ETP Ch 22

Hwang Yoohyun had been sending messages like clockwork, twice a day, morning and evening, all weekend, as if he were possessed by an alarm clock.

The problem was that the content of those messages was only one word: “Medicine.”

It was the kind of message that could easily be misunderstood if seen by someone else. Still, Seongyeon wasn’t bothered. Thanks to those messages, he hadn’t forgotten to take his medicine, even with his busy schedule.

It’s not like the guy’s a bad person.

He’s annoying, blunt, rude, and reckless, but he’s fundamentally good-natured.

Hwang Yoohyun had sent a message this morning, too.

Using that as his alarm, Seongyeon swallowed half a suppressant. Then he hurriedly left the house.

He had a packed schedule of lectures from Monday morning. Kim Bokseung’s diligence was undeniable.

He arrived at the lecture hall on time, took a seat by the window, and carefully examined the day’s cafeteria menu.

“Bokseung!!!”

“Bokseung-ah!!”

“Bokseung! Bokseung!”

Before he knew it, he was surrounded by the three human beagles.

Seongyeon relaxed his tensed shoulders and raised his head. It was a major class, so there was nowhere to run from the beagle trio.

Judging by their unusually bright eyes, they seemed to have a lot to say. The problem was that Seongyeon had no idea what they were going to ask.

He hadn’t had any other contact with them over the weekend, so what was going on Monday morning?

Seongyeon tilted his head, breaking out in a cold sweat.

“Hi, you’re all early today, huh?”

They were indeed early, considering they usually arrived three minutes before the start of class. They must have had a reason. What was it?

“Bokseung!”

“Hmm?”

Choi Jihoon was the first to ask.

“Since when did you become so close with Sunbae Hwang Yoohyun?”

“Huh? Sunbae Hwang Yoohyun?”

“Yeah! I was so surprised!”

Jihoon’s eyes widened behind his glasses. Seongyeon tilted his head again, not understanding why being close to Hwang Yoohyun was surprising.

The next one was Hyunah.

“Yeah! How did you two get close?”

“Uh, we were in the same group project…?”

He dutifully answered her question.

Seongyeon didn’t think he was particularly close to Yoohyun, but the beagle trio seemed to think otherwise.

Well, since they had promised to see the festival together, it could appear that they were quite close in other people’s eyes. Seongyeon straightened his tilted head.

And the final question came from Minjun’s mouth.

“Ah! Are you in the same group again? You were in the same group in the first semester too. You weren’t this close back then, right?”

“Yeah! Right, back then, it felt like we barely exchanged greetings with Sunbae Hwang Yoohyun.”

“Hey, since you met twice in group projects, you must have become close! Right, Bokseung?”

Wait a minute.

Seongyeon, who had been listening to the beagles’ chatter with a blank smile, heard something that bothered him.

First semester, too? Twice in the same group project?

What’s going on? He already knew Hwang Yoohyun?

“I… I was in the same group project with Sunbae Hwang Yoohyun in the first semester too…?”

“Yeah! You were in the same group all semester, and you were the one who told us the handsome sunbae’s name!”

Gasp.

Hyunah’s words made his heart sink.

Asking him about attendance in the lecture hall wasn’t their first meeting?

Wait a minute. Then why didn’t Hwang Yoohyun say they knew each other back then?

Seongyeon’s mind became a jumbled mess. The friends, seeing Bokseung’s bewildered expression, exchanged glances.

‘What, what is it? What’s with Bokseung’s reaction?’

‘I don’t know? Why is he so flustered?’

‘Is he not close with Sunbae Hwang Yoohyun? Did they fight?’

The friends, watching Bokseung carefully, slipped away as the professor arrived.

Left alone in the quiet space, Seongyeon felt a storm raging inside him.

He’d been relatively comfortable with Yoohyun, thinking he was a sunbae he’d met for the first time. He’d treated him like a complete stranger in the lecture hall. And on top of that, he’d made a fool of himself in various ways.

Embarrassing memories flooded back, turning Bokseung’s white face red.

What he couldn’t understand the most was why Hwang Yoohyun had put up with all of it. Either way, Seongyeon wanted to crawl into a hole right now.

Avoiding the professor’s gaze, Seongyeon opened his messaging app. Scrolling through various chat rooms, he clicked on the first semester group project chat, which hadn’t been updated since their last conversation three months ago.

