Fiancé (1)

Whether at Coop or Migros, most checkout counters operated on a self-service basis. Self-checkout machines were becoming the trend in supermarkets across Europe, Paris included.

Liu and Yeehyeon pushed their cart toward the self-checkout area.

It was a quiet time, so most machines stood vacant. With so few people around, the elderly woman struggling with her credit card in front of a touchscreen stood out all the more.

Liu noticed Yeehyeon's gaze drifting toward her and smiled silently.

"Should we help her first, then check out ours?"

Yeehyeon nodded and carefully approached the woman to speak to her.

"Hello. May I offer some help?"

"Oh? Ah, would you? Thank you so much... I think I'm confused because this isn't somewhere I usually go."

Fortunately, she readily accepted the kindness. Noticing a French accent in her English, Yeehyeon naturally switched to French.

"Even in familiar places, I sometimes get mixed up myself."

"You speak French?"

"Not very well."

In the meantime, Liu also approached and exchanged greetings with the woman. As Yeehyeon scanned barcodes, Liu placed the items into her shopping bag. The woman watched the two work in easy harmony and then looked closely at their hands.

"Your rings are very pretty. Are you a couple traveling together?"

"...Yes."

Yeehyeon answered with a slight pause, feeling shy. Liu glanced at him and let out a quiet chuckle. The woman then gestured toward Liu and asked Yeehyeon in a low voice.

"Husband? Boyfriend?"

"Ah... well..."

Yeehyeon hesitated and couldn't answer right away. His face turned scarlet up to his forehead in an instant — more flustered than usual, in a way that seemed strange. Liu stepped in smoothly for the uncomfortable Yeehyeon and answered with a cheerful smile.

"Boyfriend."

"You're both very handsome. You look wonderful together."

"Thank you. Though I'm not quite as good-looking as my boyfriend."

At Liu's easy remark, the woman laughed warmly. Yeehyeon, his face still red, silently scanned another barcode. His cheeks were so flushed he looked almost on the verge of tears.

When Liu handed over the shopping bag, now filled with all her items, the woman thanked him again and again.

"Thank you. This would have taken me twice as long on my own."

"Not at all. It was nothing."

"There's usually a staff member around to help, but I don't see anyone today."

She looked around with a dissatisfied expression, then seemed to remember something and tugged on Liu's arm. It wasn't an invitation to follow — it was a signal to lean in and listen closely. Liu stooped down to lower his height.

"Try hard to make him your husband. Don't let a good young man like that get away."

Liu gave an awkward smile and glanced over at Yeehyeon. His face was red again as he scanned their own groceries at the register. He had clearly heard.

"Yes, I'm already working hard to be liked."

"There are many Betas who discriminate against same-sex relationships, even if they're Alphas and Omegas. But don't worry about it. My wife and I have lived well for forty years now. We raised two sons and one daughter together."

Liu had guessed from the beginning that she was an Alpha. Even with pheromones weakened by age, he could still detect that much. It seemed she had been married to a female Omega. She appeared to be perceiving Liu and Yeehyeon as an Alpha-Omega couple.

Unions between female Alphas and female Omegas, or male Alphas and male Omegas, were now recognized in many countries — but forty years ago, when she got married, prejudice had still been rampant.

Betas, who make up the vast majority of the world's population, had long been considered the standard of normalcy. Couples whose pairing wasn't a male Alpha and female Omega were seen as aberrant. This was especially harsh for female Alphas or male Omegas. Women who could impregnate or men who could become pregnant were regarded as grotesque mutations by Beta standards.

"Even while raising children, we weren't recognized as a couple. We only became legally married thirty years ago."

As she spoke, her eyes shimmered with emotion, as if that day were happening right now.

"It was the best day of my life."

"I can imagine. I can certainly picture how happy you must have been."

Liu nodded with a warm smile, genuinely moved by her.

The moment you are officially recognized as a married couple with the person you love. How could it not be the best day of your life? If you had spent years fighting for recognition day after day, that emotion would be even more indescribable.

Liu and Yeehyeon's gazes met.

They didn't say anything, but they both felt they were thinking the same thing.

Feeling sorry for having held them up, she bought a bouquet of purple chrysanthemums from the flower shop near the entrance and pressed it into their hands. The two accepted the gesture with gratitude, without declining.

As they parted ways with her and stepped out of the supermarket, the entrance was filling up with people arriving for their evening shopping.

"Perfect timing. I'm starting to get hungry. Are you hungry too, Yeehyeon?"

"A little. But let me carry some of this too."

"Just hold the bouquet carefully so it doesn't get crushed. What's there to divide up when it's only this much?"

To prove it was nothing, Liu lifted the shopping bag up to eye level.

