RCKS 22

Now a second-year high school student, Hwang Haekyung was still the team’s ace, and as befitting a high school alpha with many fans, his ticket power was tremendous. In fact, the team Semyeong High alone already guaranteed ticket power and popularity. It was such a famous volleyball powerhouse, and especially this year’s volleyball team had Lee Seokjae, who was good at utilizing SNS. Thanks to Lee Seokjae, quite enthusiastic players emerged even among the volleyball team’s underclassmen on SNS, which also caused the individual popularity of the players to soar even higher.

So it was probably already too late to obtain tickets for the October national sports festival game. But the bitterness Lee Yoonsan felt was not due to such a problem. It was only the ‘pheromone’ that Shin Suhyeon had pointed out that was the issue. Lee Yoonsan knew that Hwang Haekyung’s hormone levels were tremendously high, and thanks to that, his sensitivity to pheromones was high.

It was also a fact he had vaguely learned while exchanging DMs with Hwang Haekyung over that time, and a fact he had secretly overheard when his parents talked on the phone with Hwang Haekyung’s parents. Given that Hwang Haekyung was like that, if he went to secretly watch a game, something big could happen.

Lee Yoonsan, who had become a high school student, was now quite good at pheromone control, but he had no confidence that he would not be shaken upon actually seeing Hwang Haekyung. Even though he did not particularly think of his feelings toward Hwang Haekyung as some great unrequited love, he had such a premonition.

Even in the bushes of that amusement park where he had met Hwang Haekyung, Lee Yoonsan had not avoided Hwang Haekyung’s gaze several times because his heart was pounding uncontrollably.

It was a time when he could not control pheromones at all, so he was taking medicine with strong suppressant components, so the pheromones did not leak out, but these days, when the medicine’s components were weakening and he was adapting to pheromone control done by himself, he could not guarantee his own state.

“I can’t disturb him….”

“You really listen to adults way too fucking much anyway.”

If it were me, I’d just go secretly watch. Kim Jihu said that to Lee Yoonsan, who was deflating, and then finished the remaining rice. Shin Suhyeon and Lee Yoonsan had already finished eating long ago, so the three of them soon stood up from their seats.

Lee Yoonsan was realizing more and more as time passed the reason behind what his parents had said: ‘You must not get close to Hwang Haekyung.’

Young alpha athletes who exercised were heavily consumed in a way similar to idols. Especially in the case of high school alphas, since it was unknown when they would quit the sport they were involved in after the manifestation period ended, such consumption happened even more fervently.

In that environment, Hwang Haekyung had become even more famous than last year, and his skills as a player had also improved tremendously compared to last year. Hwang Haekyung, who had not been well exposed during middle school because his SNS was not known, started filling his account feed little by little after last fall, and due to others’ actions, photos from his child model days were uploaded to public communities and concept accounts. Unintentionally accelerating his fame with titles like ‘Current status of a famous child model from the past.’

People liked Hwang Haekyung’s SNS feed even without a single selfie of him. Photos of Hwang Haekyung could often be gleaned from the accounts of same-school friends or volleyball club players, and there was plenty to consume just from the videos and images obtained from broadcast relays every time there was a game.

The fact that most of the photos uploaded to his SNS feed were meal plans or training ground photos also left a good impression on fans and the public. It became an image of diligence, being indifferent to SNS with a handsome face while maintaining performance and focusing on improving skills.

The profile picture that remained unchanged even after the year changed, and the sparse feed without any long explanations or even the common tags, received mostly favorable reviews, and even the black bunny ears that existed in the profile picture and always occupied one side in meal photos received the majority opinion of ‘cute for his age.’ No one knew that those bunny ears were the ones Lee Yoonsan had given him. And that Hwang Haekyung came diligently to the DM window even though his public feed was sporadic.

In fact, Hwang Haekyung was not the type to talk a lot even in DMs. From the beginning, he did not seem very friendly with SNS like personal accounts. It was as if he kept it alive just to talk with Lee Yoonsan, so the feed uploaded slowly, and on days when the feed was uploaded, he sent DMs a bit more often. As if prioritizing DMs when he had time.

Above all, Hwang Haekyung himself had said that he did not exchange DMs with anyone else. So he said that opening the SNS app might not be familiar in his hands.

He had turned off notifications long ago due to all sorts of follows, likes, and comment bombs, and from the beginning, the people he talked with were all within his real-life radius, so there was no separate person to have trivial conversations with while holding his phone. He added that friends were seen every day at school or training anyway, and the group chat on Cocoa Talk was just for checking announcements.

