When he opened the inner door and stepped inside, sure enough, Chaehun’s younger brother Kang Yeonghwan was sprawled on the sofa looking at his phone. Around him were half-eaten snack bags and beverage cans, and on the dining table, sandwiches with only a few bites taken and beer cans were scattered messily. On the floor, clothes Kang Yeonghwan had taken off were strewn about everywhere like shed skin.
“Oh, hyung’s here?”
Without even getting up, just lightly glancing over and rolling around on the sofa, Kang Yeonghwan’s appearance somehow reminded one of a cat. With slightly upturned eye corners and stubborn-looking lips harmonizing well in a cute face and a slender physique.
With his natural good looks and bright personality, the popular Kang Yeonghwan had an extroverted personality. On top of that, being an omega meant his weekends overflowed with plans. It wasn’t difficult to guess why he was here on a Friday night like this.
When he fought with his lover and had nowhere particular to go, Kang Yeonghwan would kill time here like this.
Chaehun fully welcomed his younger brother visiting his place. However, that was only when he contacted him in advance and got permission. Moreover, having the house messy was an entirely different problem.
“Kang Yeonghwan. I told you to contact me in advance before coming.”
“What. I know the passcode.”
“How many times do I have to tell you that’s different? And I told you not to eat snacks while spilling crumbs. Hurry up and clean the trash on the dining table too. It smells.”
Chaehun nagged at Kang Yeonghwan first. The house was Chaehun’s domain after gaining independence. Separate from the family knowing the passcode, he thought it was proper etiquette to contact him in advance if they were going to visit. However, no matter how much he warned Kang Yeonghwan, it was futile.
Tidying up was the same. Though it wasn’t quite germophobia, when Chaehun used something, he put it back in its place and cleaned up trash right away. Conversely, Kang Yeonghwan had a talent for making a mess, and he didn’t try to clean up what he’d messed up with his own hands.
At their family home, there was no one to nag Kang Yeonghwan no matter what he did.
Born as an omega between beta parents, Kang Yeonghwan had been quite sickly since childhood. Their parents cherished Kang Yeonghwan. Especially their mother was like that. With slight exaggeration, she tried not to let him get even a drop of water on his hands. Now Kang Yeonghwan was healthy, but their mother remained the same.
Perhaps because of that, Kang Yeonghwan tended to be selfish. Even when told to contact before visiting, even when told to clean up what he messed up himself, it didn’t sink in.
For three years since Chaehun gained independence, the same squabbles repeated, but Kang Yeonghwan stayed the same. He still showed up opening the front door without any warning. He spilled snack crumbs on the sofa and left leftover food lying around carelessly. The same with clothes he took off.
Still, Chaehun didn’t understand and let it slide just because that was his brother’s tendency. If he were young it might be different, but he had no intention of cleaning up after a kid who was already grown.
“Little hyung is always nagging.”
“That’s why you clean up.”
“Hey, I didn’t mess up that much.”
“Hurry up and clean.”
Chaehun deliberately acted strict with Kang Yeonghwan. He knew that once you started accepting it, there would be no end.
When he put force into his eyes and glared, Kang Yeonghwan reluctantly got up from his seat and started tidying. However, Kang Yeonghwan’s hands, unskilled at cleaning, were clumsy, and in the end Chaehun had to step in. Once both of them moved, the cleaning was done quickly.
“It’s because the house is small. Even a little mess makes it look dirty. See. It’s clean right away.”
Kang Yeonghwan, who was wiping down the table, pouted.
“You’re the one who left your hands off something that would be cleaned right away. Here.”
“Everything else about hyung is good, but you nag too much. Do you know that if you nag a lot you’ll go bald? …Huh? I smell alpha pheromones from hyung.”
Kang Yeonghwan, who was passing by Chaehun holding a mug, stopped. Because Kang Yeonghwan was saying he smelled alpha scent and sniffing, sticking his nose close, Chaehun didn’t answer right away.
Thanks to having an omega younger brother, Chaehun knew quite a lot about trait-holders.
Alphas and omegas could smell each other’s pheromone scents. After manifesting and reaching a certain age, they could mostly control their pheromone scents, but he’d heard some wore them like perfume. And in the case of alphas, they sometimes layered their scent on omegas.
On the other hand, betas couldn’t smell pheromone scents, nor did they stick to their bodies.
In that sense, Chaehun had a peculiar constitution. Despite being a beta, alpha and omega pheromone scents stuck to him. When it was severe, he was even mistaken for being an alpha or omega. Especially after sleeping in the same room with his brother.
Since the scent disappeared after showering, Chaehun had never particularly paid attention to it. But now he smells alpha scent.
Chaehun reflexively thought of Seunggeon. Usually when pheromones were released, they stuck most severely when in contact with bare skin. Seunggeon had only grabbed his wrist. But if not him, there was no one else he’d particularly met.
Having tried to forget, Chaehun clicked his tongue inwardly at recalling Seunggeon. He’d come after cutting off his lingering attachment, but the invisible scent seemed to have followed along, stuck like a tail.
“Probably picked it up on the subway.”
Chaehun acted as if it was nothing. His reaction was half a beat late, but Kang Yeonghwan didn’t find it strange.
“Really? For that… it’s a distinctive scent. Interesting.”
“I don’t really know.”
Betas can’t smell pheromone scents anyway, but Chaehun pretended to sniff by putting his nose to his shoulder. He thought he could smell the winter wind. But that probably wasn’t Seunggeon’s scent.
“Of course you don’t know. Hyung’s a beta.”
