The Starting Point of a Season
Chae Jinyeong was small in every way.
Though we were born around the same time at the same hospital, Chae Jinyeong and I — Im Yuhan — were different in many ways. I had kicked so vigorously inside my mother’s womb that people joked I’d grow up to be a soccer player, and I was born a healthy, robust baby. Chae Jinyeong, on the other hand, was born premature, and had to spend a long time in an incubator while his mother and father worried over him.
Since our parents had been neighborhood friends for years, and our houses were less than ten minutes apart, Chae Jinyeong and I were raised together as though sharing childcare. Especially when we were little, Jinyeong was so small and pale that on days when the wind blew even slightly too hard, I’d spend the whole day gripping his hand tight, terrified he might get blown away.
Back then, Chae Jinyeong’s face was small, his mouth was small, his ears were small — everything about him was small. He had skin so white it was almost pallid, and a frame smaller than other kids his age, but the one thing that was big on him was his eyes. His jet-black irises looked like stars plucked straight from the night sky. Whenever I saw myself reflected in them, it felt as if I had slipped inside Jinyeong somehow, and that made me feel strangely satisfied. That’s why I loved looking into Chae Jinyeong’s eyes.
Small body, white face, but eyes and hair as black as a rabbit’s… The impression built from those delicate, faint lines was like ice — but his ears and cheeks, which flushed so easily, could shatter that impression in an instant. Especially when he smiled, like a flower bud bursting open.
Mom. I don’t think Jinyeong is human.
Mom burst out laughing at that. But I was serious. Dead serious.
Could he be like a mermaid? But Jinyeong’s a boy, so that’d make him a merman?
When I first heard fairy tales about creatures that disguise themselves as humans, I was genuinely frightened. Until I could be certain that Chae Jinyeong was truly human, I pestered him relentlessly.
You’re really human, right? So that means you won’t go somewhere and leave me behind, right?
“Hey, hurry up and pick! It’s your turn, Im Yuhan!”
Even after starting elementary school, whenever anyone asked who was prettiest, my answer was always Chae Jinyeong without exception. It made sense — from the day I was born, Jinyeong was the only one I’d ever looked at. Having seen someone this pretty every single day of my life, there was no way anyone else could catch my eye.
“Are you dumb? Chae Jinyeong’s a boy!”
“You said to pick the prettiest person. Jinyeong’s the prettiest to me.”
The other boys looked at me like I was strange, but my answer was always the same. At times like those, Chae Jinyeong would press his lips tightly shut, his ears flushing crimson, and stare at me with a face full of things he wanted to say. Everyone teased him, telling him to say something. And Jinyeong would drop his head without a word. His reddened ears were so vividly flushed, like a perfectly ripe apple, that I almost wanted to take a bite.
Whether it was because he’d been born early or because he had a weak constitution, Chae Jinyeong was always the target of teasing or bullying within the class. So whenever that happened, I —
“Oww! Teacher! Im Yuhan’s doing kicks again!”
— would send a kick flying with the full force of a third-degree black belt.
“He’s mine, so get my permission before you mess with him.”
Protecting Chae Jinyeong was my job, since I was so much bigger than him.
Whenever we were out, people would always ask me if I was Jinyeong’s older brother. That was probably because of the contrast between me, who was bigger than most kids my age, and Jinyeong, who was smaller than average.
As if it had been branded into me, Chae Jinyeong was someone I had to protect. And not once did I ever feel wronged for getting into a fight or scolded over something involving him. Back then, Jinyeong was — how to put it — mine. At least, I thought of him as someone under my ownership, someone I had to protect. It even made me feel proud, like I was a bodyguard or a hero protecting a prince.
The shy Chae Jinyeong only ever talked at length when it was just the two of us. On the way home, he suddenly grabbed my sleeve and tugged. I scratched my head awkwardly, wondering if it was about what had happened earlier. Soft-hearted as he was, Jinyeong had always come to apologize in moments like these.
“Sorry.”
“What are you sorry for. Didn’t you see? Those guys are nothing to me.”
“Still, you got scolded by the teacher because of me.”
“Why is that because of you. I just felt like it, that’s all.”
