12
Let’s run.
The moment that thought crossed my mind, I turned around. I belatedly thought it would have been better if I had passed by more naturally, pretending I wasn’t the same person from that time. But since I had already made it obvious that I’d noticed him, it was meaningless regret.
Dragging my ankles that felt weighted down like sandbags and clutching my stabbing stomach, I quickened my pace, but an ominous feeling followed behind me.
‘This bastard, why is he following me?’
He’s following me. He’s definitely following me. I’d love to run, but I can’t run. Taking the biggest strides possible to create distance is my best option, but… I’m not sure if it’s even possible.
I pressed my lips into a straight line and hurried my steps, but it was useless. From the start, he was a man who was easily half a span to a full span taller than me.
Alphas apparently get another growth spurt after manifesting. It couldn’t be more unfair.
“Excuse me.”
“……”
“Hey.”
“……”
“The one with the mole on his nose, pale face, and pretty features……”
“……”
“Who couldn’t get over his ex and cried snot and tears in front of a stranger until he fainted!”
“Ahhh!”
I let out a shriek at the dark history from a few days ago that poured out of this man’s mouth, someone I only knew by face. When I whipped around immediately, the man who had followed closely behind me firmly gripped both my shoulders to steady me.
“Whoa, if you turn around that suddenly, you’ll fall. That would be trouble.”
“……”
“Caught you.”
The man’s face, seen in broad daylight, was still handsome, radiating an intense yet cheerful impression.
As I stood there speechless, opening and closing my mouth soundlessly, he said with his lips curved in a refreshing smile:
“So why are you running away? You don’t look like you’d be better at running than me.”
“……The fainting.”
I replied with a slight furrow in my brow.
“The fainting wasn’t something I did—you made it happen.”
The problem is that I have no memory from when I fell asleep until I woke up again. I shared a hotel room alone with an Alpha who had pheromones so intense they could shut down an exhausted person’s power like that…….
‘Though nothing hurt in particular, and there weren’t any suspicious traces left behind.’
When I looked at his face as if examining something very suspicious, the man burst into laughter.
“Why are you looking at me like I’m some pervert?”
“Then how should I look at you?”
“I thought you’d at least say sorry when we met again. I helped you out, but you disappeared without even a thank you. Do you know how dumbfounded I was in the morning?”
“That’s……”
I hesitated before offering a small apology.
“I’m sorry. You did help me.”
“Yes, well. Apology accepted.”
He spoke in a tone that suggested it didn’t matter. It seemed like he hadn’t really wanted me to feel sorry, but just wanted to voice his frustration.
What are the odds of running into a man twice when I don’t know his name, age, job, or even where he lives? Times like this make the world seem really small.
While I stared at him blankly, the man who was still gripping my shoulders bent down slightly to examine my face closely.
“You don’t look well. Did you cry today too?”
“I didn’t cry.”
I suppose it’s natural for him to think I cried, given how pathetic my first impression was. But I really didn’t cry. Not when I saw Lee Chan, who hadn’t even cared whether I was at the dorm at night or not, and not even when I saw that same Lee Chan getting along so well with his current boyfriend An Lei right in front of me.
My stomach might have been bitter, but it wasn’t shocking. It was disappointing, but it didn’t feel like the world was collapsing. I still had lingering feelings, but I wasn’t stupid. Maybe deep down I had foreseen this would happen. Lee Chan had always been like that.
I won’t cry anymore from now on. Especially not because of Lee Chan. That’s what I had repeatedly promised myself while getting IV fluids all night.
He pressed my under-eyes with his thumb and smiled. Though spring had only just arrived with the cherry blossoms blooming, his smile resembled the morning of early summer after a shower had passed.
“I felt this when I first saw you too, but you’re really pretty.”
It could have sounded strange, but it wasn’t unpleasant, perhaps because his words sounded like pure admiration rather than evaluation.
“Are you a celebrity?”
“No……”
I smiled back with an awkward expression.
“I’m a cook.”
“With that face making food, people wouldn’t know if what’s on the plate is going into their mouth or up their nose.”
“……I’m not that handsome.”
“Really? I don’t usually get told I have no aesthetic sense either. I work in a field full of people who are exceptionally pretty and handsome.”
From what he said, he seemed to be someone from the entertainment industry. So that’s why he indirectly asked if I was in the same field.
“I guess that’s just your type.”
My cheeks flushed hot at his honest words.
“How can you judge just from what you see?”
“You can judge just from what you see.”
Deciding I was no longer unsteady, he let me go.
