Soohyun had his back turned. Seojun pulled out his arm, grabbed Soohyun’s shoulder, and turned his body around. It was hard to take his eyes off his cheeks that had deepened as if painted and his moistly wet eyes. Seojun carefully kissed from his eyes to his nose and then his lips.
“I was… too rough, wasn’t I.”
Soohyun didn’t say anything. Rather than him being too rough, his own body was strange. Every corner where his flesh touched was hot and ticklish. He had no energy, but the heat inside his body remained. He wanted to be in his embrace more, to be closer.
But Soohyun didn’t know how to express this feeling, so he just hunched his shoulders and burrowed into Seojun’s embrace. Since it was the first time Soohyun had nestled into him on his own, Seojun unknowingly relaxed his stiffened body and buried his face in his nape.
“I really like this. I like it so much.”
“Seojun-ssi….”
“When you call my name like that. It feels incredibly special.”
Soohyun’s eyes became languid. But he needed to wash his messy body. He could feel the semen that Seojun had released without using a condom flowing between his legs. Besides, his throat was dry. At the burning feeling in his mouth, Soohyun lightly licked his lips with his tongue.
“You’re thirsty, right? I’ll get you water.”
“Um….”
Before Soohyun could say anything, Seojun quickly got up and left. When Seojun appeared shortly after, he was holding a bottle of water along with a wet towel.
“Because I didn’t use a condom… I’ll wipe you down.”
“I can do it my….”
“I want to do it. Stay still. Drink some water first.”
Seojun took a mouthful of water. Understanding what Seojun was trying to do, Soohyun slightly opened his mouth and waited for his mouth to moisten his throat.
Sip—.
Though it wasn’t cool but lukewarm water, his thirst quickly subsided. After that, Seojun fed Soohyun water through his mouth several more times. Soohyun desperately clung to it as if the water in his mouth was the water of life. After pouring out so much bodily fluid, the more he drank, the more his thirst increased.
“Now I’ll wipe your body.”
Soohyun quietly nodded. Seojun wiped every corner of his body. After asking Soohyun’s permission, he inserted his fingers in the back and thoroughly wiped from the semen remaining inside to the fluids that had flowed between his legs.
“Really… I won’t do that next time. I’m really sorry.”
“It’s okay. Seojun-ssi.”
Even being cared for so tenderly after sex was unfamiliar. Seojun threw away the soiled towel, wetted a new towel, and wiped Soohyun’s body.
“This is…?”
Seojun’s hand, which had been wiping Soohyun’s limp body, stopped near the nape of his neck. It was a mark that hadn’t been clearly visible in the dark. A faint scar on Soohyun’s nape, precisely around the boundary between his collarbone and neck, caught Seojun’s gaze.
The moment Seojun tried to touch that place, Soohyun flinched.
“That’s….”
“Soohyun-ssi. This…. By any chance….”
Though it was very faint, no matter how he looked at it, it was the shape of teeth. There was no alpha who didn’t know what tooth marks near the pheromone gland meant. Seojun’s eyes shook greatly.
“No way, right? That can’t be…. What on earth is this….”
“You’re right. Seojun-ssi.”
“What? What do you mean I’m right?”
Soohyun sat up and carefully traced the mark.
“…Imprint.”
“…What?”
Seojun’s eyes and mouth widened. An imprint? Then that means Soohyun-ssi has a mate…. But why is Soohyun-ssi… why… with me… why like this…?
Soohyun’s smile as he looked at the confused-faced Seojun was very sad. Soohyun decided to confide one of the secrets he had kept to him.
“Eight years ago, I lost my alpha.”
After a long sigh, at this confession that sounded like lamentation, Seojun was at a loss for words.
Seojun couldn’t say anything and just stared at Soohyun. Soohyun quietly stroked the small mark remaining on his nape with his finger. He was the person who first taught him the emotion called love, and the person who had poured infinite affection toward his insignificant self.
“Then Soohyun-ssi, the reason you’re sick now is…?”
Soohyun neither smiled nor cried, just nodded his head very slightly. In truth, the reason he was sick wasn’t because of that, but he didn’t want to confide even that to Seojun. It was a story he couldn’t bear to put in his own mouth.
