“What is it?”
“It’s……”
Saebyeok experienced brain freeze, rendering all his prepared lines useless.
Gong Pyeonghwa was always like that. He never gave time to prepare and just barged in.
“Um, you know… you know, so.”
Saebyeok said with a trembling voice. There was something he was trying to say.
He had something to tell Gong Pyeonghwa.
“I, I, I, I… I……”
What he should have said was: stop unconsciously releasing pheromones, I’m an intense alpha, I’m affected by it, so please be careful.
“W-would you l-lose to me just once…?”
Not this shameful truth.
***
Gong Pyeonghwa waited with a pounding heart, praying for his confession target to arrive soon.
‘Just in case, I sprayed cologne.’
As if a gentleman shouldn’t keep a lady waiting, he picked the lock to the rooftop door as a shortcut, sat in the shade, and imagined the girl he was about to meet.
‘Don’t get excited. The final exam is tomorrow. This could be a confession attack.’
Pyeonghwa, who frequently browsed the internet, belatedly became cautious.
The rooftop door was managed by teachers. Students weren’t allowed anywhere near it, yet someone wanted to meet after class on the rooftop? Finally feeling suspicious, Pyeonghwa opened his vocabulary book.
‘Try attacking all you want. It won’t work on me.’
It wasn’t something a guy who got excited over a note asking to meet after school and even sprayed cologne should be thinking, but anyway, Pyeonghwa had regained his composure.
A moment later, the rooftop door opened and someone entered.
Pyeonghwa put the vocabulary book in his pocket and checked who it was.
‘Not a girl, for starters.’
The fit of the uniform pants already indicated it wasn’t a girl.
‘A guy making a confession attack on me? I’ll agree to date him conspicuously and then destroy his mental state in reverse.’
Gong Pyeonghwa, an internet meme addict, stepped out of the shade with the strange conviction that he wouldn’t be taken advantage of first.
“……”
“……”
And then he came face to face with Shin Saebyeok.
‘Why are you coming out of there?’
Pyeonghwa stared blankly at Saebyeok, who stood awkwardly with his eyes lowered.
“……”
“……”
The fact that Saebyeok had called him was surprising enough, but learning that Saebyeok knew how to pick the rooftop door lock was even more shocking.
“……”
“……”
But that aside, why the hell had this guy called him, why wasn’t he saying anything after calling him here, and why was he fidgeting like this when he usually went straight home like clockwork?
After five minutes of silence, Pyeonghwa scratched his head vigorously and spoke first.
“What? Why did you call me?”
Startled by Pyeonghwa’s low voice, Saebyeok’s shoulders gave a big jolt.
“T-that……”
It felt strangely nostalgic.
It seemed like it had been a really long time since he’d heard Shin Saebyeok’s voice.
“That what?”
“That……”
But why was this guy dragging it out so much? Pyeonghwa stood with one leg crossed, listening half-heartedly.
Yet Shin Saebyeok hesitated for a long time, a very long time.
“Um, you know… you know, so.”
Shin Saebyeok spoke quietly, almost mumbling, with a trembling voice. His voice was on the verge of tears, making Pyeonghwa uncomfortable.
‘What did I do?’
Pyeonghwa tilted his head to examine Saebyeok’s face. The bangs cast shadows, making it hard to see his expression, but from his neck to his ears, he was flushed bright red, enough to be concerning.
“Hey, are you sick……”
“I, I, I, I… I……”
“Yeah. What’s wrong with you?”
Shin Saebyeok tightly gripped the hem of Pyeonghwa’s uniform and spoke in a tearful voice.
“W-would you l-lose to me just once…?”
What is this guy saying? Sweat beaded profusely down his back.
He couldn’t understand what he was being asked to lose at.
It was naturally confusing when someone who ignored him every time he tried to talk, who had done so consistently for 12 years, suddenly grabbed his clothes pitifully and sniffled.
“I’m, I’m just, just so, so s-struggling……”
Saebyeok, still with his head lowered, spoke while gripping Pyeonghwa’s summer shirt until it was crumpled.
Though his expression wasn’t visible, droplets fell onto the cement floor.
Pyeonghwa was troubled.
His sworn enemy suddenly called him to the rooftop, grabbed his clothes without warning and whimpered, asking him to lose because he was struggling…
‘What am I supposed to do?’
Shin Saebyeok had ignored him for 12 years, and for 11 of those years, he’d always beaten him, making Pyeonghwa the subject of unfavorable comparisons—an axis of evil.
So he should have mocked him for crying like a man, but that was hard to do.
‘I mean, how desperate must he be to plead with me like this?’
He didn’t know exactly what was so difficult or how difficult it was, but if it made him sob like this, it seemed seriously troubling.
‘Did his dad beat him because he did worse than me on the midterm?’
Unlike his own father, Shin Saebyeok’s dad seemed to have a bad temperament. His face looked quite unpleasant.
“Are you like this because of the midterm?”
He asked just in case, and Shin Saebyeok nodded.
‘Even if I don’t do well on tests, I’m still my father’s son. A pure Gong family man. Looks like he isn’t…’
Pyeonghwa felt a little sorry for Shin Saebyeok.
The boy was so mentally cornered that his voice and gaze trembled anxiously, and the hand gripping his clothes shook violently as if with chills.
Shin Saebyeok looked so precarious that, as a decent human being, ignoring and leaving him would have pricked his conscience.
“Fine, stop crying.”
“R-really?”
As if he hadn’t expected this, Saebyeok asked again with wide, round eyes, surprised at Pyeonghwa’s answer.
‘This guy’s eyes are brown…’
The color of Saebyeok’s tear-filled eyes was uniquely bright. Whether they were naturally a light brown or just appeared bright due to the blazing summer sunlight was unclear, but either way, his eyes were truly beautiful.
“Shit, does a man go back on his word?”
He ended up showing off precisely because those eyes were beautiful.
Just because Shin Saebyeok’s eyes were so pretty at that moment!
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
