35
Pretending to have nothing to do with Gu Wanjae, Taein hid his body behind the curtain and approached that direction, breaking out in cold sweat from the first words he heard.
“This fucking bastard…”
The voice was familiar. Someone who had talked to him on the phone before.
“Fuck, what is it.”
“What do you mean what. I’m your father. Ha, this bastard really does all kinds of shit. Hey you bastard. If you dare flirt with our Yeojun, just wait and see. Your surroundings, what you’re doing… let me show you how I’ll destroy you.”
“Ha, this crazy old bastard is delusional on his own. Hey you father bastard. Yeojun? Go eat shit. Just looking at that bastard makes me want to vomit, what? Flirt? Ha this fuck, I’m seeing all kinds of crazy bastards.”
“Huh, that I gave birth to something like this. You, of all people, what? An Alpha?”
“Why. Can’t believe it because your seed is fucking terrible.”
“This fucking bastard really!”
Perhaps because his voice got loud, Taein could see his father’s silhouette glancing back. Taein held his breath and listened to the rest of the conversation.
“Haah, this fucking bastard…”
“Just spit out more money, you father bastard.”
“Fuck, if you go around saying you’re my son anywhere.”
“Would I?”
“Anyway, you doing that gangster shit, especially…!”
“Ah I’ll take care of that myself. Just spit out more money.”
Taein had often seen Gu Wanjae say “Spit out money, father” to his father. Gu Wanjae would either blow that money somewhere or spend it on useless things. Just looking at it, it seemed like he was extorting money to torment his father. Since he had said things about it before, such thoughts weren’t unreasonable. He said that spending that bastard’s money like crazy and making him suffer even a little was his happiness. That’s why he had looked serious when Taein offered to contribute to the utility bills. He said that bastard should naturally do it. That he would cover everything with that bastard’s money, he had said that several times.
“This fucking bastard… now that he’s become an Alpha, he’ll rampage even more, this dog bastard. Fucking son of a bitch.”
“Thanks for raising me as a son of a bitch, you bastard.”
The sound of money being taken out could be heard. Taein saw the man take money from his wallet and throw it onto Gu Wanjae’s bed. Though he could only see roughly through the curtain, he could tell what was happening. Soon, the father who had left the bedside was seen adjusting his suit and leaving the emergency room. Taein sat on the empty bed and held his head.
Am I not in my right mind? Is that why I heard strange things?
There were too many curses, so he might have heard wrong.
After staying still for a while, Taein lightly hit his forehead with his fist.
If that’s the case, I need to quickly come back to my senses.
Only the words about Alpha kept echoing in his ears.
Gu Wanjae, what?
Had a doctor come by while he briefly went to buy a towel and wet it? Taein recalled the doctor’s appearance, who had consistently looked confused throughout. Gu Wanjae, what Alpha? Why?
The conversation with his father was shocking, but the contents he barely managed to hear also shocked him.
How long had he been like that?
A loud ringtone rang from his phone.
He had temporarily changed it to a ringtone in case the reception desk might contact him. Taein, startled, hurriedly ended the call on his phone, but the sound had already spread throughout the entire space. Then, swoosh, he could see a phone in Gu Wanjae’s hand as he lifted the curtain. Taein also looked down at his phone. There were traces of Gu Wanjae’s attempted call.
“Were you there?”
Gu Wanjae, who had seemed like he was dying, was asking him such a thing while regaining his vitality.
“Ah, yeah.”
Because he hadn’t wrung out the wet towel carefully, water was dripping from the towel drop by drop. Gu Wanjae looked at the round water stains and could be seen saying “Ah” and leaning back. Gu Wanjae was the first to speak.
“You must have heard.”
“From the phone call with your father before.”
“Not that.”
“……”
When Taein remained silent, Gu Wanjae seemed to sense something too. He sighed “Ah” while looking outside, then as if some thought came to him, he threw words at Taein casually.
“Hey.”
“…What.”
“You decide.”
“Decide what.”
“What do you think. Don’t you know?”
“……”
“Fuck, both are really fucking shitty. Isn’t that right?”
He was speaking with a smile, but his face already knew what would happen next. How Taein would react. Gu Wanjae muttered as if making a final soliloquy, “My blood was always fucking shitty.”
Even at those words, Taein just bit his inner lip, but when Gu Wanjae said indifferently “You figure it out yourself,” he opened his mouth.
“Figure out what. What decision.”
“Hey, do I really need to spell it all out?”
“…Are you telling me to leave?”
“Do whatever you want.”
