Why is Baek Sahyun so obsessed with the “Chae Eunwoo is a beta theory”?
“Sunbae-nim! Are you okay? Wait, just a moment.”
During the silence, Chae Eunwoo jumped up and ran off, saying he’d bring tissues.
Baek Sahyun remained quietly still in that state of having been baptized by coffee. Chills rose along my spine as I only moved my lips slightly. My complexion was probably deathly pale.
“……”
The silence flowing between him and me was terrifying. Drip, drip. The sound of coffee drops falling echoed unusually loudly. Unable to get my bearings, I belatedly opened my mouth.
“Whether Eunwoo is a beta or not, what does that have to do with this situation right now? Haah. Anyway, I really didn’t mean to do this. Did you get very wet? I’ll also go get some tissues…”
While I was making excuses in a hurry, Baek Sahyun suddenly grabbed the back of my head and pulled. His grip was incredibly strong.
“Urk!”
“I won’t warn you anymore, Nam Heejae.”
“……”
“Follow me.”
Seeing his fierce eyes, I felt like I’d reached a dead end. If I resisted any further, I might get beaten up thoroughly in a public place. In the end, I had no choice but to follow behind Baek Sahyun reluctantly.
Chae Eunwoo, who would return with tissues, would be dumbfounded, but for now, appeasing Baek Sahyun came first.
‘I’ll get beaten as soon as I get in the car, right?’
Still, should I be grateful that I wasn’t being dragged to an alley? I groaned as I faced the black foreign car I’d followed Baek Sahyun to.
Befitting the only son of a conglomerate family, Baek Sahyun drove around in exactly that kind of car. Nam Heejae’s car was expensive too, but it was incomparable to that foreign car.
Click. I don’t know why the time spent opening the car door and getting in felt so long.
“Sa, Sahyun! Please avoid my face when you hit me!”
As soon as I got in the car, I squeezed my eyes shut and shouted.
It wasn’t even my face, and if this handsome face got bruised, I’d really feel sorry to the real Nam Heejae. But there was no response from Baek Sahyun.
After a while, I lifted just one eye slightly to check on his condition. Baek Sahyun, sitting in the driver’s seat, was unbuttoning the white shirt he’d worn. Thump thump thump. My heart beat crazily.
“What are you doing?”
When I asked, my face heating up at the chest muscles starting to be gently revealed, Baek Sahyun answered calmly.
“It’s wet, so I’m taking it off.”
“…Huh?”
“I’m taking it off because it’s wet. Is that difficult to understand?”
As I froze, dumbfounded, Baek Sahyun smiled sweetly.
“You’re really going to get scolded at this rate, Nam Heejae.”
I became even more puzzled. Why? Why should I get scolded? Because I spilled coffee? But you verbally abused Eunwoo about his smell, didn’t you? No matter how I thought about it, Baek Sahyun seemed like the worse person, but I didn’t have the courage to argue.
Baek Sahyun continued.
“I’m glad you’re not going around high on drugs… but it still bothers me. Quite a bit.”
I gulped and moistened my throat with dry saliva before asking back. My voice was trembling pathetically.
“What exactly… bothers you so much? Are you a petty person?”
“Fix your tone. It’s vulgar.”
“And you trying to take off your clothes in the car isn’t vulgar?”
“…What?”
“Ah, it’s not vulgar! Totally luxurious, totally!”
Since Baek Sahyun raised his hand, I reflexively changed my words, and fortunately, he didn’t attack me. He was just looking at me as if I were pathetic.
Baek Sahyun’s languid lips moved.
“I don’t like wearing wet clothes.”
“……”
“So if you don’t want to see a man’s body, turn your head away.”
The word “wet” that bastard whispered was excessively seductive, making me cough involuntarily. The fact that I was feeling this way toward a fellow guy was extremely uncomfortable.
Of course I don’t want to see a man’s body. But if it’s Baek Sahyun’s body…
‘How much did he work out to get like that?’
Even just looking through his clothes, I could tell as a fellow man that it was a well-sculpted body worth acknowledging. Even I, who rolled around doing hard labor every day, didn’t have muscles defined like that—it was truly fascinating.
Baek Sahyun, who noticed my gaze, murmured slowly. He grabbed my wrist firmly. His long fingers scratched lightly over my wrist. Even when I tried to pull my arm away from the ticklish feeling, it was impossible because of his strong grip.
