“If that’s not even the case, you let the situation become like this? That bastard’s at the house! I’m going to drag him out right now!”
Only after noona’s furious reaction did Young’s stubbornly closed mouth open.
“Stop it, sit down! It’s not his fault!”
“It is that bastard’s fault! Living with an omega, there’s no way he didn’t notice the signs, but he just left it? That bastard did it on purpose!”
“We haven’t even run into each other at home for a while, so what would he know! I’m telling you it’s not like that!”
When Young shouted back just as loudly, this time the eldest hyung caught onto his words.
“That’s even more suspicious! You haven’t seen each other at home, but you happened to run into each other that day?”
Young countered without leaving any gap.
“Yes! That day of all days! He contacted me saying he was getting off work when I was already sprawled out at home!”
It was true. He knew from seeing the message left below the family’s overflowing chat windows that had piled up beyond counting.
Joo Kyung-heon
I got off work early for once. I’ll come home. I’ll see you later after I finish work.
It didn’t look like the scheme of a cowardly person who had sensed the heat cycle coming. If they said you can’t tell anything from just text, he’d have nothing to say, but…
There was such a thing. Elements like speech patterns, voice, and nuance that were conveyed even just from text. The language of Joo Kyung-heon that he’d learned spending an hour together each day, or his trust in him.
The family members who didn’t know the circumstances still had suspicious looks in their eyes.
“Wait, wait, wait.”
While voices continued to rise, Chan, who had an unusual expression, interrupted.
“Young, why are you defending him so much? You said you’re not even in a relationship you like.”
Young, who had been responding point by point so well until now, firmly shut his mouth.
It was because of confusion. He couldn’t exactly say they were in a relationship they liked, but it was true they’d gotten closer than before. If he had to say, it was favorable feelings, but it didn’t seem like he could define that as liking someone.
So as he couldn’t easily open his mouth, Chan shouted even more aghast.
“Don’t tell me you like him by yourself?”
“Ah! What are you saying, really!”
“Then why are you going around protecting Joo Kyung-heon? It’s strange!”
If they asked like that, he wasn’t completely without an answer. Since his body heated up first, he probably threw himself at Kyung-heon, so it was uncomfortable to turn the arrow toward Kyung-heon who might have suffered an ordeal. That would be a valid reason.
“…Wait.”
However, the timing to open up about it was stolen. It was because of a call that suddenly came in.
Joo Kyung-heon
Young, who confirmed the LCD screen, brought his straightened index finger in front of his lips.
Since (probably) he’d pounced first and then run away, he should at least answer the phone to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings. That’s why he accepted the call despite being stuck among his family members.
“…Hello.”
Whether it was because of the watching gazes or the utterly embarrassing past situation, an extremely unstable voice flowed out.
— I thought you were in the room… but I don’t see you.
The other side sounded just as anxious. Young swallowed his dry saliva for no reason and parted his lips again.
“Ah… well…”
He wanted to explain at least why he was at his family home from morning. But looking at the faces of his family members concentrating with fire in their eyes, it didn’t seem like the atmosphere for that.
Among them, the eldest hyung’s expression, asking with his mouth “Is it that bastard?” was truly fierce. If it became known that his call partner was Kyung-heon, a riot would break out immediately.
— It seems the situation is quite difficult.
“A little… yes.”
When Young shortened his words due to his family’s pressure, Kyung-heon opened his mouth first again.
— I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.
“……”
— Let’s take some time to think about this matter.
The answer Young could give to that was limited.
“…Alright.”
It was a conversation that could naturally happen since it was a sudden situation for both of them. So why did his energy drain completely at this moment? Young’s eyes that had been spitting fire and snapping back changed to dead fish eyes after the brief phone call.
“It’s that bastard, right! What did he say!”
“Don’t get all clingy just because you slept together once!”
“Did he tell you not to spread it around outside?”
He no longer had the will to counter his siblings’ reactions as they pounced like predators. Young, who had been staring blankly into space with vacant eyes, smoothly stood up from his seat.
“I want to wash.”
Leaving only those four syllables, he familiarly found his way into the bathroom.
***
The sound of water pouring into the bathtub filled the bathroom. Young sat perched on the bathtub frame waiting for the bath water to finish filling.
The reason he suddenly looked at the mirror wasn’t special. He was just blankly watching the water level rise and turned his head. But the appearance reflected in the mirror was a sight.
“This is crazy, just crazy.”
Even though the heat had completely subsided, his whole body was red. Even though the mirror was covered with steam because he’d turned on hot water, it couldn’t be hidden. His neck, arms, chest, and stomach. The upper body reflected in the mirror was covered in blotches. Of course, the state of his lower body not captured in the mirror was no different.
Young put down the oil he’d been holding back on the shelf. Instead, he picked up a foaming bath product. His plan was to make abundant foam, then soak up to his neck to hide all the bruises that were no different from mating marks.
The intention worked well. When he poured in more than the recommended amount of bath product, foam immediately rose on the water surface. The water that would barely submerge up to his thighs if he stretched his legs out long had also risen quite a bit. Young now entered the bathtub and sat leaning his back.
He was finally trying to sort out what had happened over the past two days, but Kyung-heon’s voice arbitrarily came to mind, cutting ahead of everything else.
‘I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.’
He said that, but his own voice was actually uncomfortable. As expected, he’d lost his reason to pheromones and pounced on him, so they slept together with eyes rolled back, but looking back, was he uncomfortable? For instance, did he regret it?
That seemed highly likely.
‘Let’s take some time to think about this matter.’
Wasn’t that expression of taking time usually that kind of meaning? Like a signal flare for an implicit breakup.
Of course, it was a formula that couldn’t be established in a relationship where they weren’t dating, nor were they a typical married couple despite being married. But even considering the ambiguous relationship, it was the same. Only the fact that Kyung-heon’s last words carried a negative nuance was certain.
‘So what if it’s negative. What does it have to do with me.’
Young tried hard to maintain his composure.
It wasn’t forced. He’d seen the shitty ending of devoted love, and he’d experienced a weak first love that crumbled against family background. He no longer believed in purely wholehearted love, so what was the big deal about panting together a bit with eyes blinded by lust.
“……”
Young, who had been blankly glaring into space, suddenly took a deep breath. Then he slid into the water. After submerging up to the top of his head, only when he started to run out of breath did he exhale the breath he’d fully taken in.
Air bubbles rising between the foam was only momentary. Young stuck his head out of the water again, gasping urgently—puhah.
There was no particular intention. He’d just done anything because it was frustrating to stay still, but while underwater, the earlier phone call suddenly rewound.
‘It seems the situation is quite difficult.’
He thought there might be a misunderstanding. He’d answered “a little” meaning that it was difficult for him to talk on the phone right now, but there was a possibility that the other side interpreted it in the direction that the matter between them was difficult.
‘I thought you were in the room… but I don’t see you.’
Before that, when he’d just answered the phone, looking at how he’d used a naive way of speaking after a while, it seemed that was probably right.
Young immediately pulled out the plug at the bottom of the bathtub. The plan to sort out his head by carefully going over the events that happened over two days? It was okay if it fell through. Anyway, if the immediate emotional problem wasn’t resolved, no matter how much he chewed over previous events a hundred times, they wouldn’t be sorted out.
Since his thoughts had reached this point, he intended to meet Kyung-heon right away. Otherwise, there seemed to be no way to erase this unpleasant feeling whose root he couldn’t identify.
