Was it a mistake to decide to live together out of pity? Should I not have taken him under my wing? Or perhaps, when Lee Geumyoung took him to the hospital, I shouldn't have gone to pick him up. Should I have kept my distance like that? As Han Jinheon snapped out of his helpless spiral of regret, he realized he had gotten closer to Han Sol.
Despite the blunt request to open the door, far from opening it, he stood right behind him. Han Sol, with the hood of his long padding pulled up, didn't sense his presence quickly. Detecting a strange aura, Han Sol looked behind him and flinched the moment he saw Han Jinheon.
“I told you earlier I’d tell you when we were alone.”
“Huh? Ah, now that you mention it, you did… Why on earth did you laugh at me like that?”
The face, framed by the black padding, looked exceptionally pale. His two cheeks, touched by the cold, were still flushed just as before. As Han Jinheon scanned Han Sol’s entire face, his gaze focused on the dense lashes above and below the eyelids as he asked.
“It wasn't that I was laughing at you, but did it upset you? Were your feelings hurt?”
“Of course they were! You laughed at me like that in front of Secretary Song and Lawyer Park… Even if you say you weren't laughing at me, you kept laughing like that…”
Han Sol’s words trailed off as he made eye contact, as if asking if he knew how embarrassed he had been.
Han Jinheon focused on the round pupils revealed between the eyelashes. Had Han Sol's pupils always been this round and smooth? This clear and deep? He didn't know if he was realizing something he hadn't known, or misunderstanding something that wasn't. It wasn't important right now.
What was important now was telling Han Sol the reason.
“Because you were cute.”
“…Huh?”
“I knew you’d say something like that, of course. But even knowing, I did it because you were cute.”
“…Cute?”
“I can't very well state a reason like this in front of them. That's why I said I'd tell you when we were alone.”
“……”
“Do me a favor and try to be moderately cute. What are you going to do if your hyung can't guard your hole because of this?”
“Why are you suddenly talking about a hole!”
Han Jinheon cut Han Sol off by finding his lips. It was a bit stronger and longer than the bland kiss from before.
When he pulled his lips away, what he saw was skin that had lost all its pallor and turned completely red, and a dazed expression. Han Jinheon didn't back down and bit Han Sol's lower lip. As a small, dull pain spread, Han Sol seemed to come to his senses and asked in a trembling voice.
“Th-this time, why…”
“Why do you think?”
The reason was simple. Because he's cute. Because he sparks the impulse to do it. However, while this reason made sense to Han Jinheon, it didn't to the one who was the object of that cuteness.
Han Jinheon didn't want to help the one who looked so confused. This, too, was an impulse.
“I’m sorry about the cookies. I'll make it up to you with something else you like next time, so let it go.”
“……”
“Let's go home. You have to take your medicine.”
With a still-confused face at his hyung’s low apology, Han Sol nodded but tightened his arms around the cookie. Worried that Han Sol might bump into the door, Han Jinheon gently pulled him by the waist and opened the passenger side door for him.
***
Letting out a long yawn, I gathered the pills I needed to take in the morning into my palm. Deciding it would be too much to take them all at once and calculating that I should take them one by one, I filled a large cup with water. As I stood in front of the island counter taking my medicine, someone approached. It was Han Jinheon, without a doubt.
These days, Han Jinheon made time for a leisurely morning and would find me wherever I was and mess with me. While I was grateful, the downside was that I couldn't let my guard down at all.
“I felt this while we were eating breakfast too, but your complexion is even worse.”
“Calling someone’s complexion worse…”
'Don’t say it so seriously, like you're appreciating a profound work of art. And whose fault do you think this is? Who made me lose sleep?'
Words like that don't hurt me. It's not like he said it to hurt me. However, the gaze fixed on my face was burdensome, so I turned my body to tell him to stop looking. I tossed the last pill into my mouth, drank some water, and placed the cup in the sink.
“Han Sol.”
“Oobph—!”
Startled by the voice right next to me, I clamped my hand over my mouth. The pill I hadn't swallowed yet was still in my mouth with the water, and I almost spat it all over Han Jinheon’s face or clothes. That was a close call.
I protested by smacking his shoulder, telling him not to approach me without a sound. My heart was pounding, continuously preventing me from swallowing the pill.
“Liking someone on your own must not be easy, huh?”
“……”
“Tell your hyung. Who knows? Maybe I’ll help with your one-sided love?”
Help with my one-sided love? It's funny hearing that from the one person who can absolutely never help. As much as it's funny, my stomach churns.
