Siwoo, dimly coming to his senses, moved his hand to fumble at the space beside him. Even without checking like this, he knew it was empty, but a small sigh flowed from his mouth as he confirmed the coldly cooled spot.
He rolled his heavy body over to Evan’s side.
He hadn’t even moved much, yet just shifting a little to the side on the king-size bed made his whole body ache. With his face buried in Evan’s pillow, feeling his pheromones thickly soaked there, he stretched out his arm and picked up his cell phone. Then, confirming that the current time was 3:45 PM, he gave a hollow smile.
It wasn’t even the early days of dating, and it wasn’t heat or rut either, yet this could happen.
From head to toe completely covered in Evan’s pheromones, a place too embarrassing to mention throbbed. The stinging sensation on the delicate skin around his eyes was something he was feeling after a very long time. He had seen dawn breaking beyond the window where the curtains hadn’t been drawn. But what Siwoo’s eyes saw now were heavily drawn blackout curtains.
Before Evan left, he seemed to have said something while brushing back his hair and kissing his cheek, but he couldn’t remember at all what he’d said.
Not even wanting to move a finger, Siwoo lay there in a daze with one hand on his lower abdomen when a grumbling sound leaked from his mouth.
“Ah. Really… Evan Lewis.”
Siwoo’s cheeks and ears instantly flushed red as he kicked off the blanket covering him with a thud and sat up abruptly. A faint moan flowed from Siwoo’s mouth as he moved roughly all of a sudden.
Was that the only reason Evan had pushed him so hard last night?
‘Marriage. Since when have you been thinking about it? Every time I asked, you always said next time, someday, things like that.’
‘I’ve always been thinking about marriage.’
Though Evan usually didn’t do knotting, saying it would strain his body, the relationship that had started intensely from the beginning eventually led to knotting. The conversation they’d shared while catching their breath for a moment with him held deep inside his body became the fuse for a relationship that wouldn’t end moderately.
If you’re in a relationship, doesn’t everyone think about marriage? Whether the dating period is long or short, everyone is bound to envision a distant future with their lover. Back then, the problem was that even when he tried to envision it, he couldn’t. It was because even while fully embracing him, skin against skin, lips pressed together, there were times when he couldn’t believe he was really in this kind of relationship with Evan.
There were times he’d be startled while seeing off Evan leaving for work, whether seeing his peacefully sleeping face or dressed in a suit so stunning it looked like he’d just jumped out of a pictorial. Throughout the continued regressions, for a long time Evan had been an object of envy and admiration to him.
He remembered the times when, trying to understand the feelings of someone who kept confusingly giving him plums and looking after him, whenever the thought ‘Could it be he likes me?’ occurred to him, he would quickly shake his head in denial.
‘What do you mean by always? Since when?’
‘Mm… After the ‘Journey’ filming ended and I came back, around the time you started giving me plums?’
While stroking his back and kissing various exposed places like his cheek, chin, and shoulder, Evan asked questions, and as Siwoo touched his hair, he pulled up stories from the past.
‘What? Before the regression?’
Looking at him who bit firmly on his neckline and met his eyes as if surprised, Siwoo had nodded.
‘Hah. Wait. Why… why is it getting bigger…?’
So the relationship that started again continued until dawn, and it was hazy how many times knotting had occurred. Anyway, being honest must have been a sin.
As he recalled Evan, who while cunningly having such thoughts never expressed them once and pushed him even harder, asking why he avoided it every time he brought up marriage, goosebumps rose all over his body.
They were growing old together, so why did it seem like his stamina was declining while Evan’s kept getting better?
[Siwoo-ya. Let’s do a broadcast.]
What cut off the train of thoughts was a message from Taehoon, the CEO of his agency.
* * *
Sitting side by side on a garden bench with the sunset glowing softly, Evan and Siwoo smiled mischievously as they watched the staff members who still had their mouths hanging open in disbelief.
After much trouble, the day after his proposal-that-wasn’t-quite-a-proposal to Evan, Siwoo immediately called upon receiving a message from Taehoon, the CEO of his agency. And he immediately announced their marriage news.
Since they were both members of Ocean, which hadn’t officially disbanded, he was the person who needed to know their news first. Of course, he also had to come to their wedding.
At the sudden news, after a brief pause, Taehoon’s answer made Siwoo burst out laughing in disbelief. He didn’t expect a congratulations, but he thought he’d at least be surprised or demand an explanation of the situation, yet he gave such a simple answer.
‘…Really? Then let’s film that.’
Taehoon, who had been about to say there was a spot as a panel on a new program and ask if he’d like to try it, immediately created a program on the spot.
