PIA 82

Exactly a week had passed since they started filling the diamond-like new house with new furniture and household items and moving in their belongings.

In  Jeong Hee-seo’s case, there were quite a lot of things to move – especially books. But Ji-an, having not been in this world for long, had nothing to bring except clothes. Thanks to this, the move was completed quite quickly, but it was the small things that caused trouble.

So, those clothes were the problem.

Left alone in the quiet house after Jeong Hee-seo left for work, Ji-an had a determined expression. He glared at the boxes of his clothes piled high in the space that had become his room. Yoon Ok-hee didn’t know moderation. When he asked her to send some clothes, she had completely emptied ‘Seo Ji-an’s’ dressing room and sent everything.

“Geez, I told her to send only the newly bought clothes.”

Grumbling, Ji-an started to overturn the boxes but soon changed his mind. The clothes in ‘Seo Ji-an’s’ closet were almost all new. Many were still in their original packaging plastic, and countless items even had their price tags intact.

Whether ‘Seo Ji-an’ had been a shopping addict or a luxury goods collector, his acorn storehouse was as good as gold-plated. If his taste hadn’t been so excessively flashy and glittery, it would have been more enjoyable to look at.

Tsk. Ji-an instinctively recalled when this luggage first arrived.

When the servants tried to unpack and organize the boxes of clothes sent from home, Ji-an stopped them in horror. Even from a distance, the bright colors were items that shouldn’t enter this house. As he was personally rummaging through the boxes to pick out only the clothes he had bought, he heard  Jeong Hee-seo’s soft laughter.

‘These shoes look like you’d need to board a spaceship right away. The shoe itself looks like a UFO too.’

‘Those aren’t my shoes… well, they are, but I wore them when I was young. I don’t wear them anymore. My mom sent them by mistake.’

‘Was this scorpion print underwear also your taste when you were young?’

‘That’s-!’

Unlike Ji-an, whose face was red as if to set it on fire,  Jeong Hee-seo seemed quite amused. He rummaged through Ji-an’s belongings as if on a treasure hunt.

‘Stop looking.’

‘Why? It’s cute.’

‘Don’t find it cute. It’s not cute at all.’

He wasn’t the type to criticize unique tastes, and it wasn’t a big deal to ignore his misunderstanding that these tastes were Ji-an’s. Plus, Jeong Hee-seo seemed to be in a good mood.

So it was simply Ji-an’s problem. The fact that he was irritated by  Jeong Hee-seo finding the unique ‘Seo Ji-an’s’ taste cute was because of his own prickly personality.

“…”

Thanks to this, Ji-an’s boxes of clothes had remained tightly closed in this room for over five days.

“While hyung is out, I should take them all out… It’s a shame to throw them away, maybe I’ll sell them and donate the money.”

It felt wrong to sell them since they weren’t really his, but it also felt uncomfortable to keep them. If he were to believe the voice’s words, the ‘Seo Ji-an’ of this world was dead… so these were essentially a deceased person’s belongings.

Ji-an shook off a chill that ran down his spine and looked around his room with a troubled gaze. His space, which included a dress room and bathroom, felt spacious to the point of emptiness.

‘What kind of desk would you like to put in?’

It was because he couldn’t answer even simple questions like this. The current Ji-an had no picture of what he wanted for his life. In the end, he barely managed to choose the fabric colors to decorate the room and gave up the rights  Jeong Hee-seo had given him. He even ended up passing on to  Jeong Hee-seo the task of decorating the baby’s room, which  Jeong Hee-seo had carefully suggested.

The only time an opinion escaped his tightly closed lips was in front of  Jeong Hee-seo’s study space.

‘I’d like warm colors, with a large desk top. Since you like reading books, a good chair too. And a long chair by the window.’

Hyung had liked that…

Like an ordinary couple, like a typical pregnant omega, Ji-an would show him the baby room decorations with excitement, and Jeong Hee-seo would surely smile at him. But that act itself would become a deception towards Jeong Hee-seo. Ji-an, who would soon leave, could never give him what he wanted.

Ji-an rubbed his darkening face and carefully pushed the box of flashy clothes deep into the dress room. He neatly arranged only the clothes he had bought at the entrance and gathered the accumulated laundry to take it to the laundry room.

After over an hour of moving busily, Ji-an was drenched in sweat. He took off everything but his t-shirt and threw it all into the washing machine. Having discarded all the flashy underwear, he had nothing to wear for the moment, but he didn’t mind.

To liven up the mood, Ji-an sang his favorite idol songs. He thought it was a good decision to have all the household staff work on a commute basis. While the house felt a bit scary due to its size, it was nice to sing alone.

