Yechan glanced at Evan and subtly stuck close to Siwoo’s side. Though they were watching the mandatory safety video, such things didn’t enter his eyes. He’d expected something to happen, but Siwoo and Evan were too nonchalant. Rather, the two were talking comfortably, and now they were discussing who would sit where.
Amidst that peaceful atmosphere, his own pheromones were still wafting steadily from Siwoo’s body.
“Hyung.”
Yechan carefully spoke up, recalling the proverb that it’s better to get hit first. And he really, literally got cursed out tremendously with Evan’s eyes. Clearly he was smiling gently. He didn’t say anything, but Yechan had to feel like his entire body was being cut to pieces by that gaze.
“Yechan, do you want to ride in front?”
“Yes.”
Yechan quickly answered Siwoo’s words. If Siwoo rode in front and he sat in the back seat with Evan, it felt like he’d bid farewell to this world with that visual.
Siwoo, who had gotten into the jeep modified for safari, couldn’t hide his excited heart. This time he was really doing many various things. He’d traveled alone leisurely too. Siwoo’s gaze, lost in various thoughts, reached Evan sitting beside him.
Saying photography was his hobby, he was concentrating on operating the camera. When would he return again? Even if he returned this time, it seemed like he wouldn’t have big regrets. Because he’d traveled with someone he’d always watched on screen and admired, eaten together, and made many memories.
While looking at the large hands operating the camera, he blankly looked at his own hands. This time he looked at his face lowered in concentration.
“Coco. Stop looking at me and look at the animals outside.”
Do you have eyes on your forehead or head too? Siwoo pouted his lips and sneakily turned his head to shift his gaze outside the window. The zookeeper in front was driving and earnestly explaining, but the animals sprawled out resting in the shade didn’t enter his eyes.
Out of courtesy, he took out his phone and photographed the pride of lions resting in the shade.
“Oh.”
There was a rustling sound from behind, but he tried not to pay attention. If Evan hadn’t suddenly hugged him from behind, he would have continued not paying attention.
“They’re all sleeping.”
Evan’s voice was heard right by his ear. Though they could see animals on both sides, right now the animals were more visible from Siwoo’s side.
Siwoo couldn’t move at all because of Evan completely wrapping around him. To say what kind of behavior is this, the camera was positioned in front of him.
The large camera photographed the animals outside. He wanted to ask if he really had to hug him from behind like this to take pictures, but in the narrow back seat of the jeep, there were many constraints for the large-framed Evan to move.
“Now we’re going to see bears.”
When Evan’s voice was heard by his ear again, in the end Siwoo moved slightly backward and lightly pushed Evan’s chest with his back.
“Hey. Move back a bit.”
“If I move back, it’ll be shaded and the photo… Ah! Sorry. You’re uncomfortable.”
Evan withdrew the camera and quickly moved back. He’d only intended to capture the vivid appearance of the animals, not to approach him this closely. Unknowingly, he’d approached behind him as he stuck to the window.
It felt like becoming a stupid fool. If it involved getting entangled with Siwoo, everything was like that.
When the heat and presence felt from his back disappeared, Siwoo unknowingly bit his lower lip firmly. Strangely, from some point on, he’d been continuously conscious of Evan.
“Come here.”
He told him to move back a bit because it was awkward and uncomfortable, but if he went that far away, he couldn’t take photos.
He clearly called him to come back again, but when he didn’t feel any presence, Siwoo turned his head. In a very short time, the emotion Siwoo read on Evan’s face was bewilderment.
In a fleeting moment, he’d returned to his usual comfortable expression. Perhaps Siwoo had seen it wrong.
“They say we’re feeding the bears now, so take it up close.”
Siwoo, who tossed out a word, turned his body completely toward the window and sat. After that flow of emotions that became stranger the more he thought about it, something was strange.
“Is Siwoo hyung going to feed them?”
Yechan deliberately spoke in a slightly exaggerated voice and waved his hand at the camera. What on earth are these hyungs? He’d been listening hard to the zookeeper’s explanation, but it bothered him that they kept giving off a strange atmosphere from behind.
“Yeah. I’m going to do it. Evan says he’s scared.”
Yechan, who turned around, couldn’t bring himself to look at Evan and stared at Siwoo, unable to hide the absurd expression that naturally formed at his answer.
Evan hyung, who seems like even if thrown into that beast cage right now would beat them all up and walk out, is scared of bears? Someone whose hobby is extreme sports? The person who last winter in Switzerland jumped from a helicopter and filmed himself coming down from the snowy mountain peak to the bottom, what is he scared of?
