When was the last time I saw Chae Eunwoo? It seemed like at least 3 weeks had passed. Perhaps because he appeared in my sight after a while, Chae Eunwoo’s face looked refreshingly clean and handsome in a new way.
“It’s been a while. Hyung.”
When the bastard smiled, cute dimples dug into both sides of his mouth. True to being the protagonist, he looked adorable and full of charm. His tone itself was affectionate.
Perhaps it would be good to give him the nickname “human deodorizer.” It felt like the musty atmosphere of the library was instantly ventilated.
“Mm, well… have you been well?”
I answered in a somewhat awkward tone. Seeing his face made me happy and glad, but I felt uncomfortable inside remembering how I’d stood up Chae Eunwoo at the hotel not long ago. It didn’t seem like the ending had been good…. Since I’d failed at trying to set up Baek Sahyun and Chae Eunwoo on a blind date.
“I’m the same as always, you know? Except for you two standing me up.”
Sure enough, Chae Eunwoo sniped at me with a smile. At his honest and straightforward attitude, completely different from what I’d read in *Excessively Brilliant*, my expression also stiffened, hit in a sore spot.
“It’s okay, it’s okay. Well, these things can happen.”
If the bastard hadn’t loosened the atmosphere by patting my shoulder, I might have stuttered embarrassingly. Chae Eunwoo brought his lips close to my ear and whispered.
“But hyung, aren’t you top of the class? Why are you wracking your brain over something like this?”
“Uh, well…, I actually had an accident, so my memory has declined a bit. I guess you could say my brain feels like it’s turned into corn stalks.”
“What? What kind of accident?”
“A, a car accident.”
I trailed off without confidence. Chae Eunwoo dilated his pupils as if surprised, then immediately asked about the whole story. I fumbled and struggled to make up a story. Fortunately, car accident repertoires are all the same anyway.
I got hit by a car. So it hurt.
Since I also had experience being hit-and-run, I could vividly express the sensation of my body flying through the air.
“Even so, why did it have to wipe out all your major knowledge? That’s such a shame.”
“Yeah. Tell me about it.”
“But it’s okay. Hyung, you have a good brain, so if I teach you a little, you’ll gain momentum quickly.”
Chae Eunwoo, who poked my temple with a smile, pressed his shoulder close as if he’d gladly help. Inside his roomy hoodie, I could feel his slender frame.
“Look here.”
Chae Eunwoo, who took my mechanical pencil, wrote down numbers in the notebook and attempted to explain step by step.
His gentle voice spread gently near my ear. Unable to concentrate, I just stared blankly at the bastard’s long eyelashes hanging downward. The soft down hair rising around them was also enough to steal my gaze.
“…Hyung!”
“Uh, yeah?”
“Why can’t you answer? I’m asking if you understood.”
I don’t know how long I’d been spacing out, but I could only come to my senses when Chae Eunwoo grabbed my ear and whispered. I nodded my head, appealing that I understood what the bastard explained.
However, Chae Eunwoo’s eyebrows curved as if displeased.
“…Why is this person so slow? You really understood, right?”
Startled, I just kept nodding my head like Pavlov’s dog again. Chae Eunwoo smiled, pulling up one corner of his mouth as if satisfied. Honestly speaking, except for the words “You understood, right?” I hadn’t grasped anything.
However, it pricked my conscience too much to ask him to explain again, and if it were the original Nam Heejae, he couldn’t possibly not understand this content, so I stuck to silent non-response.
“Well, honestly, this isn’t something to understand but just memorize. Got it? Now, try solving the next one.”
Really, why do prestigious university students all talk about ‘understanding’ without exception? Chae Eunwoo and Baek Sahyun wouldn’t know how difficult teachings like “don’t memorize, just understand” are for idiots like me.
Though resentment welled up, I had no choice but to try headbutting bare ground. In the end, I stayed up all night studying while revering Chae Eunwoo as my teacher.
Though I hesitated at first thinking I might be disturbing his time for nothing, Chae Eunwoo snapped, “It’s frustrating, so if you have questions, ask right away.” He was a bastard with a refreshingly blunt temperament.
I don’t think he had this kind of personality in the original. It seemed the “make the most normal guy not normal” strategy among the methods to confuse possessors that Haesu told me about had worked well.
“You don’t know this? Hyung, isn’t it not your memory but your intelligence that declined?”
“…Yeah, you’re right. My intelligence declined. Completely to amoeba level.”
“Aw, I was just joking, so why are you suddenly getting down? Come on, let’s do it step by step from the beginning.”
Chae Eunwoo was also proactive in attitude like Baek Sahyun. Do smart bastards also get competitive about teaching? Every time I thought about something else or chewed on formulas with a blank face, the way he’d snap his fingers while catching my focus really seemed like a strict instructor. He could even be a school teacher.
