Seowoo’s eyes flew open and he shot to his feet at the same moment. His knee slammed hard into the table, sending the tumbler and beer can on top teetering and toppling over.
Splash. The cold beer foamed up and soaked into the rug.
“Ow!” Seowoo yelped, rubbing his knee, and Hyeon quickly moved in, grabbing the injured leg and kneading it. The large hand gripped and worked his thigh without any hesitation, and Seowoo, forgetting the pain entirely in his shock, shoved him away.
There’s probably nothing harder to say than ‘let’s eat together.’ When Seowoo had first asked for treatment, Hyeon had immediately brought up a pheromone shower — maybe it was because things like this came so easily to him. Seowoo put some distance between them and asked,
“Weren’t we done with that conversation? Why are you suddenly bringing it up again……?”
“It’s frustrating me, it’s on my mind, I want to find out. Sitting with an unsolved problem and just watching it slowly doesn’t seem like my thing. I thought this was better than going around in circles like this.”
“Even so.”
“Isn’t it beneficial for you too, Seowoo?”
Hyeon knew it sounded a little forced, and yet he went ahead and said it anyway. By now, he’d already forgotten what frame of mind he’d been in when he first came down here.
“Let me rephrase that. What if it’s something I need? You said it yourself — that you’d do your best.”
“That’s not what that meant.”
The overturned beer can was still leaking.
Hyeon stared at the hand that had been pushed away for a moment. Then he looked at the spilled beer and Seowoo’s now-pale face in turn.
“Is your knee okay? Looked like you hit it pretty hard.”
Seowoo bit at his dry lips. When Seowoo didn’t answer, Hyeon dropped the conversation and righted the fallen beer can on the table. He pulled out the wet rug from under the table and folded it. That composed attitude only confused Seowoo more. He’d just dropped a bombshell and now wore the most unbothered expression — was Seowoo the only one who had any right to be flustered here?
“Did you have these thoughts from the very first time we met in front of the hospital?”
“What? No. Why would the conversation jump there?”
“If not that, then……it really doesn’t seem like you at all. Starting with the fact that you followed me down here in the first place — it doesn’t make sense. There can’t be any other reason.”
“That’s not what I meant. I just……want to find out.”
Hyeon’s face crumpled with unmistakable offense, as though he’d just heard the most absurd assumption imaginable.
“That’s incredibly insulting, if you’ve been suspecting that all along. Do I look to you like some guy who got hot and bothered and came chasing an omega’s tail all the way out here?”
That made Seowoo falter. The denial was so strong that he started to wonder if he really had it wrong. Was he actually jumping to conclusions?
“Fine. Say I need it. What about you?”
“Me?”
“Why do you need it. Se — sex.”
“…….”
At that, Hyeon’s mouth snapped shut. Seowoo’s brow knitting together was inevitable.
Suspicious from the very start, he thought. Strange from the first day he came down here — no, strange from that moment at the hospital. Seowoo rambled on, finally letting out the words he’d been keeping to himself.
Wasn’t it strange? The moment they met, Hyeon had thrown out that ridiculous proposal to be his assistant. What he’d thought was a one-time thing had continued when Hyeon showed up out of nowhere in the city where Seowoo lived. He’d even gone to the lengths of buying a building and renovating it into a studio.
Seowoo wasn’t someone who easily deluded himself into thinking he was that irresistible. It was just that there was a saying: you think more about what you miss. He kept finding himself wondering — had that one heat cycle they’d gotten tangled up in been that good? There were plenty of people in the world who chased what they wanted and took it like it was some kind of sport.
After hearing everything, Hyeon let out a short, sharp exhale. He raked a hand roughly through his damp hair and lifted his head, and Seowoo noticed, strangely, how taut the muscle along his jaw had gone.
“All I’m saying is let’s find out once — why does that have to be so difficult.”
The words that followed carried the edge of a sneer. Just as the irritated Seowoo was about to fire back, Hyeon’s eyes sharpened.
“You said it was nothing.”
“…….”
“That day — that night — that meant nothing to you, Seowoo.”
He held Seowoo’s gaze and finally said it.
“For me, it was the first time.”
Now it was Seowoo’s turn to go silent. Hyeon’s ears, after saying something so unimaginable, began to turn red — slowly, but unmistakably. The heat rushed to Seowoo’s face just as quickly.
