8 – The Face in the Hallway

Cheon Tae-rim is a unicorn. A rainbow after the rain, an oasis in the desert, the brightest star in the night sky, a flame that doesn’t die even in the bitter cold, a god of beauty who makes you want to confess even to sins you haven’t committed. And… and… what other pretty words are there? Ah, I should have studied Korean more!

Anyway, I want to take all the good words in the world and use them to describe him. That’s how I felt when I woke up early in the morning and admired his sleeping face.

I watched him until the morning sunlight crept into the room filled with purple darkness. I held my breath, curled my toes, and used all my concentration. It felt sweet to even taste my saliva as I savored the fact that this man, who was new, handsome, and good-looking every time I saw him, was my husband.

The fact that this man, whose every feature, even the shadow under his lips, was perfect, said to me in a sweet voice,

‘I like you.’

That fact made my heart flutter.

The reason why I, a typical night owl, wake up two hours earlier than Tae-rim, a diligent morning bird, is not only to secretly admire him. Of course, admiring him, who makes me able to give a cheerful answer of ‘Yes!’ to the usual nagging of ‘Are you going to live off your looks?’, was more joyful than sleep. However, the real reason that disturbed my long sleep was the imprinting symptoms.

I couldn’t sleep for long because I was in such an awakened state that I couldn’t even feel fatigue. Like someone who had drunk three or four cups of strong coffee in a row, I was intoxicated by Cheon Tae-rim’s pheromones. My mood was floating, and my mind was very clear.

The psychological factor that further strengthened the symptoms was, well… because I am me. That’s the only way I can explain it.

I don’t know what the standards are for ordinary people, that is… for others who are not me. How much joy do they need to feel happy, how deep a wound must be to recognize it as painful, in what environment and place do they feel confident that it is where they should be… All I know are my standards.

Anyone would easily get an A+ compared to me. According to Kang Hae-ah’s standards, minus is the average score.

Since I have never felt happy in my life, feeling unhappy is the average. Since it is daily to have a lump or bruise somewhere, that is the average. Since I lived like a wanderer from the age of six until I became an adult, and even in Seoul, where I was barely called in, I wandered around not knowing what to do, that was average for me.

Only my height is fine, and only my education is plausible, but I am an empty can, a scarecrow, a smart aleck. It was lonely and difficult to understand the common emotions that others felt. During my self-centered teenage years, I even fell into the ridiculous delusion that ‘I am a psychopath.’

Around the age of ten, I attended a gifted art school in Paris with my still clumsy French skills. In those days, it was difficult to express warm feelings in color. I couldn’t understand why my friends, who were packing their bags to return home to their families for vacation, seemed so happy. On the night when a typhoon hit and the dormitory lost power, I was amazed that the children cried, ‘Mom.’

Covering themselves with one blanket and gathering on the bed in the large room, my friends cried, ‘Mom,’ ‘Mom,’ but I blinked my dry eyes and only looked at the flashing lights outside the window.

That day’s blank feeling was my default value. That was exactly the average. Since there is no name to call anyway, who should I look for and what for? Since there is no one to comfort me, why should I cry? Since tomorrow and the day after tomorrow will be similar, why focus on today’s unhappiness? That blank feeling.

But the current anxiety was different. Before, even if I saw Tae-rim with a comfortable face next to me in my dreams, I would wake up and sigh alone in the big bed, but now it was the opposite. I would have a dream that Tae-rim was leaving me and wake up in surprise, only to find him smiling, as if having a good dream, next to me.

So, this man is a unicorn. He is a rainbow and an oasis. There is nothing he cannot be, whether it is a flame or a god. No good words are too good for him.

AOM’s CEO Cheon Tae-rim shouldn’t be lying here next to me today, but my husband Cheon Tae-rim did it anyway.

Even I knew in advance how important his current business trip was. Establishing a US branch was something that AOM had been anticipating since its initial conception and a major branch of the business, but Cheon Tae-rim was sleeping next to me, postponing that important schedule. He comforted me, saying that it was okay to postpone the schedule for a couple of days, and comforted me, saying that he would be with me until the aftereffects of unilateral imprinting subsided.

I liked that kindness. His attitude of liking the unstable Kang Hae-ah even more, rather than hating her, made me so happy. Just having Cheon Tae-rim lying next to my arm made my heart flutter and goosebumps rise.

I didn’t know why the lightning that flashed brightly outside the window came to mind at this moment. The thunder that flashed dazzlingly and lit up the night sky, and then roared loudly with a ‘boom.’

‘I’m happy.’

I tried not to get caught up in unnecessary thoughts, but it was all in vain. The ten-year-old, taciturn Kang Hae-ah had nothing but thoughts in her head.

A bitter saliva filled my mouth. Soon, the tip of my nose tingled.

‘I’m happy….’

I couldn’t remember when I had ever felt such happiness. I guess I had never really been happy. This moment of greeting the morning with joy was the first time in both my lives.

I buried my face in the pillow and made a sniffling sound, and Tae-rim’s hand slowly touched my head. Then he pulled the blanket up and covered me to above my neck. I closed my eyes tightly and breathed quietly.

His hand patting my shoulder was heavy. His sleepy hand patted me and then slowly drooped. That touch was so tender that I felt hot.

The anxiety that had been coiling inside me as if it were natural was now gone. Just the fact that Tae-rim was next to me stopped the thunder outside the window. A warm heat rose from my stomach.

‘I like it.’

I hope he never leaves my side, even though I know there’s no way around the remaining business trip. I also know that even the fact that he’s next to me today is a miracle that I can enjoy because I’m an omega. But still, forever….

‘I like you….’

My excited breath escaped from my nose and then became rough. There was an earthquake rumbling inside my rib cage. It felt like adrenaline was rushing to my head, like someone who had been running for a long time.

I put my forehead on Tae-rim’s sleeping arm. And I carefully touched his hand and gently stroked his thigh.

‘Hoo’… A hot breath came out of Tae-rim’s nose. I could feel his thigh hardening under my palm. My hand touched his tense muscles and his lying manhood. It was already hard to the touch, as if it was half-erect in his sleep.

‘No….’

I knew that my actions of groping the sleeping him were wrong. Even knowing that, I couldn’t stop stroking his thing with my hand. The ambiguous guilt only stimulated me.

There were more reasons to continue than to stop. For example, Tae-rim’s body started to smell good, and my insides warmed up. And… um…, that was actually all.

Taking a deep breath of the humid air, I inhaled Tae-rim’s scent through my nose. I rubbed the tip of my nose against his arm and kissed him, touching Tae-rim’s thing that stood out over his pants.

A low moan was suddenly heard. Tae-rim’s breath in his sleep was hot and loud. A thick scent came from his exhalation, a musty and deepened scent, as if it usually came from rain-soaked bushes….

My heart became even redder. The urge to hug, suck, and lick him led me. I felt like an excited bug when I slowly crawled into the blanket. Carefully, I buried my head between his legs and lay down.

I quietly lowered Tae-rim’s pajama pants. Then, the outline of his genitals, swollen inside his black underwear, was very clear. His scent vibrated, and my mouth watered.

Panting, I started licking over his black underwear. My saliva mixed with the pre-cum he had shed. As I licked up with my tongue with a thin cloth in between, and sucked with my lips gathered, Tae-rim’s waist moved.

“……”

With my head buried in his underwear, I stopped breathing.

‘Did he wake up…?’

My heart was pounding like a child who had stolen candy, which made my guilt even greater. What kind of cute and fun thing am I doing, getting excited as a perverted bastard sucking on a sleeping person’s underwear.

After waiting in silence for a while, only Tae-rim’s movements of tossing and turning continued. His hot lower abdomen, covered in warm sweat, was slightly visible. The muscles of his abdomen swelled with his breath,

“Hoo….”

Soon it subsided.

After confirming that he wasn’t awake, I became more courageous. Reason shouted that I should stop and pretend to sleep next to him again, but conscience was on the side of instinct. With my face close to his underwear, which was covered in a strong scent, I slowly lowered his pants.

Then, Tae-rim’s thing popped out and hit my cheek.

“……”

My cheek, hit by the hard, swollen flesh, was numb. It was a little funny and very embarrassing. But to stop, Tae-rim’s erect manhood was too much. It was too big, too swollen, and too lewd. Beads of pre-cum flowed down along the prominent blood vessels.

‘This… this went into my body?’

Listening to Tae-rim’s deep breathing, I opened my mouth. I wanted to be brave and suck it, but hesitation grabbed my nape.

But the worry didn’t last long.

I knew more about him than Tae-rim knew about me. It’s safe to say that all Beta Kang Hae-ah learned in six years was knowledge about Cheon Tae-rim. In the days when I couldn’t satisfy him with my body when he was in rut, I tried all sorts of things.

When he moved as he pleased and was faithful to his instincts, Tae-rim’s eyes were different. Kang Hae-ah, who had never been able to manifest, had no scent to soothe the dominant alpha, and no courage or courage to do so, but the only thing she could imitate like other lovers was fellatio.

There was a time when I didn’t have the courage to accept him in any other way. Because I realized several times that it would hurt a lot, my skin would tear, and it would be very scary… That’s how it was then, then Tae-rim, and his excited appearance, was scary.

Even so, I couldn’t give up on ‘playing the husband’ and made him suffer. I even forcibly crawled under his belly, who was pushing me away, took off his clothes even though I knew I would regret it, and even sprayed mist that smelled similar to omega pheromones.

‘I was crazy back then.’

I didn’t have the right to reflect on the past like that.

‘…I’m even crazier now.’

How can I reflect on anything when I’m drunk on the smell of an alpha’s genitals?

My mouth was full of saliva with excitement. As soon as I lowered my head and opened my lips, a drop of saliva fell. I brought my mouth to the side of the pillar with prominent blood vessels and licked the flowing pre-cum. Contrary to expectations, it tasted bitter and sweaty.

What I wanted, drooling with desire that I didn’t know whether it was sexual desire or appetite, was something else. Not this ambiguous, sweat…

‘I want him to… cum quickly.’

I wanted to receive and eat his semen.

I opened my trembling mouth as wide as possible and put the tip of his genitals into my mouth. Even though I put it in as much as I could so that it touched my palate, it was only the tip that I put in.

Hot breath escaped from my nose,

“Um….”

Tae-rim’s moan was heard softly.

My heart was pounding, and my reason began to waver.

‘What if… he really wakes up?’

Doesn’t rape also apply between couples, and isn’t sexual harassment a serious crime? Tae-rim would know better than me about things related to the law.

“……”

As soon as I realized that the owner of the genitals that I had put in my mouth like candy was the only son of a prosecutor’s family, my sexual desire subsided on its own. After hesitating, I tried to take my head off, but a heavy grip suddenly grabbed my hair tightly.

“Oop…!”

My head was suddenly slammed down by the rough force. The hot flesh flooded into my surprised open mouth.

“Euh, oop!”

The tip of his genitals passed through my palate and uvula and forcibly poked into my throat. As the narrow throat was forcibly opened, warm breath filled and escaped into my cheeks powerlessly.

Breathing heavily, Tae-rim began to push his waist up as if he was pushing it up.

“Keok…! Woo, oop, heu-oop…!”

The hand gripping my hair was so strong that even if I flapped my limbs and resisted, my head didn’t move at all. I felt like a skewer because the thick genitals forcibly squeezed in. Even as the tip of my nose tingled and the blood in my whole body rushed to my head, I opened my jaw as much as possible so as not to sharpen my teeth.

Tears and saliva poured out at once.

“Woo-oop….”

Tae-rim’s hand released my head somewhat weakly and then pressed down again. It didn’t seem like he had woken up. If he had, he would have stepped back in the opposite direction from now. What was moving him right now was his instinct, drunk on sleep.

“Keok….”

I closed my eyes tightly and forcibly opened my throat. The hot and large genitals poked into my throat. Nausea rose, and I couldn’t breathe. The same action was repeated two, three, and repeatedly.

“Keoheok, woo, oop….”

I wanted him to cum quickly, but Cheon Tae-rim had good stamina even while he was excited in his sleep. I kept coughing because I was suffocating rather than the disgusting pain of poking my throat. Tears streamed down like a faucet had been turned on.

The action of poking deep into my throat became increasingly rough. Covered in tears, snot, and saliva, I coughed frantically, and he moaned. The heat rising to my head became a bright red light, and my breath was strangled.

Unable to bear it, I beat Tae-rim’s thighs indiscriminately.

“Woo, oop, eu-oop….”

But even if I scratched his crotch and punched his thighs with my fist, Tae-rim didn’t wake up.

“Heuk, oohk….”

My vision blurred, and I trembled with a feeling of suffocation, but my crotch was soaked. Heat spread from my head and genitals, and my whole body was covered in sweat.

“Woo….”

Giving up on waking him up, I forcibly pursed my lips. The flesh of my lips, already swollen and numb, was covered in saliva and pre-cum.

The urgent task was to cool down the heat of the excited alpha. I tried to narrow my cheeks, but my vision was blurry with tears. As I sucked his genitals with force, making a slurping sound, the scent became even stronger.

The heat of the moist liquid and friction soaked my mouth. It felt like Tae-rim’s thing was constantly swelling more on my tongue.

“Woo, oong…, oop….”

I tried to suck it a little better, but my tongue was just wriggling under his genitals. I closed my eyes tightly and sucked Tae-rim’s thing a few more times. Saliva flowed under my chin and wet my neck, making a gluttonous sound.

Just when I was terrified that my jaw would fall out,

“Heok, heoeok….”

With a rough breath, the hand that was holding my hair suddenly became stronger.

“Keok….”

My face was crushed close to Tae-rim’s crotch, and his genitals were pushed deep into my throat. He ejaculated.

“……”

In two or three bursts, the murky liquid passed into my throat. The moment I swallowed the semen, moving my Adam’s apple, my mind went blank as if I was about to faint.

Taking advantage of the gap where the hand holding my hair had loosened, I frantically pulled my neck out,

“Eut…!”

Tae-rim’s semen, which had repeatedly come out, splattered messily on my open teeth and on my face.

Covered in the alpha’s bodily fluids, I sobbed faintly. My knees bent, and my waist trembled. I licked the semen that had splattered on my lips, and as I swallowed, I ejaculated along with him.

It felt like I had been hit in the head. Tae-rim’s semen smelled good, and I enjoyed the moment when his genitals blocked my throat…. Because of that, my panties became damp. My stomach tingled.

“Keok, cough….”

A cough rose from my irritated throat. Under the blanket, kneeling between Tae-rim’s legs, I sobbed alone. My genitals, hardened with excitement, were sore.

As I raised my hand to wipe off what had splattered on my face, Tae-rim’s leg suddenly moved. As if surprised, his foot faltered once, and then the blanket was snatched away.

The moment the morning sunlight poured down painfully, I returned to reality. Tae-rim’s face, seeing me with his pants and underwear pulled down and covered in semen, was redder than I had ever seen it.

“What….”

Then he widened his eyes. He made a meaningless sound as if he was so surprised that he couldn’t even speak. I was so ashamed that my whole body turned red.

“……”

What excuse should I make? While I was at a loss, I coughed. I belatedly covered my mouth, which was coughing without a sense of timing, with both hands, and then rubbed my cheeks. Because I was practically covered in semen, wiping my face was just smearing the pale and smelly liquid around.

‘Oh, what do I do….’

Tae-rim-ssi, who belatedly came to his senses, cursed in a low voice. He wasn’t talking to me. I thought he must be talking to himself because he was so surprised.

With my head bowed, I only groaned. My erect penis throbbed, oblivious to the situation.

“Tae…, Tae-rim… ssi. That’s….”

I held my breath, trying to cover the crotch of my pajama pants with my hand. A small sob welled up inside my stinging throat. Hot tears of shame welled up and flowed down helplessly.

‘Oh, oh… what do I do….’

Once the string of lust was stripped away, only terrible and vulgar self-hatred remained. Tae-rim-ssi had been kind and nice to me, but I was a pervert ruining his morning. I wanted to stick my face in a water bowl and die. The hand covering my fly trembled.

Tae-rim-ssi moved a few seconds later. He pulled up his underwear and pants again to cover his exposed crotch, and then sat upright on the bed, adjusting his posture. Then he reached out and touched my cheek, ran his hand through my disheveled hair, and wiped away the milky liquid that had splashed on my eyebrows.

Repeatedly,

“I’m sorry. I…, ha…. I’m sorry.”

He apologized and wiped my face over and over again.

‘Oh….’

I froze, dumbfounded. I couldn’t understand why the words of apology were coming from his mouth, not mine. I couldn’t find a place to look, so I stared blankly at him, but Tae-rim-ssi’s face was as red as a beet. His earlobes seemed to be burning, and his lower lip was crushed from being bitten.

Soon, realization struck me. Just as I had gone crazy from being stimulated by his scent, there was a possibility that he was the same because of me. So, Tae-rim-ssi didn’t seem to have considered that Kang Hae-ah had gone crazy in the morning and voluntarily sucked his thing.

Apart from being grateful that he thought of me as a reasonable person,

‘That’s not it…. I was the one who attacked him….’

I was crushed flat by even greater guilt.

“Th…, that’s not, that’s not what happened….”

A mumbling voice escaped through my teeth. Not only had I attacked him while he was asleep, but I had also inadvertently deceived him and even received an apology. Tae-rim-ssi hugging me and being flustered, apologizing repeatedly like a sinner and not knowing what to do, was maddeningly guilty, but I liked it in the midst of it all.

I liked that he was mistaken that I had attacked him. I was thrilled that he misunderstood that it must have been the case. The fact that it could be true made my heart flutter.

“I…, I di…d it.”

In a voice that was barely audible, I confessed.

“I… in my sleep, th, that… Tae-rim-ssi was ne, next to me… the sce…, scent kept…. So I…, I did it firs…, first.”

