“Hey! I told you not to say that kind of thing!”
It was something he’d heard before in a joke-like manner. Today he hadn’t even climbed onto the guy’s bed, but hearing that made him feel terribly wronged. Minwook didn’t back down at Woojae’s reaction and opened his eyes wide.
“Uhuh, you’re not denying it!”
“If this isn’t denial, what is? I’m vigorously denying it right now!”
“Then a strong denial is an affirmation.”
“Are you crazy?”
Woojae held his forehead looking at Minwook full of conviction. Minwook, who squeezed his eyes shut and turned away from him, seemed filled with indescribable certainty.
“What kind of misunderstanding are you having?”
“I heard everything yesterday! You were like, you’d wash Gye Sajun’s thing, saying it’s too big… Like, he just needs to be washed! You perverts! In this sacred… well, rotten school! Anyway! You two! Ugh!!”
Minwook cut himself off mid-sentence and shuddered. Soon, Woojae, who had been ruminating on his words, expressed absurdity with his whole body. Even though it was a misunderstanding, watching him tremble with a sense of betrayal made Woojae feel even more wronged.
“What kind of crazy talk is that?”
“I heard everything. Explanation is impossible. I’ve lost trust in you.”
“I was talking about laundry. Laundry! Clothes!”
His face turned red enough that he couldn’t believe how the talk about washing clothes had turned into something so outrageous. Hearing it again through Minwook’s mouth, it was indecent beyond compare. What Woojae had washed of Gye Sajun’s was clothes, but calling it just ‘that’ naturally brought to mind the weapon that had touched below his butt.
“Are you a pervert? Crazy, why would I suck thaaaat!”
“…Laundry?”
Minwook’s eyes full of wariness finally turned to Woojae. Woojae deliberately shouted more to hide his reddened face. It was better that his face turned red from being flabbergasted and heated. He wanted to believe that. He didn’t want to imagine anything else. A large phallus befitting his huge frame that felt menacing, and imagining himself sucking it… Woojae squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head frantically. It was to shake off the audacious thoughts that were spreading on their own.
“Why would you do laundry?”
“I borrowed his clothes the other day!”
“That’s funny! You ignored the fact that you vomited on his clothes, but you’d do laundry for him just because you borrowed clothes once? And right in front of him?”
“I should’ve washed such expensive clothes!”
“You could just take it to the dry cleaners!”
It became quiet for a moment. Because Woojae, noticing something strange, closed his mouth.
“‘His clothes’?”
“Huh?”
“You vomited on his clothes?”
“Ah, no. Because vomit got on those clothes at that time too.”
“…Anyway, forget it. What dry cleaners when you have hands?”
Thank goodness it passed. Minwook’s heart raced at the situation where his lie almost got exposed.
Woojae’s head was complicated in his own way because he didn’t want to say he had no money. If he said he had no money because of the key, Minwook would obviously feel sorry even though it wasn’t his fault.
“Didn’t you know where the dry cleaners was? Why would you wash it yourself? Do you perhaps like Gye Sajun—”
Eventually, the truth popped out of Woojae’s mouth at the misunderstanding that jumped to a strange place.
“I did it to save money! I lost my key too, and I have to pay the MT fee but I have no spare cash.”
“Ah, you should’ve said so!”
Only then did Minwook make an ‘oops’ expression.
“Forget it. I didn’t plan to tell you, so why are you making strange misunderstandings and causing a fuss?”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“What’s your fault? Just hearing about having no money is annoying. In my experience, that’s how it is.”
“I’m fine though…”
Good guy. Woojae smiled faintly at Minwook’s kind heart. It wasn’t Minwook’s fault that he had no money, so he felt sorry for making him worry.
“Let’s go eat gopchang together next time. I went there after a long time and it was still delicious.”
Woojae suggested to soothe Minwook, who had become noticeably sullen. Minwook’s face, which had been awkward until just now, was colored with shock again.
“Why aren’t you answering?”
“You, you… This traitor! Go Woojae, how could you go to a place you were supposed to go with me, alone with Gye Sajun? This is betrayal!”
In the end, Woojae had to beg for about an hour. Only after confessing in detail what the gopchang tasted like, how he ate it, and even what he had for dessert could he resolve Minwook’s grievance a little. It was a tiring day in many ways.
***
Sajun, who had been writing a review about the movie with his laptop open, went to the portal site homepage and opened the dictionary. Because he absolutely couldn’t concentrate. Right here and now, he faced squarely the line disguised as a suggestion that Go Woojae had given him.
