It really couldn’t have been a more out-of-place scene. A car so expensive it looked like it belonged on TV, parked in a shabby studio apartment neighborhood like this. Even Han-gyeom, who knew nothing about cars, had at least heard of that brand.
The low rumble of the exhaust sputtered before suddenly cutting off. The engine died, and the front door swung open with a sharp click.
“Huh?”
And then Han-gyeom let out a sound filled with delight. The person stepping out of the car was none other than Won-hyeok. The two of them stared at him. For some reason, he let out a deep sigh and ran a hand harshly through his hair. His carefully styled hair fell into disarray as his gaze swept across the area.
Han-ul’s grip on Han-gyeom’s pale wrist, the glasses that had disappeared somewhere, and for some reason, his flushed cheeks and reddened eyes.
“Kang Han-gyeom.”
A chilling voice, sharp enough to slice through skin, filled the space between them. Han-gyeom, who had been about to greet him happily, hesitated. Perhaps because whatever had gotten into his eye still hadn’t come out, a fresh sting of discomfort flared as he squeezed his eyes shut.
“Sunbae! Ah….”
“Han-gyeom? Are you okay?”
As Han-gyeom rubbed his eyes with his palm, Han-ul bent at the waist to check on him. At that moment, Han-gyeom’s body was suddenly yanked backward out of his field of vision.
“Do you have a death wish? Where the hell do you think you’re touching? Get your face away.”
Won-hyeok, who had rushed over in an instant, smacked Han-ul’s hand away and pulled Han-gyeom straight into his arms.
“Um… I think something got into Han-gyeom’s eye.”
“Even if that’s true, I should be the one checking. Why the hell are you doing it?”
“E-Excuse me?”
Caught off guard, Han-ul let out an awkward laugh and instinctively began gauging Won-hyeok’s mood.
“You—what did you do to him this time?”
“What do you mean…?”
“It was a lie from the start, wasn’t it? That something got in his eye. What were you trying to do?”
Han-ul took a small step back. The dense pheromones alone were enough to make him recoil. He didn’t fully understand what was going on, but one thing was clear—Do Won-hyeok was extremely angry right now.
“E-Excuse me, sunbae.”
As Han-gyeom wriggled in his arms and tried to lift his head, Won-hyeok pressed him down firmly.
“You later. Don’t lift your head while I’m still being nice. Fuck, where did you even throw your glasses?”
“Ah, I didn’t throw them away, I—”
“I said don’t talk.”
At Won-hyeok’s words, Han-gyeom snapped his mouth shut and lightly grabbed at his waist. Completely unaware of how Han-ul was being treated, Han-gyeom was far too busy thinking about how warm and nice it felt in Won-hyeok’s arms.
“Excuse me, sunbae-nim.”
“Why the hell am I your sunbae?”
Well, it wasn’t like he could just call him “hey.” Han-ul almost said that, but his instincts told him not to provoke someone this worked up, so he simply cleared his throat.
“I don’t know what misunderstanding you’re having, but I’m Han-gyeom’s friend.”
“Don’t call him Han-gyeom.”
“….”
“Call him Kang Han-gyeom. Who do you think you are, dropping his surname? Actually, don’t call him at all.”
The corner of Han-ul’s mouth twitched awkwardly. He felt like he was starting to understand, just a little, what this inexplicable standoff was about.
“I was just trying to check his eye because it looked like something got in it. That’s all. Really.”
Ha. Won-hyeok let out a cold scoff and glared at him with everything he had. Seeing the unmistakable hostility in his eyes, Han-ul began to think this might actually be dangerous. Because right now, in that man’s head, he clearly looked like either a cheating partner—or someone hitting on a guy who already had a boyfriend.
“Bullshit. Who do you think you’re lying to?”
“What? I’m not lying, it’s true.”
Han-ul waved both hands frantically, trying to prove his innocence. What had Han-gyeom said earlier again? That Do Won-hyeok sunbae was famous in their department—no, the entire university—for being kind and having a good personality. While they were eating tteokbokki, Han-gyeom had excitedly gone on and on praising him.
