Chapter 25: No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

“Oh. Perhaps.”

Chaewoo opened his mouth as if something had occurred to him.

He began rummaging through the cross-body bag hanging on the doorknob.

He had just remembered the motel fee he had withdrawn earlier.

“If this is what this is about… I intended to give it to you sooner.”

“I’ve been so out of it lately that I only just remembered.”

“What is this?”

Euigeon took the envelope and checked the contents.

“The motel fee from that day.”

“You paid for it.”

“Two hundred thousand won… Huh.”

“Why is it so much?”

“Did you stay a few more days alone after I left?”

“Doesn’t it cost about that much for a day?”

Euigeon tilted his head as if contemplating what to say.

Then, he suddenly let out a hollow laugh.

“Well, I suppose you haven’t forgotten the whole thing.”

“Forgotten what?”

“The fact that we fucked that day.”

“W-why would I forget that?”

Both of Chaewoo’s cheeks flushed hot.

He didn’t know how to react to such a direct statement.

“I wasn’t sure.”

“You were ignoring me so much that I thought I was the only one who remembered.”

“Do I have to make it obvious that I know?”

“A-anyway, I’ve paid you back.”

He said this to signal that Euigeon should stop bothering him.

As he moved the chair and tried to stand up to finish his practice, Euigeon grabbed his arm.

He forced Chaewoo back into the chair.

“What are you doing?”

“Sit down.”

Alpha pheromones subtly filled the practice room.

Chaewoo, who had a history of passing out from being saturated in these pheromones, flinched and tried to pull his arm away.

However, the difference in physical strength was overwhelming.

“I’m not finished yet.”

“Then let go before you talk.”

“There’s something I want to ask.”

“I said, let go.”

“How was it for you, Senior Seol?”

Euigeon asked in a soft, suggestive voice he had never heard before.

It was so cringeworthy and strange that the fine hairs in his ears stood on end.

“…What do you mean, how was it?”

Chaewoo remained guarded while rubbing his freed arm.

“The feeling of sleeping with me at the motel.”

“Even if it was your heat, you must have some personal thoughts on it.”

Was he asking for a review of their time in bed?

Chaewoo fell silent, having no idea what the man’s intention was.

“Because I found it quite enjoyable,” Euigeon continued.

The conversation felt like it was spiraling deeper into a labyrinth.

Chaewoo’s eyebrows twitched upward.

What exactly did he find enjoyable?

Watching him struggle through a heat cycle?

Helping him?

Or the act of sleeping with him itself?

To begin with, could such a lewd act even be described as ‘enjoyable’?

“So I got curious.”

“I wondered if you were satisfied, Senior.”

Naturally, the night he spent his heat with Euigeon came to mind.

A day when instinct blinded reason and he relied solely on primal senses.

While Chaewoo had experienced heat cycles before, he had never had an experience this powerful or intense.

It was likely because he had been influenced by the pheromones of a dominant Alpha like Beom Euigeon.

He had no immunity to Alphas.

He had never dated one, never kissed one, and never been exposed to an Alpha’s pheromones long enough to be completely soaked in them.

Beom Euigeon had been his first for all of those things.

And Chaewoo hated Beom Euigeon.

That was why he wanted Euigeon to pretend that day never happened.

Like it was nothing.

He didn’t want to be reminded that he had not only admitted to being an Omega to him of all people but had also slept with him for the first time.

Hadn’t Euigeon wanted that too?

Hadn’t he been the one to draw a line first, terrified that Chaewoo might cling to him or express some kind of affection?

It was unexpected and confusing for Beom Euigeon to be saying this now.

“Weren’t you satisfied that day?”

When Chaewoo failed to answer for a long time, Euigeon looked at him with a disappointed gaze.

However, deep within those dark eyes, arrogance lay crouched.

As if he were mocking him, thinking, ‘There’s no way you weren’t.’

He wanted to deny it out of spite, but despite how much he disliked the man, the s*x that day hadn’t been bad.

Hadn’t he clung to the very man he usually viewed with disdain, desperate to couple with him further?

As if he wasn’t himself…

However, he had absolutely no intention of speaking such things honestly.

Chaewoo twisted the subject slightly and threw a question back.

“…Why are you curious about that?”

“I got to thinking that I like sleeping with you, and if you feel the same way…”

It was hard to adjust to Euigeon using such a soothing tone.

It wasn’t that different from his usual voice, so why did it feel like this…

“I started wondering if we really need to rely solely on medical methods for our contract.”

“…….”

“We are in a condition where we can sufficiently have a child through other means.”

“Are you telling me to keep sleeping with you?”

Chaewoo’s face was painted with shock.

Yet, Euigeon’s face remained incredibly calm as he let the shocking words flow out.

“I’m asking what you think about forming a temporary ‘partnership.’”

“Until you get pregnant, Senior.”

To Chaewoo, ‘partner’ only meant a duet or a Reset Partner.

But surely he wasn’t making the idiotic suggestion of singing duets together until pregnancy.

