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Kim Dokja didn’t expect much of his life to change when he entered university.
He left his relatives’ house at age seventeen, and used what money he’d been able to save up to move into his school’s dormitory. Though he hoped for the best, years of experience made him learn to expect the worst—he’d already lost his mother, got hounded by the media for the book she wrote, got bullied in class for the same reason, and got stuck with a third-rate, local university because he screwed up the entrance exams.
He didn’t even have any mana to boast of, unlike the rest of his peers. No special ability that made him a little bit different, no particular strength that made him more than normal. In a world that expected people to form packs to balance out the scales, he was someone who couldn’t even dream of being chosen by someone in the lowest rung of the societal hierarchy.
He was an ant in a world full of tigers. It was pathetic, but what could he do about it?
It was why he could only hope for the bare minimum of luck when it came to getting a roommate. Someone who kept to himself, at the least. Someone who wouldn’t recognize him as the son of a murderer, even if they didn’t become friendly.
Then he met Lee Hyunsung.
Lee Hyunsung, who was twice his size, with a smile one could only describe as having the same vibrant energy as that of a golden retriever’s. Despite not having had his turn with military training yet, he acted the part perfectly—neat corners to his bed every morning, a consistent crew cut, and muscles from the neck down that ensured no one could look down on him.
Of course, Dokja couldn’t help himself from being suspicious of the man. Even if they were usually polite with each other, it was hard to ignore the nagging feeling that there was no way someone this big with his looks could be this genuinely kind.
Then Hyunsung kept bringing him coffee whenever he was cramming for exams.
The man even ended up dragging him out to eat lunch when he confessed to having skipped meals the past few days.
Eventually, he got pulled into Hyunsung’s pack because the man had been observant enough to realize how he didn’t have a pack of his own. That he had no one to call at home, that he always remained alone, and he was never around any other person for longer than necessary unless it was his roommate himself.
Months later, and here he was:
Out in the courtyard, surrounded by people who didn’t even study in his school— his pack.
A large shadow loomed over the bench he was sitting on, promptly breaking him out of his thoughts.
“Kim Dokja.”
He’d barely even turned his head to acknowledge that voice when a warm, firm hand settled on his nape. There was no need to squint against the afternoon sun when he looked up—the man standing before him was large enough to block out all sunlight from his view.
Tall, built like a sculpture of an ancient Greek hero, with a face idols would die to even hope of having. The man standing before him now, Yoo Joonghyuk, was one of the pillars for this pack he found himself belonging to by sheer proximity.
He had hoped to find a pack of his own someday, had dreamed of it deep in his heart, but he hadn’t actually expected it to happen.
But it did, and now, there was no way to run from it.
( “You’re part of this pack,” Joonghyuk had told him once, all blunt and uncompromising. He said it so casually in the middle of serving meat on Mia’s plate during their group dinner, Dokja almost doubted his own ears—until he added, “I doubt you’re enough of a fool to not recognize that.”
He’d laughed, disbelieving. Surely, it couldn’t be that easy. Weren’t people supposed to be selective over who joined their packs, especially when they were as powerful as Joonghyuk was? He’d said, “I don’t have a choice now?”
Joonghyuk hadn’t even batted an eye at his questioning.
He’d just said,
“No.” )
He smiled at the memory. Then and now, he really is a domineering bastard. Look at him—he didn’t even bother to hesitate a little with touching my nape.
Joonghyuk seemed to recognize that he was thinking unkind thoughts when he scowled at him. “Wipe that smile off your face.”
“I don’t want to.”
Joonghyuk settled for aggressively rubbing his wrist on his nape instead of using words. Brute .
“Keep that up, and I’ll think you have an issue with your scent gland,” he teased, daring to crane his neck back into Joonghyuk’s rubbing hand. It was aggressive, sure, but not so harsh that it actually felt like he was rubbing the skin raw.
It was nice, in its own weird way. For all that his way of scenting was rough, it also meant Joonghyuk was very serious when he said that he was a part of their pack.
“Oh, I don’t think the scent gland is the issue here…”
He looked over at the sound of Jung Heewon’s voice, finding her smiling mysteriously at them. Hyunsung, in contrast, looked with wide, guileless eyes from her to him, as if he didn’t understand what she was implying.
Dokja wasn’t blind nor a fool, even if he wasn’t as experienced with socializing as the others were. He knew that they were staring at him oddly because of his closeness with Joonghyuk.
It wasn’t exactly his fault that the man was a clingy bastard, was it? Why did they have to make it look like he had to be the one doing any explaining?
“Yeah, maybe that’s true,” he agreed, looking up at Joonghyuk. “Are you scared I’ll run away? I’m not that disloyal, Joonghyuk-ah. You don’t have to be this possessive of me.”
“Shut your mouth.”
“What will you do if I don’t?”
Han Sooyoung made a gagging noise before Joonghyuk could even respond. “Stop flirting or I’ll puke!”