—Want to be friends?
Friends. Sajun muttered under his breath the definition of friends he’d searched in the dictionary.
“Closely… someone you’ve been with for a long time.”
Has he been close with Go Woojae for a long time? What degree is close, and how much time is long? To be with. What exactly does being with mean? When he moved his fingers to tap the keyboard and pressed enter, an array of letters appeared.
‘To get to know each other’s faces and be on friendly terms.’
Sajun rubbed between his brows and hummed. Somehow he seemed to be getting dumber. The words he’d learned when he started talking and reading books felt newly unfamiliar. Go Woojae drew a line again with him, who had barely crossed the line. He was being punished for hastily burying his nose in his flesh and placing his lips there.
When he placed the light green soap on the desk and brought his face close, a refreshing and cool fragrance touched the tip of his nose. But there was no heaviness below or surging heat.
Even when he stared at the thing sitting obediently on his thigh, nothing changed. But when he closed his eyes and recalled that pretty yet handsome face, blood began to flow down little by little.
“Go Woojae’s smell.”
When he took a deep breath, it felt like he was sitting at his desk stroking his hair. Even though Go Woojae had never touched his hair, the long, white, handsome fingers with protruding knuckles that he’d only seen with his eyes seemed to brush through his hair. He raised his head and leaned back against the chair, leaving the half-erect thing.
“Go Woojae, are you really a beta?”
He threw a meaningless question at someone who wasn’t there. In reality, the desire for it not to be true was probably greater. As evidence, a hollow laugh burst out together. He recalled his hyung’s warning, which he’d heard since childhood until he was sick of it, that he must never meet a beta.
He also remembered the particularly difficult last rut. He’d denied it, saying it must be a mistake and pushed it away, but ridiculously, he saw Go Woojae getting into Jeong Minho’s car, and that night he ended up discovering him crying alone. At that moment, he thought he’d seen an illusion. He’d never even imagined Go Woojae would cry like that. Above all, it was also the first time he’d seen a person cry like that.
With the tears flowing mixed with rainwater, lines or whatever—if only he could stop that crying, he felt he could do anything. He’d inadvertently grown close to Go Woojae again. The word friend didn’t quite satisfy him, but if Go Woojae wanted that, and if he also didn’t want to hurt Go Woojae, that much was right. Even if he’s a beta, at least friends.
—This is really expensive and good, but I’ll be generous and give you two.
It felt like Go Woojae’s voice was ringing in his ears. Sajun held the cucumber soap in his hand and smiled slightly. The letters ‘cucumber soap’ engraved on the soap were too honest. He really hadn’t thought it would be edible cucumber. He’d thought it was the name of an overseas brand called ‘oi’ or ‘oyi’. When he recalled the long, bumpy green vegetable, laughter kept spreading. So Go Woojae likes this kind of thing.
Then, Sajun’s phone started vibrating. He who confirmed the name on the screen lifted the phone with a sunken expression.
“Yes.”
[Young master, I’m calling because I have something to tell you about the matter you instructed the other day.]
“Please speak.”
***
The dream world was twisted as always. The scenery of the house and neighborhood where he lived as a child passed sequentially. Places full of memories that were shabby but happy. In the dim vision, Dad’s voice mixed with a gloomy air could be heard.
—Woojae-ya, why don’t you listen to Dad like this? You know Nari is still young so I can’t take care of you too. Mom’s body is also very hurt so Dad has so many worries…
It was a period when he was really going astray. The trigger was simple. A classmate in the same class manifested as an alpha. What was their name? Until then, they’d been on terms where they laughed and chatted normally, but their grandmother was an alpha or something. Anyway, expounding on such family history, that kid acted quite superior.
—Ah, I’m jealous…
—Don’t they seem a bit taller too?
—Go Woojae is…
—Hey, that kid is the same beta as us. After a while, won’t they fall behind…?
He sometimes had fleeting thoughts, but the test results conducted by the school only confirmed once again that Woojae was a beta. Still, until then he didn’t think much of it. He was always first place, and was praised wherever he went. Even if someone got more attention than him for a while, it wasn’t that big of a deal. But because he kept hearing such talk, because they said it was decided anyway.
—Woojae-ya, was the exam very difficult?
Perhaps because he was stressed, his condition wasn’t good and he made mistakes on the exam. Thinking about it now, it could happen, but being dragged to the teachers’ office at a young age and listening to a speech, resentment surged. He came to hate school life. It felt like everyone was only looking at him. As if hoping he’d fall. A precarious tightrope walk continued.