He wanted to capture Evan and Siwoo’s story together with the ‘Ocean Story’ filming team. Unlike the other members who could be continuously seen through broadcasts, rumors surrounding Evan, who was going down a completely different path, and Siwoo, who didn’t show himself, kept arising and dying down repeatedly.
Moreover, all the incidents Siwoo had accidentally set off live until now just ended at that. They were buried like that without any explanation. But he wanted to film an honest appearance, even thinking about the Nimos who would suddenly receive news of their marriage through a single-line article.
At his words that it would only be released on the agency website, and he wanted to capture the marriage preparation process or their real appearance, even if briefly like a vlog, Siwoo answered that he would do so.
As soon as they suddenly decided to film like that, the filming team that came over to England stayed in England for about a month to capture their story.
And the start of filming was a simple interview.
Since it was the ‘Ocean Story’ filming team that had worked together for several years, they asked after each other and had comfortable conversations before starting the interview with light topics.
- Have you been well? Please tell us how you’ve been doing.
E: I’m working hard.
Co: I just played comfortably. I even edited and uploaded vlogs myself, right?
- Who confessed first?
E: Me.
Co: But I did the final proposal, anyway!
At the PD’s questions, the two answered comfortably without formality. Since it was an interview proceeding according to a pre-agreed questionnaire, and unlike the initial plan, it wouldn’t air on public broadcasting but only be released on the agency website, the atmosphere was more relaxed than ever.
- Uh. This wasn’t on the questionnaire. When did you do the final proposal?
Co: A week ago!
Since it was a filming team that knew each other well enough and had unintentionally witnessed everything from their something-relationship to their romance, there was no problem with questions being added on the spot. They just never expected that their relationship, which they thought would end as bromance like fan service or a something-relationship, would develop to the point of marriage.
Even while hastily preparing for filming and coming to England, they couldn’t believe it, and even now, seeing them like this and asking questions, they couldn’t easily believe it.
At Siwoo’s answer in a truly bright voice and with a cheerful face that he did the final proposal a week ago, Evan chuckled as if incredulous and shook his head.
Siwoo, wearing jeans and a baggy hoodie in his usual favorite style, and Evan, wearing slacks and a knit sweater, were bickering but sincerely answering questions.
- A week ago? But there’s less than a month until the wedding? Then Siwoo-ssi, how did you propose?
Co: Secret…
E: Coco told me to marry him, saying he’d make me a study in this house.
Co: Hey! When did I say it like that?
E: You did. While proposing, you didn’t even say you love me…
Co: No! I did! I said it! I said it!
Unlike Siwoo who mumbled that it was a secret, when Evan answered with a grin, Siwoo got fired up and smacked Evan’s thigh. Regardless, Siwoo firmly covered Evan’s mouth with his hand as he tried to continue speaking and shouted urgently. Setting aside their banter-like conversation, their all-too-natural skinship put the filming crew on edge.
When Siwoo hastily covered his mouth with his hand, Evan’s face, instead grasping and holding Siwoo’s hand, was full of a smile they’d never seen before. Evan, gently removing Siwoo’s hand, was looking at Siwoo, not the camera.
E: When?
Co: I was trying to say it then, but you kissed me so I couldn’t. And in bed I said it so many times…
E: I… can’t live because of you.
They had just started filming, but the two seemed to have fallen into a conversation of their own, as if they couldn’t even see the filming team.
At first Siwoo covered Evan’s mouth, then this time, unlike Evan who wore a soft smile, an excited Siwoo snapped back point by point before his mouth was covered by Evan’s hand. With one hand covering Siwoo’s mouth area, Evan watched in full as Siwoo’s eyes widened, finally realizing what he had been about to say.
- Now, you two, please look this way, and we’ll continue the interview. Since you’re members of the same group, you’ve spent a long time together and must have had many experiences, but from when did you start feeling attracted to each other and dating?
E: From the beginning.
Co: Huh? When’s the beginning?
E: Then do you know exactly when we started dating?
Co: …Right. When should we say it’s from?
E: I… want to count from the airplane.
Co: How is that dating? Isn’t it the hotel?
E: The hotel? Then. Let’s go with that day.
Co: We can say it was during the break after the first album.
Once again excluded from the two’s conversation, the PD stared blankly at the questionnaire he was holding. Where should the editing point be? From the first question, they covered each other’s mouths to hide things, but as a father of two children, he ended up understanding the muted content.
Proposal and bed—isn’t that saying everything?
Thinking he should just remove this question, he asked the next one, but this time it’s about a hotel.
And during the break after the first album? Murmuring sounds could be heard from the filming team who had been watching them since before that.
It was the moment it was revealed that everything they thought was bromance mixed with fan service between an Alpha and a Beta was actually real romance and push-and-pull.
