Chapter 13

In the midst of everyone devouring their lunch with fierce, combative gusto, all eyes suddenly snapped toward Kim Taeju at his unexpected remark. The timing was completely out of nowhere.

“Did that guy you call your hyung tell you not to do it?” Taeju asked.

Bringing up a ‘hyung’ out of the blue was jarring enough, but it wasn’t even clear which person at the table he was addressing.

Yoon-seok pointed a thumb at his own chest in confusion. “Who are you asking? My hyung?”

Perhaps Yoon-seok was the only one at the table who actually had an older brother, because when he asked in confusion, Kim Taeju’s gaze fixed squarely upon Kwon Rian. Taeju pointed toward Rian with an indifferent flick of his chin.

“Rian? You have a hyung, Rian?” Yoon-seok asked, surprised.

Caught off guard, Rian stammered, “Huh? Ah…”

He was his brother, yet not his biological brother. At a complete loss for how to explain the relationship, Rian set down the spoon he had been about to lift to his mouth.

Unable to fathom the intention behind Kim Taeju’s sudden question, Rian completely lost his appetite.

“You have a hyung, Kwon Rian?!” Yoon-seok exclaimed.

“Right?” Su-hyun chimed in. “You’re so pretty that I assumed you were an only child. Though now that I think about it, you definitely give off the vibe of someone who’s always pampered.”

As if enlightened by this fresh revelation, Yoon-seok and Su-hyun nodded in unison before resuming shoveling food into their mouths. For now, their only real interest seemed to be their lunch. Should he call it a relief? Just as Rian cautiously gauged the atmosphere and picked up his spoon again—

“He was on the phone earlier,” Kim Taeju remarked. “With his brother.”

Kim Taeju dragged the topic right back into the open. Because Rian hated talking about his personal life, Taeju’s pointed comments felt like an unrelenting brake slammed against his composure.

“Oh, really?” Yoon-seok asked, chiming in. “So what did your hyung tell you not to do?”

Yoon-seok latched onto Taeju’s remark, reigniting a topic that had seemed ready to die down. Taeju looked at the flustered Rian with a challenging smirk in his eyes, as if daring him to speak up and explain. Rian had no idea why Taeju was staring at him like that.

Rian bit his lower lip. Whenever faced with situations like this, he always agonized over where to begin and how much of his relationship with Yu-gyeom he should disclose.

Yu-gyeom wasn’t his biological brother. Yet one could say he had taken responsibility for Rian and raised him after Rian lost his parents. But if he mentioned that, he would have to explain the whole tedious backstory—when his parents had died, and why someone who wasn’t even blood-related had raised him. That was an exhausting, burdensome hassle, and Rian had no desire to dredge it up.

Come to think of it, there was no reason to divulge such personal details to friends who had been complete strangers until recently. Perhaps Yu-gyeom had anticipated Rian facing this very predicament.

Rian, to become close with someone, there are times when you have to share things you shouldn’t—including our secrets.

The secrets shared with his brother. Secrets Rian yearned to brag about, yet which Yu-gyeom strictly forbade him from ever revealing.

“Hyung… was somewhat against me joining a club. That’s all,” Rian confessed haltingly.

He had dragged the words out with great difficulty. In response, Yoon-seok gave an understanding nod. He nodded in understanding. “Ah, I see.”

Su-hyun, however, was not convinced.

“Huh? Does your hyung really interfere with stuff like that?” Su-hyun asked.

“What?” Rian blinked in confusion.

Prompted by Su-hyun’s skepticism, Yoon-seok also wore a puzzled frown this time.

“True…” Yoon-seok muttered. “My hyung wouldn’t even notice if I dropped dead outside.”

Yoon-seok joked on, badmouthing his own brother. In the midst of their banter, Rian was the only one who felt uncomfortable.

Is it really that strange for a hyung to take care of everything?

Rian blinked his eyes in quiet confusion.

Meanwhile, Kim Taeju, the one who had sparked this entire debate, merely observed their exchange like a detached bystander. He looked as though he was simply biding his time, waiting for the right moment to toss in another spark.

“You must be really close with your hyung,” Taeju remarked.

Right on cue, Kim Taeju tossed in another ember. It was impossible to tell whether he was joking or making an offhand comment with no deeper meaning. Unshaken, Rian gave his answer. Of course he could be close with his brother. What was wrong with that?

