ETP Ch 71

Sungyeon’s mind went blank at Yoohyun’s bombshell announcement. Wait, what did he just say?

Date?

Date?

[Date: To meet and like each other, drawn by sexual attraction.]

Me and Hwang Yoohyun, dating? He’s asking me to do something like that?

“Why aren’t you answering?”

As Sungyeon just stood there with his mouth agape and a bewildered look on his face, Yoohyun spoke to him again.

His attitude was as casual as if he were asking, ‘What do you want for a late-night snack?’ Naturally, Sungyeon was even more flustered by his reaction.

“Um, I think I must have misheard you just now…….”

“Misheard what?”

“What you said, Sunbae-nim.”

Sungyeon couldn’t bring himself to say the word ‘date’ out loud, so he vaguely referred to it as ‘what you said.’

“I don’t know what you mean by that.”

Yoohyun glanced to the side. Bokseung, with his face flushed red and his fingers fidgeting…….

He was really cute.

He raised one corner of his mouth and let out a chuckle.

He had been furious to the point of exploding when he saw him on the blind date, but seeing him react as if he’d never heard the word ‘date’ in his life, his anger inevitably melted away.

“What, what do you mean you don’t know!”

Sungyeon, noticing from the corner of his eye that Yoohyun’s expression had softened, shouted abruptly.

Of course! This must be Hwang Yoohyun’s way of teasing him. Otherwise, there was no way he could maintain such a straight face.

Sungyeon, finally feeling a bit more at ease, opened his mouth.

“Ah, really. Sunbae-nim, your jokes are going too far. It’s true I was on a blind date today, but I went without knowing what it was. Jihye asked me to grab a meal, and when I got there, Jihye’s friend was there too!”

He explained the whole story of the day without a single pause.

For some reason, Sungyeon didn’t want Yoohyun to misunderstand him. He had no desire to color his college life with romance, nor did he covet a younger friend, not in his wildest dreams.

However, despite revealing everything, Yoohyun’s reaction was rather lukewarm.

“So?”

“Huh?”

So? Sungyeon tilted his head.

Why would he respond like that? Sungyeon furrowed his brow at the completely unexpected reaction.

“You still haven’t answered my question.”

“Uh…….”

Yoohyun collected his thoughts as he watched Bokseung earnestly explain what had happened just a moment ago.

Fortunately, it seemed Bokseung didn’t want to date just yet. But it was too early to be relieved by that alone. There were many opportunities around Bokseung for him to date if he ever wanted to.

It might have been different when he didn’t know his feelings for Bokseung, but now that he was fully aware of them, he couldn’t just stand by and watch.

If Bokseung ever felt like dating someone or wanted to be in a relationship, it had to be with Hwang Yoohyun, with him.

“Date me.”

For that, Yoohyun could ask Bokseung to date him 100 times, 1,000 times.

“Ugh!”

However, it was a bit damaging to his pride that Bokseung’s reaction upon hearing his words was like that.

His thick eyebrows twitched with displeasure.

“Su-Sunbae-nim! Seriously, stop teasing me!”

“Teasing? Me?”

“Th-then what are you doing right now! You’re making fun of me for going on a blind date! I’m telling you, I really didn’t know it was a blind date!”

Yoohyun’s irritation flared as the word ‘blind date’ kept pouring out of Bokseung’s mouth. He took a moment to catch his breath. Getting annoyed here wouldn’t do him any good.

“I’m serious. I’m not teasing you.”

Each and every syllable flowed from Yoohyun’s mouth with precise pronunciation. As he continued to speak, Bokseung’s expression became colored with shock.

“N-no way……!”

Sungyeon quickly unbuckled his seatbelt to open the door and get out. But a step faster than him, Yoohyun snatched his wrist.

“Don’t run away.”

As if to say he wouldn’t let go, his hand squeezed the wrist tightly. The grip was so strong that his arm couldn’t move an inch. However, in contrast to that, his expression remained impassive. The discrepancy confused Sungyeon even more.

And his pheromones, wafting around them, were also enough to confuse Sungyeon.

Such emotionally blatant pheromones.

Sungyeon couldn’t do anything about the heat that was rising on its own.

“Su-Sunbae-nim. Uh, so, since when…….”

“What.”

“Have you felt this way about me.”

How could he have been so completely oblivious until now? Sungyeon fanned his flushed face with his free hand and turned his head away from Yoohyun.

Turning his head didn’t stop him from sensing the pheromones, but he just couldn’t bring himself to look Yoohyun properly in the face.

The pheromones he was emitting now were not the gentle scent that usually made Sungyeon feel stable. It was a more concentrated, instinct-driven, rich pheromone.

That’s not to say the pheromone was forcefully overpowering or making Sungyeon uncomfortable. It was just embarrassing.

