No Alphas Allowed - C118

#118

The next morning, Suho woke up to the continuous sound of the doorbell. He forced open his heavy eyelids and checked the wall clock to see the hour hand passing 10 and approaching 11. It was about an hour earlier than usual for him to wake up.

“…Father.”

Suho got up, thinking of his father who lived with him, as the doorbell kept ringing. It was strange that his father hadn’t gone to check who it was if Suho hadn’t woken up. He staggered towards the front door to silence the doorbell first.

“Who is it?”

“Delivery.”

“Please leave it in front of the door.”

“Then I’ll put it right here in front.”

There was a faint sound of movement outside, then footsteps fading away.

“Delivery?”

Did Father order something? But he had never seen him do that before, so Suho shook his head lightly, still puzzled. Not only was he sleeping more, but yesterday’s outing may have been too much, as his mind wasn’t fully awake yet.

So Suho opened the front door without fully shaking off his sleepiness. He lowered his head carelessly to see what the delivery was, and at that moment, a magic happened that instantly cleared away any remaining drowsiness from Suho’s eyes.

“What is all this?”

Boxes of various sizes and colors, stacked neatly against the corridor wall leaving just enough space for a person to pass, greeted Suho. They seemed to be begging to be taken inside, but Suho couldn’t bring himself to touch any of them.

Thinking it was impossible to order this many packages, he tried counting the boxes. It seemed to easily exceed 50, but the boxes in the back were completely hidden and hard to count.

Giving up on counting, Suho glanced at a nearby box. He was about to check who it was addressed to.

He was going to say it was delivered by mistake if the name was wrong, but…

“Kwon Taeyun.”

With his lover’s name clearly written on it, he couldn’t claim it was a wrong delivery.

“Are you up?”

As if knowing his name had been called, Taeyun appeared and greeted Suho with a kiss on his forehead. Caught off guard, Suho closed his eyes and enjoyed Taeyun’s warmth before belatedly rubbing his forehead and muttering.

“The doorbell kept ringing.”

“I clearly told them to just leave it in front of the door, I wonder who did this?”

At Taeyun’s threat to not let them off if caught, Suho snorted.

“Would you just leave with boxes stacked like this if it were you?”

“I’d think I could just put them up since they’re here.”

“Yeah, that’s your thinking.”

“I definitely cautioned them like that.”

“It’s good I saw this, thanks to that.”

Who knows how this would have been handled if Suho hadn’t woken up earlier than usual.

“Go back to sleep. Or do you want to take a nap later?”

Worried Suho might be tired, Taeyun stepped forward to go inside. He was planning to move all the boxes at once with the door open, but Suho blocked him.

“Why?”

“Explain what all this is first.”

“I bought things the house doesn’t have.”

“I never gave permission.”

“Father gave permission.”

It reminded Suho of when Taeyun had arbitrarily ordered cake at the cafe before. He hadn’t done that since, but just when Suho wondered what had gotten into him suddenly, Taeyun came up with a bold excuse.

“Are these Father’s things? Wait. I should ask Father.”

“Father’s not home.”

“How do you know?”

Though he hadn’t even stepped into the house yet, Taeyun was acting like he knew better than Suho.

“Father went to the cafe this morning?”

“Cafe?”

Taeyun just smiled brightly instead of answering.

“Starting today, he’s going to the cafe to learn about coffee.”

“Oh, I see. Let’s set that aside for now. Are there only Father’s things?”

Not having heard about the cafe from his father during their brief meeting last night, Suho put that on hold for now. But there was still something bothering him.

“Of course… they’re mixed.”

“Then I’ll refuse mine. I don’t want to receive things like this.”

“It’s Father’s things and our baby’s things.”

“…”

“Can I come in now?”

Knowing Suho would dislike it, Taeyun had deliberately left out his things and boldly opened the front door wide.

“We need to bring all this in, so move out of the way. You can open them one by one if you’re curious.”

“Why should I do that?”

“Then stand back and watch without breathing in the dust.”

Taeyun now lightly deflected Suho’s words and really started bringing the boxes inside. Moving tirelessly from large, heavy-looking boxes to palm-sized ones, he ended up letting the boxes take over the entrance and living room.

Suho looked at Taeyun with completely fed-up eyes as he saw the remaining boxes that had been hidden in the corridor.

“You know you’re really making people sick of you, right?”

