Ryu Jin personally pushed Ryu Taeha’s back, leading him to the door.
Unlike Ryu Taeha, who headed to the door without complaint, Yeoul didn’t move, his face full of things he wanted to say. He just stood behind Dawoon like a jangseung the whole time.
“Dawoon hyung, I’ll close my eyes here while you change. I absolutely won’t look.”
Whispering that, Yeoul closed his eyes and was then lifted and carried out by Ryu Taeha’s telekinesis. Dawoon sighed at the sight of their youngest looking tearful. It’s going to take a while to soothe him again.
Click.
Ryu Jin, who had locked the door as well, made a face as if seeking praise.
“Esper Dawoon, now you can change comfortably.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
He was a child with severe affection deprivation, no less than Yeoul. Knowing this well, Dawoon didn’t forget to praise him, saying it was reassuring.
“Not at all. They say omegas should help each other survive.”
“Really?”
“Yes, that’s what I learned in school. Omegas are inherently weak.”
Ryu Jin sat on the sofa with a slightly bitter expression. As if he’d been studying guiding, a specialized guide textbook was spread open on the sofa table.
How can he be so kind and diligent? Dawoon smiled warmly and took off his clothes one by one.
He hadn’t planned to take off his underwear too. But inside the combat uniform Ryu Jin gave him were new underwear still in their unopened packaging.
Dawoon carelessly took off his underwear as well. Since Ryu Jin was the same man anyway, he didn’t particularly care.
In fact, Dawoon felt he wouldn’t mind even if the alphas Yeoul and Ryu Taeha saw his naked body. He’d actually changed out of wet clothes in front of Yeoul before.
It was because he wasn’t yet accustomed to these traits of alphas and omegas. Dawoon felt they were all just the same men as himself. How much more time would need to pass before he’d really feel the difference between omegas and alphas?
A month had already passed since Dawoon entered the novel.
Adapting to this whole verse setting was more difficult than expected. There were quite a few newly learned terms.
At least the fortunate thing was that Jeong Dawoon was a ‘recessive omega.’
Recessive omegas had faint pheromones compared to dominant ones, and their heat cycles—or whatever it was called—had longer intervals. Moreover, the probability of having a child converged to 0%. For Dawoon, this was fortunate.
On the other hand, dominant omegas had strong pheromones and frequent heat cycles. Furthermore, their appearance was incomparably more beautiful than recessives. Because of this, most dominant omegas were entangled in various love affairs and lived tiresome lives.
Ryu Jin was exactly that dominant omega. It was a fact one could tell just by looking at his extraordinary appearance.
Though they were alpha and omega, perhaps because they were both dominant, Ryu Jin and Ryu Taeha were quite similar to a surprising degree. Especially their light brown hair close to blonde and their distinct features like mixed-race individuals were alike. Because of this, the two were publicly known only as ordinary biological brothers.
However, in reality, they were only family on paper, not sharing a single drop of blood.
Ryu Taeha was adopted. His adoptive parents had struggled with long-term infertility before adopting him, and afterward miraculously had Ryu Jin.
As a child they’d longed for over a long time, Ryu Jin grew up receiving plenty of his parents’ love. The love of his much older hyung was also all his.
Until his parents died in an accident, he had lived a happy life anyone would acknowledge.
“Good thing I changed. It feels nice wearing new clothes.”
Dawoon turned around with a satisfied face. Ryu Jin, who had been watching him, smiled with rounded eyes. It was an eye-smile similar to yet slightly different from Ryu Taeha’s.
“Esper-nim, you have to leave right away, don’t you?”
Sensing he had something to say, Dawoon shook his head and sat next to him.
“Is something wrong?”
“No… it’s not that.”
Watching the hesitating Ryu Jin intently, Dawoon predicted what would come next.
“My hyung…”
I was wondering if he’s seeing anyone these days—
“I was wondering if he’s seeing anyone these days.”
Ha, exactly right. Dawoon felt greatly relieved at his own memory for memorizing the dialogue word for word without missing a single character.
Fortunate that the novel was flowing as remembered. Right now, this scene was the most important conversation in the early part of the story.
“I’m just asking out of curiosity. There’s no special reason.”
Looking at Ryu Jin, who waved his hands and smiled gently, he briefly thought it over. But did we have this conversation in the guiding room? I thought it was somewhere else…
“Of course a younger brother would be curious. Who his hyung is meeting and seeing.”
Dawoon focused on the conversation for now. The location could easily be confusing.
“Um, but the leader meets so many people.”
When he recited the dialogue exactly as read in the novel, Ryu Jin showed a flustered appearance exactly as described in the novel.
“He meets many people…?”
Ryu Jin had already harbored feelings of admiration and shy emotions toward his hyung even before entering the Center. It was no wonder that Ryu Taeha, who had become a complete adult, looked cool to him when he was a fresh teenager.
However, it was only feelings to the extent of a young student having a crush on a cool teacher, and even now after becoming an adult and entering the Center, it was still just a ticklish fondness.
The one who set fire to this pure heart was none other than Ryu Taeha. That fucking trash bastard.
At least the fortunate thing was that right now, when asking if Ryu Taeha was seeing anyone, the fire hadn’t yet ignited in Ryu Jin’s heart.
“I, well… I meant whether hyung has someone he’s dating…”
Dawoon smiled gently while watching Ryu Jin, whose pupils were experiencing an earthquake.
“Ah, I just meant there are many people around him. So I don’t really know if he has a lover.”
Dawoon recited the dialogue as it appeared in the novel, then stopped speaking.
