By Zephyria 
“Heuaaam…!”
A man with disheveled hair and red, bloodshot eyes behind high-prescription glasses yawned widely. Smacking his lips, he walked to his desk. Under the tower of coffee cups, the ID card that read ‘Development Team Leader Kim Min-soo’ had long been covered up. Since he had been living in the sleeping room for almost a week, he didn’t need to find his ID card because he didn’t have to go outside the company building.
“Smack.”
Making a sound, he picked up the desk calendar on the messy table. He stroked the Jindo mix photo under the six letters of ‘Looking for a Family’ that he liked as soon as he saw it, and then flipped it to the next page.
The calendar that Yang Min-hee, the most talented new employee in the development team, had given him as a gift, which made him very excited, turned out to be a friendship gift that she had bought fifteen of and given to the entire team.
While reading the profile of the ten-year-old Yorkshire Terrier on the new page of May, Kim Min-soo picked up his coffee cup.
His eyes glanced at the computer and then widened as if they were about to pop out.
“Oh… Oh! Who rebooted the simulation I was running?”
Kim Min-soo shouted, jumping up from his seat. A few drops of instant coffee splashed onto his chest because of that.
He quickly approached the computer that was the culprit of turning on the air conditioner full blast from late spring, and whose heat was boiling even when the cooler was running.
“Team Leader Kim, where are you leaving your mind? It had a setting value error, so I rebooted it. Kang Hae-ah’s settings had Beta check on.”
Pulling the chair back from the seat beyond the partition, the development team employees said in unison. Kim Min-soo’s forehead furrowed at the grumbling that he could make a mistake in the settings for the test that the CEO’s marriage depended on.
“That can’t be.”
Raising and lowering his glasses, which were blurred by the steam he had exhaled in excitement, he leaned forward to the monitor. His eyes, stretching out his turtle neck to check the output values, were busy up and down.
“Oh, wow… What’s wrong? This is running according to the awakening probability. It’s just that the Kang Hae-ah AI stepped in poop in the first round. It seems to have been output with a version that didn’t awaken with a low probability?”
Kim Min-soo said, scratching the bluish skin under his eyes with his fingertips.
At the precise voice, the employees who had been pointing out his mistakes just a moment ago all closed their mouths. Only the sound of keyboards echoed in the development team, which was so cold that it was chilling to cool the computer.
“Oh…? Wait a minute.”
Team Leader Kim was really excited at the opportunity to point out the mistakes of his subordinates. While checking the output values here and there, he clicked his tongue, making a sound on purpose.
“Did you reboot this without formatting? Not starting over after wiping everything?”
“How can we wipe everything? How big is the data size?”
“No, who told you to reset the program? You should have applied the AI information values to the initial settings!”
“Ah, Team Leader… What are we supposed to do with the spaghetti…?”
An employee who hid his head under the partition pointed out timidly. His words were correct. To the extent that it could be suspected of being a black company just by looking at the process, Kim Min-soo was entirely in charge of the AI development of AOM. As a result, the program code was twisted in a way that only he could understand, so that it was in a so-called ‘spaghetti’ state.
Kim Min-soo ignored the problem that the subordinate employee pointed out,
“Ah, then don’t touch it!”
“Oh my gosh… If this happens, the results will be a mess, so we really have to reset the program.”
Next to Kim Min-soo, who was putting his hands on his hips and shouting loudly, the new employee Yang Min-hee cautiously approached. With the fleece zipper fastened to the end of her neck, she placed a cup of freshly bought Americano near Team Leader Kim.
“Don’t fight, you two.”
At the words from his cherished new employee,
“We’re not fighting!”
Kim Min-soo gave an exaggerated smile.
Soon he pulled a office chair to the computer and sat down. Behind him, as he scanned the test results, the employee who had been rescued by Min-hee put his hands together and pretended to pray.
“Oh… There’s something strange mixed in…”
Rubbing his dim eyes, Kim Min-soo stretched his neck. The test results were very good. The development team had even bet money on the AOM results of the picky and scary CEO Cheon Tae-rim and the free-spirited artist Kang Hae-ah, but there was not a single winner in the development team. It was truly overwhelmingly positive, with higher scores than any other test results that had been run so far.
