His friends carefully skirted the subject, eager to smooth things over, and Jiwon silently went along with the mood. Seongjun came back in from outside after having a cigarette, acknowledged that he’d said too much, and apologized. Jiwon smiled bitterly and told him it was fine.
He was doing his best to act like it didn’t affect him — but Jiwon hadn’t wanted this kind of marriage either. Thinking about his family had led him to decide he’d just take the plunge and figure it out as he went, and somehow, before he knew it, he’d ended up here. It wouldn’t do any good to make excuses, but it wasn’t as though he was simply overjoyed about landing a wealthy spouse the way others seemed to think.
Unlike other people who dreamed of finding someone to share their whole lives with, this marriage had a predetermined end. And they didn’t love each other. That, more than anything, was the biggest problem with this marriage.
It was past ten o’clock. Ganghyeon had been heading back to his officetel after work when he turned the wheel and changed course for his family home. He had known that Jiwon was going to visit the Pheromone Center with Grandmother. The examination was supposed to be done by midday, and he’d heard they’d be having lunch together after. A meeting that started in the afternoon had run long and pushed it out of his mind — but on his way home it suddenly came to him, and when he reached out, he found that Jiwon was still at his family home.
He had told Jiwon that he only needed to put in a reasonable amount of effort with the elders. Ganghyeon couldn’t understand why Jiwon had gone all the way to his family home alone and was still being kept there at this hour. He’d barely slept the night before, and a grueling day of long meetings at the office had drained him — all he wanted was to get home and rest. He pressed down on the irritation quietly rising in him.
As he drew near the house, he called Jiwon. He told him he’d arrive in five minutes and to be ready to come out. Jiwon answered in a low voice.
“I don’t think I can come out in five minutes — could you maybe come in for a bit?”
Through the phone, he could faintly hear Grandmother’s voice, sounding rather animated. What on earth are they doing in there. Ganghyeon arrived at the house, parked quickly, and headed inside. The entryway was brightly lit, but strangely, the housekeeper was nowhere to be seen.
“I’m home.”
The living room was empty too. Where is everyone. He had just been on the phone with them — why was there no sign of anyone? Ganghyeon was looking around the living room in bewilderment when the sound of lively voices reached him from Grandmother’s room further inside. He walked over in long strides, and from behind the murmuring came a burst of laughter. He knocked.
“Grandmother.”
“Oh, come in, come in.”
Ganghyeon pushed open Grandmother’s door and one eyebrow arched up. The room, always kept in neat and orderly fashion, looked nothing like he was used to. A blanket had been spread out on the bare floor, and Grandmother, Jeong Jiwon, and the housekeeper were all seated on it. Plates of fruit, rice cakes, and other snacks were arranged on the floor, and small hwatu cards were scattered across the blanket. All three of them were holding the same cards in their hands.
“Oh, Ganghyeon.”
“What exactly is going on here?”
At Ganghyeon’s question, the housekeeper made to get up with an embarrassed look, but Grandmother pulled her right back down. Grandmother’s face was bright and lively, entirely unbothered by Ganghyeon’s bewildered stare, as she slapped the card in her hand down onto the floor with a flourish.
“Ho ho ho. Stop! This grandma just hit go-dori, didn’t she?”
“Oh, you actually did? Wait, when did you take that card?”
“My goodness, madam, your hand just keeps coming together so perfectly.”
The grandmother who had always presented herself in measured, composed ways — practicing calligraphy, tending to the garden flowers — was sitting cross-legged on the floor playing hwatu. Even the sight of her laughing as she counted her cards was unfamiliar.
“Oh my. Jiwon’s stuck with all the penalties. Even pi-bak. Ho ho ho.”
“I just lost everything I’d won up until now in this round, Grandmother.”
“Ho ho ho.”
Whatever was so funny, Grandmother was beside herself with laughter, and Jiwon was scratching the back of his neck. He counted out the one-thousand-won bills and coins to settle up, grumbling that he was now completely broke.
Ganghyeon’s grandmother was, by anyone’s account — her own included — not an easy person. She was older now and spent her time on hobbies, but before his father had fully taken over the company, it had been her steadying hand behind the scenes that kept things in order and cleared the way. She read people with precision, and she was not someone who let others in carelessly.
And yet there was Jiwon, sitting comfortably at that woman’s side, having lost every last coin he had playing cards with her — now accepting a ten-thousand-won note as a consolation prize and beaming. Ganghyeon, watching from the doorway, let out a quiet laugh and leaned against the wall.
