Whether he’d caught some disease that made him incapable of hiding the fact that he’d never dated in his life and fell hard and fast, Yong Cheonha was off in his own thoughts as he dramatically popped an inari pocket into his mouth.
But the moment he bit down, it was scorching hot, and he knocked back soju like it was water. His mouth burned even worse.
A startled Chae Songhwa poured him a glass of cold water, and he used it to rapidly put out the fire.
“Are you okay?”
“‘M fiiine.”
He didn’t look fine at all…… Chae Songhwa, watching him with concern, went to the kitchen to get some ice and held it up to Yong Cheonha’s mouth for him.
Being treated like the baby of the family was something he got plenty of at home until he was sick of it — but being treated with this kind of gentle care by someone older, someone he’d never experienced it from before, put him in a good mood.
Grinning, Yong Cheonha crunched through every single piece of ice he’d been given to hold in his mouth. It was probably machine ice from the ice maker, but someone had gone and gotten it for him. He couldn’t just watch it melt away into nothing.
To think they pressured someone this kind into taking a sponsor. He wanted to grab whoever it was and plaster them into the wall of the abandoned house on the family burial grounds.
He’d been trapped in a company with not a single decent person in it for five whole years?
The one silver lining was that he’d safely parted ways with that company.
“Ahem — where were we. You’re done with the agency now, right? Since the contract expired?”
“That’s right. I’ll need to finish out the schedules locked in for this month, though. They’re commitments, after all.”
It wasn’t a significant part or an important role, but apparently a junior staff member had put in the effort to create a spot for him given his situation, so he wanted to wrap it up on good terms.
Hah. For someone like this.
The more he heard, the more it tugged at something in his chest and left him unsettled.
“Congratulations on the clean break.”
He refilled the glass and this time drained it in a good mood.
“So, what are you going to do going forward?”
“I’m planning to prepare for the civil service exam.”
Even better. We can date while studying together.
If they studied together, they’d go to cafés, the library — and when they got too exhausted from studying, they’d go recharge at an amusement park or the movies. And summer was coming, so they could go to the East Sea coast and study with a cool ocean view——
Yong Cheonha thought about this as if he were someone who had no idea what studying actually meant. Like a person who had never studied a day in his life, he fantasized about a schedule that had absolutely nothing to do with studying.
“But I don’t know how it’ll go. I started preparing last year and it hasn’t been easy.”
“You don’t have to become a civil servant, though, right? Then it could be nice to look for a career path together with me too. Of course, you’ll be busy with your schedules this month. Oh — we actually stopped halfway through coordinating our schedules, didn’t we?”
It had been beyond anyone’s control. The agency had been the one to drive them to crack open a bottle first.
“That’s true. So for now, the schedule would be us meeting after Cheonha’s shift ends——”
“The ‘shi’?”
“Cheon — Cheonha. Cheonha.”
Chae Songhwa quickly corrected himself and rubbed his forearm. Even though the air conditioning wasn’t that strong, he’d gotten inexplicably cold and goosebumps had broken out on his skin.
Flexing his physique?
Interpreting the mysterious chill — and the goosebump-suppressing gesture — in whatever way suited him best, Yong Cheonha let his gaze drift subtly to that forearm.
Thicker than mine, but still workable.
From a distance he’d thought Chae Songhwa had a slender build with lean muscle definition, but up close he had more to him than expected.
“I’ll come to you four days a week — Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday — timed to when Cheonha finishes his shift.”
“Sorry? Four times a week?”
A week has seven days — how is meeting four times a week enough? Can’t we meet all seven?
“Oh. Is that too frequent? Then Monday, Wednesday, Friday — three times a week. I’ll do my best not to take up too much of your time, and I’ll make sure to be nearby at least five minutes before you get off work.”
“No——”
He was already thinking four times was too few, and somehow it had just dropped even further?
“Four times a week. I think that’s perfect.”
First thing tomorrow, I’m telling them I’m quitting the part-time job. If he couldn’t increase how often they met, then at least he needed to increase the time they spent together.
“I’ll probably be quitting my part-time job soon anyway, so let’s sort out the timing again then. For today, since things have ended up like this, let’s shake off everything that’s been ticking us off and get it all out.”
At Yong Cheonha’s words, the corners of Chae Songhwa’s mouth slowly crept upward. Had he ever shaken off the things that had been piling up on him by having a drink?
No — had he ever even taken the time to let things out like this at all?
The sociable younger one was, contrary to his looks, quite a talker, and full of emotion.
Whatever was said, his expression shifted — and even without words, his face changed color moment to moment.
He didn’t seem drunk, yet there was something about him that resembled a drunk person. Not in a bad way — in a good way. He was brimming with energy.
Not the customer who causes a scene when drunk — but the customer who tips generously when drunk.
“Hyung. Do you have a girlfriend?”
“No.”
“Then, an omega partner?”
“No.”
He’d answered the somewhat out-of-nowhere questions, and Yong Cheonha broke into a wide, silly grin. Seeing him smile for no apparent reason, it seemed like he was starting to get drunk.
“I’m single too. Well — if you had a partner and were still going to clubs, that’d make you trash, right?”
His face as he smiled about being single was completely at ease. Naturally so — he was someone who could enter a relationship whenever he chose to. Young, handsome, and outgoing on top of that. Having that kind of ease made sense.
Even as fellow singles, he was on a different level from someone like Chae Songhwa, who didn’t even enjoy meeting people and had no room for romance because life itself was already overwhelming.
“Hyung. Do you like clubs? Are there other clubs you go to?”
