasn’t a problem in the area he should worry about.
“Then you guys use the original room, and leave the stuff to organize later. Yoon Taeon is tired today.”
“I’m fine though……”
“No, let’s just rest today.”
Sunjeong stopped Taeon who was standing quietly and trying to interrupt.
Then he voiced what he’d been thinking.
“Yoon Taeon, you’re sleeping with me today.”
