“What? Why would he?”
I asked back in surprise, caught completely off guard — and Choi Seonho shrugged.
“No idea. I don’t think anyone knows the reason. He disappeared without a word. One day his desk and locker were completely cleared out, and when the kids asked about it during homeroom, the teacher said Wookyung had dropped out.”
“What the hell……”
He had been someone with no problems at school whatsoever. His grades were always at the top, and his acting was decent too. His relationships with classmates weren’t bad either.
Had something happened at home? I tried to picture Wookyung’s father, whose face I could barely recall, but failed. Even if something had happened, dropping out of high school was too drastic.
“After that, all contact completely cut off. Not just with me — I don’t think there’s a single person among our classmates who’s been in touch with him.”
Choi Seonho clicked his tongue, brow furrowed.
“He was off the radar for years, and then out of nowhere he started showing up everywhere as a rookie actor. His face caused a buzz from the moment he debuted, so everyone found out pretty quickly that he’d gone into entertainment. A lot of people were hurt and had complaints about it.”
I kept nodding along to Seonho’s ongoing grievances, lost in thought.
Dropping out was one thing, but cutting off all contact meant… Wookyung’s tendency to avoid people must have resurfaced. He had always had a reclusive side to him — retreating into his own private time and space at the drop of a hat was practically Wookyung’s specialty. Something must have happened, and rather than saying a word to anyone around him, he had clearly swallowed it alone and gone under.
“He’s apparently a total it-actor these days, right? The most famous and successful one among all of us.”
“He… is?”
Come to think of it, I was puzzled about how someone with that personality had ever broken into the entertainment industry at all. A person who could absolutely not say things he didn’t mean and who barely ever smiled… even if he was my friend, if he had operated according to his natural personality, a controversy over his attitude would have blown up within a month. It was a mystery.
“What’s he up to these days?”
Seonho still had a crease between his brows from the grudge over the lost contact, yet he was quietly fishing for news about Wookyung all the same.
“I don’t know the details yet either. He seems to have gotten even quieter.”
“Is there room to get any quieter? Geez. Still, Wookyung looks out for you. He was the first to know you’d woken up. I guess that’s what it means to be best friends.”
“Ha, I guess so?”
I laughed awkwardly and took a sip of my coffee.
It was far from the truth that Wookyung had looked out for me first, but I didn’t bother correcting Seonho’s misunderstanding. We had simply run into each other again through overlapping coincidences. Thinking about it now — if those coincidences hadn’t happened, Wookyung would have gone on not knowing I had woken up.
“Doesn’t he seem like a completely different person when you watch him on screen? His acting has improved like crazy.”
“Really? I haven’t seen anything he’s been in yet.”
“There was a drama that did really well on Netflix the year before last. He played the role of a character who’s one-sidedly in love with the main omega, and his acting was so good that he ended up being more popular than the main couple.”
“Did you watch it?”
“It was everywhere — impossible to avoid. I ended up watching it without even trying to.”
Seonho grumbled as he spoke, but went on explaining just how much Wookyung’s acting had improved. It was clear he had kept tabs on Wookyung’s career, even while pretending he hadn’t — he was just too sentimental to admit it.
I held back a smile without pointing that out.
“What’s with that sly expression?”
Seonho, who had been talking away, stopped mid-sentence when he looked at me and went on guard.
“Ugh, it’s giving me chills… don’t you remember making that exact face while messing with people?”
“When did I ever? Is it a crime to be popular?”
I shrugged with both hands raised. Seonho shook his head with the look of someone thoroughly done with me.
“Ha, how many people did you reel in with that smug face, honestly.”
“Well, everyone in our class did like me.”
Seonho’s lips curved into a crooked smirk.
“That’s why the atmosphere in class after your accident was something else. Your ex-girlfriends were crying even during lessons… people who liked you were crying… do you remember Hwang Hyunseo? She was genuinely in shock — she couldn’t eat and lost a ton of weight.”
“Hyunseo? Well, for her that makes sense……”
I lost my earlier swagger and let the sentence trail off in embarrassment.
Hwang Hyunseo had been my pas de deux partner. We had competed together in a competition with the Talisman pas de deux and taken first place. Our height difference, lines, and way of expressing movement all aligned well, so we partnered frequently, and with that came a mutual trust built up between us.
Her partner had fallen into a coma — of course the psychological blow had been immense. It wasn’t something I had done wrong, but I felt sorry somehow.
Seonho caught my expression and snickered.
“So you do feel bad about waking up late?”
“……Wait, is this a lie?”
“It’s not though? It’s not though?”
Just from his expression, I couldn’t tell if he was bluffing or not.
Seonho just needled me for the fact that I had gotten a little sad, and any trace of moisture that had gathered in my eyes dried up completely.
“Ugh, Seonho, seriously!”
“Come to the alumni gathering sometime. If you say you’re coming, the turnout will be insane. Hyunseo and all, minus the few who are abroad…… actually, even they might fly in.”
