Taeon, who had been looking around, lowered his gaze to his feet and puffed out his cheeks for no reason.
Taeon, who started walking with both hands in his jacket, soon had to face difficulties in passage.
He was always used to sidelong glances at his face, but he didn’t often encounter people who stopped him in the neighborhood. They were faces already known all too well, and if they got his number, there was a high probability they were trait-bearers he’d mixed bodies with at least once.
For Taeon, the college students stopping him felt a bit strange. They barely emitted any pheromone scent. It wasn’t that they weren’t trait-bearers; rather, they were probably dominant, but unlike Taeon, they had gentle faces that clearly faithfully took suppressants.
Innocent faces that, even when Taeon expressed his refusal, just shrugged their shoulders and backed off—similar to Sunjeong but not resembling Sunjeong at all.
So where was Sunjeong? Taeon looked around eagerly in front of the Business Administration building he’d worked hard to find.
Taeon let out a sigh for a moment. College students don’t come to school every day, five days a week, do they?
Should I have just gone to his house instead? But me going to his house out of the blue is also a bit……
Belatedly troubled, Taeon headed to the wisteria bench where many students had gathered. He could feel the gazes of the people sitting there gathering, but it didn’t matter. He wanted to quickly put a cigarette in his mouth, the cigarettes he’d started smoking since Sunjeong stopped coming to see him.
“So where are the kids going?”
“New Zealand.”
“Japan to New Zealand, isn’t that too big of a travel size?”
“Go Sunjeong is scared.”
“Of what?”
“Bears. He’s scared bears might appear.”
“Crazy, that’s so funny. That’s so like Go Sunjeong.”
Taeon quietly listened to the conversation between the two alphas in front of him, who were faintly emitting pheromones that couldn’t be hidden even though they’d taken suppressants.
I see, Go Sunjeong is going to New Zealand. He doesn’t like Japan because bears come out.
Are those people close with Go Sunjeong?
His desire to smoke was fully satisfied, but Taeon unnecessarily put another cigarette in his mouth. It was because he wanted to hear more about Sunjeong since Sunjeong no longer came to chatter to him. Perhaps today might be the last chance to hear news of Sunjeong.
“Sunjeong, class over?”
When Taeon was lighting a new cigarette, one of the alphas looked diagonally and shouted.
Taeon flinched for a moment. It was true he’d come all the way to this school to see Sunjeong, but now that Sunjeong would actually be before his eyes, he didn’t know what to do.
He hoped it would be a different Sunjeong, but Taeon knew that there would be only one male Go Sunjeong attending Hanguk University’s Business Administration department.
Unable to raise his head, Taeon prepared himself mentally.
If Sunjeong discovers Taeon who came all the way here to see him, he’ll be moved, right? No, first of all, making a fuss would be the biggest problem. In front of those alphas who just looked rich and flashy, he might put his arms around Taeon’s neck and scream while hugging him. Yoon Taeon, why are you here, did you come all the way here to see me?
For Taeon, who didn’t particularly want to reveal himself to Sunjeong’s friends, it would be a situation he didn’t really want.
I should say I came because I couldn’t contact him and was worried, that I saw he’s doing well so that’s enough, let’s see each other once in the neighborhood next time.
Having organized his mind like this, Taeon raised his head.
‘Ha, fuck……’
Taeon cursed inwardly without realizing it.
Was it because he was seeing him after a long time? Or was it because he was seeing him at a university instead of the neighborhood he always saw him in?
Sunjeong’s always bright face was shining even more.
Large eyes without double eyelids and black pupils that seemed to brightly illuminate everything in the world, the bridge of his nose whose height Taeon found fascinating and would tap a few times for no reason, plump lips that generally held only gentle words except when making a fuss at Taeon. And his small height and build without an ounce of excess fat.
It was an instant when Taeon’s eyes met with Sunjeong’s, who had tapped the area of his heart a few times as if to calm it down for no reason.
For some reason, even after making eye contact, Sunjeong didn’t acknowledge Taeon.
He might do that if he’s too flustered.
“Hey, Go……”
When Taeon opened his mouth, Sunjeong smiled brightly at one of the alphas and said.
“I’m starving to death. What’s the cafeteria menu today?”
“Spicy pork and squid.”
“Will it be really spicy?”
“Yeah. Go Sunjeong, you can’t eat spicy food. That’s why I was going to suggest eating out today. Sushi call?”
“Good. I want to eat salmon rice bowl.”
“Then let’s go to the back gate area.”
“Okay.”
Once Sunjeong turned his gaze away from Taeon, he was moving away having trivial conversations without giving Taeon any more attention.
