(Part 1 Conclusion)
“I’ve been feeling attracted to you for a while now.”
Hyowoo’s hand, which had been touching the coffee cup with steam rising from it, flinched.
“Since the beginning of this year, my eyes kept being drawn to you.”
Looking at the man sitting across from him, Hyowoo couldn’t hide his troubled expression.
‘…I had a feeling, but here we go again with this talk…’
Hyowoo sighed inwardly.
‘This makes three people just today… If I’d known this would happen, I shouldn’t have followed him…’
Swallowing his belated regret, Hyowoo rewound to ten minutes ago.
Late afternoon in December, just before winter break. Hyowoo, having finished class, stepped outside the building.
The cold air, as if snow would pour down at any moment, made his breath turn white.
‘They say it’s global warming, but at this rate, won’t I really freeze to death?’
In the biting wind, it was hard to endure even one more second outside.
He shoved both hands deep into his coat pockets and was hurrying toward the subway station.
“Excuse me, Ji Hyowoo.”
Someone called his name from behind.
His steps reflexively stopped. When he turned around, a tall man came into view.
‘…Who is this?’
It was someone he’d never seen before.
The man quickly walked toward Hyowoo, who was tilting his head in puzzlement.
“Um, I’m Jo Yeonwook, taking my doctorate in economics in graduate school.”
Even hearing the name, no information about the man came to mind.
“Can you spare me a moment?”
Watching him stride right up to him, Hyowoo unconsciously stepped back. It was because he could feel the distinctive aura of an alpha from him.
‘What would a stranger have to say to me?’
In the past, he would have coldly refused and run away without looking back, but Hyowoo hesitated for a moment before quietly nodding.
First of all, he didn’t sense any malice from the man. With social life approaching soon, maintaining amicable human relationships was the wise choice.
‘There’s no need to needlessly embarrass a school senior who means no harm.’
Fortunately, these days dealing with alphas had become much easier.
Alphas were still scary, but at least now he didn’t tremble in fear or have panic attacks just from facing them.
It was a change that had occurred after meeting ‘him’.
“Please speak.”
“Ah, it’s a bit awkward to do this here… It might take a while.”
Indeed, today’s weather was brutal for having a long conversation outside.
In the end, Hyowoo headed to a cafe near school with the man, which led to the current situation.
“So, that’s why… Um, if it’s okay with you, would you like to go out with me?”
After finishing his confession, the man sent an expectant gaze while looking embarrassed. His expression seemed confident of a positive answer.
Watching him, Hyowoo was just at a loss for what expression to make.
He seemed like a neat-looking and sincere person, but he also looked quite stubborn. If he spoke vaguely, it would obviously just leave room for hope.
After taking a sip of hot coffee, Hyowoo calmly spoke.
“Thank you for thinking well of me. But I can’t date you, sunbae-nim.”
“Why?!”
At Hyowoo’s firm attitude, the man’s face colored with disappointment.
“Don’t you like me?”
“No. It’s not that.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
The other two he’d rejected earlier had backed off quickly, but as expected, it seemed it would take some time to make this man give up.
In times like this, telling the truth was the best approach.
“I have someone I’m dating.”
“You… you have someone you’re dating?!”
Hearing the reason, the man jumped up from his seat in excessive surprise.
“Who is it? Is it Lee Taeseo from Anthropology? Are you really dating Lee Taeseo like the rumors say?”
He wondered why Taeseo was suddenly mentioned out of nowhere, but thinking about it, Hyowoo had stuck together with her for all four years.
Since the delicate handsome male omega famous for avoiding alphas was always together with a beautiful alpha woman with an aura rivaling a Dominant Alpha, it was understandable they’d be mistaken for a campus couple.
‘I didn’t know such strange rumors were going around…’
He felt sorry for causing unnecessary trouble for his friend.
Thinking he should clear up this man’s misunderstanding first, Hyowoo shook his head.
“It’s my boyfriend. So please consider what you just said as if it never…”
“How long have you been dating him?”
“Pardon?”
“If you haven’t been dating long, can’t you consider it? I’m confident I can treat you better than that boyfriend!”
Fatigue suddenly washed over him.
He’d tried his best to be polite so as not to hurt the other person’s feelings, but if he kept sitting here, there would be no end to it.
In a situation where he was dating someone he liked, he didn’t have even 1g of desire to consider anyone else. Above all, treating him better than his ‘current boyfriend’ was impossible from the start.
“Um, I should get going. Thank you for the coffee.”
After clearly expressing his refusal and standing up from his seat, the man grabbed Hyowoo’s arm.
“Please think about it one more time. I really can treat you well!”
At that moment, goosebumps rose all over his body.
Before his head could even react, Hyowoo instinctively shook off his hand sharply. The man made a dumbfounded expression at how disgusted he was.
