RCKS 16

Shin Suhyun, who had been unable to erase his red face and sulky expression throughout, extended two headbands to the still dazed Lee Yoonsan and recommended them. One was a deer headband with brown ears and horns that were a darker color rising up, and the other was a headband with black bunny ears perked up straight.

Seeing the name tag that said ‘Halloween MD’ on it, it seemed like they were headbands being sold only for this season in preparation for the upcoming Halloween.

Lee Yoonsan picked the black bunny headband among them and placed it on his own head. It was also a choice that reacted unconsciously to the word ‘black bunny,’ but it was an intention to at least lift the mood of Shin Suhyun, who still had a slightly sulky expression.

Shin Suhyun, who paid a lot of attention to clothes, subtly felt proud when his friends purchased or wore the ones he chose for them.

As expected, Shin Suhyun seemed to have undergone some mood change just from seeing Lee Yoonsan who had truly become a ‘black bunny,’ so he picked a desert fox headband for himself, put it on, and started looking around at the other souvenirs. Watching that, the homeroom teacher also quietly put on a panda headband.

And starting from him as the cue, the children’s atmosphere began to loosen up little by little. They chattered to each other saying things like you look good in it, you don’t look good in it, and then they left the store wearing the headbands that the homeroom teacher had bought for them with his own money.

Originally, it was not necessary to buy such things with his own money, but this expenditure was purely at the discretion of the homeroom teacher who wanted to lift the children’s moods and start things off on a good note.

“Hey, crazy, it’s Halloween season, so it’s a zombie festival or something.”

The children, true to their age, seemed to have quickly brushed off their thoughts about the alpha group, as they started checking the mobile map and schedule, planning their route, and confirming events. Lee Yoonsan also joined in the conversation with the homeroom teacher and the children, while trying hard to suppress the one face that kept popping up in his mind.

No matter how curious he was right now, it would be useless, and besides, he could not clearly distinguish whether the familiarity came from it being a known face or from it resembling a face he knew.

“Let’s go to Lost Valley first. We’ll see the animals and then go ride the rides.”

“Yes.”

The homeroom teacher seemed relieved that the children’s expressions had relaxed. As they moved while looking at the map, the children followed behind together. Lee Yoonsan moved with them, and feeling the unfamiliar sensation of the headband basking in the sunlight on his head, he lifted his head, and there, in the distance, his eyes met with the alpha group. This time too, it was those three alpha students from Samyeong High. To be precise, it was his eyes meeting with one alpha male student among them.

The alpha male student was not the alpha with that familiar face he had seen earlier. It was not the female alpha student who had gestured for him to smile either, and it was a face he was seeing for the first time.

But the male alpha student stared intently at Lee Yoonsan and then pointed to his ears. Seeing him briefly point to Lee Yoonsan’s perky and upright black bunny ears and laugh, it was confusing whether he was teasing or saying it was cute.

His handsome face scrunched up like a mischievous kid laughing so hard that his eyes disappeared, and the gestures of tapping the surrounding alphas and pointing were light yet excited. It seemed that getting swept up in the unique atmosphere of the amusement park was not something only the middle schoolers were doing.

At that moment, another alpha standing behind the male student put him in a headlock. The male student’s waist bent as his head bowed down, and the alpha who had applied the headlock met eyes with Lee Yoonsan. And then he grinned widely and nodded his head once. It was only then that Lee Yoonsan gained certainty in the vague thoughts he had been having.

“Haekyung…”

It was Hwang Haekyung, wearing the Samyeong High uniform. There was distance between them, but he could be certain. The boy who had been famous for being pretty since he was young, to the point of doing kid model activities, had grown up to become an extremely handsome young man. And among the clustered Samyeong High alphas, he stood out by far.

*

“Hey, where are you looking.”

“Huh? Oh, no.”

He could not collect his thoughts at all. Among the Samyeong High alphas he had seen earlier, Hwang Haekyung was there. Not only that, but it seemed their routes overlapped quite a bit while wandering around the amusement park, so their eyes kept meeting.

Lee Yoonsan toured Lost Valley with the homeroom teacher and three friends, and looked around Safari Kingdom. And at a considerable distance behind them, the Samyeong High alpha group was also moving.

The alphas likewise needed meticulous management from a teacher just like anyone else, so they seemed to be moving as an entire class in a group. Seeing that sight was fascinating and amusing, as if watching a sports team or a military platoon. On the other hand, it was also a bit comforting. In the sense that not only omegas were under the homeroom teacher’s control.

Anyway, the Samyeong High alphas kept moving in a group, and it seemed their route overlapped quite a bit with Lee Yoonsan’s group. Whenever he glanced at them out of concern, without fail, his eyes met with Hwang Haekyung.

When their eyes met, it was usually Lee Yoonsan who got startled first and turned his head away. Was he staring the whole time? How come every time he tried to sneak a peek, their eyes met? Lee Yoonsan had such thoughts while trying to calm his rapidly beating heart.

