The male students whose eyes met Wooyeon’s chuckled and lowered their gazes. There was one thing he could predict, but Wooyeon asked again just in case. The female students with flushed cheeks competed to explain the Sanggyeong Beauty Contest and poured out their words.
“It’s a contest where one male student from each team cross-dresses and we pick the prettiest person.”
“Didn’t you come last year? We do it every year.”
“He didn’t come. If he had, I would remember.”
The color drained from Wooyeon’s face. He had never heard there was such a thing. No, even if there was, he didn’t want to be the protagonist. Just as Wooyeon was about to express his refusal, someone approached and poured beer into Wooyeon’s paper cup again while saying.
“Let’s really do well. I want to win once before graduation too.”
“We’ll do all the makeup and stuff for you. What should I do, I’m already excited.”
“Doesn’t the winner get prize money too? Or not?”
Wooyeon’s opinion didn’t matter. Faced with people who were already certain of victory, Wooyeon couldn’t bring himself to pour cold water on them.
* * *
Wooyeon, who had been returning to his room, stopped when he saw the bottled water placed on a table in the hallway. Come to think of it, his throat seemed parched. He had been continuously drinking only alcohol and carbonated beverages without time for his throat to be dry, so his thirst had deepened instead.
As Wooyeon approached close to the table and reached his hand toward the water, someone else took the water Wooyeon was trying to grab and opened the cap in one go. Tototototok, at the sound of the plastic cap friction, Wooyeon raised his head, and the man in front held out the opened water toward Wooyeon.
“Ah, sorry. It’s become a habit.”
“……”
It was a somewhat familiar face. Wooyeon took the water the man held out and bowed his head slightly. He thought he’d be popular with women. With looks handsome enough to stand out and manners so familiar they’d become a habit.
“Do you perhaps not remember me?”
“Huh?”
The gentle-looking face looked at Wooyeon with an expectant expression. It seemed he was meeting many people placing expectations on him here today. With a large build and a clearly trained body that was a rare type not often seen at Sanggyeong University except for Jeonghan. He probably wasn’t from the economics department……
“Please speak casually. Ah, I’m also in Group F.”
“Ah.”
Wooyeon awkwardly looked at him as he hurriedly explained himself. Wooyeon brought the water bottle he had opened to his lips and moistened his throat little by little.
“I used to attend Yeonghoon Math Academy.”
“Uh……?”
Wooyeon looked at the man with a voice slightly more surprised than before. Come to think of it, he did seem like a familiar face. It seemed he had been a student at the academy where Wooyeon had worked part-time as an assistant instructor before taking a leave of absence for alternative social service.
“I, I didn’t expect to meet you again here, teacher.”
“No, what teacher.”
Wooyeon waved his hands at the embarrassing title.
“Then what should I call you?”
“Well.”
Wooyeon was about to naturally tell him to call him ‘hyung,’ but closed his parted lips as they were. Come to think of it, he hadn’t let Jeonghan call him hyung. Of course, Wiseung and Hyeonjun did refer to him as hyung, but that was only a title those two called him of their own accord. It was just a title, but somehow Wooyeon felt bothered about allowing someone else what he hadn’t allowed Jeonghan.
“Just call me sunbae.”
“Ah, yes. Sunbae.”
Sunbae…… it was a word he heard every day.
‘Sunbae.’
Wooyeon shook his head slightly at Jeonghan’s voice that suddenly came to mind again. Wooyeon took the sky-blue cap placed on the table and closed the water bottle again.
“It was a bit uncomfortable, right? The girls from our department pushed too hard.”
“……Ah.”
“I’m from the statistics department.”
It seemed the group that had been enthusiastic in the room about putting Wooyeon in the Sanggyeong Beauty Contest was from the statistics department. The eyes slowly lifting toward him were handsome.
“Ah, come to think of it, I didn’t introduce myself properly either. My name is Kim Sunwoo. I’m double majoring in physical education and statistics.”
He held out his hand in front of Wooyeon. It was a large hand with calluses, a different feeling from Jeonghan’s smooth hand. When he looked up at his eyes again, he grinned.
“I’m Seo Wooyeon from the economics department.”
Perhaps not intending to make his hand awkward any longer, Wooyeon grasped his hand and shook it. When Wooyeon withdrew his hand from the hand grasped with not weak strength, Sunwoo smiled sheepishly. There was a faint pleasant fragrance.
“Right, if you don’t want to participate in the Sanggyeong Beauty Contest.”
“Hm?”
“Should I just participate instead?”
“Huh?”
At the somewhat meaningful words, an empty laugh burst from Wooyeon’s mouth. He certainly had a handsome face, but if he cross-dressed, it seemed like it would be ridiculously unsuitable. Jeonghan probably would be too. Thoughts of Jeonghan popped up suddenly like this even without any connection.
“Would that be okay?”
“Well, if we’re going to do it, we do it.”
“If it’s okay……”
Wooyeon trailed off. Wooyeon’s gaze, unable to finish his words properly, slowly moved elsewhere.
