By Zephyria 
Realizing there was no escape in other words, Haon decided to change his approach entirely. If there’s no way out, then just get closer.
Haon slowly raised his arms. Then he tugged at Cha Jeong-won’s clothes.
Jeong-won obediently sat on the bench. Haon wrapped his unsteady arms around his neck.
“Yoon Haon.”
His voice sounded somewhat bewildered. The breath Haon felt against the nape of his neck seemed to have quickened slightly. Up close, his pheromones were definitely more intense.
“I wish you’d accept both.”
Haon murmured.
He continued, resting his chin lightly on Cha Jeong-won’s shoulder.
“Both the fact that I’m an Omega… and that it’s me…”
Even to his own ears, his voice was too soft, yet the words leaving his mouth were strangely clear.
“I wished you’d accept both.”
Once spoken, it felt like such a simple wish that it was almost absurd.
It even seemed like he was seducing Cha Jeong-won, but his gaze held a strange sense of resignation.
He didn’t truly believe it would happen. He knew, but he wanted to say it at least once.
Cha Jeong-won gazed intently at Haon’s face.
His flushed face, already rosy from alcohol, grew even redder.
With each breath, Haon’s shoulders rose and fell ever so slightly.
The pheromones mingling with the scent of alcohol tickled Cha Jeong-won’s face.
“Do you even know what you’re saying right now?”
Cha Jeong-won asked with a short laugh. It was an ambiguous laugh—neither mocking nor comforting.
Cha Jeong-won wanted to tell Haon what that answer meant, but also didn’t want to.
“If you knew what a wretched person I am…”
He continued slowly.
“You wouldn’t be saying this.”
His words held layers of emotion.
A past different from others, a mother obsessed with her child, the people who had clung to him and then left, the distorted expectations placed on him and those who tried to use them.
Haon couldn’t know any of that.
Yet, he must have felt the weight in Cha Jeong-won’s voice.
For a while, neither spoke. Only the sound of the wind brushed past their ears.
“I wish everything you said was sincere. All those cries of injustice.”
At Cha Jeong-won’s words breaking the silence, Haon’s eyes grew clearer than before. This was a conversation that could end here.
But the intoxicated Haon had no intention of stopping.
“Senior…”
The corners of his mouth lifted ever so slightly.
It was a soft, unburdened smile. It was also the face he made when telling another shameless joke.
“You might be a wretched person right now…”
“…What?”
Cha Jeong-won narrowed his eyes slightly. He thought Haon had clearly understood the serious words he’d uttered, so why was he turning it into a joke?
With a completely unfazed expression, Haon continued softly.
“But you probably only have me.”
While it sounded like a joke, his eyes said otherwise. It felt like a mix of resignation and obsession directed at himself.
“What is that.”
Before Cha Jeong-won could properly ask, it happened.
There weren’t many things that could happen at such a close distance.
Haon was leaning with his arms around Cha Jeong-won’s neck, close enough for their breaths to mingle.
Haon leaned his body a little more toward Cha Jeong-won.
As his coat slipped down, the space between them narrowed further.
Without hesitation, Haon lifted his head and sought his lips.
Their lips met, and their breaths briefly tangled.
The heat of alcohol and the heat of pheromones mixed simultaneously.
With lips still touching, those who inhaled and those who held their breath became intertwined.
Cha Jeong-won tilted his chin slightly.
Not to push Haon away, but to actively take over.
The moment the point of contact changed, Haon’s lips naturally parted, and the tip of Cha Jeong-won’s tongue explored the gap.
Once, it brushed lightly, as if tasting, then slowly pushed in, finding Haon’s tongue and pressing down.
Haon, loosened by the alcohol, didn’t resist. Instead, he accepted it quietly, offering his tongue as if to interlock. In response, Cha Jeong-won’s hand slid a little lower down his back, gripping firmly.
Haon’s body slid toward Cha Jeong-won as if pulled, and their pelvises lightly bumped once.
Even if it looked like an accident, they both knew it wasn’t.
Haon moved first.
Loosening the arms around his neck, he placed his hands on Cha Jeong-won’s shoulders, lifted his upper body slightly, and changed the angle.
Then Cha Jeong-won’s tongue followed deeper inside.
Slowly grinding until his mouth felt wet, he sucked and pulled Haon’s tongue before releasing it.
As Haon trembled briefly and arched his back, Cha Jeong-won’s hand cupped his buttocks, holding him more firmly.
It wasn’t a tight grip to shake him, but a force to keep him from escaping. Leaning into that strength, as Haon drew his knees up to sit higher, their pelvises met again.
Haon unconsciously tensed his thighs and twisted his body. An indistinguishable moan, whose it was, escaped along with a breath between their tightly pressed lips.
Finally, Cha Jeong-won parted his lips slightly.
Haon’s lower lip glistened wetly, and Cha Jeong-won slowly licked over it once.