Then Tae-rim-ssi’s face turned as red as it could possibly be. It was the first time I realized that a person’s complexion could burn so intensely. With his cheeks flushed red, he looked at me.

“Hae-ah…, you.”

Then he said.

“You deliberately sucked my dick?”

“Ack!”

Flustered, I pushed him away. The scream I let out without realizing it was so loud that my ears were ringing. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and retreated, retreated, avoiding him.

Woof, woof… a dog’s bark was heard from afar on the first floor. It was Do-jin barking at a strange visitor.

“O…, Ok-hye-ssi must be here…!”

I was flustered and tried to run away from the bed, but my arm was yanked back. From the recoil of the force pulling me, I fell onto the mattress as if collapsing.

‘Hick,’ I groaned softly as Tae-rim-ssi’s hands pressed down on my shoulders.

“I, I was wrong….”

Before I could apologize, saying I would never do it again, Tae-rim-ssi’s lips sealed my mouth. A hot kiss landed on my filthy lips that had sucked his sleeping member and swallowed his semen. The temperature of his tongue that flooded into my surprised mouth was hot.

My pants became heavy helplessly from the kiss that was burning like fire.

“Hee, uh….”

Tears welled up because my penis was aching. Whether he knew my situation, that I couldn’t release my erection and was being tortured, Tae-rim-ssi slowly pulled his touching lips away. My knees twisted and my waist lost strength.

Only then did I see Tae-rim-ssi’s eyes, which contained me, who had lost the strength to escape. He was observing me, slowly scanning my whole body and smelling my flesh.

“I don’t think you’re in rut.”

A ‘smack’ sound of a kiss landed on my lower jaw. His hand came into my pajama pants.

“…Why is it like this here?”

“Ah, no, no….”

My penis, which was so tense that it hurt, was gripped in Tae-rim-ssi’s hand. Tears welled up from the rough stimulation, and my toes tensed.

“Ugh….”

He grabbed my already wet pajamas and underwear at once and pulled them down. My red and throbbing penis and thighs were exposed. I struggled to cover them out of embarrassment, but it was no use. As soon as Tae-rim-ssi grabbed my thing, I surrendered and begged.

“Ah, it hurts! Ugh….”

The words not to do it leaked out in a muffled voice.

“I, I was wrong, Tae-rim-ssi. I’m sorry, I was wro… ugh, do, don’t touch me…!”

Even though I begged with half breath and half voice, Tae-rim-ssi didn’t care. The stimulation of stroking my penis continued one after another.

“…….”

His left hand stuck to my side, suppressing the rising moans. I felt the large hand groping over my ribs hotly. The buttoned pajama top was pulled up to my chest. He kissed my chest.

“Don’t hold back.”

I looked down at his back, which was smelling my body scent so that I could hear his nasal voice. His shoulders, which swelled and then subsided greatly, were as big as rocks. A mischievous laugh was heard very softly.

“Or, should I suck you off too?”

“Hic, ugh….”

I twisted my waist from the stimulation of his fingers stroking the tip of my penis. I pushed Tae-rim-ssi’s shoulders and chest away with both hands, but Dominant Alpha Cheon Tae-rim was big and strong enough to hate.

Soon, a squelching sound was added to his touch that was stroking my thing. My chest heaved wildly and my whole body began to convulse. I gasped for breath and my back lifted off the sheet. When I stuck out my stomach and made a strange, hissing sound, Tae-rim-ssi’s hand came under my floating waist.

He hugged my upper body and put strength into the hand that was holding my penis.

“Hic….”

My eyes widened when I was blocked right before ejaculation. It was like pouring out all the stimulation and then blocking me from cumming. My head turned blue with resentment that had nowhere to go.

“Ah, ah…, why….”

My whole body was wet with sweat and the bottom of my butt was slippery. I begged, saying something as I soaked the sheets with bodily fluids. I begged to be let go and cried that it hurt. Tae-rim-ssi watched me very quietly as I begged for whatever came to mind.

“Let you go?”

He asked, and

“Le, let me g…, ah, it hurts….”

The moment I inhaled a hot breath, Tae-rim-ssi’s body scent filled my lungs.

Belatedly, I saw his eyes. There was still reason in Tae-rim-ssi’s excited eyes. So, the body scent that was being emitted now was purely intentional.

I frantically tried to hold my breath, but it was useless. Shaking my head wildly, I was soaked in Cheon Tae-rim’s pheromones from head to toe.

The moment the whole world heated up, he released my penis that he had been holding tightly. At the same time as cramps rose all over my body, I began to ejaculate powerlessly. White semen smeared on Tae-rim-ssi’s hands and arms, and soon clear water gushed out like a broken fountain.

“Huk, hic….”

My skin tingled and all the hairs on my body seemed to stand on end. The tendons in my neck were so taut that they seemed about to snap, and the shock that seemed to extinguish my mind repeatedly took over me. I thrashed like a fish in Tae-rim-ssi’s arms. The trembling convulsions didn’t stop.

“Ah, ah…!”

White semen and clear water alternated from the tip of my penis. It was questionable whether it was my body that was alternately ejaculating and pouring out water.

I couldn’t move from the heavy orgasm. I kept convulsing like an electrocuted person. My eyes glazed over and my lips parted on their own.

“Ugh, ugh, ugh….”

After curling up my whole body and twisting my legs, the trembling finally stopped. As soon as I caught my breath, I started to cry. My stomach was wet because I had shot out an unknown water. The liquid that had flowed down was thinly pooled between my shrunken thighs.

As Tae-rim-ssi readjusted me, lukewarm water trickled down my knees. I was resentful of the shame that rose as if I had even wet myself.

‘I told you not to, I clearly said it….’

I wanted to bite my tongue because I was upset, angry, and ashamed. But the problem was that I didn’t have the energy to do so.

Breathing heavily, I snuggled into Cheon Tae-rim’s arms. Once more, my body trembled. The orgasm covered me again like a wave that didn’t know how to stop.

“Hic….”

I was trembling as if I was ejaculating, even though there was nothing more to come out and I wasn’t erect. My heart was beating slowly, thump, thump, and my arms and legs became heavy.

Soon, my body was no longer mine. It was like this at the hospital right after the awakening. The moment Tae-rim-ssi touched me, I couldn’t pull myself together like a rabbit that had fainted to be eaten. The symptoms were similar, but now, the degree was seriously different.

I wanted to pull up the pants that had slipped down to my ankles again, wipe off my dirty body, apologize to him, argue with him about something, and run away. But I couldn’t move a single finger.

Tae-rim-ssi kissed the top of my head, which was submerged in the shock of the orgasm. I felt the sensation of his firm nose rubbing between my hair.

“I’m sorry.”

Tae-rim-ssi whispered. Repeatedly, while rubbing his lips on my earlobe,

“Sorry….”

This time, he apologized for a reason that was worth it.

“Why did you even imprint on me….”

My heart seemed to stop at the following whisper. I had the illusion that the thumping beat had stopped for a moment. Tae-rim-ssi’s arms tightly embraced my body, which was slowly falling into the swamp of self-loathing.

A fierce hug came, so intense that my skin was chafed and sore. I suffocated in the daze. My limp upper body was hugged tightly in his arms like a doll.

“Haa….”

His face buried in my neck was hot. When he inhaled deeply, his large chest swelled even more, and my breath was cut off.

“…Your scent has become too strong.”

As soon as I saw his softly smiling face, flowers bloomed in my chest.

“I like it…, Hae-ah.”

Tae-rim-ssi’s face, which was always expressionless and sometimes even scary, was bright. His eyes were overflowing with affectionate affection, and his lips, which drew a curve, were so soft that I was anxious.

“I like it.”

Whispering so, he pushed his nose against my cheek. My powerless head moved as he touched it. It tilted to the side, and then was pulled to his face by the hand that grabbed and pulled my ear. Soft kisses followed one after another.

For a long time, like a dream, like spring, I only rubbed my lips in a daze,

“Lips….”

He swept the corners of my mouth with the tip of his thumb.

“…You’re bleeding.”

Then he suddenly bumped his forehead against my shoulder. In a daze, I looked at the back of his head, which was bowed, and then looked up at the ceiling. Only then did I feel the stinging pain in my lower lip. It seemed to have been slightly torn from forcibly accommodating his penis.

I licked my bloodshot lips with my tongue, and tasted a bitter iron flavor.

Reddened with embarrassment, Tae-rim-ssi and I hid our faces on each other’s shoulders. No one’s heat seemed to cool down even after waiting for a long time.

All Tae-rim-ssi had brought from the United States was a laptop. That seemed to be enough. It was enough to cause a flood of calls from employees looking for the AOM CEO.

Thanks to that, he stayed in the study all day. Because he was having a long video conference that seemed like it would never end, the voices of unfamiliar employees and business discussions that were difficult to understand alternated in our newlywed home’s study.

Unlike him, who finished his short shower and immediately started to fix his schedule, I was a loafer. I spent 40 minutes in vain, languidly soaking in the hot water that Ok-hye-ssi had drawn in the bathtub. To make an excuse, it wasn’t because I was lazy. It was a medicinal bath necessary to suppress the intensified body scent.

“Huu….”

Even when I put my nose to my shoulder and smelled it, I couldn’t smell my scent.

But what could I do, Tae-rim-ssi said I did…. That wasn’t all. After finishing a long phone consultation of about 30 minutes, the doctor said the same thing. If I had One-sided Imprinting on a Dominant Alpha, my body scent would have become stronger and my sexual urges would have intensified.

‘Sexual urges, huh….’

Taking a long breath, I submerged my body in the bathtub until my back touched the bottom. ‘Plop’, a clear sound rang out.

A few years ago, there was a controversy when a line appeared in a popular drama, “Omegas are born to be loved by Alphas.” The writer doesn’t know anything about Omegas, no Omega in reality would be happy to hear such a thing, don’t assume whatever you want, Alpha… various valid criticisms poured out.

But I was exactly like that. I was today’s messed up, weak Omega, who was strengthening the stereotypes about Omegas as they were. Of course, I refused the bullshit that “Omegas are born to be loved by Alphas.” But it was different if that Alpha was Cheon Tae-rim.

My body, which had unilaterally imprinted on that Dominant Alpha, was just a mess. I attacked Tae-rim-ssi while he was asleep, swallowed his semen and didn’t even throw up, and shot water because I smelled his pheromones….

In the end, the diagnosis given by the doctor was convenient. My body was acting up, wanting my imprinted mate to imprint on me too.

…Of course, the doctor’s explanation was more gentle and longer than this, but the gist was the same.

Judging from Tae-rim-ssi’s reaction, it didn’t seem like he disliked me like that. Rather, when I saw him say he liked it and hug me… it didn’t seem like the scent coming from my body was that bad.

‘Ah….’

Suddenly, a new hypothesis came to my mind. It was a very plausible hypothesis that he might be pitying me.

There was a reason why Si Eun-cheol-ssi mentioned class and pointed out my trait. It was a kind of yellow card, a warning not to be arrogant because I would never be able to fully have Cheon Tae-rim as my own person for the rest of my life.

The possibility that Dominant Alpha Tae-rim-ssi would imprint on recessive Omega me was significantly low enough for that warning to work.

Tae-rim-ssi was strong against the strong and weak against the weak. He had always been like that…, so he couldn’t abandon me. He had endured for 5 years as a spouse with flawed Kang Hae-ah, who had dragged his Father to his death and destroyed his world.

Because I cried and begged, because I begged for forgiveness and groveled pathetically, because I was laid under his crotch, who had a messed up rut cycle due to stress, and insisted that it was okay….

Cheon Tae-rim at twenty-eight would be even more so. I knew how brilliant he was today, when his life was not tainted. If it was Tae-rim-ssi now, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for him to pity my imperfect self and caress me out of pity.

A recessive Omega who couldn’t be the target of a Dominant Alpha’s Imprinting fell in love with him, either wallowing in depression or voluntarily sucking his thing… how insignificant and weak must I have looked.

So that must have been why he said that out of pity, words like ‘I like you’….

Thinking that way made me feel comfortable. It felt like my stomach, which had been bloated from overeating, had finally been pierced.

‘Yeah, that’s it…. That must be it.’

I submerged my body, which had become lighter as my breath was relieved, even deeper into the pinkish bathtub.

‘That’s it.’

I hid the possibility that Cheon Tae-rim might sincerely like me in a distant place. I couldn’t throw it away completely, so I put it in a very cornered place on the bookshelf in my heart. I wouldn’t take that number out and read it, and I shouldn’t.

Because I have at least a minimum of conscience. Because I know how far I’m suited for. So I wouldn’t mistake the kindness given out of pity for love and pounce on him. I had to know my place and act appropriately, only to the extent that Tae-rim-ssi wouldn’t run away. Because if I expected him to be like a real lover, I would see a bad ending again.

―There are only economy seats left, what should I do? Should I book two seats next to each other?

“The seats don’t matter. It’s the dates that are the problem….”

A sigh was mixed into the voice that leaked from the study. Holding the fruit Ok-hye-ssi had cut for me, I stood in front of the door and eavesdropped on the voice.

―Why do the seats not matter? Even business class is too cramped for you to stretch your legs. Ugh… I’ll look into it more and call you back.

The grumbling voice belonged to a stranger. It didn’t seem to be Si Eun-cheol-ssi, so it must be another secretary or subordinate.

Listening to the voice in secret made my heart shrivel. The gratitude I felt for Tae-rim-ssi, who had rearranged his busy schedule to come, vanished in an instant, replaced by guilt. The guilt and worry that my condition had ruined his work filled me.

“……”

I rubbed my sweaty hands on my sides and knocked twice on the study door. When I opened the door, Tae-rim-ssi, who had been glaring at his laptop, looked up. The moment our eyes met, he put his hand on the laptop pad.

Silently, I placed the tray with the fruit plate and fork on his desk.

―…First of all, the schedule is set for tomorrow. You know it’s an important day to open the research data and report the test results. CEO Cheon, you must come.

The grumbling voice leaked from the laptop. I glanced at the top of the laptop, and Tae-rim-ssi pressed a series of invisible buttons.

―What urgent matter could have possibly come up that made CEO Cheon sud… den…

The voice faded and was soon muted.

“Uh… ah, this… I thought you could eat this while you work….”

I felt embarrassed, wondering if I had heard something I shouldn’t have.

“…Sorry for disturbing you.”

I slowly backed away and quickly slipped out of the study. I could feel Tae-rim-ssi’s gaze on the back of my head as I retreated, stinging me for a moment.

Fiddling with the scab on my swollen lower lip, I looked for my phone.

‘How can he ride in economy? It’s a flight that’s over 14 hours… wouldn’t the seat be full just with Tae-rim-ssi’s legs? What then? Does that mean he’ll be stuck to the person next to him the whole time?’

I called two airlines. I had overheard that he had a schedule for tomorrow, so I asked for the best seat on a flight departing tonight. The kind employee on the other end of the phone happily informed me that there was one seat left out of eight in first class. Soon, the seat was booked in Tae-rim-ssi’s name.

About 40 minutes after I asked for the ticket to be sent as a gift, it arrived at the house. Ok-hye-ssi received it from the delivery driver and handed it to me, which I accepted with both hands.

It was much easier to go back to the study. The ticket in my hand felt like a coupon with a ‘Talk to Cheon Tae-rim’ chance. It was an opportunity to make up for the awkward incident from this morning.

“Tae-rim-ssi, I’m coming in.”

Tae-rim-ssi was sitting at his desk in the study, about to close his laptop. It seemed the meeting was over.

“This… please take it.”

“…What is this?”

Tae-rim-ssi rolled his eyes at the envelope I suddenly handed him. I felt his gaze examining my cheeks keenly. Just an hour ago, he had been smiling so brightly it was dazzling, but I was still stuck in that smile, while he seemed to have returned to the original Cheon Tae-rim.

I slightly curled my scabbed lip inward and took out the ticket, which was like an invitation in the crisp envelope.

“It’s a plane ticket arriving in New York tomorrow morning. You can go to the private lounge like on our honeymoon….”

“I said I’d be staying for two more days.”

Tae-rim-ssi cut me off as I handed over the information, unable to hide my excitement.

I was somewhat embarrassed by the reaction. He had said that this morning, and I thought so too, but I had overheard the employee’s complaining about looking for CEO Cheon, so how could I pretend not to know and hold him back?

“I heard you have an important meeting tomorrow…. I heard it earlier.”

“……”

“I’m feeling better now. Ok-hye-ssi is back from vacation, and… Do-jin is here too. Nothing will happen, so don’t worry… go on your business trip.”

“…You’re feeling better, you say.”

Tae-rim-ssi repeated the end of my sentence as if muttering to himself. I swallowed hard at his accusatory tone. The wound on my lip still stung, and my throat was swollen, making it uncomfortable to swallow, but still…

‘I’m okay… right?’

Tae-rim-ssi didn’t say anything as I awkwardly touched the back of my neck. I straightened my back in front of his bewildered gaze. I had poured medicine into the bath until the skin on my toes was wrinkled, so my body scent must have decreased significantly.

“Yeah, I’m okay.”

I was sure.

“So, go on the evening flight. All the employees are in America, so it’s not good if the CEO is away….”

It’s not like it’s something to be proud of that your spouse is a recessive Omega….

“…It won’t take more than 10 minutes to go through customs, and Tae-rim-ssi can rest comfortably on the way.”

“So.”

“…Yes?”

“How much did you pay to get the ticket to try and send me away?”

“Uh… what?”

I had found a ticket for the best seat on a flight departing in five hours, so I thought he would at least show me a smiling face. I was too naive. Tae-rim-ssi looked at the ticket in my hand with a somewhat displeased expression.

