“Woojae-ya.”
“I’m fucking—look, you’re my sunbae, you’re older than me. I have to keep going to this school, so I was trying to let things slide nicely, but dragging the others into this isn’t right. That’s petty.”
“Why are you getting angry? Hyung is just worried about you.”
He kept speaking as if he was concerned about Woojae right up to the end, but his wide-open eyes told a different story. Woojae felt a vivid unpleasant sensation like bugs crawling over him and snapped.
“I appreciate the advice, but if I were the type of person to live flat on my belly the way you want, would I have come here?”
“When did I tell you to live flat on your belly? I’m just saying let’s hang out together, hyung and you.”
“Why the fuck would I hang out with a degenerate bastard like you?”
Woojae no longer held back and spat out whatever came to mind. The crazy bastard in front of him was doing the same anyway, so there was no reason he couldn’t.
“Why am I a degenerate?”
“You don’t seem to know, but laughing at the news that someone died is what makes you a degenerate.”
It was an issue he’d tried to cover up and move past, but he couldn’t. He’d hoped Jeong Minho would at least flinch, but he just pondered it for a moment before laughing as if amused.
“You think the other kids are different?”
“…….”
“Woojae-ya, do you think the other kids are different?”
That was the most unsettling point for Woojae. He bit his lip, wanting to hide his trembling eyelids that shook like convulsions. Excitement dripped from his flushed red face. Woojae pulled his head back, hardened his expression, and stood up from his seat. The unpleasant words had sullied his ears, but that wasn’t what was important right now. Jeong Minho reached out his hand and began groping for Woojae’s hand.
“Ha…….”
In that moment, he saw eyes boring into him. Sticky eyes. Eyes similar to what he’d seen recently in Gye Sajun, drunk with heat. Realizing this, goosebumps rose along his spine. Absurdly, unlike that time, he suddenly felt an unbearable sense of revulsion. The moment their eyes met, he was certain he was being sexually harassed. It was ridiculous that he hadn’t realized this until now.
“Try managing your expression a bit. I honestly never thought there’d be a guy who’d have these kinds of thoughts about a brat like you, so I kept thinking ‘no way,’ but maybe you’re not even trying to hide it?”
“Woojae-ya. Woojae-ya……, you can’t do this to hyung, you know?”
Jeong Minho’s words were trembling at the end. Woojae’s face began to grow cold with disgust at the grip strength intertwining their fingers. He felt like he might vomit from how revolting it was. Jeong Minho even trembled his lips while giggling. As if the mask he’d been wearing until now had been ripped off. After clenching his jaw tightly, Woojae shouted threateningly.
“You fucking bastard, do you want your eyes gouged out? You perverted bastard!”
“This is really strange. Woojae-ya, how did you know? It’s weird. When I first saw you, you were innocent. You just stayed still even when I touched your nipples. Did someone else touch you? Ah, was it Gye Sajun?”
Jeong Minho provoked Woojae as if he’d made up his mind to do so. Watching him run his mouth like a crazy bastard, Woojae’s face colored with shock. What the hell was he saying? It wasn’t that Gye Sajun’s influence had nothing to do with reading the sexual desire in his eyes, but he’d never imagined he’d say something like that.
“What did you say? You crazy— Agh!”
Jeong Minho put strength into their intertwined fingers, and it hurt as if his joints would snap. If he shook him off wrong, there was a high risk of injury.
Just then, the terrace door opened roughly. It wasn’t a scene that would look good to anyone else, but Woojae looked at Jeong Minho’s two eyes scanning him up and down with contempt, then came face to face with the person who’d opened the door and entered. Feeling dissatisfied that Woojae’s gaze had left him, Jeong Minho tried to put strength into his fingers again, but it didn’t happen. With unsteady breathing, ‘he’ appeared on the terrace and—
“What a fucking mess, seriously.”
“Urgh!”
—grabbed Jeong Minho by the back of the neck and kicked his chair over. In an instant, Jeong Minho fell backward and rolled on the floor, groaning. For Woojae, it was the appearance of a prince that was both welcome and extremely damaging to his pride.
***
Gye Sajun belatedly read the message from Jang Yeonju. The message that had arrived 5 minutes ago looked quite urgent. Judging by the fact that there were about two missed calls after that, it was clear Jang Yeonju had something urgent to tell him.
[ㅎㄴㅇ 카ㅏ페 고우ㅈㅐ랑 ㅆ렉이랑 잇슴 ㅅㅂㅃᅟᅡᆯ리우ㅏ]
It was hard to understand what it said. He could only decipher that Go Woojae was at the student hall cafe. He hurriedly called Jang Yeonju.
“What was that just now?”
[Why didn’t you answer your phone!]
