…Who explains something that noble in such a crude way?
Surely he doesn’t talk like that in front of patients either? It was a genuine embarrassment to the family.
“What? Did seeing me make you want to go to medical school? Absolutely not, not you.”
“I never said I wanted to! And there’s no reason I couldn’t!”
“With that brain of yours, even three attempts wouldn’t get you there—”
He sang it like a little tune, which made it ten times more infuriating.
“Ugh, Shin Haechan, seriously!”
“Rude……? Call me hyung.”
“Shin Haechan, Shin Haechan, Shin Haechan!”
As punishment for the insolence of calling him by name, I received four flicks to the forehead.
His fingers are ridiculously strong!
Shin Haechan added, for good measure, that I shouldn’t even dream of holding a scalpel, and that I’d end up killing someone — and managed to turn my stomach completely inside out right to the very end.
I was an idiot for trying to ask my younger hyung for career counseling.
I should have asked Haejun hyung……
In the afternoon, I went to the hospital for rehabilitation. I went with Shin Haechan but came home alone. The professor in charge had suddenly called him in. I sent the slave off with a serene smile as he got dragged away even during his leave, and came back in Driver Park’s car.
My mood had been fine when I got in the car, but not when I stepped out.
Wookyung still hadn’t replied, even well into the late afternoon. It was long past the point where sleeping in could explain it. He had promised just yesterday to keep in touch properly — and already he was unreachable?
I stopped in the middle of the garden, glaring at the unresponsive screen, deliberating for a long time over whether to press the call button.
Wait — why am I even deliberating over this?
Refusing to acknowledge that I’d hesitated out of fear Wookyung might ignore the call too, I pressed the call button immediately.
“…….”
A flat dial tone continued on and on.
I tapped my fingers in time with the rhythm of the rings — and when it had clearly gone past ten, I was seized by the urge to hang up.
〈The person you are calling is unavailable. After the beep, please leave a—〉
“What?”
He’s really not answering texts or calls?
Instead of calling again, I turned on my heel. I’d told him yesterday that if he didn’t pick up I’d come find him — so if I walked into that house uninvited, the homeowner would have no grounds to complain.
I was still pretty irritated as I punched in the gate code and then the front door code and pushed them open — but once I stepped inside, something in me softened.
There was a vase in plain view. Whether he’d unwrapped and arranged the flowers the moment he got home last night, they were fresh with not a single wilted petal.
“Wookyung…?”
I called out to him as I went in, but no answer came back.
All the lights were off, and it was quiet without a trace of anyone.
He went out for a bit… no, that can’t be it. The shoes he’d worn yesterday were neatly placed at the entrance.
It was more likely he was holed up in his second-floor room and hadn’t heard. He didn’t seem like someone who’d gone out. Since he lived alone, there were plenty of empty rooms on the first floor too, but Wookyung tended to insist on his own room upstairs despite the inconvenience of the climb.
He’s probably buried himself in the sofa in his room again, reading a book.
If I asked why he hadn’t been reachable, I was certain I’d get some excuse about leaving his phone somewhere far away.
Even though I was annoyed at Wookyung for breaking his promise, I figured that if he apologized, I’d let it go again while pretending to be reluctant.
I was about to step onto the staircase leading to the second floor when I noticed some nostalgic scribbles.
“Wow, these are still here.”
Short lines drawn on the wall. Height measurements. Since they’d been drawn in ballpoint pen, it made sense they’d still be there as long as the wallpaper hadn’t been changed.
Green was me, and blue was him — and not once had the green line ever been above the blue. Since Wookyung and I were among the tallest in our class, a competitive streak in me had always pestered us to measure ourselves again and again.
In first year of middle school, I’d almost caught up — we were practically neck and neck. Back then I’d been completely sure I was about to overtake him. But that didn’t last. Wookyung shot up even further as if to spite me, and kept being taller than me after that. How did I not win even once?
I ran my fingers over the last green line, drawn just slightly below where I stood now, and stepped onto the staircase for the first time in a long while.
The dented mark at the top of the stairs was still there too, and I smiled. That was where I’d tumbled down after messing around. I’d scraped my knees and palms and was sniffling when Wookyung had soothed me and put medicine on it.
How old was I then? The fact that I remember crying means it must have been really young. Around eight years old, maybe?
Hmm……
I was tracing through old memories as I came up to the second floor — when I heard a very small, faint sound.
Wondering if I’d really heard it right, I held still and listened — and yes, there really was a groaning sound coming from Wookyung’s room.
…Don’t tell me this guy collapsed because he’s sick.
Thinking back on everything he’d shown me lately, it was entirely possible.
“Hey, Wookyung. You’re in there, right?”
