HANEUL felt a wave of shyness and embarrassment wash over him, his cheeks growing hot. He wanted to play dumb, to ask what she meant by "sparkles," but he understood her meaning all too well. And that made the whole situation ten times more embarrassing. He opened his mouth, then closed it again, scrambling for words that wouldn’t make him look completely foolish. Nothing came to him. He stared at the screen, his face growing hotter by the second.
As if to remind him of its presence, the bite mark on his nape gave a faint, prickling itch. Then he remembered exactly why he understood the sparkles his sister was talking about. It wasn’t a word he would have used himself, but he knew what she meant. That strange, electric warmth that had spread through him when Taeyang’s teeth had sunk on his skin. The way his whole body had felt like it was humming, like every nerve had been pulled taut and then released all at once. His face burned even hotter at the memory.
He glanced at Haeun, who was still waiting for him to answer, but he couldn’t seem to form a response. Thankfully, their father spoke up before the silence could stretch any further.
"Haeun-ah, don’t ask your brother questions like that."
Hyunwoo said it partly to keep Haeun from embarrassing her brother, but the bigger reason was that he didn’t really want to hear Haneul’s answer. It was already hard enough accepting that an Alpha had marked his son, even if it was only temporary. He didn’t need to know how Haneul had felt while it was happening. Watching Haneul blush every time the topic came up was already testing his patience. If he heard more, that annoyance might just turn into dislike.
As much as he didn’t approve of the whole temporary mark situation, he didn’t want to end up disliking Jung Taeyang. Especially since his wife had said the kid wasn’t a bad person. But still, a father was a father. Some things were just hard to accept, no matter how reasonable the circumstances.
Haeun pouted. "Dad, I just want to make sure he didn’t take advantage of Oppa. We learned in sex ed that Alphas barely have any control when they’re biting an Omega. They’re driven by instinct."
At the very reasonable explanation, Hyunwoo turned his attention back to Haneul. His daughter had a point. Eunji hadn’t said much about what had actually happened during the bite. He hadn’t asked either, mostly because he didn’t want to know. But now that Haeun had mentioned it, he felt a pang of guilt for not even thinking to ask.
Seeing his father now staring at him so intently, Haneul felt a mixture of helplessness and faint amusement. At least on this topic he could quickly give a response. Unlike the one his sister had asked earlier.
"Taeyang was very respectful," Haneul said. "He didn’t do anything beyond b-biting me. And Mom and the doctor were there the whole time, so..."
He let the sentence trail off, hoping they’d understand what he was trying to say without him having to spell it out.
Right. Eunji had been there. Hyunwoo finally let out the breath he’d been holding. His wife wouldn’t have let that young Alpha do anything more than what was necessary.
Haeun winced. Their mother had been there? That must have been painfully awkward. She looked at her brother with a hint of pity. If she ever had to bite someone in the future, she’d definitely do it without an audience.
She shook her head and decided to change the subject. "By the way, Oppa, when is the show going to announce that bas— I mean, Jeon Hyunsik’s departure? Are they going to reveal what he did?"
Relieved by the change in topic, Haneul answered, "I’m not sure when they’ll announce it, but I imagine it’ll have to be soon, since the next episode airs tomorrow."
Since his sister was asking, that meant the program still hadn’t released any statement about what happened. Were they delaying it because they hadn’t had time to edit Jeon Hyunsik out? With the PD running around, would he have had time to oversee the edits? Then again, maybe he’d left instructions for the editing team before everything got hectic. Either way, how they handled it didn’t really matter. What mattered was that Jeon Hyunsik was no longer part of the competition.
"But I have a feeling they won’t say why Jeon Hyunsik was kicked out," he added.
Haeun’s expression shifted to one of confusion, and even their father’s brow furrowed.
"Why? Are they worried about a scandal?" Haeun asked.
"There’s that," Haneul said. "This involves an Alpha trying to hurt an Omega. If it gets out, it’ll leave a stain on the whole show, and that would affect the final debut group." He paused. "They’re also trying to protect my reputation. If people find out an Alpha tried to do something to me, they’ll just see me as a helpless Omega. Or worse, some might think I asked for it. People might pity me at first, but that kind of pity doesn’t last. Eventually, it turns into something uglier. So I’d rather they never find out what happened."
That might sound a bit cowardly, but he’d rather keep things quiet than have the whole world know what happened. He didn’t want to be known as the Omega who got drugged and forced into heat on a survival show. He wanted to be known for his talent, not for what someone else had done to him. If staying silent meant protecting that, then he was willing to do it.
Maybe once he’d debuted and built a name for himself, he’d be more open to talking about it. But for now, he’d rather keep things quiet. So if the show decided to handle it that way, he wouldn’t argue.
Hyunwoo looked at his son, caught off guard by his answer. He’d expected Haneul to feel slighted if the show didn’t openly name what that Alpha had done. But surprisingly, Haneul didn’t seem to mind at all. From what he could tell, he even preferred it that way. That was... mature. And Hyunwoo wasn’t sure if he should be proud or worried. Maybe a little of both.
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