“Eunhu?”
Lee Jinseong noticed Seon Eunhu backing me into a corner and called out to him, but Seon Eunhu didn’t spare him so much as a glance. Those brown eyes fixed on me with an air of bearing down on me and no one else.
“Jinseong, go ahead without me. I’ll talk to this one and catch up.”
“Hey, what’s going on.”
Lee Jinseong, sensing the unusual atmosphere, tried to placate him. For a moment it seemed like Seon Eunhu’s gaze might finally leave me — but he gave Lee Jinseong a short shake of his head and looked back down at me coldly.
“I just have something to say. Go on ahead.”
What on earth had I done wrong to deserve this. Cowed by Seon Eunhu’s firm attitude, I stood with my hands clasped together, and Lee Jinseong let out a long sigh. The two of them seemed close, and I desperately hoped Lee Jinseong would muster just a little more energy to stop Seon Eunhu.
At that, Lee Jinseong stepped up close to Seon Eunhu and opened his mouth. Because of how close they were, his whisper reached me too.
“He’s a kid who’s had it hard. Don’t be too rough on him.”
Then he said “Get here quick” and turned to leave.
I had no choice but to watch helplessly as the only person who could have saved me in this situation walked away.
“Come here. Let’s sit and talk.”
Seon Eunhu led the way to the bench in front of the department building.
With no other option, I followed that large frame at a hesitant distance — then caught Seon Eunhu’s eye and quickly quickened my pace. It felt like I was being marched off to be scolded for something I’d done wrong, except I had no idea what, which made it all the more uncomfortable.
“Did you do something to wrong me?”
“Sorry?”
I looked up at the quiet question.
Seon Eunhu — whose drooping eye corners should have made him look gentle, yet somehow gave him a sharp impression instead — was waiting for an answer.
I gave a small shake of my head. No matter how I thought about it, the only thing I could have done wrong to Seon Eunhu was sending my name as “Go Taeling”…
At that, Seon Eunhu let out a quiet, fleeting laugh. It was the kind of smile that vanished without a trace as soon as it appeared. He gave a nod.
“Right. You didn’t do anything wrong, so you don’t need to be that scared. It just so happened that seeing you made me think that it’d be better if we each stuck to our own kind. So let’s just get along without getting tangled up. Our own kind, each to their own.”
As he said “each to their own,” Seon Eunhu gestured with his fingers to form groups. He pointed to the direction Lee Jinseong had disappeared and then to himself, and then pointed to me and the department building entrance one after the other. Some time had passed, but it was after he’d mentioned An Seungkyu, so the gesture toward the department building felt like it meant An Seungkyu.
Is he right now grouping me together with An Seungkyu and calling that our “own kind”?
Before I even had the chance to raise that question, that low, clear voice continued.
“But no matter how hard we try not to get tangled up, school life means we’ll inevitably cross paths sometimes, right? There’s even one class we share. So I’ve thought of a few ways we can get along just fine. Listen carefully and take your pick.”
First, Seon Eunhu said, raising his index finger.
I held my breath, afraid his exhale might reach me as he leaned closer. With that handsome face filling my entire field of vision, my heart — which normally had no sense of presence at all — started thumping and making a fuss.
Even at that sufficiently close distance, Seon Eunhu lowered his voice as though sharing a secret.
“From now on, you don’t look at me.”
“…Sorry?”
“Don’t greet me, don’t acknowledge me either. We thoroughly ignore each other. How about it. Easy, right?”
“…….”
“Next, number two.”
Seon Eunhu held up two fingers. Then, of the uppercase V that bloomed from his hand, he brought his index finger — extending straight at a diagonal — to rest against his lower lip. The way his gaze drifted upward suggested he was only now actually thinking of what the second option might be.
Do Alpha pheromones contain something that renders Betas helpless? Even after being told to his face not to look at him, I was blankly staring at his fingertip. More precisely, my gaze had been stolen by his lips, plumped and gathered where his finger pushed against them. They were red and lush, just like cherries.
“Hmm…. I don’t know. Seems like there’s only one.”
Seon Eunhu concluded after thinking it over and folded his fingers back. He shrugged as if there was nothing to be done, and scrunched up his nose.
“Seems like this is the only way we can get along. You’ll do that for me, right?”
Absolutely no looking.