“Is it a bug?”
However, there was one strange factor mixed in that could not simply be overlooked. In the first round, when his subordinates arbitrarily rebooted while he was away, Kang Hae-ah’s AI committed suicide, and the results were naturally very bad. But even in the second round, where the results were very good, Cheon Tae-rim’s AI had committed suicide.
‘Did they kill each other?’
While sucking on the straw and sipping the Americano, Kim Min-soo sighed deeply. The results were good, but there was a problem with the process, so
“I guess I have to print all of this…”
It was time to look at each one to see where it went wrong.
It was the time when CEO Cheon Tae-rim left work at 7 PM. And at 6:30 PM, the team leaders of each department, holding the reports to be approved, lined up in front of the CEO’s office to prevent him from leaving work.
As usual, at 6:30 PM on Friday, when the regular meeting was held, Development Team Leader Kim Min-soo squeezed into the fierce line.
“Don’t cut in line.”
The eyes of the head of the personnel team, who turned his head with an annoyed voice, quickly widened. Kim Min-soo was holding a cart handle that could be seen at a large supermarket, and it was loaded with a huge pile of documents.
“Even if you’re the CEO, I don’t think he’ll look at all of that.”
The head of the personnel team said with a mixed laugh. Before Kim Min-soo could retort, the chief of staff parted the ranks.
“The CEO will not be coming back to the company. He will be going straight home after the business meeting, so please leave all the documents here and go down.”
The team leaders grumbled at the announcement delivered with both hands waving in the air. One by one, they began to hand over the documents they had brought to Si Eun-cheol, and Kim Min-soo also changed the direction of the heavy document cart.
He opened his mouth, caressing the scattered files with a regretful expression.
“Then, please make sure to tell him to look at this as soon as he gets back. It’s the AOM Beta Test data that Cheon Tae-rim CEO ran with AI.”
“Yes. Just leave it over there.”
Si Eun-cheol’s reply was simple and clear. As he was about to park the cart as instructed, Kim Min-soo narrowed his eyes. Two patches attached to both sides of the chief of staff’s neat temples came into his view.
Kim Min-soo was the developer whom CEO Cheon Tae-rim had headhunted to fill the team leader position. Si Eun-cheol did not like him, even though he was a key figure in AOM. Even if someone is unsociable, they can still be likable depending on their personality, but Kim Min-soo was not only unsociable but also lacked manners.
“……”
Even now, he was staring intently at other people’s faces with his mouth wide open like that.
“Si Eun-cheol…”
And then he was muttering his name all willy-nilly, even though they weren’t close.
Si Eun-cheol raised one eyebrow and approached him. His intention was to rather take the document cart directly and chase him away. However, Kim Min-soo expressed his refusal by jumping up and down in place. Then, he grabbed the cart handle and started heading straight for the CEO’s office.
“Oh, no! I’ll wait inside myself!”
“What? No… You can’t just enter so carelessly while CEO Cheon is away…”
Rejecting the chief of staff’s refusal, Kim Min-soo pushed open the door to the CEO’s office. He pulled the cart into the room with the highest ceiling and the best view in the building, and even sat right in the middle of the sofa.
“I’d like a long black, please.”
Si Eun-cheol’s face was filled with astonishment at Team Leader Kim’s brazen behavior. He was the highest-paid development team leader in the company, and CEO Cheon Tae-rim cherished him as a genius employee, but today his rudeness was too much.
Kim Min-soo didn’t budge even under the openly long and hard stare. Rather, he trotted over to CEO Cheon Tae-rim’s desk and tore off a post-it note that wasn’t being used. It was to write a memo to hand over in advance and attach it to the file.
Behind him, as he hunched over and scribbled on the crumpled memo,
“What are you doing in someone else’s room?”
A thick voice descended.
Without realizing it, Kim Min-soo gasped. His back straightened up and the post-it note in his hand crumpled into a fist.
