I need to emphasize this, but Baek Sahyun is a kind of sadist who enjoys keeping his partner beneath him and toying with them. I don’t know if that’s his setting in the story, but my evaluation of that bastard remained unchanged.
In short, he’s a bastard who gets joy from making people scared and forcing them to be constantly on edge. To add a few more words, he’s someone who becomes more helpful the further he is from society, and more harmful the closer he gets. A bastard who seriously needs to be isolated.
“Don’t tell me you followed me, Baek Sahyun?”
And… the future enemy of the original Nam Heejae.
Baek Sahyun’s murderous gaze swept over me from head to toe. As expected, he didn’t answer the question. The bastard let out a faint snort and then plopped down heavily next to me.
The bastard tapped his fingers against the Americano he hadn’t even taken a sip of yet and muttered.
“How disappointing. I thought you’d be smoking marijuana instead of drinking coffee.”
Marijuana? Isn’t that the name of a drug? Why would Nam Heejae smoke marijuana? I’d never heard or seen anything about that—it was complete nonsense. Unable to understand the bastard, my mouth just dropped open.
“…Why would I do marijuana, Sahyun-ah.”
Honestly, looking at how his eyes were rolling around crazily, it seemed like Baek Sahyun was the one who’d smoked marijuana, not me. But I didn’t let the words that rushed up to my throat spill out completely.
Because if Baek Sahyun, hit with the truth, went crazy and started raging, it would be my loss.
Maybe it was because it was such a cramped portable sofa, but his shoulders, broad like a baseball player’s, pressed down on my shoulders making my posture extremely uncomfortable. As I fidgeted to show my discomfort, Baek Sahyun wrapped his arm deeply around my shoulders.
“Stay still, Nam Heejae. It’s not like you committed a crime.”
Well, of course I didn’t… I was just uncomfortable having skin contact with another guy. But knowing full well that if I conveyed this as is, I’d receive Baek Sahyun’s glare, I made up an excuse.
“I, I need to go to the bathroom.”
This is driving me crazy. Why did I stutter? Maybe it was because I had two people with looks that are hard to find in reality sitting next to me, but tension kept seeping into every action.
Besides, Baek Sahyun was… definitely a difficult type to deal with in many ways. When I worked as a day laborer at a construction site, there was a nasty-tempered supervisor who had exactly this kind of impression, and I had terrible compatibility with that bastard too.
“Why the bathroom? Don’t tell me you’re thirsty? Need water?”
Baek Sahyun asked as if puzzled. It might sound like a random question to others, but not to me. The question that bastard threw was a threat asking if I wanted to be waterboarded again.
Having easily grasped the meaning, I shut my mouth like a clam.
When I shook my head with a miserable feeling, Baek Sahyun tapped my cheek as if I’d made a good decision. Even though he just pushed it lightly with his palm, damn it. My whole cheek burned. That’s when it happened.
“It’s been a while, Sahyun sunbae-nim?”
Chae Eunwoo, who had been flustered by Baek Sahyun’s appearance, belatedly spoke up. The bastard looked more flushed than when he was alone with me, which made me feel suspicious instead.
…Eunwoo, you’re blatantly welcoming Baek Sahyun?
The early-story Chae Eunwoo should be growling and putting up his guard against Baek Sahyun, not welcoming him. Chae Eunwoo, narrowing his eyes drowsily as if acting cute, felt truly confusing to me.
It was as if a fluffy tail was wagging behind Chae Eunwoo.
So I suddenly recalled Haesu’s voice. The method called “awakening the most normal guy,” which is used as one of the ways to confuse a possessor.
‘No way, right Eunwoo? Baek Sahyun is also a crazy bastard… Please don’t do that. You can’t become hopeless too.’
Not letting go of my last hope, I sent a desperate gaze to Eunwoo.
“Sahyun sunbae-nim, you returned to school this semester, right? Together with Heejae hyung.”
But damn it, Chae Eunwoo didn’t even look at me! Since a superior male like Baek Sahyun had appeared, it was natural that his attention would be drawn, but being ignored this much made resentment surge up.
Furthermore, I felt like my goodwill of wanting to save that bastard from Baek Sahyun’s clutches had been rejected. As I was feeling a bit dejected, Baek Sahyun slowly turned to look at my profile.
The bastard who blatantly ignored Chae Eunwoo’s question moved his crimson lips and whispered.
“Your outing’s over. Pack up, we’re going home.”
Even though the only things I had were car keys and a wallet. I widened my eyes at his sudden suggestion. It hadn’t even been ten minutes since we sat down, so I wondered what this absurd statement was about.
