“Let me punch you once before that.”
“…!”
Thump! Seunghyun’s fist mercilessly struck Geonyul’s face. Caught off guard, Geonyul couldn’t block it properly and staggered back from the impact, hitting the classroom door.
“Kugh…!”
A stinging pain spread across his cheek. Geonyul had rarely been hit by anyone since coming of age. To begin with, there weren’t many people who could challenge him as a dominant alpha.
When he looked at Seunghyun with disbelieving eyes, Seunghyun shrugged exaggeratedly, just as Geonyul had done.
“Don’t blame me too much. The marks on senior’s neck lasted quite a while.”
Speaking with a cold face, Seunghyun recalled the red handprints that had remained on Suhwan’s neck all weekend. This reignited the fierce anger boiling inside him. It felt too cheap to forgive him with just this for daring to touch what was his.
“You really… chose such a pathetic guy? You, a dominant?”
“What nonsense.”
“Haha…!”
Seunghyun frowned as Geonyul suddenly burst into laughter. Is he really insane? As Seunghyun looked at him with disgust, Geonyul slowly raised his body from where he was leaning against the classroom door.
“Do you know why I fought with hyung that day?”
“…?”
“Hyung had been boldly telling me for a long time. That he’d sleep with Lee Seunghyun and then give you to me. It was such an incomprehensible statement that we got into an argument that day and that’s what happened.”
“…”
“Do you really like such a bastard? Lee Seunghyun.”
Geonyul, cleverly hiding the truth, stared at Seunghyun with snake-like gleaming eyes. As Geonyul had expected, Seunghyun seemed shocked by those words and opened his eyes wide.
“Senior said that?”
“Yes.”
Geonyul grew increasingly triumphant as he watched Seunghyun lower his head. No matter how that stupid Jin Suhwan had managed to seduce Seunghyun, now that he knew the truth, he must be greatly disappointed in Suhwan.
However, when Seunghyun raised his head a moment later, his face was merely calm.
“You don’t know anything. Ju Geonyul.”
“…!”
“Did you think I wouldn’t know that’s a lie?”
The former Suhwan might have easily said such things. And he would have freely mistreated others. But not the current Suhwan. There was no way Suhwan, who had only been thoroughly taken, would have said such things as “sleeping with” someone to Geonyul.
What Geonyul overlooked was that the bond between the two had already become too close and strong. Now, Seunghyun’s trust wouldn’t be shaken by ordinary matters.
But Geonyul, unaware of this, persisted:
“It’s not a lie…!”
“Let me warn you.”
“…!”
Whoosh! The omega’s pheromones threatening poured over Geonyul.
Again. Once more, Geonyul couldn’t move under these overwhelming pheromones. Like a herbivore standing before a predator, Geonyul tensely looked at Seunghyun.
“Stop interfering between senior and me. It’s annoying.”
“Ugh.”
“Unlike you, I have nothing to lose, so who knows what I might do.”
Seunghyun approached Geonyul and tapped his cheek with his finger. A strange light flickered in Seunghyun’s eyes as they met Geonyul’s. Geonyul felt a chill run down his spine as he faced Seunghyun’s seemingly deranged eyes.
“Ha, senior told me not to meet other alphas… I broke that promise because of you.”
Seunghyun sighed and spoke with an irritated expression. As he pushed Geonyul aside and tried to open the classroom door, a stiffened voice came from beside him.
“You’ll regret this.”
“…”
“Superior traits should meet with superior traits. That’s the right answer.”
When he first saw Seunghyun at the freshman welcome party, Geonyul had felt destiny. Honestly, it wasn’t that he hadn’t met other dominant omegas before, but there was something particularly special about Seunghyun.
He had thought then that this omega must become his. That he had to have him by any means necessary.
However, Seunghyun turned to look at Geonyul with cold eyes and said:
“Then all the more reason it won’t work with you.”
“What?”
“You’re far inferior to me. You pathetic bastard.”
“…!”
