The apartment looked like it had been hit by a whirlwind made of mesh, iced coffee cups, half-unpacked PR boxes, and a rogue dog in a bejeweled harness. So, basically, it looked like home.
Si-won had tried to clean that morning. Really. He'd lit a candle, reorganized the skincare drawer alphabetically, and even color-coded the fridge. But then Min-jae walked out of the shower with his hair dripping and his hoodie halfway on, and Si-won forgot how to alphabetize.
"This is serious," he said, sitting cross-legged on the couch in a velvet robe. "You're a tech CEO in training. You can't keep dressing like a lost intern at a coding bootcamp."
Min-jae raised an eyebrow. "I like my hoodies."
"You hoard hoodies. There's one in the freezer. Explain that."
"I spilled soup."
"I'm styling you. No more debate."
Min-jae groaned. "You said you'd stop spending your new Idolhouse paychecks on glitter eyeliner and spicy bean paste."
"Correction," Si-won said. "I said I'd stop spending it recklessly. This is an investment in my personal aesthetic."
"You mean in me."
"Exactly."
And that was how Min-jae ended up modeling three outfit options while Mochi barked at his ankles and Si-won kept yelling "turn again but slower."
It was somewhere between the cargo pants and the fitted linen button-down that Min-jae finally put a hand on his hip and muttered, "If you really want to spend money on me..."
Si-won froze mid-spray of cologne.
"...let's go on a trip."
The cologne hit the floor. Mochi stepped in it.
"A trip?" Si-won asked, blinking.
"Yeah. After the shoot wraps. Just us."
Si-won's eyes sparkled. "Like, a vacation?"
"Unless you want to spend another ten days arguing about pant hems."
Si-won shrieked. "Italy!"
Min-jae shook his head. "Jeju."
"Paris!"
"Busan."
"You are the least sexy Alpha I've ever met."
"I'm also the only one you're bonded to."
They bickered for forty-five minutes. There were travel blogs pulled up, arguments about language barriers, a moment where Si-won started Googling 'romantic alpaca farms near Seoul' just to win. Min-jae countered with a trip idea board titled 'Unholy Honeymoon Vibes: Camping Edition'.
Eventually, they landed on a compromise.
Japan. Tokyo, specifically. Fashion and tech. Sushi and heated toilets. Romantic and chaotic. Just like them.
Meanwhile, in a secret that no one had been allowed to post about, Nari had a boyfriend.
A real one. Quiet. Beta. He was an architectural design student who didn't know how to use Instagram properly and didn't ask about hashtags. They met during a part-time gig Nari had taken on styling a student film. He brought her warm water with lemon when she had cramps. He never called her dramatic, even when she cried over losing a nail.
No one in the friend group knew. Not even Yuri. Nari kept it that way on purpose.
"I'm not hiding him," she told Si-won during one of their ramen dates. "I'm protecting him."
"You're soft," Si-won whispered, stunned.
"Say it again and I'm leaking your high school dance video."
But Si-won didn't leak anything. He just smiled and tucked the secret into his heart like a gift. One day, when she was ready, she'd tell the world. And when she did, it would be on her terms.
Social media hadn't stopped speculating about Si-won's love life.
After all, he and his co-star Do-yoon still had scenes airing weekly. The fans shipped them hard. Their "behind the scenes" clip where Do-yoon accidentally fed Si-won a spoon of gochujang-laced rice and Si-won yelped dramatically had been memed to oblivion.
But the fandom wasn't stupid. They started noticing things.
Like how Si-won's bracelet never left his wrist. Or how he always smiled when someone mentioned Brewmates™. Or the cinnamon sticker on his phone case.
Then came the post. Just a photo.
Blurry. Backlit. Two toothbrushes in a glass. A familiar Alpha's black hoodie draped on a chair in the background. A pink hair tie on the doorknob.
📸 @matchamalice
Caption:
not a reveal. just a soft truth.
#CinnaMilk #VerifiedUnholy #NotAlone
The internet broke.
Fans cried. Shippers rejoiced. Yuri live-tweeted the moment with 37 emojis. Hyun made a celebratory drink at Brewmates™ called The Unholy Bond: a cinnamon strawberry iced latte with whipped cream and way too much glitter.
One week later, filming wrapped. Do-yoon hugged Si-won for a full thirty seconds and whispered, "Don't lose what you've got. It's rare."
"I know," Si-won said.
Then he went home. To a freshly cleaned apartment, lit with candles, Mochi wearing a bowtie, and Min-jae cooking black bean noodles while listening to an idol playlist Si-won had made for him.
"Ready to leave the country together?" Min-jae asked, not looking up from the pan.
"Only if you let me buy matching jackets."
"No."
"Matching underwear?"
"...maybe."
Si-won shrieked, kissed him, and spun Mochi in a circle until she sneezed. They left three days later.
They didn't post every moment. Didn't share every kiss. But sometimes, in the quiet, Si-won would upload a single shot: a city skyline, a half-eaten mochi, the back of Min-jae's head resting on his shoulder. And the caption would always say the same thing.
still the unholy bond.
still worth it.
The last night of their trip, they walked along the river.
Tokyo buzzed around them, neon and noise, but they weren't part of the crowd. Not really. They held hands like no one was watching. Like no one ever had.
"Do you think it'll always be this good?" Si-won asked.
Min-jae squeezed his fingers. "I think it'll be different. Hard sometimes. But real."
Si-won looked up at him. "I used to think love meant sacrifice. Like, giving up sparkle or independence."
Min-jae smiled. "You're still sparkling."
"I know," Si-won said. "Because you never asked me to dim."
The bracelet buzzed pink. A soft confirmation. Quick log to the app.
They didn't need to say anything else.
They walked home together. And when they got there, Si-won pulled out his phone, took a blurry, grainy photo of their feet, one in a sparkly sneaker, one in a scuffed black boot, and posted it without editing.
📱 @matchamalice
Caption:
unholy bonded. 2 Certified Espresso Disasters!
THE END .... of main story