By Zephyria 
“I’m sorry. I didn’t catch what you said.”
Haon hastily reached out a hand.
“But I don’t think I need to hear it. Just a moment.”
The words to stop him tumbled out in a rush.
Without realizing it, Haon had snatched away Cha Jeong-won’s chance to speak and was now frantically searching for his phone charger to plug it in. He tried to turn it on immediately, but perhaps because it was completely drained, it wouldn’ boot up.
‘Please… Turn on quickly.’
He needed to check first whether what Cha Jeong-won said was true or if he was just misunderstanding things on his own.
The empty memory only made him feel more anxious for no reason.
“You wouldn’t let go of me, so I couldn’t just leave you.”
“That’s a lie.”
Haon immediately shot back at Cha Jeong-won’s words.
He couldn’t understand a single thing about the current situation.
“I don’t remember anything at all.”
Saying he didn’t remember sounded more like a pathetic excuse.
‘Really… It must be true that nothing happened.’
When Haon opened his eyes, he was fully dressed. His body was just a bit stiff, but otherwise fine.
So he had tried hard to convince himself that nothing must have happened, but now with Cha Jeong-won right in front of him, his thoughts were getting tangled.
He slept in the same room as an Alpha. In his mind, scandalous scenes slowly drew themselves and were erased, over and over.
Him and Cha Jeong-won sitting facing each other, looking at one another, sensing pheromones, gradually getting closer until their lips touched…
His phone vibrated and the screen lit up.
Thankfully, it cut off his imagination.
“Huh?”
As soon as the power turned on, Haon checked the notifications at the top. Unexpectedly, there weren’t many messages.
Among them, he checked the chat from Kim Hyun-gyu. Kim Hyun-gyu had just sent a single video without any explanation of what happened, as if that one thing said it all…
It felt like that one video would explain everything…
Haon took a breath and pressed play.
The scene from yesterday’s hop bar appeared on the screen.
A half-empty table. Messy hair. A flushed face.
It was Haon.
[Senior…]
The camera shook once.
From off-screen, the sound of Kim Hyun-gyu barely holding back laughter could be heard. There was also the sound of Cha Seo-jun telling him to stop filming.
[Senior, you’re not going alone… are you?]
In the video, Haon was tightly clinging to Cha Jeong-won’s arm.
It was almost at the level of hanging onto him.
[I… like it too. I want to have it.]
[Senior, you’ll regret this later.]
[We were good together, weren’t we?]
His own speech was slurred but persistent.
Seeing his own drunken antics captured on video like this made Haon feel like his whole body was twisting up.
His hands trembled uncontrollably. He wanted to hide under the blankets right now, to the point of going crazy.
[Senior… Let’s go together.]
In the video, Haon said with a smile.
His eyes were half-closed, but his expression was excited.
The video stopped there. Silence fell.
Haon’s hand holding the phone slowly lowered.
“You saw.”
Cha Jeong-won, who had gotten up from the floor, spoke.
His hair was slightly disheveled, but even in this situation, his gaze was remarkably clear. It almost felt like he was glaring a little.
“You wouldn’t let go of me.”
Haon opened his mouth, then closed it.
What should he say? His tongue wouldn’t cooperate.
‘I get that I was clinging and holding on… But what happened after that?’
Blood rushed to his face.
“Why… did I do that?”
That was all he could barely squeeze out.
When he couldn’t remember last night, it was distressing and anxious, but now, with everything revealed, a sense of self-loathing washed over him.
Cha Jeong-won snorted.
“Acting like you have no interest in me…”
His words continued slowly.
“Keep insisting on that.”
Even after he left the bedroom, Haon couldn’t move from the spot.
“No, why on earth did I…”
Even as he tugged at his hair, nothing came to mind. He didn’t know the reason either.
Did I really have an interest in Cha Jeong-won?
“No…”
He could say this for sure.
He admitted that he liked his pheromones. But that was just an objective evaluation, like saying someone is handsome because they are handsome—the scent was good.
So, it’s like a preference for a diffuser scent.
“Senior has someone else he likes, after all.”
Even if he pushes away all the Omegas that approach him, in the end, it’s a story of only opening his heart to one person.
I remember that original story perfectly, so wouldn’t I just be an unwelcome guest barging in here?
But why did I do that?
“Do I really like that person?”
Muttering to himself made the air in the room feel even more awkward.
Haon lightly slapped his own mouth with his palm.
“I must be crazy.”
This too must be just one in a continuous streak of misfortunes. That’s how he wanted to rationalize it.
Haon cracked the door open and peeked outside.