But Baek Sahyun seemed serious as he gripped my shoulder blade tightly.
“Urk…!”
“Heejae-ya. Is there a problem with your hearing?”
“Hey, that hurts. Let go.”
“I’m saying this place smells disgusting. What if I vomit? Will you clean it up?”
Vomit what. Clean up what? The only smell here is coffee. I let out an incredulous laugh at Baek Sahyun’s absurd claim.
“I think there’s a problem with your sense of smell rather than my hearing…”
But while continuing my words, I belatedly understood the definition of the ‘smell’ Baek Sahyun mentioned. Both Chae Eunwoo’s brow furrowed somewhat irritably and Baek Sahyun’s corners of his mouth raised mockingly—there was only one answer.
I recited a curse without being conscious of it.
“Rude bastard. Are you crazy, Baek Sahyun?”
‘Smell’ meant he was pointing out Chae Eunwoo’s pheromones. Since Baek Sahyun was a dominant alpha, even if Chae Eunwoo tightly concealed his pheromones, he would easily notice the scent.
Leaning my lips close to the bastard’s ear, I snapped forcefully.
“Don’t say such rude things in front of people. Okay?”
I didn’t even know myself where this courage came from. Perhaps the pent-up frustration from reading *Excessively Brilliant* was bursting out.
Finally, a crack appeared in Baek Sahyun’s calm face.
“If you’re old enough, you should act your age. What are you doing to a twenty-year-old?”
“……”
“It’s not like he wanted to become an omega, so why humiliate him to his face?”
As Haesu said, even if Chae Eunwoo had awakened in an abnormal direction, Eunwoo was still Eunwoo. Though his uprightness was frustrating, I always respected the life he’d lived desperately with nowhere to turn for help.
Moreover, unlike me who was too dumb to even have the will to study, didn’t he get into Korea University through his own ability? That was something not just anyone could achieve, something worthy of praise.
If there was a problem, it was Baek Sahyun who suddenly appeared in front of such a kid and acted like a son of a bitch, while Chae Eunwoo was just a Korea University student on the verge of being self-made.
‘If it weren’t for this bastard, Eunwoo could have lived a normal life, eating and living well.’
With such a pleasant personality and excellent looks, he would have met a good person and married early. Because Chae Eunwoo’s dream, who lived everything earnestly, was precisely… “to form a harmonious family.”
In this aspect, he was somehow a bit like me.
As I tried to take a sip of Americano because my stomach felt upset, Baek Sahyun caught my arm midway. And then he stared at me blankly. His sunken gaze was oppressive.
“Let go.”
When I rasped out my voice first, Baek Sahyun answered slowly.
“I won’t go easy on you just because we’re in front of a junior, Heejae-ya.”
“……”
“If you don’t want to show an ugly side, behave yourself. Don’t provoke people with useless whispers.”
The bastard wasn’t the type to warn twice. To make matters worse, he was an unnecessarily stubborn bastard who absolutely, definitely kept his word. Annoyed into silence, I twisted and pulled out my caught arm.
“Hey, do you really have to use your mouth that way…!”
But having become too venomous, I ended up using excessive force.
The freed arm couldn’t overcome the recoil and bumped hard into the nearby Americano.
I should have somehow salvaged the situation there, but the brown liquid in the plastic cup poured out and thoroughly soaked Baek Sahyun’s upper body and thighs. I was horrified and Baek Sahyun looked down at himself expressionlessly.
Since one ice cube was precariously perched on the bastard’s thigh, I seriously contemplated whether I should knock it off or not. Truly a disaster that silenced everyone present.
Since turning back time was impossible, I tried to go get tissues to wipe up the coffee. But Baek Sahyun blocked my movement with a brief word.
“Sit.”
It was chilling. It felt like if I didn’t sit down immediately, he’d tear me to shreds, so I frantically sat down. I thought I might as well hurry up and apologize, but it seemed like the victim himself didn’t want that.
Still, I felt I should say something, so I was squeezing out courage when.
“Hey, Sahyun-ah.”
“Are you going to suck all of this off for me, Heejae?”
Baek Sahyun asked a question using strangely creepy words. When I didn’t answer, the bastard added.
“You’ve become mute like you’ve eaten honey again.”
“……”
“You keep acting like this, so you seem like a different person, Heejae-ya. And.”
The bastard gradually tilted his face toward me. A soft whisper followed.
“Chae Eunwoo is a beta.”
“……”
“Can’t you learn?”
“……”
“Then you should at least memorize it. Eunwoo isn’t an omega but a beta.”
Even though the person asserting this also knew that Chae Eunwoo was an omega, it was complete bullshit.
