Geonyul, who had stopped mid-sentence, smiled mysteriously. Seeing his face, Suhwan tilted his head in confusion.
“No, it’s nothing. Drink up.”
“Oh, I’m on medication, so alcohol is a bit…”
“A heavy drinker refusing to drink.”
Suhwan blankly stared at Geonyul, who was chuckling as if amused. Though Geonyul was a handsome dominant alpha the same age as Seunghyun, he still retained a somewhat youthful appearance.
Perhaps because he was acting so friendly toward him, Suhwan felt his awkwardness gradually dissolving and his tensed body returning to normal.
“Senior! You came today!”
“…?”
Someone lightly tapped Suhwan from the side. When he turned his head, an unfamiliar man was acting as if he knew Suhwan. Yet his voice was strangely familiar. Suhwan spoke with a hunch:
“…Yun Doyoung?”
“Yes! It’s been a while, senior!”
“Oh, yeah.”
Judging by the absence of pheromones, he was a beta. His smiling face gave a rather good impression. Though the current Suhwan might not know, the former Jin Suhwan would have been difficult to deal with, so seeing how this person approached him so casually, he seemed like a good-natured person.
“Have you been well? It’s hard to see you at school too.”
“Yeah, well… it’s my last semester now.”
“Ah, so next month you’ll just submit your employment form and enter Hwamyeong?”
“That’s right, I guess.”
“Wow, I’m so jealous. Really.”
The drinking party continued in an unexpectedly good atmosphere. Somehow, Suhwan’s heart began to loosen up bit by bit.
But he was worried about not having properly contacted Seunghyun since he had left in a hurry. He had said they would have dinner together today.
Glancing at Geonyul, he saw him enthusiastically talking with another student. It seemed like he no longer needed to pay attention to him.
Then maybe I should step out briefly and contact Seunghyun. After looking around cautiously, Suhwan subtly got up from his seat.
“Hah.”
He sighed as he stepped outside the bar. Then he took out his phone from deep inside his jacket’s inner pocket.
“Huh?”
When he turned on his phone screen to make a call, a strange number appeared. Suhwan stared at it with disbelieving eyes.
A red number was next to the call icon. 36.
“What’s this?”
Shocked by the alarming number, Suhwan went to the call log. Then one person’s name appeared repeatedly in the list.
“S-Seunghyun?”
They were all Seunghyun’s name. He had called Suhwan thirty-six times. While Suhwan was alarmed, a low voice reached his ears.
“Hyung.”
“Ah…!”
Startled, he turned around. Geonyul, surprised by Suhwan’s reaction, had his eyes wide open.
“Oh, why, why?”
“What’s with you, why are you so startled?”
“No, just… you suddenly spoke to me.”
“Haha.”
Getting startled at every little thing. Geonyul let out a hollow laugh, muttering as he approached and languidly took out a cigarette. Then he offered one to Suhwan.
“Want one?”
“No, I… told you I’m on medication.”
“Since when did you care about that kind of thing.”
Grumbling with a displeased expression, Geonyul put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it with a lighter. Perhaps because he was a dominant alpha, despite his young age, smoking suited him quite well.
The white cigarette smoke rising from Geonyul’s mouth danced in the air like a mirage. Watching it, Suhwan put his phone back into his pocket. It didn’t seem like the right time to contact Seunghyun yet.
“You seem different somehow, hyung.”
“Me?”
“Yeah.”
At Geonyul’s unexpected words, Suhwan tried to maintain his composure. Act like Jin Suhwan, make the kind of expression Jin Suhwan would make. Repeating this to himself internally, he frowned.
“What are you talking about, that’s not funny.”
“Haha, is that so.”
Geonyul let out a hollow laugh and exhaled the last of the smoke. At the same time, he dropped the cigarette butt with only the filter remaining on the ground and rubbed it with his foot. Watching this, Suhwan felt a pang of conscience. You shouldn’t just throw that away like that.
Thinking he should pick it up and dispose of it properly after Geonyul went inside, Suhwan raised his head and met Geonyul’s gaze, who was looking at him.
“So, aren’t you tired of it yet?”
“Of what?”
Suhwan’s eyes widened at the sudden question. Geonyul sighed briefly, as if frustrated, and spoke again.
“I mean Lee Seunghyun.”
“Seunghyun?”
Why Seunghyun all of a sudden…
Geonyul continued, smirking at the puzzled Suhwan.
“You said you’d have him first and then give him to me.”
“…”
“Don’t you remember?”
What… what is he talking about?
