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Whether at Coop or Migros, most of the checkout counters were self-service. It was a growing trend for supermarket checkouts to become self-service anywhere in Europe, including Paris.
Liu and Yeehyeon pushed their cart and moved toward the self-checkout area.
It was a slow time of day, so most of the machines were free. Because there were so few people, an elderly woman struggling in front of a touch screen with a credit card in her hand stood out all the more.
Noticing Yeehyeon’s continuous glances in her direction, Liu smiled silently.
“Should we help her first and then do ours?”
Yeehyeon, who had nodded, cautiously approached and spoke to her.
“Hello. Do you need any help?”
“Oh? Ah, would you? How kind of you… I’m not used to this place, so I’m a bit confused.”
Fortunately, she readily accepted the kindness. Sensing a French accent in her English, Yeehyeon naturally responded in French.
“I get lost too when it’s not my usual store.”
“You speak French?”
“Not very well.”
In the meantime, Liu also came over and exchanged a nod with the old woman. As Yeehyeon scanned the barcodes, Liu placed the items into her shopping bag. The old woman, who had been watching the well-coordinated pair with a pleased expression, looked closely at their hands.
“What a lovely ring. Are you a couple on a trip?”
“…Yes.”
Yeehyeon answered after a slight, shy pause. Glancing at Yeehyeon, Liu snickered, trying not to get caught. This time, the old woman gestured toward Liu with her eyes and asked Yeehyeon in a small voice.
“Husband? Boyfriend?”
“Ah… well…”
Yeehyeon hesitated, unable to answer right away. In an instant, his face turned red all the way to his forehead. He seemed unusually flustered, more so than usual. In place of the troubled Yeehyeon, Liu quickly stepped in and answered cheerfully.
“He’s my boyfriend.”
“You’re both so handsome. You look great together.”
“Thank you. But I’m a little less handsome than my boyfriend, aren’t I?”
At Liu’s charm, she laughed heartily. Yeehyeon, his face flushed, silently continued to scan the barcodes on the items. He was so red that it looked as if he might burst into tears at any moment.
When they handed her the shopping bag, now filled with all her groceries, she thanked them profusely.
“Thank you. It would have taken me several times longer if I’d done it by myself.”
“Not at all. It was nothing.”
“Usually there’s an employee to help, but I don’t see one today.”
Looking around with a dissatisfied expression, she suddenly tugged on Liu’s arm as if she’d just remembered something. It wasn’t a gesture to follow her somewhere, but to lean in and listen. Liu bent down, lowering his tall frame.
“You should try to become his husband. Don’t let a fine young man like that get away.”
Liu smiled awkwardly and glanced at Yeehyeon’s face. His face, now scanning their own groceries at the checkout, was turning red all over again. It seemed he had heard her.
“Yes, I’m already trying my best to win his heart.”
“Even if you’re an Alpha and an Omega, there are many Betas who discriminate if you look like a same-sex couple. But don’t you mind them. My wife and I have been living well for 40 years. The two of us raised two sons and a daughter so well.”
Liu had guessed from the beginning that she was an Alpha. Even with her pheromones weakened by age, he could still sense that much. It seemed she had been married to a female Omega. And she was regarding Liu and Yeehyeon as an Alpha and Omega couple.
Nowadays, unions between female Alphas and female Omegas, or male Alphas and male Omegas, were recognized in many countries, but forty-some years ago, when she would have gotten married, was a time when prejudice was still rampant.
Betas, who made up the absolute majority of the world’s population, had long been the standard for normalcy. Couples in combinations other than a male Alpha and a female Omega were considered abnormal. It was especially harsh for female Alphas and male Omegas. A woman who could impregnate or a man who could get pregnant was, by Beta standards, a grotesque mutation.
“We raised our children and lived our lives, but we weren’t recognized as a married couple until 30 years ago, when we finally became legally wed.”
As she said this, her eyes shimmered with an emotion so vivid it was as if that day were today.
“It was the best day of my life.”
“I’m sure it was. I can well imagine how happy you must have been.”
