Flower Fiancé Chapter 28

When Ji Yeonwoo stopped his hand, Choi Moohyuk, still using Ji Yeonwoo’s thigh as a pillow, looked up at him.

“No. It’s fine.”

Ji Yeonwoo spoke hastily, waving his hand. Choi Moohyuk, who had been quietly gazing at him, turned his head toward the television. Ji Yeonwoo couldn’t take his eyes off Choi Moohyuk. No matter how many times he saw it, he couldn’t get used to it. Just letting his hair down could change his image that much! He realized it viscerally. When it was styled up with pomade, his handsome features with distinct facial contours were further emphasized, but now, with it down enough to cover his forehead, he exuded a somewhat softer and more leisurely atmosphere.

“If there’s nothing worth watching, shall I look for something?”

Snapping out of his thoughts urgently, he averted his gaze. He thought Choi Moohyuk had been looking at the television, but before he knew it, he was looking at Ji Yeonwoo. It seemed he had mistaken the lack of remote operation as Ji Yeonwoo having trouble deciding because there was nothing more to watch. Ji Yeonwoo wordlessly handed over the remote. Skipping through several more naturally, what Choi Moohyuk chose was a thriller action movie that had been out for about two years.

“Oh, I heard this one is a bit racy.”

The title was familiar, so thinking about it, the memory of Eungyeom praising this movie until his mouth was dry, saying it was entertaining, came to mind.

“Have you seen it?”

“No. I heard about it from a friend. He said it’s one of the top movies he’s watched at the theater with his Mister.”

“Mister?”

Choi Moohyuk, who had been quietly listening, looked up at Ji Yeonwoo with a puzzled expression. Realizing which part Choi Moohyuk had found strange, Ji Yeonwoo hastily continued speaking.

“Right, I’ve never mentioned it, have I? My best friend, named Seo Eungyeom, his lover is quite a bit older. I think he said he’s ten years older than us. So both Eungyeom and I call him Mister.”

Not wanting Choi Moohyuk to misunderstand, he rattled off the words like a rapid-fire gun without even taking a breath.

“What does he do? That person.”

“I heard he’s a surgical specialist. Although I’ve never actually seen him working at the hospital.”

“It seems he’s quite close with Mr. Ji Yeonwoo too. Seeing as the form of address is Mister.”

“It’s because we see each other often. We eat together and drink together.”

Of course, tagging along on his friend’s dates wasn’t exactly pleasant. So even though they still occasionally ask him out these days, he’s been avoiding it with this excuse or that.

“Next time there’s a gathering like that, invite me too. Even if it’s a friend’s lover, don’t meet an outside alpha alone.”

Ji Yeonwoo’s eyes rounded. Doubting his ears for a moment, he quietly gazed down at Choi Moohyuk, who was lying on his thigh. Choi Moohyuk, who had been facing only his head toward the television with his arms crossed, moved his pupils sideways and looked at Ji Yeonwoo.

Quietly looking at Choi Moohyuk like that, Ji Yeonwoo ended up laughing with a “pfft.”

“Why are you laughing?”

Choi Moohyuk didn’t miss that moment. One of his thick eyebrows rose. From experience, he tended to raise an eyebrow mainly when he was embarrassed or flustered.

“I didn’t think Managing Director would do things like jealousy.”

“Who said I was jealous?”

The sight of him making excuses when it was plainly visible was worth watching. So Managing Director had this side to him too. He was upset that a fatal weakness had been discovered, but on the other hand, he was also happy to see many new sides of Choi Moohyuk.

“Right. You weren’t jealous.”

Quietly looking up at Ji Yeonwoo, who was smiling with his eyes, Choi Moohyuk abruptly raised his body. Feeling his body tilt, Ji Yeonwoo squeezed both eyes shut. Though the sofa was soft, the back of his head, to which a momentary impact had been applied, and the wrist that had been caught stung.

“Shall I show you what happens when I really get jealous?”

He opened his eyes. Before he knew it, the positions of Ji Yeonwoo and Choi Moohyuk had swapped. Pinning him down from above, binding and holding both wrists, a sharp edge lined Choi Moohyuk’s eyes.

“Uh….”

He tried to ask if his feelings were hurt, but the words that had been hovering in his mouth were swallowed down his throat along with the surging breath. It was because of Choi Moohyuk’s lips that had hurriedly kissed him.

