By Zephyria 
In the еnd, Wоo-yеon was bасkеd intо а сorner аnd hаd tо agreе to the study sеssion. Оncе while dеciding оn thе lоcatiоn, and аgain while eаting tteokbokki, hе felt that somеthing was gоing wrоng, but the milk had alreadу been spillеd.
‘Тhеn lеt’s dо it at Woо-yеоn’s plaсе today.’
Tо makе mаtters worsе, hе hаd vаguеly еndеd up рroviding the study locatiоn as well. Тhere wеre other mеmbers in thе club roоm, thе study roоms were fullу boоkеd, and thе оthers’ сirсumstanсеs wеren’t favоrаble.
Sеоn-kуu livеd with his parents, and Ga-ram mentioned her studio apartment was too small, so Woo-yeon had protested with a heart half-filled with ulterior motives.
‘……What about you, Seonbae?’
Do-hyun answered with a slightly softened expression. He normally lived alone, but his younger sibling was visiting. When Woo-yeon reflexively asked if the sibling was also an Alpha, he was momentarily left speechless by the answer.
‘I’m the only Alpha in my house.’
Unique Traits are fundamentally inherited only from other Unique Traits. Just as Woo-yeon was born between an Alpha and an Omega, Do-hyun should have been the same. Once again, Woo-yeon felt a sense of frustration at the fact that he knew nothing about him.
“I will call the roll.”
Before he knew it, the professor was standing in front of the podium. The professor scanned the classroom and habitually skipped over Kang Jun-seong’s name. As the roll call immediately moved to the ‘Kwon’s, someone shot their hand up.
“Professor, I’m here.”
Woo-yeon reflexively turned toward the voice. The voice was familiar, but the bright yellow back of the head was completely strange. As expected, there was no way. Just as Woo-yeon was about to lose interest in him—
“Kang Jun-seong? Right, how is your injury?”
“I’m all healed up now.”
Kang Jun-seong turned his head. Woo-yeon took a deep breath and his expression froze stiff. A face he could never forget came vividly into view.
‘That pig.’
Why is it that bad premonitions are never wrong? Why does this damn jinx always find Woo-yeon without fail? The voice that crushed insults, the curve of the lips that often mocked him, and the eyes filled with contempt. All of those things had pushed Woo-yeon to the edge of a cliff.
‘Yeon-ah, you fucking—’
Woo-yeon pressed his nails into his palm and steadied his ragged breathing. Memories that flashed by clung to him like filth. His heart beat unpleasantly, and his pheromones began to vibrate sluggishly.
“Seon Woo-yeon.”
It was a memory he could never forget. He hadn’t been beaten physically, but his heart was wounded; he hadn’t been robbed of money, but his spirit was impoverished. If Do-hyun hadn’t been there, it would have been a period with not a single shred of good memories.
“Did Seon Woo-yeon not come?”
“Woo-yeon, he’s calling you.”
Fragments of the past burst out haphazardly like a rain shower. Only after a classmate sitting behind him tapped his back did Woo-yeon raise one hand. At his response of “Yes,” Jun-seong turned his head toward Woo-yeon.
“…….”
“…….”
The gaze they exchanged was piercing. His throat screamed with a stinging sensation, as if he had swallowed a needle. The memories that kept resurfacing wandered through Woo-yeon’s mind as clearly as if they had happened yesterday.
‘Fuck, ignoring me again?’
Three seats diagonally, a close distance of less than five steps. The past that had tormented him was sitting there as a reality. He had bleached his hair yellow and his jawline had thickened, but he was definitely the ‘Kang Jun-seong’ that Woo-yeon remembered.
“Now, where did we leave off last time?”
Woo-yeon barely managed to turn his head and rested his chin on his hand. He didn’t even have time to wonder why the other man wasn’t averting his eyes. Before long, Jun-seong also turned his head away, and Woo-yeon finally exhaled his stifled breath.
Even as the lecture proceeded, Woo-yeon couldn’t even take proper notes. Doubts about whether he had the grades to get into this university coexisted with an absurd resentment toward the coincidence. The same university, different majors—what were the odds that they would take the same elective?
“The midterm will be replaced by a group project. I’ve assigned the groups randomly, so don’t even think about changing them.”
It had been a while since Woo-yeon stopped hearing the professor’s words. He chewed the inside of his cheek and swallowed dryly several times. Jun-seong was whispering gleefully with a friend next to him, looking quite pleased.
‘He probably won’t remember me.’
If there was any silver lining, it was the assumption that he wouldn’t recognize him. Woo-yeon had grown taller, lost weight, dyed his hair, and taken off his glasses. It was a change that even his mother might not recognize, so there was no way Jun-seong would.
‘Even the Teacher didn’t recognize me……’
He placed a hand over his chest and steadied his breathing. This wasn’t a lecture with just one or two people; it was an elective famous for its large capacity. Since the semester would end in about three months anyway, he planned to stay quiet until then. Unless they overlapped in a group project, the chances of facing him were extremely slim.
“By the end of April, you must develop one invention suitable for the global era. I won’t ask you to actually build it, but you know it has to be realistic, right? You’ll present it via PPT and submit a separate report.”
Woo-yeon belatedly focused on the professor’s words. Having finished speaking, the professor looked at the group list and called out names. Kang Jun-seong was called first, followed by one ‘Kwon’ and two ‘Kims’. The problem lay in the last name called.
