He pressed down on his feverish forehead with his cooled hand and left the classroom. Not a single problem entered his eyes, so he couldn’t tell if he’d solved them properly.
Jang Yeonju, who’d been sitting in front, let out a deep sigh the moment she received the exam paper, submitted what was almost a blank sheet, and left early, so there was no trace of her. Woojae didn’t have the mental capacity to greet Sojeong either, so he quickly left the building. Just as Minwook had said this morning, it seemed best to just go to the dorm and collapse and sleep.
“The scholarship student has arrived. What’s everyone doing? Not getting out of the way.”
“Woojae-ya, hi? Did you do well on the exam? How admirable that a beta even takes exams. Right?”
“Ah, fucking hilarious. Look at what this bastard’s saying.”
The problem was that just before entering the path to the dorm, his ankle was caught by the guys who’d been following behind him. From the moment he left the classroom, his eyes had met with the guys whispering in the hallway. Since his head was completely out of it due to the fever, he tried not to pay attention, but somehow they kept following, and it seemed they’d been gauging whether Gye Sajun would show up or not.
“What is it?”
The voice that came out hoarsely was clearly that of a cold patient. But the guys dealing with Woojae right now were types bundled up with hostility, so even that sounded unpleasant to them.
“Fuck, what the hell. Did this bastard catch some contagious disease?”
“If you’re sick, you should rest. Is it because there’s no animal hospital around here? Why, should I tell them to build one at school?”
The guys who’d only been watching until now openly displayed their disgust since Gye Sajun wasn’t there. Rather than anger, Woojae felt bitterness. Because his situation really felt like a stray cat without an owner.
“Did you chase me all the way here to pick a fight?”
Because his condition was really bad, his whole body drooped downward like waterlogged cotton. Woojae just wanted to end this worthless quarrel quickly.
“No, I heard a rumor that some nobody’s seed is presumptuously coming to the department MT, so I came to check.”
One particularly big male student—though of course compared to Gye Sajun, he was a bit shorter and more spread out sideways, so he lacked dignity—stepped forward and spoke triumphantly. Lackeys 1 and 2 stood beside him, surrounding Woojae as if to threaten him.
“……So?”
To think the day would come so soon when he’d have to use that damn technique Gye Sajun taught him. Woojae sighed as he dropped his bag to the ground with a thud.
“What do you mean ‘so’? If you get a little hurt, you naturally won’t be able to come. We’re trying to help you out a bit.”
They say all alphas are handsome. Bullshit. Even with blurry eyes, the toad-like face clearly entered his vision. Woojae pushed back the hood covering his head and clenched his fist tightly. Technique or whatever—there was no answer other than just beating them up.
– Then no matter how much difference there is in muscle strength, the opponent gets suppressed and can’t move. Even if they’re alphas, kids who don’t exercise are all the same.
That guy’s words suddenly came to mind. Woojae sneered at that memory. One guy would be one thing, but how could he suppress three guys, and even if he threw his whole body to suppress one, what if the remaining guys stomped and kicked him? Gye Sajun, that bastard. A guy who doesn’t know how shitty and cruel the world is at all.
The lynching that happens in reality wasn’t like a jiu-jitsu match. It wasn’t a game where you win or lose by tapping out. Woojae faced head-on the guys bundled up with disgust who wanted to trample him.
“Try hitting me, then. Fuck, you young masters must have been so scared of this lowlife that you came in a pack.”
“That bastard……!”
At Woojae’s provocation, the big guy threw a punch first. Woojae took one hit with his heavy body while pulling the arm of the guy who threw the punch at him and slammed him into the ground. He could see the scum who’d been grinning after confirming he got hit freeze up. What came next was easy.
“Ahhh!”
He grabbed the hair of the guy trying to get up and applied force as if to smash it into a suitable-looking rock. Then he could see the remaining guys who’d been rushing to do something to him freeze with a gasp. When he pressed down on both arms of the screaming guy with his knees, it became exactly the position where he couldn’t resist.
“Ahh! Security! Call security, fuck!”
“Is it okay if this bastard’s head cracks open? Ah, now that exams are over, there’s no need for it?”
Still, an alpha was an alpha—the punch was quite fierce. Woojae didn’t even wipe his clearly split lip and left it as it was. His cheek throbbed, but the ringing in his skull from the cold was more fucking awful.
“Y-you crazy bastard!”
“So you thought I was sane? If I was sane, I wouldn’t have come to this school.”
“Let go, you fuck! Let go……!”
