32
The guys who had been fighting in the hallway earlier were still at it.
The commotion in the hallway didn’t stop until a teacher came. Eventually, the teacher opened Taein’s classroom door and called out, “Hey, you guys come out here,” summoning two big guys. The guys at this school wouldn’t stop their dogfights even when teachers tried to break them up. Once a fight started, it would often reach a temporary lull only when the big guys used their bodies to physically intervene. This time was no different.
The teacher, drenched in sweat, entered the classroom with the big guys.
“Ah, these fucking bastards.”
Those were the teacher’s words. There was no sense of affection in them. It was just the face of someone annoyed at having to expend energy.
Taein checked his phone with a bored expression. On the screen that briefly lit up and went dark, there was a text from Gu Wanjae.
[Frown] [Gu Wanjae]
[Walk with your arms crossed] [Gu Wanjae]
Gu Wanjae often gave random advice about how to act normally. He’d heard this kind of thing countless times.
After reading the text, Taein unconsciously tried frowning and smiled with his head down.
He was about to write a reply when another text from Gu Wanjae arrived immediately.
[Sit with your legs spread when sitting] [Gu Wanjae]
[But close them when wearing tight pants] [Gu Wanjae]
If he combined all the behaviors Gu Wanjae instructed… wouldn’t he just be a complete weirdo? The leg-spreading wasn’t just slightly either. He emphasized angles that would disgust other people. Disgusting enough that even other guys would find it gross. What did Gu Wanjae want to turn him into? And then telling him to close his legs when wearing tight pants. He tried to comply with his friend’s management to some extent, but… did he want to turn him into some hopeless ahjussi?
With a subtle expression, Taein stared at the texts and wrote a reply.
[People curse at me]
[Do you actually think about me?]
Gu Wanjae replied within 30 seconds of Taein sending his text.
[Of course, you fucking bastard] [Gu Wanjae]
[Crazy fucker doubting] [Gu Wanjae]
[our friendship] [Gu Wanjae]
Taein immediately typed back.
[You call everything friendship]
[Nothing to say, you crazy bastard]
[Stop pissing me off]
The feeling was always similar. While listening to Gu Wanjae’s words and feeling grateful to him, when the behavioral demands went too far, he’d think, “Is this bastard messing with me?” Taein wrote his texts bluntly and waited for the next message. He alternated between staring at the back of the head of the guy sitting in front of him and his phone.
As soon as the screen lit up and went dark, he pressed the button to check.
[Because of how you look] [Gu Wanjae]
[Doing things halfway won’t do shit] [Gu Wanjae]
Class was in session in the classroom. Only a very small number of students sitting in the front were actually listening to the lesson anyway. The teacher had almost no interest in the guys in the back either. Most of the guys sitting in the same row as Taein were sleeping. If not that, they were doing other things like Taein.
Taein sent a reply.
[🖕]
What could he say to that? Not many words came to mind. He knew how much Gu Wanjae usually praised his face. What was so handsome that he always went on about being handsome? Taein didn’t understand. Wasn’t he better-looking? He was fucking tall too, and had a good body. His face was decent enough too. He wasn’t a girl so he wouldn’t know, but among the useless things he’d heard from Lee Wuyong was information that Gu Wanjae was popular with girls.
Well.
He’d be popular.
It was a fact he didn’t want to admit. He didn’t bat an eye no matter what Gu Wanjae said to him, but if Gu Wanjae heard such things, he’d show off by the second. It seemed like he would. That’s how good-looking he was on the outside.
After lunch, Taein fell asleep for a bit. His condition wasn’t completely better, so sleep probably poured over him the moment he put his head down. He would have slept until class started, but someone kept tapping his desk so he couldn’t. The guy pushing his desk smoothly from the front was Gu Wanjae. The moment Taein lifted his head with an annoyed face, he showed an even more annoyed expression.
“What?”
“…What, you?”
“I said what.”
“Is that something you should be saying…?”
The surroundings were still noisy. There had been many dropouts in 1st and 2nd year too, but it was incomparable to 3rd year. Most of the desks were completely empty. There were many guys who just left. Gu Wanjae, who had been moving his mouth like chewing gum at the front, discovered something and moved to sit next to Taein. He had pushed another guy’s desk up against Taein’s desk.
“You must have nothing fucking better to do.”
“I have tons to do, you bastard.”
“Then why are you coming here?”
“I’m coming to my alma mater, got a problem with that?”
“Al-what?”
“Alma mater.”
“…You haven’t even graduated yet….”
“So. You jealous?”
“Don’t pick a fight.”
“You picked the fight first.”
Suddenly Gu Wanjae poked Taein’s stomach like hitting it. Taein grabbed his stomach saying “Ah,” and immediately raised his fist.
“Want to die?”
“Your fist comes up right away.”
Gu Wanjae grinned like something was funny.
