You Shouldn’t Have Noticed

Hanbyeol placed a hand on his forehead as he looked at Taeha, who still wore an expression of not understanding what the problem was.

“He just won’t rest when he really needs to.”

“Isn’t it because it’s not time for him to rest yet?”

“He’s physically unwell.”

“Is Yuseong brother not feeling well?”

At Taeha’s immediate question bringing up Yuseong, Hanbyeol blinked rapidly.

“……Did I say it was about Yuseong brother?”

“No, not exactly… but you’ve been sticking close to Yuseong brother all this time.”
“So when you brought up a worry, I naturally thought it was about him.”

Meanwhile, his other two friends were looking at Taeha with unfocused eyes, as if they hadn’t made that connection at all.
Hanbyeol felt a wave of emotion seeing Taeha’s thoughtful and perceptive nature.
Still, he wished for an answer.

“You’re right. He just doesn’t rest enough.”

Even though the members had divided the schedules however they could, thanks to his hyung’s stubborn personality, the workload was still overwhelming.
They had even called his own younger brother to the dorm, pleading with him to get some rest, but Yuseong was currently using all his energy to help Hanbyeol with his exam preparations.

“So Taeha, I’m asking you how to make him rest.”
“You’re the only diligent person I know to ask around me.”

“Wooooo—!”

“We’re diligent too!”

Frankly, those two friends jeering at him were far from diligent.
Hanbyeol smiled at his friends, who were playfully giving him thumbs-down gestures.

“Only someone who can beat Taeha in diligence should step up.”

“Ah, how can we compete with Ji Taeha.”

“Choi Hanbyeol, you have no conscience. You should compare me to Do Eunhan.”

“I could beat you.”

“Today, your empty boasts shake the heavens once more.”

“Ah, my ears hurt.”

One word led to ten more, making his ears ache.
Hanbyeol deliberately turned his head to focus on Taeha.

Under Hanbyeol’s steady gaze, Taeha made a slightly flustered face before awkwardly opening his mouth.

“Wouldn’t resting sufficiently after finishing what needs to be done be enough?”
“It might be different for everyone, but I feel uneasy if I don’t complete my tasks.”

“Even if you’re not feeling well?”

“Yes. I just feel strangely heavy-hearted.”
“Resting when work isn’t done feels a bit…”

The Yuseong that Hanbyeol saw was the same.

He was a mature hyung, to the point that they hadn’t even had a light quarrel since he was twelve.
However, he was sensitive about schedule disruptions, and if a hitch arose in the plans he had set, his expression would harden as if he were a different person.

Of course, he didn’t get angry at others; he got worked up at himself for not executing the plan properly.

Sometimes, Hanbyeol wondered if someone was threatening his hyung, forcing him to keep up.
Of course, that was an absurd thought.

Was there really no way to make that hyung rest, even if by force?

His two friends, who had been joking from the start, shook their heads side-to-side, saying being overly worried about his hyung’s affairs wasn’t good either.

Since he hadn’t expected much from them in the first place, Hanbyeol just gave a half-hearted wave as they said they were heading to the academy.

“Taeha, do you also think I’m worrying too much?”

“It’s family matters. It’s only natural to be worried.”

Hearing Taeha’s smiling reply eased his mind a little.

“More than that, I’m actually more worried about you going back and forth to that company.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well… Hanbyeol, you… you’re not thinking of becoming a celebrity, are you?”

“What? No. Not at all.”

An idol? As if.
He couldn’t even sing a simple children’s song properly, let alone his acting skills.

His actions to protect his hyung’s secret were only covered because Yuseong was by his side; if he had to deceive people all by himself, he would have given up from the start.

Hanbyeol tilted his head, seemingly unable to grasp the connection between visiting the company and becoming a celebrity, but Taeha held back his words.

“If that’s not the case, I still think you need to be careful.”
“Those brothers… they know you’re an Omega, right?”

“Huh? Yeah.”

“Then, from a fan’s perspective, wouldn’t they see it not as a member’s sibling coming and going, but as an Omega coming and going?”

At Taeha’s words, Hanbyeol’s eyes widened in surprise.
Come to think of it, he hadn’t considered that angle.

Indeed, there was a need to be careful as Taeha said.

Of course, perhaps due to fan reactions when the members talked about siblings on their personal broadcasts, it was already widely known that Yuseong had a close relationship with his younger brother.

After pondering, Hanbyeol spoke.

“The hyungs have to prepare for their comeback soon anyway, so I should reduce the frequency.”

“……Hanbyeol-ah. You’re not saying you won’t go at all, are you?”

“Well, there are circumstances…”

“If it’s for your hyung’s health, wouldn’t it be better to leave it to the agency?”

He wished that were possible, but sadly, he couldn’t rely on the agency, even setting aside the dynamic issue.

That’s because Cha.N’s agency was a company big in size only, its substance little more than an illusion.

Now in their fifth year.
While they had built considerable seniority in the entertainment industry, even to the members of Cha.N—still young and inexperienced socially in their early-to-mid twenties—their current agency was clearly lacking.
It wasn’t for nothing that they were trying to establish their own label.

