Seon Eunhu was a well-known figure. I couldn’t remember exactly when, where, or how I’d first heard about him — but I’d known since the start of my first year. That there was an Alpha among the upperclassmen, and that he was currently on a leave of absence for military service.
So that’s who it was.
I followed Seon Eunhu with my eyes as he made his way to his seat, trying to recall whatever information I had about him — but nothing came to mind beyond the fact that he was an Alpha.
I’d never found trait-carriers all that interesting. I just figured that Alphas and Omegas weren’t particularly remarkable — they were simply fewer in number compared to Betas. The way I saw it, people were just biologically sorted into types, the same way dogs were divided into breeds like poodles, Jindos, and Chihuahuas. So the stories about Seon Eunhu that had been passed down like folk legends meant nothing more to me than “TMI about some returning student I’ve never met.”
That’s how indifferent I’d been to it all….
“…….”
And yet right now, I was craning my neck to its absolute limit to watch him walk to his seat. Not because he was an Alpha — I simply couldn’t take my eyes off Seon Eunhu.
That neatly sharpened pencil went all the way to the back of the third-year section and sat down. I’d been trailing him with my eyes until my neck was bending at an unnatural angle, and only when I made eye contact with another — less attractive — pencil, well, no, another upperclassman, did I finally straighten up.
…Is it just me?
The atmosphere in the seminar room seemed to have shifted. There had been a burst of commotion, but on top of that, there was a freshness to the energy that I could feel. It was strange to find myself this sensitive — that wasn’t like me.
I looked around, wondering if I was just being influenced by those around me, and sure enough, plenty of students still hadn’t been able to take their eyes off Seon Eunhu either. Only then did I think I understood my own unfamiliar reaction. I was just riding the wave of the atmosphere.
There are things that exist even when you can’t see them. Air, wind, scent, pheromones, and so on. Energy is the same way — which is why, when people get swept up in a certain atmosphere, they usually don’t even notice.
That was exactly where I was right now. I’d been so thoroughly caught up in the air of attention surrounding Seon Eunhu that my thoughts couldn’t seem to move in any other direction. A simple-minded brain, soft and pliable, lacked the resistance to push back against something like this.
Nothing is more foolish than trying to fight against nature. So rather than denying what was happening, I decided to shamelessly steal as many glances at Seon Eunhu as I pleased.
I shifted my hips as if just adjusting my posture and angled my body to the side. It was a difficult angle to maintain, but the effort paid off — a handsome face soon came into view.
The first thing that struck me about his looks was how small his face was relative to his frame. If you were being a little dramatic about it, a single square of paper towel could probably cover it. And the eyes, nose, and mouth packed inside that face were so exquisitely crafted it was like looking at a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site shaped by thousands of years of erosion and sediment.
Seon Eunhu sat leaned back in his chair with both hands tucked into his jacket pockets, responding lightly whenever upperclassmen around him tried to start a conversation one by one. It couldn’t have been his first time seeing them since the semester started, and yet they all looked desperate to say just one more thing to him. Seon Eunhu seemed to be getting mildly tired of it too — he jutted his chin at the guy in front of him who kept turning around, gesturing for him to face forward.
Was it the slightly crooked smile? Or the fact that his posture hadn’t shifted once throughout the entire exchange, as if only half his attention was there? He came across differently than his initial impression had suggested. When his eyes settled on the teaching assistant and even the smile faded away, he looked almost cold.
It didn’t look bad on him. If anything, the contrast in his demeanor over such a short span of time made him feel even more appealing.
How is it possible for a person to be made entirely of cells this superior.
Already remarkably good-looking, with a broad frame to match — and on top of that, an Alpha. Seon Eunhu seemed like a human assembled from nothing but the finest ingredients the world had to offer.
I was stealing glances at Seon Eunhu and turning all of this over in my head when the teaching assistant made some kind of joke. A relaxed smile spread across Seon Eunhu’s previously expressionless face. The contrast in temperature was so stark that I missed my chance to look away — and I was sitting there staring vacantly when Seon Eunhu found me.
“Ah—!”
The moment our eyes met, I snapped myself upright and whipped my head around. My heart pounded far more than the offense warranted. It had only been a split second of eye contact, but it felt like my eyes had been singed.
Barely suppressing the urge to clutch my hammering chest, I stared dead ahead until the opening ceremony ended, as if turning even slightly to the right would spell disaster.