Seonho, who had the creepy ability to remember every one of my ex-girlfriends in the order I had dated them, also filled me in on what each of them was up to these days. One had gone straight to a master’s degree right after graduating, and another had apparently gotten married just a few months ago to someone ten years her senior……
Not a single one of them and I had ended on bad terms, and now they were simply friends I missed dearly — so I listened with genuine interest.
“Tell me about yourself too.”
Seonho, who had been updating me on the male classmates for a while, crunched on the remaining ice in his coffee cup and grinned.
“I got into the painting department at the art school I’d been aiming for.”
“Oh?”
“It was great up until enrollment. Once I actually got in, the work wasn’t coming together and all I did was drink more. I took two semesters off, so next next semester is my graduation semester. I have to start preparing for my graduation exhibition a year in advance, and it’s a total headache.”
“But you still have time to go shopping?”
“I can’t exactly walk around naked, can I?”
Seonho shot back shamelessly, but he must have felt a little called out — he scrubbed at his piercing-laden ear with his hand.
“You’re still in recovery, right?”
I caught his gaze skimming over the wheelchair and let out a quiet laugh.
“I’m fine. I was lying down for so long that my muscles have no strength, that’s all. They say if I keep up with the rehab, there won’t be any problem living normally.”
“That’s really great. You must be so frustrated these days though, right? You were practically a monkey in the ballet department. A kid who spent all day jumping and hanging off things.”
……That was undeniable.
Unlike my two calm older brothers, I was a child who couldn’t stay still for a single moment and moved around in a frenzy — so my parents had arranged early on for me to try all kinds of sports and dance. The intention behind putting me in ballet was a plea for me to please listen to some elegant music and settle down — but the result was simply that I had evolved into a monkey showing off high-difficulty techniques.
“I still don’t understand how you were fifth and I was sixth, honestly. Why couldn’t I beat this energetic idiot?”
“Because Wookyung helped me study. Beating Seonho was a breeze.”
“What are you on about. You haven’t even stepped foot in a university.”
“Hey, watch your mouth. I’m a proud… middle school graduate.”
“Ha, and I’m a high school graduate.”
Both of us burst out laughing. It wasn’t even that funny of a joke, but we laughed until our stomachs hurt.
It was no different at all from messing around and saying ridiculous things to each other during break time back in class.
Haejun hyung came to pick me up as promised.
When I got home, some of the clothes I had bought that day were already neatly put away in the wardrobe. Seeing them sorted cleanly by fabric and color, it was clearly my oldest hyung’s handiwork.
He was even unwrapping the packaging on the additional pair of pants I had bought.
“Did you tidy up, hyung? I could’ve done it.”
“No, I had a lot of time today and was bored. I’ll wash the rest and bring them to you. By the way, that friend from earlier — are you close?”
“Yeah. We were in the same class. Did he ever come over to the house?”
“I don’t think so. I’d remember every friend of yours who came to the house.”
I don’t even know all of hyung’s friends though……
I folded up the empty shopping bags with a slightly sheepish feeling.
“I noticed earlier that he was an alpha.”
“Oh, uh. He… probably is?”
I had long known that Seonho was a full-blown alpha. But I had never thought particularly deeply about that fact. He was just a talkative classmate, that’s all.
“Haehyeon, you know things are different from before now, right? I’m not saying don’t see your alpha friends — but you need to be aware that it’s not the same as it used to be.”
First Haechan hyung, now my oldest hyung too was saying something similar.
“It probably… won’t be the same.”
I answered vaguely.
What Haechan hyung had said had been weighing on me, so when I went out today I had sprayed deodorant before leaving, and sprayed it again when I came back in. I didn’t want another earful about going around smelling like someone else’s pheromones.
“Just knowing is enough for now. You’ll start to feel it naturally as time goes on.”
Haejun hyung tidied away even the pants with his own hands, then patted me on the head.
“I’ll call you when dinner’s ready later. Get some rest.”
“Okay.”
Having been out for a long time, I could feel the energy draining from my body — so I half-lay against the headboard, pulling the blanket up over me.
Focusing on my breathing and relaxing my body made the drowsiness ease a little.
“Doesn’t he seem like a completely different person when you watch him on screen? His acting has improved like crazy.”
Seonho’s words from earlier suddenly nagged at me.
Just how much had his acting improved for him to say something like that?
I wasn’t confident enough to go watch the new film again, but I figured I could probably find video clips if I searched.
Sure enough, when I searched “Kwon Wookyung” on a video platform, videos with his handsome face plastered large across the thumbnails flooded out one after another.
The titles, however, were……things like “Kwon Wookyung romance eyes compilation 😍” and “💘Kwon Wookyung’s heart-fluttering kiss scene💘”……every single one of them completely unhinged.
What on earth had he been doing? Why, why did these videos have hundreds of thousands of views?
Losing to my own curiosity, I clicked on the top result: “Kwon Wookyung romance eyes compilation 😍.”
……That was a very wrong choice.
Because the moment the video started playing, Wookyung — who had abruptly pulled someone into his arms — whispered with an expression on the verge of tears:
“I thought I was going to die from missing you all day……”
“Aaaargh!”
What the — my eyes!
I screamed in shock and flung my phone onto the bed, barely five seconds into the video.
