“Computer Science?”
“Yeah. Nam Dohyun.”
“Dohyun hyung? He’s doing TA work?”
At the extremely surprised expression, Sangho tensed up slightly. As expected, they know each other.
“Do you know each other?”
“Uh, uh-huh… Well, our families are close. We’re on the private school foundation side. And Dohyun hyung’s family is part of our electronics family. My cousin sister married someone from that side.”
“I see.”
“…Is Dohyun hyung making things hard for you?”
At Wonha’s subtly stiffened expression, Sangho quickly shook his head.
“N-no. He doesn’t even pay attention to me… I was just curious so I asked.”
“Well, he’s originally kind of… a cold personality. It’s true he has no interest in others. But it’s surprising he’s doing annoying work like being a TA.”
Wonha muttered as if amazed. Something, I thought he’d be very close with Nam Dohyun. But Wonha was giving off a nuance that he didn’t particularly have a big connection with Dohyun.
‘What is this. Weren’t they originally super close? That whole mess happens because Nam Dohyun likes Wonha… Is the relationship between Nam Dohyun and Wonha also different from what I’m thinking?’
Questions led to more questions.
The conversation with Wonha ended rather anticlimactically like that. The two made mentaiko udon together for dinner. At night… he was a bit nervous, but surprisingly Wonha didn’t touch Sangho’s body and just hugged the thin body tightly and fell asleep.
The next day, Sangho went to work feeling quite uneasy.
Sangho, who had finished cleaning the hallway, entered the 3rd floor lounge. Dohyun would often open his laptop and do assignments at this lounge during morning hours, and sure enough, this time too he was sitting at a table looking seriously at a screen with strange English written on it.
Even when Sangho was sweeping and wiping the lounge, Dohyun never once looked at Sangho and occasionally tapped the keyboard, or crossed his arms and stared intently at the screen.
Buzz buzz.
Just then a phone vibrated. It was Dohyun’s. Dohyun ignored the ringing several times while staring at the computer screen, but when the phone kept vibrating, he answered with a sigh as if annoyed.
“Yeah, Wonha. What.”
At Dohyun’s words, Sangho flinched and perked up his ears.
“The new janitor? Ah, Lee Sangho-ssi.”
In the quiet morning lounge, Dohyun’s words clearly pierced his ears. Now Sangho couldn’t pretend not to know and quickly stood up and turned his head toward Dohyun. Then Dohyun also took his eyes off the laptop, turned his body, and glanced at Sangho.
“Yeah. He works hard. Why?”
From beyond the phone, whatever Wonha was saying, a long murmuring sound continued for a while. Dohyun let out a shallow sigh, said “got it” briefly, and hung up.
Dohyun, watching Sangho standing awkwardly, finally spoke to him.
“How do you know Wonha?”
“I-I was just a fan. He helped me a lot too…”
I shouldn’t have told Wonha about the dormitory. Sangho answered Dohyun with his body stiffly frozen in tension. He couldn’t guess what story he’d told Dohyun. But Dohyun nodded his head roughly as if it wasn’t a big deal and said.
“Ah. That guy is kind of… nosy. Sometimes he’s too good to his fans. I guess he can’t draw the line well. So there are many people who get hurt.”
It was a tone as indifferent as saying the sun rose in the east today. But “nosy”? Wonha is really kind so he’s good to people like me. And he said it wasn’t fan service. Sangho felt somehow wronged.
“Ah… Yes. Actor Jang Wonha is super kind.”
“What, did he manufacture another good deed story?”
‘It’s not manufacturing good deeds, Wonha said he likes me.’
However, Sangho couldn’t object to Dohyun’s words and asked carefully.
“Um… What did Wonha-ssi say about me?”
At Sangho’s question, one of Dohyun’s eyebrows rose smoothly. It was a somewhat probing gaze.
“He didn’t say much, just nagging like don’t abuse your power. Something like that.”
“Ahh…”
Are they close enough to nag? Even though he said it like they weren’t very close. Could they be in a more intimate relationship? With one phone call from Wonha, Sangho began to care tremendously. At the very least, they’re close enough to call early in the morning, right? As Sangho stood there hesitating, Dohyun asked.
“Just ask whatever you’re curious about.”