To Gu Wanjae, who spoke while blinking slowly, Taein held out the wet towel. Put it on your forehead for now. Since I soaked it, cool down your fever first. Then Gu Wanjae stared down at the wet towel.
“What. Is this a gift?”
“What gift. Just use it quickly. What decision?”
“……”
“What did you do? You got fucking angry at me. Can I get fucking angry too?”
“……”
“What, telling me to make a decision… You do it, you idiot.”
When the curses that had filled his head disappeared, only Gu Wanjae remained. Even assuming everything was real, Taein didn’t want to leave his friend Gu Wanjae behind. Gu Wanjae must have felt the same way. Though he felt embarrassed after secretly eavesdropping on the phone conversation, saying such things while giving him a wet towel seemed like how they were. Taein watched Gu Wanjae’s corners of his mouth gradually rising and said “Do this,” pushing the wet towel right up to his face.
Gu Wanjae taking the wet towel and putting it on his head.
Kang Taein pointing out “Not that” and telling him to put it on his forehead.
It was similar yet different to the day Taein received his Omega diagnosis at the hospital.
After being serious for a moment, hands and gazes exchanged as if nothing had happened.
It was the same when going through discharge procedures.
The two people continued to be two people.
After that day, he thought he would become awkward with Gu Wanjae, but that wasn’t actually the case. Just as he had become an Omega, Gu Wanjae had only acquired Alpha gender like a shell. Taein thought so. Nothing had changed superficially, nor had their feelings when together changed. The momentary awkwardness he felt was because of what happened at the hospital, not because Gu Wanjae found him awkward or vice versa.
Rather, their relationship itself seemed to have become stronger.
With boiling loyalty, Taein tried commenting on an internet post for the first time in his life. It was a post asking “Is it possible to live together as Alpha and Omega guy friends?” It was so similar to his situation that he couldn’t just pass by. Taein wanted to seriously share opinions, but all the comments were equally vulgar, so he couldn’t even ask what he was curious about and just clenched his fists hard.
In the end, he left this comment:
What are you all thinking?? If they’re friends, that stuff doesn’t matter at all!! Stop writing dirty posts!! I’m reporting everything, don’t regret it!!!
Feeling like he had dealt with it quite boldly and manly, he tried to check people’s reactions the next day, but the original poster had deleted the post, so his comment had disappeared along with it. He had pressed the report button on every dirty comment, but he couldn’t confirm that either, which was a bit disappointing. It was the first and last internet comment Taein ever left.
That’s how bad he felt.
When he and Gu Wanjae were getting along so well.
With nothing changed, only time was passing. From late summer to fall, and then to winter.
* * *
Taein naturally bombed the college entrance exam. He guessed all 3’s for the first period, and drew pictures from the second period onward. And slept. And slept. When he received the test paper for the last subject, he wasn’t sleepy anymore. Because he had slept to the point of having a headache, he tried solving problems like taking a psychological test. Even that he gave up around the 10th question and started drawing pictures again. When the picture was completed, he just stared ahead with open eyes. He didn’t know how happy he was when the bell rang.
Gu Wanjae was waiting in front of the school holding tofu. Among parents waiting for their children with expectant eyes.
‘Hey, are you crazy? What is this?’
‘Isn’t this it?’
‘Of course not. Am I a criminal?’
The tofu was even wellness tofu with black sesame seeds dotted on it. He didn’t know where he bought such a thing. At Gu Wanjae’s words to take at least one bite, Taein ate exactly one bite with a ridiculous expression. It only tasted fishy so he couldn’t eat more. Gu Wanjae took the tofu with the round bite mark all the way home. Saying it was a memento, he left it by the sink for a while.
Not long after, graduation day came, and Taein didn’t go to school that day.
He was debating whether to go or not, but his part-time job hours changed starting that very day, making his worries pointless.
It had been almost 3 months since he started working at the dumpling restaurant. At first, Taein only did serving, but sometimes he also helped in the kitchen. The boss didn’t give him grand tasks. When the boss filled dumpling filling according to ratios, Taein’s job was to gently mix it. At first, he used too much force and mashed all the filling, causing a disaster, but after accumulating skills, only decent results came out. The boss even added that he was better than himself.
“Huh? Taein, the filling is glowing. It’s glowing.”
The dumpling restaurant’s main menu was galbi dumplings. The dumpling filling coated with sweet soy sauce seasoning was sparkling under the lights. Taein took off his vinyl gloves and bowed his head slightly.
“I’m telling you, this is the first time I’ve seen it made this glossy.”
