“Ugh.”
Whether it was because his brain had hit its information limit, nothing was going in anymore.
He decided that was enough studying and acting practice for the day, and lay down on his bed to go over everything that had happened.
Come to think of it, today had been an awful lot.
He’d gone to the hospital feeling unwell only to be told he’d been imprinted — then he met the person who’d imprinted on him, went to the hospital together, worked out a schedule to receive pheromone showers regularly, and ended up at an impromptu drinking session on top of all that.
He’d witnessed a straight-soju performance, vented about the agency together……
When was the last time I had a conversation this long with someone in private?
Part-time work was everyone doing their own job, and the most you exchanged was maybe three lines. Small talk that never went further than that — that was the shape of Chae Songhwa’s life, and today’s visitor had been a rare exception.
During his trainee days there had been partners he laughed with, cried with, cursed with — but at some point he’d been left alone.
After that, he’d learned it was more efficient to swallow things down than to go looking for somewhere to unload them, so he’d stopped thinking too deeply about it.
When was the last time someone took my side……
Probably the first time since he was seventeen.
And on top of that, Yong Cheonha had cursed out the agency with a ferocity that made it seem like they’d personally cheated him out of money — lambasting them with the intent to kill. He’d looked even more indignant than Songhwa himself, so there was hardly any need to spell out how that had made him feel.
And then, right in the middle of all that boiling fury, he’d suddenly broken into a dopey grin like someone with a mood disorder, stuffed the tofu pouch Songhwa had served him straight into his mouth, and teared up from how hot it was.
It felt like he’d seen every shade of Yong Cheonha’s emotions in the span of half a day.
A quiet smile settled on Chae Songhwa’s lips as he thought back over the day.
It was an utterly endearing expression — the kind that would have sent Yong Cheonha straight into a wall or a bed or whatever surface was closest.
The furrow between his brows that hadn’t smoothed out since he’d gotten home finally eased away, and his smile was so at peace it could have made anyone who saw it feel happy just looking at him.
And no wonder — the constitutional law, the criminal law, the scripts, the acting exercises that had been cramming his head and making it spin were all completely gone from his mind.
All he could think of was Yong Cheonha trembling with curses on his lips.
Kicking his feet frantically under the table from the heat, slurring his words because of it, and yet putting on a perfectly straight face and shamelessly declaring it was delicious.
Next time we eat together, I should avoid anything too hot, or cool it down before I give it to him.
The smile that crept onto his face was so faint and timid that even he himself didn’t notice it was there. And yet, for all its smallness — how unmistakably present it was.
“Hoo……”
Yong Cheonha woke up to find the roof of his mouth completely raw, and spent the rest of the morning thinking so hard his head might split.
He’d been turning it over since his early morning jog and all the way through to his mid-shift at work, and still hadn’t found an answer.
When his part-time shift ended today he’d be meeting Chae Songhwa — so what kind of date should he plan? It was their first date, after all.
He had met various alphas before, but he couldn’t even remember the last time he’d been on anything resembling a proper date. The most recent one he could recall was some older guy whining outside a motel after drinks, saying he was tired and wanted to rest.
I don’t even want to count that as a date. He tried to think back to what other dates there had been. Nothing decent came to mind, so he had to go all the way back to high school, which felt impossibly distant.
A date. What do you even do on a date? What makes a date feel like a proper date? Movie then café, followed by dinner and goodbye — was that the standard?
That felt like it had no impact at all, didn’t it? Even something small — didn’t there need to be some kind of gesture?
He didn’t know the other person’s preferences yet, so planning was difficult.
How do other people go about dates?
As it happened, Yong Cheonha was surrounded by people who could help. They’d usually made his eyes roll, but right now he was genuinely grateful that nearly everyone around him was in a couple.
“Ladies? Could I get everyone together for a moment?”
The combination of the words ladies and gather round was unusual enough that the part-timers, curious whether something interesting was about to happen, clustered together in front of the coffee machine.
“So I might have a date today? What do people usually do on a first date?”
“A date?”
That was unexpected.
Hmm. Other people’s love lives are most interesting right up until something goes wrong — once they become a couple, the fun kind of fades. This is slightly anticlimactic.
“You have a girlfriend?”
Managing to date on top of such a packed schedule…… Everyone murmured with a mixed expression of admiration and astonishment.
“Not exactly.”
“Oh. Right. You said omega. Said you liked male alphas. Right, right.”
An omega standing next to someone this good-looking — any alpha who wasn’t quite exceptional would probably end up looking a bit outclassed. What kind of person could it be? Plain human curiosity bubbled up.
“No, not that either. It’s more like — there’s someone I want things to go well with, and this is sort of the first step toward that, you could say……”
The moment they saw Yong Cheonha trail off awkwardly at the end, dopamine flooded the room. In other words — wasn’t this the most interesting stage from an observer’s perspective?
