Hyunsu placed a drink glass in front of Evan, who sat with a stiff expression.
Since meeting until now, the two hadn’t exchanged any conversation. Evan didn’t mention the destination, and Hyunsu didn’t reveal where they were going either.
Even now, in the room of the members-only bar, what lingered between the two was silence.
“What are the deal conditions?”
Holding his drink glass, Hyunsu leaned against the window and looked down outside. A night full of beautiful lights unfolded. He fixed his gaze on a cruise ship passing over the gently flowing river. Hyunsu’s pupils moved following the leisurely moving cruise ship.
“None. Should I just say it’s about definitively pushing up a rookie who’s starting to gain popularity?”
At Evan’s words, which he thought wouldn’t be answered, his eyebrows moved slightly.
“A course of pretending to be lovers for a few months then announcing a breakup. What are you trying to cover up? If you’re dragging yourself into it, it seems like something big.”
Evan didn’t answer and just spun his glass around and around. The sound of ice clinking inside the glass rang out.
“Is it because of Siwoo?”
At Hyunsu’s following question, a low laugh sounded from his mouth.
Siwoo. Yes. Siwoo.
My person. The reason I’m alive.
Perhaps the reason the disgusting regression stopped.
“Try calling Coco.”
“He’s not answering. It’s not just me who tried, and the last person who talked to him was Yechan. But he didn’t say much to Yechan either. Honestly, I don’t understand why you’re like this with Siwoo. Do you really like Siwoo? Do you have special feelings?”
Hyunsu, who emptied his drink glass, approached the table and filled his glass again. Then he returned to where he’d been standing and kept his gaze outside.
“Special feelings? Like? Well. Can it be explained with such words?”
At Evan’s seemingly sarcastic tone, Hyunsu clicked his tongue.
There was definitely something between Siwoo and Evan. And in their relationship, Evan appeared to be the absolute weaker party.
Didn’t they say the person who loves more is guilty?
“Love?”
Hyunsu was the one talking, and Evan was the one listening. When the word love was mentioned, Evan laughed out loud. He laughed loudly as if he’d heard a tremendously funny story.
“Evan. I’ve been thinking, and I don’t think this is right. Alphas and betas can date. But I’ve never seen it last long. Constitution doesn’t just exist for nothing. Its influence is too great to ignore. It’s not Yuri, right? Then what style do you like? If there’s someone like that around me, I’ll introduce them to you anytime. And you know too. Your rumor. That you don’t react to omegas at all. Honestly, everyone’s hushing it up and pretending not to know, that thing. Is there a problem by any chance?”
As if talking about secret matters, Hyunsu’s words became smaller toward the end. And when he finally said “problem,” his expression was, how to say, subtle.
“Hyung.”
The expression disappeared from Evan’s face, which had been laughing refreshingly. Expressionless. Facing the stiff expression that held no emotion, Hyunsu swallowed the saliva pooled in his mouth.
The gaze of Evan, who leaned comfortably back on the sofa with his long legs crossed, reached the dark night sky beyond the window. In the sky where not a single bit of starlight could be found in the glamorous night view, only a half moon hung.
Rather than urging him for any answer, Hyunsu concentrated on sipping his drink and watching the quickly moving cars.
“He’s mine. Siwoo.”
“Hey. What do you mean a person is……”
“I said he’s mine. A person only I can recognize. A person I’ve been searching for since childhood. A person who has to be me. No, everything I said before is the opposite. Coco can be without me, but I can’t be without him. I might have somehow lived when I didn’t know, but now that I know……”
It was a low, small voice, but it was clearly heard. But in the end, it was the rambling of someone in love, so a helpless laugh flowed from Hyunsu’s mouth.
“Does this sound crazy?”
“Just go to Siwoo and honestly tell him your feelings. Either get rejected and cleanly organize your feelings, or whatever, date lovey-dovey. It doesn’t seem like something that’ll work even if I try to stop it. Don’t be like this alone. You’ve never even told Siwoo those feelings of yours, right?”
At Hyunsu’s question, Evan emptied the drink glass in front of him. And before he could fill his glass again, he repeatedly filled and emptied his glass several times by himself. Then he closed his mouth and kept his gaze on the night sky. The two were in the same space, but they weren’t in the same space.
“Do you know how sweet Siwoo’s pheromones are?”
This time, the person who broke the silence was Evan.
“What nonsense? The whole world knows Siwoo isn’t an omega.”
“Who says so?”
“Hey. He’s going to the military soon. Search right now. A video where Kim Siwoo says with his own mouth that he’s a beta……”
“Bullshit.”