“Exactly.”
“Hyung’s probably the only beta who goes around with pheromones stuck to him, right? More than that, hyung, did you hear where we’re eating out on Sunday?”
Kang Yeonghwan changed the topic. Next Tuesday was their mother’s birthday.
After their father passed away three years ago, aside from their mother’s birthday, their father’s death anniversary, and holidays, there was almost no occasion for the whole family to gather. Even though they lived in the same Seoul, everyone was busy living their own lives. Still, on their mother’s birthday, they somehow made time. Since it was difficult to gather everyone on a weekday, meeting on the weekend to celebrate her birthday was an implicit promise.
Their mother liked eating out at upscale Japanese restaurants. Compared to their father, who wanted to set up a feast table heavy enough to break the legs and invite guests, their mother’s birthday was easier. In particular, their mother always personally chose the restaurant she wanted to go to and made the reservation herself.
“Yeah. She said we’re going back to the place we went last year. Right?”
“Probably. What are you doing for a gift?”
“I’m going to give cash. What about you? Did you write a letter?”
“I didn’t. But hyung. Isn’t it weird to still write letters to mom at this age when we’re not kids anymore? You didn’t write one either. We see her all the time, what would we have to say in a letter?”
Having set down the mug in the sink, Kang Yeonghwan pouted and vented his complaints. At the mention of a letter, Chaehun also drove Seunggeon out of his head.
When their mother’s birthday came around, Kang Yeonghwan giving her a letter he’d written himself was a special event. Their mother openly said she looked forward to the letter Kang Yeonghwan gave her more than money or gifts.
However, Kang Yeonghwan had no talent for writing nor did he like it. Even if not when he was young, as he got older, writing letters became bothersome.
Watching Kang Yeonghwan grumble, Chaehun smiled awkwardly. At times like this, he thought that receiving their mother’s excessive love wasn’t necessarily a good thing either.
“Just write it. Mom likes it.”
“Well. I’ll write it. I’m just saying it’s annoying. Hyung. Let’s eat a late-night snack. How about tteokbokki? Really spicy.”
Kang Yeonghwan’s interest turned to the late-night snack menu. Having had no thought of eating anything, Chaehun suddenly wanted to drink alcohol. Unlucky events and depressing memories had rushed in all at once. He needed alcohol to forget the world’s worries.
“You threw away half of that last time without eating it. Either order mild or regular, or just order something completely different.”
“Aw, but tteokbokki has to be spicy.”
“Just order pork cutlet. You like pork cutlet.”
Having struggled about two months ago to deal with the spicy tteokbokki Kang Yeonghwan ordered and left, Chaehun suggested pork cutlet. Because of Kang Yeonghwan saying pork cutlet didn’t appeal to him, they bickered for a while over the late-night snack menu.
That’s how Chaehun forgot about Seunggeon.
* * *
“Do you know Ahjumma Kyeongsuk? You know the two-story house we used to live in. She ran a hair salon at the end of that alley. It’s so long ago you probably don’t remember. Anyway, she must have remembered you’re an omega. A good marriage prospect contacted me just yesterday. He works at Seoul City Hall. Grade 7 civil servant, thirty-one years old. There’s even a photo. Look. Isn’t he handsome? What do you think?”
Chaehun quietly watched his mother Jo Mihye thrust her phone right in front of Kang Yeonghwan’s nose.
The family dinner commemorating their mother’s birthday was ending smoothly. They were almost done eating even the tempura that came out last, when hyung left the private room saying he had to take an important call. And their mother brought up matchmaking to Kang Yeonghwan.
It was a familiar scene. Among the world’s population, trait-holders were an extreme minority, and omegas were even fewer in number than alphas. Alphas and omegas could have children with betas, but trait-holders were rarely born. So usually alphas and omegas met and married. The relatively fewer omegas usually had the choice in the marriage market.
Kang Yeonghwan was a dominant omega. Dominant omegas had very high pregnancy rates, and though not scientifically proven, there was a rumor that in the case of male omegas, they definitely gave birth to trait-holders.
There were plenty of families that valued trait-holder bloodlines. Large corporations that continued their lineage with alphas were especially severe. Rumors that weren’t quite rumors would sometimes spread about arranged marriages between well-known families ending in divorce because trait-holder children weren’t born.
For Kang Yeonghwan, who was not only a dominant omega but also male, marriage prospects had been coming in since before he turned twenty. There were many places that said marriage could happen later, so they should get engaged first. Kang Yeonghwan shouted that marriage or whatever, shouldn’t he at least get his college diploma, and their parents told him to do so.
And this year, as Kang Yeonghwan became a college senior, the person who got busy was their mother. After their father passed away, their mother became solely responsible for Kang Yeonghwan’s marriage. She wanted to look at as many prospects as possible and choose the best conditions.
Their mother, who worked as an insurance planner, had wide connections. The man who worked at Seoul City Hall was probably a prospect their mother had carefully selected. However, Chaehun thought Kang Yeonghwan wouldn’t like the man. Kang Yeonghwan’s standards were quite high.
Sure enough, Kang Yeonghwan pushed away Jo Mihye’s phone without even looking at the photo.
“I don’t really like civil servants. And what’s a Grade 7?”
“Grade 7 is appropriate and good. He already has his own apartment. The man’s family is wealthy. His father does large-scale apple farming in Chungcheong Province. He has several buildings in Daejeon too. He’s an only son with no siblings, so he can inherit all of that. After retirement, you can live running an orchard. How nice.”
