Alphas and omegas stood out without any effort on his part to identify them. The slight distance they kept from betas, the way they reacted to each other’s pheromones — there were many reasons you could tell.
Would someone like Kim Ha-geon show that same attitude on the subway? Did he even take the subway to begin with?
[Get whichever sandwich you like.]
Ha-geon might be able to tell exactly when I board the subway. And yet Hee-won had left a full hour early and was already on his way — had this man already arrived?
Whatever. He had no desire to show up looking ridiculous, sitting there alone with two cups of mint choco he didn’t even like. How strange would that look. Hee-won frowned at his own mental image.
The commute was usually a good time for absurd daydreams, but today the alphas and omegas on the subway were acting a little strange. He kept seeming to make eye contact with them. Too frequently to chalk it up to his imagination.
It feels like the same looks I was getting at the office yesterday for reeking of mint. He hadn’t even met Ha-geon yet today — why were they looking at him like that?
He got off, bought a mint choco and the bacon and egg sandwich he actually liked, and let out a heavy sigh. The part-timer at the café — presumably an alpha or omega — had been staring at him intently the whole time.
Is there a sign on my face that says “beta marked by an alpha”……? Thoroughly unsettled, he quickly grabbed the coffee carrier and sandwich and headed into the building.
“Beta.”
“Team leader.”
Today was worse than yesterday. Not in front of the marketing office — Ha-geon was standing beside the elevator. If he’d just appeared without calling out beta first, Hee-won might have swung the mint choco at him like a weapon.
Hee-won, caught awkwardly between the inside and outside of the elevator, leaned forward to give a nod — and then forgot to press the door open button, so in that brief moment the doors began to close.
I’m done for. Bracing himself to be flattened like a sandwich between the closing doors roughly one second from now, he was already grimacing when Ha-geon’s hand grabbed him and yanked him clear.
Ha-geon, who still had his hand around Hee-won’s shoulder with his eyes slightly wide, seemed to be searching for something to say before his expression tightened. Has he never seen someone get stuck in an elevator before — why does he look so startled and upset?
“You should think about stepping out, not just stand there with your eyes shut tight. Were you planning to just let yourself get crushed?”
“The hand on the side with the door open button was holding the coffee…….”
He swallowed the urge to snap back that he couldn’t exactly hurl the coffee Ha-geon had told him to buy just to press the button. The audacity, honestly. Hee-won let out a small sigh.
Ha-geon, adding a few more words about how his heart was still racing, slowly withdrew the hand that had been around Hee-won. I’d been waiting to see when he’d let go — and he does it on his own. Not even a little grateful, this guy. From the looks of it, anyone would think it was Ha-geon who’d nearly gotten crushed.
Once Ha-geon had settled down, Hee-won pulled one mint choco from the carrier and held it out. He even added the bacon and egg sandwich he’d carefully tucked into his bag.
But something about it displeased Ha-geon again, because he fixed his gaze on Hee-won’s face without taking anything. All while Hee-won stood there looking faintly ridiculous, arms full — right in front of an elevator that anyone might step out of at any moment.
“Could you please just take it…….”
“Come with me for a moment.”
Having thrown out nothing but those words, Ha-geon walked ahead. Is this how all high-ranking people operate — acting without any explanation and simply expecting whoever’s behind them to follow?
He almost felt sorry for his own outstretched hand. He awkwardly tucked the mint choco back into the carrier, then set off after him, sandwich in hand. Hee-won heaved a sigh that could have caved the floor in.
Ha-geon walked quite a distance before pushing open the emergency stairwell door on that floor and stepping through. That’s a CCTV dead zone if I remember right. Hee-won tilted his head. Of all places, why is he calling me here?
In the meantime, he held the heavy door open — apparently to spare Hee-won, whose hands were full — which was another level of courtesy entirely. If you have that kind of courtesy, you could just take what’s in my hands.
Hee-won deliberately dragged his feet, stalling, then finally stepped outside — and the iron door slammed shut behind him with a heavy clang. What if I can’t get back through that emergency door? A sudden flash of fear crossed his mind.
“Beta.”
“Yes, team leader.”
“Have you been living with someone for a long time? An alpha.”
“Sorry?”
What on earth is this about now? Hee-won’s expression cycled through a spectrum of feelings — disbelief, confusion, bewilderment. What threw him most was Ha-geon’s expression.
Like something had displeased him. Like someone watching might reasonably assume Hee-won had committed some unforgivable act of betrayal Ha-geon couldn’t accept. I’d need an explanation to know what’s going on.
Of course, the man in front of him showed no inclination to explain. And asking directly felt impossible given how charged the atmosphere was. Mom, I think I might actually quit…….
“I don’t know if you’re playing dumb or genuinely have no idea, but there’s a pheromone on you — heavily — from an alpha who’s very familiar with you. Not on the outside of your clothes. Under them.”
Alphas and omegas can even tell whether pheromones are clinging to bare skin, floating in the air, or just brushed onto clothing? In that case, alphas and omegas who’d had a heated night together probably shouldn’t step outside their rooms for a while.