The crisp envelope gleamed with a pearlescent sheen, and the ticket was also crisp and thick.

“It’s not much.”

I was a little puzzled as to why money was being brought up here. It had a sliding door for privacy, a desk and monitor inside, and you could eat proper in-flight meals and lie down and rest comfortably, so I didn’t think the price mattered.

“Kang Hae-ah.”

Tae-rim-ssi’s tone immediately became stiff. He used to call me ‘Hae-ah-ya’ even when I didn’t like it, but now he was calling me ‘Kang Hae-ah.’

I liked ‘Hae-ah-ya’ but I didn’t like ‘Kang Hae-ah.’ My older sister would call me that when she was nagging me. Speaking of my older sister, she was someone who didn’t reply to texts or acknowledge gifts. I had to be that distant for her to call me ‘Kang Hae-ah.’ So Tae-rim-ssi shouldn’t call me that now.

Feeling like a scolded child, I only looked at Tae-rim-ssi’s lips. His jaw moved slightly as if he was filtering his words for a long time.

But the words that finally came out of Tae-rim-ssi’s mouth were disappointingly short.

“It’s too much.”

My mouth clicked open at those four words. I closed it silently, but eventually couldn’t help but talk back.

“What’s wrong with spending a little money on a long-distance flight?”

It’s not like I was an idiot. I had seen crowded international airports and knew what economy seats looked like. I thought ₩14,000,000 was a cheap price to pay rather than have Tae-rim-ssi sit in a tiny seat next to a stranger for 14 hours.

But my jealousy was too petty to say out loud.

“……”

“……”

With our mouths shut, his gaze and mine collided in the air.

After a short staring contest, Tae-rim-ssi sighed. I won the staring contest, but Tae-rim-ssi was the first to find his words.

“Not just the ticket, but all the gifts are too much. Just look at the watches piled up in the dressing room. You don’t need that many.”

My brow twitched at the mention of the watches. I had called in a series of shoppers and bought everything they had chosen, so there was a lot. But each one had the sense of the managers and seemed to suit Tae-rim-ssi, so I couldn’t help but buy them. I was even thinking of ordering a display case with long legs to fit Tae-rim-ssi’s height, so that there would be a storage space just for watches.

“…Why?”

So what? What’s the big deal? If there are that many… isn’t that a good thing?

If watches had egos, they would be grateful that someone as handsome as Tae-rim-ssi was wearing them. I thought Tae-rim-ssi would enjoy being able to choose a watch that he was drawn to depending on his mood that day. If that was too much trouble, I could choose his ties and watches for him for the rest of my life….

“You can’t wear all of them.”

But Tae-rim-ssi was saying strange things. It was the most absurd thing I had ever heard. It was hard to understand even if I made a hundred concessions. If the speaker was Cheon Tae-rim, I was someone who would call a stone a bean if he told me to, but even I couldn’t give in to these words.

‘Our Tae-rim-ssi is saying these things!’

My shoulders tensed up.

“Then what about the books in the study? You don’t always read books, but you have a lot of them. You buy them to read when you want to. Shouldn’t you think of watches that way too?”

“The price range is strictly different.”

My mouth dropped open at those words, and

“Huh? Why does the price matter?”

A loud voice, one I had never made before, burst out.

“…What?”

“You asked me to paint a picture to hang in our house, didn’t you? That’s okay, but giving you watches isn’t? Why…? Even if you add up all the watches I gave you, it’s not worth one of my paintings….”

Well, to be exact, I suggested hanging one of the practice pieces stuck in the canvas rack… but that’s the same thing.

Tae-rim-ssi didn’t answer my retort. He opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it.

Around next spring, when I put out a new piece at the Hong Kong auction, the price of artist Kang Hae-ah’s work was expected to quadruple. Even though I was on the verge of a downward spiral in my life, I was at the peak of my career as an artist. Of course, the current price of my work wasn’t bad either. I could sell one piece from the series and buy thirty more watches.

‘I wanted to do this so much… why won’t you let me?’

I was angry for no reason and even breathed heavily. What’s the big deal about the price of a plane ticket? I had prepaid that much for our Do-jin’s hotel and kindergarten fees.

“Can’t you just accept it?”

Feeling like a sycophant bribing a noble scholar, I lowered my voice. And I said as humbly as possible.

“Please just take the plane and wear the watches without knowing, okay? I don’t… dress Tae-rim-ssi from head to toe as I please. Just the plane Tae-rim-ssi will ride, the car, the watches… no. And just the shoes…. Okay?”

Tae-rim-ssi’s expression changed rapidly as he looked at me. His earlobes turned slightly red as if he was hot, and then he calmed down with a small sigh.

Tae-rim-ssi raised his hand and stroked his chin.

“You only act cute at times like this.”

I was bewildered by those words, and

“I didn’t act cute….”

I replied softly.

“……”

“……”

Soon, an awkward atmosphere flowed between Tae-rim-ssi and me. I looked back on how my begging and groveling voice sounded, but it was more funny than cute.

Feeling strangely ticklish, I fiddled with my eyebrows and joked.

“I must have been very cute?”

“……”

I should have kept my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth in front of Cheon Tae-rim-ssi. It was just a joke… was there a need to make such a fierce expression?

Behind me, as I tried to endure the awkward atmosphere,

“Writer-nim.”

Ok-hye-ssi knocked.

“The guests have arrived a little early. Should I guide them to the living room and serve them drinks first?”

My eyes widened at the sudden words. ‘Guests’?

‘What day is it today?’

Then I realized. I had forgotten because I was too excited about Tae-rim-ssi’s return to Seoul, our dog Do-jin, who we had found again after 6 years, and the big incident from this morning.

Thursday at 5 PM was the day the publicist, a writer friend, and a critic came. Under the guise of checking out writer Kang Hae-ah’s new series and helping with the exhibition, my producers and supervisors.

Tae-rim-ssi followed me as I hurried to the front door.

“I’m sorry, Tae-rim-ssi…. I forgot I had an appointment.”

I introduced the guests to him in a fluster. The publicist was ‘Manager Park,’ Kang’s family partner who had been in charge of refining Kang Hae-ah’s public image for 8 years. I remembered sending him a gift for his fiftieth birthday in the spring of my twenty-sixth year.

The writer friend was a professor at Korea University and a mentor who painted more sophisticated pictures than me. I wondered if his habit of saying that there was no better student than Kang Hae-ah was still the same.

The critic was, of course, Teacher Im. Teacher’s face looked very neat, which I hadn’t seen in days. Of course, it couldn’t be compared to the other day when he had hurriedly come over in a tracksuit past midnight.

‘Did he get a haircut?’

The hair that had been slightly tucked behind his ears was trimmed short. The refreshing style suited Teacher’s face shape well. I was about to compliment him on that, but I missed the timing because Manager Park was making a fuss about being happy to see Tae-rim-ssi.

“If I had known CEO Cheon would be here, I would have brought something, I didn’t even bring a housewarming gift.”

His eyes looking at Tae-rim-ssi were strangely large, and his complexion was very bright. Well, many people who met Cheon Tae-rim made that expression. Especially the reactions of Omegas were very dramatic, so when I was a Beta, I felt a little left out every time I went out with Tae-rim-ssi.

‘Hmm….’

I wondered if I looked just as dumb and foolish at our arranged marriage meeting.

“I’m just stopping by while on a business trip. We have a new member of the family.”

At Tae-rim-ssi’s words, Manager Park’s face turned to me. Teacher Im also looked at my face with a flustered expression. My cheeks stung for some reason at that gaze.

“Why?”

Blinking, I pointed to the large living room window. Do-jin, who I had fed, washed, and brushed, was digging under the garden tree and was covered in dirt. Manager Park wiped around his mouth, saying ‘Ah.’

“He’s cute, right? His name is Do-jin.”

Tae-rim-ssi’s hand touched my arm as I showed off our pretty puppy. His arm around my shoulder felt large. I felt strange when I naturally leaned against his side.

It was an arranged marriage where it was natural to act like a loving couple. In public, it was my job to step in instead of Tae-rim-ssi, who was stiff with lies. I would link arms with him with a smiling face, and I would attribute my flushed cheeks to acting. But… I had been spending the past few days so specially that my heart seemed too excited. The muscles in my smiling face trembled awkwardly as I stood quietly and smiled.

I was going to take my guests to the studio, but unexpectedly, Tae-rim-ssi allowed us to use the living room.

“The studio is small.”

I just tilted my head at those words. The room was prepared as a dining room, so the studio was far from being ‘small.’ Not three, but ten people could be comfortable… Anyway, as Tae-rim-ssi said, the guests sat on the living room sofa.

The male student who had followed in behind the three people carefully moved my paintings.

“The student you’ve been taking around lately?”

I asked, referring to him. The professor nodded roughly, looking at Do-jin in the garden with a pleased expression.

‘His paintings won’t get better just because he follows an old woman around….’

My mentor was not just a kind old woman on the outside, but a sharp person in front of her work. As I felt during my graduate school life, a female professor in Korea was never the same as a male professor. What should I say… they were people who gritted their teeth and squeezed through the gaps of people erected with penises?

My mentor was not an ordinary person among them. She was a female painter who had already secured a position in the male-dominated and closed-off Korean art world more than 30 years ago, so how could she not be?

She was someone who habitually said that all that mattered to a painter was skill and self-management. Even if you worked your ass off by her side, you were likely to be abandoned if your work was bad.

But he was following her all the way here as a student during the season when large-scale contests were concentrated… I just felt sorry for him. I glanced at him, thinking that he wouldn’t become a writer and would become the professor’s assistant.

“Hae-ah-ya.”

Suddenly, Tae-rim-ssi’s hand wrapped around my knee.

“I’m curious about the story behind the works. Can I stay with you?”

His voice asking that was very sweet. I helplessly melted. The muscles in my face relaxed loosely.

“You’ve seen all my paintings….”

Then, I slyly sat closer to Tae-rim-ssi.

The works were lined up on the wall of the wide living room. Seeing them made me take a deep breath. It was because of relief.

As expected, I liked Kang Hae-ah as a writer. Like today, when I sat down with the audience and showed off my new works, I loved myself for a moment when I was sure that ‘everything was perfect.’

“Teacher Im was absolutely right. It’s a perfect series. How is the touch so crisp and weighty, yet the color palette feels like watercolors?”

Manager Park spoke with an unusually loud voice. Since ‘Kang Hae-ah’ was his primary responsibility, it was an old habit by now to train me with carrots. I grew a little curious whether he poured out such praise for my other siblings as well. Especially how he handled Il-hae hyung… If he had any know-how, I wanted to learn it.

“Don’t praise me too much, it’s getting annoying.”

Waving my hands dismissively for no reason, I shook my head vigorously. In my heart, I chanted,

‘Ahem! Yes, yes, praise me a bit more in front of our Tae-rim-ssi.’

Whether my telepathy worked or not, Manager Park became even more extravagant, busy praising my skills.

Up until that point, my mood was on an upward curve. Sitting side by side with Tae-rim-ssi in front of the guests who visited our home, exchanging greetings and talking about my work—there was no way my spirits could be low. This really made it feel like we had become a ‘real married couple.’

If something were to ruin that mood, you could call it a talent of sorts. And that talent was displayed by the professor’s new student.

“Why did you bring that?”

My voice dropped a tone as the words abruptly left my mouth. My expression instantly stiffened. At that, the male student flinched and halted his steps. The dark, abstract painting in his hand also stopped moving.

Hesitantly, he made an ‘uh,’ a meaningless sound. Seeing him now, it was obvious he couldn’t even become the professor’s assistant—he was that tactless.

“Can’t you tell just by looking?”

As expected, the professor raised his voice.

“Does that look like a piece that belongs here? Put it back where it was, and don’t touch Kang Hae-ah’s practice works.”

Following the professor’s words, he put away the painting he had brought. As he moved sideways, crab-like, and stowed the canvas away in one corner of the hallway, I gazed at it for a moment, feeling troubled.

To be honest, Kang Hae-ah’s new work was actually that bluish, reddish, dark practice piece. With time to spare, plenty of paint, and complicated thoughts… it was the first time I had painted something like that.

In the brief silence, I shifted my gaze to the series works. The paintings I had replicated from my own work, completed to show others, stood in a row with their bright and clear appearances.

“…….”

There were four pairs of eyes scrutinizing my closed-mouthed face. Suddenly, I felt suffocated, my heart heavy. Suppressing a rising sigh, I pressed my forehead.

‘I put it separately on the wall, so why did he… Why bring someone else’s painting without even checking?’

I didn’t want to act mean in front of Tae-rim-ssi. But I simply couldn’t hold back.

“Tell that kid to leave.”

Rubbing above my eyebrows with my fingertips, I spoke. There was no need for the professor to say anything separately—the student scurried out of my house as if running away on his own.

At times like this, Ok-hye-ssi was my savior. Piercing through the stagnant atmosphere, she appeared with tea. Honey tea for the professor, coffee for Teacher Im and Manager Park, and citron tea and warmed milk for me and Tae-rim-ssi.

Steaming milk was in a mug, and a few spoons of citron honey were in a cute small bowl. It was precious honey that my mother-in-law had made for Tae-rim-ssi and me to eat. Thanks to that, my mood lifted completely. This is why I can’t lose Ok-hye-ssi—she knows too well how to comfort me.

“Since I know exactly what you’re going to say, let’s keep it brief. I’m busy today.”

Relaxing my stiffened expression, I said that. With my fingertips, I pointed at the works lined up in a row.

“I’ve already decided the exhibition order… The piece to place at the entrance is that one. I’ve also attached all the titles, and as you know, I have no intention of changing them. Ah, the captions will be unified in gray. That, who was it recently? There’s an artist who paints ice cream. They did something similar at their solo exhibition.”

The professor’s gaze as he watched me effortlessly recite my prepared explanations was piercing. It was a look of wonder, as if questioning whether this was really the same Kang Hae-ah who only knew how to paint and usually left the exhibition details to these three people here.

Under his knees, Do-jin, who had somehow entered the house unnoticed, was shaking his ears with his hind leg. The professor brushed off the grass stains on the white fur of his back.

“Artist-nim, for the frames, following the current trend…”

Seizing that gap, Manager Park opened his mouth, but

“Wait a moment.”

I cut him off. My heart was pounding loudly before an important point.

“Anything more flamboyant than the painting is an absolute no. I won’t spend effort or money on frames. I already have something decided, so I plan to use that. The simplest wooden frames possible.”

Declaring like a dictator, I felt a breath of relief. Pulling the tablet on the living room table toward me, I even opened the materials I had prepared in advance.

“Leave margins around the canvas without touching it, and cover the top with a glass case. For up to size 50, 5 centimeters each; for size 100, 10 centimeters each. Here… like this.”

The wooden frames suited the exhibition theme of ‘Light and Leaf’ well. If I insisted that ‘even the frame is part of the work,’ then no matter how much of a Manager Park he was, he wouldn’t be able to interfere.

“Artist-nim.”

But an unexpected voice caught the tail end of my words.

“Wouldn’t it be good to hear Manager-nim’s opinion about the frames…?”

The tablet screen, which had been boldly presented, automatically turned off with a pick. My silhouette reflected on the darkened screen was black. Even as a faint outline, it looked flustered.

“Why are you saying that to me, Teacher?”

I asked, forgetting to pretend to be stubborn about my work as an act. In front of me, Teacher Im blinked with his characteristic friendly-looking smile.

“Huh? Why, you ask?”

He tilted his head sideways.

“…….”

“Artist-nim?”

My vision twisted with bewilderment. I stared blankly at Teacher’s face, which appeared crooked and warped.

‘Why is Teacher Im… Why is he taking Manager Park’s side?’

The frames had to be chosen plainly, no matter what…. They had to be completely different from before, just as Kang Hae-ah, who was a Beta, had become an Omega.

I knew the outcome that frames with elaborate craftsmanship and gilding would bring. I also knew the future where articles with the names of the assemblymen who purchased the works and Chief Prosecutor Cheon Hee-jung would include nitpicking like ‘frame costs alone are millions of won.’

The reason I couldn’t pick up a brush, caught in a deep slump at the moment I was reaching my peak as an artist, was also because of that. Everything about the exhibition , achieved through all-nighters holding a brush, sometimes crying and even tasting frustration, was used as a pretext to bring down Chief Prosecutor Cheon Hee-jung.

Painting was my only specialty. The one and only pride I could confidently call completely my own. And they were used to destroy the family of Cheon Tae-rim, the man I love beyond measure.

The hell that would unfold about five months from today was designed that way. The fact that there was no political maneuvering like lobbying involved in the ruling party’s hardline assemblymen, including Chief Prosecutor Cheon Hee-jung, purchasing Kang Hae-ah’s works would be argued feebly and buried, while nitpicking about frame costs would rise and fall on portal site real-time search terms.

So, I intended to consistently say NO to Manager Park’s advice. Although preventing the matter from appearing in journalists’ typewriters in the first place was the top priority, it wouldn’t hurt to prepare for any unforeseen situations. I was determined to block any potential grounds for criticism, no matter what it was, by any means necessary.

“…….”

But my brain malfunctioned. It was because Teacher Im had intervened unexpectedly. Manager Park was someone Father hired, so it wasn’t surprising he brought up the frame issue, but Teacher Im was different. Teacher Im was my person.

“Sorry to interrupt the conversation, but…”

As I stared blankly at him, a large palm suddenly covered my field of vision. It was Tae-rim-ssi’s hand. Only then did I snap back to attention.

“It seems the important discussion has concluded, so please return now. Hae-ah hasn’t been in good condition since morning, so it can’t be helped.”

Blinking, I examined Tae-rim-ssi’s palm. The firm hand covered my vision like a lid. Everything went pitch black, and I couldn’t see a thing. I should have been flustered by the sudden touch, but for some reason, my chest felt calm.