“Yeah, we’re close,” Rian replied.

Su-hyun snickered. Yoon-seok, who had been slurping down soup, suddenly lowered his voice and leaned in as if something had just occurred to him.

Leaning in close, Yoon-seok whispered conspiratorially, “Hey, there’s only one time when you ever get close with a brother.”

“What is it?” Su-hyun asked.

“I was right in the middle of jerking off a few days ago, right?” Yoon-seok said. “Then that crazy bastard of a brother barged right in. I was totally mortified. What’s even funnier is that he pretended not to notice and brought me toilet paper. Fucking prick.”

Su-hyun let out a snicker. “Pfft, crazy bastard.”

After that, finding whatever amused them so thoroughly, the friends launched into filthy sex talk. They rambled on about watching porn where a guy’s dick was so huge he could plunge it into the Earth’s core and spin his legs like a compass, or about a threesome where two dicks went inside at once. Then, perhaps swept away by the excitement, Yoon-seok blurted out that he had seen a male Omega’s cunt.

A dead silence fell over the table.

“Ah… uh, I mean… that is…” Yoon-seok stammered.

“You lunatic,” Su-hyun cursed under his breath.

With an awkward look, Su-hyun scratched the back of his head, while Yoon-seok rolled his eyes nervously and stole a glance at Rian. Kwon Rian’s face was dark with palpable discomfort. The only one observing the scene with amused interest was Kim Taeju.

It was common knowledge among them that Kwon Rian was an Omega. In the presence of that very person, bringing up a male Omega’s genitalia was, by any standard, a massive blunder on Yoon-seok’s part. As Yoon-seok hesitated and nervously read the room, unsure of how to salvage the situation, Rian finally spoke up.

“It’s fine. I…” Rian began softly.

“Ah… I’m sorry, I’m really sorry,” Yoon-seok blurted out contritely. “A slip of the tongue. This damn mouth of mine…”

Yoon-seok wore an expression of genuine remorse. Su-hyun let out a long, weary sigh. He had always known that mouth of Yoon-seok’s would get them into trouble eventually.

“It… happens,” Rian murmured.

Yoon-seok waved his hands in frantic denial. “N-no, I’m really not that kind of guy, Rian. It was my first time ever seeing one. Really!”

“Hey! You crazy bastard, you think anyone sees one all the time?! Just shut the fuck up!” Su-hyun roared.

Unable to listen to any more of Yoon-seok’s deranged ramblings, Su-hyun finally smacked the back of Yoon-seok’s head with a loud, ringing smack. The smack cracked with enough force to shatter a skull, catching Rian completely off guard.

Kim Taeju spoke up, breaking his silence, “Ah, there’s something I’m curious about.”

His voice, breaking his long silence, brought an instant quiet over the table. Curling his lips into a subtle, enigmatic curve as his gaze locked onto Rian, Taeju leaned forward.

“Do brothers shower together?” Taeju asked.

Turning pale at the question, Yoon-seok made an exaggerated gagging noise. Taeju, however, ignored him completely and locked eyes directly on Rian. He turned his gaze toward Rian. “What about you?”

“…What?” Rian stammered.

Shrugging with casual indifference, Taeju said, “I just wondered if you guys are close enough to shower together and scrub each other’s backs.”

As if struck on the back of the head, Rian froze. Until now, no one had ever crossed the line with a question like that.

“W-we’re brothers, so… when we were little, together. Not anymore,” Rian stammered, his voice faltering.

“Ah, just curious,” Taeju replied. “I’m an only child, so I guess I’ve always envied that sort of thing.”

Rian lowered his head. Kim Taeju was the only one who noticed the vivid flush creeping all the way to the tips of Rian’s ears.

Stealing a glance at Kwon Rian, whose cheeks burned crimson as though overcome with shame, Taeju let out a quiet smirk. He was beginning to find keen amusement in watching the boy.

Taeju’s curiosity had deepened ever since he watched Kwon Rian talking on the phone in the corner a short while ago.

Even so, Taeju had been genuinely surprised to learn that the person on the other end was Rian’s hyung.

On top of that, Taeju’s own body, still in the midst of secondary manifestation, seemed to react exclusively to Kwon Rian’s pheromones. Taeju could feel the concentration of Alpha pheromones within him surging dramatically. It wasn’t midsummer, yet his body burned hot.