Chapter 161

Gyeol pressed strength into the corners of his mouth, flattening his lips into a straight line as he pushed against Yo Han’s chest.

“This isn’t Ivory Mansion.”

“It’s not like I’ve ever done more or less just because we were at Ivory Mansion.”

Yo Han answered without a trace of hesitation, then tightened the arm around him. Gyeol’s center of balance tilted, and he ended up buried in Yo Han’s embrace.

“What matters is that you’re Gyeol Go.”

“Oh, seriously....”

He muttered in a dissatisfied voice, but he no longer had the will to push him away. His ears red, Gyeol quietly held his breath.

Gently combing his fingers through Gyeol’s hair, Yo Han spoke in a low voice.

“Tell me whether you were waiting for me.”

“...Do you know how persistent you are? You always have to hear the answer to anything you’re curious about.”

“I always have to get what I want. And I always have to do what I want to do.”

The words flowed softly, almost like a poem, and their eyes briefly met at the end. A subtle instant passed between them.

Had they not been filming, their lips would already have collided.

Again. My insides feel warm and soft again.

Unable to bear the feeling, Gyeol looked away.

“...How could I wait for you? It was late, and you seemed to be having a good time with everyone else. Normally, no one would expect you to come all the way to the lodging at this hour.”

It was his answer to whether he had been waiting.

Yo Han gave a short hum, rested his chin on top of Gyeol’s head, and replied in a deliberately indifferent tone.

“Is that so? I was waiting for you.”

“.......”

“I kept waiting, but then you came back and went straight inside. It hurt my feelings.”

For some reason, Gyeol had thought it was difficult to breathe, only to realize that his heart rate had risen. He could not call the churning sensation in his stomach entirely pleasant. The questions of whether this was right, whether this was something he should allow, had been floating inside him all along.

He consciously inhaled deeply, then slowly exhaled.

“...I was tired.”

It was an excuse. The truth was that the emotion of that moment had been too difficult to handle, and he had not wanted to face the realization blooming inside him.

It had been difficult to face Yo Han. If Gyeol looked at his face, met his eyes, and drank in the tenderness of his smile, the shape of that realization felt as though it would finally reveal its full outline.

“Yeah. That’s why I came. I was worried something might be wrong.”

“...Nothing was wrong.”

“Gyeol.”

A large hand stroked down the back of his head once, then patted him gently.

“Look at me.”

Gyeol, who had remained pressed firmly against Yo Han without moving, slowly lifted his head. His gaze was still lowered.

“Is my face really that ugly?”

“That isn’t even funny....”

A disbelieving laugh escaped him at the absurd joke. In the end, Gyeol reluctantly looked up at Yo Han.

The instant their eyes met, Yo Han smiled so broadly that his eyes curved shut.

His face seemed to break apart into radiant light. Gyeol finally understood beneath nothing more than fluorescent lights what people meant when they said a person’s face was dazzling.

“Why are you....”

His chest throbbed.

“Why are you smiling like an idiot?”

Feeling heat rush through his body, Gyeol covered Yo Han’s face with both hands.

“You finally show me your face, then cover mine right away.”

“Because you’re smiling strangely....”

“Me? Impossible.”

Even his conceited voice sounded less irritating now.

“Why? Does your heart hurt when you see me smile?”

The problem was serious.

Far too serious.

Something is going wrong.

“If that’s the case, you should tell me right—”

Yo Han, who had been joking as he caught Gyeol’s wrists and pulled his hands down, abruptly stopped.

With his vision cleared, Gyeol’s face was revealed, flushed as red as an apple. His head was tilted to one side, exposing the clean line of his pale neck, while his eyes remained lowered because he could not bring himself to meet Yo Han’s gaze. It was a heartbreakingly vulnerable sight. And with a face that looked ready to burst, he kept working the plump lips Yo Han had sucked swollen.

“Stop talking nonsense....”

It felt as though a fuse blew inside Yo Han’s head.

There had to be a limit to how pretty he could act. This was too much.

Reason and impulse began an intense struggle inside his mind.

I want to lay him down just like this. We already bit and sucked at each other all we wanted at Ivory Mansion, so what would be wrong with doing it now? A kiss should be fine, shouldn’t it?

No. It isn’t.

I still have to think about Gyeol’s position as an Omega.

Gyeol had come on a show like this because he dreamed of making a comeback. Yo Han could support him, but he could not become the thing that dragged him down and made him fall.

At last, Yo Han drew a hand heavily down his face and took a deep breath.

“Give me a second....”

“What?”

Gyeol cautiously studied him. Even every tiny gesture like that was maddeningly provocative.

“...I’m calming down.”

“What are you talking about?”

Gyeol was not an easy opponent. He had lowered Yo Han’s guard with that beautifully flushed face, then waited for an opening and calculated how to slip out of his arms. The moment Yo Han felt him shift, he wrapped both arms broadly around Gyeol and pulled him tight.