Listening to all those stories, Han-ul had started to understand why Han-gyeom admired him so much.
A dominant alpha, outstanding looks, considerate of others, and even a good personality—no wonder he was well known.
But the man in front of him right now didn’t match any of those descriptions.
What was this? Back at the café, he’d been smiling so warmly, but now Won-hyeok was glaring with his teeth clenched, looking like he was staring down a mortal enemy. His gaze was sharp, and his mouth was rough—every other word laced with curses.
“I don’t understand why you won’t believe me….”
At this point, Han-ul couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh. Seriously—he hadn’t even caught them kissing or hugging. He’d just tried to brush a speck of dust out of Han-gyeom’s eye.
No matter how it might’ve looked from his angle, after explaining it this much, shouldn’t the normal response be, “Oh, I see. I misunderstood”?
“Look at his face.”
“…What?”
“With a face like that, smiling like an idiot all the time, you think people like you wouldn’t fall for him?”
Han-ul blinked slowly. What the hell was that supposed to mean?
“Fuck, of course you would! The way he acts too—always doing cute, clueless shit.”
Even now, Won-hyeok wasn’t really focused on the conversation, glancing down instead at Han-gyeom squirming in his arms.
“Hey, he’s not an omega. I know he’s pretty enough to make you think that, but he’s a beta.”
“I know. I know he’s a beta, and I also know you two are dating.”
For some reason, Han-ul felt a bit embarrassed. It was like watching a public confession in broad daylight. Did Han-gyeom really think this sunbae didn’t like him that much?
“And you still pull this shit? Didn’t your parents teach you anything? You don’t touch what belongs to someone else!”
Just like that, Han-ul had become some scumbag with no upbringing, hitting on someone else’s boyfriend. No matter what he said, it felt like he wouldn’t be able to escape that label.
He considered asking Han-gyeom to explain instead, but judging by the current atmosphere, it felt like his tongue might get ripped out if he even tried to speak. On top of that, the pheromones prickling his nose were deeply unpleasant.
Maybe Won-hyeok took his silence the wrong way, because his expression grew even more menacing.
“You….”
At that moment, Han-gyeom buried his face into Won-hyeok’s chest and slowly rubbed against him.
“Kang Han-gyeom, stay still.”
“Huh? But sunbae, your clothes smell really nice. Is it fabric softener?”
“….”
Han-gyeom lifted his head slightly, only his eyes peeking out. Won-hyeok flinched.
When you wear strong prescription glasses, your eyes usually look smaller. Despite wearing fairly thick lenses, Han-gyeom’s eyes were already quite large. So what about now, without them?
Up close, his eyes were big and incredibly clear. A mysterious shade—somewhere between black and brown—focused solely on Won-hyeok. Tears from earlier still clung to his long lashes in droplets. It was almost surprising how dust had managed to get through those lashes.
Come to think of it, this was the first time Won-hyeok had properly seen Han-gyeom’s bare face—without his glasses. Even the time they’d gone to the hospital when his ear had been torn, he hadn’t looked this closely.
“…Fuck. At this rate, I’m really gonna lose years off my life.”
Won-hyeok muttered under his breath, pressing a hand to his face with a sigh. The expression that had looked ready to smash something moments ago had completely melted away, which Han-ul watched with fascination.
“What?! S-sunbae, are you sick? Why would your lifespan—”
Now absentmindedly pressing down on Han-gyeom’s bangs, Won-hyeok looked back at Han-ul.
“Hey. You should get lost now.”
“You’re not misunderstanding anymore, right?”
“Misunderstanding or not, just go.”
Despite everything Won-hyeok had said—most of it honestly pretty offensive—Han-ul found the situation strangely amusing. Instead of anger, laughter kept threatening to spill out.
“Han-gyeom—”
He tried to say goodbye, but Won-hyeok tilted his head and glared, making it painfully clear he shouldn’t speak and should just disappear. Han-ul had no choice but to turn away.
“And Han-woo, you.”
“It’s Han-ul. Kwon Han-ul.”
