“This is my first time seeing the inside. It's incredible. Now I get why everyone wants one of these as a vacation home.”
A small garden lay in the center, designed so every room connected to it, with a cozy swimming pool nestled in the middle. Moonlight poured down from above, while the angled openings in the surrounding walls blocked the view inside yet allowed the cold winter breeze to flow freely. Beyond the walls, the orange glow of the illuminated ski slopes stretched into the distance.
It was winter, so the pool sat empty, and the garden had withered away beneath a thick blanket of snow.
Somehow, that made Seonwoo like it even more.
Walking into the garden, he brushed the snow off one of the stone slabs before sitting on the edge of the pool.
As naturally as if it had always been his place, Hyeonchae brushed the snow off the spot beside him, came over, and carefully sat down with his arm lightly touching Seonwoo's.
“Do you need a light?”
“No. I'm just going to hold it. I don't think I'll actually smoke.”
Playfully tilting the cigarette hanging from the corner of his lips, Seonwoo stared blankly at the snow-covered bottom of the pool.
Only three days remained before the ski camp began.
His schedule was packed with lessons until the end of the season, so postponing anything wasn't an option.
Iwon was right.
There's nowhere left to run.
“Senior.”
The moment Seonwoo turned his head, Hyeonchae reached over and gently took the cigarette from between his lips.
The end of the filter was covered in bite marks.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Running simulations of what's going to happen.”
“And what was the result?”
“The simulation crashed. Too many variables.”
The disappointment on Hyeonchae's face made it obvious what he had assumed.
Looking away from him, Seonwoo finally said something he had never voiced before.
“I like Choi Iwon.”
“……”
“I've liked him for so long that I can't even imagine giving up. It means... I can't return the feelings you've been giving me.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Go back to Seoul.”
“I don't want to.”
“Come see me again in spring. By then, Choi Iwon will probably be engaged, and I'll have sorted myself out too... Go back. If Iwon comes, you're going to get hurt. I won't be able to turn him down.”
“...I don't want to.”
His voice sounded damp.
A bad feeling washed over Seonwoo as he turned his head.
Sure enough, Hyeonchae's eyes were already overflowing with tears.
A sharp pain pierced Seonwoo's chest, and he bit down on his lip.
He reached out to wipe the tears away, but Hyeonchae turned his face aside instead.
With a sigh, Seonwoo climbed down into the empty pool and stood directly in front of him.
Looking up from below, no matter how much Hyeonchae lowered his head, he couldn't hide the tears on his face.
Seonwoo gently cupped both of Hyeonchae's cheeks with his hands, wiping away the tears with his thumbs.
But they kept falling endlessly.
Before long, his own hands were wetter than Hyeonchae's face.
Desperately, he kept trying to meet Hyeonchae's eyes.
“Eun Hyeonchae... Why are you crying? I said all that because I didn't want to make you cry. How can you cry because of that? Hm?”
“...Please don't push me away.”
“I'm not pushing you away. I said it because I was thinking about you. I thought it'd be too painful for you to stay beside me and watch.”
“Not being able to see you is even harder.”
“Then what am I supposed to do? Keep living like this while knowing perfectly well that you like me? Be an asshole?”
“Yes.”
The answer came without even a moment's hesitation.
Seonwoo let out an incredulous laugh.
Even now, warm tears continued falling onto the backs of his hands, preventing him from pulling away as he gently stroked around Hyeonchae's eyes.
“I'm going crazy. Seriously... Do you really like me that much?”
“Yes. I do. I really like you.”
He couldn't understand it.
He was still living it.
Personally, he had never wanted to watch the person he liked get involved with someone else.
“So what makes you so confident?”
His voice was almost self-mocking.
Hyeonchae slowly raised his tear-soaked lashes and quietly looked into Seonwoo's eyes.
“Because you keep giving me hints.”
“...Me?”
For the first time since they'd come outside, Hyeonchae reached toward Seonwoo's face.
His fingertips gently pressed against Seonwoo's lips.
Seonwoo frowned slightly.
Watching him, Hyeonchae smiled and nodded.
“Yes. You.”
“...Can I kiss you?”
He had been debating whether to ask ever since earlier.
An expression of complete disbelief crossed Hyeonchae's face.
He even instinctively leaned back a little.
Seonwoo felt utterly wronged.
“Why do you keep doing this, Senior?”
“What did I do?”
“Doing things like this all the time is just... too promiscuous.”
Hearing Hyeonchae finally speak his honest feelings aloud for the first time made Seonwoo lower his head with a helpless laugh.
He's unbearably cute.
“I'm honestly curious. How old were you when you had your first kiss? With your boyfriend?”
He had expected an innocent middle school or high school memory.
Instead, Hyeonchae gave a completely unexpected answer.
