By Zephyria 
“Huh?”
“Your father told you to keep dating. It seems he’s surrendered.”
“Ah.”
“Then I did well, right?”
“Very well.”
As Kwon Yi-kang pressed my chin and sucked on my slightly parted lips, I wrapped my arms around his neck and entwined our tongues. A gentle and sweet kiss always feels good. I laughed through my nose, and he deeply sucked on the tender flesh inside my lip.
“You really are something else. You have no shame in front of others.”
At the scolding coming from behind us, I opened my eyes and turned my head to see Father standing there with a stern face. No, what is that man doing here? As I looked at him with eyes full of bewilderment, the wrinkles in his furrowed brow deepened.
“What? What’s with that look?”
“No, I just wondered why you’re here when you said you didn’t even want to see me.”
“Do I need your permission to eat in my own house? And can’t you two stop clinging to each other? I don’t know why young people these days have no sense of shame.”
Tsk-tsking, Father walked toward the table where the dishes were set.
“Are you planning to eat together?”
When I asked in a low voice, Kwon Yi-kang also looked puzzled. I saw the table, which had been neatly set in the meantime. I hesitantly approached Father. It seems that in any house, the father’s seat is always the seat of honor. With Father in the center, I sat facing Kwon Yi-kang.
“Are you going to dine with us?”
“This is my house. You are the ones eating at my table. You ask as if the guest and host have been reversed.”
Strictly speaking, he was right, but that didn’t mean we had to eat while facing a face I hated. I couldn’t understand the mindset of someone who would sit at the same table while scowling like that.
“Thank you for letting us eat. While we’re at it, I’m planning to stay the night. Thank you in advance for that too.”
As I spoke while picking up my spoon, a scream-like response of “What?” immediately followed.
“The side dishes are nice. You seem to eat well while living alone. Then again, you should take better care of yourself when eating alone.”
“Look at the way he talks.”
“This is pretty good. It’s delicious.”
I spoke to Kwon Yi-kang while chewing on some braised lotus root. I usually prefer meat over vegetables, but I unexpectedly liked the crunchy texture.
“Eat the meat. You like meat.”
He said as he picked up some tteok-galbi (grilled short rib patties) and placed it on my plate. As I took a bite, the tender, sweet meat melted in my mouth.
“Oh? This is really delicious. You eat too—no, Darling, you eat too.”
Father’s gaze, watching us, furrowed slightly. He wouldn’t raise his voice at the dinner table just because of a slip of the tongue, would he? I subtly pushed the tteok-galbi plate toward Kwon Yi-kang.
“Keep it close and eat. You must be hungry since the meal was delayed.”
Kwon Yi-kang pushed the tteok-galbi plate back toward me. Father, who had been silently watching this, suddenly stood up, grabbed the plate, and placed it in front of himself.
“You’re making a whole scene in front of the food. Keep it here and eat.”
“Father’s way of speaking… it sounds like a very well-learned style. There’s not a single intonation or word to waste.”
“Stop chattering and just eat. Do you know who is feeding you because you’re so ‘lovely’?”
He’s being incredibly petty over a single meal. I could have just bought food in Seoul, but because I ate here, I was immediately treated like a beggar getting a free meal.
Even at my house, I’m not scolded for eating. Oh, wait, Grandfather used to scold Father about eating. I hoped Kwon Yi-kang’s father wasn’t on the same level as Grandfather. Having two people like that would be too sad.
As I chewed my food gloomily, Kwon Yi-kang moved the tteok-galbi plate back in front of me.
“Father is joking, so don’t make that face. He’s telling you to eat without feeling burdened.”
“I didn’t know you had the ability to misinterpret things.”
“See, I told you he’s joking.”
I don’t think so? I looked at him with that expression, but Kwon Yi-kang just smiled. He gestured for me to eat quickly, so I stole a glance at Father and picked up another piece of tteok-galbi.
“By the way… why do you keep emitting pheromones? I’ve been meaning to say it for a while, but I think we need to address this.”
While chewing the tteok-galbi, I shifted only my eyes to look at Father. Hmm, he asked a tricky question. My eyes drifted to the ceiling, then to the other side, and finally landed on Kwon Yi-kang.
“Soo-kyung hasn’t been feeling well lately.”
Kwon Yi-kang answered in a casual voice on my behalf, but a dissatisfied tsk returned.
“The only advantage he had was being an Omega, and even that was half-baked?”
“How can you say something so harsh? He’s just not feeling well right now, but he’ll get better!”
