Trrrrrrrrrrrr……!
His eyes snapped open. His back was completely damp, as if soaked with sweat. Wooyeon swept his hand down his cheek and sat up. The inside of the palm that had wiped his face was wet with tears. The light from his phone filled the narrow room.
His mind was in disarray from the dream he’d had after so long. Wooyeon steadied his breathing and accepted the call, then brought the phone to his ear.
“……Yeah, Mom.”
“Yooha, ah. No, Wooyeon-ah. Mom just woke up and is out of it again, like this.”
“It’s okay, did you sleep well, Mom?”
“I tossed and turned a bit, my dreams were rough. Since I woke up early, I called to wake up my Wooyeon.”
“Yeah, I actually have an early class today, so I almost would’ve been in big trouble if not for you, Mom.”
It had been a long time since he’d changed his name, but Mom still called him by his name from before the change. Even though she was the one who told him to change his name.
A single ray of light was dimly streaming in through the small window mounted high on the wall of the semi-basement room where sunlight barely reached. When Wooyeon got up and flipped the switch, the narrow room filled with light.
“Wooyeon-ah, um…… these days, those bastards aren’t still harassing you to pay back the debt, are they?”
Wooyeon’s movement as he was about to change out of his sweat-soaked clothes stopped for a moment. Wooyeon lowered the arms he’d raised and leaned against the wall. The wallpaper, moldy and worn and torn here and there, looked shabby.
“……They’re not. Mom, are you still worried about that?”
“Of course I’m worried, how vicious are those bastards?”
“We’ve almost paid off the interest, so they’re not. I’m making good money, Mom.”
He could hear the sound of a tired voice coughing from the other end of the phone. Even working part-time jobs every single day, after deducting his mother’s hospital bills and medicine costs, rent, suppressant costs, and living expenses each month, the money left over was truly just crumbs. There was no way he could pay off the interest that was snowballing with that, but there was no need to inform Mom of that fact.
As Wooyeon closed his eyes tiredly, it seemed like he could hear again, annoyingly, the voice of the loan shark trying to buy his body. He’d run away to avoid being sold off for his father’s gambling debts, but Wooyeon was still essentially receiving threats to sell his omega body. It was a curse that clung to him like shackles.
But even if he was chased by debt and would rather his body break and die, he absolutely could not allow that. Wooyeon’s nature didn’t permit it either, but thinking of his mother who had run away with his young self, he couldn’t do that.
“……It’s hard, isn’t it, my son.”
“It’s not hard. Really.”
“Mom is sick and just lies in the hospital bed all the time……. Can’t even make you a proper meal…….”
“That’s not true, really. Please don’t cry.”
Every time they talked on the phone, Mom was on the verge of tears. Wooyeon sighed and pressed his forehead.
“I’m just tutoring, what’s hard about it. People curse at me, Mom. I’m sitting down comfortably making money. Don’t worry about me. And I’ll be graduating soon……. When I get a job, things will get much better. Don’t worry about me.”
“Right, right…… I live because of my Wooyeon. You don’t know how much Mom brags at the hospital that my Wooyeon goes to the best university in our country. Mom really lives because of my Wooyeon…… really.”
The one saving grace was being a scholarship student at the TH Foundation. It was a grateful place that provided tuition plus a small living stipend. Even that would be cut off if he didn’t maintain his grades, so he couldn’t neglect his studies either.
For him to succeed and break this chain of poverty, so that even if Mom was sick, she could be sick with peace of mind.
That was Wooyeon’s only goal in life.
“But Wooyeon-ah, by any chance…….”
“Yeah?”
“Ah, never mind.”
“What is it, Mom.”
He had a premonition that it wouldn’t be something pleasant to hear, but like an idiot, he confirmed it anyway. Wooyeon felt a bit sick of himself for that.
“By any chance, have you…… ever run into Seoha?”
Haa. Wooyeon let out another sigh. His intuition was never wrong. Seoha was Wooyeon’s half-brother, a son his father had brought home from outside. Though not his biological child, she had felt sorry for Seoha who had come to her after leaving his birth mother’s hands, and had given him affection as if he were her own child. Since their father had no interest in his children and only lived immersed in alcohol, gambling, and women, Seoha had also followed Mom more than their father.
However, since Mom had stolen valuables from the mansion where she worked and run away with Wooyeon, Seoha had no choice but to live separately from them, and Mom had lived with guilt toward Seoha for all those long years. It seemed her lingering attachment to that other son with whom she’d lost contact hadn’t disappeared either.
“No. How would I run into him.”
“You go to the same school. Seoha…… I saw on the news that he came back to Korea again recently.”
“…….”
“No, Mom must have lost her mind for a moment. Saying such things…….”
