“Jihoon. We should change clothes and wash up.”
“No.”
“Damn it—no, wait. Why? Why not?”
“I feel good right now.”
So as long as you feel good, that’s all that matters?
At least, thankfully, he hadn’t bitten the back of my neck. The moment he did that, I’d be screwed in more ways than one.
“Yeah, yeah. Bite all you want. Just don’t bite the back of my neck.”
“Oh, the back of the neck. Right. That’s where it was.”
? Where what was?
Do Jihoon answered in a tone that sounded almost perfectly lucid. A sense of dread spread from my head to my toes.
No fucking way.
Instinctively, I reached back and covered the back of my neck with my hand.
And the moment I did, Jihoon lunged for it.
Naturally, what his teeth sank into was the back of my hand.
“Ah! Hey, that actually hurts…!”
My hand throbbed like I’d been bitten by a wild animal. The raw, instinctive pain made tears well up in my eyes.
“Move your hand.”
“…You’re insane. Get a hold of yourself.”
“I said move your hand.”
Jihoon’s pheromones stabbed into me aggressively.
It hurt.
It felt like being shoved into a goddamn oven—like I was turning into roasted meat. My skin felt like it was burning.
My body stiffened, and I swallowed dryly.
For the first time, Do Jihoon scared me.
“Fuck, it hurts!”
Tears burst out.
My pheromones poured out uncontrollably.
My hand hurt, and my burning skin hurt. For someone I’d just called a kid, I ended up crying like one—tears streaming down nonstop.
“……”
The strength in Jihoon’s arm around me slowly loosened.
His pheromones softened too.
I quickly slipped out of his grasp. Jihoon stared up at me blankly, like a child who’d had candy snatched away—or a puppy that had lost its mother.
Still covering the back of my neck with my hand, I glared at him while breathing heavily.
The fact that I’d felt fear toward him—even for a moment—made me both irritated and resentful.
“…I’m sorry.”
“You know that imprinting without mutual consent is a crime, right?”
“…Sorry.”
Like a doll, Jihoon repeated the apology.
I looked down at the bite on the back of my hand. He’d bitten hard enough that blood was slowly seeping out. If that had been the back of my neck, it would’ve been a guaranteed imprint.
“Don’t think saying sorry makes it sweet!”
“…I’m sorry.”
“I don’t care. Fuck off. I’m going to my room. Let’s talk again after you sober up.”
“No. Don’t go.”
The moment I moved to leave, Jihoon reached out again.
My body trembled reflexively.
Jihoon stared at my wrist for a long moment before carefully pulling me into a hug.
“I won’t hug you from behind. I’ll hug you from the front. So don’t go.”
His voice sounded desperate.
A sigh escaped me.
Jihoon wiped away the tear tracks on my face with both hands.
“Don’t cry. I’m sorry.”
“Are you a voicemail? Knock it off.”
“You won’t leave?”
“Yeah, you bastard. I won’t go. So just sleep nicely.”
“…Okay.”
Jihoon lay down on the bed.
Just like that.
Which meant…
Still tightly hugging me.
“You bastard. How much are you going to kick your blankets tomorrow morning when you remember this?”
“I won’t.”
“Yeah right. Like hell you won’t.”
“Yeah. Alright, let’s sleep, Yuri.”
Jihoon’s breathing soon evened out.
He’d been studying for exams too, so it made sense he was exhausted.
While he was asleep, I tried slipping out of his arms—but his arms were like stone. The attempt failed spectacularly.
Honestly, at this point I couldn’t deny it anymore.
The attention that was supposed to go to Ha Min-young was ending up somewhere completely different.
But if someone asked whether I disliked that… there was no way I did.
Aside from his slightly twisted personality, Do Jihoon was a ridiculously perfect alpha.
Pretty face. Great body. Rich.
I cautiously looked at Jihoon’s face.
His forehead was neat, his eyebrows thick, his eyelashes long. His nose bridge was a work of art, and his lips were full and red. There wasn’t a single part of him that wasn’t handsome.
That handsome bastard.
Jihoon’s bedding carried the warm scent of a heater.
I hated to admit it, but it felt incredibly comforting.
I’d been studying for two nights straight too.
My eyes slowly drifted shut.
And just like that, I fell fast asleep in Do Jihoon’s bed, held tightly in his arms.
It was the moment Yeon Yuri became Do Yuri.
***
“…Ugh.”
I shot up out of bed.
I’d had a ridiculously scary dream—one where I’d turned into a pigeon, got caught by Do Jihoon, and had my feathers plucked inside a cage.