“Ah, um… You seem close with Wonha-ssi.”
“We see each other at every family event. We saw each other more often when we were younger. Wonha is an only child and the chairman really dotes on him… Every time they ask me to look after him. But if he’s an adult, shouldn’t they let him do what he wants? I’m also a graduating senior and busy.”
It was an expression and tone that really seemed annoyed. Something, it’s very different from the Nam Dohyun I expected, and Sangho became more curious.
“Ah… So he’s an only child.”
“Yes. So, well, he has to get whatever he wants to be satisfied. But once he gets it in his hands, he loses interest… When we were really young, he’d sneak into my room every holiday and we fought a lot. So once I locked the door, but he tried to sneak in through the window and got stuck in the frame, so we even called an ambulance.”
“Pft…!”
Nam Dohyun was rattling on quite lengthily about Wonha, but stopped talking for a moment when Sangho showed a smile. And as if awkward, he crossed his arms and leaned his body smoothly against the chair back, stretching.
“Don’t say I told you.”
“Puhaha. Okay.”
Now Sangho couldn’t hold back his laughter and covered his mouth with the back of his hand, giggling. He didn’t notice Nam Dohyun staring at that sight, observing and examining that laughing face in detail.
“Do you want to know more about Wonha?”
Nam Dohyun suddenly asked that. Sangho, who stopped laughing for a moment, made a somewhat flustered face.
“What?”
“Seeing how he even called in the morning to tell me not to abuse my power, you seem pretty close.”
“N-n-no. We’re not that close.”
What is this. Is he testing how close we are? Sangho recalled rolling around intensely with Wonha at the hotel and gulped. If it were the Nam Dohyun I expected, I would’ve been killed the moment this was discovered. Sangho, who still couldn’t let down his guard, tried to act composed as he answered.
“I-I’m sure he’s closer with Han Kyungoh-ssi.”
“Who? Han Kyungoh from the wrestling team?”
“Yes. Yes.”
“That’s strange. He hates alphas. Ever since he was ambushed with a kiss by a colleague in heat…”
Dohyun was continuing to speak when he seemed to realize “oops” again and covered his mouth with his hand. What. This person…
‘His mouth… is completely loose. Really doesn’t match his face at all.’
“Huh, but he said he didn’t get kissed. He said he beat him up and left.”
“Ah, good. He told you that story too? That’s from when he was a rookie. Wonha got kissed in front of an actress he liked back then, so he hit him. He doesn’t look like it, but in front of someone he’s interested in, he doesn’t care about anything… Back then it was quite a headache cleaning up the aftermath.”
“What? By cleaning up…”
“That alpha made a fuss about suing. Well, we attached a few of our electronics advertisement model contracts and roughly appeased him. Ah, Wonha doesn’t know about this either, so you can’t talk about it.”
Sangho, who had unknowingly gotten absorbed in Dohyun’s story, quickly nodded.
‘If it’s an actor who did our electronics ads when Wonha was a rookie… Huh. Isn’t that that famous movie actor?’
The face of a very famous alpha actor flashed through his mind.
“Is that… so.”
Sangho had also heard in passing before about the story of almost being victimized by a colleague in heat. But to hear such a story from Nam Dohyun, it felt uncomfortable.
“Ah. I have to go to class now.”
Nam Dohyun, checking the electronic watch on his wrist, spoke as if wrapping up the conversation. And Dohyun said lightly while organizing his laptop.
“Class ends around 5. Want to have a beer in the evening?”
“What?”
“Aren’t you curious who that actress was?”
At the sudden proposal, Sangho hesitated for a moment. I heard he’s someone with no interest in others, so what’s his scheme?
However, Nam Dohyun was kind of… very different from what he’d thought. Was he such a light and careless person…? And the actress Wonha liked. He absolutely wanted to know who it was.
‘The original story might have changed completely.’
Also, he couldn’t cover it up and tremble in anxiety forever. Sangho thought he couldn’t make a disgrace like yesterday just because he’d met Nam Dohyun a few times. Rather, it’s better to check once and think about what to do going forward. My secondary trait was beta when I got retested anyway.
“Okay.”
At Sangho’s answer, Nam Dohyun bowed his head in greeting and left with his bag packed. He added that he’d contact him in the evening.
