- Prologue
When I think of Eunho, the first thing that comes to mind is…
That incredible face of his — the way he’d call my name so warmly, “Doyun,” and break into that brilliant smile.
Eunho transferred into Suhyeok’s class during our first year of high school, and by the time he arrived at school that morning, his name had already spread through the entire campus. Even I naturally caught wind of the rumor about the insanely handsome new transfer student.
But I wasn’t particularly interested in that rumor. I was a beta, and a guy on top of that, so it didn’t really matter to me how good-looking some other guy was.
And then, that day at lunch, I came face-to-face with Eunho for the first time in the cafeteria. He was sitting next to Suhyeok, elegantly picking at side dishes with his chopsticks.
A classic face better suited to a black-and-white silent film than color. A nose that was high and cleanly defined. Eyes that curved softly when he smiled. Then and now, Eunho has always been consistently, unfailingly handsome.
Matching his looks, Eunho came with an equally impressive set of titles and rumors trailing behind him. It was because he was an extreme-dominance alpha, and on top of that, his maternal grandfather ran a hotel chain that every person in South Korea would recognize.
The fact that Eunho — a superior alpha who seemed like he belonged in an entirely different world — ended up becoming friends with ordinary betas came about through a completely coincidental set of circumstances.
I have two ride-or-die friends. Suhyeok and Minjun, friends so old I can’t even remember the first time we met. The three of us — all beta males — had been attached at the hip all through elementary, middle, and high school, and at some point, Eunho had just naturally melted into the group.
Unlike me and Minjun, who found taking on leadership roles nothing but a pain in the ass, Suhyeok had served as class president throughout his school years. He’s still the same righteous person today, but the younger Suhyeok had even more passion and a tendency to stick his nose into other people’s business. And it was into that Suhyeok’s class that Eunho had transferred.
“Sa Eunho, eat lunch with me.”
“…Sure.”
Whenever that story came up, Eunho always maintained that he had been “dragged to the cafeteria against his will,” while Suhyeok insisted that Eunho had given him a desperate look that said “eat with me.” Honestly, I’ve always been more inclined to believe Eunho.
In our first year of high school, Minjun and I were in the same class, and only Suhyeok was in a different one. We went to different cram schools after class, but we always had lunch together.
In the cafeteria where the entire year ate together, there was a spot we always gathered at. After eating, the unspoken rule was to sprint to the school store, grab some snacks, and take a walk together.
That day was a somewhat strange one.
I’d woken up late and arrived at school tardy, yet somehow didn’t get caught — and on top of that, the weather was exceptionally clear and bright. More than anything else, it was also the day I first laid eyes on the most beautiful person I had ever seen in my life — Sa Eunho.
There was this guy sitting next to Suhyeok, who had arrived at the cafeteria before me, and he looked like some kind of prince. Looking at those perfectly proportioned features, like a figure painted in a masterpiece, I remember thinking to myself, Wow, how can a person actually look like this?
I’d thought it wouldn’t matter to me one bit whether Sa Eunho was breathtakingly handsome or not, since I was a beta…
Thud. Thud. Thud.
I slammed my head against the desk. Hard enough to make it shake.
I wanted to believe it was a dream, but the pain throbbing against my forehead was all too vivid. Even so, I squeezed my eyes shut against the reality I couldn’t bring myself to accept. My vision flickered to black.
The most frequent location had been my own studio apartment, followed by Eunho’s officetel. It hadn’t only happened in ordinary places, either. There was even a time — though it ended before it fully started — when we almost went through with it at Suhyeok’s house while he was away. Beyond that… Eunho’s family home, my parents’ house, hotels, motels, and inside Eunho’s car….
The moments where we’d lost all reason and clung to each other, desperately devouring each other’s bodies — they flashed through my mind like a reel of film.
God, we really did it so many times…. At first we at least put in some effort with the condoms, but later on….
I slammed my head against the desk one more time — thud — hard enough that it felt like it might crack clean in half. On top of that desk, alongside a crumpled sheet of paper, sat three omega-use pregnancy tests, each one showing two unmistakably clear lines.
- Build-up
“Get along well with Suhyeok, and come visit often.”
In front of Suhyeok’s warmly speaking parents, all four of them ducked their heads with awkward smiles. The moving company workers had begun carefully wrapping up Suhyeok’s father’s prized collection of liquor bottles, one by one. Of all those bottles, hardly any actually contained real alcohol — most had long since been replaced with barley tea.
Suhyeok’s parents had decided to return to their hometown as soon as Suhyeok started university. They planned to grow crops as a hobby and were about to begin running a campsite business together with relatives in earnest.
