Somehow… I’m the only idiot who cared.
Was the problem Kwon Haeil’s calm, easy warmth?
Compared to how the events of that day had chewed at a corner of Baek Kanghyeon’s mind for days, Kwon Haeil really did look like nothing was wrong.
That sapped Kanghyeon’s energy considerably.
Lightly knocking away Haeil’s hand, Kanghyeon spoke coldly.
“Mind your own business and go do your job. Weren’t you on your way out?”
“Hm? No.”
“Then why were you in the elevator?”
At Kanghyeon’s question, Haeil grinned.
“I wondered if I could see you today.”
His answer made Kanghyeon uneasy.
What did he intend to do if they met?
Was he going to use that sweet note hidden under the pheromones as leverage to threaten him?
“What is it you want me to do for you?”
He asked without meaning to.
What Kwon Haeil wanted from him.
Money? Status? Prestige?
Off the top of his head, those were the only things that seemed like anyone might demand of him.
If it were an Omega, maybe he would have asked for a night or a place as a lover, but the man in front of him was an Alpha. There was no way.
No— even if he threatens me, I can’t give in.
That would amount to admitting he was carrying pheromones an Alpha shouldn’t have.
Whatever Kwon Haeil demanded, the only thing Baek Kanghyeon could do was refuse.
“Nothing like that.”
But refusal is only possible when the other party actually asks for something.
“I just came because I wanted to see you. Is that not allowed?”
He’d never learned what to say to a man who said he wanted nothing from him.
Kanghyeon couldn’t get any words out. He only turned over, in secret, what Haeil had said.
You just wanted to see me? Why?
But he immediately forced himself to dismiss it.
No, that can’t be it.
He might simply not be thinking to ask for material or background favors because he didn’t know what he was. It crossed his mind that for now he was just teasing him for fun, or maybe he wanted to pay him back for the humiliation of that day.
Whatever it was, he had not the slightest intention of meekly giving Kwon Haeil what he wanted. Even that could become a weakness someday.
Ding—
The elevator chime sounded. The guidance voice followed, announcing the doors were opening.
“I asked if it’s not allowed. You’re not going to answer?”
Instead of answering, Kanghyeon shoved him aside hard and headed out of the elevator. Haeil followed after in easy steps.
“Since you didn’t say it wasn’t, let’s see each other often. We’re neighbors.”
The words grated on him. He didn’t know if it was the brightness of his voice, or the inescapable word neighbor that was the problem.
“Do neighbors have to go out of their way to see each other often?” The source of this chapter is g.com.
“It’s the first time in three years anyone’s moved in next door. I was lonely.”
“You didn’t look that lonely when you were rubbing up with an Omega in front of your door last time.”
“That was because I was lonely. I don’t bring anyone over anymore. I mean it.”
Even at Kanghyeon’s voice like knife-cold frost, the brightness in Haeil’s tone didn’t dim.
He chattered along and followed him all the way to the door, so Kanghyeon came to a sharp stop.
“Hey, Mr. Kwon Haeil.”
Turning back to him, Kanghyeon let his pheromones slap out like a palm against a wall. Even though the hostility was unmistakable and aggressive, the smile on Haeil’s face didn’t change much.
“I’ll cut this off right here. I don’t like you, Mr. Kwon Haeil.”
For a moment, Haeil flinched visibly.
Only for a moment.
“Why? Because I know your ‘secret’?”
Tilting his head, he still wore a smile.
“Because you think I might use it to threaten you?”
At that light toss of a line, Kanghyeon’s pheromones surged even stronger. With a pressure like he might twist his neck off, a chill ran up the back of Haeil’s neck.
“Go on, then.”
A blade’s edge of killing intent flashed in Baek Kanghyeon’s eyes.
“If you want to die.”
The massive Alpha pheromones, sharpened by bloodlust, heaved as if ready to crush Haeil at any moment.
Even so, he didn’t drop his smile. He only let a trace of his own pheromones slip, lightly guarding against Kanghyeon’s attack.
“Scary. Really scary.”
He lifted his shoulders in a shrug.
“Don’t worry. I’m not planning to run my mouth anywhere. That’s what I wanted to say in the first place—why I wanted to meet.”
Kwon Haeil had no intention of sharing Baek Kanghyeon’s secret with anyone.
His eyes narrowed as he looked at Kanghyeon.
There’s nothing as precious as a secret only I know.
