[I blew up the company.]
“……”
“……”
“Seolheon-ah. What about food?”
“I’m fine.”
This is awkward.
“At least take some bread with you. Skipping breakfast is bad for your body……”
“I’ll take care of it myself.”
So awkward I could die.
“Won’t you be late for school? Should hyung drive you? I have no morning classes today so I have plenty of time……”
“Hyung.”
Baek Seolheon, standing in front of the entrance, spoke.
“Don’t worry about me.”
Even until that moment, he didn’t make eye contact with me.
The sound of footsteps beyond the closed door gradually faded away.
“……This is driving me crazy.”
The tension snapped, and I buried my head on the dining table.
* * *
Should I call this a cold war, or should I call it a fight?
The rift between me and my live-in younger brother happened just yesterday.
“……Hm?”
Sunday. Late dawn past midnight.
I opened my eyes on someone’s back.
“Where is……”
A familiar apartment complex came into view.
And below, I could see black hair.
Baek Seolheon was slowly walking with me on his back.
“You’re awake? Sleep more.”
“N-no…… how can I sleep in this situation? Put me down, first.”
“It’s fine. We’re almost home.”
“It’s not fine.”
When I squirmed to forcibly get down, Seolheon’s arms firmly gripped my thighs.
“Stay still.”
“……”
I was instantly cowed.
I couldn’t see Baek Seolheon’s face, and his voice was the same as usual, but…… something cold was lurking there.
Feeling newly embarrassed about being scared by a teenager six years younger than me, I tried hard to pretend I was okay.
“Why are you, no, why am I. Here. Why.”
I stammered terribly. Even to my own ears, it was a pathetically wimpy voice.
Baek Seolheon spoke indifferently as if it was no big deal.
“I came by taxi.”
“That’s not what I meant……”
“Hyung, I’m sorry.”
Then he suddenly apologized to me.
“What I said about sleeping over at a friend’s place, that was a lie.”
“……What?”
“I went too. To that party place.”
My head instantly felt dizzy.
Only then did I notice the clothes Baek Seolheon was wearing.
It was one of the suits from my closet. So that’s why the clothes I’d been looking for weren’t there.
“A friend kept begging me to go so I couldn’t refuse. A friend from class 5……”
“……”
“I saw hyung there. You had collapsed.”
I retraced my memories.
I’d definitely gone to meet Baek Jeongwoo, and a fight broke out, and I collapsed.
Someone tied me up, forced pheromones on me…….
“A brown-haired man was trying to call an ambulance.”
“……Brown-haired man?”
“So I said I’d take you instead. If you go to the emergency room, it’ll reach our parents’ ears. I thought hyung would hate that.”
“Y-yeah. That was the right call, but……”
If it was a brown-haired man, it was most likely Lee Yeongwoo.
Then…… what happened to that alpha man? When did I lose consciousness?
Even when I tried hard to recall, the memories were hazy. Tied up, hit with pheromones, having some kind of conversation…… I think I was interrogated or something…….
Was it a dream or reality?
Even this was ambiguous.
Should I ask Seolheon more? What the situation was, who was there?
Then I’d eventually have to speak up too.
From how I ended up at the party, the story about Baek Jeongwoo, getting drunk on pheromones and overusing medication, and finally what kind of things that unknown alpha did to me after capturing me.
“How’s your body?”
Baek Seolheon turned his head slightly to look at me.
In his navy blue eyes like the night sky, my reflection was visible.
“I’m fi……ne.”
Those eyes looked so innocent that I instinctively averted my gaze.
“Well then. I ended up being indebted to my younger brother again.”
Then I shrugged my shoulders and put on an act.
“Maybe I got a bit too excited after so long, maybe I drank too much. I really can’t lift my head these days because I’m too embarrassed to look at my younger brother.”
I spouted lies without batting an eye and focused my consciousness.
The pheromones that had been raging like a storm were calm as if nothing had happened.
The heat that had filled my body was gone, my voice came out well, my insides felt fine, and my limbs were intact.
Except for being lethargic as if exhausted, everything was fine.
I didn’t know how I’d recovered, but I was fortunate to be able to pretend to be fine in front of Seolheon.
“I’m the one who should be sorry for making you suffer again, Seolheon-ah.”
I deliberately spoke in a cheerful voice as if it was no big deal and added.
“Still, that place. You know it’s not a good place either. Next time, even if your friend asks you several times, you shouldn’t go.”
At Hanguk High, there were many upper-class children, so it wasn’t strange that there’d be someone tempting Baek Seolheon to go to that party.
It was surprising that Baek Seolheon, who seemed like he’d never go to such a place even if he died, went, but I didn’t want to press him hard about it. I didn’t think Seolheon would fall for vulgar entertainment and temptation.
Rather, it wasn’t bad that he’d taken an interest in socializing.
“I also had no choice because of work……”
“Hyung.”
Just then,
Baek Seolheon cut off my words.
“Do you remember what I said before?”
“Hm?”
“When I told you not to meet alphas or omegas.”
At the same time, he stopped walking.
“That…… let’s just pretend that never happened.”
“……Huh? Why, all of a sudden?”
“Like hyung said, you know your own body best.”
Why is he acting like this?
Cold sweat trickled down at his completely changed attitude.
“So. I’m not going to worry about it anymore.”
Before I could react, Baek Seolheon started walking again.
“Do whatever hyung wants to do.”
……Something’s scary.
“Are you mad……?”
“No.”
As we entered the apartment lobby floor, the sensor lights turned on brightly.
“I just. Have no thoughts.”
Under the bright lighting, Baek Seolheon’s black hair gleamed blue.
A moment later, the lights went out and darkness descended on the interior again.
“……You don’t need to have any thoughts.”
A low voice echoed through the space.
