Lunar Pub (1)
In the dim interior, pin lighting brightly illuminated only the card table.
“Betting begins.”
A well-fitted black shirt and vest. Hair neatly styled with his forehead slightly visible. Jeongbae’s fingertips moved smoothly as he dealt the cards. Perhaps because it was still early, there weren’t many customers. Jeongbae had been facing off one-on-one with the young man before him for quite a while.
“Player card 10, dealer 8. Will you hit?”
“…One more card.”
“Player 7, total is 17. Stand?”
“Yeah.”
“Dealer card open. Dealer 18, dealer wins.”
“You must be new. I’m a regular here, but I’ve never seen your face before.”
Jeongbae smiled slightly as he collected the chips and cards. After always laughing heartily, it felt a bit cringeworthy to act demure for the first time in a while.
“Yes, today is my first day.”
“Your face is cute, but you play too ruthlessly. Go easy on me.”
The man whined playfully. Judging from his large build and arrogant attitude, he was definitely an alpha.
A sky-blue shirt and gold watch, hair swept back carelessly. The man who appeared to be in his mid-thirties had been holding down the spot since early. More likely a freelancer or businessman than an office worker. Jeongbae guessed inwardly.
“Unfortunately. You’ll win this time.”
With jazz flowing softly, the cards were shuffled smoothly again. Though he’d only been at work a short time, he already felt drained. Physical labor like welding, restaurant work, or driving was fine, but he still couldn’t get used to this kind of sleazy attention.
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-eight.”
“Oh, you looked like a student.”
The casino pub wasn’t actually a place where you won or lost real money. The system gave all entrants the same number of chips, and if you won chips by playing games, you could exchange them for snacks or small prizes.
It was fortunate there weren’t the murderous glares of gamblers, but instead he had to keep the conversation going endlessly. Whether customers asked questions or played around, he had to smile. That was the rule here. Jeongbae briefly recalled the manager’s reminder he’d heard earlier.
‘Winning or losing doesn’t really matter. You’ve been a dealer before, so you know, right?’
‘Yes.’
Black suit. Hair neatly slicked back with pomade. The manager with a clean impression like a hotel manager had told Jeongbae various precautions.
‘A dealer who loses at games is fine, but a dealer who kills the atmosphere gets kicked out.’
‘Yes.’
‘Customers need to stay a long time for our sales to naturally rise.’
That tone contained a monotony closer to habit than threat. Jeongbae bowed his head and answered briefly. He knew well that being a dealer was ultimately “work that buys time.”
‘But the hourly wage is double the rice soup restaurant…’
Jeongbae gazed at the customer in the blue shirt who’d been scanning him with sticky eyes since earlier and sighed long inwardly.
“Player one, player two, player three, player four.”
Shortly after, fortunately, people who seemed to be a group sat down at the table all at once. In the atmosphere that quickly became boisterous, Jeongbae felt brief relief.
***
“Jaehyuk-ah, what style do you like?”
The beauty before him smiled with narrowed eyes. Fair skin and light brown hair. When a smile was added to the pretty face that had seemed calculating, it was dazzling enough for people around to turn and look.
“The quick-witted style.”
“Ah, really? I thought so.”
Jaehyuk answered halfheartedly and sucked up the coffee he was drinking through a straw. It was department head Kang Isol, whom he’d taken to the rice soup restaurant once. After eating at a fairly fancy restaurant, they’d driven and stopped by a cafe Kang Isol recommended.
Perhaps because it was a rising hotspot these days, the interior was packed with couples. Kang Isol also kept taking phone pictures of some unknown drink piled high with white foam. A signature drink or something.
“Can I take a picture of you too, Jaehyuk, and post it?”
Jaehyuk just shrugged his shoulders. The sound of the shutter clicking several times toward him, not even looking at the camera.
“Look at this. Didn’t it come out so well?”
