PAO 3

“Don’t worry about things like that and focus on me. All you have to do is live well in my house.”

“Ah…”

Seowon felt just as hopeless about having to live in the same house with Junghoo as he did about his own family being ruined. Seowon snatched the phone from Junghoo and roughly shoved it into his pocket.

“Is that contract for real?”

“You’re still doubtful. Should I call your father and have him confirm it for you? I guess since your father spoke so gently, you think you have a choice? Seowon, your studio apartment is being cleared out today. Your father said he’d give me the security deposit, but I told him it was fine.”

Father, father. Seowon shook his head, finding it hard to concentrate because of that incessant ‘father’ talk.

“How much was the loan?”

“Why? Are you going to pay it back? Seowon, try digging up the ground. See if 3 billion won comes out.”

Junghoo stared intently at Seowon with his hands in his pockets.

“Don’t just stand there like that. Huh? When you do that, it makes me want to hold you. Why do you make people horny even when you’re just standing still?”

“…Just shut up for a bit.”

When Seowon spoke with a completely serious face, Junghoo shrugged.

“Didn’t you say you have class?”

“I’m going now.”

He wasn’t in the mood for class, but it seemed Junghoo wouldn’t leave him alone, so Seowon forced himself to gather his books.

“You can’t believe it, can you?”

“My head’s a mess, let’s talk later.”

“Well, I can’t believe it either.”

As if he didn’t know Seowon’s inner thoughts of not wanting to listen, Junghoo chattered on as he pleased.

“To think you’d be coming into my house. I did imagine it would be nice if your family went bankrupt, but I didn’t know it would actually happen.”

“You’re cursing me.”

Normally, if someone said something like that, you’d have to cut them off decisively and say you’ll never see them again, but he couldn’t even do that. Yoo Junghoo was probably spouting that nonsense because he knew that.

“If you don’t have money, you have no choice but to lean on me. I have a lot of money, and it kind of bothered me that you weren’t lacking either. I hoped for a day like this to come, and it really did.”

Seowon glared at Junghoo.

“I still don’t believe you. And aren’t you seriously not in your right mind, saying you wish my family would go bankrupt?”

“Han Seowon is so damn suspicious. Why is he so cute even when he’s being wary. Fuck.”

At Junghoo’s response, which clearly interpreted his words to stop spouting nonsense in his own way, Seowon just gave up on everything. He could feel a presence following him, but he didn’t have the energy to shake him off. It was when Seowon, pretending not to have heard Junghoo’s fawning monologue, started walking again.

“I’ll come find you when class is over. Since our Seowon can’t seem to believe it, I have no choice but to show you myself.”

At his words, which kindly offered to rub it in his face, Seowon ignored him and walked away.

“If you’re going to go somewhere else, you can just go. I’ll have people keeping an eye on you, so you don’t have to contact me. Oh, no. I want to hear your voice, so call me.”

Ah, you crazy bastard.

*

Entering the lecture hall, Seowon felt a different kind of gaze than usual. The people who had arrived first were glancing at him. Since it was a major class, most of them were familiar faces, so he couldn’t just ignore them. Seowon forced himself to swallow a sigh.

Could it be that the rumor about my family going bankrupt has already spread? Is that why they’re sending these awkward glances?

“Han Seowon, over here.”

Minhee, who was leaning her elbow on the windowsill, raised her arm and called to Seowon. Seowon, who was already feeling awkward, approached with quick steps. He wanted to grab someone and ask how the rumor had spread, and there was a suitable person.

“What’s going on?”

“Huh? What’s what going on?”

Minhee pulled her upper body back and gave a bewildered reaction. Then, as if she had something to say, she pulled Seowon’s arm and sat him down next to her.

“More importantly, why didn’t you tell me?”

“About what?”

“That guy.”

At Minhee’s gesture pointing outside the window, Seowon naturally looked out. It was Yoo Junghoo, whom he had parted with in front of the lecture hall. He had been so persistent that shaking him off was exhausting, yet he still hadn’t left and was loitering outside the building.

“You came in with that guy, right? Everyone’s going crazy right now. Asking who that handsome guy is.”

“I was wondering why they were looking at me like that, it was because of him?”

Not my family?

“Then is there something else?”

On the contrary, Minhee looked at Seowon’s face to see if something was wrong, so he shook his head, saying it was nothing.

“A friend.”

“High school?”

“A kid I hung out with when I was young. A childhood friend.”

“They say handsome guys have handsome friends, and that’s exactly you two, you.”

“Then since you’re an ugly kid, your ugly…”

At Minhee’s scary gaze, Seowon shut his mouth on his own. He thought the news about his family’s troubles had spread. Come to think of it, they had been talking in a cafe not far from the school, and he hadn’t lowered his voice, not even thinking that others might hear. It was something that could have circulated in various ways, so should he be glad that wasn’t it? Thanks to that, Seowon secretly let out a sigh of relief.

