Diamond Dust Novel - Chapter 20

Inwoo Hyung put down his wine and lightly nudged the Director’s arm. At Inwoo Hyung’s question, the Director’s gaze slowly turned toward me.

From the beginning until now, I couldn’t shake the feeling of being disassembled and evaluated under his gaze. His eyes, devoid of any fluctuation of feeling, were precisely why they could dissect a person most ruthlessly, causing me a tense feeling that brought on awkward discomfort and thirst.

But at the same time, it was also a stimulus that drew out a rebellious streak I hadn’t known I possessed, the feeling that even a wretch like me could twitch if stepped on.

His pale, light, almost gray-blue eyes, which seemed to plead with delicate emotion as if they might shatter at any moment, blurred the chill left by the cold words that had come from his lips until now.

However, that was merely the visual image caused by the color of his eyes.

Before his parted lips could offer any response, the phone he had placed on the table vibrated lightly.

The moment he glanced down and checked the caller ID, a smile appeared on his lips. It was a very faint smile, but it was sincere.

He sought permission with a simple gesture, picked up the phone, and walked toward the entrance, answering the call as he went.

“Yeah, it’s me… Yes, it went well. Right now? No, I left with Choi Inwoo. I’m having an after-party with the Phantom staff right now.”

He was standing with his back mostly turned toward me, so I could only see his profile, but I knew he was smiling. It was a sweet smile, not the mechanical one he used when dealing with clients at Phantom.

A private smile, not a business smile. Just like when he pronounced the word ‘Shu-shu.’

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. If you come, you’ll just be bothered by this person and that person, and you’ll only get tired. You don’t need to worry about things like that.”

Just then, the ordered dishes were served all at once. The owner gave a brief explanation for each dish, but my hearing was more drawn to his conversation taking place six or seven steps away than to the dialogue around the table.

“The number of pieces doesn’t matter, so don’t overexert yourself. It’s Shu-shu, after all. People are already lining up to reserve pieces before even seeing the work.”

Just as I am, a single human being could not maintain the same attitude in all human relationships. But as far as I knew, he was the person who interacted with others with the most varied personas.

The teacher. Yuni Noona and Juhan Hyung. Inwoo Hyung. Phantom’s clients. Me. There were large and small differences in how he treated all of them.

And the image of him leaning his shoulder against the doorframe of the open entrance, concentrating on his call with a face full of smiles, completely overturned my impression that he would be stoic and indifferent even when dealing with a lover.

Shu-shu. The sweetness that name evoked might not just be in the sound of the word.

“Yihyun-ssi, try this. You need to gain some weight.”

At Inwoo Hyung’s call, I withdrew my gaze, which had been darting glances at the Director’s back while pretending to drink wine.

Inwoo Hyung served me a portion of a dish made with Iberian pork jowl, which had been slow-cooked for a long time at a low temperature.

“Teacher, he might look like this on the outside, but he’s substantial. He works part-time for a moving company.”

Noona said this, chewing on a slice of melon topped with thinly sliced jamón.

Inwoo Hyung looked at me with wide eyes, as if surprised. Then he slowly scanned my upper body exposed above the table, up and down.

In truth, anyone could work at a moving company. The workers there were actually of ordinary build. Most of them were quick and agile, rather than big and bulky.

“Did you know? That Yihyun-ssi works part-time for a moving company?”

Inwoo Hyung asked, looking up at the Director as he returned to the table after finishing his call.

He merely shrugged and, without a word, sat down and started drinking wine again. Inwoo Hyung didn’t seem to have expected any kind of agreement or reaction from him either, and he soon returned his attention to me.

“He looks completely like an artist, though… A part-time job at a moving company. The plot thickens, Yihyun-ssi.”

Inwoo Hyung used the negative phrase ‘the plot thickens’ as an expression of affection, shaking his head and laughing.

“Speaking of which, Yihyun-ssi, your vibe is a little different today… Last time, you looked like a good, model student who came out to the gallery with his mom and dad, but today, you have a slight touch of decadent beauty.”

At the awkward, new kind of compliment, I lowered my head and looked down at myself. I tugged at the hem of the T-shirt I was wearing and released it.

“Noona and Hyung gave me this T-shirt as a gift.”

“Ah, Old Future?”

The words ‘Old Future’ came immediately from his mouth. That was the lettering on the shopping bag Yuni Noona had given me. It seemed to be the name of the website Noona and Hyung ran.

“Come to think of it, Yihyun-ssi, Old Future clothes would suit you well. This is better than being too explicit, like them, don’t you think? Hmm… it leaves something to the imagination, perhaps?”

“What exactly does that mean, Teacher?”

Yuni Noona put her hand on Inwoo Hyung’s shoulder and threatened him by poking a fork toward him.

“Honestly, your vibe is just blatantly punk, even in your atmosphere. There’s no unexpectedness.”

“Wow… Teacher, that’s so mean. Even if you like Yihyun that much. And you didn’t hit on me like this when I first came here. I’m quite disappointed.”

Juhan Hyung joined the effort to gang up on Inwoo Hyung.