“Ah, no. They’re noisy and too crowded, so I don’t like them and I don’t go. Even last time, if the agency hadn’t called me in, I wouldn’t have gone.”
It had been a connection that had lasted from his trainee days all the way to the present. There had been far more bad moments than good, but ending things on a good note was still the beautiful conclusion.
Fortunately, the agency had respected and accepted his decision to leave the entertainment industry and start a new life. The place they’d called him to as a sort of farewell dinner was the club.
Seeing that they’d ordered a private room and even set up whiskey, it showed the agency was also trying to end things well.
It wasn’t his preference, but they’d gone to the effort of preparing it, so it felt right to join in — and so he hadn’t refused, and drank whatever was offered.
He didn’t particularly enjoy drinking, but fortunately his alcohol tolerance wasn’t weak, so he’d remained clear-headed even as the agency staff and the president drank until they were wasted.
As the buzz began to set in for him, the agency people — completely drunk — were doing unsightly things on the floor, draping themselves over each other, and constantly calling for women. It left a foul taste in his mouth.
Despite wanting to end things beautifully, the ugly behavior made what little remaining affection he’d had drop away entirely. They were all too drunk to notice if anyone disappeared, so he stepped out of the room to go home.
But after taking just a few steps out of the room, his head grew strangely heavy, his body felt oddly weighted, and he started running a fever.
It seemed like the alcohol was finally hitting him. He’d gone into the bathroom to wait it out until he sobered up——
Well. That was how he’d ended up tangled with Yong Cheonha.
As Chae Songhwa recounted it all so casually, Yong Cheonha’s face hardened to a frightening degree. Under the table, his tightly clenched fist trembled.
“It’s a good thing I went into the bathroom. If I hadn’t, who knows what kind of embarrassing state I might have been in. Really.”
Even seeing the beautiful man shudder as he called it horrifying, Yong Cheonha couldn’t manage a smile.
“No……”
No — that makes sense. God.
He had been curious why someone like that had come to a club in the first place. A composed, quiet person. The kind who suited a library or café far more than a club or bar.
Someone as demurely pretty as a hydrangea — and he’d been wondering why he was in a club bathroom releasing pheromones like someone with a deviant drive.
Those agency bastards.
His uncles had already been making a fuss lately about strange drugs circulating in the area and going after the dealers.
In this harsh world, of all things, their precious youngest had presented as an omega. To make sure their treasure could go out and have fun safely, they’d bought up the area around the club — and now drug dealers had wormed their way in regardless.
It was a drug that targeted only those with special traits — used primarily on omegas.
Something about preventing pheromone control and forcing out pheromones that alphas couldn’t help but misread. Obviously complete garbage.
Having heard Chae Songhwa’s account, it was certain he’d been given that drug. Why else would someone who had only been drinking from the glasses handed to him in the room suddenly lose control of his pheromones?
Obviously the agency bastards had slipped it into the drinks.
Why can’t these bastards just stop at one thing? Why does it keep going deeper the more you dig?
That gentle soul hadn’t known any of this — and not wanting to be rude on a farewell occasion, he hadn’t refused the drinks, drank them, struggled alone in the bathroom, and ended up being caught by Yong Cheonha.
It was fortunate for Yong Cheonha — but for Chae Songhwa……
“Hyung. What’s the name of the agency?”
“Out of nowhere?”
“What’s the name of the agency?”
“You wouldn’t know it even if I told you.”
“So the name of the agency is?”
“……”
Is the air conditioning set too low? I’m getting goosebumps for some reason. Chae Songhwa rubbed his forearm again this time, and ladled some of the fish cake soup — now cooled to a decent temperature — into his bowl.
Looking at the soju bottles filling the table and Yong Cheonha’s slightly glazed eyes, it seemed he was fairly drunk. It made sense, given he’d been drinking without eating anything.
With only one side dish ordered, he had drunk six bottles of soju. Chae Songhwa had kept the conversation going while making sure he drank as much water as possible. It was a little surprising he’d managed six bottles in the time they’d been sitting there.
He kept insisting he wasn’t drunk at all, but given the way his expression kept shifting from moment to moment, he was clearly drunk.
He was saying he could still drink more and they should hang out longer, so Chae Songhwa ended up forcibly walking him home to near his place.
He had a part-time shift again tomorrow — what did he mean he could drink more? Fortunately, it seemed he’d gotten inside safely, because by the time Chae Songhwa had made his own way home, messages had already piled up.
Chae Songhwa reviewed his practice exam workbook with a clearer head than in the morning. It seemed like it should be easy, but it was difficult. The memorization was manageable, but the law sections were hard.
Just when he thought he’d memorized something perfectly, he’d look at a question and get confused — and the more he looked at his error log, the more confused he got.
Still, he pushed through, memorizing again with persistence and working through new practice questions. Just before going to bed, he practiced what could loosely be called a script — though calling it that felt like a stretch.
The role Chae Songhwa had been given was probably one that wouldn’t even be visible on screen.
Standing before the mirror, Chae Songhwa curved his brows and parted his lips slightly. He couldn’t say a single word. Because there were no lines.
Of course even a minor role had a character and a story. Otherwise there would be no point spending money to create the part at all.
But this wasn’t an audition — it was a drama. A drama with a set lead, where the story revolved around that lead.
“……”
In his usual routine, Chae Songhwa would always look up scripts from existing dramas or films before bed and practice with them. So that if a chance ever came his way, he wouldn’t miss it.
“Maybe I’ll look at the error log one more time.”
But not anymore.