As he slowly turned around, swallowing hard, a huge man wrapped in a black suit was looking down at him with a nonchalant expression.
His swept-back hair was neat and not a single strand was out of place, and his dark eyes in his deep monolid were indifferent. He was very tall and his shoulders and arms were like boulders, giving off an atmosphere like a stone statue from time to time, and there was no trace of humanity in his sculpted features, making him somewhat scary.
Even if one was not an Alpha or Omega, one could read the undisguised aura emanating from him. Even Kim Min-soo, a Beta, could tell at first glance that he was a Dominant Alpha.
Stumbling backward, Kim Min-soo put his hand on the cart handle.
“Oh, well… there’s something that the CEO really needs to see.”
As he reported, unable to hide his nervousness, Cheon Tae-rim’s eyes landed on the document cart. The densely stacked files and documents seemed impossible to read all in one day, even with a rough look.
“I’m busy, can you give me a brief report?”
He loosened his tie and walked past Kim Min-soo. It was a signal that if a summary report was not possible, he should leave immediately.
“That’s a bit… difficult.”
Kim Min-soo cleared his throat and adjusted his posture. He was belatedly embarrassed by the two drops of Americano that had splashed on his clothes, but his pride in the program he had created was still intact.
After swallowing hard for a long time, Kim Min-soo mustered up the courage to speak.
“Aren’t you curious why your AI made it print all of this, even to the point of committing suicide…?”
Then silence fell in the CEO’s office. Cheon Tae-rim sat his large body in the office chair and completely loosened his tie. Then, he rolled up the wrinkled shirt sleeves from his business trip over his thick forearms.
“Sit.”
Unable to hide his happy face, Kim Min-soo took out the files from the cart. While he was listing the lengthy reports from the first and second rounds on the table, Cheon Tae-rim found a scrap of paper that had fallen in front of his shoes. It was a crumpled sky-blue post-it note.
He quietly looked down at the memo scribbled in crooked, hard-to-read handwriting.
‘The Beta Test results are overwhelmingly positive. I’m sending my support!
P.S. In the case of the test where Kang Hae-ah’s settings were applied as Beta, the results were not good, but the degree of affection between the two was measured to be very high. Please take note.’
In front of Cheon Tae-rim, who raised one eyebrow, Kim Min-soo swallowed hard at the tightening tension in his throat.
What Cheon Tae-rim wanted when choosing a spouse was not just a piece of data. It was embarrassing to say as the CEO of AOM, but that was the truth. No matter how good the test results were, a person he had never met or even exchanged greetings with was ultimately a stranger to him.
Moreover, if the test was more of a mess than he had thought, riddled with unexpected incidents and accidents, his answer was even more ‘no.’ That was his impression of the report that the development team leader had confidently presented.
The marriage with Kang Hae-ah should not proceed.
From the beginning, he thought that his own artificial intelligence in the test was flawed. Cheon Tae-rim was not a romantic person. He had never been prepared to give his life for anyone, and if there was an Omega who made him go berserk, he would keep them far away, rather than keeping them by his side, thinking it was truly irrational.
Cheon Tae-rim did not trust the test results that the development team leader had confidently presented. His impression after reading the test results until midnight was,
“Tsk.”
He only clicked his tongue. Then, he carelessly threw the last file.
He had never met Kang Hae-ah in person, but he had seen his pictures often enough on the internet to be sick of them. The lawyers sent by Hanseong Group also frequented Cheon Tae-rim’s office, but none of them had ever praised Kang Hae-ah’s appearance.
It was true that Kang Hae-ah had no problems with his eyes, nose, or mouth, and was objectively handsome. However, he was not the kind of beauty who would make you fall in love at first sight and lose your mind, as the Beta Test said.
‘You have to say something that makes sense.’
In the first place, Cheon Tae-rim had never fallen for anyone’s appearance, whether male or female. There could be no words more unrelated to him than the phrase ‘falling in love at first sight.’
