When Hae-yul explained what had happened with Kim Myeong-gyu at the goshiwon — how it had cost him his part-time jobs, his housing, and left him relying on someone he knew — San-ha and U-jae got angry on his behalf as if it had happened to them.
“No, that guy is completely out of his mind, isn’t he?”
“What a psycho. Hyung, you could have been in serious trouble. You filed a report, right?”
“I’m getting help from the person I’m staying with for now.”
“Sometimes your fists are closer than the law. Hyung, forget the report for now — let’s settle this with our fists first?”
Hae-yul laughed in spite of himself at San-ha, who was cracking his knuckles so hard they made a popping sound.
“Why are you just laughing? I’m being completely serious here?”
“San-ha, knock it off. Why are you so reckless? Hyung already said he’s getting help from someone he knows.”
“What? Reckless? Hyung went through something like that — so what, you’re just supposed to keep your fists to yourself and endure it? What’s reckless about it? It’s the obvious thing to do!”
“You’re so damn loud.”
San-ha cleanly ignored U-jae’s scolding.
“Still, I’m glad hyung has someone good around him. ……No, wait. Why didn’t you contact me right away? If you hadn’t changed your number, you would’ve kept quiet about this forever, wouldn’t you?”
“It’s not exactly good news to share……”
“Good or bad, aren’t we close enough to talk about these things? You’re already a person with too many secrets as it is.”
San-ha stuck out his lip and started punching U-jae’s arm repeatedly with his fist.
“Stop just sitting there quietly and say something too, U-jae.”
“……Hey. You really want to die?”
Hae-yul laughed at the sight of San-ha abandoning his show of wounded feelings to start bickering with U-jae. Picking pointless fights with U-jae was something San-ha often did whenever the mood started to get heavy. And every time, U-jae would grumble and act irritated, yet never leave San-ha’s side.
“Anyway, I have someone helping me so I’m fine. I just told you because you said you were curious about what happened. I didn’t want to burden you two either.”
“It’s not a burden, okay? If anything, I feel like we’ve gotten seriously — genuinely close with hyung, and it makes me happy. U-jae feels the same way.”
“Why do you keep saying things I was going to say. But hyung, who’s the one helping you? Is it someone you’ve known a long time?”
U-jae’s question left Hae-yul at a loss for words. San-ha, like U-jae, seemed equally curious about who was helping him and chimed in.
“Right. Who is it? Is it someone we know too? Someone from school?”
“Uh……”
“Hyung’s social circle is narrow. There’s no way we wouldn’t know someone hyung would actually accept help from.”
U-jae was right. Hae-yul had neglected his relationships here. The fact that he’d become close with San-ha and U-jae in the first place had been unplanned. After he realized he couldn’t get out of this world on his own and had resigned himself to it, Hae-yul had stopped bothering to form attachments to the people here.
He was going to return to his original world someday — there had seemed no point in getting close to people he wouldn’t see again. If San-ha and U-jae hadn’t kept approaching him with their particular kind of easy warmth, Hae-yul would have undoubtedly gone on without a single friend.
The problem, though, was that San-ha and U-jae both knew how limited his social circle was. When Hae-yul gave no answer, San-ha’s eyes narrowed. He scanned Hae-yul with his eyes squinted to slits, then suddenly let out a soft “oh” and opened his mouth.
And then he started sniffing with his nose, tilting his head sideways. Seeing that, U-jae’s expression went flat with disbelief.
“What are you suddenly doing on your own? You look like such a pig. You’re not hunting for truffles, are you?”
“Are you serious? Truffles? Shut up, beta.”
San-ha clicked his tongue and swept Hae-yul with a suspicious eye. Hae-yul couldn’t help but tense up when San-ha suddenly started sniffing and used the word beta. Just as Gyo-eon had mentioned before — he couldn’t help but wonder if something was off with his pheromones.
Seeing San-ha — a fellow omega — doing that, something had clearly changed. Or maybe…… It was the moment Hae-yul found himself involuntarily picturing Gyo-eon’s face.
“Hyung, could it be……”
San-ha’s expression as he stared at Hae-yul was not its usual self.
“I’m only asking just in case.”
“Why are you making such a dramatic production of it?”
“God, you shut up for once.”
U-jae scolded San-ha for the uncharacteristic stalling. But Hae-yul couldn’t bring himself to laugh along the way he usually would. San-ha’s eyes darted around as if checking their surroundings, then he opened his mouth.