The laundry and drying would be done right at lunchtime. After starting the washer with busy hands while dancing, Ji-an patted his bare bottom under the loose t-shirt.

‘I must go out to buy underwear today.’

‘Seo Ji-an’s’ flashy taste in clothes shone through even in his underwear, which is why he had few pairs suitable for everyday wear.

Rainbow colors, neon, leopard print, lips, tongues, snakes, scorpions, strange thong designs, and pearl embellishments—after getting rid of all these, Ji-an was left with just two pairs.

Previously, he didn’t care much about the color of his underwear since it was worn underneath, but now he couldn’t help but be conscious of Jeong Hee-seo’s eyes, with whom he lived. Hiding all those away made him feel relieved, but due to the staff’s work schedule not being settled yet, the laundry schedule got messed up. That’s why he was bare down there now.

“I’ll ask hyung-nim to go shopping with me.”

Ji-an muttered as he pulled out his cell phone. It had been less than three hours since Jeong Hee-seo left for work. For the past few days, he’d been almost immersed in Jeong Hee-seo’s pheromones. It wasn’t because he lacked pheromones that he thought of him.

“…”

Ji-an tapped his phone screen, then changed his mind.

He should call Wooseok instead.

It felt a bit risky to go out alone. The overreaction to Jeong Han-joo’s pheromones and the pheromone rampage at the beach… Jeong Hee-seo had made a hospital appointment for him, which was just around the corner. So it would be wise to be cautious.

‘I have things to talk about too.’

Ji-an opened the messaging app and searched for Woo-seok.

Just then, aside from the washing machine’s sound, another noise broke the silence of the house. A chill ran down his spine, and Ji-an raised his voice deliberately.

“Who’s there…?”

Only Jeong Hee-seo and himself could freely enter and leave this house. Even the staff who came and went on a commute basis still had to ring the doorbell to enter. It was natural for Ji-an, who was easily startled by supernatural phenomena, to shrink back.

Could it be that they bought a haunted house…?

Lost in such nonsensical thoughts, Ji-an peeked out from the laundry room, only to be caught by Jeong Hee-seo. His arm lightly grabbed Ji-an and pushed him against the wall. His heart, which had jumped out in shock, was now pounding so hard it felt like it had rolled far away.

“H-hyung?”

A question about why he wasn’t at work hovered in his mouth but never came out. Ji-an looked up at the man towering over him and hunched his shoulders. The slow movement of his gaze was imposing, and the twitching below his jawline particularly drew attention.

“I came back because I needed something.”

Jeong Hee-seo’s hand slowly slid up Ji-an’s thigh. The hem of his t-shirt caught on his fingertips, almost but not quite lifting up.

“Who told you to be like this when I’m not home?”

“I’m like this because you’re not home.”

Jeong Hee-seo, usually quick with retorts, just looked down at Ji-an with his mouth tightly shut. The temperature of the hand still on his thigh had an overwhelming presence.

“What did you need…?”

Ji-an, who had been singing and dancing to fast-paced songs just a moment ago, now tensed up completely.

“You could have sent Secretary Yoon, or just called me to bring it over…”

He tried to change the subject, nervously shifting his eyes. As he tried to subtly move his body to the side, Jeong Hee-seo’s thigh was already wedged between his legs.

Ji-an swallowed dryly, feeling her mouth go parched. Though there had been no distance between them since that night at the beach hotel, they hadn’t crossed the line in this house yet.

‘Am I crazy? Why are my thoughts going in that direction?’

Why did he have to be without underwear? Ji-an raised his heels, conscious of his bare lower half slightly touching Jeong Hee-seo’s thigh.

“Ji-an-ah.”

Jeong Hee-seo whispered in a sweet voice. As if the sound itself was coated in warmth, his delicate ears seemed to melt.

“I thought I was finally going crazy… because even your strange underwear turned me on quite a bit.”

His firm hand grasped Ji-an’s soft d1ck. Ji-an’s shoulders jerked suddenly as a tingling sensation rushed through him.

“Ah, H-hyung-nim…”

“I guess I was just turned on by what was inside it.”

Ji-an leaned back as if wanting to run away. But there was a wall behind him. Jeong Hee-seo rested his elbow on the wall and pressed his forehead against Ji-an’s.

He was trapped with no way out. The scent flowing from Jeong Hee-seo’s lips was so alluring that Ji-an unconsciously lifted his chin. As he watched Jeong Hee-seo’s head tilt slightly, Ji-an lowered his eyes.

Their lips met as sweet, moist breath flowed between them.