Humanity Chapter 9.2 - Gold

Thanks to the season turning into early summer, the road was tinged with green. The weather was so nice that the two decided to walk home along a quiet park path.

“What do you usually do at the center?”

“I get my blood drawn once a month, and they check if there’s anything wrong with my body. Nothing special.”

Because Seolyoung was an athlete, he had registered as an alpha at the center early on. On the other hand, Yimyeong was negative about registering. Having presented at fifteen without knowing anything, he had spent his whole life denying his own body. Seolyoung, understanding this aspect, did not force Yimyeong to register. Because even if it was a trivial matter to him, it could be different for Yimyeong.

“I think I presented as an alpha when I was seventeen, but back then, I didn’t even know it was a presentation fever.”

“I know. In the beginning, nobody really knew anything….”

Yimyeong nodded his head. Seolyoung, on a whim, brought up old stories. They were mostly stories from their high school days.

But Yimyeong’s face, which had been listening well, subtly colored at a certain point.

“Wait, there was a rumor like that about me?”

Yimyeong even stopped walking and frowned. Seolyoung stopped as well.

“Uh… it’s not true?”

“No. It’s not.”

“You never hung out with tattooed gangster delinquents? And you never went around seducing noonas over twenty with your handsome face?”

“Never.”

“Is it true you worked at a bar?”

“…That part is true.”

“That part is true?”

Seolyoung looked at Yimyeong, feeling a slight shock. This time, Yimyeong became flustered and made an excuse.

“I really just worked. I had to earn money. There isn’t a part-time job I haven’t tried.”

“Still, a bar is not right!”

“That’s true… since it’s illegal.”

That is not what I meant.

He hated the very fact that Yimyeong had been mixed in with the atmosphere of a bar. Being this pretty and handsome, there was no way others would not have made passes at him.

“Seolyoung-ah. Come over here.”

Just then, Yimyeong lightly tugged on his T-shirt. Thinking it was a cute expression of affection, his heart was pounding, but Yimyeong gestured with his chin.

“They’re smoking on the street.”

As Yimyeong said, three or four men were smoking ahead of them on the path they were walking. They were blocking the entire width of the not-so-wide sidewalk, laughing frivolously or unnecessarily staring at passersby. Just from the way they were standing, you could see they were full of bravado. Yimyeong had pulled Seolyoung to one side of the sidewalk to avoid getting entangled with them.

It was just as they were passing in front of them. Seolyoung’s eyes met with one of the men in the group. The men, who had been looking around as if looking for a fight, avoided his gaze in front of the powerfully built Seolyoung.

A few steps passed like that. Suddenly, a woman’s scream was heard from behind them.

“What are you doing. Let go!”

“What do you mean what am I doing. You really don’t know?”

Seolyoung and Yimyeong, who turned around at the same time, had their expressions harden. The group of troublemakers was holding a woman’s wrist and snickering.

“Ah, I said let go! I’m going to call the police.”

“She’s throwing a real tantrum~.”

“Stop it.”

There was no time to stop him. As soon as Yimyeong intervened, he twisted the arm of the man who had snatched the woman’s wrist. It happened in the blink of an eye. “Ugh,” the man, whose strength gave out, let out a pained groan.

“Ugh, fuck. Ah….”

Yimyeong gave him only a brief shock and then let go of his arm. Then he quickly let the woman leave. Behind the man who was clutching his arm and frowning, the rest of the group surrounded Yimyeong threateningly.

“What the, you bastard.”

“I hate guys like this the most. Think you’re some kind of knight in shining armor?”

But at that moment.

“Hey. It was you?”

The man’s eyes took on a peculiar glint.

Seolyoung did not understand the meaning of those words quickly. Tattooed gangster delinquents… could it be someone he knew from before? However, the speculation soon became meaningless.

“I was wondering who the omega stupidly leaking it everywhere was. Fuck. It’s not that woman, it’s this bastard!”

‧₊˚

Seolyoung’s momentum, having lost his temper in an instant, was formidable. If Yimyeong’s strength had been just a little bit weaker, it would have instantly escalated into a street brawl.

Yimyeong used his whole body to block Seolyoung, who had no hesitation in using violence, and Seolyoung barely managed to calm down, afraid of hurting him. However, Yimyeong could not feel at ease even until the men turned tail and ran away.

‘Let’s go. Seolyoung-ah.’

‘…….’

‘Huh? It’s okay. Nothing happened.’

Although it was a short commotion, gazes soon gathered. Yimyeong, worried that someone might recognize Seolyoung, patted and soothed him.

However, his stiff body could not relax for a long time. It took a long while just to leave the spot.

On the way back home, Yimyeong was also panicking inwardly.

How on earth did they know.

He had frozen on the spot, not even thinking of bluffing that they were mistaken. It was even more so because he knew for sure he had been found out the moment his eyes met the man’s.

Even after arriving home, a silence hung between the two for a while.

Seolyoung flopped down on the sofa and remained silent for a long time. His appearance, seeming to be controlling his anger or lost in thought, was very different from usual.

Yimyeong found Seolyoung’s silence difficult to bear. An unfamiliar tension settled heavily in the house. Yimyeong, caught up in Seolyoung’s emotions, did not know why he felt so anxious. Yimyeong, who hesitated to speak to him carelessly, quietly went into the master bedroom.

Lying on the bed like that, holding his breath, he unknowingly fell into a light sleep a long time later.

“Myeong-ah, Myeong-ah. Wake up.”

When he opened his eyes to a hand shaking his shoulder, the sun had already set.

“Why are you sleeping here. You should sleep in the room.”