Leaning my face against his hand, I quietly closed my eyes.

“Ah…, but the frame discussion is still left.”

Manager Park made a regretful sound, and

“If it’s about that, it’s already finished.”

Tae-rim-ssi cut off his words. I wondered if he had a cutter attached to his tongue.

…Ah, I know how I am, really.

“I already placed the order, for the frames.”

“Huh?”

“It’s my husband’s first exhibition since we married, so I said I’d take care of it. Since the order is already in, there’s nothing more to discuss.”

Why is Cheon Tae-rim like this? Why does he lie so confidently? Without even knowing why I’m fixated on the frames… without knowing anything about how things will unfold, why is he taking my side?

He’s truly a flawless person, Tae-rim-ssi is. Hearing that brief conversation just moments ago, he fabricated a lie that was not just natural but robust. To my statement that ‘I won’t spend effort or money,’ he added an epilogue that he himself would pay for the frames, eliminating any grounds for others to comment this or that. Now, if anyone opened their mouth to suggest using gilded frames, it would be like demanding that Tae-rim-ssi’s wallet cough up that much money.

I was simply baffled. I thought I knew everything about Tae-rim-ssi, but apparently not.

At this very moment, I don’t even know myself. It felt strange that I, quietly leaning my face against Tae-rim-ssi’s hand and doing nothing, neither speaking nor acting. I felt like a chicken that mistakes hiding its head for hiding its entire body.

“Well, it’s not like Kang Hae-ah’s works are paintings that rely on frames.”

My mentor subtly added his words. It was obvious he wanted to wrap up the conversation and leave, if only to save face after kicking out the student he brought as his disciple. I could already picture the face he’d make scolding the student as soon as he left after breaking up the gathering.

“Then, we’ll be going…”

Tae-rim-ssi put a definitive end to it. The guests were just about to say they were leaving, but he brought up the farewell first.

Only then did the hand covering my vision lower. Squinting my eyes, I saw Tae-rim-ssi touching my forehead, pretending to check my temperature. Not knowing whether to thank him or question why he was doing this, I just looked at the innocent Do-jin.

Soon, Manager Park began gathering the scattered materials. Tap, tap—as he tapped the papers against the table, the disorganized printouts were neatly arranged one by one. The materials about my paintings and the exhibition overview text slipped neatly into the red leather file.

“Uhm… Then, I plan to send a photographer sometime next week, how does that sound? Once we just take the work photos, the preparation will truly be finished.”

Perhaps afraid I might swing a broom to hurry them out, Manager Park stood up quickly and spoke.

“Yeah. Tell them to come anytime.”

“…Next week won’t do.”

My and Tae-rim-ssi’s answers tangled. Blinking, I turned to look at him, and he was also looking at me with a somewhat displeased expression. I could feel his dark eyes firmly suppressing my energy.

Without understanding why, I trailed off, “Uh, that’s right…” Tae-rim-ssi arbitrarily postponed the photographer’s date by half a month.

I stared blankly at Tae-rim-ssi’s profile as he exchanged a few parting words with the professor. His smiling face and eyes were directed at the guest, but his hand was holding my left hand.

“…….”

His palm was heated to the point of being hot.

The guests who had crowded in noisily left just as noisily. Somehow feeling drained, I couldn’t even see them off. Sitting on the sofa, I drank the now-cold milk.

Tae-rim-ssi, who had sent the three off on my behalf, returned to the living room only a few minutes later. I gazed up at him intently. The Cheon Tae-rim of late is truly too difficult. He was the most mysterious existence in the universe. I want to understand the thought mechanism of this, this big and handsome man.

“…Why are you helping me?”

I asked, and

“Then should I take their side, leaving Kang Hae-ah out?”

Tae-rim-ssi’s retort was quick.

When he says it like that, I have nothing to say. Hearing it, it was the right thing to say. Which frame to use was an important matter for me, but from Tae-rim-ssi’s perspective, adding a word in support wouldn’t be difficult.

“Yes…. Thank you.”

Then, his large hand, which had been about to touch my head as I fidgeted on my lap, as if to stroke it any moment, stopped.

At that ambiguous gesture, my heart lurched. Before, if anyone’s hand came close to touching my face, my eyes would automatically flinch and I’d imagine being hit, but not anymore. On one hand, it was scary, but on the other, it was thrilling—Tae-rim-ssi’s hand now simply felt good.

“Am I really not in good condition?”

Wiping my cheek with the back of my hand, I asked. It was a rather strange question to ask someone who wasn’t a doctor, but for my current self asking Tae-rim-ssi, it was a very appropriate question. Tae-rim-ssi knew my body and reactions better than I did.

“The scent isn’t out. Don’t worry too much.”

Then he began moving my paintings. Gripping the horizontal frame at the back of the canvas, carefully lifting it so nothing touched the front—the motion was quite natural by now. It felt like just the other day that I had people move intermediate works with paint not fully dry.

Getting up slowly, I followed him. His and my steps halted in the hallway leading to the studio. The dark painting that the professor’s student had mistakenly brought earlier was stowed away against one wall.

“This is… what did you paint?”

Tae-rim-ssi asked. His eyes, looking at the stark blue edges, were slender.

“Ah…, this isn’t for the exhibition. I set it aside because it’s awkward to even show… I don’t know how that person found it…. I’ll put it away right now.”

“What did you paint.”

Lately, Tae-rim-ssi is really like that. If I avoid answering because it’s difficult, you’d think he’d let it go with an ‘I see,’ but he lacks such flexibility.

“Why are you asking something like that? It’s just an abstract painting.”

“Still, there must be a theme.”

As if not hearing my excuse, driving the same question in like a wedge seemed to have become his new hobby.

‘Before… he never showed such curiosity.’

It was even more baffling that I was the one agitated by such a disposition.

“…It’s a self-portrait.”

With my reluctantly answered voice, the conversation ended.

Tae-rim-ssi’s gaze left my face and descended to the canvas. He looked for a long time at the sad self-portrait, slathered thickly with paint. I don’t know if he recognized my bare face. I was just utterly embarrassed.

The resolve I had boldly declared—that I wouldn’t hold onto Tae-rim-ssi’s ankle, that I would become a husband who could give him anything—had settled deeply. Seeing Tae-rim-ssi packing a simple bag as the departure time for the evening flight approached, I soon grew depressed.

‘I don’t want to be apart….’

The thought of hiding in his suitcase and following him all the way to America felt as obvious as a chimney. It was the first time I felt resentful that I was a person, not cargo.

Wanting to fully enjoy the seat next to Tae-rim-ssi until the very end, I chose to see him off. Despite not even knowing how to drive, I hopped right into the passenger seat of his car. I even boasted that I’d call Driver Oh for the ride back, so not to worry about the car. Tae-rim-ssi didn’t particularly respond. He just held the steering wheel with a calm face.

‘Couldn’t he at least pretend to be reluctant…?’

I tightly sealed my pouting lips.

When we arrived at the airport, there was about 30 minutes to spare before departure. Making the excuse that if we went to the dedicated lounge, immigration wouldn’t even take 5 minutes, I kept him in the driver’s seat.

“Um… Tae-rim-ssi.”

If it seemed like I’d tidy up the back of his car, just calling Driver Oh would suffice. The real purpose of occupying the passenger seat like a piece of luggage with a ridiculous excuse was actually something else.

“Um…, I’ve been imprinted, right? So I get things like anxiety, and I need scent-soothing baths…. Anyway, my condition isn’t good, you see.”

Ahem, ahem—clearing my throat, I forced out the story, to which

“Yeah.”

Tae-rim-ssi easily replied.

His eyes looking at me felt somehow brighter than usual. Representative Cheon Tae-rim, who used to maintain a soldier-like, disciplined expression and only use business-like speech, had over the past few days become just Tae-rim-ssi, my husband in private. Only at the moment of parting, where we had to be apart for another three weeks, did that change feel real.

What if, three weeks later, his heart changes and he builds a wall again, calling me ‘Kang Hae-ah-ssi’—how would I endure it then? I suddenly grew afraid.

“I’ll, um… allow you to speak casually to me.”

So I deliberately pointed it out. Pretending to be in a position to permit—acting leisurely as if granting that it’s okay to speak casually, to continue doing so from now on.

Tae-rim-ssi’s reaction was light. The eyes looking at me curved, and the corners of his mouth slid upward. My attitude seemed clumsy and funny, it appeared.

“Allow you?”

Then he pinched the tail of my words and asked back. Swallowing a dry gulp, I opened my mouth.

“So, um, wouldn’t you like to leave a little bit of your body scent… just a little bit? I, I have a handkerchief….”

‘I brought a handkerchief to take with me, to get Tae-rim-ssi’s scent,’ was what I had prepared to say. But the handkerchief neatly folded in my back pocket, and even the word “handkerchief” I had been holding in my mouth, couldn’t be brought out. It was because Tae-rim-ssi, who had suddenly leaned his upper body towards me, abruptly kissed me.

“……”

Surprised, my upper and lower lips snapped shut. Ignoring my frozen reaction, Tae-rim-ssi ran the tip of his soft tongue along my teeth. When he touched my lower jaw with the tip of his thumb, my mouth opened as if a release button had been pressed.

When I came to my senses, my arms were wrapped around his neck and his hands were caressing my waist. As expected, there was no cutter in his mouth. Only a soft and warm tongue greeted me.

Who else would know that Cheon Tae-rim, whose eyes are cold, whose tone is firm, and whose actions are as if clad in armor, is so good at kissing? Whenever he ran the tip of his tongue over the roof of my mouth and pressed his tongue against mine, I felt like a marshmallow that had fallen into warm milk.

Hot breath escaped from my nose and my whole body melted away. As I tried not to rush in gluttonously and just mixed my tongue with his, Tae-rim-ssi suddenly lowered his head.

Reluctant to part with his lips, I stretched my neck and chased after him. His index finger pressed down on my slightly open lips.

“Sound.”

Then he suddenly asked.

“…Are you making it on purpose?”

“Excuse me?”

The absurd question snapped me back to my senses. The ecstasy of the kiss vanished instantly, and the limp nerves seemed to sharpen. My face flushed red with embarrassment. Sound? What sound did I make?

‘Could my breathing have been bothering him?’

As the thought reached me, the blood rushed away and the hardened area between my legs felt dejected again. I felt pathetic, like I was the only one getting carried away and clinging on, and his attitude felt cruel. Who asked him to kiss me? He did it on his own accord….

“What sound did I make… What’s wrong with you, really.”

“Don’t misunderstand. I’m confused whether you’re trying to seduce me or not.”

“Excuse me?”

I blinked, completely clueless as to what he was saying. I couldn’t believe that those nonsensical words, like sparks flying, were coming from Tae-rim-ssi’s mouth of all people.

“Is Tae-rim-ssi such an easy man?”

Even if I conceded a hundred times that I was making sounds to seduce Tae-rim-ssi, I pointedly asked if he was someone who would fall for it. Then he let out a hollow laugh. The meaning behind the sardonic laughter couldn’t be good, but I liked his face even a little bit when he smiled.

“If you really can’t help but talk back.”

He muttered with a face that still had a hint of a smile, and

“If I can’t help it, what….”

He came closer to my lips, which were still talking back.

My eyelids must have no pride. My eyes fluttered shut, as if Tae-rim-ssi was going to kiss me again. I closed my mouth and waited quietly, and ‘smack,’ a soft kiss, ‘smack,’ followed in quick succession.

“Is that enough now, Hae-ah? Body scent… Do you think you’ve gotten enough?”

He stroked my flushed forehead, caressed my temples and ears, and whispered. The end of his lowered voice was cracked as if he was hoarse.

“…No, not yet.”

No matter what anyone says, Omegas are the best. Some people say they don’t like it and some say it’s uncomfortable, but those complaints are just coming from people who haven’t lived as a fraudulent Beta. For me, being an Omega was the trait of my dreams.

“Just… hold me a little longer before you go.”

I can say things like this without a care, and

“Come here.”

Tae-rim-ssi accepts it again, so I have no more wishes.

I immediately leaned my upper body into his outstretched arms. I rested my head on his broad shoulders and waited for his hands to wrap around my back. Tae-rim-ssi’s arms, hugging me, were warm.

‘Kang Hae-ah, is this kind of day happening in your life too? The day when I see Tae-rim-ssi off as he goes far away, and he hugs me….’

Just the memory of this moment would be enough for me to endure the remaining month. Like that famous miser story, whether it’s a stingy person or a stingy fish. I would hang this memory in my head and look up at it whenever I felt hungry to endure it.

I made that resolution, until less than a week later when Tae-rim-ssi flew back to Seoul again.

“What is it? Why did you come?”

I asked with wide eyes, and

“Can’t I come to my own house?”

Tae-rim-ssi retorted as if he was dumbfounded.

Holding Do-jin, whom I had just picked up from dog kindergarten, in my arms, I looked around the living room. Tae-rim-ssi, who had suddenly returned home, my real husband who was neither a mirage nor a highly developed VR video, was sitting on the sofa in a light jumper. He was dressed very comfortably, from the white round-neck t-shirt to the jeans that covered his long legs.

“Uh…?”

Instead of me, who was flustered and couldn’t even greet him, Do-jin wagged his tail and ran towards him. Tae-rim-ssi’s expression was lukewarm as he picked up Do-jin, who was panting and licking his tongue.

“What did you dress the dog in?”

Tae-rim-ssi stroked Do-jin, who was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a watermelon-patterned scarf, and

“…Welcome back.”

I greeted him later than the dog.

Of course, I was happy to see Tae-rim-ssi’s face. If I had a tail, it would have become a propeller by now and lifted me from my butt to the sky. It would have been if I wasn’t worried about why he suddenly returned to Seoul without contacting me.

“Did something happen?”

I asked. Since it was an unexpected visit, I was very serious, wondering if an unprecedented event had occurred.

Then Tae-rim-ssi was silent for a short while. With his mouth closed, he stared at me with a face that seemed to say he was the one who didn’t know what was going on.

“Why else would I come home?”

A chill ran down my spine at his reproachful tone.

‘Could I have made a mistake?’

I opened my mouth, searching for something to say, but had to close it again because nothing came to mind. All I had done in the past week was carefully check my solo exhibition schedule, send Do-jin to dog kindergarten, and register him for a puppy training program.

“……”

As I was deep in thought, unable to think of any problems,

“Tomorrow is your birthday, Hae-ah.”

Tae-rim-ssi said.

‘It is my birthday… but did something happen that day?’

I blinked twice. Tae-rim-ssi closed his mouth, leaving me waiting for further explanation.

“No…, is that all?”

I felt empty, feeling bewildered and dumbfounded. I thought something big had happened…. My shrunken heart finally expanded.

“Because it’s my birthday…. So you came to Korea from work?”

“Yes.”

“It’s several hours just on the plane back and forth…. Even if you only stay for a day, it will be a three-day disruption, so why…. Is this okay?”

“I came according to my schedule, so don’t worry about my work. I’m planning to go back early tomorrow morning.”

Suddenly, I became crumbs. It felt like I had fallen out of the tightly packed reality.

‘Who is this man…?’

An unfamiliar Cheon Tae-rim was in front of me. Tae-rim-ssi, who had chosen a marriage partner as part of his business, had interrupted two important business trips and was looking for me. I had no idea what was going on.

Is this the kind of treatment Omegas usually receive? I’ve been living as a Beta, accustomed to indifference, so am I ignorant of something? I’m not a child left at the mercy of the world, nor am I an emotionally charged teenager, but what’s so important about the birthday of a thirty-two… no, a twenty-six-year-old adult man that he would even take a plane?

“Why. Are you upset that I came suddenly?”

My silence must have been too long. Seeing Tae-rim-ssi awkwardly probing my feelings.

“No! It’s not that. It’s not that… I’m just surprised. Um…, thank you. I didn’t know you would care this much.”

I bowed my head obsequiously. He tapped the sofa next to him, so I slowly approached and sat down.

The words “thank you” were sincere. This was the first birthday I was so happy about. My birthday was never a happy day. This was especially true because I had always spent every July 7th with my family without fail.

To the outside world, Kang Hae-ah’s birthday was the anniversary of my Mother’s death. Therefore, “birthday” only brought sad and chaotic memories. I had heard so many taunts or consolations like, “It’s supposed to be lucky seven, but why does it have to be the anniversary of her death?” that I was sick of it.

Since it wasn’t the real anniversary anyway, there was nothing to be hurt about. Everyone in the world believed it, and even my family seemed used to the Chairman’s lies, but I postponed my sadness until July 14th. That was the real anniversary of my Mother’s death, and the day I went to the charnel house alone to place a glass of alcohol in front of a pretty picture of her when she was young.

There was something else that was really difficult to get used to. It was the Hanseong Group’s charity event held every year. It was an event held on my birthday in the name of my Mother, so I had to participate no matter what, and it was a day when I had to be mindful of Il-hae hyung’s mood and avoid him all day….

“Happy twenty-sixth birthday.”

Being with Tae-rim-ssi, who said that, washed away the memories of hardship.

I stared blankly at the gift box in his hand. The box, wrapped in pure white wrapping paper and a red ribbon, was long and rectangular.

I already knew what was in that hand.

‘Because it’s my thirty-third birthday….’

For a thirty-three-year-old, I was still quite immature. That’s what it seemed like, seeing my heart racing over a small gift. To hide my trembling hands, I quickly snatched the gift from Tae-rim-ssi’s hand.

“Thank you.”

I tried to hide it as it was, without the courage to open it, but

“Open it. If you don’t like it, I’ll exchange it for another gift.”

Tae-rim-ssi kindly pushed my back.

