But the result was disastrous.
“Shit! Is this why you failed to get into the science high school?”
“Hey. I’m still holding a screwdriver in my hand.”
“The science high school was just too small to embrace you.”
He could unlock a centrally controlled lock, but fixing the air conditioner itself seemed too much.
Accepting the miserable reality, Gong Pyeonghwa sprawled across his desk, groaning.
Gong Pyeonghwa had always run hot, but since presenting as an alpha, his blood seemed to circulate even faster.
According to his doctor, the issue would improve if he exchanged pheromones with an omega or imprinted, but there were no omegas around to strategically exchange pheromones with to overcome the heat wave. There weren’t many omegas to begin with.
He was busy being cautious, not wanting to get entangled in something like a political marriage.
Perhaps because it was the time for secondary gender presentations, the number of people presenting was increasing day by day in the community they lived in.
Just last week, the youngest daughter of Daehwa Junggong presented as an omega, and parents with alpha children were already marking their territory.
‘My mom also told me to try to get along with her…’
In truth, Gong Pyeonghwa still wasn’t very interested in omegas.
He had received mandatory sex education about the correlation between alphas and omegas, but to him, an omega was just like “someone wearing slightly nice perfume, type 1.”
‘Maybe I’m asexual? Could be…’
After the mystery of his birth ended, concerns about sexual orientation arrived. Life really is a continuous series of worries, as they say.
‘No, to be a real asexual, wouldn’t you have to be at least like Shin Saebyeok?’
He found it amazing how Saebyeok could study while nodding off even in this heat.
‘Seeing that there’s still no news of him presenting, Shin Saebyeok must be a beta?’
Gong Pyeonghwa no longer envied Shin Saebyeok. Whether alpha, omega, or beta, at least he wasn’t an adopted child!
‘But why won’t they buy an air conditioner when the pure-blooded second son of the Gong family is dying of heat?’
He had suspicions like ‘Maybe I really am adopted after all?’ but Gong Pyeonghwa soon gave up thinking.
It was too hot for his brain to function.
***
‘Gong Pyeonghwa, stop emitting pheromones!’
Shin Saebyeok wanted to shout right away. No, something was wrong with his head—he wanted to announce it over the school’s broadcasting system.
He wanted to tell the whole school, ‘Gong Pyeonghwa from Class 1-1, control your pheromones, are you using the classroom by yourself?’
Already sweating from the heat, Gong Pyeonghwa’s pheromones kept making even his embarrassing parts damp.
Then he had to take more medication, which made him drowsy.
With just a week left until the final exams, Shin Saebyeok was on the verge of losing his mind.
At school, he couldn’t concentrate because of Gong Pyeonghwa and the medication, and at home, he couldn’t study because he felt suffocated.
He absolutely had to win this time, but even sleeping just 2 hours a day was difficult.
When he closed his eyes, his heart raced too much, and no matter how much he slept, he was still tired.
All he could think of were his father’s sighs and his mother’s worries. He wanted to be a cool older brother to his younger sibling, but he couldn’t do anything.
Due to the pressure and stress, Shin Saebyeok was now sometimes seeing things that weren’t there.
The letters on the paper would wiggle and run away. At least with Korean, he could reread multiple times and piece together the context and mood, but it was harder with the alphabet.
B would become d, o would become Q, and p and q would switch, turning words into completely different ones.
His concentration was declining, and his impatience was growing.
This time for sure, this time for sure, this time, this time…
Thistimethistimethistimethistimethistimethistimethistimethistimethistimethistimethistimethistimethistimethistimethistimethistimethistimethistimethistimethistimethistimethistimethistime.
He needed to win, he needed to win, he needed to win, his head already felt so full it might explode. The blood vessels near his temples had been twitching for a while.
Thump-thump-thump, pulse-pulse, his blood vessels moved and his eyes stung.
Now he felt nauseous every time he looked at a book. Even sitting in a chair was difficult.
‘But I have to do it.’
He reluctantly turned the pages of his study guide, then reluctantly opened his wrong answer notebook and vocabulary book again.
With less than a week until the exam, there was no sign of improvement. The letters twisted more severely, and his pace slowed.
He only grew more impatient every day.
Shin Saebyeok studied through the early morning hours while crying.
Even with all that effort, he wasn’t confident he could beat Gong Pyeonghwa.
It didn’t seem like he could win.
***
The day before the final exams, thanks to miraculously fixing the air conditioner, Gong Pyeonghwa felt like he might survive.
