He seemed to have made full preparations to follow along to the yacht party—with thick perms in his hair and dressed up stylishly, Chae Eunwoo’s intimidating presence was exceptional today.
It was like proof that even the owner of a slender appearance overflowing with boyish beauty could create a manly atmosphere if he put his mind to it. But even at this moment, the only impression filling my head was just one thing.
‘He probably doesn’t have money….’
Thinking of Chae Eunwoo, who must have bought clothes and done his hair with his nose-wiping pocket money, made my heart ache naturally.
If I’d known this would happen, I should have at least let him secretly watch the party. How much must he have wanted to come that a kid who would be busy solving meal and transportation costs spent emergency funds on dressing up?
My past overlapped—when I was immature and bought a pair of new sneakers without knowing my place, then had to survive on cup ramen and triangle kimbap for a whole week—making my nose sting sharply.
I don’t know how Chae Eunwoo interpreted my silent response, but he snapped sharply.
“Look, Heejae hyung. I’m curious why the only pheromones here are that person’s.”
“Huh?”
“And it’s not just pheromones either, it looks exactly like someone trying to protect their own Omega. Isn’t it fucking annoying, like a rival being petty?”
“……”
“Fuck, I hoped not, but you weren’t really trying to hook up with another Alpha, were you?”
At the unrestrained cursing, I froze on the spot. Did he eat something wrong?
There were occasionally feisty scenes in the original work, but this was a different dimension of roughness. Should I say it felt roughly similar to a male high school student dragging around slippers?
Feeling fucked, I stammered an excuse.
“Well, you see, Baek Sahyun alone…”
“Alone what?”
“……”
“What did Sahyun sunbae do alone?”
Right. What did he do alone?
I had no choice but to look at Baek Sahyun as if asking for help. When our eyes met after avoiding each other for a while, Baek Sahyun shrugged and gestured at the bed with his chin. Then he mouthed the words.
‘Too bad.’
Anyway, this bastard and that bastard, they’re all not normal….
It was the moment when I was regretting that I should have torn that damn gay novel to shreds as soon as I found it, which only knows how to turn people’s insides upside down.
Baek Sahyun spoke in an exceptionally sweet manner.
“What else would be the reason for drinking and getting one room?”
“……”
“And what would be the reason for spreading pheromones?”
At the same time, Chae Eunwoo’s expression crumpled completely. Though I, as a Beta, couldn’t feel it, perhaps Chae Eunwoo, being an Omega, could feel something eerie—he covered his mouth with an “ugh.”
As I hurriedly supported Chae Eunwoo’s body, which was staggering with a pale complexion, Baek Sahyun added as if reminding me.
“Take your hands off. Don’t make me jealous, Heejae.”
In that characteristic leisurely tone of someone who has the upper hand, very slowly.
“What if we get caught hooking up?”
Perhaps shocked, Chae Eunwoo’s pupils lost direction and shook here and there.
I wanted to explain that it wasn’t true, really not like that, but Chae Eunwoo was much faster. He looked at me sharply and spat out at a rapid speed, as if unable to believe it.
“The reason you were plain and polite to me was because hyung gets turned on by Alphas instead of Omegas?”
“Um, Eunwoo? Give me a chance to explain too…”
“Not carelessly spreading pheromones and not being clingy was all because hyung is a person who gets turned on by Alphas?”
I thought, what’s the problem in a worldview where it’s acceptable for a man to go crazy over another man and act lovestruck, but I didn’t bring it out loud. It was because Chae Eunwoo’s face, contorted as if about to burst into tears at any moment, looked pitiful. At the same time, a sense of defiance also rose.
“Hyung played with me. You know that?”
He’s acting so fucking disgraceful…. You should be dramatic in moderation, but Chae Eunwoo was increasingly crossing the line. I couldn’t understand him suddenly acting like a drama protagonist. Well, he is the protagonist, though.
Still, I have to say what needs to be said. It’s still the early part of the work, and it’s not even the point where Nam Heejae and Chae Eunwoo became official lovers, so the question of whether I played with him crossed the line.
I answered while longing for the spotlessly cheerful and good-hearted original Chae Eunwoo.
“I don’t know how I played with you, but if you felt that way, I apologize. I’m really sorry. I had no intention of hurting you.”
Because I’m a fake Nam Heejae who hasn’t even met you for that long in the first place.
The real Nam Heejae probably did have ulterior motives toward you. Actually, his ending plot is to mess around with you, then get tortured at Baek Sahyun’s hands and end. You even get pregnant with a child while having a broken ankle…, haah.
This was a severely toxic story, so I wanted to refrain from recalling it directly as much as possible.