“Twenty-one.”
“Aren't you twenty-one now?”
“Yes. It was with the person I like. But... I guess he doesn't remember.”
A dreadful feeling settled in Seonwoo's stomach.
The corners of his mouth stiffened.
Hyeonchae simply looked down at him calmly.
“When... when was it?”
“When we met at Liberty. I was taking you home, and you...”
Before Hyeonchae could finish, Seonwoo squeezed his eyes shut and roughly scrubbed a hand over his face.
'Was it your first time?'
'...No.'
'Does that matter? You don't have to love someone to do other things.'
'Didn't you want to sleep with me too? You said it wasn't your first time.'
A curse slipped through Seonwoo's clenched teeth.
Nam Seonwoo, you insane bastard.
I really was an asshole.
“Want to slap me?”
“Senior, what kind of... Have you... been slapped a lot?”
“For some reason, a lot of people seem to want to hit me. At this point, it'd probably be easier than feeling guilty forever.”
“I'll never hit you. You can just keep feeling guilty.”
“Wow... You know that's an even crueler punishment, right?”
Hyeonchae let out a quiet laugh.
Watching emotion spread across his once colorless face in an instant, Seonwoo absentmindedly brushed his own lips with his fingertips.
His chest tightened painfully again.
“Hyeonchae.”
Growing impatient, Seonwoo raised a hand and gently wrapped it around the back of Hyeonchae's neck.
Then he rose onto his toes...
...and kissed him.
Their cold, dry lips met.
The pounding of his own heartbeat was so loud it felt as though it would deafen him.
Their lips touched only lightly—just enough not to crush each other—before separating again.
Seonwoo drew in a shaky breath.
It was almost laughably innocent.
And yet his entire face burned with heat.
Hyeonchae lowered his head as well, the tips of his ears glowing bright red.
* * *
When Hyeonchae mentioned that the group chat for the ski camp had finally been created, Seonwoo leaned over to look at his phone with him.
Despite the late hour, nearly sixty people filled the chatroom with an endless stream of new messages.
Seeing that Hyeonchae had disabled notifications, apparently because he'd gotten so sick of it, Seonwoo laughed.
“I want to leave the chat.”
“I don't blame you. Just looking at it is exhausting, so I can't imagine how you feel...”
Scrolling through the messages, Seonwoo checked the camp schedule.
Schuphur would arrive in three days for a two-week ski camp, followed by a final week combined with the special elective course.
Apparently they had managed to change the camp venue in a hurry, but moving the elective course had been impossible, so that portion would still take place at Inun.
Was it really worth accepting all the risks of changing locations just to move everything to Mighty Town...?
He couldn't understand what Iwon was thinking.
Suppressing the turmoil in his chest, Seonwoo handed the phone back.
“I'm telling you in advance. If I disappear for a few days soon and you can't reach me, don't panic. Maybe two days.”
“Why?”
“My rut cycle is overdue.”
Hyeonchae nodded quietly.
Then all the color drained from his face.
“But why won't I be able to contact you? Don't tell me... you're spending it with someone else...”
Seonwoo grabbed both of Hyeonchae's cheeks and stretched them until he finally stopped talking nonsense.
“I'm going away to rest. That's all. I want to let my pheromones out comfortably, so if I don't answer, just assume I'm in rut. And don't come looking for me.”
“...I'll help you.”
The familiar offer made Seonwoo stare at him in disbelief.
“Do you even know what you're saying?”
Apparently Hyeonchae hadn't intended those words in that sense.
Only then did his face slowly turn bright red.
“I figured.”
Clicking his tongue, Seonwoo shook his head.
An Alpha's rut and an Omega's heat were periods when the pheromones normally contained within the body condensed before erupting all at once, accompanied by unstable pheromone control and overwhelming sexual urges.
If an Alpha had an Omega partner, they would usually spend the cycle together to relieve it.
Otherwise, it was generally much safer to remain alone.
After all, sleeping with an Omega who wasn't one's partner could easily lead to an unplanned pregnancy.
Sleeping with a Beta wasn't much better.
To a Beta, an Alpha in rut barely seemed sane.
And because Betas had no pheromones, they couldn't calm an Alpha experiencing rut.
As a result, they were often pushed far beyond their limits by an Alpha who wasn't in his right mind, leaving them physically wrecked.
People even said that Betas who spent an Alpha's rut with them were unable to function normally for quite some time afterward.
There was simply no reason for an Alpha to choose a Beta during rut.
As for another Alpha...
Seonwoo wouldn't know.
He'd never slept with one.
And this was coming from Eun Hyeonchae—the same person who had called him promiscuous over nothing more than a single kiss.
Now he was saying he'd help him through rut?
That was completely impossible.