Gong Pyeonghwa glanced at his rival, Shin Saebyeok.
Shin Saebyeok was sitting in the same position as the morning, just looking at his books.
‘Doesn’t he get bedsores on his butt? Intense bastard.’
Gong Pyeonghwa felt like dying after sitting for just 1 hour. Sitting for 2 hours felt like developing a chronic illness, and he thought making someone sit for more than 3 hours should be treated as an industrial accident.
‘Like a living, breathing industrial accident.’
Gong Pyeonghwa’s eternal rival, the personification of an industrial accident, Shin Saebyeok, must have felt Gong Pyeonghwa’s scrutinizing gaze because he briefly lifted his head from staring intensely at his book.
Gong Pyeonghwa pretended not to notice and looked away.
‘Does he have eyes in the back of his head?’
Honestly, Gong Pyeonghwa was a bit afraid of Shin Saebyeok. Shin Saebyeok had a certain intensity that made it seem like he could accomplish anything.
That wasn’t something he could emulate no matter how hard he tried.
‘We don’t match. Super unlikeable. Ugh.’
Well, even at the tender age of 5, they didn’t match—starting from Saebyeok showing no interest in dinosaurs.
‘He ignored me when I talked to him. Jerk.’
The grudge from age 5 had lasted quite a while. Actually, there was no need to go back to age 5—even now, Shin Saebyeok ignored Gong Pyeonghwa whenever he tried to talk to him.
Gong Pyeonghwa couldn’t possibly like Shin Saebyeok.
In the rival industry, same age, same school, same class, same gender. Add to that completely different personalities, and the fact that he ignored him every time he tried to speak—even Gong Pyeonghwa, who prided himself on having a good personality, disliked Shin Saebyeok.
Though they had known each other for a long time, he didn’t know anything about Shin Saebyeok. Shin Saebyeok was just “that bastard I hate.”
‘What’s he staring at? What. Why. What.’
Thinking this to himself, Gong Pyeonghwa winked at Shin Saebyeok.
He expected Shin Saebyeok to be visibly disgusted, but instead of ignoring him as usual, Shin Saebyeok seemed flustered. He kept glancing back.
Gong Pyeonghwa wondered if there was something on his face. He checked, but his face looked the same as always.
‘Does he have something to say?’
Shin Saebyeok of all people? To Gong Pyeonghwa? That couldn’t be. Gong Pyeonghwa thought nothing of it and put his hand under his desk to use his phone.
Thinking he should actually study after setting up auto-hunting, Gong Pyeonghwa secretly ate some jellies he’d hidden in his desk drawer.
But he was caught by Seonwoo Jeong, who confiscated five of his jellies.
While regretting not being more careful, he noticed a small note placed on his desk.
‘Is this a challenge?’
There were too many possibilities.
‘Did they find out I ordered chicken to the third-year classroom? Did they catch me prank calling the teacher? Or maybe…’
No, no. If it were those things, they wouldn’t have left a note. Gong Pyeonghwa calmly unfolded the note.
The note had a single line written in quite a neat handwriting.
[Can you come to the rooftop after school?]
***
Shin Saebyeok just wanted to cry.
He couldn’t understand what possessed him to leave a note for Gong Pyeonghwa.
No, actually he did know, but he didn’t realize he would actually act on it.
‘I’ll just close my eyes and say it. Tell him his pheromones are bothering me.’
Without mentioning being an omega, maybe he could say he was a recessive alpha? It shouldn’t be strange to ask someone to be careful since he could sense pheromones even though he was no different from a beta.
Saebyeok clenched his fist and inserted the key into the rooftop door.
It was a key he had received from the teacher when they created a garden on the rooftop.
‘Did they leave without locking the door?’
With the key turning without resistance, Saebyeok thought nothing of it and mentally prepared what to say to Gong Pyeonghwa.
He believed that if he asked Gong Pyeonghwa to be more careful, since he wasn’t a completely inconsiderate person, he would agree without much suspicion.
But Gong Pyeonghwa was faster than Saebyeok’s mental preparation.
“…”
“…”
‘How did he open the rooftop door?’
Before Saebyeok was mentally prepared, he saw Gong Pyeonghwa already waiting on the rooftop. Saebyeok’s head spun.
“…”
“…”
What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? His mind was filled with question marks.
After a long silence, it was Gong Pyeonghwa, not Saebyeok, who spoke first.
“Why? Why did you call me here?”
“Th-That’s…”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
