Romantic Gangster

#31

Even thinking about it again, all those words were reassuring to him. The words to lean on him completely, that he wouldn’t let him fall. And… the words to trust him.

It couldn’t have been easy for Hyun-joon to endure an omega’s uncontrolled pheromones, yet he didn’t complain once. He just worried about Ji-woo, took care of him, and was considerate until the end.

He could have just ignored the school nurse’s advice about daily light contact and pheromone exposure, but Hyun-joon willingly released his pheromones in front of Ji-woo’s house.

“…”

At first, Ji-woo thought Hyun-joon was just a troublemaker as the rumors said, but the more he experienced, the more he saw the ‘real’ Hyun-joon behind those rumors. The real side that others didn’t know well – kind, attentive, and even more mature than himself in some ways.

Even Hyun-joon’s insistence on taking responsibility for him now seemed cute. It felt like a large, gentle dog, acting tough but constantly demanding to be taken care of.

How would Hyun-joon react if he knew these thoughts? Would he dislike being compared to a dog? Or would his ears and neck turn red again like earlier?

When the pleasant scent of Hyun-joon’s pheromones flowed, Ji-woo felt the unnecessary tension in his body release almost instantly. He wanted to get closer and smell it more, and beyond that, he wanted to touch Hyun-joon. He could understand why the school nurse suggested “light contact” would be good.

When the pheromone scent suddenly intensified, a strange sensation, similar to what he felt on the rooftop before, pooled in his lower abdomen. His legs weakened, and the desire to touch Hyun-joon grew stronger. For a moment, the thought crossed his mind that he wished Hyun-joon would hold him tightly… like he did in the cafeteria.

“…”

Why was it like that? Is it normal to become that hazy? Is it because I’ve never properly encountered alpha pheromones before?… If my body reacts that strongly when they’re not fully released… what would happen if they were completely released?…

He remembered hearing from a classmate that exposure to too strong alpha pheromones could suddenly trigger a heat cycle, and make an omega desperately cling to that alpha.

It was a story about her cousin who, underestimating this, went out unprepared and suddenly went into heat due to the intense pheromones of an alpha in rut. She ended up spending her cycle with an alpha she met that day for the first time and even got pregnant.

Back then, he thought such stories had nothing to do with him, but after experiencing Hyun-joon’s slightly stronger pheromones today, he felt a bit worried. He had directly felt how easily he became powerless in front of an alpha’s pheromones. Of course, Hyun-joon was helping him and would control it well, so there shouldn’t be much to worry about.

‘Hyun-joon must have had a hard time too, but he didn’t show it and only worried about you, Ji-woo.’

Did Hyun-joon feel the same way when he encountered Ji-woo’s pheromones? That desire to get closer, to touch…

He recalled Hyun-joon’s face as he leaned towards him. His face asking if Ji-woo was okay was more serious than ever.

‘…Let’s eat dinner just the two of us. I want that.’

Ji-woo tossed and turned, lightly biting the tip of his thumb. It was a habit he often had when deep in thought.

The voices, situations, expressions, and gazes kept appearing one by one in his mind, but they didn’t come together as a single answer. Ji-woo slightly shook his head as if he didn’t understand and closed his eyes. He decided to stop here, feeling that if he thought about Hyun-joon any more, even a sleepless night wouldn’t be enough.

‘I’ll come in the morning.’

As he closed his eyes, a gentle voice softly brushed his heart.

‘Rest well. Call me if anything happens.’

Before turning away, a hand came up to his face. The hand that seemed to hesitate for a moment eventually lightly stroked his head once and fell away.

‘…Go inside quickly. So I can leave.’

The ears of the person speaking without making eye contact seemed a bit red. Ji-woo pulled the blanket up to his chin and pressed his lips against it. The blanket touched lightly and fell away, but it was warm like Hyun-joon’s touch that he could clearly feel.

* * *

After cleaning the convenience store floor and restocking the shelves, Ji-woo smiled watching Choi Young-jae stuffing mini yakgwa into his mouth. Despite saying he was so full after eating three bowls of rice that he felt like his stomach would burst, Young-jae had eaten a bag of snacks, a piece of bread, two discarded triangle kimbap, and was now on his tenth mini yakgwa as “dessert.”

