Only now did he realize it, but Chaegong knew very little about the world. He had thought he understood it well enough in his own way, but he was just a frog at the bottom of a well. Chaegong came to that painful realization before even a week had passed since he had left home alone.

He had left his bankbook behind, but he had brought some cash with him. Even so, that could only carry him for a day or two. As time went on, he had to watch every penny, and he could no longer even go to a convenience store as he pleased. Sleeping at the jjimjilbang had also started to become difficult. He had no money coming in, yet the few thousand won he kept spending steadily became a burden.

Perhaps because of his arm, which still wasn’t fully healed, he couldn’t find a job as easily as he had expected, and his wallet only grew thinner. More than anything, because he had nowhere comfortable to lie down, even sleep didn’t ease his fatigue.

Whenever worry and anxiety kept him awake, Chaegong would think of Hyeonjo. At least in that house, he had had a space of his own. At least he hadn’t gone hungry. Every time such thoughts surfaced, Chaegong would violently shake his head. What face did he have to go back there now? Besides, there was no way of knowing whether Hyeonjo would even take Chaegong back.

More than anything, Chaegong had no confidence that Hyeonjo would love him. He didn’t know what else he needed to do to earn that attention, that affection, and he couldn’t bear the sight of himself crumbling because he couldn’t get it.

Just a little longer. Just a little.

Thinking that, Chaegong looked around for a newspaper with job listings, then suddenly spotted a poster pasted to a telephone pole. It was hardly even worthy of being called a poster, just a miserable sheet of white paper with the words handwritten in marker. It said, Roommate wanted, 150,000 won a month, omega only. Chaegong’s mind began to race. If it was 150,000 won, then with the money he had, he could stay for at least three months. If he found a job by then, it should be fine.

He sent a text from the phone he had charged at the jjimjilbang, and got a reply quickly. The other person was a male omega named Choi Woojin, four years older than Chaegong, twenty-seven years old. He lived not far away, so the house he arrived at soon after was not large, but it felt rather cozy.

“Take a look around comfortably.”

Woojin, who had bleached his hair yellow, opened the door himself and showed Chaegong around the place. One room, one living room, and a kitchen separated from the living room. There weren’t many things inside, so the room felt a little more spacious. Even so, all the rooms put together were smaller than Hyeonjo’s room.

Still, the bathroom was fairly clean, and there was a small sofa and TV in the living room. And Woojin, who carried a cherry scent, was a recessive omega just like Chaegong.

It was Chaegong’s first time becoming close to another omega, and he kept licking his lips with his tongue over and over to hide his nerves as he nodded. In response, Woojin’s narrow eyes curved even thinner as he smiled brightly.

“The rent is 400,000, but since I’ll be using the room and you’ll use the living room, I’ll pay 250,000 and you pay 150,000. No complaints, right? Ah, I’ll pay the maintenance fee too.”

Since Chaegong would be out during the day looking for work anyway, that wasn’t a problem. Woojin said he’d be out working during the day too, so even better.

“You don’t need to pay a deposit. I’m only doing this because living alone was getting a little boring, too.”

That was a huge relief for Chaegong. He couldn’t come up with a large sum of money right away, so if they had to split a deposit, he would have had no choice but to leave. More than anything, the fact that he had found a place to lie down immediately at such a cheap price made him happy.

“When do you want to move in?”

“Would today be okay?”

“Today? It’s not impossible, but are you sure? Isn’t it a little late to move?”

Looking at the clock on the wall, it was already almost 4 p.m. Chaegong said it was fine, then immediately left the house and headed to the jjimjilbang. There he gathered all of his belongings and hurried to Woojin’s place. It was actually a fair distance away, so he took a bus, but he had so little luggage that even sitting on the cramped bus seat, he could still hold everything comfortably in his arms.

“…Is that all the luggage you have?”

Chaegong, his nose red from the winter wind, nodded. Woojin took the bag from him and worriedly looked over Chaegong’s left hand. That hand was still wrapped in a cast.

“Did you, maybe, do something wrong? Are you running away from something?”

