ATGRA 66

They say people are scarier than ghosts. I’m the type who strongly believes in that saying. You can at least perform an exorcism on a ghost, but it was hard to even get rid of a person.

Goosebumps prickled on my forearms. For his attitude to change like the flip of a hand just because things didn’t go his way—it truly is a scary world.

All sorts of thoughts flashed through my mind, like a panorama of one’s life before death.

Right now, we were on a congested road, and Park Seongjin was the one holding the steering wheel. I quickly scanned for an escape route. There was too much of a size difference to fight him head-on.

Therefore, I had to smooth over the situation as best as I could. I looked at Park Seongjin with an awkward smile. I have to endure it. That bastard is a son of a bitch, but he’s my mom’s friend’s son. Let’s think of Mom…

“…I’m not sure what you mean all of a sudden. I’m a little flustered.”

“You’re acting like a real prude. Are you sure you’re an omega?”

Can’t you tell by looking?

I was about to pounce on Park Seongjin as my temper dictated, but I held back, knowing I couldn’t do something so dangerous on a city road. After drawing the character for “patience” about seven times in my head, my anger subsided a bit.

I had been too complacent. Right, how rare is a decent alpha in this world? To let my guard down like this just because my mom’s friend’s son, whom I met by chance, acted a little nice.

My mom might have chosen her friends well, but how could I know whether that friend did an excellent job raising her child or not?

Besides, Park Seongjin was, at least on the surface, an excellent member of society. Before he revealed his true nature like this, he just seemed like a well-paid, good-natured director of a dermatology clinic.

“I sent you so many signals. The fact that you didn’t avoid them, doesn’t that mean you have feelings for me?”

…When did he send any signals?

Park Seongjin burst into a loud laugh seeing my bewildered face. It was a hearty laugh, but I was just dumbfounded. No matter how much I thought back, I couldn’t guess what these signals Park Seongjin claimed to have sent were.

Is being treated like a decent human being called a signal these days? Of course, it was true that he listened to me well and sat through the entire movie that he seemed to have little interest in, despite saying he liked melodramas. But that much was just common courtesy toward another person.

If Park Seongjin had said he liked horror movies, I would have chosen a horror movie regardless of my own preferences. And I would have stayed until the end without leaving in the middle. I even paid for the coffee and the meal, just in case I got blamed for something later, so I had no idea what he was on about right now.

“I didn’t know you’d play so hard to get just because you’re a little pretty. I heard you were a recessive, not a dominant, so I thought it would be easy.”

“What did you say?”

“Showing up to a blind date when you have no intention of getting married—isn’t it an obvious story? You even turned it down once and then came back. Weren’t you trying to have a little fun, too?”

“No, I wasn’t?”

Park Seongjin was clearly older than me, but it was difficult to keep up with the way people think these days. This crazy… so open-minded.

I was truly confused. It was the first time I learned that showing up to a blind date and saying you have no thoughts of marriage could be interpreted in such a way.

“You say no, but why are your pheromones leaking out like that? Well, whatever.”

“There, there seems to have been some kind of misunderstanding, but I have no intention of ‘having fun.’ Please just drop me off somewhere nearby. I’ll get there on my own.”

The past version of me who thought he could be good friends with Park Seongjin seemed like a madman. How have I not changed at all since college?

Things like this happened occasionally in college, too. There were three or four guys I had thought of as friends who brought up my secondary gender and asked, “Isn’t this what you wanted, too?”

Baek Wonhee was one of them. Though in his case, he had approached me thinking I was a beta, and then, upon learning I was an omega, he made a huge fuss all by himself, claiming he had been deceived.

“You really don’t want to have fun?”

“Do I look like I’m having fun right now?”

“Haha, Mr. Yeonghwa doesn’t seem to be scared at all.”

Park Seongjin, who had lost all sense of fear, provoked me. If I had known this would happen, I would have brought my acupuncture kit. I, too, never imagined I’d have cause to stab my blind date with a large needle.

Park Seongjin slowly released his pheromones. As a dominant alpha, he seemed to think he could pin me down with pheromonal hierarchy. Anyway, the patterns of these alpha bastards were always the same.

“You should be feeling like having some fun now.”

I don’t.

He clearly hadn’t listened to a single word of the long story I told him about the herbal medicine that completely suppresses my heat cycle. I knew it, he seemed to be listening too well.

There’s no such thing as free kindness in this world; I was too naive. I vowed that I would definitely tattle on him to my mom about this absurd incident. Mom! Your friend’s son is a son of a bitch!

“Do you want to see me throw up in the car?”

I glared at Park Seongjin with a look of disgust.

This guy has probably been on blind dates before. He must have been meeting only omegas of a certain guaranteed social standing this way.

When an alpha who was treating them well suddenly changes his attitude, a typical omega is helplessly trapped. Leaving aside the pheromonal hierarchy, their physical builds are different to begin with.

On top of that, on the road, inside a car, getting hit with pheromones like this at point-blank range, it’s easy to lose your mind in an instant. However, I am not a typical omega. I am an omega addicted to herbal medicine. I can endure most things.

Still, I couldn’t help the churning in my stomach. As I dry-heaved, Park Seongjin looked at me as if he was dumbfounded.

“You’re not collapsing from this? The more I see you, the more I like you.”