He emphasized it once more, then stretched the corners of his lips into a smile. His gentle demeanor and tone nearly made me mistake this for a kind offer. Being asked to sever ties this softly was a first, and I didn’t know what reaction to show — I was at a loss. Out of my confusion came a perfectly reasonable question.
“…Why?”
“Why, you ask.”
And Seon Eunhu answered as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“I like women.”
“…….”
“Betas with dicks don’t do it for me.”
At that quiet declaration, I was left speechless. Because I genuinely didn’t know what I was supposed to do with that. Was I supposed to agree and say that I felt the same? But then how did that become a reason for us to act like strangers? I couldn’t make any sense of the logic behind what Seon Eunhu was saying.
Whether my reaction was unexpected, Seon Eunhu had been staring at me and now tilted his head. What kind of reaction had he been expecting, then? Should I have clapped?
Oh.
And then, in that moment, I understood.
This person is an asshole.
“What?”
“Sorry?”
“What was that.”
“…Nothing.”
…What even. Anyway, he didn’t even know my name until a moment ago, which meant Seon Eunhu didn’t know me at all — and yet he was sitting here with that contemptuous look on his face, making a point of pulling me aside to talk like this and throwing his weight around. It was only natural to question his character. I must have looked like easy pickings because I didn’t seem to have many friends and went around quietly on my own.
The military had sure done wonders for his eye for targets. I was a pacifist — the kind who flattened out like a pancake the moment someone pushed down on me. If you pressed, I yielded.
Still, I felt a little disappointed. The first person I’d felt genuinely drawn to in a while, and his personality turned out to be garbage. Born a popular Alpha and he couldn’t even manage some basic decency — picking a fight with me over nothing but a typo, even sending his friend away to do it. His character seemed more than a little wrecked. And even now, he kept staring like he was trying to win a staring contest — stubborn, too. Good grief, now he’s laughing like he finds it absurd? The more absurd one here is me.
But I had neither the nerve nor the energy to argue back. I was clearly the one being provoked, but I had no desire to stand up to an upperclassman. What was the point — it was all meaningless in the end. No reason to get into an emotional standoff.
“Understood. I’ll try my best.”
I answered, accepting it all — and yet Seon Eunhu just sat there watching me. Did he grow up abroad or something? He kept staring uncomfortably into my eyes.
Then at some point, a small laugh slipped out of him.
“There’s a lot packed into that one answer.”
“Sorry? I didn’t pack anything into it.”
“Doesn’t matter. Anyway, let’s make sure we never run into each other again. Take care.”
That seemed to be the end of his business, because Seon Eunhu rose from his seat first. He was so tall that I had to crane my head back just to meet his eyes. An angle like this — with someone this petty — and simply looking up could probably be mistaken for a glare, so I quickly dropped my gaze. As luck would have it, I ended up face to face with his crotch.
He keeps it to the right.
I stared at the substantial silhouette without much feeling and waited for Seon Eunhu to hurry up and leave. But then —
“Hey.”
Seon Eunhu called out to me and looked down at me with a crooked angle.
Whether my shoulders jumped in surprise at the unexpected call or not, the eyes staring down held something like revulsion in them. Before I could even begin to guess why he’d grown even more angry in the span of that moment, Seon Eunhu’s sharp face leaned close to my ear.
“If you keep your promise like a good boy, I’ll show you what’s below the waist as a reward.”
“…Sorry?”
“Happens to be a hobby of mine — showing off how big my dick is. Bye then.”
Seon Eunhu left on those words. I stared blankly at the figure walking away with those long legs for a good long while. I was caught in a shock so enormous I even forgot to blink.
Good lord… so there are genuinely filthy perverts like this out there…. Showing me what’s below the waist as a reward…. And his hobby is what? Showing off the size of his dick…?
I doubted my own ears, but those were unmistakably the words that had come out of Seon Eunhu’s mouth.
I had thought that telling me not to look at him or greet him meant he wanted to cut ties — but the intent was to show me what was below the waist…
And the part where he referred to that act as giving a reward was the detail that truly revealed just how serious of a pervert Seon Eunhu was.
Does the Sculpture Department only have perverts or something?
An Seungkyu at least wore his nature so openly that his reputation had suffered for it — Seon Eunhu was nothing like that image at all, which made the shock all the greater.
I sat there in a troubled daze for a long time without even realizing my part-time shift was almost upon me.
It seems I’ve gotten tangled up with a pervert Alpha….
