The episode concluded with a somewhat strange moral, followed by a commercial jingle.
Unusual traits and betas, pheromones and betas, deception and doubt…
There are more cases of people with unusual traits marrying betas than one might think. The reasons are nothing special. They’re similar to betas.
Because they’ve dated for a long time, because they suddenly had a child, because conditions aligned, because they’re in love.
“The radio is so biased…”
“I remembered!”
Gong Pyeonghwa shouted like Aristotle.
Mentioning betas between alphas and omegas made him remember! The nostalgia of ass pain!
“I remembered why I got hit with the bat! That Gun bastard! That Gun bastard!”
Gun… bastard?
Saebyeok tilted his head at this unfamiliar combination of words.
“Don’t you remember?”
“What, what…”
“Gun bastard!”
Is that someone I know? The only one I have is Iseul. Saebyeok tried to recall, but nothing particularly came to mind.
“There’s this bastard whose name is the opposite of mine and we never got along!”
It was a person’s name? No, how could a person’s name be Gun bastard…?
“Who is Gun…”
“Kang Gun.”
Kang Gun. Ah. Kang Gun! Ah! That Kang Gun! Gong Peace and Sun Friendship, and Kang Gun.
“Ah. Got it. I remember. I remember. Gun.”
“He’s so annoying. Don’t talk about that bastard.”
But you brought him up first.
It might seem unfair, but Saebyeok remained silent without complaint. After all, Kang Gun was the only person that the otherwise good-natured Gong Pyeonghwa disliked.
Kang Gun.
That name marked by Gong Pyeonghwa, the lover of peace: Kang Gun.
◀◀◀
Senior year of high school, a time of enjoyment when everything except studying was fun.
Students lacking stimulation were supplied with high-stimulus content in the form of a ‘transfer student.’
“This is Kang Gun. Don’t bully him, just focus on your studies.”
It was rare for someone to transfer in the third year rather than the first or second.
While everyone else showed interest in the transfer student, Gong Pyeonghwa didn’t think much of it.
This was because some perceptive guys had recently become suspicious of the relationship between him and Saebyeok.
‘Was it because I forgot to spray pheromone remover once? How could they suspect our relationship?’
They say love and colds can’t be hidden no matter how hard you try, and he could feel some guys keeping a close eye on them.
Although these were words that could be ignored, you never know. After all, fires typically start from a single cigarette butt.
Gong Pyeonghwa researched daily on how not to get caught in his relationship with Saebyeok. How could he make it look like he and Saebyeok didn’t get along?
Thanks to Gong Pyeonghwa’s endless efforts, the public relationship between Gong Pyeonghwa and Saebyeok headed toward catastrophe.
Gong Pyeonghwa deliberately bumped shoulders with Shin Saebyeok whenever he spotted him in the hallway and threw heart-shaped torn erasers at him.
And whenever they went up to the rooftop, he would get down on his knees first.
Whenever Saebyeok saw Gong Pyeonghwa acting like this, he wondered ‘Do we really have to go this far?’ But because he didn’t want others to find out he was an omega, or that he was dating Gong Pyeonghwa, he quietly memorized the script that Pyeonghwa prepared every day.
The two were deeply in love and trusted each other. So, their secret romance should have been going smoothly.
Yes, it definitely should have been.
“Ah. Watch where you’re going.”
“You should watch where you’re going. Don’t irritate people.”
It was the usual shoulder bump. Even passing students thought, ‘There they go again,’ and moved on.
“Anyone can see that you bumped into him, aren’t you going to apologize?”
But then the clueless transfer student stepped in and lit the fuse.
It was already infuriating enough that he sat next to Shin Saebyeok, and seeing them together every break was sickening, but now he dares to speak righteously?
From Gong Pyeonghwa’s perspective, it felt like a court lady who had luckily received the emperor’s favor and became a concubine, now glaring impudently at him, the legal wife.
‘How dare this insignificant concubine challenge me?’
Gong Pyeonghwa, who had been immersed in Korean history studies and identified with the first wife, glared viciously at the concubine—no, Kang Gun.
“Hey. What are you to him? This is ridiculous. Who are you to demand an apology and shield him like that?”
Saebyeok’s eyes wavered at the improvised line that wasn’t in the script. Was Gong Pyeonghwa method acting now?
“To piss off the guy who’s listening?”
No, that was sincere.
It was inexplicable why he was so infuriated to the core when Kang Gun hadn’t said much. Wasn’t Gong Pyeonghwa the kind-hearted guy who would normally laugh this off?
“I didn’t mean to make you angry. Why is asking someone to apologize when they should making you mad? You have a weird personality.”
Gong Pyeonghwa, whose mind was strange from being lovesick rather than having a strange personality, let out a hollow laugh.
‘Fuck, who does he think he is, shielding Saebyeok and telling me to apologize?’
He was pissed. Just totally pissed. Pissed as if he had developed an anger management disorder.
Yes, truth be told, he hated seeing them whispering during class, it pissed him off to see them walking side by side in the hallway, he was angry they exchanged phone numbers, and he was especially pissed that the already short lunch break, their time for secret meetings, was further shortened because of that bastard.
When this embodiment of anger points came at him with a sense of self, narrow-minded, manly Gong Pyeonghwa couldn’t help but be furious.
“So what gives you the right to babble about apologizing? The person involved isn’t even saying anything.”
“Do I need to be something specific to speak up? Fine, then I’m Saebyeok’s friend, can I talk now? Apologize to Saebyeok, Gong Pyeonghwa.”
