The moment I went, oh, Cha Seonwoo stood up as if he had been waiting for me and strode toward me.

"You're finally home."

I took a step back, but by the time I realized what was happening, Cha Seonwoo was already right in front of me.

"Do you know what time it is?"

Cha Seonwoo raised his eyes and looked me over from head to toe. Only then did I turn toward the mirror set on one side of the living room and see my own state reflected there.

Unlike usual, my coat was wrinkled and crumpled, and my cheeks, ears, and the back of my neck were all flushed red. Seeing Cha Seonwoo, neat and composed as ever, made my own cheeks burn. I think the alcohol was starting to wear off a little.

"I didn't know you liked drinking. Your room reeks of alcohol, the same smell you told me was disgusting."

I tried to focus my eyes and looked up at Cha Seonwoo. Who was he to talk about who liked drinking? He wasn't exactly in a position to judge after all the nights he had spent pulling all-nighters and coming home smelling like liquor. But Cha Seonwoo wore a shameless, displeased expression anyway.

"The smell is disgusting."

"...Smell?"

I took a deep breath, but maybe because I was drunk, I couldn't smell anything at all. I glanced at Cha Seonwoo and frowned.

"I don't smell anything. And what does it have to do with you?"

"What does it have to do with me...? You came back and smeared your disgusting Alpha pheromones all over my house."

Then what about you? Why did you smear your pheromones all over me without asking? I opened my lips to argue, but then wondered what the point was and just nodded. The alcohol kept making my eyes droop. I wanted to rest as soon as possible.

"Fine. I'll shower."

But Cha Seonwoo didn't step back so easily. Instead, he grabbed my wrist himself and started dragging me toward the bathroom. Already drunk and being hauled along by his rough grip, I couldn't keep my balance and staggered.

I nearly lost my footing, but Cha Seonwoo caught me firmly and pulled me back up. Before I knew it, we had reached the bathroom. Without any hesitation, Cha Seonwoo opened the door and shoved me inside himself.

"What are you doing? Let go of me."

I raised my voice, anger flashing in my face, but Cha Seonwoo still didn't let go. Instead, he kept hold of me and shoved me into the shower stall. Then he poured cold water over my head while I was still wearing my coat.

"Ah!"

I let out a short cry and recoiled, but all I hit was the cool wall. I shivered violently from the cold, and my mind went blank.

When I shut and opened my eyes against the icy water that had only just been pounding down on me, my muddled mind had completely snapped back into place.

The moment the freezing stream from above stopped, I brushed back my wet hair and lifted my head. Then I shouted at Cha Seonwoo, who was watching me with a cold gaze.

"Are you out of your mind?"

"Wash up and get checked. Your pheromones stink."

Cha Seonwoo's voice was terrifyingly calm.

"Why should I?"

"If you don't like it, then wash in front of me."

My lips trembled. I couldn't tell whether it was because of the cold or because of Cha Seonwoo.

"You know you're acting really weird right now, don't you?"

"Weird? Me?"

I had tried over and over to shake his hand off, but Cha Seonwoo's grip on my wrist didn't even look like it would loosen. If anything, my own body, numbed by alcohol, was the thing wavering.

"I'm the weird one?"

In the end, I leaned back against the wall inside the shower stall and looked up at Cha Seonwoo with a crooked glare. The clothes I had failed to take off before the water came down were soaked and clinging to my body.

"Yeah. I could tell from the start, but you're really weird."

His dark, lowered eyes swept over me from top to bottom. The lingering, unnervingly persistent gaze made me shrink on instinct, as if I were stripped bare. Cha Seonwoo then gave a lopsided smile and asked, "So that's why you kept looking at me like that?"

"How was I looking at you?"

"Like someone looking at someone similar to themselves."

He spoke as if he knew exactly what I was thinking. If I snapped at him, asking what he thought he knew, that would have been enough, but my heart sank instead. It felt like he had found a weakness I didn't want him to see.

"...Really? I didn't know you hated me that much either."

I did hate Cha Seonwoo. That much was true. But calling it full-on disgust would have been wrong, because I had been far too aware of him. Maybe the reason I kept despising him and pushing him away was that I could feel it instinctively. That I was being drawn to Cha Seonwoo. But I didn't want to admit that I had this kind of feeling toward an Alpha.

Rather than continue grabbing at my contradictions and pointing them out, Cha Seonwoo only lifted the corner of his mouth with that sly little smile of his. His calm made me the ridiculous one instead.

