Balancing studies and a part-time job meant time flew by faster than I could keep up with.
When my shift ended, I’d work on assignments or build models for my major courses, and whenever I had a spare moment I’d be called in to work on the pig’s head — every day was a blur with no time to breathe.
And then at last, the pig’s head was finished. The clay pig, shaped by the hands of every second-year student, was now sitting safely atop the ritual offering table set up in the lawn in front of the department building, showing off its gracious smile. They’d said it needed a welcoming expression because it was the medium that carried wishes to the spirits — and sure enough, it had such a likeable face that just making eye contact with it made you want to grant it a hundred wishes yourself.
Today was the day of the opening ritual — held every year since the Sculpture Department was founded.
The offering table set up on the lawn looked quite different from a typical ritual spread. What made the Sculpture Department’s ritual uniquely its own was not just the clay pig’s head, but the fact that the various fearsome tools were lined up neatly on the table alongside it.
Sculpture Department students had no choice but to work with dangerous tools. Electric saws, grinders, high-speed cutters, welding machines, nail guns — tools where even a small mistake could lead to a serious accident, all of which they had to start using from their very first year. The opening ritual was therefore an indispensable annual event for the department — a ceremony to pray to the gods of the tools for a safe year without incident.
The students gathered in a curved line around the offering table, where the tools lay displaying their sharpened edges. I stood at the far end of the group, looking in the direction of the department representative. More precisely, I was pretending to look toward the department rep while secretly stealing glances at Seon Eunhu, who stood among the third-years behind him.
It was the first time I’d seen that face in nearly a week, since hearing those perverse remarks.
Even through the busy days, Seon Eunhu’s voice had always been drifting through my head.
If you keep your promise like a good boy, I’ll show you what’s below the waist as a reward.
The dilemma had started from there.
If I kept the promise, I’d have to see that monstrous thing of his. If I didn’t want to see it, I had to break the promise.
So then — why had Seon Eunhu handed me this dilemma in the first place? Could it be a trap? Was his plan to punish me even more harshly if I broke it? The out-of-nowhere confession that he liked women had felt unnatural too. Maybe it was a line he’d planted on purpose, to use as a defense for whatever he intended to do later…
Anyway, after that remark, whatever favorable feelings I’d had toward Seon Eunhu had evaporated completely — but wherever I went, I now found myself checking whether Seon Eunhu was there or not before doing anything else, which meant I was thinking about this pervert Alpha even more than before. Could this have been his plan all along, some kind of sick hobby…?
I still hadn’t figured out Seon Eunhu’s intentions, so I hadn’t been able to decide what attitude to take — and now here I was, having spotted him on this wide lawn after all. We’d managed to avoid each other surprisingly well until now, but a department event made the meeting inevitable.
“Alright, let’s begin the opening ritual.”
Applause broke out at the department rep’s call. Sculpture Department students, professors, and teaching assistants all laughed together without exception. Candles were lit on the offering table, and the cups were filled with liquor.
“We’ll have a moment of silence. Everyone, bow your heads!”
Following the department rep’s instructions, everyone lowered their heads. I stared blankly at the toes of my shoes. In the quiet, the chatter of students from other departments passing nearby carried over in waves.
“Up! Now we’ll proceed with the ritual prayer. The prayer will be read by myself as department rep, and vice-rep Lee Jinseong.”
When Lee Jinseong stepped forward, the other upperclassmen nearby cheered especially enthusiastically. One upperclassman slapped him hard on the back, and Seon Eunhu, standing beside him, burst out laughing. Seeing him laugh with those drooping eyes crinkled up, he looked so warm and pleasant it was hard to believe this was someone with such a filthy hobby.
What a good actor.
I quickly shifted my gaze elsewhere before he spotted me looking. I wanted him to think I wasn’t looking because I didn’t know he was there — not because I was avoiding his eyes. That way, I was neither keeping the promise nor breaking it.
So I made a deliberate effort to switch off my attention toward him and watched the department rep and vice-rep read the ritual prayer. Beginning plausibly with the recitation of the date, the prayer summoned the gods of the tools one by one, taking on a distinctly Sculpture Department flavor as it went.
“O God of the Electric Saw! Thank you for making us feel like formidable rulers of the world every time we wield the weighty electric saw. We have prepared food and drink to honor you — please ensure that nothing is cut but logs. O God of the Grinder! Every time the diamond blade grinds through marble, we need not envy even a diamond ring of many carats. Please watch over us safely again this year and protect our gem-like fellow students from any accidents. O God of the High-Speed Cutter! Please perform the miracle of stopping on its own whenever something other than metal is in danger of being cut. O God of the Welding Machine!…”
Every time another god was summoned, the students laughed with delight. Faint laughter was slipping out of me too. Letting my gaze wander absentmindedly, I happened to make eye contact with Seon Eunhu, who had turned in my direction at just that moment.
