The Confession He Never Expected

Chae Yoonchan, Joo Taegang, Yoo Yiseo, and Seo Eunsu all fell silent.

Even Baek Dojun, who already knew Chanyeong had once tried to end his life, lowered his head with a twisted expression.

…He just wanted to be happy.

That was all.

And somehow, that simple truth hurt more than anything else.

Chanyeong was smiling brightly while telling the story, yet he still looked unbearably lonely.

At the same time, guilt crashed down on all of them as they realized how uncomfortable he must have felt after they forcibly barged into his peaceful life.

None of them had forgotten it.

Back then, they had all found Seong Chanyeong irritating.

Some of them had even wished he would disappear.

…but I never thought that wish would actually come true.

The Seong Chanyeong standing before them now had left everything behind.

He cleaned up the damage he caused.

Walked away.

Tried to start over quietly.

And yet they were the ones who chased after him relentlessly and forced their way back into his life.

The guilt was suffocating.

Especially because they had unknowingly repeated the exact same thing Seong Chanyeong once did to them.

Until now, the alphas believed they had saved Chanyeong from the heat cycle and whatever strange force tormented him.

But after hearing the full story—

It felt more like their entire world had flipped upside down.

What if Seong Chanyeong was suffering because they refused to leave him alone?

“…We didn’t know,” Seo Eunsu finally whispered quietly.

“It’s alright.”

Chanyeong smiled lightly.

“Well… it’s true you guys were annoying.”

The atmosphere instantly shattered.

They only heard the word annoying.

Not the rest of the sentence.

Joo Taegang coughed awkwardly.

Chae Yoonchan immediately buried his face in his hands.

Seo Eunsu, who constantly stayed by Chanyeong’s side while pretending it was only because the alphas refused to leave, tightly bit his lip.

Watching their reactions, Chanyeong suddenly burst into laughter.

“You really were annoying.”

His smile widened.

“I made you do exhausting farm work, General barked at you constantly, I forced you all to cook and eat together… but you still refused to leave.”

“…I’m sorry.”

Baek Dojun apologized quietly on behalf of everyone else.

Chanyeong immediately shook his head.

“No. You don’t need to apologize.”

His expression softened slightly.

“When I lost consciousness earlier… I realized something.”

“What?”

“…I was really lonely.”

The room went still again.

“I wanted to be alone,” Chanyeong admitted honestly. “At first, I thought I was doing perfectly fine because I was finally living the way I wanted.”

But there was still regret left behind.

“I wanted to be loved.”

That single sentence hit all five alphas directly in the chest.

The story Chanyeong revealed painted a painfully lonely life.

A person starved of affection.

A person who became twisted trying desperately to receive even a little love back.

As they finally understood where Seong Chanyeong’s jealousy and obsession originally came from, their old resentment faded into something entirely different.

Pity.

Regret.

Affection.

And those emotions, which had already quietly grown while living together in the countryside, finally overflowed.

Joo Taegang was the first one to break.

“…Then I can give you that.”

“Huh?”

“If you still want to be loved, choose me.”

Joo Taegang looked directly at him.

“I’ll stay by your side.”

Chanyeong’s face instantly turned red.

“H-Huh? No, that’s not what I meant…”

Instead of disgusted, Joo Taegang only looked amused by his reaction.

“Still,” he said smugly, “please consider it.”

“Me too!”

Chae Yoonchan immediately jumped in.

“I stayed here because I wanted to be around you too! You changed a lot… and now I actually like you.”

“What is this? Confession Day?”

Chanyeong looked genuinely horrified.

Meanwhile, Chae Yoonchan looked so emotional he nearly started crying himself.

“Seriously, consider me too.”

“No, wait, what’s happening right now?!”

The remaining three alphas stared at the sudden confession parade in disbelief.

“Stop this already,” Seo Eunsu snapped immediately. “Why are you turning a serious conversation into this?”

“Seo Eunsu. Yoo Yiseo. Baek Dojun.”

Joo Taegang grinned.

“You three should stop pretending too.”

Silence.

“You think nobody noticed? You all abandoned your own lives just to stay in this countryside with Seong Chanyeong.”

“….”

“I figured it out the moment all of us got weirdly competitive over planting rice.”

Joo Taegang smirked openly now.

“You really think nobody noticed how badly the three of you wanted to say ‘I like you’?”

Yoo Yiseo finally laughed.

“And what if that’s true?”

Joo Taegang whistled loudly.

Meanwhile, Chanyeong looked seconds away from combusting.

“…Did the genre suddenly become a romantic comedy or something?”

His face was completely red now.

Like the ripe tomatoes he always talked about growing because they looked delicious.

The faint remaining pheromones in the room only made things worse.

The sweet peach scent stimulated every alpha’s instincts again.

I want to bite him.

The thought crossed all five minds simultaneously.

Fortunately, none of them were far enough gone to actually lose control.

