“……”
He quietly muttered something. But with the students celebrating graduation noisily chatting all around us, I couldn’t hear what he said.
“I sent the photo. Check it.”
“Yeah.”
Do Jihoon picked up his phone and stayed still for a while. What’s with this bastard acting all unlike himself? While I was feeling an odd internal distance from him, he suddenly glanced at me, slung an arm around my neck, and put me in a headlock.
“Ghk—… hey. Hey! No matter how tall and handsome I look, I’m an omega, you know? Can’t you treat me gently?”
“Are your eyes just decorative holes? Don’t you have a mirror at home?”
“What the hell’s your problem now! Ghk…!”
“Shut up. Why is this the only photo? Yuri, did you steam and eat the rest of them?”
“No. I said I was only sending the last one, and you didn’t say anything!”
In the end, he only removed his arm from my neck after extracting a promise from me to send all fifty-something of the remaining photos. Grumbling, I dragged the pictures and sent them through KakaoTalk.
“What are you even going to use these for…?”
“Your tongue’s awfully long, Yuri. Want me to cut it off?”
“Did I say something?”
When the transfer finished and I turned off the screen, the black display filled the phone. Reflected faintly on the smooth, mirror-like surface was Do Jihoon’s brightly smiling face. I briefly considered teasing him about what was so funny, but I let it go. I didn’t know why—I just felt like letting it go.
And just like that, our high school life came to an end.
***
And before entering university, I still had one enormous trial left.
The damn engagement ceremony.
As the D-day number saved in my phone ticked lower and lower, I trembled like a newborn puppy.
Around D-5, while I was living like livestock with a scheduled slaughter date, a group chat invitation notification popped up. Curious, I tapped the app, and at the very top it read: Hanguk University Department of Chemical Engineering, Class of ’21 Group Chat.
When I entered, it seemed the chat had already been created beforehand, because a few of my future classmates were already talking. Messages were flying in at three or four per second. It was way too noisy. I quietly turned off the group chat notifications.
I was staring blankly at the KakaoTalk app, which had already passed 999+ unread messages, when a message came from Do Jihoon.
[Do Jihoon: What are you doing?]
There was nothing special about it. Since the graduation ceremony, Do Jihoon had been checking in on me about once every two days. My answers were always the same.
[Gaming]
[YouTube]
[Breathing]
Then Do Jihoon would send an emoticon as if I were pathetic.
[What about you]
[Do Jihoon: Reading]
[? Jihoon-ah, I did not raise you like that.]
[Do Jihoon: ^^? We’ve only known each other for a little over six weeks, Yuri.]
[Do Jihoon: Maintain some distance.]
Whenever I chatted with him, I’d realize at some point that I was quietly chuckling to myself.
My grand ambition to keep my distance from Do Jihoon had completely failed. He was kinder than I’d expected. He joked around more than I thought, he was smart, and he was considerate.
On top of that, we were bound under the title of prospective fiancés. Not getting close to him was practically impossible.
That didn’t mean I had special feelings for him. To me, Do Jihoon was like Kim Bo-jin—a friend. Funny, fun, almost like family.
When I first met him at school after possessing this body, or when I’d gotten drunk and made a scene, I’d worried that maybe I’d develop possessiveness or obsessive feelings toward him. But those worries turned out to be pointless—I didn’t feel even 1% of sexual attraction toward him.
[Hng. We’re prospective fiancés though……. Jihoon’s so cold.]
[Do Jihoon: I told you not to drink.]
[I didn’t drinkkk. When you swear it’s scaryyy]
[Rabbit crying emoticon]
[Do Jihoon: Bear swearing emoticon]
“Seriously, what a lunatic bastard.”
A smile kept tugging at my lips. I was bored to death anyway. I considered calling Do Jihoon.
The moment I called, he picked up immediately.
“What?”
“So cold……. You answered that fast and that’s all I get?”
“What are you expecting?”
Do Jihoon didn’t even try to hide his exasperation as he spoke bluntly. But beneath it, there was a kind warmth directed at a friend. It was strange that despite our rocky start, we’d grown this close in such a short time.
