By Zephyria 
After finishing another rush of orders today, I was busy lightly tidying up the tables and the cafe entrance. As I wiped down the tables and stepped outside to clean up the front door, something strange caught my eye. It had already been five days since I first noticed a silver SUV parked across from the cafe.
“That car is in that spot again. What on earth are they doing here?”
On the surface, it was just a parked car; there was nothing strange or problematic about it. People often parked on that shoulder to go look at the ocean. What I found strange was that no one ever got in or out of the vehicle.
No one came out from inside, and no one entered. At first, I thought it was an empty car. But that wasn’t the case. The motionless car always left at a consistent time. That meant someone was staying inside the car the entire time.
“…Is Joo Min-hyeok having someone monitor me again? It’s unsettling that he’s gone completely silent after barging in like that.”
Perhaps my ingrained victim mentality had kicked in, but I became extremely sensitive, feeling as though someone was watching me. Even though I told myself not to worry about it, the car was parked in a spot far too visible from the cafe, making it impossible to ignore. Why did it have to be right in front of our cafe of all places?
Not wanting to show that I was conscious of the car, I acted naturally while observing its movements. However, there was nothing to observe; the tinting was so dark that I couldn’t even see a human silhouette.
“Hyung, what are you doing? Did you drop something?”
I was crouching on the ground, pretending to pick up trash while checking the car reflected in the cafe door, when I heard Jin-su’s voice and looked up.
“Oh, it was a bit messy out front, so I was picking up some trash.”
“Why are you doing it by hand? Where’s the broom? I’ll do it.”
“No, it’s okay. You don’t have to do that. Let’s just go inside.”
I stopped Jin-su, who was looking around as if he were actually going to sweep the floor, and pulled him by the arm back into the cafe. I had been waiting for him anyway. These days, listening to Jin-su’s stories helped clear the suffocating feeling in my chest. Jin-su tells me what people in their twenties or college students like these days, what’s trending, and what foods are popular.
Listening to those stories is so entertaining that I lose track of time once I start. It was certainly a time that existed for me, but it seems to be because it’s a world I never got to experience. In my previous life, I died young due to illness, and in this life, I was confined to the palace, so I couldn’t do anything.
Wearing clothes appropriate for my age, chatting with friends, attending classes, enjoying college festivals… I hadn’t enjoyed a single one of those things that make my heart race just thinking about them. I spent that time shut away in the Imperial Pavilion, living in breathless silence with the sole determination not to die.
In the vast, sprawling palace, I had to endure everything entirely alone. I felt resentful and sorrowful that my life had passed without me even being able to think about wanting to try something. And thus, I became twenty-five. Jin-su, with sparkling eyes, told me about the world he had enjoyed.
“Ah, having spicy stir-fried pork with soju is seriously the best. There’s a place in front of my school that makes stir-fried pork and cartilage that’s absolutely killer. I really want you to try it, Hyung.”
“Stir-fried pork and cartilage? That sounds delicious. I’ve had stir-fried pork before, but I’ve never had cartilage. Hyun-wook’s grandmother’s stir-fried pork was really delicious. Is cartilage tasty? Is it actually bone?”
Back when Seo-joo and I lived together, Hyun-wook’s grandmother used to give us a lot of side dishes. The stir-fried pork she often made back then was so delicious. I’ve had it in the palace too, but it never tasted the same.
“The bone isn’t hard; it’s spicy and crunchy, so it’s delicious. Do you like soju, Hyung? The combination of street stall udon and soju is also amazing. Along with hagfish.”
“Soju, hagfish?”
I don’t know if I like it or not. Because I’ve never tried it. The words got stuck in my throat. I’ve tried ginseng liquor and wine once, but I’ve never had soju. I heard that delicious soju is sweet—I wonder if that’s true.
“I’ve never had soju. Is hagfish different from eel?”
“What?”
As if he couldn’t believe my words, a hint of bewilderment mixed into Jin-su’s face as he looked at me. Was it something to be that surprised about?
“Why is it weird? I’ve never been to a street stall, and I don’t know the menu.”
“…Ah, no. Why would that be weird? If you don’t drink, it’s only natural that you wouldn’t know the snacks! I was talking too much from my own perspective.”