Hyowoo was flustered as well.
“Ah… I’m sorry. I did that without thinking…”
Even at Hyowoo’s apology, the man couldn’t say anything.
The shock of being flatly rejected by the person he’d confessed to liking, a male omega at that, seemed quite significant.
Hyowoo, looking at his soul-departed face, eventually bowed in greeting and hurriedly left the cafe.
Haah…
Even though he’d done nothing wrong, his guilt was considerable.
‘That sunbae must have agonized a lot before confessing…’
Hyowoo’s heart was just as uncomfortable as the dejected other person.
‘…Ah, whatever. Let’s stop thinking about it. I should hurry home and hug Saewoo for a change of mood.’
Thinking that, he was about to sling the book bag he was holding onto his shoulder.
“At this rate, you’ll probably get more confessions than Mina this month, won’t you?”
The cafe door opened from behind, and Taeseo appeared.
“…What, what? Why are you coming out from there?”
“Because I was inside too.”
“Were you drinking coffee…?”
“No, I was spying on you getting confessed to.”
Taeseo approached Hyowoo with light steps as he looked dumbfounded.
“That wasn’t your first confession today, right? How many was that?”
Watching Taeseo grinning as if something was so amusing, Hyowoo sighed as if the ground would cave in.
“Whether it’s because graduation is approaching, or because Christmas is coming… I don’t know why everyone’s acting like this…”
Until high school, Hyowoo was so popular that he received confessions from one person every week. But after entering university, it completely changed.
Even though he was still a beautiful boy with such fine features that one couldn’t take their eyes off him, after experiencing that terrible accident, his body became drastically thinner and his expression became colder.
Going one step further, Hyowoo built an invisible wall so no one could approach. Because he hid inside it and gave off the unspoken message of ‘please don’t come near me,’ no one could easily approach.
Thanks to that, the confessions he’d received over the past four years could be counted on one hand.
‘But these days, I don’t understand why I’m getting confessed to several times a day…’
To Hyowoo, who lamented that it was hard to see the disappointed faces of the other party each time he rejected them, Taeseo said she seemed to know the reason.
“Your atmosphere has become much softer lately. You’ve become prettier too.”
“What?”
“Maybe because you’ve gained a little weight, you’ve really become prettier. Your expression has become brighter too.”
After reuniting with Lee Seohee in London, Hyowoo’s weight returned to normal within a month.
Until then, he could barely swallow water and had to get IV drips every other day, but after his appetite returned, he could eat food and didn’t vomit either.
It was a miraculously fast recovery speed. It was hard to believe that just recently he’d been recommended hospitalization.
His parents, who had worried day and night that Hyowoo might ruin his health again, were greatly relieved and delighted at his recovery.
Gyeonwoo, the only one in the family who knew the truth, joked saying it was good he helped with the resolve to be removed from the family register, ‘You’ll have to give me plenty of spending money when you get a job~’.
He himself felt that his condition had improved, but he didn’t expect to hear that he’d become prettier.
“Your skin is literally glowing. People who don’t know you would ask what cosmetics you use, you know?”
“Did you eat something wrong for lunch? Why are you saying weird things?”
“Mina said so too. That your beauty has bloomed lately.”
Even though it was a compliment, the word ‘pretty’ wasn’t very welcome to Hyowoo, who was a man.
Moreover, whether she was increasingly resembling her cousin oppa, Taeseo had started enjoying teasing Hyowoo quite a bit. It was already cold and tiring, and he didn’t have the leisure to put up with his friend’s new hobby too.
“…If you’re going to keep talking nonsense, go home. I’m going home too. Goodbye, take care.”
He ran toward the subway station to escape as quickly as possible, but ended up being caught after just a few steps.
“Hey, what are you doing? Let go of this?”
Just having the handle of the bag on his back firmly grabbed, he couldn’t move forward even one step due to Taeseo’s monstrous strength as an alpha. No matter how much he struggled for her to let go, she didn’t bat an eye.
“Anyway, do you have any plans for winter break?”
“I haven’t really made any, why?”
“Then let’s go on a graduation trip with me. To London.”
“…Huh?”
At the sudden suggestion, Hyowoo stopped struggling to escape from her grasp.
With a blank expression and only his eyes wide open, Taeseo added with a playful smile.
“Oppa told me to bring you too.”
When he video called with him last night, he hadn’t said anything. Did the cousins plan some strategy overnight?
“You’ll go, right?”
“…I’ll think about it.”
That’s what he answered, but Hyowoo’s mind was already made up.
‘I was planning to go see Seohee-ssi during break anyway.’
His heart was already pounding at the thought of telling him that fact directly during tonight’s call.
So that his friend wouldn’t notice his shy feelings, Hyowoo unnecessarily adjusted his scarf and slowly walked across the campus with Taeseo.