He also put a lot of strength into his lips to avoid getting overly excited and saying something strange. It was because he did not want to get caught by the homeroom teacher and hear a scolding, or have their route changed due to being conscious of the Samyeong High alpha group.

“Their path is overlapping with ours. Right?”

“Huh? Yeah.”

“Ah, I really want to stare so bad, but I’m worried about what they’ll say if we get caught.”

Shin Suhyun, who approached Lee Yoonsan and spoke as if he could not hold it in anymore, seemed to be in a similar situation. The homeroom teacher did not seem to be paying attention yet to the fact that their route was overlapping with a specific group. Or perhaps he had not noticed. It was also because the distance to the Samyeong High alphas was quite far, and the omegas in the same class, including Lee Yoonsan and Shin Suhyun, were not staring at them openly.

In fact, if the Samyeong High alphas had not been such standout existences, it would have ended with just thinking they were students from another school on a field trip, given the distance and situation.

Anyway, Lee Yoonsan scratched his neck, feeling unnecessarily embarrassed. It felt like Hwang Haekyung among the Samyeong group a little ways behind kept looking this way. And in reality, every time Lee Yoonsan glanced, their eyes met without fail.

When their eyes met, Hwang Haekyung would smile, or gesture toward the homeroom teacher with his eyes. Or he would just stare quietly, or make a playfully furrowed expression by wrinkling one eyebrow for no reason. He gestured toward the homeroom teacher mostly when Lee Yoonsan was lost in staring at Hwang Haekyung and was on the verge of getting caught by the homeroom teacher.

The two walked with some distance between them. They would occasionally glance, their eyes would meet, and then they would walk while checking on each other again.

Shin Suhyun and the other omega friends were busy chattering about various things while being conscious of that alpha group. Things like it seems like our eyes keep meeting, it seems like they’re looking at us, since they’re alphas, even though they’re high schoolers they look like college students. Occasionally, complaints about how their builds were different and it was annoying came up too, but in the end, the conversations endlessly revolved around the alphas as the topic.

Then suddenly, when he glanced again, Hwang Haekyung was holding up his cell phone and shaking it. He could see the fruit-shaped cell phone logo. Lee Yoonsan, feeling glad, subtly took out his own cell phone, pretended to take pictures of the surroundings, and showed his cell phone logo. So that he could tell it was the same brand. And before long, a photo arrived on Lee Yoonsan’s cell phone. It was an image of one ride.

“Shin Suhyun, do you know what this is?”

Lee Yoonsan showed the ride in the image that had come via airdrop to Shin Suhyun and asked.

“This is the Hurricane. Are we going to ride this?”

At Shin Suhyun’s words, Lee Yoonsan looked not at Shin Suhyun but toward Hwang Haekyung. Hwang Haekyung was listening to some story from his surrounding friends, but it seemed like it was Hwang Haekyung who had sent the ride image. His friends who had received the same photo seemed to be asking what this was.

Lee Yoonsan, feeling a strange tingling at the back of his neck, blushed at his ears and tapped the homeroom teacher’s back.

“Teacher.”

“Yeah, what’s up, Yoonsan?”

“Let’s go ride the rides now. I want to try the Hurricane.”

Fortunately, the pounding heartbeat inside would not be heard outside, and the slightly reddened face had the excited atmosphere of the amusement park providing an alibi.

“Two more people up to here will board~!”

While standing in line in front of the Hurricane waiting for their turn, the line got cut right in front of Lee Yoonsan’s group. The homeroom teacher felt a bit disappointed at that, and Lee Yoonsan glanced back to look far behind. With about 7 or 8 people in between, the Samyeong High alphas were lining up behind.

“Ah, you crazy bastard, cutting in line and making a fuss.”

“I’ll buy you churros.”

“Okay.”

Behind the people who were looking down at their cell phones or whispering among themselves while looking around, the voices of the Samyeong High alphas chattering could be heard. The alphas, each a head taller than others, drew attention wherever they went.

Lee Yoonsan listened to the chattering voices from behind while quietly counting the number of people in line. The Hurricane’s boarding capacity was 40 people, and from a quick glance, Hwang Haekyung was standing toward the front of the Samyeong group.

Now that the next turn would start with Lee Yoonsan’s group entering, it was confirmed that they would board the ride together. Just that fact alone made his heart feel like it was beating fast. The moment he was closest to Hwang Haekyung since coming to this amusement park was approaching.

“Hey, alphas really all have insane physiques, I guess. Over there, those noonas all look over 180 or something.”

“My mom is 180 too.”

“So jealous. I want to hit 180 too.”

That way the clothes would look even better on me. Shin Suhyun glanced at the alpha group and then, when his eyes met the homeroom teacher’s, said such things as if wanting to be heard, and continued the conversation with Lee Yoonsan. The homeroom teacher gave Shin Suhyun a suspicious look once and then started talking with the other children.