"Don't pretend to be strong. Those sauce jars are glass, and you're carrying two bottles of wine too."

"It's not pretending — I really am strong. This is what you keep a sturdy boyfriend around for."

"Awi always uses the excuse of 'only one bag' to make himself carry everything."

"When there are two bags, I share with Yeehyeon."

"I always end up with the lighter one."

"Are you complaining?"

"Not a complaint, but..."

"It's simple. I'm bigger, so I carry the bigger load. When Yeehyeon gets bigger than me, I'll ask Yeehyeon to carry the heavy one."

Yeehyeon couldn't help but chuckle at the absurdity of it. Liu held out his empty right palm.

"Instead, hold my hand."

"Fine. I'll at least do that much for you."

Yeehyeon clasped Liu's large, broad hand, and Liu swung their joined hands back and forth as they walked.

"'At least that much'? I enjoy grocery shopping with you for exactly this reason."

"If it gets heavy, tell me right away. There's another bag folded inside."

"Got it."

They walked down the quiet street exchanging this kind of nonsensical chatter, heading back to the same destination. Liu's mind kept returning to what the old woman had said. Not so much returning as unable to let it go.

"Try hard to make him your husband. Don't let a good young man like that get away."

Marriage with Yeehyeon.

There wasn't a day he didn't think about it. During this trip, he had thought about it almost obsessively.

They say that even close couples fight when they go on a long trip or live together. Except for minor spats born from light jealousy, the two of them hadn't once slightly hurt each other's feelings over the past forty days.

Of course, he wasn't under the illusion that they would never fight if they spent their whole lives together. But he had a strong conviction that with Yeehyeon, they could wisely overcome any crisis. And if they did fight over some issue, it would surely be his own fault.

He wanted to officially become Seo Yeehyeon's man right then and there.

The ring he wore — the one Yeehyeon had personally chosen and placed on his finger — held deep significance for Liu. Setting that aside, couple rings were something even middle schoolers just starting to date could have. He wanted to be bound to Yeehyeon in a way that was more complex, more intense, more thorough — socially, legally, administratively.

But he had made a promise.

"You don't need to feel any obligation regarding this ring."

"Go wherever you want to go, do whatever you want to do, and have whatever experiences you desire. And someday, when the thought of wanting to wear this ring naturally arises within you... that's when we'll get married."

Yeehyeon was only twenty-five years old.

Even if they were to marry, Liu intended to fully support his work — but he couldn't ignore the psychological weight that the institution of marriage placed on a person.

He would wait. He had to wait.

He could not allow his desire to consume him again and ruin everything.

"The flowers smell wonderful, don't they?"

Yeehyeon, who had been burying his nose in the chrysanthemums, held the bouquet up beneath Liu's chin. Liu tilted his head, inhaled the scent, and narrowed his eyes.

"Not as good as Seo Yeehyeon's pheromones."

"......"

Startled, Yeehyeon quickly pulled the bouquet away as if hiding it — as though he were afraid the flowers might actually smell like his pheromones.

Jokes like that, using pheromones as the subject, were something only lovers could share. Exposing one's pheromones to another was, in itself, an act as intimate as exposing one's naked body — no, more intimate than that.

"You weren't this sensitive about pheromones before."

"That's because... I didn't know back then."

"Didn't know what?"

"......"

"That even when Seo Yeehyeon says he dislikes something, his pheromones reveal everything honestly?"

Yeehyeon was becoming more and more like an Omega. It was similar to the process of learning a new culture in a new country. Every Alpha and Omega had been a Beta before their manifestation, so it was a necessary stage for everyone — but Yeehyeon's reason for manifesting was special. Liu couldn't help but find his adaptation and growth both admirable and a little heartbreaking.

"Awi is the same way."

"Me? Why me? I'm honest even with my words."

Looking genuinely wronged, Yeehyeon wrinkled his nose — a rare sight. Liu dove toward him and peppered kisses all over his cheek. He was happy.

Suddenly, Liu felt a strong sense of déjà vu about this moment — about the two of them as they were right now.

He soon realized where the feeling came from.

It wasn't something he had experienced with Yeehyeon.

Back when he was stalking Yeehyeon and searching for an apartment in Paris, on the day he went to view what would become Apartment 601, Liu had stood at the window looking down at the street. A male couple leaving a supermarket after grocery shopping had caught his eye. He had envied their peaceful Saturday as they walked down the street holding hands.

The only difference between them and us now is that we don't have a baby.

He wanted to tell his past self to wait a little longer. That such a wonderful day would come. That Seo Yeehyeon was worth waiting a lifetime for.

But there wasn't much need to say it. Because the Liu of that time had already known that fact well.