“If my hyung’s condition improves, of course I’ll stop going.”
“Honestly, I want to stop too, but right now, I’m the only family member who can keep an eye on his situation.”

At Hanbyeol’s words, Taeha finally nodded.

It was a matter between family, not something to comment on further.
Taeha was well aware that Hanbyeol’s closest friends, whom he confided in openly, were Eunhan, Jaehwi, and himself.

Since the year he entered fifth grade, as if a sudden onset of eighth-grade syndrome had struck, his hyung had been the one shielding and caring for him.
Hanbyeol couldn’t just stand by and do nothing.

Taeha had also often heard about such stories concerning Hanbyeol’s older brother, so he couldn’t bring himself to stop Hanbyeol from worrying about Yuseong.

“And it’s not solely about my hyung’s health.”
“Getting tutoring from a top scorer without paying a fee isn’t easy, you know?”

“Well, that’s…”

“It’s the same with the composition lessons.”
“Right now, I go to the academy not once, but twice a week, so the fees are quite hefty.”
“The problem is, when this shifts to entrance exam prep, the fees will increase even more. Probably double.”

Hanbyeol’s dream was to be a composer active in the field.
Therefore, the stories he heard from Danyeong and Yechan, who not only worked on their own albums but also handed songs to other singers, would become invaluable experience for him.

Of course, if strange misunderstandings arose, it would naturally be problematic.
But for the sake of the situation before him and his future, he couldn’t flatly refuse to go.

“Whether I succeed or fail in the entrance exams, I want to grasp everything I can until that point.”

It was a common worry.
The very ordinary struggle of a high school senior majoring in arts and physical education, who had to think about practical skills as well as studies, with the CSAT just around the corner.

In the midst of that, his hyung’s affairs had gotten tangled up, making things strangely complicated, but what Hanbyeol needed to do was clear.

“Until the practical exams are over.”
“If I fail, I’ll just knock on doors in the field, and if I get into college, I’ll study a bit more.”

As a high school senior, he couldn’t grasp what to do or how if he didn’t go to college right away.
He knew college wasn’t everything, but he wanted to try hard enough not to regret it immediately.

As Hanbyeol scratched his head and spoke, Taeha smiled.

“Yeah. You’ll do well.”

When the words of encouragement he often gave Taeha were returned to him, Hanbyeol felt a bit embarrassed.

“Still, Hanbyeol-ah, you really need to be careful.”

“Well, yeah. Because I’m an Omega.”
“But even so, if my hyung weren’t there, I wouldn’t be seeing those other hyungs separately.”

“That’s part of it, but…”

Taeha hesitated, moving his lips as he glanced around.
What? Why? There was no one nearby eavesdropping on Taeha and Hanbyeol’s conversation.

“It’s about the pheromones.”

“Huh…?”

Pheromones, why? What?
Hanbyeol, who had faltered unnecessarily because of his hyung’s matter, stared intently into Taeha’s eyes.

“……I’m sorry, Hanbyeol-ah.”
“Since it’s your personal matter, I thought I shouldn’t bring it up until now.”
“But I think I need to talk about it now.”

“…….”

Huh? What is it?
Hanbyeol’s eyes widened considerably.

“No, what do you mean…”

“That… Showering a minor with your pheromones is problematic, Hanbyeol-ah.”
“No matter how much you’re both Omegas… No, first of all, legally, those with the same dynamic can’t, you know, get married…”

“Wait, what kind of nonsense are you talking about!”

Hanbyeol let out a startled cry.

His head was throbbing.

He had learned Taeha was an Alpha from the dynamic test in elementary school.

Since they became close friends afterwards, he didn’t pay it much mind, and Taeha also didn’t seem bothered after learning Hanbyeol’s dynamic, so they both let it pass naturally.

Until now, Hanbyeol had never smelled Taeha’s pheromones.

Knowing full well that exposure to an Omega’s heat cycle or an Alpha’s rut cycle could put the other dynamic in a quite troublesome situation, suppressants were essential.

Alphas and Omegas were extremely few in number; even searching the entire student body of their school, those with dynamics could be counted on one hand.

Therefore, Taeha had always made sure to take suppressants so that not even a hint of his pheromones would reach Hanbyeol.
This was partly to avoid any potential issues, but it was also likely out of consideration for his friend.

“Taeha-ya, you, by any chance…”

“Yeah?”

“Are you a bit sensitive to pheromones?”

“That, well. Yes. A little…”

Hanbyeol always did his utmost to erase and disperse Yuseong’s pheromones the moment they touched him.

No matter that it was to deceive the members, having someone else’s pheromones cling to him inevitably caused a slight sense of rejection.
Especially if they were the same dynamic.

Of course, since it was a family member’s pheromones, he didn’t feel thoughts like ‘I hate this intensely! It’s disgusting!’ but there was still an instinctive aversion.

Whenever Yuseong’s pheromones lingered after spending time together, he would later subtly overlay them with his own pheromones to disperse them, then take long baths to ensure no trace remained.

He and his hyung had even checked every time.
To have noticed that… Just how sensitive was Taeha to pheromones?