The room-deciding game ended far too easily. It was just choosing one of seven papers with room numbers written on them. And with truly heaven-sent luck, Siwoo ended up using a room with a king-size bed all to himself. A room with even a bathroom attached.
While listening to the back-and-forth talk about whether they liked their rooms or not, Siwoo subtly pulled his body back and leaned comfortably against the backrest. Memories from when he was in a group came to mind. People he’d fought with so much over whether things were good or bad, and whom he’d grown quite attached to…
“Alright, alright. We’ve divided the car teams and decided on rooms, so let’s go grocery shopping.”
Siwoo, who ended up in the same car as Louis and Luca, naturally headed to the back seat at Luca’s words that he would take the wheel. And Louis sat in the passenger seat as if it were natural.
“But why have I never met Siwoo? Louis, you said you met him.”
Reality variety shows had no time to rest. As if the cameras installed all over the car were familiar, Luca led the conversation first. Next to him, Louis even adjusted the camera angle so he would look good.
“It’s been 3 years since I debuted, but I only released two mini albums and wasn’t popular, so I barely promoted. Louis knows because Phantom and I overlapped on music shows…”
“I totally fell for Siwoo-hyung after seeing his stage. I really can’t understand why hyung isn’t taking off. But if you dance that well, why is your title track a ballad?”
“Really? Siwoo dances well?”
“Ah, no. It’s just at the level of choreography. Compared to Luminous where Luca-hyung is, geez.”
“I was just about to die from dancing. I escaped by coming out for filming, everyone else is confined to the practice room right now.”
“Luca-hyung, how can you say that when you’re the main dancer?”
“Wow! Louis is hitting on people. Hello, Louis is totally hitting on me.”
At Louis’s action of giggling and tapping Luca’s forearm, Luca playfully pretended to jerk the steering wheel in an exaggerated way.
“When did I hit you? Does this hurt? This?”
Thanks to Luca and Louis continuing to bicker, neither the sound nor video was idle, so Siwoo turned his gaze to the window. He recalled the words Evan had conveyed in the chaotic situation after the game dividing teams and rooms ended.
‘You showed the back of your hand.’
At that voice full of complaints and clicking, Siwoo had answered that he hadn’t heard. But he knew that those words were precisely directed at him at that time, and that he had wanted to be on the same team as him.
It seemed he needed to have a serious talk with him in a quiet space without cameras. About whether his personality was originally like that or if he was really his fan.
* * *
“Loser takes all!”
“No regrets. No take-backs.”
Since they each bought everything they wanted to eat, they ended up buying a tremendous amount of food, and ultimately had to carry heavy plastic bags, one each. With plastic bags in one hand and lollipops or ice cream chosen according to their taste in the other, their faces were full of mischief.
Everyone cheerfully participated in rock-paper-scissors at the “loser takes all the bags” game that Yechan proposed. With cheers, bags piled up on the ground each time someone dropped out.
And the last people remaining were Louis and Siwoo.
“Wow. Seriously, all the Alphas dropped out and we’re doing ‘loser takes all’ between an Omega and a Beta!”
Though Louis cried out, everyone was too busy holding their stomachs and laughing to pay attention.
“Hyung! Hyung, what are you going to throw?”
At Louis’s words as he stamped his feet while giving cute eye smiles, the corners of Siwoo’s mouth slowly rose. Right now in real-world time there was a one-year age difference, but looking at it broadly, they could even be called uncle and nephew. How could he not fall for it when such a pretty and cute kid was calling him hyung and acting cute?
“Scissors.”
“Good! Rock, paper, scissors.”
Siwoo threw scissors as promised, and Louis, who trusted Siwoo, thrust out his fist.
“Yes!!”
Watching Louis raising both arms up and bouncing away while jumping, Siwoo shrugged his shoulders exaggeratedly. Since they recruited him to do this kind of thing, he could do it as much as they wanted. It wasn’t like they were going far, just to the car in the parking lot.
If the opponent had been an Alpha, he wouldn’t have kept his promise, but Omegas were perceived as beings that needed to be protected and cared for by Betas and Alphas. Of course, even for Siwoo who had lived in a society where this consciousness was deeply rooted, Omegas were delicate people who needed to be treated carefully.
“They say the person who suggests this kind of thing first is the one who gets caught! It was all lies!”
In the atmosphere of everyone laughing cheerfully, Siwoo spoke with a playful feeling and then lined up the plastic bags on both sides so they’d be easy to grab. He planned to divide the weight appropriately on both sides and lift them all at once.
“Geez. What are you good at?”
All the plastic bags he was about to grab disappeared. The disappeared items were nestled in both of Evan’s hands.