From here, the Jeong Dawoon in the novel tells a lie. He rambles strangely and then drops hints as if Ryu Taeha has a hidden lover.
‘But I don’t know who… it seems like there’s someone he likes though. He touches his phone often. And sometimes omega pheromones are on his clothes.’
Like this.
In reality, Ryu Taeha had never gotten omega pheromones on him. He touched his phone often to contact his younger brother.
Jeong Dawoon hadn’t lied knowing about Ryu Jin’s feelings. It was simply jealousy. Childish jealousy toward the younger brother receiving their hyung’s affection.
‘Hyung has someone he likes…?’
‘Yeah, probably. It’s been quite a while. So don’t bother the leader too much.’
After this scene, a great ripple occurs in Ryu Jin’s tender heart. And Ryu Taeha, noticing that ripple, pokes at him and the story develops in earnest.
In other words, this scene was the one that planted the seed for relationship progression. So he had to block it somehow.
“But he won’t have anyone. No, he doesn’t.”
Dawoon spoke in a tone filled with certainty. In a completely different direction from his dialogue in the novel.
“You know better than anyone how busy the leader is, Jin-ah. He won’t have the thought or leisure for romance. Definitely.”
Dawoon reassured Ryu Jin, saying that romance-related talk had never once come from the leader’s mouth.
“When you’re busy, you don’t even feel like dating. It’s different from when you’re young.”
“Really?”
Ryu Jin, who had been listening quietly, suddenly widened his already large eyes even rounder.
“Is Esper Dawoon like that too?”
“Me? Yeah, that’s right. I’m like that too.”
When he agreed to add weight to his claim, Ryu Jin’s face became even more radiant like a flower in full bloom. Just as Dawoon was smiling in relief, thinking he seemed to trust his words—
Knock knock.
“Hey, kids.”
Then, along with a knocking sound, Ryu Taeha’s irritating voice interjected.
“I’m not rushing you, but I’m wondering if you’re making the clothes to wear.”
At his voice ringing from beyond the door, Dawoon frowned while Ryu Jin’s smile grew. Their opposite reactions revealed their feelings toward Ryu Taeha.
“It’s fine. Take your time. A lot of work has already piled up.”
Ha, I want to sew that mouth shut.
“I should get going. Don’t get up, just stay seated.”
“Yes, do your best today too.”
Ryu Jin clenched his two small hands and whispered, “Fighting!”
Seeing his clear face that hadn’t yet lost its baby fat, Dawoon felt slightly stuffy inside. If it were up to him, he wanted to shout right now not to like that playboy bastard.
“Jin-ah.”
To Dawoon’s eyes, Ryu Jin looked like a very young child. He had just turned twenty, so he really was young.
Dawoon’s brown eyes fixed on Ryu Jin deepened. Whenever Dawoon faced Ryu Jin, he often recalled the faces of his younger siblings he missed.
They were faces he couldn’t see anymore even if he returned to his original life. When Ryu Jin smiled, his young siblings who used to smile brightly came to mind more vividly. That’s why he kept worrying about him.
To have sexual desire for such a child. Dawoon’s antipathy toward Ryu Taeha grew unfailingly once again today.
“If anything happens, make sure to contact me too. Got it?”
Recently, Dawoon said things like this whenever he met Ryu Jin. It was to let him know that his hyung wasn’t the only person he could lean on.
Ryu Jin and Ryu Taeha’s relationship must not deepen. To perfectly avoid the sad ending, he had to interfere with the love of the characters. Only then would there be no one getting hurt, and no unspecified masses dying.
“…Yes, thank you. Esper Dawoon.”
Ryu Jin answered after hesitating slightly. It was an understandable reaction. The original Jeong Dawoon wasn’t the personality to say such things. He was a character who set aside other people and poured passion and time solely into Ryu Taeha.
Ryu Jin must have known. That Jeong Dawoon had feelings for his hyung.
Then did Ryu Jin dislike Jeong Dawoon?
…Is he uncomfortable even now?
Dawoon opened the door while imagining content that didn’t appear in the novel. Then a face he hated seeing immediately filled his vision. Ryu Taeha was standing right in front of the door.
If he’d known this would happen, he should have opened the door harder. Hard enough to break that bastard’s nose.
“That took long. Time is money too.”
A guy with so much money acting stingy. Dawoon pretended not to hear and left the room.
While Ryu Taeha briefly exchanged greetings with Ryu Jin, he looked around the corridor. Yeoul, who should have become gloomy, was nowhere to be seen. He’d thought he would rush over as soon as he came out.
“I sent Yeoul to the scene first. He kept trying to enter the room.”
Ryu Taeha, who had closed the door, turned toward Dawoon. Dawoon nodded roughly and waited for him to create a teleport gate.
However, Ryu Taeha just stood still in front of the door.
“Aren’t we going?”
“What did you talk about with Jin?”
“…We didn’t talk about much.”
When he answered curtly, one of Ryu Taeha’s eyebrows rose like a painting. He looked at Dawoon’s expression as if observing it. Dawoon maintained an expressionless face with all his might.
Soon after, Ryu Taeha’s gaze fell. He tensed, not knowing what words would come from between his lips, but only silence returned.
Without a word, he stretched out his long arm and drew a circle in the air.
A teleport gate formed in the shape of the circle Ryu Taeha drew. Unlike gates where monsters burst out, the artificial gate he created didn’t emit light.
It was just pitch black. As black as the dark intentions of the one who created the gate.
Jangseung (장승) – Traditional Korean totem pole/guardian post
