Even long ago when they played house together, Yeongwon had naturally immersed himself in the role of being married to him. How cheekily well he’d done it. Now the level of immersion had deepened compared to before, but in Jiseo’s eyes it looked the same.
“I’ll clean up later. Hyung, hurry and come here.”
Taking advantage of the gap when he was organizing his thoughts for a moment, Yeongwon grabbed Jiseo’s hand and led him in front of the sofa table. Just as his butt had made contact, Yeongwon, who sat beside him, suddenly held out a tablet.
“Look at this, hyung.”
“What’s this? A diagnosis? Are you sick somewhere?”
Jiseo, who had confirmed the name of the document written at the very top, instinctively made a worried expression as he looked at Yeongwon.
Large hands suddenly cupped Yeongwon’s cheeks. When he’d touched them earlier they weren’t very hot. He didn’t seem to have a fever.
“I’m not sick, it’s a good thing. Good for hyung and good for me too. Look again.”
Seeing him continue speaking clearly, he didn’t look sick. Jiseo looked at the screen calmly again as Yeongwon told him to.
‘…Omega?’
What Yeongwon had handed over on the tablet was a diagnosis related to trait manifestation.
He’d deliberately used a large-screen tablet so it would be easier to see.
Jiseo said nothing and only slowly closed and opened his eyes. Then he opened his mouth as if nothing was wrong.
“You manifested as an omega?”
“This scent here. Can you smell it?”
“……”
“It’s not perfume, it’s the scent coming from me.”
Yeongwon, who had extended his arm and brought it close to Jiseo’s nose, whispered with a proud voice. It seemed like he considered it an amazing scent worth being proud of.
He had reason to have pride. When he properly paid attention, a subtle sweet scent spread out from Yeongwon’s body without being burdensome.
“It’s really soft, right? Since hyung is an alpha, you can smell my scent.”
“……”
“I think it’s good that it’s not headache-inducingly strong… But if it gets thicker than this, it could be unpleasant?”
“……”
“They say it gets stronger when hormones become irregular. I haven’t smelled such a strong scent yet, so I can’t gauge it.”
“……”
“I manifested a few days ago. I deliberately kept it secret so I could tell hyung today.”
Trait carriers mostly manifested around the time they became adults. Though Jiseo had thought there might be a possibility Yeongwon would manifest, seeing it directly was both sudden and bewildering.
Jiseo was a special case who had suddenly turned into an alpha before even passing his first birthday.
Until recently, Yeongwon had been a beta. In a life that had been ordinary if it was ordinary, having a singularity emerge actually meant that many troublesome and inconvenient things would increase. He didn’t seem to feel it yet, so he appeared purely delighted.
Alphas and omegas possessed several singularities due to their traits—namely, that their bodies emitted a unique scent called pheromones. It was a naturally emanating scent, but betas couldn’t smell it.
“Now I can smell hyung’s scent too, but hyung can also smell my scent now.”
“……”
“Then we’ll naturally be drawn to each other, right?”
“……”
“How about it? Perfect as a marriage partner, right?”
Perhaps Yeongwon looked happy because it had become an even better condition for keeping the old promise.
“The promise we made to get married—it’s time to finally keep it.”
“……”
“Hyung, you promised directly with me, hooking pinkies.”
As the ambiguous promise was mentioned in earnest, Jiseo pulled Yeongwon’s continued claims toward himself.
“Okay, I get it. Let’s settle that first.”
After briefly sighing inaudibly, Jiseo shrugged his shoulders. After some preparation, he properly faced Yeongwon without avoiding him.
First of all, it wasn’t that he’d neglected the promise he’d blurted out in childhood, unable to resist the cuteness, despite not meaning it. Of course, he hadn’t forgotten it either.
Because it was Yeongwon who most powerfully revealed that there was a promise to marry between them, he couldn’t forget even if he tried. He just didn’t know he’d rush in so aggressively as soon as he became an adult.
Setting everything else aside, the resolute attitude that he would definitely keep the promise with him already showed his will. That meant, in other words, that he liked him.
