LM 24

If nothing else, he could be absolutely certain of this. What an unbelievable lie…While male Omegas might not make up half the world’s population, there were still many of them around. Would an Alpha who claimed everyone clung to him during rut turn any of them down? Kwon Siyul squinted skeptically at the man before him.

“It’s true. I don’t do guys with balls. Even if they’re omegas, I’m not interested.”

“Then why did you ask me to sleep with you?”

Woo Hyunse didn’t answer right away. He chose to simply stare intently at Kwon Siyul. His gaze seemed to sweep right over him. Looking at his forehead, eyebrows, bridge of the nose and tip, cheeks and lips, and then eyelashes and eyes. It wasn’t like looking at a person, but more like meticulously unraveling something hidden in a painting—his gaze was so deep it really seemed that way.

Kwon Siyul tried to match his stare, not wanting to be the losing end of this staring contest, but ended up lowering his eyes instead. His palms were slightly damp. He clenched his tingling fingers without reason. It stung as if sparks from a flint had touched them.

“Good question.”

“…”

“I’m curious too.”

His throat was unbearably parched. Kwon Siyul pulled the drink between them toward himself, opened the cap, and poured it into his dry mouth. The carbonation scratched his throat as it went down. Furrowing his brow, he put the bottle back on the table. Woo Hyunse naturally took it and put his lips to the bottle’s mouth. He only moistened his lips before making a face of disgust, just as he had done before.

“You always taste it even though you already know it’s too sweet for you.”

Kwon Siyul changed the subject, partly to shift the atmosphere. Woo Hyunse decided to go along with Kwon Siyul’s obvious ploy.

“It’s oddly addictive.”

“I fell in love with it as soon as I first tasted it. A whole new world.”

“Isn’t there a similar drink? Mil…what was it?”

“Milky Way? No, it’s different. Very different. You’ll see. Soon you’ll only want this one. I guarantee it.”

Kwon Yuwon was the same. At first, he’d complain about why Kwon Siyul always chose such strange drinks, but later he started putting them in the basket himself. Sometimes he’d buy them saying they were for Kwon Siyul, but would end up drinking them all himself.

Kwon Siyul was confident that would happen. Woo Hyunse would soon be addicted to this new world that was opening up to him.

Despite Kwon Siyul’s bold claim, Woo Hyunse appeared a bit dubious. He tasted the drink once more before shaking his head, insisting it wasn’t for him.

“But really, why did you come here? Did you really come because you wanted to see me?”

Honestly, Kwon Siyul couldn’t believe that Woo Hyunse had come all this way just to see him. Didn’t he have any other business? On the other hand, wondering if this might be a chance to hear those words—”wanted to see you”—once more, Kwon Siyul unconsciously swallowed quietly and fixed his eyes on the other’s lips.

“You should know by now. The reason why I came all the way here.”

Or maybe he just came to get the answer he wanted. Kwon Siyul’s ears perked up. Though his eyes remained on the dirty table, all his attention was focused on the other person. He did not even want to miss out on the rise and fall of Woo Hyunse’s chest whenever he took a breath.

“I came to take Kwon Siyul home.”

The words he wanted to hear didn’t come. Kwon Siyul’s spirits deflated, and he looked at Woo Hyunse with slumped shoulders. Woo Hyunse was grinning. Resting his chin on his hand, he smiled mischievously, not hiding his full intention that he was not going to say what Kwon Siyul wanted to hear, even though he knew what it was. It was a smile that would make even a nine-tailed fox admit defeat.

Kwon Siyul exhaled with a “Huh…” and then laughed like an old man, “Heh heh.” Woo Hyunse was a mystery. Would the day ever come when he understood the things that went on  inside him? Since he was someone Kwon Siyul couldn’t completely hate despite finding him annoying, Kwon Siyul chose to just laugh it off. It definitely felt like he had been bewitched by invisible, lush tails.

* * *

It was hard to know what kind of serpent was coiled up in Woo Hyunse’s heart. He asked to sleep with Kwon Siyul, said he’d wait, said he’d give him a few days, and then didn’t push after that. Even when they called or texted, he didn’t bother to cross any particular lines. Basic check-in messages like “Have you eaten?” or “Did you sleep well?” were the norm.

This made it even scarier. Wasn’t it true that in horror movies, it was more terrifying when a ghost appeared suddenly without warning rather than building up the atmosphere to lead up to that moment? It felt like Woo Hyunse might suddenly show up and peck at him, asking if he was mentally prepared now. Kwon Siyul wondered if volunteering before that event happened might be the way to sleep with both feet stretched out comfortably.

Kwon Siyul opened the door slightly and peeked outside. Only after Kwon Yuwon’s presence had completely disappeared down the alley did he close the door behind him. He took a deep breath and, with a determined resolve, grabbed his phone. Just in case things were to go south, he also pulled the blanket over himself.