“Only my fist would come up?”
“Fucking bastard.”
He kept laughing even while cursing. Did he come to school just to laugh like a screw was loose? There had been times when he occasionally came to school, but this was the first time he’d woken him up. Most of the time he was already awake, so there wasn’t such a situation. Anyway, if he saw him sleeping, he should have just left.
“I was sleeping…”
“Right. Why are you sleeping, you?”
“What?”
“You slept like crazy yesterday.”
“Yesterday is yesterday.”
Gu Wanjae asked back with a laugh, then changed his expression at those words.
“You’re not going crazy, are you?”
“What would go crazy?”
“You, hey. If you’re sick, you need to go to the hospital right away. You, that side.”
It was an awkward topic to mention. Your manifestation suddenly changed, so take better care of your health. Don’t overdo it. When broken down, it wasn’t strange at all, but since he’d never said similar things before his body changed, it seemed to feel awkward. When Taein heard Gu Wanjae’s “you, that side, that thing,” he scratched around his neck area.
“Yeah.”
He answered curtly for no reason.
Gu Wanjae immediately noticed and said, “Fucking annoying,” raising his hand.
“So fucking annoying.”
While saying this, he grabbed and pulled Taein’s ear.
“Hey, shibal!”
He seemed somewhat well-behaved in the morning. Around lunchtime, his playfulness seemed to kick in again. Taein, who rarely raised his voice in the classroom, unusually shouted loudly as he removed Gu Wanjae’s hand from his ear.
“That hurt…”
Unable to finish his sentence and only adding “Ah, shit,” Taein suddenly turned his eyes sideways at the hand covering his head.
“Hey, looking at your head constantly, it’s pretty.”
Like stroking a little monk’s head, Gu Wanjae placed one hand on the entire side of Taein’s head and brushed the prickly hair with his thumb.
“How would it be pretty? I won’t cut it like this next time.”
“Why.”
It was a genuinely puzzled look. Taein had said something obvious but heard “why,” so he was even more puzzled.
“Why is why. You do it, you bastard.”
“Do you want to look pretty or something?”
“…Want to fight?”
Taein shrugged his shoulders and pretended to make a fist. He didn’t directly mention ‘Omega’ much, but the frequency of teasing like this had increased. Do you need to look pretty? Do you need to look good? A person should at least look minimally not embarrassing. Gu Wanjae seemed like a bastard who didn’t even know that much. That’s probably why he stapled his perfectly fine uniform and cut his hair this shitty way.
“Kang Taein.”
“What.”
“How are you becoming more foul-mouthed as time goes on?”
“…You’re not the one who should be saying that.”
“I was always foul-mouthed. You weren’t originally like that.”
“How much would you have to provoke cursing for that to happen?”
“What did I do?”
“Hey… forget it. Let’s stop talking.”
“Where would you find a friend like me? Taking you to school, bringing you back, stopping by to see your face when I think of it on the way. Hey, does this seem like something you can normally do? The bastard can’t even say thanks.”
“I never asked for such things…”
“Huh? Look at that way of talking?”
Gu Wanjae’s face had a smile blooming again as he said this. Rather than laughing because it was funny, it was closer to laughing because it was interesting, with the intention of causing trouble. Taein soon saw Gu Wanjae’s hands coming toward his head and dodged with his upper body. But Gu Wanjae was faster.
“Hey, bird brain.”
“Ah, let go.”
Gu Wanjae firmly grabbed Taein’s head with both hands, preventing him from lifting it. Roughly speaking, it looked like a bowing posture.
“Let go, you bastard.”
“Bird brain. Listen to hyung-nim.”
“Hyung-nim my ass. The guy born on the last day of December.”
With his head forced down, Taein grumbled with a voice full of complaints. Gu Wanjae made an “oh ho” sound and added:
“Who determines hyung and dongsaeng by birth date? It should be decided by strength. That kind of thing.”
“What the… Hey. Let go of this first.”
“Will you listen well?”
The bastard had disgustingly strong grip strength, so when he applied pressure to his fingertips like acupressure, extreme pain would rush in. Taein had been subjected to this torture(?) several times. He didn’t want to experience it more. Noticing Gu Wanjae starting the acupressure motion, Taein reluctantly opened his mouth.
“…Yeah.”
“Forever?”
“What.”
“Will you listen well to hyung-nim forever?”
“What are you really saying?”
“If not.”
He felt slight pressure at the fingertips. Taein made an “ah” sound and immediately answered.
“I got it.”
“What.”
This time Gu Wanjae asked.
“……”
Taein didn’t elaborate due to his pride. But when Gu Wanjae seemed to shake his head, he had no choice but to answer like a cornered mouse.
“Yeah, I’ll listen well. Hyung-nim.”
“You’ll listen well forever, right?”
“…Yeah…”
“Forever?”
“…I got it.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