Not all omegas had small heights and builds. It was just that during the manifestation period, the organs that had been dormant were restored, and as a side effect, skeletal growth slowed down. But in the end, it was a matter of individual differences.

Omegas were not absolutely fragile, small, or short in build; it was a concept where growth was less depending on the individual. Among omegas too, there were certainly quite a few with sturdy builds or tall heights.

“Next group, please board~!”

While chattering a few words like that, the turn for the ride came around. Lee Yoonsan followed the homeroom teacher to one side of the ride and sat down, and then people came in after and started sitting in the seats they liked. Even though it was a weekday, it was not completely empty, so the seats filled up quickly.

“Those kids must be on a field trip too!”

And finally, at the moment when the Hwang Haekyung group was about to board following the people, Lee Yoonsan’s homeroom teacher awkwardly pretended to be happily surprised as if on purpose so they could hear. Then the Samyeong High teacher, who had been smacking the back of another alpha who was leading and disciplining them, lifted his head and floundered.

“Oh dear, you’re right! Let’s go over there, you guys!”

It was an awkward conversation, but the context was the same. Since the kids who clearly looked like omegas were clustered on the right seats, it was a request and acceptance to cleverly guide the kids who looked like alphas to sit on the opposite side.

The other people seemed to roughly catch the atmosphere too, as they glanced alternately at the groups of children and smiled as if it was cute. As if understanding the efforts of the teachers separating the students with secondary genders.

Hwang Haekyung took a seat exactly opposite to Lee Yoonsan. In the ride that was split into left and right in a semicircle shape, it was a position directly facing each other.

Although there was some distance between the two. Still, thanks to Lee Yoonsan being pushed by the homeroom teacher to sit in a corner seat, they could avoid blocking each other with the central pillar. Lee Yoonsan glanced again at Hwang Haekyung, who was staring intently at him from the opposite side while sitting there.

For some reason, he could not sneak peeks at Hwang Haekyung like Hwang Haekyung did to him. Of course, the main reason was that the homeroom teacher was sitting right next to him.

‘Huh?’

And to such a Lee Yoonsan, Hwang Haekyung gestured with his hand tapping above his own head. This time, it was not just staring but a gesture pointing at something with his hand and eyes. Lee Yoonsan unconsciously leaned his head forward with a puzzled expression to figure out Hwang Haekyung’s brief gesture, and at that, Hwang Haekyung grinned at him.

“Yoonsan, it might be better to take off the headband. You might lose it.”

The answer to Hwang Haekyung’s gesture came from the side. It seemed the homeroom teacher had seen Hwang Haekyung’s gesture, as he removed Lee Yoonsan’s black bunny headband and said that.

It might be because he thought time was tight until the ride started, so he hurried, but Lee Yoonsan somehow felt that the homeroom teacher was uncomfortable with the alpha and himself exchanging eye contact.

“You guys take off your headbands and ride too; this thing spins really hard, so it might fly off.”

The homeroom teacher said while holding Lee Yoonsan’s headband, who was looking at him, in his hand. And he reached out to the other children too, collected their headbands, and held them all in his hands. As soon as he signaled to the staff with his eyes, one staff member approached, neatly took the headbands, and guided them saying to pick them up when getting off.

Lee Yoonsan checked on Hwang Haekyung right before the ride started moving. This time, Hwang Haekyung was listening to his friend’s story, not Lee Yoonsan. He was furrowing his brows while listening to his friend who was excitedly chattering away, as if he did not agree with what the friend was saying or was displeased with it. And that expression was no different from the ones he had often shown to Lee Yoonsan when they were young, so a smile escaped him.

His height had grown so much that he was unrecognizable, his build had improved, and now he had the clear air of someone older than Lee Yoonsan as a high schooler, but that expression alone was exactly the same as the one he had seen at the campsite when they were young. He really was Hwang Haekyung, he thought. And fortunately, there was not a single scar on his face.

Lee Yoonsan was so absorbed in looking at Hwang Haekyung that he did not notice the homeroom teacher’s gaze on him. Lee Yoonsan’s homeroom teacher turned away the gaze he had directed at Lee Yoonsan, who was facing forward with a beaming smile. There, a group that was clearly alphas was sitting and chattering, and that fact made the homeroom teacher a little anxious.

Immature alphas were subjects of management just as much as, or perhaps even more than, immature omegas. Moreover, the alpha group in front of him had a large number of people. From what he could see, it seemed like an entire class was made up of alphas. The beta homeroom teacher could not immediately detect if those alphas left their pheromones on his class’s children or if any wafted over. That was the element that made the homeroom teacher anxious.

So he hoped and hoped again that the teacher of that alpha group would strictly control his class’s children.

“Hey, this is freaking fun!”

“Ah, I got goosebumps.”

If there was one thing Lee Yoonsan felt while riding the Hurricane, it was the fact that riding the ride made his lower abdomen churn, accompanied by a urge to urinate and goosebumps rising. It was not his first time at an amusement park, but it was his first time riding such a fast ride.