Over my arms wrapped around Seolheon’s shoulders, cool breath touched me.
“Right? Hyung.”
* * *
“Ahem, student Gunho?”
I came to my senses at the sound of throat-clearing.
The professor was glaring at me with sharp eyes.
“Are you ignoring me, or were you sleeping with your eyes open?”
“……I’m sorry.”
“I had high expectations thinking I could hear a decent answer since your grades are the best in Modern Aesthetics. Did you drink too much yesterday?”
“……”
After bowing my head, I shifted my gaze to my laptop.
“Playing around is fine, but you’re graduating this year, right? Everyone snap to attention! Open the materials for lecture 6.”
On the screen, one page of lecture materials was open.
Among the many small attached paintings, one picture particularly caught my eye.
[Winter Landscape, 1811. Caspar.]
A dark navy blue sky hung over a snowy landscape. A person stood precariously among broken, bent, and fallen trees.
It was a chilly, somehow lonely painting.
A certain person naturally came to mind.
“……”
Has he finally exploded in frustration at the sight of hyung collapsing here and there these days?
This was the first time he’d ignored me so thoroughly without making eye contact even once.
‘That wasn’t just simple sulking.’
To call it sulking…… there wasn’t even a trace of anger on Seolheon’s face.
It was the same dry, indifferent expression as always. That was scarier.
Had he become resigned after being angry,
Or had he reached enlightenment after worrying?
Either way, it weighed on my mind so much I couldn’t concentrate at all.
Just then, a familiar voice struck my ears.
“Something happen?”
“……Kim Jaewook?”
Looking around, the podium was empty. The lecture had ended before I knew it.
Kim Jaewook, the engineering student who had once again infiltrated the art building today, sat on the table and spoke.
“Park Dongsu and Kim Sujin tried talking to you but got no response.”
“……Really?”
“Really. Did you have some kind of accident that day? You’re completely out of it.”
“Accident……”
I pressed my brow, recalling the weekend.
“There were many. Accidents.”
“Must have been serious. Are you eating dinner?”
“Your friend says they had a serious incident and you bring up food?”
“I’ll listen over there. Let’s drink together for the first time in a while. How about that new place next door?”
I checked my phone as I followed Kim Jaewook out.
There were no messages at all.
‘I should have gotten Yeongwoo’s number.’
I wanted to find out how the situation was developing, but I didn’t have Lee Yeongwoo’s contact information.
Baek Jeongwoo…… I was reluctant to contact him readily because there was a lot to think about. I was the one who’d been attacked, but in the end, I’d become the one who caused a ruckus and left.
‘……Should I bow my head first and go in?’
I hated that to death, but of all people, the opponent was that Baek Jeongwoo.
To prevent him from saying nonsense to Seolheon, I had to somehow settle things.
‘They didn’t run into each other at the party, did they?’
I had no idea what had happened, so all kinds of ominous imaginations filled my head.
I agonized for a long while, repeatedly writing and erasing content in the empty message window.
Kim Jaewook, who was walking down the stairs ahead, asked me.
“What kind of accident happened to make you like this?”
“A lot happened, but first, I was forced by an alpha.”
“……”
At my thoughtless answer, Kim Jaewook’s steps stopped dead.
A face mixed with absurdity and shock turned toward me.
“……For-forced, what?”
“Oh, there’s the god! He’s here! This way, this way!”
Just as Kim Jaewook was about to say something, a bright voice was heard.
“Hello, Gunho-sunbae! You remember me, right?”
The identity of the beautiful boy who had neatly swept his hair behind his ears was that omega freshman who had previously approached me saying my pheromones were strange.
The fairy of Changgul University’s History Department.
“Yes, well……”
“I brought sunbae’s part…… friend!”
……Part friend, what’s that? Is it some new slang kids use these days?
While I was tilting my head in confusion, another voice interrupted.
“Found Gunho-hyung! Hi!”
“Lee Haram?”
“I had no classes today so I came to hang out!”
It was Lee Haram, who now frequented the art building of the neighboring university like his own home.
“Huh?! Hyung, your pheromones!”
Suddenly Lee Haram approached at the speed of light and brought his face right up close.
As he turned his head this way and that, scanning the back of my neck and sniffing, his breath touched me directly, making it ticklish and embarrassing.
“……Is there a problem?”
“No? Your condition isn’t bad this time?”
“I-is that so……?”
“Yeah. Pretty stable. Did you practice control methods over the weekend? Oh, hi Jaewook-hyung too.”
“Am I just a sidekick?”
……Stable.
That part puzzled me too.
How did my pheromones, which had been drunk on pheromones and surging to the point of rampage, become this intact? This time there wasn’t even Seolheon’s emergency treatment, so why are they so calm?
Even though I’d been surrounded by so many pheromones, Lee Haram, who delicately detects pheromones, said nothing.
Rather than being relieved by that fact, I found it creepy.
“Thanks for showing me the way, Eungyeol-ah!”
“N-no problem!”
“I told you it’s okay to speak casually. Let’s eat together next time! My treat.”
“Uh…… okay! You don’t have to buy me food, I’ll come anytime you call!”
“……When did you two become so close?”
Lee Haram knows the name of the history department fairy that I don’t even know. Well, he’s 100% extroverted so maybe it’s not that surprising.
Just as the history department fairy was about to leave after greeting Lee Haram, he suddenly approached me and showed me his clenched fists.
“I-I’ll cheer for you!”
“Pardon? For what……?”
“Your relationship! I have no prejudices!”
“What relationship……”
“I know, I know! I won’t act like I know you anywhere! I absolutely won’t spread rumors!”
Then he really walked away delicately like a fairy and disappeared into the distance.
“Alpha-alpha fighting!”
“……Why is he like that?”
At my question, Kim Jaewook shook his head from side to side.
