By Zephyria 
Тhе соntent was a jоkе, but the voiсe soundеd sinсеrе. Wоо-yeоn lооked down, tоuching his ear. Тo hаve grоwn up “рrettilу.” It wаsn’t а lie, but heаring it from sоmeone еlse’s mouth was uttеrly embarrаssing.
“So dоn’t wоrry. Between Мungaram and Nооnа, I didn’t rеаlize I was thе tyре of pеrsоn who lacked thаt much trust.”
Sоmеhow, thorns wеrе fеlt within thе sоft voiсе. It was sоmething he had never onсe shown whilе talking to Wоo-yeоn. Min-jеong askеd bаck, “Ga-rаm?” but then reрlied аs if it didn’t mаtter.
“I’vе оnly sееn him twicе, sо I shоuldn’t say this… but Wоо-yеоn is just… I dоn’t knоw. I’m strangely drawn to him.”
“…….”
“I’m not saying I’m interested, so relax your expression. Doesn’t the fact that Yun-woo Oppa memorized his name say it all?”
Saying she was worried about the boy, or that he strangely caught her attention. Contrary to the indifferent tone, the content was nothing but affectionate. Do-hyun, who had been quietly listening to Min-jeong, agreed in a light tone.
“Well, he’s pretty in my eyes, so he’s probably pretty in others’ eyes too.”
Woo-yeon felt even more embarrassed than before and stood up from his seat. He could handle being cursed at, but he simply had no immunity to this kind of praise. Since the conversation seemed to be over, he planned to head back inside, pretending not to have heard.
However, Woo-yeon couldn’t leave the two of them and enter the bar. The moment he took a single step, a call came through on the phone he was holding. Feeling the vibration—zzzt—Woo-yeon was startled and stumbled.
“Ah……”
He didn’t fall, but he couldn’t stop the object in his hand from slipping. In the blink of an eye, the phone flew and crashed with a dull thud. Woo-yeon’s mouth hung open as he watched the device roll a couple of times across the asphalt.
“Did you hear a sound just now?”
Why does a phone always land screen-down? He prayed it wasn’t the case, but based on the sound, there was a high possibility the screen had shattered miserably. Because he couldn’t confirm it visually, the fear doubled.
“Why? What sound?”
“The sound of something falling……”
Woo-yeon froze, unable to even think about picking up the phone. Thump, thump, the sound of footsteps gradually drew closer. Screech, as he turned his head, he saw Do-hyun emerging from the alley.
“…….”
“…….”
Do-hyun looked at Woo-yeon with a face of surprise, which was unlike him. Even in the dark, it was clear that his eyes were wide open. Woo-yeon immediately made a tearful face and spoke in a sorrowful voice.
“Seonbae……”
“……Yeon-ah.”
Approaching him, Do-hyun bent his waist to meet his eye level. His pitch-black pupils were filled with a multitude of complex emotions. Before he could mention that, Woo-yeon spoke urgently.
“I’m sorry.”
“……Huh?”
Do-hyun’s expression turned blank. Before he could say anything, Woo-yeon blurted out another apology.
“I’ll buy you a new phone, I’m really sorry.”
“What on earth……”
A long explanation wasn’t necessary. Seeing it with one’s eyes was much faster and simpler than hearing it. As Woo-yeon looked down, Do-hyun followed suit and lowered his head.
“…….”
A long silence followed. Do-hyun stared at the phone for a long time until Min-jeong came out of the alley. Eventually, bending his waist, he slowly picked up the phone.
“Huh? Woo-yeon, since when did you… no, why is it like this?”
As expected, the screen was broken. Seeing the cracked screen—crack—Woo-yeon’s face turned pale. Do-hyun let out a thin sigh and muttered in a low voice.
“……And here I thought it was something else.”
Somehow, he seemed relieved. Even though a broken phone was by no means something to be relieved about.
Unable to look at Do-hyun’s face, Woo-yeon waved his hands and made an excuse.
“I didn’t do it on purpose, a call came in so I came out to bring it to you and……”
“It’s okay.”
Answering softly, Do-hyun pressed the side button of the phone. It was simply cracked; the screen appeared normally. Do-hyun glanced at Woo-yeon and then put the phone in his pocket.
“I can just fix it. Don’t worry about it.”
His voice was truly nonchalant. One might expect him to be annoyed, but there was no sign of that at all. After remaining silent for a moment, Woo-yeon looked up with an apologetic face.
“The phone kept ringing.”
“Yeah, you don’t have to answer it.”
It rang twice; was it really okay not to answer? He didn’t know if it was the same person, but if it was, it must be a fairly urgent matter.
“Who is it?”
Do-hyun smiled slightly and rummaged through the plastic bag he was holding. It seemed he had bought ice cream from the convenience store, as several types of tube-shaped ice pops came out. Picking out a chocolate-flavored one, Do-hyun tore the top and put it in Woo-yeon’s mouth.
“Just a spam call.”
Woo-yeon held the ice cream in his hand and bit the end. Because it had melted slightly, it wasn’t difficult to eat the contents. Now that he looked, Min-jeong was also holding another ice cream.
“More importantly……”
A low voice started the conversation. Do-hyun winked his left eye and examined Woo-yeon’s face. From lips that formed a soft arc, a slightly stiff voice flowed.
“How much did you hear?”