Feeling annoyed at Baek Sahyun for a moment, I glared at him for about 2 seconds before quickly relaxing.
Then I racked my brain hard and started devising a plan to get through this incredibly awkward situation. Even if I told them all to fuck off, it was obvious neither of them would leave, so there’s only one method.
I cleared my throat with an “ahem” and said.
“Instead, I’ll properly introduce you to an Alpha better than me again, Eunwoo.”
I felt satisfied as I vigorously pushed Chae Eunwoo’s straight back to stand him close in front of Baek Sahyun.
“As you know, his name is Baek Sahyun and he’s twenty-four. He’s not even half a hundred, a fresh young age. He’s the grandson of a famous company and drives around that famous foreign car too. His appearance is sleek, so you’ll become a couple like a pair of nightingales. Hyung guarantees it. You two…, you two.”
I looked at the two people alternately and grinned.
“You two will have a burning love like novel protagonists!”
And I immediately showed my tail and ran like hell toward the open door gap.
I heard Chae Eunwoo’s shout from behind, but pretending not to hear, I ran at super speed like a sprint runner. Wow, my legs are really light. Perhaps because he’s in his vibrant twenties, Nam Heejae also had good athletic ability.
❖ ❖ ❖
I had no regrets about abandoning the two gays and running away, but now that I’d successfully escaped, I had nowhere to go. Only desolate silence was welcoming me.
The place where I’m standing is a cruise, in other words, on a boat floating in the middle of the Han River. It would have been convenient if it were docked, but since water was all around—up, down, left, and right—there was no escape route unless I swam out.
“Should I just pick an empty room and go in?”
But unfortunately, perhaps because it was already late into the early morning, the third-floor cabins were all locked without exception. Some of the rooms had vivid, raw moans coming from behind the doors, heating up my cheeks.
“Should I just sleep in the hallway? Though Hyungman-ssi would probably be furious saying I disgraced his face if he knew.”
But I also couldn’t go back to the second floor where Baek Sahyun and Chae Eunwoo would be. With the mindset of taking an early morning walk if worst came to worst, I started walking toward the outside of the cruise.
“Haah.”
The bitterly cold early morning air wets my nose. The place that had been decorated like a fancy party venue until earlier was neatly organized, leaving only white tables. Perhaps because there wasn’t a single star hanging in the pitch-black sky, I felt especially more lonely and desolate.
“Huh?”
That’s when it happened. A woman leaning deeply against the cruise railing as if about to tilt over came into view. It was a posture where she looked like she would fall with a splash if she just lifted one foot, so I reflexively ran.
“Excuse me, miss!”
It would be fair to say this was something my body, not my brain, ordered. Seeing a person about to die before my eyes, I moved my limbs without knowing it.
“Are you out of your mind?”
Having hugged the waist of the woman who already had one foot dangling and pulled her back, I asked with a frown, out of breath. The woman, whose back of her head hit my chest with a thud, let out a short exclamation of “Ah….”
“You could have fallen in the water if you were unlucky, then what were you going to do!”
Perhaps because I’m an older brother with a younger sister, I tended to be overly concerned about safety when I saw women around Haesu’s age. Haesu expressed it as meddling mixed with bravado, but even when I tried to fix it, it couldn’t be fixed. I just worried first when I saw women of that age group.
“You’re wearing thin clothes too. You’ll catch a cold at this rate, miss.”
When the wind is this cold. I hurriedly took off my jacket and covered it over the woman’s shoulders. I was cold too, but the face I faced was too pale, so I couldn’t not give it to her.
The woman, whose features were clearly revealed by the moonlight, stared at me blankly.
‘Huh. She looks somewhat familiar?’
Even though I only judged her general impression, thinking it would be rude to examine her feature by feature, I thought so. She seemed to resemble a famous actor I’d seen while flipping through TV channels, so I glanced around and asked.
“Are you perhaps a celebrity?”
“……”
“If you are, you have to be careful of paparazzi. Don’t reporters often follow around to places like this?”
When I rambled with information I’d picked up somewhere, the woman grabbed my arm with weak strength. Then she asked.
“You, do you not know me?”
A very calm and mature voice compared to the age range that could be estimated at face value. Since her appearance was young, I thought she’d be around Haesu’s age, but I started to think that might not be the case.
The woman asked again.
“You really don’t know?”
Oh, her speech has already shortened. I answered.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know celebrities well.”
“I’m not a celebrity.”
“Then I’d know even less.”
How would I know if she’s not even a celebrity? I’m not a fortune teller.
But the woman asked persistently as if she couldn’t understand.
“You’re not pretending not to know as a prank?”