Part-timers who had been half-dead with exhaustion and ones who had been nodding off both perked up at once, eyes lighting up.
“When and where are you meeting? How long have you known them?”
“Not long at all. About two days? But honestly, my exact ideal type.”
Just thinking about Chae Songhwa’s face made him happy enough that he lost control of his expression. He tried covering his mouth with his hand, but it was too late — they’d already caught his face completely melted.
An ideal type so perfect you can’t even hold back a smile — what kind of person is this?
The kind who, when he kept his mouth shut, seemed too cold and unapproachable to walk up to — and yet was alarmingly, devastatingly handsome. Younger than Yong Cheonha.
Cheonha’s looks were sharp and striking enough that there were regulars who came in specifically just to see him.
And yet — hadn’t he kept a polite but firm wall up against the love calls of Instagrammer-hot girls and women beautiful enough that you’d absolutely do a double take on the street?
And this is the ideal type of that handsome face? The alpha who makes him lose control of his expression?
What on earth did this person look like? The curiosity was almost maddening.
“Do you have a photo?”
At the question, what immediately came to mind was the portal profile photo that captured less than half of the real face’s beauty.
To make so little use of that gorgeous face…… That photo was worse than having none at all.
“No photo.”
“Instagram handle then?”
Instagram handle. Right. They hadn’t followed each other yet.
“That too……. I’ll have to ask when I see him today. Ha — what should we even do when we meet. I’ve been thinking about it, and since it’s a first date I was thinking a restaurant and then a hotel lounge bar — but I don’t know what to do before dinner.”
“Sorry?”
“Hm?”
“Wait——”
What did I just hear?
The part-timers blinked and tilted their heads.
“Right? Going straight to eating feels like it’s missing something — a little lacking in atmosphere, maybe? Oh, should we go shopping? But what if our tastes don’t match?”
“Cheonha, do you have money?”
“Yes. Some.”
Ah. He has money……
But then why is he here doing part-time work at minimum wage alongside the rest of us?
“Wait — weren’t you working hard because you needed to keep your grades up for a scholarship? Why do you have money?”
“I can’t get a scholarship anyway because of my income bracket.”
I’ve got several buildings in my name.
Both sides were saying things the other couldn’t quite follow, and they stood there staring at each other blankly for a long moment.
The first one to collect herself — a thoroughly ordinary part-timer — asked again:
“How old is the other person? Where did you meet? How did a date even happen?”
“Three years older than me, we met at a club, and it’s kind of a — pheromone-related reason? That we’re meeting.”
“……”
Three years older wasn’t much of an issue.
The issue was that he’d met this person at a club.
How many of the people you met at clubs were genuinely decent and solid individuals?
This wasn’t a dig at clubbers — objectively! Statistically! Someone in their early twenties, met at a club?
Wasn’t it far more likely to be a casual encounter than a serious one? And even casual encounters had their tiers.
And on top of that, there were pheromone complications?
No matter how you looked at it, this seemed like someone trying to meet up for frivolous and impure reasons.
The Yong Cheonha they’d gotten to know through work was moral, diligent, not the type to cut corners.
Would someone like that want a one-night stand? Would someone looking for a one-night stand be planning out a date? Getting this giddy? Absolutely not!
This kid——!
He’s serious!
Oh no!
Their adorable youngest was potentially about to meet a seasoned, reckless troublemaker — and that was a tragedy.
But what could you say to someone whose eyes were sparkling like that?
After a moment of exchanged glances, the part-timers carefully opened their mouths.
“Do you, um — do you have to meet up?”
“Just keep it casual. All this restaurant, lounge bar stuff…… that’s a bit much. It’s a first date, the other person probably isn’t expecting anything big and might feel pressured. Just watch a movie and go to a café.”
“Yeah. Meeting somewhere public would probably feel less overwhelming for both of you.”
Right now it’s the ‘rose-tinted glasses phase’ where nothing registers and even questionable things look appealing, so flat-out opposition will only cause pushback.
If they couldn’t stop him, the least they could do was make sure the meeting happened somewhere open and public, not somewhere private. No matter what.
Driven by a collective sense of duty to protect their twenty-year-old newcomer, they all scrambled to come up with reasons.
“You’re not going to split the bill, right? Even split, the amount would probably be a lot.”
“Right. Even if it doesn’t feel like much to you, it might feel like a lot to the other person.”
Is that — is that right?
“Even if I’m doing it because I want to and enjoy it?”
I want to take him to a department store, pick out pretty clothes for him, put them on him, feed him good food. That would be overwhelming? Why on earth?
“No matter how the other person feels, a large amount is going to feel like pressure. Wouldn’t you feel like you had to give something back at the same level? And if they’re the type who doesn’t feel that way at all — that’s actually the bigger problem.”
“You’ll end up getting played.”
Played.
At that word, the parade of past trash exes ran quickly through Yong Cheonha’s mind.
“Ah……”
A sigh escaped on its own. I can’t let that happen again.