What? What the hell is this situation right now?
Confused, Taeon tried to shout Sunjeong’s name out loud, but somehow the words wouldn’t come out of his mouth.
“Hey, Go Sunjeong……”
In the end, only after Sunjeong had gone far away did Taeon mutter Sunjeong’s name like talking to himself, and had to stand there dazed with an empty expression for a long while.
Taeon was just bewildered. He couldn’t believe that Sunjeong, of all people, had ignored him.
Moreover, even when their eyes met, Sunjeong had an unbothered expression.
A groan-like sigh flowed from the mouth of Taeon, who had been stroking his face several times for no reason with a palm that faintly smelled of tobacco from the cigarettes he’d smoked while unable to contact Sunjeong.
“Ha……”
So right now this situation was…….
Sunjeong had ignored Taeon. No, the expression “ignored” wasn’t appropriate. He’d completely blanked him.
As if Taeon had been completely cut off.
In fact, thinking about it, it wasn’t a very unfamiliar situation for Taeon.
There were not infrequent times when Taeon ignored him when Sunjeong barged in without contact as he always did. He did so when he was with alpha bastards who rolled their eyes at the sight of Sunjeong, or when he was with an omega who had urgent business with Taeon.
Still, he’d never ignored Sunjeong when he was with people he worked with—in other words, trustworthy people.
He’d even introduced Sunjeong to them as his friend, and Sunjeong also didn’t act shy and behaved amiably with the men Taeon worked with, unlike himself.
Just as Taeon had his workplace colleagues, the friends Sunjeong met at university were probably good, trustworthy people too. He just didn’t want to acknowledge knowing Taeon in front of them. If not even this, maybe he just wanted to ignore Taeon himself.
Am I embarrassing?
With this thought, Taeon unconsciously looked over his outfit.
He’d found and worn the cleanest clothes possible because he was worried Sunjeong might dislike it if he came in his usual outfit looking too shabby. Seeing that he’d gotten several numbers on the way, his appearance clearly didn’t look messy.
Right now it was difficult to find a clear reason. Only Sunjeong, who had ignored Taeon, would know that reason, but since Sunjeong had ignored Taeon.
It had been a long time since he’d left the wisteria bench smoking area, but Taeon really craved a cigarette.
What calmed Taeon’s troubled mind was the fresh atmosphere of the university campus he was properly viewing for the first time.
Even while seeing the tired-looking faces of peers hurriedly passing by and hearing voices mixed with complaints about hating exams too much, Taeon just thought they looked good. He felt those who would live another unknowable life after their unknowable twenties that Taeon couldn’t know were amazing.
Usually he tried not to have such thoughts, but well, it seemed okay to fall into this degree of contemplation in the middle of Hanguk University campus.
Sunjeong couldn’t be seen anyway, and since it was a day he’d screwed up at work, he had plenty and plenty of time.
Taeon, who had bought a cup of coffee from a cafe with the unfamiliar name “Co-op Cafeteria,” plopped down on a bench heading inside the huge central road crossing the campus.
Stretching out his long legs and sitting comfortably while sipping coffee, it felt like he’d become a student at this school.
Seeing people outside the neighborhood after a long time, it felt good to feel his heart fill with the excitement about the wide world he’d held when he was a high school student. Though it would disappear once he got back on the bus and went round and round.
“I even get to enjoy such luxury because of Go Sunjeong.”
Thinking of Sunjeong who had completely ignored him and passed by on this beautiful campus, Taeon talked to himself and laughed.
At the same time, he thought about how pretty Sunjeong had looked in Taeon’s eyes earlier, as always.
And he thought about how well Sunjeong’s white face matched with the unfamiliar alphas and this school’s scenery.
Sipping the coffee that was becoming lukewarm, Taeon unnecessarily stretched out his hands, which were rough with calluses from being injured here and there while working.
With these hands, there were things he could firmly grasp and things he had to let go without grasping.
Sunjeong was one of the things Taeon had to completely let go.
The current situation, though he was flustered because he hadn’t thought at least Sunjeong would do such a thing, was a situation Taeon had always anticipated and prepared for, and thinking this, he could feel the strength gradually draining from his heart that had been stiff with earlier bewilderment.
What brought Taeon, who had been accepting everything very slowly with an empty feeling, back to his senses was an unfamiliar voice.
“Excuse me.”
As soon as he heard the voice of someone who was clearly an omega, Taeon reflexively raised his head.
With a gentle smile of refusal on his lips, since there was no need to blush over someone he’d see once and never again.
But as soon as Taeon raised his head, he grimaced.
“Don’t you take suppressants? Crazy, fuck.”