“If that’s not half-baked, what is? If he’s that unwell, he should stay cooped up at home instead of wandering around leaking pheromones everywhere.”
“It’s not like I’m leaking them because I want to. I came all the way here to greet you even though I’m unwell. You really only see things negatively. Try living your life more positively.”
“Look at him, talking back stubbornly without losing a single word until the end. He’s a lost cause, a total lost cause!”
If he was going to nitpick and get angry like this, I don’t know why he insisted on eating with us. Anyway, if we’re talking about being a lost cause, this man’s personality is also a lost cause.
Suppressing my annoyance, I aggressively ate the tteok-galbi in a fit of rage until the plate was empty. I pointedly pulled the side dish plate toward me—the one Father’s chopsticks were aiming for—while he continued to tsk.
∞ ∞ ∞
“What luxury, what luxury.”
I muttered, soaking in a large bathtub filled with water, watching Kwon Yi-kang emerge from the sauna room inside the bathroom.
The fact that I was soaking alone in such a large tub filled with hot water, that there was a sauna like a public bathhouse inside a residential bathroom, and that I was the one enjoying it, didn’t feel real.
“Do they sell bathtubs this big?”
“He probably had it custom-made.”
“It’s like a public bath. Especially with the sauna room.”
“Father wouldn’t be happy to know the bathroom he put so much effort into decorating is being treated like a public bathhouse.”
As Kwon Yi-kang stepped into the tub, the water surged and overflowed. He approached and leaned his back against my chest.
“It feels good like this.”
“Right. I feel my body relaxing.”
Stroking his wet hair with my hand, I whispered in a somewhat dreamy voice.
“You know, I’ve never thought that family background was that important. I thought as long as both parents were alive and there was enough money to not worry about immediate survival, that was enough. But I guess not. Lately, every person I meet asks about my family before they ask about me as a person. It makes me think I might have been wrong about something.”
“It’s not a wrong thought; it’s just that the priority of values is different. You value the person themselves, and I like that value system of yours.”
“Still, it’s better to have a wealthy family, right? To put it bluntly, if I were someone living hand-to-mouth, I would never have crossed paths with you. I wouldn’t have even made it inside that hotel; I would’ve been stopped at the front gate.”
In the first place, if I were Min Jae-hee, I wouldn’t have ended up rolling around with Kwon Yi-kang because of pheromones. Not just Min Jae-hee, but if I imagine a poor Cha Soo-kyung instead of a rich one, I don’t think I would have even dared to approach Kwon Yi-kang, even as an Omega.
I pretended otherwise, but it was hard to say that my current confidence wasn’t influenced by the money of my wealthy fathers.
“If that were the case, it would have been harder to meet. But I would have found a way to cross your path, take you in, and eventually, it would have ended up like this. If you were someone living hand-to-mouth, it might have even been easier.”
“Is it easier to manipulate people who are poor and have nothing?”
“It’s generally easier to persuade someone who feels a desperate lack than someone who lacks nothing.”
It’s sad, but true. When I was Min Jae-hee, there was nothing I wouldn’t do if given money. On days when I didn’t have a single penny and had to starve for days, I felt like I could even commit murder if someone just gave me money. I had been that desperate.
“Do you… like me?”
“I do.”
“Not just liking me as a person, but kissing and having sex and bathing together like this… not just as a sex partner…”
“You seemed to avoid talking about that topic; I suppose there’s been a change of heart?”
Did he know I was consciously avoiding it? Did he know my inner feelings—the fear of a clear answer or confirmation of our relationship—even without me saying them? Did he just smile and pretend not to know? While I had been avoiding it, I actually had no idea what Kwon Yi-kang was thinking.
“I perceive you fully as a romantic partner, I have the intention to move toward a more developed relationship, and I intend to go all the way with you. Why do you think I brought you here?”
What did he mean by “going all the way”? He didn’t mean fighting to the end, and he didn’t seem to mean ending things here.
“That’s because you said you hated your father constantly pushing blind dates on you, so we’d pretend to be lovers.”
“If I hated it, I could just ignore it. Why would I go through the hassle of ‘pretending’?”
“Then?”
“Regardless of what you were thinking when you followed me, I brought you here with the intention of introducing you.”
Because we were sitting in the same direction, I couldn’t see Kwon Yi-kang’s expression. I wondered what kind of face he was making. Was he smiling softly as he does when joking, or did he have an infinitely serious expression?
“What if… if I… get kicked out of my house?”