By Zephyria 
It was when he had finished about half of his now-lukewarm milk tea. Haon, who had been talking with In-ho about a movie they hadn’t seen last time, subtly tightened his abdominal muscles. He shifted his posture, straightening and then curving his back slightly, as if something was uncomfortable.
“Um…”
“Yes.”
In-ho, who had been watching him closely, responded as if he had been waiting. If Haon hadn’t spoken up, In-ho had intended to ask.
“I’ll just go to the restroom for a moment.”
“Sure, go ahead.”
Relieved that it wasn’t anything serious, In-ho started to stand up with him. Since Haon hadn’t been able to eat food and had been filling his stomach with liquids, it made sense that he would need the restroom.
“Are… are you coming with me?”
As Haon became visibly flustered, In-ho, who was about to stand, paused.
“I’ll just go by myself…!”
As Haon hurriedly continued, his cheeks flushed very slightly. It didn’t seem to be from pain, but rather from embarrassment.
“Right, then go on.”
In-ho tactfully remained in his seat. He picked up his coffee cup again, signaling that he would wait leisurely, but Haon lingered, glancing back at him without moving his feet.
“You… you won’t come, right?”
In-ho nodded, his lips curving slightly. Seeing Haon feel the need to double-check made him want to laugh.
“You can’t come.”
Haon murmured faintly, as if he didn’t quite trust In-ho’s answer. Only after In-ho replied once more that he understood did Haon finally leave.
Clink. Placing the cup back on the saucer, In-ho pressed the bridge of his nose. He waited for Haon—who was slow even when running diligently—to disappear from sight before closing both eyes.
In-ho hardly slept at night. Instead, he would take light naps for an hour or two during the day. He had suffered from chronic insomnia since childhood. Even when he didn’t drink coffee or alcohol, he spent his nights wide awake.
Rubbing his heavy eyelids, he suddenly let out a small chuckle. He had remembered Haon telling him not to follow him to the restroom.
* * *
After relieving himself, Haon went to the sink to wash his hands. Worried that he might have kept In-ho waiting too long, he hurried with the soap while checking his face in the mirror.
Haon had come out with a wide bandage on his left cheek, which was bruised deep blue. Since the color was similar to skin, it wasn’t as conspicuous as the bruise, but it still bothered him.
“Excuse me.”
At that moment, a sudden, unfamiliar voice startled him, making his body sway. Because the restroom was so spacious and the sinks were far apart, he hadn’t realized someone was standing next to him.
“Give me some paper towels.”
Watching Haon’s exaggeratedly startled reaction, a man curled one side of his lips and pointed toward the wall with his chin. There were hand towels on the wall behind Haon.
“Will one sheet be enough…?”
Wiping his wet hands on his clothes, Haon pulled out a towel and handed it to the man. Though he knew it was rude, he found himself staring unconsciously because the man was exceptionally handsome.
“No, one more.”
He was that pretty of a man. His brown hair, which reached his shoulders, seemed to glow with luster, and his skin was as smooth as freshly made tofu.
“Yes, here…”
Haon trailed off as he immediately pulled out another hand towel and handed it over. It was because the glamorous man had lightly brushed the back of Haon’s hand while taking the towel.
Since it was only a light graze of the fingertips, he tried not to let it bother him. If the man had been an Alpha, he would have been on guard, but based on the image emanating from his appearance, he was clearly an Omega. He felt certain that he wasn’t just any Omega, but a dominant one.
“Are you an Omega?”
Then, the man tilted his head toward Haon and asked abruptly. Flustered by the sudden question, Haon paused as he was about to leave the restroom.
“I asked if you’re an Omega.”
Click, clack. The sound of the man’s dress shoes approached Haon. The gaze he cast upon Haon, with only one side of his mouth lifted, was as rude as his question.
“…Why?”
Asking about someone’s secondary gender so bluntly between strangers was an impolite act. This was a different situation from the woman he had been forced to ask last time to borrow suppressants.
“Just curious.”
The man shrugged and answered confidently. He asked again while crumpling the hand towel he had received from Haon. There was no moisture on the crumpled towel.
“You are an Omega, right?”
Haon simply clenched his fists in silence. There was no reason to answer. The man didn’t look like he was in danger to the point of needing suppressants or other help.
So, Haon turned toward the door.
“Y-yes, I am…”
However, lacking the courage to simply ignore the question and leave, he breathed out the answer in a whisper and walked toward the door. But the man continued speaking, pinning his feet to the spot once again.
“Those clothes are mine.”
Large eyes wearing contact lenses scanned the high-quality knit and trousers Haon was wearing. With a fishy smile, he rolled his eyes up and down and spoke.
“I saw you at the cafe with In-ho hyung.”
Since the cafe had an open structure, the interior was visible from the luxury goods store on the floor directly above. As soon as he had seen In-ho sitting in the cafe, he had set aside his shopping and come down.
“I guess hyung gave them to you to wear.”
The Omega who had chased after Haon instead of In-ho was named Ryu Soo-hyun.