“I’ll make you sick with love too, so be prepared.”

That crazy bastard.

***

Seated in the middle of the living room, Taeyun opened the boxes one by one. Wondering what kind of items they were and with his sleepiness completely gone, Suho sat in a dining chair to watch.

“Should I make you a cup of tea?”

“I’ll do it. Do you want coffee?”

“That would be nice.”

While Suho made coffee for Taeyun and tea for himself with the recently made lemon syrup, Taeyun’s hands continued to open boxes without rest.

Placing the coffee on the table and drinking his own tea, Suho briefly scanned the items coming out of the boxes. True to his word about them being for his father, they were mostly everyday items like clothes to wear, wallets, handkerchiefs, and such. At some point, Suho stopped asking why Taeyun had ordered so much, wondering how his father had lived without those things until now.

Feeling sorry for stopping Taeyun earlier, Suho awkwardly cleared his throat and changed the subject.

“I met Jinhan at the cafe yesterday. He’s gotten close with the manager.”

Taeyun didn’t seem particularly surprised, as if he had already heard about it, and silently focused on opening the boxes.

“While I was there, I told Jinhan too.”

“Ah, he’s the type to make a fuss about how you’re too good for me.”

Having seen through Jinhan’s reaction without even seeing him, Taeyun grumbled discontentedly before chuckling. He seemed pleased to have revealed that Senior Suho was completely his. Taeyun’s hands opening the boxes became even more enthusiastic.

“He did. But… he asked what the baby’s prenatal name was.”

At Suho’s casual remark, Taeyun’s hands stopped for the first time.

“I realized we hadn’t decided on a prenatal name yet.”

“You’re right.”

Taeyun put down everything he was holding with a face that said “Why did I just realize this now?” Then he sat at the table and picked up his coffee cup.

“Then shall we have a serious meeting about it?”

“A meeting? Why do we need a meeting just to choose a prenatal name?”

“Because it’s precious to us, I don’t want to do anything lightly.”

Persuaded by Taeyun’s words, Suho unconsciously straightened his posture.

“What do you want to call it?”

“Something that brings back special memories would be good, right? Hmm… Heat? Second? Since I imprinted that day, how about ‘Gak’ (angle)?”

“They’re all weird. I don’t like Heat, it’s too explicit. Second sounds like it was conceived while drinking. Gak sounds too old-fashioned.”

Most of them were related to how they biologically made the baby, so Suho wasn’t drawn to them. When Suho flatly rejected them, Taeyun shrugged. As if he couldn’t think of anything else, he passed the baton to Suho. Thanks to this, Suho fell into deep thought, having to come up with a prenatal name. As Taeyun said, it was their child, and it would be nice if special memories came to mind when calling this child.

“…Sea.”

“Sea?”

Suho nodded without any explanation. That day, he had many conversations with Taeyun, and it was especially the first time he brought up the topic of the baby. Though Suho kept his mouth shut, Taeyun, who had similar thoughts, nodded as if it was fine.

“The time I met Senior again is an unforgettable memory. And we found out about the baby’s existence that day too.”

“Are we going with Sea?”

“Yes.”

“It’s simpler than I thought.”

“There’s no need for it to be complicated.”

“Then…”

Suho caressed his belly. Though there was no outward sign yet, he thought of the Sea growing inside.

“We can call it Sea until it’s born.”

“Sea, Daddy will study hard for you.”

“You don’t need to study that much…”

“I bought more books this time too, Senior can read them when you’re bored.”

Watching Taeyun go under the table without hesitation, Suho just drank his tea as if giving up. What was the point of stopping him when he said he’d study hard with books? Rather, it was admirable that he was doing something for their baby every day.

“But why are there so many baby items?”

“We should buy everything in advance so we don’t have to rush later.”

“Things like handkerchiefs can be prepared before birth, right?”

“…”

Taeyun silently looked down at the handkerchief and frowned. It seemed like Suho’s words had gotten through, but then Taeyun held up the handkerchief and pointed to the bottom corner.

“You’re right. I bought it too early. I should have had ‘Sea’ embroidered as the prenatal name.”

“…Just open it.”

What more can I say to you?

As Suho stopped talking, Taeyun picked up a new box. Watching him open it with an expectant face to see what would come out this time, Suho suddenly burst out laughing. He was really odd, but these moments felt so precious.

It was an ordinary, extremely ordinary morning.