“Alright, let’s close out the opening ceremony here. Anyone who changed their contact information or address over the break, follow me to the TA office. Oh, and returning students, stop by too.”
The students complied without complaint. I was one of them — I’d moved to the university neighborhood last winter. You’d think something like a change of address could be handled over the phone or through a messenger app, but our small department wasn’t exactly known for keeping up with the times.
The upperclassmen who had been waiting for the ceremony to end filed out of the seminar room behind the teaching assistant, and I slowly pushed back my chair to get up too. But the second-year department representative gestured for me to stay.
“Second years, hold on! The opening ritual is coming up soon, so we’ve got a lot to discuss.”
“Ah….”
I let out a groan without thinking and quickly covered my mouth. Right — the opening ritual was one of the events at the start of the semester too.
The Sculpture Department used dangerous tools like electric saws, grinders, and cutters on a regular basis, so every year at the start of the year, they held a ritual ceremony hoping for a safe semester. What set it apart from other rituals was that the pig’s head — the customary offering — was made out of clay by the students themselves.
They needed to form teams to make the clay pig’s head, and they also had to set up the after-party right after the ritual, so there was a lot to coordinate. Apparently the second years were the ones who ran all the department events — and sure enough, it was nothing but tedious tasks.
It was sometime in the middle of comparing everyone’s schedules to figure out when to work on the clay pig’s head. A thought of Seon Eunhu crossed my mind out of nowhere, and I glanced around the room. But there was no need to look carefully — the seminar room now held only second years, and the seat where Seon Eunhu had been sitting looked, now that he was gone, like nothing particularly special at all.
By the time I headed to the TA office to report my new address, a fair amount of time had passed since the opening ceremony ended.
Coming late had its advantages — the area in front of the TA office was quiet. Only four or five upperclassmen were clustered nearby.
“Hello.”
I greeted them on reflex before even registering who they were — and there were the uncircumcised and circumcised upperclassmen from the bathroom earlier, both grinning at me.
Against my will, that lowbrow conversation from earlier came flooding back with vivid clarity. My gaze kept wanting to drift toward their groins, so I shook my head back and forth quickly. Provocative energy had a way of spreading fast. Not wanting to get contaminated again, I grabbed the TA office door handle in a hurry.
And at that moment, the door swung open on its own.
“Oh?”
What appeared before me as the door opened was someone’s chest.
From the broad shoulders and frame alone, I knew in an instant who this was.
That large build.
Those superior cells.
The Alpha Seon Eunhu, with the kind of physique no Beta could match no matter how hard they tried.
Which meant this person was…
I slowly raised my head and looked up at Seon Eunhu. His calm eyes were already on me. When our eyes met, Seon Eunhu gave a slight lift of his eyebrow in greeting.
“Hey.”
…I bet his dick is huge too.
That was the thought that came to me the instant we made eye contact. My brain cells had apparently been thoroughly corrupted by the upperclassmen’s crude conversation after all.
Seon Eunhu flinched for just a moment. I figured it was because I’d been slow to respond, so I quickly bowed my head.
He was a returning student who hadn’t been discharged from the military for long — so he was probably still at the stage where he was particular about manners.
“Hello.”
As I lifted my head back up, I snuck a glance at his groin.
I wonder how big it is if it’s big. I’m not exactly on the small side either. Is he circumcised? What kind of girth are we talking. I’d love to get a look someday. Anyway, he’s even better looking up close.
“…….”
Despite having greeted him properly, Seon Eunhu’s expression as he looked at me wasn’t good. He was staring down at me with a slight furrow between his brows — like someone who had just been told something disgusting.
I quietly sniffed myself, wondering if I had some kind of unpleasant smell on me, but nothing seemed off.
Why is he looking at me like that though?
I was puzzling over it when someone called out from our direction.
“Seon Eunhu, what are you doing. Hurry up! Everyone’s meeting at the billiard hall now.”
Ah, the uncircumcised upperclassman.
I thought to myself, gave him a quick nod, then looked back at Seon Eunhu. But in that brief moment, something like contempt had crept into Seon Eunhu’s expression.
“…Well, apparently — would you mind stepping aside?”
His tone was soft, but the feeling behind it wasn’t. His voice carried a temperature distinctly different from when he’d first said hello — one that, for some reason, felt like I made him uncomfortable.