To think he’d react like this at his age.

Instead of opening the door to get out, Sungyeon rolled down the window to let in the cool breeze. He calmed down a little only after the wind blew, tickling his hair.

Sungyeon felt like his wrist, held by Yoohyun, was burning up, so he gave it a slight shake. It was a signal to let go.

But Yoohyun, instead of loosening his grip, began to tickle the inside of his wrist with his fingers.

“……!!!”

L-look at this bastard! Where did he learn to flirt like this!!

Sungyeon turned his head back from the window towards Yoohyun and pouted.

“Th-this, please.”

“This?”

Yoohyun asked again, pretending not to understand even though he clearly did. Sungyeon ground his teeth at the annoying sight.

“Your hand! The one gripping my wrist! Pl-please stop! Hey! Stop tickling me!”

At the end, informal speech slipped out without him realizing it.

One strange thing was that he didn’t get goosebumps on the wrist that Yoohyun’s hand was touching.

Sungyeon recalled getting goosebumps from Sunjung’s fingertip when they accidentally touched during dinner just a while ago. It was quite puzzling that he was still fine with Yoohyun’s touch, even though Yoohyun had just expressed feelings with sexual implications. Even though he could no longer treat him like Taeon.

Anyway, that was that, and ticklish was ticklish.

Sungyeon squirmed more to pull his wrist away.

“Oh really, now.”

“N-no, that’s not it, it’s just so tickl—!”

“Enough. Answer me first.”

Yoohyun tapped Bokseung’s cheek. It was glowing pink like a ripe peach. Feeling his own mouth water at the delicious sight, Yoohyun pressed Bokseung for an answer.

Bokseung’s eyebrows drooped into the shape of a number eight, as if he were about to cry. Still, he managed to string together words that could be considered an answer.

“Sunbae-nim, I’m a man.”

Yoohyun held back a burst of incredulous laughter and retorted.

“A man, but an omega. I’m a man, but an alpha. Even a kindergartener knows that alphas and omegas often get together following their pheromones, in addition to their outward gender.”

“Ah, that’s true. Still, for me, men are a bit…….”

Bokseung murmured softly while agreeing with Yoohyun’s words.

Yoohyun clicked his tongue internally. No wonder his blind date was with a beta female.

Yoohyun seriously considered Bokseung’s preferences. Does he actually prefer betas? Or does he just prefer women?

“Then what about an alpha female?”

“That’s good.”

At the answer that came without a second’s hesitation, Yoohyun unknowingly tightened his grip on Bokseung’s wrist.

“Ow! That hurts!”

“Sorry.”

Bokseung’s face scrunched up from the sudden pain. Realizing his mistake, Yoohyun loosened his grip, but it seemed the kid was already upset. As soon as Yoohyun hesitantly let go of his wrist, he immediately brought his hand to his chest and glared fiercely, didn’t he.

Feeling a pang of guilt, Yoohyun apologized again.

“Sorry.”

“Oh, okay.”

Losing the will to argue with Yoohyun who was apologizing for the second time, Sungyeon just nodded his head. It was strange seeing Yoohyun being so wary of him, and anyway, the reddened wrist wasn’t the biggest problem right now.

“Anyway… so you don’t like men, even if they’re alphas?”

“W-well, for now.”

“Fine. I respect that.”

However, preferences are something that can change at any time.

Yoohyun swallowed the rest of his thought. It seemed pointless to say such a thing here. All he had to do from now on was to try to become Bokseung’s one and only preference.

However.

“And Sunbae-nim, you’re too young.”

The second reason for rejection came out of Bokseung’s mouth.

“What?”

“Sunbae-nim, you’re only 23 years old.”

Bokseung waved his index finger with an endlessly serious expression. It had a ‘no no, not happening, turn back’ kind of vibe.

Hwang Yoohyun, having been told he was ‘only 23’ by Kim Bokseung, who was three years younger than him, just blinked, at a complete loss for what to say.

“What did you say?”

“I said you’re young, Sunbae-nim.”

Sungyeon explained to the dumbfounded Yoohyun.

“People as young as you, Sunbae-nim, are not my type. My ideal type is a mature adult who is emotionally composed, financially stable, and has an excellent character.”

That’s why he’d worked and saved money like crazy when he was Lee Sungyeon, to become that kind of person. Now it was all for nothing, and he’d just ended up doing all the work for someone else’s benefit.

In any case, Sungyeon was someone who had never properly had a real relationship because he was trying to become his own acknowledged ideal type. In a way, you could say he was someone full of dreams of becoming a prince on a white horse, who hadn’t yet woken up to reality.

Lost in his own train of thought, Sungyeon failed to notice Hwang Yoohyun’s expression growing progressively harder.