No one would believe a claim like a faint sweet note from a Dominant Alpha. In a club where countless bodies had been dancing, not a soul had picked up on Baek Kanghyeon’s sweet note.
Only Kwon Haeil.
The only one who could get drunk on the honeyed scent Baek Kanghyeon carried.
That exclusive position sent a thrill through him.
He’d always liked the word exclusive, but it had never been used so satisfyingly as now.
From a moment ago, the events of that day kept rolling through his head. That instant, amid the pain of the pheromone shower, when he’d filled himself with Baek Kanghyeon’s hidden scent.
Even though he’d barely managed to meet him and catch a faint sweet note for a moment, his head clamored to let him smell something richer, and deep inside his body a tingling like live current made him feel like he’d go mad.
Suppressing that instinct with all his might, Haeil pretended calm and said:
“If you can’t trust me, we can write a contract or record it. Whatever you want.”
Maybe the problem was that he was pretending to be too calm.
To Kanghyeon, what he said sounded incredibly light. As if the unease he’d been carrying all this time really was nothing at all.
It felt like even the heavy things that had piled up long before he ever met Kwon Haeil were being laughed off together.
That dragged Kanghyeon’s mood all the way down to the bottom.
He truly couldn’t stand this man, Kwon Haeil, who had no scruples about anything. Enough that he didn’t want to have anything to do with him.
Kanghyeon drew back the threatening pheromones and turned to the door.
“I’ll take you at your word. And if you need someone to play with, go look for an Omega. Don’t go picking fights with someone who’s dead tired.”
As he reached for the door lock, another person’s shadow fell across the smooth panel.
“That’s odd… Did I do something wrong today?”
Close behind his back, Haeil set a hand to the door. That firm hand looked like it was blocking him from opening it.
“I didn’t even pick a fight and I spoke nicely. What part don’t you like?”
His voice brushed directly against his ear.
“I said I’d be the only one to know. I’m too scared of you to threaten you anyway. Even if I tried to yank your chain, there’s nothing to make you sway.”
Feeling breath against his ear, Kanghyeon snapped his head around over his shoulder and shot Haeil a merciless look. Even taking that razor gaze, Haeil still showed no sign of stepping back.
“I’m trying to get along with a rare neighbor I finally have. I told you—I was lonely.”
He coaxed him gently, as if to soothe him.
“We’re going to run into each other a ton while we both live here. Are you really going to flare up with those dagger eyes every time we see each other?”
It wasn’t wrong.
A top floor used by only the two of them, an elevator used only by two, even a basement garage used only by two.
Like it or not, they’d have to cross paths. Each time, the one-sided surge of wariness and displeasure would load a considerable fatigue onto Kanghyeon.
But that didn’t mean he intended to force himself to get along.
Because of what Baek Heeu had said, he had considered, briefly, trying it, but as long as Kwon Haeil knew the awkward secret, he couldn’t. If he spent most of each day at the office and buried himself in work even at home, he could probably live without seeing him much at all.
And once the project kicked off he’d be even busier, and the chances to meet would vanish even more.
While Kanghyeon was thinking only of cutting points of contact, Haeil suddenly said:
“Don’t be so stingy—give me at least a chance.”
“A chance?”
“A chance to win your favor, Mr. Baek Kanghyeon.”
The corners of his eyes drew a long curve.
“What can I do so you’ll hate me less?”
If he’d been an Omega with his heart wide open, words and a voice like that might have made him flutter. Before that, he might have just nodded along brainlessly under pheromones.
But Baek Kanghyeon was an Alpha. And Kwon Haeil was an Alpha too, and a man as light as they come.
To Kanghyeon, what Haeil said could only feel like a joke.
“Whether I hate you or not, what does it matter to you. You’re nothing but a ‘simple next-door neighbor’ anyway.”
His ice-cold words wiped about half the smile off Haeil’s face.
“A simple next-door neighbor…”
Murmuring aloud what his position was, Haeil asked seriously:
“Then if I’m not a simple next-door neighbor, it’s okay to matter to you?”
Kanghyeon didn’t answer. His eyes were still nothing but frost.
Even so, Haeil smiled brightly.
“Right. Then let’s start with that.”
His smile looked deeply satisfied, like a man who’d found the answer on his own.
He took his hand off the door and stepped back a pace. Cold as ever, Kanghyeon didn’t spare him a glance after that, and went inside.
Staring at the door of Kanghyeon’s home, which seemed to radiate chill, Haeil soon turned his body. His steps toward his own place were fairly light.