After walking a bit with Chae Eunwoo, we arrived at a cafe near Daehangno. According to him, this was where we first met. Ah, right. Not “we”—Chae Eunwoo and Nam Heejae.
The exterior looked so luxurious that I didn’t want to go in, but Chae Eunwoo linked arms with me and pulled me along. Feeling like a cow being led to the slaughterhouse, I reluctantly moved my feet and glanced around quickly.
Chae Eunwoo asked.
“Why?”
“Just. I’ve never been to a place like this before.”
“You’ve never been before?”
“Ah, that…! I mean. I’ve never come with someone else, is what I mean.”
“Mm. I see.”
“Yeah. Something like that.”
This is awkward. I’ve had plenty of coffee before, but I’d hardly ever actually gone into a cafe to drink it. And even when I had, it was mostly because I couldn’t withstand Jang Haesu’s threats and was forced to set foot inside.
“This isn’t some luxury department store boutique, so why are you being so timid, oppa?”
Haesu always seemed to think I was frustrating and pathetic. Actually, she was smart enough to enter Korea University at the top of her class, so it made sense. Missing my little sister Haesu again, my nose started tingling in real-time.
“Go sit down. I’ll order. Hyung, you want an Americano with an extra shot, right?”
Chae Eunwoo poked me and said. He gestured with his eyes toward a seat right by the window.
“I think that seat over there would be nice. What do you think?”
“Oh, yeah. Sounds good.”
I didn’t have any preferences about cafe seating whatsoever, but I nodded to genuinely convey that it was good. Chae Eunwoo looked slightly suspicious of me, but he let me go obediently.
“By the way, you’ve been doing well all this time, right, hyung?”
After finishing the order, Chae Eunwoo came and sat down across from me and asked. Looking at him straight on from the front, I could feel his incredible looks even more acutely.
If Baek Sahyun had a cold beauty that was somewhat chilling, Chae Eunwoo’s was more delicate and, in a way, pure.
“Yeah. I’ve been doing well. How about you?”
“Me? Thanks to hyung, I’m always doing well.”
His eyes curved like a crescent moon, looking cute. The bell Chae Eunwoo brought rang—ding ding—so this time I jumped up and brought over the tray.
“Hyung, you seem to get more handsome as the days go by.”
After that, we exchanged very typical conversation. Well… Nam Heejae is pretty handsome. Even I was shocked when I opened my eyes and checked the mirror. It wasn’t just at the level of a likable face.
“You’re handsome too.”
More pretty than handsome, though. Anyway, after I answered like this, Chae Eunwoo smiled broadly.
“Really?”
The atmosphere wasn’t too bad. But there was a limit to continuing the conversation with only Chae Eunwoo leading it, so I felt like I should try to bring up some topic too.
Recalling things I’d found in the text messages, I opened my mouth.
“Did you finish writing that exam guide you mentioned before?”
Chae Eunwoo immediately nodded.
“Yes. I really used it well. I was so worried about that test.”
“That’s a relief. Mm… Ah. What about your part-time job? Are you still doing it?”
Chae Eunwoo grew up in a poor household and had been working part-time at various restaurants and cafes since high school.
While Baek Sahyun and Nam Heejae were living it up on their parents’ money, Chae Eunwoo scraped together his tuition fee through his own strength, living a fierce life. That’s why I felt sorry about his background.
“Yes. There are a lot of problem customers, but a convenience store is considered a cushy part-time job. I can study in my spare time too.”
Even to my stiff questions that reminded one of an older relative, Chae Eunwoo appropriately went with the flow. It seemed like his experience dealing with convenience store problem customers was shining here.
“You’re not sick anywhere, are you?”
“Of course not. My body is always healthy, you know. Look at this, my arms are strong too, right?”
Despite his confident answer, his body looked so slender it seemed like he might fly away. But his complexion was clean and bright, so it didn’t seem like his claim of being healthy was a lie.
While I was relieved, suspicion started to swell up.
‘His appearance and everything, he looks too fine.’
Based on his neat appearance and normal behavior, no matter how I looked at it, I couldn’t believe that Chae Eunwoo had just escaped from Baek Sahyun’s mansion.
There are people who maintain a perfectly fine appearance even after going through hardships, but that’s only an extremely exceptional case. Would Chae Eunwoo really fall into that category?
‘Could I have gotten the timeline wrong?’
It was a point where a new hypothesis was gaining credibility.
In other words, what if I hadn’t possessed into Chapter 5, the part where Chae Eunwoo escaped from Baek Sahyun’s clutches and sought help from Nam Heejae, but had possessed into a different timeline?
The Chae Eunwoo in the middle parts slightly stutters due to extreme mental and physical shock, so I thought it might be a period well before Chapter 5.
“Eunwoo.”
I asked with a hopeful heart.
“What do you think about Intol?”
Intol is the company where Nam Heejae’s father sits as chairman.
A conglomerate with a market capitalization of about 80 trillion won. It’s nothing compared to Baek Sahyun’s family’s company, but to ordinary people, it’s prestigious just by name alone.
If it were near Chapter 5, there’s a high chance that Intol’s stronghold would have crumbled. Because that’s the point where Nam Heejae, who became a villain, gets royally screwed over by Baek Sahyun.
“Why? Are you going to let me intern there?”
“Huh?”
