It was when Jung Haon had drunk about half of his lukewarm milk tea. While talking with Seo Inho about a movie they hadn’t seen last time, Jung Haon subtly tightened his stomach muscles. He straightened and then bent his back slightly, shifting his posture as if something was uncomfortable.
“Um….”
“Yes,” Seo Inho responded, as if he had been waiting for it, his eyes fixed on Jung Haon. If Jung Haon hadn’t brought it up himself, Seo Inho had been planning to ask.
“I’ll go to the restroom.”
“Okay, go ahead.”
Seo Inho, relieved that it wasn’t a big deal, was about to get up as well. Since Jung Haon hadn’t been able to eat properly and had been filling his stomach with liquids, it was understandable that he needed to use the restroom.
“A-are you going with me?”
Jung Haon looked noticeably flustered, and Seo Inho, who had been about to stand, paused.
“I’ll go alone….”
Jung Haon’s cheeks flushed a very faint red as he quickly continued speaking. It didn’t seem to be from pain, but rather from embarrassment.
“Yes, then go ahead.”
Seo Inho discreetly sat back down. He picked up his coffee cup again, intending to wait leisurely, but Jung Haon glanced at him without moving his feet.
“You… you’re not going to come, right?”
Seo Inho nodded, a slight tension in his lips. Seeing Jung Haon needing such confirmation made him want to laugh.
“You mustn’t come.”
Jung Haon murmured faintly, as if Seo Inho’s answer wasn’t reassuring enough. Only after Seo Inho reiterated that he understood did Jung Haon finally get up.
Clink. Seo Inho placed his cup on the saucer and pressed hard on one of his temples. He waited for Jung Haon, who was slow even when hurrying, to disappear from his sight before closing both eyes.
Seo Inho rarely slept at night. Instead, he would take short naps of an hour or two during the day. He had suffered from chronic insomnia since childhood. Even when he didn’t drink coffee or alcohol, he would spend the nights awake with his eyes open.
He rubbed his heavy eyelids and suddenly chuckled. It was because he remembered Jung Haon telling him not to follow him to the restroom.
***
Jung Haon relieved himself and then went to the sink to wash his hands. He quickly lathered soap, glancing at his face in the mirror, wondering if he had made Seo Inho wait too long.
Jung Haon came out with a large bandage on his left cheek, which was bruised a bluish-purple. The color was similar to his skin, so it was less noticeable than the bruise itself, but it still bothered him.
“Excuse me.”
Startled by the sudden unfamiliar voice, Jung Haon staggered slightly. The restroom was quite spacious, and the sinks were far apart, so he hadn’t realized someone was next to him.
“Hey, some tissue over there.”
A man, raising one corner of his mouth as he watched Jung Haon’s overly surprised reaction, gestured with his chin towards the wall. There were hand towels on the wall behind Jung Haon.
“Would one be enough…?”
Jung Haon wiped his wet hands on his clothes, pulled out a paper towel, and handed it to the man. Even though he knew it was rude, he couldn’t help but stare at the man’s striking appearance.
“No, one more.”
The man was that pretty. His brown hair, reaching his shoulders, seemed to gleam, and his skin was as smooth as freshly made tofu.
“Yes, here….”
Jung Haon quickly pulled out another hand towel and handed it over, his voice trailing off. It was because the flamboyantly handsome man had lightly brushed the back of Jung Haon’s hand as he received the tissue.
Their fingertips had barely grazed, so Jung Haon tried not to mind it. If the man had been an alpha, he would have been wary, but judging from the image the man’s appearance projected, he was clearly an omega. Jung Haon was certain he was a dominant omega, not just a regular one.
“Are you an omega?”
Just then, the man, tilting his head towards Jung Haon, suddenly asked. Taken aback by the abrupt question, Jung Haon paused as he was about to leave the restroom.
“I asked if you’re an omega.”
Clack, clack. The sound of the man’s shoes approached Jung Haon. The way he looked at Jung Haon, with only one corner of his mouth raised, was as impolite as his question.
“…Why?”
Asking about someone’s secondary gender out of the blue between strangers was rude. The situation was different from the woman he had reluctantly asked last time to borrow an inhibitor.
“Just curious.”
The man shrugged and answered confidently. He crumpled the hand towel Jung Haon had given him and asked again. The crumpled towel was dry.
“You are an omega, aren’t you?”
Jung Haon simply clenched his fists without a word. He had no reason to answer. The man didn’t seem dangerous enough to warrant needing an inhibitor or other help.
So, Jung Haon turned towards the door.
“Y-yes….”
However, he didn’t have the nerve to ignore the question and leave, so he whispered his answer and walked towards the door. But the man continued speaking, trapping him once again.
“Those clothes are mine.”
Large eyes, wearing lenses, scanned the good-quality knit and pants Jung Haon was wearing. With a faint smile, the man rolled his eyes up and down.
“I saw you with Inho hyung at the cafe.”
The cafe had an open structure, so the inside was visible from the luxury goods store on the floor above. As soon as he saw Seo Inho sitting in the cafe, he had abandoned his shopping and come downstairs.
“He must have told you to wear them.”