On the night when Lee Yoonsan saw those words from Hwang Haekyung in the DM, he had not been able to fall asleep properly. As if Hwang Haekyung was saying he kept coming to the bothersome personal account because of him. Or as if to him, Lee Yoonsan was a relationship different from others.

So because he spent a long time calming his heart to avoid misunderstanding, it was already close to morning.

Realistically, compared to the nearly one year since last year that Lee Yoonsan and Hwang Haekyung had spent exchanging DMs, they had not exchanged many conversations.

It was mainly because Hwang Haekyung was busy. Hwang Haekyung, whose day was packed tight with school classes, training, and training schedules, had more days where he did not send DMs at all. Lee Yoonsan often felt hurt by that, but even so, he tried to understand because Hwang Haekyung’s situation was what it was. He knew that his own situation, which was gradually loosening after becoming a high school student, was very different from that of an alpha.

In fact, since they were not even in a dating relationship, a large reason he judged it ridiculous for himself to feel hurt was that. And then, when a DM came at a timing that seemed like Hwang Haekyung finally had time or had somehow made time, there were cases where Lee Yoonsan missed it. Because when Hwang Haekyung sent the DM late, Lee Yoonsan had already fallen asleep.

After missing each other like that several times, on days when they conversed via DM, the two just talked about small things. Because they always ended up having a conversation after a long time, the icebreaker for the conversation was always recent updates with a bit of awkwardness. Starting from topics like school, volleyball club, friends, etc., when the sentences Lee Yoonsan typed became a little longer, they would move to other topics.

They would share playlists, talk about recently watched sports games, recommend subscribed channels, or bring up topics that were buzzing around at the time. It seemed like Hwang Haekyung had figured out that when Lee Yoonsan got over the awkwardness, the sentences he typed became a bit longer.

In that way, time accumulated, and a year had passed. In that time, they had not even exchanged numbers or had phone calls. Whether it was because it did not feel like that level of relationship, or due to caution about whether it was okay to do so, he did not know.

“I want to cheer for him.”

Of course, he had sent cheering messages for the games during that time too. DMs saying to do well in the game safely. And he also pressed ‘like’ on every photo that Hwang Haekyung uploaded. The worry that it might become obvious to those around him if he did that was only on the first day. Soon, as Hwang Haekyung’s account became known here and there and everyone pressed ‘likes,’ Lee Yoonsan did not hesitate much in that regard afterward. Of course, in all other aspects, he stumbled or hesitated as usual.

“Isn’t cheering okay to some extent?”

“How can I do that, when I can’t even go in person…. Everyone sends message DMs anyway.”

“Don’t you have any sign that only the two of you know?”

To Lee Yoonsan’s complaint mixed with dissatisfaction about how to cheer when he could not even go to the stadium, Shin Suhyeon shoved his phone screen in front of him and asked. As if there could not be nothing after contacting for a year.

The phone screen of Shin Suhyeon that he looked at like that showed Hwang Haekyung’s SNS account profile. The photo that Lee Yoonsan had been peeking at and peeking at all day today.

“Huh… Huh…?!”

Then suddenly, Lee Yoonsan’s eyes caught the bunny ears in Hwang Haekyung’s profile picture. The black bunny ear headband showing off its two ears standing perkily like the number 11. And upon thinking about it, he recalled the hoodie he had received from Hwang Haekyung last year. The large hoodie that he had hidden deep in the storage under the bed for fear that his parents might find out.

It was a hoodie that he had not dared to take out and look at afterward, in case the faint pheromones lingering inside it might fly away. It was not particularly because it was precious. He had just been curious about the first scent of another person he had smelled, and since it happened to be Hwang Haekyung’s, he paid a bit more attention to it. Because it was Hwang Haekyung’s scent that he would not be able to meet for a long time in the future, it seemed like it would be even more regrettable if it flew away.

As soon as school ended that day, Lee Yoonsan ran into his room and took out Hwang Haekyung’s hoodie. Perhaps because a year had passed, no matter how much he sniffed inside the hoodie’s folds, he could not smell Hwang Haekyung’s pheromones anymore. Lee Yoonsan confirmed the scent inside the hoodie several times and then put on Hwang Haekyung’s hoodie over his school uniform. And he held his phone and took several photos with his room as the background. It was something he almost never did, taking photos like this, so his expression was awkward and his pose seemed somehow clumsy.

In the end, even after taking dozens of photos, Lee Yoonsan could not obtain a good photo. He had no confidence or audacity to take selfies of himself and make a ‘natural yet handsome expression without being conscious of the camera.’ Even though no one was watching him take photos to laugh at or criticize him, unnecessary shame welled up and he felt self-conscious.