* * *
As soon as Woo-yeon returned to the drinking party, he drank alcohol incessantly. The drink the Teaching Assistant poured had a refreshing scent of green grapes, and upon hearing that it was his first time trying fruit soju, Tae-gyeom ordered every variety available.
Ten bottles in total. Only after a spectacle unfolded—one that the club members even took photos of—did the actual drinking session begin.
“This one… and this one are tasty.”
His unfocused eyes blinked slowly. It was an attempt to find focus, but no matter how much he blinked, his vision remained blurry. Plum, and then green grape. Pointing back and forth between the two, Woo-yeon nodded his head.
“The others are tasty too, but……”
“Isn’t Woo-yeon drunk?”
The Teaching Assistant asked in a worried voice. Do-hyun, who had been quietly staying by Woo-yeon’s side, parted his lips ambiguously. Min-jeong was also silently tilting her glass.
“I’m not drunk.”
Speaking clearly, Woo-yeon gripped his glass again. Contrary to his precise pronunciation, his eyes looked vacant. He looked fine enough that one wouldn’t know he was drunk unless they looked closely, but his mind was already stained in a hazy blur.
‘…I just heard everything from the start.’
Having answered that way earlier, Woo-yeon had left the two troubled people behind and come up to the bar. He wasn’t particularly angry; he just had nothing more to say.
However, the moment he saw the Teaching Assistant and Tae-gyeom, he felt an indescribable amount of heartache.
“I’m really okay.”
Because it was his first time dating, he didn’t know. He didn’t know that one could be okay in front of someone but not okay behind their back. He didn’t know that discovering the remnants of another person could be such an unpleasant feeling. Even though he knew the current feelings were different, the mere fact that there were emotions he didn’t know about made his anger rise to the top of his head.
“Yeon-ah.”
Woo-yeon paused just as he was about to lift his glass. It was because Do-hyun had carefully grabbed his wrist. Setting the glass back down on the table, Do-hyun spoke kindly.
“Stop drinking now.”
“……Why?”
He knew for sure that this wasn’t something to be angry at Do-hyun for. A person’s heart doesn’t always follow their will, and it wasn’t his place to interfere with whom the other had liked. Since he’s telling me he likes me now, I shouldn’t hope for more. Even as he thought this, his stomach seethed.
“It’ll be a problem if your pheromones come out.”
Hearing Do-hyun’s words, Woo-yeon shut his mouth tight. No matter how drunk he was, it wasn’t hard to understand what those words meant. Tae-gyeom and Ga-ram were opposite him; he couldn’t just spray pheromones in a place like this.
“Let’s stop drinking, okay?”
The gentle voice acted as a brake. Left with no choice, Woo-yeon slowly leaned his head into Do-hyun’s embrace. As he buried his face in the crook of the neck, he felt Do-hyun flinch.
“I want to go home.”
He felt pheromones at the tip of his nose. It was the pheromone of a dominant Alpha—dry yet thick. Taking a long breath, Woo-yeon spoke as if pleading.
“I want to go to Teacher’s house.”
They headed home before the party had even officially ended. The Teaching Assistant offered to drive them, but Do-hyun refused without hesitation. Woo-yeon also didn’t want to ride in the same car as Tae-gyeom.
On the way home, his consciousness cut out intermittently. First, he was being carried on Do-hyun’s back, then he was standing in front of a claw machine, and finally, he was holding a snow-white plushie in his arms. Woo-yeon whined, pestered, rejoiced, and then clung to Do-hyun’s waist, demanding:
“Please hold me.”
“…….”
He remembered that Do-hyun’s pheromones thickened the moment he heard those words. And that he himself had released pheromones in response to the pheromones that rushed in as if to suffocate him.
Do-hyun let out a sigh, hugged Woo-yeon, and muttered against the top of his head.
“Yeon-ah, I’ll only put up with this three times.”
And when he opened his eyes, it was dawn. Woo-yeon blinked, looking out the window at the blue-tinted scenery. The surroundings were dark, and the only thing visible was the faint light of dawn filtering through the gap in the curtains. Dream and reality. His ambiguously blurred senses slowly regained a sense of reality.
“……!”
It was as if cold water had been splashed on him. The sticky lingering sleepiness vanished the moment he realized where he was. His vision was still dark, but it was enough to see his surroundings without trouble.
The problem was that he was currently tucked tightly into someone’s embrace.
Woo-yeon very carefully detached the arm wrapped around his waist. He didn’t need to check to know who the owner of this arm was or where he was lying. The only thing that mattered was the fact that he, while drunk, had made another mistake with Do-hyun.
‘I’m crazy…’
Finally having cleared the arm away, Woo-yeon pushed his upper body up. He planned to leave quietly, without making a scene, as if nothing had happened.
However, before he could fully rise, an irresistible grip pulled Woo-yeon back into the embrace.
“…….”
Thud, his center of gravity collapsed back onto the bed. The arm he had cleared away wrapped around his waist again, and Woo-yeon ended up lying with another arm as a pillow. The body heat that swept over him from behind embraced Woo-yeon along with the pheromones.
“Yeon-ah.”
Woo-yeon forgot to breathe and his entire body froze stiff. It was because the voice winding around his ear was excessively stimulating. The arm that crept around his waist entwined deeper and deeper, as if refusing to let Woo-yeon go.
“Where do you think you’re going?”