“If you do that, I’d be so grateful. It’s been my dream to intern at Intol.”
Chae Eunwoo laughed lightly. Thanks to that, I could feel relieved. Fortunately, it seems Intol’s prestige and dignity are still alive. At least it means I didn’t possess into a timeline where Nam Heejae’s company had fallen.
‘Then is this fucking the introduction?’
Given this situation, the answer narrows down to one.
It means I possessed into a point well before Chapter 5, far before Chae Eunwoo was mortgaged to Baek Sahyun and went through hardships. If I had to choose from introduction, development, turn, and conclusion, obviously it’s the ‘introduction.’
‘What the hell did I do in front of Baek Sahyun?’
But Baek Sahyun definitely interrogated me about Chae Eunwoo’s whereabouts. Why on earth was that?
I tried my best to trace through the contents of *Excessively Brilliant*.
March, when cherry blossoms bloomed abundantly. Chae Eunwoo, who studied like crazy and entered Korea University, meets Nam Heejae and feels a faint fondness for him, then gets caught by his friend Baek Sahyun…
‘Come to think of it, Baek Sahyun and Chae Eunwoo didn’t get along well in the beginning.’
I felt like I had gained enlightenment.
Baek Sahyun never welcomed Chae Eunwoo from the start. Probably because of his obsessive tendencies. That bastard would get extremely stressed if people around him didn’t act according to his predictions.
When it seemed like Nam Heejae, who had an omega-phobia, had feelings for Chae Eunwoo, who was an omega, the situation itself must have seemed ironic to Baek Sahyun, making him feel displeased.
But what could be done? He’s a real alpha, while Nam Heejae is just a fake alpha. Did Chae Eunwoo’s feelings bud because he didn’t know he was an omega, or if he had known, it would have been an absolute goodbye.
“Hyung!”
As I was absorbed in my own thoughts, Chae Eunwoo looked at me worriedly.
“You’re really not sick, are you?”
If that’s the case, it means I spouted epoch-making bullshit like pregnancy, ankles, and condoms at Baek Sahyun, who came over purely because he found Nam Heejae’s behavior annoying.
‘I deserved it. The waterboarding.’
I’d be lucky if I didn’t look like a drug addict. A so-called best friend attacking him by bringing up absurd rumors as if they were truth—Baek Sahyun must have been furious.
Maybe grabbing my hair and trying to shove it into the toilet was his version of emergency first aid. To bring back the sanity of a friend who kept spouting nonsense, wondering if he was drunk or high.
Considering Baek Sahyun’s character settings, it’s an understandable action. He’s a psycho after all.
“Eunwoo. What’s today’s date?”
I asked while making eye contact with Chae Eunwoo.
“April 12th, Sunday. I have a morning class tomorrow, so I’m already tired.”
So it was April after all. It felt like the puzzle was slowly coming together.
April is both the period when Chae Eunwoo and Nam Heejae felt complete affection for each other, and also the period when Baek Sahyun sought out Chae Eunwoo and made him kneel with his pheromones. Chae Eunwoo ground his teeth at such a Baek Sahyun.
Wait. Then does that mean Baek Sahyun fucking knows the fact that Chae Eunwoo is an omega? And then he joked around saying he was a beta? Even while waterboarding me?
I was dumbfounded and at a loss for words for a while. Probably that bastard Baek Sahyun just didn’t like what I was doing and picked an appropriate excuse to torment me.
Based on my irritation toward Baek Sahyun and sympathy toward Chae Eunwoo, I made one decision.
In May, Baek Sahyun will develop strange feelings for Chae Eunwoo, so… yeah.
“Eunwoo. Try not to get close to Sahyun as much as possible.”
Let’s try to change the novel’s content to save both Chae Eunwoo’s life and my life. If you think about it, all the tragedy and misfortune started from the relationship between Baek Sahyun and Chae Eunwoo, so let’s just flip the whole board.
But at my words, Chae Eunwoo made a puzzled expression.
“…Sahyun sunbae? Why?”
“Yeah. That crazy bastard. His personality is the worst and what he does is the worst. Never get involved with him, don’t even make eye contact, just. Just think of him as someone who doesn’t exist and if you see him, run away unconditionally. Got it? You have to remember this.”
“Weren’t you two close? Why are you saying this?”
“Haah, Eunwoo. You know too.”
He must definitely know. Baek Sahyun was harsh to Chae Eunwoo. Was he just harsh? Didn’t he use his alpha pheromones to crush him and then even threaten him by bringing up Nam Heejae?
Of course, the latter is a story from after the content progressed further, but if we can prevent the water from spilling before it happens, we definitely should. I emphasized again.
“Baek Sahyun is… in a word, a piece of trash bastard.”
Since Chae Eunwoo’s reaction was lukewarm, I even twirled my finger in circles next to my head.
“He’s crazy. A psycho. If you get involved with a psycho, your life gets fucked. You’re still young so you don’t know, but when you gain experience, you’ll understand. Bastards like Baek Sahyun should be isolated from society. That’s what’s best for the community.”
This is strange. Why is there no response? Even Chae Eunwoo’s face, which had been so bright until just now, was hardened like stone, so I slowly turned my head to follow where his gaze was directed.
“…I’m fucked.”
And what I discovered was Baek Sahyun looking down at me with an expression as cold as ice.
Why, why are you here, Sahyun?