Judging by Noona and Hyung’s conversation, it didn’t seem to be the first time Inwoo Hyung had expressed interest in a same-sex partner this way. Whether that interest was genuine or half-joking.

But so far, he hadn’t taken any action that would make me feel threatened or rejected. He did ask for my phone number in the car on the way here, but that alone wasn’t enough to classify him as someone to be wary of.

His characteristic playful tone and expression, which stripped weight from everything he said, also allowed me to dismiss his expressions of interest in me as lighthearted.

Even now, Inwoo Hyung raised his hands in an exaggeratedly serious expression, palms facing Juhan Hyung.

“I have high aesthetic standards. Sorry.”

“It’s amazing that you act like this after what happened with Yihyun that day. I would have avoided him.”

Juhan Hyung wasn’t one to just sit there and take it. He cleverly brought up the incident from the VIP opening where I had talked about ‘honesty’ regarding Inwoo Hyung’s painting, sipping his wine with a sly expression.

“He’s not avoiding him; the Teacher is probably more interested in Yihyun because of that.”

Inwoo Hyung smiled ambiguously at Yuni Noona’s comment. Smiling ambiguously, he sent his gaze toward me over the rim of the wine glass touching his lips. The amused look could be interpreted as a secret signal, or it could be just a convivial attitude at a drinking party.

Unless he asked me a question that required an answer, I had no intention of seriously considering the meaning of his gaze.

Setting his wine glass on the table, Inwoo Hyung spoke as if he just remembered something.

“Yihyun-ssi is an Alpha, right?”

His tone was that of someone passingly asking about a definite fact that didn’t need confirmation. Inwoo Hyung was so certain when he asked that it took me a moment to answer.

“…No.”

The smile vanished from Inwoo Hyung’s face at my answer, and the Director of Phantom was amused. The Director chuckled with a sound like air escaping and drank his wine, with the most cheerful expression I had seen on him yet.

And as if to say, ‘I told you so,’ he said:

“I told you he wouldn’t be.”

Were they talking about me? About whether I was an Alpha or not, following whether I had majored in art?

“That’s strange… No matter how much I try to suppress my hormones, there’s no way I’d mistake an Omega… Then, Yihyun-ssi, are you perhaps a Diamond Omega, one level above a Golden Omega? One who can hide their Omega status completely if they put their mind to it?”

“Where are there Diamond Omegas?” Yuni Noona snickered, and Inwoo Hyung bristled, “Can’t you tell the difference between a joke and the truth?”

I felt I needed to correct Inwoo Hyung’s certainty, which was based on the premise that since I wasn’t an Alpha, I must be an Omega.

“I’m… not an Omega, either.”

“……”

This time, his expression was more rigid than when I said I wasn’t an Alpha. Even the Director, who had been balancing on the front legs of his chair with a relaxed victor’s smile, stopped his movement and turned to look at me.

Inwoo Hyung narrowed his eyes and asked, “Then, a Beta?”

“Yes…”

Inwoo Hyung and the Director looked at each other. Then, the Director turned his head toward me, his eyes filled with suspicion and wariness, as if looking at an unidentifiable life form. His expression suggested that such a thing couldn’t possibly exist on Earth.

“Are you certain?”

I almost wanted to ask him that question. On what basis was he so strongly convinced that I was an Omega?

My test results from middle school showed I was a Beta. Since then, I had never experienced a heat cycle that could be mistaken for an estrus period, nor had I gone into rut triggered by an Omega’s pheromones.

I was clearly a Beta, to the extent that I had never felt the need for a retest. A very common existence in the world, like water, air, or dust. One of them.

Yuni Noona and Juhan Hyung, both Betas, had naturally accepted me as a Beta without any confirmation process. And as far as I knew, the Director and Inwoo Hyung were Alphas. Inwoo Hyung thought I was an Alpha, and the Golden Alpha Director was convinced I was an Omega.

And his profile, as he drank his wine with a look of extreme frustration, still seemed to refuse to acknowledge the fact that I was not an Omega.

“But leaving me aside, you were wrong. What’s going on, Golden Alpha? Huh? Are you losing your touch? Pheromones need to circulate to function properly, don’t they? So, release some pheromones, and get exposed to some Omega pheromones. Or are you planning to become a Beta entirely?”

He twisted one side of his lip, showing his displeasure toward Inwoo Hyung, who was teasing him with nudges of his elbow.

“I’ve never found a partner lacking, whether I used pheromones or not.”

“Hmm… whether you needed the help of pheromones or not, only the guys who have been your partners would know.”

“Don’t compare me to those other Alphas who just flaunt it recklessly.”

He tensed his eyelids, clearly genuinely annoyed.

I remembered Juhan Hyung’s explanation that Golden Alphas could control the release of their pheromones themselves.

“That’s a type of obsession with purity, isn’t it? This situation is happening because you control your pheromones too much. This is more than just an ape falling off a tree. Who is Rawoo Wikoon? Isn’t he a more accurate Omega identifier than genetic analysis results? Ah… the dignity of a Golden Alpha is ruined.”