Evan cut off Hyunsu’s words with a firm voice. His eyes, which had been looking at the night sky, were comfortably closed.
“And I acknowledge not reacting to omegas.”
Hyunsu’s brow furrowed looking at Evan acting strangely today. He moved his body that had been leaning against the window, sat across from him, and put down the glass he was holding on the table. It seemed like some important story was about to come out.
“Hyung must be familiar with it too. Omegas in heat cycle recklessly pouncing. Managers go crazy because of that. We’re going crazy too. What on earth are they thinking coming in that state to fan signings? Even though alphas and omegas are beasts going crazy over pheromones. Ah! That’s not what I was trying to say.”
With his eyes closed, Evan talked about things familiar to Hyunsu too.
There were those who called themselves fans while committing the worst acts. They came to homes, came to airports, and those who invaded privacy without hesitation committed unimaginable acts. Pouncing while spraying pheromones like crazy during heat cycles happened frequently.
“I was born an alpha, and in secondary manifestation I was determined to be a golden alpha.”
Evan’s story continued like that.
The word difficulty didn’t suit Evan’s life.
The position of the second son of an aristocratic family operating a global group was like that. Since he had an alpha older brother above him, excessive expectations didn’t press on his shoulders.
He just had to be healthy and do what he wanted. Of course, the family wanted him to inherit the family business too, but that was also just one of the many future options Evan could choose.
The problem arose for him after secondary manifestation ended. What no one had known until then happened to him. He couldn’t feel pheromones. No, precisely, he couldn’t smell omega pheromones. He recognized alpha pheromones, but strangely, he couldn’t feel omega pheromones.
No matter what effort he made, it was impossible. Eventually, to Evan, omegas became existences no different from betas. Even in a narrow space with an omega in heat cycle, he couldn’t recognize their state.
Was it a blessing or a curse for an alpha?
In the first life he lived, most of his adolescent problems were related to this constitution. Going to hospitals and getting tested. He was absorbed in finding answers about the abnormality that occurred in him.
It was the same in his second life. And from some point, Evan didn’t talk about the problem he had.
If he didn’t speak, no one knew.
“Hyung’s pheromones are coffee scent.”
Evan revealed the story about not being able to smell pheromones to Hyunsu, but he couldn’t talk about the regression.
“Coffee, coffee. Thanks to that, I’m thinking of maybe running a cafe when I quit being an entertainer later.”
Listening to his story, Hyunsu chose to gulp down cold water rather than drink more alcohol. If not now, Evan would never open his mouth again. So he had to listen carefully, and the stories he was bringing out now didn’t seem light at all.
“Ah! Where did I talk up to? Anyway, I found the answer. Because I knew what the problem was. But there was no way to fix it.”
Hyunsu chose water, but what Evan, who slowly opened his eyes and straightened his body, chose was alcohol.
“Try guessing. I’ll give you time.”
“How would I know that? Do I look like a pheromone specialist doctor to you? I just learned the fact that it’s possible to only not smell omega pheromones. You’re the first golden alpha around me. Everyone just thought you might be golden. You never revealed it with your own mouth. But you……”
Shaking his head and stabbing an apple with his fork, Hyunsu’s actions and words stopped simultaneously. And Hyunsu’s head slowly lifted. His eyes met with Evan’s eyes sitting across from him.
“Why? Did you think of something?”
Evan’s green eyes, slightly larger than usual, with darkness settling in, perhaps from intoxication, sparkled in a strange color reflecting the light. It was the expression of a mischievous child playing a fun prank.
“You said that nonsense about Siwoo’s pheromones earlier.”
What filled Hyunsu’s mind momentarily was that. It was clearly Evan who brought up the ridiculous pheromone story about Siwoo, who was a beta. And he just said he couldn’t smell omega pheromones.
“An alpha?”
Why did he only think Siwoo was an omega? He didn’t think at all that he might be an alpha. Why didn’t anyone ask him if he was an alpha? Everyone only asked if he was an omega. But Siwoo always revealed that he was a beta.
A smile bloomed on Evan’s face. Soon after, he even clapped.
“Too bad. You should have racked your brain a bit more.”
“What? He was really an alpha? You’re not going to say Siwoo is also a golden alpha or something like that.”
The fork he’d picked up fell and collided with the glass plate, making a sharp sound. But that fairly loud sound was buried by Hyunsu’s much louder voice.
Evan’s brightly smiling lips moved. No sound came out, but reading along with the moving mouth shape, Hyunsu only blinked his eyes.
“Hidden omega.”
That’s what Evan just said.