Kang Isol showed the phone and pressed close. Since Isol didn’t bother to contain pheromones in front of him, the omega’s characteristic sweet smell wafted up from the nape. When the white, long fingers stroked the back of his hand, goosebumps instinctively rose.
‘My body’s properly heated up.’
The reason for choosing Kang Isol was simple. As the most proactive partner, it seemed like they could go straight to bed today.
‘But I can’t suggest going to a hotel right after meeting.’
Following the formal dating course to the letter, absurdly enough, Jaehyuk recalled the motel room and rice soup restaurant he’d been to with Kang Jeongbae. What if he’d brought him to a place like this? If instead of being dragged along wherever he was told, he’d taken him somewhere better. Even with a pretty omega sitting before him, in reality Jaehyuk was only thinking of Kang Jeongbae.
“Jaehyuk-ah, what are you thinking about?”
“Are you done? Let’s get up.”
“Ah, okay.”
Even at Jaehyuk’s blunt response, Kang Isol didn’t seem to mind. The superiority of having captured the most handsome and capable alpha offset Jaehyuk’s rudeness.
‘For an alpha that accomplished, it must feel like the whole world is at their feet.’
In fact, gazes inside the cafe were directed at Jaehyuk. His tall height and the solid shoulders visible under his neat shirt, his beautiful face and arrogant attitude. All of it captured attention. Enjoying the gazes of envy and jealousy, Kang Isol planned to make Jaehyuk a little more eager.
‘Whatever it is, things obtained with difficulty have more value.’
An attitude cold enough to be callous. But on the bed, the story would be different. Isol was confident.
“Let’s go drinking. I know a fun place. Want to make a bet? The winner grants the loser’s wish.”
Jaehyuk’s eyebrow rose crookedly. Then he spat out a word quietly as if displeased.
“I was going to go to a hotel lounge.”
“It’s too early. Even though we’re in the same department, we still don’t know each other well in this way…”
So he was trying to go straight to a hotel after all. Isol swallowed laughter inwardly. Jaehyuk didn’t continue speaking. Instead, he put Isol in the passenger seat and slowly turned the steering wheel. The lights of the night slid across the window.
[Lunar Pub]
The place Isol brought Jaehyuk to was a casino pub. Jaehyuk had stopped by similar places a few times before. A dark, sophisticated space with soft jazz flowing. The sound of clinking glasses and people’s laughter faintly mixed together.
Jaehyuk’s eyes, casually scanning the tables, fixed on one spot.
‘Why is he here?’
Whether wax had been applied, the short bangs that always covered his forehead were nowhere to be seen and his neat forehead was slightly visible. A perfectly fitted black shirt and vest uniform emphasized his straight shoulders and narrow waistline. A familiar face, yet strangely unfamiliar. Unlike usual, his smiling face was calm. Jaehyuk briefly suspected he was seeing things. Of all times to see the person he most wanted to avoid… Moreover, Kang Isol was dangling from one arm.
‘Am I going to cause a misunderstanding for no reason…’
Jaehyuk felt reality hit.
‘So what if there’s a misunderstanding? We’re nothing to each other anyway. What’s the point of all this?’
“Dealer wins.”
Quietly shaking his head and hardening his expression, Jeongbae’s cool voice rang in Jaehyuk’s ears. His gaze unconsciously turned that way. The skilled, smooth movements collecting chips and cards. At the table located in the very center of the pub, Kang Jeongbae was working as a blackjack dealer. Jaehyuk’s eyebrows slowly furrowed.
‘What’s he doing dressed so revealingly in a place like this? When did he learn dealer work?’
Not an inch of skin was showing, but to Jaehyuk’s eyes, it was the same as being completely naked. His way of thinking was no different from the enlightened conservatives of the late Joseon period.
The pack of alphas surrounding Jeongbae irritated him. When the man before him gestured, that mischievous face widened its eyes and moved closer. He could see the man whisper something while putting a business card in Jeongbae’s chest pocket. Jaehyuk, momentarily furious, muttered inwardly something he didn’t even mean.