Cha Jeong-won was nowhere to be seen, perhaps having gone to the bathroom.
Haon carefully slipped out through the door. He planned to get out of here quickly. Looking around for the entrance, he unconsciously paused.
‘Why is it so big?’
Cha Jeong-won definitely lived in the same building as Haon. Haon was on the 5th floor, Cha Jeong-won on the 9th.
According to the landlord, each floor had six units from number 1 to 6, but only the 9th floor had just two units in total.
So he thought it would just be a slightly larger studio apartment layout, but it was completely different.
Especially, Cha Jeong-won’s house showed no signs of following current trends. It didn’t use trendy objects or tones but had its own unique color and texture.
Not that it used strong colors or rough textures. There was a geometric elegance that expressed forms as individually as possible.
A table with straight lines that weren’t cold, a sofa that looked plush yet maintained clean lines, and so on.
“Is this the house of an artist who held a solo exhibition?”
It felt like becoming Alice who fell into Wonderland.
To be precise, it wasn’t that the house was strange, but closer to being beautiful.
So Cha Jeong-won lives in a place like this.
No, wait, the original story had descriptions of his house too.
Then, a sudden thought made Haon stop in his tracks.
‘That thing is in this house.’
Misfortune begets misfortune—the most ominous object that had rolled into Cha Jeong-won’s already unlucky life.
The accident that made him take a three-year leave of absence was just a prelude.
Cha Jeong-won would suffer a major accident at home before graduation. After the accident, his body and mind would bear scars that would never fade.
That made the atmosphere even gloomier, and as it grew gloomier, fewer people approached. That vicious cycle continued, and Cha Jeong-won also tried not to get close to others. So he became even more obsessed with the person he loved.
‘Would it be okay to get rid of it in advance?’
The accident hadn’t happened yet. If Haon just removed it, maybe the misfortune that would occur in the future could be reduced a little.
‘What kind of box was it stored in…’
Since he had read it in text, not seen it in a video, it wasn’t something he could find just by glancing at conspicuous places.
“I need to search for it deliberately.”
Haon wanted to save Cha Jeong-won if possible.
Of course, the box itself wouldn’t kill him. But knowing things would get worse than now, he couldn’t just stand by and watch.
It seemed like he would keep clashing with Cha Jeong-won anyway. If Cha Jeong-won could be at peace, then Haon could also enjoy a peaceful daily life.
‘First, let’s check the places where the senior isn’t.’
That’s when it happened.
“Yoon Haon.”
Haon flinched and turned around.
His eyes met Cha Jeong-won’s, who was standing next to the front door.
As if that weren’t enough, he jerked his chin toward the door as if telling him to leave. Haon hurriedly moved.
“I’m sorry for intruding.”
“If you know, then leave quickly.”
At Cha Jeong-won’s mercilessly firm order to see the guest out, Haon obediently approached the entrance.
Haon slipped his feet into his sneakers, then turned toward Cha Jeong-won and bowed as properly as he could.
“I’m really sorry about yesterday. And thank you for not abandoning me.”
Any further explanation would only make things more embarrassing, so he ended it with just the greeting.
No reply came.
He couldn’t linger just to hear a reply. Haon grabbed the doorknob.
Click. As the door opened, the cool air from the hallway could be felt.
But only for a moment—the opened door closed again.
“…”
He hadn’t left yet.
Haon blinked, looking at the door that had closed right in front of him.
He slowly lowered his gaze to look at the hand that had closed the door. Raising his head back up, he saw a forearm with taut tendons.
If he turned his body now, he’d come face-to-face with Cha Jeong-won.
Haon unconsciously held his breath.
A deep, heavy scent mixed with the morning air. Rather than dying down, it flared up like an inextinguishable flame. Moreover, as he belatedly noticed the pheromones clinging to himself, his heart sank with a heavy thump*.
One thing he hadn’t been able to confirm because he was drunk and blacked out.
He fell asleep in the same space as Cha Jeong-won.
Remembering that, after his first kiss, this was also the first time he had slept in the same space as an Alpha, Haon clenched his fist tightly.
‘No, wait. When we went on the MT, we all slept together in one place. It’s nothing to be conscious about.’
This much shouldn’t be particularly special.
“You wanted to have it?”
A low, dry voice fell from above. It was such a sudden question.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Really?”
Cha Jeong-won stepped closer. They weren’t touching yet, but his body heat was palpable.
“Then let me ask.”
His voice held a strange emotion, but Haon couldn’t grasp what it was at all.
“I’m asking if you wanted to have me that much.”