The Best, or the Worst 69

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Juniper’s Summer, the drama that once turned ‘fated pair’ into a popular buzzword.

The original was a novel that was so popular it was remade in as many as five countries.

“I only read the novel, but the protagonist there is very similar to you two.”

“What kind of story is it?”

When Hyowoo asked with curious eyes, Leif slightly raised the corners of his mouth and held back his words.

“It’s long to explain. And I’m not good with words either, so it’d be better to just read it yourself.”

Making him expect he’d tell him everything, but now telling him to read it himself. Hyowoo couldn’t hide his disappointment.

Leif, who had been silently watching his pleading eyes asking him to tell the story even briefly, suddenly started a completely different story, saying ‘Hyowoo is also an omega so he’d understand.’

“Since I started playing soccer, I’ve had to fight discrimination every day.”

At the sudden confession, Hyowoo blinked.

“When I was young, everyone openly teased or ignored me. After becoming an adult, I experienced discrimination in more subtle ways.”

The Premier League, where only the best talent from around the world gathered. Most of the players there were alphas or betas.

Thanks to Leif being the first to break through, omega players had now advanced to the league to some degree. However, the overall proportion was still at an extremely low level.

“The discrimination I faced right after entering the academy, when I just started playing soccer, was worse than when playing in the league. Because I was the only omega.”

At Leif’s words, Hyowoo held his breath.

“During the hardest times, Connor was the only friend by my side. He always took my side when the kids tried to tease or ostracize me.”

At first, he thought Lee Seohee was just ‘pretending to be nice’ by flaunting the fact that he was a Dominant Alpha. But it didn’t take long to recognize his sincerity, Leif confessed calmly.

“When something unfair happened to me, he’d get angrier than I would and roll up his sleeves to step up for me. Even though he must have had enough on his plate with his own affairs, he always looked after me first.”

“He… had a hard time too?”

When Hyowoo carefully asked, Leif gave a bitter smile.

“No matter how much of a Dominant Alpha, here he’s just an ‘Asian.’ Even when he became a national representative at a young age, there were many who said it was thanks to his father rather than his skills. Because his father’s company is a FIFA main sponsor, rumors that he played soccer with money circulated for quite a while.”

For a moment, his mind went blank as if he’d been struck.

In Korea, Lee Seohee was an icon of glamour.

A chaebol heir, a world-class sports star, and on top of that, a Dominant Alpha. He seemed like someone who had only ever enjoyed success without major worries.

But he too had silently endured discrimination like Hyowoo and Leif to reach his current position.

‘Seohee-ssi must have had a hard and lonely time too…’

Thinking there must have been sadness invisible to others behind his grinning smiling face, his chest ached painfully.

“Well, in the end, he made everyone shut up with his skills.”

He lightly brushed off the end of his sentence and laughed.

“In many ways, he’s an amazing and fascinating guy. And to me, he’s a truly irreplaceable precious friend.”

His voice was filled with pride, gratitude, and affection for Lee Seohee.

“That’s why I was even more curious. What kind of person Hyowoo would be.”

The gaze felt beyond the wine glass no longer had any coldness.

“Connor seemed much more at ease since last winter. Even if he didn’t show it, it must have been hard… I think that’s thanks to Hyowoo.”

Hyowoo couldn’t say anything.

Though the thought of denying it or humbly brushing it off briefly crossed his mind, his heart strangely rippled at his eyes full of belief.

“Actually, I don’t believe in things like fated pairs either. But you two seem to have some special connection beyond simply the emotion of love. Even if it’s not the cheesy ‘fate.'”

Leif muttered while lifting his wine glass again. And then he smiled brightly for the first time.

The smile that crossed over the glass sparkling in the sunlight was dazzling like an elf in a fantasy movie.

“I’m relieved that Connor seems to have met a good person.”

At those words as if entrusting his friend to him, Hyowoo could only shyly lower his head without saying anything.

***

After parting with Leif, Hyowoo arrived home and immediately plopped down on the sofa.

After roughly putting down his bag, he immediately purchased an eBook on his phone.

Juniper’s Summer.

It was a novel written by Ellie Jennings, an actress who was once called ‘Hollywood’s Sweetheart’ and enjoyed worldwide popularity, based on her own real experiences.

Juniper, who enjoyed splendid popularity from childhood but endured exploitation from her mother and the film industry, fell into drugs and ruined her acting career at age twenty-two. It was a story of how she fatefully met a psychology specialist and regained hold of her life, beautifully depicting the love and trials of Juniper and her lover Emily.

