After parting ways with Lee San-ha, Hae-yul returned home and sat across from Kwon Gyo-eon, picking at his dinner as he sank into thought. For some reason, words he had brushed off lightly from Lee San-ha kept circling in his mind.
“For an alpha, you’re on the less sensitive side. That’s actually why, the first time I met you, I thought you were an omega who had already imprinted.”
Hae-yul had never considered himself to be insensitive to pheromones. So hearing that from Lee San-ha had surprised him a little. He just wasn’t sure whether being unable to pick up on pheromones was really that big of a deal.
It had never caused him any significant inconvenience to be a little dull to pheromones compared to other alphas. Besides, hadn’t Hae-yul come from a world where pheromones simply didn’t exist in humans to begin with? For him, not being able to sense pheromones felt more natural — more like the default.
Still, the part about thinking he was “an omega who had already imprinted” grew stranger the more he turned it over in his mind. Was being an alpha yet insensitive to pheromones really significant enough to be mistaken for an imprinted omega?
Lacking the knowledge he needed, he found himself paying close attention to every little thing Lee San-ha — another omega like himself — said. Even when Lee San-ha had usually meant nothing much by it at all.
“Ju Hae-yul.”
Hae-yul had been doing nothing but stirring his miso soup with his spoon when Kwon Gyo-eon’s voice made him flinch and look up.
“…Yes?”
“What’s got you so deep in thought that you can’t focus on eating? Is something bothering you?”
Hae-yul blinked at Kwon Gyo-eon, who was staring at him with a serious expression.
“You’ve been poking at just the soup for over five minutes. Or is there something wrong with the food?”
…Did that mean Kwon Gyo-eon had been watching him instead of eating too?
It’s not anyone’s business whether someone’s paying attention to their meal or not.
Sure, he’d been a little distracted while eating — but was that really something to ask about with such a grave look on his face?
“I just have a lot on my mind. There’s nothing wrong with the food, so go ahead and eat.”
He felt a suspicious gaze on him, but Hae-yul pretended not to notice and brought a spoonful of miso soup to his lips.
“It’ll have gone cold. I’ll go warm it up. Hand it over.”
“It’s fine even cold — it’s still good.”
Hae-yul answered Kwon Gyo-eon’s fussing with indifference and continued eating.
Throughout the entire meal, Kwon Gyo-eon peppered him with questions. Whether studying at the café had gone well, whether it was more comfortable than home, whether he planned to keep studying there from now on. What kind of person Lee San-ha — the classmate he’d studied with — was. Each one more trivial than the last.
Hae-yul had no idea why any of it could possibly matter, but since they had agreed to share meals and conversation in place of living expenses, he did his part dutifully.
Even after the meal ended, the barrage of questions continued.
“You ate less than usual today — is your appetite off?”
Hae-yul, who hadn’t expected Kwon Gyo-eon to notice something like that, opened and closed his mouth without a word. His appetite wasn’t entirely gone, but since the previous evening, his stomach had been feeling strangely heavy and unsettled, like his digestion had stalled. He had stopped by a pharmacy on his way back from the café and taken digestive medicine, but the discomfort hadn’t fully gone away.
“…No, it’s not that. My stomach’s just a little upset.”
“Did you get indigestion?”
“Seems like it.”
“Why didn’t you say something? How long has it been bothering you? Did you take anything for it?”
Kwon Gyo-eon’s expression turned even more serious than before. Hae-yul studied him with a puzzled look, unsettled by how intensely he was reacting to something as minor as his physical state, then answered.
“I mean… I didn’t think I needed to tell you something like this. I already took some digestive medicine before I came home.”
“Is it just your stomach? Anything else?”
“It’s not that bad. Everything else is fine.”
Hae-yul held back the part about the medicine not really working and shrugged like it was nothing. If he said that much, he felt like Kwon Gyo-eon would grab his hand and drag him straight to the hospital. It wasn’t as though he was in bad enough shape to actually need a hospital.
His stomach still felt heavy, but it was much better than before. The fact that his condition had clearly stabilized since returning home suggested the medicine hadn’t been completely ineffective.
“I’m not convinced by anything Ju Hae-yul says. We should go to the hospital, even now—”
“I’m going to head in first. Don’t forget we’re going to look at apartments tomorrow.”
Hae-yul fled from Kwon Gyo-eon, who kept trying to make a fuss, and retreated to his bedroom as if running away.
Kwon Gyo-eon stared after Hae-yul’s retreating figure as it disappeared beyond the door, his eyes unreadable.
* * *
The following afternoon, Hae-yul went apartment hunting with Kwon Gyo-eon. Perhaps because the semester was right around the corner, there were almost no decent listings with a reasonable rent-to-condition ratio — most were either overpriced or run-down.
So Hae-yul tried to lower his standards and compromise on certain conditions, but Kwon Gyo-eon was firm.
“This one seems okay, don’t you think?”
“The sunlight’s poor, and the surrounding infrastructure isn’t great either.”
“Then what about the studio we saw earlier? The sunlight came in nicely there.”
“Are you actually referring to the one where the safety situation was questionable?”