I knocked on the closed door and called out to him.
Even though there was no way he couldn’t have heard it if he were in his right mind, there was no answer at all.
Only faint sounds of distress.
“Ugh, I’m coming in.”
Unease gripping me, I didn’t wait long and threw the door open.
I’d flung it open boldly enough — but I stumbled back with an involuntary gasp, because the room was saturated with pheromones.
“What’s going on… why are you like this? Are you sick again?”
Wookyung was curled up on the bed, his back trembling finely. One look was enough to see his condition was bad. Like what I’d witnessed at the theater — it seemed that hormonal syndrome had flared up violently.
What was the treatment for that again…? Medication? Injections? I panicked and the information wouldn’t come back to me.
“Hey, where did you put your medicine? Should I call an ambulance?”
I went over, grabbed Wookyung’s shoulder, and shook him. He’d had his eyes squeezed tightly shut, but he finally turned at that. The moment he recognized me, the color drained from his face and his expression went rigid.
“…You, why did you come…? Get out.”
“Are you insane? I couldn’t reach you and this is what you were doing? Look at the cold sweat on you.”
Cold sweat had gathered on his forehead and his body was shaking beyond his control. His skin was burning hot too. What temperature must his fever be at? I felt like I should do something, but I had no idea where to even begin.
“Don’t care about it. Go… please.”
Wookyung muttered and bit down hard on his own lip. His face was twisted with strain and pheromones were pouring off him. In that state, all he kept repeating was for me to leave. It was the most maddening thing.
“Did you take your medicine?! How do you expect me to just leave when you look like this?”
Even glancing at Wookyung’s bowed head, the trembling in his arms was obviously not normal. He looked so unstable, like he could lose consciousness and collapse at any moment — so I bent down to check his eyes.
“Hey, I’m going to call 119—”
My vision spun.
My arm was grabbed with sudden, forceful strength, and the momentum yanked me and threw me onto the bed — and after that, Wookyung climbed on top of me.
“—Ah—!”
Before I even had time to process what was happening, our lips collided. I was still dazed even as something pushed through the gap of my parted lips and tangled with my tongue.
I lay there, eyes wide open, taking the force that drove into my mouth until it ached.
“Ngh, hey——!”
What the — it’s me!
I managed to wrench my head to the side to protest, but I was caught again. Saliva spilled freely. Wookyung was clearly not in his right mind. As if he couldn’t even tell who he was dealing with, he forced my mouth open and tried to push deeper. He pressed his lips relentlessly against mine while layering his body completely over me — and I had no choice but to feel against my skin the rapid pounding of Wookyung’s heart and the twitch of aroused muscle.
There was no overpowering him physically, and the overwhelming alpha pheromones that had been hitting me like a physical pain this whole time had drained all strength from my limbs, leaving me unable to resist. On top of that, my heart was racing too fast from the lack of air.
Then — when the tip of Wookyung’s tongue grazed a spot on the roof of my mouth, a tingling bloomed in my lower belly and a strange sensation spread up along my spine, and I let out, without meaning to, a soft moan. I wanted to cover my mouth but I was completely pinned beneath him, and all I could do was let the helpless sound slip out as I took that wet, consuming kiss.
My toes curled, and a desperate, unhinged urge rose in me to pull him closer and press our bodies together. It felt as though Wookyung’s heat had transferred into me. The taut muscle of his thighs and something long and heavy pressed down between my legs — and strangely, a hot pulse throbbed from somewhere in that space. A part of me that had never felt arousal before heated rapidly… and grew wet.
“Ha, s-stop…! Ngh.”
It was after that when my fading senses came back to me.
Wookyung hadn’t stopped at ravaging my mouth — he’d slipped his hand under the hem of my top and gripped my waist… and I was so startled that I looked straight at him.
If my clothes come off too, something that can never happen is going to happen. I was so flustered that my body was trembling, and even my eyes were shaking — and in that moment, his eyes caught the reflection of my terrified face.
“……Fuck.”
Before I even had time to be startled that Wookyung had cursed, he recoiled from me as if he’d been burned. Then he picked up the glass on the nightstand, shattered it, and dragged a shard across his own arm.
“You — that—”
What are you doing.
It was one incomprehensible thing after another.
I stared blankly as red blood dripped down onto the bedsheets.
“Get out.”
“Your arm—”
“Is this the time for you to be worrying about me? Get out. Now.”
Wookyung was breathing in ragged pulls as he pointed at the door.
Blood streamed down from the fist that still hadn’t let go of the glass shard.
…I don’t remember how I got out of that house.
The moment I breathed in the outside air, I sank to the ground as though my legs had given out beneath me.
