Dedicated living, my ass.
He chomped irritably on a cigarette, chewing at the filter. He scraped the lighter wheel over and over, but it must have been out of fluid — not even a spark.
The other broad-shouldered figure sitting in the passenger seat quickly produced a flame, and a pale haze of smoke curled up from the tip of the cigarette.
One deep drag of nicotine, coating his lungs, and he felt a little more like a living person.
“No, seriously — uncles. I told you to just say it straight, didn’t I? Even a straw sandal has its pair, so why don’t I have one? Huh? I’m telling you, I’ll hear you out seriously and think it over, so just be honest with me.”
Yong Cheonha — the treasure of the Yong family, their lucky charm.
His birth dream had been extraordinary, and before he had even entered the world, he had grown up receiving the unabashed favoritism and devotion of the Yongmun faction’s boss in full force. A precious boy.
Yong Cheonha. Could the intense favoritism not be felt from the very name itself? They named him Cheonha — all under heaven — as if to say: take the whole world for yourself.
Grandchildren are precious and beloved even when they do nothing at all, but among them, he was the youngest. The youngest grandchild among the youngest, with quite an age gap between him and the rest.
On top of that, Yong Sangmun — still formidable ruler of the underworld — was an old man who held a passionate belief in the supernatural, and Yong Cheonha was the very grandson whose birth dream he himself had dreamed. Even more than that, several significant events had unfolded at the same time as his birth, so to Yong Sangmun, Yong Cheonha was no ordinary grandson.
That alone was more than enough reason to be doted on — but it didn’t stop there. In a family full of hotheads, he was the only one to hang a nameplate at Hanguk University, a prestigious institution.
With credentials that left no choice but to pour everything into raising him preciously and indulgently, it was entirely predictable that his temper grew up just as rotten.
His adolescence in particular had been less human and more honey badger in temperament — to the point where he had actually presented in a fit of rage, driven by his own temper.
Not a metaphor. Literally.
The youngest young master of the Yongmun faction had been living just fine as a beta when he presented out of sheer spite and became an omega instead.
After presenting, he threw himself eagerly into romance — but with remarkable consistency, only terrible catches came his way, and yet his self-regard was too high to ever actually give himself to any of them.
He wanted to date, but he hadn’t even managed a proper first kiss. He only grew more and more hysterical.
With a fortune said to command all under heaven, the kind of romance everyone and their dog managed to have was somehow that elusive for him. He had tried many times, but the results had been nothing short of dismal.
Was he just a bad judge of character? Or was he truly following his fate……
“Young master, it’s just — that — well, your standards are too high.”
“Then how far down am I supposed to lower them, given what I bring to the table?”
Yong Cheonha felt wronged. He had already compromised and compromised again, lowering his standards considerably.
“Am I asking for too much? They have to be taller than me. No — I won’t even insist on taller. At least eye level with me, roughly.”
Yong Cheonha’s height was 185cm.
“They have to be an alpha.”
Alphas were a rare secondary type, no less uncommon than omegas.
“I only look at one thing — the face — so why is that not working out?”
Well, because his standard of beauty was simply too high.
Of course, it seemed to have come down considerably lately — but even so, his standards remained sky-high. Not just at the top of the sky, but up among the celestial heavens.
Fine bone structure, long limbs, doe-like eyes, a beautiful alpha that somehow stirred a protective instinct……. Wasn’t that the sort of thing that only appeared in novels?
“I look as good as I do — am I not allowed to care about looks too? Huh? Then what exactly should I be looking for?”
Yong Cheonha had managed to dodge the powerful Yong family genetics and take after his mother’s side instead, making him the only man in the Yong household with a face that looked carved from marble.
He had the kind of looks most people favored, and he was especially popular with women — but unfortunately, after his presentation, beta women and omega women had been removed from the list of people Yong Cheonha would consider dating.
“Ugh. So annoying.”
As the club came into view, he hastily fixed his hair and tidied himself up.
On a Friday at this hour, there should at least be one alpha worth feasting your eyes on.
The club, acquired so that their omega-presented youngest grandson could go out and have fun safely, had been a dying venue — but after being taken over under Yong Cheonha’s name, it had risen to become one of the hottest spots in the area, packed to capacity.
It had gained a reputation among women and omegas as a place where you could genuinely just go out and have fun without any trouble, thanks to the intimidating guards who strictly cracked down on substances and forceful contact.
As he headed up to the VIP section, clubbers who recognized Cheonha flocked over to him.
But Yong Cheonha, whose interest in any secondary type other than alpha had cut off entirely the moment he presented, was perfectly blank-minded no matter what stimulation they offered.
Quite a shame, really. Both for Yong Cheonha, and for the women, betas, and omegas who liked him.