In the end, I had no choice but to pull the ribbon on the gift box with a trembling heart. I already knew what was inside, and all that was given to me was a frightening excitement.

To buy time to calm my pounding heart, I slowly peeled off the white wrapping paper. Soon, a navy blue case appeared. I stroked the velvet case silently, and the lid opened on its own with a click.

I swallowed a bitter sigh.

‘My necklace….’

A familiar object was inside. The very gift that Tae-rim-ssi of six years ago had given me only on the day he returned from a long business trip.

‘Belatedly, happy birthday.’

Compared to Tae-rim-ssi of that day, Tae-rim-ssi of today seemed like a different person. That’s how it seemed in terms of attitude. Everything else was the same without change. His eye for choosing gifts was exactly like that.

A lilac-colored essence was embedded in the gold decoration in the shape of a closed petal. I caressed the lovely little necklace with the tip of my index finger.

The memory of a sad night flashed through my mind. The night I ran to the hospital after hearing the news of the Chief Prosecutor’s death… I had lost this necklace that night. To be exact, it was taken away, by none other than Tae-rim-ssi.

When he looked down at me in deep silence, as if he wanted to pour out even resentment, he had the string of this necklace in his hand. Red blood dripped through the gaps in his clenched fist, and I collapsed, clutching my neck. When it was forcibly torn off, my neck was scratched by the thin necklace string, leaving a shallow scratch.

After that day, I never saw it again. It was the first gift I had received from Tae-rim-ssi, so I cherished it very much, and I obeyed his request to wear it every day like an order. Even after the scratch healed, the necklace did not return to me. That’s why I missed it.

“Don’t you like it?”

A gentle voice brought me back to today. I quickly raised my head and looked at Tae-rim-ssi. Cheon Tae-rim, as clean as a new necklace with an unworn string, smiled as if he had never been hurt.

“I like it….”

I quietly looked at the necklace, which was still clean and perfect.

“I really…, I really like it. Thank you.”

Tae-rim-ssi reached out his hand at my joyful whisper. He took the necklace with the small essence embedded in it out of the case, and he put it around my neck himself. His large hands, fastening the hook, were very slow and careful.

With my chin lowered, I swallowed hard. Soon, I felt the weight of the jewel. The familiar and welcome sensation made me feel like I was waking up.

“…How do you feel?”

Tae-rim-ssi’s thick fingers lingered around my ear and went down to my collarbone. He repeatedly caressed my neck as if he still had regrets.

“I feel… good. Thank you for caring.”

That was the best I could answer. There were no other words to express my state, where my soul was pale but my body was burning.

“Since I gave you a birthday present.”

Tae-rim-ssi adjusted his posture. He bent one leg on the sofa and leaned his upper body towards me with only his right foot on the floor. His arm, draped over the back of the sofa, stretched out next to my neck, as if he was about to put his arm around my shoulder.

“…Shouldn’t you give me a gift too?”

The distance between us was so close that I could even see the color of the shadows reflected in his eyes. Tae-rim-ssi’s black eyes reflected my foolish face like a clear well. His thick and dense eyelashes slowly lowered. He was looking at my lips.

“Ah…, yes?”

I tried not to be conscious of his gaze, but I could only do so in my head, and soon everything became confused, like how much I should stick out my lips and where I should put my tongue. I cleared my throat with a ‘um, ahem,’ and Tae-rim-ssi belatedly raised his eyes.

“What… do you want to receive?”

I asked, making eye contact with him, and

“Yes.”

Tae-rim-ssi answered immediately.

In a short moment, I became excited. How could I not be moved that Cheon Tae-rim of all people had everything he wanted from me?

“What is it?”

At this moment, I could give him whatever he said. Even if he asked for the stars, I would buy them for him, and if he needed a new car, I would pick out seven colors so he could drive a different car every day of the week. If he wanted jewels, I would gift him a ring with heavy diamonds embedded in it so that it would tilt on his finger, and if he wanted gold, I would gather all the gold called 24K and build a statue of Cheon Tae-rim.

However, the sentence that came out of Tae-rim-ssi’s mouth was extremely disappointing.

“Next time, on my birthday, can you talk to me informally, Hae-ah?”

“……”

I must have been too excited at the thought of giving him anything. As the inflated expectations deflated with a hissing sound, I became angry with disappointment.

‘It’s not like he’s teasing me….’

Tae-rim-ssi clearly didn’t know me well. If he was going to ask Kang Hae-ah for a gift, and if he wanted something special to receive on his birthday, which only comes once a year, he should have said something good that only Kang Hae-ah could give, but all he wanted was to speak informally.

I let out a long sigh and leaned back on the sofa.

‘Well….’

That’s why I liked Cheon Tae-rim….

“…I’ll think about it.”

I said in an indifferent voice. Tae-rim-ssi’s eyes narrowed at my lackluster reply.

“You’ll ‘think about it’.”

“Yes. …I’ll think about it.”

“Okay.”

Tae-rim-ssi laughed with a hissing sound. He was happy with his handsome face, which was tormenting me and playing with me, so I resented him.

“What do you want to do for your birthday?”

Then he asked.

I had to hesitate for a long time to answer the question. Leaving Tae-rim-ssi, who had returned home for my birthday, and putting the necklace he had given me back around my neck, there was only one thing I wanted to do without having to think about it.

“…Stay over tonight.”

I said, scratching under Do-jin’s chin for no reason. Then Tae-rim-ssi slightly raised his eyebrows.

“I just said I would.”

“I know….”

With a voice that shrank with each syllable,

“Stay over, tonight….”

I almost whispered.

As I climbed onto Tae-rim-ssi’s lap and burrowed into his arms, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu. This feeling, mood, atmosphere… everything was familiar, but an ambiguous sense of unease, like ‘I shouldn’t do this,’ was rising.

‘What’s the problem.’

I rubbed my lips against Tae-rim-ssi’s mouth, which was smiling as if he was in a good mood. When he jokingly asked if I was drunk, I just pretended to be. I even tried to put firewood in my excited heart by pretending to hug his waist.

But the anxiety did not disappear and only became clearer. Even when he imitated my movements, kissed me, hugged my waist, and took off my top, I couldn’t concentrate on the caresses.

‘Something… is wrong.’

I quickly turned my head and scanned today’s schedule. It was to find the problem.

However, he couldn’t find any particular flaws. The movie they watched together was moderately thrilling and fun, and the meal was delicious. The salad and side dishes I made according to Ok-hye-ssi’s recipe were just okay, but thanks to the excellent meat Tae-rim-ssi grilled and the wine he chose, it was a bountiful dinner.

The conversation they shared while filling their remaining stomachs with cheese and salami was also enjoyable. Compared to before, Tae-rim-ssi told me a lot more about AOM work. The only one of his coworkers I knew was Chief Secretary Si Eun-cheol-ssi, but today I was happy to learn new names like Development Team Leader Kim Min-soo or Yoon Eun-ah, the youngest in the secretary’s office.

After that, they took a short walk in the garden to both clear their heads from the slight intoxication and grant Do-jin’s wish to go outside. And… they each took a shower without much conversation. Because they already knew what the remaining schedule was.

After meticulously washing every corner of his body, he saw his face flushed red in the mirror.

‘So, stay over.’

He was also bothered that he had demanded sex so brazenly. ‘Boys and girls aged seven should not sit together!’ The scolding of the Confucian scholar inside him seemed to echo in his ears, but,

‘So what? There’s no such saying in Paris!’

He shook it off with a splash of cold water. And he took a birth control pill. That was all.

‘Strange.’

He couldn’t find anything wrong, but a problem occurred. Tae-rim-ssi, who was kissing his shoulder and taking off his silk pajamas, seemed very aroused and full of hot heat, but his body couldn’t keep up with him and was stiff as a board.

‘Why doesn’t it… you know… get all soft and squishy…?’

As soon as he realized the awkward and regrettable problem, heat rushed to his face. How long had it been since he became an Omega? Now he was strange and anxious because that unique symptom wasn’t happening. To put it plainly, the hole between his butt cheeks wasn’t wet, his body wasn’t trembling from Tae-rim-ssi’s pheromone, his heart wasn’t pounding, and his body scent wasn’t bursting out.

“Tae-rim-ssi.”

Flustered, he blocked his lips. With his mouth blocked by my fingers, Tae-rim-ssi blinked.

“Um, well… I’m a little… a little different than usual right now. So….”

As he stammered and vaguely explained the ambiguous problem, Tae-rim-ssi’s expression changed. He narrowed his eyes and put his nose to my shoulder again. The sound of him inhaling and smelling his flesh was deep.

“Did you take something like a suppressant?”

“Huh? No.”

Why would I take something like that? Being an Omega is so great… He swallowed the rest of the words, and then another drug flashed through his mind.

“Ah….”

Becoming instantly embarrassed, he stepped off Tae-rim-ssi’s lap. His hand followed his waist as he sat to the side of the bed, then fell off a few seconds later.

“I did take a birth control pill, though.”

Saying that, he walked out of bed. While re-buttoning his unbuttoned pajamas, he walked to the bathroom and opened the mirror. He was rummaging through the cabinet to find the medicine he had taken today when Tae-rim-ssi suddenly walked into the bathroom.

“What kind of medicine….”

He muttered. The hidden words were probably a question of ‘So many?’

He only gave a weak smile. If you ask what kind of medicine there are so many of, he had no choice but to tell you to look back on your trait and stamina. As a recessive Omega, he was already overwhelmed by just basking in the pheromones of the Dominant Alpha, Tae-rim-ssi. The chaos that would ensue when they had sex and he ejaculated inside was obvious. ‘If I miss this chance, I don’t know when I’ll get such high-quality sperm again!’ He would be frantically preparing for implantation.

After the rut incident last time, he took the morning-after pill that his doctor prescribed, but it was too embarrassing to sit in the examination room and say detailed things like he ejaculated inside and there was no knotting. So he bought several types of birth control pills in advance, and the result was the feast of drugs that was now full in the cabinet.

Tae-rim-ssi stared down at him as he picked up the paper box of the medicine he had taken today.

“Why are you taking birth control pills?”

He asked, and,

“I’m taking it to prevent pregnancy.”

He replied, bewildered.

“We don’t have any plans for children, do we?”

He couldn’t even imagine himself having and raising children. It wasn’t that there were no male Omegas who met good partners and gave birth to children. If they were lucky, they could have a smooth delivery without a cesarean section and breastfeed, but, ugh… he didn’t want to do that.

It wasn’t because he was an old-fashioned chauvinist who said that’s not something a man should do, that’s a woman’s role. Rather, men were said to have better physical strength and a lower risk of childbirth than women. Leaving all those issues aside, he just didn’t want to meet a child who looked like him.

So if two lines ever appeared on a pregnancy test, it would be news of testicular cancer, not pregnancy.

“Hmm….”

A manual with the label ‘Recessive Omega Only’ popped out of the medicine box. He glared at the drug manual with tiny letters engraved in pink, but the readability was terrible.

When he forced himself to read one or two lines, side effects were specified.

‘Depending on the disposition, symptoms similar to those experienced when taking a suppressant may appear, and will return after 6 hours regardless of external action. If symptoms do not improve, consult a specialist.’

So a sentence was added that he should not take more than two pills.

“I, I didn’t… I didn’t know it had these ingredients. I just took it to prepare….”

Tae-rim-ssi was silent as he looked at him making clumsy excuses. He just stretched out two fingers like pincers and snatched the drug manual away. He quietly followed him as he returned to the bed.

A troubled look was written on the eyes that were reading the tiny letters.

“If you wanted to prevent pregnancy, you could have used a condom.”

Tae-rim-ssi said, crumpling the manual in his fist. It was clearly a meaningless action, but he was intimidated.

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m not asking for an apology….”

“I thought you wouldn’t feel as good if we used a condom.”

“Feel? What feel.”

His tongue was parched. With his mouth dry, he picked out his words.

There were so many Alphas who didn’t like using condoms that it was safe to say the number was absolute. One guy he met for about two weeks in Florence pushed his thing at him to have sex less than ten days after they met. When he said what are you talking about, I don’t want to be the bottom even if we have sex and you don’t have a condom, he said his penis was big so it was stuffy when he wore a condom.

At that time, that guy’s size was, well, similar to mine… But Tae-rim-ssi is much more… He doesn’t need such bluffing because of his size….

“I thought it would be better for Tae-rim-ssi to do it without a condom….”

“…….”

Then silence fell. Tae-rim-ssi’s eyes, looking at him quietly, were like looking at a younger sibling who had caused an accident, and he was embarrassed.

“Hae-ah.”

He opened his mouth, and,

‘Ugh, please!’

He screamed inwardly.

“Don’t buy and take medicine recklessly in the future. What are you going to do with your doctor… Why are you so careless?”

He’s thirty-two years old, and if you count it, he’s four years older than Tae-rim-ssi…. He’s not the type to listen to this kind of nagging, actually.

“What’s my feeling important for, huh?”

But Tae-rim-ssi coaxes and soothes him. Like the crumpled drug manual, his pride also shrank. He wanted to get out of this conversation as soon as possible.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize.”

“Yes, I’m sorr….”

…He was about to say that habitually, but he closed his mouth. Tae-rim-ssi’s hand slowly gestured in the air. Heat rose to the back of his head at the gesture to come closer. He was embarrassed, that he was being treated like a very young child.

As he approached the bed one step at a time, he grabbed his wrist and gently pulled him. Because he reflexively resisted moving, he was pushed back by the reaction and sat down on his lap with a thud. He was flustered and tried to get up again, but his left arm wrapped around his waist.

Soon, a large hand came to his ear. With strength in his eyelids to avoid twitching his eyes, he leaned his head against his hand as casually as possible. The ensuing kiss felt like a sweet reward.

While licking his lips, Tae-rim-ssi began to unbutton his top. Because he was captivated by the sweet kiss, he didn’t understand the meaning of the action for a while. It was because he didn’t even think that he would hold him, who didn’t have an Omega scent, wasn’t wet down there, and was like a wooden doll.

“Wait…, just a minute.”

Shaking his head, he struggled to take his lips away.

“Are you just going to do it?”

When he asked that,

“Why. Do you hate it?”

Tae-rim-ssi, for his part, looked flustered.

“No, I won’t even smell good. And I’m not… well… I don’t have any physical reactions.”

“It doesn’t matter. We can use lotion or gel.”

“Why doesn’t it matter? I’m like a Beta if I’m like this!”

Pushing away Tae-rim-ssi’s arm around his waist, he tried to get off his lap for the second time. As he sat back on the blanket and fastened his disheveled pajamas, Tae-rim-ssi’s expression was bewildered as he looked at him.

“…I don’t smell good, my body is stiff, and I can’t feel Tae-rim-ssi’s pheromones, so how can it not matter? I’m not a Beta. I don’t like it in this state.”

“I don’t care.”

Tae-rim-ssi’s nonchalant voice fell on his body before he could stop it.

“You’re still you, though. I don’t care if you’re like a Beta.”

‘Liar!’

He almost shouted that in absurdity. His mouth opened and closed on its own. Heat rushed to his face and his heart was pounding like a startled person.

‘Liar, liar, liar….’

The same word swirled around in his head. He’s someone who can never be with a Beta… It’s a lie. Even if he hugs Beta Kang Hae-ah a hundred times, he won’t be able to satisfy him… It’s a lie. If he suddenly goes into rut, he won’t be able to come to his senses even if he smells blood if it’s not a great Omega pheromone… Liar.

“Hae-ah.”

But he wants to believe it. When he looks at those eyes… he feels like the barrier he had desperately put up, saying that he was pitying him, was being lifted. He wants to soothe himself by saying that he actually knows that Cheon Tae-rim is an honest person. If he said he liked him, that’s just the meaning that he likes him, that’s all…. That he likes him now, regardless of his trait. That he cherishes him, embraces him, and accepts him.

“Hae-ah, give me your hand.”

Tae-rim-ssi said. He approached him in a crawling position, who was leaning his back against the head of the bed and crouching his knees. And he held out his hand.

He put his right hand on his outstretched hand. His hand is just the hand of a painter in the corner of a room with a slightly bent middle finger, but Tae-rim-ssi’s hand clearly showed that he had handled basketballs, barbells, and fencing swords. As he gently stroked the rough palm, he laughed softly.

“Are you calm now?”

Then he came and sat next to him. He felt a little empty as he leaned his back against the headboard side by side. He felt like a fool when he thought about how his face would have looked when he was angry, resentful, and upset all alone because of old thoughts.

“Then let’s just kiss.”

Tae-rim-ssi said, pulling the hand he was holding. Then, without doing anything, he just looked at his eyes, so he had to raise his waist first. Because he liked kissing… he stretched out his head and pressed his lips to his lips. Strength was put into the hands they were holding.

“…What about doing it with just your hands?”

He said again, with his face close. This time, he nodded. As he stroked his thigh, he also reached between his legs. The big hand that was digging into his pajamas was already hot.

Compared to him, who was only touching his hardened penis over his pants, Tae-rim-ssi was active. His hand was somewhat rough as he grabbed his thing, so his hand quickly lost its way. His legs lost strength and his toes curled up at the stroking touch.

Tae-rim-ssi climbed onto his body that had slipped onto the sheet.

“Take it off.”

He said, poking the tip of his index finger through the gap in his open pajamas. Panting hot breaths, he began to unbutton his buttons. Just as the damp top was caught on his wrist, he pulled down his pants in one go.

“Ugh….”

His eyes closed on their own at the stimulation of touching the tip of his penis. Swallowing a moan, he turned his head. His thigh muscles twitched and his knees were raised.

He could see Tae-rim-ssi, who was sitting between his legs. Like someone enjoying a fun prank, he was looking at him with eyes mixed with curiosity and affection.