“Hyung, have you met an alpha recently?”
“……Why?”
“You’re absolutely reeking of alpha pheromones.”
“It’s probably just…… something that rubbed off in passing?”
“Hyung, this is way beyond something that just rubbed off in passing.”
Hae-yul turned his body this way and that in an attempt to catch his own scent upon hearing that. And then, Gyo-eon’s pheromone scent — something he hadn’t registered at all until now — drifted into his nose. He hadn’t noticed it even slightly before San-ha mentioned it, and that left him genuinely thrown.
Why would……
It wasn’t as if not being conscious of something meant an alpha’s pheromones would go completely undetected. It was genuinely strange. When Hae-yul opened and closed his lips in a flustered daze, San-ha pressed him.
“What is it, hyung? Did you secretly start dating someone over the break without telling us? Is the person helping you your partner?”
“……”
“What. Is it true? But hyung, you always said alphas were a hard no for you. How did you end up with an alpha? You said you’d never get involved with one.”
“No, I’m not——”
“San-ha, are you sure you’re not getting it wrong? There are people who wear pheromone perfume, you know. Maybe it rubbed off from brushing past someone like that.”
“God, beta, stay out of it. What do you know about pheromones?”
San-ha and U-jae launched back into their argument, but it wasn’t reaching Hae-yul’s ears. He had absolutely no knowledge about this kind of phenomenon. Could it be like Gyo-eon had said about his pheromones being unstable — was his body developing some problem that made it harder to detect an alpha’s pheromones?
Hae-yul was about to ask San-ha — who knew far more about these things than he did — but then the food arrived, and he shut his mouth.
After finishing their meal at a quick pace, Hae-yul moved with the two of them to a café. San-ha, who had apparently managed to get a reservation at a café incongruously filled with cute knick-knacks, was strutting around with a smug and satisfied expression.
“Hey, U-jae. Did you see that? This is what having connections gets you. You should know it’s thanks to hyung that we’re getting to come here — this place is impossible to get into.”
“Get lost. How did you even find out about a café like this to reserve it? It doesn’t suit you at all.”
“Ha, that’s why you can’t get a girlfriend.”
San-ha shook his head and made his way to a corner seat. Separated from the other tables in the café, it looked like just the right spot for a serious conversation.
“I figured hyung had something important to talk about, so I looked around a bit. How is it, hyung?”
“Oh? Uh… I think it’s nice.”
“Okay, passing grade from hyung. Hey, U-jae. Go order for us. I want an iced mint choco.”
San-ha muttered in an excited voice and gave U-jae orders with a haughty attitude.
“Ha, you’re such a pain. Hyung, what are you having?”
“Just an iced Americano for me. Oh, I’ll pay——”
“It’s fine. Stay here and talk with San-ha.”
U-jae shook his head and got up from his seat to head to the counter. He seemed to have been waiting for exactly this moment — the instant U-jae was out of earshot, San-ha lowered his voice and asked:
“Hyung, you really had no idea the alpha pheromones were radiating off you?”
“……Yeah. I had no clue until you said something. Is it that strong?”
“It’s not overwhelming or anything. Of course, part of it is that I’m a bit sensitive to alpha pheromones…… Anyway, hyung — is the person you’re staying with an alpha?”
Hae-yul answered by nodding. Being an omega himself and carelessly exposed for living in the same space as an alpha felt embarrassing in a way that made his face feel hot. San-ha didn’t even know the full circumstances — that Hae-yul had spent a heat cycle with that alpha — and yet he already felt mortified.
Because he didn’t have a strong sense of himself as an omega, moments like these — talking with a fellow omega — often left him feeling awkward like this.
“Isn’t it uncomfortable, living with an alpha?”
“Well, it is, but it’s not as bad as I thought it’d be.”
“Still, though. Oh, and I think the reason you couldn’t detect the alpha pheromones is because you’ve gotten used to them. Like how if you stay in a room with a particular smell for a long time, you adapt to it and stop noticing it — same thing.”
“Ah, is that it? I’ve only been there about two days……”
“Two whole days? Well, no wonder you can’t smell it anymore.”
“What a relief. I thought something was wrong with me.”
San-ha’s words seemed to settle the unease that had been sitting in him. His heart had dropped at the thought that something was physically wrong with him — that he’d lost the ability to detect Gyo-eon’s pheromones. He was genuinely relieved.
