From what he could tell, Baek Yu-gyeong’s natural disposition wasn’t warm and bubbly at all. If bumping into a second-year student was enough to make him take that kind of overbearing attitude — as if that alone had put him in a bad mood — then he seemed to be someone with a temperament that was a little crooked from the start.
With Seo Ha-ra there had been a reason, but if this was his true nature, then what Yu-gyeong would go on to do in the future was easy enough to piece together. Come to think of it, he could have explained himself — but rather than offering any defense, Baek Yu-gyeong had immediately picked a fight with Ha-ra and traded words with her.
Not a good-natured person to begin with, and once things had already soured with Ha-ra, he’d simply maintained that attitude — then at some point later, something happened to make him fall for her, and by then it would be too late to take any of it back.
…And then you cry your eyes out over it?
Cha-heun let out a sigh as he watched Yu-gyeong pressed close at his side, beaming like someone who couldn’t be happier. He couldn’t quite figure out why this boy was behaving this way right now — but the future was clear.
The female lead, Seo Ha-ra, was someone worth loving. Whatever it was that drew him to her, Baek Yu-gyeong would eventually fall for her. There had actually been quite a few panels of Baek Yu-gyeong following Ha-ra with his eyes. Even if Yu-gyeong was a little warped, if left alone as he was, this kid would obviously end up shedding tears a year from now.
Right — since things have come to this anyway, maybe I’ll try turning him into a decent person before Seo Ha-ra transfers in. A year from now… that should be enough time.
It would be enough to fix his character to a degree that the upright Seo Ha-ra could actually approve of.
Cha-heun set himself two goals.
- Return the body to Shin Cha-heun.
- Turn Baek Yu-gyeong into a decent human being.
With that thought in mind, he slipped a hand into his jacket pocket.
“Hm…?”
Something rectangular met his fingers — he pulled it out, and it was a nameplate. A red one for second years, the same kind Yu-gyeong wore.
[Min Ha-seong]
“Huh? Hyung, isn’t that a second-year nameplate?”
“Looks like it belongs to that friend from earlier…. Must have slipped into my jacket pocket when we bumped into each other.”
The name was familiar. Come to think of it, it seemed like it might belong to that pretty-faced male student who had shoved a chocolate into his hands not long ago, said it was just a gift, and bolted. Unfortunate that he’d accidentally dropped that chocolate and hadn’t gotten a single piece of it.
…Ah, so that friend is an Alpha too, then.
Cha-heun turned the nameplate over in his fingers with a troubled look, then closed his fist around it.
“…Mmm, give that to me. I’m in second year. I’ll pass it along to my friend.”
Cha-heun looked at Yu-gyeong.
Watching him hold his hand out with that bright, easy smile, Cha-heun let out a small laugh and slipped the nameplate into his own trouser pocket.
“No, I’ll return it myself.”
“…Why? You don’t trust me either, hyung?”
“No, that’s not it.”
Honestly he didn’t, but saying so outright wasn’t going to do anyone any good.
“Just. I want to hand it to him in person. For some reason it’s on my mind.”
Baek Yu-gyeong stared at him intently — then smiled.
Where had he heard it — that venomous creatures tend to be the beautiful ones. Cha-heun found himself briefly thinking that as he looked at Yu-gyeong’s face.
“Alright. Whatever you want, hyung.”
Baek Yu-gyeong had always carried an air that was far too elegant and refined for a high schooler — but today, for some reason, that smile of his looked almost dazzlingly radiant.
Cha-heun gave him one look and quietly stepped away first.
Baek Yu-gyeong walked one step behind him with a light stride.
…But that name really does feel familiar — Min Ha-seong.
…Is he a character in the original work too? It’s strange — just the name alone feels familiar, like something I read as text.
Walking back to class alone after finally shaking Yu-gyeong off, Cha-heun locked eyes with a male student passing by with a blank expression. The boy had pitch-black hair all over and was enormously built — and he was staring straight at Cha-heun.
……?
The sharp-looking boy, who had been staring fixedly at him, walked on past just like that.
…The personalities of the high schoolers around here are no joke.
No idea why he was getting glared at.
…It was unnerving.
Right — that boy’s face was seriously good-looking, but apart from that, his demeanor was fairly intimidating. A mere student, not even an adult, with a build like a mountain and eyes like blades.
…But his face looks like I’ve seen it somewhere before.
Cha-heun thought about it for a moment, then let it go. Baek Yu-gyeong alone was already giving him a splitting headache.
“Hey, second-year. Hi.”
“Ah, …hi….”
Kim Seong-un stared at the person standing in front of him, visibly flustered.