“I’m, I’m really going to throw up. Reel in your pheromones, quickly.”

“Go ahead. If you do, well, we can just have a go in the car and then get it detailed.”

…What is this lunatic saying?

It was a shock that the threat of vomiting wasn’t working. It looked like an imported car, no matter how you looked at it. Just how stinking rich must he be for the threat of throwing up in his car not to work?

Watching the bastard enter the address of a nearby hotel into the navigation system made me really miss my acupuncture kit. If only I had a large needle, I could have shown him the true face of an offensive-type acupuncturist.

“Non-consensual sex is a crime.”

“That’s something only betas say.”

“It’s the same for alphas and omegas, you know?”

“Once we get into the hotel, you’ll want it too, anyway?”

As I quickly raised my phone to call 112, Park Seongjin laughed out loud.

“You’re so naive. We just had a blind date, I’m an alpha, and you’re an omega. In a situation like this, do you think the police would even respond?”

It was infuriating, but he was right.

Even if the police did bother to respond, if Park Seongjin insisted that “it was consensual,” there was a high probability they would just leave. As Park Seongjin said, it was a “plausible” situation.

I hesitated, then dialed a different number instead of 112.

“I told you, it’s no use reporting it.”

“I’m not reporting anything.”

I’m sending a rescue request.

I leaned my forehead against the car window and slowly took deep breaths. I wasn’t even in my year of nines yet, but seeing how rough my life was, there must have been a curse in my fortune.

Nam Jungyoon and Moon Yeonghwa were a sunbae and hoobae from college who met while doing a group project. When Nam Jungyoon first saw Moon Yeonghwa, Nam Jungyoon was a sophomore.

Nam Jungyoon’s first impression of Moon Yeonghwa was “group project runaway locomotive.” No matter what group project it was, he would inevitably become the group leader.

Moreover, he didn’t care in the slightest if someone went AWOL. If others won’t do it, I’ll do it myself. I’ll work hard on the other guy’s part too and use it for my own development. Nam Jungyoon thought Moon Yeonghwa was a madman. A madman obsessed with grades…

In any case, the group project that had started with four people at the beginning of the semester ended with only Moon Yeonghwa and Nam Jungyoon surviving by the end of it. One person was absent because of his grandfather’s memorial rite, and the other was absent, claiming he got sick after eating raw oysters.

The ridiculous thing was that those weren’t excuses; they were all true. Nam Jungyoon was so dumbfounded he was speechless. What kind of group project luck is this?

However, Moon Yeonghwa seemed unfazed by the departure of his group members. It’s a memorial rite, what can you do? He’s sick, what can you do!

Moon Yeonghwa looked at Nam Jungyoon and said this.

‘Still, this semester, one other person survived besides me. I thought I’d be doing it alone again this time.’

In that moment, Nam Jungyoon realized it. Moon Yeonghwa’s luck with people was the absolute worst.

In fact, it was hard not to know. After spending a semester with him, it was clear that Moon Yeonghwa just had a lot of adversity in his life. It wasn’t even great adversity. It was minor adversity, like a report he submitted early suddenly disappearing, or a professor who said they’d count his attendance changing their mind.

But this kind of adversity is usually the most annoying. On top of that, people would pick fights with Moon Yeonghwa for just breathing. Nam Jungyoon thought that too was a truly remarkable talent.

It couldn’t be easy to have so many enemies when you’re living so diligently with such a pretty face. Nam Jungyoon clicked his tongue as he watched the numerous classmates and sunbaes who would grind their teeth just at the sight of Moon Yeonghwa.

Still, everyone, whether they admitted it or not, wanted to be friends with Moon Yeonghwa. After all, it was obvious to anyone that Moon Yeonghwa had a special side to him.

However, Moon Yeonghwa coolly ignored everyone who tried to act friendly toward him. It was an incredible display of nerve.

“I knew this would happen…”

Is this an enemy, or the Director of a clinic…

[I think my blind date is crazy]

[Save me Jungyoon]

[Hurry up and get over here]

[This is a secret from Jung Pureum no matter what]

Moon Yeonghwa’s luck continued to be bad even after graduating from college. Nam Jungyoon was confident he would believe it if someone said Moon Yeonghwa had used up all his lifetime luck to charm Jung Pureum.

What were the odds that the son of your mom’s friend you went on a blind date with would turn out to be a lunatic?

Nam Jungyoon ignored Moon Yeonghwa’s message about keeping it a secret from Jung Pureum and forwarded the hotel address Moon Yeonghwa had left directly to Jung Pureum.

He had already discussed everything with Jung Pureum that morning. He had even promised to let him know once he found out the location of the blind date.

He felt sorry for Moon Yeonghwa, but Nam Jungyoon was on Jung Pureum’s side. It was the same for Kim Miyoung. Moon Yeonghwa needed Jung Pureum. Someone who could support him from the side, someone who could be a pillar of support so that it would be okay even if he collapsed.

[I’ll go]

[Please just report it separately later]

Jung Pureum was quite calm even after seeing Moon Yeonghwa’s message that his blind date was crazy.

Nam Jungyoon let out a deep sigh. This is why he had told him not to go on the blind date… It was a big problem when a person with terrible luck had nothing but commendable courage.