Having finished putting away all the laundered clothes, Haon went out alone for the first time in a while. Except for when he went to his weekend part-time job, it was his first time being outside by himself.
Though the day was cloudy, it hadn’t rained yet. Since there was a rain forecast for the afternoon, he didn’t forget to pack a foldable umbrella in his shopping basket.
He planned to visit the large supermarket near his house. There were ingredients in the refrigerator, but he wanted to prepare dinner with ingredients he had bought himself with his own money.
He thought about sending a text message to Inho saying he was going to the supermarket, but then decided against it. He didn’t want to bother him while he was with his family. Besides, he figured he would be back soon, so there was no real need to tell him.
The supermarket was a 10-minute walk from his house. Haon held the memo pad with his shopping list and entered the supermarket. It was his first time coming to a large supermarket alone, so he felt a little excited.
“Please have a taste.”
Even though it was a weekday afternoon, there were quite a few people at the supermarket. It seemed to be because there was a large department store, a famous hotel, and even an amusement park nearby. Thanks to that, Haon had plenty of opportunities to people-watch on his way to the supermarket.
He was a bit overwhelmed, but he looked around with a happy expression. If Inho had been next to him, he would have told him to watch where he was going. He was that excited.
He enjoyed looking around the large supermarket, which was new to him, and he also liked the fact that he was there to buy dinner for Inho. Everything made Haon feel uplifted.
Actually, if he were just buying ingredients for himself, he wouldn’t have been this thrilled. Since it was food to eat with Inho, the process of preparing it was even more enjoyable.
“Student, would you like to try a dumpling?”
While Haon was looking around the frozen food section, a supermarket employee offered him a freshly grilled dumpling. The employees working at the sample corners spoke to Haon particularly often.
“What are you here to buy? What kind of food are you going to make?”
It was because Haon was walking around with a curious expression, as if he had never been to a supermarket before. Having only ever been to small supermarkets, it was understandable that he would find a large supermarket like this fascinating.
“Ah… I’m planning to make samgyetang.”
“You’re going to make it yourself?”
The supermarket employee, who had glanced at Haon’s cart, gave him a warm smile. She helped Haon, who seemed unfamiliar with grocery shopping, by directly recommending ingredients. She even subtly suggested the pan-fried dumplings she was selling.
“Thank you.”
Haon bowed his head and ended up putting two packs of pan-fried dumplings, which he hadn’t planned to buy, into his cart. Thanks to the older woman, he learned a secret recipe for making delicious samgyetang.
After that, he was stopped by employees every time he passed by a sample corner.
Having filled his stomach with the samples, Haon happily pushed his cart. He had added many items that weren’t on his list, but he thought of it all as experience and enjoyed his pleasant overspending.
He wanted to hurry back home and tell Inho about his day. He thought Inho would laugh if he told him he had filled up on food at the sample corners.
Inho always laughed at Haon’s little stories. Thanks to that, Haon was slowly becoming more talkative in front of Inho. It meant he had become that comfortable with Inho.
Thump.
It was when Haon had just entered the snack aisle. A child, whose eyes were glued to the snacks, bumped into Haon’s cart and fell backward. Fortunately, the child didn’t fall hard, but Haon was greatly surprised.
“Are you okay?”
He left his cart and quickly approached the child to help them up. However, the child bravely got up on their own, dusted off their bottom, refused Haon’s hand, and went to find their mother. Just then, the child’s mother came over from the next aisle.
“Did you choose your snack?”
She urged the child to quickly choose a snack. Haon, relieved that the child wasn’t hurt, turned around to go back to his cart.
“Honey, do we have an umbrella in the car?”
And at that moment, a strangely familiar voice stopped Haon in his tracks. It was the voice of the child’s father, who had come with the cart.
“I put a big one in the trunk.”
“Then we don’t need to buy one, right?”
“We’re going straight to the hotel anyway. We just need to buy a few things to eat.”
Haon slowly moved out of the snack aisle, listening to the couple’s conversation. The more he heard the man’s voice, the more familiar it felt.
It was definitely a voice Haon knew. It was a voice he thought he would never hear again.
“Shall we eat out for dinner? Or order in?”