“I admit it’s a shallow mindset. But since visual information is what we encounter first, I think what we see is important after all. What I’m seeing isn’t just about whether your features are pretty or not……”
“Not what?”
“You usually look at impressions and feelings too, right?”
So he was saying that beyond simply liking the appearance of my face, he felt some kind of fateful attraction?
I never imagined there would be someone who felt that way about me. In my world where my entire life revolved only around Lee Chan, it was not just refreshing but quite shocking.
“I don’t usually say things like this to people……”
The man who had stepped back scratched his nose bridge.
“You probably don’t believe me. Since you don’t know what kind of person I usually am.”
“I don’t believe it at all.”
“Right. We’re not even acquainted.”
He shrugged with a groan.
“If this is fate, then it’s fate—should we at least exchange names?”
He extended his hand to me as he spoke. His attitude was so refreshingly straightforward it could clear your mind.
“I’m Jin Woohyeon. I’m 25 years old and currently studying acting.”
“I’m Yoo Sanho. 27 years old. I’m a cook.”
“Wow, you’re my hyung. Can I call you hyung? You can speak casually to me too. What kind of food—Western? Chinese? Japanese? Do you work somewhere specific?”
His attitude of naturally sticking right next to me as if we were companions and guiding my steps was incredibly natural. Do you learn the knack of handling people when you study acting?
“Western cuisine. I also make desserts and mix cocktails.”
“A jack of all trades. Have you eaten lunch? Since Western food might be boring, how about Korean food?”
“Uh……”
I stopped abruptly while following his steps.
“Why? Don’t you like Korean food? Then Japanese? I know a place nearby that makes delicious katsudon.”
“I can’t eat raw things, so Japanese food isn’t really… But wait, why are we eating lunch together?”
It seemed like less than thirty minutes since I had tried to avoid him after running into him by chance, but now I was somehow discussing eating lunch with him. I had been completely swept up in Jin Woohyeon’s pace.
When my eyes narrowed, Jin Woohyeon smiled with his eyes crinkling. As if to say, “You’re just now realizing the initiative has passed to me.”
“Should we eat Korean food?”
“……I need to eat porridge.”
I lightly shook the medicine bag in my hand.
“I have gastritis.”
“Oh my. Now I see you look pale because you’re sick. Then let’s go to a porridge restaurant.”
Jin Woohyeon really did take me to a nearby porridge restaurant. Then he smoothly covered my eyes from behind as I was looking at the red pictures of things like jjamppong porridge and spicy meat porridge.
“Why are you looking at this stuff when you have gastritis?”
“……”
I was good with spicy food. When I ordered tteokbokki, levels 4 and 5 were standard. Eating something so spicy that my tongue felt like it would fall off and crying until my tears ran dry seemed to naturally relieve stress.
Of course, since my stomach was on the weak side, it wasn’t something I could do often. Days like today were especially off-limits.
With me looking dejected beside him, he calmly placed an order.
“One vegetable porridge and one sweet pumpkin porridge, please.”
We sat in a spot with good sunlight, and after waiting briefly, two steaming bowls of porridge came out. He ladled both into small side plates and offered them to me.
“Try both and eat more of whichever you like. Still, the one with rice will be more filling, so the vegetable porridge would be good if possible. The sweet pumpkin porridge is good as a palate cleanser.”
His attitude made it seem like he had ordered both for me. I gripped my spoon and stared at him intently.
“……Then what about you?”
“Not ‘you’—Jin Woohyeon. I told you to speak casually.”
“I’ll speak casually when we get closer. If you give this to me, what will Woohyeon-ssi eat?”
“Hyung doesn’t look like he can finish all this. I’ll eat whatever hyung leaves behind.”
Not a chance.
“Boss, could we get two more side plates here?”
In the end, Jin Woohyeon and I decided to split both portions in half.
Jin Woohyeon giggled as if something was so funny, then obediently accepted the porridge I ladled out for him. He even bowed his head as if quite grateful, saying he’d eat well. This after he had paid for it himself.
“Don’t burn yourself—blow on it, like this.”
“Who are you treating like a little kid? You……”
“I told you, Jin Woohyeon, hyung.”
“I’m two whole years older than Jin Woohyeon-ssi.”
“Just because I call you hyung doesn’t mean there’s a law against burning your palate.”
Somehow…… he seemed affectionate yet strangely infuriating. As I glared at him, I demonstratively blew on the contents of my spoon. When I loudly blew air to show off, Jin Woohyeon rested his chin on his hand and smirked.
“Good job.”
It was just as I put the well-cooled vegetable porridge in my mouth.
“So, hyung, did you properly deal with that bad guy who made you cry?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
