It was when we were about to move the luggage we’d each brought from our homes into the apartment.
Do Jihoon and I discovered a very serious problem.
“There’s only one bed…?”
“…….”
The two of us stared at the bed in silence.
It was huge. Maybe it had been custom-made, because it looked even bigger than a king-size bed.
“Can you sleep on the floor?”
“Don’t ask that like it’s obvious. My back will ache—I won’t be able to sleep.”
“What kind of alpha is that weak?”
“That’s an extremely discriminatory statement. You’d better shut your mouth before making that the issue.”
He glared at me ominously.
“Then there’s only one answer!”
I clapped my hands, giving up on thinking any further.
“We’ll just sleep together.”
“No.”
“Why? I don’t have bad sleeping habits. I sleep like I’m dead.”
“I can’t sleep if there’s someone next to me.”
“You’re fucking sensitive….”
“What did you say?”
“I said you’re very delicate.”
Then what are we supposed to do?
Our apartment had three rooms. One was going to be used as a walk-in closet, and another was filled with empty bookshelves, so we were planning to use it as a study.
The walk-in closet wasn’t very big. If we tried to fit both clothes and a bed in there, it would probably be too cramped. The study was the same.
“Then I guess we’ll throw this bed out and buy two smaller ones so we can sleep separately.”
Given the situation, that seemed like the best option—for the sake of the ultra-sensitive Lord Do Jihoon, who apparently couldn’t sleep with anyone beside him.
But despite my perfectly logical conclusion, Do Jihoon looked at me as if he wasn’t pleased.
“Ah, what now?”
“That still means we’d be sleeping in the same room.”
“You’re not about to say you can’t sleep unless you don’t hear even a single breath in the room, are you?”
“…….”
In the end, he compromised at that point. We immediately ordered beds online. Until they were delivered, we agreed to take turns sleeping on the sofa.
“I can’t believe we’re going this far for this….”
“What did you say, Yuri?”
“Can’t we just sleep together?”
“No.”
“It’s such a hassle. To get rid of this huge bed, we’d have to remove the living room window and bring in a ladder truck and everything.”
“……That does sound like a hassle.”
Do Jihoon conceded. He was starting to waver. I fluttered my hands at him eagerly.
“Right? So let’s just sleep together, ho—….”
I swallowed the word I was about to say—honey. I suddenly remembered how violently he’d acted before.
Naturally, I leaned my head toward him, putting on my cutest act.
“Hmm? Yeah?”
“……Can you control your pheromones even while you’re asleep?”
Instead of cursing like I expected, Do Jihoon suddenly said something completely off-topic.
“I don’t know. Why?”
“Why?”
He let out a small sigh. “Ha.”
I was sitting on the bed, looking up at him. Do Jihoon stared at me for a moment, then licked his lips.
He reached out and gently grasped my hair. My soft brown strands slipped between his long, slender fingers.
Suddenly, Do Jihoon’s faint pheromones began to wrap around me.
The emotion contained within them wasn’t anger or irritation.
It was the same pheromone he’d released toward me the first time we met. Pheromones filled with desire and seduction. Come here. You’re pretty. I want to hold you. It was as if I could hear those words whispering in my ear.
It smells good. My eyelids grew heavy. I hadn’t even been drinking, yet I felt as if my entire body had been soaked in alcohol, light and floating.
Do Jihoon’s face drew closer and closer. It was a beautiful, handsome face.
He leaned in, closer and closer.
Just before our lips were about to collide—
Snap.
Do Jihoon made a sharp snapping sound with his fingers.
The sound jolted me back to my senses. I blinked several times.
Seeing my confused expression, Do Jihoon leaned his face back again. For a moment, he almost seemed reluctant—but at least outwardly, he looked perfectly composed.
“This is why.”
“…….”
“You seem to forget sometimes….”
Do Jihoon tilted one corner of his lips up in a crooked smile. For some reason, my heart started pounding when I saw it.
“I’m an alpha too.”
My face must have turned bright red. It was because of the pheromones. Or maybe because I was angry.