This was the bottom of my life.

I thought it was the end of my life.

A severe drug addict just lying there like a corpse, waiting only for the day to die.

But on one sweltering summer day.

One person opened the door, saying they would counsel the drug addict everyone at the rehab center had given up on.

Emily, a psychology counseling specialist who had just received her doctoral degree and taken up the position.

I still can’t forget that moment.

Because that day, for the first time in my life…

I felt something called love.

Hyowoo exhaled and adjusted his glasses that had slid down to the tip of his nose. He had been concentrating so hard on reading that he hadn’t even noticed his glasses sliding down.

‘It’s worthy of being a New York Times long-term bestseller. Once I started reading, I can’t stop.’

He briefly stopped reading at the scene where Juniper was sexually assaulted as his own past came to mind, but soon picked up his phone again.

In the novel, Juniper and Emily were intensely drawn to each other from their first meeting.

Juniper’s body, ruined by drugs, didn’t recover easily, but after meeting Emily, she began to rapidly improve.

Emily also suffered from severe insomnia and anorexia while going through the difficult doctoral psychology program, but regained her health after meeting Juniper.

‘It really is similar… Like the story of Seohee-ssi and me…’

After meeting Lee Seohee, Hyowoo’s health improved noticeably. Color returned to his pale face, and his weight increased.

Leif said that Lee Seohee’s knee and overall condition also improved noticeably right after their blind date.

‘If the only similarities were love at first sight and improved health, these two things, it could be called a coincidence, but…’

Surprisingly, there were a few more overlapping parts in the novel besides these.

One day after developing into lovers, Emily makes an unexpected confession to Juniper.

It was that Juniper had a ‘special scent’ that other people didn’t have.

It was a special scent unique to Juniper that only Emily could sense, completely different from an omega’s scent.

While reading that scene, Hyowoo suddenly remembered when Lee Seohee asked if he wore perfume at the airport in March.

‘There’s no way Seohee-ssi couldn’t distinguish between shampoo or soap smell. But the fact that he specifically asked if I wore perfume means there was some unusual scent. Then, could it be…’

That wasn’t all.

Juniper expressed kissing Emily as ‘sweet like drinking honey water.’

Not because she was happy, but because it actually tasted sweet. Not just kisses but even sweat and bodily fluids felt sweet, so she thought something had gone wrong with her brain because of the drugs—Hyowoo’s hands trembled slightly as he read that scene.

It was a part that should have been cute like the standard of romantic comedy, but far from laughing, his face stiffened.

‘This… what is this? To consider it a simple coincidence… it’s too identical…’

That alone was surprising enough, but what really gave him goosebumps was something else.

Less than a year after becoming lovers, Juniper bid Emily farewell.

Because she believed her past of falling to rock bottom with drugs would ultimately become a burden to the person she loved.

Juniper left alone that way, and not long after, she contracted an illness of unknown cause.

She suffered from high fever, her mind became hazy, and she could barely eat food. Her body gradually wasted away as well.

I heard somewhere.

If you form an imprint with your fated pair, both body and mind become enriched,

But if you separate, the omega pines for the alpha and wastes away until death.

I thought it was just a made-up story… but maybe it’s true.

If Emily hadn’t given up and come looking for me,

I would have quietly disappeared from this world.

Hyowoo’s expression became even more serious as he read Juniper’s monologue.

Last summer. Feeling guilty that Lee Seohee got hurt because of his heat, and fearing that his very existence would become shackles holding him back, Hyowoo decided to break up.

However, afterward, he couldn’t even swallow water properly, and his health rapidly collapsed.

‘At that time, I only thought it was heat aftereffects or breakup stress… Don’t tell me, all of this was symptoms that appeared because Seohee-ssi is my fated pair…?’

If this were true. This wasn’t a beautiful legend of love but rather a ghost story close to a curse placed on omegas.

And what exactly did ‘imprint’ mean?

‘It’s not sexual intercourse yet, so… a kiss?’

Or, the very moment of falling in love?

‘If Seohee-ssi and I were to break up again… would I waste away and die?’

Though he thought it was ridiculous, Hyowoo’s mind grew increasingly complicated.

He couldn’t forget Lee Seohee.

Feeling like he’d die if he couldn’t see him, Hyowoo ultimately broke his resolve and recklessly boarded a flight to London.

He met him and confessed his entire past, and confessed his true feelings.

Thanks to that, they were now lovers.

‘I’m satisfied enough with now, but even love has an end…’

What exists at that end is marriage, or separation.