“Up to Seon Woo-yeon, that is Group 1.”
Unable to hide his bewilderment, Woo-yeon raised his hand. The professor stopped talking as if telling him to speak. As he pushed back his chair and stood up, a flurry of gazes converged on him.
“I’m Seon Woo-yeon from the English Language and Literature department. ……I think you might have called the name wrong.”
Names starting with ‘K’ had been called in a row, so he couldn’t understand why he, whose name started with ‘S’, was suddenly inserted. He raised the question of whether it was a mistake, but the professor shook his head with a benign expression.
“The first four were cut off by alphabetical order, and I randomly inserted one student from the humanities and linguistics departments into each group. Student Seon Woo-yeon is indeed in Group 1.”
Woo-yeon blinked, speechless. Randomly inserted from the humanities? Why on earth?
If he could, he wanted to argue. However, the professor added a further explanation nonchalantly.
“While we’re on the subject, there will be extra points if you present in a foreign language, so please keep that in mind. Of course, it’s optional, and if there’s a group member who presents better than the humanities student, someone else may do it.”
Having finished, the professor asked Woo-yeon if he had any more questions. Woo-yeon mumbled that he was fine now and sat back down. The focused gazes quickly returned to the professor.
“And Group 2 is……”
While Group 2, Group 3, and the others were announced in order, Woo-yeon kept his head down and racked his brain. It wasn’t just random; there was a reason, so he had nothing more to refute. In his heart, he wanted to ask to change groups, but hadn’t the professor just nailed down the ‘don’t think about changing’ part?
“Then, for the remaining time, let’s gather by group and decide on a group leader first. Once decided, tell the Teaching Assistant.”
With those words, the professor left the classroom. In his place, the Teaching Assistant entered and organized the now-noisy classroom. Overwhelmed by the urge to escape this space immediately, Woo-yeon squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again.
‘Fuck.’
No good solution came to mind. Now, a wave of nausea rose within him. He couldn’t understand how such a situation could happen. Absurd coincidences had become a single ill-fate, strangling him.
“You’re Seon Woo-yeon, right?”
Woo-yeon barely managed to maintain a blank expression as he looked up. Kang Jun-seong had approached and was standing right in front of him. He wanted to pretend not to know him and just free-ride, but getting a bad grade would be troublesome in its own way.
“Including you, there are five of us in Group 1.”
Other unfamiliar faces were with Jun-seong. Naturally leaning against a desk, Jun-seong gave a friendly-looking grin. It was a smile so disgusting it made him want to vomit.
“I’m Kang Jun-seong, a freshman in Traditional (Information and Communication Engineering). You look like a freshman too; you’re twenty, right?”
Truly, it was a face that did not recognize Woo-yeon. He could tell by the way Jun-seong started with introductions, just as Do-hyun had. The way his face frowned in confusion when Woo-yeon didn’t answer was also unfamiliar.
“By any chance…… are you a Seonbae?”
Woo-yeon held back a leaking laugh and sighed. In the past, if there was no answer, the insults about being ignored would come first, but now the informal speech had turned into honorifics. It was funny, absurd, and above all, the feeling of ’emptiness’ was the strongest.
“I am a freshman.”
He answered, trying his best to act natural. Jun-seong’s expression brightened instantly, and he expressed happiness that the other group members were also freshmen. A faint scent of Alpha pheromones emanated from him.
“That’s a relief, I was surprised thinking I’d made a mistake.”
‘You piece of shit who couldn’t even manifest.’
The friendly voice overlapped with the voice he had heard in the past. Recalling the pride Jun-seong used to take in being an Alpha, Woo-yeon swallowed his nausea.
“Then let’s start with the group leader……”
In the third year of middle school, Jun-seong would occasionally rub pheromones on Woo-yeon’s belongings. Naturally, Woo-yeon didn’t notice, and every time he used the item, Jun-seong would laugh loudly.
‘Idiot. Doesn’t even know there are pheromones on it.’
“……Why are you looking at me like that?”
A genetic trait was not a criterion for measuring superiority. Just as some people have moles on their faces and some have curly hair, it was simply a characteristic determined from birth. Jun-seong forming a clique of Alphas was nothing more than childish factionalism during puberty.
“It’s nothing.”
Woo-yeon shook his head with a miserable feeling. A pathetic pheromone caught the tip of his nose. Woo-yeon, who hadn’t manifested at the time, didn’t know, but as a dominant Omega, he could tell now. Despite ignoring people and looking down on them like animals, Kang Jun-seong was a recessive.
“But you…… you’re really pretty.”
Jun-seong touched his bleached hair with an awkward expression. He said he thought he was a celebrity when he first saw him, and that he was incredibly surprised the moment their eyes met. In the face as he spoke, a hint of excitement could be glimpsed.
“Your pheromone scent is fucking great, too.”
Woo-yeon felt so hollow he wanted to let out a sneer, and he tightened his lips. Jun-seong, who had been rambling compliments to Woo-yeon, had been blushing shyly for some time now. That gaze, so different from the past, hacked away at Woo-yeon’s memories.
“Are you dominant?”
“……Yeah.”
It felt as if a sarcastic remark would burst out at any moment. The pheromone scent is great? Recalling this, Woo-yeon lowered his gaze.
“I am dominant.”
You used to tell me I smelled. The words he couldn’t bring himself to say formed a lump in his throat.