“I know, right. Evan’s funny, isn’t he? He doesn’t really like roller coasters either. So I held his hand when we rode the roller coaster earlier.”
“Hyung, you don’t know Evan hyung that well?”
Yechan asked sincerely. Right, just because you’re in this world doesn’t mean you can know everyone’s personal tendencies. It was normal to only know about people you’re interested in. This proved that while Evan was a first-generation Coco-mom who knew a lot about him, conversely Siwoo didn’t know anything about him.
Though he might get beaten to death later in a place without cameras for his mischievous prank just now, Yechan looked at Evan with pitying eyes. The thick pheromones he’d marked him with might not be a joke after all. In the world of betas, omegas, and alphas, no, throughout the entire world, this was Evan who held records like #1 man you want to travel with, #1 desirable son-in-law, #1 ideal husband.
And he was now showing severe interest in a beta who couldn’t even feel pheromones. Of course, the person receiving all his attention hadn’t noticed at all.
“What about Evan? Is there something I should know?”
Since the car stopped for the feeding experience, Yechan and Siwoo’s conversation ended there. Judging and evaluating people by their appearance isn’t right. Although his appearance looked like he could casually beat up the black bear standing right in front, inside he could be delicate.
“Hold it carefully and let go of the tongs right away when the bear grabs it.”
Siwoo held the large chunk of meat with tongs and held it outside the bars, but dropped it before the bear even grabbed it. The moment it grabbed the iron bars with those thick hands right in front of him, his body really jumped with a crack.
“Did you see? Did you see?”
Though he’d dropped the meat on the floor so the bear had to bend down and pick it up to eat, Siwoo whirled around to look at Evan and made a fuss.
“One more.”
Siwoo’s appearance, with his eyes folded into half-moons and cheekbones fully raised, not knowing what to do from happiness, was captured just as it was on camera. And when Evan said “one more,” he quickly picked up the meat the zookeeper held out with the tongs.
And this time, not wanting to drop it, he stuck out the beak of concentration and carefully held the meat outside the bars.
“Uaaaah…”
This time without dropping it, when the bear snatched the meat with its front paw that had long claws, he quickly pulled his body back and let out an indecipherable sound effect by himself.
“It’s fun. It’s fun.”
Along with the words that they were moving to the next herbivore area, Siwoo handed the tongs to the zookeeper and looked at Evan. At that moment, the sound of continuous clicking from the camera he was holding was heard.
“Hyung. Next is giraffes, giraffes.”
Yechan, who’d also finished feeding the bears, made a fuss.
“Evan. Will you feed the giraffes?”
Evan shook his head. He didn’t tell him in advance that feeding the bears would have been easier. For Evan, who had already done this kind of program many times with team members, the safari tour wasn’t that interesting. Watching Siwoo changing moment by moment was much more enjoyable.
As if he hadn’t cried so sadly before, Siwoo was smiling brightly like a young child and enjoying all of this.
“Kyaaaah!”
From Siwoo’s mouth, who had been delighted feeding the bears, a scream finally burst out. And because he hurriedly pulled his body back, he flew into Evan’s arms as if diving in.
“Puhahaha.”
The sound of Yechan laughing loudly from the front filled the jeep.
Siwoo really didn’t know. That a giraffe’s tongue was that long, that dark bluish-purple. And that strong.
It was fun until it first snatched the grass he was holding. But because he fumbled while grabbing the grass again, the giraffe’s tongue, unable to wait, came out first.
And it lightly licked the tip of Siwoo’s hair as he was staying still nicely. Fortunately he had good reflexes so he moved his body quickly and only the tip of his hair touched, but if he’d been standing there blankly, he didn’t even want to imagine that situation.
Siwoo, who had almost burrowed into Evan’s arms, only turned his head slightly to glance at the giraffe still waiting for grass in front. At that moment, the long tongue sliced through the air once more.
“Kyaaaah!”
In case the giraffe’s tongue touched him again, Siwoo buried his face in Evan’s chest.
“Keukeukkeup. My hair, my hair. Hey, my hair!”
Yechan, who had no place to escape far away, left his hair to the giraffe’s tongue while urgently grabbing a bunch of grass and holding it out. The hair he’d carefully hand-dried himself that morning for filming was wetly soaked and disheveled as it pleased.
When the jeep started again, Yechan couldn’t bring himself to touch his own hair and was making sounds that were neither laughing nor crying.
