* * *

After that, we became proper friends, but because of Taeshin’s slow development, many things happened throughout elementary school.

Fortunately, he eventually started speaking, but Lee Taeshin was undoubtedly a smart fool.

At school, if someone hit him, he’d just take it, and if someone came begging for money, he’d open his wallet.

I once joked that you had to take off your shoes in a movie theater, and he believed it, trying to take off his shoes before entering the theater.

I pulled this trick in third grade when we first went to the theater together.

Anyway, realizing the seriousness of fooling around with Taeshin at the theater, I brought him home right after the movie and gave him a crash course.

“Listen carefully. First, if a stranger talks to you, you have to say, ‘No, I don’t like it, don’t do that.’ Got it? If they keep talking, you have to scream for help. Understood?”

Nodding his head, Taeshin answered, so I moved on to the next point.

“Second, there are many bad people who lie. So you can’t believe everything people say. Sometimes my mom mixes cold medicine in my juice and lies that she didn’t. Got it?”

Nod, nod. Taeshin nodded again, so I taught him a few more important life lessons, like fighting back if someone hits him.

Finally, I got to the last lesson.

“Lastly, you have to listen to everything I say. Got it?”

Taeshin, who had been nodding obediently to everything, blinked blankly.

“You have to listen to everything I say. Understand?”

“Why?”

“What?”

“Why is what you say important?”

It was a critical question, one I hadn’t prepared for.

How could he question the part I included out of personal interest?

I started to sweat.

“Uh… it’s important. Really important. Have I ever done anything bad to you? Or bullied you? No, right? I’m your closest friend. I saved you whenever you were hit or bullied by bad guys. So you have to listen to me.”

Lee Taeshin was a kind, obedient, and diligent kid, perfect to have as my subordinate.

My belief that I, the smart one, would protect this fool wasn’t a lie, but having a subordinate for playtime was nice too.

“If you listen to me, I’ll protect you for life.”

“For life?”

“Yeah! For life! I’ll protect you for life, and you have to listen to me. We’re making a promise. How about it?”

This was my one chance to propose! I looked at Taeshin, trying to seem trustworthy. Intrigued, right?

‘Quickly agree!’ I screamed internally while waiting for his answer.

Then, Taeshin, who had been staring at me blankly, smiled brightly and answered.

“Yes, I like it. For life. I’ll promise.”

He was naive.

Fortunately, I quickly snapped out of it and became a true friend to Taeshin.

Perhaps because of that old promise, Lee Taeshin really did everything I asked after that.

Even so, he didn’t need to get himself involved in such a crazy situation… I felt a bit sorry and grateful, but I couldn’t help it now, so I decided to drink the wine.

Smelling the wine Taeshin poured, I noticed it had a more mellow aroma than before.

I sniffed a bit more and took a sip, finding it unexpectedly bitter and slightly sour despite the sweet scent.

The aftertaste was surprisingly clean and crisp.

“Yeah.”

“It’s good.”

Taeshin, who was leisurely savoring the wine, also reacted positively.

I nodded in agreement with his assessment and took the steak he offered.

Taeshin smiled with his eyes. His sharp eyes softened, and his sculpted face glowed as he smiled.

As I thought again about how good-looking that guy was while sipping wine, I realized my glass was empty.

When I looked into the already empty glass, Taeshin picked up the wine bottle.

After drinking one glass, then another, I gradually felt the alcohol hitting me. My vision started to blur, and the smell of alcohol lingered every time I breathed.

As I staggered while sitting in the chair, I felt a hand holding me steady. When I asked who it was, they replied it was Taeshin.

Ah, it’s Taeshin. I giggled and clung to Taeshin, feeling my body being lifted up.

“Moon Sunwoo you are drunk.”

“I’m… I’m not drunk.”

“You are.”

“No, I’m not…”

I retorted with a slurred tongue to the teasing Taeshin, hearing a soft laugh.

“Sunwoo, will you really date when you go to college?”

“Yeah… I want to. I want to…”

“With whom? Moon Sunwoo is too picky to date just anyone.”

“Me? I… I’m not picky…”

Shaking my head while being embraced by Taeshin, who misunderstood my preferences completely.

I wasn’t particularly picky.

