By Zephyria 
At Joo Min-hyeok’s single remark confirming that I hadn’t misheard, a chilly silence instantly swept through the cafe. My focus, which had been momentarily stolen by the box Joo Min-hyeok brought, snapped back into place. Right now, Joo Min-hyeok was not denying Jin-su’s question.
Why is this man acting so recklessly? Is he crazy or what? My mouth fell open instinctively as he spat out whatever he wanted without a filter. Joo Min-hyeok didn’t even spare a glance at me, staring back with a dropped jaw; instead, he observed Jin-su with dry eyes.
“I asked you too. If that’s true, what are you going to do about it? What’s the problem for you if I’m the Emperor and Cha Hae-joo is the Grand Imperial Concubine? Are you trying to fish for information, or are you asking with a specific intention?”
Overwhelmed by Joo Min-hyeok’s momentum, Jin-su couldn’t answer readily. When he finally managed to open his mouth, he stuttered slightly and looked at me with a distressed face. Oh, seriously, the poor kid.
“I—I didn’t have any intention… It’s not that…”
“Even if it’s exactly as you’ve noticed, nothing changes between the two of us. Ah, no. I guess something does change. Maybe things will get a bit more difficult between us than they are now?”
As Joo Min-hyeok’s blunt words continued, my heart beat faster in sync. He acted as if he had no intention of hiding anything. But I was different. Even if I spoke carefully, I didn’t want to reveal everything. My desire to protect my life here was too great.
Now that we were even getting a divorce, I didn’t want to broadcast my past to the whole neighborhood. I quickly checked if there were other people in the cafe. Fortunately, after the lunch crowd had left, there were no other customers.
The staff had also clocked out early, leaving only the three of us. Ironically, I felt grateful for this empty state. Even while I was scanning the surroundings, Joo Min-hyeok’s gaze remained fixed on Jin-su.
Just as I began to feel uncomfortable watching that merciless gaze—like a predator staring at its prey—I started to sense Alpha pheromones at the tip of my nose. It was the very familiar Alpha pheromone of Joo Min-hyeok. As soon as I detected the pheromones, Jin-su frowned as if feeling a great pressure.
As Joo Min-hyeok’s pheromones began to permeate rapidly, Jin-su’s face grew stiff. To me, they were still fragrant pheromones, but to Jin-su, they must feel more unpleasant than anything right now. I had heard that the pheromones of a Dominant Alpha are difficult for an ordinary Alpha to handle.
Pheromones that strongly displayed displeasure without hiding it were, needless to say, oppressive. Feeling urgent, I decided to quickly separate Joo Min-hyeok and Jin-su.
“Come over here and pull back those pheromones.”
I irritably pushed his back toward the door. He seemed dissatisfied with this coercive behavior, grumbling and expressing his discomfort.
“Why? I answered on your behalf because you seemed to find it difficult to respond, so why are you getting angry?”
Why am I getting angry? He’s thinking only of himself again. I never asked him to answer on my behalf, nor was I troubled by it. Joo Min-hyeok had jumped the gun again, guessing my emotions as he pleased and acting willfully. And then he asks why I’m angry… Does he really not know? It’s shocking that I have to explain this one by one. Where should I even start?
“I don’t know why everything is so easy for you. I never asked you to speak for me, and this is all just your own assumption. Don’t you think appearing like this and hinting at who you are is a complete lack of consideration for me? If a rumor spreads on this small island…”
“There will be no rumors. Don’t worry.”
A hollow laugh escaped me at his soft yet confident answer. He’s always the one causing the mess, and then he always tells me not to worry. I’m always the only one anxious, only me!
“Exactly how are you going to stop the rumors? Are you going to use force to lock the kid up? Or will you use some subtle coaxing, like you did to get the Alphas off the island?”
If Jin-su accidentally mentions it to his grandmother, I won’t be able to live here. This is a place I barely managed to settle in.
“I never said who we are. That’s why there’s no way a rumor will spread. I haven’t revealed my identity, so how could that friend spread a rumor?”
“…What?”
“He can’t go around blabbing that I’m the Emperor and you’re the Grand Imperial Concubine based on mere guesswork. Unless he’s mentally unstable.”
“Ha, seriously…”
Joo Min-hyeok is starting this again. This peculiar wordplay. It’s a similar tactic to when he insisted that our situation was a ‘breakup’ rather than a ‘divorce.’ He twists words subtly to make you grasp the situation vaguely, but he never gives a straight answer with his own mouth.
