NAME 67

Only then did he understand what she was saying. The proposal that one could meet a verified person without paying a fee might seem attractive to some, but not to Seowon. After all, wasn’t acting as a part-timer essentially deceiving the other party without any intention of actually meeting them? Just as he was about to firmly refuse, Kim Sunhwa even grabbed Seowon’s hand and pleaded.

“Don’t refuse right away; just think about it. It’s absolutely nothing bad, so don’t worry. Who knows? You might meet your match that way. You really never know with life.”

“For now, I will think about it.”

At her earnest request, the soft-hearted Seowon escaped the immediate situation with ambiguous words. Then, seen off by her, he stepped out of the building.

After taking a breath like that, he mindlessly took out his mobile phone, only to discover a mountain of missed calls and message history. Every single one was from Baek Kanghyun.

[Where are you?]

[Why aren’t you answering the phone?]

[Call me as soon as you check this]

[You aren’t going around doing useless things, are you?]

[If I don’t hear from you within 5 minutes, consider me coming to your house]

[Stop grating on my nerves]

“Crazy…”

Seowon was dumbfounded by the KakaoTalk messages that had come in succession at one-minute intervals. This was the first time Baek Kanghyun had acted like this. Wondering if there was some sort of emergency, he was about to press the call button when a call came in instantly. Naturally, the person calling was Baek Kanghyun.

“… .”

Seowon stared at the mobile phone for a moment without answering. The smartphone vibrating in his palm felt exactly like looking at Baek Kanghyun. It bore a striking resemblance to him when he was angry—shouting and trembling with rage. Was it because it was a phone the man had bought for him that it resembled him?

While he was lost in these idle thoughts, the call ended. He wondered if he should call back, but he felt instinctively intimidated by the frighteningly accumulated list of missed calls. So, he switched the mobile phone to silent mode and shoved it into his bag.

‘Surely nothing big will happen.’

The world wasn’t going to turn upside down just because he ignored Baek Kanghyun’s contact for a bit.

Seowon naturally boarded the bus heading home. Since becoming partners with Baek Kanghyun, the need to take a taxi in a hurry due to pheromones had almost disappeared. The ordinary daily life he had enjoyed over the past few months felt newly significant. Even though he had said he hated it so much, he ultimately benefited from the man’s pheromones.

Occupied by various reflections, Seowon did not check his mobile phone even once until he arrived at the stop near his house.

“I should eat dinner.”

Stomach growl, his stomach rumbled weakly. Seowon rubbed his hollow belly and walked slowly in the direction of his home.

It’s a hassle to cook; should I just settle for something like ramen? Or should I buy a triangular kimbap and go in?

He was trudging along with his hands in his pockets when a hurried sound came from ahead.

Thump, thump, thump, thump, it was the sound of something stepping forcefully on the asphalt ground. Seowon mindlessly raised his head and was met with a surprising sight.

“Team Leader…?”

It was Baek Kanghyun. He was approaching Seowon with the hem of his pitch-black coat fluttering. Having reached him in an instant, he exhaled heavily. With a face that looked as if he had much to say, he kept his mouth tightly shut and glared at Seowon as if he could kill him. Seowon’s body shrank back instinctively.

“Fuck, are you crazy?”

The man, who rarely used vulgar language, spat out a curse openly. The words “I think the crazy one is you, not me” were loaded on the tip of his tongue, but Seowon hesitated.

“Crazy? You’re being a bit harsh.”

“Is that all you have to say after ignoring all my calls and texts? Where were you?”

Sometimes, a lie can be better. A powerful premonition arose that if he found out Seowon had been to a matchmaking agency, he would witness a truly terrible scene.

“I just had some business.”

“What kind of business?”

“It is my private life. Something the Team Leader doesn’t need to know.”

“Was it so important that you couldn’t even answer the phone?”

Even between lovers, isn’t it rare to interrogate someone like this? Moreover, Seowon wasn’t even in a relationship with him. However, looking at the man huffing in front of him, Seowon could be certain of one thing.

The fact that Baek Kanghyun did not think of him as just a mere partner.

He couldn’t stand it anymore. He intended to drive a wedge by asking the man the reason head-on. Now that his self-esteem had risen slightly thanks to Manager Kim Sunhwa, it seemed okay even if he heard some harsh words from Baek Kanghyun.

“I will ask you one thing.”

“Just answer my question properly first.”

“Do you have other feelings for me?”