A suffocating silence followed.
It was Hyeon who should have wrapped things up, but it was Seowoo who couldn’t hold back and opened his mouth. After a long moment of just his lips moving soundlessly, the voice he finally managed to wring out was pitifully cracked.
“Th — that’s a lie.”
A flash of disbelief crossed Hyeon’s face.
Even seeing that expression, Seowoo couldn’t stop his mind from spinning. His face felt like it might burst from the heat. His ears and the back of his neck had gone completely red. His mind went blank — leaving only the memory of being tangled up with Hyeon, vivid and sharp.
“How…….”
How could your first time be like that.
Seowoo couldn’t finish the sentence and bit down hard on his lip.
Who in the world could be that natural during their first time? Seowoo had been a first time too. He’d known because it was his first time. No — there’s no way not to know. How could someone whose first time it supposedly was……
That’s impossible.
Hyeon had returned to his pale, composed expression, as if the redness had never happened. It was enough to make Seowoo question whether this was the same person whose ear tips had been flushed just moments ago. He looked at Seowoo quietly and let out a small sigh. His expression had settled into something resigned.
“You really know how to make a person feel pathetic.”
Even as he said it, Hyeon realized — effectively, he had admitted to being exactly the kind of guy who got worked up and chased an omega’s tail. And the look on Seowoo’s face was saying precisely that.
But he couldn’t exactly bring up things like I can’t see colors or my pheromone glands are broken too, just like yours, I have the same disorder. That would be nothing short of begging. Or coercion.
Petty. Miserable. And above all, a blow to his pride.
Hyeon stepped forward and grabbed Seowoo’s forearm without hesitation. Seowoo’s already complicated expression went red, then white, then red again — practically a traffic light.
“Hold on, wait——”
Even as Seowoo called out in a flustered voice, Hyeon didn’t stop. Still gripping his forearm, he walked to the front door and flung it open.
“I’m not in the mood for anything tonight, so get out.”
Seowoo, shoved out the door, opened his mouth wide to say something — and without a shred of room for argument, the door slammed shut.
“Wait, hold on — I’m still — hey!”
Seowoo knocked on the closed door, then eventually curled his hand into a fist and let it fall. His gaze went to the keypad, but he gave up and turned away. Someone who’d just slammed a door in his face wasn’t going to respond to a conversation in any reasonable way.
But then — what did he mean by wanting to find out……?
‘For me, it was the first time.’
It was the first time Seowoo had heard that voice hesitate like that — so unlike him. Recalling the low, trembling timbre of it again made something flutter deep inside his chest. As if trying to shake off that warmth, Seowoo whipped around and fled down the stairs.
***
Seowoo could barely believe this was happening right after Dano’s daycare situation had finally been resolved.
“How are you two taking turns like this.”
The next morning, he had just dropped Dano off at daycare and was turning to head back. He was already dreading having to face Hyeon — and of all times, Dano wasn’t even here. At least with Dano around, the awkwardness would’ve been easier to bear.
“Haaa……”
He let out one heavy sigh after another, and today of all days, the walk from the daycare to the studio felt unusually short. Just as his feet seemed to drag like they were sticking to the ground, the phone in his pocket buzzed briefly.
A message from Hyeon.
[ I’m sorry about yesterday. Forget it ever happened. ]
“…….”
Seowoo’s already-sluggish footsteps stopped entirely.
“What does that even mean?”
Forget it ever happened — just how much of it did that cover? He told himself it couldn’t possibly mean that, but the thought crept in anyway — what if he meant to forget even the part about helping with treatment? — and anxiety surged up sharp and sudden inside him.
They were going to see each other face to face soon anyway. So why bother sending a message?
Just then, as Seowoo was walking while mulling over the contents of the message, Chief Han appeared in front of him. Standing neatly at the entrance of the studio building as though he’d been waiting there all along, he straightened up the moment he spotted Seowoo. Seowoo found himself breaking into almost a run to reach him.
“Chief Han.”
“Good morning.”
The crisp greeting made Seowoo reflexively bow deeply in return. And the moment he lifted his head, a shopping bag was thrust right in front of him.
“What is this?”
“The author left it for you.”
“He left this……for me? Where did he go?”
