Yoonkyung’s reply sent nonchalantly with a deliberate smiling emoticon finally made Lee Jeong’s heart feel a bit better.
However, seeing Yoonkyung’s consecutively sent text, his heart began beating thoughtlessly again.
[So don’t be too embarrassed. My oppa said Lee Jeong-ssi’s smell is nice too.^^]
*
“Oppa… also… Lee Jeong… ssi’s… smell… is nice.”
“Hey, you’re reading that like that!”
Next to Yoonkyung, who was mischievously reading aloud the text content and typing a message, Wookyung grimaced and freaked out.
“Why, it’s true. Oppa said that earlier.”
“Haa….”
Seeing Yoonkyung’s giggling face, he sighed and wiped his still-wet hair with a towel. He deliberately threw the towel, damp from being wet, at Yoonkyung’s face. Letting Yoonkyung’s voice shrieking ‘Ai sshi, oppa!’ flow past him, Wookyung picked up and put on his dress shirt.
The conversation they had just now was the root of the problem.
As soon as he opened the door after finishing his shower, Wookyung inhaled at the unfamiliar smell he felt. It was because he faintly smelled a pheromone scent that wasn’t his own.
There were no phenotypes in this house other than himself. However, it was definitely an omega scent. Picking up his clothes to wear, Wookyung furrowed his brow. It seemed like a smell he’d encountered somewhere… As if the owner of the pheromone had stayed here very briefly, the scent was too faint.
‘…Omega scent?’
So without realizing it, he muttered carelessly. While picking up his shirt and buttoning it one by one, Yoonkyung, who had finished preparing breakfast, nodded her head.
‘Yeah yeah. Dokyung’s dad came and went. While oppa was washing up.’
‘I see.’
Come to think of it, the baby who had been sleeping in the living room was nowhere to be seen. Seeing the empty round spot and feeling strangely empty, Wookyung inhaled once more, drawing in the scent remaining in the air.
A strangely familiar smell to his nose. And the comfort the fragrance gave.
Could this smell be… Wookyung’s expression hardened at the déjà vu that flashed through his mind.
‘Why. Does the smell smell good?’
In the meantime, Yoonkyung, who had her back turned from Wookyung, smiled and spoke to him. Unable to see Wookyung’s expression harden, Wookyung answered halfheartedly to the question. It was because he was absorbed in gauging whether it was the same scent he’d smelled a few days ago.
‘Yeah. The smell is nice.’
And Yoonkyung, of all things… delivered those words as they were to Dokyung’s dad. Seeing Yoonkyung’s mischievous expression giggling and laughing, Wookyung clicked his tongue.
“We might run into each other later, so why make things awkward for both of us?”
“What occasion would we have to run into each other? Oppa, you’re talking like you’ll come to my house often?”
“…I could come often. Between siblings.”
Taking a big bite of toast, Yoonkyung’s eyes widened. Vegetable egg grilled toast with strawberry jam spread on it was Yoonkyung’s special menu, and a menu Wookyung liked as well.
“What’s gotten into you, really? Choi Wookyung-ssi, you must not be busy these days?”
“I’m busy. Busy enough to be sick of it.”
“But why are you showing your face so often these days?”
To Wookyung answering grumpily, Yoonkyung raised the end of her words teasingly. Slanting away from Yoonkyung’s gaze like that, Wookyung casually picked up the conversation.
“Well, just. We haven’t seen each other for months.”
“That’s not all, is it?”
“…The baby is cute too.”
“See. You had another purpose. Wow, but really oppa, you’re unexpected.”
Excited, Yoonkyung reached for her milk glass with sparkling eyes.
“I thought you had no interest in babies… Taking care of a baby and sleeping with him, pretty good. Can you really get married and have a baby?”
“I told you not to bring up marriage.”
“That’s fine for me, but what about dad? He’s in the countryside just waiting for oppa’s grandchild.”
At the uncomfortable topic, Wookyung grimaced. The bread he was chewing felt like it would get stuck in his throat.
After their mother passed away from illness, Wookyung and Yoonkyung had asked their father, who was left alone, several times to live together in Seoul. However, their father continued to remain in the countryside, saying the place where he’d lived his whole life was comfortable. Saying it was enough that they were taking care of themselves.