Oh, this is so fucking infuriating.
‘Where does this concubine who hasn’t even received proper recognition dare to speak to the legal wife like that… Is he good at fighting?’
Gong Pyeonghwa wanted to return to prehistoric times. If he could go back to that era when strength was everything when it came to winning love, he would fold that unrecognized concubine in half…
“Don’t worry about it. He’s always like this. Just ignore him; if you associate with him, you’ll catch his ignorance germs.”
Sensing the atmosphere was not right, Saebyeok stepped between Gong Pyeonghwa and Kang Gun.
‘What…? Isn’t that too harsh? How could you say such a thing, such a bad thing to me of all people…?’
Gong Pyeonghwa, who had gone from being furious to feeling hurt, huffed and bumped Kang Gun’s shoulder hard as he passed by. Kang Gun massaged his shoulder and gave a hollow laugh.
Even his laugh was annoying.
The annoying Kang Gun. Gun. Gun. What kind of name is Gun anyway? It’s not even a gun.
Although it’s not an exaggeration to say that world peace was achieved by guns, Gong Pyeonghwa had no desire to understand the correlation between peace and guns.
‘Can’t stand the sight of him.’
Peace, friendship, my love, Saebyeok… There were many beautiful words in the world that matched well with peace.
But Gun? Cho-ong? Even the name is completely—
Gong Pyeonghwa, like a petty person, kept criticizing Kang Gun over and over as he holed up on the rooftop.
‘Don’t worry about it. He’s always like this. Just ignore him; if you associate with him, you’ll catch his ignorance germs.’
All he could recall was Shin Saebyeok’s frosty gaze and voice. How could you say such a thing to me? Something that wasn’t even in the script.
Tears welled up a bit.
‘See how he doesn’t come to the rooftop after we broke up like that! Sob!’
Like a typical adolescent, the emotional Gong Pyeonghwa sniffled and wiped his nose.
Fortunately, not much time passed before Saebyeok opened the rooftop door, looking for Gong Pyeonghwa.
The moment he saw Gong Pyeonghwa crouching in the corner of the rooftop garden, he felt both sympathy and perplexity.
‘How should I comfort him?’
While he felt sorry, if he had to apologize in a way that matched Gong Pyeonghwa’s energy…
Now he understood why Gong Pyeonghwa always started by getting on his knees.
“Pyeonghwa…”
Saebyeok, plagiarizing, no, benchmarking Gong Pyeonghwa, was about to get down on his knees first.
“Don’t kneel. It’s bad for your joints.”
He was prohibited from kneeling for the sake of his future joint health.
“…”
Saebyeok, who had been awkwardly holding a lunge position with his mouth open, sat down next to the crouching Gong Pyeonghwa. Fortunately, when their hips touched, Pyeonghwa didn’t move away.
“Um, about what happened in the hallway earlier, I was too harsh with my words…”
“…”
“Are you mad? I’m sorry…”
“…”
Saebyeok naturally expected Gong Pyeonghwa to launch into a tearful filibuster. But a vow of silence? This was unexpected.
“Pyeonghwa…”
“…”
“Listen… I didn’t do it on purpose, I was just inspired by the previous scripts. You’ve always written such good scripts… There was absolutely no sincerity in what I said.”
Feeling both sorry for Saebyeok’s struggle and annoyed at his own silent protest, Gong Pyeonghwa finally spoke after a while.
“Why did you take so long to come?”
Though he tried not to show he was upset, his voice came out sullen anyway.
Saebyeok, happy just to hear him break his silence protest, raised his voice a pitch.
Feeling guilty for making him worry, but also embarrassed that Saebyeok was so pleased over something so small.
“Gun… Kang. Gun. I had to ditch him first.”
He clearly referred to him intimately by dropping his surname, but Pyeonghwa decided to let it slide this time, since Saebyeok seemed to be trying hard, and there were plenty of other things to discuss anyway.
“…Why were you doodling with him in the corner of the textbook during class?”
Petty Gong Pyeonghwa had more than enough to question just from what he had seen today.
“Why were you whispering with him? What did you say? Why did you go to the school store with him?”
Saebyeok was momentarily flustered by the barrage of questions but calmly answered each one.
“The textbook corner doodle was because he asked what today’s lunch would be, and I wrote that I didn’t know. The whisper, what did I say? Oh, I asked if he had a tissue, and I showed him where the store was because he said he didn’t know. He’s a transfer student, so he doesn’t know much.”
“…”
Right, he shouldn’t be targeting Shin Saebyeok but that guy. Why would he borrow a tissue during class? If he doesn’t know something, he should just exercise his adventurous spirit and search for it himself. Why ask for a guide? Annoying bastard.
“…Don’t get too friendly with that bastard. I’m jealous.”
Gong Pyeonghwa softened a bit.
Even if not a master of romance, based on past experience, this was the optimal timing.
The miraculous timing to soothe Gong Pyeonghwa’s petty heart.
“You, you… don’t need to be jealous. So, in my heart, you are a presence that’s… you know, complete and… something, I… only have you. We might be connected from a past life, heaven’s gift, that, you know. That thing.”
Shin Saebyeok squeezed out non-existent romance, even drawing on next year’s spiritual power. Despite the goosebumps, he somehow managed to squeeze out cheesy lines over and over.
Miraculously, Gong Pyeonghwa’s protruding lips began to retract.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
