PAO 83

It was even a university in the United States. The world really has gotten better these days. Seowon looked away from the screen, feeling a little sheepish.

“I guess I misunderstood.”

Muttering awkwardly, Seowon wondered anew why he had brought up university, then caught hold of a thought he almost missed.

“You’re attending university and trading stocks, so why are you clinging to me like this?”

“That’s because you’re my top priority, Seowon.”

“When do you do all that other stuff?”

“When you’re at school.”

Since Junghoo answered right away each time, Seowon opened and closed his mouth repeatedly. There was something he wanted to say, but he felt like he could only push it in if he saw some kind of opening.

He couldn’t bring himself to suggest, how about you try to find something else to focus on?

Pondering what to do, Seowon finished his citron tea and put the empty glass in the sink.

“Let’s go out.”

He thought it would be better to show him by moving around in person rather than trying to persuade him with words.

“Breaking the imprint means your feelings for me have to lessen by that much…”

Seowon said this casually while he and Junghoo stopped by a select shop and looked around at this and that.

Seowon, who was looking through the shirts hanging by type one by one, moving them hanger and all, turned back to Junghoo, who hadn’t responded to his words.

Only after their eyes met did Junghoo open his mouth with a beautiful smile.

“Looking at you sometimes, our Seowon is really good at saying pointless things. There’s no way that’s possible.”

“Why is that a pointless thing to say? I said it because I thought there might be a possibility.”

“Really? I guess you live your life embracing the possibility of the world turning upside down, Seowon?”

Junghoo, with a smile on his face, backed Seowon into a corner, questioning him softly.

“If the answer is no, then it’s no. Do you have to question me like that when you know why I’m saying such things?”

“It’s because you’re trying to change something that can’t be changed. Seowon, what can’t be done, can’t be done.”

Junghoo reached out and took a hanger, then held the shirt on it against Seowon’s body. Seemingly thinking it suited him well, he called for an employee.

“Please ring up everything on this rack.”

“…”

He only held one up to Seowon’s body, so why was he buying the ten-plus items of clothing hanging on the rack?

“We’re just trying to think of a way to break the imprint, you know.”

Seowon muttered, his feelings surging, as he stared with a dumbfounded expression at the employee taking all the hangers away. He felt sorry for saying things about breaking the imprint to a guy who showed his love for him like this.

Still, this was not a problem he could just brush off with an attitude of, if this doesn’t work, then oh well. He had to find a way, no matter what.

In any case, while mulling over various plans, Seowon turned to another section and looked at the T-shirts.

“What about your feelings, Seowon?”

“Why are my feelings suddenly coming up here?”

“You secretly liked that I imprinted on you, didn’t you?”

At Junghoo’s monotonous reply, Seowon’s hand faltered.

‘It feels like we’re destined to be.’

He had said that when Junghoo was drunk. It felt like a world of just him and Junghoo had been created, and that Junghoo wouldn’t be able to just disappear without a word, or even think of dying. The overwhelming feeling from that time was still vivid.

To be honest, the words telling him to break the imprint were as unwelcome as when he was called a ‘medicine’. Even though it would be better for Junghoo to heal completely, his own ugly feelings surged up. He felt it was unfair that if Junghoo were fully cured, he would no longer be his only omega.

However, Seowon couldn’t just do as he pleased.

“It’s better if your illness can be cured, isn’t it?”

Because there was nothing as foolish as clinging pitifully to something you should give up…

“Seowon.”

Before Junghoo could say anything, Seowon grabbed a hanger that was in his hand and thudded it against his chest.

“Go try it on.”

Junghoo looked at the clothes he had received in a daze, then obediently entered the fitting room. Seowon quickly scanned the semi-formal suits before he came out, and the moment he spotted something that caught his eye, Junghoo emerged.

“Want to try this on too?”

Before the fitting room door could even close, he shoved the clothes into Junghoo’s arms and pushed him back inside. The bewildered look on his face was quite a sight to see.

While Junghoo finished changing, Seowon sat hunched over on a one-person sofa set up in a corner, jiggling one leg nervously as he thought.

To break the imprint, he had to reduce Junghoo’s feelings for him. To do that, he needed to somehow lessen Junghoo’s previous habit of thinking only of him…

“What kind of things would work?”

He thought that diverting his interest to something else would work, so he had decided to just walk around and look for something, but it was useless since Junghoo’s eyes were glued to his face.

“This is really hard.”

Unaware that the answer was closer than he thought, Seowon pondered and pondered how he could turn the world upside down.

“Do you know what to do when a problem won’t resolve itself?”

When Seowon asked in a drawling tone, Junghoo replied, “I don’t know,” while putting a squid leg in his mouth. The look in his eyes as he gazed lovingly at Seowon was a bonus.