And then he makes the other person look like a fool by claiming he never said such a thing. Getting played by this again makes me furious. People who haven’t experienced this wouldn’t understand, but it’s maddeningly infuriating. Joo Min-hyeok didn’t explicitly say he was the Emperor, but he threw enough bait for us to be identified. Just enough to keep the other person’s mouth shut and prevent them from spreading the word.
Jin-su is a brighter kid than he looks, so he’s probably already figured it all out. On top of that, since a man who is the Emperor appeared showing his face boldly, there was no way Jin-su, who frequently accesses media, wouldn’t know. It felt like he had planned this from the start, which made my stomach churn even more. That fox of a man.
Jin-su, who had been fidgeting and not knowing what to do, glanced at our ominous atmosphere and quietly stood up from his seat. He looked uncomfortable and exhausted, crushed by the Alpha pheromones Joo Min-hyeok had scattered everywhere.
“Jin-su, are you leaving?”
“Hyung. I’ll come back another day.”
I approached him with an awkward smile, and Jin-su tried his best to smile back with a stiff face. Poor Jin-su, caught in a bolt from the blue. My heart felt heavy because I had to send him away so abruptly without even getting to talk properly.
“Um, you’ll come again, right?”
“Yes. I’ll come back. Please finish talking with that gentleman for now.”
The way Jin-su glanced at Joo Min-hyeok and then avoided his eyes was truly pitiful. That kid will probably need to take a calming sedative when he gets home. I followed Jin-su as he hurried outside.
“Make sure to come! Got it? We still have things to talk about. Stop by before you head back to Seoul for the start of the semester.”
“Of course. I won’t just leave. I’ll talk to you before I go. Hyung, please go back inside.”
As Jin-su waved both hands, gesturing for me to go back in, I waved back with the brightest smile I could muster. Even in the midst of the chaos, Jin-su smiled back. I wanted to watch him leave until the end, but I decided to deal with the nuisance inside the cafe first.
After flipping the ‘Open’ sign on the door to ‘Closed,’ I stepped back inside. Joo Min-hyeok was watching me approach, comfortably folding his arms.
“Are you going to keep coming here and interfering like this?”
“I just dropped by, and the situation just happened to be like that. I’ll be the one asking. That kid asked as if he already knew everything; how were you planning to answer?”
“I was going to tell him. I was going to tell him carefully so he wouldn’t be shocked. He’s truly the first friend I’ve ever had in my life. I had a plan too!”
“…Friend?”
The corners of Joo Min-hyeok’s mouth, which had been merely staring at me, curled up slightly and then dropped, and his gaze sharpened. He remained calm without moving, but it was easy to tell that his gaze had changed. Ha, this reminds me of the face he made when he was destroying my Imperial Pavilion in the past. He had that exact same look back then.
He was still sensitive about my human relationships. He was like that with Han Hee-sung too; it seems nothing has changed. I want to make friends comfortably too. Even if that was the case back then, by what right is he acting like this now?
“How can an Omega and an Alpha be friends? That’s not a possible relationship. Do you really not know that it’s impossible?”
“Why is it not possible?”
Joo Min-hyeok raised his tone slightly and took a step closer to me.
“Why ask when you already know? Even if it’s not about emotions, this relationship ends by the action of pheromones alone. Friends, friendship—those are absolutely impossible stories. Just look at how that brat looks at you, and you’ll have your answer.”
Joo Min-hyeok stepped even closer and mentioned Jin-su again. The way Jin-su looks at me? At first, it was very sharp, and now it’s very tender. That’s all.
“The way that novice looks at you proves that an Alpha and an Omega can never be friends. Do you still insist he’s a friend?”
“Yes. At least to me. There was a misunderstanding at first, so it was a bit uncomfortable, but he’s someone who approached me humanly as a person. This relationship has nothing to do with Your Majesty.”
“Why does it have nothing to do with me? I am still your legal guardian and can exercise my rights. Do you think I can comfortably watch another Alpha lingering around you, Cha Hae-joo?”
“…That’s usually only possible between couples who get along well, Your Majesty. Have you forgotten? We were apart for five years. Like strangers.”
Even if the gap between us was something Joo Min-hyeok didn’t want, he couldn’t deny the passage of five years. Since it was a waste of time for both of us, I moved straight to the main point.
“Your Majesty and I have other things to discuss, rather than these useless conversations.”
At the mention of ‘other things to discuss,’ his facade of composure crumbled slightly. It seemed he realized what topic I was about to bring up.