“H-Hello?”
—Ah, Hyowoo-ssi.
The one who had been having a quiet conversation with Saewoo was none other than Lee Seohee.
He must have just gotten in the car after finishing team training, as the interior of the vehicle could be seen behind him.
—I thought it was strange, but as expected, it wasn’t you who called, Hyowoo-ssi.
“What?”
Hyowoo plopped down on the bed and looked back and forth between him and Saewoo on the screen.
“Then… you weren’t the one who made the video call, Lee Seohee-seonsu?”
—No. I sent a message, and instead of a reply, I got a call.
“What… what do you mean…?”
Still not understanding the situation and flustered, he joked that Saewoo might be a criminal cat.
—There was sound from the phone and something appeared on the screen, so he probably pressed it with his front paw. Then it seems he accidentally touched the video call button with his cat jelly.
Hyowoo had gone to the kitchen with the messenger app open.
However, he’d only left the room for about 2 minutes. In that time, a message arrived and the screen would have briefly brightened with the notification. If Saewoo saw that and pressed it with his front paw, kneading it, and accidentally touched the video call button?
‘N-No way…’
Hyowoo lost his words in a daze. It was absurd, but it wasn’t impossible either.
—How did you teach a cat how to video call? Tell me too so our kids can learn?
As if he found this situation simply amusing, Lee Seohee laughed with his shoulders shaking.
“There’s no way I taught him… Stop laughing…”
When he made a sulky expression, he stopped laughing. Instead, a gentle smile spread across his face.
—Your cat’s name is Saewoo, right? Can you tell him thank you for me?
“For what?”
—Thanks to him, we got to video call while seeing each other’s faces.
The moment he saw Lee Seohee’s beaming smile, his heart pounded. Worried that feeling might show on his face, Hyowoo quickly changed the subject.
“Um, my first exam results came out today. I passed.”
—Oh, congratulations!
He was happy as if it were his own achievement.
“Did you get a good score too?”
—Yes, thanks to your encouragement.
Suddenly, he remembered that the exam day had been his birthday.
If it had been Gyeonwoo, he would have joked saying he did well because it was Lee Seohee-seonsu’s birthday, but with his completely opposite personality, Hyowoo couldn’t utter such embarrassing words.
—I knew Hyowoo-ssi would pass. Congratulations, really.
“Ah, and please don’t send a gift.”
—Why not?
As expected, he seemed to have already been planning a gift in his head.
“I already received a lot for your birthday. So please don’t send anything.”
—I can’t even send a congratulatory gift to someone I like?
Today too, he naturally said he ‘liked’ him. That unadorned confession shook his heart once again.
“It’s not that you can’t… Anyway, it’s fine this time. Please hold back.”
Whether he sensed the subtle emotion in his tone, Lee Seohee made a warm expression.
—I’ll say it again, but my words that I like you, Hyowoo-ssi, are sincere. Even if I have ulterior motives, I don’t have any impure intentions or other schemes, so I hope you’ll believe me.
His head naturally bowed in guilt for doubting his feelings. However, at the word ‘ulterior motives’ that he soon heard, Hyowoo’s eyes widened as he stared at the screen.
His fair skin showed it immediately on his face. Seeing his two cheeks redden as if about to burst, Lee Seohee laughed out loud.
“…If you keep teasing me, I’m going to hang up.”
After laughing for a while, seeing the face mixed with embarrassment and resentment, he soon obediently apologized.
—I’m sorry. Hyowoo-ssi’s reactions are so cute I couldn’t help myself.
“That’s quite a bad taste…”
—You’re right. I acknowledge it’s a bad taste and a bad habit. I’ll stop.
“…Really?”
—I’ll stop today, so don’t worry.
Today? Doesn’t that mean he’ll tease him again next time? But feeling like he’d get caught up in his wordplay again if he brought it up, Hyowoo kept his mouth firmly shut.
—Since it came up, can I ask you one thing?
“Yes.”
—What do you think of me, Hyowoo-ssi?
At the sudden question, his heart sank for a moment.
He’d asked him countless times why he liked him, but why hadn’t he anticipated that he could receive the same question?
“…You seem like a good person. You’re handsome, and also very cool…”
—Haha, thank you.
Lee Seohee laughed pleasantly, but Hyowoo knew.
That what he really wanted to hear wasn’t this kind of formal praise.
Not this external evaluation, but Hyowoo’s feelings toward him.
However, Hyowoo himself hadn’t found the answer yet and couldn’t get his bearings.
Not knowing what to say, he lowered his gaze. Just when various thoughts were endlessly circling in his head.
—Aren’t you scared?
It was a question that caught him off guard.
“Why… are you saying… that…?”