“What a stupid dream.”
But where am I?
I looked around.
Bright sunlight poured into the room.
This scene felt… familiar.
…Damn it.
It was Do Jihoon’s room.
The moment I realized that, everything that had happened with Jihoon yesterday came flooding back.
It had been a full-on festival of drunken antics.
Jihoon was still sleeping soundly on the bed. So much for that nonsense about not being able to sleep when someone else is nearby. He seemed to be in a deep sleep. The arms that had been wrapped tightly around me were gone.
I quietly slipped out and returned to my own room.
“Wow…”
The moment I closed my bedroom door, my legs gave out and I collapsed to the floor.
Memories of Jihoon’s behavior last night kept replaying in my head.
Whining for me not to go. Clinging to me like a child.
There’s a saying that drunk words are sober thoughts. At this point, it was about 90 percent certain.
That guy saw me as his omega.
But if he saw me as his omega, shouldn’t he be doting on me and treating me sweetly?
Judging by how we acted around each other, we weren’t engaged—we looked more like two dudes who’d been ball-buddies for ten years.
“Ah… I’m sleepy.”
I glanced at my phone.
It was only a little past 7 a.m.
I crawled back into bed and tried to sleep again.
Who knows how much time passed. Through my hazy consciousness, I heard a knock—knock knock.
It felt like someone had grabbed my hair and yanked me out of sleep.
“Can I come in?”
It was Do Jihoon’s voice.
What the hell? Since when does that guy come into my room? What is he trying to say?
But this time I had nothing to feel guilty about. So I confidently opened the door.
“You brought me back yesterday—”
Jihoon stopped mid-sentence and suddenly scrunched his face. Then he stepped backward, putting distance between himself and my room.
“Yeah. I dragged you back. My whole body still hurts. Lose some muscle, will you?”
Jihoon stared at me like I was garbage.
You’re the one who drank—if there’s a smell, it’s coming from you, not me.
“What’s with that look? And why are you in my room anyway?”
Jihoon looked like he had a lot to say. His face shifted through colors like a rainbow rice cake.
“Do you have plans today?”
“Plans? No. I’m planning to stay home.”
“Good. That’s a relief. What about tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow too. Why?”
“……”
Jihoon fell silent. Yesterday’s nightmare seemed to creep back to life.
“Hey. You’re sober now, right?”
“…Yeah.”
“Then why do you look so out of it? Snap out of it, Jihooni.”
“…Did I do something wrong yesterday?”
“…? What’s with that tone? Like you don’t remember anything from yesterday?”
“……”
Silence again.
This time my face started to twist.
This bastard caused that whole mess and then forgot everything?
“Hey. Don’t be embarrassed. You seriously don’t remember?”
“Don’t be embarrassed?”
Jihoon’s face turned pale. That reaction was real. That bastard really had no memory.
Something about it felt hollow. The me from yesterday—getting bitten and nearly crushed like a kimbap roll—felt ridiculously pitiful.
“…Whatever. Nothing happened, you bastard.”
“Nothing happened?”
He clearly didn’t believe me, but that wasn’t my problem.
“Yeah. But since I went to pick you up, erase one of my debts, okay?”
“Well. I don’t remember.”
“You little punk.”
Jihoon grinned slyly.
It was basically saying: If you don’t tell me the truth, there’s no debt cancellation.
“…Nothing really happened. Except I almost burst like a dumpling and got chewed on like dog gum.”
“So something did happen. What do you mean nothing happened?”
“What’s the point of telling someone who doesn’t even remember? Anyway, just make me breakfast. And cancel one debt.”
“……”
Jihoon frowned. He opened his mouth like he had something to say, then closed it again. With his head lowered, he roughly raked his fingers through his hair.
“Tell me a little more in detail.”
“About what? Your drunken behavior yesterday?”
“…Yeah.”
I hesitated. Saying everything that happened yesterday out loud myself felt incredibly embarrassing.
But wait. This bastard Do Jihoon. Didn’t he say he didn’t know Ha Min-young?
“Hey. Didn’t you say you didn’t know Ha Min-young?”
“I didn’t. If you hadn’t asked me, I still wouldn’t have known.”
“…What are you talking about?”
Apparently this was what happened.
On the very day I asked Jihoon if he knew Ha Min-young, his afternoon class happened to overlap with Min-young’s. When attendance was called, he heard a familiar name. So he turned his head—and saw Ha Min-young sitting there.
“……”
In other words, I had played the role of the matchmaker.
