By Zephyria 
Lee So-yul gripped the steering wheel with a hardened expression. The car heading to Seoul was silent.
The uniquely dark shadows of the Gangwon-do mountains stretched long outside the window. Each time they passed streetlights spaced at regular intervals, the interior would briefly brighten before darkening again.
The heater blew a thin stream of air, but it failed to warm the cold air inside the car.
Cha Seo-jun, sitting in the passenger seat, kept his gaze fixed out the window.
His meeting with Lee So-yul was relatively recent.
It was the day he was supposed to eat instant tteokbokki with Yoon Haon. Hyun-gyu hyung said he was coming too, so strictly speaking, it wasn’t a date, but it was still a day that made him inexplicably fluttery.
It was funny how anticipation could make a person this giddy, but anything related to Yoon Haon made his heart flutter endlessly.
However, the sudden appearance of his maternal grandmother had warped Cha Seo-jun’s expectations.
He knew she was coming to Korea, but why did it have to be at this timing?
That question was quickly answered. His grandmother was with Lee So-yul.
And Cha Jeong-won’s return to university and Cha Jeong-won’s admission were mentioned together right there.
That day, Cha Jeong-won couldn’t postpone or even meet for the tteokbokki promise, trapped in the adults’ conversation.
It was called a conversation, but in reality, it was a session of announcing decisions.
The appearance of So-yul he saw there was quite different from the one he showed to his juniors now.
‘Please give me one more chance.’
Lee So-yul revealed his purpose without hiding it.
‘The Omega Amulet. You already gave me one chance.’
‘You’re the one who wasted that chance.’
His grandmother’s reaction was that she still couldn’t trust Lee So-yul.
‘At that time… It couldn’t be helped. Jeong-won left me for a moment, and in that time, the accident happened…’
Lee So-yul gauged the atmosphere intermittently while speaking. His words kept trailing off as he tried to read the room. Because Cha Jeong-won’s accident at that time was so severe it was truly difficult to speak of lightly.
‘Jeong-won didn’t say he disliked me. I like Jeong-won.’
Was that really the only reason he readily offered to become the Omega Amulet?
That earnest wish of Lee So-yul’s eventually reached his grandmother.
So hyung is going to have an Omega Amulet attached again. Hyung will hate it, but there’s probably nothing he can do. He looked quite at ease when I saw him at school, what a shame.
…That’s what he had thought.
Even though he was his cousin, it was a part that felt completely distant.
He had watched it like someone else’s business, but before he knew it, its influence had extended to Cha Seo-jun himself.
Yoon Haon, reunited after a long time, was getting along with Cha Jeong-won. And the relationship between the two was unusual.
“Seo-jun.”
Even as a calm voice flowed from Lee So-yul, Cha Seo-jun didn’t turn to look. Instead, he looked at Lee So-yul reflected in the window.
“You haven’t answered my proposal yet.”
Lee So-yul’s words pulled Cha Seo-jun back to the present.
“You know why I’m doing this.”
Cha Seo-jun swallowed the breath caught in his throat. Afraid his heart would waver if he spoke too much, he opened his mouth as dryly as possible.
“I’m not interested in why hyung wants to take on the role of Omega Amulet, but I know.”
The title ‘hyung’ caught in his throat for a moment. It came out so easily when referring to others, but not with Lee So-yul. That person made him uncomfortable.
“Right, I want to be with Jeong-won. But Yoon Haon keeps getting in the way.”
He said ‘getting in the way,’ but somehow it felt interpreted as ‘being a nuisance.’
“The two of them are too close.”
Could it be defined simply as ‘close’?
Cha Seo-jun deliberately hid his emotions and glared out the window.
If it ended with just talk about Cha Jeong-won, his heart would have been more at ease. But with Yoon Haon being mentioned repeatedly, Cha Seo-jun’s heart grew heavier.
After a long while, Cha Seo-jun opened his mouth.
“They’ll probably drift apart with time anyway.”
Would Yoon Haon and Cha Jeong-won continue to hang out together?
Would Yoon Haon run to Cha Jeong-won every time he had an accident?
It was his own answer to all those questions.
He thought he knew what Yoon Haon’s heart was like now, but ultimately, it wouldn’t last long.
The Omega Amulet lost its effect just by falling off, so that meant he’d have to run to Cha Jeong-won every time he got hurt. That would be too exhausting.
“If that’s what you think… fine.”
Lee So-yul didn’t try to forcibly persuade Cha Seo-jun. But that didn’t mean he gave up either.
It was clear Cha Seo-jun liked Yoon Haon. So, he would act in some way.
Then, he himself would faithfully become the Omega Amulet and stay by Cha Jeong-won’s side.