He had a red imagination. If he had a knife, he wanted to cut his chest in half and split his heart open to show him. How much red shame a thirty-two-year-old Beta was left with inside….

“Ah.”

Tae-rim-ssi’s hand reached under his left thigh. Soon, one of his calves was placed on his shoulder. A line was created on his stomach where it was folded, and his index finger entered the new butt crack. The hand touching the front gently soothed him.

“I won’t hurt you.”

He said.

“I won’t hurt you….”

His chest heaved on its own at the finger digging into his back. Gasping, he repeatedly exhaled hot breaths and shook his head meaninglessly. One index finger that had entered his tight back was already hurting him.

‘I told you it won’t work….’

Even while thinking that,

‘But Tae-rim-ssi… Tae-rim-ssi says he likes me….’

His two hands helplessly touched his chest.

After a long time of foreplay, Tae-rim-ssi changed his position. He brought his erect thing under his thigh and just looked down at him silently. He knew the meaning of that look. He was estimating how far it would go if he put it in his body….

His waist stiffened at the small realization. Even while voluntarily spreading his legs, he had no confidence. All he had was reckless affection and reckless courage. Even that courage was cowardly and disappeared silently.

He was scared… He already knew the feeling of being forcibly held by him when he lost his reason. The memories of trying to accept him without being an Omega, and the records of failure, were smeared all over his life. There would be blood, and self-loathing, and shame, and a purple bruise that would never go away would flow every rainy day.

“Hae-ah.”

Tae-rim-ssi put his two spread legs back together. He made a whining sound and touched his penis with his hand. He wanted to do it somehow. He liked Tae-rim-ssi and he liked being held by him. He wanted to have sex. He didn’t care if it hurt or if he died.

But his body doesn’t listen to him. His hands are touching him, saying it’s okay, but his waist is stiff and his expression is frozen in fear. His eyes even turned red with sorrow.

“It’s okay.”

The voice that soothed him was gentle.

Soon, Tae-rim-ssi rummaged through the bedside table drawer. As long as he is a Dominant Alpha and he is a recessive Omega, there was no reason for gel to exist in this house. So he had to find lotion.

He was embarrassed and just blushed for no reason,

“Rose scent, vanilla scent?”

Tae-rim-ssi asked, holding two lotions, and he burst out laughing.

“Which one is similar to my scent….”

He asked, laughing weakly. Then Tae-rim-ssi was silent. He raised one eyebrow and drew a curve at the end of his lips. He seemed to be thinking for a long time, then he shook his head.

“They’re both different from you.”

Then he squeezed out so much lotion on his palm that he thought it was too much. The lotion tube was so wrinkled.

“Your scent is just, your scent.”

The finger that was digging into his back again was smooth this time. His muscles, which had been relaxed, accepted the foreign substance more easily than before. He was embarrassed to be receiving unfamiliar caresses while lying on his side, and at the same time, he was breathless with a strange anticipation.

It would have been nice if he hadn’t taken the medicine, then he could have been held easily without Tae-rim-ssi having to work so hard… His lips, which were regretting, opened and closed. Suddenly, excitement surged to the back of his head.

“Ugh, um.”

Gasping, he moved his hips to the left and right. Tae-rim-ssi easily stopped his resistance to wriggle and run away. With his remaining hand, he grabbed one of his buttocks and spread it open, then he stretched out his fingers. His index and middle fingers dug into the hole. He shuddered at the foreign substance that was coming in too easily.

Saliva gathered between his lips.

“Ah, ah…!”

Tae-rim-ssi’s fingers poked inside his body. He could feel his knuckles bending inside him.

At the gesture of pressing down hard on his inner wall,

“Ah!”

He had to squeeze his thighs tightly. Precum beaded at the tip of his penis. He couldn’t feel his pheromones and he was just like a Beta, but he was excited and his temperature was rising.

“Ah, wait! H, don’t….”

He gripped the sheets with both hands, trying to crawl away, but he grabbed my back with his palm and pressed down hard. My stomach touched the sheet, and my erect penis was crushed under my weight. Hot, panting breaths escaped like coughs. Again and again, his fingertips stabbed into my insides. With each thrusting finger, I let out a strangely high-pitched moan and reached my hand back.

“Ah, ah…”

In a fluster, I tried to push him off, but I ended up ejaculating with one knee awkwardly raised.

“……”

My back arched, and my forehead grew hot.

“Ugh…”

In the same position I had been in, trying to escape, I completely collapsed. Semen gushed out in two or three spurts. My body kept trembling as I dribbled out a long stream.

Tae-rim-ssi didn’t touch me anymore. He just stared down at my writhing body, shuddering and continuing to feel it.

‘I’m not even drunk on pheromones…’

Tears of shame trickled down like sweat. A sorrowful sigh escaped the tip of my nose. I heard Tae-rim-ssi let out a sigh that sounded somehow like lament.

“Why are you crying again?”

He pulled me into his arms.

Because of the deep embrace, I could feel his erect penis touching my butt. The sensation of it rubbing and lingering on my skin like someone in thought made me impatient. I bit my lower lip and pressed my hips closer to his body. A hot groan escaped Tae-rim-ssi’s lips.

A hand slick with lotion touched my lower abdomen, and a clean hand stroked and caressed the back of my neck. I wondered if he could feel my trembling breath in his palm… The moment that thought crossed my mind, a thick index finger pried open my mouth. I soon understood why he had hooked his index finger into my mouth to keep me from biting my lip.

He pushed his erection into my rear.

“Oop, uh…”

I bit down on Tae-rim-ssi’s finger, then forced my mouth open and drooled as I clung to his arm. I could feel my rear burning and opening up. The taut sensation was so painful it felt like I would tear.

It hurt so much I cried.

“Oo, ugh…”

Like a child getting a shot and then eating candy, I sucked on Tae-rim-ssi’s finger. His finger tasted like tears. Tae-rim-ssi grabbed my red, flushed butt with one hand and spread it open. The pressure of his penis forcing its way into my narrow hole was endless.

“Umm, it, umm, it’s too big…”

My words came out slurred because of Tae-rim-ssi’s finger, which was soaked with saliva. As if he barely understood what I said, he stopped thrusting. Then he exhaled a hot breath.

“Relax.”

And commanded,

“Relax and spread your butt.”

“……”

The low sound of his panting voice sent shivers down my arms. I couldn’t feel his body scent or pheromones… I didn’t know what state he was in. If he hadn’t taken the drug, I imagined I would be crying and sniffling from the overwhelming scent, and my stomach twisted.

Reaching back with a trembling hand, I spread my butt myself. Hot breaths escaped in quick succession. The oily lotion was squeezed out with strange noises. His touch was urgent as he squeezed out the remaining lotion and smeared it on my butt crack.

More easily, Tae-rim-ssi’s thing slid into my slick rear. I had to let out a small scream.

“Aah!”

I should have just drunk alcohol! That escapist thought flashed through my mind.

“It hurts, it hurts…”

Tears streamed from my eyes, and precum dribbled from my penis as I pleaded. The thickness probing my rear felt like it would tear my flesh, and the pressure pushing inside suffocated me. I even felt like my organs were being pressed and my stomach was swelling.

“Cough, cough!”

It was even worse when I coughed because I swallowed wrong. My rear twitched, tightening around his penis even more.

“Huff… Hae-ah.”

Tae-rim-ssi’s voice was urgent.

“Try to… relax.”

“Sniff, I am relaxing!”

The absurd thought of ‘You try it!’ surged up.

“It hurts, sniff… ugh, uh…”

Really, you try it, you try relaxing, see if you can.

“Ugh, uh… Tae-rim-ssi!”

…But it worked. The sensation of being pierced inside surged up to my throat, and the moment I was swept away by the pleasure, the strength left my body. So much so that I was about to collapse onto the sheets.

Tae-rim-ssi’s hands caught my collapsing back. I caught a glimpse of his veined forearms, and then everything was dark.

“Tae-rim, Tae-rim-ssi…”

I closed my eyes and sobbed. Each time he thrust with a thud, I let out a short groan. Each time, Tae-rim-ssi made a boiling sound. It was the sound of him enjoying the twitching, tightening sensation.

“Sniff, uh…”

His hand slipped under my chest, where I was biting my lip. My frantically panting body was lifted up for a moment, then sank softly. I was dazed on the pillow propped under my chest.

“Does it hurt?”

He asked, and

“N-no, no…”

I hugged and clung tightly to the thick arm that was holding my upper body.

“Then.”

“I like it… I like it.”

It was as if I was begging, ‘So please keep holding me.’

“You like it?”

“Yeah, yes. I like it…”

The same motion was repeated until the soft, fluffy pillow was soaked with sweat. With his stomach pressed against my back, he moved his hips, and I focused on the overwhelming sensation as I lifted my butt. The lotion made a rather messy squishing sound at the point of contact.

Finally, Tae-rim-ssi ejaculated. Only when his semen surged inside me could I faintly smell his scent. It was a strong scent that sharply pierced my dulled nose.

My body, which had been flushed with excitement, instantly went limp. Tae-rim-ssi’s scent suffocated me, and my penis, which had ejaculated several times, hung limply. The tip of my penis tingled as if I was about to pee. But thanks to the drug, I didn’t leak water like before.

Frustrated, I grabbed my limp thing and stroked it.

“Uh, uh…”

I wanted to cum, but an ambiguous sensation, neither a feeling of urination nor ejaculation, shook me, but nothing came out.

“I hate… the drug…”

I frowned in annoyance and said that, and Tae-rim-ssi laughed.

Holding me tightly,

“See?”

He said.

“It’s so hard because you take just any drug. And you keep crying.”

It was half right and half wrong. It was hard because I felt like the drug was blocking my pleasure, but the reason for my tears was different.

But I let him mistake my sadness for a side effect. There was no other way. I couldn’t say that you, who say you like even Kang Hae-ah who has lost his body scent and pheromones, are making me cry. I couldn’t confess that I hate this version of myself, but you hug this version of me, so I feel comforted.

Tae-rim-ssi began to massage my sobbing arms and legs. Leaning my upper body against his chest and pressing my cheek against his shoulder, I clung to him and cried like a sorrowful dog.

“Sniff, Tae-rim-ssi…”

“Yeah.”

“Tae-rim-ssi…”

“Yeah, I know.”

He pecked at my lips like birds touching beaks. What did he know… I was about to say something, but I succumbed to the cute kiss.

Creak…

A sorrowful sound pierced the bedroom, and

“…Is that you making that sound?”

Tae-rim-ssi asked.

“Huh? No, it’s not me…”

My mind, which had been hazy as if drunk, seemed to clear a little. I raised my head and looked at the closed door, and again, I heard a thin, sorrowful sound.

Following that, I heard a scratching at the door.

“Do-jin!”

Pressing me down as I staggered to my feet, Tae-rim-ssi opened the bedroom door. Then a white dog came bounding into the room, panting.

He jumped onto the bed and rushed at me, who was barely covered with a blanket, almost headbutting me. Then he began to frantically lick my tears.

“Ah, no… Hyung should, should wash up…”

That’s all I said, but I couldn’t stop Do-jin. I was exhausted as I hugged the good dog’s neck. I laid Do-jin down on the blanket and stroked his belly like crazy.

Then I raised my head and saw Tae-rim-ssi smiling as if in a daze. This time, it was my turn to pat the spot next to me, telling him to come over. Then he trudged over and sat next to me and Do-jin. He put his arm around me, and I hugged Tae-rim-ssi’s neck.

“Hae-ah.”

His big arms embraced me as I burrowed in, my forehead flushed.

“…Happy birthday.”

A soft kiss followed.

Lucky seven. The moment it was past midnight on July 7th, a happy birthday was finally given to me… I finally had someone who sincerely celebrated my birth.

There were carefully chosen lights on the ceiling, and Kang Hae-ah’s new works were lined up on each white partition under the soft light. After a preparation process that was as difficult as the first time, even though it was the second time, the opening ceremony of began.

I slowly looked around at the familiar faces. The moments of each passing minute flowing outside my skin were so familiar that I was almost afraid. Chief Prosecutor Cheon Hee-jung’s position, my mother-in-law’s admiring face, the attire of the political figures who had come to see them, and every word of the conversations they exchanged were exactly the same as last time. There was nothing different, which was chilling.

‘No.’

I swallowed hard and smiled. Manager Park, who was in charge of the opening ceremony, began to introduce the artist, and most of the guests listened without knowing that it was Manager Park’s own achievement introduction.

When I turned my gaze, I saw a man who was quite different from before. He was wearing the clothes I had chosen for him and the watch I had given him as a gift, and he was smiling and looking at me. Cheon Tae-rim’s affectionate gaze was something I had never experienced before. The ‘first time’ he gave me reassured me.

With a more relaxed gaze, I moved my gaze and saw my Father, Chairman Kang Jun-il, standing on the opposite side. The actor’s blood flowing in me was probably from Father’s genes. Seeing him lightly praising his son with such a comfortable and unmaterialistic face, standing next to the congressman who was the object of his patronage as if it were nothing… he was my Father. I wondered if my appearance was as brazen as his in the eyes of others.

Chairman Kang Jun-il’s formality as the chairman of Hanseong Group was not visible at all in his narrow-collared shirt, cotton pants, and light navy cardigan. If he hadn’t been a businessman, he would have been a film director. Fooled by his likable smile and doting father-like tone, even the ruling party congressman began to chat with him up close.

Normally, they were congressmen who would have no connection with a chaebol businessman, no matter how much they pretended. It wasn’t for nothing that prosecutors used the slang ‘stubborn’. Kang Hae-ah was the reason why politicians with conviction, who were not afraid of making enemies and went the way they thought was right, gathered, even if they were criticized for being ‘inflexible’ or ‘picky’.

More precisely, it was because Kang Hae-ah was the son-in-law of Chief Prosecutor Cheon Hee-jung. It was because the Chief Prosecutor had laid the bridge to hold this exhibition in the National Assembly Gallery…

“Then, let’s hear the artist’s words and the introduction of the exhibition.”

…So it was clear that Chairman Kang Jun-il had forcibly pushed me to marry into the Chief Prosecutor’s family. Chairman Kang Jun-il was Kang Tae-gong, and I was the bait. A bait that trudged into the ranks of clean and upright political figures, who could not be lured in any way, with bright paintings and set up a place for them.

Even now, Chairman Kang Jun-il was boasting about his youngest son, and in his heart, he was looking forward to the business three years from now.

“…Artist?”

But there was one thing,

‘Why…’

No matter how much I racked my brains, there was one thing I couldn’t understand.

‘…Why did he go so far?’

Chairman Kang Jun-il, who valued people’s usefulness and efficiency, had somewhat wasted the Kang Hae-ah card.

‘He could have used it a few more times, even if I’m a Beta…’

It was strange that he had thrown away Kang Hae-ah, who was at the peak of his career as a representative painter of Korea and whose paintings had skyrocketed in value, so quickly and hastily. I had thought about it hundreds, thousands of times, but I couldn’t find an answer to the question.

Why did he use my works as bait for lobbying? Why did he cut off those machinations and suspicions, even making his father-in-law retire from the position of Chief Prosecutor? And why did he have to push Cheon Tae-rim, who was like a new sun in the business world, to be at odds with me?

“Artist, um…”

Kang Hae-ah would have been useful for 10, 20, no… 30 more years. I was an icon that Chairman Kang Jun-il and Manager Park had painstakingly created over 26 years. How much money had Hanseong earned from the effect of the artist Kang Hae-ah, but he used it once as a material to enter the political world and then threw it away.

He could have used it dozens more times, until my appearance shriveled and my painting skills became worse than before. But why did he do that, Chairman Kang Jun-il, who even used my dead mother for image laundering…?

“Hae-ah.”

A friendly voice suddenly woke me up.

“Ah!”

I was so surprised that I shouted. The first thing I saw was Tae-rim-ssi’s face, who was holding my shoulder, then Manager Park, who was trying to hide his embarrassment, and then the guests, who burst out laughing.

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

I smiled awkwardly and looked around.

“Are you okay?”

Tae-rim-ssi whispered in a very small voice, and I nodded without showing it. I carefully took his hand, which was full of worry, and then I acted.

“I would like to sincerely thank everyone who is here with us today. Thank you.”

I smiled. Raise the corners of your mouth high, but don’t wrinkle your nose too much. Keep your back straight, broaden your shoulders, and smile. Like Kang Hae-ah.

“… was a pleasant challenge for me. I am very happy and excited to present a new story that continues the trajectory of my previous works.”

Up to this point, it was the same script as before. The script that Manager Park had checked and Chairman Kang Jun-il had roughly reported on, the script that the artist Kang Hae-ah had to recite.

I spoke that script as if it were my own opinion, thought, and belief. I pretended to be nervous so that it wouldn’t look like I had memorized it by heart, I swallowed my saliva, and I smiled even more when I made eye contact with the guests, and I stood straight, without any flaws, like the paint applied to the works I had presented.

“And…”

And it was time to pull out the wheel.

“I would like to announce that I will be laying down my brush as of today.”

I threw myself off the cliff from the repeating cycle.

“…I dare to say that I have finished all the stories I wanted to release to the world as an artist. Once an artist, always an artist, but my work as a painter is completed with today’s exhibition.”

Dozens of faces immediately turned to me. Only two people had sharply surprised expressions. Publisher Manager Park, who couldn’t let Kang Hae-ah stop being an artist, and my Hyung, Kang Il-hae.

Standing in my place, I just shrugged my shoulders lightly. Declaring that I was laying down my brush was nothing. I thought it would be okay, but it was more okay than I thought.

“All proceeds from the works sold at this exhibition will be donated to the Yeondu Children’s Foundation. I ask for your support so that the stories of hope and light drawn in the canvas can be conveyed to the future of the world outside the works.”