The kiss they had been sharing with only their lips, careful not to touch teeth, gradually escalated in intensity. The atmosphere heated up in an instant. It wasn’t to a degree where he could push him away or refuse.

The hand of Choi Moohyuk, which had released one of the wrists it was gripping, went down. The hand that pushed inside the loose-fitting shirt quickly went all the way up to the chest.

His gaze hurriedly turned toward Choi Moohyuk’s face. Meeting his eyes, only then did Choi Moohyuk pause and remove his hand. It seemed the events of yesterday had remained in his memory.

Without realizing it, his gaze went to the center of Choi Moohyuk. The moment he saw the heavy outline of Choi Moohyuk’s center beyond the slacks, heat rushed to his face. It’s already like that? He had had a vague inkling because he’d felt something heavy and hard pressing against his lower abdomen from earlier, but now that he actually saw it, he didn’t know where to put his eyes.

“Forget it, get up.”

The next words out of Choi Moohyuk’s mouth were unexpected. Choi Moohyuk, who had been on top of him, got off and sat beside him, pulling his arm to help him up. His head spun from the suddenly changed position, and he squeezed his eyes shut.

“The movie’s started.”

A large hand kneaded the nape of his neck.

“….”

He glanced sideways, stealing a look at Choi Moohyuk. As always, he couldn’t read his thoughts from Choi Moohyuk’s expression.

Perhaps thanks to the kneading touch, the dizziness gradually subsided.

But his mind was becoming more and more tangled, like a knotted thread.

∞ ∞ ∞

What greeted Ji Yeonwoo, who went to work after a storm-like weekend, were flowers that had all withered. The potted plants were in okay condition, but most of the flowers sensitive to the low winter temperature and humidity had withered and dried, becoming unsellable.

While conditioning other flowers that at least had a chance of survival with gardening shears, he let out a deep breath. It was due to the guilt of having neglected the flowers he cherished like his own children, as well as his complicated mind.

As he had said, Choi Moohyuk didn’t stay at the house until Monday. He left late Sunday afternoon, but regrettably, Ji Yeonwoo couldn’t see him go. When he woke up from an unaccustomed nap, Choi Moohyuk had suddenly vanished, leaving only a note saying he had something to attend to and was leaving first.

Ji Yeonwoo wondered what Choi Moohyuk’s state of mind had been over the weekend.

∞ ∞ ∞

They had cooked and eaten together, brewed and drunk tea, and while watching a movie, there had been several risky moments, but they hadn’t engaged in skinship beyond kissing.

He had never met a dominant alpha before, but he had heard and seen things, so he knew how instinctively such people acted. But Choi Moohyuk seemed a little different from the dominant alphas people talked about. Could there really be another dominant alpha this rational?

He also wondered why, even after witnessing his sudden, irrational behavior with his own eyes, he didn’t ask anything. The conclusion he reached after much thought was the suspicion that he might be waiting for him to speak first. The reason he kept agonizing and hesitating, though, was because this required more caution than when he had revealed the loss of his pheromones.

In order to explain all the secrets that Choi Moohyuk knew and didn’t know at once, he had no choice but to speak about ‘Lee Hyunjoon,’ and after that, he would necessarily have to elaborate on the ‘divorce’ that remained a major stain on Ji Yeonwoo’s life.

He hadn’t intended to hide it on purpose, but he felt bad that it seemed like he had unintentionally concealed it.

‘I should have laid it all out when we said we’d date.’

The timing had been bad. Honestly, he thought that if Choi Moohyuk found out he suffered from pheromone deficiency, this relationship would naturally come to an end. He naturally thought he would be rejected, so he hadn’t mentioned his divorce history, but he truly hadn’t known he would suggest dating right away.

After being swept up by the mood and starting a relationship with him, and even sharing their first kiss, what remained was the guilt of having missed the timing and not being able to confess the fact of his divorce.

Even if it was all in the past, Ji Yeonwoo didn’t want misunderstandings to arise with Choi Moohyuk, and even more so, he didn’t want those misunderstandings to be because of him.

Explaining and conveying these matters well to Choi Moohyuk remained a homework assignment for Ji Yeonwoo to solve.

A vibration rang from the phone placed to one side.