The game started again, and I watched the ball go around. Junsu, who received a pass from Kang Yeongjin, grinned and ran straight toward me. He was picking a fight, and I couldn’t not take him up on it. I stomped my feet a few times and reached my hand toward Junsu’s ball.
Since I knew Junsu’s habits, stealing the ball wasn’t difficult. It was just like Junsu to always run straight at me even knowing he’d lose the ball, but that made me even less inclined to go easy on him. As I followed Junsu’s movements and hit the ball away at the right timing, Junsu screamed, “Ahhh!”
As I dribbled the ball and looked ahead, there was Chiwon standing at the 3-point line looking at me. If he’d been playing basketball alone, he would have definitely practiced shooting hard, and I thought he’d have a favorite spot so I told him to go there beforehand, but I didn’t know it would be the 3-point line. I approached Chiwon closely, passed him the ball, then turned around and blocked the kid rushing at Chiwon.
Chiwon immediately jumped and shot. It was a motion like flowing water. I’d never seen such a clean form. I could see the kids around us with their mouths hanging open.
The ball that went into the rim made a smacking sound. It was a satisfyingly good sound. Chiwon clenched his fist tightly then lowered his hand. The moment I saw that, I found myself smiling a little without realizing it. I thought that perhaps Chiwon might be a much cuter kid than I’d imagined.
“That’s insane!!!”
After a brief silence, the kids swarmed around Chiwon in a clamor. Since Chiwon’s usual image wasn’t like that at all, the kids seemed quite surprised too. Chiwon blinking his eyes while looking at those kids was funny, and I almost laughed out loud. When the kids who had been making a commotion returned to the court and Chiwon picked up the ball and walked over, I tapped Chiwon’s back and grinned. Chiwon, who looked at me with a startled face, soon made a subtly scrunched expression, which I realized later was a smiling face.
Thanks to figuring out how to create plays with Chiwon, our team won the bet in an instant. Junsu insisted on overtime, but even that was won entirely by Chiwon, and all the kids who played the game became completely exhausted and lay down in the gym as if collapsing, gasping for breath.
“Wow, I’m dying.”
“Isn’t the balance too severe, honestly?”
“That’s unfair. Kim Eorin, you knew. That’s why you brought Chiwon to join us.”
“How would I know? Today’s the first time we’ve played basketball together.”
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a lie. Grandfather said Chiwon liked basketball, not that he was good at it, and in the first place, today was the first time I’d had a conversation with Chiwon. Naturally, today was also the first time I’d seen him hold a basketball, and it was also the first fact I learned today that he was a kid who ran around so enthusiastically when faced with a basketball.
“You too, if you’re good, you should say you’re good!”
“Uh…”
It must have been quite frustrating, as Junsu’s fire splashed onto Chiwon. Chiwon couldn’t answer and fumbled.
“What kind of nonsense is that, man?”
“Damn. Next time you and Kim Eorin are on different teams.”
Junsu grumbled. But then, Chiwon who heard those words suddenly broke into a beaming smile. Before I could even wonder at that sudden smile, I stared at Chiwon without even blinking.
That was the first time I learned that when Chiwon smiled, deep dimples formed. Come to think of it, I’d never seen Chiwon smile until then. Looking at his mouth opening in a heart shape and his puffed-up cheeks, I corrected my thoughts. I’d thought he had a fairly cute impression if you looked closely, but that wasn’t it. Chiwon was just cute even at a glance. And when he smiled, he was much cuter.
When the kids chimed in saying it was the first time they’d seen him smile, Chiwon’s smile quickly faded. At the comment that they didn’t think he’d like this kind of thing, Chiwon only said he liked basketball and lowered his head. Chiwon certainly wasn’t talkative, but fortunately, all the kids around were the type who were dying to say one more word. As the chatter continued without breaking off, only then did Chiwon raise his head again.
They were trivial stories. Yet Chiwon looked at the kids talking with a sparkling face, unlike usual. His expression wasn’t particularly different, but surprisingly, I knew Chiwon was quite enjoying himself. I was secretly looking at Chiwon’s face so he wouldn’t notice, when suddenly the conversation turned in a bad direction.
“Come to think of it, are there many alphas and omegas in our class?”
“Mm, aren’t there a few? I’m a beta so I can’t tell the difference.”
I still hadn’t reached a conclusion. Whether Chiwon was hiding his pheromones himself, or whether I’d really been dreaming with my eyes open that day. Maybe his pheromones were really faint… But that didn’t mean he wasn’t an omega. I’d heard from Grandfather that after Chiwon manifested as an omega, that orphanage was left with only omega children.
“You’re an alpha, right? Eorin-ah.”
“Yeah.”
“Is there anyone else? Junsu?”
“I’m a beta. Isn’t Yeongjin an alpha?”
