“…Did you finish early today too?”
In the midst of everyone’s silence, Garam was the first to speak, with a knowing tone. She remarked about how the professor was being too cheeky, saying that it wasn’t worth the two credits, and her way of rebuking him seemed quite awkward.
Dohyun closed the door he had been holding onto, watching silently as it slid open again.
“Since when has it been like this?”
“Oh, the door? It’s been a while.”
It had been a whole week since he last saw the teacher. The moment he saw the teacher’s neat and upright profile, Wooyeon realized that he had missed him. Even though there was a time when he hadn’t seen him for four years, it was surprising how fresh his feelings were in just that short time. Could it be because they met face to face in the club room every day?
Wooyeon approached the sofa where Seongyu was sitting as naturally as possible. Seongyu, who had been discreetly keeping an eye out as soon as Dohyun entered, was in the midst of a casual conversation with someone, adjusting the door smoothly and skillfully before stepping inside.
“Wooyeon, want to go smoke?”
As soon as Dohyun sat down opposite him, Seongyu stood up awkwardly. He had never called Wooyeon by name before, but it seemed he was conscious of Dohyun. It was a convenient excuse to leave the seat, but Wooyeon didn’t choose to run away.
“I’m trying to quit smoking now.”
Since he couldn’t say he hadn’t smoked before, this was the best he could do. Seongyu casually accepted it, saying, “Oh, you said you were quitting.” At the same time, the pat on Wooyeon’s back felt like a hand of comfort.
“Hey Seongyu, come out with Noona.”
Garam, who stood up from her seat, hugged Seongyu. Seeing that she didn’t suggest it to Dohyun, she must have thought he would refuse. Seongyu glanced at Wooyeon several times but left the club room without a word.
“…….”
“…….”
The door, which closed imperfectly, opened again in no time. Unable to bear the growing awkwardness, Wooyeon went to close the door, but no matter how hard he tried, the broken door kept opening. Helplessly, Wooyeon leaned against the door and looked at Dohyun.
“Sunbae.”
Since the end of the heat cycle, Wooyeon had been waiting for this moment. The moment when he and Dohyun were alone and he could ask questions with a pretense of calmness. It could be the first and maybe the last chance to satisfy his curiosity.
“Can we talk?”
His heart raced too fast. He probably wouldn’t have heard that sound if he had just sat on the sofa. Dohyun, with his calm gaze, waited for Wooyeon to continue speaking.
“Since when did you know?”
It wasn’t necessary to specify ‘what’ he knew. Since this topic had been around for a week, Dohyun must have guessed that this question would come up. As expected, he simply answered without asking further.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Mgbw atf yfulcclcu.”
“…….”
Lbk mbeiv tf vfrmglyf atf offilcu tf kjr fzqfglfcmlcu gluta cbk? Jbeiv tf rjs la kjr fzqfmafv bg ecfzqfmafv?
Ycf atlcu kjr obg regf; atf qjra ofk vjsr tjv yffc oeii bo regqglrfr, rb atlr jcrkfg jibcf vlvc’a ifjnf tlr tfjga rlcxlcu.
“Lbk?”
Tfjt, atlr kjr atf lwqbgajca qjga. Pa’r cba jybea atf alwlcu yea atf wfjcr. Rba ktfc tf gfjilhfv tf kjr Vfbc Qbbsfbc, yea tbk. Ktf wbra yjrlm meglbrlas jybea ktja tf bnfgibbxfv atja wjvf tlw mjamt bc ab fnfgsatlcu.
“Well….”
Dohyun seemed to deliberate slowly, choosing his words carefully. After lowering his gaze and closing his mouth for a moment, he looked back at Wooyeon.
“There were more than one or two strange things.”
Wooyeon also had some ideas. He almost called him ‘seonsaeng-nim’ several times, and sometimes showed an odd familiarity. If it were someone else, it might have been harder to notice, but not for someone as observant as him.
“Yeonwoo Hyung. You asked him if he knew Kim Dohyun.”
As he spoke, Dohyun took out his phone from his pocket. Wooyeon exhaled softly as Dohyun’s gaze moved away from him.
“It’s strange that someone would know my name but didn’t know that I was the club president. Someone who wanted to join the club didn’t ask any questions about the club, and instead of asking how old I was, they asked what grade I was in.”
Dohyun held out his phone screen to Wooyeon. The three letters ‘Seon Wooyeon’ appeared clearly in his eyes.
“When do you think this number was saved?”
‘From four years ago.’ That one sentence hit him like a blow to the back of his head.
Honestly, he was taken aback. Dohyun’s number had changed, so he naturally thought he had deleted his number as well. Wooyeon had never changed his number even once, but he didn’t know he still had his trace.
“Same name, same phone number, even the birthday and handwriting are the same; it’s harder not to recognize you.”
“….”
“You may not know it, but when you’re embarrassed, you still touch your ears the same way.”
Wooyeon, who was about to touch his ear out of habit, dropped his startled hand. It felt strange to be pointed out on a habit even he wasn’t aware of.