‘Utterly promiscuous. Even though he’s so ugly, men swarm around because he’s dripping everywhere.’
Jeongbae waved his hands with a troubled face and returned the business card. But to Jaehyuk’s eyes, already half-crazed, it just looked like more coquettish behavior.
“Jaehyuk-ah, what are you looking at so intently? Let’s sit down quickly.”
He finally came to his senses at Isol’s urging, arm linked more deeply. His mood was plummeting through the floor.
***
‘This is really awkward.’
As for Jeongbae, he’d momentarily lost where to look at the sticky couple’s affectionate display unfolding before his eyes. He knew both faces. In fact, one of the two people was his one-night stand partner. The skinship was precarious, bodies pressed close together, faces facing each other as if their lips might touch.
A blackjack table under dim lighting with soft jazz playing. Jeongbae dealt cards, trying hard not to give them any attention.
“Ah, that’s cheating. You said you didn’t know how to play.”
“Luck must be on my side.”
Yoon Jaehyuk. And one of those flashy partners. The man named Kang Isol was innocent like an ion drink commercial model. Light brown hair and eyes, and fair skin. Even accounting for being an omega, he sparkled enough to draw everyone’s attention.
“Player wins.”
Jeongbae smiled as he collected the cards. Isol’s white fingers slid over the back of Jaehyuk’s hand. A slow but intentional movement.
‘Is it my imagination?’
Jeongbae tried his best not to care, but it seemed like Jaehyuk’s eyes kept scanning him. Every time he raised his head, his gaze kept meeting those long black eyes.
“Please place your bets.”
“What should we bet? How about the winner sits on the loser’s lap? Whoever wins the chips wins.”
“It’s dealer versus player anyway.”
“Exactly. Whoever loses to the dealer.”
“What if both lose or both win?”
“Then we just move on to the next round.”
Kang Isol’s voice rose, thoroughly excited. When Jaehyuk nodded, white hands interlaced with Jaehyuk’s large hands and gripped tightly. Jeongbae flinched without realizing it. One corner of his chest tingled.
He too was ultimately human, needing the warmth of others.
It would be a lie to say he felt no affection for those he’d shared bodies with. Jung Woohyun, Yoon Jaehyuk, and all the others besides. There were moments when he wished that brief warmth and tenderness could be his, even a little. And whenever Jeongbae had such thoughts, he cut off the relationship with the other person in one stroke. Like he’d done with Woohyun this time.
Seeing the two people’s overlapping hands, he suddenly recalled that night. Back then it was the opposite. His own hand had been underneath, with Jaehyuk’s large hand covering it. The memory of feeling strangely reassured by the body heated with pleasure and the weight of that hand.
‘I didn’t know I’d feel this way about Yoon Jaehyuk… Is this jealousy? How pathetic.’
Jeongbae smiled bitterly inwardly. People are truly hateful. When you see what others have, you feel more regret for no reason. Even though it was never yours to begin with.
Jeongbae smiled again. As he flipped cards with his fingertips, he quietly subdued his emotions beneath his smiling lips.
“What kind of relationship do we look like?”
At Kang Isol’s question, Jeongbae’s eyes widened. He hadn’t expected to be suddenly addressed. Isol’s gaze, eyes seductively narrowed, turned toward Jeongbae. A smile that seemed to know how pretty he was.
Jeongbae suppressed the bitterness that suddenly rose and answered in a gentle voice.
“Married? Lovers? You still look like students… You two suit each other so well.”
“Ah, I don’t know. Do we really look like that?”
Jeongbae, familiar enough with lip service to be sick of it, quickly picked up an appropriate comment. Isol, seemingly quite pleased with his answer, giggled.
That was when it happened.
A short, low sound swept across the table.
“Ha, fucking hell.”
It was Jaehyuk. In an instant, the air turned ice cold. Jeongbae, unable to lower the corners of his smiling mouth, put strength in the hand holding the chips.