“Lately, you’ve been unfamiliar.”
“……”
“Nam Heejae, who only met women, being hooked on a man.”
“……”
“And looking at your friend’s body as if molesting it.”
Haesu said. That hiding the past narrative with the most abnormal guy was one of the charms of novels where a possessor appears. I calmed my agitation and chewed over the words Baek Sahyun had spat out.
Nam Heejae who’d become unfamiliar lately. Nam Heejae who originally only met women. The original Nam Heejae that the original Baek Sahyun knew.
Baek Sahyun had found the omega that Nam Heejae was hanging around with displeasing from the start. Whether it was irritation from having his childhood friend stolen, or simply because it pissed him off that an omega was pretending to be a beta, I don’t know, but anyway, that’s how it was.
– Just because you’re acting like a beta doesn’t mean your traits disappear, Eunwoo.
– Fuck off, you bastard!
– You’re an animal designed to respond to alpha pheromones. Why do you deny your existence to that extent?
– I said fuck off!
– Aha. Are you disgusted with yourself too? Well, your pheromone smell is pretty strong, isn’t it?
He hurt him as if they were mortal enemies from a past life, but ended up being captivated himself. What was suspicious was that there were almost no passages explaining the relationship between Baek Sahyun and Nam Heejae before they met Chae Eunwoo.
How did psycho bastard Baek Sahyun, who finds pleasure in manipulating people around him… end up forming a friendship with Nam Heejae? And how did Nam Heejae end up having such a guy as a friend?
To be honest, it felt uncomfortable to summarize them as having “been friends from the start.” I felt like if I knew about Baek Sahyun and Nam Heejae’s past relationship, things would become clearer somehow, but I lacked the information.
Pondering this, I shook off my fear and started.
“Sahyun. I’m telling you… I’ve never once felt like I wanted to molest your body.”
Though I did feel envious as a man to another man.
“And I’m not hooked on Chae Eunwoo either.”
I tried to use as firm a tone as possible. Because I wanted to create a serious atmosphere. Baek Sahyun, who had been listening to my words attentively, asked back in a slightly annoyed tone.
“You were wrapping around him like an alpha protecting his own omega, but you’re not hooked?”
“Yeah.”
“Then what is it?”
If it were the real Nam Heejae, he would have candidly admitted it at this point and confessed his budding feelings for Chae Eunwoo. That he was actually starting to notice that small child. That it seemed like his feelings were slowly becoming genuine.
But I wasn’t Nam Heejae—I was Jang Woohyun. Jang Woohyun, who had lived a straight man’s life in the “real Republic of Korea,” which was just a story in a novel, where alphas and omegas didn’t exist.
So the predetermined development and ending were declined.
“I just… wanted to help.”
I took a deep breath and continued murmuring.
“A kid who lived hard and endured hard compared to his peers—I hoped he wouldn’t have to live like that going forward.”
It was what I’d always thought while reading the book. That if I were Nam Heejae, I would have tried to become Chae Eunwoo’s mentor, not his lover. Because Nam Heejae had a lot of money and was capable.
On the other hand, Chae Eunwoo was a young professional who’d rolled through a life like a thorny path. It wasn’t a life for Nam Heejae, a rich young master who had everything and had experienced everything, to ruin based on momentary fondness…
Well, the one who actually ruined it was Baek Sahyun. Anyway, the point was that if Nam Heejae hadn’t shown his fondness, Chae Eunwoo’s life wouldn’t have fallen into ruin to that extent.
I added with a solemn feeling.
“The situations that would make you uncomfortable will absolutely never happen. I can swear to heaven.”
“……”
“Like you said, I only met women and I like women. Chae Eunwoo… honestly, it’s true that I was interested because he’s so pretty, but at least not right now.”
I knew that making excuses point by point looked even more pathetic, but I couldn’t stop. I had to settle things clearly here so that both Chae Eunwoo and I could spend peaceful days.
A path where no one gets hurt and things can be concluded. That was the path where the relationship between Chae Eunwoo and Nam Heejae was settled.
While I hesitantly insisted, Baek Sahyun quietly focused on driving. His expression wasn’t as bad as I thought, so I occasionally glanced at him and sneakily asked.
“…But you know. Were you really following me because you thought I was smoking marijuana with Chae Eunwoo?”
Because I was curious about his true intentions for why he’d followed me all the way to the cafe.