The shame didn’t end there. The alphas — the very people who were Yong Cheonha’s only romantic prospects — were envious and jealous of him for having a trail of pretty admirers following him around.
The only secondary type he would ever consider dating was jealous of him, making him their collective enemy — and so today, too, Yong Cheonha’s troubles only deepened.
In truth, Yong Cheonha had known from the time he first became aware of his own appearance that he was exceptionally good-looking.
Unlike his uncles or older cousins, he felt strangely happy every time he looked in a mirror, and the people around him never stopped praising him — saying he was already so tall and striking at such a young age, that the future was bright for him — so it would have been strange not to know.
His parents had gone to the trouble of producing someone with exceptional genes — why waste this face?
He had wanted to live outrageously, to give his physical self every kind of satisfaction. But that first experience was the problem.
Yes. Yong Cheonha had fantasies about his firsts.
First love, first kiss, first time.
He had a kind of fantasy built around them, and for it to be satisfying, the other person needed to be beautiful. The scandalous life could come after.
He was perfectly ready to cast off his virginity and live recklessly — but he still hadn’t had a first time, let alone a first kiss. Damn it! Were his uncles right that his standards were too high?
But this was something he could absolutely not compromise on.
It wasn’t as if he was born with these looks just to give them to some unattractive alpha. His mother had put her whole effort into crafting this face. He was going to give that to a complete stranger — and he wasn’t even going to hold the line on the bare minimum standard of looks? His one and only requirement?
Even so, lately he had been feeling anxious enough that he wondered whether he should compromise even on that single condition.
The reason was none other than the shaman’s words.
He now knew, to the bone, that she was someone who might speak in vague terms — but never said anything wrong.
What was it the shaman had said at the start of the year?
‘If you don’t meet your guardian figure when your great fortune comes in at twenty, you’ll have to live your whole life a bachelor. Don’t laugh. I don’t mean you’ll enjoy yourself and just fail to get married — I mean you’ll die without losing your virginity and become a bachelor ghost.’
It was absolute nonsense. He had believed that at the time.
He had ground his thick skull down to nothing studying and managed to get into Hanguk University, where they said there were so many decent-looking alphas.
All he had been thinking about was handpicking a pretty alpha, dating for a while, making beautiful memories, and then living recklessly after that!
There was no way the shaman’s nonsense was going to land with him.
But reality was cruel.
He had studied so hard he was practically bleeding from the nose — and they said there were plenty of good-looking alphas. But what was this. Beanpoles, four-eyes, or ones that were neither here nor there and just painfully plain……. Ha……
He should have ignored his family and gone into film or fashion design. Or a different university with a modeling department! What glory was he chasing by doing business at Hanguk University……. Ha……
He had decided to think positively. He still had plenty of time. He was a freshman who had just started the semester — there was nothing to be afraid of.
Even amid all that, he had taken the advice not to date within his department to heart, and decided to look for a connection among students in other majors or outside of school entirely.
So he became class representative, joined three clubs, and even looked for a study group outside of school.
But there was no connection to be found there either. Instead, he got kicked out of a study group by a group leader who was clearly obsessed with his female members, on the grounds that all the women and omegas were only paying attention to Yong Cheonha. Even though Yong Cheonha had been the only one he was actually interested in — that very group leader.
Of course, Yong Cheonha’s efforts didn’t stop there.
He joined a running crew — the kind people said anyone and everyone hit on each other in. It was the best group he had joined so far. The crew leader was a beta, and handsome at that, and the alpha members went without saying.
An alpha who didn’t take out their inferiority complex on him was already a rare find — and they were good-looking on top of that? And being a fitness crew, their bodies were great too.
But these people ran like actual athletes. On top of that, they were all either taken or married. Damn it! He’d just ended up with better stamina for nothing.
As a last resort, he even took on the café part-time job that people said got you loads of numbers. Not because he was short on money — he had started working the café job specifically to get people’s numbers.
But his face just got famous by word of mouth and business boomed. Damn it all! How could the world do this to him?
How could it do this to someone who was putting in so much effort?
He had tried this hard, and instead of any reward, half a year had already slipped away. The second semester was just around the corner, and he still hadn’t so much as held hands with a decent-looking alpha.
Yeah. He was getting anxious now.
It was superstition — clearly superstition — but at this point, strangely enough, he couldn’t dismiss it anymore.
He wanted to get one thing settled: when the shaman had said twenty, did she mean twenty in international age, or twenty in Korean age?
But the shaman had gone to Jeju Island, or was it abroad? Either way, she was unreachable. Apparently when shamans go off to perform rituals, they can’t be contacted. Ha……
He was getting unbearably anxious. His legs were trembling on their own.