Chae Jinyeong’s voice was soft and gentle. So different from the loud, rowdy boys in class — I secretly hoped he’d keep talking to me and only me for a long, long time. Because Jinyeong felt like a precious gift. A gift so beautiful to me that I wanted to show him off to others, but in the end, I still wanted him to keep looking at only me.
“Yuhan, you…”
The voice that drifted over was hesitant.
“…do you really think I’m the prettiest?”
When I turned, Chae Jinyeong’s earlobes were dyed red, both hands gripping the straps of his backpack. His face, lips pressed tightly together as if he were asking something enormous, made me laugh in disbelief.
“In my eyes, you’re the prettiest.”
Back then, not even the celebrities on TV could compare to Chae Jinyeong, in my mind. It only struck me as strange that Jinyeong didn’t seem to know that.
“If I’m pretty…”
His lips hesitated, words wavering. I twirled the black belt tied over my taekwondo uniform and waited for him to say what he wanted to say. Because we’d left later than the usual dismissal time, only a handful of kids waiting for their parents remained on the school grounds.
“If I’m pretty… well, you see…”
Ding-dong, ding-dong — the school bell rang, as if urging us to go home. It was the moment the melody finally came to an end. My mind drifted to the trait non-manifestation notice tucked inside my bag. The trait that usually manifested in middle or high school. Why did looking at Chae Jinyeong keep bringing that to mind? Just then, Chae Jinyeong’s long lashes fluttered.
“Will you… marry me someday?”
He said it so firmly, as though he’d summoned tremendous courage to do so, that I stopped twirling my black belt and stared at him. I half-wondered if he was joking.
But would he need to tremble this much over a joke like that? Jinyeong was more innocent than other kids and practically a blank slate when it came to this sort of thing, so it was possible.
But there was no way Chae Jinyeong would joke about something like this. And more than anything else — I figured that if I became an Alpha and Jinyeong became an Omega, marrying him wouldn’t be so bad. As pretty as he was, no matter how I looked at it, Jinyeong was obviously going to be an Omega.
Because Alphas are meant to be with Omegas, and Omegas are meant to be with Alphas.
Well, even setting that reason aside — Jinyeong is pretty. And I like him a lot. So wouldn’t marrying him be fun?
“Are you going to make a lot of money?”
“…Huh?”
“I’m going to marry someone rich.”
“Oh — yeah! I’ll make lots of money!”
“Then you can be the bride.”
It was a playful answer. In that instant, Chae Jinyeong’s eyes went wide. As if it were a completely unexpected reply, he was at a loss for a moment — and then, as if he’d made up his mind about something, his hands tightened around the straps of his bag.
“Okay, Yuhan. I’ll handle all the plans from here on out.”
What plans?
But before I could even ask, he smiled so brightly that I just laughed along with him. The setting sun behind Chae Jinyeong glowed like a halo. Everything else fell into shadow, but only Jinyeong’s smiling face sparkled.
Ah, he’s so pretty.
Looking at that smile, I made a silent vow to protect him no matter what — Chae Jinyeong, who would surely become an Omega.
But that vow didn’t last long. Because from that day forward, Chae Jinyeong started following me to the taekwondo gym, and before long, his body began filling out with muscle. He had always seemed so fragile — but when I finally paid attention, I realized at some point he’d shot up in height.
The time our eye levels became roughly the same was in middle school. The time he grew taller than me was the summer break of our first year of high school.
“You… what happened?”
“What do you mean.”
“Didn’t you go to the countryside for break? What on earth did you do to come back taller than me?”
“I had some growing pains, it was pretty rough. Even Grandma was surprised. My ankles are showing past the hem, so I have to get my uniform re-fitted.”
When he showed up at my house near the end of summer break, I was completely taken aback. The moment I opened the door I could already tell something was different — in less than two months, he’d grown at least ten centimeters. The broader-framed Chae Jinyeong no longer had any trace of the boy he’d been when we were young.
Since entering middle school, with puberty came the knowledge that comes with it — and losing that innocence wasn’t unique to me or any other middle schooler. But seeing him now, in high school, with a height and build that had grown to be almost model-like, I couldn’t help but feel a quiet pang of something.
“What. Does it feel weird?”
“Uh…”
“That’s a cold thing to say to someone you’re going to marry. So a tall bride isn’t pretty, is that it?”
