Temporary Alliance
Sangho was wearing a middle school uniform. One early summer, the classroom’s air conditioner had broken down, and even with all the windows wide open, the stuffy heat filled the room, leaving everyone exhausted. Sangho was blankly staring out the window when he blinked a few times at a stinging sensation in one eye. The eye covered by an eye patch was swollen from being hit by his father yesterday. Why did I get hit again? Ah, right, I cleaned up the scattered soju bottles at home and got beaten because “students shouldn’t be drinking alcohol.” Even though he was the one who drank them.
Even with his face beaten to a pulp, there were no adults at school who particularly cared about Sangho. In fact, even if they had cared, there wasn’t much they could do. The legal guardian, or biological father—that’s just how it was. “I was just disciplining my kid.” With those words, most problems were resolved. So at some point, Sangho learned how to adequately cover his wounds. His clumsily hidden injuries could be noticed with just a bit of close observation, but fortunately, there was no one who paid that much attention.
Drip.
But a sudden nosebleed was bound to be noticeable. Sangho quickly lowered his head and caught the falling drops of blood with his hand. Whether it was from yesterday’s violent stomping on his head, dizziness spun around him. He quickly rolled up some tissue and stuffed it into his streaming nose, but once the blood vessel burst, it wouldn’t stop bleeding easily. The teacher who had been conducting class couldn’t stand watching anymore and said something.
“Lee Sangho. If your nosebleed won’t stop, go to the nurse’s office and get a hemostatic agent.”
“Yes.”
“Class president. Help him out. He looks like he’ll collapse on the way.”
Scrape.
Ah… I’m fine though.
The class president silently stood up and quickly supported his staggering body. The class president who was good at studying, good at sports, with a good personality. But the hand that roughly grabbed his forearm dripped with annoyance. Right, this is exactly the kind of relationship you and I had. You found me annoying, and I found you burdensome. We were in the same class but couldn’t really call each other ‘friends.’ After graduation, when we left this school, we’d be the type whose faces and names would become hazy. That’s the kind of relationship we would have been.
But then, who were you?
Through his blurry vision, the class president’s face was painted black with magic marker. At that eerie feeling, Sangho immediately woke from his dream.
***
“Hyung. Are you awake?”
At the chilling sensation down his spine, Sangho flinched and woke up, realizing with slight relief that he was being held in someone’s arms. And he also realized he had been sleeping with his face buried in a warm, firm chest. When he slowly lifted his head, he could see drool that had streamed down glistening wetly all over Wonha’s chest.
“Hup. Sorry.”
Sangho quickly wiped the drool from his mouth with the back of his hand and rubbed Wonha’s wet chest with his palm. Every time he rubbed, it felt like the drool was being spread glossily across the chest, making him feel even more embarrassed.
“Hyuuung… that tickles…”
Then Wonha’s face flushed slightly as he turned his head to the other side. Sangho realized he was straddling Wonha and kneading his chest with both hands, and jumped away in even greater shock. You’ve lost it, Lee Sangho. This is sexual harassment!
“Puhaha. I’m kidding, hyung. I don’t mind if you touch me more?”
“N-n-no. No. Sorry!”
“Then can I touch hyung?”
Wonha’s hand sneakily wrapped around his waist. Only then realizing he was rolling around naked with Wonha, Sangho’s face turned bright red as he shook his head. You and I shouldn’t be doing this. But he didn’t feel like pushing away Wonha, who was holding his body securely with his large hands. So Sangho just hesitated with both hands gathered at his chest.
“I understand that hyung wants to set me up with Han Kyungoh.”
Wonha, who was hugging him tightly, said while rubbing his nose against the nape of his neck. Sangho tensed up slightly, not expecting him to suddenly bring up Han Kyungoh.
“I said this yesterday too, but the one I like is hyung. Still, I’ll meet Han Kyungoh once.”
“Huh?”
“You’re telling me to meet him because there’s a reason, right?”
“Uh, uh-huh…”
“It seems like hyung doesn’t want to talk about the reason. So I’ll just meet him. But that’s as far as it goes. I don’t think I’ll develop romantic feelings.”
“Mmm.”