Ryu Soo-hyun was the person In-ho had been seeing most recently. They weren’t in a formal relationship, but they did things that only people in a relationship would do. Going to nice restaurants together, or watching erotic movies at home on rainy days and sleeping over and over again.
Because of this, Ryu Soo-hyun believed that he would soon be able to date Seo In-ho. Even if In-ho was famous for not even keeping a common partner, he thought he was the exception. Everyone around him had fueled this fire, saying, ‘Soo-hyun, if it’s someone like you, you could even seduce Seo In-ho.’
However, those expectations were shattered the day Seo In-ho abandoned a completely naked Ryu Soo-hyun in the middle of sex. It was the day In-ho had received a call from Haon in the early hours of the morning and rushed to the goshiwon.
That day, Ryu Soo-hyun had called all his acquaintances in tears, cursing Seo In-ho as a piece of trash. He even spread a false rumor that In-ho had stormed out of the bed just because he suggested using a condom.
Since Ryu Soo-hyun’s acquaintances already knew Seo In-ho well, they filtered the information. While it was plausible for Seo In-ho to abandon a sexual partner, there was no way he would refuse a condom. If anything, he was the type to kick out an Omega who insisted on doing it without one.
“Uh… that is, I b-borrowed them.”
Crossing his arms, Ryu Soo-hyun chuckled at Haon’s bewildered reaction.
Just how old was he? Looking at his round cheeks, which seemed to still have baby fat, and his pale skin without a trace of makeup, Ryu Soo-hyun felt a twist of irritation in his gut.
“I guess In-ho hyung just gave them to you without saying anything. Those are clothes I cherish.”
Cherish, my foot. He probably had over ten similar knits at home. He had intentionally left them at Seo In-ho’s house to leave a trace of himself.
Knowing that the house was a place where anyone could come and go, Ryu Soo-hyun had left a piece of clothing behind every time he stayed over. To prove that he was a special existence.
And yet, fuck, he gave them to some other guy.
“Ah, then… I should… uh…”
Haon’s face was clearly troubled as he fidgeted with the knit. He wasn’t even about to take it off right now, yet he kept looking back and forth between the clothes and himself. Ryu Soo-hyun found it absurd.
He didn’t just look young; he seemed to actually be a kid. Looking at his shrinking posture and vacant attitude, Ryu Soo-hyun could roughly gauge his social standing.
“I threw them away anyway, so just wear them.”
Ryu Soo-hyun’s sharp expression softened slightly as he uncrossed his arms. He smiled thinly and leaned over the sink mirror to touch up his makeup. Seeing his own face made him feel a bit better.
“I guess you’re staying at In-ho hyung’s house.”
As Haon’s lips parted in the mirror, Ryu Soo-hyun took it as a positive answer. Even if he asked in detail, it seemed like no proper answer would come from this clumsy Omega.
“There are quite a few things I left behind there; you can have them all.”
Ryu Soo-hyun looked at Haon with a gentle face, as if giving alms. He didn’t look at the soft, bare face where peach fuzz was visible, but stared only at the reflection in the mirror. Seeing Haon’s flustered state fully restored his mood.
When he had seen In-ho smiling kindly at Haon in the cafe, he had honestly almost screamed right then and there. While he had blocked my number. It was only natural to be angry seeing him flirting with another guy by his side in the meantime.
Of course, he and Seo In-ho were just in a relationship where they occasionally met to sleep, but since they had eaten and watched movies together, he considered it a deeper relationship than it actually was. Ryu Soo-hyun was sincere about Seo In-ho. Though any Omega who had slept with him would likely feel the same.
“In-ho hyung treats you very well, doesn’t he?”
Brushing back his lustrous hair, he slowly brought the conversation to a close. If this had been a new Omega In-ho was actually dating, he would have fought tooth and nail to crush him, but since it didn’t seem to be that kind of relationship, he backed off easily.
“Hyung has always had a lot of sympathy.”
That person was nothing more than a picked-up Omega. He could roughly imagine what he would look like if he stripped him of those clothes. He was probably just keeping him by his side for a while because he felt sorry for him. Honestly, he’s unexpectedly soft-hearted, which doesn’t suit him at all.
He had heard that a young Seo In-ho had a habit of picking up abandoned dogs or cats. Since he had heard it directly from his cousin, Park Jung-hyuk, it wouldn’t be a mere rumor. It seemed he still hadn’t fixed that habit.
Before leaving the stifling restroom, Ryu Soo-hyun looked at Haon one last time. There was one last thing he wanted to confirm.
“Doesn’t In-ho hyung tell you not to wear perfume?”
On days Ryu Soo-hyun had worn perfume, In-ho had reacted so sensitively that he told him to shower first.
Seo In-ho was a man who was sensitive to everything. After sex, they slept in separate beds, and in the morning, he wouldn’t even let him watch the TV in the living room. Simply because it was too noisy.
“Yes…”
At Haon’s faint answer, Ryu Soo-hyun’s expression crumpled again, and he bit his lip.
He told me not to wear it.