Taeon, who did everything well, deliberately told Sunjeong to take charge of the presentation.
Naturally, Sunjeong said he didn’t want to, but Taeon said he could do well if he tried, and suggested they practice together step by step.
He still thought about it sometimes.
Taeon’s face as he was preparing for the presentation in Sunjeong’s well-lit room, took a bite of the melon the helper auntie had cut, and then put down the fork.
It was strange how he admired how delicious it was but didn’t touch it again after eating one piece.
‘Why aren’t you eating?’
‘Just because.’
‘I’m asking why you’re not eating.’
Knowing Taeon’s personality of not speaking his true feelings after being asked once, when Sunjeong asked again, Taeon opened his mouth.
‘If I know the taste better, I’ll want to eat it again.’
The moment he lost his words, Sunjeong’s mind started to get busy. Words like ‘you can keep eating at my house’ were clearly something Taeon wouldn’t like. In the end, what Sunjeong said was this:
‘Knowing how to eat a lot when you can is also a blessing.’
‘Is that so?’
Taeon, who had been lost in thought for a moment at Sunjeong’s words, nodded his head readily and started eating melon again.
Until this point, Taeon had listened to Sunjeong’s words straightforwardly.
So he thought Taeon would accept his feelings of liking him straightforwardly too.
‘Knowing how to accept my heart when I like you this much is all your blessing.’
‘I don’t need that kind of blessing.’
At Sunjeong’s playful words recalling that day a few years later, Taeon was endlessly cold, unlike back then.
Thinking about this makes me want to cry again.
As the tip of his nose became familiar and tingly, Sunjeong glared at the laptop right in front of him for no reason to divert his gaze. Because he stared at it for too long, it seemed like he could concentrate better than usual on the contents of major textbooks he had no interest in.
Once the presenter was decided, the rest proceeded with momentum. The kids who each had their roles assigned were excessively enthusiastic with the joy of being able to avoid presenting in front of the old professor.
“Hello, Taeon-ssi.”
Just as they were about to clean up, a lively voice pierced Sunjeong’s ear.
Seeing that the voice was a bit high-pitched, it seemed to be an omega.
He didn’t particularly want to check their face. Sunjeong had learned too much through the times that knowing meant getting hurt.
“Did you eat the Dduljjongcookie I gave you yesterday? That was really hard to get.”
Too much, coming to a cafe that also sells desserts.
In front of the unfamiliar omega whose face he didn’t know, Sunjeong made a pointless sneer for no reason.
“You didn’t give it to me, you left it behind, and I didn’t eat it because I thought I’d have to give you my number if I ate it. I stored it in the refrigerator, so I’ll return it to you.”
“Ah, no, it’s not like that…”
The eyes of Hyeongho sitting in front of Sunjeong widened instantly. He seemed to be saying something silently with his mouth shape, and looking at it, he was clearly saying five letters with just his lips: ‘do, pa, min, don, da.’
What dopamine.
He was quite flustered after seeing Taeon at the cafe, but he barely managed to act cold as he had originally intended and his heart had just gotten a bit better, but now it got bad. He wanted to hurry home, wash up, and sleep.
Fortunately, the guys who were each busy started to clean up. Sunjeong also put his laptop in his bag and got up from his seat.
I won’t come near this cafe anymore.
Having decided this, Sunjeong struggled to maintain his coldness as he left the cafe.
When Sunjeong was waving his hand to leave the guys who said they’d smoke in the alley before going, the cafe door opened roughly.
“Excuse me, customer!”
Taeon’s all too familiar voice.
Thinking there’s no way he was calling him ‘customer,’ the moment Sunjeong took a step, a large hand came to rest on Sunjeong’s shoulder.
Sunjeong turned around in surprise, and Taeon’s face filled his eyes.
With a face showing signs of tension unlike ever before, Taeon caught his breath several times before speaking to Sunjeong.
“Could you… possibly give me your number?”
Taeon’s face as he asked this looked somewhat desperate.
Taeon’s face, visible much more clearly than when they faced each other at the counter.
Sunjeong quietly looked into that face.
The face that always showed an indifferent expression toward Sunjeong, the face that clearly displayed annoyance, was now desperately looking only at Sunjeong.
Sunjeong, who briefly gave his attention to Taeon’s Adam’s apple as he swallowed dry saliva, quietly said,
“My number? Why?”
At Sunjeong’s question, Taeon flinched for a moment. What will he think?
Taeon’s heart, which used to be so hard to read, seems easy to read now.
Taeon, who swallowed dry saliva a few more times, barely opened his mouth toward Sunjeong with a slightly pained expression, furrowing his brow.