“It’s not like that.”

“Then did you get into debt or something?”

“I said it’s not that. I don’t have money, but I don’t have any debt either.”

At that, Woojin shrugged and set Chaegong’s bag on the floor beside the sofa. The two omegas sat across from each other at the table in front of the sofa.

“Anyway, welcome to my place. I’m looking forward to getting along. …Actually, this is my first time having a roommate, so it’s a little awkward. Anyway, make yourself at home.”

Woojin, who must have bought them in advance, hurriedly brought out two canned beers and held one out to Chaegong. As Chaegong fumbled a little with opening it because of the cast wrapped around his ring finger, an outstretched hand suddenly reached over and opened his beer for him. Woojin met Chaegong’s eyes and grinned.

“We’re roommates, aren’t we? We should help each other out.”

Roommate. Chaegong had had a roommate before, too. The other person probably wouldn’t have thought so, though. Come to think of it, Chaegong had been a housekeeper, so maybe he couldn’t even be called a roommate at all. By that logic, Woojin was Chaegong’s first real roommate.

“Uh, so…”

“Just call me Woojin hyung.”

“Yes, Woojin hyung. This is my first time having a roommate too. Thank you for taking me in.”

Though in three months, he might have to leave. Still, until then, it seemed like he could live happily with a fairly good roommate. Chaegong’s cheeks flushed red as he sipped his canned beer and smiled softly. Across from him, the yellow-haired omega who smelled like cherries also lifted the corners of his mouth in return.

That night, with no blanket of his own yet, Chaegong lay down on the sofa with a single blanket. He had also slept on the sofa the first day he went to Hyeonjo’s house. At the sudden wave of memory, Chaegong shifted restlessly and couldn’t easily close his eyes. Then the old door opened carefully with a creaking sound.

“Chaegong, are you asleep?”

“Not yet. Is something wrong?”

“I just couldn’t stop thinking about it. They said it’d be cold tonight. Let’s sleep together in my room. I’ve got an electric blanket.”

Chaegong sat up and blinked in surprise. Because there was a streetlamp right next to the window, the house was bright even at night after the sun had gone down. Woojin, with the door half open, was waving him over to come quickly. It was the first time Chaegong had ever been invited like that, and he blinked awkwardly.

“I’m okay, though…”

“Come on, don’t be like that. If you catch a cold, I’ll feel bad, that’s all. Hurry up.”

I’m really fine. I’m used to sleeping cold. If I say that, will he think I’m just trying to act pitiful? Hesitating, Chaegong stood up from the sofa clutching the blanket tightly. As he slowly walked to the one room in the house, Woojin grabbed Chaegong’s arm and pulled him into the room.

The bed was roomy enough for one person but a little narrow for two, so the two of them had to lie pressed close together, but as Woojin had said, the futon inside the electric blanket was incredibly warm. In Hyeonjo’s always-warm house, there had been no need for thick blankets, but here there was a heavy cotton comforter.

It was because the blanket was so thick. The electric blanket was hot, and the blanket was thick too. So he felt stifled. The warmth against his back was so gentle, so warm. And because of that, tears came on their own. He hadn’t wanted to be found out, but it seemed a sniffle had slipped out.

Chaegong felt a hand patting his back. A faint cherry scent drifted to him, and in the blanket where everything was warm, that hand felt the warmest of all. It was that kind of night.

Woojin didn’t come home until around 7 p.m., and Chaegong also returned at roughly the same time, though it varied a little. In the morning they were both busy and had no time to really talk, but from 7 p.m. until bedtime, Chaegong spent time with Woojin and talked with him a lot.

He was the first omega Chaegong had met who was kind to him. With his hair bleached yellow and several piercing marks in his ears, he was a person who seemed easygoing yet unexpectedly considerate.

Maybe he had noticed that Chaegong didn’t have much money, because he took him out and bought him something delicious to eat, and when it was time to buy a blanket, he went with him and helped him choose one. Woojin also helped Chaegong with his household needs and gave him advice.