As I finished the last greeting I had prepared, I looked at Chairman Kang Jun-il first. Seeing me, who had self-destructed so that he could no longer use the Kang Hae-ah card and had put out the number of donating all the proceeds to cut off the link to lobbying the works sold today… he was smiling.

Then he applauded. As he sent his applause of support with a gentle smile, the guests applauded after him. It was the moment when my sudden remarks were seen as a pre-arranged plan.

Maintaining a smiling face, I bowed.

‘Why?’

Inside my heart,

‘Why… why is he smiling?’

It was full of black confusion.

I had ruined all the plans, I had deviated from the orbit and jumped out, but I was embarrassed by Chairman Kang Jun-il’s attitude, who had no criticism or anger. It might have been because he was such a natural actor that he could hide all his strong emotions. While hiding the emotions boiling inside,

“I’m proud of you, Hae-ah.”

He might have just been outwardly embracing my shoulders.

“I’m really proud of this work, and the meaning it contains.”

But if, by any chance, this smile was not acting, what if the only fish that Chairman Kang Jun-il wanted to catch was the friendship that would be solidified today? If it was just the patronage with the stuffy political congressmen, just up to that point…

Concealing my pale heart with a smile, I raised my head. Only then did the branches extending behind Chairman Kang Jun-il’s shadow come into view. A flushed face was visible over Father’s shoulder. Kang Il-hae, my Hyung, who had endlessly hated, envied, and loathed me since the moment my memory began.

In that instant, a sharp realization struck my Adam’s apple. I momentarily lost my breath. I even had a chilling illusion, as if the temperature of my entire body dropped by about two degrees.

‘Kang Il-hae….’

It was Kang Il-hae.

The person who would ultimately drag Chief Prosecutor Cheon Hee-jung down to the bottom and ruin Cheon Tae-rim, and ultimately me. A person for whom immediate venting was more important than long-term gain. The person who had his vice president position taken away by his Dominant Alpha sister, and who focused on bringing others down rather than climbing up.

I don’t know what state of mind I was in when I conversed with the Chief Prosecutor and his wife. Dazed by the shock of realization, I moved like a robot. I smiled at the words of praise and felt the embrace of someone who told me that even if I put down my brush for a while, an artist is forever an artist.

Soon, several important guests passed by me in succession. While offering appropriate answers and reactions to the questions asked, blue sweat flowed inside my shirt. As people’s attention gradually scattered towards the paintings, Hyung approached me.

Finally, when I was alone for a very brief moment, Hyung’s hand touched my shoulder.

He grabbed it tightly and,

“Let’s talk for a moment.”

He spat out words that were no different from an order.

In that moment, my brother felt like a devil. I thought I could see red horns sprouting from his temples, and the hand gripping me was like an eagle’s claw. After forcibly dragging me, making me sway in place, Hyung released my shoulder. Then, he stepped outside, avoiding the people engrossed in viewing the exhibition.

Like a slave bewitched by righteous words, I followed Il-hae hyung. I knew that I didn’t have to. I knew that if I resisted, he couldn’t drag me to a deserted place, and that if necessary, I could stick next to Tae-rim-ssi and prevent him from even talking to me. So, I also knew that I wouldn’t have to suffer from his punches if I didn’t follow Hyung like a four-year-old child.

…I knew it.

‘I’m just… confirming.’

I looked down at my feet, moving without hesitation.

‘I’m trying to confirm what the truth is.’

I wasn’t wearing cursed red shoes. I wished that, as often happened in fairy tales, I was being dragged along by a powerful curse without any fault of my own… Then I wouldn’t be responsible.

But in my view, I could only see neatly designed leather shoes. Helpless feet, too busy following Hyung without any resistance.

When I raised my head, I saw Hyung standing at the corner of the hallway. He was watching me, only turning his head slightly. When he confirmed that I was following his direction, he turned away and went further inside. I swallowed hard and slowly followed behind him.

Finally, a storage room appeared, with some of the gallery’s lighting equipment, a table, and a rolled-up carpet. Hyung looked around once and then pointed to the iron door where I was vaguely standing. Without a word, I followed him into the room.

‘Don’t close it.’

Even as I thought that, my hand slammed the door shut with a thud.

Trying to buy time as slowly as possible, I turned around. Immediately, Hyung’s fist landed in my stomach. There was no time to say anything or even form a question. ‘Keuk,’ a rough cough burst out from the unexpected punch.

Until now, Hyung had frequently taken me outside the building where events were held or to the back seat of a car. But all he did was flick my forehead or pinch my arm. No matter how angry he was, ‘real’ punishment was only carried out at home. But, this….

“Keok….”

I couldn’t even groan when I was hit in the solar plexus without any warning. As I coughed up painful gasps, saliva dripped and hung from my lips.

Pathetically, I collapsed on the spot. My back bent involuntarily, and my knees gave way.

Behind the solo exhibition with its glossy paintings and expensive lighting, I knelt and tumbled on the dusty carpet. Hyung’s shoe repeatedly kicked my stomach.

“Ack…!”

I was suffocating and feverish. It felt like my stomach was being torn apart. I wrapped my arms around my stomach as my organs churned. Along with angry curses, kicks repeatedly rained down on my arms.

While losing his reason and kicking me like a soccer ball, Hyung never touched my face.

I waited until the violence stopped. Until he exhausted all his strength and collapsed on his own, until he walked heavily to the table, sat down, and sighed, I waited. My stomach screamed as if it were being torn apart, and the marks of kicks were imprinted on my arms, but I just waited.

“Keoheok….”

My mouth felt dry as I coughed roughly. Blood-tinged saliva was congealed on the floor. It seemed I had bitten my cheek without realizing it while being hit.

“Hyung….”

Wiping away the saliva that was increasing along with a foul smell with the back of my hand, I made a sound in the shape of a shrunken snail.

“Was it… Hyung?”

I had to confirm it.

It was a problem I had been agonizing over for a long time, even to the point of death. Who was the person who planted the seeds of misfortune in Cheon Tae-rim’s upright life… Whether it was Kang Il-hae, or someone else… I had to know the opponent. Only then could I become a shield. My stomach was fine even if it was stabbed with a spear instead of a shoe.

“Answer me….”

I asked in a groan.

“Was it Hyung, my… exhibition? Gathering the congressmen… Trying to involve Chief Prosecutor Cheon Hee-jung, spreading fake information to the media….”

Then Il-hae hyung’s expression changed abruptly. An immature emotion was revealed on his face, which had only been filled with anger.

“Lower your voice, Kang Hae-ah. Do you want to die?”

The threat came first. The arrow that had been vaguely circling in my head suddenly became sharp.

I raised my head.

“It wasn’t Father… it was Hyung. Right?”

“Wh, what… what the fuck are you talking about? Do you have proof? You little shit, doing things I didn’t even do….”

“It’s true, Hyung…. It’s Hyung. Isn’t it?”

“Lower your voice!”

Jumping up, he grabbed whatever he could find. A bracket for mounting lights was held in his hand like a pole. As soon as he found something to replace a switch, he struck my shoulder with a loud thud. My upper body, which I had raised, immediately collapsed.

Even in the pain, I was happy.

‘It was Hyung.’

I had lived like a fool, bewildered for six years.

‘It wasn’t my fault….’

That my usefulness was exhausted, that my skills were all worn out, and that’s why I was abandoned by Father… I had been consumed by self-reproach, and my organs had begun to rot from the inside.

“Why…, why do you hate me so much?”

My voice, smiling in dismay, trembled with some unknown emotion.

“What did I, what did I do wrong? What did I do wrong….”

As I abruptly raised my body, he swung his arm again. The bracket made a thudding sound as it headed for my shoulder, but it missed and hit my head. In that moment, my body lost strength and my vision went black.

“…….”

Dazed and fallen, I couldn’t move. My head was ringing. The beating and kicking continued regardless.

I had pretended to be unconscious, pretended to be dead, too often…. So it seemed Hyung hadn’t noticed that my condition was really strange. That this time it wasn’t acting.

‘Stop it, stop hitting me. It hurts, me too.’

The onrushing pain soon blurred. I couldn’t feel anything anymore. In my dazed state, I only knew that he was still hitting me because my vision was shaking back and forth.

‘I’m a person too…. I’m a person too….’

What if I die from being hit like this? Tae-rim-ssi had finally started to like me. I had also found Do-jin and heard him say happy birthday, and the desolate and cold house had become ‘our house’ to me and Tae-rim-ssi. Just today, I was happy talking with him about where to go in the evening and what would be good for the dinner menu… What if I die here?

Thud, a rough sound shook my mind.

“Ack!”

With a shrill scream, the sensation of my entire body returned. My sweat pores tingled, and my hands trembled. Hyung’s foot kicked and trampled my chest.

While my insides were twisting in pain, I reached out my arms like a vengeful ghost. As it was, I grabbed Hyung’s pants leg and clung to it.

“Hyung, Il-hae hyung…, j, just a moment… please.”

As I pleaded, almost hugging Hyung’s calf, a human emotion finally seeped into Hyung’s eyes, which were panting with resentment.

I could guess what he was thinking now.

‘What if this bastard dies like this?’

He was probably worried about that point.

“D, don’t hit me so it’s o, obvious…. Huh? A, not yet… the opening hasn’t ended… and Father is outside….”

I emphasized that fact as well. It was better not to say that I was asking him not to hit me because I was a person, because it hurt, because I was Hyung’s younger brother. Kang Il-hae was not someone who would be swayed by such facts. Rather, he would curse me for not being human, laugh at me for saying it hurt, and rage that he had never had a younger brother like me….

“I, I won’t es, escape…. I don’t… I don’t think I can get up. Let’s talk later…, huh?”

I buried my head between his knees and gasped for breath. The muscles in my neck were stretched as if they would burst, and a hot sensation rose from my stomach, as if it were bleeding.

“Ha…. Kang Hae-ah, what’s wrong with you?”

Then Il-hae hyung shouted as if he were dumbfounded.

“You’re doing things you never used to do, why.”

It was because Kang Hae-ah had not even been an earthworm that wriggled when stepped on.

“Don’t hit me…, it really h, hurts. Please stop hitting me….”

Hyung moved his legs to shake me off. My upper body shook wildly as he shook me off. It felt like my brain was rolling around inside my skull.

Suddenly reaching out, Hyung grabbed my neck. My shoulders stiffened in surprise at the rough touch,

“Look at you….”

A voice coldly mocking me landed. When I opened my eyes and looked up, the necklace string around my neck was caught in Hyung’s hand.

“No.”

As soon as I whispered in panic, the necklace string was torn off mercilessly.

“A, no, that’s….”

The moment I reached out in a fluster, a kick flew in. My necklace, give it back… While pleading without letting go of my attachment, I fell away.

“Please, please….”

I was suffocating. I didn’t even have the strength to curl up anymore.

‘It hurts….’

Because it hurt, my mind became clear instead. I seemed to have thought of Do-jin for a moment.

But I thought it was good. At least, Chief Prosecutor Cheon would be safe, and Tae-rim-ssi wouldn’t misunderstand or hate me.

I saw Hyung, who was adjusting the bracket he held in his hand like a hawk. Predicting the violence that would pour down, I flinched and closed my eyes.

“Ack!”

But the fierce scream did not come from my mouth.

When I lifted my trembling eyelids, I saw legs sprawled on the floor like objects, and the back of a large man riding on top of them. I blinked my blurry eyes.

“Cough….”

After coughing a couple of times, spitting out pink saliva mixed with blood, unfamiliar noises mixed into my ears that had been ringing blankly. ‘Thud,’ a sound like smashing something, ‘thud,’ was heard in succession.

I belatedly recognized the back view of someone wielding a rough fist.

“Tae-rim-ah!”

Si Eun-cheol shouted. When I looked up at the open iron door, my eyes met his. Si Eun-cheol’s neat face was slowly dyed with astonishment and shock. I had no idea that he could send such a look, that he was someone who could look at me like that. The man who hadn’t even pitied the thirty-two-year-old Kang Hae-ah just before his suicide was looking down at me… as if I were very pitiful and pathetic.

“Kang, Hae-ah….”

Louder than Si Eun-cheol’s voice, whispering as if groaning,

“Ack, shibaal! Ugh!”

Was Il-hae hyung’s unfamiliar scream.

My brain must have been broken from being hit too much. It was difficult to grasp the blatant and simple situation. Si Eun-cheol’s face, the large back view, Il-hae hyung’s scream… All the dramatic puzzle pieces were belatedly put together.

‘Tae-rim-ssi.’

Tae-rim-ssi, Tae-rim-ssi was beating Kang Il-hae. The fist that he was swinging around like a madman landed heavily on Hyung’s face.

Compared to me, who was frozen in surprise, Si Eun-cheol did not hesitate. As if it were his job, he rushed behind Tae-rim-ssi.

“Tae-rim-ah, stop now.”

With a confident motion, he sprayed his body scent. It was a moment when I fully understood why the differences in genetic traits, whether Dominant or recessive, were divided like ranks. The sweet smell was so strong that it pierced the nose of even me, who was also an Omega.

I saw his hand touching Tae-rim-ssi’s shoulder. However, it was rather me who became dazed by the onrushing scent of flowering trees. Tae-rim-ssi shook him off.

Si Eun-cheol was instantly thrown back a couple of steps. Staggering, he bumped his hip against the stacked tables in a fluster. For a brief moment, he looked at Tae-rim-ssi, and then at me, with surprised eyes.

With my face red and in rags, I coughed roughly. While clutching my stomach with my right hand and spitting out blood-tinged saliva, I soon crawled on the floor.

“Tae-rim-ssi….”

I crawled behind Tae-rim-ssi’s back, which was prominent with rough breaths and swollen muscles that seemed to tear his suit jacket. By that time, Hyung was no longer screaming. His neck was strangled by the irrational Cheon Tae-rim’s hand, and he couldn’t even breathe.

I suddenly became afraid. More than the fear of ‘what if I die like this’ with myself as the subject, the fear of ‘what if he kills him like that’ with Tae-rim-ssi as the subject was strangely greater. Stretching out my trembling hands, I touched his shoulder and wrapped my arms around his thick waist as if tying him up. My slow, powerless upper body stuck to his back.

In a shape that was half piggyback, I coughed.

“Tae, keok…, Tae-rim-ssi, stop it…. Stop.”

Then his shoulders, which had been heaving greatly up and down, gradually calmed down.

Tears belatedly welled up. I started crying while hugging him. I couldn’t tell if this was reality or a terrible dream.

“Stop it, now….”

My whole body ached. My head was ringing.

I had shown him the appearance I wanted to show him the least, met him at the moment I wanted to meet him the least, and been caught…. How terrible a bastard Kang Hae-ah was. How insignificant a human being he was.

“Tae, rim-ssi…, ugh.”

Cheon Tae-rim grabbed my hands, which were coughing, in his. The embrace, tied tightly, was easily released because of that.

Il-hae hyung was briefly visible as he turned to look at me. On his red neck, sprawled out on the floor, white handprints were temporarily left, as if he had been strangled so hard. His face was covered in blood. If it weren’t for the faint groans that were leaking out, it wouldn’t have been enough to mistake him for dead, for a corpse.

Cheon Tae-rim’s hand touched my pale face.

“You….”

He opened his mouth, and,

“…….”

I couldn’t say anything. I just silently wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him, squeezing out the remaining strength.

Belatedly, someone came into the small room. It was Chairman Kang Jun-il’s exclusive secretary, Secretary Hwang Jong-tae. Secretary Hwang scanned the situation in the room and first checked Hyung’s condition.

As if he had belatedly come to his senses, Il-hae hyung was trying to stand up from his spot while talking incoherently, but he staggered once and then fell to the floor. The skin above his nose was torn and split, and the blood that had flowed down to his chin and below his neck had dyed his shirt red.

“This, crazy….”

Hyung muttered mindlessly, and,

“Lower your voice.”

Secretary Hwang soothed him.

“Are you going to show this appearance to the Chairman?”

“Kang Hae-ah, you, you bastard….”

Then Tae-rim-ssi’s body suddenly moved. To the point where my knees were lifted off the ground because of that. I grabbed Tae-rim-ssi’s waist and pulled him back, back. It felt like I was stopping an angry beast, not a person. His enraged chest rose and fell roughly.

“Tae-rim-ssi, Tae-rim-ssi….”

Keolkeol, I kept coughing. My stomach hurt like hell. I was worried that the skin might have been torn.

“L, look at me…, please.”

Cheon Tae-rim turned to look at me. His eyes were bloodshot, and his nose, chin, and forehead were tense. His left cheek was red. It seemed he had been hit when he smashed Hyung’s nose. My heart was bruised because of that. There was a very thin scratch, as if it had been scraped by a ring, and I wanted to take that wound away and have it.

“Tae-rim-ssi, cheek….”

Tae-rim-ssi snatched my groping hand as if catching it. The grip of his hand was so strong that it hurt.

Behind Kang Hae-ah, who exhaled a long, deep breath, Secretary Hwang examined me. At his gesture toward the open iron gate, he sent Il-hae hyung out. Even as he disappeared as if fleeing, Hyung repeatedly looked back at me. Even with his nose skin crushed and his chest soaked in crimson blood, Hyung instilled fear in me.

Secretary Hwang straightened my disheveled clothes as I blankly watched Hyung’s shadow, and

“Get your hands off.”

Cheon Tae-rim knocked his arm away. At that, the middle-aged secretary hesitated and stepped back. There were no further words. He had realized that Cheon Tae-rim was not in his right mind.

An angry Tae-rim-ssi was truly like a different person. Half of him, not even like a person. I instinctively knew how to handle him, with his gleaming eyes and furrowed brow with veins popping out.