“Uh. Hey!”
“Just hurry up and come. You don’t even listen. Can’t even play rock-paper-scissors.”
“Evan! Are you trying to look cool by yourself?”
While he was flustered trying to take what Evan was holding, Luca and Yechan ran over, and the plastic bags were distributed evenly in their hands.
“What’s the point of betting then.”
“What! I said I’d carry it.”
In the complicated situation where everyone was saying something, he missed the chance to take the plastic bags.
“Seriously everyone talks too much. Let’s hurry and go cook and eat. I’m hungry!”
Shouting loudly while dividing and carrying the luggage and walking ahead, Siwoo had to follow him empty-handed.
“Hyung. Are you close with Evan-hyung?”
At Louis’s question as he approached from the side, Siwoo just shrugged his shoulders. Close? What was the standard for being close? Evan was someone he’d seen for the first time today.
“It’s no joke. You’re really not close?”
“It’s hard to say close or not close. Since we first met on the plane earlier.”
“You really met for the first time today? Not like you saw each other in a waiting room like I did?”
He nodded at Louis’s words confirming several times. After Louis’s first playful hug, Louis and Ian hadn’t come close to Siwoo. It didn’t seem like they disliked him, but even now as they were talking like this, the distance between them wasn’t very close.
That’s why Louis’s low voice was difficult to hear unless one paid attention.
“It’s strange. Really strange.”
Louis sniffed slightly with his nose and approached closer, then soon frowned and moved away again.
“What is?”
“The smell.”
“Do I smell?”
At the word smell, Siwoo quickly raised his arm to his nose and took a deep breath. There was nothing in particular that would make him smell. And even now, only the scent of the fabric softener he always used was present.
“Hyung. You really are a Beta.”
“Then are there fake Betas too?”
“When I first saw you, I thought hyung was an Omega. Though it makes sense that if you smelled this strongly, it wouldn’t make sense for hyung not to know. Anyway, Evan-hyung’s pheromone smell is coming strongly from hyung.”
At the words that it wasn’t an unpleasant smell, Siwoo shrugged his shoulders and stopped trying to smell it. He’d been next to him the entire flight time, and in the taxi they’d been stuck together in an even smaller space. Even just now when they were playing the team-dividing game, Evan had been leaning against his legs, so his smell could have sufficiently rubbed off.
“I guess it rubbed off since we kept being close.”
“That’s not it.”
“Huh?”
“It could certainly just rub off normally. But what’s coming from hyung right now, it seems like Evan-hyung is a bit angry. Not a bit, but quite a lot?”
“Thanks. For telling me. I’ll talk to Evan about it.”
Before the conversation deepened or went in a strange direction, Siwoo smoothly ended the conversation.
Though he’d learned about Alphas and Omegas during middle and high school class time, honestly, as a Beta, he knew almost nothing about them. Though it was mandatory education time, there were no students who listened to that class diligently.
All he knew basically was that Alphas and Omegas had unique pheromones, and that they were affected by those pheromones with each other—that was all he knew.
“No, no. Hyung! Don’t tell Evan-hyung. The pheromone talk is a bit sensitive. Maybe when he was in a bad mood, hyung was next to him so it rubbed off, something like that could happen. Evan-hyung probably knows too. I just asked wondering if there might be some problem between hyung and Evan-hyung. We have to stick together for ten days.”
By the time the conversation ended, they’d arrived in front of the car, so Louis quickly sat in the passenger seat again. It seemed he’d better talk quietly with Evan alone as soon as possible. With quite a few agenda items.
* * *
“Then. Siwoo.”
Why are you really doing this to me?
Right after returning from grocery shopping, what immediately followed was dividing the dinner preparation team and cleanup team.
Something they’d do several times a day during the 8 nights and 10 days.
Dividing teams and distributing tasks—all of that was done through game-like activities.
Having entered the cleanup team early, Siwoo was watching from a bit behind as they decided on the meal preparation team. He’d been thinking of unpacking and resting a bit while the meal duty people prepared the meal.
An agenda came up that it would be too much for two people to prepare the meal, and Evan and Louis, who were on meal duty, pointed to Siwoo as the person they wanted to work with.
“Me?”
Too flustered, Siwoo pointed at himself with his fingertip and confirmed again.
Blinking his eyes, Siwoo looked blankly at Evan, unable to escape Hyunsu’s touch as he patted his shoulder and laughed.
“Friend, come here. Let’s make dinner together.”
Everyone else might be having fun, but Siwoo wanted to cry. Moreover, he couldn’t make any reaction to Evan’s action of spreading both arms wide and laughingly telling him to come over.
