PIA 163 Side Story 2 END

Jeong Hee-seo woke up to the blaring ringtone and was surprised by two things. First, Secretary Yoon was practically crying as he shouted through the phone, and second, Ji-an was lying in his arms.

“…Seo Ji-an.”

He calmed the wailing Secretary Yoon, who was lamenting about the flight cancellation, and hung up. Then, he called out to Ji-an, but he was sound asleep and didn’t budge. Jeong Hee-seo awkwardly half-raised himself, trying to gently remove Ji-an’s arm wrapped around his waist—

“Mmm…”

He stopped abruptly, afraid of waking Ji-an.

Somehow, the bed felt unusually warm. Jeong Hee-seo lay back down with a perplexed expression. Ji-an then nuzzled against his side, burying his face. The breath escaping his lips tickled his skin.

Ji-an’s pheromones, released without restraint, were making the surrounding air sweet. Perhaps because of that, he felt his heart tighten with a tingling sensation.

Suddenly, Jeong Hee-seo recalled the ‘Seo Ji-an’ who had come looking for him that morning with a sorrowful face. That very unfamiliar face—Jeong Hee-seo wondered if Ji-an could make such a face too.

“…”

Perhaps because of that, he uncharacteristically hesitated, unwilling to get up and leaving Ji-an in his arms behind.

Why was this guy here? Jeong Hee-seo looked at the ceiling, quietly replaying the events of the previous night.

‘The baby lived. I wonder what the name is… They probably haven’t named him yet, right?’

Ji-an, overwhelmed with emotion and rambling incoherently, declared that he couldn’t possibly sleep like this. As if wine wasn’t enough, he even opened the whiskey from the home bar. The excited guy finally planted his face on the table at 3 AM. Jeong Hee-seo, who had been keeping him company until then, simply lifted Ji-an and laid him on the bed in the main room before quietly leaving. His last memory was taking a shower and going to sleep in the sub-room’s bed.

“…”

Ji-an, who was embracing him, smelled of the same body cleanser as him. He was wearing a gown, so he must have showered and changed at some point.

In other words, Ji-an, still half-asleep, had showered, changed, and crawled into someone else’s bed on his own. An Omega into an Alpha’s bed.

While completely drunk.

‘What kind of drinking habit is this…’

Bewildered, Jeong Hee-seo was about to get up when he discovered Ji-an with his eyes half open.

One side of his hair was stuck to his face from rubbing his not-quite-dry hair against the sheets. Seeing him blinking his swollen eyes and rubbing them made Jeong Hee-seo inexplicably think of an otter. Jeong Hee-seo had to bite his lip to suppress a laugh.

“…Did you sleep well?”

“Yes, and you?”

“Umm… I slept well too…”

Even after fully waking up and understanding the situation, Ji-an still lingered. The arm he had casually draped over Jeong Hee-seo’s waist showed no sign of moving.

Though he hadn’t expected him to jump up and flee in a fuss, his actions were so leisurely that Jeong Hee-seo felt slightly irritated.

“Ji-an-ah.”

Ji-an’s eyes widened at the gentle voice calling his name. His ears turned red as if he had finally come to his senses.

“Were you scared to sleep alone? If you came to hyung’s bed at night, you should have woken me up.”

Changing his form of address on his own, Jeong Hee-seo swiftly rose and climbed on top of Ji-an. As he caged him head between his arms, Ji-an felt dizzy from the sinking sensation.

“It wasn’t because I was scared…”

When Jeong Hee-seo brushed aside the hair stuck to his forehead with his fingertips, Ji-an couldn’t continue speaking. His eyes moved from Ji-an’s forehead to his cheeks, nose, and finally his lips.

After brushing back all of Ji-an’s hair to reveal his round forehead, Jeong Hee-seo cupped his chin. Holding his fair face, pale like a well-peeled egg, in one hand and looking down, his impulse grew stronger.

“Yeah right, you were groaning and clinging to me all night.”

Ji-an shook his head, putting strength into his eyes as he was teased. Watching his white cheeks squish in his hand, Jeong Hee-seo suddenly felt a strange sense of misalignment.

Whether it was ‘Seo Ji-an’ who had looked at him with a heartbreaking expression that morning, or this Seo Ji-an who claimed to have experienced dozens of deaths with him. They all seemed to carry other—’Jeong Hee-seo’—in their hearts, instead of him.

Ji-an looked at him with all sorts of emotions like an old soul, yet the line he drew was so clear. He had repeatedly said that what he had with him was a ‘Jeong Hee-seo’ from another world, not the Jeong Hee-seo in front of him now.

‘…I don’t have any intention of doing anything with you either, mister.’

Jeong Hee-seo wanted to resolve the intensely rising question. He felt subtly offended. He could no longer swallow the question that surged up his throat.

“Seo Ji-an, how much did you like your ‘Jeong Hee-seo’?”

It was a question he could have known without asking. He had mentioned a baby lost dozens of times. He couldn’t even imagine the magnitude of that hellish pain.