Nor was he simply trying to reaffirm their existing Reset Partner relationship.

“Should I make it easier for you?”

“I’m saying let’s be s*x partners.”

He never expected that taboo word to actually come out of Euigeon’s mouth.

“Why? It’s perfectly possible at the hospital without doing that…”

“Well. Because our chemistry is good?”

“I was the one doing the serving that day, but…”

“Since we’re already tied together as Reset Partners by contract, if you also become my s*x partner, we wouldn’t need to use condoms.”

“As the test results showed, we’re both healthy and clean.”

“I don’t think it could get any better than that.”

Having spouted these hard-to-accept words, Euigeon smirked.

“You have very good conditions in many ways, Senior.”

Was he adding that as a compliment?

Chaewoo couldn’t answer immediately, his lips fluttering.

“Weren’t you just helping me then?”

“It was close to that.”

“And you hate me.”

“Isn’t the feeling mutual?”

“Exactly.”

“So how can we be s*x partners when we hate each other?”

Chaewoo spoke as if he couldn’t understand.

“I like that kind of relationship.”

…Is this guy actually a pervert?

He likes a relationship where you only sleep together while hating each other?

“Was this the thing you wanted to say to me?”

“Yes.”

Since they were already Reset Partners, he wanted to be s*x partners until pregnancy…

Chaewoo chewed over Euigeon’s proposal once more.

Even as the silence stretched on, Euigeon did not rush him.

He wasn’t even as serious as Chaewoo was.

He looked as leisurely as a man sitting in a restaurant waiting for his order.

He was born that way.

He didn’t fret over losing what he wanted when it was right in front of him.

He was fluid, as if he knew it would fall into his mouth on its own.

Chaewoo hated that attitude.

“No.”

Chaewoo broke the endless silence with a refusal.

He didn’t regret sleeping with Euigeon since it was unavoidable, but he didn’t want to go further and regularly share his body with someone he had no feelings for.

Though he didn’t show it, this conversation itself was shocking to Chaewoo.

“Regardless of whether that day was good or bad…”

“I don’t want to get involved with you to that extent.”

“And I don’t want to do anything else that violates the contract.”

He chose his words carefully to refuse as politely as possible.

“I think that’s the right call, for both our sakes.”

“Oh dear. That’s a shame.”

“Of course, you have a point, Senior Seol.”

Unexpectedly, Euigeon nodded in agreement.

Chaewoo felt relieved that his point had gotten across.

“I’m glad you understand.”

“Then we have no choice but to terminate the contract.”

“What? Wait.”

“Why would it come to that?”

This guy?

Chaewoo sat up straight in alarm.

“There are already too many violated clauses, so I think it’s only right to cancel the Reset Partner arrangement early as well.”

“Just like you said, Senior Seol—for both our sakes.”

Euigeon repeated Chaewoo’s words exactly.

His tone was kind, but the meaning behind it was utterly high-handed.

“A-are you threatening me right now?”

“Did you think I was asking you for a favor?”

“…….”

“It was never a request from the beginning.”

Euigeon lightly tapped a few keys on the piano.

A cheerful melody rang out briefly.

He looked at Chaewoo and smiled as refreshingly as the melody.

His mind went blank.

Not only did he feel like he’d been hit in the back of the head, but he felt as though his soul had been knocked out of him, leaving him hollow.

The answer had been decided from the start.

Why did he have to beat around the bush like that, the arrogant jerk.

Chaewoo hypothesized what would happen if the contract were terminated as Euigeon threatened.

Since the cause for termination didn’t lie solely with Chaewoo, he might not have to pay a penalty, but he would have to return the money he received immediately.

Return the money, or be Euigeon’s s*x partner.

“I need time to think.”

Chaewoo answered after wracking his brain.

He judged that buying time to seek another way was the best he could do right now.

“Then, until midnight tonight.”

But even that seemed far from easy.

“Tonight? That’s too soon.”

He placed the envelope of money he had received earlier back on Chaewoo’s lap.

Chaewoo couldn’t bring himself to pick it up and just stared down at it.

“Senior Seol.”

“…Yeah.”

Standing up, Euigeon leaned toward Chaewoo.

A pheromone of a strange temperature, neither strong nor faint, stimulated Chaewoo.

The tension was enough to make his spine stiffen.

Soon after, a low voice whispered in his ear.

“Don’t even think about trying to negotiate with me.”

“…….”

“Make sure you give me a good answer later.”

He couldn’t move until the man had leisurely left the practice room.

Only after hearing the door close did his stiff body relax.

Even his breathing had become slightly ragged.

“Sigh.”

Chaewoo grabbed the envelope containing the two hundred thousand won on his lap.

He had only received back what he had given Euigeon, yet he felt an indescribable sense of humiliation.

The bitter reality he had completely forgotten when he greedily accepted the large sum of money seemed to be reprimanding him at this moment.

Reminding him that there is no such thing as a free lunch in this world.