Chapter 111
He remembered that their exclusive training ground wasn’t far from Blue Door. Everyone had spoken of them so highly that he thought they must be extraordinary, but they were truly the worst.
How disgusting. I’m the one who should spit.
While he was inwardly cursing, one of the group turned around, and their eyes suddenly met.
Golden hair shining like starlight under the blazing sun.
Sapphire-blue eyes sparkled with interest at Hyeon-woo, who stood with furrowed brows.
That was his first encounter with McRae.
*
After that, he unexpectedly ran into McRae a few more times. Each time was an unpleasant situation.
An idiot who introduced himself as Kevin persistently followed him on his way home from school, pretending to be friendly. Perhaps annoyed by Hyeon-woo’s consistent ignoring, Kevin, who had been hiding in a secluded public parking lot, recklessly attacked Hyeon-woo as he was passing by late at night after finishing his assignment at the library.
Hyeon-woo’s bicycle fell to one side with a loud noise. With his mouth covered by Kevin, he was dragged to a remote corner flanked by large sedans. He fought back with all his might, throwing punches, but it wasn’t enough. He shuddered at the hot breath pouring into his ear.
‘Haa, haa. He’s definitely… definitely an omega… Why isn’t there any reaction?’
While Kevin tilted his head in confusion, Hyeon-woo kneed him hard in the groin.
‘Ugh!’
Kevin let out a short death cry, folding his body in half and unable to move. Hyeon-woo stood up, panting, and shouted at him.
‘Try that dirty trick one more time! I really won’t let you off next time!’
That’s when it happened. In the silent parking lot, there was a sudden friction sound. It was the sound of the driver’s door of a large SUV parked to the left opening and closing. Footsteps approaching on the asphalt grew closer, and soon a human figure appeared on the hood.
Even in the pitch-dark midnight, Hyeon-woo recognized the platinum-blonde hair that seemed to have absorbed all the moonlight and the blue eyes directed at him. He realized this was one of the Whale Sharks he had encountered on the street not long ago. The man seemed to remember Hyeon-woo too, throwing an interested glance, but that was all.
Thump, thump.
Watching the back of the figure leaving the parking lot, Hyeon-woo swallowed a curse. It seemed that just as he had finished parking and turned off the engine, he had unfortunately witnessed that scene with Kevin.
It was humiliating. If he had been inside, he should have jumped out right away. Hyeon-woo felt needlessly irritated at the man’s behavior of interestedly observing the disgraceful scene unfolding before his eyes.
Hyeon-woo was wary of McRae, but for different reasons than Kevin. He felt uncomfortable with those sapphire-blue eyes sparkling with curiosity and interest towards him. So he tried his best not to get involved.
Fortunately, after that day, Kevin, who had been following him like a leech, quieted down for a while. That’s why letting his guard down was a mistake.
‘Ugh…! Let go!’
He was furious at being dragged to the parking lot in the same way again. As Hyeon-woo desperately struggled to pry off the hand gripping his neck, Kevin’s voice flowed softly into his ear.
‘That’s right, come to think of it, your mom had black hair too, didn’t she?’
Hyeon-woo’s struggling stopped. His mind reeled as he belatedly realized the meaning. Hyeon-woo gritted his teeth and cursed.
‘…You son of a bitch…!’
‘Wow… When you open your eyes like that, it turns me on even more. You’re making me develop a new fetish.’
‘Let go, quickly!’
‘Stay still. Before I really start having impure thoughts about your mom.’
‘……!’
Impure thoughts.
He shuddered at the implied meaning of those words. As Hyeon-woo’s mind went blank, unable to do anything, Kevin was about to press his firmly erect lower body against Hyeon-woo’s lower abdomen.
‘Touching your mom is crossing the line.’
Thwack-.
Just as the pungent smell of cigarettes tickled his nose, a flying fist planted itself in Kevin’s right cheek. The blonde who had grabbed the collar of Kevin, who had fallen backward with a loud noise, mercilessly planted another fist in the same area.
‘Instead of a new fetish.’
Thwack-!
‘What’s your existing fetish, black hair?’
Thwack-!
‘Want me to cure it?’
Kevin, who had been one-sidedly beaten, recognized his attacker and opened his eyes wide in disbelief.
‘…D-Danny?!’
‘I never gave you permission to call me that.’
Whack-!
‘Kuh…!’
Kevin, who had been properly hit in the solar plexus, fell to the ground, curling up like a shrimp and trembling.
‘Hire a lawyer. If you think you can win.’
With those words, a video started playing on the phone in the blonde’s hand. It showed everything from Kevin forcibly dragging Hyeon-woo to the parking lot to all the subsequent events.
Unable to say a word, Kevin just buried his head in the ground and trembled. The blonde, who had ended the situation in an instant, now turned to Hyeon-woo with a mocking face.
‘You said you wouldn’t let it slide if it happened again. What happened to that spirit from before? Why did you suddenly become so docile?’
‘……’
‘Were you going to let him have his way?’
‘…Shut up.’
It had been like this from the first time they met. He had a strange talent for getting on people’s nerves.
In his gaze, in his voice.
As Hyeon-woo bent down to pick up his backpack that had fallen to the ground, he noticed two freshly discarded cigarette butts at his feet. One of them was still smoldering. He had been standing here watching everything. The disgraceful scene with Kevin.
Why did they always meet in situations like this?
Hyeon-woo frowned, grabbed his bag, and quickly left the scene. He was already angry at himself for momentarily blanking out when Kevin mentioned his mom. Anyway, it was all over now. He believed he would never get involved with them again.
Neither with Kevin, nor with McRae.
*
‘Is this your first time with Danny?’
As Hyeon-woo entered the store, his mother greeted him cheerfully, pointing to the counter bar table. Hyeon-woo’s wide-open eyes filled with shock.
‘Let me introduce you. This is our store’s first regular customer. We’ve received a lot of help from Daniel since soon after we opened the store. I’ve been wanting to introduce him to you, and now the opportunity has finally come.’
McRae, whose hair had turned black, stood up and greeted Hyeon-woo with a smile.
‘Hello? Nice to meet you. I’m Danny.’
‘……’
‘Can I call you Hyeon-woo? That’s what Maya seems to call you.’
‘……’
It was from that day.
McRae, who always seemed to be observing him from afar, had officially begun to intervene in his life.
As Hyeon-woo was recalling his not-so-pleasant first meeting with him, he heard a customer’s request to remove jalapeños from their sandwich.
Printing out the order reflecting this and passing it straight to the back room, Hyeon-woo shook his head a few times as if to shake off idle thoughts and diligently took the next customer’s order. Meanwhile, McRae’s gaze, which was fixed on Hyeon-woo, showed no signs of wavering.
*
“Ian, I heard your store is looking for part-timers now. Is that true?”
Ashley, who had joined Hyeon-woo at his table while he was eating alone, asked secretly with shining eyes.
A few weeks ago, she was the one who had approached Hyeon-woo as he was gathering materials from the cabinet before an open-book test, and handed him a faded old book.
‘I took this class last year, so I know. Here, this will help you with the test.’
The girl with her hair tied up in a ponytail suddenly winked at him. That’s how Hyeon-woo first met Ashley. Seeing no reason to refuse her kindness, Hyeon-woo had taken the old book into the lecture hall and ended up achieving an overwhelmingly good score on that test, alone. Most of the answers were found in the book Ashley had given him, not in the handouts used in class.
