Crash—along with a loud running sound, the door swung open. Minwook entered the room with an extremely excited face.
“Hey, Woojae-ya! I got an engineering noona’s number! Jackpot. I’m so fucking happy. I’m so happy I want to die!”
What intense emotional expression. Woojae looked at Minwook, who was so excited his ears had turned red, with a sour face. Come to think of it, today was the day of the group date. He’d canceled even the group date to screw over Gye Sajun, but in the end, he felt self-loathing at the fact that he’d entered the tiger’s den. There’s no bigger idiot than this.
“By the way, was the movie fun?”
At the grinning question, Woojae pressed his forehead.
“My head hurts, so speak quietly.”
“What, did something happen? Did you fight? Huk, crazy. What is this……?”
Minwook said, pointing at his wrist. The red handprint stamped on it was advertising to anyone who saw that a man had grabbed him.
“D-did Gye Sajun do this? Did you guys fight again?”
Minwook also seemed to think so and asked with a shocked face.
“I don’t know, fuck. Hey, smell me for a bit.”
Woojae approached Minwook at a thought that suddenly came to mind. The memory of Gye Sajun making a fuss about soap or whatever and insisting on a kiss was vivid. Woojae, who had contained his momentarily contorted expression, shook his head from side to side. It was to erase the shitty memory.
“What, why…… I don’t want to.”
Minwook stepped back with a shocked expression, but Woojae didn’t let it go easily.
“Ah, just! Just smell it!”
“Did something get on you? Didn’t you wash? Why is your hair wet? Ah, okay. Don’t glare at me. You show too much of the whites of your eyes, it’s scary……”
He seemed frightened by the wide-open eyes. Who cares. It’s not like I can enlarge my pupils. Woojae raised his wrist with the red mark and thrust it into Minwook’s nostrils.
“How is it?”
“Ugh, crazy. Gye Sajun did this, right? It reeks of his smell. Ugh……”
It seemed the smell had permeated because that bastard gripped it hard. It’s not even food waste, but just from touching it, the smell won’t come off even after washing?
“Ah! I fucking washed it, why does it still smell?!”
“Isn’t he in rut? That the smell remains this strongly? Hey, I’m dizzy. I feel like I’m going to throw up. Go over there for a bit.”
Minwook said, pushing Woojae away. Woojae frowned and made an irritated expression. Yet he felt puzzled by Minwook’s excessive reaction. Does it smell that bad?
“……This guy’s treating me like shit. How do I get rid of this? Hey, rub yours on it or something.”
“What? Are you crazy? I’m already Juhee noona’s prisoner. My precious only exists for noona.”
It seemed the engineering noona whose number he got was named Juhee. But Woojae didn’t care about such things at all. And when he realized Minwook had misunderstood something, goosebumps rose all over.
“What kind of nonsense are you talking about? Rub your hand, your hand!”
“Ah, okay. I think it’ll work if you apply a remover or something, but I don’t have any right now. Don’t get so angry. My ears hurt.”
Woojae had to have Minwook rub his hand on the part Gye Sajun had gripped for a long time, then shower one more time. It was because he felt really uneasy. After showering for a full 1 hour and 40 minutes and exiting the bathroom, he immediately thrust his wrist at Minwook like submitting it for inspection.
“How is it?”
“Just soap smell? It smells like soap?”
“Is it, like, special or anything?”
“What are you talking about? Did you change soap? It’s the same. I don’t know what you’re talking about. What happened? This looks like it’s going to bruise.”
Honestly, he didn’t want to talk about the specifics. Woojae blatantly changed the subject.
“You guys smell scents and get turned on and stuff, right?”
“Why would you express it like that?”
“I’m right.”
Fortunately, the simple-minded Minwook easily fell for Woojae’s shallow trick.
“Ah, well. But why?”
“Then did you also smell that engineering noona’s scent and all that?”
“Ugh, are you crazy? There’s etiquette.”
“So smelling and giving off scents are all rude things.”
He’d learned etiquette he didn’t particularly want to know. It was their own manners that Woojae didn’t even need, but he knew well that Gye Sajun had been rude.
“No, well. Still, you can slightly smell it. Slightly. Blatantly giving off a scent is also rude. But noona’s subtle scent is…… I like it so much, what should I do……”
“Blatantly giving off a scent is rude, right?”
“Yeah, but there are some kids who can’t control it. If they do it on purpose, they really have a bad personality. Gye Sajun seemed like he wasn’t controlling it either.”
At the name that naturally popped up even though he hadn’t brought it up, Woojae furrowed his brow.
“He can’t control it?”
“There’s no way he can’t. He’s not a kid who just manifested. Him, well, he’s too superior? He doesn’t need to control it? He’s not from a background where he needs to read the room.”
“It’s just like Animal Kingdom.”