Even past midnight, the lights of the Seoul night view were bright and dazzling. He let out a long sigh, thinking that he had wasted his time for nothing.
‘77 percent.’
Since the awakening probability was only that much, it was sufficient grounds to cancel the marriage contract. Kang Il-hae’s personality, which popped out unexpectedly, was also a problem, and the obstacle called Im Geon was also a problem.
‘…….’
Of course, Cheon Tae-rim himself had many problems as well. He had to check with Si Eun-cheol, his oldest friend and chief of staff, about the One-sided Imprinting issue, starting tomorrow.
‘Kissing my husband… that Si Eun-cheol. With a recessive Omega?’
It must have been a problem with the AI formation. Even if the AIs were functioning perfectly, that was a problem in itself. Just thinking about the problems that would come made him feel a headache.
Of course, he could still marry Kang Hae-ah, taking all of that into account. The results of the second round of testing were saying so. With prior knowledge, if he made an effort, he could end a problematic marriage with a happy ending. That was what the ‘Cheon Tae-rim’ in the test wanted.
However,
‘Why bother?’
Those words were arguing within Cheon Tae-rim.
‘Because Kang Hae-ah is pitiful. So what? He’s just a stranger anyway.’
Cheon Tae-rim’s mind immediately became complicated. The test results that Kim Min-soo had brought with excitement were indeed a great story worth spending four hours reading.
‘…Marrying him and living with him for the rest of my life just because he’s pitiful. With an imperfect person?’
The problem was that it didn’t read like a story in which he was the main character.
Tapping the desk with his middle finger, Cheon Tae-rim glared at the stacked documents. The crumpled sky-blue post-it note especially grated on his nerves.
In the end, he couldn’t know anything with the information he had right now. Even the pile of documents that took four hours to review was not evidence to force the marriage with Kang Hae-ah.
As he packed his bag and left the CEO’s office, Cheon Tae-rim thought in his own way.
‘It’s not too late to meet him and refuse.’
That was why he had entered the restaurant that was prepared with the name of a blind date, a restaurant that seemed excessive to find just to have a cup of coffee.
Cheon Tae-rim, who had only changed his tie from his work attire, frowned as soon as he met Kang Hae-ah. As soon as he stood at the entrance of the restaurant, he felt his heart racing wildly.
‘I really… can’t understand it.’
As soon as he saw Kang Hae-ah’s face in person, sitting far away and looking out the window, he turned around. He hid his large shoulders behind a pillar leading to the second floor and straightened his crooked tie. He was even a little angry.
Recalling the faces of the Hanseong Group lawyers who had frequented his office to the point of interfering with his work, Cheon Tae-rim resented them.
‘…Why didn’t anyone tell me?’
He glanced at the table again and was dumbfounded. It was the first time he had ever felt so stupid and dull. In the moment he felt like everything around him disappeared and only Kang Hae-ah was in front of him, he guessed that he would never forget this day for the rest of his life.
Kang Hae-ah, who was sitting at a sunny table waiting for him, was so handsome that he was beautiful. It was enough for the phrase ‘falling in love at first sight’ to become Cheon Tae-rim’s.
‘If he looked like that, they should have told me in advance.’
Cheon Tae-rim stopped blankly and narrowed his eyes. No matter how meticulously he tried to examine him, there were no obvious flaws in Kang Hae-ah. The flow of his body was slender and elegant, and the soft smile on his face was pleasing to the eye. Everything, from his auburn hair and brown eyes to his white skin that felt so clear that it was almost hazy, was more blurred than others, but that point rather captivated the eye.
At that moment, Cheon Tae-rim recalled the records that had kept him up all night. He compared Kang Hae-ah in the thick files to the perfect man in front of him.
The Kang Hae-ah that the program spoke of was a monster created by the twisted Korean society. The youngest son of a conglomerate and a naive artist, a complete loner who put everyone under his feet, a crybaby who made giants into ants and then became afraid….
Tilting his head, Cheon Tae-rim was puzzled. The Kang Hae-ah in front of him didn’t seem like such a sad person. His eyes sparkled like a child’s, and his cheeks glowed like tulips.