Amidst the “good work” messages, he found a clear message:

[hyh left the chat.]

“Crazy.”

It was clearly Hwang Yoohyun’s initials. Since they didn’t have each other’s phone numbers and only communicated through the group chat, it was understandable that Seongyeon had mistakenly assumed they were strangers.

Of course, that didn’t apply to Hwang Yoohyun.

It’s not like he had a traffic accident and his soul swapped, right?

It was infuriating. Seongyeon clenched his fists and fumed. How could he ignore the cute and lovely Bokseung! How could anyone do that!

The more he thought about Hwang Yoohyun’s rudeness, the angrier he became.

If Hwang Yoohyun had acknowledged him at their first meeting, he wouldn’t have created such a dark history.

Seongyeon’s simmering anger finally subsided after lunch, thanks to the beagle trio’s antics to cheer him up.

“See you tomorrow, Bokseung!”

“Yeah, bye, Hyunah.”

“Say bye to me too, Bokseung!”

“Yeah, bye, Minjun!”

Standing at the main gate, the four said their goodbyes and parted ways. Only three of them were filled with regret. Naturally, the one without regret was Lee Seongyeon, or rather, Kim Bokseung.

Seongyeon hurried home.

He thought it would be good to relax without thinking too much today.

🍑‧₊ ⋆˙

Yoohyun stared at his still-silent phone.

He hadn’t received a reply to his last three text messages. The guy, who had at least briefly sent thank-you notes until the weekend, had gone completely silent since yesterday afternoon.

No matter how much he stared at the phone on the table, the dark screen didn’t magically light up.

“Meow.”

Yuja, seemingly bored with his motionless owner, lightly scratched Yoohyun’s pants and grumbled.

“Yuja, do you want to play with your older brother?”

Yoohyun played with Yuja, but his attention remained fixed on his phone.

Yuja, the kitten who couldn’t yet keep up with Yoohyun’s energy, soon collapsed on the floor, exhausted.

After confirming that Yuja was purring and asleep, Yoohyun grabbed his phone and left the house.

The last time he checked was 11:30 PM.

He wasn’t upset that Bokseung was ignoring him. They had to see each other in class tomorrow morning anyway, whether they liked it or not.

However, he was worried that something might have happened that prevented Bokseung from contacting him. What if another alpha, or yet another alpha, or some evil alpha had caught a whiff of the boy’s pheromones and harmed him?

Yoohyun’s mind was already seething with hostility towards non-existent alphas.

Arriving at the PC bang a few minutes before midnight, Yoohyun stood at the entrance, waiting for Bokseung. Soon, he saw Bokseung coming up the stairs, his fluffy brown hair fluttering.

“Kim Bokseung.”

Yoohyun called the boy’s name without hesitation.

The white face that turned towards him immediately showed an emotion: bewilderment.

It was the face of someone who hadn’t expected to see him here at all.

“Oh, Sunbae?”

“Yeah.”

Hearing Yoohyun’s curt reply, Seongyeon inwardly screamed, “Oh no!!”

He had been slightly sulky that Yoohyun had pretended not to know him. That’s why he hadn’t decided how to interact with him from now on.

If Yoohyun already knew him, he should have acted like he didn’t, just like he did with the beagle trio. The problem was that Seongyeon hadn’t shown any such behavior during his few encounters with Yoohyun.

He was still struggling to figure out how to approach him.

That’s why he hadn’t been replying to Hwang Yoohyun’s messages, but he never expected to see him in person like this!

“What brings you here?”

He couldn’t ignore the person in front of him, so Seongyeon stood before Hwang Yoohyun and asked.

“Just because.”

Yoohyun condensed the long explanation of his worry about Bokseung and his slight annoyance at the lack of replies into two words.

Naturally, Seongyeon couldn’t possibly understand the lengthy reasoning behind it.

“Ah, I see. Well, then, take care.”

Not even imagining that he himself was the reason, Seongyeon bowed his head to Hwang Yoohyun and turned to leave.

“Kim Bokseung.”

He stopped at the sound of Hwang Yoohyun calling his name again.

“You’re my business.”

“Huh? Me?”

Bokseung pointed at himself.

Yoohyun frowned at Bokseung’s attitude.

What other business could he have here besides this boy? Was he really acting like this without knowing, or was he doing it on purpose? Either way, he was a strange one.