Expectations [양정원/이희승]

《chapter 10》

It didn't sit right with Sunoo.

When he looked at Niki and Jungwon now, two weeks after his heat. They had all finally resumed their schedule and found themselves back in their practice room. But something in the way Niki's head laid in their leader's lap during every little break just didn't make Sunoo feel good.

As soon as Niki was finally released from the pack room, he had been gravitating towards the 2nd youngest.

If there was no empty seat next to him at the table, Niki was already on the way to get another chair for Jungwon.

If there was a bag in Jungwon's hand, it always made its way into Niki's (if Heeseung hadn't already grabbed it).

There was a door? Niki held it and let it slam right into everyone else's face behind them.

When others told him to stop messing around, he made even more of a mess. But when Jungwon spoke, there was complete silence.

In short, Niki treated him like a king.

Of course, he still laughed at Jungwon's misfortunes, still cracked jokes on his expense, but since his first rut, Jungwon was basically his prince, or maybe a dad, Sunoo thought at one point.

It could have just been a shift in maturity after his presentation, but none of the others got those privileges.

But that wasn't really what had bothered Sunoo so much.

What really irked Sunoo wasn't just Niki.

Jungwon was the one who got under his skin.

Like right now, as he let Niki doze off in his lap, playing with his hair as Niki kept whispering secret messages to him while keeping his eyes closed, a slight smile playing on his lips every now and then. Their bond really bothered Sunoo.

If someone were to read his mind, they'd say he was jealous.

It was embarrassing and Sunoo adverted his eyes as his cheeks flushed at the thought, but really, he wanted what they had.

He didn't even want them to stop or anything. He just desperately wanted in on it.

The same thing could be said about Heeseung, as the oldest sat next to the pair, legs spread out in front of him, leaning back on his hands against the cool floor.

The alpha, however, wasn't really jealous, at least he wouldn't call himself that.
He just wanted to sit behind the two maknaes and embrace both of them in his arms.

To him too, the shift in Niki's and Jungwon's relationship was weird. But it also seemed right. If he could just scoop them up and pull them into his arms and listen to their conversation silently.

But really, he didn't understand a word from what was said as Niki was speaking too softly and had started giggling at Jungwon's face after his latest comment, rendering everyone completely clueless of whatever world those two were hiding in.

Niki had actually been very much enjoying their newformed closeness. Not that they weren't before, but Niki was finally able to sense what the other was thinking, smell what he was feeling.

And since he had always been a nosy little shit, and a clever one at that, he had easily noticed how Jungwon's entire attitude changed, whenever his eyes lingered on Heeseung a little too long.

He could smell his beautiful caramel marshmallow scent sweeten whenever the oldest entered a room and felt Jungwon's entire being light up when Heeseung talked to him.

It seemed ridiculous to Niki now, that no one else had picked up on it. Even more so when he noticed how Heeseung didn't seem to realise Jungwon practically humming with love when he was around.