He coaxes me to tell him, saying he’ll first and foremost check if the guy is decent, whether he’s an Alpha or a Beta. I say it's fine and try to pass him, but he slickly blocks my way. It’s so obvious he’s blocking me on purpose, but the way he pretends it happened by chance is ridiculous.
I finally managed to swallow the pill and water. Having regained freedom of my mouth, I immediately grumbled.
“You’re already helping just by not asking who it is, Hyung. And not targeting your brother’s lips would also be a big help…”
I thought about it seriously. I couldn't understand why Han Jinheon had pecked my lips for such a ridiculous reason, but putting that aside, the skinship itself, while a blessing for me, had to stop. My heart felt like it was going to explode. At this rate, I felt like I wouldn't be able to sort out my feelings for him after I manifest as an Omega.
An opportunity is an opportunity. But if you just pick up and eat anything, you'll get sick, won't you? This opportunity was like that for me. Just two kisses had me like this; any more and I was certain to get sick, so even though it was a shame, I had to give it up.
I felt that way, but Han Jinheon didn't. He looked at me strangely and said,
“Not asking is one thing, but you wrote and signed the contract. That you would have time to accept pheromones from me.”
“I did, but this is…”
“I told you clearly that I would have to initiate skinship even if you didn't want it. See, if you had a problem with it, you should have said so yesterday.”
His nagging that I should have been more careful before signing the contract leaves me speechless. Yesterday, it felt fine. It felt like I could do anything. How was I supposed to know I’d be knocked down by just two kisses?
“If you don't want to, then avoid it. I’ll permit a reasonable amount of avoidance.”
“Avoid it?”
“Yes. Push my face away, slap my cheek, or even kick me with your foot. Avoid it in whatever way is comfortable for you.”
There's something Han Jinheon doesn't know. That to me, he is Han Jinheon. When the man I like sticks his face out to steal a kiss, how could I possibly avoid it? Even if my rational mind orders me to avoid it, my instinctual body would ignore the command and stand there, rooted to the spot.
I’m that kind of lecherous person.
“Shouldn't it be that you just don't do it at all, not that I have to avoid it? What are we? We’re brothers.”
Brothers. This was my trump card, pointing out the immorality between family members. But his completely unimpressed, indifferent face is disconcerting.
I thought just the fact that we're brothers would be a sufficient reason to stop Han Jinheon, but it's not working, and I'm getting anxious.
'No. I, who likes you, am willing to give up this golden opportunity for skinship, so why won’t you help me? Even if I just passively receive your pheromones, the compatibility ratio will move. Why don’t you understand my feelings and act like this? Don't be so passionate about my manifestation when you don't even like me.'
“Then do this! Give me a warning before you do it!”
“Too bothersome. It's not like you give a warning before being cute.”
“When have I ever been cu—! Huh?”
I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at the man before me. Listening to him, it occurred to me.
“Hyung, do you think I'm cute?"
A flicker of emotion crosses his perpetually indifferent face. Han Jinheon raised one eyebrow crookedly.
Asking him outright is embarrassing beyond belief. I feel so obnoxious. But I wasn't asking because I know I'm cute and wanted to gloat. It's just that I heard it from Han Jinheon yesterday, and hearing it again today made me genuinely curious.
“You just said it’s not like I give a warning before being cute, right? You think I’m cute at unexpected moments and stuff?”
“……”
“You said I was cute yesterday too. You said you laughed because I was cute, right?”
Tracing back my memories, I recalled what Secretary Song had told me. That Han Jinheon had said I was gentle and cute. That means he sees me as cute. That I'm cute. So it's not Han Sol, but me, Lee Jiho, who's cute.
“So, you think your brother is cute? Huh? So cute you could die? Huh? Huh?”
I grinned and teased him. I poked my fingers towards his body here and there. But Han Jinheon just rested an arm on the island counter and stared at me intently. Unfazed, I smiled slyly and pressed for an answer, but he remained just as composed.
“Or not…”
A person should at least give some kind of answer. Feeling awkward, I scratched my head and started to move. He probably won't block my way again. It was at that moment, as I tried to slip through the gap on the right, that Han Jinheon reached out and grabbed my chin.
Forced to look up at him, my eyes widened like lanterns. My hands clenched into tight fists. I nearly clutched my heart. I don't know if he knows how handsome he is and uses it as an attack, but having to look at him so fully is too much.
“I’m going to do it.”
“Huh?”
Before I could even properly process the words that came without any context, his face tilted towards mine, and our lips met. The third kiss, which happened in an instant, was more extraordinary than the ones before. This Alpha pressed a soft piece of flesh against me.
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