In the moment that Kang Hae-ah finally recognized the blankly standing Cheon Tae-rim, the soft smile on his clear face deepened.
Showing two white front teeth like a rabbit, he got up from his seat and,
“Tae-rim-ssi.”
When he called out like that,
‘I was wrong.’
Cheon Tae-rim reached the easiest and most fascinating conclusion.
‘The Beta Test was wrong. He’s a completely different person.’
Filled with conviction, he tucked the end of his tie into his buttoned jacket and concealed it. Then, he walked straight. He bowed lightly to Kang Hae-ah, who was smiling with a mixture of joy and awkwardness, and sat down.
“You came early.”
Cheon Tae-rim said, and
“Ah, yes. I was worried I’d be late since it’s my first time here…”
Kang Hae-ah trailed off.
“Um… yes.”
Cheon Tae-rim was not good at small talk. It was thanks to the fact that most of the people he had met throughout his twenty-eight years of life had made an effort to talk to him.
“……”
“……”
Unfortunately, Kang Hae-ah was the same in that regard.
Silence came early to the sunny table. Because his mind was complicated, Cheon Tae-rim spent a long time worrying about what kind of self-introduction he should make. Numerous sentences floated in his head, only to be swept away like dust.
Soon, Kang Hae-ah’s pretty brown eyes left him. He was just looking down at the words on the menu, not looking at him again at all, as if he was bored with the long silence.
That made Cheon Tae-rim anxious.
‘What should I say, usually at times like this….’
Soon, a small sigh escaped from Kang Hae-ah’s sensitive-looking nose. When he even closed his lips neatly, he looked like a very haughty and cold person. Feeling embarrassed, Cheon Tae-rim poured a glass of water into his mouth.
Only then did Kang Hae-ah show an expression. He fanned himself as if he was hot, and then,
“I’m sorry.”
He apologized in a pleasant voice.
“It’s… my first time at a place like this. I’m a little nervous… I don’t know what to say.”
He just smiled and blushed, but he looked like a shy boy. Cheon Tae-rim was captivated by the atmosphere that had changed in an instant.
“Actually, it’s my first time too.”
Cheon Tae-rim said, straightening his back stiffly.
“…I’m nervous, too, similarly.”
Then Kang Hae-ah chuckled.
“I’m not the only one…. That’s a relief.”
He straightened his hunched shoulders and laughed out loud, then picked up the glass in front of him and took a sip of coffee. For a very brief moment, his neat eyebrows furrowed, then returned to normal.
Cheon Tae-rim’s fingertips became dull at the expression that was shown for just a moment, which could be called a snapshot. He moved the tip of his index finger, making a tapping sound, and tapped on the table.
His black eyes stared intently at Kang Hae-ah.
‘…….’
After a silence as if he was deep in thought,
“…Kang Hae-ah-ssi, you haven’t awakened yet, have you?”
Cheon Tae-rim opened his mouth. It was a tone as if he was trying to confirm something.
“Yes? Ah, yes. But I’ll awaken soon. I heard that if you have a partner Alpha, even a late awakening is stable, right? So I’m looking forward to it. Um… I thought I had told you through my Father, but was I wrong?”
With a confident face and sparkling eyes, Kang Hae-ah spoke clearly. Cheon Tae-rim focused his mind so that the pleasant voice would not obscure the essence of the conversation. Leaving aside his pretty face and kind tone, Kang Hae-ah’s Korean skills were at the level of a well-spoken foreigner. It was even awkward in places, as if he was reading a translated sentence.
It was strange. No matter how long he had lived abroad, his family was all Korean, so how could he be so bad at Korean conversation?
After sifting out the small doubts several times,
“…Do you know your own awakening rate?”
Cheon Tae-rim asked.
It was a question born from a meticulous personality that could not be satisfied without finding the answer in a moment of doubt.
“Yes?”
Kang Hae-ah asked back, not understanding the simple question. His eyes blinked rapidly and a small earthquake occurred in his pupils. He seemed to have never even heard of the word ‘awakening rate.’