This person is impossible to predict. When he’d first seen him, it had been plain as day that Jiwon was nervous around elders — and yet somehow he’d ended up like this. Only then, as the round wound to an end, did Jiwon get to his feet and come over to Ganghyeon, waving the ten-thousand-won note Grandmother had given him.
“Can I buy you a drink?”
Just one ten-thousand-won note, and Jiwon was grinning ear to ear as he said it. Ganghyeon laughed again quietly and suggested they head home. All the irritation he’d arrived with had already completely dissolved.
“Go ahead and get in the car.”
Ganghyeon started the car remotely. He watched Jiwon get in, then answered an incoming call, finished it briefly, and climbed into the driver’s seat.
“…….”
Ganghyeon had been reaching for the seatbelt without much thought when he paused, eyes narrowing slightly. Jiwon’s pheromones had drifted in with a breath and hit him with surprising force. The pheromones he remembered as soft and calm came through now sharp and dense, like something belonging to an entirely different person. There was even a fresh brightness to the scent — like citrus rind, mandarin or orange or lemon, peeled back in great quantities. Could his heat cycle be coming?
“His father and mother said they’d be home late because of a gathering. I thought Grandmother might be lonely on her own, so I stayed to keep her company for a little while, and it just ended up going this long.”
Ganghyeon’s gaze passed over Jiwon, checking for signs of an oncoming heat. He didn’t appear to be running warm, and there was no sign of shortness of breath. His voice was calm as he spoke, his face clear and untroubled.
“It seems Grandmother had a good time, thanks to you. You did well.”
A smile settled at the outer corners of his long eyes. Jiwon still held the ten-thousand-won note Grandmother had pressed into his hand, and he looked at ease. Ganghyeon started the car and pulled out slowly. It didn’t seem like a heat cycle after all. But then how do you explain pheromones that have gotten this strong when it isn’t a heat?
“I went to the Pheromone Center this morning.”
“I heard.”
“It was my first time going since I had my trait examination as a child. They said I was in good health and that my pheromones were strong. The doctor said your compatibility with mine is high — that a child would come along easily, and if one was born, the probability of it being a dominant Alpha would also be high.”
“High compatibility?”
The doctor must have been talking nonsense to please Grandmother. Ganghyeon scoffed internally. Pheromone preferences were entirely personal and subjective. A test result claiming high pheromone compatibility was nothing but a doctor playing with words. No one could know until the two people actually experienced each other directly.
That said, it wasn’t as though the claim that he and Jiwon were compatible was wrong. It didn’t seem intentional, but the pheromones Jiwon was putting out so richly right now didn’t grate on him in the slightest. Ganghyeon was sensitive in that regard — he could feel interest toward someone and still, if their pheromones rubbed him even the slightest bit wrong, he would never see them again.
“Yes. Because of the compatibility, the doctor said that being around you, I’ll start to change — ah. Um….”
Jiwon stopped mid-sentence. As if realizing he’d let something slip, he trailed off and fanned his face with his hand. Is his heart beating fast? His pheromones swelled in a rushing wave. Ganghyeon cracked the car window open to let in some air. Even then, Jiwon’s pheromones didn’t thin out as much as he’d like, so Ganghyeon released a thread of his own pheromones and quietly pressed down on the air inside the car.
“Change how?”
He could have let it go — Jiwon clearly didn’t want to say it — but Ganghyeon was genuinely curious what answer would come out, so he asked in a casual tone. Jiwon hesitated, stretching out little sounds before he finally muttered his reply.
“If I’m exposed to your pheromones, mine will get stronger than they are now, and also….”
“Also?”
“My heat cycle will get shorter….”
It was only natural, for anyone born with pheromones. Omegas and Alphas were acutely sensitive to each other’s.
Wherever did my pheromone counterpart go to school — some remote mountain village? An innocence that didn’t match his age blushed at the admission and seemed embarrassed by it. The embarrassment he could understand — but how to explain the pheromones he was sitting on, straining and writhing as though searching for an outlet?
“I don’t really know why you don’t want children, but today I feel like I understood it a little.”
Ganghyeon, who had stopped the car at a red light, turned to look at Jiwon. The car’s lights cut across his profile in sharp silhouette. His downcast lashes fell long beneath his eyes, and beneath the clean line of his nose, his lips were full. In Ganghyeon’s gaze, those lips parted slightly.
“I got that feeling today at the Pheromone Center. Like I exist in order to produce a child. If that had been forced on me continuously like that, it would have been torturous.”
He hadn’t been looking for understanding. Whatever Jiwon was feeling in this moment, it was only the beginning. From the start, the elders had expectations of Jiwon, and if those weren’t met, it was certain they would make things increasingly difficult for him. Jiwon’s gentle eyes turned and met his.