Liu nodded with a warm smile, empathizing with her.
The moment you are officially recognized as a married couple with the one you love. How could it not be the best day of one’s life? If you had spent decades unrecognized, living every day like a battle, the overwhelming emotion would be even more beyond words.
Liu and Yeehyeon’s eyes met.
Though no words were spoken, they could feel they were thinking the same thing.
Saying she was sorry for holding them up, she bought them a bouquet of purple chrysanthemums from the flower shop near the exit. The two did not refuse, accepting the kind gesture with thanks.
By the time they parted with her and left the supermarket, the entrance had started to get quite crowded with people coming to do their evening grocery shopping.
“Perfect timing. I’m starting to get hungry. You’re hungry too, right, Yeehyeon?”
“A little. But let me carry some of that.”
“Just hold the bouquet carefully. So it doesn’t get crushed. There’s nothing here that needs splitting between us.”
To prove it was nothing, Liu lifted the shopping bag to his eye level.
“Don’t pretend to be strong. The sauce jars are glass, and there are two bottles of wine in there.”
“I’m not pretending to be strong, I am strong. You have to make use of your sturdy boyfriend at times like these.”
“You always carry it, A-Wei, using the excuse that there’s only one bag.”
“When there are two bags, I split them with you, Yeehyeon.”
“I carry the lighter one.”
“Are you complaining?”
“It’s not a complaint, but…”
“It’s simple. I’m bigger, so I carry the bigger thing. When you get bigger than me, Yeehyeon, then I’ll ask you to carry the big stuff.”
Seemingly finding this absurd, Yeehyeon let out a few small laughs. Liu held out his empty right palm.
“Hold my hand instead.”
“Alright. I’ll do you that favor, at least.”
Yeehyeon firmly grasped the large, wide palm, and Liu swung their clasped hands back and forth.
“‘That favor, at least’? This is the reason I like going grocery shopping with you.”
“If it gets heavy, you have to tell me. I have another shopping bag in my backpack.”
“Okay.”
They walked together down the quiet street, exchanging such silly talk. And they were returning to the same destination. Liu recalled what the old woman had said. No, rather than recalling it, the words wouldn’t leave his mind.
「You should try to become his husband. Don’t let a fine young man like that get away.」
Marriage with Yeehyeon.
Not a day went by that he didn’t think about it. During this trip, he had thought about it so often it was almost obsessive.
People said that even the most compatible couples would fight if they traveled long-term or lived together. But in forty days, the two of them hadn’t had a single instance of even slightly hurt feelings. Except, that is, for lovers’ quarrels like mild jealousy.
Of course, he didn’t harbor the fantasy that they would never argue even if they spent their whole lives together. But he had a strong conviction that with Yeehyeon, he could wisely overcome any moment of crisis. And if they were to fight over some problem, it would surely be his fault.
He wanted to become Seo Yeehyeon’s man, officially, right this instant.
This ring they wore together, the ring Yeehyeon had chosen and put on his own finger, held deep meaning for Liu. Apart from that, a couple ring was also something even a middle school couple who had just started dating could have. He wanted to be entangled with Yeehyeon as one in a more complex, more intense, more thorough way—socially, legally, administratively.
But he had promised him.
You don’t need to feel any sense of obligation about this ring.
「Go wherever you want to go, do whatever you want to do, and have the experiences you desire. And someday, when the thought of wanting to wear this ring arises naturally within you… let’s get married then.」
Yeehyeon was only twenty-five.
Even if they were to marry, he intended to fully support his work, but he couldn’t ignore the psychological sense of responsibility that the institutional framework of marriage brought.
He would wait. He had to wait.
He couldn’t let his desire for him consume him and ruin everything all over again.
“The flowers smell so good. Don’t they?”
Yeehyeon, who had been burying his nose in the chrysanthemums to smell them, held the bouquet up to Liu’s chin. Tilting his head to inhale the fragrance, Liu narrowed his eyes.
“Not as good as Seo Yeehyeon’s pheromones, though.”
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