Still—

They quietly engraved the image of Chanyeong blushing red into their memories.

“…Um.”

Chanyeong buried half his face into the blanket.

“Can we please talk about this later?”

“…And stop casually saying you like me.”

“If you hate it, we can stop.”

The five alphas immediately looked disappointed.

Earlier, Chanyeong had already explained that his pheromones normally didn’t appear outside of heat cycles.

Which meant—

They wouldn’t get to smell them again anytime soon.

“…It’s unfair,” Joo Taegang grumbled. “We can only express ourselves through pheromones.”

“I got it already.”

Chanyeong looked exhausted.

Thankfully, Seo Eunsu quickly redirected the conversation.

“There’s still something more important.”

Everyone’s attention immediately shifted toward the bruises around Chanyeong’s neck.

The black-and-blue fingerprints stood out vividly against his pale skin.

“What exactly caused these bruises?” Seo Eunsu asked softly. “You know why you were suffering so much you couldn’t wake up, don’t you?”

“…Even if I tell you, I don’t think you’ll believe me.”

“I’ll believe anything you say.”

Seo Eunsu’s voice was serious.

“So if you know something, tell us.”

The sincerity in his eyes visibly shook Chanyeong.

Meanwhile, the other alphas were internally dying from jealousy.

That damn Seo Eunsu is such a fox.

Especially Yoo Yiseo and Baek Dojun.

After all, Seo Eunsu was the one who managed to wake Chanyeong from the nightmare.

Why am I so irritated by this?

Yoo Yiseo hated losing control over his own emotions.

And lately, Seong Chanyeong kept disrupting them constantly.

Baek Dojun only glanced at Yoo Yiseo and silently thought:

You still have a long way to go.

After hesitating for a long time, Chanyeong finally spoke.

“…You can’t laugh at me.”

“I won’t.”

“…I think a ghost is bothering me.”

“…What?”

Seeing their stunned faces, Chanyeong immediately looked relieved instead.

“See? I knew it sounded ridiculous.”

He awkwardly scratched his cheek.

“But it really feels like a ghost keeps tormenting me.”

…Even I knew it sounded ridiculous.

I obviously couldn’t tell them the truth.

That I wasn’t the real Seong Chanyeong.

That the nightmares felt connected to the original owner of this body.

So the only excuse I could come up with was “ghosts.”

I was suspicious of Moon Kyung-sik too.

But I still had no proof.

Everything was only speculation for now.

Yet somehow, after hearing my ridiculous explanation, the five alphas only looked at me with even more pity.

“Chanyeong,” Baek Dojun said carefully, “you’ve been through a lot. I think you should visit a hospital once things calm down.”

“Baek Dojun,” Chae Yoonchan immediately snapped, “how can you say that so bluntly?!”

Then he turned toward me instantly.

“Chanyeong, ignore him. If it really is a ghost… then we’ll figure out how to chase it away.”

Even though none of them fully believed the ghost explanation, they still seemed weirdly determined to protect me.

Honestly—

I appreciated it.

But it also made me uncomfortable.

…One day, I want to tell them the truth.

That I’m not the real Seong Chanyeong.

That I somehow transmigrated into this body.

Eventually, everyone left so I could rest.

Except Yoo Yiseo.

He stayed behind staring at me.

“…What?”

I narrowed my eyes.

“Do you have something else to say?”

“No matter how I think about it,” Yoo Yiseo said lazily, “the ghost excuse sounds fake.”

I immediately stiffened.

Seriously.

This guy’s instincts were terrifying.

“And?”

“There’s obviously a reason you can’t tell us the truth yet.”

My chest tightened.

Yoo Yiseo was exactly the type of person I hated dealing with most.

Too observant.

Too sharp.

Too dangerous.

“Besides,” he continued casually, “I’m still convinced Moon Kyung-sik is connected to this somehow.”

Again.

Direct hit.

Even though he claimed he had no evidence, his intuition was horrifyingly accurate.

There was no logical reason Moon Kyung-sik should’ve recognized my inhibitors despite the packaging being changed.

Unless—

He already knew exactly what they were.

Unless he really was connected to the original Seong Chanyeong somehow.

“I don’t think Seong Chanyeong would protect someone who stole his inhibitors,” Yoo Yiseo continued. “So there’s definitely something hidden underneath all this.”

Of course you can’t figure it out.

Nobody rational would ever assume transmigration and ghosts were real.

Seeing Yoo Yiseo continue staring at me suspiciously, I finally sighed.

“I’ll tell you once everything’s settled.”

“Really?”

“If I become close enough to trust Yoo Yiseo with something like that.”

Honestly, I mostly said it to get back at him for constantly teasing me and treating me like some interesting toy.

Hopefully he’d stop paying attention to me after this.

“Was that supposed to be a provocation?”

Instead—

Yoo Yiseo smiled brightly.

Way too brightly.

That absolutely was not the reaction I wanted.