After finishing dinner, Tokio lay on his bed and searched for “Yanagi Ikuto” on his smartphone. The top hit was the celebrity profile on the online encyclopaedia “Wikipodia.”
— Yanagi Ikuto. Actor, TV personality. Male Alpha. Twenty-nine years old, born in Beijing, 185 centimetres tall, weighing 72 kilograms…
There was a glittering biography of Ikuto, born to a famous Japanese director and a Chinese movie star. For Tokio, who had lived within the small world of a 15-meter radius, it was too dazzling, and he quickly closed the page.
“I was just unlucky to have run into someone like that.”
He tried to forget it, lowering his smartphone onto his chest, but for some reason, Ikuto’s gaze and tears from the talk show earlier kept flickering in his mind.
Suddenly, his phone buzzed with an incoming call. It was from the convenience store where he used to work.
“Uh, Minagawa-kun? Sorry, can you come over right away? I need to talk to you.”
When he arrived, the conversation was about undoing his dismissal. After Ikuto cried during the press conference, complaints flooded into the convenience store. Even the franchise headquarters contacted them, saying, “An unreasonable firing is damaging to the store’s image,” and asked them to retract the termination.
“No, no, what’s with this now? Like resetting a game or something…”
Tokio shook his head in disbelief. The manager’s casual attitude, thinking they could just fire and then un-fire him like it was no big deal because he was a part-timer, made him angry.
“I’m really sorry for being so thoughtless! Please come back tomorrow! Okay?”
The slightly overweight store manager clasped his hands together and bowed deeply.
“No way. I’ve got my pride, you know. What do you think I am, a…?”
“I’ll raise your hourly wage by 200 yen.”
“Thank you very much! I’ll be happy to return to work starting tomorrow!”
In the store office, the unemployed Tokio threw away his thin sense of pride and bowed deeply.
The reality of his resumed job at the convenience store was beyond imagination.
From the moment he entered and exited the store, people would casually call out to him or take pictures without permission. Sometimes it wasn’t just random onlookers, but gossip magazine reporters with professional DSLR cameras, making it even scarier.
Once work started, people pretending to be customers would come in. They’d buy a single piece of gum or a bottle of tea and quietly ask, “Is Yanagi Ikuto coming in today?” When Tokio coldly replied, “I don’t know,” they would click their tongues or tweet things like, “Yanagi Ikuto’s Beta has a horrible attitude.”
Man, this is rough… A 200-yen wage increase isn’t worth this.
Then—on the fifth day of resuming work, he showed up.
“Tokio!”
Ikuto, like a rose-adorned prince, ran up to Tokio, who was mopping the floor, like a lover reunited after a tragic separation.
“I heard the rumours, and I was so shocked! I can’t believe you came back here—gah!”
As if it was the most natural thing in the world, Ikuto spread his arms wide, about to embrace Tokio, but Tokio sprayed a small canister in his face.
“What are you doing? What is this… it stinks…!”
It was an Omega defence spray. When Omegas go into heat and release pheromones, affected Alphas lose control of their instincts, wanting to impregnate the Omega. The spray, which only affects Alphas, was developed for such emergencies, harmless to the body, but with a stench strong enough to slow down the Alpha.
“Don’t come near me, you walking disaster!”
Though he shouted angrily, his face kept getting hotter. The moment he looked into Ikuto’s light brown eyes, the gaze from the TV and those words flashed in his mind.
“If you’ll allow it, I’d like to see you again—Tokio.”
“N-no way, I don’t forgive you, not at all!”
Hiding his red face with his arm, Tokio stepped back. Ikuto, catching on, smiled with perfect white teeth. “You saw the press conference on TV, didn’t you?”
Tokio tried to run to the office, realizing his slip-up, but Ikuto easily grabbed his wrist. His desperate tone stopped Tokio in his tracks.
“Please, don’t run away. I want to apologize.”
Liar, you were just about to hug me.
Tokio wanted to retort, but they were surrounded by onlookers. Some even had their phone cameras out. If he rejected Ikuto outright, they’d surely start badmouthing him on social media again. Realising this, Tokio cleared his throat and whispered, “My shift ends at 10 PM, so wait till then.”
“Ah…! I’ll wait somewhere discreet…!”
Long story short, he wasn’t discreet at all.
Wearing jeans and a light jacket, Ikuto sat casually on the guardrail outside the convenience store, looking like he stepped straight out of a fashion magazine. Though he wore sunglasses, probably thinking it was a disguise, even passing middle schoolers from cram school pointed at him, saying, “Hey, that’s Yanagi Ikuto!”
Tokio peeked at him from the store’s back entrance. The way Ikuto’s side profile was lit up by passing car headlights looked like something straight out of a movie. As Tokio debated sneaking away through the back streets, Ikuto noticed him. With a smooth motion, Ikuto took off his sunglasses and tilted his head slightly, his shoulder raised in a casual but seductive way. Any woman or Omega would probably be floored by his charm in that moment.
“…Sorry to keep you waiting.”
Tokio stuffed his hands in his pockets and avoided eye contact.
“No problem, waiting is kind of fun.”
“Yeah, but the one being waited on isn’t having any fun at all… huh?”
Before he could finish his sarcastic remark, Ikuto had slipped his arm around Tokio’s shoulders and waved down a passing taxi with his other hand.
“Hey, weren’t we supposed to talk?”
“We are. Let’s go somewhere where we can talk slowly.”
Tokio panicked. What if Ikuto took him to some strange place? He might be straight, but this guy had confessed to liking him that way, and Tokio had no chance of overpowering someone of Ikuto’s size and social standing.
“F-fine, we’ll go to my place! Yeah, that’s better, right?”
In a hurry, Tokio told the taxi driver his home address.
“My place, huh… Is that really okay?”
“Of course it’s okay. Why are you blushing? My mom’s home too, you know.”
“Oh, your parents’ house. I see, you haven’t moved out yet.”
“Why do you always have to say one thing too many?!”
The 20-minute ride to Tokio’s house was filled with that sort of exasperating back-and-forth. Tokio’s worries began to fade. If a celebrity came over, his mom would definitely join the conversation, and his virtue would be safe. That’s what he thought—until he saw the note on the kitchen table.
“To Tokio. I’m off to the karaoke contest. There’s food in the fridge. I’ll be out late, probably after the third round, so don’t lock the door! Love, your delinquent mom.”
Mom…!
With trembling hands, Tokio clutched the note. Ikuto peered over his shoulder, whispering in a low voice.
“Looks like your mom’s going to be out late.”
Hesitantly, Tokio turned around. Standing in front of the plain house built 25 years ago was a devastatingly handsome actor, blushing and smiling. That look on his face clearly meant he was misunderstanding something.
“N-no, wait…”
As Ikuto leaned in closer, Tokio tried to push him away, but Ikuto grabbed his hand firmly.
“Here? Or should we go to your room…?”
“Calm down! We’re just going to talk!”
“Yeah, of course. We need to get to know each other first…”
Ikuto said that and then kissed Tokio’s fingertips with a soft mwah.
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