So he decided to just prop the phone up skillfully on the dining table and film a video. The scene to film was taking out a drink from the refrigerator. It was purely a location chosen because his throat was dry, and he thought that if he filmed some moving appearance and captured it, he might at least get one somewhat natural image.

Lee Yoonsan propped the phone up on the dining table as planned, pressed the record button, and then slowly walked to the refrigerator to take out the drink. He tried his best not to be conscious of the camera, but even so, he glanced at the camera several times, and in the end, he squeezed his eyes shut and grimaced because it seemed like that appearance had been captured fully on the camera. And then he came to his senses soon after, took out a cola from the refrigerator, found a cup, and stealthily approached the phone side.

With the thought that ‘at this point, I should have gotten at least one decent shot,’ as he was about to reach for the phone, Lee Yoonsan suddenly stopped his action. It was because he realized that he had intended to send a photo of himself wearing his hoodie to cheer for Hwang Haekyung, but in the actual footage, there was no such motion.

Belatedly, Lee Yoonsan smiled awkwardly and shyly at the camera and made a fighting gesture. It was to the extent of passively clenching his fist and lifting it slightly, but just doing that much had already made his face flush as if it would burst.

Lee Yoonsan hurriedly pressed the stop recording button on the phone and then checked the video he had filmed. He had not noticed because he was absent-minded while doing it, but when he made the fighting gesture, he could hear himself whispering ‘fighting’ with his mouth. A secondary wave of genuine embarrassment rose.

As he was selecting a scene to capture, he also thought whether Hwang Haekyung would like this. But soon he shook off the thought, and captured one scene of the fighting gesture. Even though it was not a dating relationship with Hwang Haekyung, he steadied his own heart as if to say, what was wrong with cheering for a known older brother.

If anything, Hwang Haekyung had been using a profile picture taken together with my bunny ears first since a year ago. It would be a bit weird if I just took a photo with the hoodie alone. It was for cheering, and the fighting motion was important. Anyway, since it was a capture of a scene where he clumsily raised his fist in a low-angle state, his fist covered much of his face.

With such self-justifications, Lee Yoonsan opened the DM screen with Hwang Haekyung.

When it came to actually sending his own photo via DM, a third wave of shame, embarrassment, and awkwardness hit him, so Lee Yoonsan quickly transmitted the image and closed the DM screen. This time, he planned to check it only after a long while even if Hwang Haekyung replied, or around tomorrow morning.

However.

“Huh…?”

Contrary to expectations, Hwang Haekyung’s reply flew in immediately as if he had been waiting. But the content was a bit strange.

You’re super embarrassed

Lee Yoonsan and Hwang Haekyung both did not usually use emoticons well, so the sentence without an emoticon was familiar. But that content about being embarrassed felt a bit off. Did he know and say that from just the photo where half of his smiling face with the fighting gesture was shown? With the sudden feeling that the fine hairs all over his body were standing on end, Lee Yoonsan broke out in cold sweat and opened the personal account app again.

“Ah, ah, wah, ack, crazy…!!”

(Photo)

This part is cute

(Photo)

This part too

That’s why you get called black bunny

(Photo)

This part is totally profile-worthy

The successive messages from Hwang Haekyung that popped up were dizzying. Because the thumbnail of the video and the captured image were similar, he had sent the video by mistake. Lee Yoonsan belatedly tried to cancel the sent video message with a flustered expression, but Hwang Haekyung was already excitedly sending his impressions along with captures from the video.

It meant that canceling now would be too late.

In the midst of maddening embarrassment, shame, humiliation, absurdity, and self-loathing, Lee Yoonsan lay face down on the floor for a while and could not move.

It was the first time in his 17-year life that he personally experienced that even extreme shame or humiliation could make his hands tremble. If he could, he wanted to turn back time, and since he could not, right now he desperately wished to just sink into some hole in the ground or faint and wake up around next month. But even such self-torment from Lee Yoonsan did not last long.

It was because a notification rang on the phone that had been dropped beside Lee Yoonsan’s face, which was flushed as if blood had rushed to it to the point of bursting. Hearing the vibration, it was an SNS account notification. It was obvious that it would be another notification from Hwang Haekyung teasing with captures, but even so, it was unavoidable that his hand reflexively went to the phone.

Shame, humiliation, and self-loathing swirled around, but it was never a depressed or sinking feeling. No, on the contrary, because it was the opposite, it was even more chaotic and confusing, and his head throbbed. And when Lee Yoonsan checked the phone, his eyes widened to the point that they could not get any bigger.

010—****—8520

My number

Save it and tell me your number too

The content of the message left by Hwang Haekyung was something that Lee Yoonsan had never even dared to expect.