Cheon Tae-rim frowned slightly.
“When did you have your Omega trait test? Do you remember the exact number and the date of the test?”
When he rephrased the question with a long sentence,
“Ah, ah… I don’t really know.”
Kang Hae-ah’s fingertips touched his upper lip and then his left cheek before disappearing under the table. Facing his kind face, which was embarrassed, Cheon Tae-rim was seized with the feeling that he had become a very bad person.
“…According to AOM, Kang Hae-ah-ssi’s awakening rate was 77 percent. Since it was 77 percent with the test from 20 years ago, the probability is actually a little lower. There’s also a possibility that you’re a Beta and not an Omega.”
Still, he didn’t stop talking. It was something that had to be confirmed someday, as long as the trace of the AOM testing chip remained like a dot on the side of Kang Hae-ah’s round forehead.
“No.”
The returning reaction was quick.
“Am I really an Omega?”
Kang Hae-ah shook his head, laughing. The smile etched on his lips, however, gradually faded before Cheon Tae-rim’s impassive face.
“Father definitely said…”
His white hand reached up again, touching his left cheek. His brown eyes busily scanned the table. He seemed to have no answer in his head for the obvious question.
“I’ll go make a phone call, I… it’s a difficult story to tell right now.”
Kang Hae-ah smiled pleasantly, crinkling his eyes. He was a man of quick changes in expression. He shrugged as if there was some misunderstanding, then slowly, almost elegantly, picked up his phone and rose from his seat.
“Take your time. I’ll be waiting.”
Cheon Tae-rim saw Kang Hae-ah off as he calmly excused himself. However, as soon as the cheerful, smiling man left, he examined his coffee cup.
He reached out and touched the outside of the cup, finding it cold. He must have arrived early and waited for so long that the cup had already cooled, and the coffee was almost gone, revealing the bottom. Cheon Tae-rim frowned, his thick eyebrows furrowed, and hesitated for a few seconds.
But the hesitation didn’t last long. He silently got up and followed Kang Hae-ah.
Considering his words about making a phone call and his casual smile, he didn’t seem to have gone far, but Kang Hae-ah was nowhere to be seen, not at the entrance of the restaurant, nor in the surrounding parking lot.
Cheon Tae-rim looked around and moved as his feet led him. After walking about twenty steps, in the back alley of the building,
“Then please tell the Chairman… to contact me later, no matter what…”
A small voice leaked out. Cheon Tae-rim’s nerves pricked up at the title ‘Chairman.’
“Ah, no, Hyung. It’s not like that, I… because you asked so suddenly, I was just wondering…”
Stopping in his tracks, Cheon Tae-rim took in the scene of the alley. Kang Hae-ah’s posture was hunched as he spoke on the phone, repeatedly calling out ‘Hyung.’ His nodding head had long been lowered towards the ground, so he didn’t notice his match had come looking for him, and the dark shadow of the tall building covered even the crown of his head, making his white skin appear dark gray.
“…Yeah. No, it’s not that I don’t trust you… …Yeah, I’m, I’m sorry. …Yeah, I’ll tell Tae-rim-ssi that too.”
Then there was no sound. The hand holding the phone slowly lowered, and his lips were tightly shut, indicating that the call had long ended, but Kang Hae-ah’s feet remained rooted, not returning to the restaurant.
Instead, he pressed his forehead with both hands and staggered. He leaned against the outer wall of the building with a small sound, then slid down to a sitting position. The relaxed attitude he had shown just moments ago was nowhere to be found.
“Haa…”
Exhaling a trembling breath, Kang Hae-ah fumbled in his jacket pocket. What came out of his white hand was a crumpled pack of cigarettes. The fingers that pulled out a cigarette trembled. He put the filter in his mouth and tried to light the lighter, but he couldn’t even get the flame to ignite, just fumbling uselessly.
Unable to watch any longer, Cheon Tae-rim approached. As the sound of his footsteps drew near, Kang Hae-ah raised his head, and upon recognizing his face, dropped the lighter in surprise.