“Soohyun-ssi. But if that’s the case… shouldn’t the imprint be broken?”
“It should be but….”
Soohyun deliberately avoided Seojun’s sympathetic gaze.
“It didn’t happen that way.”
Soohyun quietly lowered his head. Seojun’s sigh was long. Both the fact that there had been someone he loved enough to imprint with and the fact that the imprint hadn’t been broken even though that person was no longer in this world were shocking.
“I’m lacking in many ways.”
Soohyun’s voice was surprisingly calm. His face, calmly confiding his own story as if talking about someone else’s, was no different from usual.
“Soohyun-ssi. I shouldn’t have….”
“I first met Chaeho ten years ago.”
“What?”
Seojun raised his head. It was Soohyun’s story that he had been so curious about. Why he was sick like this now, why such a beautiful person had no one by his side—he wanted to know everything. Seojun sat next to Soohyun and waited for his old story to begin.
* * *
The first time Chaeho met Soohyun was in a downtown area a little away from home. The person who approached Chaeho, who was crouched down crying like a fool after being severely teased by friends at school, gently patted his shoulder and softly stroked his head, was Soohyun.
“Why are you crying?”
“Hic… sob.”
Children’s mischief was sometimes cruel. For the reason of having nothing, or for the reason of being ugly, or for the reason of not having parents, children would throw knife-edged words at their peers without hesitation. From a young age, Chaeho’s mom was often sick and mostly at the hospital, and his dad was always busy. Chaeho, who had grown up lonely, was a lonely child whose parents rarely came to parent-teacher conferences or observation classes.
“My name is Lee Soohyun. What’s your name?”
“Hic… sob.”
That day was no different from the usual teasing. Why don’t your mom or dad come to school? The moment he heard the words that surely your mom and dad must hate you, his legs trembled. His mom who had been continuously sick since giving birth to him, and his dad whose face he could barely see properly once a week. Even knowing that the children’s words were lies just to tease him, he couldn’t refute them even once, thinking that maybe it was true, that maybe his parents also hated him and that’s why they didn’t properly listen to his stories.
“Looks like something really upset you. I’ll stay next to you for a bit.”
“Sob… Mom.”
Soohyun sat next to Chaeho and just waited for his crying to subside.
“Ho… I’m Kim Chaeho.”
“Chaeho, huh. I’m—”
“Lee Soohyun. You said it earlier.”
Chaeho was so embarrassed about crying like a fool in front of a stranger that he kept rubbing his eyes and under his nose. Soohyun took out a handkerchief from his pocket and silently held it out in front of Chaeho.
“After crying, I still feel refreshed. Chaeho, how about you?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
Chaeho very slowly raised his head. He wanted to check the face of the man named Lee Soohyun sitting next to him. He wanted to express gratitude to him who had spoken kind words to him, a complete stranger, with a moderately low and soft voice.
“Thank… you.”
“Yeah. I’m glad you’re okay now.”
Soohyun sparkled and shone. Neither the people he’d seen on television nor the girl at school rumored to be quite pretty shone as much as Soohyun. Soohyun’s smile on his pure white face like fluffy clouds in a blue sky was so pretty that Chaeho forgot even why he had been crying.
“I’m about to leave, can you get home alone?”
Since it wasn’t far to home, he could naturally go alone, but Chaeho shook his head because he wanted to be with Soohyun a little longer. Soohyun made a slightly troubled face, then stood Chaeho up and held his hand.
“Then I’ll take you near your home. Ah, I’m not a bad person. It’s strange to say this but….”
“Yeah. I know what you mean. Thank you.”
“Okay, then shall we go?”
The ten or so minutes to home were regrettable. Chaeho, who had never had an adult speak to him this kindly and listen to his story, didn’t want to part with Soohyun, whom he’d met for the first time today, like this.
“Where are you going now, hyung?”
“I’m going around looking for a place to live.”
“A place to live?”
Soohyun silently nodded. With the settlement money of 5 million won he received when leaving the facility, and since he couldn’t even receive it all at once, with the first 300 million won, it was too difficult to find a place to eat and sleep right away.
