JADE 44

Trrrrrrrring—.

It was the sound of a landline telephone, one he hadn’t heard in a long time. Startled, he answered without even opening his eyes, and the morning call that the tour leader had arranged with the hotel followed.

This wasn’t some boot camp… He wanted to lie around until checkout time, but the day’s schedule had already begun. As he got up, disheveled, his bathrobe, its sash untied, slid sloppily down.

Come to think of it, he had gone to bed after showering without even drying his hair, yet he didn’t feel too bad. He usually woke up thinking it was cold, but either the temperature was high this time, or the heating was working well.

Did he bring a whole stack of towels after his shower? There were several towels mixed in on the pillow and among the blankets that Jin Sejun had kicked around while tossing and turning.

“Ahem, are you awake?”

“…Ah.”

He didn’t know how he’d managed it, but he had briefly forgotten about Kwon Joowan’s existence. He had no idea when Kwon Joowan had slept or woken up, but he was already fully dressed. Yesterday, he had been too shocked to register any impression, but Kwon Joowan definitely seemed a bit thinner than before.

‘Whether he’s stick-thin or not.’

Now that he looked, Kwon Joowan’s gaze was once again fixed on Jin Sejun’s chest. Still half-asleep, Jin Sejun covered his nipples with both hands as if to shield his eyes and glared at Kwon Joowan.

“They’re going to wear out from you staring so much.”

“…Wash up and let’s go get breakfast.”

“You go ahead. I’ll eat separately.”

“……”

Jin Sejun went into the bathroom to wash his face and glared at his reflection in the mirror, just as he had while showering before bed. Simply put, the more he woke up, the worse his mood became again.

In the end, Kwon Joowan waited until Jin Sejun was ready and they headed to the restaurant together. As luck would have it, the timing was just right for the restaurant to be incredibly crowded, so they ended up sharing a table with Eun Garam and his mother.

Pretty omegas should be designated as national treasures. Hating omegas is for psychopaths. Is there even an alpha who gets annoyed by omegas? On second thought, Jin Sejun wasn’t a proper alpha anyway, so no matter how much he muttered to himself, he just kept losing his appetite.

After getting a piece of bread and a cup of coffee and sitting down, he saw Kwon Joowan and Eun Garam chatting away as they went around the buffet in the distance. Eun Garam’s mother, who seemed to have returned first, was eating and looked at Jin Sejun’s coffee.

“Where was the coffee?”

“Ah, I’ll get it for you. Do you prefer it with or without milk?”

“Oh, thank you. I’ll have a hot Americano.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

This really is a vacation from filial piety… Jin Sejun glared at the top of Kwon Joowan’s head, which stood out no matter where he was. Since Eun Garam would be stuck to him like glue anyway, this was killing two birds with one stone.

Even though he had no appetite, it was fun to look at the buffet selection and get food for someone else. Jin Sejun brought various hams, fully ripened melon, and yogurt with dried fruit, placed them in front of the mother, and was taking out sugar from the basket provided at each table at the exact moment Kwon Joowan and Eun Garam returned.

“You’re already eating. Oh! Did Mr. Sejun get this for my mom?”

“Ah, yes… It was nothing.”

Kwon Joowan had also piled something mountain-high on two plates. Just as Jin Sejun was thinking that he must have really quit his diet, Kwon Joowan, who had been looking at Jin Sejun’s plate, pushed his own plate toward Jin Sejun.

“I brought a variety, so you should eat too, Mr. Sejun.”

“Yes…”

Though I’m not going to eat it. Who does he think is the reason I lost my appetite?

Jin Sejun forced a smile, playing the part of a friendly, likable alpha young man. He hadn’t brought his glasses, so if he acted sensitively toward Kwon Joowan, it was obvious that nosy people would only scold him.

“I went to the fitness room last night and ran into Mr. Joowan. But he didn’t acknowledge me, so I was hurt.”

