55
Ji Seunghyeok quickly removed his hand when Jo Junghyun stirred in his sleep with a small sound, but he continued to gaze down at that lovely face for a long time afterward.
When morning came and Jo Junghyun opened his eyes, he seemed a bit flustered to see Ji Seunghyeok looking like he hadn’t slept. Junghyun opened his round eyes wide and asked if Seunghyeok hadn’t slept at all. Seunghyeok calmly smiled and answered that he had been sleeping in the guest bedroom before coming here not long ago. Junghyun looked suspicious but didn’t ask any further questions.
After finishing preparations for discharge and eating the breakfast provided by the hospital, they waited for rounds. The doctor didn’t keep them waiting long before visiting the room.
“Mr. Jo Junghyun, you’re being discharged now. Your condition is generally good, but regularly receiving alpha pheromones is the most important thing. Fortunately, since your guardian is an extremely dominant alpha, you have quite an advantage in this regard. Direct supply is best, but absorbing pheromones from the air is also fine. Daily is ideal, but if that’s difficult, I recommend at least three times a week. I’ll prescribe medication, but unless you’re so dizzy you can’t stand up, try to avoid taking it if possible.”
This made me wonder why the doctor would bother prescribing medication at all. And then the doctor explained precisely that point.
“Generally, we would unconditionally tell you to take the medication, but in your case, allowing your body to stabilize naturally shows better prognosis, which is why I’m advising you to avoid medication if possible. If your condition doesn’t stabilize even after taking the medication, you’ll need to go to the emergency room.”
“…Yes.”
Jo Junghyun nodded.
After completing the discharge procedures, the two headed home.
The driver, Kim Seongchae, congratulated Junghyun on his discharge, making Junghyun respond with slight embarrassment.
When Junghyun entered the previously empty house, it finally felt like a complete home. Until then, home had been nothing more than a place to sleep and leave, nothing more, nothing less.
After earning money, he had purchased a place in the city center as if showing off, filling it with items featured in magazine interior designs, but he’d never felt it was truly his home. However, with Junghyun there, it had finally transformed into a place he could return to.
Ji Seunghyeok looked at Jo Junghyun, who had quietly taken his hand.
“Welcome back.”
Junghyun stared blankly for a moment before smiling, his eyes curving gently.
Seeing that smile made him feel relaxed. Ji Seunghyeok had the uncharacteristic thought that he wanted to continue resting leisurely with Junghyun like this.
Five days passed this way.
During that time, Ji Seunghyeok was banned from cooking by Jo Junghyun.
To tell the truth, Ji Seunghyeok had been cooking in all seriousness, not as a joke. That’s why Junghyun’s reaction was equally serious.
On the first day after discharge, Ji Seunghyeok told Junghyun to sit down and then went into the kitchen.
Deciding to make curry, which is said to be hard to ruin, Ji Seunghyeok sorted through ingredients from the refrigerator. He managed to look reasonably competent up until the point of preparing the ingredients.
Junghyun came to the kitchen area to watch Ji Seunghyeok cook. When he picked up a potato to help peel it, Ji Seunghyeok took it back and sent Junghyun back to the living room, telling him to sit comfortably.
He added many nutritious ingredients for Junghyun, who had just been discharged.
Chicken, beef, pork, potatoes, bell peppers, green peppers, onions, carrots, green onions, some unknown green leaves, and milk. And since too much spice wouldn’t be good, he added two to three spoonfuls of sugar.
He could feel Junghyun’s gaze, who kept glancing over and fidgeting despite having turned on the TV.
The finished dish looked quite presentable. Ji Seunghyeok served Junghyun’s portion first at the dining table. After saying he would enjoy the meal, Junghyun took one bite and immediately began to hesitantly look at Ji Seunghyeok.
When asked if it was delicious, he rolled his eyes around and nodded. Fortunately, it seemed he had made it properly. Watching Junghyun slowly chew and swallow, Ji Seunghyeok brought his own plate and sat across from him. Seeing this, Junghyun became visibly anxious.
“Um… hyung. I can just eat all of this, ah! You shouldn’t eat—!”
Ji Seunghyeok mixed the curry with rice and put it in his mouth.
“…You actually ate it?”
“It’s a bit sweet… but it’s fine.”
Ji Seunghyeok stared at Junghyun who was smiling as he spoke. He took both the plate in front of Junghyun and his own plate and went back to the pot.
As Junghyun had said, the curry was sweet.
