Babe — he means someone else, not me……
It felt like he’d been called by a very wrong name, but it wasn’t important, so he decided to let it slide.
Siyeon got straight to the point.
“I’m sorry, but would it be possible to just drop me off on the shoulder a little further up?”
“Why? You said you wanted me to take you to the hospital.”
“I did, but…….”
“Didn’t you say your leg hurt just now?”
The man asked back as though he couldn’t understand Siyeon’s behavior. Of course — having changed his mind over and over so many times, it wasn’t unreasonable that the man found him strange.
As he tried to think of what excuse to give to a man who had started to grow suspicious, Siyeon decided to just come out with it honestly.
“The truth is, I’m not in a position to go to the hospital right now.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t have…… any money…….”
“Money?”
“Going to the hospital costs money…… and that’s…… a bit…….”
He’d told himself to speak as confidently as possible, but the more he talked, the more his voice shrank. I don’t have money. I can’t because I don’t have enough money. It wasn’t as if this type of conversation was anything new — and yet.
When Siyeon trailed off and couldn’t bring himself to continue, the man spoke up first.
“We were partly at fault for the injury too, so don’t worry about the hospital fees.”
The man acted as though Siyeon was worrying over nothing. Watching him, Siyeon felt the wariness he’d been pressing down rise back up.
“Why are you helping me?”
“You asked me to.”
“Even so. When I think about it, the accident that almost happened was entirely my fault.”
“At least you know that. When you suddenly jumped out, I thought you were a deer at first.”
Well — looking at your face, you’re more like a spotted deer than a plain one.
The man tossed out a light remark, as though thinking aloud.
Ugh — the mildly greasy flirting made him feel sick.
Siyeon wrinkled his brow and leaned away — and the man, on the contrary, leaned in toward Siyeon and whispered low.
“Anyway, don’t worry too much. I tend to go soft on omegas.”
“Omegas……?”
“You’re an omega. And hmm, on top of that…… you don’t seem like a typical trait-bearer.”
As if convinced, the man closed the distance and leaned in near Siyeon, taking in his scent. His breath grazed the back of Siyeon’s neck — and Siyeon froze stiff, shrinking in on himself.
“Don’t tell me — a dominant?”
How did he figure out my identity so quickly on the first try. Siyeon sat there rigid, and the man — as if asking whether he wasn’t right — reached out a finger and nudged Siyeon’s cap upward.
The cap slid half off, abruptly exposing his bare face. Siyeon looked at the man in wide-eyed alarm.
“You’re…… a bit too close…….”
“Wait — what are you?”
“Wh — what do you mean…….”
The man pushed his face suddenly close to get a better look at Siyeon’s now-exposed face. If Siyeon hadn’t leaned back in time, the man’s breath would have been close enough to brush his face.
It was a good thing he’d barely managed to hold back — because he’d nearly thrown a punch at his own benefactor. The man’s forwardness had almost made his fist fly.
“You’re this pretty — why do you go around covering your face?”
Oblivious to the fact that Siyeon was seething inside, the man beamed as he leaned in closer. Catching the smile playing at the corner of his lips, Siyeon suddenly had an unpleasant thought.
Wait…… this is a gay — no, a BL novel, wasn’t it?
Was this man trying to say, in a roundabout way, that he was interested in Siyeon? Going on about spotted deer and prettiness and whatnot.
He’d thought the man was just a friendly but odd fellow — but realizing he might be looking at Siyeon that way made goosebumps crawl all over his skin.
Shit, at this rate I might actually punch him.
He needed to find his composure before he got hauled off for assault.
Bearing in mind the nature of the original novel — and the fact that yes, ‘omega Hong Siyeon’s’ appearance was exceptional — he was willing to respect the man’s preferences. But that didn’t mean getting hit on by a guy with something dangling between his legs was a situation he was particularly happy about.
While Siyeon was managing his feelings, the man — apparently taking the silence as something else entirely — started asking all sorts of questions.
“Oh, come to think of it — what’s your name?”
“……Why do you need my name?”
“This is fate, isn’t it? Thought we could at least exchange names.”
“I’d rather not, personally…….”
Whoever this man was, Siyeon had decided it was better not to reveal his identity until he’d successfully made his escape in this body.
Going around giving out his name left and right — who knew when or where that insane couple or Manager Kang might catch the scent and come after him.
When Siyeon closed his mouth with a look of discomfort, the man asked again.
“You don’t want to tell me your name?”
“Yeah, that’s…… a bit…….”
“Alright, that’s your right…… but…….”
The man voiced his displeasure, then immediately pressed his body right up close to Siyeon’s side. He gave a small smile, as if to say this wasn’t playing fair.
“You already know who I am, don’t you?”
Siyeon couldn’t help but pause at the man’s cryptic words.
Given how boldly he was presenting himself, Siyeon figured there had to be a reason.
“Hmm…… well…….”
When Siyeon fumbled without giving a clear answer, the man — as if suddenly realizing something — took off the cap he’d been wearing.
“Ah, is it because of this?”
The hair that had been hidden under the cap flowed out softly. Medium-length hair that reached a decent way down glittered as though woven from golden thread — but his features were so striking in their own right that it didn’t come across as excessive.
Wait — now that I can see properly, this guy is actually quite……
Only now could Siyeon get a proper look at the man’s face without shadow obscuring it. At some point he’d taken off his sunglasses too. Beneath the cap, his eyes were a vivid shade of blue.
