52
“Huh?”
“Your father just told you to keep dating. It seems like he surrendered.”
“Ah, yes.”
“So I did well, right?”
“Very well.”
As Kwon Yikang pressed his chin and sucked on his slightly parted lips, I wrapped my arms around his neck and entwined my tongue with his. A gentle, affectionate kiss always feels good. I laughed through my nose, and he deeply sucked on the tender flesh inside my lips.
“You’re really something. No shame even in public.”
Hearing the scolding from behind, I opened my eyes and turned around to see his father standing there with a stern face. What’s he doing here? When I looked at him with eyes full of puzzlement, the wrinkles between his furrowed brows deepened.
“What? What’s that look for?”
“Well, you said you didn’t want to see us, so I was wondering what brings you here.”
“Do I need your permission to eat in my own house? And will you two separate already? Young people these days have no sense of shame.”
Clicking his tongue in disapproval, his father moved toward a table with side dishes.
“Are we having dinner together?”
When I asked quietly, Kwon Yikang also looked confused. A neatly set table had appeared sometime earlier. Hesitantly, I approached his father. It seems that in any household, the father’s seat is always in the middle. I sat across from Kwon Yikang with his father between us.
“You’re going to eat with us?”
“This is my house. You’re the ones eating at my table. You’re asking as if the roles are reversed.”
Strictly speaking, he’s right, but there’s no need to eat with someone you find unpleasant. I don’t understand why he’s sitting so stubbornly at the same table while frowning like that.
“Thank you for letting us eat here. While we’re at it, we’re planning to stay overnight. Thanks for that in advance too.”
As I picked up my spoon and spoke, a shriek-like “What?” immediately came back.
“The side dishes are good. You must take good care of yourself living alone. I guess you should eat well when you’re eating alone.”
“Look at how he talks.”
“This is pretty good. Delicious.”
I said to Kwon Yikang while chewing on some braised lotus root. I usually prefer meat to vegetables, but surprisingly, I liked the crunchy texture.
“Eat some meat. You like meat.”
Kwon Yikang said as he placed some tteokgalbi in my bowl. When I took a bite, the soft and sweet flesh melted in my mouth.
“Oh? This is really good. You eat too, I mean, darling should eat too.”
His father’s gaze watching us wrinkled slightly. He wouldn’t raise his voice at the dinner table just because I made a small verbal slip. I gently pushed the tteokgalbi dish toward Kwon Yikang.
“Keep it close and eat. You must be hungry since dinner is late.”
Kwon Yikang pushed the tteokgalbi dish back toward me. His father, who had been quietly observing this, suddenly stood up, took the tteokgalbi dish, and placed it in front of himself.
“You’re making quite a scene at the table. Eat from here.”
“Your way of speaking… seems very well-learned. Not a single inflection or word to spare.”
“Stop chattering and just eat. Do you know who’s feeding you out of affection?”
He’s being extremely stingy over one meal. I could have bought food in Seoul, but because I ate here, I’m immediately treated like I’m mooching.
They don’t even criticize people for eating at my house. Oh, actually, Grandfather did criticize Father about food. I hoped Kwon Yikang’s father wasn’t on the same level as Grandfather. It would be too sad if there were two people like that.
As I glumly chewed my food, Kwon Yikang moved the tteokgalbi dish back in front of me.
“Father is joking, so don’t make that face. He’s telling you to eat without feeling burdened.”
“I didn’t know you had the ability to misinterpret things.”
“See? I told you he was joking.”
It doesn’t seem like it? I looked at him with that expression, but Kwon Yikang just smiled. He gestured for me to eat quickly, so I glanced cautiously at his father and took another piece of tteokgalbi.
“But… why are you constantly emitting pheromones? I was going to mention it earlier but held back, but I think I need to address it.”
While chewing on the tteokgalbi, I turned only my eyes toward his father. Hmm, that’s an awkward question. My eyes, which had turned to the side, looked up at the ceiling, then to the other side, and finally toward Kwon Yikang.
“Sukyung hasn’t been feeling well lately, that’s why.”
Kwon Yikang answered in a casual voice on behalf of me, who was still chewing, but a disapproving “tsk” came back.
“The only good thing about him is that he’s an Omega, and even that is half-baked?”