“…….”
“…….”
At first I didn’t even register that our eyes had met. The moment my focus sharpened and I realized the person I’d locked eyes with was Seon Eunhu, I startled and spun around. Then immediately regretted it. What if he thinks I’ve been looking away because I want to see his dick.
Carefully turning back to face forward, I saw that the department rep and vice-rep had already finished reading the prayer and were now bowing toward the pig’s head — and Seon Eunhu was standing behind them, watching them and laughing.
Had he not even been looking at me? I felt embarrassed for getting spooked over nothing and overreacting.
Soon the professors and teaching assistants came forward one by one and bowed. They pulled out wads of cash from their pockets and tucked the bills sideways into the pig’s mouth. Even from a distance, the thickness of the money was impressive and the mood was high.
“Everyone brought cash, right?”
The department rep called out to the Sculpture Department students and received a resounding “Yes!” in reply.
There had been a prior notice to bring cash, so I had ten thousand won sitting in my pocket. Precious money — but if I wasn’t called up to the offering table, I wouldn’t have to spend it. And even if I were called up by name, there was a drinking gathering planned after the event, so I could just think of it as covering food costs. But I lived such a quiet, low-profile existence at school that the odds of being called up were remarkably low.
“Alright, let’s have the most senior students in our department come forward.”
At the department rep’s call, three upperclassmen — the highest-year students among those currently enrolled — stepped forward. With awkward expressions, they bowed on the mat and tucked their cash into the pig’s mouth. Someone watching called out in a pig’s voice, “Oink, more please, oink,” sending a wave of laughter through the crowd — and thanks to that, a few more bills got stuffed into the pig’s mouth.
“All year-level reps, come up!”
“All the couples in our department, come on up!”
“First-years who are single, come forward!”
“Old fogeys, step up!”
After the professors and teaching assistants had cleared out, it turned into a game.
Groups were called up at random like a drinking game — and whoever was named had no choice but to walk up, bow, and put money into the pig’s mouth. Sometimes people would cleverly shield someone from being called up twice, and others would catch on and play along by pretending not to notice — so the lawn remained cheerful and lively throughout.
“Our department’s Alpha, come on up!”
Then at some moment, Lee Jinseong’s shout was met with a brief silence.
But the silence that came from surprise didn’t last — laughter broke out among the students immediately after. Seon Eunhu narrowed his eyes and playfully glared at Lee Jinseong, then walked forward through the sea of laughter. Having always stood as part of a group before, all eyes were now on Seon Eunhu as he stepped out alone.
Amid the cheers of seniors and juniors alike, Seon Eunhu bowed twice and stood up. Then he rolled up the cash he’d taken from his wallet, tucked it into the pig’s ear, and as he stepped away he shouted as though he’d been waiting for this:
“The best-looking person among the third-years, come up.”
The answer was already a foregone conclusion — he grabbed Lee Jinseong by the wrist and tugged him forward. Lee Jinseong resisted, insisting it should be Seon Eunhu who went up, but Seon Eunhu raised both hands with a perfectly shameless expression. The way he shrugged suggested he was claiming complete innocence.
Anyone could see Seon Eunhu was better looking — but Lee Jinseong, outnumbered by the atmosphere, ended up going forward and bowing alone. He rolled up his cash and tucked it into the pig’s other ear, then turned around. The crafty smile on his face was ominous.
“Anyone who was in the military police, step up!”
Seon Eunhu, who had been making threatening faces from the moment their eyes met, smiled with an air of serene acceptance and walked back up — and the students watched the upperclassmen’s antics with amusement. Since it wasn’t their own money going out, everyone was watching from the other side of the river.
Seon Eunhu took off the shoes he’d just put back on and stepped back onto the mat. Watching those white socks stride across the mat, I laughed to myself.
What a flattering way to call someone up. That’s not what Seon Eunhu should be called.
Pervert, come up. Pervert.
You morally bankrupt deviant, get up here right now.
I called out inwardly the words I couldn’t say aloud and laughed quietly to myself. It felt almost like I had summoned the pervert and Seon Eunhu had appeared.
Ah, this is too funny.
Carrying that small burst of amusement, I slowly swept my gaze over his body from the bottom up. Just looking at his appearance, he seemed perfectly fine…
The silhouette of toes hidden beneath white socks, and the jut of ankle bones. Long legs and thigh muscles that not even dark-colored trousers could hide. The line of his backside above that, half-concealed under his T-shirt. My gaze traveled past the hem of his fluttering shirt, tracing the silhouette of his waist, and had just reached the back of his neck —
A faint sense of being watched made me shift my focus to Seon Eunhu’s face. What came next was making eye contact with the Alpha’s brown irises.