“Mm, I don’t know,” he said, turning his head until his cheek was resting on Joonghyuk’s raised wrist. He gave a little nuzzle, smiling slyly when he saw the stiff expression settling on Joonghyuk’s face. “Maybe you should just puke, Sooyoung-ah.”
“...you,” Joonghyuk began to say.
“Yes?” He blinked with all the innocence he could muster in his tired, nineteen-year-old body. “Finish your sentence, Joonghyuk-ah.”
Joonghyuk gave him a long look.
Then he took his hand away, making Dokja stumble a little at the sudden disappearance of the hand supporting his head. Rude jerk.
“Dokja-ssi?”
He righted himself into a stand at the sound of Yoo Sangah’s voice, smiling awkwardly when he saw her looking at him with mild amusement. Damn. If it’s Heewon or Sooyoung, he didn’t mind being rude, but it was a different matter entirely if Sangah was involved.
She was too nice.
Really, far too nice.
“It’s good to see you again, Sangah-ssi,” he said, holding out his hand so they could rub their wrists together.
She smiled at him, taking his hand to scent him without an ounce of hesitation. “It’s good to see you again too, Dokja-ssi! I’m glad you were free to join us today.” As she spoke, the world felt like a brighter place all of a sudden; he even wondered if he was having visual hallucinations, until he remembered that Sangah’s mana enabled her closeness with nature.
The sun was a part of nature, right?
With such thoughts, he found his mind once more straying as Sangah gently released his hand from her hold. It was still something to get used to, this kind of gentle affection they were sharing with each other. Scenting each other, being in such close contact with another person, had been relatively easy enough with Joonghyuk given how the man just did whatever he wanted; with Sangah, however, it had to be a choice.
He had to get out of his own awkwardness, his own comfort zone, and remind himself that yes , he’s wanted here. Not because Joonghyuk or Hyunsung forced him into their pack, but because he chose to be here.
Because someone like Yoo Sangah wanted him here, and he wanted to be here too.
He’d barely even finished lowering his hand when he was abruptly captured in a hug, a shrill shriek ringing right into his ears.
“Kim Dokja!!” cried the shrill voice. “I missed you!”
He couldn’t help but laugh. “Uriel,” he said, “we met last week.”
“A week is too long!”
“Careful,” Sooyoung called out, waving her chopsticks in their direction. She gave Sangah a brief hug in the middle of her teasing, and said, “Or our Alpha is gonna get jealous, Uriel.”
“Stop calling me that.”
“You certainly act the part of an Alpha male from those weird research papers,” Sooyoung replied. It was easy to see from her grin alone just how much she liked irritating Joonghyuk. “Anyway, how’d you know I was talking about you?”
“You’re a fool.”
“That’s no answer—”
Dokja let the rest of their argument get drowned out into the background as he gave Uriel a brief hug in return. There was some maneuvering on his part as he let his wrist lightly pass over her shoulder while she nuzzled right into him (it was, frankly, difficult to scent Uriel when she kept hugging him while wearing backless dresses), but he managed it in the end.
It was scary, how easy it was to adapt to such affection, and yet.
He found himself craving it, regardless of any fear he might feel.
“Dokja.”
Again, Joonghyuk called out to him with no explanation. Just a hand in the air, holding up a dosirak—as if he expected Dokja to just know what he meant without words.
Again, he was being cared for like this without even having to ask for it.
He let Uriel push him forward into Joonghyuk’s direction. As he accepted the packed meal from those large, calloused hands, he said, “You’d make a great househusband, Joonghyuk-ah. Has anyone ever told you that?”
Joonghyuk raised a brow. “You can give a better proposal than that.”
“...your sense of humor is very strange. Have I ever told you that too?”
He received a forehead flick for those words.
“Ow!”
“Go eat.”
He made a face as he rubbed at his forehead with one hand. “Jerk…”
Despite the pettiness inside him not wanting to do as Joonghyuk had asked, he was hungry. And, for all that he didn’t like admitting it, Joonghyuk’s cooking was really good , just enough that it was difficult to resist.
Damn it.
He opened his box of food as he took a seat, and bit his lip when he smelled the delicious scent from within. Ah, really, this is too unfair. It makes no sense to give him that face with these skills. With such spiteful feelings and an intention to at least get the last word, he said, “I’ll really ask you to marry me.”
Joonghyuk didn’t say anything immediately. His gaze remained on his own container of food as he ate, one would almost think he didn’t hear anything.
But Dokja saw the small twitch of his left eyebrow, which meant that he heard it.
Dokja smiled to himself as he ate. So there were some things that even Joonghyuk could be awkward about. It made some amount of sense; after all, this guy was someone who’s never had a girlfriend even until now. (It’s definitely because of that gruff attitude of his, he’s sure of it.)
Then Joonghyuk spoke, completely cutting off Dokja’s moment of self-satisfaction.
“I’ll be waiting.”
Nothing else besides those words. No smirk on that handsome face, no raised brow to imply he was teasing—just those three words.
… damn it, really.
He heaved out a shaky sigh. There was no sweat on his skin, yet he found himself wiping at his hot face anyway.
This guy is too much for me.