Jukyung picked up an individually wrapped piece of cheese.
“I mean… umm… like telling us to break up?”
“No, not at all.”
Well, he wouldn’t tell us to break up while telling him to sleep in my room. Was he just really thinking he was indebted? Just thinking of us as friends? So he didn’t see us kissing in the car earlier?
Judging from hyung’s attitude, he definitely didn’t see it, but I felt uneasy. He’s such a sneaky snake by nature.
“Mm?”
Lost in thought, I lowered my gaze to a ticklish feeling from my stomach area. Jukyung had somehow slipped his hand inside, burrowing under my clothes.
“Ya, are you crazy?”
I grabbed his wrist over my clothes as it tried to go higher. Jukyung’s eyes that met mine had an expression without any hesitation.
“Why? My hands are cold. Warm them up for me.”
Cold hands when they’re so warm. What nonsense after showering in hot water inside the house. I pressed down Jukyung’s hand with one hand, then put in my other hand to extract it from inside my clothes.
“How petty. I let you warm your ice-cold hands on my stomach.”
Jukyung grumbled and lifted his wine glass.
“This is my father’s house.”
I glared at him.
“He’s not here.”
Jukyung was unfazed.
“Hyung is here. On the same floor.”
“It’s not the room right next door, is it? Plus, this house seems well soundproofed.”
“Soundproofing or not, no.”
“No fun,” Jukyung muttered. This isn’t about fun. Sex with family in the house. Absolutely not.
Jukyung sipped his wine with a sullen face and picked at the snacks. Since he wasn’t usually the type to eat snacks, I watched him curiously for a bit, then asked with a tilt of my head.
“What’s gotten into you to eat snacks like that? Did you skip dinner?”
“Yeah.”
Jukyung answered readily.
“Why?”
“Someone went radio silent and made me worry, so I wasn’t in the mood to eat.”
Radio silent and made him worry—could that be about me? I wanted to confirm if it was because of me, but I kept my mouth shut, worried that if it was about work or something else, it would be embarrassing. Plus, who went radio silent? When I was waiting for contact for so long without any, and then just because I didn’t answer the phone while briefly sleeping, saying I went radio silent is too much, isn’t it?
But separately from that, it sounded like he’d worried because of me, so my heart was already uselessly pounding.
“Should I… get you something? Something proper to eat.”
“It’s fine.”
Jukyung pulled me back down as I tried to get up.
“This is enough. I’m going to sleep soon anyway, and eating a lot will just make my stomach uncomfortable.”
Jukyung rolled a cherry in his mouth.
I should have brought something with a lot of flesh and soft like melon. In my hurry to come up quickly, I skipped everything that needed preparation and only grabbed what was already washed. I felt somehow a little regretful.
“More than that.”
Jukyung continued while spitting out the cherry pit.
“I told hyung-nim I’m an Alpha.”
I felt like my blood suddenly drained. Thoughts about fruit instantly disappeared.
“What?”
I was incredulous. He suddenly talked about such personal things? In that short time?
Plus, if he said Alpha, what does that mean now? I’d told hyung that Kwon Jukyung was a Beta—of course, at that time I naturally thought he was a Beta—and said we weren’t even dating, but now what if he says he’s an Alpha? Wait, then what does it mean that he told him to sleep over in my room?
My head spun in confusion.
“Ya, how could you say that?”
“Why?”
Jukyung said nonchalantly. But unlike his seemingly thoughtless tone, his eyes somehow looked sharp.
“What’s been the problem this whole time? Why are you so restless? Do you hate that much that I know your family?”
Kwon Jukyung’s tone started to get crooked.
“That’s not it!”
I groaned.
“Why do you keep listening with one ear and letting it out the other when I keep telling you? If hyung and Father misunderstand the relationship between you and me, you’ll have a hard time, understand? They’re trying to marry me off to someone else, so think about what happens if they think I have a lover. I said they might harm you. They’re my blood relatives, but honestly, their character is terrible. I’m telling you dramas aren’t just dramas!”
I wanted to beat my chest in frustration.
“You can’t relax just because hyung acts polite to your face. You don’t know what he might do behind your back. You might suddenly have strange rumors spread and get fired from work?”
“Can’t you just officially say you’re dating me?”
Jukyung munched on cheese and crumpled the wrapper, tossing it onto the table. My eyes involuntarily followed the wrapper. Look at this guy. Is he making a mess because it’s not his house, or… is he throwing a tantrum right now?
“You said you don’t want an arranged marriage. Then use me as a shield. Say you’re dating me and going to marry me, so you can’t marry anyone else.”
My gaze, which had been sold to the cheese wrapper, whipped back to Jukyung with a whoosh. Jukyung’s eyes were staring straight at me without a single blink. I opened my mouth and forgot what to say.
“If you really need something more, should we make a baby too?”
Crazy.
“Have you lost your mind, you bastard?”
I was so shocked that harsh words slipped out. Jukyung didn’t flinch at my curse and just shrugged his shoulders. His expressionless staring eyes had not a hint of laughter, making it hard to dismiss as a joke.
“What’s so difficult for you? We’re Alpha and Omega, and we’ve already slept together. You don’t hate sleeping with me, right? You don’t have anyone else you like either, do you? So why can’t you date me?”
It’s not that dating is wrong… it’s that it doesn’t make sense.
“Is that my fault?”
I flared up at Jukyung’s accusatory tone.
“You’re the problem. You’re the one who has someone you like separately, and I don’t understand how your body and heart can go in different directions like that.”
Though it’s not really something I should say after we’ve rolled around together this much.
Jukyung frowned at my words but didn’t press that issue.
“Someone I like… ya, that’s…”
“That’s what?”
“That’s…”
Jukyung hesitated. Why is he acting like that, suddenly? He was acting so confident earlier.
“That’s old news.”
Old news, fuck. This bastard is really pissing me off.
“Then what about Seo Jehyun? You see his face every day and work stuck together lately!”
I shouted in anger.
“Seo Jehyun? Jehyun hyung?”
Jukyung looked bewildered.
“Why Jehyun hyung? No, more than that, how do you know Jehyun hyung?”
“What do you mean how do I know him? Yukyung said you go to the same company as that person….”
Oh no. I almost bit my tongue.
“Yukyung?”
Jukyung’s eyebrows shot up.
“You mean my younger brother? How do you know Yukyung?”
“……”
Aaagh, this is bad. How the hell am I supposed to cover this up? I couldn’t confess that I went with Yukyung all the way to the company to see Seo Jehyun. He might get upset, and more than anything, I’d lose face. What kind of pathetic behavior was that anyway?
“Just… by chance….”
“By chance how?”
I rubbed my finger diligently over a stain on the table that wasn’t even visible.
“So Yukyung came to my house before….”
“What? When?”
“Well… when was it? A few weeks ago maybe? I don’t really remember….”
I played dumb, but Jukyung didn’t seem intent on letting it slide.
“Why didn’t you tell me about that?”
“Uh… well, there wasn’t much to talk about… and you were too busy….”
“That’s ridiculous. There wasn’t much to talk about, so you’ve been remembering the story about Jehyun hyung all this time? And that I like Jehyun hyung?”
Kwon Jukyung looked incredulous and dumbfounded. But at this point, I was the one feeling incredulous. This bastard was just talking about dating me, yet why is he so confident about the Seo Jehyun story? Is it because his trash level is so high? No, but that reaction is strange somehow. Does he mean he doesn’t like him?