The boss was a famous young businessman in the area. He said he came to Seoul with 2 million won, sold dumplings from a truck, and came this far. On his first day at work, Taein heard all those stories. Thanks to the boss who started talking saying “You know what,” he didn’t even work that day. He was originally a talkative person who exaggerated a lot. Taein gradually distanced himself from the boss who was full of praise in front of the big bowl, saying “Wow, look at this, smell this, killer.”
“A customer came, boss.”
“Yeah, yeah. Take care of them.”
Taein went outside and approached the steamer. Though there was a separate entrance, they also sold packaged dumplings through a large window. It was a middle-aged female customer who was wandering around the tent. Taein said “Welcome” and looked at the woman.
The customer who asked “What do you have?” scanned the steamer and the menu board inside in one glance. Taein, who made eye contact around the middle, recited the lines he said more than 30 times a day.
“We have galbi dumplings and shrimp dumplings. We also have meat dumplings, which have double the meat filling. The most popular is galbi dumplings. For galbi, you can choose spicy or regular.”
“Really? Give me one serving of each. Make the galbi spicy.”
“Yes. You’re getting it packaged, right?”
Most customers who stand in front of the open window get takeout, but some customers complained about why they packaged it when they were going to eat there. Taein, who had asked about packaging from the start, heard “I have to take it” and took out white containers. Three total. Taein put six dumplings each in them and quickly tied the containers with rubber bands. When he put the hot containers in plastic bags and handed them over, the customer asked how much it was.
“4,000 won each, 12,000 won total.”
“Here.”
Taein received three bills and bowed his head in gratitude. After putting the money in the cash box, Taein organized the surroundings. He put in protruding disposable containers and wiped the wet iron plate with a dry cloth. When he finished cleaning up and looked ahead, one hand was coming into the tent.
“Welcome.”
“Yeah.”
It was Gu Wanjae.
Since Taein started working, Gu Wanjae had been coming to the dumpling restaurant whenever he had time. Sometimes he would scold Taein in front of the boss, asking why he was working when it was just conspicuous and no good. But after learning that the dumpling restaurant operated quietly and the customer age group was middle-aged and older, he stopped telling him to quit. He just came to the dumpling restaurant once every two days, or once every three or four days when busy.
“Are you unemployed? You came yesterday too.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. This is all work. After the hyungs bought this once, they keep asking for only this. I can’t help it either.”
“It is delicious. How many servings are you buying?”
“Uh, 7 servings. Pack them all with galbi.”
Taein silently bent his waist toward the storage compartment and took out seven containers. Usually he packed quickly, but in front of Gu Wanjae, he did his work carelessly. Taein, who was slowly dividing the dumplings into containers, lifted his head and looked at Gu Wanjae. Gu Wanjae was sticking his head forward as if observing something intently, glaring inside the dumpling restaurant.
“That bastard isn’t doing anything weird, right?”
“What would he do?”
“There are fucking many perverts around you.”
“Be quiet, you crazy bastard.”
Unlike aggressively saying “perverts around you, perverted bastards,” there were only normal people around Taein. Since Lee Wuyong, Taein hadn’t even seen those perverts’ faces. Taein looked at Gu Wanjae while biting his lower lip. You can hear us, you crazy bastard.
At those words, Gu Wanjae laughed “Heh” and stopped looking inside.
Taein finished packaging and handed the plastic bag to Gu Wanjae.
“Watch your words, man. And appearance-wise, you look the most perverted.”
“What?”
“What what.”
“What did you just say?”
Taein, who had grabbed the cloth again, looked up at Gu Wanjae at those words. He could see the guy just staring this way without any thought of taking the plastic bag. His expressionless face had slight irritation mixed in. Taein said “What words? Perverted?” while wiping the stand. It was something he said without any thought.
“…That’s a bit much.”
“What is.”
The plastic bag wasn’t even reaching its owner and was puffing out warm steam. Taein pushed the packaged dumplings toward Gu Wanjae.
“Aren’t you taking them?”
“…That’s really not okay.”
“What are you talking about?”
Taein looked at Gu Wanjae with a puzzled expression. Gu Wanjae only said “That’s really” one more time and went outside the tent. He expected him to come right back in, but Gu Wanjae just kept getting smaller outside the opaque tent. Is he really leaving? With a blank expression, Taein alternately looked at the dumplings and the tent, then belatedly took the plastic bag and went outside the dumpling restaurant.
In the distance, Gu Wanjae was visible, but it was an ambiguous distance to just run after him.
Why is he acting like that?
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