“It’s nice when you’re quiet.”
He poked my cheek with his finger. I yelped and scrambled backward on the bed, putting distance between us. The spot his hand had touched burned as if I’d been scalded.
“Now you’re finally making that face.”
“…….”
“What’s wrong? We’re engaged. Why do you think our parents only put one bed in here?”
“Y-you…!”
I covered my cheek with one hand and pointed at Do Jihoon with the other, my chin trembling. I was this shocked, yet he looked perfectly fine, which made it incredibly irritating.
“So. Should we use the same room, Yuri?”
“…….”
“No answer.”
“…….”
“I’ll clear out the study and use that room. We’ll just buy one more bed.”
“…….”
“Yuri, you have to answer.”
“……Fine.”
I ground my teeth as I replied. Do Jihoon smiled in satisfaction, looking utterly pleased. I timidly chewed on my lower lip over and over, trying to calm my startled heart.
***
It was Sunday morning.
After volunteering to sleep on the sofa last night, I bolted out of the house at 7 a.m. and headed to a café.
I was about to order a caramel macchiato, but Do Jihoon’s bizarre taste suddenly came to mind, so I just ordered a café mocha and sat down.
My mind was as tangled as a pair of earphones twisted up in my pocket, but the cause boiled down to one thing.
Why did Do Jihoon act like that?
Do Jihoon was undeniably the main gong of the novel. Originally, he was supposed to grow tired of Yeon Yuri and end up in a sweet, lovey-dovey relationship with Ha Min-young.
Of course, I wasn’t hoping for the original plot to play out. If I wanted to maintain this peaceful life I had now, I had to twist the original storyline.
But this was a bit… much.
That bastard Do Jihoon wasn’t just deviating from the original plot—he was practically creating a whole new orbit. Thanks to that, my head was a complete mess.
What he did to me last night—no matter how generously I interpreted it—was a warning based on seduction.
I see you as an omega, so we can’t sleep in the same room. That was what he meant.
“I’m an alpha too.”
His indifferent expression surfaced in my mind along with those indecent words.
Bzz—
At that moment, the vibration buzzer went off. It pulled me out of the deep spiral of my thoughts. I grabbed my coffee and returned to my seat.
As I sipped the café mocha, the sweet chocolate flavor spread throughout my mouth. The sugar seemed to relax my tense body a little.
But as I drank my coffee, I remembered the day I went to a café with Do Jihoon.
The way I’d absentmindedly sipped his coffee without a second thought—and the way he’d looked at me like I was pathetic.
“……I shouldn’t even start.”
“Fuck! Shit!”
That meant Do Jihoon had already recognized that I was an omega back then. Along with the fact that I didn’t see him as an alpha at all.
So that’s why he’d looked at me like I was some clueless kid. Only now did I finally understand his behavior.
Sometimes Do Jihoon would lose his focus. He’d get irritated over the strangest things or throw a fit out of nowhere. Only now did I understand one of the reasons behind those fits.
Ah, wait.
“Don’t tell me that bastard Do Jihoon is… m-me….”
I couldn’t bring myself to finish the sentence and shut my mouth. But my brain was working at full speed.
If I assume that, everything falls into place.
His hostility toward Ki Tae-young. The anger he’d directed at me. Even the way he sometimes looked at me like I was hopeless.
But does that even make sense? He’s the main gong, and I’m just a supporting sub.
It wasn’t like I saw this world as merely a fictional, two-dimensional novel anymore. But Do Jihoon was my friend.
Imagining myself at Do Jihoon’s side made my stomach churn and my head ache from cognitive dissonance. Maybe deep down, I’d assumed Do Jihoon and Ha Min-young were destined partners.
Me and that bastard?
On the surface, we looked very compatible. The problem was what was inside.
But Do Jihoon seemed to see me as an omega.
“Ah, fuck… I don’t know.”
There was no answer. My thoughts kept looping like a Möbius strip, returning to the starting point again and again. The fastest way to solve something like this was to just ask the person directly…
