Days passed quickly since then, and Minjoo was surprised her life didn’t change so much in the span of a week even after the news of her dating Hitomi shook the media. She hid underneath the profile of ‘Model M’, but Hitomi still shared pictures--of them, but they never showed Minjoo’s face. Not even once.

It drove her fans insane, Minjoo was aware. She told Hitomi she followed her on instagram and shamefully admitted that she was and still is a religious stalker of Hitomi’s aesthetic instagram feeds. Of course that would lead to her knowing Hitomi’s followers’ woe of being put in the dark.

“You’d think I’ll be really ready when the time comes where I should show my face to the world?”

She asked one day, the night before her birthday.

Minjoo had just finished her gigs and Hitomi coincidentally had some work to do on the building where Minjoo had her job done. That led to Hitomi inviting Minjoo to her apartment, and of course Minjoo agreed without second thought. They hadn’t met each other through the weekdays. She would be lying if she said she didn’t miss this spoilt Omega.

Hearing the strange question, Hitomi turned to the Alpha. She looked into those doubtful bespectacled eyes and exhaled a sigh. She didn’t want to disturb Minjoo while she was driving so she waited until they reached the stoplight and placed her hand above her knee, squeezing it gently.

“My dad used to say that you will never be really ready for something,” she gently said. Her finger drew a slow circle on her knee, her action unintentionally putting Minjoo at ease. She looked up, meeting Minjoo’s gaze. The small smile on her lips was mirrored. “I know you’re worried for the future but… don’t let them pressure you to be ready. You yourself will know and know that I’ll be supporting you whether you will reveal yourself or not.”

“I-” Minjoo stopped herself, chuckling dryly as she resumed the car’s movement. “You knew I read your followers’ commentaries…”

“Of course. I read them too.”

“Does it affect you?”

“Used to. Now? I try not to,” Hitomi looked away, yet the smile was still on her lips. “Although I have to admit I’m more conscious now about posting something on insta.”

The Alpha frowned. Was Hitomi getting unnecessary hate from people?

“No,” Hitomi quickly said, noticing Minjoo’s frown right away. “It’s because of you- no! It’s not something bad or something!” She quickly added, before Minjoo had a thought of committing seppuku on her birthday. Tragic.

She heaved a sigh of relief once Minjoo’s shoulders relaxed. “It’s like- um, the same reason I dressed more comfortably as of late…?”

Minjoo pouted, giving Hitomi a confused look. “What do you mean by that?”

“I… Nevermind.” Hitomi sighed. She wouldn’t understand. “Come on, pick up the pace a little!”

The expression on Minjoo's face was that of disapproval. “Ma’am do you want us to go to jail?”

--

The place was suspiciously dark, but then it exploded in colors of white, temporarily blinding Minjoo as screams of “Happy Birthday” rang around the penthouse, colorful confettis bursting in the air with loud pops.

Yujin led the group, grinning ear to ear as she brandished a cake with candles on top of it. Minjoo blew the candles with tears blurring her vision, smiling widely as her workmates—friends began singing the traditional song of happy birthday.

But then it was stopped by Chaewon, who claimed that this traditional version was boring and forced them to improve the quality of the song or suffer.

Wonyoung wasn't going to take chances, so she immediately led everyone to sing her rendition of the birthday song, with Yuri belting out her adlibs, uncaring if her loud voice would disturb anyone living below Hitomi’s penthouse. Wonyoung looked like a drunken conductor, swishing her limbs all about but it was fun and Minjoo laughed a lot because of her.

The party went on in full swing after that, presents and some impromptu performances by Chaeyeon and the Demons. Well, it was quite nice of them to embrace the nickname, or if they were annoyed by it, they certainly didn’t show it. Yuri was too hyped out to care about Hyewon’s ‘fan chant’ that sounded too suspiciously like a demon summoning rite, and everyone else were too caught up with the chaotic yet insanely impressive performance.

Excitement died down as night progressed quickly, but not too quickly that Minjoo lost track of time.

She found herself getting some fresh air at 2 AM on the balcony, away from the hustle and bustle inside. Others were still wide-awake and were doing various things to amuse themselves until the sun rose in four hours. Wonyoung, still a baby even with that giant height, had occupied Hitomi’s room since an hour ago, to catch some sleep at Hitomi’s request. Chaeyeon and Hyewon were suspiciously gone, and Minjoo noticed that the guest room was locked. She shook her head at the realization.

The 2 AM night air was nice. Refreshing, yet a bit too cold as it was still winter, though it was warmer compared to days ago. She wondered if Hitomi liked going out at night with her previous partners, like what she did with her? Almost all of their rendezvous was in the evening, when the sun had fully set and the moon had long crawled to the sky.

She knew Hitomi wasn’t too fond of the cold, and she always pointed out her distaste of cold every time they were together, even when she was dressed warmly for the occasion. And she thought everyone shared the same view as her, so she would nag Minjoo whenever she didn’t dress “properly”.

It was quite endearing, but sadly Minjoo liked the cold.

It reminded her of home.

“Getting some fresh air?”

Minjoo looked on her left, allowing a smile to grace her lips as Hitomi entered her vision, holding a glass of water. She lit up when Hitomi passed the water to her, nagging once again about her hydration state.