It was a light impression. He was definitely rude. Did he even bother reading the room? It was the moment the day they first met came to mind.
“What’s his smell like?”
“How should I say it? It’s a bit scary, I guess.”
Scary, he says. It didn’t smell scary. Anyway, the only smell he could catch would be the soap smell Gye Sajun used. Or something else if he didn’t use soap. Right, it would have been easier if he were an alpha. Then that guy would have found him uncomfortable too.
“Hey, more than that, listen to my story. That noona……”
Minwook’s passionate speech continued until the next afternoon. While he passionately spouted about the group date, Woojae kept his mouth firmly shut.
He’d forgotten, but there was an assignment he had to do with Gye Sajun. Even if they could fake the verification photo somehow, they had to watch the movie separately at least. But he didn’t want to sound desperate to Gye Sajun. He didn’t even remember the title, the actors were people he’d never seen in his life, and he didn’t particularly remember any impactful lines either. The only impactful memory was,
– Want to try kissing?
That was it.
“Agh, I remembered it again……!”
He needed to know that movie title so he could watch it separately or whatever and submit the assignment on time. Woojae glared at Minwook, who’d been rattling on about Juhee noona or whatever since yesterday, and asked. Right now, there was no one but this guy who could help.
“Hey, do you watch movies often?”
“Of course, of course. When it comes to movies, I know them inside and out. Just tell me.”
Watching Minwook put on airs, Woojae started.
“I’m looking for a movie.”
“Ah, that’s my specialty, customer. I think I’m so well-informed. Isn’t that cool? I hope Juhee noona recognizes this coolness of mine too. Does noona like movies? Will she refuse if I ask her to go see one? Are horror movies too transparent?”
“Answer the question first.”
Minwook began to drift off into talk about Juhee again. He must really like her after seeing her for just a few hours.
“Ah, okay. What is it?”
“……A woman and man appear, they have something going on, then date and get married.”
“And?”
“That’s it. All I remember. Oh, he gave her a ring.”
He’d said it combining the most accurate and specific information he could, but the sense left Minwook’s expression.
“What? Then how can I know? Seriously, there are like tens of thousands of movies like that.”
“Ah, you said you knew!”
He’d thought he’d barely grabbed a lifeline, but when Minwook answered so cleanly that he didn’t know, Woojae felt like he’d burst. Minwook was frustrated in his own way and raised his voice.
“No, at least tell me the actors. There has to be some clue for me to know!”
“Woman, black hair. Man, black hair?”
“Are you joking? I seriously don’t know at all.”
Actually, his memory of the male actor’s hair color was vague. It was because he’d watched too carelessly. Minwook shook his head as if he had no idea at all. Woojae turned his head away from Minwook and sighed.
“Fuck off. You’re no help, anyway.”
“That’s too much, really……”
“……”
Was that too harsh? Still, he was someone who tried to help. Woojae felt a bit sorry and turned his head sideways to look at Minwook. And just as he was about to apologize that his words were too harsh,
“And I’m…… cabbage.”
He saw Minwook grinning while shooting finger guns. Woojae asked seriously.
“……Was that supposed to be funny?”
Judging by the lack of response, it seemed so. He turned his head again like someone who’d seen something they shouldn’t have. And he gave serious advice.
“Never do that in front of Juhee noona. Movies or whatever, it’ll kill the mood.”
“Ah, why!”
It was a question where he didn’t feel even 1g of need to explain.
***
Looking at the calendar suddenly, mid-March had long passed. During that time, Woojae had done three part-time jobs going between the department office, library, and convenience store, and on the other hand, diligently attended lectures.
“Ah, that unlucky bastard is still here. Doesn’t it smell like a monkey somewhere?”
“You beat him up and chase him out. This isn’t some zoo.”
“I can’t. I break out in hives if I touch him.”
The notable point was that the number of guys deliberately bumping shoulders and picking fights was increasing. It was absurd how their methods were getting more lowly, but Woojae had no intention of reacting to their childish provocations one by one. During free periods in between, he didn’t forget to stop by the department office and carry out Teaching Assistant Im’s errands.
“Ugh, the teaching assistant is such a sucker. Those bastards. Woojae-ya, don’t come to graduate school. Your working friends will keep spewing bullshit like ‘At least you get to study what you like.’ They at least get paid. I pay and work.”
He also had to listen to his complaints about being exhausted from graduate school life. At first, he was someone who said formal speech was comfortable, but at some point, he’d been pouring out curses by the bowlful. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand that feeling. Did he even go home? Officially, the department office closed at 5:30 PM, but Teaching Assistant Im only went to eat dinner and didn’t pack his bag. Watching Teaching Assistant Im roughly sweep back his fallen hair, Woojae made a resolution. I should absolutely never go to graduate school.