Eun Garam said, puffing out his cheeks like a squirrel. Going to the fitness room, too—some people had been so exhausted they’d passed out early, but his stamina was on another level. No, even though Jin Sejun had quit his run midway, his own stamina wasn’t bad, so it seemed to be purely a mental issue.

“Mr. Garam was working out so hard, I thought I might disturb you.”

“Lies! If I did something wrong, you have to tell me.”

“You were doing great. You can rest assured.”

“You’re so mean.”

Eun Garam smiled with his eyes and playfully tapped Kwon Joowan’s arm. It had been a while since he’d seen that type of omega, so it felt fresh, but he didn’t want to see Kwon Joowan enjoying such a luxury.

If there was a four-year age gap with Jin Sejun, that meant there was a six-year gap with Kwon Joowan.

‘Fuck…’

As soon as Jin Sejun finished his coffee, he got up without a second thought. But Kwon Joowan reflexively grabbed his clothes.

“Why don’t you eat more? Some fruit at least.”

“That’s right, Mr. Sejun, you ate like a bird.”

“I’m done. I don’t usually eat breakfast.”

To hell with being sociable. I’m done. He was, at least, barely managing to keep a smile on his face. As he turned and walked away, a rather grating conversation hit the back of his head.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“It’s not your fault, Mr. Garam.”

It really had nothing to do with Eun Garam, so it was a little absurd, but he also thought that maybe the two of them were a good match in a way.

One was a slave to the “everything is Joowan’s fault” theory, where he blamed himself for everything, and the other was an authority on the “everything is because of Garam” theory, thinking everything was about him. It seemed similar, but the difference in their nuances was laughable.

It was a day with a long travel time. He didn’t know when the story had spread, but everyone knew that Kwon Joowan and Jin Sejun knew each other and were on awkward terms now. Thanks to that, the gossipy and nosy people were itching to put the two of them together.

“You two can go together, get along now.”

“The seat will explode if we sit together…”

Jin Sejun tried to laugh it off, but Kwon Joowan didn’t help.

“I’ll curl up modestly.”

Fine, do whatever the fuck you want. Jin Sejun nodded with the same smiling face and boarded the bus like the wind, staring only out the window. Kwon Joowan soon followed and squeezed his body into the seat next to Jin Sejun, pushing his rear end in.

‘It’s so damn cramped…’

What kind of trip was this? The fact that his arm and thigh, touching Kwon Joowan’s, were getting progressively hotter was also driving him crazy.

“Who wants to do the optional Granada night tour today?”

Jin Sejun didn’t raise his hand, but Kwon Joowan did.

“Aren’t you going, Mr. Sejun?”

“I’m tired.”

“You’ll regret it if you don’t go.”

“Have fun.”

“…Okay.”

Jin Sejun tried his best to tune it out and focused on the view outside. There were sparsely planted trees on the low hills, which looked a bit like a desert. Just as he guessed they must be olive trees, the tour leader began his explanation.

“You can see the olive groves. There are so many that when they harvest, they lay down nets and shake the trees with agricultural machinery. Tractors go through those wide gaps.”

I see. He wasn’t particularly curious. As he had told Kwon Joowan a long time ago, while Jin Sejun was crazy about spicy stir-fried pork, the food from places with a Mediterranean climate and olives weren’t really to his taste.

They drove for a long time, and it was still all olive groves. The body of the bus, heated by the sunlight, turned the inside into a steam bath. It was bearable enough not to ask for the air conditioning to be turned on, so he took off his outer jacket and was unbuttoning his shirt when Kwon Joowan, who had been sitting quietly, suddenly offered him some water.

He was too thirsty to refuse, and after he chugged it down, Kwon Joowan leaned in and whispered.

“The olive groves look just like… a hair transplant.”

“……”

“How many grafts do you think that is?”

To be honest, Jin Sejun had thought the same thing when he first saw them, and he also thought it was a pretty funny thing to say. But as soon as the man in the seat next to him came into view, his laughter vanished.

He had run into Kwon Joowan right after running away because he was tired of his selfishness, so he figured he was allowed to act according to his mood to this extent.

