Omega Complex Novel (Completed) - Chapter 10

When I came to my senses, I was drenched in omega pheromones. The milky fluid ejaculated into my hand and the languor felt after climax.

After that, I washed my hands and smoked a total of three cigarettes. As I smoked and then washed my hands again, the self-loathing I had suppressed began to creep out.

When I returned to the restaurant, Choi Taegyeom had already eaten about half of his noodles. A rice bowl he had ordered was set at my place, and Kim Dohyun silently ate his sushi. I expected him to ask why I was so late, but Choi Taegyeom just looked at me as I sat down and said:

“You should cut down on smoking.”

I must have smoked a bit too much trying to get rid of the pheromones. I had shaken out my outer clothes and even rinsed my mouth, but since he was sensitive to smells, it must have seemed terrible to him. At least it was a pheromone cigarette, so the burnt smell was weaker than other cigarettes, which was a relief.

“Sorry. I tried my best to get rid of the smell.”

Choi Taegyeom had always particularly disliked the smell of cigarettes since he was young. If someone smoked, he would frown and grumble, covering my nose and mouth. I didn’t dislike the smell of cigarettes, but I remember pretending not to notice, staying still because his small hands were cute.

“Is it really bad?”

I subtly widened the distance between us and sniffed my collar. Was I insensitive to smells because I was a smoker? Choi Taegyeom’s pheromones, my pheromones, and the cigarette smell. I couldn’t smell anything at all.

“It’s not because of the smell, but……”

Choi Taegyeom, who was about to lecture me, sighed and closed his mouth when I picked up my spoon. Seeing the warm rice bowl, my appetite began to return a little. By the time I took a large spoonful of the rice bowl, Choi Taegyeom’s expression had completely softened.

“Senior, you can’t eat cold food, can you?”

Instead, Kim Dohyun spoke up. There was a slight hint of apology in his expression, even though not all the food in the restaurant was cold, so there was no reason for him to feel sorry.

“No, it’s not really like that……”

“You can’t eat it. You always get sick if you do.”

Choi Taegyeom cut me off sharply and poured water into an empty glass. Since he knew me better than my own parents, he must have known that I suffered from stomach problems whenever I ate cold food. Naturally, protesting that I ‘can eat it now’ wouldn’t change anything.

“Don’t you remember getting sick from eating ice cream every summer?”

As Choi Taegyeom said, I would get sick from eating cold food every summer. It was partly because I, who disliked the heat, forced myself to eat cold things, but also because my stomach was inherently cold. Whenever I groaned and felt like I was dying, Choi Taegyeom would sigh deeply and bring things like hot packs.

After that happened a few times, I needed Choi Taegyeom’s permission every time I wanted to eat ice cream. Scooped ice cream was absolutely forbidden, and only stick-type ice cream was allowed. Of course, even then, after I ate half, Choi Taegyeom would snatch the other half away.

“I do remember you stealing my ice cream.”

When I said it playfully, Choi Taegyeom narrowed his eyes. His expression, as if saying ‘Oh, really?’, was full of mischief.

“We should have gone to eat something else… Do you have any favorite foods?”

Seeing us, Kim Dohyun smiled awkwardly and put down his chopsticks. Kim Dohyun’s ordered food was already completely gone. Choi Taegyeom answered instead.

“Why do you want to know?”

Choi Taegyeom answered in an overtly curt tone, without even looking at Kim Dohyun, and served side dishes in front of me. A generous helping of kimchi, and a generous helping of pickled radish.

“Eat a variety.”

“Am I a child?”

“You don’t eat if I don’t take care of you.”

“……Since Senior Yoonwoo is treating us today, I was thinking of treating you next time.”

If you look closely, I can’t tell if Kim Dohyun is oblivious or just has a good personality. To be able to smile so kindly at Choi Taegyeom, who was clearly showing ‘I don’t like you’ so obviously. Well, seeing his lips tremble, it seems like it’s neither the former nor the latter.

“What about sushi? You don’t eat raw food either?”

“Can’t you tell by the fact that he ordered buckwheat noodles? He can’t eat raw food.”

