CHAPTER 23

JEON JUNGHO

     We sit here in silence. 

     Wind blows, 

     Cow moose. 

     And the night falls in the valley. We don't talk and I don't dare to ask him anything, because I feel like he had said what was there for me to know. The part which remains unspoken is definitely not for my ears to take in. So I sealed my lips and stubbed the dying cigar on the roof before throwing it down. 

       "Dad's going to ask me when he sees them in the morning." I swirl to my side to find Jihan's golden orbs glistening in the pale glow of moonlight. 

      "See what?" I find my voice caught in my chest at the breathtaking view of his beauty. 

       "The cigars, obviously." 

       "Oh, sorry, I just throw it without a thought." 

       "Yeah, you did it the first time too." He says without real heat to his words, instead, a smile adorns his lips. 

       "Why haven't you stopped me then?" 

       "I was about to grab your hand." He says with a shrug of his shoulder, then run a hand through the golden strands of his hair with a sigh. I don't look away even when he turns and locks eyes with me. 

         What is he? 

         I have never seen someone like him. And it doesn't matter how many times I've seen him, each and every glance I take, he still manages to set my lungs on fire with the goldness oozing from him. 

         I wonder how he survived to the age of eighteen without getting mated already, considering he's a villager. 

         "We should get down. We don't know how much time we wasted up here."

      "Waste it?" I ask, a laugh of disbelief stumbles out of my mouth as I look him in the eyes. "What?" 

         "Isn't it though? You'd have a much better place to be when I don't know why I take you up here." He said it as if it was as natural as that. 

         "I wanted to apologize." I press. 

         "And you did. Now we should get down." 

         Wasted up here. 

        Wasted       

         Up 

         Here. 

         The phrase is simple, just as simple as it came, and crumbles down my thoughts and blanks my mind.

        Was it all some sort of a waste of time for him? To be with me? Did I go overboard when I pushed into his door and pleaded to be let in? Was I a fool to think we had something within us that could make us one? 

        Gosh,  what am I even thinking? Ridiculous.

        "Come down, Jungho." Jihan is on his feet, he's glancing down at me. I don't know what to do. Was I supposed to come here in the first place?

       Jihan lowers himself into the gap and then he's gone. And I, I sit here with my eyes on the darkness of the night. It's just me and his words playing inside my head like some broken record in a very agonizing way. 

       We don't know how much time we wasted up here. 

       When did I start to become this affected by some omega? 

      "Jungho, aren't you coming down?"

       No words leave my closed lips as I make my way down. Jihan's leaning on his desk, eyes on me. I don't smile. My gaze sweeps to the door and then at him. I make my way out with no words uttered. Jihan shuffling out is a rumble in my ears.

      I feel too out of place, 

      I feel like I'm drugged. 

      "I'm leaving," I say, ready to rush down and call his parents to let them know about my early departure. But, a soft touch on my wrist tells me it's not as easy as I thought it would be. I turn to face Jihan's unsure gaze. 

      "Why?" He whispers. And I can feel the anxiety bubbling under his skin through his scent. The exact scent which drives me nuts. 

      "Because I feel like it?" I can not bite back the mockery that lazed my words. Jihan stands stunned before me. 

       "What's wrong, Jungho? You… you weren't like this a moment ago." 

       "Does that matter to you now?" 

       "Why would it not? I told you to stay because my parents want you to." 

       "Yeah, because your parents want me to." I spit as Jihan's eyebrows scrunch. 

       "So is that it? Is that why you're suddenly not staying anymore when you made it clear that you came to stay? You want me to want you to stay? How naive of you, alpha." He steps forward, lips in a lopsided smile as he looks me in the eyes in a challenging way. He tries to look taller, braver, and studier when I clearly can smell his sour scent. 

      "Your scent gives it away, darling." I reach and caress his heated-up rosy cheeks with the back of my fingers. 

       Suddenly, we are so close that our breath mingles. 

       His eyes go wide and steps back as if caught doing something formidable. 

      "I'll show you your room." He utters, eyes on his feet. 

       "Not when I'm leaving." I don't know what comes over me when I was precisely moping over his choice of words a moment earlier and suddenly feel like what? Taming? What a lovely way to put it. 

         The sourness in Jihan's scent shifts into some kind of an alluring whiff of jasmine. I look up at him startled by the sudden change. 

       "Stay…" it's breathy, almost inaudible. I gulp. I don't have it in me to deny his want. I let his fingers wrap around my wrist and accept the electric nestling inside my chest. 

          "You sleep here. Come get me if you need anything." Having the room just opposite him is tempting enough to discard every thought of fleeing this house. The warmth of his fingers fades as he unwraps them around my wrist and lets out a breath. It falls on my chest for my heart to embrace it. His deep golden eyes rise to settle in mine, dragging his much tempting pink tongue over the plush of his lower lip. 

          He looks dreamy. 

         And I want him to haunt me in my dreams. 

         We stand still. 

          With our scents thick in the air between us, filling our senses with a foreign yearning.

         And just like that, he abandons me standing here, with a wildly beating heart jabbing my ribs to get out and flee to him.