“He’s really handsome. His face is like a sculpture.”

At Minhee’s muttering, Seowon quickly became displeased. He had heard people marvel at Junghoo’s looks to the point of being sick of it, so it wasn’t strange that Minhee was doing it, but he didn’t like hearing it. That’s the guy who was talking about buying me and whatnot today.

“But do you have a friend I don’t know about?”

“We met again recently.”

“Recently? You said you were childhood friends.”

They had been together since they were babies. Then they separated before entering high school, and they met again after almost nine years.

“I don’t know, it’s just one of those things.”

When Seowon waved his hand as if it was too much trouble to explain, Minhee, seemingly with no intention of asking further, quickly changed the question.

“He’s an alpha, right?”

“Yeah.”

“A dominant? With that physique, I don’t think he’s just a regular alpha.”

At Minhee’s fuss, Seowon rested his chin on his hand and turned his head to the opposite side of the window.

“He says he’s a dominant himself.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Then could it be that he’s not a dominant? Well, what comes out of his own mouth must be a fact. Oh right, you can’t feel his pheromones, can you? Too bad. I wanted to ask what his pheromones are like.”

“Yeah, I can’t smell them.”

For a dominant, he has almost no pheromones. His pheromones have a heavy yet cool scent.

Seowon muttered a different answer inwardly and opened his book. Junghoo’s pheromones were so faint that a typical alpha or omega would not be able to sense them well. It was only because Seowon was a dominant that he could feel them enough even if only a small amount was released, which is how he knew Junghoo was a recessive. How could he call himself a dominant with an amount of pheromones that only someone like himself could smell?

One might argue that it’s possible if he hides his pheromones like himself, but no. You don’t know what color a crayon is unless you put it to white paper. But once it touches, the color is revealed even if it’s just a very light graze. In other words, Junghoo had already stained the crayon with his pheromones. That’s why it was different from Seowon’s case, where he had hidden them completely.

Of course, one could also counter by saying that since it was just a graze of color, a different color might appear when actually colored in. Still, Seowon would be certain that Junghoo was a recessive. Because there was another reason.

‘If he were a real dominant, there’s no way he wouldn’t be able to sense my pheromones.’

No matter how strong his pheromone control was, if Junghoo were a dominant, there was a possibility of getting caught. If you added Junghoo’s dog-like intuition that he liked him on top of that, he would have already been found out for presenting.

“With that face, just having him by your side is like a trophy.”

Seowon scoffed as if he found it absurd. Did your trophy’s eyes go wandering? As if.

“But why is he still standing there? Huh? I think he just made eye contact with me? Did he fall for me at first sight?”

“Yeah, it’s not you.”

“This bastard…”

Seowon quickly escaped Minhee’s threat by pretending to rummage through his bag.

“I get it, so spill some more stories. How did you become friends with him?”

How?

His connection with Yoo Junghoo began from a very young age.

His mother, who had gone out for a walk with Seowon in a stroller, and the lady who had likewise come out with Junghoo in a stroller, happened to sit on the same bench. As they asked how many months old their babies were, they found they had surprisingly many things in common and exchanged contact information on the spot, and it turned out their fathers already knew each other. Since their companies were intertwined in business, their fathers also began to actively get to know each other.

After that, there was nothing special. They went on outings together, became close.

As a result, Seowon also began to hang out with Junghoo, and at first, he was just a kid he played with.

There was nothing special about him following him around unusually and hugging him at all times. As he got a year or two older, he realized Junghoo was following him around, but that was all.

‘Yes, it’s my fault for not pushing him away back then.’

He should have said no when Junghoo was being particularly clingy. What would his five-year-old self have known, but it was his fault for not crying and screaming that he didn’t like it.

He was a very tenacious connection, obsessing over him and clinging to him like that. So he could just introduce him as a friend, but…

‘Is he a friend?’

He was a boy full of ulterior motives who saw him as his partner.

“We became friends because we rode around in strollers together, so there’s not much to tell.”

As Seowon propped up his face and looked ahead, Minhee poked him in the side.

“Then tell me something else.”

“What else are you curious about?”

“Does he have a girlfriend?”

A girlfriend, as in, is Junghoo seeing someone… Seowon rolled the words around in his mouth before shaking his head.

“Probably not?”

When he spoke as if he wasn’t sure, Minhee immediately retorted.

“You don’t know?”

I know.
I just said he doesn’t because the person he wants doesn’t want him.

It was when Seowon, having given an answer anyway, was about to ignore Minhee.

“You know you haven’t answered a single thing properly, right? You didn’t even tell me you had such a handsome friend in the first place.”

“Well, why didn’t you tell me you were twins with Minsung? Everyone knows since you look exactly alike…”

Seowon, who had turned to her with a look of annoyance because she kept talking to him, trailed off. Minhee’s sharp gaze was fixed on his face.

“Don’t talk about him.”