"Get out. You said you hate the pheromone smell, so why are you still standing there? Are you planning to keep breathing it in?"

Grinding my teeth, I shoved at Cha Seonwoo. Only then did he finally give way.

"Finish washing."

Then, as if he had no lingering attachment at all, he let go of my arm and turned to leave. The moment the door shut, I let out the breath I'd been holding and glared at the place where he had gone and disappeared. Only after I brushed my soaked hair back did I realize I was shaking. I turned on the hot water and stripped off my already drenched clothes.

I had been deliberately avoiding the truth all this time, but now I had to face it.

The reason Cha Seonwoo had moved from the annex to the main house, and the reason I kept getting so defensive around Cha Seonwoo. Even knowing it, nothing changed.

By the time I finally came out after taking far longer than usual to shower, Cha Seonwoo was sitting on the living room sofa with one hand propped under his chin, looking tired.

I had expected him to be waiting...

I frowned and tightened the belt of my bathrobe even more. I knew I shouldn't be thinking about it, but I couldn't help myself.

Cha Seonwoo spotted me and slowly got to his feet, walking over. For a brief second, I was afraid he might do something, because he came toward me so directly. But once he confirmed I no longer smelled like anything, he passed by me without hesitation.

"Hah."

So he had really made all that fuss over nothing more than a smell? I frowned hard as I watched Cha Seonwoo's retreating back.

Tonight, I really didn't think I'd be able to sleep. My heart was pounding so fiercely I could barely handle it, and that feeling was unfamiliar. In the end, I went back to my room, swallowed a sleeping pill without water, and crawled into bed, pulling the blanket over my head. I had to get away from the thoughts that kept grabbing at me somehow.

I didn't know how long it had been, but after a long time, I finally slept deeply. But when I opened my eyes again, I regretted it. The day after taking a sleeping pill, my mind always felt blank, as if I had been submerged in water all day.

I sat on the bed in a daze for a long while, then went to the dining room thinking I should drink some water. In the living room, I saw the chairman's wife, Cha Seonwoo's mother, sitting with her legs crossed. The moment I saw her, I snapped to attention.

I paused and started to turn back, but the chairman's wife had already sensed me and looked over, saying, "Seonwoo! Come here for a second... what?"

It was the first time the mistress of the house had spoken to me. But when she turned toward me with a friendly voice and saw me, her expression stiffened and she asked coldly. Then she scanned me from head to toe with a strange look on her face.

"I was mistaken. Go on."

I bowed politely and turned back toward my room.

What had she mistaken me for...? As I wondered that and headed back, I ran into Cha Taewoo.

It was the worst. Since last night, I had been running into every member of this house.

I tried to avoid his gaze and slip past him, but he grabbed my wrist.

"You..."

At a glance, I could see Cha Taewoo's expression changing by the second as he looked at me.

At first he looked startled, but then he turned pale, and before long his face flushed red with anger, looking at a complete loss.

I didn't know why, so I just looked up at Cha Taewoo, puzzled. Soon, in a sharp voice, Cha Taewoo interrogated me.

"Why are you carrying around such disgusting pheromones?"

Just like you'd expect from brothers... Could he still smell sunbae's pheromones? But after Cha Seonwoo had already poured water over me, I had no interest in listening to Cha Taewoo nag me too.

I tried to pass him by, but Cha Taewoo grabbed my wrist and spun me around. I shook off his hand irritably and snapped, "He's a senior from school. There's nothing between us, so mind your own business."

"And that's your excuse? It smells enough like Cha Seonwoo's pheromones that I'd mistake you for an Alpha."

I frowned, not understanding what Cha Taewoo was saying. Not sunbae's pheromones, but Cha Seonwoo's pheromones were on me...?

"What's your relationship with him?"

Only then did I try to smell the pheromone on my own body, but as a Beta, there was no way I could sense it. So that was why Cha Seonwoo's mother had mistaken me for Cha Seonwoo? Just how much had been transferred onto me?

Anger boiled up at Cha Seonwoo, who had smeared his pheromones on me without asking and then left me to suffer this misunderstanding.

"Say it's not true. You and Cha Seonwoo..."

"No. It's not. I don't even know why I have to explain myself, but... it's not like that, so don't make stupid assumptions. It's disgusting."

"You only get long-winded when you're lying. You know that?"

"I don't know why you think you can talk about me like that."

"I want to believe the two of you have nothing to do with each other. That Cha Seonwoo guy really isn't any good."