He knew this wasn’t the moment for that kind of thought, yet Hee-won fell into the tangent anyway. But what a fascinating world it was.
Right now, an alpha’s pheromone is on my bare skin. And Ha-geon has noticed, and it’s bothering him. That much he could follow — but why, exactly?
Is the pheromone scent on me triggering some kind of allergy for Ha-geon? A scent he finds unpleasant? Or does it feel like he’s somehow witnessed a beta’s mysterious love life?
Whatever the theory, Hee-won knew Ha-geon’s imagination was far from reality. An alpha who had plastered pheromones all over his bare body.
As far as Hee-won knew, there was only one alpha capable of laying it on thick enough that every person who could smell pheromones gave him a second look on his entire commute.
Jin Chae-won.
“Is the scent…… rose, by any chance?”
“Yes — so you do know who it is. It’s absolutely overwhelming. Every step you take right now, you’re trailing rose scent. Rose is something I’m thoroughly sick of.”
“Sounds like you don’t like roses…….”
“Someone I used to care about was a florist — we ended things rather badly. Their pheromone was rose — no, wait, why are you asking?”
I only asked because you said you didn’t like it — I was just noting that you don’t. But you’re the one who answered. Ha-geon had been voluntarily unspooling his own story, only to snap back to himself abruptly and raise his voice.
Someone was always dumping endless unsolicited information on Hee-won — and yet somehow he was always the one left holding the bag for it. It was enough to make him want to cry.
So what he’s saying is — you showed up drenched in a rose scent he can’t stand, held it out to him with an innocent expression like you had no idea, and he finds that absolutely infuriating. That must be it.
He hadn’t known this scent had taken over his body, hadn’t known Ha-geon hated roses — Hee-won was so aggrieved he could have screamed and jumped out of his own skin. And on top of everything, his arms were starting to ache from carrying things.
“I’ll be more careful next time……. So could you please just take the mint choco.”
“No, don’t look so defeated — I said something out of line, so just drink both of them yourself.”
“No, I…… then at least the sandwich…….”
Being suddenly forced to drink not one but two cups of mint choco — something he found deeply unpleasant — felt like getting struck by lightning out of a clear sky. Ha-geon looked at his face and his expression shifted.
Less anger, more the look of someone trying to figure out how to say something. Whatever it is, how hard can it be to come out with it? Is it harder than giving this kind of answer to your superior? Hee-won pushed back internally.
Regardless, Ha-geon pushed open the emergency stairwell door and stepped one foot back inside. He’d been acting like he might walk off at any moment, but then he looked at Hee-won’s still-laden hands and exhaled.
Then, looking the other way, he held the door wide open and waited for Hee-won to come through. What is up with this person. Once he’d confirmed Hee-won was safely through, Ha-geon sighed again.
“I’ve heard that every sigh takes three days off your life.”
“Right now, that number has gone up because of you.”
“I’ll make sure the rose scent doesn’t get on me again…….”
“Do you like that alpha?”
“Sorry? Well…… I don’t dislike them. We’re tied together whether I like it or not.”
Ha-geon, who had been watching Hee-won’s face in silence, suddenly reached over and snatched the carrier out of his hand. Then said, out of nowhere, that he’d changed his mind and was going to drink both cups himself.
Of course, for Hee-won — who had a deep aversion to mint choco — this was something to welcome with open arms. But didn’t you say you hate mint choco too? There was reason to wonder what had suddenly prompted this change of heart.
When Hee-won held the sandwich out as if to say take this too, Ha-geon turned around with the air of someone who’d made up his mind for real and walked back toward the marketing office. As if he’d decided there was nothing left here that needed tending to.
Of course, that coldness only lasted a moment — Ha-geon hadn’t made it more than a few steps before he turned back and delivered one last line, and only then walked away for good.
“That was always meant for you, so eat it. Why do you think I told you to get whatever you liked? If it were for me, I would have named what I wanted.”
How was I supposed to figure that out? Hee-won, at a loss for words, watched Ha-geon’s retreating figure in silence before tilting his head and quietly tucking the sandwich into his bag. He genuinely couldn’t decide whether this person was kind or just rude.
Someone gentler than they look. Someone mannerly in the most insufferable way. He settled on that. As long as we stay moderately entangled, it should be fine — so just don’t go against the grain, and don’t create misunderstandings.
After a moment’s thought he tugged at his shirt collar and took a light sniff. Nothing, as expected. Fool, for even hoping a little. He wondered what the people passing by must have thought. He watched Ha-geon disappear around the corridor and sank into thought.
The reason Ha-geon had been upset at first — he’d assumed it wasn’t anything else, just that the rose scent belonged to someone Hee-won had spent the night with. Though even then, why that would make Ha-geon angry was still something Hee-won couldn’t quite grasp.
But from what he’d heard, siblings’ pheromones — even if completely different in scent — were said to carry a strangely familiar quality to them. Alphas and omegas could recognize each other by that. So naturally, Hee-won had assumed Ha-geon would know.
