Han Yeoul
“Yeoul.”
My name, called by Yoo Seonjae.
I’d never once imagined there would come a day when he wouldn’t call my name. The same goes for me. I like the sound of Seonjae calling my name in the morning so much that I deliberately keep my eyes closed and pretend to be asleep even after I wake up.
Then he calls my name a few more times like that and whispers in my ear, and if I still don’t get up, he slips his hand inside my pajamas and caresses my bare skin.
His touch is warm. It calms me just as much as his pheromones do. His hand, caressing me like that, gradually moves lower, and that’s how the hot morning that follows last night begins. Like a routine, I wait for his touch, and he calls my name like that.
Come to think of it, my first memory in life is Yoo Seonjae.
Of course, I have some faint memories from before that, but my clearest first memory is the day I met Yoo Seonjae.
*
“Yeoul, say hello. This is the Chairman’s son.”
At the unfamiliar words “Chairman’s son,” my young self thought:
‘Is the Chairman someone higher than Dad? My dad is a Company President.’
The little kid standing before me—wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt and shorts, with one sock missing and only wearing the other one—was filthy. Yes, filthy. That was my first impression of Yoo Seonjae.
Whether he’d been rolling around in dirt somewhere, he had dirt all over his body, and standing in front of me in my neatly pressed kindergarten uniform, the little kid looked at me with round eyes and said:
“Wow, you’re really pretty.”
Even though he’s shorter than me.
He’s prettier himself, yet he squinted those round eyes halfway and grinned widely while holding out his hand.
I hesitated for a moment about whether to take that hand, but ended up taking it when Dad pushed my shoulder. That filthy hand was soft and smooth despite being covered in dirt.
“Dad.”
“Yeah?”
“Is a Chairman higher than a Company President?”
At my question in the car on the way home, Dad laughed and answered:
“Of course. Thanks to the Chairman, we can live happily, Yeoul.”
‘Ah. I see. So he was someone higher than me. That tiny little kid.’
But then…
“How is it?”
Around the time we entered high school, Yoo Seonjae, who had grown considerably taller during winter break, stood before me a full head taller than me, showing off.
“…How is what?”
My pride was hurt.
Up until middle school, I’d been looking down at him the whole time, but at some point our eye level became similar, and then during a brief ski camp trip, Seonjae shot up and looked down at me with a triumphant gaze.
“I look pretty cool, right?”
With his hands on his hips, waiting for my answer, he looked like a puppy begging for praise, which made me chuckle, but he’d already grown too tall for me to pat his head like before.
“Well… a little.”
No, actually, a lot.
Yoo Seonjae was always cool.
Of course, at first he was grubby, but that was just when I first saw him. After that, from the moment he entered the kindergarten I was attending, there wasn’t a single time he wasn’t cool.
“Found you!”
Coming into a kindergarten that was already full of kids, the first thing he said wasn’t “Hello” or “Hi everyone,” but “Found you!”
He said it so loudly that everyone was dumbfounded.
I was the same, but then he rushed over and hugged me, so I couldn’t even show my surprise.
From that day on, Yoo Seonjae stuck to me and wouldn’t leave.
At first, it was annoying. If he hadn’t been the son of someone higher than Dad, I would’ve wanted to kick him away.
Those days continued for a day or two, and at some point, Yoo Seonjae became my habit.
Wherever I went, Seonjae was there. At school, at academy, on the way home—Seonjae was always by my side. To the point where it felt strange when he wasn’t there; when I came to my senses, he was always beside me.
Maybe that’s why.
I never once imagined a life without Yoo Seonjae. From the moment memories existed, we’d always been together, and I thought we’d continue to be together in the future. Whatever kind of relationship we had, I thought we’d never be apart.
Our parents’ businesses were intertwined, we went to the same school, and we’d probably go to the same school in the future. Our future wouldn’t deviate much from the radius we’d lived in, whether we moderately took over the family business or did something else.
Right, there’s no way we’d be apart.
I always thought that. I learned a bit later that it was because I liked Yoo Seonjae. Shortly before my trait was confirmed, after having a strange dream of being beneath him, I finally realized that my feelings for him weren’t just “friendship.”
As time passed and I received the omega trait confirmation, I wasn’t all that surprised. I’d guessed it from my height that stopped growing at some point and the muscles that wouldn’t build no matter how much I exercised.
Still… I at least wanted to be as tall as Seonjae.
Seonjae, who had overtaken my growth rate, kept getting taller until he stopped at around 190 centimeters. On top of that, even though he didn’t seem to exercise particularly hard, his body developed nice lean muscles. Anyone could see he was destined to be an alpha.
So I wasn’t particularly surprised when his final trait evaluation came out as dominant alpha. It just made me a bit sad that what was attached to my trait, unlike Seonjae’s, was “recessive.”
“Our Yeoul is an omega, right?”
To Seonjae asking comfortably, I hid my evaluation form and smiled as if it was nothing.
“Y-yeah, that’s right.”
“Wow! I’m so happy!”
At that moment, Seonjae smiled brightly and hugged me. Just like when he hugged me in kindergarten saying “Found you!” What… made him so happy?
“We can date now, Yeoul!”
Caught in his embrace without understanding, I couldn’t comprehend a single word that came out of his mouth. No, of course we were always together, but that didn’t mean he liked me, or that I liked Seonjae… No, of course I did like Seonjae, but until then, we’d never talked about such things. Not at all.
“No? Yeoul, weren’t we both in love with each other?”
When Seonjae asked, looking at flustered me with an even more flustered face, I couldn’t give any answer for a while.
‘No… I do like you, but you like me too? You never once told me that until now…’
But soon I had to recall it. All the countless confessions I’d heard from him.
“I like Yeoul the most in the world.”
“When we play house, Yeoul is the mom and I’m the dad. Because there’s no one prettier than Yeoul here.”
“Yeoul, what are you doing?”
“Yeoul, you should stand next to me. Hey, move.”
“Yeoul.”
“Yeoul…”
“Han Yeoul.”
‘Then… all of that was…’
“Seonjae, do you… like me?”
I still can’t forget the expression on Seonjae’s face as he looked at me incredulously at that moment.
“Yeoul.”
It was his low voice that I was hearing for the first time.
“How can you say something so cruel?”
“…What?”
“I’ve never once stopped liking you from the moment I first saw you, so how can you not know that?”
‘Ah. His expression is so… cold. I think I touched a nerve.’
“Don’t tell me you don’t like me? You don’t… want to date me?”
That can’t be… I just didn’t know we’d talk about it so suddenly on that day.
“That can’t be. Who else do I have besides you?”
“Right?”
Sunlight shone on his face that had been coldly hardened.
‘Oh my. Yes, I fell for that face.’
Come to think of it, I probably liked Yoo Seonjae from the first day I saw him too.
“I’m so happy you’re an omega, Yeoul. Let’s stay together, keep staying together in the future too. I can promise you. I can vow to stay by your side for life. Even if other ‘impurities’ come between us, I’ll get rid of all those things.”
For a high school student, it was a romantic confession.
If only I hadn’t let that word “impurities” slip by…
Throughout high school, we received burning gazes from our friends. “Disgusting,” “Again, there they go again.” Even when I was bothered by the words attached to the end of what people murmured whenever we passed by, such things didn’t matter much. After all, they didn’t occupy even a speck of dust in my world.
What can I do when my whole world is Yoo Seonjae? It was the same for Seonjae.
After that “romantic” confession, we became an official couple, and our parents seemed welcoming too. Dad seemed a bit burdened, but from the moment Seonjae held my hand and entered the study, the Chairman looked at us with eyes full of anticipation.