All that was left was a clumsy imitation. Just like Si Eun-cheol had done a moment ago… With poor skill, I tried to emit what they called body scent. It seemed somewhat successful, judging by Secretary Hwang covering his nose with his hand.

Hiding my embarrassed feelings,

“Tae-rim-ssi.”

I placed the back of my hand against his flushed cheek. Tae-rim-ssi’s crumpled and reddened forehead slowly smoothed out. But his eyes were still hazy. I couldn’t tell if he was looking at me or chasing my pheromones floating in the air.

After awkwardly cooling his fever, it was time to raise my trembling legs. Si Eun-cheol, who had been frozen at a distance, suddenly reached out and helped me up.

Staggering, I had to grab his arm and cling to it for a moment.

“Tae-rim-ssi, can you… watch him for a bit.”

I asked Si Eun-cheol for a favor I thought I would never utter in my life.

“What…”

As if flustered, Si Eun-cheol looked back and forth between me and Tae-rim-ssi, who had blood on his fists and sleeves.

“The opening ceremony isn’t over yet.”

I deliberately ignored both him and Tae-rim-ssi. I simply and quietly took off my jacket, which had shoe prints on it.

“I… my jacket.”

Only then did Secretary Hwang take off his jacket. Fortunately, since we were similarly sized, it fit me well like my own clothes. Although the color was different from my clothes… Even if someone asked, I could just lie and say I spilled a drink on it. I was confident, as I had done it before….

As I tried to button up my shirt to hide the footprints, my fingers trembled. As if accustomed to it, Secretary Hwang bent down and buttoned my buttons.

While I wiped the sweat and tears from my face with the handkerchief he gave me, Secretary Hwang knelt down in front of me and brushed off my crumpled pants. The gesture of tidying my disheveled hair also followed naturally.

I might have been okay, if there weren’t two pairs of eyes watching me….

If it weren’t for Si Eun-cheol looking at me like a ghost and Tae-rim-ssi standing there dumbfounded with a face that I couldn’t tell if it was angry, sad, or shocked.

I was completely out of my mind. I didn’t want to go back to the gallery, but on the other hand, I did. Now that I had shown Si Eun-cheol, who looked down on me, such a pathetic sight, and crawled like a bug in front of Cheon Tae-rim-ssi, who married Kang Hae-ah thinking he was a precious son, I wanted to leave this place somehow.

As I hesitated and took a step back, Tae-rim-ssi reached out suddenly. At that, I gritted my teeth and squeezed my eyes shut.

‘Ah.’

I saw his hand, stopped in mid-air. His hand, which had been trying to grab me, remained on my shoulder instead of my cheek.

I didn’t have the courage to check his expression. With my head bowed, I only parted my dry lips.

“I…, later….”

My voice flowed out like a moan.

“Let’s talk later….”

After repeating the same words, I rambled. I also asked Si Eun-cheol to take care of Tae-rim-ssi. I asked him to sincerely help, made an absurd request, and then moved away as if running away.

As soon as I walked back into the gallery, Secretary Hwang was busy. Taking me, who had been tidied up to look presentable, he approached over my father’s shoulder. I could see him naturally whispering in his ear. Chairman Kang Jun-il’s eyebrows seemed to move for a moment, then smoothed out.

Even the subtle lighting in the gallery felt painfully bright. To avoid staggering, I didn’t even walk. I just stood there, looking at the artwork, pretending to be lost in thought.

Soon, a stranger with an unfamiliar face approached me. He praised my paintings and talked about his daughter, who was an art student. His voice sounded very distant, and very close and loud. As I listened to the echoes that roughly pierced my ears like thunder, I smiled.

“My daughter is a big fan. What do they call it, oh. Homage, I think. She’s drawing her assignments following the artist’s style. Today, when I said I was going to the opening ceremony, she made such a fuss asking if I had any more invitation tickets.”

“Haha….”

“She wants to be like you.”

“Ah…, like me….”

And for a moment, I was dazed. The words that no one should be like me suddenly surged up, then crashed to the floor with a thud along with my heart. My mind was frozen, but my tongue moved well.

Shamelessly, I played the role of Kang Hae-ah.

“I’m so happy. Please show me your daughter’s paintings next time…, I’m curious.”

As I forced a smile and looked at him, I saw Chairman Kang again over his ear. Teacher Im, standing next to him with a serious face, was also there, talking about something.

It was always like this, like a hidden picture puzzle. The parts that had been invisible because I was blind… Once I paid attention and looked around, I could see not just one, but two or three in my field of vision.

‘Yes, that’s right….’

My people… Could there be any more foolish words in my life? The problem was that I tried to find such things from others. It was wrong to even once delude myself into thinking that I had such things, with my status.

‘It couldn’t have been just a job…, at such a good timing… There’s no way he could have discovered me like that. There’s no way he could have known me so well and catered to me so well.’

In the end, it’s Kang Hae-ah. Kang Hae-ah, a human being with only a shell left and an empty inside. Nothing I believed I had was mine.

Suddenly, everything felt futile and shameful.

“…Artist? Are you alright?”

The stranger was saying something to me, but I couldn’t move my lips anymore.

I had lost it, my life. It was stolen, what I thought was mine…. Even the affection I had for my works, my paintings, my business cards that filled the gallery had left my hands. It had become a facade given and created by others.

Everything I had achieved was ultimately Chairman Kang Jun-il’s achievement and ability. Even my one and only talent, painting… On a stage manipulated by swaying critic Im Geon, I was deceived into thinking it was my ability.

Tears welled up. Even though I clenched my teeth tightly, my shoulders trembled. The unknown assemblyman, realizing my distress, gasped in surprise.

“Artist.”

And Teacher Im approached. Again, to soothe me, to mold me back into place and set me back in position… I turned away from him.

As I turned my head and exhaled hot breath, I saw Tae-rim-ssi. As he walked in through the gallery door, he stared straight at me with dark eyes.

Ignoring the twitching of the flesh under his eyes, I smiled.

I wished that if I acted like that, it would be as if nothing had happened. One step, two steps, Tae-rim-ssi approaches me, who is dying in sorrow. His eyes bloodshot, he looked like he was about to cry any moment.

In the very center of the exhibition hall, he took my hand.

“Let’s go out.”

His voice, as if possessing gravity, fell heavily onto my feet.

“Let’s get out of here.”

Following that, Tae-rim-ssi pulled my hand. Hesitating, I moved along with him. My hand in his was filled with sweat, and my face flushed. Countless gazes followed me and Tae-rim-ssi as we walked out of the gallery, red as a beet.

In the parking lot, Driver Oh was already waiting with the car door open. Tae-rim-ssi put me in the back seat of the car. Sitting limply, I listened to the sound of my heart beating like a drum.

It wasn’t Chairman Kang Jun-il or Teacher Im who came after us. Chief Prosecutor Cheon Hee-jung and his mother-in-law, calling out ‘Tae-rim-ah,’ caught up with me and him. As I tried to get out of the car, Tae-rim-ssi raised his hand. Spreading his palm, he dissuaded me, then closed the car door.

Standing outside the door, he had a conversation with his in-laws that was short if short, and long if long. Trembling gestures continued. As soon as I saw his mother-in-law covering her mouth, I turned my head away.

Soon, Tae-rim-ssi got into the car. Driver Oh started driving silently. A terrifying silence flowed inside the car.

“Why did that happen?”

Tae-rim-ssi asked. His hands were clenched into fists, red with my Hyung’s nosebleed.

I looked out the car window.

“…What do you mean.”

As I asked back like that,

“Why did Kang Il-hae do that to you…. Why did that happen?”

Tae-rim-ssi asked again. It was too clear a question, a direct hit that I couldn’t even avoid by pretending not to know.

I just remained silent. As if nothing had happened. Until I answered, Tae-rim-ssi stared at me silently.

At that moment, I was ashamed even of the sound of my heart pounding. Every time my red heart beat pathetically, thud… I felt my value falling down the stairs, thud… one step at a time.

I was afraid of Tae-rim-ssi’s gaze. What was he thinking of me… I couldn’t stop guessing. Was he regretting marrying me? Was he feeling scammed, deceived… That he had wasted his efforts on a nobody? Would he regret the time he spent with me and abandon me in an instant?

I was suffocating with fear.

“Go to the hospital.”

Tae-rim-ssi said to Driver Oh.

“No, go home.”

I shouted reflexively.

“I… I’m not really sick. Even if you call a doctor, call them to the house, don’t go to the hospital. It’s not good to have a medical record, I don’t want to go.”

“Go to the hospital, now!”

Tae-rim-ssi and I raised our voices repeatedly. Driver Oh, who had stopped the car at a traffic light, gasped in distress. Reaching out, I tapped the driver’s seat a couple of times.

“Let’s go home, Driver Oh. If we go to the hospital now, Chairman Kang will go crazy…. Let’s go home.”

Rather than Tae-rim-ssi raising his angry voice,

“Please go home.”

My plea was more effective.

Even when he’s not there, Chairman Kang is Chairman Kang. Just by mentioning his name and making excuses, I could win most fights. Thanks to that again today, I avoided the hospital and arrived home.

As soon as we arrived at the spacious garden and the warmly lit honeymoon home, Tae-rim-ssi flung open the back seat door. With large movements like an angry person, but without blaming sounds, he got out of the car. I blankly watched his back as he ran into the house.

And then belatedly,

“Tae-rim-ssi!”

I shouted and chased after him.

Staggering as I ran and caught up with him, it was already too late. He had dragged out my self-portrait that had been shoved into a corner of the studio. Grabbing the canvas of the messy painting, a jumble of bloody red, bruised purple, and the black of a weeping night, he threw it.

“Ah, Tae-rim-ssi.”

A shrill scream escaped through my teeth. His hands, nothing, didn’t touch my skin, but still, a scream came out. When I saw him grabbing the canvas frame and breaking it with all his might, my head spun as if I was about to faint.

“Don’t do it!”

Shouting, I rushed towards him. I hugged and clung to his arm, which was smashing Kang Hae-ah’s wounds.

“Don’t do that…, don’t!”

“Self-portrait?”

Cheon Tae-rim shouted.

“Why do you have to be like this!”

The broken canvas fell from his hand as he screamed like a scream. Soon, angry hands grabbed my shoulders.

“Why do you have to be like this, why does your painting have to be like this!”

“Don’t do it, don’t do it…, I’m sorry for deceiving you. I’m sorry!”

Do-jin, who had been quiet even when Tae-rim-ssi was making a fuss and I was chasing after him, suddenly started barking. Growling, he ran up to me and bared his underdeveloped teeth.

Panting with angry breaths, I looked once at the excited white dog, and once more at Tae-rim-ssi, who was staring at me with a hardened face.

And I smiled. Doing my best, as if nothing had happened.

“O-our family is originally like that…. In the Kang family, there’s no real, fake, anything like that.”

Tae-rim-ssi’s eyes, looking at me smiling, darkened to black. His expression was as if he had seen a ghost, but his eyes slowly filled with something I couldn’t tell if it was anger or sadness. Before that unknown, dark emotion deepened, I hurriedly poured out words.

“It’s just, all of it is real and fake. That’s what it is. Okay? So don’t be angry…, I’m sorry for deceiving you…. Don’t worry about it and just pretend you forgot.”

Then,

“Since when?”

Tae-rim-ssi asked.

“What do you mean?”

Blinking my eyes, I only looked at his chin. I didn’t have the confidence to look him straight in the eye.

“Since when have you been getting hit, by Kang Il-hae.”

Even though I avoided his gaze, the question hurt.

“…Anyway, I didn’t even live with Hyung. And there won’t be any chance of that happening in the future.”

“Is it your hobby to make me ask an angry question twice?”

“…….”

“Since when have you been getting hit.”

So, this is Cheon Tae-rim’s, advantage and disadvantage…. It’s one of the many parts of him that I like, but that point keeps stabbing at my Achilles’ heel.

“Hyung is… just joking around. He’s like that sometimes. Today, I made him angry, so he deserved it. I wasn’t surprised, I knew he would do that.”

I replied, making an effort to sound cheerful.

“…….”

But Tae-rim-ssi didn’t react to my lie. He was just silently capturing me with his eyes filled with black anger.

I suddenly became afraid that he would turn around and leave me. The scream-like shouts that he could never forgive or love lies, even if he forgave everything else, filled my head.

“…I’ve been getting hit since I was little.”

So I confessed. That it was really nothing, that such a thing had just happened, briefly.

“Is that okay now?”

“Hae-ah….”

“I cried because I didn’t want to go to study in Paris and got hit for the first time when I was six, and after that, well, I got hit every time I came back to Korea, it’s just…. It’s just like that. I don’t want to talk about it, why do you keep digging!”

The moment I shouted, I lost my mind. The balloon that I had been holding onto tightly, which had been expanding as if it would burst at any moment, burst without restraint.

“It’s okay for me. I’m okay!”

Shouting like a madman, I barked.

“When people are starving to death somewhere and freezing to death somewhere else, there’s a joke that the rich cry in a Lamborghini, right? That was me? I’m someone who’s okay because I cry in a Lamborghini. So what if I got hit a little, so what? What’s the big deal!”

Couldn’t you just think it’s okay? Even if I get hit by Hyung and used by Father, so what. He’s the youngest son of Hanseong Group, so it’s okay, right? Couldn’t you just think that way? Couldn’t you just look at me like everyone else?

But as soon as I saw Tae-rim-ssi’s face, I knew. That I couldn’t deceive this man. That he was digging up all the ugly parts of my life, scraping up every bruise I hid and every drop of blood I shed, and looking at them plainly.

Everything was exposed. I didn’t want to be exposed. Even if everyone in the world knew my bare face, I wished that Cheon Tae-rim-ssi wouldn’t know.

But it was the opposite. Everyone in the world was not interested in my feelings, but only Cheon Tae-rim-ssi found me. He found me, stripped away my facade, and managed to find out the crying six-year-old.

“Tae…, Tae-rim-ssi does that too, right?”

Showing my teeth, I smiled.

“You use public transportation every Tuesday. You’re doing that for the company’s image marketing, right…? I’m similar, no… I’m the same. It’s just… I’m doing family image marketing.”

As I finished speaking, scoffing as if joking, Cheon Tae-rim finally opened his mouth. His voice came out a few seconds late, like a video with mismatched sync.

“No, it’s different.”

I pretended not to hear the voice that sounded painful.

“It’s the same. It’s the same, right? It’s all for people to see, so what’s wrong with it….”

Soon, Tae-rim-ssi’s face contorted. His crumpled, flushed face was ablaze.

“How is that the same as this!”

I was the one who got hit, but Tae-rim-ssi seemed to be in pain instead. Holding his forehead and even groaning, he scratched and grabbed my shoulder.

“Don’t be angry.”

I mumbled blankly, and

“Hae-ah, please!”

Cheon Tae-rim pleaded.

“Why do you set fire to someone’s heart and then lie that it’s okay? You get kicked around like a dog by your family and then it’s okay if you smile?”

The shoulder held in his hand ached. More than that, my stomach, which had been kicked by Hyung, hurt too much. And more than that, Tae-rim-ssi’s sad face hurt my heart.

“How can you compare that to this… huh? Making a company image and letting others control your life, how can you compare them!”

‘Oh, he’s crying….’

Thick tears streamed down his cheeks.

“Taking the subway on Tuesdays doesn’t cause anything bad. I’m not throwing six-year-old kids in Paris to do marketing, I’m not calling them in to beat them up, I’m not putting people who say they hate it in exhibitions…!”

“D-Don’t get angry.”

“Kang Hae-ah.”

“Don’t get angry, really….”

My head shook back and forth. My head lost strength, and my knees buckled. The only reason I didn’t fall flat on my face was thanks to Tae-rim-ssi’s hand strength.

“I, I can’t breathe….”

With my head slumped down, I groaned. Now my stomach hurt more than my heart.

“Kang Hae-ah, what’s wrong?”

Tae-rim-ssi’s hands frantically touched my shoulders. He moved my limp body around, then sat me on the studio sofa.

His sweaty hand touched my cheek.

“Hae-ah.”

Tae-rim-ssi’s cheeks, lifting my head to look at my face, were wet with tears.

“Hae-ah… please. Please….”

He knelt in front of me like a very sad person.

“Please say something…. Why don’t you tell me honestly.”

Tae-rim-ssi’s teardrops falling on my thighs were hot. After catching his breath with a hot gasp,

“Do you… like drawing?”

He said, as if groaning.

“Is it something you do because you like it?”

It was a difficult question. I liked drawing, but I had never liked the act of drawing itself. I shouldn’t answer ‘no,’ but the truth was ‘no,’ so it was difficult.

Tae-rim-ssi was a very smart person, so he seemed to understand the meaning of my silence. His face darkened even more. With an almost desperate look, he grabbed my hand.

“Is there anything you do that you like?”

This question was relatively easy.

“I like being Tae-rim-ssi’s husband.”

My answer leaked through my teeth.

As I suppressed the rising nausea, cold sweat broke out a beat late. My whole body was soaked in an instant.

“That Tae-rim-ssi chose his marriage partner well, that he has an eye for people… that he’s spread his wings, that they look good together… I like hearing those things.”

Not that he was scammed, that his spirit was broken, that he was being used by a chaebol, that it would be hard to find a more mismatched partner… not those things.

“I like being next to Tae-rim-ssi.”

How many things I like.

“I… like Tae-rim-ssi.”

I felt something lukewarm flowing above my philtrum. I quickly wiped it away, thinking it was a nosebleed, but it was just clear water.

“Tae-rim-ssi, I….”

The hand that had been wiping under my nose fell off the chair. My arm went limp, and my shoulders lost strength. Looking at Cheon Tae-rim’s frightened face, I fell toward him.

‘I have to tell him it’s okay.’

That it doesn’t hurt, that it’s not your fault, so I have to comfort him not to cry….