His half-brother, who now felt more distant than a stranger, had at some point become a celebrity. They say omegas usually have artistic talent, but it seemed that common notion didn’t always hold true. Thinking about how his half-brother, who was a dominant alpha, had made a name for himself as a famous pianist, while Wooyeon, who was a recessive omega, was enrolled in the economics department.
In any case, if he, who now had wealth and fame, had had the will, there’s no way he wouldn’t have looked for Mom. It was a futile longing.
“……Ah, Mom.”
“Yeah?”
As he recalled old memories, Wooyeon ended up thinking of Jeonghan’s face. It might not be him. There were plenty of people with the same name. No, even if he was the Jeonghan that he knew, it’s not like they’d meet again anyway.
“Never mind. Mom, I’m going to be late for school.”
“Okay, okay. My Wooyeon, study hard. Okay?”
“Got it. You have a good day too, Mom. Eat well. Yeah.”
When Wooyeon hung up and pressed the switch again, darkness fell over the narrow room. His body sank down like a sigh.
—
2.
Unable to rest during vacation and only working, then having to go back to school wasn’t easy. Once studying started in earnest, he’d be much more tired, so worry came first.
Beep!
At the sound of a car horn ringing softly, Wooyeon reflexively turned to the side.
“Aren’t you student Seo Wooyeon?”
“Ah…… Yes, Professor.”
A middle-aged man got out of a black imported sedan. It was a professor from his major whom he recognized.
“You’re on your way to the opening general meeting too, right?”
“Pardon?”
“Let’s go in together. I was feeling awkward about going in alone anyway, so this works out well.”
“Ah, Professor, I…….”
Wooyeon made a slightly troubled face, but the professor seemed not to have noticed.
“I’m just going to greet the students briefly and leave right away. Would it be right for a professor to go and interfere with you all having fun?”
The professor’s thick hand wrapped around Wooyeon’s shoulder. With a flustered face, Wooyeon staggered and bumped into the professor. Goosebumps rose strangely.
When Wooyeon slightly pulled away, the professor soon let go of Wooyeon with a good-natured smile. Before he knew it, when he came to his senses, they were in front of ‘Daebakjip.’ The professor, who had taken out his wallet from his back pocket, carelessly pulled out money. Without even counting how many bills. It was a gesture that felt completely natural.
“Pass this along to the class president. If a professor is going to come to a place like this, he should at least open his wallet.”
It was truly an awkward situation. With a face frozen and drained of color, Wooyeon waved his hands.
“That’s not necessary, Professor.”
“And you, young people shouldn’t skip gatherings like this. Sitting at a desk isn’t the only way to study.”
The professor tapped Wooyeon’s chest a couple of times and opened the door. Through the open door, along with commotion, voices calling out for the professor poured out. The feeling of holding the wad of money the professor had insisted on giving him was indescribable, but somehow unpleasant.
“Haa.”
Wooyeon looked at the money in his hand that he hadn’t even counted. 50,000 won and 10,000 won bills were mixed together haphazardly. The attitude of readily giving it without even counting kept coming to mind several times in Wooyeon’s head.
He recalled the bank balance he’d checked this morning. He was sure he’d received tutoring pay recently, so why was there so little money? After estimating the balance that couldn’t possibly have increased several times over, Wooyeon sighed out of habit.
It felt like only he was alone in black and white with no sound in a world brilliant with colors and cheers. Through the door, students with excited expressions about the new semester were reflected. With the transparent door as the boundary, it felt like standing in a different world.
The professor’s wallet that had been gleaming with shine. Before going in, Wooyeon tried to take out another 10,000 won bill from his own wallet, then stopped. Through the transparent entrance door, the professor was looking at him. Pride had no power in front of money. It was money that neither the professor nor he had counted anyway.
“Wow, who do we have here?”
When Wooyeon opened the door and entered, the club president jumped up as if surprised. His face was flushed and his eyeballs were bulging as if they’d spill out. He had taken a year off from school, so although he was a lower grade than Wooyeon, they were classmates from the same year. In an atmosphere that forced attendance at all department events, he was also virtually the only person who acted friendly toward Wooyeon, who slipped away here and there and claimed to be an outsider.
“Isn’t this Seo Wooyeon!”
“Ah, uh…….”
“Something must be up this year. Seo Wooyeon showing up at a gathering like this. But what’s all this money?”
When he glanced at where the professor was sitting, the professor was still looking at Wooyeon. After smiling toward Wooyeon, the professor turned his gaze toward the other students.
“The professor gave it to me just now. To add to the opening meeting funds.”
“Awesome.”
“……And my non-attendance fee.”
He decided to count it as receiving charity. Either way, the professor wouldn’t care what happened to about 20,000 won. No, it would be an amount where he wouldn’t even know it disappeared. And it wasn’t money for Wooyeon himself to benefit from anyway. It was money to be used for the opening meeting regardless.
Wooyeon handed the wad of money to the club president and turned around without regret.