“You ask for help. There’s a limit to what you can solve on your own.”

Seowon wiggled his fingers, telling him to listen closely, and then blinked his eyes slowly. As if he had turned into a grub, everything about Seowon had slowed down. When Junghoo saw him pick up a beer can again, he flicked the squid leg out of his mouth.

“Who are you asking for help?”

“Right here, it’s right here.”

Seowon waved the beer can in his hand back and forth in front of Junghoo’s eyes.

“Alcohol is the perfect solution.”

“Uh-huh, okay. Good job, Seowon.”

Indifferent to it all, Junghoo took the squid leg from Seowon’s mouth. He put the thing, which was mangled and covered in saliva from being chewed on so much, into his own mouth and took the beer from Seowon’s hand.

“Now that you’re drinking, can you think of what to do?”

“Mmm…”

Having had his beer taken away, Seowon picked up a new, unopened can. After fumbling a few times, he finally managed to open it, and foam rose up and dripped down his hand.

Seowon licked the beer flowing down his hand and grinned foolishly as he drank the beer.

It was a relief that he wasn’t frowning from thinking so hard, but since he couldn’t control his body and was swaying, Junghoo pulled him close to his side.

“Yoo Junghoo, as expected. With you here, I can drink comfortably.”

Seowon leaned against Junghoo while drinking the beer he was clutching tightly. He even put both his legs together and wiggled his toes.

Watching him, Junghoo let out a sigh and covered his eyes.

“You’re just too cute, Seowon.”

“Pfft.”

Seowon burst out laughing.

“Why do you think I’m cute? Can’t you see my build?”

Saying it was really weird, Seowon curled up and laughed. In the midst of it all, he was holding the beer precariously, so Junghoo took it and set it on the table.

“Just because your build is big doesn’t mean you’re not cute. You’re cute and lovable.”

“You can stop saying that now…”

“You’re handsome, have a great personality, you’re good at your studies, and you have plans for the future. You’re diligent, a law-abiding young man, and a smiling face suits you better than anyone else in the world.”

“What’s with all this disorganized praise?”

Seowon, saying it was weird, reached out to take the beer in Junghoo’s hand. But the beer didn’t reach his hand. He was sure it was close enough to grab. Thinking it strange, he reached out again.

“I’m saying that all the good things in this world are in you.”

Junghoo said this as he waved the beer can here and there in front of Seowon, preventing him from grabbing it. With the determination not to let him drink anymore, Seowon also stopped trying to take the beer.

“So I’m asking why you attach all those good things only to me.”

Instead, he reached for a new beer again, but his movement was so slow it was frustrating to watch from the side.

Every reaction was slow, but that in itself meant that Seowon wasn’t completely drunk. He could feel him trying to control himself so as not to show the obedient side he had before. Seowon tried not to slur his words as he opened the beer can.

“Then who else would I attach them to besides you, Seowon?”

“You have good things too, you know. Should I list them? You, Yoo Junghoo, are a very constant guy who maintains a straight-as-an-arrow taste, just like Hangyeol.”

Seowon traced Junghoo’s face in the air. The movement of his finger, tracing the sharp features, gradually slowed.

“Uh…”

It wasn’t because he was drunk.

It was because he had realized something from the words he had muttered teasingly while looking at Junghoo.

Seowon forced strength into his eyes.

“Single-minded devotion.”

Since he was muttering it while looking at Junghoo, it must have been directed at him. In fact, it was true that Seowon was thinking of that while looking at Junghoo. Because he was drunk and his senses were dulled, all the trivial bits of information that had clung to Junghoo disappeared.

There was just the one thing that came to mind when he looked at Junghoo.

“You…”

Seowon, who had been speaking just fine even after drinking, closed his mouth and swallowed. He didn’t act rashly, afraid he might lose the clue that was just within his grasp. He simply looked at Junghoo and calmly organized the thoughts floating in his mind.

“You love me…”

Junghoo didn’t bother adding any words. His feelings had been explained enough, after all.

“And I like you.”

Seowon placed a hand on his chest. His heart was beating fast. It meant that he absolutely could not deny his feelings for Junghoo.

“If that’s the case, then there’s only one way.”

If he can’t break Junghoo’s imprint…

“Then I can just imprint on you.”

It was an incomplete imprint to begin with. To make it a complete imprint, there was only one way.

To cover an incomplete imprint with a complete imprint.

“That was it.”

The other treatment method that Yoo Taeha had discovered was imprinting.

With an incomplete imprint, their pheromones cannot blend harmoniously. Until now, Seowon had been adjusting for that subtle gap with his control, but it wasn’t a perfect match. That was the reason he had to pour his pheromones into Junghoo for the rest of his life.

The gap would never disappear, so the pheromones would keep leaking out, and to block that, it was as if he were giving periodic pheromone transfusions.