Don't You Need an Omega Lucky Charm - Chapter 21.1
Cha Jeongwon scanned the inside of the restaurant before walking toward Ha-on.
His shirt collar and the line of his cardigan were straight. His bangs, which had fallen down naturally as if unstyled, revealed his facial features even more distinctly.
Between the subtle odors lingering in the restaurant, a different scent cut through.
It was that same pheromone he had smelled inside the elevator. Cha Jeongwon in front of his eyes was no illusion.
“How did you come here?”
Ha-on asked Cha Jeongwon.
Though his head was noisy, he pretended to be as calm as possible on the outside.
Cha Jeongwon approached the side of the table, pulled out an envelope from his inner pocket, and held it out.
“This.”
“What… is this?”
When he accepted it in a daze and checked, a hotel logo was printed on the envelope.
“It’s transferring a voucher.”
At Cha Jeongwon’s offhanded answer, Ha-on’s earlobes turned hot.
Then it suddenly hit him that the hotel wasn’t far from here.
“Did you perhaps exchange this intentionally to give it to me? Knowing that I was here?”
“Take it.”
Cha Jeongwon spoke with a face unmixed with any particular emotion. Ha-on stared at him with a peculiar look in his eyes.
So this actually lands in my hands.
Deep inside his chest, an unrecognizable emotion surged.
While pleased, he also felt embarrassed and self-deprecating.
“There’s no reason for me to accept this, though.”
“…”
“Of course, if you give it to me, I’ll accept it gratefully. But since my heart feels somewhat heavy, couldn’t you say something to ease it even just a little?”
“Carry it around heavily then. I’m leaving.”
Cha Jeongwon lightly turned his body around.
Right, he isn’t a considerate personality.
“Senior.”
Before Cha Jeongwon could get any further away, he called out to him in a hurry.
“Do you want to eat together?”
Cha Jeongwon stopped in his tracks.
And instead of answering Ha-on’s words, he looked around the restaurant.
“You don’t eat tteokbokki?”
Ha-on added quickly.
“Originally, Kim Hyeongyu, Seojun, and I were going to eat together as a trio, but right now those two…”
“Not really.”
At the words that snapped off sharply, Ha-on pouted his lips.
Come to think of it, he wasn’t the kind of person who would eagerly sit down if offered to eat anyway.
Still, giving him a suite room voucher was an action out of character for him.
“Since they said they couldn’t come, it’s just you and me left, Senior.”
Ha-on continued the words he hadn’t finished with a laugh. Rather than a laugh, it was closer to his facial muscles awkwardly moving.
He even stealthily lumped Cha Jeongwon in as part of the group.
It can’t be helped, can it?
Ha-on urgently needed someone to share instant tteokbokki with right now.
He wasn’t usually the type who couldn’t eat alone, but instant tteokbokki wasn’t something you could eat by yourself.
The only person visible right now was Cha Jeongwon, and since he had received a hotel voucher anyway, he thought buying a meal once was fine.
“You know instant tteokbokki, right? Throwing this and that in, boiling it up furiously, and eating it. This is super hot, super chewy, and super delicious. It’s a shame to eat only tteokbokki here, though. You have to eat it accompanied by other things too.”
Even at Ha-on’s fluent words, Cha Jeongwon’s silence stretched long.
A silent rejection.
Cha Jeongwon turned toward the door. He looked as if he might walk out of the restaurant at any moment.
Ha-on hurriedly scrambled up from his seat.
“Ramen!”
“…”
“…Do you want to eat ramen noodles before you go?”
***
Silence settled between Cha Jeongwon and Ha-on.
It was like that at the pub yesterday too, but this awkwardness showed no sign of fading. As proof, his body sat upright while refusing to lean his back against the chair’s backrest.
Searching for a place to put his gaze, Ha-on looked out the window once and at the table once in turns.
“Do you like tteokbokki?”
In the end, Ha-on initiated conversation with Cha Jeongwon first.
“Not really.”
So you don’t like it.
“Still, thank you for sitting down with me. I’m touched.”
At Ha-on’s reply, the corners of Cha Jeongwon’s eyes twitched minutely.
“Whether I like it or not, I’ve never eaten it seriously. So there’s no reason for you to be touched either.”
He pointed out every single thing that could have just been passed over.
As Ha-on stared quietly, Cha Jeongwon shook his head slightly.
“If you have something to say, say it quickly.”
“Well…”
He did have something to say, but when he actually tried to bring it up, an awkward fake cough came out.
“Your house was really spacious.”
Cha Jeongwon knitted his brows subtly. It was a tone showing he couldn’t predict at all what Ha-on was trying to say. Even while doing so, he subtly turned his head as a sign of vigilance.
“Isn’t a really big house like that cold if you live alone? When you go home at night, all the lights are off, and even if an item you don’t know about comes in, it might be hard to find. For example, an unknown box…”
The word ‘box’ slipped out of his mouth slightly.
Still, he didn’t ask outright.
Cha Jeongwon paused for a moment before mentioning just one thing.
“I didn’t say I live alone.”
Ah, oh no.
“Uh… since there was only one pair of shoes back then, I thought you lived alone. If not, I’m sorry.”
“I live alone.”
Ha-on’s pupils shook. Did you just play with me right now?
“Look outside.”
“Yes.”
We don’t mesh. Cha Jeongwon and I absolutely do not mesh.
