# Chapter 12
“……”
He quietly mumbled something. But with the excited graduates loudly chattering around us, I couldn’t hear what he said.
“I sent the photo. Check it.”
“Yeah.”
Do Jihoon picked up his phone and stayed quiet for a while. Why is this bastard acting so out of character? While I was feeling this inner distance from Jihoon, he suddenly looked at me, wrapped his arm around my neck, and put me in a headlock.
“Ugh… Hey! Hey! No matter how tall and handsome I might look, I’m still an Omega, you know? Can’t you be more gentle?”
“Are your eyes knotholes? Don’t you have mirrors at home?”
“Why are you being like this again?! Ugh…”
“Shut up. Why are there only this many photos? Yuri, did you steam the rest and eat them?”
“No. When I said I’d only send the last photo, you didn’t say anything!”
Finally, he removed his arm from my neck only after getting me to agree to send all fifty or so remaining photos. I grumbled as I dragged the photos and sent them via KakaoTalk.
“I’ll use this…”
“Your tongue is too long, Yuri. Want me to cut it off?”
“What did I say?”
After the transfer was complete and I turned off the screen, the black screen filled my smartphone. In the sleek, mirror-like screen, Do Jihoon’s broadly smiling face was reflected. I briefly considered teasing him about what was so funny, but I let it go. For some reason, I just wanted to leave it alone.
And so, our high school life came to an end.
❖ ❖ ❖
And before entering university, I had a major ordeal waiting for me.
The damn engagement ceremony.
The more the D-day number saved on my phone decreased, the more I trembled like a newborn puppy.
It was around D-5. As I was living gloomily like livestock with a scheduled slaughter date, I received a group chat invitation notification. Curious, I tapped the app and saw “Korea University Chemical Engineering Department Class of ’21 Group Chat” at the top.
When I entered the chat room, it seemed like a pre-existing chatroom where some classmates were already conversing. The kids were sending three or four messages every second. It was too noisy. I quietly turned off the notifications for the group chat.
Just as I was staring frustratedly at the KakaoTalk app with over 999+ messages, I got a message from Do Jihoon.
[Do Jihoon: What are you doing?]
Nothing special about the content. Since graduation, Jihoon had been checking in on me about every other day. My answers were always the same.
[Gaming]
[YouTube]
[Breathing]
Then Do Jihoon would send an emoji that looked like he found me pathetic.
[And what are YOU doing?]
[Do Jihoon: Reading]
[? Jihoon, I didn’t raise you like this.]
[Do Jihoon: ^^? We’ve only known each other for just over 6 weeks, Yuri.]
[Do Jihoon: Let’s maintain some distance.]
When chatting with this guy, I would often catch myself chuckling.
My grand ambition to keep my distance from Do Jihoon had completely failed. It was because Jihoon was a nicer guy than I thought. He was more playful than expected, smart, and kind.
Plus, since we were already bound as provisional fiancés anyway, it was practically impossible not to become close to him.
That’s not to say I had special feelings for Jihoon. To me, Do Jihoon was a friend like Kim Bojin. Funny, enjoyable, like family.
I had worried that I might develop possessive or obsessive feelings for Jihoon, like when I first encountered him at school after the possession, or when I got drunk and made a scene. But contrary to those worries, I didn’t feel even one degree of sexual attraction toward him.
[Hiing. We’re supposed to be engaged… Jihoon is so cold.]
[Do Jihoon: I told you not to drink.]
[Eeng I’m not drinkiiing. It’s scary when you scold me]
[Rabbit crying emoticon]
[Do Jihoon: Bear cursing emoticon]
“This guy is seriously crazy.”
Laughter kept escaping from my mouth. I was already dying of boredom anyway. I thought about calling Jihoon.
He answered as soon as I called.
“What.”
“So cold… Isn’t that too harsh for someone who picked up so quickly?”
“What do you want?”
Do Jihoon bluntly spoke without even trying to hide his annoyed feelings. But there was friendliness toward a friend buried in there. It was just amazing how we had become so close in such a short time, despite not having the best start.
“No, just. It’s interesting.”
“What is?”
