MORE 22

It was cold weather to be drinking beer outside. Even so, because a heat was boiling up inside him, Siyul hurriedly opened a beer can. Perhaps because it had been shaken on the way, a pale foam surged from the opening. Fearing he might miss even a single drop, he hurriedly pressed his lips to it.

He gulped it down, but a stream flowed down along the can. Feeling a sense of waste, Siyul ran his lips along the column of the beer can.

Foam was smeared all over his philtrum and lips. As he stuck out his tongue to lick around the area, he felt a steady gaze from the side.

…Was I that sloppy? From Woo Hyunse’s perspective, that might have been the case.

“It seemed like a waste,” Siyul excused himself, scrubbing his lips vigorously with the back of his hand. According to Kwon Yuwon, one should cherish even a single drop of alcohol as if it were blood. Woo Hyunse stopped while reaching into the bag to take out a beer can and looked at Siyul.

“If you drink this, you’re going to tell me to call a designated driver, right?”

“Yes. You’re asking about something that goes without saying.”

Tsk, clicking his tongue, Woo Hyunse put the beer down. Instead, he just drank bottled water. His protruding Adam’s apple surged like a wave under his skin.

“How was the movie?”

Woo Hyunse asked, tossing the empty water bottle into the bag with a thud. Mentioning the movie brought those racy scenes to mind. Going a step further, the movie he had watched late at night, Woo Hyunse’s low and languid voice, and the faint groans that had played like background noise in the aftermath followed.

“It was a bit racy.”

“And?”

A promiscuous alpha. Siyul narrowed his eyes as if glaring before he, too, emptied his entire can of beer. After crumpling the empty can, he dropped it next to the water bottle with a thud.

“Ah, I suppose it might have been like that for Mr. Kwon Siyul.”

“Why? Why might it have been like that for me?”

“Because you’re still young?”

“I may look like this, but I am an adult.”

“Have you ever been in a relationship?”

His tone was condescending. His eye-smile was deep as well. Siyul couldn’t help but feel a rush of emotion.

“Of course I have!”

Driven by a competitive spirit that refused to lose, the lie slipped out easily. A relationship? What relationship—in the life he had lived, where would he have had the luxury of meeting someone and spending time together happily? He might have liked a girl at the orphanage when he was very young, but now even her face and name were faint.

Even after seeing the prickly Siyul, the curved corners of Woo Hyunse’s eyes didn’t relax. He possessed a good-natured face, yet he was born with a talent for teasing. He didn’t even need to open his mouth; his gaze alone was enough to turn one’s insides upside down.

“Experience?”

The question was on the verge of crossing the line. It might have already crossed it. But Siyul’s fighting spirit had not yet been broken.

“It would be strange if I didn’t have any at my age.”

“Women? Or men?”

“Both.”

He had meant to answer “women,” but his snout moved on its own. He didn’t know why. It just felt like that was the right answer to scrape at the other man’s insides, even if only slightly. Or perhaps it was just immature bravado.

Woo Hyunse let out a “Huh,” and reached back to rest his hand on the ground. The smile he held at the corner of his mouth didn’t feel like a smile. The eyes that had held playfulness cooled as quickly as a river flowing leisurely. He didn’t know anything about pheromones or whatever, but he could read the now significantly cooler atmosphere; however, Siyul pretended not to notice and just sipped his beer.

“Well, you are selling drugs, so I suppose you wouldn’t be naive.”

“That has nothing to do with….”

It was irrelevant. He couldn’t finish his sentence. “Mr. Kwon Siyul,” Woo Hyunse said, putting his name on his lips and turning back.

“Shall we sleep together?”

If he had been in the middle of drinking beer, he might have sprayed it everywhere. Siyul just opened his eyes wide like a full moon. Siyul knew that those words didn’t have a dictionary definition.

“Excuse me?”

“It’s not like you didn’t hear me.”

“Wow….”

At the unexpected statement, Siyul covered his eyes with his hand. His head throbbed from the shock. Doubting whether the sentence he had perceived was actually correct, he glanced at Woo Hyunse. Even though he had clearly thrown a hand grenade, the other man was completely composed.

“You say sexual harassment so nonchalantly.”

“I’m just being honest.”

Siyul was the one who had unilaterally been hit by a bomb. He hurriedly rubbed his face with both hands. His complexion turned red and then deathly pale, changing by the second. He barely managed to calm down and took his palms away.

“Have you said things like this to other people too?”

“No. Most people fall for it if I flirt with them a little.”

“Ha….”

What a man who treats his chastity like something tossed to the dogs. How could he cast out a suggestion to sleep together as lightly as a greeting about having a meal?

“What if I refuse?”

As if he hadn’t thought that far ahead, Woo Hyunse’s eyebrows rose. He scratched the bridge of his nose and pondered, saying, “Hmm.”