Kim Sunwoo, who felt something strange about Wooyeon’s gaze, also turned around. It was because Wooyeon’s gaze that had been resting on him was directed at somewhere behind him.
“Sunbae.”
Ah, Kwon Jeonghan.
Though from a different department, Sunwoo also knew of his existence. No, even if it weren’t Sanggyeong University, he might have known his name.
Sunwoo watched as the man who walked past him grasped Wooyeon’s wrist. Wooyeon’s eyes, caught by Jeonghan, were trembling while directed at Jeonghan. The slender wrist turned red under the tightly grasped fingers. The hand that had been clasped with Sunwoo withdrew from inside Sunwoo’s palm. The water bottle fell and rolled with a thud sound to the floor.
“Uh, Sunwoo-ya. Go in first. Just a minute!”
Because Jeonghan dragged Wooyeon away, Wooyeon couldn’t finish his words. Sunwoo, squinting his eyes, looked at the emergency stairwell entrance that Jeonghan and Wooyeon had entered. The door that had swallowed Jeonghan and Wooyeon closed again with a bang sound, frighteningly.
The sound of Wooyeon’s hurried footsteps being dragged away bothered him. And for good reason, because it was a somewhat strange scene to be seen as ordinary seniors and juniors. Moreover, Kwon Jeonghan’s appearance was quite different from the rumors he’d heard until now.
* * *
When Jeonghan, who had dragged Wooyeon to the emergency stairwell, pushed Wooyeon against the wall, the iron door closed behind Jeonghan with a heavy bang sound. Whether Jeonghan had released pheromones, at the fragrance that instantly deepened, Wooyeon staggered with his back leaning against the wall.
“What’s suddenly going on, mmph……!”
Jeonghan, who wrapped around Wooyeon’s nape as if urgent, pressed his lips to his. Between the parted lips, each other’s pheromones mixed lewdly. His delicately drawn eyes trembled toward Jeonghan.
The tongue that had hurriedly ravaged inside Wooyeon’s mouth withdrew again, and Jeonghan turned his head and sucked on the plump lips. Kisses poured out urgently like a dam bursting.
“Ha, mmng……”
The slender fingers that had tried to push away Jeonghan’s shoulders clutched at his collarbone. As Wooyeon exhaled raggedly as if lacking breath, Jeonghan moved his lips to Wooyeon’s nape. After small kisses, at the sensation of strongly sucking behind his ear, Wooyeon pushed Jeonghan away hard.
“Ha, haah……”
Wooyeon trembled while covering behind his ear that Jeonghan had sucked with one hand. Jeonghan, who had been pushed away, was looking at such a Wooyeon with a cold face.
“Why, why suddenly.”
“Just because.”
“Just?”
“There are times like that, right, when you suddenly want to.”
At the obscene words that didn’t make clear whether he meant kissing or sex, Wooyeon’s face reddened a bit more. Jeonghan’s eyes looked down at Wooyeon while containing coldness. That alone made Wooyeon’s legs tremble in various meanings.
“Did you seduce another one?”
“……What?”
“Aren’t you tired? Wagging your tail around like that.”
It was words he didn’t know how to answer. A meaningless sigh burst from Wooyeon’s mouth.
“What on earth are you saying……,”
“He’s looking at you wanting to fuck you right away, and you don’t know that?”
“What?”
“I can’t stand seeing that. My thing rolling around with some other bastard.”
My thing.
Someone might misunderstand those words as ticklish words, but Wooyeon couldn’t be that comfortable. Jeonghan was thoroughly treating Wooyeon as his possession. A sex doll that’s convenient for sex and looks somewhat good. When his thoughts reached that point, tears welled up in Wooyeon’s eyes with a rush.
“I heard you said you’d participate in that crazy contest.”
As Wooyeon wiped away with his hand the tears that seemed about to fall at any moment, Jeonghan’s voice was heard again. Wooyeon raised his reddened eyes to look at Jeonghan. He was talking about the Sanggyeong Beauty Contest.
“Don’t participate. Absolutely not.”
Without answering, Wooyeon turned his head and bit the inside of his lips.
“Answer me.”
“……”
“Sunbae.”
He had no desire to participate either, but because Jeonghan said this, he wanted to go against it more. At Wooyeon’s appearance without an answer, Jeonghan began to coax and cajole affectionately while suppressing his anger. It was all pretense. Pretense to do as he pleased.
“Sunbae doesn’t like that kind of thing either, everyone will be looking only at sunbae and you don’t like that, right? Hm?”
Jeonghan approached Wooyeon and stroked and caressed Wooyeon’s hair. When Wooyeon raised his eyes, the eyes that met again were affectionate.
“I’m going to participate.”
When Wooyeon, who spoke as if notifying him, tried to pass Jeonghan and leave the stairs, Jeonghan grabbed and stopped Wooyeon again.
“Say you won’t participate.”
“Let go. I’ll do as I please.”
“Sunbae!”
“Why should I do as you please!”