“Thank you,” The Alpha said with a smile. She turned to receive the full glass, straightening her posture to face Hitomi. She noticed Hitomi was hesitating on hugging her.

Cute.

“What were you doing?” She asked, opening her arm to welcome Hitomi to her embrace, the other pushing the glass to pour water into her dry throat.

The Omega happily complied at her silent invitation, almost throwing herself to Minjoo’s open arm.

“Weren’t you dancing with Yuri after me?”

“I did, yes,” Hitomi answered, nodding. Then, with a pompous shrug of her shoulder, Hitomi added, “I won, actually. Yuri is good, but I’m better.”

Minjoo laughed. Back then she thought Hitomi was pretty intimidating with her attitude, but now, Minjoo only thought it was cute.

“Is that an indirect request for a match?”

Hitomi snorted cockily. “Please, I’ll obliterate you.”

They shared a laugh after that, silently reminding themselves to not purposefully lose in that match.

Minjoo heaved a deep breath, the cold air tickling her nostrils, but not enough to cause her to sneeze. She tilted her head a little, letting it lean to Hitomi as they gazed to the sky, admiring the beautiful sight silently.

She liked this. She liked this so much Minjoo feared it was brushing the border between like and love.

Closing her eyes, she savored the moment of peace with this Omega she treasured so much. She let the intoxicating blend of vanilla and sweet fruits fill her lungs, warming her from inside, and let Hitomi’s body heat warming her from outside.

She really liked this.

Her eyes fluttered open, a thought struck her.

“Thank you for the party,” she said, pulling back a little so she could look at Hitomi in the eyes. “I never attended a chaotic surprise party before, but it was fun and I really enjoy my time here.”

The Omega’s cheeks flushed red, bashful. Minjoo’s smile was too pretty.

“I’m glad you enjoy it,” she replied earnestly, smiling ear-to-ear. Her scent wafted off pleasantly, spoiling Minjoo’s greedy senses indefinitely, her happiness evident with the freshness of the scent. “I wasn’t alone. Chaewon-unnie helped me.”

Minjoo grinned. She didn’t see Chaewon after she destroyed her in the console dance battle Hyewon brought. And now that she thought of it, she didn’t see Yujin, too.

“I’ll need to thank her after this,” Minjoo noted solemnly with a shudder. “Thanking her out of all people.” Shudder. “I can hear my ancestor mocking me.”

“You’re being dramatic.”

“Out of all times, you chose to appear now?”

Her wolf shrugged. “It’s the perfect time to do that, kid.”

And it disappeared, again.

So Minjoo turned her attention back to Hitomi.

Hitomi giggled. Her nose scrunched cutely and she was closing her eyes as a fit of giggle racked her body.

Minjoo watched her fondly, until Hitomi realized her stare and turned away shyly.

“W-Well!” Hitomi cleared , forcing down her embarrassment and assumed her best cocky-Hii persona she could use. “How’s the party? Do you like it? With me and Chaewon unnie, I think it’s impossible for you not to like it!”

Adorable, Minjoo thought. Why did she ever think Hitomi was an intimidating person?

“I don’t just like it, Tomi,” She drew on, rubbing Hitomi’s crown affectionately. “I love it.”

She could feel Hitomi tensing as she looked back at her. Cheeks still flushed red, bashful and flattered. Lips parting open, ready to say something but words just seemed to die on her tongue.

And so, the speechless woman closed her lips, flattening it against each other while her cheeks ballooned in response.

Minjoo couldn’t take it anymore.

She leaned down, retracting her hand from Hitomi’s waist for it to settle on the Omega’s cheek, her lips curving to an amused smile as Hitomi’s eyes were quick to squeeze shut in anticipation.

At first, Minjoo only wanted to , but with this close proximity, she opted to change her plan and closed her lips over Hitomi’s.

Hitomi hummed, pouring all of her feelings to both the kiss and her scent, letting it mingle with Minjoo’s own as she palmed Minjoo’s top, pulling her closer as the kiss deepened.

“Okay this is a perfect time for me to scream GET A ROOM but then I couldn’t do my agenda and noooo! That’s not acceptable.”

The couple immediately broke the kiss, glaring as Chaewon, all in her newly cut bob hair glory, strided into their view, looking anything but tired. She looked rather energized this late at night- or very early in the morning.

“Perfect timing,” Hitomi sneered, sighing as Minjoo immediately made some distance. “What do you want, unnie?”

“How rude!” Chaewon tutted. She beamed a proud smile to her cousin. “Congratulations on getting older, hag! You won’t notice it, but in few years you will grow white hair--”

“I’m still young--”

“--lose hair--”

“Oh come on.”

“--and then you’re old old! Hag, wrinkly and ancient.”

Minjoo turned to Hitomi. “She wasn’t like this when I was still a kid.”

There was a strange smile on Hitomi’s face. Filled with regret and annoyance.

“I’m going to blame her best-friend for that.”

Chaewon screeched.

“Don’t blame Yena!”

And the two business partners bickered once again, with a thoughtful Minjoo watching them.

That name sounds familiar.