He planned to study today how exactly men have relations with each other. It didn’t particularly have to do with him accepting Woo Hyunse’s proposal. It was simply because he had a thirst for knowledge he didn’t know was burning inside him. He wanted to explore this brand-new territory.

Asking someone he knew would be the quickest way to go about things, but he still could remember the painful experience of asking Kwon Yuwon before. If Kwon Siyul asked him again, given his personality, he might grab him by the collar and torture him by not letting him sleep until he divulged everything to him. Rather than let that happen, it was way better to trust the power of the Internet.

There was also the option of asking the bartender for advice. If he made up an excuse about needing advice for a friend, the bartender would comfortably explain this matter to him. Kwon Siyul vaguely remembered hearing at a drinking gathering that he didn’t discriminate between men and women when it comes to dating.

However, if he went that far, it might be exposed that it wasn’t about a friend but about him. It was better to reduce the risk. Having made a decision, Kwon Siyul turned his attention back to his phone.

Even when Kwon Siyul accidentally watched adult videos, he always watched ones with women and men, never ones with two men, even by mistake. But this time, he wanted to change things up and challenge himself. With a solemn mindset of studying, he wiped the sweat on his palms on the blanket and clicked on a new video. It was a video featuring a slim man and a muscular man, both naked.

“…Ugh.”

Although he had clicked bravely, the scene was too intense from the start. Kwon Siyul quickly turned off the screen and swallowed the nausea rising to his throat.

Did he really need to go this far to find out what he needed to? He was curious, but did he really have to be educated in this way? He felt like giving up entirely, but at times like this, a strange stubbornness that always welled up stirred within Kwon Siyul’s soul.

It felt like someone was snickering behind him—the voice sounding exactly like Woo Hyunse—was mocking him. Asking if he was ready to stop at just this level. Saying, “That’s just like you.”

Kwon Siyul took a deep breath, calmed down, and searched for another video. This time, it was a tamer video than the one before. Two men, still clothed, were shyly kissing each other. He could watch this much. Fortunately, the nausea he felt from the previous video didn’t surge up again.

It felt suffocating and stuffy watching under the blanket. Kwon Siyul poked his head out from under the covers. His face was red from the heat, and a few strands of hair were stuck to his forehead. He brushed his forehead and hair with the palm of his hand and sat leaning against the wall.

He watched the video just as if he were going about watching a movie. After the two men undressed, the atmosphere heated up noticeably. He wanted to turn it off, but feeling like he’d lose if he did, he kept his eyes wide open, determined not to miss a single minute of this love scene. His expression while watching the video was no less intense than that of a student burning with final passion right before the college entrance exam.

“…”

The study session that started in broad daylight ended when the evening glow faded and dusk began to creep in through the windows. Kwon Siyul was utterly exhausted. His hair was a mess, and his eyes were bloodshot. His complexion was pale as if he had been through some sort of rough ordeal.

Though it wasn’t like he had been on an expedition to climb a steep mountain, there was still no strength left in his body. The consecutive videos he watched had churned his mind into one muddy mess. Even after turning off those videos, those flesh-colored images still flickered before his eyes. Rather than being arousing, it was just a series of shocks one after another. To think such a world existed. Not knowing might have been better off for his mental health.

The phone, which had heated up from playing videos continuously, was now connected to the charger. Kwon Siyul lay sprawled on the blanket, soaking in the shock of the experience.

The second video he watched started off deceptively. Their act, which seemed like it would break the bed, made Kwon Siyul cling to the wall trembling like someone who had just spotted a ghost in broad daylight. The shock was so great that he didn’t dare to turn off the video.

However, thanks to that strong “medicine,” he was able to watch the next videos more easily. After watching a few, he could finally gauge the pattern, and later he even started eating snacks while watching.

‘Wow, that’s impossible,’ he would occasionally exclaim to himself. The intricate positions they took on began to seem like mere acrobatics, and the naked bodies became as familiar as those seen in a public bath. The panting moans, unpleasant at first, later became as familiar as the sounds heard at a gym.

While he was at it, he also looked up videos about omegas and alphas. Everything from educational videos to real-life experiences. When reading about knotting, he became scared as if returning to the state he had started out with. He could guess why Kwon Yuwon had insisted on avoiding alphas. If such a phenomenon occurred inside one’s body, anyone would naturally want to avoid alphas for the rest of their lives.

On the other hand, there was also the term “knotting addiction.” At first, he wondered what kind of madman would be addicted to something that seemed to belong in a gore film, but apparently, even though it was excruciatingly painful at first, if you just endured a little, the pleasure could become greater than drugs, leading to a certain kind of addiction.