Going further, if you directly asked Yeongwon how he came to like him, he’d whisper as if handling a secret, ‘I’ll tell you when I’m bigger.’ Even though his first confession had been so bold.
[When I grow up, I’m going to marry hyung!]
[……]
[I don’t know if I’ll be an omega, but it doesn’t matter! It would be better if I’m the opposite of hyung, but for now I like hyung anyway, so let’s get married. Actually, I liked hyung way more than other friends. Will you do it?]
Jiseo at the time had treated the bold confession like a common happening.
That was because he’d occasionally encountered stories, like jokes, from most friends with younger siblings that they’d throw tantrums saying they’d marry them when they grew up.
He’d heard they’d recklessly say “let’s get married” to anyone they liked without discriminating, so he’d just let it be, and he’d allowed it because the grinning face was cute. Unlike that light attitude, Yeongwon gradually drew a more concrete future.
In fact, watching Yeongwon who seemed quite serious, Jiseo had drawn lines imperceptibly as he gradually grew.
[No matter how long we’ve known each other or how close we are, hyung is an adult. Right now, it’s okay for hyung to like you, or not okay? Not okay, right? You need to know this.]
[……]
[The promise from when you were little is……]
[Talk about it later when you’re grown. What use are words from when you’re a baby?]
Even if he tried to settle it as just a passing childhood promise, he couldn’t properly bring it up in front of Yeongwon.
Around that time, he’d also thought that like others, he’d change when he grew up. So he’d just kept reminding him of the fact that he didn’t like Yeongwon.
Anyway, no matter how much he confessed, he wouldn’t have fallen for it, and there was no opportunity for that, so he hadn’t let any feelings sprout toward Yeongwon at all in the meantime.
As a natural result, even now when Yeongwon was mentioning the childhood promise, he likewise didn’t see him as a romantic partner.
Since he’d seen him from such a young age, Yeongwon was no different from a real younger brother to him. How could he… harbor sexual feelings toward such a kid?
Whether he’d properly absorbed Jiseo’s cramming education or not, after saying they’d talk when he grew up, Yeongwon also hadn’t done anything.
It meant he hadn’t deliberately stirred up and provoked Jiseo’s heart like before, nor shown efforts to win his heart. Just when he thought his heart had changed a bit.
Chewing it over now, the word “baby” was quite grating. As if it wasn’t referring to Yeongwon himself but…….
“Dating can be done after getting married. Right? I waited a long time.”
With words conveyed like a joke or like sincerity, he once again tightly bound Jiseo and himself into one relationship.
Hearts should be expressed when they could be obtained. Even if you did many pretty actions, if you couldn’t obtain the heart of the one you liked, it was useless.
He and Jiseo weren’t complete strangers either, and even if it wasn’t romantic feelings, Jiseo had found him adorable and cute. Yeongwon could say confidently.
Because everyone he met liked him so very much, he couldn’t help but know that Jiseo likewise found him adorable. It was a guess, but it seemed he’d probably been like that from when he was born. Because they said they’d known each other from then.
That was sincerity Yeongwon had felt since childhood. Moreover, since he’d manifested as a different trait from Jiseo, there wasn’t even a wall to overcome.
Now he’d become an adult and manifested as an omega, so he was confident he could easily change the affection of finding him cute as a younger sibling into finding him cute as a lover.
“When do entertainers usually get married? Is there a marriageable age?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Do they get married around forty? It seems they tend to do it later than ordinary people.”
“If you want to do it, you do it. It’s all the same.”
“When do you think hyung won’t feel burdened? Not right now, is it?”
“I wouldn’t feel burdened at any time……”
Yeongwon was already continuing the conversation with the premise that the childhood promise would naturally be fulfilled. Watching Yeongwon actively engaging, Jiseo pondered what to do.
If he didn’t accept it as awkward, it would be an easily resolved matter, but the most important problem had arisen.
Facing the clear face in pajamas that had just opened its eyes seemed to be the problem. The thought that the conversation flowing this way was wrong had grown much larger than before.
