People said Sunjeong was a fool.
They said it wasn’t normal to be blinded by a one-sided love that wasn’t even a relationship and neglect daily life. Even more so if the target was a poor recessive Alpha living in a lower-class neighborhood.
When they saw Taeon’s face, they momentarily showed understanding expressions, but still became strict again. Though his appearance was strikingly fresh enough to stand out, it was clear that dominant Alphas who were handsome enough to suit Sunjeong and had the condition of being wealthy weren’t all that rare either.
Whenever he heard such words, Sunjeong scoffed inwardly. Sunjeong wasn’t a fool. He didn’t bet on fights with no possibility of winning.
So it meant that if Taeon weren’t Taeon, he wouldn’t have chased after him like that.
Sunjeong was certain that Taeon also liked Sunjeong.
It was just something he could feel.
If you couldn’t recognize the lingering attachment filling those black eyes looking down at Sunjeong as if annoyed, then you were the fool.
Sunjeong’s luxurious childhood of being loved and adored by everyone ended when he was a first-year in high school. It was around the time when kids were starting to manifest as manifestors one after another. When a friend he was close with manifested as a dominant Alpha, Sunjeong sincerely congratulated him.
This was before he tried to recklessly pheromone shower Sunjeong, who had manifested as a dominant Omega, or intentionally caused discomfort to other manifestors by putting up pheromone barriers.
He, who was strangely obsessive, eventually deliberately waited for Sunjeong’s heat cycle period and made a surprise attack.
It happened on the school rooftop where people’s footsteps rarely reached.
As a device to make the manifestor’s body recognize their own trait, the first heat cycle or rut in one’s life was a rite of passage that had to be experienced as it was, regardless of taking suppressants. Sunjeong’s plan to experience it at home during the short spring break collapsed due to his crazed pheromone showering.
In the end, he helplessly faced his first heat cycle at school. What was even worse was that he, who deliberately provoked Sunjeong, also faced his first rut in life.
It happened without knowing that the pheromones emitted by a manifestor during their first heat cycle and rut were powerful enough to spread throughout the not-so-small school. Surprised teachers immediately ran to the rooftop, and in the end, nothing happened to Sunjeong. It was just that he had to experience his first heat cycle, which he would have to go through once anyway, in an unintended place for the first time.
So he tried to think it was okay, but his heart didn’t feel that way. The feeling of being betrayed by his best friend in his short life left Sunjeong’s heart closed in a devastating form.
In the end, Sunjeong, who started refusing to go to school, still didn’t completely confine himself inside the house.
On sunny days, he would take walks in the garden of his house, a large mansion, and sometimes stroll around the neighborhood briefly.
‘Excuse me. You dropped this.’
From behind Sunjeong, who was taking a short walk around his house as usual, came a low voice that seemed to have just finished going through puberty. It was clearly the voice of a boy his age. Instantly, Sunjeong’s frightened body stiffened. Since Sunjeong didn’t even have a phone anymore, there was nothing for him to drop.
Sunjeong, who thought he should quickly run home, clenched his fists. Let’s run when I count one, two, three. When Sunjeong, who comforted himself, was catching his breath, the voice was heard once more.
‘Go Sunjeong, you dropped this.’
When he turned around at the voice that even called his name, what he saw was Taeon’s face.
Taeon, whose eyes met Sunjeong’s, grinned. Instantly, Sunjeong’s heart started pounding.
Taeon lived in an orphanage under the foundation of the expensive private school Sunjeong attended. Though there was various corruption and it wasn’t a very good place, Taeon had said that the only good point was that you could attend this school if you had good grades.
Sunjeong admired Taeon’s cheerfulness as he added, ‘I won’t be able to go to college anyway, though.’ Sometimes even in his room, he was curious about Taeon’s well-being.
‘What is this?’
Unable to look at the paper Taeon handed over, Sunjeong asked carefully.
‘What we promised. The things we agreed to do together when we became adults. But you also wrote here “graduate as valedictorian.” Don’t you have to attend school to graduate?’
‘……’
Sunjeong saw for the first time in a long while Taeon’s lips, always in a somewhat rebellious expression, forming an arc.
Sunjeong gazed at the gentle curve of that smile for a very long time.
It was the moment he fell in first love.
The smile began to disappear from Taeon’s face, which had always shown Sunjeong a kind smile, when the full-fledged college entrance exam preparation season arrived. Since they were students at a school famous for having the highest grades even in the academic district, that atmosphere was even more intense.
