This Wasn’t Revenge—Just Curiosity

“Ah…”

While packing his things, Seonwoo discovered a box he’d tucked deep inside a drawer and let out a low sigh.
The small box was unmistakably a ring case.
Opening the lid, he saw a pair of couple’s rings, still sparkling.
It was a ring he’d bought impulsively while chasing after Baek Jeongha.
For the great Ahn Seonwoo, buying a couple’s ring with his own hands was a first and last.
Ultimately, that ring never ended up on Baek Jeongha’s finger.
This ring was also a symbol of an unrequited love that had stripped him of all pride.
It was proof of his own arrogance, believing he could win Baek Jeongha over, and the embodiment of his crushed self-esteem.

So he wanted to throw it away.
He wanted to hurl it to the ground and grind it under his heel.
But strangely, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
If he threw this ring away, it felt like all traces of Baek Jeongha in his life would disappear completely.
Baek Jeongha was undoubtedly a piece of shit, yet strangely, he refused to fade from memory.
Honestly, Seonwoo still thought of Baek Jeongha often.

After staring at the ring for a while, Seonwoo soon closed the box with a thud.
And he thought of another ring.
The wedding ring Oh Jaeyeol had given him along with the proposal.
Several times more expensive, beautiful, and special than this mere couple’s ring.
Right. This was enough.
Seonwoo had finally met an Alpha who would love him for life.

“…”
Naturally, Haeyoon’s face also surfaced in his mind.
The one who, despite being the one betrayed, couldn’t even get properly angry, couldn’t retort, and always stared at him with the same stupid face.
It was the same back then too.
That friend, not knowing how dirty and filthy his most trusted friend and his lover, whom he believed he’d spend his life with, were rolling around behind his back, always looked at Seonwoo with the same composed and placid expression.
That friend had no idea how much Ahn Seonwoo hated that face.
Knowing nothing.

It wasn’t that Seonwoo felt no guilt at all.
Since there had been happy days spent with Seo Haeyoon, there were times when Seonwoo felt a very faint sense of guilt too.
But what meaning did that hold?
At this point, feeling such a trivial sense of guilt would be more like deceit.
Anyway, Oh Jaeyeol and Seo Haeyoon were never going to work out.
At first, he just touched Jaeyeol because he wanted to hurt Haeyoon a little, but after getting to know him, he became certain.
Even if he had pretended for a long time while with Haeyoon, Oh Jaeyeol was ultimately someone who needed an Omega.
He was a man with a desire for a child who shared his genes, and even if he had married Haeyoon, he would have eventually broken up with him because of that unending desire.
He was that kind of Alpha.

If it was never going to work out anyway, then giving up to a close friend isn’t such a bad thing, is it?
In fact, Seonwoo believed that in some ways, because he had stepped in, Haeyoon was able to end the relationship with less pain.
If Jaeyeol had met another Omega after getting married, imagine how much more painful that would have been.

“Right… You couldn’t be that happy all alone while your friend was in pain.”
Seonwoo snorted and carefully placed the couple’s ring deep inside the packing box.
He knew it was a lingering attachment he’d have to discard someday, but he wasn’t ready yet.
After the wedding, when everything was stable, it wouldn’t be too late to throw it away then.
Seonwoo decided to keep Baek Jeongha in his memory just a little longer until then.

* * * *

An awkward air flowed between them.
Fiddling with the coffee cup in front of him, Haeyoon kept glancing at Jeongha.
They had exchanged greetings, but he was at a loss for what to say or where to start.
Seeing Baek Jeongha again after so long, he seemed both unchanged and yet somehow very different.
His features were as Haeyoon remembered, but the person seemed… deeper somehow.
Honestly, he felt even more inscrutable than before, making it difficult.

Thinking he shouldn’t let the silence drag on any longer, Haeyoon was about to say something when, abruptly, Jeongha spoke.

“I didn’t know you were interested in me.”
“Ah…”
Instantly deflated, Haeyoon unconsciously let out a small sigh.
All his intense pondering over whether to pretend to know or not seemed futile in the face of such directness.

“Uh, that’s…”
“Or did the interest suddenly appear now?”
Whether Haeyoon was flustered or not, Jeongha’s tone remained steady, unwavering.
It was a voice that felt almost cold.
Yet, it didn’t sound like he was interrogating or mocking Haeyoon.
Haeyoon wasn’t the type to judge people by their tone of voice anyway.
Jeongha’s coolness, in fact, helped calm the flustered Haeyoon.
Letting out a deep breath, Hoo, Haeyoon opened his mouth.