“I was just thinking about letting go since you’re heavy anyway. Why are you so heavy when there’s nothing in your head?”
“Ahh, ahh!”
He felt like an idiot for looking beyond, hoping that guy might appear, when he was the one who’d pounced on him first and then pushed him away. But he soon sneered bitterly. Wasn’t he the one who’d climbed up here by his own strength? It was the same now. The only one who could save himself was himself. At least the world Woojae had lived in was like that.
“Just go. Don’t be annoying. If you don’t like me going to MT, throw a fit to Jang Yeonju and Gye Sajun. I don’t want to see you guys either.”
“This bastard……!”
After answering one last time, Woojae collapsed backwards. He really was at his limit.
“Go Woojae!”
Along with a familiar voice heard from far away, his vision turned hazy white. His last memory was thinking he hoped there weren’t any rocks behind him.
***
Sajun carried the collapsed Go Woojae and immediately headed to the infirmary inside the dorm. Places with proper facilities were too far.
He could have chased the guys who were running away, but that wasn’t urgent. Inside the infirmary sat one elderly male staff member. He looked very bored, but Sajun wasn’t in a situation to care about such things. He wasn’t the type to care about others’ circumstances one by one in the first place.
“He just collapsed.”
“Ah…… Rut?”
The man glanced at Go Woojae, who was sweating profusely, and asked flatly. Do betas not recognize their own kind? Sajun hardened his lips and shook his head.
“I wondered who it was—isn’t that that student? The one with lots of rumors, that, what was it……”
“Just bring medicine.”
Sajun spoke firmly, suppressing his unpleasant mood. The corners of his eyes trembled from irritation. When he laid Go Woojae on the infirmary bed, he felt relief but also stuffiness in his chest. He wanted to take him somewhere no one could see and care for him directly. The man took Woojae’s temperature and checked his condition while reading Sajun’s mood.
“It seems like just a simple cold…… His fever is about 38 degrees. Are you going to keep him here?”
“If he’s okay, I’ll take him to his room. Just give me medicine.”
After receiving fever reducers and such from the male staff member, Sajun carefully picked up Go Woojae again. Until he arrived at his room after passing through the dorm hallway, gazes kept touching his back as if seeing something strange, but Sajun didn’t care. Because bringing Go Woojae to his room was more important.
“Uhhh……”
He looked sick enough to doubt whether he was really okay. The flushed cheeks with fever and sweat-soaked forehead were the same as last night’s yet different.
Back then, he’d hoped the heat Go Woojae held wouldn’t go out because he was pleased by it, but now he hoped this heat would cool down immediately.
Sajun lightly held the limp Go Woojae while pulling out one arm to open his dorm room door. In the process, he prayed that he wouldn’t feel uncomfortable. The moment he entered the dark room, without even turning on the lights, he laid Go Woojae on his bed. Only then did he feel so comfortable that even the stuffiness completely flew away. Go Woojae, breathing shallowly on his bed, looked endlessly fragile. Unimaginable that he’d defeated three alphas.
However, Sajun soon regretted it. Because he didn’t know how to nurse someone. When family members were sick, the family doctor always came to the house. He’d never had occasion to care for a sick person.
Sajun took out water from the refrigerator but frowned at the cold temperature. No matter how ignorant he was, he thought such cold water wouldn’t be good for a sick person. He also didn’t want to wake Woojae to make him swallow medicine. There was only one way.
“……Emergency treatment.”
“Huh……”
“Don’t run away this time.”
Sajun took a sip of bottled water, opened the sleeping Go Woojae’s lips with his thumb, and pushed in the medicine. Then without giving him a gap, he let the water he’d held in his mouth flow through his lips. It was a kiss that was short and quiet, contrary to yesterday’s.
Gulp—he separated without delay from Go Woojae, who swallowed the pill along with the somewhat lukewarm water. Because if he kept his lips pressed just a little longer, it seemed he’d end up doing unnecessary things to a sleeping person.
“Why are you always causing trouble? I can’t take my eyes off you.”
Sajun quietly stroked Woojae’s forehead and checked here and there to see if he was injured anywhere. The fingertips that had cooled down were chilly, contrary to his boiling forehead. Fortunately, thanks to collapsing onto the grass, there wasn’t a single scratch on Go Woojae’s body.
The moment he saw Go Woojae staggering and collapsing, Sajun had to taste the feeling of his heart plummeting to the ground. It was much more painful than when he’d seen him sobbing.
“Ugh, it hurts……”
“……”
He wanted to ask if it hurt a lot. But before he could, Go Woojae opened his mouth.