If he stayed like that, he would be able to have that person.
“My proposal to help me be with Jeong-won is valid anytime.”
The car fell quiet again. Only the faintest sound of the heater was audible. The friction sound of the road stretched on.
When Haon opened his eyes, it wasn’t yet fully morning.
Light seeping through the curtains thinly painted the ceiling, and a faint, quiet sound—whether birdsong or wind—was barely audible.
With dazed eyes, he looked at the ceiling and blinked slowly.
An unfamiliar ceiling, unfamiliar air. Then, belatedly, he remembered.
‘This is sunbae’s villa.’
The warmth that touched his body last night, the sweet words, came back to him one by one. But strangely, Haon’s mind first tried to confirm the location.
Haon slightly turned his head to the side.
Cha Jeong-won was sleeping right beside him. His sleeping face was far more defenseless than last night.
Haon wanted to see that face a little closer.
As he moved his body to the side, he felt the blanket slip off his body. Sensing an inexplicable sense of incongruity, Haon carefully lifted the edge of the blanket.
And the first emotion he felt in that moment wasn’t embarrassment or awkwardness. It was a very trivial sense of unfairness.
“I said you didn’t have to clean me up.”
Last night, when Cha Jeong-won offered to clean him up, Haon had genuinely and vehemently refused.
He thought since he himself was exhausted, this person must be tired too, and he didn’t want to make him do such a thing. Also, although he felt a bit uneasy, he preferred just holding Cha Jeong-won.
But now, the smooth, sliding texture of the blanket and his body, which held no uncomfortable sensations, led to only one conclusion, obvious to anyone.
Cha Jeong-won had moved after Haon fell asleep.
‘He did it. Really.’
Haon muttered softly and looked at Cha Jeong-won again.
His quietly sleeping face looked annoyingly cute for no reason, and also made his heart soften.
Haon recalled a scene from a drama he’d seen in his memory. In situations like this, if you touched the other person’s face, they’d either open their eyes wide and say something cheesy, or act nonchalant as if nothing happened—generally one of the two.
Haon thought either would be fine.
At the same time as the thought, his hand was already moving.
Starting from the cheekline, tracing the jawline, the eyebrows, and finally lifting his fingertips to the forehead.
It was an action almost meant to wake him up, yet Cha Jeong-won didn’t stir at all. Only his breathing continued evenly.
“Wake up. Sunbae.”
Even after whispering it, Haon found himself funny. There was no way a reply would come back, yet he felt a pointless expectation.
After fidgeting like that for a while, Haon finally withdrew his hand as if giving up.
Instead, he lightly pressed his lips to the sleeping Cha Jeong-won’s forehead.
Haon tried to sit up but paused for a moment.
A fleeting, indescribable anxiety brushed past him—what if something happened during the brief time they were apart?
Stopped in that position, Haon scanned his surroundings for something to leave in Cha Jeong-won’s embrace. Since it was his first time at the villa, he hadn’t brought anything, and perhaps reflecting Cha Jeong-won’s personality, there weren’t many prepared items.
“What a shame.”
But it was too early to give up.
Haon picked up his phone. He quietly turned on the screen and adjusted the angle at the edge of the bed.
He tried to act natural, not wanting to make it obvious he was taking a picture, but seeing his own face puffy like a dumpling again on the screen, he pressed his lips together firmly.
‘No. Not this.’
Haon desperately changed the angle, pulled in his chin, made the light hit his forehead, and adjusted his posture several times to look as decent as possible.
He didn’t get a result he was entirely satisfied with, but at least it wasn’t a dumpling.
With that photo displayed, Haon placed his phone on the bed. And in such a blatant position that Cha Jeong-won would face it head-on when he opened his eyes.
He adjusted the brightness so the screen wouldn’t turn off and nodded with great satisfaction.
“Good.”
Haon quietly got off the bed and walked on tiptoe. He opened the door with as little sound as possible and went out.
Only silence remained in the room again. And that silence was broken not long after.
Cha Jeong-won opened his eyes very slowly.
The warmth that had been in his embrace was gone.
The moment he realized Yoon Haon wasn’t there, his mood sank.
He wanted to pull Haon into a tight hug and give him a good morning kiss when he woke up. He felt he had slept too long.
That thought was brief. Cha Jeong-won opened his eyes.
As his vision cleared, Cha Jeong-won blinked rapidly, almost instinctively.
A phone, placed there clearly for him to see, by anyone’s standards.
On that phone screen was Haon’s selfie. Pretending to be neat but with messy hair, a dumpling was smiling at him.
“…What is this.”
Cha Jeong-won stared straight at the phone for a while, remaining still. Then, the corner of his mouth lifted ever so slightly.
It was a pretty good morning.