“Jeong Seowon, don’t talk nonsense and tell me what you were doing…”

To Baek Kanghyun, who only said what he wanted to say, Seowon also threw out only the question he wanted to ask.

“I’m asking if you like me.”

A wind laden with a cold chill brushed past his ears.

When did it get this cold? He had reunited with Baek Kanghyun in the season of scorching sun, and already half a year had passed. Yet, paradoxically, he also couldn’t believe it had only been half a year since meeting him again. It was because too many things had happened during those six months or so.

“Maybe because my imagination is poor, but that’s the only conclusion I can reach.”

“… .”

“These actions you take toward me, they seem like the tactics of a child trying to get attention and wanting to monopolize someone by bullying the person they like. Calling and texting dozens of times. It seems like something one couldn’t do in their right mind. What on earth are you doing?”

In fact, there were many other things he wanted to say to him. Why he acted so persistently in bed, and why he kept crossing the line when Seowon told him not to. What the meaning of those words this morning about needing him and so on was. However, he swallowed those points without letting them out, fearing that pointing them out would make it look like he definitely regarded the man as special.

However, having asked if he perhaps liked him, he felt quite refreshed inside. He had asked once before while fighting with him in the past, and back then, the man had answered by asking if he was crazy. Likely, he was highly probable to give a similar level of answer today. And while he himself would be hurt by Baek Kanghyun’s answer, it would only be at the level of a little more blood coming from an already opened scratch. As time passed, the blood would stop and the opened wound would heal.

“Then what about you, do you still hate me? No, did you say I’m uncomfortable?”

Despite having scolded Seowon for where he learned the wicked habit of answering a question with a question, the man countered with a question in the exact same way. However, Seowon couldn’t bring himself to answer “yes” hastily.

“That is…”

He still hated this man. Seowon might never be able to forgive the man from seven years ago, who had treated him as less than a trivial creature, until the day he died. But what about now? He felt the urge to evaluate him based solely on the current situation, putting the past aside. To harbor such a desire—he was a total idiot.

“You think I’m easy, don’t you, Team Leader?”

Seowon spoke with his eyes raised haughtily, unlike his usual self. He had vowed and imagined hundreds and thousands of times that he would no longer be a fool who only knew Baek Kanghyun, and that even after becoming pheromone partners with him, they might share bodies but never hearts. He had imagined a moment like this, confronting Baek Kanghyun.

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“Because I’m ridiculous and easy. Even though I say ‘no, no’ with my mouth, I just leak as soon as I smell your pheromones.”

“Jeong Seowon?”

“It’s not like I wanted to become an Omega. I don’t want to be swayed by pheromones either. But you keep swaying me, Team Leader. Making me confused. Ah, the one who’s confused is probably the idiot. There’s no way a bastard like the Team Leader would like me.”

Once his mouth was properly opened, the story flowed out relentlessly.

“… .”

“I’m sorry for calling you a bastard, but what can I do? You are a bastard to me. It seems you want to see me enchanted by you and leaking, but that’s all because of pheromones. It’s like a chemical reaction.”

“Don’t you think you’re being too harsh?”

“It’s because I learned from the Team Leader.”

Seowon countered everything without losing a single word. He had expected Baek Kanghyun to show at least a little fluster, but the man looked composed. No matter how much Seowon yelled, it seemed he wasn’t affected at all; his voice had only grown slightly louder, but his expression remained unchanged.

“I’ve said everything I had to say. Now it’s the Team Leader’s turn.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know when you understood everything.”

Seowon gave back the words the man had used once again. Then, Baek Kanghyun spoke quietly to himself.

“That I like you?”

“Why are you asking me that? Are you an idiot who doesn’t even know his own heart?”

He wasn’t drunk, yet the harsh words came out so easily. Seeing the man’s face, which had been like a solid wall, gradually crumble, Seowon felt bitterness rather than triumph. This arrogant Alpha sincerely seemed not to know why he was acting this way toward Seowon.

But suddenly, Baek Kanghyun gave a smirk and twisted his lips. He stood crookedly with his hands in his trouser pockets and looked down at Seowon.

“Is this how you originally are? Was it all an act until now?”

“Absolutely not. How many years have I been in social life? I’m only like this with the Team Leader.”

“Ah, so it’s a ‘limited to me’ fit of rage. That is quite an honor.”

Having said that, he laughed out loud as if amused. The sound of his low ha-ha laughter was so identical to the past that Seowon was momentarily swept into the illusion of having returned to those days.

<What is so funny?>

<Just, you’re telling a funny story.>