The four of them had already gathered at Suhyeok’s place often before, but with Suhyeok now living alone, it became an even more perfect hideout. Busy as he was, Eunho only showed his face once or twice a week, but Doyun and Minjun were there more than three times a week, practically squatting at Suhyeok’s apartment.
Sometimes they’d play games. Other times they’d just rest and decompress. It had gotten to the point where Doyun’s parents had pointedly asked what was the use of paying for his own place if he was going to leave it empty all the time — and Doyun didn’t really have a good answer for that.
“Died again. I’m done.”
Doyun tossed the joystick to the floor and surrendered. He’d been scowling through the entire game, and all that tension had left his face muscles completely stiff. His character on screen lay flat with a GAME OVER banner across it. Minjun, who had effortlessly beaten Doyun, set down his joystick as well and grumbled.
“Why are you so bad at games — now and back then? You’re so bad it’s not even fun.”
Doyun, who had been sitting on the floor, crawled up onto the sofa and lay down. He stretched his legs out and lightly nudged Minjun’s back with his foot as he got to the actual reason he’d come to Suhyeok’s place today.
“Play games with Songsseok. Now hand over the Contemporary Thought exam materials. Send me the old assignments by email too, so I can reference them.”
Minjun, who had been crouched on the floor tidying up the joystick and console, turned to look at Doyun with a baffled expression.
“Unbelievably shameless. You think I’m your personal storage unit? Call me hyung.”
“Minjun hyung.”
Doyun answered in a completely flat, disinterested tone, with not even a trace of genuine respect. Sprawled across the plush leather sofa and crunching through snacks, he was the very picture of someone with absolutely nothing to do.
Minjun shook his head watching Doyun shamelessly try to freeload off assignments and exams. As Minjun started giving him a hard time for perfectly valid reasons and Doyun began pushing back with complaints, the sound of the front door opening cut through the bickering. Someone who clearly knew the passcode let themselves in — it was the apartment’s owner, Suhyeok.
“You’re here.”
“You’re back?”
Doyun and Minjun both turned toward the entrance and called out at the same time. Instead of coming to the living room where the two of them were, Suhyeok dropped his bag roughly by the entrance and went straight to the kitchen, downing a glass of cold water in one go.
“I’m seriously quitting tutoring after this month. For real.”
Had another run-in today, huh.
Doyun and Minjun both swallowed the words they couldn’t quite bring themselves to say out loud. Suhyeok had recently taken over tutoring duties from a classmate in his department, and it had been wearing on him quite a bit. His student was a wealthy alpha-presenting kid, and from what little they heard about the behavior secondhand, it was enough to make anyone lose their patience.
“Just do physical labor part-time like me. It’s easier on the mind, honestly.”
Doyun, draped limply face-down across the sofa, said. Minjun and Suhyeok naturally sank down onto the floor, leaning their backs against the sofa. Still visibly irritated despite having downed cold water, Suhyeok kept poking at Minjun’s side, muttering “should we have a drink?” Minjun hollered “I’m in,” got up, and said to Doyun:
“Working part-time at your family’s convenience store doesn’t count as a real job.”
“…It absolutely counts. I do everything… stock orders, shelving, the register.”
Doyun said in a drawn-out, lazy voice, yawning as he spoke. Every time he lay on Suhyeok’s sofa, the drowsiness hit like a wave. Suhyeok reappeared from the kitchen carrying a bottle and some paper cups, barely paying attention to Doyun’s mumbling.
“Our little Doyun must’ve worked so hard sneaking sips of booze at the convenience store.”
Minjun shook the soju bottle as he complimented Doyun with a grin.
“I don’t have any close alpha friends except for Sa Eunho, so I didn’t know — but this insane kid brings up his alpha status at the end of every single sentence. And he’s still so young.”
Suhyeok poured soju into a paper cup, shot it in one go, and crunched on a snack. Watching a drinking session unfold in the middle of the afternoon, Doyun let out a sigh.
He’d briefly considered joining, but after a few days ago’s binge-drinking session with classmates from his department, even the smell of alcohol was repulsive for the time being. Minjun had also drunk a lot that day, yet here he was cheerfully cracking open soju like none of it had ever happened. Doyun side-eyed the two of them and closed his eyes. The sofa was far too comfortable.
At this rate I’m going to fall asleep….
Feeling his eyes beginning to droop, Doyun turned his head — which had been buried in the sofa — toward his friends. A snack that Suhyeok had tossed popped right into his open mouth. Doyun chewed it and asked Suhyeok:
“The alpha ego is that bad, huh?”