Yimyeong groggily opened his eyes. The first thing he unconsciously did was to check Seolyoung’s expression.

Seolyoung’s face, with the setting sun at his back, was cast in shadow. Yimyeong, who had been scrutinizing Seolyoung’s face with a blank expression while meeting his eyes for a moment, was relieved to see him back to his usual self.

“…I don’t know. I guess I was tired.”

“Without even covering yourself with a blanket.”

He felt a smile coming on at the sight of Seolyoung trying to cover him with a blanket out of the blue. Yimyeong chuckled softly and rubbed his eyes.

“Why were you so angry earlier.”

“…I don’t know either.”

“I’ve never seen you like that before.”

“Like what?”

“Suddenly trying to get into a fistfight….”

At those words, Seolyoung’s hand hesitated.

“Myeong-ah. I’ve really never hit a person before.”

“Yeah, I’m not blaming you.”

Was he not just provoked by the group of delinquents? Although it was a bit excessive, his intention was to protect him anyway. He did not want to blame him for that.

What felt off was his appearance, which, after getting so angry, would become perfectly fine again a moment later as if nothing had happened.

It did not seem like it was nothing….

He was worried that Seolyoung might have suppressed his emotions alone again without him knowing, just like when he had cried while fiddling with the cigarette burn while he was asleep.

Yimyeong sighed and put a hand to his head. More than that, there was a question that had not yet been resolved.

“But how did those people know?”

“……”

Seolyoung pulled a chair from across the room and sat down. His expression had also become heavy again.

“Myeong-ah. Do you know that alphas and omegas have something called pheromones? They can recognize each other with it, and once they imprint on each other, others can’t smell it…. I thought we had already imprinted when we were young, so I thought you were like that too.”

At those words, Yimyeong frowned.

Until now, he had lived denying that he was an omega. Obsessing over his outwardly visible physical appearance. But if he had been leaking pheromones like this without even realizing it… just the thought of it was dizzying.

“Is there no way to confirm if we’ve imprinted?”

Seolyoung, who had been lost in thought with his eyes downcast, continued to speak.

“I don’t know… Have you ever felt something like pheromones?”

Yimyeong shook his head.

It did not seem to be just because he lacked knowledge about alphas and omegas. Although he was on the ignorant side of this world, he had never once felt anything like pheromones.

Until now, he had just been busy hiding the fact that he was an omega. Because the physical characteristics that remained like a flaw were covered when he wore clothes, he thought he could hide them if he tried. He had been relieved by the fact that he looked completely different from the prejudices people in the world had about male omegas, so he was not easily misunderstood.

However, if alphas could recognize it as Seolyoung said….

Just imagining that possibility sent shivers down his entire body.

“Myeong-ah. I recognized you too, you know.”

“……”

“When we were seventeen….”

The intense feeling of first love. Now, Seolyoung was convinced that it was an alpha’s intuition that had made him recognize his mate. He did not know the exact cause and effect. But the feeling of everything becoming clear, as if all his senses were expanding that day, was still vivid.

“From then on, you had a distinctive scent. I was captivated by it the whole time.”

“……”

“Have you never felt anything like that from me?”

Yimyeong slowly shook his head, as if he really did not know.

Seolyoung’s eyes, which had guessed the reason inwardly, sank deeper and deeper.

‘Because I’m a half-alpha.’

Yimyeong had once confessed that he had not been able to accept that he was an omega after presenting early on. Perhaps because he had lived denying his identity, he had almost no knowledge about omegas despite being one himself. In this respect, Seolyoung had felt that he was very similar to him.

But what if all of that was just a delusion for his own convenience….

It might have been only him who believed they had imprinted, and Yimyeong might not have. If this was the case, it would also explain why Yimyeong had lived a promiscuous life and seduced other men until now.

“Myeong-ah. I’m so anxious.”

Seolyoung reached out and took one of Yimyeong’s hands.

“There’s no guarantee that something like today won’t happen again.”

Seolyoung’s hand, gripping Yimyeong’s, was trembling slightly. Yimyeong looked down at Seolyoung’s tightly bitten lower lip and his desperate hand. The sight of the strong heart, which was said not to be afraid even on the dizzyingly high diving board, being afraid stimulated Yimyeong’s guilt.

“In this state, I don’t know if it’s really safe to live like before. I’m not saying you shouldn’t go out at all. But still….”

“I know what you mean.”

“…Myeong-ah.”

“Hah… I’ll have to refrain from going out from now on.”

Yimyeong let out a long sigh as if in resignation.

“…Really?”

“Yeah. The thought of being found out by other people, just thinking about it gives me the creeps.”

“Myeong-ah.”

Seolyoung could not hold it in and collapsed, hugging Yimyeong. At the same time, Yimyeong’s hand touched the back of Seolyoung’s neck. He stroked his hair as if to soothe him, then gently patted his firm neck.

“And I hate worrying you even more.”

From that day on, Yimyeong confined himself to the house as if punishing himself. He did not go out unless he was with Seolyoung, and even when he did go out, he would stay in the car and wait for Seolyoung.

A while later, Seolyoung hid the shoes Yimyeong had worn when he first came to this house in a deep place.

In a corner of the veranda beyond the living room, Seolyoung’s face was frighteningly expressionless as he opened the small iron door of the boiler room, which he had not opened once since moving in, to hide Yimyeong’s shoes.

His eyes still looked kind under the sunlight, and he still held an unchanging pure love. However, the jet-black eyes that held the pure love had at some point acquired long hairline cracks from accumulated minor shocks. It was a very subtle change that one could not notice without looking closely, just as the cracks in a broken glass marble are only prominent from a certain angle.