“Tae-rim-ssi… that’s…”
He didn’t know he was a smoker, but as a renowned artist, there was no reason he couldn’t smoke. But Kang Hae-ah’s attitude made it seem like he had been caught doing drugs, not smoking.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
Facing him, Cheon Tae-rim bowed. Kneeling on one knee on the ground, he touched Kang Hae-ah’s left cheek. The eyes that had been smiling brightly just moments ago twitched as if in spasm.
But the violence that Kang Hae-ah instinctively braced for didn’t come. Instead, Cheon Tae-rim rubbed his finger across his cheek, which had a strangely smooth texture. With his four fingers against the frozen man’s ear, he used only his thumb to check the foundation wiped off on the lines of his hand.
“……”
His cheek was red from the harsh rubbing. Leaning closer, Cheon Tae-rim confirmed the faint greenish bruise underneath.
Pressing his thumb against Kang Hae-ah’s lower lip, his small mouth trembled and opened. The inside of his cheek was revealed like a cave through his white, even teeth. The red hue of the unhealed wound finally caught Cheon Tae-rim’s eye. It was the mark of a burst cheek from being hit hard.
So that was why it hurt to drink the cold coffee.
“Ah, th-this… it’s… well…”
Kang Hae-ah was trembling, overwhelmed by a feeling that was a mix of shame and sorrow.
“I… I fell… I…”
Releasing his face, which was stammering an excuse, Cheon Tae-rim patted his shoulder once, then his hand fell to the ground.
Kang Hae-ah closed his eyes tightly. With his head drooping and his shoulders slumped, he tried not to watch his match leave him behind.
But after some time, the sound of receding footsteps didn’t come. Instead, there was a ‘whoosh’ sound of blowing dust, and ‘click,’ ‘click,’ the sound of lighting a lighter.
What brightened Kang Hae-ah’s slowly opened eyes was a small flame. Holding the lighter he had dropped, Cheon Tae-rim’s face was clear.
The back alley of the building, with its large windows to let in sunlight, was dim. It was a messy and dark space, like the dark side of the moon. Even the light of the lighter reflected in each other’s eyes could be observed.
With his jaw trembling so hard it sounded like clattering, Kang Hae-ah put the cigarette in his mouth. His white face was flushed red. He sucked on the cigarette that the stranger had lit for him, his cheeks hollowing.
The acrid smoke briefly hid Kang Hae-ah’s expression. But even after that cleared, there was no tool to hide his wet eyelashes.
Silently, he smoked the cigarette.
“Kang Hae-ah, why do you want to get married?”
Cheon Tae-rim asked. Kang Hae-ah slowly blinked his eyes. Tears welled up and trickled down from under his reddened eyelids.
“…Pardon?”
He asked back a beat late, and
“I asked why you want to get married.”
Cheon Tae-rim’s voice became noticeably kinder.
“I…”
Kang Hae-ah mumbled, wiping away tears with the back of his hand.
“I thought it would be nice to have a family…”
It was an ambiguous answer. It wasn’t because of his indecisive nature. Rather, it was because he wasn’t sure about his own words. He had never had a proper family, so he didn’t know if it would be good to have one, he was just guessing that it ‘would be good.’
“When I… go home, the lights are on… someone is waiting for me… ‘You’re back,’ ‘Yeah, I’m back’… I thought it would be nice to say hello like that. Everyone… wants that kind of family, don’t they?”
His confession was broken. It was because tears or cigarette smoke flowed between each breath he held.
“It’s because of the greeting. …You want to get married because of the greeting.”
“…Yes. It’s because of the greeting.”
Now Kang Hae-ah didn’t smile. He seemed to realize that he had passed the stage of glossing over with a smile and smoothing things over with pleasant words. Instead of making excuses, he bowed his head deeply.