I think I ate it when I was very young, but after growing up a bit, I couldn’t eat any uncooked food at all. Sushi was out of the question, as were seafood like oysters and octopus, and even beef tartare. I disliked the unique softness of raw food and the fishy smell when chewing. That’s why Choi Taegyeom, who really liked sashimi, could hardly eat it because of me.

“Then what about meat?”

“He can’t eat it if it smells. He hardly eats pork or lamb, and only a little beef if he does.”

Choi Taegyeom surprisingly knew my eating habits perfectly. He thought he liked noodles, but actually preferred rice, and that he always failed when trying new things. Yet, he was full of unnecessary confidence, would order things, and always leave food unfinished. Besides that, he listed off other eating habits I didn’t even know about, like being a picky eater or eating slowly.

“Ah, so Senior Yoonwoo likes Korean food the most?”

“It’s not that he likes it, it’s just what he can eat best.”

I didn’t need to answer any of the questions. If Kim Dohyun asked a question, Choi Taegyeom answered it all. At first, Kim Dohyun asked me, but later he openly directed his questions to Choi Taegyeom.

“……What are you two doing in front of me?”

Thanks to that, I finished my meal comfortably, but it was certainly awkward. I couldn’t understand why Kim Dohyun was so interested in my eating habits, or why Choi Taegyeom was so determined to answer. Just as Choi Taegyeom was saying, ‘He can’t eat much anyway,’ he paused and looked at my empty plate.

“You finished it.”

Would it be a misunderstanding if I said there was pride in his voice? Most likely, it wouldn’t be a misunderstanding. As if happy that I finished my meal, he lightly rested his head on my shoulder.

“Lee Yoonwoo, what’s your next lecture?”

It was a gesture he used to do casually, but my heart pounded at that brief contact. The fragrant shampoo smell also brought a different kind of flutter than his pheromones. I tried to breathe as slowly as possible, afraid of revealing my nervousness.

“Modern English Literature.”

“Oh, that was an elective. I should’ve taken it.”

Choi Taegyeom rubbed his head against my shoulder like a cat and straightened his posture. A deep sense of regret washed over me at his passing remark about wishing he had taken the same class. If our classes had happened to overlap, I would have been willing to sit next to him, pretending not to know him, and it stung.

“If you’re done eating, let’s go.”

Choi Taegyeom, who had taken the bill, stood up. I subtly glanced at where his friends had been, and only an empty table remained, they had left at some point. Both yesterday and today, I couldn’t understand if it was okay to just leave his friends like this.

“Next time, let’s eat what Senior likes.”

“Yeah, well……”

I answered Kim Dohyun vaguely. Every time I ran into this guy, awkward things happened, so at this point, I wondered if it was a jinx. So, if possible, I hoped to avoid eating alone with him again.

Meanwhile, Choi Taegyeom, who had finished paying and returned, flapped the receipt at Kim Dohyun. For some reason, a deep smile hung on his lips.

“Hey, I paid for the meal.”

“……Huh?”

Kim Dohyun asked back hesitantly. It seemed absurd that he was buying the meal after acting so awkward all this time. Should he thank him, or just let it go? To Kim Dohyun, who was caught in thought, Choi Taegyeom added annoyingly:

“By the way, I eat anything well.”

Kim Dohyun’s face instantly colored with bewilderment. He tried to say something, but Choi Taegyeom didn’t wait for an answer and put his arm around my shoulder. While he was stammering, I was already leaving the restaurant, leaving Kim Dohyun behind.

“…Why did you pay for the meal?”

Choi Taegyeom, who was about half a span taller than me, seemed to have no discomfort using me as an armrest. I wasn’t particularly small, but he was just so tall. It used to be the other way around, and a strange sense of injustice welled up.

“Then why are you buying him a meal?”

As the situation changed, my mindset towards him also changed. The contact that used to be nothing in high school was now not accepted with pure intentions. Every part that touched Choi Taegyeom became conscious, and I wanted to be closer. That was a desire he could never discover, and my own selfish wish.

“You said you weren’t close to him?”

He uttered childish words and pressed down on my head. Even contact that would have been unpleasant from anyone else was fine because it was Choi Taegyeom. I wished he would stroke my head instead of pressing it, and I wouldn’t mind if he touched my cheek instead of my head. It was quite a perverted thought.

“We’re not close. He asked me to buy him food, so we came together.”

