The Sins of Seven Years Old

“I think I get amazed every time I come to your place, Senior.”

“Why……?”

“How should I put it… it’s like I’ve stepped into a world that’s on a completely different level from mine.”

Dae-eon chattered aimlessly as he scanned the interior of the luxurious elevator. There wasn’t even a single common advertisement flyer stuck to the walls. Then again, if something like that were posted here, it would probably look so out of place that the advertising effect would plummet.

Stepping out of the elevator, which had ascended to the high floors in an instant, Dae-eon trotted after Seon Ji-ha. Ji-ha, who had seemed inexplicably happy throughout the trip home, glanced back at Dae-eon following him and opened the door lock with his fingerprint.

Beep-beep-ring.

“Come in, Dae-eon…….”

“Pardon the intrusion!”

Ji-ha stepped aside after opening the door, gesturing for Dae-eon to enter first. Dae-eon dashed inside without hesitation. Ji-ha’s eyes swept over Dae-eon’s retreating back as if licking it. While Ji-ha neatly arranged the shoes Dae-eon had kicked off, Dae-eon headed straight for the sofa. He wanted to check if the “comfort blanket” was still folded neatly there today.

Sure enough, the comfort blanket was folded perfectly on the sofa. Dae-eon gently stroked the edge of the fabric with his index finger. He felt that if he touched it too roughly, it might fray and disintegrate beyond repair.

“But can you actually even use this to cover yourself?”

“If I use it… it’ll probably tear…….”

“Then what exactly is the role of this blanket? Is it for display only?”

Ji-ha nodded. Having gone to the kitchen to pour orange juice into glass cups, he handed one to Dae-eon and spoke.

“If I can’t see it, I get anxious and restless…….”

Ah, so it really is just for looking at. If that’s the case, why not just frame it and hang it on the wall? Dae-eon thought, but he didn’t say it out loud. Looking at the old wired earphones Ji-ha used, it seemed he preferred to keep things in their original roles as much as possible.

“Senior, you’re actually kind of hip.”

“……Pardon?”

“Using things for a long time like this is actually pretty cool. Wow, then how many years have you had your phone?”

“Probably about 10 years…….”

Dae-eon, shocked, blurted out a question.

“If it’s a smartphone from 10 years ago, isn’t that almost the very first model?”

“……It’s not the first.”

Ji-ha carefully took out his phone and handed it to Dae-eon. Not knowing how rare it was for Ji-ha to hand over a personal possession to someone else, Dae-eon grabbed it. When Ji-ha said it wasn’t the “first,” he meant it wasn’t the very first smartphone ever made in America, but Dae-eon had no idea it was a model made very close to that era.

“Don’t tell me you replaced the internal parts?”

“……I was afraid it would break…….”

“Whoa, getting those parts must have cost a fortune. I heard they won’t even accept old phones at repair shops.”

“That’s why I went to America.”

“What? Just because of a phone……?”

The thought crossed his mind that this phone might actually be more expensive than his own relatively new model. Dae-eon continued to fire off questions he was curious about.

“But are you really a Super-Dominant Alpha? The kind that’s even rarer than a Super-Dominant Omega?”

“……That’s only for Super-Dominants. For regular Dominants, there are fewer Omegas…….”

“Wow. That’s truly amazing. Then, did you get a lot of confessions?”

“……Confessions?”

Ji-ha blinked as if he had just heard a foreign language. Realizing what that look meant, Dae-eon let out a hollow laugh.

“I guess even a Dominant Alpha can be bad at dating if they’re just… bad at it. Hmm.”

“Dating… I’ve done it…….”

“Wait, really?! When!”

Dae-eon looked up at Ji-ha with sparkling eyes. A faint smile played on Ji-ha’s lips as he looked back.

“When I was seven…….”

“……Senior, usually what people do at that age is called ‘playing house,’ not dating.”

“No, we really did it…….”

Ji-ha, who had been fidgeting with his fingers, suddenly moved. He hurried into the dressing room next to his bedroom and brought out a small rattan box. lifting the lid, the contents slowly revealed themselves. Dae-eon swallowed hard and peered inside.

“Isn’t this a Mood Ring?”

Dae-eon paused at the familiar yet nostalgic name.

“Pffft, hahah…….”

“…….”

“Hahaha! What is this? Don’t tell me you shared these as couple rings and ‘dated’ when you were seven? Oh, this is killing me.”

Dae-eon burst into laughter he could no longer contain, causing Ji-ha’s shoulders to slump.

“Blue meant peace and stability, right? What was it? Was red anger?”

“……It’s sadness…….”

“Pffft, was it? Seeing this after so long is too funny. Can I try it on?”

At Dae-eon’s request, Ji-ha readily handed him the ring. As soon as he put it on his pinky, the ring’s color slowly shifted to purple.

“Ooh, the color still changes. You must have stored this really well. For me, what was it… back in the day, I’d buy one and lose it within a day.”

“You’ve bought one before?”

“Of course! These were a huge trend when we were kids. I used to buy ten at a time to give to friends and ‘confess’ to them.”

Dae-eon nodded, reminiscing. There were times he fell for a pretty girl he met at the playground and proposed to her with a ring.

“Senior, you really collect everything. Wow, this is so fascinating. How do you still have all this?”

With the ring on his pinky, Dae-eon held up his hand to admire it.

“Do you remember that kid’s name? The one you dated while exchanging these.”

“The name, I don’t well…….”

“You don’t? That’s surprising. I thought you’d never forget a name.”

“Because they didn’t tell me their name…….”

A first dating partner whose name he didn’t even know. The more Dae-eon heard, the more he laughed.

“Was it a friend from kindergarten?”

Ji-ha shook his head. Dae-eon tilted his head.

“At the playground…….”

“The playground?”

“That person proposed to me first…….”

Ji-ha flushed as if embarrassed. But this time, Dae-eon couldn’t burst into laughter. Playground? A strange sense of déjà vu began to creep in.

“A-at the playground? A kid you didn’t know just suddenly?”

“They told me I was pretty, that they fell in love at first sight……. They told me to marry them…….”

“……Which playground was that?”

“It’s gone now, but…… it was Hanbit Playground in XX-dong.”

Hearing that, Dae-eon’s face turned ashen. He thought to himself: Holy shit, wasn’t that kid a girl?