Long lashes, finely arranged and striking features, skin with a clean texture — all together they made Siyeon stare at that face without meaning to.
There’s a sense of nobility about him somehow. And he’s handsome. The body he’d transmigrated into was nothing to be ashamed of either — but this man’s appearance was so ideally composed that somehow Siyeon’s eyes kept drifting back to him.
“Hmm, staring that hard is a little embarrassing, you know.”
Whether he’d noticed Siyeon studying him intently, the man ran a hand through his hair and pushed it back.
For someone claiming to be embarrassed, the gesture looked like something straight out of a hair commercial — but his face carried it so well that it suited him and didn’t look obnoxious at all.
Is he some famous celebrity?
Looking at a face that seemed like a god had taken special care crafting it, the thought crossed his mind that this was no ordinary person.
From his manner and his looks, he had a rough sense of how things were going — but he couldn’t very well pretend to recognize someone he didn’t know.
Siyeon quietly avoided the gaze of the man who was watching him with sparkling eyes, clearly waiting to be recognized.
“I’m sorry. I don’t really watch TV.”
“What? Seriously……?”
“…….”
“You have a phone, don’t you. Don’t you watch YouTube? What about the internet?”
The man visibly looked taken aback by the unexpected answer.
He seemed so startled that Siyeon, now flustered himself, gathered every last bit of his instincts to try and guess the man’s identity.
“Hmm…… are you a singer, maybe?”
“…….”
“Or a model?”
“Ha…….”
“……An a-actor?”
As Siyeon ran through his guesses, the man let out a disbelieving scoff. It seemed like every guess was wrong.
Not a singer, not a model. Not an actor either — then what on earth…….
As Siyeon kept puzzling over it, the man dragged a hand down his own face like he couldn’t accept this. Then, as though suddenly understanding the reason, he spoke up.
“You know — do you have particularly bad eyesight? Like, you’re not wearing glasses so you can’t see clearly…….”
“I don’t know about my eyesight…… but your face is coming in very clearly.”
“No, I think something’s wrong with your eyes. Look at me properly.”
The man pushed his face right up close to Siyeon’s nose. The way he kept craning in as if to say look properly, it was becoming awkward to keep saying he didn’t know.
“……I’ve looked.”
“Well?”
“Hmm — you’re handsome?”
“That I already know. Don’t say obvious things.”
The man accepted the compliment about his own appearance with a somewhat shameless face. It was an honest, natural response rather than false modesty. Say what you will — the fact that his looks were exceptional was simply the truth.
“That’s strange. Your eyesight seems fine.”
“My eyes…… are genuinely perfectly fine. I just don’t know who you are, that’s all.”
When Siyeon shot back in a slightly prickly tone, the man seemed to finally register in earnest that the other person truly didn’t recognize him.
His relentless prodding had been a little irritating — but seeing the man look genuinely shocked, Siyeon began to feel the tiniest bit sorry.
Cornered and uncomfortable, Siyeon quietly averted his gaze and steered the topic elsewhere.
“Well…… you could’ve just told me. It’s not like we’re playing twenty questions…….”
“I’m an actor.”
“……Oh.”
“I do singing and modeling work sometimes too.”
Wasn’t it a foul move to suddenly come clean like that. He’d looked like the kind of flashy slacker who liked to play around — but now that Siyeon thought about it, he seemed like a young man who’d worked hard at a young age.
Now I feel a little bad…….
Perhaps the man had been making such a fuss because having his career casually denied had felt like a blow. Siyeon, belatedly, threw out a hollow line of encouragement and gave him a double thumbs-up.
“You do a lot of different things. That’s really…… cool. I’ll cheer you on!”
“……You said you don’t know who I am.”
“I’ll start being a fan from now. You’re handsome, so you’ll definitely go even further from here.”
When Siyeon pumped him up as if urging him on, the man answered in a deflated voice.
“It’s a bit strange coming out of my own mouth, but I’m already successful.”
“…….”
“Probably everyone knows who I am except you.”
The man pointed out the window with a complicated expression. Looking where he gestured — through the glass, a bus had stopped, and on it was an advertisement with his face printed enormous across the side.
The face on the advertisement outside the window and the man sitting in front of him overlapped strangely, like a split image — making Siyeon’s eyes go slightly haywire.
“The photo…… came out nicely…….”
“When the original is this good, it comes out well no matter how carelessly you shoot it.”
“Ah, yes…….”
“You really do seem to need a bit more awareness of the world around you. How do you not recognize me? Have you been locked away somewhere — like a temple or an uninhabited island?”
As the man’s reproach continued, Siyeon felt a headache coming on for no good reason and squeezed his eyes shut.
Am I…… in over my head with some strange person?
Seems like he’s famous enough…… but what a tiring type. Better to just stop responding to him.
“Ahem, hmm…… hmm…….”
During the brief moment the man fell quiet, the driver let out a series of unnatural dry coughs that just wouldn’t stop. It seemed their entire conversation had been carrying all the way to the front seat.
It felt like sitting on a bed of thorns — but since he’d laid the thorns himself, Siyeon had no room to complain. The silver lining was that, thanks to the man speaking up, the uncomfortable silence didn’t last long.
“By the way — can I ask you just one thing?”
“……What is it?”
“Why did you jump onto the road earlier?”
