Chapter 16: A Drunken Confession and Faint Pheromones

While it would have been ideal if things had unfolded as wished, reality proved far less accommodating.

The number of members, which had been the paramount factor when selecting a vendor, turned out to be more than half dormant accounts.

Furthermore, advertisements simply weren’t being displayed; no matter what search terms were entered, the website failed to appear.

Consequently, Jung-hyun found himself incurring far greater expenses than anticipated. He was forced to struggle, tirelessly searching for offline distributors that offered more affordable and practical goods.

His spending habits, too, were quite far removed from frugality.

Unlike his younger sibling, who would carefully budget and save their weekly allowance as an elementary student, Jung-hyun often blew his entire sum in a single day.

While he certainly spent money on himself, he particularly enjoyed buying things for friends or being generous. Even as an adult, this disposition had not changed in the slightest.

On that long-awaited Friday, Jung-hyun, recognizing everyone’s hard work and combining it with Chae Song-hwa’s birthday celebration, generously booked a Korean beef specialty restaurant for their company dinner.

“Boss, can we order a little more meat? We’re still a bit hungry.”

“Of course. Order as much as you like.”

“Thank you!”

At the cool reply, Choi Seon-ho gleefully pressed the table bell. Another round of beautifully marbled raw beef was placed on the grill, and even as everyone claimed to be full, their chopsticks continued to move.

The atmosphere, as always, was warm and lively. They clinked their glasses periodically, never forgetting to toast, and spun all sorts of tales, the origins of which no one seemed to know.

Among them, only Yoon Tae-yeol remained silent. He responded only when spoken to, silently concentrating on his meal, when Choi Seon-ho, seated opposite him, spoke up.

“Your glass is empty, hyung. I’ll pour you some.”

From his slightly slurred speech and flushed face, it was clear he was quite intoxicated. As he poured the drink into the silently extended glass, Choi Seon-ho couldn’t even tolerate that brief moment of quiet, chattering away incessantly.

“Now that I think about it, I was actually a little scared of you at first, hyung.”

Jung-hyun, overhearing the remark from beside him, chuckled. It was true; he had witnessed Choi Seon-ho shrinking like a frog before a snake multiple times, even though Yoon Tae-yeol did nothing to provoke it.

Still, that only lasted for the first few days. Perhaps realizing that Yoon Tae-yeol wasn’t as intimidating as he appeared, Choi Seon-ho now acted quite affectionately, calling him ‘hyung’ with ease.

‘Scared of him? He’s actually quite clumsy and prone to zoning out when you get to know him.’

While Jung-hyun mused to himself, Choi Seon-ho, with a wide, drunken grin, continued his heartfelt confessions.

“And I’ve thought this since the first time I saw you, but hyung, you’re genuinely handsome. Really.”

‘Oh, I’ll admit that. I’ve never seen anyone more handsome than Yoon Tae-yeol….’

“I think I know why our boss always looks at you with such loving eyes.”

“Cough!”

Jung-hyun choked, and the half-swallowed alcohol in his mouth nearly came back up. His face, suddenly assaulted by this unexpected remark, twisted as if he’d been slapped awake from a deep sleep.

“What on earth are you talking about?”

“You’re always beaming whenever you look at Tae-yeol hyung. If you watch from the side, your mouth practically reaches your ears!”

His accompanying hand gestures suggested his mouth not only stretched to his ears but threatened to tear all the way to the top of his head.

Unlike the gleeful Choi Seon-ho, who was too drunk to realize what he was saying, Jung-hyun felt utterly sobered.

‘I did that?’

He had been completely unaware.

The person who rescued the shocked Jung-hyun was Chae Song-hwa. She, too, was considerably tipsy, and shared a piece of information she had once overheard and relayed to Jung-hyun, now with the other staff.

“That’s the inherent value of handsome men and beautiful women. Just looking at them makes your adrenaline surge, and you feel good. Look at him. He’s really handsome, isn’t he?”

Her long finger pointed directly at Yoon Tae-yeol. Her hazy gaze then repeatedly sought Choi Seon-ho.

“Seon-ho, aren’t you also a huge fan of some girl named Yerim or something?”

“I absolutely love her! My wish before I die is to see her in person just once.”

Just when it seemed the topic might be smoothly diverted, it regrettably wasn’t over. Choi Seon-ho, smiling broadly as he thought of his favorite idol, lit another fuse.

“You two, the more I look, the more perfectly you suit each other. May your beautiful love last forever. Heehee.”

Good heavens. A whole bowlful of delusion, complete with finger hearts—he was truly doing the most. Anyone overhearing him would think Jung-hyun was some kind of octopus-tentacled Casanova.

“What ‘beautiful love’? We’re absolutely not like that, you idiot.”

“Huh…? You’re not?”

“No.”

Yoon Tae-yeol also gave a slight nod, correcting Choi Seon-ho’s misunderstanding. Consequently, only Choi Seon-ho was left bewildered.

“Then, the way you were looking at him so sweetly….”

“Didn’t you just hear what Manager Chae said? It’s natural to be drawn to a handsome man who contributes to humanity. But ‘sweetly’? Are my eyeballs made of sugar?”

“Ow!”

Jung-hyun playfully flicked his forehead, and Choi Seon-ho cried out, clutching his brow dramatically. Jung-hyun chuckled, finally stepping in to defuse the situation. Alcohol, he knew, was the best way to change the mood.