Even so, periodically urging Wookyung and Yoonkyung to go on blind dates was an annual event that never failed. Even taking into account that he was an old-fashioned person with conservative and stuffy aspects, his ears felt like they’d bleed from the constant grandchild talk.
“Then you should get married.”
“I’m not getting married.”
“I’m not either.”
Exchanging words like children arguing, Yoonkyung finally laughed.
“Until you convince dad why you’re not getting married, he’ll probably keep nagging you to go on blind dates, you know?”
“…Haah.”
Just hearing it made his head throb. Come to think of it, father’s nagging had been sparse for a while. That meant he’d be contacting Wookyung before long.
‘What do you lack! You make good money, you’re a dominant alpha, you’re tall and handsome. What’s the problem, really!’
Usually father rarely got angry at Wookyung. However, ever since Wookyung declared he wouldn’t get married after that incident, he’d nag over the phone once or twice a year without fail. Having built a harmonious and peaceful family when mother was alive, he had high expectations for Wookyung too. The reason Yoonkyung was luckily pushed back in father’s priorities was because Wookyung was the eldest.
“I can’t even block his number….”
“What a very unfilial child you are.”
“I’m just saying. Would I actually block it?”
His appetite had completely fled and he didn’t want to eat more, but he didn’t want to leave the breakfast his younger sister had made for once. Putting the toast, about a quarter remaining, into his mouth in one bite and chewing, Wookyung stood up.
“What? You’re leaving already?”
“I have to go.”
Entering the bathroom and naturally taking out his own toothbrush, Wookyung replied.
“I have to go and work.”
“Take it easy. Don’t always work overtime.”
While brushing his teeth, Wookyung cast his blurry gaze beyond the mirror. A tall man was brushing his teeth wearing a shirt and pants neatly.
While rinsing his mouth, he recalled the faint pheromone he’d smelled a little while ago. The scent that had now already completely blown away, that had been very faintly remaining in front of the bathroom. It was too faint to be certain, but the instinctively wriggling sensation was clearly shouting that it was that scent he’d smelled back then.
The very fragrance he’d smelled in the room at Yeodanhwa.
Wookyung, who finished brushing his teeth, came out of the bathroom and asked Yoonkyung.
“By any chance, that baby’s dad. Do you know where he works?”
“Where he works…? I don’t know that much. After all, he doesn’t talk about such things. But why?”
“…No. Nothing.”
An omega who works nights. The distance from Yeodanhwa to here. And the pheromone that strangely put his mind at ease.
There were no more clues. It was a woefully insufficient amount of information to prove the hypothesis that the baby’s dad was the owner of the pheromone he’d smelled at that Yeodanhwa, but his instinct was already certain. That it was that pheromone from that time. And the assumption that the baby’s dad might be someone working at Yeodanhwa was a thought that could sufficiently come to mind.
However, after pondering briefly, Wookyung soon shook off the thought.
Well, it could be. But it’s none of my business anyway. Even though that omega’s pheromone had calmed the viciously raging rut cycle, he had no intention from the start of finding the owner of that scent. At least he had no intention of doing anything face-to-face with the owner of that pheromone.
No, rather, now that he knew the owner of the pheromone, he could avoid creating uncomfortable situations with that baby’s dad in the future. Yeodanhwa was a place Wookyung stopped by from time to time for entertainment purposes, though not frequently. If he happened to run into that baby’s dad at Yeodanhwa and received entertainment from him, it would really become uncomfortable. Fortunately that person didn’t know this side, and this side knew that pheromone scent, so if he happened to meet him there, he could just switch to a different attendant.
Letting out a dry sigh, Wookyung put on his jacket. Getting on their respective cars in the underground parking lot side by side with Yoonkyung who said let’s go out together, they exchanged greetings.
After leaving the words “I’ll come again,” he closed the car door and started the engine, and Wookyung thought that perhaps the greeting he just gave to Yoonkyung might not just be a courtesy. It was because he felt truly regretful that he couldn’t even say goodbye to that baby he’d sung lullabies to all night while holding him.
*
“Executive Director.”
“Yeah.”
“You look particularly tired today.”