“Just. It feels like just yesterday we said we wouldn’t care about each other. Haven’t we become quite close?”
He was unexpectedly silent. That brief silence was a bit awkward. I felt a little upset thinking that this bastard might still find me uncomfortable.
“Fine. As your friend, I should understand that our Jihoon has issues with his personality and sociability.”
“Yuri. We’re meeting in 5 days, so you better watch your tongue.”
“Yes. I’ll keep that in mind.”
So we continued our nutritionally deficient conversation. Do Jihoon, who had been pretentious and unlikable during our first meeting, became a somewhat brusque, sometimes threateningly intimidating, and sometimes fake Do Jihoon. I once pondered what his true self was, but the conclusion was this:
To me, they were all just Do Jihoon. How can a person have only one aspect, right?
If the bastard is in a bad mood, he can get irritated, and if he wants to look good to people, he can pretend to be nice.
“Ah, the auntie is calling me to eat. I’m hanging up.”
“…Okay.”
“What? Are you going to miss me?”
As I teased him with a snicker, Do Jihoon just hung up without even responding.
“He really has no manners…”
I put my phone away and went down to the dining room to eat a delicious meal.
❖ ❖ ❖
The long-awaited day arrived.
The day of the engagement ceremony.
My feelings were truly peculiar. It was strange that I was getting a future spouse, and it was also strange that it was Do Jihoon, whom I had been friends with.
However, something kept bothering me. The original novel. As of February, everything up to the engagement ceremony was flowing according to the novel’s plot.
Of course, unlike the original Yeon Yuri and Do Jihoon, I didn’t have any romantic or sexual feelings for Jihoon. And the same was true for Jihoon. I imagined myself begging Jihoon to love me.
It made me feel nauseous. It felt like confessing to Kim Bojin and asking him to date me.
Of course, when I smelled his pheromones, I did feel stable and comfortable. Like the pheromones of other close Omegas or family members.
“Yuri. Are you nervous?”
“No way? You’re the one who shouldn’t be nervous.”
I poked him in the side and jabbed back at Do Jihoon, who was teasing me weakly, and I felt my tense body relax a bit. He was a subtly considerate guy.
I glanced around the engagement venue. Our families were seated at a round table. Jihoon and I were sitting next to each other.
“Even though we first met because of this engagement, we’ve been hanging out just like fucking friends.”
“Yeah.”
“It doesn’t feel real that we’re getting engaged like this.”
We conversed without moving our lips. The parents from both families were smiling amicably.
The engagement ceremony was simple. The two families gathered for a meal, and Jihoon and I exchanged engagement rings. That was all. I really liked how short it was, except for the excruciating part where we had to put the rings on each other’s fingers. By the time the engagement ceremony was over, it was only 4 PM.
Originally, it seemed like they would have gathered all sorts of media outlets and people, but thankfully we were able to have a modest engagement because I threw a fit saying I didn’t want people to know I was the son of Bumong Pharmaceuticals. However, we couldn’t stop the leaks to the media. On the night of February 18th, after the engagement ceremony, the news reported that an Omega from Bumong and an Alpha from Gipyeong had gotten engaged.
Before the engagement news spread, after the ceremony, all the family members except Jihoon and me went back to their respective homes. Jihoon and I decided to hang out before going home. To be precise, I held onto him when he tried to go home because it was bothersome.
“Hyung… I don’t have any friends.”
“Every time you open your mouth, it’s lies. Yuri, you’d better just keep your mouth shut.”
“It’s true.”
“You have lots of friends at school. Hang out with them.”
“How can you compare them to you? I want to hang out with you, Do Jihoon, right now.”
Hearing my words, he was silent for a moment, then nodded and said okay. Such a good kid. His once terrible personality had improved considerably. I was about to pat his hair when I was strongly rejected.
So we walked down the street wearing elegant coats and engagement rings on our fingers. We stopped by stores lined along the street and even ate ice cream in the middle of winter.
We went into a four-cut photo booth where I put a police hat, bear headband, and hip glasses on Jihoon to take pictures, and I was about to hand the printed photos to Jihoon.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