Suhwan’s fingers trembled slightly. It was an utterly unbelievable statement. Suhwan barely managed to part his lips to ask:
“What do you mean by ‘have’… what does that mean…”
“Ha, really.”
Geonyul frowned as if irritated. Then he answered in a somewhat condescending tone.
“Why are you pretending to be innocent now? I helped you imprison Lee Seunghyun at home so you could enjoy him.”
“…!”
Geonyul’s words swirled in Suhwan’s confused mind. Lee Seunghyun, imprisonment, helped…
Helped? The main character Ju Geonyul helped forcibly imprison Seunghyun?
Suhwan’s eyes widened at the unbelievable truth.
But… thinking about it, there were several suspicious points in the original story.
Jin Suhwan suddenly convincing family elders to proceed with an engagement, threatening with family and friends—these weren’t actions the dim-witted Jin Suhwan would take. He would rather storm in and cause havoc directly.
Ju Geonyul. The figure before him, whom he had thought was the kind main character of the original story, was actually the source of all evil.
“Anyway, thanks to me, everything worked out as you wanted, right? If you’re getting tired of him now, give him to me.”
“…”
“Hyung?”
Suhwan, with his head lowered, felt his mind growing cold. This conversation was not in the original story. That’s why Suhwan never knew. That Geonyul had influenced Jin Suhwan to imprison and torment Seunghyun.
Suhwan slowly raised his head.
“…Shut up.”
“What?”
“I said shut up, you piece of trash.”
“…!”
Suhwan reached out and grabbed Geonyul’s collar. Caught off guard, Geonyul was dragged by his collar in Suhwan’s grip.
“I will never give Seunghyun to someone like you.”
A voice like a low animal growl flowed from Suhwan’s throat.
“Kuk…!”
Suddenly seized by the collar, Geonyul opened his eyes wide in surprise at the unexpected event. Instinctively making a suppressed sound, he tried to shake off the hand gripping his collar, but Suhwan wouldn’t let go. Geonyul frowned and asked:
“Hyung, are you crazy?”
Ju Geonyul, the main character of this novel. He had taken it for granted that he would end up with Seunghyun. Suhwan had thought his role was merely as a foreign substance connecting the two, so he had planned to eventually send Seunghyun to him when the time came.
But not anymore. Having learned the ugly truth, he could never send Seunghyun to such a person.
“No, I’m not crazy.”
“Hah…”
“And stay away from Seunghyun from now on.”
He tightened his grip on the collar. Belatedly, he realized he had acted too impulsively, but it was already too late.
A tense battle of wills between the two alphas took place in the darkening alley. Fierce pheromones clashed in the air.
But soon, the balance collapsed. A fight between a recessive and a dominant. It was a fight with a predetermined outcome from the start.
“Ugh…!”
“Have you lost your mind, really.”
Geonyul, who had been grabbed by the collar, easily shook off the arm and instead gripped Suhwan’s neck. Attacked by the dominant alpha’s pheromones and with his neck tightly gripped, Suhwan felt dizzy.
“I’ve been treating you well, calling you hyung, and now you think you can do whatever you want?”
“Kugh.”
“A recessive like you daring to challenge me?”
Geonyul raised the corner of his mouth, looking at Suhwan as if he were ridiculous. A cruel light flashed in his eyes as he looked down at Suhwan, who was gasping for breath, unable to move.
But at that moment, a sweet pheromone scent circled his nose. It was a faint scent that would barely be detectable without concentration.
What was this kind of scent called? It was a scent that seemed like it could only come from baby powder. That’s what he smelled from the alpha in front of him.
“Ha.”
An alpha with such a sweet scent. If it were him, he would be too embarrassed to release it. A mocking smile appeared on Geonyul’s face.
“Ugh, let… go…!”
“Ha, you idiot.”
While pressing down the struggling Suhwan with one hand, Geonyul raised the corner of his mouth even higher. Anyway, Suhwan was now in a state where he couldn’t move due to Geonyul’s pheromones.
This is annoying; maybe I should just finish him off now. The secluded alley wasn’t frequented by people. Geonyul casually entertained dangerous thoughts, but the continuous stimulating scent began to move his heart in a strange direction.
An alpha’s pheromones should only be unpleasant to smell, but this pathetic recessive alpha’s pheromone scent was oddly encouraging another alpha’s desire. Geonyul’s eyes fell on Suhwan’s gasping lips. The red lips were moving, trying to speak words that wouldn’t come out.
It was when Geonyul reached out with his other hand. Suddenly, his hand was caught in mid-air.
“Let go of that hand.”
“…!”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
