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LM 18
by EmerlynHis relationship with Kang Jiwon was good, but not good enough to get back together. He had a feeling, she was sick of all this back-and-forth too. She was a smart woman, but her standards were too high to be satisfied with someone like him. She was the one who ended things first, saying alphas weren’t her type after all. It was a clean break with no lingering attachments, making one wonder if they had ever dated at all.
But the person Woo Hyunse had come to see wasn’t Kang Jiwon. He wanted to pretend otherwise, but the moment he saw Kwon Siyul, he clearly realized it. Kwon Siyul was the one he wanted to see. He was curious about what he was doing, wanted to know how he was doing, wanted to hear that voice he’d heard over the phone clearly again.
He was simply checking to see if what he’d placed here was still in its spot, nothing more. Woo Hyunse wet his throat with the bland non-alcoholic drink that made him wish for water instead, answering his own question about why he was there.
“No. I just came here for a drink.”
Kwon Siyul responded with a “Yes” and moved away. He busily wiped tables and took orders. When there was a clanging sound of metal falling, he hurried over with some cutlery in hand. His every action was worthy of Manager Kang Jiwon’s approval.
His apron strings had come undone, and he stood there retying the thin strings with both hands. As he pulled and tugged, the black strings tightened, revealing his slender waistline over his shirt.
The oversized shirt hung loosely on his upper body. It gave him the appearance of a boy wearing borrowed clothes. Wasn’t there always one in every class? A student who ordered their uniform too big, believing they’d grow into it. With his already youthful face and the baggy shirt, he could pass for a student if you just added a name tag to his uniform.
Despite the dim lighting, his fair face seemed to glow. His skin was plump with moisture. If you pressed it, tears might well up in place of water droplets. When expressionless, his plump lips made him look dazed, but when he smiled, the mole under his eye stood out, becoming very eye-catching.
Customers would giggle at anything Kwon Siyul said. He wasn’t particularly humorous. Perhaps his face itself elicited laughter. He was handsome in a delicate way. Judging by his face alone, he looked like a flower raised with tender loving care in a greenhouse.
“Hyung, they want the pasta less spicy.”
Kwon Siyul leaned his body toward the kitchen, calling the chef “hyung” in a familiar manner. As he pulled back, he glanced in his direction. Their eyes met casually as if Woo Hyunse had been watching him this entire time. Unlike the other man’s refined face, his eyes didn’t lie at all. The weariness of a life that hadn’t been easy could be seen in Kwon Siyul’s gaze.
That light in his eyes made his throat burn. Even alcohol could not quench his thirst. Woo Hyunse watched Kwon Siyul’s retreating figure for a long time before he turned and walked away. The straight back, the slender neck rising above the shirt collar, and the black hair swaying with each step.
The rut was over.
But the heat in him rose again.
Woo Hyunse now came to an understanding of what this all meant.
* * *
The weather had turned quite cold. A thin hoodie and an old coat weren’t enough to fend off the chilly wind seeping through the gaps of his layers. Kwon Siyul muttered, “Ugh, cold,” and hunched his shoulders. Trying to escape the cold even a little, he pulled his hood down tight and cinched the drawstrings over his head. With just his features exposed, he shoved his hands deep into his pockets.
Hurrying his steps, eager to get home and bury himself in a warm blanket, he was startled by a voice clearly calling, “Kwon Siyul-ssi.” He jumped in surprise, his heart pounding so hard it felt like it might burst right through his ribs.
Kwon Siyul looked around with wide eyes, searching for the source of the voice calling for him. Woo Hyunse was sitting at an outdoor table at the convenience store up the stairs. As Kwon Siyul turned, he raised his palm in greeting.
Why was this man here again instead of going home? Kwon Siyul pressed a hand down on his pounding chest. He had suddenly appeared at the bar, and now he was here too. The man was truly unpredictable.
“Stay for a bit.”
Kwon Siyul had intended to just nod toward the man and leave, but Woo Hyunse held him back. He considered making up some excuse that he had urgent business to get to but realized he’d have no answer if asked what urgent business it was he had in the early hours. So he turned his feet toward the man.
Five minutes should be fine. Remembering Kwon Yuwon’s emphatic warning to avoid alphas, Kwon Siyul sat down next to him. Though the chairs were around the same table, he chose the one furthest from Woo Hyunse.
Having deliberately avoided him at the bar, this was the first time he’d looked at his face closely. It had only been about a week since they’d last met, but he seemed to be as unfamiliar as someone he had not seen for weeks. His handsome features were the same, but he seemed to have lost some weight. His already defined jawline looked even sharper, and his cheeks seemed more hollow.
Woo Hyunse placed a drink in front of Kwon Siyul. It was the yogurt-flavored carbonated drink Kwon Siyul liked. The conversation they’d had once naturally flashed through his mind right then.
‘You have a child’s taste.’