“How can you say such harsh things? I’m just not feeling well right now, but I’ll be fine!”
“If not half-baked, then what? If you’re feeling so unwell, you should stay home instead of going around everywhere leaking pheromones.”
“I’m not leaking them because I want to. I came all the way here to greet you despite not feeling well. You really see everything in a negative light. Live your life more positively.”
“Just look at him talking back without yielding a single word. Hopeless, absolutely hopeless!”
I don’t understand why he insisted on having dinner together if he was going to pick fights and get angry like this. Anyway, if we’re talking about being hopeless, his personality is pretty hopeless too.
I suppressed my irritation and, filled with anger, devoured all the tteokgalbi, emptying the plate. While his father clicked his tongue, I deliberately pulled over the side dish plate his chopsticks were heading toward.
∞ ∞ ∞
“This is luxury, pure luxury.”
I muttered as I immersed myself in the large bathtub filled with hot water, watching Kwon Yikang coming out of the sauna inside the bathroom.
It didn’t feel real that I was enjoying this enormous bathtub filled with hot water, that there was a sauna like in a public bath inside a home bathroom, and that I was experiencing all of this.
“Do they sell bathtubs this big?”
“It was probably custom-made.”
“It’s like a public bath. Especially with the sauna.”
“Father wouldn’t be happy to hear that the bathroom he put so much effort into is being compared to a public bathhouse.”
When Kwon Yikang entered the bathtub, the water surface rippled and overflowed. He came closer and leaned his back against my chest, almost lying down.
“This feels nice.”
“Yeah. It feels like my body is relaxing a bit.”
I whispered in a half-dreamy voice as I ran my hand through his wet hair.
“You know, I’ve never thought family background was that important. I just thought as long as both parents are alive and there’s enough money not to worry about daily survival, that’s enough. But I guess not. Everyone I meet these days asks about my family background first, not about me as a person. It makes me wonder if I’ve been thinking wrongly all this time.”
“It’s not wrong thinking, just a different priority of values. You value the person themselves, and I like that about you.”
“Still, wouldn’t it be better if my family was more affluent? Honestly, if I were living hand to mouth, we would never have crossed paths. I wouldn’t have even made it past the front gate of that hotel.”
If I were still Min Jaehee, I probably wouldn’t have rolled around with Kwon Yikang because of pheromones. But it’s not just about Min Jaehee—if I imagine a poor Cha Sukyung instead of a rich one, I don’t think I would have dared to approach Kwon Yikang, even as an Omega.
I pretend otherwise, but it’s hard to say that my current confidence isn’t influenced by my wealthy fathers’ money.
“It would have been difficult to meet, true. But somehow I would have laid eyes on you, and it would have ended up the same as now. If anything, it might have been easier if you were living day to day.”
“Is it easier to handle poor people?”
“It’s easier to persuade someone who acutely feels their lack than someone who lacks nothing.”
Sad but true. When I was Min Jaehee, I would do anything for money. On days when I had no money and had to go hungry for days, I felt like I could commit murder if someone paid me. That’s how desperate I was at times.
“Do you… like me?”
“I do.”
“Not just as one person liking another, but like… kissing me, having sex with me, bathing together like this… not just having sex…”
“You’ve been avoiding this topic, but has there been a change of heart?”
Did he know I was consciously avoiding it? Did he know my inner fear of getting a clear answer about our relationship, of confirmation, without me saying anything? And knowing this, did he just smile and pretend not to know? While I was just avoiding it, I couldn’t tell what Kwon Yikang was thinking.
“I certainly see you as a romantic interest, I want to develop our relationship further, and I intend to go all the way with you. Why do you think I brought you here?”
What does “going all the way” mean? It’s not like he wants to fight me, and it doesn’t seem like he wants to end things here.
“Well, because you said you hated your father setting you up on blind dates, so we’re pretending to date.”
“If I hated it, I could just ignore it. Why would I go through the trouble of ‘pretending’?”
“Then?”
“Whatever your reason for coming along, I brought you here with the intention of introducing you properly.”
Because we were sitting in the same direction, I couldn’t see Kwon Yikang’s expression. I wondered what face he was making right now. Was he smiling softly like when he jokes, or was he wearing an utterly serious expression?
“What if… I get kicked out of my house?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