“Alright, a toast.”

“Cheers!”

Identical glasses clinked together from all directions. Choi Seon-ho hastily joined the toast, then apologized for his unintended slip of the tongue.

“I’m sorry for speaking so carelessly without knowing. I apologize.”

His head bowed in apology, extending it to Yoon Tae-yeol as well.

Yoon Tae-yeol’s gaze rested on the crown of his head. While not an ideal situation, it wasn’t something to scowl over and ruin the atmosphere.

More than that, he belatedly realized he had made a similar mistake with Jung-hyun earlier that day and inwardly clicked his tongue.

Glancing over, Yoon Tae-yeol saw Jung-hyun already laughing and chatting with the employee beside him. He watched him for a moment, then brought his half-full glass back to his lips.

***

“Please take care, driver.”

After his parting words, Jung-hyun closed the rear door, and the taxi swiftly drove away. A groan of exhaustion escaped Jung-hyun’s lips as he straightened his back.

“Ugh, I’m dying.”

He wasn’t sure where things had gone wrong. Was it the employees, who had drunk excessively in their excitement, or was it his own fault for not stopping them and even joining in?

After successfully seeing each person into a taxi, only two remained on the street. The last one beside Jung-hyun was Yoon Tae-yeol.

Perhaps he had become a heavy drinker during his time living abroad, for despite having consumed a considerable amount, it showed no outward signs.

In any case, Jung-hyun needed to send Yoon Tae-yeol home too, so he called another taxi through the app.

“It’ll be here in five minutes.”

“Okay.”

The roar of cars speeding down the road was loud. Then, as the traffic light changed and the decibel level temporarily dropped, Jung-hyun finally spoke the words he hadn’t had a chance to say earlier.

“Don’t mind what Choi Seon-ho said back at the restaurant.”

Yoon Tae-yeol, who had been looking straight ahead, shifted his gaze to the right. He then let out a small laugh. His expression was hazy and his speech slow, clearly indicating he was quite drunk, yet he had managed to remember that.

An equally languid voice flowed from Yoon Tae-yeol’s lips.

“I don’t mind. You told me yourself before that it wasn’t true, sunbae.”

Yoon Tae-yeol then added a few more words.

“If we’re talking about that, I should apologize too.”

“You? For what?”

At the unexpected apology, Jung-hyun looked up at Yoon Tae-yeol. He paused slightly. Their eyes met, and Yoon Tae-yeol’s pupils were ironically dark, as if they had swallowed all the surrounding gloom, yet also shone with a subtle light.

“I said something similar earlier today, didn’t I? This must be what they mean by ‘learning a lesson through walking in someone else’s shoes.'”

He followed with a shrug of his shoulders. Jung-hyun belatedly let out a small laugh, then playfully ruffled the back of Yoon Tae-yeol’s head.

“Wow, you’ve really grown up.”

“I’ve been more mature than you for a long time, sunbae.”

“Oh. Your hair feels different from before. It used to be prickly and addictive.”

Ignoring the unfavorable remark entirely, Jung-hyun deliberately ran his fingers through Yoon Tae-yeol’s hair a couple of times in a teasing manner before finally retracting his hand.

Was this, too, due to the alcohol? In some ways, it was nothing special, yet he found himself smiling foolishly. Yoon Tae-yeol, on the other hand, paused and turned to Jung-hyun. It was because he had momentarily detected someone else’s pheromones.

Born with a trait whose marker on the pheromone testing spectrum was nearly at the top, almost every part of his physical being was superior to others.

Simply put, he could often detect even the faintest pheromones that most people wouldn’t notice, and he could even distinguish people solely by their pheromones.

And the faint pheromones he was currently sensing were, without a doubt, emanating from Jung-hyun’s body.

However, Yoon Tae-yeol quickly lost interest and held his tongue. As he had said, most Alphas wouldn’t even know, and even if there were others like him, there didn’t seem to be any cause for concern.

To put it crudely, it wasn’t meant to seduce an Alpha; it was similar to the scent released when one was simply in a good mood. If an Alpha were to get excited by something so trivial, it would be appropriate to consider them a dog in heat.

“…”

A memory resurfaced, and Yoon Tae-yeol let out a small, internal laugh.

Jung-hyun had always released pheromones more frequently when he was in a good mood—when he won a basketball game, or achieved a high score in an arcade game.

There was even one day when he did it while eating tteokbokki at a snack bar in front of school, and Yoon Tae-yeol had laughed in disbelief.

Going through puberty, he had encountered the pheromones of many people, whether he wanted to or not. But he swore, Jung-hyun was the first person to emit flower-petal-like pheromones while facing tteokbokki.

It truly was an unprecedented experience, and he wondered how he could have forgotten it.

“Oh, the taxi’s here.”

Yoon Tae-yeol finally slowly averted his gaze from Jung-hyun. Sure enough, a taxi with the word ‘Reserved’ blinking approached from a distance.

When it smoothly stopped right in front of them, Jung-hyun, as always, displayed his gentlemanly nature by personally opening the back door.

“Go home safely.”

“You too, sunbae.”

Jung-hyun chuckled at the way Yoon Tae-yeol hunched his body to get into the car. At that moment, the pheromones emanating from Jung-hyun’s body became ever so slightly stronger.