* * *
“An iced Americano with an extra shot, right?”
“Oh! How did you know? Do you remember me?”
The woman standing at the counter beamed, blinking rapidly in excitement.
Junhee, handing back her freshly processed card with both hands, replied,
“Yes. You have a beautiful smile.”
She had been here yesterday, and the day before that.
Not remembering a customer who came three days in a row would be stranger.
Her cheeks twitched, and she exchanged glances with her friend before rushing off to their table, giggling.
“Oh, my lucky charm! You’re amazing at this. The ladies and the young men alike are falling for you!”
The café owner grinned, rhythmically tapping her feet as she operated the grinder.
“Huh? That wasn’t my intention…”
“Regardless of the intent, sales have skyrocketed several times over, so you’re definitely a lucky charm! A blessing just rolled right in!”
The boss cut off Junhee mid-sentence and showered him with endless praise.
After working here for a few days, Junhee had come to realize that the boss never really listened to others.
By now, he had already adapted to it.
Silently, Junhee took out a cup and filled it with ice from the ice maker.
He was just doing his job, treating it like any other workplace, dealing with customers as professionally as possible.
The increase in customers seemed to be for a different reason.
It was probably just because of the hot weather, or maybe because the peak vacation season was approaching.
Either way, the fact that the store was benefitting from it was a relief.
The once-empty shop, which had always been quiet no matter when he came, was now packed both inside and out.
Before he knew it, as he busily worked, closing time was drawing near.
“Aigoo, our lucky charm! You worked hard again today. Do you have any idea how much today’s sales were? It’s almost like when we first opened! My goodness.”
The boss tapped on the POS system in amazement, repeatedly exclaiming in disbelief.
“I packed some side dishes in the fridge—take them home and eat up, okay? You’re like a son to me!”
Junhee tried to refuse, but the boss shoved a paper bag full of food into his hands.
“…Thank you, boss. See you tomorrow.”
“Yeah, yeah! Get home safe. Oh, right! A customer asked me to give you this.”
The boss stuffed something into the bag and saw him off.
Junhee trudged up the hill toward his lodging, his steps heavy with exhaustion.
By the time he arrived, his clothes were damp with sweat.
The first thing he did was strip off his outdoor clothes and collapse onto the living room sofa.
Even though he had a spacious bedroom with a comfortable bed, he always ended up eating and sleeping here. Maybe because…
‘The view of the ocean is better from here.’
For the most part, he was managing just fine. But waking up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason—that was something Junhee had no control over.
Whenever that happened, he would sit with his thoughts, choose one memory from the day to discard, and imagine throwing it into the sea.
He’d picture it sinking deep, weighed down by a heavy stone.
And before he knew it, sleep would claim him again.
“Time flies like hell.”
His body ached with exhaustion, yet time passed in a blink.
For Junhee, that was better than being idle.
Not to mention, thanks to the boss paying him more generously than initially promised, he had no trouble making ends meet.
If there was any luck in his life, it seemed to be that he’d met a good boss.
‘…At this rate, I could keep living like this for years.’
He had thought that without his matchmaking job, he wouldn’t have a way to survive—but somehow, he wasn’t starving to death.
After lying on the sofa like a battery on charge for a while, he sat up.
Rustle.
He opened the paper bag the boss had given him and put the side dishes into the fridge.
He debated just eating instant ramen again but changed his mind.
“…I should eat properly.”
His muttered words lingered in the air.
He opened the fridge again and took out the kimchi the boss had made.
Grabbing a few slightly wilted vegetables, he prepped them while heating a pan.
With quick, practiced motions, he whipped up a simple yet delicious kimchi fried rice.
Rummaging through the cupboard, he even found a bottle of wine and decided to pair it with his meal.
Scooping up a generous bite, Junhee stuffed it into his mouth—then his eyes widened.
“What the… this is ridiculously good.”
Maybe he had some talent for cooking?
He wasn’t usually the type to talk to himself, but with the space around him feeling so empty, he found himself doing it more often.
By the time he had absentmindedly sipped through half the wine bottle, a pleasant warmth had spread through his body.
That warmth turned into heat in an instant.
Just as he was about to clean up and call it a night, a sticky note fluttered onto the table.
Curious, he picked it up.
The handwriting was round and neat.
