Chapter 67: Chapter 67

Ye Jun

I snatched the phone off the nightstand before Mom could even glance up from her coffee, jammed it to my ear, and hissed, “Titi, swear to God if you scream right now I’m hanging up and blocking you forever.”

She screamed anyway. Loud. Right in my ear. It sounded like someone had just told her the most shocking news of her life. I had to pull the phone away for a second.

“You absolute fucking traitor!” she shouted. “You got a text from Ohm Narravit and you screenshot it to me but you didn’t forward the actual message? I saw the preview, Ye Jun! ’HI cutie… ’ and then it cut off and I’m over here dying because my best friend gets dicked down by his evil stepbrother and the hot Thai neighbor prince texts him the same night and I don’t even get a ’hey girl , remember me’? He forgot me! He actually forgot me!”

I had to bite my lip so hard I tasted blood again just to keep from laughing out loud at the breakfast table. Si-woo was still stabbing his eggs like they owed him some thing lol. Dad was in the middle of talking about some client meeting.

I turned my back to them. I walked two steps toward the hallway so they would not hear me.

Then I whispered loudly into the phone.

“First of all, calm your dramatic ass down. Second, I haven’t even opened the damn text yet because I’m a coward and third yes it’s Ohm. Ohm Narravit. My new Dad’s CEO buddy’s son. The one whose house we used to sneak into when we were ten to steal his dad’s expensive whiskey and replace it with apple juice.”

Titi made a strange noise. It sounded like a dying cat mixed with a hyena laughing.

“Do NOT remind me of that right now or I will cry real tears,” she said. “We were such little shits. Remember the time he caught us and instead of telling on us he made us drink the apple juice whiskey mix and then we all puked in his mom’s rose bushes?”

I covered my mouth with my hand so I would not laugh too loudly.

“God,” she continued, still laughing. “He was so fat back then. Running after us with that stupid grin. And I still thought he was the coolest guy alive.”

She paused for one second.

Then her voice turned sharp.

“You had the biggest crush, Ye Jun. Do not lie. You used to draw little hearts around his name in your notebook and then scribble them out like a psycho when anyone looked.”

“Oh my God,” I whispered. “Shut up.”

“I will not shut up,” she said proudly. “You were obsessed. You followed him everywhere. You used to volunteer to help his mom carry groceries just so you could walk beside him like a loyal little puppy.”

“That was one time,” I said.

“Liar. It was at least ten.”

I rubbed my face with my hand and leaned against the wall in the hallway.

“You are exaggerating.”

“I am not exaggerating,” she said. “You literally cried for two days when his family moved away for that year.”

“I did not cry for two days.”

“Fine. One and a half.”

I sighed.

“You are the worst friend in the world.”

“Thank you,” she said happily.

For a moment neither of us spoke.

Then she gasped loudly again.

“Wait,” she said. “Wait wait wait. Go back to the important part.”

I closed my eyes.

“What important part.”

“You have a text from him and you have not opened it.”

“Yes.”

“Why.”

“Because I am afraid.”

“Of what.”

“I do not know,” I said quietly. “Everything.”

She made a long dramatic groan.

“You are unbelievable. Bring me the phone.”

“That is not how phones work.”

“Open the message right now.”

“No.”

“Ye Jun.”

“No.”

“Ye Jun.”

“I said no.”

She started making a whining noise.

“Oh my God you are so annoying. Just open it. What if he said something romantic. What if he said something dirty. What if he said he has been in love with you since childhood and he wants to run away together.”

“You read too many novels.”

“You read them too.”

“That is not the point.”

I looked down at the phone in my hand.

The message notification was still there.

Ohm Narravit.

My stomach twisted.

Titi spoke again, softer this time.

“Okay,” she said. “Serious question.”

“What.”

“What exactly happened last night.”

I pressed my lips together.

“Nothing.”

“Do not lie to me.”

“I am not lying.”

“You literally texted me ’oh my God’ in the morning and then sent a screenshot of Ohm texting you and then disappeared. That is not nothing.”

I rubbed my forehead.

“It was just… a weird night.”

“Define weird.”

“I cannot define weird.”

“You better start trying.”

I glanced back toward the kitchen.

Mom was still talking.

Si-woo was still angry at his eggs.

No one was paying attention to me.

I lowered my voice.

“Things happened.”

“What things.”

“I do not want to say it out loud.”

“Say it anyway.”

“No.”

“Coward.”

“Yes.”

She sighed loudly again.

“Fine. Do not tell me. But at least open the message.”

I stared at the phone screen again.

My thumb hovered over the notification.

My heart was beating faster now.

Titi spoke again.

“Ye Jun,” she said slowly. “If you do not open that message in the next five seconds I will come to your house and open it myself.”

“You do not even have a car.”

” What in the insults just cuz your car is better than mine. Fuck you, I will take a bus.”

“That will take two hours.”

“I will still do it.”

I swallowed.

My thumb moved a little closer to the screen.

“Three,” she said.

“Titi.”

“Two.”

“You are insane.”

“One.”

I closed my eyes for a second.

Then I finally tapped the message.

“Shut the hell up,” I muttered, but I was grinning so wide my cheeks hurt. “I did not. Okay, maybe I did once. But you were the one who wrote ’Mrs. Ohm Narravit’ on your pencil case and then blamed it on the neighbor when his mom found it.”

She cackled so loud I had to pull the phone away. “We were obsessed. All three of us. Thick as thieves, running around the neighborhood like we owned Korea even though we were just the Korean/ half-Korean and Thailand kids whose parents kept dragging us here and there for ’business trips.’ Remember when we built that fort in the empty lot behind his house and swore we’d never leave? Then his dad got the big promotion and they moved back full-time and we all cried like babies at the airport. I still have the stupid bracelet he gave me. The one made of those cheap plastic beads that turned my wrist green.”

I leaned against the wall, phone pressed tight, and for a second the bruises on my throat didn’t even sting anymore. “Yeah… he always smelled like those mangoes his mom used to cut up, remember? Sweet and sticky and a little bit like trouble. And we’d sit on his balcony eating them until our fingers were orange and he’d tell us stories about alphas and omegas like it was normal bedtime shit. Back when we thought it was just fairy tales.”

Titi went quiet for half a second rare for her then snorted. “Speaking of fairy tales nobody talks about… you know that’s where all this alpha-omega stuff actually started, right? Thailand. Whole population’s been like that forever, packed so tight you can’t walk down the street without smelling somebody’s heat or rut from three blocks away. That’s why you and Si-woo are… whatever the hell you are. Half-omega verse or some diluted shit. Both our parents have those old Thailand connections Mom’s side did the textile deals there forever, Dad’s company still ships half their designs to Bangkok but our scents are so weak, so tiny compared to the real ones over there, nobody ever says anything out loud. Just speculation. Like, ’oh they’re a little too sensitive to loud noises’ or ’wow Ye Jun’s always nesting with hoodies.’ We don’t talk about it. Ever. Too weird for the Korean side of the family.”

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