As the overwhelming pheromones surged again, Geonyul’s knee buckled and he sat down. Seunghyun gave Geonyul one last expressionless look before leaving the classroom.
As soon as he left the classroom, he called Suhwan. But again, there was no answer.
Seunghyun, who found Suhwan’s location through a tracking app, moved urgently. It was time to comfort his likely hurt lover.
***
Suhwan didn’t remember exactly how he had made it home. When he became aware, he was collapsed on the living room sofa, gasping for breath.
“Haah, ha…”
With trembling hands, he tightly embraced himself. His body was also shaking.
For someone like Jin Suhwan, having such posts on Eta wouldn’t have been a big deal. Being a ruffian, he was completely indifferent to criticism and acted without consideration for others.
But Suhwan was different. He wasn’t the type to calmly accept others’ hostility or return it in kind. If someone criticized him, he was the type to constantly ruminate on his own weakness and fall into negative thoughts.
A major reason for this was the anxiety he normally felt. The anxious feelings he had been trying to suppress all burst out at once, causing him to fall into only negative thoughts.
‘How dare someone like me try to replace the main character.’
He didn’t deserve it. People would abuse him with all sorts of insults just for being seen with Seunghyun, so how could he… What was even more unbearable was that not only he but also Seunghyun was being insulted. Seunghyun, who had done nothing wrong, had to hear such words just for being with him.
“Ugh.”
Tears fell from Suhwan’s eyes. He had been too shocked to cry, but as he gradually grasped reality, overwhelming sadness came over him.
What made it even more sad and pitiful was that despite this situation, he still wanted to see Seunghyun. Suhwan sobbed alone, feeling self-loathing.
“Hic… Seunghyun, Seunghyun…”
Ring, ring…
At that moment, a small bell sound rang through the living room. Suhwan raised his head. He blankly stared at the screen of the phone he was clutching.
[Seunghyun]
“…!”
It was Seunghyun calling. Suhwan looked at the screen with trembling eyes and unconsciously moved his hand. It was to answer Seunghyun’s call.
Suhwan was extremely sad right now. So he wanted to receive Seunghyun’s warm comfort. He wanted to pour out all his anxieties and weaknesses to him, and hear the kind Seunghyun tell him not to worry about anything.
“Ah.”
But he stopped shortly after. What if he answered the phone and Seunghyun, having seen the Eta post, spoke resentfully to him? What if he said he wanted to reconsider their relationship?
Once a negative thought arose, it consumed Suhwan. If he heard even slightly harsh words from Seunghyun, he felt he really wouldn’t be able to endure it.
“Huik, hic.”
While he hesitated, the ringing stopped. And the phone grew quiet again. Seunghyun wasn’t calling anymore. Somehow that made him feel even more miserable, and Suhwan cried harder. It was a contradictory feeling.
Suhwan sincerely wished he could just disappear right now. The phone slipped from his hand and rolled onto the living room floor. Unable to even think about picking up the phone, Suhwan just lowered his head and continued to cry.
Click.
“…!”
Startled by the faint sound of a door closing, Suhwan raised his head. Someone had opened the front door and quickly entered the living room.
“Seunghyun.”
“…Haah.”
It was Seunghyun. Looking as if he had run all the way from school, Seunghyun took a breath and then quickly approached Suhwan, who was crying.
“What about your school?”
It was just when the liberal arts lecture would have started. Suhwan hadn’t expected Seunghyun to return so quickly. So he hadn’t even thought to hide his crying face and just stared blankly at Seunghyun.
“Why are you crying? Did you see the Eta post?”
“…!”
So Seunghyun had also seen the Eta post. Suhwan’s face stiffened. As Seunghyun drew closer and lowered his head as if to examine his face more closely, Suhwan couldn’t bear it anymore and turned his head away.
“Hyung, look at me.”
“…”
“Suhwan hyung.”
Along with the calm voice, a warm hand touched his shoulder. Suhwan flinched and his shoulder trembled, causing Seunghyun’s eyes to narrow.
