* * *
‘Your dad is looking for you.’
‘Seems like he doesn’t know you’re living so shamelessly after even changing your name.’
Wooyeon’s fingertips kept anxiously tapping the table. His unfocused eyes were blankly directed somewhere.
He couldn’t clearly remember his biological father’s face, but he vividly remembered his haggard and gloomy atmosphere. If it was him, he would surely sell off Wooyeon who had manifested as an omega without hesitation.
Tap tap tap tap tap, the tapping hand was suddenly stopped by someone. At someone’s body heat that came over his hand, focus returned to Wooyeon’s eyes.
“Hyung, I’m asking if you’re going to this MT.”
“……Huh? What?”
It was Yoon Wiseung. Wooyeon, who hadn’t heard the story they’d been talking about until now, asked him again. Next to Wooyeon, as always, Jeonghan was sitting. Jeonghan pushed away Yoon Wiseung’s hand that was placed on Wooyeon’s hand and said.
“I’ve told you several times that sunbae doesn’t like going to those things.”
“Right?” Jeonghan, resting his chin, asked with a gentle smile toward Wooyeon.
Wooyeon stared at Jeonghan’s face like that. Sometimes this side of Jeonghan felt suffocating to Wooyeon, like being bound by shackles, and he disliked it for some reason.
“Still, this time it’s a joint MT so I think it’ll be fun.”
“You, are you coming with Chu Seonyoung?”
At Jang Hyeonjun’s words, Yoon Wiseung asked Jeonghan. Yoon Wiseung laughed while pursing his lips.
“Hey, you call that a question. Of course she’s coming.”
Whatever was so funny, Jang Hyeonjun and Yoon Wiseung giggled while fooling around with their hands.
“No. I’m not into those things either.”
When Jeonghan said while organizing his books, the two wrinkled their faces as if greatly disappointed.
“Ah, why. Let us see you guys being all lovey-dovey.”
“Right. The girls are going crazy saying you treat Chu Seonyoung rea~lly well. Show us a bit.”
Wooyeon felt Jeonghan’s gaze briefly rest on him. Wooyeon put his textbook into his backpack and stood up from his seat first.
“Then what, so out of us, it’s really just the two of us going? Chu Seonyoung said she’s going.”
At Seonyoung’s name coming up again, Wooyeon’s nerves became strangely on edge.
“No. Jeonghan will go. Of course he’ll go, when his girlfriend is going, why wouldn’t he go.”
At Wooyeon’s answer, Yoon Wiseung and Jang Hyeonjun’s faces turned simultaneously. Their faces seemed to say ‘why is Wooyeon saying that,’ but Wooyeon didn’t care. Then soon their gazes slowly moved from Wooyeon to Jeonghan. They were reading the mood regarding Jeonghan who had lost his smile.
Jeonghan was a dominant alpha but wasn’t authoritative, and unlike ordinary dominant alphas, he was kind to everyone. Nevertheless, even those who hung around with him felt a strange sense of intimidation and he was at the top of the hierarchy in whatever group he went to.
They were laughing and chatting together, but Wooyeon only then realized that didn’t mean Kwon Jeonghan and the others were on equal footing. Yoon Wiseung and Jang Hyeonjun kept well the line that Jeonghan had drawn, and their teasing was only within the limits Jeonghan permitted.
And just now, Wooyeon seemed to have crossed that line. For a moment, Wooyeon wondered if he had made some mistake.
“What, then sunbae should come too.”
A smile slowly spread again on Jeonghan’s expressionless face.
That face again.
He was smiling but it didn’t feel at all like Jeonghan was really smiling. Wooyeon’s heart sank for no reason. Yoon Wiseung and Jang Hyeonjun sitting in front also awkwardly let out laughter.
“Anyway, on weekends you don’t have part-time work except for tutoring, right?”
Jeonghan smiled brightly.
“Ah, ah. That’s right. Really, don’t be like that and come too, sunbae!”
“Then I should tell Boram sunbae that both sunbae and Jeonghan are participating.”
Yoon Wiseung and Jang Hyeonjun also hurriedly packed their bags and said to Wooyeon. Jeonghan naturally gauged and pulled out a few bills from his wallet and handed them to Jang Hyeonjun.
“Pay the participation fee together for me, mine and sunbae’s.”
Hyeonjun nodded and received the money from Jeonghan. Wooyeon had also gotten used to the money Jeonghan paid as if it were natural. Sometimes Wooyeon became suddenly frightened of himself like that.
When Wooyeon looked at Jeonghan, Jeonghan smiled gently and grabbed Wooyeon’s wrist. Looking at Jeonghan with anxious eyes, Wooyeon was pulled along helplessly.