“What Tae-rim-ssi said… seems to be right. My awakening probability… must really be that low. …I’m sorry, I… didn’t even know… and got excited all by myself. Looking for a house… ah, I’ve already moved all my things in… I’m really… an idiot…”
Cheon Tae-rim stared silently at the hand that was messily ruffling his beautifully soft hair. There was a uniquely shaped callus only on the middle finger of his right hand, the one that held the brush. The finger itself also seemed slightly bent.
“I… just wasted your time… I’m sorry. This marriage… doesn’t seem like it will work out.”
Kang Hae-ah whispered, and
“Yes, Kang Hae-ah.”
Cheon Tae-rim didn’t deny it.
“Our arranged marriage seems to be off.”
Then a small ‘sniff’ sounded. It was a warm sob mixed with self-reproach. Kang Hae-ah, who had ruined an important meeting, heard a mix of curses and scolding from his brother on the phone, and was now smoking and crying in front of his match, seemed like someone who had given up on everything.
“…Instead, let’s have a love marriage. With me… let’s do that.”
Cheon Tae-rim said hastily before his crying could get any louder.
“Don’t cry. Let’s do it, with me. Dating.”
The expression was jumbled because he had put it together in a hurry.
“I will… like Kang Hae-ah.”
He clenched his teeth as he spoke as if he was very sure of the uncertain words.
“…Very much. I will like you a lot, …and I will love you. Whether Hae-ah is a Beta or an Omega.”
In fact, he didn’t want to admit it. So he insisted that the Beta Test was wrong, that the AI was wrong, and that the results couldn’t be trusted.
He denied it because he didn’t want it to be true. That the man he would come to like was a sad, hurt, and worn-down person. That he was a weak man who couldn’t overcome vile slander, leaving such a spouse to die.
“I… I don’t understand what you’re saying…”
Kang Hae-ah shook his brown eyes busily and looked into Cheon Tae-rim’s eyes. But the eyes that rippled like waves were his alone, and there was no confusion or regret in Cheon Tae-rim’s eyes.
“I’m proposing right now.”
Kang Hae-ah widened his eyes in surprise at the sudden proposal. It was an absurd thing to hear at a moment when he had learned a fact he shouldn’t have known and had been caught in a state he shouldn’t have been seen in.
“What is…”
Then, watching him swallow his tears, Cheon Tae-rim cleared his throat.
“It may sound strange, but please listen.”
After taking a deep breath to swell his large ribcage,
“You may not know me, but… I know everything about you.”
He confessed.
“That you like seafood more than meat, that you like dogs more than cats, that you are very sensitive to colors… I know. That you have lived diligently until the age of twenty-six, waiting for the moment when you will have someone who is truly on your side, your family, your home.”
…That you are now innocent and pure, comforting yourself that it doesn’t have to be love, and believing that you can overcome sadness with a tender kiss.
After swallowing the rest of his words, Cheon Tae-rim stretched out his neck. Because the distance between them was very close, the slight movement suddenly led to a kiss. After awkwardly rubbing his lips up and down to make it feel tender, Cheon Tae-rim slowly pulled his head away.
The cigarette in Kang Hae-ah’s left hand was immediately crumpled. Warm breath flowed out of Cheon Tae-rim’s nose.
Kang Hae-ah blankly looked up at Cheon Tae-rim, whose height and physique seemed to have jumped out of a hard-boiled drama, whose eyes were extremely serious, but whose ears were red with an absurd confession and a surprise kiss.
The ashes of the burnt cigarette fell onto his fingers,
“Ah! Ho…t.”
Cheon Tae-rim grabbed the hand that was moving in surprise. Kang Hae-ah stared with his mouth open at the unfamiliar face that was blowing on the hot ashes on his white skin, making a ‘whoo, whoo’ sound.
“I…”
Then he whispered.
“…I’ll… quit smoking.”
Cheon Tae-rim, whose forehead was red with tension, smiled. Kang Hae-ah also let out a dry laugh, following him as he laughed out loud, his shoulders shaking.
The Beta Test was successfully completed. Thanks to that, Cheon Tae-rim knew. That the man in front of him was someone who would embrace him even if he had to go a long way around.
That was how the two met for the first time. Each burning their ears with a hot blush.