The name written on the green third-year nameplate: Shin Cha-heun.
Wasn’t this the school’s resident celebrity — the one who had transferred in like a comet at the start of the March semester?
First of all, with those looks and that clean-cut appearance, he’d been well-known since the beginning of the term not only among the third-years but among the first and second-years as well. Even the Beta girls had stirred for a brief moment, and he remembered how they’d been disappointed and dejected when word got out that he was an Omega. Omegas, born with pheromones and reproductive systems designed to attract Alphas, naturally ended up in relationships with accomplished Alphas — that was just how it went.
From what he’d heard, he was a dominant Omega, and there weren’t many of them — was that why his appearance was so striking? With outstanding looks stacked on top of the title of dominant Omega, it was fair to say that essentially every Alpha in the entire school had taken an interest in him at least once.
…I’ve heard his scent is incredible.
Kim Seong-un gave the tip of his nose a slight twitch. All he could smell was a clean fabric softener scent. They said those kinds attracted each other through their own scents — a system entirely beyond the understanding of a Beta. Living in such different worlds from them, it had always felt awkward to approach Alphas or Omegas, and naturally a distance had formed.
…But, well…. Now the Alphas don’t go anywhere near him anymore.
The vicious rumor had spread that ‘Baek Yu-gyeong’ had attached himself and was following Shin Cha-heun around — and after that, the Alphas who had been circling Shin Cha-heun had all fallen back, one by one. Human society wasn’t so different from the animal kingdom: Beta men too tended not to go near a woman that an impressive man was after — but among the trait carriers, it seemed even more pronounced. And Baek Yu-gyeong was the standout even among those accomplished Alphas.
Baek Yu-gyeong — outwardly, a boy with striking looks, a powerful family background to back him up, and a perpetual bright smile that made him the height of popularity among girls and Omegas alike. He seemed to live in an entirely different world from everyone else, like some solitary protagonist.
Even among the standouts that every school tends to have, Baek Yu-gyeong was on another level.
On top of that, his academic performance was excellent, making him a model student beloved by teachers — and his conduct was exemplary enough to serve as a standard for others.
That was Baek Yu-gyeong, as far as most people knew.
…He’s a psychopath, that bastard.
In reality, he was two-faced through and through.
Most students didn’t know it — but Kim Seong-un did, because he’d seen it with his own eyes.
It was a year ago, not long after starting his first year.
One of the popular Alpha seniors among the third-years had suddenly kicked up a fuss claiming Baek Yu-gyeong had stolen his girlfriend — and at that point, Baek Yu-gyeong had been walking down the corridor, completely unaware, when the senior punched him out of nowhere. And even then, he had smiled and told the senior he was sorry. It turned out later that Yu-gyeong hadn’t stolen anyone — the girlfriend had simply broken up with the senior on the excuse that she’d developed feelings for Baek Yu-gyeong.
Baek Yu-gyeong had taken an unfair punch and still gone as far as to say that it was understandable the senior would be hurt given how things had turned out — so of course the atmosphere had shifted in Baek Yu-gyeong’s favor. Then the senior’s ex-girlfriend, who had been standing right behind them, slapped that senior across the face herself, saying, “I left you because I was sick of you — and you hit my Yu-gyeong?!” — and that was how the whole thing was settled.
In the end, it seemed Baek Yu-gyeong hadn’t stolen the girlfriend at all — the senior girl had simply needed an excuse to break up. Or perhaps she really had been quietly in love with Baek Yu-gyeong on her own.
After that, among the girls, Baek Yu-gyeong somehow acquired the absurd title of soft-hearted prince. Considering that most Alpha guys lived and breathed their own self-importance, among the boys too, Baek Yu-gyeong’s good-natured and agreeable manner meant his image wasn’t particularly bad.
Stories about people having their crushes stolen by Baek Yu-gyeong, or murmurs of jealousy and envy, would surface from time to time — but rather than Baek Yu-gyeong actively taking anyone, it was more that the person someone liked happened to have a one-sided crush on Baek Yu-gyeong instead.
…I heard Baek Yu-gyeong was a dominant Alpha, but he’s incredibly tame.
Kim Seong-un had had that naive thought after watching that scene. He’d heard the guy was a dominant Alpha and a young master from a wealthy family — and assumed he’d just swallowed the punch because he didn’t want to make a scene. Without even receiving an apology, at that.
With the incident seeming to have been neatly resolved and put to rest — that was what Kim Seong-un had thought, until the day he was on his way to throw out the trash with one of his friends and witnessed a terrifying scene behind the school building.
Baek Yu-gyeong, smiling, gripping that senior by the back of his head and slapping him across the face.