“But I want to go. I’ve seen it a lot in dramas.”
I thought of the street stalls I’d seen on screen, and Jin-su struggled to smooth over the atmosphere, even stuttering.
“Is it frustrating talking to me? I haven’t done much, so there’s a lot I don’t know.”
“No? It’s not frustrating at all! I was like that too. When I left the island and went straight to Seoul, wow, I was seriously shocked. There were so many things I was encountering and experiencing for the first time that it was overwhelming. Everyone has a first time.”
Watching Jin-su ramble to be considerate of me, I burst out laughing without realizing it. Jin-su had such a naive personality that I wondered if his initial sharp appearance had even been real. Perhaps because he grew up on an island, he definitely had a pure side.
“I like listening to your stories. It’s so interesting. I can find out how young people live these days.”
Even though I wasn’t making some grand confession, my face flushed, and unable to hide my awkward expression, I poured out my inner thoughts. Saying that it was pleasant and interesting was, of course, sincere. It felt like a form of vicarious satisfaction. Just hearing about how the world works seemed to give me positive energy. In this moment, I felt very vibrant. That’s why I secretly looked forward to Jin-su, and I was only sad that the start of the semester was approaching, meaning there wasn’t much time left before he returned to Seoul.
“Um. Hyung, I’m going to come back on weekends occasionally during the semester. Then, would you like to go to Seoul with me and visit the places I mentioned?”
At Jin-su’s cautious suggestion, I widened my eyes and looked at him. I couldn’t help but be surprised that he would treat me so warmly. Perhaps it was because the relationships I’d formed in the past were so twisted, but I had always been wary of people. Thus, Jin-su’s act of showing such kindness to someone he hadn’t known for long felt almost awkward.
I was grateful that he had made such a suggestion, even if only in words, out of consideration for me. Regardless, I cannot go to Seoul. Even if Joo Min-hyeok had discovered my whereabouts, I couldn’t go to Seoul with a peaceful mind. It would be troublesome if I went and met someone who recognized me. For starters, I had no desire to go to Seoul, and as an Omega, it wouldn’t be right for me to follow an Alpha I didn’t know well. Jin-su’s grandmother would probably foam at the mouth and faint.
“Thank you. I’ll think about it.”
Though I couldn’t go, I conveyed my gratitude.
∗ ∗ ∗
Inside the car that Hae-joo had been observing so closely was none other than Min-hyeok. In truth, he hadn’t planned to come and sit here so frequently. It was just that after seeing him once, he couldn’t stop thinking about Hae-joo, and after watching him secretly once, he found himself heading this way again, repeating “just one more time” to himself.
To avoid being noticed by Hae-joo, he had intentionally chosen a car commonly seen on the road. It was a car so ubiquitous it was called the “national car,” yet Hae-joo seemed to be scrutinizing the vehicle sensitively. The problem might not have been the car, but the choice of location. Since he had parked in a spot that was too visible and hadn’t budged, it was understandable that he would be viewed with suspicion.
He had intended to watch for just a moment, but he hadn’t realized so much time had passed. It seemed best to stop this method before he was suspected further. Since he had bought the building with the convenience store next door, he intended to move there.
“The view is better here, but it can’t be helped.”
The cafe was made of glass so that anyone could easily approach, meaning the interior was quite visible. He could see everything—Hae-joo making coffee, Hae-joo looking around. But he never expected to see him smiling so brightly at another Alpha. Moreover, he hadn’t expected the relationship to recover like that with an Alpha who had growled every time they met.
“That bastard definitely has ulterior motives, no matter how I look at it, right?”
Min-hyeok, leaning forward with his arms folded over the steering wheel, muttered to himself. It was a scene far too different from what his friend had reported—that they were on bad terms. He wondered what they were talking about that made Hae-joo so focused. Hae-joo listened to his words with an expression full of curiosity. And he welcomed him with a bright, smiling face.
Every time he saw that smile, his heart tightened and throbbed. It was a smile that used to be directed at him. But now, that smile was being shown to someone else, not him. Min-hyeok did not want to accept the reality that Hae-joo was showing that smile to another person. He wanted to deny it. Feeling an unbearable restlessness, Min-hyeok opened the car door.