“Yeah. I’m an alpha. But I’m completely recessive so it’s basically like being a beta.”
Kang Yeongjin waved his hand as he spoke.
“I think there are still a few alphas in our class, but there are only two omegas.”
“Really? That’s fewer than I thought.”
At the words “two,” I blinked. As far as I knew, there were three. Including Chiwon.
“Chiwon-ah, what about you?”
“I’m a beta.”
“I thought so.”
Chiwon said he himself was a beta. Beta, beta? I was so surprised that I found myself looking toward Chiwon without realizing it. Then for a moment it seemed our eyes met, but Chiwon immediately turned his gaze away. Chiwon’s profile as he looked at the other kids seemed rigidly stiff.
Only then did I become certain that Chiwon was deliberately hiding that he was an omega. Junsu, who knew because he’d heard the story from me, also looked at me with a puzzled face. I shook my head slightly so only Junsu could see. It meant not to say anything.
If Chiwon had circumstances and wanted to hide it, I shouldn’t deliberately expose it. And if the circumstances required hiding that he was an omega, it probably wasn’t a good thing. I clasped my hands together to try to calm my strangely pounding heart. The feeling of glimpsing someone else’s secret wasn’t very pleasant.
Chiwon’s pheromones were nearly erased to the point where even I couldn’t smell them, so no one was surprised by Chiwon’s words that he himself was a beta. The conversation flowed in another direction again. This time it was about names.
Since I’d lived my whole life being teased endlessly about my name, I wasn’t very fond of name talk. When the kids asked about my name, I told them my grandfather loved me so much that he named me that. It meant to grow up as a lovely child always. I couldn’t stop my face from turning red while saying that. To be honest, I was happy, but it was also embarrassing, and above all awkward. Even to me, I was definitely not a ‘lovely’ image.
At my words, the kids laughed in a clamor. I sighed softly, then suddenly saw that Chiwon had loosened up a bit. A faint smile lingered on his rigidly stiff face too. For the first time, I felt pleased that my name brought laughter to others.
And the kids’ attention soon shifted to Chiwon. Because I called it in my mind every day it felt ordinary, but actually Chiwon’s name was unusual too. He must have been teased a lot. While looking at Chiwon with a subtle sense of kinship, Jung Woojin, who had been laughing, asked.
“Chiwon-ah, was it named like that on purpose? Who gave you that name?”
“Ah.”
I saw several kids momentarily make flustered expressions. Chiwon’s circumstances were known here and there, but it seemed Jung Woojin didn’t know. But Chiwon gave Jung Woojin an answer with the same faintly smiling face.
“My name was written on paper and put in my pocket. The director gave me my surname.”
I didn’t know how Chiwon was feeling, but to others, the beginning of Chiwon’s life was tragic. Moreover, at that one sentence revealing that being separated from family wasn’t due to an unavoidable accident but because he was abandoned by that family, the kids shut their mouths tight. No one would have been prepared for such words. No one knew whether it was right to offer Chiwon consolation or just laugh and move on. Even if they knew about Chiwon’s circumstances. And that was the same even for me, who would have known more than the other kids.
Chiwon, who noticed the flustered kids, shut his mouth with a face that had turned pale in an instant and lowered his head. Seeing that, the kids hurriedly picked up any words.
“…I see.”
“Oh, the director, she’s a grateful person.”
Jung Woojin, who had brought up the question, was looking only at the floor with a face that had turned white. A few words continued sparsely, but no one was brave enough to step up and try to change the atmosphere. Even Junsu was watching Chiwon’s reaction.
Chiwon’s face gradually hardened. And at the same time, the area around his eyes began to turn red. For a moment I thought Chiwon was crying and my heart sank.
Was Chiwon hurt? Perhaps he took it in a bad way that someone asked about his circumstances in front of many kids. Of course, Jung Woojin wasn’t at fault. He really seemed not to know, and even now Jung Woojin was frozen almost like stone. And the other kids who brought up names probably had no bad intentions either. But Chiwon had a hurt-looking face, and I couldn’t stand it because my heart ached so much at that face.
The silence was about to lengthen a bit. Finally, when Junsu was about to step up and say something, Chiwon suddenly stood up from his seat. His face was still pale.
“Uh, I’ll go wash my hands and come back.”
Chiwon’s eyes were red as he said those words. While the kids swallowed dryly, Chiwon quickly left the gym. As soon as Chiwon’s figure disappeared, the kids made groaning sounds.
“Ahhh. What do we do?”
“Didn’t Chiwon look like he was crying?”
“Ah, what do we do…”
“Hey, why did you ask something like that…”
“…Chi, Chiwon, that kind of thing, I didn’t know. I didn’t know… Did you all know?”
“No, well, roughly…”
“…What do we do.”