“Just kind, smart… I didn’t particularly like people who were only nice… But still kind, smart… Good-looking… Smart… And obedient… Can’t be just nice but kind… And someone who really likes me…”

“See, you are picky.”

As my body was laid down on the bed, someone spoke.

When I asked who they were, they said it was Taeshin.

Ah, is that so? It’s Taeshin. I laughed, and my head was patted.

I’m not a dog, stop patting me, you…

When I pouted, the hands lightly tapping me made me open my mouth and bite them hard.

As the fingers slipped out from my light bite, I opened my eyes, feeling victorious, and saw Taeshin looking down at his bitten fingers as if they were stabbed.

He looked a bit smug, but then Taeshin’s face gradually hardened.

“Why… does it hurt?”

Focusing on Taeshin with my alcohol-blurred vision, I asked. Taeshin, looking half-lidded and with a strange expression, answered.

“No. I just had a petty thought.”

Taeshin stroked my eyes. As the warm touch cooled my heated eyelids, I slightly closed my eyes, feeling the hand sweeping over my eyelids. Petty.

Even though I was grumbling about being treated like a dog, the word ‘petty,’ which didn’t match Taeshin at all, made me relax.

Taeshin’s still calm voice continued.

“A petty thought of making Moon Sunwoo unable to date.”

“I can’t… I need to date.”

As the soft fingertips gently stroked my face, sleep that I had pushed away started to creep in.

Feeling drowsy and thinking it would be nice to fall asleep like this, I pouted, and Taeshin’s hand, which was on my face, grasped my tie.

“Why would Moon Sunwoo, who wasn’t interested in dating, suddenly act like this?”

With a low, emotionless voice, he asked indifferently.

Feeling the tie that had been pressing on my neck loosening, I opened my eyes and looked at Taeshin.

Holding the half-untied tie, he tilted his head as if thinking and stared into space. I reached out my hand.

I tapped the back of Taeshin’s hand, which was resting on the bed with raised fingers.

As I tapped his white hand, which flinched at the touch, I traced a line along the exposed bones.

“Just curious.”

Mumbling as I touched Taeshin’s hand, I admitted. Taeshin was right.

I wasn’t originally interested in dating. I had no one I liked, and no one I was interested in.

While everyone else was falling for someone and dating, I had no one I felt attracted to.

Everyone felt like friends, and there was no one I wanted to date romantically.

Though I complained about having no dating luck, it was just a saying.

Perhaps it’s because I’m a rare extreme dominant omega that my indifferent feelings remained similar even when I sensed someone else’s pheromones.

Others might find the scent appealing and get excited, but I just found it somewhat pleasant without any real excitement.

So, I had a vague thought that I would start dating when I met someone I liked, someone who stirred my heart.

But I became curious.

Curious about liking someone, hating them, then liking them again when they were in front of me.

Curious about those emotions that made people quarrel and then make up because of each other’s pheromones.

All of this…

Slap!

“It’s because of you.”

Feeling a surge of emotion, I slapped the back of Taeshin’s hand. It was all because of Taeshin.

The reason I started caring and getting curious about something I had no interest in before was all because of Taeshin.

They say that once you know something, you can’t unknow it, and that was exactly right.

The sudden impulse due to Taeshin’s problem as a rare extreme dominant alpha made me start helping him.

Spending time with Taeshin, who only asked me to stay by his side, made me realize what alpha pheromones were.

I could finally understand why alphas and omegas were drawn to each other’s pheromones after feeling Taeshin’s pheromones.

Taeshin controlled his pheromones very well.

Usually, they were barely noticeable, but when Taeshin revealed them, it felt extremely comforting and calming.

Any worries or anxieties I had quickly subsided, and his pheromones provided a sense of peace and reassurance.

However, in a space where it was just the two of us, Taeshin’s pheromones, though comforting and calming, had something more mixed in.

Something that was embarrassing to vocalize…

It was desire.

The pheromones Taeshin revealed contained a desire I had never felt before, as explained by the sexual impulses.

The alpha’s longing and yearning, the desperate need and desire that might have been more blatant, were surprisingly calmed when I held Taeshin’s hand.

Even when it felt awkward, meeting his eyes would calm his sensitive pheromones.

* * *