The whispering voice meant that Jang Yeonju was somewhere difficult to take a call. Gye Sajun noticed this too, but didn’t show the consideration of hanging up right away. He had a bad feeling.
[He’s at the student hall cafe with Jeong Minho right now! Hey, don’t call Go Woojae, just go!]
Gye Sajun frowned and hung up. He postponed saying thank you for later. He was just coming out of the International Hall, which happened to be quite far from the Student Hall. There was no time to walk leisurely. All that came to mind was Go Woojae’s face vomiting tears as if having a seizure after meeting with Jeong Minho.
***
“Hey! How did you get here—”
“You stay quiet.”
“I asked how you got here!”
“The messenger did her job well.”
Gye Sajun, who appeared at this critical moment, had his brows deeply furrowed. When Woojae tried to ignore him and asked again since he kept cutting him off, he even showed the kindness of holding up his phone. Woojae thought of Jang Yeonju. So that was why she’d touched his phone at the end.
Unlike Woojae who had cooled down, Gye Sajun was flushed red up to the nape of his neck. The beads of sweat flowing along his jawline caught Woojae’s attention. Why was he sweating despite the cool weather? Had he been running?
Even after being defied by his two juniors, Jeong Minho just lay on the floor giggling and laughing. Gye Sajun frowned and held out his hand to Woojae.
“Take it. I feel like you’ll get angry if I drag you, so you follow me.”
His body moved first without time to think. Woojae realized he’d grabbed that hand only when he felt Gye Sajun’s hot body temperature through his palm. Gye Sajun flinched and pulled Woojae along.
It was the moment when two freshmen about a month into enrollment officially gave the Vice Student Council President the finger. Fortunately, the cafe had become quiet, but even as Woojae moved his feet to follow Gye Sajun out, he couldn’t shake off the unpleasant feeling.
“Hey, you can go, but you have to listen to what I have to say first.”
Jeong Minho, who had gotten up at some point, took off his glasses and spoke warningly to the two people who had stopped. Woojae felt Gye Sajun pulling, but anxiety glued his feet to the floor. His chest rose and fell rapidly with shallow breaths in his complex state of mind. Jeong Minho seemed to savor Woojae’s face, hardened at his words, as he continued.
“Hyung…… got disciplined by my father recently, so I’m in a bad mood. I don’t know which bastard told him, but it seems like the person I’m thinking of is the culprit.”
“…….”
“This is fun, Woojae-ya. More fun than I thought. You think you can beat alphas? The alphas you’ve beaten are nothing but trash. From now on, I’ll properly show you what the real thing is.”
While Woojae’s lips twitched at the clearly mocking tone, Gye Sajun put strength into the hand he was holding first. The heat of his hot palm warmed the cold hand.
“Do whatever you want.”
Woojae pulled Gye Sajun along and left. He didn’t want to stay here any longer.
It felt like the world was reproaching him for being weak. It was perhaps natural for people to become weak from time to time, but Woojae always hated himself when he was like that. He’d never liked it. He didn’t have the time or luxury for that.
In the world Woojae had learned, showing weakness to others was poison.
After losing the fence called parents, the only thing that was entirely his was his pride. That’s why he’d protected it more preciously. He hoped that at least wouldn’t get hurt. He didn’t want to lose that. That’s why he’d worked himself to death to get here. But for the result to be this pathetic—it was enough to make him laugh bitterly.
‘This is ridiculous.’
As soon as they left the cafe, Woojae let go of Gye Sajun’s hand and walked ahead. Since he now knew that Jang Yeonju and Yeon Sojeong were having difficulties in their department life because of him, he judged that it wouldn’t be good for Gye Sajun to be seen holding hands with him either. He didn’t want to cause trouble for others anymore. Jeong Minho’s words were shit, but if they were true, all the unreasonableness was his burden.
The MT fee issue too—he would somehow find the original owner and return it. If that didn’t work, he could scrape together 1.5 million won, give it to Jang Yeonju, and tell her to use it for student council fees if she couldn’t find the owner.
Since attending the MT wasn’t a graduation requirement, thinking he’d go to something like that in the first place had been his mistake. If he had that time, he should have been studying. As he quickly walked while thinking through the things he needed to resolve one by one in his head, Gye Sajun blocked Woojae’s way. They were in front of the dorm room door before he knew it.
“Go Woojae, talk to me for a bit.”
Have you no shame? Woojae pressed hard on his eyes that were heating up with embarrassment. No matter how grateful he was for the help, he shouldn’t even be friends with him now. Fuck, like the leopard of Kilimanjaro, he had to survive alone with strength. Woojae, who made this firm resolution, answered Gye Sajun with unwavering eyes.