[ 010-XXXX-XXXX
Call me! ]
‘…What’s this?’
It must have been the note the boss had mentioned—a customer had left it for him.
Junhee hesitated, about to toss it onto the table, but then he picked it back up.
[ P.S. You have the most intoxicating scent ♡ ]
‘…Scent?’
His eyes lingered on the words, rereading them over and over.
The only person who had ever told him he had a scent… was Ki Taeryu.
And back then, he had assumed it was just a taunt—just another way to mock him for being a recessive omega.
“You think… I have a scent?”
Junhee immediately buried his nose into his hand and sniffed.
Nothing.
He rubbed his wrist against his nape and inhaled deeply again.
Still nothing.
Frowning, he reached for the other notes on the dresser.
There were more than just a couple—these had piled up over several days.
[ Milky white part-timer ♡ ]
[ Please call me. I want to get to know you. ]
[ Here’s my business card—waiting for your call. ]
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
A ridiculous thought crossed Junhee’s mind.
Ever since he had arrived in Jeju, people had been flocking to him.
At the airport, at the beach—and now, even at the café.
But he had brushed it off, thinking, ‘It’s just a tourist town. Maybe this is normal.’
He figured no one would flirt so openly unless they were specifically looking for a vacation fling.
Yet now, he could see the one thing all those people had in common.
They were all… alphas.
Which meant… if they were all drawn to him because of his pheromones—
“Where’s my phone…?”
Frantically, Junhee rummaged through the drawers, searching for his phone.
He needed to look up what happened when a recessive omega slept with a dominant alpha.
‘Sometimes, when betas sleep with dominant alphas, they manifest as omegas…’
Ki Taeryu’s words echoed in his mind, and his heart plummeted.
He had brushed it off at the time, thinking it was irrelevant since he was already an omega.
But why was that coming back to him now?
Suppressing the rising panic, he pressed the power button on the phone he had barely touched since arriving.
…0% battery.
“Shit, the charger. Where’s the charger…?”
Nowhere to be found.
He hadn’t even packed it.
There was a charger at the café, but since Vincent had been too busy to contact him lately, he hadn’t gone to charge his phone.
The only thing he could do now was wait until morning.
“This is insane. This can’t be happening.”
Unable to sit still, Junhee started pacing across the living room.
And then, finally, unable to hold back the storm of thoughts any longer—he bolted outside.
Still in his slippers, he walked up the dimly lit road.
Instead of heading down toward the beach, he climbed higher.
There, at the entrance to a sheer cliff, stood a yellow warning sign.
[ Caution: Cliff Drop ]
The small figure on the sign, plummeting downward, looked uncannily like him.
‘…As if there’s anywhere left for me to fall.’
Ignoring the warning signs, he trudged forward, his legs moving without hesitation, until he finally reached the edge and came to a stop.
Below his feet, the vast expanse of the ocean stretched endlessly, its black surface shimmering under the light.
It felt like if he took just one more step forward, he would plunge straight into it.
Even now, with every breath he took, it felt as if water was flooding his lungs, trapping him in an unrelenting grip.
What the hell had happened to him?
His dulled mind struggled to make sense of it all, but nothing seemed to fit.
“…Fuck.”
If he could, he would throw the past three months’ worth of memories into that sea and let them sink to the bottom.
Then, maybe, he could turn around and live as if nothing had ever happened.
A deep silence filled Junhee’s heart as he stared wordlessly at the ocean.
And in the end, as always, Taeryu appeared at the conclusion of his tangled thoughts and bitter resentment.
A fleeting sweetness, laced with solitude, brushed past his nose.
He had spent so many nights lost in thought—recalling, reliving, and enduring the weight of his memories—only to find that, in the end, it was always him that remained.
There was no denying it anymore.
This was longing.
Not once had life ever gone the way Junhee wanted.
And even now, that hadn’t changed.
“…What a goddamn idiot.”
Muttering like a drunken man, Junhee didn’t notice the dark shadow creeping up behind him.
Drowned out by the crashing waves and howling wind, he failed to hear the sound of approaching footsteps.
Then—
A hand suddenly grabbed his shoulder.
“…!”
Startled, Junhee whipped around, his shoe catching on a loose rock.
His body lurched forward, and in the next moment—he slipped.
* * *