The name of the omega who had come after Jung Haon instead of Seo Inho to talk to him was Ryu Su-hyun.
Ryu Su-hyun was the most recent person Seo Inho had been seeing. They weren’t officially dating, but they did things that couples often did. Going to nice restaurants together, watching steamy movies at home on rainy days, and then sleeping together, over and over.
Because of this, Ryu Su-hyun believed that he would soon be able to date Seo Inho. No matter how famous Seo Inho was for not even having casual partners, Ryu Su-hyun thought he was the exception. Everyone around him had encouraged him, saying, ‘Su-hyun, if it’s you, you’ll definitely be able to win Seo Inho over.’
However, their expectations were shattered the day Seo Inho left a completely naked Ryu Su-hyun behind during sex. It was the day Seo Inho received Jung Haon’s call late at night and went to his boarding house.
That day, Ryu Su-hyun cried and called all his acquaintances, cursing Seo Inho as a son of a bitch. He even spread a false rumor that Seo Inho had stormed out of bed because Ryu Su-hyun had asked him to use a condom.
Ryu Su-hyun’s acquaintances were people who already knew Seo Inho well, so they filtered out the nonsense. It was plausible that Seo Inho would abandon a sexual partner, but it was unlikely that he would refuse a condom. Rather, he was the type to kick out an omega who suggested just doing it raw.
“Oh…. that is, I, I borrowed it.”
Ryu Su-hyun, with his arms crossed, smirked as he watched Jung Haon’s flustered reaction.
How old could he possibly be? His round cheeks, which still seemed to have baby fat, and his clear skin without any makeup made Ryu Su-hyun’s stomach churn.
“Inho hyung must have just given it to you without saying anything. It’s one of my favorite outfits.”
Favorite outfit, my ass. He probably had more than ten similar sweaters at home. He had deliberately left it at Seo Inho’s place to leave his mark.
Ryu Su-hyun knew it was a house where anyone could come and go, so he left one piece of clothing behind every time he stayed over. To prove that he was special.
But damn it, to give it to another guy?
“Ah, then….. this, um….”
Distress was evident on Jung Haon’s face as he fidgeted with the knit sweater. The way he looked back and forth between the clothes and himself, without even taking them off right away, was absurd to Ryu Su-hyun.
He didn’t just look young; he seemed genuinely young. Judging by his hunched posture and dazed expression, Ryu Su-hyun could roughly gauge what kind of person he was.
“Since I threw it away anyway, just wear it.”
The sharp look on Ryu Su-hyun’s face, who had unfolded his arms, softened slightly. He smiled sweetly and leaned his upper body towards the sink mirror to fix his makeup. Seeing his own face made him feel a little better.
“Looks like you’re staying at Inho hyung’s place.”
When Jung Haon’s lips moved silently in the mirror, Ryu Su-hyun took it as an affirmative answer. Even if he asked in detail, it seemed unlikely he would get a proper answer from that naive omega.
“There are quite a few things I left behind there, you can have them all.”
Ryu Su-hyun looked at Jung Haon with a gentle face, as if bestowing a favor. He didn’t look directly at Jung Haon’s soft, bare face with its visible peach fuzz, but only at his reflection in the mirror. Seeing Jung Haon flustered completely lifted his spirits.
When he saw Seo Inho smiling kindly at Jung Haon inside the cafe, he had almost screamed right there. Seo Inho had blocked his number. It was only natural to be angry that he was already cozying up with someone else.
Of course, he and Seo Inho had only been casually sleeping together, but they had also eaten together and watched movies, so Ryu Su-hyun had thought their relationship was deeper than it actually was. Ryu Su-hyun was sincere towards Seo Inho. Any omega who had slept with him would probably feel the same.
“Inho hyung is really good to you, isn’t he?”
He smoothed back his glossy hair, signaling the end of the conversation. If Jung Haon had been an omega Seo Inho was newly involved with, Ryu Su-hyun would have tried his best to trample on him, but it didn’t seem like that kind of relationship, so he easily backed off.
“Hyung is naturally very sympathetic.”
That one was just a stray omega he had picked up. Ryu Su-hyun could roughly guess what he would look like if his clothes were taken off. Seo Inho was probably keeping him around out of pity for a little while. Honestly, for someone who didn’t seem to care about others, he was surprisingly soft-hearted.
Ryu Su-hyun had heard that young Seo Inho had a habit of picking up abandoned dogs or cats. He had heard it directly from his cousin, Park Jung-hyuk, so it wasn’t just a rumor. It seemed he hadn’t fixed that habit yet.
Before leaving the stuffy restroom, Ryu Su-hyun looked at Jung Haon again. There was one last thing he wanted to confirm.
“Doesn’t Inho hyung tell you not to wear perfume?”
Seo Inho had been so sensitive that on days Ryu Su-hyun wore perfume, he would tell him to shower first.
Seo Inho was a sensitive person about everything. After sex, they slept in separate beds, and in the morning, he wouldn’t even let Ryu Su-hyun watch the living room TV, simply because it was too loud.
“No….”
Ryu Su-hyun’s face crumpled again at Jung Haon’s faint reply, and he bit his lip.
He told me not to wear it, though.