‘This is delicious. You should try it too, Mr. CEO.’
‘It’s too sweet for me.’
After taking a sip of his drink, Woo Hyunse’s brow furrowed as if he’d tasted bile instead of sugar. Kwon Siyul remembered laughing for a while at his disgusted reaction the last time they had a drink together.
“It’s been a while. Aren’t you being too dismissive? I’m hurt.”
“I’ve been busy with work. You saw it yourself, Mr. CEO. So, you know fully well how many customers we had today.”
In truth, there weren’t many customers. Kwon Siyul had just been bustling about to minimize contact with Woo Hyunse at the bar. Though he probably knew that, Kwon Siyul didn’t reveal that he’d been deliberately avoiding him. Woo Hyunse, as usual, casually responded with an “Is that so?”
“What did you do while I was away?”
“Just worked and hung out. Were you very busy, Mr. CEO?”
Unlike Kwon Siyul who was facing forward, Woo Hyunse had turned his body completely toward him. As he stretched his legs, his hard shoe touched Kwon Siyul’s worn sneakers. Kwon Siyul quickly pulled his legs out from under the chair.
“I was busy. With my rut.”
Woo Hyunse didn’t hide that he’d been in heat. Wasn’t he embarrassed? Then again, while Kwon Yuwon would throw tantrums during his heats, cursing and wishing the “damn heat” would die down already, Woo Hyunse’s reaction was downright gentlemanly in comparison. Or perhaps alphas, unlike omegas, only experienced increased libido during rut without the mood swings that usually came with it.
Though Kwon Siyul hadn’t been affected when Kwon Yuwon cursed his heats, hearing Woo Hyunse directly mention his rut made the erotic movie from the other dawn play out in his mind again. As heat rose to his face, Kwon Siyul pressed the cool drink bottle against his cheeks.
“Mr. CEO…are you a dominant alpha?”
After cooling down for a bit, he set the bottle down on the table. He quickly averted his gaze when their eyes met, but in that instant, he caught Woo Hyunse’s expression. One eyebrow was raised as if he’d just heard a strange question.
“We don’t distinguish between dominant and recessive. That’s discrimination, you know.”
Kwon Siyul had heard that campaign on the radio too. It wasn’t eugenics, so why divide traits into dominant and recessive? Unable to take back his words, Kwon Siyul bit down on his lower lip. He’d have to insist he was ignorant about such things as a beta.
“Still, my friend said to avoid dominant alphas. They’re more dangerous than ordinary alphas.”
“Then let’s say I’m recessive.”
“What?”
Kwon Siyul looked at Woo Hyunse in disbelief. Was it really something that could be changed so easily, like flipping a pancake?
“Can you change that at will?”
Woo Hyunse reacted by putting Kwon Siyul’s abandoned drink to his lips. After one sip, he grimaced as if he’d just downed some bitter alcohol.
“Why does it matter? Traits are all the same anyway. But why? What did our Kwon Siyul hear to think dominants are more dangerous?”
“They say even Betas can differentiate if they’re near a dominant. If they’re unlucky.”
“I’m recessive.”
“Really?”
Woo Hyunse didn’t nod his head. He rested his chin on his hand and looked at Kwon Siyul with his head tilted to one side. His eyes held both the light seeping through the convenience store windows and a glint of amusement that showed he was entertained by the other man’s words. Kwon Siyul, forgetting he should avoid all of this, stared into those eyes as if entranced. Uniquely, a deep navy swirled in his irises.
“That’s what I’ve decided to be from today.”
Woo Hyunse smiled mischievously. Logically, Kwon Siyul knew this was utter nonsense. But he couldn’t bring himself to call out the lie. He was probably dominant; while Kwon Siyul didn’t know much about pheromones and such, he wasn’t a big enough fool to miss the implication in that cryptic attitude.
He should leave now.
Instead of standing up, Kwon Siyul simply stretched his legs forward. The tip of Woo Hyunse’s shoe touched his sneaker. The contrast was stark between the worn, faded sneakers and the pristine, unblemished dress shoes.
“Did Kwon Siyul not want to see me?”
The question came out of nowhere. Kwon Siyul blinked his large almond-shaped eyes, pointing his index finger alternately at himself and Woo Hyunse.
“Me? You, Mr. CEO?”
“I thought that’s why you called.”
“…No. I called to ask when to buy you a meal.”
It had been a mistake to call. Kwon Siyul regretted it belatedly. Hadn’t he just heard obscene sounds during that phone call that went on to increase his strange fantasies even more?
“Never mind then.”
For such a bold approach, he retreated too easily. This wasn’t a game. Though that one phrase shouldn’t have that much impact, Kwon Siyul felt inexplicably irritated.
“Don’t you have a lover, Mr. CEO? Say things like that to them.”
“I don’t have one.”
“But when I called last time, that…”
“It wasn’t a lover.”