“I wasn’t interested, but the interest suddenly appeared.”
Haeyoon decided to answer honestly, without weighing his words.
That suited his nature.

“Why suddenly? Because Ahn Seonwoo is marrying your ex?”
But the follow-up question was so sharp it bordered on painful, and Haeyoon bit his lip slightly.
Honestly, though he had come here acting grand and tragic, he didn’t have any grand plans for revenge.
Oh Jaeyeol and Ahn Seonwoo loved each other and were getting married; in that context, what great revenge would it be for him to meet Baek Jeongha?
Haeyoon just… wanted to make a move, just once.
It felt a little unfair that he had been unable to respond while those he had trusted and loved repeatedly trampled on him, and he wanted to do something, even if belatedly.
He didn’t want to be left behind, to be the one abandoned.
Just as they had moved on without him, he wanted to show that he could move on without them too.
He wanted to declare that he wouldn’t just sit still like the wounded, tragic protagonist.

But now, faced with this question from Baek Jeongha, he wondered again what the point of it all was.
It wasn’t a matter of forgiving them or not.
He just questioned what value there was in proving himself to people who were already nothing in his life.
It wasn’t like Haeyoon was truly alone either.
He still had friends by his side who sincerely cared for and loved him.
Haeyoon just needed to live his life earnestly again.

“…That’s right. That’s why I became interested, but…”
“Became interested, but…?”
“…But I realize now. It seems it was a pointless interest. Um, sorry for calling you out and wasting your time like this.”
Haeyoon slightly bowed his head in genuine apology.
He should have sorted out these thoughts before calling someone.
He felt genuinely sorry for bothering someone who had nothing to do with this because of his pointless provocation.
Of course, being here was also Baek Jeongha’s choice, but if Haeyoon hadn’t needled someone who was living perfectly fine, this wouldn’t have happened.

But then, Baek Jeongha seemed a little surprised instead.
When he had openly brought up Ahn Seonwoo’s name, Jeongha had expected Haeyoon might storm out right then.
He had asked out of genuine curiosity, but depending on how one heard it, it could be taken as mockery.
Even if Haeyoon misunderstood, it wasn’t something Jeongha would have cared about.
Yet, instead of storming out or getting angry, Haeyoon sat there with a blank face and said…

“Since I’d feel too sorry to part ways like this… could you at least let me buy you a meal?”
His dark eyes blinked slowly as he looked at Jeongha.
For someone who had come here to get back at those who betrayed him, his attitude was excessively composed.
Suddenly, Jeongha remembered that it had been the same back then.
He had definitely thought it was a bit amusing how he faced the world with such an unruffled expression, even in the biting wind.

Jeongha slightly raised his eyebrows, putting on a harmless expression, and said.
“I wasn’t picking a fight. My tone is just naturally like that.”
“I didn’t take it that way. It’s just… I felt there was no need for this, so please don’t worry about it.”
“Is that so?”
Jeongha crossed his legs and leaned back comfortably.
He wore a thoughtful expression, as if considering what to do.
Coming here, Jeongha had wondered if Seo Haeyoon would still be an interesting person.
He wanted to know if cracks had appeared in that composed face that seemed unbreakable by anything in the world, if Ahn Seonwoo and his new lover had truly broken him.
If Seo Haeyoon had tried to seduce him with clumsy, mismatched actions or acted pitifully with a tragic face, it would have been rather dull.
But he still sat upright, his face unblemished, solid and unyielding.
That’s why he became even more interested.

“Then, instead of a meal, how about buying me a drink? I feel like drinking.”
So Baek Jeongha decided to get to know Seo Haeyoon better.
It seemed like it would be interesting.

* * * *

“You’re not good at drinking?”
Jeongha asked.
Haeyoon, who had been sipping intermittently from a large glass of draft beer in front of him, opened his eyes a little wider and answered.

“I can handle a drink or two.”
“So you’re not good at it.”
Haeyoon didn’t refute Jeongha’s summary statement.
It was true he wasn’t good at drinking.
Just looking at his face, one might think he’d down whiskey without blinking, so it was unexpected.
Come to think of it, even though they hadn’t met often, Jeongha realized there had always been something unexpectedly different about Seo Haeyoon whenever they crossed paths. He continued speaking.

“Speak comfortably. I’m your junior.”
The dark eyes stared at Jeongha for a moment.

“It’s fine. I’m more comfortable this way.”
“Why? Because we won’t be seeing each other again?”