Yoon Wiseung and Jang Hyeonjun said nothing as usual about Wooyeon and Jeonghan going to eat separately by themselves as if it were natural. At the thought that suddenly occurred, Wooyeon became anxious for no reason. Beep, with a sound, Jeonghan’s car that had been parked outside the building unlocked with lights flashing.
“Wiseung and Hyeonjun…… do they know by any chance?”
“Know what?”
Jeonghan who got in the driver’s seat bent down and fastened Wooyeon’s seatbelt. Jeonghan was smiling faintly and his face was nonchalant. At the narrowed distance, their eyes met again. Wooyeon became anxious for no reason, feeling as if he’d been bound.
“You and me…… our relationship.”
It was a ridiculous thing to say even as he said it himself. Feeling ashamed as if he’d been stripped naked, Wooyeon hung his head. The words Seoha had said about him came to mind and he felt tormented.
“Well. I don’t know, what they think.”
Jeonghan vaguely trailed off again. He didn’t tell him the truly important things. Knowing it was meaningless to question it, Wooyeon just sighed.
“Ah, take this.”
Jeonghan rummaged through his wallet, then pulled out a card from inside and held it out to Wooyeon. Wooyeon, who had been staring at the card in Jeonghan’s hand, raised his gaze again to look at Jeonghan. Jeonghan was still smiling faintly.
“What does this mean?”
“What I said about wanting you to quit the convenience store, that wasn’t just talk.”
“So what is this.”
“You got fired from the convenience store because of me.”
When Wooyeon didn’t take the card, Jeonghan pressed the card into Wooyeon’s hand resting on his knee. The card had a matte black background with gold foil around the edges.
“Don’t feel burdened and use it. I wanted to give it to you earlier anyway, but I didn’t have the chance because I kept putting it off worried you’d feel bad.”
“……”
“I want to lighten the worries you have, even a little. That’s all.”
At Jeonghan’s words, Wooyeon silently looked down at the card in his hand.
‘How long are you going to live like this without knowing your place, acting like a whore?’
Seoha’s voice rang in his head again. However, Wooyeon couldn’t coldly refuse the card Jeonghan gave him. He was already receiving suppressants that cost more than double his living expenses, and his mother’s hospital bills were being paid with Jeonghan’s money. To Jeonghan, it was a level of money without meaning, and refusing this wouldn’t reestablish the relationship between Wooyeon and Jeonghan.
Wooyeon rolled the hard card in his hand. The edge of the card touching the inside of his palm dug into his flesh like a blade.
“What should we eat?”
Jeonghan’s affectionate voice asking nonchalantly felt cruel instead.
Jeonghan moved the steering wheel smoothly, and the car slowly exited the parking lot.
* * *
No matter how many times he came, he thought he would never get used to it, but now he had become accustomed to the luxurious VIP ward scenery, and Wooyeon sighed. He was gradually becoming accustomed to the things Jeonghan gave him like this. It wasn’t a good thing for Wooyeon either.
Looking at the several oil painting works hanging on the white walls, before he knew it, he was in front of the hospital room where his mother was. Through the slightly open door gap, unlike other days, a noisy sound was flowing out. Surprised, Wooyeon pushed open the door and entered the hospital room.
“Oh my, student Wooyeon came?”
The caregiver ajumma hesitantly greeted Wooyeon in the hospital room’s living area. Her eyes turned toward the bedroom where his mother was lying, then awkwardly returned toward Wooyeon. From inside the bedroom, the sound of someone wailing could be heard.
“What’s……?”
When the caregiver ajumma tried to say something but just closed her mouth, Wooyeon walked directly toward the bedroom. When he opened the door, the wailing sound poured over Wooyeon’s skin.
As soon as he opened the door, what he saw was his mother leaning back with the bed raised…… and Seoha.
“……Mom! Don’t you feel sorry for me? Huh? I’m so wronged, I can’t go on like this.”
Seoha’s voice crying profusely was cracking from how much he was screaming. His mother’s thin hand, blackened in parts from her illness, gripped Seoha’s shoulder.
Sensing the presence behind him, Seoha turned around. His eyes were all red and swollen. There was even a chill in the eyes glaring fiercely at Wooyeon.
“It’s you.”
Seoha, who had been clinging below their mother’s bed, got up from his seat and rushed at Wooyeon. Wooyeon flinched and stepped back, but it was already after Seoha had grabbed his hair.
“Ah!”
“You! You tattled to Jeonghan, didn’t you? Right?”
Wooyeon’s slender body staggered under Seoha’s gestures. There was venom in Seoha’s voice. Wooyeon, who had no way of knowing what he was talking about, couldn’t collect himself at the suddenly arrived situation. At the loud voice, the caregiver ajumma who had been in the living room rushed into the bedroom and stopped Seoha.
“Oh my, oh my! Young man, what are you doing!”
“If you’ve got a mouth, speak! You’re the one who told Kwon Jeonghan to send me away, aren’t you! Ahhh!”