“No, just. It’s kind of amazing.”
“What is?”
“It feels like just yesterday we said we wouldn’t care about each other. But we’ve gotten pretty close, haven’t we?”
Unexpectedly, he said nothing. That brief silence felt slightly awkward. The thought that maybe he still felt awkward around me made my chest sting a little.
“Whatever. As your friend, I’ll just have to understand that our Jihoon has issues with personality and social skills.”
“Yuri. We’re seeing each other in five days. You better watch that tongue.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll keep your words in mind.”
And so we continued talking about absolutely nothing. The arrogant and annoying Do Jihoon from our first meeting had turned into a somewhat blunt, occasionally threatening, sometimes hypocritical Do Jihoon. I once wondered which one was the real him, but the conclusion was simple.
To me, they were all just Do Jihoon. How could a person have only one side?
If the bastard was in a bad mood, he could get irritated. If he wanted to look good in front of others, he could act falsely nice.
“Ah, the ahjumma is calling me to eat. I’m hanging up.”
“…Yeah.”
“What, are you going to miss me?”
I teased him with a grin, and without even answering, Do Jihoon simply hung up.
“Seriously, what awful manners….”
I put my phone away and went downstairs to eat some good food.
***
The long-awaited day arrived.
The engagement ceremony.
It felt truly strange. The idea that I was gaining a future spouse was surreal, and the fact that it was Do Jihoon—whom I’d grown close to like a friend—was even stranger.
But something kept nagging at me. The original novel. As of February, everything up to the engagement ceremony was progressing according to the original storyline.
Of course, unlike the original Yeon Yuri and Do Jihoon, I felt no romantic desire toward him whatsoever. And the same was true for Do Jihoon. I tried imagining myself clinging to him, begging him to love me.
It made my stomach churn in disgust. It felt like confessing to Kim Bo-jin and asking him to date me.
Of course, when I smelled his pheromones, I felt calm and warm—like with other close omegas or family members.
“Yuri. Nervous?”
“Not at all. You don’t get nervous either.”
After snapping back at Do Jihoon, who was poking my side and teasing me weakly, the tension in my body eased a little. Seriously, he was subtly attentive like that.
I glanced around the engagement venue. Our family and Do Jihoon’s family were seated at round tables. Do Jihoon and I sat next to each other.
“We basically hung out like fucking friends even though we met because of the engagement.”
“Yeah.”
“And now that we’re actually getting engaged, it doesn’t feel real at all.”
We spoke without moving our lips. Our parents on both sides were smiling warmly.
The ceremony itself was simple. The two families gathered for a meal, and Do Jihoon and I exchanged engagement rings. The only unbearable part was having to slip the ring onto each other’s fingers, but aside from that, it was short, which I liked. By the time everything ended, it was only 4 p.m.
Originally, it seemed like it had been planned as a large event with press and all sorts of people, but thanks to me throwing a fit about not wanting it publicized that I was the son of Bumong Pharmaceutical, we were able to keep it small. Still, we couldn’t stop information from leaking to the media. On the night of February 18, news broke that Bumong’s omega and Kipyeong’s alpha had become engaged.
Before the news spread, after the ceremony ended, our families returned home, leaving only Do Jihoon and me. We decided to hang out together before heading back. More accurately, I grabbed him when he tried to leave, saying he was tired.
“Hyung……. I don’t have any friends.”
“You lie every time you open your mouth. Yuri, you’re better off keeping it shut.”
“I’m serious.”
“You’ve got plenty of friends at school. Go hang out with them.”
“You think they’re the same as you? I want to hang out with you, Do Jihoon.”
At my words, he fell silent for a moment before nodding. Good bastard. His once-terrible personality had improved a lot. I tried to pat his hair, only to be firmly rejected.
And so we wandered the streets in stylish coats, engagement rings on our fingers. We stopped by shops lining the road and even bought ice cream in the middle of winter.
We went into one of those four-cut photo booths, made Do Jihoon wear a police hat, a teddy bear headband, and hipster glasses, and took pictures. I had just printed them out and was about to hand them to him.