If Jin Sejun would just let go of his anger, it might turn into a truly enjoyable trip, but now he wanted to stop catering to the guy’s whims. Even if he was nice, he would just get dumped, and if Kwon Joowan got into a bad mood, it was obvious he’d be the one to put up with his grumbling again.

For an alpha-hater, he had no idea why Kwon Joowan would leave his own omega and run into him here, pissing him off. If he had been on speaking terms with Ahn Saeha, he would have sent her a message telling her to come get her ex.

It seemed to get even hotter as they crossed into Granada in the south. The restaurant where they had lunch had a very Mediterranean feel, but forgetting the food, Jin Sejun, who found it difficult to continue sightseeing sober, kept drinking with his meal.

As expected, he was assigned to the same table as Kwon Joowan, and to top it off, Eun Garam and his mother were part of the set. Just listening to the two of them talk drained his energy.

At some point, a group with classical guitars came in and played a familiar song.

Siempre que te pregunto

Que, cuándo, cómo y dónde

Tu siempre me respondes

Quizás, quizás, quizás1)

Wasn’t that the song from the movie In the Mood for Love? He wasn’t very interested in movies, but he’d somehow ended up watching it about three times.

In Jin Sejun’s personal opinion, if you took out the lyrical parts of the song and put it bluntly, it felt like it was from the perspective of someone being led on. Somehow, the way the other person avoided defining the relationship, brushing it off with “perhaps, perhaps (Quizás, quizás),” seemed just like Kwon Joowan.

Even though listening to the performance… wasn’t something that should have made him feel that sentimental.

The Alhambra Palace, with its mix of Islamic architecture, had many things to see. Jin Sejun was taking pictures for couples and elderly people when he spotted Kwon Joowan in the distance, taking a picture of Eun Garam.

‘…….’

Even though he was trying his best to clear his mind and focus on the guide’s explanation, the sound of high-pitched laughter that rang out every so often wore on his nerves. If he really thought he and Kwon Joowan were nothing to each other, shouldn’t this kind of thing not bother him?

From the perspective of someone who sees omegas as romantic partners, there was no way it would be unpleasant for a cheerful, and much younger, omega like Eun Garam to show interest. Jin Sejun, with his own purpose for the trip, had treated gold like a stone even when encountering people like Coach Hong or Ahn Saeha, so he wasn’t particularly moved, but if it were Kwon Joowan.

In the end, Jin Sejun added alcohol to his dinner as well. As they climbed some hill and dropped off the people who had signed up for the optional tour, he was hit with a wave of regret, thinking maybe he should have signed up for the night tour after all, but his desire to be away from Kwon Joowan, even for a moment, was greater.

But when Kwon Joowan actually got off the bus, leaving Jin Sejun behind without a second thought, an unreasonable sense of disappointment surged up in him.

In the end, had he not followed Jin Sejun here? Was sitting together on the bus just a product of his indecisive personality that cared about what others thought?

Or perhaps… maybe he had stuck to him solely to make Jin Sejun feel like shit, just like he himself had done before.

Jin Sejun got off the bus, then went back and bought two bottles of water and two beers from the driver. The old him would have gone to a bar, enjoyed the attention, and mingled with the bartender or other customers, but one could say that Kwon Joowan had ruined him.

After pouring two beers into his cup ramen, he was full, but he couldn’t overcome his fatigue.

It was some time later, after he had drifted into a light sleep. Jin Sejun gradually woke up to the sound of the old hotel door creaking open. It was good timing, anyway, since he’d wanted to go to the bathroom once after drinking the beer.

The time was 1 AM.

“…What kind of tour goes until dawn?”

“Ah… about that.”

Kwon Joowan, who had returned, had a faint smell of alcohol on him.

“Mr. Sejun, you weren’t sleeping? Or did I wake you?”

“……”

“Well, we had a beer on the tour, and the young people all sat together and got friendly. So we went for a second round at the bar downstairs.”

“I see.”