“Because I want to know.”
At the relatively plain voice, Sunjeong smiled faintly. You’re curious about the new number I didn’t tell you.
Just because Taeon was curious didn’t mean there was an obligation to tell him. Moreover, now especially wasn’t the time.
Before turning around, Sunjeong decided to inform Taeon of one fact.
“I can see you like easy hearts. But I’m sorry, my heart isn’t easy.”
After saying this, Sunjeong bit his lip tightly.
Even when Sunjeong was next to him, Taeon got countless numbers. And if they were from the same neighborhood and their trait was omega, he easily gave his number. Every time, Sunjeong bit his lips like now.
In front of omegas who smiled brightly at Taeon, who punched in his number with a blunt expression without even a single kind word, Sunjeong easily felt miserable.
Even knowing Taeon’s indifferent heart toward them.
Even knowing that Taeon’s feelings toward Sunjeong were the same as what Sunjeong felt from Taeon toward himself.
Sadness was sadness, and pain was pain, so Sunjeong suffered every time.
‘Do you meet the kids you gave your number to?’
‘Neighborhood kids, you’re bound to meet them.’
It meant rut partners.
‘Why are you nice to them?’
Taeon had stared at Sunjeong asking this for a while. Like now.
‘Their hearts are easy. They like my face and body. They’re the same as me in not being able to buy medicine. I like that it’s easy.’
‘…’
‘I hate that your heart is difficult.’
In front of Taeon, who went out of his way to say that last thing he didn’t need to, Sunjeong wasn’t particularly hurt.
It was just that before the small wounds in daily life piled up little by little and Sunjeong’s heart itself toward Taeon became just a big scar, he decided to pause this heart for a moment on his own.
It’s nothing more special or shining than the love others have.
What the kids who get Taeon’s number with excited expressions want to do with Taeon.
Sunjeong just wanted to do that with Taeon too.
When Sunjeong’s heart was easy, Taeon should have accepted Sunjeong’s heart as it was. If he had, Sunjeong wouldn’t have caused this kind of commotion.
Now that he’d decided to become the most difficult and complicated existence in the world to Taeon, he had no intention of becoming easy.
“I know.”
The answer from Taeon that came back to Sunjeong, who was making a firm expression again, was unexpected.
“I know your heart is difficult, and it doesn’t matter even if it’s difficult.”
“…”
“So if it’s okay… could you please give me your number?”
A sticky voice that had now completely lost the form of plainness.
Looking up at Taeon’s face, which had become gaunt and thin in the few months they hadn’t seen each other, Sunjeong quietly fell into thought. And he quietly said what he would have said much later if Taeon hadn’t spoken so pleadingly.
“I can give you my number.”
“…”
“But there are conditions.”
“Conditions?”
Taeon’s voice became urgent.
In front of Taeon who had taken the bait, Sunjeong smiled quietly to himself.
“If you can keep all those conditions, I’ll give you my number. I’ll come to this cafe tomorrow and share the details, but it’ll probably be very difficult.”
At Sunjeong’s words, Taeon’s face became dazed. A face that kept trying to gauge because he couldn’t understand at all what Sunjeong was saying. At the same time, a head nodding urgently because he knew he wasn’t in a position to be picky even in front of such words.
“Understood.”
To Taeon, who answered quietly, Sunjeong nodded and then turned around without a greeting.
What was reflected in Sunjeong’s eyes as he turned around was the surprised expressions with open mouths of his friends who had witnessed all of this short drama.
First, they were shocked and focused their attention when that handsome alpha tried to get Sunjeong’s number, second, they exchanged glances with each other and opened their mouths when Sunjeong talked about easy hearts or whatever, and third, they were shocked at Sunjeong’s words about giving his number conditionally.
Why is Go Sunjeong acting like that?
Among the friends, everyone was shocked and amused at Sunjeong’s first-time-seen appearance, who was just resourceful yet gentle.
To Hyeongho among the kids who were clearly pickled in dopamine and saying something with their eyes to Sunjeong, Sunjeong quietly opened his mouth.
“Hey, Kim Hyeongho.”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t have to keep it a secret.”
“Huh?”
“You’ve been writing and deleting KakaoTalk to your girlfriend. Just tell her. But clearly specify the subject as Go Sunjeong.”
“Really?”
Sunjeong gave instructions in turn to the three boys looking at him. To spread the rumor to their heart’s content.
That the reason the incredibly handsome young part-timer working at Cafe Sentence doesn’t give his number to anyone is because he has someone he likes.
Sunjeong’s face as he crossed the noisy university district night streets alone shone exceptionally.
This is just the beginning.