“Hyung, you’re still diligent as always. Seeing you come out every day to study. Ah, you’re double majoring in Political Science and Diplomacy plus Business Administration, so you can’t help it.”
The next day and the day after that too, Chae Eunwoo guarded my side and continued guiding me. As a result, we ended up meeting throughout the exam period.
Things like the person who arrived first saving each other’s seat without saying anything, or eating dinner together at a nearby cheap home-style restaurant. This was kind of like…, it even seemed like dating. If Baek Sahyun found out, I’d be in big trouble.
“So Eunwoo-ya, are you trying to get employed? What, you’re not taking something like the civil service exam?”
“Yes. For now, I’ll get employed to save up funds, and when I have leisure, I’ll think about exams or something.”
“Wow. That’s amazing.”
“Come on. What’s amazing? I’m getting employed crying while eating mustard because I don’t have money.”
“…If that’s the case, well, your words do make sense. When you’re doing something by force, if you hear it’s amazing, you wonder if it’s praise or sympathy.”
Though I’m really sorry to certain someones, Chae Eunwoo, who had good empathy and whose conversation code matched well, was much more suitable for me. When I spent time with Eunwoo, I felt like I became an ordinary college student too.
However, I couldn’t deny the fact that I’d been constantly curious about Baek Sahyun’s well-being.
That bastard—there’s been no contact at all, I wonder if he’s doing well? Since it was the first time being apart this long after possessing, it felt awkward and I was concerned.
While stuffing the bulgogi I was eating with Chae Eunwoo into my mouth, I tapped my phone screen.
Hey are you doing well
What are you doing?
Are you angry?
Aigoo should I buy you a meal?
Seems like I’ll escape amoeba status soon
But I couldn’t get a grasp on how to start, so I just wrote and erased texts dozens of times.
Honestly, on the last day I saw Baek Sahyun face-to-face, I did act a bit petty.
However, I didn’t express raw emotions as usual. I wasn’t shameless enough to get angry indiscriminately at someone who helped me.
I was just… kind of hurt, I guess. Though I didn’t want an equal friendship, I didn’t want to receive one-sided sympathy from someone to whom I’d conveyed trust while revealing all my circumstances in detail.
But to have no contact at all for over about 2 weeks. Belated regret rushed in, wondering if I should have accommodated him.
Man. Are you very busy?
The text I sent after agonizing hundreds of times was very simple. Texts like “are you sulking, are you angry, should I appease you” had a high possibility of going against the bastard’s mood, so a moderately calm yet meaningful tone that would induce motivation for contact seemed appropriate.
Chae Eunwoo asked.
“What are you doing, leaving me aside?”
“Hm? Oh, just texting.”
“Hmm, girlfriend? Or boyfriend? Beta or omega?”
“Tsk, it’s not like that. My head feels like it’s going to split from studying, where would I have time for that?”
It was when I was countering the barrage of questions. The messenger screen I’d been staring at intently suddenly changed to an incoming call screen. The phone started vibrating along with the name ‘Baek Sahyun.’
What? A phone call out of the blue?
Flustered and not knowing what to do, I ended up dropping all the utensils placed above. Hurriedly going under the table to pick up the scattered utensils, a disaster occurred where I even banged my head with a *thud*.
“Ugh….”
“Hyung, calm down a bit. I’ll pick them up.”
By the time I barely straightened my clothes and checked my phone, the call had already ended. I was dumbfounded.
I couldn’t answer because I’m at the library. I can take calls now. Why?
I belatedly sent a signal that contact was possible, but there was no reply. Well, I was the one who needed to state the business. If asked why he called, the other party would also have nothing to say. Since I was the one who asked if he was busy.
But still, couldn’t he at least reply once?
I sighed and scrolled through the text history. Though it was belated, I’d never really exchanged texts with this bastard. Even scrolling up steadily, all I saw were texts sent pleadingly by Nam Heejae suffering from paranoia.
Save me
At first, I thought this was just Nam Heejae’s distress text…. But now we’d reached a point where all the things that happened at the villa felt like a dream.
Would the me from back then have ever imagined there was a hidden development that completely flipped the basic setting?
Beyond Baek Sahyun and Nam Heejae not being in a normal friendship, they were in a relationship doing deals too embarrassing to speak of. Even any famous detective wouldn’t be able to figure that out.
Of course, to be precise, it was more Nam Heejae’s one-sided blackmail than a deal.
Thinking about the information that had been disrupting my head all this time—pheromone shower and alpha manifestation drugs—a suitable excuse to make suddenly came to mind.
I just texted because I had something to ask.
Is it right for you to keep covering me with pheromones in the future? Isn’t there any other method? Constantly stealing your pheromones is, you know. I feel like I’m depending on you too much too.