“You buy food for anyone who asks, even if you’re not close?”

“I promised to buy him food yesterday.”

Actually, I was planning to make Park Sungjae pay, but there was no need to explain that. Choi Taegyeom frowned as if something displeased him and let go of my shoulder. My shoulder, where his body heat had receded, felt strangely empty.

“Don’t hang out with Kim Dohyun.”

It was a demand like that of an elementary school student. No, even when we were elementary school students, we never said such things to each other. Choi Taegyeom looked down at me with his arms crossed, as if expecting an answer.

“Are you an elementary school student…?”

Actually, I could have just said okay. Kim Dohyun was just a stranger except for a few overlapping classes, and Choi Taegyeom was my old friend and the person I liked. I could have just answered, ‘There’s no reason to hang out,’ like usual, but for some reason, I didn’t want to.

“Why suddenly?”

There was something strange about the hostility Choi Taegyeom showed. Basically, he didn’t treat others badly without reason, even if he didn’t like them. Yet, he cut off all of Kim Dohyun’s words and even showed vigilance by emitting pheromones. To me, it somehow felt like jealousy.

“Why do you dislike Kim Dohyun so much?”

If you don’t expect, you won’t be disappointed, but I expect anyway, knowing I’ll be disappointed. Could it be that the feeling Choi Taegyeom was experiencing wasn’t jealousy? Whether as a friend or in some other sense, could it be a feeling stemming from not wanting to lose me?

“That bastard, to you……”

Choi Taegyeom stammered for a long time, as if choosing his words. He opened his mouth, then frowned and closed it, ran his hand through his hair, and then let out a deep sigh. Passersby stared at us standing on the street, but neither Choi Taegyeom nor I cared.

“Right. You’re a beta, so you wouldn’t know.”

A sigh-laden voice escaped him. Choi Taegyeom shook his head as if he had no choice and opened his mouth, his brow furrowed.

“He smeared a lot of pheromones on you.”

Thump, my heart sank. It wasn’t because Choi Taegyeom’s expression was stiff. It was because the distant sensation from earlier came back to mind with the pheromones that flowed out simultaneously with his words.

“There’s only one reason alphas do that. It’s like marking their territory.”

My hair stood on end, and all my nerves became sensitive. The overtly pouring pheromones were proof of what he was saying. If the reason an alpha emits pheromones is as Choi Taegyeom said, then what is his behavior now?

“You’ve always been like this.”

“……”

“Sometimes you’d come back with strange alpha pheromones, or drenched in omega pheromones.”

Unidentifiable emotions welled up in Choi Taegyeom’s eyes. A hint of annoyance was also present. It was similar to times in the past when he would nervously emit pheromones when I came back with someone else’s pheromones.

“You’re a beta. Would I, your friend, be happy if someone marked their territory on you without your consent?”

In the end, it was just friendship again. I was a beta, and Choi Taegyeom was my friend, so it was a useless sense of duty to protect me from them. It wasn’t the sweet emotion I desired, but a more fundamental displeasure.

“Erasing it with my pheromones is only effective for so long…”

I knew. That what I had was a hopeless expectation, and that I was foolish for expecting it anyway, knowing it. Since it was an expectation I had fostered knowing I would be disappointed, it was natural to feel dejected.

Choi Taegyeom simply intended to erase Kim Dohyun’s pheromones. To protect me, who couldn’t feel pheromones, and to eliminate his displeasure as a friend. Just as I had done, to help me.

Sitting next to me, leaving his friends behind, preventing Kim Dohyun from talking to me, and pouring pheromones on me just now—all of these actions stemmed from that.

“So, if Kim Dohyun talks to you, ignore him. Don’t respond even if he tries anything funny. If you run into him, come to me. I’ll erase the pheromones for you.”

He spoke in a very formal tone. His expression was benevolent, as if he would willingly endure such a sacrifice for a clumsy friend. Whoosh, with a sigh, my inflated expectations burst with a pop.

“……You don’t really have to.”

I replied indifferently and pulled out my phone. I checked the time and looked up to see a subtly frowning face. Choi Taegyeom kept his mouth shut, as if trying to gauge the intention of my words. Soon, a very displeased voice burst out.

“What do you mean by that?”

“You don’t have to erase the pheromones.”