He knew it was an inappropriate question, that it was far too personal, but he stubbornly asked it anyway. It was a very uncharacteristic thing for him to do. Right after asking, the back of his neck grew hot with shame, but he had no intention of taking it back.

Ji-an, who had been squirming just to escape from beneath him, was greatly taken aback by Jeong Hee-seo’s question. He stopped moving and his eyes widened.

“Why are you suddenly… curious about that?”

“As you reminisce about that ‘Jeong Hee-seo’ while looking at me, how can I not be curious?”

“I’m not reminiscing.”

He was just amazed at how different it was from his unhappy past. He had been dazzled by the current Jeong Hee-seo’s brilliantly beautiful existence, but to think he would consider it reminiscing.

Ji-an denied it plainly enough to sound dry, but Jeong Hee-seo didn’t seem to believe him.

“I’m really not. I switched with ‘Seo Ji-an’ as soon as I regressed for the last time. The ‘Jeong Hee-seo’ of that world is his person. I don’t dirtily reminisce on someone else’s Alpha or anything like that.”

“Alright, let’s say that’s true. Then what about the ‘Jeong Hee-seo’ before that?”

“That ‘Jeong Hee-seo’ died with me before the regression, I told you?”

“…Haa.”

Seeing how Ji-an divided not only himself but also him into dozens of existences, his head was spinning. Jeong Hee-seo felt like he had stirred up something he shouldn’t have. As he stared blankly, feeling like he hadn’t even gotten his money’s worth, Ji-an suddenly blushed and hunched his shoulders.

“Now, you’re the only ‘Jeong Hee-seo’ for me.”

“…”

“It’s true. And it has to be only you. That’s the meaning of the gift that guy gave me.”

The end of the terrible regression and Jeong Hee-seo becoming the only one. Ji-an suddenly thought that the gift from that guy was the Jeong Hee-seo in front of him, and he couldn’t help but smile.

He had thought that the world being changed was the gift all along…

“You’re smiling? You’re telling me dozens of me died and you find it funny?”

Jeong Hee-seo still had an unhappy look on his face. But Ji-an couldn’t stop the growing smile. It was because he finally realized that he was facing Jeong Hee-seo as a real person, not a ‘role’.

“It’s just you, you’re the gift.”

Jeong Hee-seo had relentlessly interrogated him like a pathetic Alpha, but unexpectedly, the answer he got back was wonderful. Finding it quite pleasing, his stiff lips gradually relaxed.

“Anyway, you have a very complicated past.”

Jeong Hee-seo asked once more, even while smiling.

“Ah, they’re all dead, I told you. I’m the new Seo Ji-an. The 8-year single virgin Seo Ji-an. The Seo Ji-an who met the one and only Jeong Hee-seo again.”

Ji-an felt as if the alcohol, which should have been fully digested, was still flowing through his veins. He felt lightheaded, causing him to giggle. Then suddenly, his eyes widened as Jeong Hee-seo swallowed his lips whole as if crashing into him.

“Mmph!”

His tongue slowly invaded the lips that were open in laughter. His large hands completely enveloped Ji-an’s face. His ears felt hot where his long fingers touched, and the sound of his heart, which had suddenly started racing, was deafening.

The large Alpha’s body pressed down on Ji-an. The unexpected heat made his entire mouth feel like it was burning. After greedily licking the inside of his mouth, Jeong Hee-seo wrapped around Ji-an’s tongue and sucked it with enough force to swallow it.

“Mmm…”

Surprised, Ji-an helplessly accepted him, then cautiously wrapped his arms around his shoulders. Jeong Hee-seo would get angry if he heard him, but it was a familiar kiss. Familiar, yet completely new. If Ji-an said he liked it more because of that, Jeong Hee-seo would be furiously angry.

After a breath-long kiss, their foreheads touched. Ji-an opened his eyes wide and looked at him. Looking into his glassy black eyes made his whole body tingle.

Ji-an raised his knee and firmly pressed his thigh between Jeong Hee-seo’s legs.

“You’re hard, mister.”

Jeong Hee-seo let out a puff of air and burst into laughter.

“It’s morning.”

“But you’ve been up for so long.”

Ji-an stuck out his tongue and licked his lips.

“Can I touch you?”

At the subtle question, Jeong Hee-seo’s black eyes shone brightly as he asked back.

“Are you sure? Once you start with me, there’s no turning back. Weren’t you trying to escape to a place where your hellish past wouldn’t even cross your mind?”

“…You knew?”

Ji-an looked at him again with a surprised expression. Jeong Hee-seo then caressed his cheek while supporting himself with one arm.

He didn’t answer and waited for Ji-an’s words. Ji-an took courage as he caught his slightly scattered breath and faced him.

“One last time, I want to get to know Jeong Hee-seo again.”

Jeong Hee-seo seemed very satisfied with Ji-an’s answer. He pulled Ji-an completely into his arms and hugged him tightly. Then, he whispered in his ear.

“Alright, let’s date.”

“…”

“Let’s date, Seo Ji-an.”

<Side Story 2 END>