It was his compromise.

A hug.

Nothing beyond that.

“What....”

“I thought you were about to ask what I was doing.”

“...Could you stop stealing my lines?”

“Pretend I’m giving out free hugs.”

There had never been such complete bullshit. Even a puppy would not bark out nonsense like this.

The regret came immediately, but it did not matter. Gyeol had laughed in disbelief inside his arms.

Gyeol smelled good.

Warm and comforting.

Yo Han had thought something similar years ago, the first time they kissed. The scent had been so good that it startled him.

It had been the same since coming to Pheromone Island. To be honest, Yo Han had already known Gyeol’s pheromones. Whatever pheromones he encountered inside the Pheromone Booth, whatever else might have seemed more appealing, he had intended to choose Gyeol.

But nothing unexpected had happened.

Gyeol’s pheromones had been overwhelming.

Even during the time when Yo Han had dared to misunderstand and hate him as he pleased, only Gyeol’s pheromones had ever been able to seize him.

“I wanted to go meet you earlier, but Gyujin held me up.”

“...Meet me?”

“After your interview.”

“.......”

“That path is dark.”

He added the final sentence like an excuse, conscious of the cameras. He could hardly announce publicly that he had gone to that blind spot to meet Gyeol almost every night, entirely of his own accord.

Instead, he pulled the body in his arms even closer and whispered softly beside Gyeol’s ear.

“Did you really not wait for me?”

He felt the hands that had somehow come to embrace his back tighten.

Gyeol did not answer. Instead, his hands slowly slid down Yo Han’s back, hesitated, then clenched the hem of his clothes.

Yo Han could also feel the intense heat radiating from Gyeol’s cheek where it rested against the side of his neck.

That was enough.

It was no different from receiving an answer clearer than words.

Yo Han chuckled and changed the subject.

“I want to get out of here quickly, but part of me doesn’t want to leave.”

“...Why?”

“Because here, I can spend all day looking at nothing but you. Once we leave, we’ll have to live apart.”

He was not speaking only of physical distance.

Yo Han was famous for never having taken a break since his film debut. Yet he had devoted two full weeks to R-Connect. The moment he left the island, his schedule would come crashing down on him—from dawn until late at night. If everything had been in Korea, he might somehow have squeezed out time, but more than half the work waiting for him involved overseas filming.

“...You’re already talking like we’ve become something.”

Gyeol struck directly at the opening. Yo Han merely laughed with him still held in his arms.

After a brief silence, Gyeol spoke.

“...I still want everything to end quickly.”

“.......”

“I think that’s the only way I’ll be able to accept it.”

“...Accept what?”

“Anything.”

Countless complications lay within that all-encompassing answer. Many things had happened between them, and among them were matters that still had not been properly resolved because of their circumstances and conditions.

Gyeol was not someone capable of pretending not to see those things and allowing them to fade away unresolved.

If the two of them hoped for what came next, if they truly intended to promise each other a future, then they would have to confront and unravel everything, leaving nothing caught between them and nothing behind.

Hesitation.

Worry.

Conflict.

The incomprehensible.

Impulse.

Desire.

Longing.

Every emotion that raced toward Yo Han and bloomed because of Yo Han.

When all of them were replaced with a single name, they became love and hate.

***

Kisoo Yang abruptly came to his senses at the shrill ringing of an alarm.

His desk was piled high with scripts, appearance-offer negotiation documents, copies of casting proposals, and all kinds of other paperwork.

Every last one had been sent for Gyeol. Many more had arrived as computer files, but there had been so many that Kisoo feared his eyes would give out at this rate, so he had asked a new employee to print them.

That was right.

Gyeol Go had already taken his first step, and Kisoo’s agency was beginning to see the light along with him.

“Busy or not, I still have to check what needs checking. Right.”

With dark circles hanging almost to his chin, Kisoo dug his phone out from where it was buried between stacks of documents. He looked haggard, but his eyes were as bright and alive as ever.

“My pretty boy. You’re all I’ve got, Gyeol.”

And so, today had finally arrived.

In one minute, the public-attention rankings would be finalized.

Released at exactly nine every evening on the first day of each month, the chart ranked the influence of stars across television and streaming platforms, listing the top ten.

Gyeol had narrowly missed out the previous month, but this time, the atmosphere was entirely different. The episodes aired over the past month had broken the show’s highest ratings record day after day and generated explosive public attention. The prevailing industry prediction was that Gyeol would comfortably enter the rankings this time.

That was why Kisoo had been waiting for today.

Ten seconds remained.

“Gyeol. Gyeol Go. Gyeol.”

Rapidly chanting Gyeol’s name, Kisoo opened the site and positioned the cursor over the refresh button.

Five seconds.

...

Two seconds.

One second.

Kisoo squeezed his eyes shut and refreshed the page.