“Aren’t you full?”

“I am. No, am I? I’m not sure. Hey, ah.”

Young-jae popped the last yakgwa into Ji-woo’s mouth, gathered the trash to throw away, and stretched widely.

“You should date Lee Hyun-joon.”

“What?”

Ji-woo exhaled in surprise at the sudden statement and stopped organizing the counter to look straight at Young-jae.

“You’re not?”

“No, I’m not.”

“Why not? You even went on a date yesterday.”

“What date?”

“Eating dinner just the two of you is dating.”

“Then you must be dating me too.”

“Hey, that’s different. We’re friends. But are you friends with Hyun-joon? You’re not.”

Ji-woo couldn’t understand at once why Young-jae was saying he and Hyun-joon weren’t friends. No one had said they liked each other, and they hadn’t done anything that friends wouldn’t do, so he was curious about what part Young-jae had misunderstood.

“Why not? Hyun-joon and I are friends too.”

“No, it’s different. Something’s different. You might not realize it, but Hyun-joon is different. Friends don’t act like that. It’s… too much.”

“What is?”

“He follows you around too much, cares too much, only looks at you too much, is too conscious of you.”

“What’s that? You’re seeing it strangely because you’re thinking strangely.”

“Don’t you think it’s too much?”

“…Not really?”

“Wow, you’re already used to it. I’d find it really annoying. You’re saying you’re not annoyed, even though he sticks to you all day.”

Ji-woo pondered Young-jae’s words, but couldn’t come to the conclusion that it was annoying. It was because Hyun-joon’s actions towards him weren’t really annoying. He wanted to say that it wasn’t annoying, but sometimes cute, but he didn’t say it out loud, thinking Young-jae might misunderstand more and make strange assumptions.

“What’s annoying about it? He just saw me sick yesterday so he was worried today, and you’re exaggerating about him sticking to me all day. He just comes to my desk during breaks and eats lunch with me. I do that with you too, don’t I? Should I find you annoying too?”

“Ah, no. It’s definitely different. Why do I know but you don’t when you’re the one experiencing it?”

“I don’t make such misunderstandings.”

“Wow, are you saying this is all my delusion?”

“Yeah.”

Young-jae shook his head as if feeling wronged and tried hard to make Ji-woo understand his opinion for a while longer, leaning on the counter with both hands, but Ji-woo didn’t accept it. In the end, Young-jae had to leave the convenience store dejectedly, labeled as delusional.

Left alone, Ji-woo tensed up as suddenly about ten customers entered. Judging by how they were talking loudly and laughing together, they seemed to know each other.

The customers each bought drinks, snacks, and hangover jelly, and lined up at the counter. It would have been easier to calculate if they lined up one by one, but they all put their items down on the counter and fought over who would pay, pulling out cards and stopping each other. Ji-woo could only wait with the barcode scanner in hand until the situation was sorted out.

Finally, after a long noisy dispute, they concluded to pay for their own items individually. Ji-woo rang up each item as they tossed them onto the counter, along with their cards.

After the calculation, they casually left ice cream wrappers and straw wrappers on the counter as they left. In the past, Ji-woo used to inform them that there was a separate trash can on the way out, but at some point, he realized it had no effect and more people showed displeasure, so these days he just cleaned up himself.

Today too, Ji-woo gathered various trash and threw it all in the trash can under the counter.

“…Ah.”

When he opened his hand with an unpleasant feeling, he saw something sticky on his fingers here and there. He saw what looked like the tip of an ice pop in the trash, which must have melted and dripped onto his hand.

Feeling too uncomfortable to just wipe it with a wet wipe, Ji-woo grabbed the keys and left the counter. He put up a sign saying he’d be away briefly, locked the convenience store door, and quickly ran to the bathroom in the shopping complex. After thoroughly washing his hands with the cold trickling water and almost worn-out soap, he felt a bit better.

As Ji-woo came out of the bathroom, gently shaking the water off his hands, he saw a tall figure as soon as he left the shopping complex and quickly ran back to the convenience store. A customer must have come in the meantime. Just as he raised his head to apologize for making them wait, his eyes met Hyun-joon’s.