Young, who was refilling his glass again, banged the whiskey bottle down on the table. His hand gripping the solid glass bottle trembled slightly. No matter how foolish he’d been, still. He felt wronged because it didn’t seem entirely his fault.
‘Most of all, I have no desire to back out of this marriage.’
Why did he send such firm eyes that made one’s heart drop when saying those words?
‘One hour a day, whether eating or drinking tea, whatever we do.’
Why did he make time saying let’s get close when they’d been getting along well just doing the bare minimum,
‘We’ve met before, right?’
Why did he intervene in the unwelcome reunion with Ahn Chae-seung and release intensely fierce pheromones,
‘Let’s stop watching?’
Why did he act like someone who found it displeasing to see Ahn Chae-seung taking off—he couldn’t understand.
That wasn’t all. The hand that wrapped around his own when he jokingly pressed his temple, calling him out saying the weather was nice, acting as if he’d go anywhere together. There were countless anecdotes that couldn’t be simply explained.
If only he’d kept an appropriate distance and acted coldly like today in everything. Then he too would have just admired his handsome face or physique occasionally without unnecessary misunderstanding.
“He seduced me first and now… bad bastard.”
Young muttered with slurred pronunciation and emptied the glass he’d just filled again. When he put down the glass and lay flat on the floor, the ceiling spun round and round.
“Why is it spinning like crazy. So annoying.”
Young expressed complaints no one could hear. Yet he couldn’t think to close his eyes and did his best to glare at the spinning ceiling.
As he lay there, soon the sound of the door lock password being entered was heard. Beep beep, after the electronic sound came the presence of the heavy door sliding open. Before long, Seong-jae’s face was added to the spinning ceiling.
“What are you doing in someone else’s house?”
Right. This was Seong-jae’s house. He didn’t have the confidence to go home and face Joo Kyung-heon, didn’t have the confidence to go to his parents’ home and withstand the fuss about killing that bastard Joo Kyung-heon, and though he craved alcohol, it seemed if he sat alone saying ‘I went through a frenzied heat cycle,’ he wouldn’t be able to avoid unseemly incidents.
So he chose Seong-jae’s house. There was no one else, and even if the homeowner returned, it was the optimal place with no risk. Well, it might be different from the homeowner’s perspective.
“I drank. Can’t you tell by looking?”
“So, you came into a house without the owner and drank alone? Is this right?”
“Isn’t that why you tell me the password and all?”
“Would I have done that for this?”
“Everyone does things first then blames only me, what a fuss!”
“What are you talking about.”
Seong-jae didn’t particularly show he was dumbfounded or absurd. Just radiating an air of not wanting to deal with this, he gently pushed Young’s body with his foot. When it didn’t push as he thought it would, he just stepped over Young’s body and sat on the sofa.
He picked up the nearly empty whiskey bottle.
“Buy more.”
That was all he said. Putting the bottle back down, he stretched and buried himself in the sofa. The voice he threw out was indifferent.
“Why. What happened.”
He seemed to think if Young had barged into a house without the owner and was drinking alone, there must be a reason for it. At his question, Young still sprawled on the floor just moved his mouth.
“Hey, I slept with Joo Kyung-heon.”
It was a fact alphas or omegas would notice just passing by. But beta Seong-jae needed an explanation. At the bombshell statement, Seong-jae immediately went “Huh?” then suddenly rolled his eyes with a serious expression.
“Wait. You, that, heat cycle? Because of that?”
Since he manifested at twenty and always went dark for several days around this time, it wasn’t strange that Seong-jae knew the cycle. But that stirred up a strange sense of deprivation.
“Crazy! Even you knew it and I forgot!”
There was a lot of information contained in the drunken outburst. Seong-jae also knew about the heat cycle period, but the person himself forgot to take suppressants, and ultimately pheromones exploded and he slept with Kyung-heon who lived in the same house. The series of processes was enough to be organized in Seong-jae’s head.
Seong-jae wasn’t swept up in the stubbornness. He calmly picked up and ate one of the olives Young had nicely laid out in someone else’s house—that is, his house.
“What does Joo Kyung-heon say?”
“He says since we’re a couple anyway, isn’t there no problem. Something about law and morality.”
“It’s correct, but he’s drawing the line clearly.”
At the third party’s reaction, Young jerked his upper body up. Then he repeated the words he’d been muttering alone—that he confused him first, he seduced someone who was staying still….
Seong-jae had good patience too. He listened to it all with an indifferent face, then finally replied.
“But why are you so angry? Do you have feelings for Joo Kyung-heon?”
Hit by the casually thrown stone, Young fell backward. His empty cry rang through Seong-jae’s living room.
“Fuck!”
***
After the tumultuous heat cycle, it took some time for Young to return to daily life. It wasn’t that he took a special rest only this time due to an unexpected accident—it had always been like this originally.
It was because of his family’s pressure. Even if he took suppressants on time, they said just in case and made him stay only at home before and after heat cycles.
Well, this time it was because he was waiting for Kyung-heon’s pheromones vibrating throughout his body to subside.
The scent was so strong that even soaking his body daily in strongly scented bath products and spraying strong perfume couldn’t erase Kyung-heon’s traces.
Normally, it wouldn’t have mattered whether he rested for days or weeks. But this time was different. Wasn’t Young working?
He somehow handled work possible remotely from home, but that alone was insufficient. After resting for several days and going to work, the piled-up tasks poured out steadily.
This side was actually better. Other thoughts. That is, he had no time to recall events related to Kyung-heon.
During his rest, after calming his family members who breathed fire once a day, he had to endure all kinds of pathetic emotions during the remaining time. Then he’d get angry again at himself for being stupid enough to care about such things.
“Then this texture is what you like most?”
But when he worked. When meeting other people and being careful to converse, all distracting thoughts disappeared.
“For now yes, but it looks different depending on the lighting. Also, I don’t know what it’ll feel like when this fills the entire wall.”
An interior meeting was in full swing. It was a meeting postponed indefinitely due to poor condition from the heat cycle. Young held up the sample book under the fluorescent light, showing signs of deliberation.
“Then would you like to visit a place we’ve constructed? It’s small-scale but there’s also an exhibition space, so I think it would help with the decision.”
“I’d be grateful if you could do that.”
“But this… we need permission from that side for it to be possible, so we’ll have to reschedule.”
“Yes. It’s an important decision, so it can’t be helped that it takes time.”
“Then I’ll try narrowing it down to the feeling you want. After that, I’ll adjust the schedule.”
The meeting naturally followed the closing procedure. If you let me know places you’re particularly interested in I’ll reflect that, I’ll refer to the portfolio, please contact me, then let’s stop here for today, thank you for your hard work…. A few words would be enough.
“Then, you seem busy so I’ll head out quickly. Please contact me.”
However, a loud phone ringtone took away the leisure to exchange calm greetings. The interior manager smiled awkwardly and hurriedly got up from his seat.
Young didn’t stop him either. He nodded a greeting meaning go ahead, then picked up the mobile phone he’d placed on one side of the sofa. And only after the office door opened and closed did he answer the phone.
“Yeah. It’s me.”
— Young, do you have time now?
It was Noona. The voice asking right away if he had time was unusual. Young answered with an equally wary voice.
“Why?”
He was fully tense in case she was in front of Joomyeong headquarters right now saying let’s go in together, or already in a private meeting with Joo Kyung-heon.
— If you have time, I think you need to come here for a moment.
The contextless answer increased Young’s suspicion even more. Wrinkles formed between his brows as he asked “Why?” once more.