Thanks to Taeon, as Sunjeong started attending school again, his parents, who had been constantly pressuring Sunjeong about grades, said this.
‘You just need to graduate. We’d like you to go to college too, but anywhere you can study what you want is fine.’
For them, just their son, whom they thought might become a hikikomori, taking steps was enough to make them happy.
Since Sunjeong hadn’t been very good at studying originally and had no great interest, it was welcome news.
That said, he had no intention of letting go of his studies.
Sunjeong wanted to attend the same school as Taeon. So, Hanguk University.
‘I’m going to study hard.’
‘Okay.’
Looking at Taeon’s cheek puffed up because of the lollipop Sunjeong had given him, Sunjeong opened his mouth again.
‘I’m going to be campus couples with you, Yoon Taeon.’
‘……What?’
At the out-of-the-blue words, Taeon frowned. It was already an expected behavior.
‘I’m saying I’m going to be Hanguk University campus couples with you.’
Taeon pulled out the lollipop in his mouth with an absurd expression. Looking at the melon-flavored popsicle wet with Taeon’s saliva, Sunjeong gulped down his dry saliva. Clearly food with someone else’s saliva was dirty, but somehow the lollipop Taeon had been sucking on only seemed sweet.
When Sunjeong tried to interpret the desire he was facing for the first time in his life, Taeon said in a voice as if bewildered.
‘I’m not going to college. No, I can’t go.’
It was a school where they heard that the poorest parent’s occupation was doctor. Even ordinary middle-class kids had no room to set foot in this place. That’s why the children easily despised the students from facilities who were surely admitted, a few each year.
But no one despised Taeon. Taeon, who manifested as a recessive Alpha, had virtually the largest build in the school, and his fists looked solid at a glance. Moreover, he was excessively handsome, and his grades always stayed in the top 10 of the whole school. Being in the top 10 at this school meant a free pass to Hanguk University.
Even at Taeon’s answer, Sunjeong, who was already fully prepared, smiled broadly and shot back.
‘Don’t worry about money. My mom and dad really like you. They’ll even get us a studio to live in together, and various support through our family foundation……’
‘Hey, Go Sunjeong.’
At Taeon’s low voice, which was always kind, Sunjeong closed his mouth in surprise.
‘Don’t ever say that kind of thing again.’
‘……You’ll have to get a scholarship to go to college anyway, right?’
‘I’m not going.’
‘Not going?’
If Taeon had honestly told Sunjeong then that parents whose faces and names he didn’t know had incurred debt under Taeon’s name, if he had let him know that the reason he could rarely be seen after school was because he was working part-time, many things would have been different.
But back then, Taeon chose to remain silent to Sunjeong.
‘Not everyone can live a life where they can naturally go to college.’
‘What kind of words are those……’
‘From the day I entered this school, I kept repeating only this one sentence to myself. To make myself understand.’
‘……’
‘So never say that kind of thing to me again.’
At the end of the conversation, Taeon’s face regained its smile.
Because the conversation had become too serious, the confession meaning contained in Sunjeong’s aspiration to be campus couples with Taeon wasn’t properly conveyed. Sunjeong didn’t care though. Taeon was Sunjeong’s.
Confessions would continue until Taeon accepted Sunjeong’s feelings.
Sunjeong really, really liked Taeon so much.
If he had known things would turn out this way, maybe he would have chosen an easier path as soon as he turned twenty.
Dragging the panting Taeon, engulfed in the heat of pheromones, into the room, Sunjeong thought.
***
“You know, Yoon Taeon.”
“Fuck, Go Sunjeong, haa, you know I’ll really kill you when my rut is over……”
“You know someone named Yoon Yuhyeon.”
Even while panting, Taeon was surprised at the name of Yuhyeon, who must still be waiting for him. He couldn’t understand why Yuhyeon’s name was coming from Sunjeong’s mouth.
“I’ve met that person separately before.”
“……What?”
“It’s not that someone contacted me to meet, but we ran into each other when I was chasing you…… hng……”
No matter how recessive, when an Alpha was spraying pheromones so much that he couldn’t think straight, there was no way Sunjeong would be okay either. Now Sunjeong’s body was also filling with heat. Sunjeong struggled to swallow his rising breath inward and said.
“That person, haa, when they heard my name, said it felt bad.”
“……What did that bastard say.”
“They said every time they do it with you, you call my name when you come, so it feels fucking shitty.”