“…Was it? Then what about the goshiwon we saw first? It’s not as cost-effective as the one you were living in before, but the soundproofing seemed decent enough, and it looked clean…”
“Ju Hae-yul — do you genuinely think that?”
Hae-yul had no answer for Kwon Gyo-eon, who was watching him with a skeptical look. At this rate, with such a picky eye, there wouldn’t be any place to go. Was there even a single listing within Hae-yul’s budget that Kwon Gyo-eon would find acceptable?
At this point, isn’t he more of an obstacle than someone actually helping?
Suspicious as Hae-yul was, he saw no particular reason to say any of that out loud. The real estate agent listening to them from behind let out an awkward laugh.
“…Ha ha ha, it seems none of the places I’ve shown you so far have been to your liking. Well — actually, there are a few better listings I haven’t shown you yet… They’re not ones I usually show just anyone. How about it — care to take a look?”
Kwon Gyo-eon’s gaze, which had been fixed on Hae-yul, shifted toward the agent.
“Let’s.”
Kwon Gyo-eon answered briefly and led Hae-yul out of the cramped studio. The agent rubbed his face tiredly and followed the two of them out.
The newly introduced listing was clean and nice overall. The only slight issue was that it was clearly not intended for financially struggling college students like Hae-yul — it was the kind of place catered to those with comfortable means.
“The deposit is ten million, and the monthly rent is seventy thousand. If you can afford it, living alone is fine, but if you split it with a friend, you’d save on both. There’s also a convenience store and a coin laundry nearby.”
“Oh…”
“It’s a new build, so the condition goes without saying. What do you think? Pretty great, right? You won’t find a listing like this at other agencies. The landlord is particular, so they only listed it with us.”
It really was a good listing. A new building, two bedrooms, and the deposit and monthly rent were quite reasonable. However, Hae-yul had no friend he could live with and split the costs.
Hae-yul smiled awkwardly and gave a slight frown as he caught the faint scent that had been drifting through the room. Whether placed to mask the smell of a new building or not, the sweet, cloying scent of a diffuser was getting on his nerves. Since his condition had been off for the past couple of days, even the slightest irritant made his stomach turn easily.
“…It is certainly comfortable, I’ll give it that.”
Hae-yul swallowed hard and responded as if nothing was wrong, while Kwon Gyo-eon watched him quietly.
“Right? Would you like to see the other listing too? That one’s a new build as well, but it’s a studio, so it might be a little easier on the budget.”
“Let’s do that.”
Kwon Gyo-eon answered on his behalf and gave Hae-yul a look that hurried him along. Hae-yul had also been planning to look at more listings himself, of course — but seeing Kwon Gyo-eon being even pickier than he was left him a little incredulous.
When Hae-yul shot him a baffled look, Kwon Gyo-eon asked with a puzzled expression.
“What. Is something wrong?”
“Why are you being so particular? Obviously I was going to look at more listings too, but why are you—”
“Ju Hae-yul doesn’t have a friend or classmate to share a two-bedroom with, so is there any point in continuing to look at this one?”
“Hold on, why is that your call to make? I could share a place with a friend, you know.”
Even at the pushback, Kwon Gyo-eon simply shrugged with a faint trace of a smile on his face, without so much as offering a token agreement out of courtesy. That, more than anything, rankled Hae-yul — he furrowed his brow sharply and asked the agent to take them to the next listing right away.
But the next listing, even accounting for it being a new build, had a deposit and monthly rent that were anything but manageable.
“Pretty great, right? If you like it, I can help you sign the contract right away.”
With rent that far exceeded his expectations, a deflated Hae-yul was fumbling for words when Kwon Gyo-eon stepped in first.
“The facilities are good, but the rent is at a level that would be hard for a college student to handle alone. Are there no other listings?”
“Ha — ha ha. That’s true, but the rent on the other listings is around the same range… In that case, perhaps you could consider one of the places I showed you earlier…”
The agent glanced at them hesitantly, and once again Kwon Gyo-eon answered in Hae-yul’s place.
“No. That’s fine. Ju Hae-yul, I think that’s enough for today — let’s plan to look again another time. Please do contact us if anything suitable comes up.”
“Ah, yes. It can’t be helped. The amount really is a burden for a college student, ha ha ha… I’ll be in touch soon!”
“…Thank you.”
Hae-yul said his goodbyes in a small voice to the agent, who smiled warmly, and found himself stealing a glance at Kwon Gyo-eon’s face. Even as he seemed to throw a wrench in everything at every turn, Kwon Gyo-eon had stepped in each time to offer blunt, unflinching assessments of each listing.
At first, Hae-yul had wondered if Kwon Gyo-eon was pointing out flaws on purpose, no matter what the agent showed them — but by the end, Kwon Gyo-eon had been saying exactly what Hae-yul had wanted to say, and that had actually been a relief. Hae-yul bowed his head to the agent in farewell and slowly followed Kwon Gyo-eon out of the room.
Free from the cloying, unbearably sweet diffuser scent at last, the nausea that had been rolling through him all this while seemed to ease just a little.