When his wife said she didn’t mind either way, the man asked his daughter what she wanted to eat instead. When the child only showed interest in the snacks, he playfully picked her up in his arms.
He seemed like a kind man to his family. The way he spoke to his wife and daughter was very gentle.
“Shall we have pizza? You don’t like it? Then how about chicken?”
He had treated Haon with that exact same gentle tone.
Before leaving the snack aisle, Haon subtly turned his head and confirmed the man’s face. It was indeed the man from his memory.
The man holding his young daughter in one arm was an alpha. His tall height and broad shoulders revealed his alpha status.
He never thought he would see him again. Especially not like this, by chance.
“Why haven’t you chosen a snack yet? Should Daddy choose for you?”
The man smiled as he sat the child in the cart seat. He looked exactly the same as when Haon had first met him. It had only been a year and a half since they met, so it was natural that there wouldn’t be any significant changes.
He was the first alpha Haon had ever met. The first button that was wrongly sewn.
“Just one. Only one.”
“Mommy said to buy just one. Let’s choose just one.”
The blurred memories became vivid the moment Haon saw the man. He had clearly thought he had forgotten everything.
The shape of the bed in the motel they had first gone to together, the mirror on the ceiling, and even the color of the bedding came to mind. He remembered all the words the man had whispered to him throughout the night in a mature tone, and even his gentle touch.
Haon, clutching the cart handle tightly, quickened his pace.
He walked straight ahead without looking back, deliberately keeping his eyes forward. He had already bought all the dinner ingredients, so there was no need to look around anymore.
Haon headed to the checkout counter as if he were running away, and frantically moved his items.
He acted urgently, like someone being chased. While the cashier scanned the barcodes of the items, he fidgeted nervously with his hands. He even lowered his head as if trying to hide his face.
“Please insert your card in the front.”
“Yes, yes…”
He fumbled several times while trying to take out his wallet and barely managed to get his card out.
He quickly packed the paid items into his shopping basket and left. His hunched posture made him look like someone who had committed a great sin. His shoulders drooped more and more, as if weighed down by a sin that shouldn’t be discovered.
Haon was about to head for the escalator but chose a secluded elevator instead. He went to a place where he could encounter as few people as possible.
Haon, stroking his pounding left chest, looked pale. He swallowed repeatedly, feeling like the food he had eaten at the sample corners was about to come up.
The image of the young child who had called the man ‘Dad’ flickered before his eyes like an afterimage.
“Haa…”
Had the child been around five years old? The more he estimated the child’s age, the more his pounding heart tightened.
It had only been a year and a half since Haon had first met him. He hadn’t even been wearing a wedding ring.
He never dreamed that the man would have a family. Haon hadn’t even thought to ask if he had a girlfriend. There was no way he would have suspected.
A subtle tremor ran through Haon’s hand holding the shopping basket. He only thought about getting out of this place quickly and pressed the elevator button.
His heart was beating so fast it hurt. He pressed down hard on his left chest to calm the startled rhythm. He felt intensely uneasy, as if someone was chasing him.
At the same time, he felt angry.
Haon took a deep breath and waited for the elevator to arrive. He repeatedly pressed the button that was already lit and huffed softly.
Between the urge to run away, a desire to go find the man right away and shout at him surged within him. He didn’t even know what he wanted to say. He just wanted to yell wildly.
Haon had never felt such great anger towards anyone in his life. The emotion filling his chest felt foreign, and he could only inhale deeply. He didn’t know any other way to release this feeling.
As he desperately tried to suppress a gag reflex and covered his mouth, the elevator arrived.
He grabbed the elevator handrail as if collapsing and leaned against the wall. He tried to press the floor button, but his hand wouldn’t obey him, so he waited for the doors to close first.
He leaned his forehead against the wall and tightly closed his eyes, hoping his stomach would calm down. The moment he heard the doors close, his legs gave way, and he almost collapsed.
But before that, the doors opened again.
Haon, who had opened his eyes at the sound of the opening doors, instinctively took a step back. It was because the man’s face appeared through the slowly widening gap.
“It is you.”
He opened his mouth with a bright smile, as if he had met someone he was happy to see.