The problem was that it wasn’t just “a bit” sweet—it was considerably, very, tremendously sweet. Additionally, there was a faint burnt smell and lumpy texture mixed into the curry. Ji Seunghyeok scooped only the curry back into the pot and found some red pepper powder to pour in. He thought that since the problem was it being too sweet, adding red pepper powder to make it spicy would fix it. While mixing the contents with a wooden spatula, he heard Junghyun’s voice from behind.
“…Hyung. What are you doing right now?”
“Huh?”
“How much red pepper powder did you just put in there?”
Ji Seunghyeok turned to look at Junghyun, who was asking despite clearly having witnessed the situation. Before Ji Seunghyeok could answer, Junghyun approached and examined the pot. Ji Seunghyeok realized something was going wrong as he watched Junghyun’s expression gradually harden in real-time.
The curry in the pot had turned bright red and was bubbling vigorously.
Junghyun quietly took the wooden spatula from Ji Seunghyeok’s hand.
“I’ll do the cooking.”
“Ah…”
Junghyun’s voice, though smiling, was so resolute and strict that Ji Seunghyeok couldn’t argue. Junghyun smiled again at Ji Seunghyeok, who stood there unable to find words due to his awkward feelings.
“Please sit over there, hyung.”
At this overt dismissal, Ji Seunghyeok tried to explain himself. But when Junghyun asked with a smiling face if he had something to say, he couldn’t say anything more and had to leave the kitchen.
It was the first time he had been treated like this by someone, and the first time he’d experienced such feelings.
But truly, he couldn’t make a peep of protest.
Despite the fact that the other person was smaller in build and younger than him.
Junghyun somehow performed magic, transforming that curry—which wouldn’t have been strange if it had gone straight into the trash—into something edible.
When they lay down to sleep that night, Junghyun carefully took Ji Seunghyeok’s hand and explained. He said that while sometimes curry is made with red pepper powder, the issue was the amount. Ji Seunghyeok could only nod at that voice, which seemed somewhat embarrassed about his own actions.
That day, he also newly discovered that Junghyun was quite strict when it came to cooking.
To make up for the previous incident, he tried to make pasta using store-bought spaghetti sauce, but again, his excessive enthusiasm was the problem.
No matter how he thought about it, just pouring sauce over pasta seemed to lack sincerity, so Ji Seunghyeok decided to add oyster sauce. He tasted it while cooking, but the umami flavor of the oyster sauce seemed too weak. So he added more and more oyster sauce until he had added 4 spoonfuls, and only then did it seem to have some taste.
When Junghyun took one bite of the completed pasta, he silently stared at the steaming bowl. Junghyun looked at the pasta once and then at Ji Seunghyeok’s face once, with a troubled expression.
Realizing something was wrong from Junghyun’s reaction, Ji Seunghyeok was about to take the plate back and reach for the sugar packet when Junghyun, who had approached without notice, gently gripped Ji Seunghyeok’s forearm.
And after that day, Ji Seunghyeok was banned from the kitchen.
He hadn’t expected to see Junghyun being so serious, and it was also true that he was thrilled by this unexpected side of him. It wasn’t that he had that kind of preference, but seeing Junghyun’s strict face, so different from usual, made his heart flutter anew.
Ji Seunghyeok’s gaze fixed on the cheek of Junghyun, who sat beside him.
The bruises had faded quite a bit since the beginning, but they were still patchy. And even deeper than those marks, scars remained etched in Junghyun’s mind.
The time they spent living together at home after that incident was peaceful on the surface. But in reality, it wasn’t.
Since that day, Junghyun hadn’t been able to sleep properly at home. He would groan at night and wake up several times. Then, as if checking where he was, he would look around once before letting out a deep sigh. Ji Seunghyeok would gently stroke Junghyun’s trembling back, hold him in his arms, and pat him soothingly.
Ji Seunghyeok rubbed the arms of Junghyun, who kept apologizing for waking him up, and whispered that it was alright. Eventually, Junghyun’s trembling body would calm down, and he would fall asleep not long after.
He also released alpha pheromones in the early morning, taking advantage of when Junghyun fell into a deep sleep after a restless night. After seeing the adverse reaction at the hospital when he had released pheromones before, he didn’t even dare to try.
Because Ji Seunghyeok acted so discreetly, Junghyun was completely unaware of this fact. One day, when Junghyun cautiously said, “I seem to be doing okay so far even without exposure to pheromones,” Ji Seunghyeok could only silently smile at him.
Perhaps due to lack of sleep, Junghyun had become noticeably absent-minded at times.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