With a pointed yet gentle tone, Dohyun said firmly, “Just because your appearance changed a bit doesn’t mean you became a different person.”
The nuance of it was, ‘How could you not recognize?’ It felt like there was no way he couldn’t know, and the gaze he gave was reminiscent of the one he had seen on the terrace not long ago. Wooyeon’s mouth remained agape as he weakly lowered his head.
“I remember people well.”
It was true that Dohyun was exceptionally perceptive. Even Kang Junseong, who had known Wooyeon longer than Dohyun, couldn’t recognize him until he told him himself. Even his mother was surprised by the change, but she never claimed she hadn’t noticed. And that was just after a few months of tutoring.
“So… you wanted to be nice to me?”
All the time spent with him wandered through his mind one by one. The first meeting when they entered university, going to an MT together, and once again feeling the same emotions. And succumbing to the itchy emotions, repeating the same mistake once again.
“Is it because you’re sorry for ignoring me before, and that’s why you were nice to me?”
No response came back. Wooyeon instinctively realized that his reason for speaking wasn’t wrong. His contorted face bore a self-deprecating smile.
“You’re really too much.”
Sympathy was not an acceptable emotion in this case. If Wooyeon had known he would be hurt, it would have been more merciful to cut it off at once. There was nothing as cruel as fostering emotions that would not be reciprocated.
“Yeon-Ah.”
“Don’t call me that.”
A lump rose in his throat. The name that had once been comforting was now a signal of distress. The sweet emotions that used to melt his heart had long since turned into a gnawing sensation in his stomach.
“You should have pretended not to know until the end.”
Wooyeon covered his eyes with one hand and let out a long breath. Pheromones seeped through his intermittently trembling breath. His lips trembled very slowly.
“It wouldn’t have been so humiliating if you had done that.”
If there was a way, he wanted to disappear from sight immediately. He didn’t want to know how pathetic he must have seemed, showing all his cards from the beginning.
“I was going to wait until you told me.”
Dohyun spoke calmly. His unwavering demeanor in this situation further unsettled Wooyeon. While he was shaking all day, the thought that he couldn’t even leave a slight impression gnawed at his heart.
“There must have been a reason for you not saying it, so I planned to pretend not to know until you told me.”
“Then why did you…!”
“You didn’t intend to tell me.”
The pitch-black eyes moved slowly. Dohyun stood up and approached Wooyeon. The pungent pheromones enveloped Wooyeon, making him unable to move.
“If I hadn’t held you, you would’ve kept running away, Yeon-Ah.”
His soft voice lowered even more. Wooyeon tried to step back, but there was a door behind him, so he couldn’t. Wooyeon glared at Dohyun, clenching his fists.
“Does that mean I was wrong?”
“….”
“Yes, I didn’t intend to tell you. But why would that be wrong?”
Initially, there was a reason why Wooyeon decided to hide this fact. No, not hide, but simply not say it.
“You’re also an Alpha, seonsaeng-nim.”
The voice sounded sharp. Dohyun’s face stiffened.
“To me, you pretended like you weren’t an Alpha.”
Wooyeon wouldn’t have known this fact if they hadn’t met again. He wouldn’t have known he was an Alpha, or even a beta, and certainly wouldn’t have known he possessed such gentle pheromones.
“Was there a reason you acted like that, seonsaeng-nim? Did you have thoughts about me?”
The emotions that had been building up slowly turned into tears. Due to the blurry vision, Wooyeon couldn’t see what expression Dohyun had. The erratic pheromones were so mixed up that he couldn’t tell whose they were.
“Why are Alphas like that?”
Wooyeon raised his right hand to wipe away the flowing tears. The tears that flowed down left traces on his pale cheeks.
“I didn’t want to like you, because you’re an Alpha….”
If he had known Dohyun was an Alpha, he wouldn’t have liked him. It was too late now to distinguish right from wrong. Although Dohyun had been comforting to him, he didn’t take responsibility for his inflated feelings.
“I don’t want to like you anymore, seonsaeng-nim.”
Saying so, Wooyeon turned his body and grabbed the doorknob. He intended to discard all emotions and leave for a place without him.
But before he could open the door, a firm hand grabbed Wooyeon’s arm.
“…I was wrong.”
Dohyun’s gentle voice was colder than ever. With a stiff face, Dohyun took Wooyeon’s sleeve. As soon as the bruised wrist was exposed, he closed the slightly open door with his other hand.
“Why bother with things like conscience?”
This novel is so good (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)⁄ I can’t wait for the new chapters!! Thank you so muchh ✧(σ๑˃̶̀ꇴ˂̶́)σ
we’re getting to the juicy parts of the novel 🫣 thank you for the chapters!
Thank you for the chapters as always 😭
Dohyun oh my god, idk how to feel, poor Wooyeon my child, he is right to feel wronged
I just can’t understand Dohyun’s character TT
It feels like next few chapters are going to be fantastic.
i hope by ch.50, they’re already together 😭 we only have 118 chaps, pls pls get lovey dovey soon
I don’t understand what is really going on here?
Same here
Hey could you tell me the Release Schedule that you have?