“I’d probably pester Mr. Kwon Siyul a bit more than I do now.”

“You mean you’ll harass me?”

“I mean I’ll see you more often.”

“Until when?”

“Until you say yes.”

It meant he would stick to him tenaciously. If it were Woo Hyunse, he was certainly capable of doing that.

“You said you had experience, didn’t you? Is it that difficult?”

“I don’t live my life throwing my body around like that….”

His haha laugh was refreshing. The look in his eyes was not. Even in the dim light, Woo Hyunse’s pupils staring at him were exceptionally clear. And so was the will contained within them.

“Do you need time?”

Woo Hyunse asked as he leaned his body to the side, nudging Siyul’s shoulder with his own. He wanted to avoid him by keeping a distance, but it felt as if someone had secretly glued his butt to the spot; he couldn’t pull away. Siyul was pushed like a roly-poly toy before returning to his original position. His shoulder touched Woo Hyunse’s. He lowered his head deeply to hide his flushed face, though it wouldn’t be visible in the dark anyway.

“…Yes.”

“Is it difficult to give an answer right now?”

“Yes.”

“How long will it take?”

“….”

“I don’t think I can wait long.”

“….”

He rubbed his cheek against his arm. Why did a simple suggestion sound like a threat, and why was he deferring for the future when he could just give a firm refusal and end it? Siyul didn’t know himself. He stopped trying to look inside his own heart. It wasn’t time yet. He left it in confusion.

“Your ear is red.”

His fingertips touched his earlobe. He caught the soft flesh between his thumb and index finger and rubbed it gently as if wiping something away. Siyul recoiled like a sensitive plant. “Don’t touch me,” he said, timidly hunching his shoulders to avoid him.

Woo Hyunse rested his head on Siyul’s shoulder. It was heavy. Yet this time, he didn’t avoid him. That heavy weight was also a warmth that heated the cold night.

■ ■ ■

After returning home, he couldn’t sleep a wink. He spent the night wide awake and only drifted into a doze when the dawn light brightened. Even that was cut short early by the sound of Kwon Yuwon clattering about, getting ready to head out.

“I’m heading out.”

“Yeah.”

Without even looking at the departing Kwon Yuwon, he just lazily waved his hand. Kwon Yuwon, who had stopped at the doorway, looked at Siyul—who was different from other days—with suspicion, then let out a light breath through his nose and left. Because he was already 10 minutes behind his usual departure time, he couldn’t nag him about whether something was wrong.

After the door closed, Siyul let the arm he had held up in the air drop to the floor with a thud. Perhaps because of the lack of sleep, his eyeballs felt dry. Even after blinking several times, moisture didn’t return to his eyes. He placed both hands over his face and rubbed them roughly as if washing his face. Sleep had long since fled.

“Ah….”

He sighed and sat his upper body upright. Last night felt like a dream. To define it, it was somewhere between a nightmare and a bizarre dream. Siyul dragged back the memory he had been chewing on like a cow even before he fell asleep, confirming if what he had seen, heard, and perceived last night was correct. The voice and pupils of Woo Hyunse, and the conversation that had passed between them.

‘Shall we sleep together?’

“Isn’t that guy truly insane….”

He wanted to believe that he hadn’t been able to answer because of the atmosphere and a bit of intoxication. Siyul clutched his disheveled hair and slowly bent his upper body. He curled up until his nose touched the blanket, then bit into a handful of the fabric and screamed silently, “Aaaack!” The back of his ears, exposed through his hair, were red—not like someone who had just woken up.

How could he say something like that so nonchalantly? Are all alphas that lewd? And to propose a tryst to me, someone who isn’t an omega or a woman. His ex-lover was definitely a woman, but was this Woo Hyunse human actually playing around with men too? No, it could be that way if the omega is a man, but he himself is not an omega.

On top of that, his own big mouth was the problem. His loose-lipped snout should have just cut it clean from the start by saying he had no experience, and therefore he would refuse, but to protect his fingernail-sized pride, he had told a pathetic lie that he had slept with both men and women without distinction. Even the boy who cried wolf would have shaken his head, clicking his tongue at how someone who had read his own fable could have failed to learn its lesson.

“This mouth of mine, this snout!”

He slapped his lips with his palm, smack, smack. After hitting them until the area around his mouth was as red as smeared lipstick, he buried his head in the blanket again. His tightly clenched fists trembled. He felt like he would die of shame.

Just how….

He didn’t even have a clue how to handle this. He wanted to seek advice to clear his mind, but the only person he could pour his heart out to was Kwon Yuwon. It was obvious that the conclusion would be Kwon Yuwon getting furiously angry and looking for a kitchen knife to go and slit Woo Hyunse’s throat.