When he barely managed to speak, he quietly opened his mouth.
—I heard from Taeseo before the blind date that you don’t like Alphas, Hyowoo-ssi. She also told me not to have high expectations, so I was prepared to be rejected right away.
It was unexpected.
At first, he’d thought it was just simple curiosity from a rich young master, or a temporary amusement.
Just casually meeting an Omega who caught his eye for a moment. He’d thought Hyowoo would be the one rejected in the end.
The relationship between Alphas and Omegas was originally like that.
The choice belonged to the Alpha, and Omegas had to wait only to be chosen.
This man on the screen was in the top 1% among Alphas. A high-spec Dominant Alpha with perfect conditions. He couldn’t believe that such a person had asked for a blind date while enduring the humiliation of possibly being rejected by a mere male Omega.
—But when I actually met you, it seemed closer to rejection than dislike. How should I put it… It felt like you were afraid of Alphas.
If someone heard that he disliked Alphas, most would think ‘hatred.’ That he refused even handshakes to the point of disgust. However, Lee Seohee accurately grasped that what Hyowoo felt wasn’t hatred but ‘fear.’
—It might be my misunderstanding, but somehow it seems like you have a story you can’t tell, Hyowoo-ssi. You felt like someone who had walked a difficult and painful path.
At those words, Hyowoo’s pupils shook slightly.
That a man he’d only met twice knew too accurately what he hadn’t told even his best friend Taeseo.
It felt like someone had looked into the box containing the secret he’d kept tightly hidden.
—I’m not trying to ask what circumstances you have. However, if I’m a frightening existence to you, Hyowoo-ssi, I don’t want to make things hard for you. I don’t want to make the person I like unhappy by putting forward only my feelings, only my selfishness.
This was an opportunity.
He was saying on his behalf what he couldn’t bring himself to say. He was creating a reason to break up.
‘End it now. That’s the only way I can avoid harming this person…’
Even so, his mouth wouldn’t open. Though he urged himself over and over to speak quickly, his lips remained firmly closed and wouldn’t move.
‘Let’s stop meeting.’
That short phrase—Hyowoo couldn’t bring it out of his mouth in the end.
***
Saturday afternoon, Hyowoo sat alone in a window seat at a coffee shop near school.
‘It’s already June…’
Most universities had already entered summer vacation, and it was the same for Hyowoo’s school.
There was no reason to come near school until the semester started, and he usually just stayed home on weekends, but today he had a request from Taeseo.
“My boyfriend’s birthday is coming up. I’m going to buy a gift and I need you to help me.”
“Going together is fine, but I won’t be any help, you know?”
He said he’d just be in the way since he had no interest in the latest trends or fashion, but Taeseo asserted that Hyowoo was actually the perfect person.
“My boyfriend has a similar personality to you.”
“You’re not dating some weirdo, are you?”
“Says you—what’s with the sudden self-hatred?”
Taeseo’s boyfriend, whose face he didn’t even know yet, was an ordinary office worker considerably older than her. They’d been dating seriously for a long time, but she hadn’t even mentioned him to her parents, let alone introduced him.
“If it were my father, he’d recreate that scene from dramas. Holding out an envelope of money saying, ‘Take this and stay away from my daughter!'”
Unlike Lee Seohee who had a good relationship with his parents, Taeseo didn’t get along with her parents, especially her father.
“He’s more than capable of that. Wealth and honor are everything to Father. He’s completely different from my understanding uncle.”
She declared that she’d rather never show him to her parents for the rest of her life than have someone precious to her go through such a ‘dirty ordeal,’ saying she’d die before letting that happen.
“Besides, there’s a 100% chance my boyfriend would meekly accept it and disappear without a trace, so I absolutely can’t give him the opportunity.”
Hyowoo watched her in silence for a while as she ultimately turned even serious talk into a joke.
‘As the only daughter with no sons in S Group, her parents’ expectations must be extraordinary…’
Though he was said to be an ordinary office worker, if Taeseo chose him, he couldn’t be an ordinary person. Yet seeing her bring up such talk, her parents’ standards seemed higher than imaginable.
While worried about the rough journey ahead for his friend, his curiosity also grew about what kind of person could have captured that fastidious Lee Taeseo’s heart.
‘She said she’d introduce him soon, so I’ll find out then.’
More than anything, he wasn’t in a position to worry about his friend’s romance. His own situation was more than enough to handle.
If Taeseo was the only daughter with no sons in S Group, Lee Seohee was L Group’s heir, the only son and eldest grandson.
Just from the stories he’d heard through her, he could sufficiently guess that family’s atmosphere and values. Such a formidable family wouldn’t just let their eldest grandson date anyone simply because he ‘liked’ them.