“Forget everything you saw today. Got it? Especially Kang Han-gyeom’s face.”
He had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but asking again didn’t seem like it would lead to anything pleasant, so Han-ul just nodded vaguely.
“Ah, Han-ul, bye!”
“Hey. Didn’t I tell you not to lift your head?”
As he walked away, a baffled laugh slipped from Han-ul’s lips. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d just witnessed a very… unusual couple.
“B-But, sunbae, didn’t you say you’d be at your family home all weekend?”
After Han-ul disappeared down the alley, Han-gyeom wriggled out of Won-hyeok’s arms.
“What, you don’t like that I came? I interrupted you having fun with that bastard? You just roll around with anyone from the same school?”
Won-hyeok fired off his words like bullets.
“Having fun?”
He’d gotten along well with Han-ul, and more than anything, the guy was kind. Han-gyeom had always been timid by nature and wasn’t good at making friends. Even after entering university and meeting all kinds of people from across the country, they’d all just passed by in his life.
So of course he was happy to spend time with a friend he’d made after so long.
“It was fun hanging out with Han-ul, but….”
“What?”
The barely subdued anger on Won-hyeok’s face flared up again.
“But I like seeing you more, sunbae. I missed you.”
“….”
“I ate with Han-ul and went to a café too.”
“Ha. You really did a lot of pointless things.”
Won-hyeok muttered, biting his lip hard.
“Time went by so slowly. But when I’m with you, it passes really fast.”
Han-gyeom smiled shyly and timidly grabbed his sleeve. He never pushed himself onto Won-hyeok—just held onto his sleeve like this to express how he felt.
The tips of his fingers and his knuckles were always red.
“I guess it’s true… that time goes faster when you’re with someone you li-like.”
Such timid actions—gestures that might seem worse than doing nothing at all.
But thinking about it another way, for someone as shy as Han-gyeom, who was cautious about everything, this was probably an incredibly brave act.
“…Haah. I had so much I wanted to say.”
Won-hyeok stared off into the distance out of habit. His head throbbed from the stress.
“Huh?”
When he’d first arrived and saw them through the car window, standing so close together, he’d nearly slammed the accelerator. But he hadn’t been confident he could hit only Han-ul, so he’d barely managed to step on the brake instead.
He’d been furious. His insides had boiled, heat surging through him. And seeing that bare, unguarded face without glasses had, ironically, made something inside him burn black.
Thinking about that face wandering around everywhere, smiling at other guys—he wasn’t even exaggerating when he said he’d been on the verge of exploding with uncontrollable rage.
But ridiculously enough, all that anger had melted away with just one sentence.
He’d never experienced anything like it before.
Ever since he was young, everything had irritated him. His family, his home—everything. When he decided to suppress that uncontrollable temper and act like a good person, it hadn’t been easy to adjust.
Now, he could put on the act of a kind person as easily as breathing, worthy of a Best Actor award. But every now and then, when something hit the fuse, all the anger he’d held back would explode. And he’d inevitably end up needing some way to release it.
Like that time he beat someone up in the alley behind a bar.
“Sunbae?”
But now, somehow, just Kang Han-gyeom alone was enough to dissolve all of that—and that felt completely unfamiliar to Won-hyeok.
“…Get in first.”
They couldn’t just stand there talking on the street, so Won-hyeok led Han-gyeom into the car. As he got into the driver’s seat, he checked the phone lying on the seat—there were quite a few missed calls.
His mother. His father. And Do In-seok.
[Hey, my uncle’s pissed. Aren’t you totally screwed?]
[Worry about yourself before you get screwed.]
“Th-this is your car, sunbae? It’s so cool….”
In the passenger seat, Han-gyeom looked around endlessly. Without touching anything, he examined the inside of the sports car with pure fascination—exactly as Won-hyeok had imagined, to the point it almost made him laugh.
“Han-gyeom.”
His anger somewhat cooled, Won-hyeok called his name quietly.
“I’ll ask just once.”
But even if his anger had subsided, there was still one thing he needed to confirm.
“Where the hell did you sell off your glasses?”
