Icing on the Cake Chapter 4

Three times was enough chances given. Yuri shook his head and turned his back. Just ten steps and he could enter the shop, but he had literally thrown his time away on the street dealing with this madman.

“Okay, wait, wait!”

Yuri kept walking silently. The man, who had dashed up beside him in an instant, walked alongside Yuri and finally got to the point.

“I’m really sorry, but could you lend me 20 dollars?”

Ah… a beggar, then. Yuri knew all sorts of people existed in Vancouver, but this was a new one. The man looked fairly decent and clean on the outside, not at all like a beggar. A laugh of disbelief escaped him, and at the same time, a wave of relief washed over him. Because the man’s purpose had become clear.

“I was too embarrassed and ashamed to say it outright, so I couldn’t bring myself to speak easily. But I’ll definitely pay you back. I’m in a dangerous situation right now, and I had to leave home without even grabbing my wallet. Please. Consider it saving a person.”

Yuri silently pulled two 10-dollar bills from his pocket. Right on cue, they arrived in front of the shop. After glancing briefly at the people lined up to buy desserts, as expected, Yuri held out the bills to the man.

“Enough?”

“Wow, thank you so much. If you don’t mind, could you give me your number? So I can pay you back…”

“Go.”

Yuri’s hand shook the bills threateningly. The man again twisted his eyebrows pitifully.

“You won’t give me your number?”

What kind of sense would make him think Yuri would agree to such a thing? Finding the young homeless man utterly incomprehensible, Yuri stopped dealing with him and placed the bills he had taken out with a thud on the outdoor patio table. Leaving the man’s “Hey, hey” behind him, Yuri entered the shop.

Inside, unlike outside, a warm atmosphere enveloped him, filled with sweet scents. The thick sweetness that hit his nostrils made him squint. His head was starting to ache.

Pulling out his phone to check the time, he saw that ten minutes had already passed. The nonsense he had heard during that brief yet long time spun round and round in his head, and Yuri unconsciously glanced outside the shop. The man in the white jacket had disappeared. The two 10-dollar bills left on the table were also nowhere to be seen.

He didn’t know the man’s circumstances, nor did he want to. He just never wanted to get entangled with that kind of person again. He had never imagined he’d encounter someone who would spout such nonsense at him in his life. And an alpha at that. His stomach, already unsettled by the sweet smells, grew even more queasy at the thought of the man’s words.

After a 20-minute wait, having bought chocolates, macarons, and even a mocha for his close friend Alexei, Yuri’s mood improved again. By the time he got back in the car and headed home, he even thought about how fortunate it was to be bothered by such trivial incidents rather than life-or-death matters.

However, Yuri’s reflection didn’t last long.

“Alyosha?”

Seeing Alexei’s car already parked outside, Yuri hurriedly opened the door and stepped inside—only to have a scene unfold before his eyes that he had never expected.

“I’m right here, Yuri.”

A reply came from the living room in response to his call for Alexei. At the sound of his friend’s voice after so long, Yuri’s face softened gently. A flush of warmth mixed with gladness spread across his cool white skin, as if touched by a northern wind. Yuri raised his voice slightly as he headed toward his friend.

“What whim brought you here earlier than promised?”

His childhood friend had always been one to arrive past the appointed hour. Thorough when it came to important matters, but somewhat lax otherwise—that was one of Alexei’s endearing traits. Perhaps that was why Yuri felt Alexei was like a younger brother despite them being the same age. For this reason, Yuri had looked after Alexei for nearly his entire life.

Careful not to ruin the shape of the cake he’d bought for dessert, Yuri walked with measured steps toward the living room. The sound of his shoes echoed along the hallway—thud, thud. Since his father, Vasily, disliked slippers, they, unlike modern folks, wore their shoes indoors as well.

“It’s not that I came early; it’s that you were uncharacteristically late.”

Alexei’s voice grew closer. Passing through the hallway from the entrance and turning right, Yuri entered the small living room. Smiling to himself, he tried to guess his friend’s expression first. Yes, you’re right. Swallowing the reply he’d intended to give, he stepped into the living room and saw a handsome man sitting on the sofa, legs crossed at an angle.

“Finally, our Mr. Campbell arrives.”

A man with the same color hair as Yuri but a completely different aura and appearance greeted him. His neatly swept-back black hair and blue eyes made him look like Yuri’s brother at first glance, but his friend was a mischievously handsome man who looked boyish when he smiled. And at the same time, a very good person. Even if his way of speaking was a bit rough.

“Here, what you wanted—”

His only friend who had kept Yuri alive through all the hard times was always a joy to see. Just as he was about to hold out the chocolates his friend had wanted, filled with happiness, Yuri sensed unfamiliar pheromones and snapped his head around. Pheromones of someone else, not usually felt in this house, were approaching from the hallway. Footsteps soon followed, and a voice was heard.

“It looks like this house doesn’t have slippers, does it?”

Instantly, Yuri’s eyes narrowed. Unlike the utterly unfamiliar pheromones, the voice was somehow familiar. It was a voice that seemed to ring in his ears as if he’d heard it just a moment ago. But since Yuri had such a small circle of acquaintances that he couldn’t forget anyone, he fixed his gaze on the living room entrance with suspicion and hostility. Instinctively, his pheromones sharpened, and Alexei soothed him from behind.

“Yuri, calm down. That man is the client.”

Come to think of it, he had mentioned there would be a guest today. Alexei wasn’t one to act thoughtlessly, so he must have had a reason, but Yuri wondered if it was really necessary to bring someone all the way here and expose the location of his home. Just as Yuri was about to question Alexei with a puzzled look—

“Oh?”

The presence stopped at the entrance. Following the voice that had drawn closer, Yuri turned his gaze forward. At that moment, their eyes met. Lime-green eyes, shining so brightly they seemed to light up his vision, stared straight at Yuri.

“Wow, this is interesting.”

The man, now seen indoors, looked even more imposing than he had outside. Unusually broad shoulders reminiscent of an athlete, unrealistically long legs, and large hands and feet—every part of his physique exuded an overwhelming presence.

Words failed him. Forgetting he’d been about to speak to Alexei, Yuri parted his lips slightly in disbelief. The stranger, watching his expression, smiled with his eyes curving brightly like an excited boy, and then lightly hooked his index finger on his mask. As the mask quietly slid down, the man’s face was finally revealed.

Unlike his physique, which proudly proclaimed his presence as an alpha, the man’s face had a contrasting image. If anything, the word “pretty” suited him. Words like beautiful, elegant, or delicately featured would also fit similarly. Yet none of these could adequately describe him.

“Hey there, handsome.”

The man, who had been wearing a white beanie, tugged at the tip of his hat with his long fingers and pulled it off. The reddish, beautiful blond hair that had been hidden under the hat all along cascaded down like silk, and the man’s pink lips curved into a delighted grin.

…Ha.

For a moment, a small, incredulous laugh escaped him. Uncharacteristically, Yuri narrowed his eyes and glared at the uninvited guest before him. The suspicion of encountering the man he had “coincidentally” met on the street again in this place, and the man’s genuinely welcoming smile, left an unpleasant feeling in his gut. Perhaps that was why his words momentarily failed him.

In that brief instant, Yuri found himself staring at the man’s face without realizing it. The intense eyes he’d seen on the street suited the fully revealed face so well it was almost uncanny. The man was like a perfectly sculpted work of art. Yuri finally understood what the metaphors in books meant when they spoke of instincts drawing one’s gaze, regardless of intention. It was different from being drawn to an omega. This was a matter of existence itself.