Haon let out a small laugh instead of a breath and raised his eyes. That gaze was so close that Cha Jeong-won froze for a moment.
Holding Haon’s waist, he gripped the curve of his buttocks with his palm once more, then released. Haon’s body trembled minutely in response.
“Yoon Haon.”
His voice, raspy as if scraped from his throat, sounded like a warning, but Haon didn’t behave upon hearing his name.
As Haon lifted his chin and offered his lips again, Cha Jeong-won, without hesitation this time too, kissed him deeply again.
His tongue entered, Haon pushed back up in response, and their movements interlocked, slowing down a beat further.
With his lips still against Cha Jeong-won’s, Haon said something.
“…Ome… bu…”
Unlike Haon, who burst into laughter as if his lips were ticklish, Cha Jeong-won remained motionless as if struck by shock.
＊ ＊ ＊
As soon as he opened his eyes, the world swayed about twice.
It seemed to take a few seconds for the ceiling to spin once and return to its place.
Haon instinctively closed his eyes again. As the inside of his eyelids darkened, a dull pain thudded down inside his head.
“Ugh…”
A groan escaped first.
Even with his eyes closed, he could feel the sunlight squeezing through the curtains.
Thinking it would hurt more if he opened them, he endured for a moment before finally opening one eye cautiously.
The familiar ceiling of his rented room came into view.
‘Drank beyond my limit again.’
The fact that his first class today was canceled flashed through his mind like lightning. For that alone, he had to be grateful.
‘Really lucky. If I had to attend morning classes in this state, I’d be dead.’
Simultaneously with that thought, yesterday’s events surfaced in chunks before abruptly cutting off.
Cafe, pojangmacha, fish cake soup, glasses of soju.
Rewinding a bit further: park, bench, coat, …and Cha Jeong-won.
Kissing him struck like a bolt of lightning. Haon abruptly sat up, then collapsed back onto the bed.
His head throbbed as if it would split.
“Ah, seriously…”
He pressed a hand to his forehead and closed his eyes. The unique bitter taste of soju still seemed to linger on the inside of his tongue.
The core of the problem rose up again, gripping his throat.
“What did I do yesterday.”
Why did I kiss Cha Jeong-won.
Why did I press my lips to Cha Jeong-won.
Why did I…
“Was it the alcohol or my instincts taking over?”
Even he thought it was pathetic. Haon groaned again in agony.
“We broke up, we broke up. No, it’s not okay, it’s not!”
Kissing an Alpha you’ve broken up with is a crime.
After writhing in every way, Haon let out a deep sigh.
The kiss wasn’t the only problem.
The fact that he couldn’t remember what happened after was even more despairing. So, he only remembered up to initiating the kiss.
“I probably didn’t say anything unnecessary. I hope I didn’t, please.”
But Haon knew his own personality well.
Even normally, if he felt he had to say something, he’d stubbornly spit it out; with alcohol added, there’s no way the brakes on his mouth would have worked in time.
“If I drink from now on, I’m a dog.”
He vowed to himself as if making a sincere declaration.
＊ ＊ ＊
Haon left the house in the worst condition.
“Ugh, I’m dying.”
He barely suppressed the urge to retch. Taking slow breaths in and out, he forced himself to walk.
“Kim Hyun-gyu, how cheap to go alone. You should at least check on your dying friend’s survival.”
Grumbling was pointless; the real problem was that he overslept. There was no one to blame.
He’d washed his face roughly and brushed his teeth, but he didn’t feel refreshed inside.
“If I had hangover soup, I might feel like living.”
It seemed like it would be harder if he didn’t eat something. But what to eat was the problem.
“Hangover soup would be good… But I don’t have the energy to go that far.”
His muttering spilled out.
Random things he’d heard from here and there mixed together in his head.
“They say pizza really settles your stomach.”
It was something he’d read somewhere. That tomatoes and cheese are good for hangovers, though he couldn’t remember the details.
It also seemed like an excuse because he just wanted pizza. For all he knew, his stomach might flip even more if he actually ate it.
Getting off the elevator and walking outside, someone approached from the side.
Haon turned his head. He saw the handsome face of a man walking alongside him.
Unlike his own wretched state, Cha Jeong-won’s face looked endlessly clean.
“Uh… Is your stomach okay?”
Feeling awkward, Haon tried to act casual toward Cha Jeong-won instead of greeting him properly.
“I’m fine, but yours must be flipped inside out.”
However, as Cha Jeong-won immediately turned the arrow back on him, Haon only let out a fake cough instead of an answer.
“Have you eaten?”
“Just been thinking about it.”
Haon stroked his stomach and glanced at Cha Jeong-won.
“Well… There’s something I want to eat, but I’m worried I can’t finish it alone? So, about that, together…”
“Alright, let’s go eat pizza.”
Did we connect?
66 – NOT 66