“Well, I just need to meet him, right? Tell me the reason later for sure.”
‘Well, you’re the protagonist. To escape from that crazy Nam Dohyun, there’s no one but another protagonist.’
When the image of Wonha getting along well with Han Kyungoh came to mind, Sangho felt uncomfortable. But there was nothing he could do. Wonha’s true match, who was pretty and radiant, might be Han Kyungoh. Since Nam Dohyun, who was like a time bomb that could explode at any moment, had appeared, it seemed Wonha needed to get close to Han Kyungoh quickly to escape from that guy. Nam Dohyun was probably already obsessing over Wonha tremendously. At least Sangho felt somewhat relieved that Wonha said he’d meet Han Kyungoh.
Wonha, who had been quietly watching Sangho let out a small sigh, said flatly.
“I’ll meet him today.”
“What? Al-already?”
A feeling of disappointment suddenly welled up. No, I was the one who told him to meet him… but this quickly?
Wonha raised an eyebrow and said. His tone was strangely teasing.
“He called your phone this morning, didn’t he?”
“Kyungoh did? I didn’t hear it…”
“Because I answered. He said he’s coming over here.”
“What? N-n-n-now?”
Sangho pushed away from Wonha’s chest in surprise and jumped up. Then he felt yesterday’s traces trickling down from between his legs. Come to think of it, even though they’d had such wild sex yesterday, his whole body had been cleaned and the bed sheets were dry. It seemed Wonha had cleaned him up, but surely he didn’t deliberately leave only the inside of his butt… right?
When the shocked Sangho groped his bottom and looked at Wonha with reproachful eyes, Wonha lay there with a sly expression, propping his head up with one arm while looking at Sangho and said.
“Hyung, you stay here. You need to wash up anyway.”
“Y-you won’t fight with Han Kyungoh, right?”
“Who knows.”
“Wonha!”
“…I’m kidding. I won’t fight.”
Wonha got up with a heave and picked up his clothes to put on. Just then, Sangho’s cell phone rang. As ‘Kyungoh’ appeared on the screen, Wonha quickly pressed the call button before Sangho could even pick up the phone.
“Hyung is washing up right now, you know? So he can’t come out.”
— …Fuck.
A rough breathing sound and curse were heard, then click, the call ended. Sangho looked back and forth between Wonha and the phone with a dumbfounded expression, then put his hand on his head and sighed.
***
Han Kyungoh anxiously looked around the hotel’s first-floor cafe. Sangho, who he thought would return by late evening, hadn’t contacted him all night and didn’t come. Overcome by sudden anxiety, he stayed up all night and called, only to have that goody-two-shoes answer.
— We have something to talk about, don’t we?
Damn it.
Although he’d clumsily tied Sangho to himself with pheromones and responsibility, if Sangho chose Wonha instead of him in the first place, there was nothing Kyungoh could do. He thought Sangho liked his body. Since it was really rare for an imprinted omega to respond to another alpha’s pheromones, Kyungoh had been somewhat confident. But strangely, Sangho didn’t seem to have imprinting pain, and he said his heat cycle only came after three months. At this rate, it seemed his body would become unnecessary to Sangho.
“Han Kyungoh-ssi.”
At the sound from behind, he whipped around to see Jang Wonha standing with his arms crossed. Wonha, with an indifferent expression, tilted his head and pointed to a chair.
“Shall we sit?”
“Where’s Sangho?”
“He overdid it a bit yesterday. Didn’t I tell you hyung is washing up?”
When Wonha raised one corner of his mouth and smirked, a vein bulged on Kyungoh’s forehead.
“…Sangho needs me.”
Wonha’s insides boiled as he watched Kyungoh, who was holding back his emotions and trying not to fall for the provocation. This arrogant bastard—I thought he was just big, but he’s unexpectedly cautious. So Wonha stopped grating on Kyungoh’s nerves and spoke with a serious expression.
“…You’re the one who interfered, so don’t get in the way and fuck off. You know hyung likes me, don’t you?”
“Aren’t you a beta?”
“So what? Don’t you know that if an alpha uses pheromones to induce an omega’s heat, it’s rape?”
